Game News AoD demo released

[jagged-jimmy]

As a new version is out, how to uninstall the old one? That might sound silly, but the game does not appeare unter "Software", but there are some entries in the windows registry, so i want a clean deinstall.

Just delete the folder. I don't think the game adds anything to the registry. Can you be more specific?

Mhh scratch that. Nothing application specific, just some DirectInput entries relating AoD.exe.

 

[Gylfi.Fenriz.Conquests]

All reasonable combat builds can beat the demo. You just beat the ordu with block 50 while some people can't beat them with block 150. It's all in your strategies and tactics.

Exactly. Yet some people here open topics and say: to win the match you have to forget this and that, and max out such. They impose some kind of optimum and this is anti-rpg and pro-diablo. But you know better.

For a minute i feared AoD was gonna be like that but i changed my mind

You can beat the demo with heavy defense or without a point in defense. You can focus on one combat skill or you can split your offensive points between a chosen weapon and critical strike. In the new version, the synergy value is much higher so you can try different weapons.

Great. Any "class" is good, one just has to find out how to use it. For example if i can't dodge i will want to lay giant strikes in short periods of time(with 2-hands), so to exploit my inclination i may want to have light apparel to have a lot of AP... and this shouldn't even be the only possibility.
Can't an alchemist handle a brawn? What about interactable hidden and random objects lying in crates and barrels, which you can combine with other substances to create items that ignite in the face of opponents?

Oh btw, before going combat stance, when a fight begins, if you right-click a spot, one can freely walk the character around... is that supposed to happen?

 

[Mogar]

I finally beat the whole thing (including the bonus fight) with a sword/dodger build. In the end, I had 225 points in swords and 250 points in dodge. The bonus fight was probably one of the most difficult and satisfying fights I've had in an RPG in a while; I had to change up my tactics and equipment several times (I finally settled on using whirlwind rather then focusing on one opponent at a time), but with a little bit of luck, I managed to finally beat them. Aside from that, I still found the Ordu fight to be the most rage inducing fight in the demo, not because of it being particularly difficult, but because of the randomness of their crits. Usually, they'll be doing something like 3dmg on average, and then out of nowhere, 27dmg crit. This has happened to me nearly every time I've fought them with a melee build. It's not difficult, it's just frustrating. One other thing you might consider, is either lowering the AP cost of disarming or increasing its effects/damage. The only thing disarming is useful for, is spearmen, who thanks to their AI, just reequip their spears and stand their for you to hit them again.

All thing considered, I eagerly await the full game. Hopefully, everything else will be as good as the combat is.

 

[Ion Flux]

Really nice work guys. The art, interface, music, and even the splash screen exceeded my expectations. Very professional. The combat is fun, and from what I've seen of the dialogue/gameplay, you're still on track for a winnar.

Having said that, I'm having constant CTD's when I try to rotate the camera. Both with and without AA enabled at the video driver level. I haven't been able to get to the second fight because of the crashes. I'm running WinXP SP3 with a Radeon X1650 Pro AGP.

Thanks for the demo. I'm still planning to purchase the final release next Thursday.

Are you using Direct3D? Use OpenGL and see how it goes. Also try this fix:

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/in ... 244.0.html

That's not the issue you are having, but maybe it can help.

Man. I installed the second version of the demo and it's rock solid. No crashes at all w/ 4X AA & 4X AF using the D3D renderer. What'd you do? You, like ... fixed it. Thanks!

Edit: I'm having a lot of fun with this. The combat is obviously Fallout-inspired, I love the way that HPs are static and the armor/damage resistance/dodge model. I agree with what phelot said about the swearing though. I know this is an alternate timeline future setting, but it seems anachronistic and a bit gratuitous. Other than that, great stuff.

 

[Zomg]

Aside from that, I still found the Ordu fight to be the most rage inducing fight in the demo, not because of it being particularly difficult, but because of the randomness of their crits. Usually, they'll be doing something like 3dmg on average, and then out of nowhere, 27dmg crit. This has happened to me nearly every time I've fought them with a melee build. It's not difficult, it's just frustrating.

If you have a higher critical defense than their critical attack, you'll never eat a real critical (real meaning not an aimed attack or weapon special, which are also called "criticals" in the text box for some reason). You're damned if you do damned if you don't though, because I've died in that Ordu fight trying to ironman a dodger because I tried to wear some otherwise shitty armor that has enough critical defense (80) to prevent crits. It also prevented me from not dying the old fashioned way.

