Game News The Age of Decadence Released

[Mortmal]

I finished a playthrough as assassin, once you get the build right its fairly easy. I started with crossbow, bad idea , few fights were completely impossible at madoran, rerolled it with full dagger, dodge critical, alchemy(absolutely mandatory) and then it became a walk in the park.However lot of content is missed during that playthrough, int check failed int he abyss so nothing to see, no lore so half the locations on the map undiscovered. I finished the game its quite a short , last area really short and disapointing , but fairly enjoyable playthrough, 6 hours or so maybe less.It seems you need a highly specialized character or you will fail miserably at everything.

I started a loremaster playthrough ,it was a disaster, not good in combat, just the basic points allowed at the beggining, a bit in lore, craft and persuade.Merchant guild quest is mostly fail and complete fail at the end, barrack quest is a no go, thief same. So only options left are the two outdoors areas . I go to the mining outpost succeed a few lore check and then thrown(no option) to the next town(crippled by a lack of skill points) and given a quest from the local lord.
I head there, the location is occupied by raiders they let you enter the tomb if you ask politely then later you either have to fight them or its an impersonate/streetwise skill check... Too bad i dont have those skills , the fight is mandatory . Did i mention my char is not good at combat? its game over vs 3 raiders. theres not even an option to ask for help and get a few men to cleanse the tomb before investigating . Want to visit the library? mandatory fight , i am toasted Arena ? toasted of course, slums ? dead.

I am a scholar and crafter not a terminator, so the only option is to not do the quest . Sadly not doing stuff is the only valid option most of the time, unless you have the required amount of skill points, and theres no way to know how much more you really need , either specialize or bust .All is left to do is sllugging through the game , save scumming a lot , hoping to find a bit of content your may skillcheck pass. You never know what set of skills you may need in the next encounter altough, so maybe you invested a little too much into some skill and bam! Now you cant do the next encounter cause it needs one point more in persuade, or even worse one point more in perception .
Even that abyss place, i coudlnt finish once again ,few int check sucsessfull, then it ask.. a constitution/st check.. i am fucked another bit of ontent i still cant see, i dont know what kind of ubermensch char is required to do this , or maybe some overpriced item is needed.

Now trying with a praetor, full throttle on charisma and highly specliazed speech skills, a walk in the park once again , i am even given a nice praetor armor set i dont need cause i wont fight at all...next ill do a dumb warrior full on strengh ,full on axe , bet it will work too.

I end up with mixed feelings, there's some great things, but its not as enjoyable as it should be and sadly not a contender as best of the year.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Seems like you are learning how to play. Congratulations.

 

[Cadmus]

I'm now in the 3rd city with my shitty-built assassin and the asshole encounters in the dirty shacks in the town with the muslims netting me are kicking my ass.

I don't know if somebody mentioned it already but did you notice how this kind of writing would have been revolutionary 7-8 years ago with everything being srsbsns high fantasy schlock? Now it's popular so the game might seem needlessly edgy or something.

I'm really enjoying the writing and I read everything I can. It's beautiful, ironic and what might seem juvenile is actually nicely in character.

I can't wait for a 2nd or even 3rd playthrough. I'll post some impressions later, too!

 

[Irenaeus II]

I'm also enjoying the writing a lot. It's revolutionary, I don't think I ever played any cRPG with this kind of writing. I enjoyed PoE's writing a great deal, but for different reasons. I don't think it's needlessly edgy, but then again I'm an Ultra-Reactionary Catholic Imperialist Objectivist, so take that as you will.

Have yet to find a character or dialogue that felt wooden, badly written for any reason or that doesn't fit the setting. Great and memorable characters. Again, congratulations to the writing team.

 

[Lady_Error]

I started a loremaster playthrough ,it was a disaster, not good in combat, just the basic points allowed at the beggining

You don't need any combat points on a loremaster playthrough, if your INT and CHA are high and you put the skill points where they are needed to progress.

I only increased my block and daggers a bit to kill the prospector at the library in order to get the items. That may have been a mistake since now I'm trying to find some sources of skill points close to the endgame in order to bring my lore close to max.

Ironically, getting things like the power armor is much easier for a talker build than for a fighter build.

 

[Junmarko]

I'm an Ultra-Reactionary Catholic Imperialist Objectivist

AKA: Imbecile.

 

[drunk_bard]

Again, congratulations to the writing team.

