Game News Age of Decadence Demo Released

[Humanity has risen!]

Are you going to get skill points after completing any quest in the full game as well?

 

[circ]

Also VD, other devs, maybe have the stats/skills keep going up/down when you keep pressing the +/-, instead of having to click for every point at creation.

 

[Havoc]

Can I enter the rich houses near the palace (the locked ones) somehow? If yes, then how?

 

[circ]

Ok, been giving merc a shot for 30+ minutes.

Default stats, pumped most SP's into block. Die 100% of the time. If by some odd chance I land aim legs, it doesn't make a difference. Figured you're better off doing normal/fast hits, not that that increases survivability.

Stats 6 str 8 dex 6 con 8 per 7 int 5 char. pumped SP's into block, then tried all SP's into sword. Die 100% of the time. Aim legs lands more often, doesn't make a difference. 2 fast hits 1 normal a round seems the way to go, not that it matters.

Tried some shield bashing. Ok, that was pointless. On the off chance you knock him on his ass, he gets up immediately and still hits you 3 times a round.
I like how he never fails aim arms and disarms you.
I also like how his shitty leather armor (not even studded) absorbs more damage than your default merc armor does.

Shit don't make no sense yo. And this is the first fight in the game, seriously VD?

 

[DarkUnderlord]

We are testing the new dialogue screens with bigger fonts, check them out here:

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2527.0.html

Whatever shitty unreadable font that is you're using.... Stop using it.

Actually, make a different font an option. Obviously you want "immersion" by using font, which is pretty crucial for the choose your own text adventure game you've made, so whack in an alternate font. Something just plain and readable of the Arial / Times New Roman variety (whatever works) and let user's choose in the option menu. That would probably sort all your problems out.

 

[Jim Cojones]

This game is really not made for combat characters. I made a mercenary, tried to attack the assassin early and.. failed horribly. Even when all stats were dumped in combat stats I failed horribly. Of course, if you dump all your stats in combat stats there really isn't a lot stuff you *can* do in game either...

Not again...

- You failed because combat is hard and even the very first opponent is challenging.
- You didn't use all options at your disposal.
- Stats matter but they don't determine your success or failure, which is why even putting all stats in combat didn't result in sweet victary!
- You can easily beat the assassin with 6-7 in physical stats.

That combat encounter isn't particularly difficult or requiring any tactic. It's an annoying encounter which result is too much based on pure luck and the game is arbitrarily stripping you of the most basic options. I went for high agility dodge + sword build. The game assigned me equipment that doesn't fit me - a dagger and an armour that limits my dodge and action points. While I don't mind the fact that I get sub par weapon and armour, it's fucking retarded that the first encounter starts before I even have a chance to browse my inventory and take off that stupid armour that makes me less effective in combat. Then the result of combat is mostly based on whether I have luck and manage to hit the opponent with a single net I have. If I do, I'm almost guaranteed to win with not too much hp lost. If I don't have luck and miss, then no matter what attack combinations do I use, the result seems to vary from winning rather easily to dying quickly in a completely random fashion.

The next encounter is even worse, with result based on many factors I can't impact. If I have a bad luck, the guy I'm supposed to protect can die quickly to random critical hits. I have to decide which opponent I want to attack right at the start of the combat and if my partner decides to attack the other one, I'm fucked because repositioning will take the whole turn. There's one position I can take at the start that will allow me to change targets at will but it's also the only position that doesn't block any of the opponents from attacking the merchant. If they both decide to attack him instead of me, he's as good as dead and there is not much I can do about it. Even trying to disarm them isn't a reliable option as because of a relatively low chance to hit (I've had around 60% IIRC) and high AP cost, there's a huge chance I'll keep missing.

 

[Haba]

We are testing the new dialogue screens with bigger fonts, check them out here:

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2527.0.html

Whatever shitty unreadable font that is you're using.... Stop using it.

A game where you do nothing but read, read and read:

Another example

And another

Simple exercise is to try reading your text from various distances and compare how fast your eye becomes tired. This is also highly individual, so results may vary. I can't find myself reading your examples for more than a few sentences. I can force myself to do so and train my eye, but it won't ever be enjoyable experience.

