Game News Age of Decadence Released on Steam Early Access

[Why.jpeg]

Look, this is a beta and a demo. Things like that are things to correct and improve.
Nobody is saying its your fault or something and Tigranes confirms the fight is not balanced enough.

We still have ways to go before the game is "finished".

I just meant I gave up and moved on to another character.

 

[hiver]

Thats what the game is for. Explore the rest of it.
you might upload your save file if you want. Im just curios. I doubt i will make it.

 

[Bilgefar]

I think you still apply too much of our reality to it

Eh, maybe. Though I'm also thinking of this through what I know of Roman history (but yes, even then AoD has differences there).

Good to bring this issue up in that sense, but i wouldnt worry too much about it.

Oh believe me, I'm not too worried about it. The fact that this issue is my biggest complaint with the game speaks more to the game's high quality than it does to the importance of the issue.

 

[Tigranes]

I use alchemy (poison, neurostimulant) and also tried taking in a few nets, though with 1 throwing and a tower shield I get about 6% chance. Either I can bring in a buckler and try and take them down as fast as possible, or I can bring in a tower shield, move block up to 6 and try and survive. The problem is Antidas' crossbow and Dellar at least can still hit me consistently and do enough damage that a 7 DR armour, Tower Shield, 6 BLock and 9 CON isn't enough to survive for too long. And if I try and kill them fast, everyone just keeps getting in your way.

One solution is to huddle up in a corner and hope your comrades do some damage before they die, then fight everyone one by one in a corner. I recall that that's how I won it once back in R1.

I'm not sure what else I can do,to be honest. I really want to keep going with this guy though to see how a block character fares in Maadoran, as I still suspect Dodge > Block.

 

[Elhoim]

I'm not sure what else I can do,to be honest. I really want to keep going with this guy though to see how a block character fares in Maadoran, as I still suspect Dodge > Block.

We are working on balance for the next update, improving shields, plus we have to implement the small penalty for being without much space that dodgers will get. Some of the changes for shields:

- New formula for shield bash gives better chance to push and also to knockdown enemies.
- Bigger shields have a better chance of bashing the opponent.
- Bigger shields have a much better chance of blocking ranged attacks, progression went from 5-10-15-20 to 5-15-25-35.

 

[hiver]

Tigranes
hmm.. may as well try it myself. I see what you missed there.

plus we have to implement the small penalty for being without much space that dodgers will get.

is that going to apply when you get surrounded too? Im guessing you will count the free squares around the dodger?

 

[UnknownBro]

You said "try winning that fight (and others) with a mercenary + sword + shield without reloading 66 times in the process." Now we don't know what "that fight" meant? The Outpost fight including the subsequent fight inside the mine. I've also won plenty of "other" fights with same build without reloading. There are some fights that involve a lot of luck because they rely on lots of rolls for allies in addition to your own but that's true with any build.

I'm still waiting for the complete LP.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Reading the AoD Steam board is my new hobby right now. I love how people are so used to not try game demos anymore. They go out and buy, and then complain if they don't like it. If they would have checked out the demo, this wouldn't have happened.

I wonder if demos became rare because people didn't bother trying them, or people don't bother trying demos anymore because they became rare.

 

[hiver]

Do you seriously believe anyone here cares what youre waiting for or what you want?

seriously?

 

[felipepepe]

Hey VD & Oscar, had a weird bug:

Spoiler

After killing the Ordu's warrior, I said I would go back to the pass, and their leader told me about the black powder in the fort. As soon as I arrive there, I'm pulled into combat, and the camera gets "stuck" behind the mountain scenery:

I can open my inventory and pass turns, but I can't target or attack anyone, and the camera won't rotate or move from behind scenery...

Also, just had a very long chat with Oscar's avatar, nice writing there.

Spoiler

You guys had many testers kill him? I had to cheat and regen life once, even with maxed skills.

Was derping around for scenes, so didn't really prepare beforehand, but he's really hard.

