Preview Age of Decadence Demo Preview @ Gamebanshee

[felipepepe]

But the fun of stat checks is actually applying your skills, bonus if it's in a creative or smart way that the game recognizes. Like how you use dex to climb the vines on Feng's house and lockpick to open the ceiling hatch to his bedroom, a lot of people miss that because it isn't simply shoved in their face through a text adventure.

Ah yes, those unwashed, blind fools...I pity them.

 

[commie]

It's great to see gears of PR at work when hardly anybody is aware of AoD at all and practically nobody knows or even cares about a demo being released. That certainly bodes well for the full release. Public at large can't wait for it.

Therefore, they don't.

But, but....promoting a game is wrong as I found out on the Grimrock thread.

CYOA lol...

Isn't that how skill checks work? Or you against them, all of a sudden?

But the fun of stat checks is actually applying your skills, bonus if it's in a creative or smart way that the game recognizes. Like how you use dex to climb the vines on Feng's house and lockpick to open the ceiling hatch to his bedroom, a lot of people miss that because it isn't simply shoved in their face through a text adventure.

This is a motherfucking incline. I certainly would take back much of my criticism if the rest of the game had many more instances like this where you discover things in the 3D world that you can take advantage of through your skills and not just have them matter in the text adventure or combat mode. The thing that troubles me is that VD just doesn't say that it does.

 

[Brother None]

Was there ever a game GameBanshee did not like (for what it was)? They gave GOTY to Fallout 3, never forget.

We are notoriously easy to bribe.

Shame on us for not giving it to Fable 2. Molyneux worked so hard on that one.

(I'm not a big fan of previews based on public demos, btw)

 

[Marsal]

Was there ever a game GameBanshee did not like (for what it was)? They gave GOTY to Fallout 3, never forget.

We are notoriously easy to bribe.

(I'm not a big fan of previews based on public demos, btw)

sea He's calling you out, bro! You gonna just take that shit?!

 

[Elhoim]

This is a motherfucking incline. I certainly would take back much of my criticism if the rest of the game had many more instances like this where you discover things in the 3D world that you can take advantage of through your skills and not just have them matter in the text adventure or combat mode. The thing that troubles me is that VD just doesn't say that it does.

Now let's say we add several instances of these situations, but keep text adventures inside dialogues for many others. The styles would clash. Personally, I'm open to add some more instances of "free exploration", but would definitely keep text adventures for many others in which it wouldn't make sense for you to dabble around. But I'm not sure if applying these two different styles in large quantities will be better for the overall game and make it an uneven experience. It's not a big deal to add them, but we will not remove most text adventures in favor of this style.

 

[Esquilax]

sea He's calling you out, bro! You gonna just take that shit?!

Don't worry, we've got hiver on it.

 

[Gord]

Nobody is talking about removing the text adventure parts, are they?

I'd say the criticism there comes from the rather, hm, unforgiving way the skill checks are implemented.
Personally I have nothing against the text adventure parts, I'd just like to see a little bit more "wiggle room", i.e. as I mentioned in one of the other threads, allow for ways to make up if you are missing only a few points to succeed in a check, e.g. through a follow up in a related skill or attribute, or put in more "partial success" outcomes (e.g. I liked how you could fool the mob in the last thieves mission and how a few remained if your skill wasn't high enough to fool them all).
Also maybe some more alternative options, so that you are not as restricted to that one combination of skills.

I'll admit that it may be a bit difficult to keep the balance between too unforgiving and too easy, though.

Btw., technically you already have two different styles in your game - combat mode and text adventure mode.

 

[Roguey]

I'm disappointed they deleted the comment from "gaymail." Stop the censorship GameBanshee.

 

[Brother None]

sea He's calling you out, bro! You gonna just take that shit?!

What...But I...and sarcasm?!?!?!

(I really don't like public demo based previews, but sometimes it's all you got, and when it helps spread the word about an indie, why would anyone complain?)

 

[sea]

sea He's calling you out, bro! You gonna just take that shit?!

What...But I...and sarcasm?!?!?!

(I really don't like public demo based previews, but sometimes it's all you got, and when it helps spread the word about an indie, why would anyone complain?)