There is a reason why most of the time people experiment with fancy custom typefaces and eventually still end up going back to tired, worn out windows defaults.

 

[Excidium]

Holy shit, what's going on the last picture and which game is that?

 

[Kalin]

Ok, been giving merc a shot for 30+ minutes.

Default stats, pumped most SP's into block. Die 100% of the time. If by some odd chance I land aim legs, it doesn't make a difference. Figured you're better off doing normal/fast hits, not that that increases survivability.

Stats 6 str 8 dex 6 con 8 per 7 int 5 char. pumped SP's into block, then tried all SP's into sword. Die 100% of the time. Aim legs lands more often, doesn't make a difference. 2 fast hits 1 normal a round seems the way to go, not that it matters.

Tried some shield bashing. Ok, that was pointless. On the off chance you knock him on his ass, he gets up immediately and still hits you 3 times a round.
I like how he never fails aim arms and disarms you.
I also like how his shitty leather armor (not even studded) absorbs more damage than your default merc armor does.

Shit don't make no sense yo. And this is the first fight in the game, seriously VD?

By investing my initial skill points fairly equally into sword, block and critical strike, I could beat both the assassin and the thugs with rather low physical stats. I think I had some 5 HP left by the end of it, but that just made it all the more fun. Personally, I love the combat so far, and the difficulty is more than justified since there are so many ways to avoid fighting.

With the assassin, I went mainly for fast and normal attacks, since aimed attacks rarely hit and mostly just wasted my AP. With the thugs, aimed attacks and power attacks did the trick.

Once you get a bit further into the game and flesh out your character with more skill points, combat becomes slightly less punishing, but still remains very challenging. One thing to remember is that equipment is very important. On my first playthrough I simply hoarded wealth and stuck with my default armour and gladius, and that got me killed pretty fast. Once I started to invest in new armour and weapons, I found that I managed to cope quite well with most of the encounters.

 

[circ]

Yeah, I did the second stats a few more times, ignored fancy shit and spammed the fuck out of power attack. Had 5-10 hp left. Even felt adventurous and joined the inn keeper for the night time ambush and fucked those guys up too. Sadly innkeeper died. OH WELL MORE LOOTZ FOR ME.

I had enough moneyz to buy the baddest iron armor and an iron sword, the lowest AP one. Fucked up the merchant's guys and merchant. Tried to fuck up Mefucknuts a second time but with about 10-15 hp left, not doable so I just off Mefucknuts.

Tried robber ambush, with the chick and perception/dex checks. Can't do it. I either instadie, from 40 hp, wow, with the guy in the back fucking me up something fierce, or I instadie the next round or so. So.
Don't think the spies encounter is in merc path, otherwise it would be easy.

So, merc secret. SPAM THE FUCK OUT OF POWER ATTACK. Wow, some tactics.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

DOWNLOADAN

 

[hiver]

We are testing the new dialogue screens with bigger fonts, check them out here:

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2527.0.html

Whatever shitty unreadable font that is you're using.... Stop using it.

Its not that its that bad but it seems it will get tiresome after long usage. More importantly - it seems too bright.

 

[empi]

Why didn't you just make the town interface like Darklands, and have some nice pretty pictures in the background? Then not have the blatant [CLICK THIS TO WIN] dialogue choices, and people wouldn't expect to be able to interact with the environment, it could all be done through text...
Would've been nice.

 

[circ]

Yeah, or BaK/W&W style towns. Clicking on houses in a pretty picture.

 

[Flatlander]

So, anyone got an official Wine compatibility report?

Under Ubuntu 11.10 and the latest Wine from the PPA I had problems with some missing sound library which was fixed by installing dx9 with "winetricks directx9". After that everything seems and sounds fine, except for missing textures in the 3d view (ie. I got just the UI and black screen, with only the grid visible when switching to combat mode). I'd guess that's because of missing texture compression support on the drivers (some crappy Intelgrated HD thing). Especially since Frayed Knights which also uses Torque 3D worked fine when I tried it with an ATI card.

