Thursday is finally here.

[RK47]

Played Assassin -
Went 50 Dagger 50 Critical Strike
Nice killing people from dialogue choices.
Luck ran out when I stabbed the bandit leader and failed intimidation check.

Overall good demo.

Quirks:
+ At 1600x900 resolution, font can be a little bit small, and the way the text box stretches across 1600x900 can be a little annoying
+ Not sure why you gave different names but same stat items in stores, but alright.
+ Is there a way to highlight items that can interacted with in the game? Strange mousing over civilians and not getting glowing icon.
+ Someone mentioned the skill checks are vague - I felt unsure whether lockpicking is a matter of trying over and over again until successful or give up upon first failure. I did try picking the hatch atop Feng's home 5 times before realizing it isn't RNG check. Hard to judge where my skill stands at in comparison with the game world.

Good luck VD, seems like you've made progress. I've no crashes nor technical difficulties at the moment.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Luck ran out when I stabbed the bandit leader and failed intimidation check.

This particular issue can be solved by having higher body count. I had 11, that was enough. Dunno how much you actually need. Point in case, kill more people.

 

[Carrion]

I completed the demo with the assassin background. Created a merchant right after that and breezed through the demo without any problems. Then I started it again as a thief and it was fun until the ambush part which was a gamestopper for me since my character was hardly built for combat (a non-combat route seemed to be available but I decided not to take it). Basically I played three different non-combat builds with relatively similar stats and still managed to do everything completely differently on every playthrough. Most of the sidequests were different as well and still offered multiple solutions. Huh, I can't say I'd seen that in any other RPG, really impressive. There really isn't any filler here, and I especially liked the thief quests with their lively text descriptions and skill checks upon skill checks.

I've been interested to see an RPG where killing someone is kind of a big deal and not something you do a dozen times every day, and AoD does a really good job with it. On the other hand maxing INT and CHA and putting most of the skill points in Persuasion seemed to make the game even a bit too easy, at least based on my merchant playthrough. It was still lots of fun, but when you can just click your way through dialogue options and complete the game without having to even pay attention to what your character is saying, it's no wonder some people get that "railroad" feeling despite the amount of choice and general nonlinearity. It almost feels like the game is playing you at times. Hopefully the final game will have some puzzles or more exploration to spice it up a little.

 

[circ]

Reload: The Textadventure

 

[sea]

Finished up as a Praetor, going the persuasion/ass-kissing route. I really enjoyed this path, as high intelligence, persuasion and etiquette really paid off in spades - pitting the raiders against the guards at the outpost was fun, as was stopping the coup entirely through deception (by using the Loremaster as a fake envoy). This option was also better designed than some, in my mind - failing a check didn't mean instant death, and in most cases I could salvage the situation by appealing things. I did see some of this with other characters, but not enough - for this sort of system to work there needs to be a way to get through something without having maxed one or two stats, as all that does is encourage hoarding character points and constantly save/loading until you find the combination that works to finish a scenario.

I also like that there was another path open to me that involved helping the Forty Thieves, but I was unable to take it because I simply didn't have the right combat ability. A lot of RPGs treat combat as the default, and non-combat as an option on top, so it's great to see that there are combat-exclusive solutions as well.

 

[Oriental European]

I dunno. Writing is good, except for that "you better stop smoking hashish" death screen, quests seem complex, but... the whole thing feels mediocre. Nothing really caught my interest.
Walls of text and lack of visuals, interface could be more comfy, constant teleportation in quests ruin immersion.

 

[RK47]

I can't gauge the risk as well when I'm suddenly teleported into a camp of 4 as assassin.
I was hoping I'd play it more subtle instead of approaching the leader directly.

 

[Kaol]

With a party and larger scope i think this game would be awesome, right now it just lacks depth.

Still have to say i enjoy it. Having got the hang of combat as a mercenary i feel quite bad ass but not invincible which is good.