 

[Murk]

In the ordu fight i found killing the archer first is a good step, if you're slow and get rushed then maim the melee fighter's leg to slow him down and charge the archer - getting a free hit when he tries to back away/attack you up close.

dagger/dodger - went for archer, killed in two rounds, then meleed the other guy

sword/board - arrows got blocked and i just melee'd my way through

archer - maimed melee's leg and shot archer to death with aimed shots

-- for the triari, i'd reccomend hitting the leader with an aimed shot to the head to knock him out

 

[Gylfi.Fenriz.Conquests]

-- for the triari, i'd reccomend hitting the leader with an aimed shot to the head to knock him out

The problem was not the leader, but the other 2, way more resistant than him. If you hit them in the head, nothing happens since they got helmet. Their weak spot is the torso, it seems, and that's how i got 'em.

The fight after the triarii is ridiculous. It's just a bigguy with his mace. which brings up the problem with turn-based rpg's. To win i just reloaded the game until the guy missed and i didn't. And won. It's mostly lucky die throws and good savegames, in these games... some say that's why they prefer real-time FPS(i don't). Of course there's still a small part of merit in these things, I as all players pushe the odds in my favor(with tactics and good choice of armor and skills,one increases the odds of dodging, say 2 out of 5). Still, it's a matter of reloading your savegame 2000 times until you get that hard 8

 

[SuicideBunny]

some say that's why they prefer real-time FPS(i don't).

real time fps have the very same problem, only they made reloading into a fluent waypoint system that you barely notice.

 

[Jasede]

Since nobody replied I will just ask again, is it normal that the only dialogue you get for a while is with the merchant and the arena-master only? Nobody else will respond to me so I am guessing it is, but people are talking about optional fights in an inn and nobody there is saying a peep.

 

[Hazelnut]

They haven't tested the game on ATI cards...

Yes they did, I tested the closed beta on: X1950pro, HD5770, X800pro.

 

[Gylfi.Fenriz.Conquests]

Since nobody replied I will just ask again, is it normal that the only dialogue you get for a while is with the merchant and the arena-master only? Nobody else will respond to me so I am guessing it is, but people are talking about optional fights in an inn and nobody there is saying a peep.

Afaik, this is JUST combat demo.

I both presume and hope that there is no DAMN arena in the real game. Arenas are for Bolivion. Combat can't exist without any other reason than its own enjoyment and money, it should always happen for plot reasons AND always with an alternative.

There was no arena in fallout.

 

[Hazelnut]

Since nobody replied I will just ask again, is it normal that the only dialogue you get for a while is with the merchant and the arena-master only? Nobody else will respond to me so I am guessing it is, but people are talking about optional fights in an inn and nobody there is saying a peep.

Hey, Jasede, long time... anyway yep that's normal. Until you defeat all and become champ - then you retire to an inn for a rest...

 

[Gylfi.Fenriz.Conquests]

They haven't tested the game on ATI cards...

Yes they did, I tested the closed beta on: X1950pro, HD5770, X800pro.

Impossible! I got the 1950pro, and to make it work i had to turn off all internal tweaks, AA and AF and other AI augmentations.

 

[Jasede]

Ah, thank you very much, Hazel.

 

[Hazelnut]

They haven't tested the game on ATI cards...

Yes they did, I tested the closed beta on: X1950pro, HD5770, X800pro.

Impossible! I got the 1950pro, and to make it work i had to turn off all internal tweaks, AA and AF and other AI augmentations.

Possible and true, actually. It was a much earlier build about 3 months ago, and there are more variables than just the gfx card as well. My point was they did what they could, but this public release will have hit many more combinations which is a good thing. Also, I pulled my X1950pro out and replaced it with the HD5770 and I'm not going to swap it back in to try this release.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Played a spearman. The weapon definitely felt like a spear, was focused around keeping enemies at bay and primarily relying on the auto attacks on advancing enemies. Maxed STR/DEX rest in CON. Used primarily the two hander spears for extra range. Go for an aimed shot to the legs to slow them down, then with enough AP you can walk forward, attack (2x fast/aimed head/aimed torso shot depending on enemy), then walk back and watch them eat your autoattack coming forward. If they got close, I would switch to my single handed spear and go for an aimed shot to the arms to disarm them, then I could safely retreat and switch back to the two handed ones.

I tried to fight the six soldiers at the end, but they raped me in 20 different ways. Maybe I could beat them if I optimized my stats a bit more, but it would seem to be nearly impossible at least with spears because of the tight areas.

What exactly does PER do beyond improving hit rates and the very small bonus to critical chance? Because I had 95% chance to hit with pretty much every attack. Seems to be kind of a dump stat at the moment.

Is it worth pushing spear skill into the stratosphere just for the defensive stab move? How exactly is the chance for this move to occur calculated? What stat is used to avoid these attacks (not the attack itself, but the chance of it happening)? How does the remaining AP's left after a turn affect this? I can clearly see any left over AP being used for the defensive attacks, but the move also happens just the same even if I have 0 AP left.

