Game News Age of Decadence September Update: Release date - October 14th!

[Vault Dweller]

Vault Dweller: the game is not listed in the upcoming section of the Steam store, how come?

No idea, we're new to this. I'll ask them, thanks.

 

[Fenix]

Crafting, intelligence, perception would be ok, but not lore, which is oriented towards more complex technology, IMO.

I mean in case if it is justified in terms of the origin of the trap.

 

[Goral]

(...) Also I feel like "traps" as a skill are kinda out of place given the actual setting, I mean why would places like Zamedi or Hellgate need some primitive traps or whatever when they can have force field gates and robots around instead ? And things like those are are already well covered in lore and crafting.

I disagree.

Spoiler

Even the Magi had very murky understanding of the things they were dabbling with, hence it ended like it ended...

They have very advanced equipment in buildings made of stone, rather primitive building material

Spoiler

(just look at the temple). They were using ballista to fire their missiles. Old and new technology was overlapping in AoD world even during Magi era.

Besides, if they were so advanced that they would have forcefields they wouldn't need any materials, pure energy would suffice and they could create everything using forcefields. What's more, to maintain forcefields a vaaaaaast source of energy would be needed and as things stood

Spoiler

(the whole world was burning)

I would think they would try to use more conventional defensive mechanisms in case of a blackout.

Edit:
It's awesome that allies and enemies alike are using different attacks. I just got killed by my ally using a whirlwind. Reminds me of Ian/Sulik from F1/F2 :D.

Edit 2:
Just noticed that healing ointment can be used during combat to close wounds. Awesome. I had 2 HP and 1 turn of bleeding left. I'm glad it worked.

 

[Jaedar]

So I played the demo for this waaay back (2 years ago?) and I found the game at that stage to be kind of bad. Mainly the fact that it felt like I'd need to save/reload and powergame my skill points to survive.

Considering the above, should I be interested in the final release, or will I probably think it is also bad?

 

[Lurker King]

I disagree. They have very advanced equipment in buildings made of stone, rather primitive building material (just look at the temple)

That may be true, but the traps skill still suck. The game would improve without them.

So I played the demo for this waaay back (2 years ago?) and I found the game at that stage to be kind of bad. Mainly the fact that it felt like I'd need to save/reload and powergame my skill points to survive.

So, you wanna know if that the game still requires that you have the proper skills to succeed otherwise you won’t play it. Hmmm… for me the only thing that is kind of bad is that closet popamoles have a real difficulty to understand how good AoD is.

 

[Jaedar]

So, you wanna know if that the game still requires that you have the proper skills to succeed otherwise you won’t play it.

Actually what I want to know is if the only way to figure out the proper skills is to furiously save/reload or read VD's mind and if points are still precious enough that it's either that or deff because there's no room for spending sp's poorly.

But I suppose my original post wasn't entirely clear.

 

[Keppo]

when on GOG? I dont like Steam.


nvm, i thought we already have 14 october...

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

So did you guys remember to finally implement alchemy? The build I played a while back still had it as a demo with the player being given all the ingredients at the start by some guy.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Actually what I want to know is if the only way to figure out the proper skills is to furiously save/reload or read VD's mind and if points are still precious enough that it's either that or deff because there's no room for spending sp's poorly.

The way I see it, it's an issue only if you go for jacks of all trades right away, in which case you do need to know what you're doing and where your next SPs are coming from. If you're playing a 3-4 skill character where the skills fits the background (i.e. a merchant should have trading, persuasion, streetwise), you shouldn't have any problems.

Most quests have different ways to handle them. For example, with the raiders you can:

- kill 'em all
- kill the leader with the critical strike and either fight the rest (much easier without the leader in heavy armor) or bullshit them into leaving
- negotiate and either pay them to attack a mining outpost (thus solving another quest for you) or pocket half the ransom money
- report back and tell Dellar what you saw (PER check) and let him handle it
- convince the thieves guild's leader to handle it

If you can do neither (you can't fight, you can't talk, and you're blind as a molerat), then the quest isn't for you. Don't worry about it and do something else instead.

So did you guys remember to finally implement alchemy? The build I played a while back still had it as a demo with the player being given all the ingredients at the start by some guy.

It's implemented.

 

[Lurker King]

Actually what I want to know is if the only way to figure out the proper skills is to furiously save/reload or read VD's mind and if points are still precious enough that it's either that or deff because there's no room for spending sp's poorly.