 

[Saduj]

You said "try winning that fight (and others) with a mercenary + sword + shield without reloading 66 times in the process." Now we don't know what "that fight" meant? The Outpost fight including the subsequent fight inside the mine. I've also won plenty of "other" fights with same build without reloading. There are some fights that involve a lot of luck because they rely on lots of rolls for allies in addition to your own but that's true with any build.

I'm still waiting for the complete LP.

How would that prove anything with regards to how many times I reloaded anyway?

 

[Roguey]

Did you play the game through with a gunslinger build? It's a rhetorical question.

Reading game's documentation is fine, however it cannot substitute first hand experience with game mechanics obtained while you know, actually playing the damn game.

Have I ever struggled through with guns-only in Santa Monica and Downtown? No. Did I check to see the viability of guns through saving up my points and checking to see how well they worked in both those hubs? Yes. Have I used guns almost exclusively after Hollywood? Yes.

Which is more than enough for the difference between ranged levels to be noticeable, sure it could have affected base weapons' accuracy and reload speed (like in Deus Ex) but it still achieved its goal which is satisfying/rewarding skill development, the goal which is not achieved by making character awesome right off the bat with any weapon group/at any skill without investing enough into it.

Those first-two-hub guns are still terrible even with a 10 ranged feat (with the lone exception of the shotgun). As I keep saying, being able to fire faster and do more damage doesn't help when their base accuracy is so awful.

Oh please, admittedly 38 feels somewhat weak (but still good enough for early game enemies) but I rarely missed with Brokk, I just tried it the other day against zombies in Giovanni mansion that die instantly from a headshot and had no problems.

Terrible, just terrible. And I might as well post the other pistols as positive examples of what spread should be like.

Since the numbers are exposed I could easily modify the 38, utica, braddock, and brokk to make them sane but I shouldn't have to fix Troika's incompetence. I'm all about the principle.

I claim that high level of ranged skill makes using ranged weapons (guns mostly) noticeably more effective, I sincerely doubt anyone who went through the game with a gunslinger build would disagree.

Sure. But you also don't have to put any points into the range feat to be effective with guns. The consequence is that you have to be slower with your shots and use more bullets, but they're not useless. "Early guns are good if you just put points into the skill" = wrong "Late-game guns are only good if you put points into the skill" = also wrong.

You on the other hand (or more precisely Josh and by extension you) claim that you could aim at a garbage can point blank and end up hitting the wall several feet next to it so what you need to do is post a video of a character with decent skill in ranged (say 4-5) missing his target by several feet with any gun in the game (goes without saying that you have to wait for reticule to shrink) from a short distance (it doesn't even have to be point blank).

Don't need a video, see above. Josh gave up on guns immediately and relied entirely on tremere spells to complete it, so I can understand his being wrong about how they are in the late-game.

No, Bloodlines system is quite decent, considering the uneasy balance between character skill and player skill when it comes to ARPGs in general, it does reasonably well.

You need both to play any RPG regardless of what combat system it uses and Bloodlines is one of the worst brawlers/shooters around. I suppose if Kane and Lynch 2 had open hubs and dialogue trees I'd see people praising its bullet-hose guns as well, instead of rightfully giving it the panning it deserved.

Tremere: auspex-> ranged build. nothing for melee here, so it's simple.

Blood purge and blood shield work great with melee.

 

[Murk]

Yep, early game weapons are worse than late game weapons.

Yep.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

This thread isn't off-topic enough.

Pizza Hut or Papa John's: Which is better and why? Discus...

 

[sigma1932]

needed that to get up to 5 Sword / 5 Block / 4 CS for the Aurelian camp. (I assume spiking the wine decreases their combat ability somewhat?)

IIRC, at the very least, the more potent, non-rat version of poison makes them start at around half-health (i.e. "Wounded"). Don't know if there's attribute/skill penalties in there on top of that or not though.

 

[Azrael the cat]

The change in accuracy occurs at the point where one reticule is replaced by another. High firearms skill increases the range of each reticule, meaning that you get to use more accurate spreads at longer distances.

The starting pistol is very very noticeable in this regard. Prior to pumping firearms, you'll get the least accurate reticule at even mid distances. With high firearms you get the 2nd most accurate even at extremely long distance.

