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Game News Age of Decadence August Update

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Age of Decadence; Iron Tower Studios; Vault Dweller

There was no Age of Decadence update last month, due to Vault Dweller and his team being too busy changing stuff around for the game's R4 mechanics revision. This month's update is a report on the game's current state:

Before we get to the impressions, let me explain the state of the game to you first. When we decided to tweak a few things and add a few attacks, we couldn't add them to the existing system and Nick had to rewrite it from scratch, vastly improving the code and the overall system (less stuff hardcoded, more stuff open to scripts to play with). So, the framework is solid, but there are a lot of minor issues due to the volume of work required to put everything back together and lack of time as Nick had to focus exclusively on the DS demo to deliver it in time for PAX.

Same goes for the scripting issues and characters still standing here and there when they shouldn't. All this stuff is easy to fix once you know where to look and will be fixed within a week or so. We could have delayed the testing by another 2 weeks, but I figured that we had enough to start and get the ball rolling.

Last but not the least are minor visual issues, but we should be able to fix them in 2-3 weeks.

I asked the testers not to sugarcoat anything (no reason to lie and pretend that the game is better than it is, since 800+ people will get their hands on it sooner rather than later). Keep in mind that the current focus is on combat issues, so the testers are given pre-set characters with high stats and a truckload of SP to ensure that they fight more and die less.​

This is followed by the impressions of the game's playtesters. Here's one of them, by Vahhabyte:

While Teron alone feels like a fully-fledged cRPG, so one can spend many weeks playing it, and still there will be some more exciting paths and options to discover, Maadoran is a vast epic expansion to it, it has a roughly three times greater area, three times more intractable NPCs and miniquests, three times more sublocations, which are also much bigger and livelier than Teron's.

Correspondingly, the number of opportunities and quest solutions grew geometrically, even at the current beta stage of development Maadoran is full of action, boiling with both hidden and shown subplots and intrigues carried out by ambitious NPCs with elaborated deep personalities and realistic motives.

Teron was like a kids playground, a hatchery in which the PC matured to become a provincial celebrity, in Maadoran you're starting as an almost-nobody again, as a disposable stranger to serve as a pawn in this time really epic games, ruthless and large-scale ones. One single action into which you are drawn can lead to immediate and dramatic consequences for a faction, at that you still benefit nothing from that, being merely a pawn. Being a pawn you can shift sides of the board, but at both sides you're still treated as a pawn, even if your mission is connected with vital matters, like whether Maadoran should prosper, united under one reign (which clearly implies ridding of the treacherous competitors) or lie in ruins, raided by ravenous nomads.

Becoming a queen is hard and for sure it requires more than just high body count and damage per turn, which often could work out in Teron. Maadoran is more intricate, its civilized ('nothing personal, it's only a matter of job') ways of conflicting are often more exquisitely deceitful and bloodthirsty than the blunt clashes in Teron.

The scale of opportunities in Maadoran is epic, sometimes you can feel the presence of the ancient magi, through their mysterious artifacts or war, and just like in Teron they merely tease you, posing more questions than giving answers.

Reaching these mysterious depths of lore is, again, optional, instead one can concentrate on fooling, using or killing people, progressing with one's career with a faction and expanding one's set of opportunities, status, gold reserves and masterwork weaponry arsenal.

The fights in Maadoran are very many, at this point I cannot estimate their overall difficulty due to the beta's limitations, but since the blood and sweat covered Arena from the combat demo is back along with its 'three peaks of difficulty', and elsewhere in the city you're normally attacked by no less than 3 (up to 7!) iron-wielding skilled fighters, many combat encounters will require smart investment of every single SP you got and tricky tactics; many battles will definitely leave you with 1-10 HP left. Besides, so far I've seen no allies who would join you to save your ass in Maadoran.

And, as usually, all these fights, except for the Arena path of the champion will be optional, all situations resolvable or avoidable in peaceful ways, provided you got the necessary skills or reputations.

Just like in the case of Teron it may take only a couple of weeks to explore 1-2 paths of accomplishing a faction's set of quests with good outcomes, but exploring the most interesting (and rewarding) solutions [like raiders leader's story in Teron] and discovering all special exciting opportunities [like Feng's legend in Teron] will require much more time and flexibility in your playstyle.​

Sounds pretty awesome. As you may know, the city of Maadoran will be featured in AoD's upcoming pre-order exclusive beta release. Pre-order here if you'd like to check it out.
 
Self-Ejected

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:thumbsup:

I think nobody has commented on the addition of the hovering name of the object when you put your cursor on it yet. It's a nice addition and brings more clarity to the interface. However, this somehow makes me intuitively interact with the small details of the environment more, which in turn makes the environment feel emptier than in Teron. I know that you'll be adding random bystander NPCs etc. to the city, but I feel the fact that the game uses lots of descriptive text in the dialogues/text adventures creates a small discrepancy between the text and the shiny graphics and makes me wish for Fallout-style descriptions for the small environmental details as well.
What's this mouse hover thing? Anyway Fallout-style descriptions would be p. awesome indeed.
 

