Game News The Age of Decadence Released

[J_C]

I believe you should learn to read, J_C, I was talking specifically about MG questline, which doesn't involve fixing of any kind. .

I don't care. I was talking about the game as a whole and I am right as always.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I am right as always.

Wrong.
As always.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I blame all that on your contribution.

What? Are you demented or just plain retarded?
I know it hurts when people don't like your little game, but maybe try making some sense.

Why not?

I don't know about you, but I only mock bad text, which is not the case here.

Actually, flavor text C&C is Bioware level shit. And it's very much the case here. VD and his new fanbots are actually advocating playing this shit multiple times just so you get different text. Text which is just bad. Fucking lol.

Why?
I'm genuinely curious because this seems to be a common complaint and I just can't get my head around it.
What is the problem with being able to move your camera around as you see fit ?

Ah, newfag shows his true colors. GTFO.

 

[J_C]

Wrong.
As always.

You can't understand my high level intelligence.

 

[hivemind]

Ah, newfag shows his true colors. GTFO.

FeelTheAutism

 

[Jaedar]

Actually, flavor text C&C is Bioware level shit. And it's very much the case here. VD and his new fanbots are actually advocating playing this shit multiple times just so you get different text. Text which is just bad. Fucking lol.

The real reason to play AoD multiple times is that you get different missions. The CnC is in general pretty poor. But it has good system design (for combat at least), and is generally very competent so you do want to see the missions for all 6 paths. Playing the same path multiple times doesn't hold much appeal, with the possible exceptions being the two noble houses and the teron thief guild, since there's a good variety of combat and non combat quest solutions there.

 

[MrMarbles]

The CnC is in general pretty poor.

Just because it means nothing to you doesn't mean it does nothing.

There are different types of consequences:

- instant reward (you saved someone, sided with a faction, did a quest a certain way, betrayed, etc)
- doors opened/closed (something you did in point A affected your options in point C)
- long term consequences that affect the state of the world

MG questline in particular and the entire game in general has all three types. You don't care about the long term consequences that can't be shown in any game because they take years to materialize, so you dismiss all these consequences as false even though they mean something to people who care about the effect of your actions on the state of the world.

Think VD has a point here. In my opinion there are many examples of excellent CnC, partly because it's not overdone. Unlike other RPGs the world doesn't revolve around you. The road is short from expecting a plot twist with every action to Press X for awesomeness.

 

[Esquilax]

The real reason to play AoD multiple times is that you get different missions. The CnC is in general pretty poor. But it has good system design (for combat at least), and is generally very competent so you do want to see the missions for all 6 paths. Playing the same path multiple times doesn't hold much appeal, with the possible exceptions being the two noble houses and the teron thief guild, since there's a good variety of combat and non combat quest solutions there.

There are areas that could be improved upon, but that's just ridiculous. Plenty of reactivity to your choices in AoD. Let's take the Assassin's Guild questline:

If I convince Levir to hand over the gold, then I get an opportunity for an entirely new mission (eliminate Gaelius and Darista simultaneously), with the other consequence being incurring the Forty Thieves' wrath should I go back on our deal. Likewise, if I stay loyal to the guild, I get the opportunity to take out Meru alongside Hamza - and I get the opportunity to make the fight a whole lot easier with some critical strike while their guard is down if I choose to stick with Meru.*

Let's use the Imperial Guards questline as another example. If I slay Antidas, then that means I have to face either a trial by combat in front of Lord Gaelius or I have to escape on my way to Maadoran. Resolving things peacefully creates a new opportunity down the road with Antidas/Carrinas (which I agree, could be more fleshed out**), and it gives yet another opportunity to switch sides and join House Aurelian by using your diplomatic negotation as a "resume" to become Gaelius' praetor.

There's a bunch of other examples of this, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a game that does CnC at AoD's level.

* There are some issues with the lack of player agency in the AG questline. You tend to feel more like a pawn doing the bidding of others without a real understanding of what's going on. Which is fine and appropriate for characters who are dumb, brutish killers, but I would imagine that an assassin who has managed to impress the likes of Lord Gaelius/Meru and sided with them would gain some of their trust. Loyal, competent men are hard to find.

** At this point, from a character perspective, you as an individual gain very little from helping Antidas. It is the poor man's solution if Dux Paullus has already rejected your proposal. Your character should stand more to gain from helping Carrinas (i.e. becoming second-in-command, for example) get to the top than he would from helping Paullus, who is already on top.

 

[MrMarbles]

[about BG2] Instead, I will just say that despite all these options, you can blow most of your enemies to smithereens with a few spells or simply smash them with brute force. So you have all these options, but at the same time, they are not really that special, because the game allows you to do everything being just an one trick pony.

You have not played small party/solo on top difficulty with SCS/Ascension or any other number of mods.

 

[Jasede]

That's a stupid argument. I love BG2 but you can't judge it with specific parties or using mods; you have to assume the default base game.

This is a bit like saying "What are ya talking about? Skyrim is really hardcore and difficult - if you use the hardcore Requiem mod!"

 

[MrMarbles]

That's a stupid argument. I love BG2 but you can't judge it with specific parties or using mods; you have to assume the default base game.

This is a bit like saying "What are ya talking about? Skyrim is really hardcore and difficult - if you use the hardcore Requiem mod!"

I agree, which is why I pointed out those things in the long previous post, an argument that was pretty much dismissed based on a single type of experience of the game. If the argument was that BG2 is way too easy on the first couple of playthroughs, that would be another discussion. But whatever, this thread is about AoD, we can argue more about BG in the appropriate thread.

 

[anus_pounder]

I don't care. I was talking about the game as a whole and I am right as always.

