Game News Age of Decadence Preorders Begin

[Mozgoëbstvo]

I like party-based combat as much as the next guy here. The reason AoD is a single-character game is because it fits the game better.

As you can see we do have the group fighting mechanics in place, so all we need is a proper interface. I can promise you that if AoD sells enough, you'll get a tactical, party-based dungeon crawler very quickly (since we have pretty much everything - the engine, the combat system, animations and assets, etc).

For realsies?

 

[DwarvenFood]

In a sci-fi setting, right?

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

In a sci-fi setting, right?

since we have pretty much everything - the engine, the combat system, animations and assets, etc).

Since IT has SPQR-looking assets I doubt that it could quickly do anything without using them. So it seems highly unlikely that the setting would be sci-fi. Something like Ulysses 31 could probably be doable with minimum amount of work but it would be meh for me.

 

[Vault Dweller]

For realsies?

Yes.

Would be a waste of the combat system if we didn't. A lot of people like it, a lot of people think that it's the best part of the demo, a lot of people (including myself) like dungeon crawlers that are all about combat.

In a sci-fi setting, right?

No.

The goal is to release it fast, maybe within a few months after AoD's release. It's a parallel project, not the "official" second game. The fastest way is to use the existing engine, systems, animations, items, art assets, and minimum text (kind of like the combat demo). If we change anything - we're adding months of work.

<teleporting>

Why not just automatically resolve the battles?

Same thing?

 

[empi]

So in the same world as AoD?

 

[Volrath]

What about that sci-fi idea you had about generation ships? I remember that sounding very cool.

 

[Forest Dweller]

That would be a full-fledged new game.

 

[Tigranes]

AOD Tactics.

 

[Volrath]

That would be a full-fledged new game.

Yes. But is he still thinking about doing it someday?

 

[Vault Dweller]

The colony ship game is a planned "full-scale" second project. I fell in love with the concept the moment I've read my first "colony ship" story and carried this love through my entire life. It will probably take us 2.5-3 years to develop it properly (since we already have the engine, tools, and can adapt many systems).

The "tactics" game will take 3-4 months to put together (since we have everything) and 3-4 months to test, since all we need is a "dungeon". Here is the "pitch":

"They sent me to the iron mines. I did ten years in a place called the Second Chance. It was like a big empty pot - called the town - with passages going off in every direction. The main ore deposits were long gone, but you could find a bit here and there. That’s what the tunnels were for. Every day you trade ore for food. No ore, no food. It’s a simple system that brings the best out of people."

- it's a cheap "under $10" game.
- you are a prisoner; the game takes place in one of the prison mines and the goal is to escape.
- it's a "locked" setting, min text, nothing gets in the way of fighting (and dying).
- the mines are ran by gangs (strong gangs rule the weak ones, stronger gangs are closer to the surface, clean air, and food; the bottom feeders are, well, at the bottom, which is where you're going), etc.
- you start at the bottom of the food chain and have to fight your way up, recruiting party members as you go.

 

[VonVentrue]

For realsies?

Yes.

Would be a waste of the combat system if we didn't. A lot of people like it, a lot of people think that it's the best part of the demo, a lot of people (including myself) like dungeon crawlers that are all about combat.

The sheer prospect of such a game seeing the light of day warms my heart. I'd be grateful if you could shed some light on some of your design goals in regard to that project one day (touching upon subjects like C&C, emphasis on puzzles or lack thereof, Ultima Underworld-esque dungeon simulation etc.).

Edit: I see you've outlined a few ideas already.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

The colony ship game is a planned "full-scale" second project. I fell in love with the concept the moment I've read my first "colony ship" story and carried this love through my entire life. It will probably take us 2.5-3 years to develop it properly (since we already have the engine, tools, and can adapt many systems).

The "tactics" game will take 3-4 months to put together (since we have everything) and 3-4 months to test, since all we need is a "dungeon". Here is the "pitch":

"They sent me to the iron mines. I did ten years in a place called the Second Chance. It was like a big empty pot - called the town - with passages going off in every direction. The main ore deposits were long gone, but you could find a bit here and there. That’s what the tunnels were for. Every day you trade ore for food. No ore, no food. It’s a simple system that brings the best out of people."