Similarly, high firearms, especially as you approach 10, increases the amount and speed of movement you can do without shifting to a less accurate reticule and without the reticule defocusing. It also reduces the amount of time that you need to stay still before you switch to a more accurate reticule.

With low firearms, the even the best weapons won't give you the fixed circle-with-dot reticule (bullet goes exactly where the dot is) unless you've been crouching still for a while - you'll never get more than one shot a combat off before needing to move and going back to the standard reticule. TBH I'm not even sure that you can get the fixed circle-with-dot without good firearms skill outside of the scoped weapons.

 

[Black]

Roguey and Bloodlines ranged skill Released on Steam Early Access

 

[Monty]

Roguey just gained another skill point in thread derailing. It's now maxed out.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Hey Vault Dweller I just bought your damn game. While I'm waiting for it to install talk to me about dump stats.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Very kind of you.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

I think INT would be a good start for you Twinkie. kthnxbye.

Aw, look at you! You got your confidence back the second the 'possibly retarded' tag was removed, didn't you?

 

[anus_pounder]

Fallout does this. The "Easy" setting just gives a slight boost to your skills. 10 or 20% I think.

Fallout combat is trivial if you pass a certain threshold in skill percentages, though. I don't get the feeling that a completely "maxed out" character in AoD would be similarly invulnerable.

Just tried it out. Never died as a maxed out char but there were a few tough spots. The fight where you

Spoiler

Chase the pickpocket > meet guard > kill guard > get extorted by a group of guards > kill guards. The only other 'tough' fight would be the one in the slums where you take on a gang if you refuse to pay. The dagger wielding guy there can hit 3-4 times and deal 5-7 damage if he hits. He usually hit 2 out of 4 times on my character wearing iron legion armour.

ended with my health in the single digits due to a few lucky crits on their side.

In general, as a maxed out character, the only thing that can reliably hit you is a dagger wielding character. I noticed that Bows also hit more often than other weapons, bringing them to a distant 2nd to daggers as a potential danger.

On a side note - Maxed out character + Throwing = More fun than it should be. Head shot to knock them down and then power throw to finish them off. I won literally every 1-on-1 fight in the arena this way. Especially like the kill animations of throwing weapons. Chakram in the skull, pilum through the chest...

 

[Elhoim]

I use alchemy (poison, neurostimulant) and also tried taking in a few nets, though with 1 throwing and a tower shield I get about 6% chance. Either I can bring in a buckler and try and take them down as fast as possible, or I can bring in a tower shield, move block up to 6 and try and survive. The problem is Antidas' crossbow and Dellar at least can still hit me consistently and do enough damage that a 7 DR armour, Tower Shield, 6 BLock and 9 CON isn't enough to survive for too long. And if I try and kill them fast, everyone just keeps getting in your way.

One solution is to huddle up in a corner and hope your comrades do some damage before they die, then fight everyone one by one in a corner. I recall that that's how I won it once back in R1.

I'm not sure what else I can do,to be honest. I really want to keep going with this guy though to see how a block character fares in Maadoran, as I still suspect Dodge > Block.

We are adding a few options to the start of the fight, one especially suited for an assassin or high CS/dex fighter. Also, killing Antidas will have an effect on the morale of the Daratan guards.

 

[Elhoim]

Very kind of you.

VD when did you guys decide to drop the large skill numbers to small ones? I like that very much and just wanted to hear the reasoning on your end.

I believe it was about a year ago. One of the reasons was the valid criticism that it was very hard to make every single point for non-combat skills worthwhile. What's the difference betwee 42 and 43 persuasion? We didn't have enough checks to make every point worthwhile. Plus we had things like weapons passives already in a 1-10 scale. On top of that, our combat system was a mesh (and a mess) of ideas we tried through the years, with many contradicting rules. For example, with some things affecting THC directly, other affecting the skills, sometimes reducing by a fixed number and sometimes reducing by a %. So we made a new combat system document fixing all these inconsistencies, and made it more flexible on the code side to add extra attacks and options.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Bros, the changes you've made since Last Thursday are pretty fantastic. I've barely scratched away at an hour of this game and I'm having a really great time.