Except writing nothing good enough in this game for me. I leaved a town and saw black borders of the map. Even GTA 3 (lol) had explanation of freedom limits. But here... No ambient sounds... Stupid 3D... Well, good writing can't save this game

 

[Elhoim]

The points of the post were that the entire scenario is largely absurd and makes little to no sense. The raider head honcho sudden teleportation to the monastery is just one part of it, and the way it is now, I can't honestly accept any of the supposed completely logical handwaves that have been posted so far because they are just that - shameless handwaves. Remember how in Curse of Monkey Island Guybrush lands on Skull Island and the boatman tells him to squint his head a bit to look at it? That's basically what's been going on for the last pages. So yes, some kind of a dialogue window right after the fight or when going up the ladders or anything would have helped tons, although I'd probably still find it weird.

Yes, I do agree that the narrative there was a bit jarring. The idea was like that. You and the guys are sent to fight, while Daneus and two guys stay in the back with the ladders. Once the first defenders are down, they go with the ladders, climb and kill the archers. While the fight was going on, Daneus and his two cronies took advantange of that to go inside the monastery and loot it. Some text would have definitely helped there.

But like I said, that's only one of the elements of the whole thing. There's also the fact that I can't scale the broken bridge even though the way it looks in-game makes it look perfectly fit for crossing as a ninja character with 10 dex and a grappling hook.

Before or after the fight, or the events of the monastery? We did have the idea of adding something like that after the fight, but never go it to it and it was more like extra content.

I don't see it working while the raiders and defenders are waiting for the battle. If you cross while the raiders are still there, the monastery people would attack you.

There's also the church of Simo Hayha inside the monastery.

You made google that one *lore increased*.

And, in fact, the more I think about it - why doesn't the Finnish sniper division just take shots down the ladders as the raiders scale them, or, you know, JUST PUSH THEM AWAY FROM THE WALL?

Yeah

It's hard to model an scenario like that, though. The design of the location was like this:

- Two warring parties: Raiders and monastery defenders. The raiders should be a bit stronger, but the monastery defenders have the higher ground. The defenders are no pussies, since this is the third raider attack they had (they mention it if you side with them).
- If you joined the raiders and won, you had to fight with them over the spoils. So we made it that the leader and two guys stay back to balance the "spoils" fight, as any number of raiders could survive, making the spoils fight too easy or too hard, due to factors completely unrelated to you.
- You can join the defenders by either fighting the raiders on your own or making them leave. After that, you can kill them all, or sneak inside the vault. After that, if got the vial, you can keep it and they let you go, or if you didn't, you can kill them all, get the key from the elder and pick the vial.

Now, some thoughts looking back on it.

- The fight in the bridge is cool, with the arrow from the walls while fighting on melee, but defensively makes not much sense. It might have been more logical to narrate the whole setting up the stairs, some guys getting killed and start the fight in the upper part directly. Not sure about changing that, though, since the fights themselves are interesting, but we can a do a better narrative between the two stages of the fight.
- I think that the confrontation with Daneus would have been better right after the fight, not with him inside the Monastery. Basically, he comes up, unharmed (since I placed him with the stairs down there while the fight is happenning) and tells you: "Alright, pick anything you want from the dead bodies, we'll go loot the monastery." Which is the same setup, and makes more sense, since he did "teleport" inside after the battle was over.

We'll take a look at it.

This is how we always developed our game over the years. We are not some genius visionaries with the perfect design that can't be touched, look at the discussions in 2004/2007-8 here, and since 2007 in ITS forums. We implement something, share it with the community, get thoughtful critiques, we improve or even re-do, share again. We have our vision, and we don't compromise it, but we are flexible in the implementation of that vision. Maybe I'm just an oldfag (Joined: 2006? Shit, you most are all newfags compared to me now), but sometimes the new style of Codex feels like all edge but no depth, and I miss a bit the discussions from that time. As a forum poster, I was "born" in the Codex, in the fires of criticism of the GUI thread, and I love deep, level headed discussions.

Thanks, Roxor

I finished a playthrough as assassin, once you get the build right its fairly easy. I started with crossbow, bad idea , few fights were completely impossible at madoran, rerolled it with full dagger, dodge critical, alchemy(absolutely mandatory) and then it became a walk in the park.However lot of content is missed during that playthrough, int check failed int he abyss so nothing to see, no lore so half the locations on the map undiscovered. I finished the game its quite a short , last area really short and disapointing , but fairly enjoyable playthrough, 6 hours or so maybe less.It seems you need a highly specialized character or you will fail miserably at everything.