But I suppose my original post wasn't entirely clear.

Trying too hard. If you play with a talker build, all you need is streetwise and persuasion. If anything else fails, you can count on these two. If you play a combat build, all you need is two skills (one for attack and one for defense). If diplomacy fails, you can kill everything that moves. If you choose your stats wisely, this will improve your odds considerably. Is it simple enough for you or I need to make a detailed video guide? Of course, if you really want to dig deep in the game, you will have to do a lot of trial and error and optimization, as any great cRPG requires. I start playing this because I was a storyfagg and ended up as a combatfagg, such is the way the game invites you to challenge yourself.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Because the game was taking too long and we decided to rush it.

 

[Excidium II]

Trying too hard. If you play with a talker build, all you need is streetwise and persuasion. If anything else fails, you can count on these two. If you play a combat build, all you need is two skills (one for attack and one for defense). If diplomacy fails, you can kill everything that moves. If you choose your stats wisely, this will improve your odds considerably. Is it simple enough for you or I need to make a detailed video guide? Of course, if you really want to dig deep in the game, you will have to do a lot of trial and error and optimization, as any great cRPG requires. I start playing this because I was a storyfagg and ended up as a combatfagg, such is the way the game invites you to challenge yourself.

Who's this, VD's adoring fan?

 

[Lurker King]

AoD's adoring fan.

 

[Melcar]

ITS' adorning fan.

 

[t]

I vaguelly recall some troll on steam forums calling us all Vince's bootlicking team. I'm not necessarily going to argue with this characterization.

 

[Goral]

BTW, we need more positive reviews on Steam (and later on GOG). All negative reviews are utterly ridiculous ranging from "I'm too stupid to advance" (paraphrasing) to "A very much enjoyed the game, but from a testing point of view it's not worth the effort" (yes, it's a negative review).

Jaedar
If you're one of the autistic (of the retarded kind) players that has to min-max while being too stupid to notice hints that are in the game then yeah, you do need to reload a lot. Otherwise you can beat most of the skillchecks without a single reload and finish the game. E.g. I've joined the Thief Guild as a stupid brute and failed some of the more demanding thief quests. But I still advanced and thanks to being a killing machine I've earned XP that way. AoD is not a game where you can see everything in one playthrough (not even in two or three and to see EVERYTHING you need at least 7 playthroughs).

Anyway, IMO the system in AoD is WAY better than in almost any RPG where you can solve almost any quest with even a shitty build. I'll take Fallout New Vegas as an example - it doesn't matter if you don't have the proper skills, you can always go back to an unopened safe or unhacked computer, for some reason no one will do it before you (which is especially strange in cities). That's not the case in AoD, if you pass on the opportunity to do a job someone else will be hired, which is logical and superior to any RPG I know.

 

[Castanova]

Congratulations on finally finishing.

 

[Slimu]

I've done my part and posted a Steam review. The Steam system is working strange, the review had ~4k characters and it didn't posted it. I had to select ~2.8k characters and post them after which I've edited the review and added the rest of the text. I hope the game will sell well and VD & IT will continue making games.

Spoiler

Age of Decadence is one of the longest RPG in the making by a small and dedicated team (Iron Tower Studio). I remember reading about him about 9-10 years ago and since them I've waited for it to release. The game is set in a post apocalyptic roman empire like world and features turn based combat and lots of C&C.

When starting the game you receive a warning that this game isn't some fantasy dragon killer simulator. When I first played the demo this year I died on the first quest, because I was stupid and tried to fight someone instead of running away. In this game, with a badly made build you can die easily. The thing that you have to remember though is that this is an Role Playing Game so that if you choose skills/stats related to the selected class (background) the game will be just fine to play. Sure, if you try to be greedy you will get killed if you are not prepared. This means that a change to the way you play this kind of games is required. Like a said above, a bad build is easily made if you don't think about the way a class is played. A merchant maybe should't get into fights and instead should try to talk his way out of problems or solve quests. Sure, you can try to spread into many skills but this may mean you will be unprepared for some future situations, so specialization I think is key. I would say this game is similar to Neo Scavanger on this part. In both games you have to think about what you are going to do. Eating uncleaned water or trying to fight a soldier without having some weapon training could be deadly in both games.

