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Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind - King of Dragon Pass spiritual successor

Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
4,913
Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Is this criticism of Six Ages valid, in your opinions?

https://www.reddit.com/r/SixAges/comments/eyur3x/gameplay_structure_of_ride_like_the_wind_warning/

I was sitting in the doctor's office playing this game again for the first time in months, and a few things started to coalesce about the game and how to win it. I'm not sure this is criticism exactly, but just a series of observations. For anyone reading this, this is your last chance to back out before seeing major spoilers.

To win the game, you need to have Beren the Tall marry Redalda. That in turn involves passing a series of event tests, and of course surviving, both the clan and Beren himself, long enough to get to them. The biggest hurdle a player is likely to stumble over is this event.

https://sixages.fandom.com/wiki/Redalda_Proposal

Where a series of events must all be passed to convince her clan to allow her to marry a Rider and you in particular. Success or failure in all of those events except the bride price are primarily affected by how skilled your clan ring is, especially in Diplomacy, Magic, and Combat. While other factors also weigh in, such as how much magic you have to throw around in appropriate categories and keeping some in reserve, and the respect of other clans, especially Redalda's clan, I've found that it's much easier to make it work with amazing clan ring members and a weak external position than the reverse, and my single biggest reason I lost a bunch of games early on when it was newly released on the iphone was I kept stupidly sending Beren to lead the raid on the inhuman king instead of my best fighter like certain people on my ring kept suggesting.

Obviously, this won't impact gameplay for someone's first few rides out when they're still trying to grapple with the system. But especially if you're achievement hunting or just in love with the game and playing it over and over again, it provides a semi-perverse incentive. What really matters if you want to win? Build up your clan nobles, especially the ones who are young at the start of the game, and get them in the clan ring. Food, herds, fortifications, treasures? As long as you're not starving, doesn't matter much. Raiding your foes, exploration, sending trade caravans out, all the stuff you spend most of the middle game doing once you've got your basic position secure? All of it is secondary to building up as many people with Heroic in a stat as you can, at least if you want to win the game.

And THAT, at least in my opinion is a damn shame, because a lot of the mechanics for things like herd building, or exploration or the diplomacy setups, are a lot of fun and interesting in their own right. But they don't actually impact winning or losing all that much. The game seems almost disjointed.
 

Nahel

Arcane
Joined
Feb 12, 2015
Messages
863
It is. Get her or just lose. That ruined my enjoyment of the game.
Except that nothing truly matters. Ennemy clans can always recover too
 

tindrli

Arcane
Joined
Jan 5, 2011
Messages
4,475
Location
Dragodol
Now I'm tempted to get the recent PC port of KoDP version too. Is it as good as this one? Or should I stick to the Ipad version for that?
there is no PC port. PC game was an original game... it was later ported and revoked but in a horrible way. if you liked your apple version then you probably love utterly disgusting PC revoked KoDP.
for me its horrible
 

SerratedBiz

Arcane
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
4,143
I think the Apple version of KoDP has additional updates to the PC version, but I can't be arsed to check because I'm so pissed off at this company fucking me over repeatedly with their decisions.
 

Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
4,913
Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
I think the Apple version of KoDP has additional updates to the PC version, but I can't be arsed to check because I'm so pissed off at this company fucking me over repeatedly with their decisions.
:hmmm:

Why the butthurt. The game is released at IOS and Windows on 2 different versions.

And I'm midway through the campaign (for the second time, first playthrough was last year or something). Will post more impressions later, in special in regard to that criticism up above (aka: your clan geopolitical status doesn't really matter except for survival, what matter are your final leaders abilities).
 

Infinitum

Scholar
Joined
Apr 30, 2016
Messages
700
I disagree. As others have noted the difficult path of any campaign is getting your trade income, defenses and heroic battle leader going in order not to be raided into oblivion. I'd guess the standing system ties into other clans willingness to attack yo as well. I mean, if you're proven to be weak laughing stock who's to stop anyone from just taking your cows? The endgame sequence is mostly a victory lap* once you've reached a safe and self sustaining clan.

Also not sure how you grind stats instead of accumulating wealth, cows and respect. You get what, one safeish heroquest per year and you still need to collect cows, allies and clan magic to feed into it. You can also exhchange wealth for worshipper boosting god artifacts, so its not like chasing cows doesn't directly affect your ring members either.