As for the game, I haven't had much time to play it yet but it seems, umm, different than what I excepted. Only real problem I have with it so far is the 3d view and camera controls. With a quality 2d map the experience would have been much smoother and immersive and would have probably saved a shitload of time and money spent on the assets.

 

[villain of the story]

That combat encounter isn't particularly difficult or requiring any tactic. It's an annoying encounter which result is too much based on pure luck and the game is arbitrarily stripping you of the most basic options. I went for high agility dodge + sword build. The game assigned me equipment that doesn't fit me - a dagger and an armour that limits my dodge and action points. While I don't mind the fact that I get sub par weapon and armour, it's fucking retarded that the first encounter starts before I even have a chance to browse my inventory and take off that stupid armour that makes me less effective in combat. Then the result of combat is mostly based on whether I have luck and manage to hit the opponent with a single net I have. If I do, I'm almost guaranteed to win with not too much hp lost. If I don't have luck and miss, then no matter what attack combinations do I use, the result seems to vary from winning rather easily to dying quickly in a completely random fashion.

The next encounter is even worse, with result based on many factors I can't impact. If I have a bad luck, the guy I'm supposed to protect can die quickly to random critical hits. I have to decide which opponent I want to attack right at the start of the combat and if my partner decides to attack the other one, I'm fucked because repositioning will take the whole turn. There's one position I can take at the start that will allow me to change targets at will but it's also the only position that doesn't block any of the opponents from attacking the merchant. If they both decide to attack him instead of me, he's as good as dead and there is not much I can do about it. Even trying to disarm them isn't a reliable option as because of a relatively low chance to hit (I've had around 60% IIRC) and high AP cost, there's a huge chance I'll keep missing.

I think the real problem is one of mentality more than anything else. In typical fashion of gamer entitlement created as a result of years of design philosophies that forbid and disabled failure as a viable option to progress the story, you seem to me to be under the impression that just because your character could theoretically be able to pull a stunt, he *should* be able to do it with satisfying consistence, which I think would suck a lot out of the game.

My suggestion would be to stop worrying about metagaming and just try to enjoy the ride and come to terms with the failures of your character. It feels far more satisfying.

 

[villain of the story]

Yeah, I did the second stats a few more times, ignored fancy shit and spammed the fuck out of power attack. Had 5-10 hp left. Even felt adventurous and joined the inn keeper for the night time ambush and fucked those guys up too. Sadly innkeeper died. OH WELL MORE LOOTZ FOR ME.

I had enough moneyz to buy the baddest iron armor and an iron sword, the lowest AP one. Fucked up the merchant's guys and merchant. Tried to fuck up Mefucknuts a second time but with about 10-15 hp left, not doable so I just off Mefucknuts.

Tried robber ambush, with the chick and perception/dex checks. Can't do it. I either instadie, from 40 hp, wow, with the guy in the back fucking me up something fierce, or I instadie the next round or so. So.
Don't think the spies encounter is in merc path, otherwise it would be easy.

So, merc secret. SPAM THE FUCK OUT OF POWER ATTACK. Wow, some tactics.

Power attack the new "aim for the eyes"?

Combat system is nice but I find it unfortunate that it's still rather primitive from a simulationist pov even if better than most of the stuff out there.

 

[villain of the story]

We are testing the new dialogue screens with bigger fonts, check them out here:

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2527.0.html

Whatever shitty unreadable font that is you're using.... Stop using it.

A game where you do nothing but read, read and read:

Another example

And another

Simple exercise is to try reading your text from various distances and compare how fast your eye becomes tired. This is also highly individual, so results may vary. I can't find myself reading your examples for more than a few sentences. I can force myself to do so and train my eye, but it won't ever be enjoyable experience.

There is a reason why most of the time people experiment with fancy custom typefaces and eventually still end up going back to tired, worn out windows defaults.

Yeah I find it puzzling and misguided that for a game that's basically a Choose Your Own Adventure++, basic readability could be so horrific. Did none of the beta testers bring this up before or did it fall on deaf ears? And either possibility is scary regarding implications.

 

[Vault Dweller]

What you're saying is "lol you're so fucking stupid you can't guess how the game works when we in no way show you how."

No, Grunker. That's not what I'm saying at all.

