Game News The Age of Decadence Released

[Irenaeus II]

 

[hivemind]

No but I mean really.
Like the standard RPG 'model' is so riddled with necessary combat elements that many interesting setting and story approaches simply don't work from a cRPG perspective and such narratives are better explored with a different game model.

Like how many cRPG ideas can you even see working that don't follow the typical 'zero to hero murderhobo' style ?

 

[Johannes]

You have got to be kidding.

Do tell, how is playing something like full-talk Merchant path in AoD different from a CYOA? You run around sometimes instead of teleporting, you've got more graphix, but is that such a huge deal?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Do tell, how is playing something like full-talk Merchant path in AoD different from a CYOA?

CYOAs usually have more options and better C&C

 

[Irenaeus II]

Why would anybody in their right mind play as full-talk Merchant? Are you a cowardly sissy? Afraid of some combat eh?

 

[FeelTheRads]

A CYOA with stats, and skills, and the ridiculous amount of reactivity and top notch writing of AoD? I’m in! Where?

Top notch writing.

The writing is so bland I was reading shampoo bottles to get some excitement between teleports.

 

[Irenaeus II]

I read War & Piece between teleports.

Checkmate, FeelTheRads

 

[Johannes]

Why would anybody in their right mind play as full-talk Merchant? Are you a cowardly sissy? Afraid of some combat eh?

In order to skip the banal combat

And to get material for angry reviews here afterwards

 

[Irenaeus II]

Checkmate

 

[Tigranes]

And so begins the Edgy, because everyone already edgy'd POE a mythical Seven Times and are having too much fun playing Fallout 4 to Edge it

 

[FeelTheRads]

I read War & Piece between teleports.

Checkmate, FeelTheRads

I don't even...

OK, you win.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Why are you posting The Brazilian Slaughter shirtless pics?

 

[GuiltyofBeingTrite]

Hammer+dodge is beautiful. Beautiful, I tell you.

 

[Lurker King]

In order to skip the banal combat

Why do I have the impression that people who dismiss the combat suck at it?

Please, name two cRPGs, without party and better combat.

 

[Lurker King]

CYOAs usually have more options and better C&C

As they should, since that is the only type of gameplay these games offer. If you don’t have to invest development time and ideas in a combat system, cities with NPCs, exploring, etc., you better have an excellent C&C. For the same reason, a strategy game should have a combat system more sophisticated and tactical than most cRPGs, since that is their only focus. The merit of AoD is that it manage to shine in both, combat and C&C. That is no small achievement. FO and FO2, have some decent C&C and writing, but retarded combat. PS:T has cool writing and C&C, but horrible combat, etc. The list can go on.

 

[Lurker King]

Long Live the Queen is one, though the mood management makes the gameplay better than a CYOA where you just gain and assign skillpoints like in AoD. So playing the metagame requires you to think and not just save/reload.

Lone Wolf CYOA books also have stats, and also a (very simplistic) combat system, now you can play them on a computer http://www.projectaon.org/staff/david/index.php

Here's also wild west one, used to be free when I played it, but maybe they've also expanded it when putting it for sale: http://store.steampowered.com/app/375130/

A lot of them here, quality may vary
https://www.choiceofgames.com/category/our-games/

Thanks! I have a genuine interest for this type of stuff.

 

[hivemind]

fuck the wild west CYOA linked above has a pretty fun demo
probably gonna buy it too

 

[Johannes]

Why do I have the impression that people who dismiss the combat suck at it?

Please, name two cRPGs, without party and better combat.

ADOM and soloed BG2, for example.

AoD combat is serviceable but gets repetitive when you'd have to do the same combats in a second playthrough. Deciding which attacks to use is pretty simple math, nets, bombs etc. add some variation but not quite enough, especially when a combat character (hybrid too) can do most fights without expending them.

 

[Dreaad]

Blatant lying starting to go on in this thread. There's no way a hybrid character can do most combats with no support items, any situation with 3v1 and you are dead.

 

[Tigranes]

Of course you can, you just need to buy the right weapons. Here, come into this alley and I'll show you.

 

[Mangoose]

Why do I have the impression that people who dismiss the combat suck at it?

Please, name two cRPGs, without party and better combat.

The combat difficulty in AoD is not enough dependent on intra-combat decisions. It's depned dependent on what you do before hand, how you build your character, what weapons you choose, etc. But during combat, choosing your attack is based on logistics, not so much tactics or adaptation during combat. Now it would be better at combat with more party members.

So there are two methods to make good combat: (1) Promote combat decisions that depend on the situation rather than decisions that depend on calculating optimal usage of AP. (2) Have more party members, or "pieces," to control because that inevitably tends to lead to having to non-number-based decisions, such as maneuvering and fighting for position. Or actually (3) For solo-combat you can be creative and add interesting, unique mechanics that may be unrealistic but add, again, choices that balance

I maybe didn't make myself clear, but I don't mean that the aforementioned logistic element should be totally taken out. I just think there should be a better balance between "non-number" combat decisions that are based on conflict over terrain and position, in addition to optimizing your attack choices based on AP pool.

I also do agree that there is good challenge in what I said about building, preparing, etc. your character. I think that's definitely a good part of the game. Because it requires thinking and strategy, finding the right balance stats and skills and of equipment choice. That's different than a hypothetical simple system where it's very clear what stats to min-max (cough DnD).

But I feel like combat encounters themselves are not as... actually a better word is interesting rather than challenging. And if an aspect of a game is not interesting, I'd rather it be made more interesting or be less emphasized or possibly changed into something drastically different - A good example being the CYOA encounters which supplant less interesting methods of story/non-combat/NPC interaction.


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All that being said, I definitely don't think AoC necessarily a combat heavy game, and has a bunch of equally or more important features that are done very well. I'm just going in-depth into one area, in a borderline nitpicky manner.

 

[Aenra]

You can dreaad, it's called alchemy. Cures all your issues, even cancer.

 

[Dreaad]

I pretty specifically said.... " no support items".

 

[Aenra]

No, don't split hairs with the hair splitter. You said and i quote "with no support items"

Major/OP as fuck nuking apparatuses hardly classify as 'support items' to me. Those would be heal pots, buff pots, cleanse pots, etc

 

[Johannes]

Depends on the build how much you need consumables. If you've got alchemy of course you're gonna use it, not in every arena scrub fight but pretty regularly in any case, but if your guy relies on just weapon skills/crafting, of course nets are very useful but for most fights nothing mandatory. Depends alot also in what order you do stuff, combat or noncombat quests first, with a hybrid, as to how tough different fights are gonna be.