Game News Age of Decadence Released on Steam Early Access

[Vault Dweller]

No, Elhoim is Oscar, the artist/designer working on both games.

 

[Lhynn]

Hm, guess ill have to make an account and participate on the forum there to get my questions answered, thanks.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

See, Vault Dweller is Brian.

 

[Lhynn]

See, Vault Dweller is Brian.

isnt he Vince? stop trying to confuse me you agents of chaos.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Yes, and his real name is Vince D. Weller. Coincidence? I think not.

 

[covr]

Drunk post on/
There is one very strange thing for me... you know, codexers are pretty smart fellows. Many of them are around 30 years old, they are hardcore crpgs fans. With families, money and shit. And now, in the last 5 days half of them suddenly bought AoD via Steam. FFS, game is available for about 20 months to buy from BMT, there was large mandoran demo which was a perfect example of whole game. And they did nothing. Now, when game arrives on shitty Steam they all buy it, even if it means less money for IT, and more for Jews Valve. No BMT, fuck it, 2 mindless clicks and game is downloading with Steam malware. Why?
TL;DR - codexers are brainless valve dicks suckers.
Drunk post off, go 2 bed/

 

[CappenVarra]

Took me a lot of fights to realize that with my Assassin build, dagger whirlwinds with high CS skill are a kind of Awesome Button. 5 AP that end up with multi-opponent knockdown more often than not, whoa. Who needs spears when you have a dagger?

 

[Black]

Yes, let's list everything that works in this thread so they can have an easy to-nerf list UNTIL WE ALL ARE FORCED TO GO ONTO STEAM FORUMS TO BITCH ABOUT MILTIADES, THE HARBINGER OF DOOM

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Too bad you never directly fight Miltiades Would be massive glorious butthurt if it turns out he has max dodge.

 

[Tigranes]

Aemolas has some mad weapon skills, funnily enough.

 

[Vault Dweller]

He's an ex-raider. You'll learn more when you do his quest.

 

[hiver]

He has a quest? Some other quest then getting him into the city?

btw, i can proudly admit i had to scrap my first Thief build and make a new one. And this feels very rewarding. Man...so many new options!
Maybe im wrong but it seems to me that Thief background more or less demands some amount of hybridization. At first look there seems to be more skills he would need to utilize from the get go, then other backgrounds. And he needs some weapon skills too on top of that.
Am i wrong in this?

 

[tuluse]

I played a thief with no weapon skills apart from some critical strike.

 

[hiver]

hm..hmm... well, it could be that i ended up in too much combat because i made a subpar build.

Vince, have Chakrams been removed from the game? I thought to try just throwing but so far ive only seen Pillums and Handox axes. Which is enough but, Chakrams were very nice. And ill risk making a stupid question (again) but in the case of handox - does axe skill have an influence - is it needed besides throwing or is just throwing enough?

 

[serch]

A little thing I noticed: after provoking that 5 members gang in Teron, doing the legionnaire quest path, I run like the bitch I am back to the barracks. Guards salute me and proceed to stay looking while an heroic fight ensues, no help provided. Perhaps your faction should help you, or at least gang members should't follow you back to the barracks or another obvious base of power.

 

[Roguey]

The amount of skillpoints invested in firearms/perception DOES directly correlate with your efficiency in using firearms in Bloodlines.

How many times do I have to repeat that all it does is increase damage and slightly decrease the time it takes for the reticule to shrink after you fired a bullet? How about I quote from the document Troika provided:

Spoiler

The following is an in-depth explanation to how combat and damage is calculated in the game.


Every weapon in the game has specific attributes given to it. These attributes are the following:


Ranged Combat Requirement - This is the minimum ranking at which the PC can use the weapon effectively. The PC can use weapons if his Feat is below the requirement. However, this will mean that he will be causing less damage. Conversely, if the PC's combat Feat is higher than the minimum, then he will cause more damage.


Damage Potential- Damage Potential is the maximum potential damage your character can do with this weapon at your character's current skill levels. The actual damage might vary if the opponent can defend against bullets (i.e. if they are supernatural, or if they have body armor).