I'll probably try again, this time with a bit more focus on critical hits so I might be able to take things down quickly. Unfortunately I was only doing about 5-10 damage per attack to the soldiers and generally died quite fast from the huge onslaught of attacks even with the best armor I could get.

 

[Zomg]

You can get the "secret" version of the inn fight by killing one of the civilians in the town somewhere, then talking to the arena guy. The same six guys will attack you in the open area in front of the arena. Might be a fun fight for a spear queer.

 

[Temoid]

Just won the game with a spearman/dodger, using a trident throughout the whole game (switched to a balanced steel one at the end.) I've found that building up dodging first helped me survive until my weapons skill was good enough. Also, any kind of tight quarters meant death since the defensive spear poke was what kept me alive.

 

[Melcar]

Just won the game with a spearman/dodger, using a trident throughout the whole game (switched to a balanced steel one at the end.) I've found that building up dodging first helped me survive until my weapons skill was good enough. Also, any kind of tight quarters meant death since the defensive spear poke was what kept me alive.

That's why you carry a hand spear + buckler as backup.

 

[Temoid]

Even a metioritic shortspear was absolutely puny against anything higher than DR 6 . Buckler does nothing with no block.

 

[Murk]

-- for the triari, i'd reccomend hitting the leader with an aimed shot to the head to knock him out

The problem was not the leader, but the other 2, way more resistant than him. If you hit them in the head, nothing happens since they got helmet. Their weak spot is the torso, it seems, and that's how i got 'em.

The fight after the triarii is ridiculous. It's just a bigguy with his mace. which brings up the problem with turn-based rpg's. To win i just reloaded the game until the guy missed and i didn't. And won. It's mostly lucky die throws and good savegames, in these games... some say that's why they prefer real-time FPS(i don't). Of course there's still a small part of merit in these things, I as all players pushe the odds in my favor(with tactics and good choice of armor and skills,one increases the odds of dodging, say 2 out of 5). Still, it's a matter of reloading your savegame 2000 times until you get that hard 8

This must be a question of character build then as I only reloaded on the triari once in any of my 3 play throughs and i can't even remember the guy after the triari as i never had a problem with him...

I don't think there's much "lucky roll" involved unless your build just isn't suited for it... in which case it really SHOULD be a matter luck.

 

[Silellak]

Since nobody replied I will just ask again, is it normal that the only dialogue you get for a while is with the merchant and the arena-master only? Nobody else will respond to me so I am guessing it is, but people are talking about optional fights in an inn and nobody there is saying a peep.

Afaik, this is JUST combat demo.

I both presume and hope that there is no DAMN arena in the real game. Arenas are for Bolivion. Combat can't exist without any other reason than its own enjoyment and money, it should always happen for plot reasons AND always with an alternative.

There was no arena in fallout.

There is an arena in the real game, but it's different in some ways. Per VD on the ITS forums:

The arena is in the game, but most things are different. If you become the champion, it will open some doors for you, but becoming a champion will be a lot harder (since you won't be showered with skill points, so forget about maxing out dodge or block).

So, the arena is there, but completely optional (obviously) and becoming champion may result in alternate solutions to quests (or perhaps new side quests entirely). I don't see anything wrong with this - combat in the game is still optional, and becoming champion of the arena can factor into the plot.

 

[SerratedBiz]

I'm wondering if anyone has encountered this problem, I couldn't find anything similar either here or at ITS.

Whenever I press "Launch Demo" I'll get the loading screen for about a second and then the program shuts down, sends me back to desktop without an error message or anything. At first I thought it had something to do with that message displayed below, something about low memory, which turned out to be a funny ha-ha. Anyways, I've tried switching around the options for D3D and OpenGL, 16 and 32, windowed and fullscreen. I've also tried that link for an ATI fix for artifacts, which didn't help.

My system specs are WinXP, ATI x1950, Intel 2Core 1.6, 2gigs ram.

 

[Elhoim]

I'm wondering if anyone has encountered this problem, I couldn't find anything similar either here or at ITS.

Whenever I press "Launch Demo" I'll get the loading screen for about a second and then the program shuts down, sends me back to desktop without an error message or anything. At first I thought it had something to do with that message displayed below, something about low memory, which turned out to be a funny ha-ha. Anyways, I've tried switching around the options for D3D and OpenGL, 16 and 32, windowed and fullscreen. I've also tried that link for an ATI fix for artifacts, which didn't help.

My system specs are WinXP, ATI x1950, Intel 2Core 1.6, 2gigs ram.

Please post your console.log. You can find it in My Documents/My Games/Age of Decadence.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Yee-haaw it's glorious!