 

[RK47]

Too many 'You failed skill check - you die.' For a demo that shows 'early game play' this is not encouraging.
Sometimes I feel a game needs to have a 'setback' instead of 'utter defeat' scenario.

I look back at past RPGs and came up with Dance with Rogues as the best example of this.
It's a NWN mod specifically targeted for rogues. You can multiclass and stuff, but you really need rogue skills if you want to get anywhere with the main plot.

There are a lot of encounters where the main protagonist simply cannot survive head-on. Making mistakes like walking into a dark alley at night at level 2 have serious consequences.

You could resist and get instantly killed by the 2 crossbow wielding brigands. Or cooperate and let them rape you and take your things. Hey, you end up getting arrested by the city guards for indecent exposure afterwards and given ten lashes. At release, the player limps back to the safety of her home and put on fresh clothes and tries to overcome this 'temporary setback.'

Sure, I could rage-load and avoid that alley encounter altogether, but I didn't see the need to. I made a mistake, was punished, and went on with it. Turns out later on, I got a few higher level in stealth, snuck into the robbers hideout, slit their throats and retrieved my stolen goods, including my old clothes.

Isn't that much better than enforcing a hard 'you did not put enough points here - you die' in such early game scenarios?

 

[Excidium]

Does your strength score affect the AP cap for wearing armor?

 

[Vault Dweller]

No, but you can improve your armor stats (including max AP) with crafting. Not sure if it's in the demo though.

 

[Excidium]

I see, thanks!

 

[Darth Roxor]

Darth Roxor's impressions of the AoD demo:

Ok, let's start with this mercenary background thingy...

FIRST FIGHT! AN ASSASSIN! He deals 25 damage to me every turn. I deal 6. I die in two rounds.

Well, okay, but maybe that was just some higher-up that shouldn't have been touched and stuf...

Darth Roxor reloads, lets the assassin go away, goes somewhere with Vardanis, gets ambushed by two thugs.

Vardanis dies in one turn. Darth Roxor has 90% chance to hit. Pah, those silly brigands will taste my steel!

THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES

DAMAGE TO MASSIVE ORGANS *death screen*

Uh-huh. I know where this is going *shuts demo down*. 'o hello, we are making deep roleplaying so we sacrifice gaemplay to deliver THE C&C!!!!! so make sure to start with a loremaster with 20 int/charisma and nothing else or you'll not enjoy this deep emotionally engaging experience (cuz u know, combat and environment interaction is for uncool fags and old people)'. If I wanna play a glorified text adventure, I'll return to King Arthur because that at least has some gameplay to go with it (yes, I ragequit after two fights, but if those two fights were so horrible, I can't imagine them getting better later on, which also goes to show that fuck all has been learned from the combat demo which was already horribly unbalanced), not to mention it's not filled with fuckshitcocks to make it more mature.





Oh, and remember kids, emotional engagement and cinematicness in bioware games are anathema, but as long as you provide some mysterious C&C (that, from what I've heard so far, translates to 'there are 8 available railroads' ), it's all fine and dandy RPG experience.

Fuck.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Darth Roxor's impressions of the AoD demo:

Ok, let's start with this mercenary background thingy...

FIRST FIGHT! AN ASSASSIN! He deals 25 damage to me every turn. I deal 6. I die in two rounds.

Well, okay, but maybe that was just some higher-up that shouldn't have been touched and stuf...

Darth Roxor reloads, lets the assassin go away, goes somewhere with Vardanis, gets ambushed by two thugs.

Vardanis dies in one turn. Darth Roxor has 90% chance to hit. Pah, those silly brigands will taste my steel!

THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES
THUG EXPERTLY DODGES

DAMAGE TO MASSIVE ORGANS *death screen*

Uh-huh. I know where this is going *shuts demo down*.

Not you too, Roxor. Surely, it's not THAT hard?

Here are two guides, one written by a tester, another by a new player:
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2497.0.html
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2506.0.html

 

[Crooked Bee]

It's funny. The more I play the game, the more I appreciate every design decision.