Lethality -This is how much damage the player can cause with the weapon per die.


Feat Adjustment - This is the difference between the weapon requirement and the character's combat Feat. This can be either positive or negative.


Base Damage- This is the minimum amount of damage that the weapon can cause.


Whenever there is a hit, the damage is then calculated in the following manner –


Damage Potential = Base Damage X (Lethality + Feat Adjustment)


So, if the PC, who has a Melee combat Feat of 5, uses a Knife which has a Melee Combat Requirement of 4, Lethality of 7, and Base Damage of 3, then the Damage Potential is

24 = 3 X (7+1) .


Now if the player's Melee combat skill is 3, then the Damage Potential is 18 = 3 X (7-1)


It's important to realize that a player is only deadly effective once his combat Feat is above the requirement of the weapon.


Note, the target's defense and soak can absorb the damage and lower the Lethality number. For example, if a ghoul has heavy armor, which has a Defense of 2, there is a chance that 2 Lethality dice can be removed from the player's roll. So, in the first example, if the PC hits a ghoul with the knife and the ghoul makes both Defense rolls, then the Damage Potential is


18 = 3 X (7+1-2)


So, while a player can achieve a high damage potential with any weapon, the damage can be negated if the target has a high defense or Soak Feat.


The type of weapon and the defender plays and important role in what type of soak dice are being used.


Attack Type

Defender

Dice Pool

Blunt Melee

All

Defense + Soak Bash

Blade Melee

All

Defense + Soak Lethal

Firearms

Humans

Soak Lethal

Firearms

Defense

Defense + Soak Bash


To successfully defend or soak an attack, a roll is made behind the scenes. When there is a chance to soak or defend, a roll is made on a d10 (ten sided die). If the number is 7 or above, the defender successfully negates one die.

Certain firearms require a certain level of skill to be used in any decent manner at all. Having ranged combat maxed enables you for instance, to use a sniper rifle that will oneshot most mooks. Try to use that thing with ranged 6 or 7, it's practically impossible.

No it isn't. You can use a gun with any skill. Having less skill than the requirement only results in having a number subtracted from the lethality, as mentioned in the thing I just quoted. You can and should kill any endgame boss using the steyr aug and a flamethrower regardless of your skill because trying to whittle down Ming Xiao through melee would be absurd and wear out your mouse even with your unarmed or melee feats maxed.

It's great that you went boldly ahead posting that image to "prove" something, whatever it was, but that sentence here doesn't mean "the spread of the first two weapons in Santa Monica becomes smaller if I put more points in firearms". It also doesn't mean that each and every firearm will absolutely rock if you have only enough points in the skill. Instead, it refers to what I just explained above (raising skill->being able to use better firearms efficiently->kick ass with firerarms) and is an absolutely true statement. And before you ask, the above sentence also doesn't mean "Bloodlines had the best implementation of firearms ever and could in no way, shape or form ever be improved by, for example, also tying the spread of the weapon to the skill level".

When people are given a choice to put points into ranged combat-skills at character creation, they expect to be rewarded. But no, investing 10 xp to meet the ranged requirements of the starter pistol results in something that sometimes does 14 damage at best whenever a bullet is gracious enough to hit the target. Meanwhile, your fists reliably do 16 damage per hit without any additional investment whatsoever. With blood buff, which everyone gets, you can temporarily increase that to 24 per hit. You'd have to be some kind of masochist to even want to bother with guns in Santa Monica or Downtown.

Judging by your picture you seem to have a pretty weird view on what "not being able to hit the broad side of a barn" is. What do you want? Each bullet needs to hit the exact same spot like in real life, eh?

Games shouldn't be a simulation of reality because that's a stupid goal. The guns that are available starting in Hollywood have a decent base spread value.

Not to mention a little side-point that most people miss (for good reason - the gun is obsolete for other reasons by then, particularly if you're investing in firearms/perception). The 1st gun that Roguey thinks can't hit the side of a barn (plenty have guns in 2nd hub have good accuracy with high firearms, so I can only assume she means the initial pistol), actually has really superb ranged accuracy (equal best long-range accuracy out of all the pistols) once your firearm skill is high enough for that to be useful.