Wrong.
As always.

Joined: Sep 25, 2012

Get out, the both of you.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Location: Yiffing in Hell

No U

 

[J_C]

Get out, the both of you.

You get back to fisting now!

 

[Mangoose]

First of all, apologies for all this off-topic shit. Any criticism about tactics/strategy is not specific to AoD at all lol.

Edit: Actually I have one suggestion for AoD(2?), and that is to add CYOA elements to the combat. I think that would be both interesting on its own and secondly improve combat.

Thank you for the free lecture! Do you think this top ten list of strategy games is good? Everything I read about JA2 is impressive. I think I will play this before other cRPGs of my "To Play" list.

Hm, no arguments against the top ten.

However I think some of the "rest of the bunch" are of higher tier than "the rest of the rest of the bunch" and make it a Top In no particular order:
Panzer General (2? I dunno, I have only played 1)
Silent Storm
Medieval 1/2 and Rome: Total War (I liked Rome more but all are good)
DEFCON (why the fuck is this not even on the "rest of the bunch"??)
Hammer & Sickle if you're a masochist


and Chaos Gate to the "Top List" if you're a 40k fanboi

add Frozen Synapse, Knights of the Chalice, POKEMON, Front Mission 3, King Arthur - the Roleplaying Wargame, Tactics Ogre - Knight of Lodis, near the top of the "rest of the bunch"

Should add Valkyria Chronicles, Full Spectrum Warrior, Blood Bowl (lol), Temple of Elemental Evil somewhere. Maybe add Brothers in Arms, Blackguards, noo XCOM.

Some of these are newer than the article so that's probably why they're not on it.

*Note I haven't played a good amount of the other games - and I prefer tactical games and/or I'm lazy - so this is biased. *

 

[edhead]

Where's the Wargame series (or more specifically, Wargame: Red Dragon)?

 

[Cadmus]

- C&C in AoD is poorly done
- the writing is bioware level shit
- combat is poor

It's all fine and edgy, but you retards haven't shown any strong support for these opinions.

Honestly I wasn't expecting any game to revive the fanboy in me after what's been happening for the past decade so I'm glad AoD is out cuz I can whiteknight for it now, Irenaeus-style.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Congrats, VD. You've actually proved that you're not on Mr. Blakemore's level.

I'll probably grab your game someday, despite the supposedly autistic difficulty and the again supposedly required save scumming. Been playing Mother 3 (my first foray into jRPGs, yay) recently and it's so refreshing to see such a reactive world, you can backtrack to the initial village as many times as you want and the people will always have something to say on your current advancements. Hopefully, your game is also as detailed in addition to all the juicy C&C.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Finished playthrough 3 of 7.

IG questline was refreshingly level-headed and devoid of morons in charge. Also hammer clobbering is the best.

 

[Infinitron]

Congrats, VD. You've actually proved that you're not on Mr. Blakemore's level.

I'll probably grab your game someday, despite the supposedly autistic difficulty and the again supposedly required save scumming. Been playing Mother 3 (my first foray into jRPGs, yay) recently and it's so refreshing to see such a reactive world, you can backtrack to the initial village as many times as you want and the people will always have something to say on your current advancements. Hopefully, your game is also as detailed in addition to all the juicy C&C.

'sup drog

(FIRST!)

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

'sup drog

(FIRST!)

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/fallout-4-released.104614/page-12#post-4224642

 

[Infinitron]

Fuuuuuuuuuuu

Well, first in this thread.

 

[Darth Roxor]

2slow grandad

 

[MrMarbles]

Done with my 3rd playthrough, and finally figured out how to kick all the poser Tngri/gods out of the hotseat and show them how it's done.

Trying out different styles and finding new content is an absolute blast. This is probably highly subjective, but for me this is hands downs the best crpg I've played since Arcanum (haven't finished Underrail yet though). I can't think of a single recent game that comes close to
- the number of valid strategies to achieve a goal
- the amount of content that is originally hidden, but can be found through experimentation and purposely making new characters to unlock it (from a developer standpoint, this is a p. brave thing to do)
- the sheer quality of the setting, which probably has a lot to do with the fact that nothing is spoonfed to you. I think the sense of mystery is crucial to the game experience

It's also the first game I've played where collecting achievements is acually worthwhile, since they are linked to content instead of generic shit like killing 15 cave rats. The only problems so far are that the lack of sleep from 48 hours of gaming in less than a week is affecting work, a few minor typing errors and 1 serious bug. VD, if you're listening:

Spoiler

Bug: After blowing up Madoraan and sabotaging Meru's ritual, trying to exit Al-Akia gets you stuck in the outside area. You can't reenter Al-Akia, and trying to use the world map brings up a message that you must "wait for the Legatus" (erroneously carried over from your 1st visit to Al-Akia). That means you are forced to reload to finish the game.
Minor bug: In Al-Akia, the "check out the machinery" eye carries over from the first floor to the second, so hovering the mouse over a random bit of corridor triggers the eye.
Typos: 1. An extra letter snuck into the description of the Mindshield ability in the character screen.
2. In the ending slide for the Imperial Guards, if you sided with Paullus, a " is replaced with an x.
3. When exiting the monastery with the elixir, there is a syntax error in the characters dialogue with the village Elder.
Pet peeve: As an Imperial Guard, from the moment you click the centurion to start mission 2, you are railroaded through several missions and end up in Madoraan. if you had planned to do some more things in Teron, that can be highly annoying.

 

[Darth Roxor]

All hail Albert Tokaj, the One True God who in His infinite wisdom and psychiatric lore will deliver us from mental illnesses.

This concludes playthrough 4 of 7 4.

Be afraid.

Be very afraid.