Basically this. We simply don't get a ton of press access and often it's not much different than the public demos anyway. Not everyone is able to download and try out a demo as well. While it might not be the best way to judge a game, I still think that kind of coverage is valid so long as it's made clear that we are in fact previewing a demo version.

And, of course, I'm happy to spread the word about a game like Age of Decadence (and I'm sure Iron Tower are happy for the press). Plus, GameBanshee, while bigger than some sites, is still not that huge compared to most others. If we have content we can cover, then we'll do it - it provides hits, brings in new readers, and brings out community discussion.

 

[Carrion]

I'd say the criticism there comes from the rather, hm, unforgiving way the skill checks are implemented.
Personally I have nothing against the text adventure parts, I'd just like to see a little bit more "wiggle room", i.e. as I mentioned in one of the other threads, allow for ways to make up if you are missing only a few points to succeed in a check, e.g. through a follow up in a related skill or attribute, or put in more "partial success" outcomes (e.g. I liked how you could fool the mob in the last thieves mission and how a few remained if your skill wasn't high enough to fool them all).
Also maybe some more alternative options, so that you are not as restricted to that one combination of skills.

Yeah. The difference between, say, Fallout and AoD is that in Fallout you're presented with a problem that you have to solve based on your skills whereas in AoD you're instead given a bunch of solutions that you either can or cannot choose based on your skills. Even if you find that your skills are lacking in FO, you can usually find some way to get around even the toughest parts of the game, even if that means abusing the game mechanics or reloading the same part over and over. There's a lot of randomization involved as well so having a suboptimal build often just means that you need more attempts before succeeding. In AoD you can simply run into a brick wall with no way to get around until you raise Persuasion to 45 or Streetwise to 50 or Critical Chance to 40. From a gameplay perspective I prefer FO's approach since the initiative to attempt something always comes from the player and the number of possible solutions to a problem is technically unlimited (although in practice AoD probably beats FO on that department).

 

[Marsal]

Sea, Brother None: shit like this is why you'll never be as good of a Codexer as Skyway is. Way to go all serious and fail to deliver on teh drama. You could at least pretend to care about our entertainment!

Brother None I missed your impressions of AoD Demo. Would you say it is:
A: Best gaem evar!!!
B: Banal, shit, boring.
C: Good for what it is.
D: Better than Fallout.
E: Better than Fallout 2.
F: Better than Fallout 3.
G: Better than Fallout: NV.

 

[commie]

This is a motherfucking incline. I certainly would take back much of my criticism if the rest of the game had many more instances like this where you discover things in the 3D world that you can take advantage of through your skills and not just have them matter in the text adventure or combat mode. The thing that troubles me is that VD just doesn't say that it does.

Now let's say we add several instances of these situations, but keep text adventures inside dialogues for many others. The styles would clash. Personally, I'm open to add some more instances of "free exploration", but would definitely keep text adventures for many others in which it wouldn't make sense for you to dabble around. But I'm not sure if applying these two different styles in large quantities will be better for the overall game and make it an uneven experience. It's not a big deal to add them, but we will not remove most text adventures in favor of this style.

Why? That's how it was in Fallout as others have said and it didn't exactly clash. Many of the skills are basically dialogue modifiers so their use in the 3D world would be pointless. Stats like 'Dexterity', or skills like 'sneak', 'traps', 'lockpick' etc. are the types of things that would benefit from real world use as in the basic case of Feng's. More things like this where you get a little reward from skills in a manner that doesn't purely relate to quests would be neat. I'm not saying to remove the text adventure bits, they are very good, but having said that, I think in some instances I could see a benefit to replacing a stat check in the dialogue in favor of moving it to the 3D world, such as using perception and traps in the actual world to discover and disarm a secret passage or switch, taking advantage of actual exploration in the area, rather than have it as a pure 'either you see it or you don't' in the text. As it stands, it's a bit of a shame that your nice 3D world isn't taken advantage of to the full.

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO AWOR AUSCHWITZ WOULD TAKE ISSUE HERE AOD IS NOT AN INDIE BECUAE IT ISNT AN ARTSY PLATFORMER AND SOME PEOPLE LIKE IT

INDIE GAMES ARE ONLY GAMES TAHT PEOPLE HATE

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

Couldn't the man himself, VD, answer to some of the stuff of that has been thrown out here instead of letting codexmen duke it out senselessly?