*And also horribly prone to fucking you over with one bad rng throw, granted
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
4,153
Location
Chicago, IL, Kwa
I believe the iOS/Windows re-release included a few "new" scenes (iirc they were actually in the base game, but someone overlooked setting up possible triggers for them so no one ever saw them). Outside of that the re-release is significantly inferior.
 

Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
4,913
Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
I believe the iOS/Windows re-release included a few "new" scenes (iirc they were actually in the base game, but someone overlooked setting up possible triggers for them so no one ever saw them). Outside of that the re-release is significantly inferior.
You say that just because of the the lack of the clan lands screen, or due to the changes the game suffered? It seems to me the changes were for the good (streamlining food, minimizing death spirals, more events, etc), no?
 
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Chicago, IL, Kwa
I believe the iOS/Windows re-release included a few "new" scenes (iirc they were actually in the base game, but someone overlooked setting up possible triggers for them so no one ever saw them). Outside of that the re-release is significantly inferior.
You say that just because of the the lack of the clan lands screen, or due to the changes the game suffered? It seems to me the changes were for the good (streamlining food, minimizing death spirals, more events, etc), no?

I mean, if you enjoy it fair enough, don't let me dissuade you otherwise. Speaking for myself, yes the removal of the tula screen is a pretty big deal that removes a large sense of accomplishment and progression. It also looked very nice. I wouldn't put it on quite the same level as the HoMM3 town screens, but can you imagine the shitshow that would have occurred if they'd just removed town screens from the HoMM3 remaster? It's like a lesser version of that. The streamlining of food bothers me less, but it was completely unnecessary, and it serves to make the game easier which is silly. I think there's a perception common to a lot of people who've played the game for a short while that it's a very difficult game, but it actually is fairly easy once you begin to understand some of the mechanics (which the game admittedly intentionally obfuscates), and I'm not even talking about cheesy tactics like turning your tula into a metropolis or using meta-knowledge to explore Dragon Pass, either of which will turn the game into an utter cakewalk.

I also recall reading that the iOS/Windows release increased the likelihood of leaders spawning in with Renowned or even Heroic stats, something that was extremely rare in the original (I don't think it was possible for anyone to spawn with heroic excepting Kallyr), but I don't have a source for that, so I might be incorrect.
 
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Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
4,913
Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
hello friend and <3sRichardSimmons , that's fair. I miss the tula screen too.

Perhaps the insatisfaction from part of the fans come from the feeling that the game had it's management/strategic side weakened in lieu of it's storytelling side? And the tula screen, while only a visual aid, was iconic, or embodied somehow, that managerial/strategic side?
 
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hello friend

Arcane
Joined
Feb 26, 2012
Messages
7,847
Location
I'm on an actual spaceship. No joke.
Well, overall the changes are small and should be inconsequential, and if an Apple product is all you have there's no reason not to get the iOS version. But I was surprised by how much I missed the tula screen, it has no gameplay consequence but you do end up seeing it a lot and it gives you a real connection to your clan seeing it grow and thrive. Without it the game starts feeling a tad more like a spreadsheet simulator. The minutiae of food management do add a little extra. If your soothsayers say it's a good years for crops, plant barley to your heart's content. Bad year? Better plant rye. Also the whole thing of having enough sheep for all your temples, horses for your army, pigs for emergency meat and cattle for wealth and prestige. It's been a while since I've played so I can't say for sure whether or not there's any real difference between cows and pigs. Perhaps cows needed pasture while pigs needed wildlands? Either way, removing it was completely unecessary, and while it doesn't make or break the game, those small details matter.
 

cyborgboy95

News Cyborg
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Messages
2,952
https://blog.sixages.com/index.php/2020/08/26/august-update/

sceneC270-crop.jpg


I don’t have to tell anyone that this has been a strange year. I don’t know if I can really blame 2020 on the lack of blog posts, however. Some of the progress is hard to show, and we want to have a few surprises when the next game comes out.

The COVID-19 pandemic did impact things. We’re pretty sure one team member caught it but had almost no symptoms (and at a time when there wasn’t any testing to confirm it). Otherwise there hasn’t been any direct impact, since the team is distributed and people work out of their homes. But that is still very different when other family members are now doing that too, or you can’t leave your home. So we’ve all been affected.

raid041-crop.jpg

Despite that, work on the next game, “Lights Going Out,” has proceeded. Currently, 317 scenes have been written and coded. Two thirds of them have been exhaustively tested. (For comparison, “Ride Like the Wind” ended up with 364 scenes.) Most of the non-scene writing hasn’t started, though there are currently two rituals running. (One of those may need to be reworked.)