Niektory

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What's this mouse hover thing?
5x6f14G.jpg

Anyway Fallout-style descriptions would be p. awesome indeed.
Yep.
 

Zed

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I already had good impressions from one of the earliest builds (after the arena demo). The combat was pretty mongo if you weren't following pretty strict tactics and builds, but I know they changed that some time ago. I liked everything else. The teleportration didn't bother me too much as long as the narrative was clear on me leaving, and on where I ended up. The writing was good. The characters were good. The setting was unique and had a certain 'feel' to it.

Perhaps I should give the latest beta a spin to see where it is now... The player feedback (testimonials? :D) sounds good.
 

moraes

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Codex USB, 2014 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Hey VD, when are we getting the superdemo?

Also, I have an excellent idea: why not ask your kid to do a video LP of it?
 

Vault Dweller

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You don't have to worry about combat. If you liked the previous demo, you'll like this one a lot more.

As to when, we need 2-3 weeks is to fix the current issues and polish Maadoran and related areas. Let's make it 4 weeks, just to be safe. Next step is to put it all together and go through Teron and Maadoran. It shouldn't take long at this stage, but will probably take 2-3 weeks. So, if everything goes well, we're looking at mid-October as a possible R4 release date.

Keep in mind that we aren't just fixing issues. We're responding to helpful suggestions like 'more dialogues!', 'more in-fighting in the Slums', 'more characters!', etc. So, we'll have to add more stuff and test it too.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
You don't have to worry about combat. If you liked the previous demo, you'll like this one a lot more.

As to when, we need 2-3 weeks is to fix the current issues and polish Maadoran and related areas. Let's make it 4 weeks, just to be safe. Next step is to put it all together and go through Teron and Maadoran. It shouldn't take long at this stage, but will probably take 2-3 weeks. So, if everything goes well, we're looking at mid-October as a possible R4 release date.

Keep in mind that we aren't just fixing issues. We're responding to helpful suggestions like 'more dialogues!', 'more in-fighting in the Slums', 'more characters!', etc. So, we'll have to add more stuff and test it too.

You releasing this game town by town? Why not just release the entire thing? It's got to be a pain in the ass to disconnect quest lines from non-existent towns in these demo versions.
 

Monty

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Hey VD, when are we getting the superdemo?

Also, I have an excellent idea: why not ask your kid to do a video LP of it?
Don't jinx it, the last thing we need is VD spending more time building his bunker than finishing the game.

Think this is my most anticipated game of the whole "return of incline".
 

Vault Dweller

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Not town by town and not that much pain. I'd rather release everything, of course, but I want to give something to people who pre-ordered and supported us. It's the least we can do.
 

Esquilax

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Also, I have an excellent idea: why not ask your kid to do a video LP of it?

Nah, AoD's been in development for a while - VD's kids probably have families of their own to take care of, I doubt they have time.

Fantastic update - can't wait for R4.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Not town by town and not that much pain. I'd rather release everything, of course, but I want to give something to people who pre-ordered and supported us. It's the least we can do.

Yes, well, you'd better update your estimated release date on Greenlight and GamersGate. Let's see what they think of that. :M
 

Kem0sabe

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First quarter 2014 would fit in nicely for release, giving time to enjoy the holidays and adding the extra incentive to start the year with a great crpg.

That gives both Underrail and Wasteland 2 the chance to fight it out for the only incline of 2013.
 
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Vault Dweller said:
$40 (pre-order plus $15 extra) – you can create a filler character* for the game

Is this still on? Can I write a filler NPC?

BOXED VERSION: We aren’t offering a box version at this stage. It will be offered when the game is ready and when we place an order and will have something to show. You will be able to order it separately (i.e. you can pre-order the digital version now for $25 and upgrade it to a box for another $25 at any time)

Does this mean that if I pay $40 for the filler character, I will only need to throw $10 later for the box?
 

Vault Dweller

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We stopped accepting filler characters in May (made a proper announcement and all). These characters take time (discuss submissions, make suggestions, review new drafts, implement, etc) and we're running out of it. My apologies.
 
Self-Ejected

Excidium

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We stopped accepting filler characters in May (made a proper announcement and all). These characters take time (discuss submissions, make suggestions, review new drafts, implement, etc) and we're running out of it. My apologies.
If you go with the fallout-style descriptions idea, could let pre-order people write some of them too.
 

Scruffy

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Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
You don't have to worry about combat. If you liked the previous demo, you'll like this one a lot more.

As to when, we need 2-3 weeks is to fix the current issues and polish Maadoran and related areas. Let's make it 4 weeks, just to be safe. Next step is to put it all together and go through Teron and Maadoran. It shouldn't take long at this stage, but will probably take 2-3 weeks. So, if everything goes well, we're looking at mid-October as a possible R4 release date.

Keep in mind that we aren't just fixing issues. We're responding to helpful suggestions like 'more dialogues!', 'more in-fighting in the Slums', 'more characters!', etc. So, we'll have to add more stuff and test it too.

i volunteer to write FO style descriptions, for what it's worth.
 

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