I'm saying give it a day or two and you WILL understand the system better (even if you're fucking stupid) and THEN we'll talk.

I made the same comment about Frayed Knights; there is no fucking reason not to provide the player with a Player's Handbook with detailed descriptions about how combat works. What does every options do exactly, which stats influences what rolls and what are the rules?

Gimme that, and we're off to a good start.

Press "?" and everything will be explained to you. Are we off to a good start now?

And then we're not talking about the other major complaint which is that once you "crack the combat code" with a specific character you don't do much else than utilize the same tactic over and over ad libitum, which is not that interesting.

I can't think of an RPG where specific characters don't utilize the same tactics (what works for the build, basically), so I wouldn't call that a major complaint.

Some encounters present small variations because you have to deviate, but combat options are very, very limited.

Compared to what?

You are telling what you know to be fans and avid players of old-school, turn-based (hard) RPGs, unforgiving shit like Wizardry, that they must be looking for a cake-walk.

Whoa. Does everyone here is an avid fucking fan of old-school, turn-based RPG and Wizardry in particular? I didn't know. Besides, last time I checked these games (Wiz, Bard's Tales, etc) had a habit of raping you hard.

This is fundamentally stupid, especially considering that we are not complaining about difficulty but rather that the simplicity of the system makes the difficulty rely too much on factors we cannot control or severely limit our options in combat.

I'm not sure if you noticed, but these complaints aren't universal. A growing number of people is beating the crap out of everyone without relying too much on factors they can't control. Is it possible that the system isn't as simple as you think? Just a thought.

But if you're going to tell me while I do that that I'm just looking for hand-holding and that my criticism isn't valid because I didn't figure out a game ...

I said Day 1 complaints about the difficulty aren't valid, so chill, bro.

 

[empi]

In the VD calendar, when does it stop being day 1?

 

[Infinitron]

We are testing the new dialogue screens with bigger fonts, check them out here:

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2527.0.html

Bigger! BIGGER!

 

[Licaon_Kter]

So... does it work on Wine? Haven't had a chance to even download it yet.

works ok for a bit and then crashes reporting that the video memory is used up although it ONLY uses ~400Mb out of 1024Mb ... oh, BTW, the combat demo worked ok, but it looks like in the mean time the engine switched from OpenGL ( and emulated DirectX ) to proper DirectX9 so comparisons are not useful

 

[villain of the story]

Not only bigger but also needs more spacing between the lines.

 

[villain of the story]

On another note, as a completely gimmicky whimsical wish:

Let us manipulate the camera during dialogue too! So we can take cool shots during the more characteristic and entertaining bits. That's if it won't compromise your emotional cinematic direction.

 

[Kalin]

I recently decided to take on that trio of thieves. I found the encounter to be quite tricky, even with nets, so I positioned myself in a corner so that only two of them could fight me at the same time. One of them was the useless female, whom I kept alive since she prevented the more competent third thief from joining the fray.

Having killed them, I think I stumbled upon another small bug. Two of the thieves died in exactly the same spot, and when I wanted to loot their corpses there was no way to switch between them (at least none that I could see). Consequently, one corpse was completely inaccessible. Fallout had these little arrows that let the player switch between nearby corpses, and I think Baldur's Gate simply stacked the inventories together. Perhaps something like that would work here?

Additionally, I came upon something quite puzzling while taking my mercenary over to the assassin route:

Spoiler

I killed my partner in order to save the life of Carrinas, and went along with the plan to assassinate the leaders of the Guild. Using the potion and going for critical strikes worked like a charm, but much to my surprise, my promised backup never arrived.

The front door was jammed shut (even though I had kicked it in according to the description), and I thought that perhaps it was this barrier kept the legionaries from arriving. On the other hand, I also came to suspect that Carrinas might just have screwed me over big-time and sent me on a suicide mission. If so, major incline, but perhaps such a betrayal ought to be emphasised in the text description of the initial battle for the sake of clarity?

On a second attempt, I killed the guild leader with a critical strike, intending to save the potion for the rest of the guild members. Unfortunately, drinking the potion during the ensuing fight caused the game to crash, presumably because alchemy is not part of the demo.