We have a lot of great art. I don’t know quite what our target is here (since a lot depends on the not-yet-written scenes). But more has been completed so far this year than in 2019.

Although most testing has focused on individual scenes (the “trees”) in isolation, we have done some QA based on just playing (the “forest”). I think you could play for 13 years before running out of yearly content. So while it’s not at all balanced yet, the basic game still works fine.

sceneC292-crop.jpg

Although the basic game is the same, different things matter. The game takes place generations later, so factions other than the Seven Families are important. And you’ll possibly be interacting with the supernatural in different ways. Plus, the supernatural will impact you in different ways. I’m in the middle of tweaking the map for this.

And speaking about both games, you can indeed load a game you won and continue it. A number of factors are brought forward. At least one was something that we hadn’t originally planned for. (You can certainly play “Lights Going Out” without having won or even played “Ride Like the Wind,” though we hope it will be a richer experience if you have.)

As I mentioned in December, we’ve also been prototyping some ideas for a different game. As I write, its fate is unclear. For what it’s worth, as a separate project it hasn’t affected the “Lights Going Out” schedule.

Unfortunately, that schedule still isn’t solid. It’s taken longer to get here than I’d like, but I think we have made considerably progress during a challenging year.
 

Ialda

Learned
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
128
King of Dragon Pass is also the best introduction you can find (together with the Prince of Sartar webcomics) to the wonderful world of Glorantha.
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
4,153
Location
Chicago, IL, Kwa
Six Ages is a good game. KoDP is a masterpiece.

What's the difference? What makes KoDP better? I haven't played it yet but it looks p. similar

It’s slightly smaller in scope, and some of the clan management aspects have been streamlined from KoDP. I would also say that the art and writing in SA, while still very good, fails to overall match up to KoDP. It also really doesn’t try to do anything new, which while not really a failing, does prevent it from reaching “masterpiece” status in my eyes. Subjectively, I also prefer the Orlanthi culture to the Horsetribes.

To be clear though: it’s a very good game, and if you enjoyed KoDP it is a no-brainer to play it.
 

Ialda

Learned
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
128
While smaller in scope, for Ride Like The Wind defense it should be said that the game was designed from the start to be the first part of an epic saga telling the orign of the Berennethtelli from Storm age to the Dawn. When (if) the six parts are eventually released, the result should be interesting to play.
 

cyborgboy95

News Cyborg
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Messages
2,952
https://blog.sixages.com/index.php/2020/12/31/year-in-review-2020/

Year In Review: 2020


TL;DR: We’re still making games.

COVID-19
The global pandemic hit all of us. Fortunately none of the team fell ill, though family members did, and there were several exposure or symptom scares. And while the team is distributed and work from home, that’s not the same thing in the middle of a pandemic, and when can’t really go anywhere else.

And of course we weren’t able to have occasional face-to-face meetings at conventions — or see fans.

Lights Going Out
ChaosVsHorses-300x300.jpg

Art by Ellen Barkin
We’ve been working on the next Six Ages game. “Lights Going Out” will let you continue the story of the clan you guided in “Ride Like the Wind” (though you can start a new one from scratch). Perhaps 3/4 of the events have been written and coded (with games like these, it’s hard to know exactly how many there will be, since we often add more towards the end, to fill in missing bits). And about half have been exhaustively tested. This is far enough that it’s now possible to play a significant chunk of the game without running into missing parts. Well, that’s what I tell myself, and then QA files bugs about missing parts.

C393t-300x169.jpg

Thumbnail by Jan Pospíšil
The exact art requirements are similarly hard to know in advance (since those new scenes may require new art). But I think well over half of the scene art is complete.

We just started thinking seriously about the endgame — what constitutes “victory” in a story game. Polishing and coding this is on the schedule for January.

There’s still too much uncertainty to talk about a release schedule, unfortunately. But it’s now far enough that we can start thinking about tuning, and testing the game as a whole instead of just in pieces.

Ride Like the Wind
Although most of the development effort has been on the new game, they share the same game system, and some “Lights Going Out” bugs are common. And we’ve been fixing bugs as players report them.

Luckily, there haven’t been too many of those, so I’ve held off on making a lot of updates. Plus, just making a release takes resources, and QA has been less available thanks to COVID-19. But I do expect a bug fix release next year.

Future
Last year, I mentioned prototyping a new game. A combination of events led to a digital prototype. There might well be a game there, but it’s still a side project to have in reserve.
 

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