- it's a cheap "under $10" game.
- you are a prisoner; the game takes place in one of the prison mines and the goal is to escape.
- it's a "locked" setting, min text, nothing gets in the way of fighting (and dying).
- the mines are ran by gangs (strong gangs rule the weak ones, stronger gangs are closer to the surface, clean air, and food; the bottom feeders are, well, at the bottom, which is where you're going), etc.
- you start at the bottom of the food chain and have to fight your way up, recruiting party members as you go.

Isometric Gothic? o_O

 

[Jaesun]

The tactics game sound great VD.

I am SO CUMMING BUCKETS over the Space game though. <3

 

[Volrath]

The colony ship game is a planned "full-scale" second project. I fell in love with the concept the moment I've read my first "colony ship" story and carried this love through my entire life. It will probably take us 2.5-3 years to develop it properly (since we already have the engine, tools, and can adapt many systems).

Cool. Looking forward to that one.

 

[PrzeSzkoda]

The colony ship game is a planned "full-scale" second project. I fell in love with the concept the moment I've read my first "colony ship" story and carried this love through my entire life. It will probably take us 2.5-3 years to develop it properly (since we already have the engine, tools, and can adapt many systems).

The "tactics" game will take 3-4 months to put together (since we have everything) and 3-4 months to test, since all we need is a "dungeon". Here is the "pitch":

"They sent me to the iron mines. I did ten years in a place called the Second Chance. It was like a big empty pot - called the town - with passages going off in every direction. The main ore deposits were long gone, but you could find a bit here and there. That’s what the tunnels were for. Every day you trade ore for food. No ore, no food. It’s a simple system that brings the best out of people."

- it's a cheap "under $10" game.
- you are a prisoner; the game takes place in one of the prison mines and the goal is to escape.
- it's a "locked" setting, min text, nothing gets in the way of fighting (and dying).
- the mines are ran by gangs (strong gangs rule the weak ones, stronger gangs are closer to the surface, clean air, and food; the bottom feeders are, well, at the bottom, which is where you're going), etc.
- you start at the bottom of the food chain and have to fight your way up, recruiting party members as you go.

Isometric Gothic? o_O

That'd be quite fun, actually. And without all those dragon/sleeper/orcs shanenigans.

The concept looks good. I'm all for it.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Isometric Gothic? o_O

Isometric Escape from Butcher Bay without the stealth.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Arguing that teleport to next location is worst than quest compass is a fair point...

It's not.

Quest compass is a problem in games revolving around exploration. Find X in a dungeon. Instead of exploring, looking for X, possibly missing it, the compass guides you straight to it, defeating the very purpose of exploring. Or find NPC X in some city. It's presented as a challenge, but it's not. Instead of having to ask around and look for that NPC, the challenge is to follow the arrow, which is what makes it so retarded.

In other words, there is a difference between creating a shortcut and eliminating pointless walking (did anyone enjoy running back and forth in ToEE's Hommlet?) and making you mindlessly follow the marker.

Why not just automatically resolve the battles?

Walking is a challenge equal to if not greater than mortal combat.

 

[Forest Dweller]

The "tactics" game will take 3-4 months to put together (since we have everything) and 3-4 months to test, since all we need is a "dungeon". Here is the "pitch":

"They sent me to the iron mines. I did ten years in a place called the Second Chance. It was like a big empty pot - called the town - with passages going off in every direction. The main ore deposits were long gone, but you could find a bit here and there. That’s what the tunnels were for. Every day you trade ore for food. No ore, no food. It’s a simple system that brings the best out of people."

- it's a cheap "under $10" game.
- you are a prisoner; the game takes place in one of the prison mines and the goal is to escape.
- it's a "locked" setting, min text, nothing gets in the way of fighting (and dying).
- the mines are ran by gangs (strong gangs rule the weak ones, stronger gangs are closer to the surface, clean air, and food; the bottom feeders are, well, at the bottom, which is where you're going), etc.
- you start at the bottom of the food chain and have to fight your way up, recruiting party members as you go.