 

[commie]

VD is probably in some dank wolfsshanze, kicking back in front of a giant projector, polishing his monocle and breaking into fits of diabolical laughter as he scans the Codex topics relating to AoD. "Phase 2 of the greatest troll ever, a success" he thinks to himself as he pours another glass of ice cool schnapps.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Did mondblut give an opinion yet ? I'm anticipating it eagerly.

 

[Elhoim]

Couldn't the man himself, VD, answer to some of the stuff of that has been thrown out here instead of letting codexmen duke it out senselessly?

We answered several questions.

We are adding an option to buy some stuff and save your game in the vignettes that have combat in them, and we are also working on some changes to the skill checks that will allow much more flexibility in skill point allocation. Also we are giving 5 points more in character creation, changed the THC formula so it benefits balance offense/defense characters more than focused on just one skill. We are also improving the exploration, adding some more situations like the one if Feng's house.

 

[Gord]

Sounds cool, Elhoim!

Btw., depending on how much more content the demo section might have available in the full game, you probably don't even need more skill points on char creation. OTOH, it probably won't hurt.

 

[skuphundaku]

Couldn't the man himself, VD, answer to some of the stuff of that has been thrown out here instead of letting codexmen duke it out senselessly?

We answered several questions.

We are adding an option to buy some stuff and save your game in the vignettes that have combat in them, and we are also working on some changes to the skill checks that will allow much more flexibility in skill point allocation. Also we are giving 5 points more in character creation, changed the THC formula so it benefits balance offense/defense characters more than focused on just one skill. We are also improving the exploration, adding some more situations like the one if Feng's house.

One thing I hope you guys don't change is the need for combat characters to have strong defence before they have strong offence. It is more realistic, it is a nice change from every other game and, to make it evern better, the butthurt it causes among the masses is delicious.

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

Couldn't the man himself, VD, answer to some of the stuff of that has been thrown out here instead of letting codexmen duke it out senselessly?

We answered several questions.

We are adding an option to buy some stuff and save your game in the vignettes that have combat in them, and we are also working on some changes to the skill checks that will allow much more flexibility in skill point allocation. Also we are giving 5 points more in character creation, changed the THC formula so it benefits balance offense/defense characters more than focused on just one skill. We are also improving the exploration, adding some more situations like the one if Feng's house.

Thanks. Didn't see them in this thread, so I supposed VD reserved his wisdom for the ITS masses.

 

[Infinitron]

Elhoim and Vault Dweller have a good cop/bad cop thing going on here.

 

[circ]

Dragon Age, however, doesn't just have a good character system, it has one of the best I've seen in a decade.

So... 6 stats + 12 dialogue skills + 11 combat skills + metagaming prescience required to raise them = best system evar (EVAR!!!!!) ?

Another problem is IMO that said stats don't affect skills as you'd expect them to. There's no difference between a persuasion 50 charisma 10 character and a persuasion 50 charisma 4 character, except in rare cases where charisma alone gets checked.

 

[circ]

CYOA lol...

Isn't that how skill checks work? Or you against them, all of a sudden?

But the fun of stat checks is actually applying your skills, bonus if it's in a creative or smart way that the game recognizes. Like how you use dex to climb the vines on Feng's house and lockpick to open the ceiling hatch to his bedroom, a lot of people miss that because it isn't simply shoved in their face through a text adventure.

Yeah I missed that the first couple of times. But still, what was the point? A few extra lines of text? Feng doesn't mind you repeatedly breaking into his house either.

EDIT: o shit. I thought I scanned through everything with the mouse. Unless you meant the parchment and I didn't see any increases.

EDIT2: well I went through it again, passed a hidden sneak check I wasn't aware of before. But this must be another hidden check, prob lore, as the chest with scrolls has nothing interesting in it.

EDIT3: oh, lockpick. Wasn't paying attention. Wasn't that big an increase. Well still, should help a thief out in mining camp.

 

[Excidium]

One of the stuff you can examine in Feng's bedroom has a book or document that increases a skill.