(Well, I'd like more "fluff" NPCs ideally, but I can live without it. The combat, on the other hand, feels just fine.)

Also, the music is great. Loving it.

Thanks, Vince! It's a blast so far. Now to try out a few more builds...

 

[Infinitron]

Thread full of people demanding environmental engagement and less difficult battles

of the Codex

 

[Vault Dweller]

Glad you like it, Bee. These "combat is too hard, I don't want to play anymore" posts on the Codex (of all places) scare me, so it's good to see that some people still remember how to kick ass without a cover system.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Not you too, Roxor. Surely, it's not THAT hard?

Hard? No. It's idiotically random and unbalanced, that's the problem. I had hoped that something would be fixed from the combat demo that suffered from the exact same issues, but apparently it wasn't.

There's a world of difference between combat being challenging, and combat being COMPLETELY based on blind luck, which, in this case, means 'don't start with swords because they are useless' and 'shit for brains dark alley thugs have friggin ninja reflexes'. After like 6 character rerolls I could probably powergame the character sufficiently to get through (or get lucky rolls over the board), but I don't think I have to explain why NEEDING prescience to even manage to play properly is bad design (and this is not a case of stupidly gimped character build like starting with 0 strength and whining that I can't kill anything). Not to mention the inherently flawed idea of 'tactical' single character turnbased combat, but that's already been brought up so often in the past I won't be repeating it.

Thread full of people demanding environmental engagement

Yes, because environmental interaction is a fundamental part of roleplaying games, you stupid fuck.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Hard? No. It's idiotically random and unbalanced, that's the problem.

Oh, I see. You can't kill a few guys - the game is idiotically unbalanced. I guess if you could kill them, everything would have been fine.

There's a world of difference between combat being challenging, and combat being COMPLETELY based on blind luck, which, in this case, means 'don't start with swords because they are useless' and 'shit for brains dark alley thugs have friggin ninja reflexes'.

Right. Swords are useless. Like, totally.



For the record, the "shit for brain thugs" were sent to kill the guy you were accompanying and are, unlike you, experienced fighters. They also gave you a chance to walk away.

 

[Jedi_Learner]

Glad you like it, Bee. These "combat is too hard, I don't want to play anymore" posts on the Codex (of all places) scare me, so it's good to see that some people still remember how to kick ass without a cover system.

I like how you completely dismiss people that say the combat is based too much on luck and imply they can't kick ass without a cover system. You are, and always will be an opinionated arsehole.

 

[empi]

Yeah, nice to see the developer's "response" to feedback. All the people trying to help your game must be the ones in the wrong, obviously. The funny thing is, before this demo, i would've bought AoD the first day it came out without doubt. Now, i've lost all interest, gj mister

 

[thesoup]

What will he do without you now?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Trying to help? "The game is too hard. It must be broken! PS. Swords are useless." Yeah, that was incredibly helpful.

I also like "I was going to give you my money, but now I won't!" posts. As if I give a fuck.

 

[made]

Perhaps there's some bug that affects hit chance and/or damage numbers that lead to people having vastly different experiences? There's really not that much in terms of tactics you can do differently to "fuck up".

I brought up stupidly low hit chances in the first few fights earlier, now I did the encounter in the warehouse against the two thugs, and hit chance was much higher across the board - ~60-90%. Either a bug or these thugs aren't as tough as the earlier ones. Cba restarting to check.

 

[Excidium]

I like how combat offers many different tactical options but it just feels like fighting brick walls. You stab an unconscious, unarmored guy in the face with a sword and it barely leaves a scar...All the while the text adventure dagger one-shots everything.

By the way, came across two bugs:

- After quickloading during a text adventure, I couldn't access any part of the UI like the character screen or the main menu.

- For some reason I couldn't equip a loremaster's hood, it just didn't want to go in the slot, even right-clicking and selecting equip didn't work.