I started a loremaster playthrough ,it was a disaster, not good in combat, just the basic points allowed at the beggining, a bit in lore, craft and persuade.Merchant guild quest is mostly fail and complete fail at the end, barrack quest is a no go, thief same. So only options left are the two outdoors areas . I go to the mining outpost succeed a few lore check and then thrown(no option) to the next town(crippled by a lack of skill points) and given a quest from the local lord.
I head there, the location is occupied by raiders they let you enter the tomb if you ask politely then later you either have to fight them or its an impersonate/streetwise skill check... Too bad i dont have those skills , the fight is mandatory . Did i mention my char is not good at combat? its game over vs 3 raiders. theres not even an option to ask for help and get a few men to cleanse the tomb before investigating . Want to visit the library? mandatory fight , i am toasted Arena ? toasted of course, slums ? dead.

I am a scholar and crafter not a terminator, so the only option is to not do the quest . Sadly not doing stuff is the only valid option most of the time, unless you have the required amount of skill points, and theres no way to know how much more you really need , either specialize or bust .All is left to do is sllugging through the game , save scumming a lot , hoping to find a bit of content your may skillcheck pass. You never know what set of skills you may need in the next encounter altough, so maybe you invested a little too much into some skill and bam! Now you cant do the next encounter cause it needs one point more in persuade, or even worse one point more in perception .
Even that abyss place, i coudlnt finish once again ,few int check sucsessfull, then it ask.. a constitution/st check.. i am fucked another bit of ontent i still cant see, i dont know what kind of ubermensch char is required to do this , or maybe some overpriced item is needed.

Now trying with a praetor, full throttle on charisma and highly specliazed speech skills, a walk in the park once again , i am even given a nice praetor armor set i dont need cause i wont fight at all...next ill do a dumb warrior full on strengh ,full on axe , bet it will work too.

I end up with mixed feelings, there's some great things, but its not as enjoyable as it should be and sadly not a contender as best of the year.

A few thoughts and questions for balance:

- Where did you fail in the MG as a loremaster? Did you get the training from Zenon?
- "Loremaster" build. The way I see it, loremaster builds only need high lore to be considered such. Since it's only one skill, they don't need as much SP as other builds, and can focus on either combat or speech skills to overcome obstacles. Where did you put any other extra points?
- Exploring the ruins is dangerous business, which is intended. Tomb is a bit hard, but you can report to Gaelius that there's nothing there and complete the mission, earning the SP. IIRC, you can later come back and do it on your own. About the library, yes, there's combat, but the guy is not hard. Nothing that a good armor, some poison or bombs can't kill. For a pure fighter, this is one of the easiest fights around. Or you can overcome him with speech. Again, I'm curious on how you spent your points. Considering that you get 80 on character creation, 10 from Vignette, 10 from showing the map to Antidas, a free level of lore or 10 civil SP (scrolls in Feng's house when you start), 10 from arriving to Maadoran, at least 10-15 from doing a MG quest, 10 points in speech skills from Zenon... Around 130-150 SP. Where did it go? What was your reasoning behind the distribution and what did you expect from it?
- Abyss is more of a "secret level", like the ones from the old games in which you spent days trying different combinations to get to them (builds in this case). And fits with the narrative around the area that only one guy ever made it to the bottom. We made it too interesting and compelling, though, so everyone wants to go there and die horribly. Plus we could have added several level of exploration, leaving the lower ones for "secret" builds.

 

[Irenaeus II]

AKA: Imbecile.

Vade retro, satan

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

Writing could've been better if Vault Dweller was less involved.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Writing could've been better if Vault Dweller was less involved.

I think he's the soul of the game and the writing.

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

Agree to disagree, then. I'm still unsure whether Age of Decadence has a soul.

 

[hivemind]

Vade retro, satan

I once said this as a joke to a girl that was trying to flirt with me while drunk.

 

[Irenaeus II]

I once said this as a joke to a girl that was trying to flirt with me while drunk.

She must have been a real dragon then. When a cute girl is flirting with me while drunk I usually go more along the lines of "Deus Vult"

 

[Junmarko]

Vade retro, satan

You have a hard time separating fact from fiction, don't you? Haha.

 

[Commissar Draco]

AKA: Imbecile.

liberalsDetected.

 

[oscar]

Just finished an Imperial Guard playthrough.