No it doesn't.

Paging Wesp5 so he can verify that none of you know what you're talking about.

 

[Saduj]

So this is what 'tactical combat' means eh? Now I understand! Backtrack all the way with a two-handed weapon (using the most powerfull build so far: assasin + dodge + spear) against enemies with one-handed weapons.

That looks cool mang! Way too go! Far out!
Next why don't you upload your Call of Duty videos, I'm sure you'll have a lot more tactics to show us.



In the meantime try winning that fight (and others) with a mercenary + sword + shield without reloading 66 times in the process.

Guess I'll have to stick to assasins and spears until they fix this broken mess.

I just did with standard Merc. 5 sword, 5 block, 3 critical strike. Reloaded 3 times.

1st character with whom I've ever tried to use combat to resolve that one.

 

[Why.jpeg]

Its very satisfying to see your enemy on their knees before you with a spear sticking out of their chest knowing they can't do anything to stop you from stabbing them in the head with a dagger.

 

[1eyedking]

Moron. Read Lovecraft.

PS. For the record, there are no demons in the game, from "Thor-Agoth" or anywhere else.

LOL, guess it's yet another reason why Lovecraft sucks. Nothing says 'tasteful' in writing like ridiculous onomatopeias. Reading stuff such as "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" completely immerses you in. Totally not written by a 10-year old. Also where is this from?

But whatever. Even then, this is still funny coming from a guy that hated Fallout 2's pop culture references. If you're going to put references in, and in no way humorous, at least don't quote ridiculous crap like this. It's just as bad as quoting Star Wars and Star Trek as if they actually were good source material.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

hiver vs 1eyedking, gogogogogo

 

[chzr]

He has a quest? Some other quest then getting him into the city?

Spoiler

you need at least 1 word of honor

 

[latexmonkeys]

LOL, guess it's yet another reason why Lovecraft sucks. Nothing says 'tasteful' in writing like ridiculous onomatopeias. Reading stuff such as "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" completely immerses you in. Totally not written by a 10-year old. Also where is this from?

But whatever. Even then, this is still funny coming from a guy that hated Fallout 2's pop culture references. If you're going to put references in, and in no way humorous, at least don't quote ridiculous crap like this. It's just as bad as quoting Star Wars and Star Trek as if they actually were good source material.

You so want to be noticed, don't you?

 

[Tigranes]

Sword/Block Mercenary takes on the tavern mob, after many reloads & near misses finally beats them with judicious use of alchemist's fire and crossbow, ESC to save and game crashes

Seems to happen when game's been running for a while.

Still not convinced block is any good, dodge still seems to be the superior build, but we will see how it turns out in later levels.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

You so want to be noticed, don't you?

1ek has been posting in every AoD thread for years. He must be the game's biggest fan.

 

[DefJam101]

Imo displaying a screen of pre-new game text that says something like:

"The world of AoD is not what you are used to in a fantasy RPG: it is harsh, unforgiving, blah de blah scheming and murder blah blah. Unlike in many other games, you are not an invincible hero. You are not special. All combat is extremely dangerous and potentially lethal; if something looks dangerous, it probably is dangerous, and you should treat it as such. Characters will not hesitate to lie to you, steal from you, or betray you, should they see fit. Use your head, be careful what you say, and always look out for yourself, because no one else will."

would go a long way toward easing non-megapopamole players into the tone of the game. Don't just tell them combat is "hard". Tell them straight up they aren't in RPGLand anymore and the old rules do not apply. Players who will never accept this style of gameplay can't be helped, but plenty of others are perfectly capable of immersing themselves in the game if given just a little nudge in the right direction. Your game has a unique and interesting setting, great music, solid production values, etc. The moment anyone with a pulse loads up your game they're immediately going to say, whoa, what the fuck is this... this is, like... different, man. That initial reaction opens the player's mind to ideas he would have otherwise ignored and dismissed. Don't waste that opportunity.


tl;dr AoD is like storyfag demons souls or some shit i don't know. all you gotta do is get the player to use his brain and the rest will sort itself out

don't fuck it up. no pressure