Now that the role playing part is described, I think I should write a bit about story. If you read any of the other reviews, you will know this game is full of C&C (Choice & Consequence). Many of the actions you will take will influence the events that you will received in the future and how you will be treated. Kill a guild trader and you may find that an assassin will be sent after you. Believe the words of a shady looking person and you will find yourself dead in a ditch. The C&C part is probably the reason this game took so long to make, since every background should be viable and also different from the others. What this means is that huge ammounts of text are in this game and it's a lot of (great) reading to be made. I don't think there is any game with so much C&C. The only game that has a smaller amount of C&C is maybe the Witcher series, but not even them don't have as many outcomes and ways to deal with situations. Now that I think a bit, maybe Fallout 2 is a bit similar to it. Both are post apocalyptic games, with turn based combat and many skills that unlock different ways to solve the problems. Similar to Fallout New Vegas there is also a reputation system which opens or closes the way you gain access to some quests.

Like I said in the beginning, the combat is turn based, with different type of attacks available for each weapon. Each weapon class also has different uses and special attacks (eg. you can impale with the spear). If you played Fallout 1 or Fallout 2 is should be very similar. You use action points to move, to make attacks, use items (like poison), etc. Related to fight is also a crafting & alchemy mechanic which can be used to turn the balance on your favor in the harder fights. I think that the fights are well made, with enemies trying different tactics to kill you. What is important also to fighting is avoiding damage, which can be made in two ways: dodge or armor (you can't max both since armor decreases dodge chance).

This is a great game and I recommend it to any serious RPG fan. If you only played this kind of games recently, and didn't try older RPGs, this kind of game may seem harder to play but it really is not. It's a game that doesn't treat you like some brain-dead jellyfish. From my part, this should be the game of the year.

TL; DR
Game is great, lots of C&C with classes that play different and turn based combat. GOTY material, now go and buy a copy!

I remember that VD said something about some new content if the game sells well. Is that content still planned?

 

[Q]

Is the game at leat have a cheat console?

 

[Kem0sabe]

Is the game at leat have a cheat console?

No, but as with most every game you can cheatengine it easily.

 

[AbounI]

Is the game at leat have a cheat console?

Yes there is one console command
You can find it on the ITS forum.But why use it if it is to breakdown the rules of mini-maxi setting of the game?The game is designed like an anti heroe system (in a single playthrough, PC is not allowed to discover everything (at least for what doesn't concern archetype dialog-quest lines), to acheive all the quests, it's the essence of the CC system, don't touch that!!!

 

[Elhoim]

BTW, we need more positive reviews on Steam (and later on GOG). All negative reviews are utterly ridiculous ranging from "I'm too stupid to advance" (paraphrasing) to "A very much enjoyed the game, but from a testing point of view it's not worth the effort" (yes, it's a negative review).

I wouldn't say no to a few more positive reviews

I've done my part and posted a Steam review. The Steam system is working strange, the review had ~4k characters and it didn't posted it. I had to select ~2.8k characters and post them after which I've edited the review and added the rest of the text. I hope the game will sell well and VD & IT will continue making games.

I remember that VD said something about some new content if the game sells well. Is that content still planned?

Yes, it's still planned. Let's see how the game does on release day.

 

[Black]

Why is there no Miltiades in the Codex AoD avatar selection?
I'm sure he's the most memorable character for many who played early access.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Yes there is one console command
You can find it on the ITS forum.But why use it if it is to breakdown the rules of mini-maxi setting of the game?The game is designed like an anti heroe system (in a single playthrough, PC is not allowed to discover everything (at least for what doesn't concern archetype dialog-quest lines), to acheive all the quests, it's the essence of the CC system, don't touch that!!!

It's good if you want to do a review and dont want to replay the game a shit ton of times.

 

[hivemind]

It's good if you want to do a review and dont want to replay the game a shit ton of times.

lmao what

So it's good if someone wants to review a game that's based on C&C and replayablity without actually replaying the game several times with different characters and getting the experience the game is trying to convey ? Like the point of a review is to write about the game and report on what kind of experience it conveys, avoiding a core design direction through cheating while doing so goes against the entire point of your endeavor. It's the same as saying that having a godmode cheat on is good if you want to review dark souls or I wanna be the guy or other such game and don't want to die a shit ton of times.

this is possibly one of the most retarded things I have read on this website and I spend most of my time in prosperland and gd