Eh, I thought your prison idea was going to be a full rpg. Would have been interesting.

 

[Grunker]

If it's a pure dungeon-crawler, what's the reasoning behind not allowing us to create the party members ourselves?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Because there are no classes.

 

[empi]

Doesn't really sound like a dungeon crawler, much more like an AoD tactics. Without the exploration, atmosphere, environment interaction, just having combat after combat would soon be stale by the sounds of it, to me at least.

P.S Sorry for breaking the fanboy stream!

 

[Grunker]

Because there are no classes.

That makes no sense. Variations in builds and weapons are just as different.

 

[20 Eyes]

Arguing that teleport to next location is worst than quest compass is a fair point...

It's not.

Quest compass is a problem in games revolving around exploration. Find X in a dungeon. Instead of exploring, looking for X, possibly missing it, the compass guides you straight to it, defeating the very purpose of exploring. Or find NPC X in some city. It's presented as a challenge, but it's not. Instead of having to ask around and look for that NPC, the challenge is to follow the arrow, which is what makes it so retarded.

In other words, there is a difference between creating a shortcut and eliminating pointless walking (did anyone enjoy running back and forth in ToEE's Hommlet?) and making you mindlessly follow the marker.

Why not just automatically resolve the battles?

Walking is a challenge equal to if not greater than mortal combat.

The focus of the game, at least what I saw of the demo, is clearly on building a character and seeing how it reacts in the world based on your decisions. Why not just go all out and just make combat text-based and automatically resolved based on your stats, equipment, and decisions? Instead we're instantly teleported into battles where our only tactical decision is who do we attack first and with what. All of this could have been much more easily done through text. Seeing these animations play out is just as pointless as walking around a game world.

The Age of Decadence is an interesting game, I'm just struggling to understand why they made all these assets if they're barely going to use them. Why even make a town map when a menu screen with a picture of the town in the background would have done everything you needed? When I played the demo, most of the time I was wondering why the graphics were even there because there is usually no point in even looking away from the text. If you're not intended to explore and get to know your surroundings, why even bother making them? From what I've seen, Age of Decadence should have been a text game or a windows form game. It would have accomplished everything it does well much easier and it probably would have been released by now.

 

[Emily]

The colony ship game is a planned "full-scale" second project. I fell in love with the concept the moment I've read my first "colony ship" story and carried this love through my entire life. It will probably take us 2.5-3 years to develop it properly (since we already have the engine, tools, and can adapt many systems).

The "tactics" game will take 3-4 months to put together (since we have everything) and 3-4 months to test, since all we need is a "dungeon". Here is the "pitch":

"They sent me to the iron mines. I did ten years in a place called the Second Chance. It was like a big empty pot - called the town - with passages going off in every direction. The main ore deposits were long gone, but you could find a bit here and there. That’s what the tunnels were for. Every day you trade ore for food. No ore, no food. It’s a simple system that brings the best out of people."

- it's a cheap "under $10" game.
- you are a prisoner; the game takes place in one of the prison mines and the goal is to escape.
- it's a "locked" setting, min text, nothing gets in the way of fighting (and dying).
- the mines are ran by gangs (strong gangs rule the weak ones, stronger gangs are closer to the surface, clean air, and food; the bottom feeders are, well, at the bottom, which is where you're going), etc.
- you start at the bottom of the food chain and have to fight your way up, recruiting party members as you go.

O MY FUCKING GOD PLEASE PLEASE MAKE THIS!
Especialy that start from bottom and try to reach surfice i love the idea.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Doesn't really sound like a dungeon crawler, much more like an AoD tactics. Without the exploration, atmosphere, environment interaction...

Who says without?

That makes no sense. Variations in builds and weapons are just as different.

Not quite.

In my opinion, creating a party works best with classes. You mix and match different classes with different strengths and weaknesses (built-in in every class). You can't achieve the same with relatively simple systems like SPECIAL (Fallout Tactics), or the ones used in Spiderweb games (if you go with fighters/rangers), AoD, etc.