Spoiler

Acquiring and activating the power armour turned the last few fights of the game into a joke until I hit Agathoth. Fitting ending if you chose to walk away (also thematically in line with the IG's trend of unashamedly sending you on suicide missions and disposable mentality). Was also sad that my straight combat build meant I couldn't persuade the IG to side with Crassus, he seems like a bro (though I never got to meet the Aurelian guy or even learn about his personality and motivations).

Perhaps I'll reload and try stock up on more bombs if anyone sells them

Overall fantastic work Vince and the team, easily Game of the Year (if not for many a year). In regards to tone I didn't find it that grimdark, in fact just right (though perhaps that's just from playing as the relatively unpretentious and straightforward IG).

In regards to quite a few fights where I thought "this is impossible. New character time" but then turned off the game, came back the next day and re-thought my strategy, used some items I'd forgotten about and had a bit of luck with the RNG allowed me to make it through. Very satisfying.

 

[Mortmal]

A few thoughts and questions for balance:

- Where did you fail in the MG as a loremaster? Did you get the training from Zenon?
- "Loremaster" build. The way I see it, loremaster builds only need high lore to be considered such. Since it's only one skill, they don't need as much SP as other builds, and can focus on either combat or speech skills to overcome obstacles. Where did you put any other extra points?
- Exploring the ruins is dangerous business, which is intended. Tomb is a bit hard, but you can report to Gaelius that there's nothing there and complete the mission, earning the SP. IIRC, you can later come back and do it on your own. About the library, yes, there's combat, but the guy is not hard. Nothing that a good armor, some poison or bombs can't kill. For a pure fighter, this is one of the easiest fights around. Or you can overcome him with speech. Again, I'm curious on how you spent your points. Considering that you get 80 on character creation, 10 from Vignette, 10 from showing the map to Antidas, a free level of lore or 10 civil SP (scrolls in Feng's house when you start), 10 from arriving to Maadoran, at least 10-15 from doing a MG quest, 10 points in speech skills from Zenon... Around 130-150 SP. Where did it go? What was your reasoning behind the distribution and what did you expect from it?
- Abyss is more of a "secret level", like the ones from the old games in which you spent days trying different combinations to get to them (builds in this case). And fits with the narrative around the area that only one guy ever made it to the bottom. We made it too interesting and compelling, though, so everyone wants to go there and die horribly. Plus we could have added several level of exploration, leaving the lower ones for "secret" builds.

In MG i failed at everything, then he send me to the barrack as a last chance to meet the commander and nothing i could do there .I dont remember if i got zenon training or not. Not met antidas since it sent me to gaelius immediately when succeeding at turning on the machine, without any choice . I could have busted it of course,but as a loremaster i wouldnt want to break an antiquity , thats counterproductive. Save scumming is bad , i do fair playthrough like if it was a true pen and paper rpg. Build as i remember was 4 spear 4 block (the bare minimum ),few points in persuade crafting and lore.Persuade cause loremaster fend first quest required it .,As high i could in lore(6 or so ) and crafting .Lore as loremaster seems kinda obvious, crafting as i expected to find schematics sfrom the lore to apply to crafting.

Yes i can report to gaelius theres nothing, but this is not satisfactory, not doing stuff i dont consider that as playing .I'd rather ask him or any thugs for backup, at the cost of a paycut , to get rid of raiders. the lord of the city certainly could spare some men to help a wimp scholar dig up an extremely valuable artefacts no ? With my lore and crafts maybe i should be allwoed to craft some old wolrd weaponry and have some edge in combat if combat is really mandotary.
What i expected? that he makes use of my skills , i am a super good scholar and crafter, not indiana jones, not an arena fighter. I should have to grind up in arena to raises my lore ? Such nonsense....

 

[Irenaeus II]

In regards to tone I didn't find it that grimdark, in fact just right (though perhaps that's just from playing as the relatively unpretentious and straightforward IG).

The grimdarkness feels home at a post-apocalypse moral relatvist setting. I have come to understand that. It even serves as a cautionary tale. Boethius and Saint Augustine are indicated reading to set the mood for the game. Along with the works of stoics and sceptics and late ancient history in general. The raiders' and mercenaries dialogues (inspired by Black Company) were fantastic and moving to me.

 

[Cadmus]

Please consider using spoilers for your endgame problem-solving you fucking faggots.

Anyway, speaking of writing, I really liked this bit:

Spoiler

As an assassin, I got to the third city, saw the guild burned to the ground and heard that the guildmaster had survived and converted to the faith. I thought to myself, haha shit no way, I went to speak with him and exactly as I thought, he brushed off the religion with 1 sentence and immediately offered me a new job. I had to laugh out loud, great stuff. His dialogues were pretty cool, tool. "How many of us are there?" "Now 2, in the future probably only 1 again."

 

[TheEntitledOne]

Well, I got what I guess is the best end without cheating this time.

Spoiler

The one you get once you find Al Akia, the guy in Hellgate, the lab, etc...
Was surprised that my non-combat Loremaster managed to pull it. Getting the item to deactivate the construct in Hellgate requires entering Tower of Zamedi. Didn't side with Gaelius so the only way to get a "crimson eye" would be killing the demon in Inferiae, which seemed too risky.
Somehow fought the Construct in Hellgate by throwing a "Grenade" of shorts I found there and somehow finished it off with a dagger I had no skill at, the construct could only attack once a turn (and I had like a 75% hit chance on it). Are the constructs supposed to be weakened or is it a passive effect from the bomb?
Also, as soon as the guards showd up in Al Akia I abandoned my allies since I didn't have enough skills to talk them to leave. Is not like I needed them.
I didn't even bother with the Siege, since at the end of the day:

The World Is Mine.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Game is great fun went with Daratian Preator and this time killed those IG upstarts... the Armor you got is good I got 18 kills past Theron.... Only game I opted out were this Redhead pick pocket and Aurelian Outpost which was indeed more fun to do the talky way.... Have Vanilla Preator build with only 35 HP but PER at 7 instead which gives +bonus and allows to notice more things... Cant belive how much fights are easier with one point in Alchemy (poisons).... Now its time to find some easy work in Mandoran before starting the task the Old Man gave you... Legio Per Dar Attan Sempre Fides!

 

[oscar]

I've seen much more garish grimdarkness where just about everyone is a back-stabbing, murderous rapist who would sell out their own grandmother for a penny (what to me as always seemed just as unrealistic as high fantasy goody two-shoes). By contrast here there's a smattering of genuinely idealistic or moral characters and some of the ending slides seemed to imply a return to relative peace, prosperity and stability.

Compared to a lot of post-apoc I'd even say AoD was fairly cheerful (perhaps not in regard to human nature but contrasted against works such as The Road..).

 

[Irenaeus II]

In regards to quite a few fights where I thought "this is impossible. New character time" but then turned off the game, came back the next day and re-thought my strategy, used some items I'd forgotten about and had a bit of luck with the RNG allowed me to make it through. Very satisfying.

This happened a lot to me and not only in regards to fights, but also being stuck thinking I had hit a dead end. Exploring and experimenting a bit more was the trick to getting back at the game. BOO YA

 

[Elhoim]

In MG i failed at everything, then he send me to the barrack as a last chance to meet the commander and nothing i could do there .I dont remember if i got zenon training or not. Not met antidas since it sent me to gaelius immediately when succeeding at turning on the machine, without any choice . I could have busted it of course,but as a loremaster i wouldnt want to break an antiquity , thats counterproductive. Save scumming is bad , i do fair playthrough like if it was a true pen and paper rpg. Build as i remember was 4 spear 4 block (the bare minimum ),few points in persuade crafting and lore.Persuade cause loremaster fend first quest required it .,As high i could in lore(6 or so ) and crafting .Lore as loremaster seems kinda obvious, crafting as i expected to find schematics sfrom the lore to apply to crafting.

There are a few joint uses for them, but not in the way you expected. You can craft some good weapons with that level, and apply sharpening stones. Prospector fight should be doable with that.

Yes i can report to gaelius theres nothing, but this is not satisfactory, not doing stuff i dont consider that as playing .I'd rather ask him or any thugs for backup, at the cost of a paycut , to get rid of raiders. the lord of the city certainly could spare some men to help a wimp scholar dig up an extremely valuable artefacts no ? With my lore and crafts maybe i should be allwoed to craft some old wolrd weaponry and have some edge in combat if combat is really mandotary.

While your suggestion makes sense, the game has a huge amount of options and at some point we had to draw a line.

What i expected? that he makes use of my skills , i am a super good scholar and crafter, not indiana jones, not an arena fighter.

Well, we can make you stand in the library all day like Erebus or Cassius, and call you every now and then to identify some artifacts

Joking aside, there's not much to be done with just those skills alone, they can't carry a narrative by themselves.

I should have to grind up in arena to raises my lore ? Such nonsense....

Arena fights give combat SP, you can't increase lore with them