Game News Age of Decadence Released on Steam Early Access

[Bubbles]

You guys got rid of the awesome button guy? Fuck this, my money is better spent at the garbage can.

It's almost certainly based on a patent infringement claim by Bioware, which, for the record, is something I predicted when the feature was first announced. It puts Iron Tower in an even tougher spot now, because customers can claim that the Awesome Button was a marketing promise that the new version will not deliver on. If enough people point this out to Steam, they'll pretty much have to give us a mass refund.

 

[t]

>CON 5

That's your problem

Not sure. The guy often hits for 20+ HP. Every preciouss point in CON only gives me 1/4 of an attack more to live in that single encounter. Plus what do you think, that I'm hoarding points in INT and CHA? Nope, both 4's.

Edit: btw. obviously that's not intended as a whine about the difficulty level. Just asking whether there's something I'm missing.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Email me your save game, I'll take a look. info@irontowerstudio.com

 

[AstroZombie]

Of course, Vault Dweller is his polite and well behaved self, can't account for taste on the avatar tho

Unlike you, of course, who is always polite and well-mannered, and who never speaks ill of others. You, sir, are an inspiration to us all.

How/where do I change that fucking thing?

I think you need a gravatar account.

 

[t]

Oh, you really don't have to. But if you'd have a moment -- thanks for the offer. Savegame sent.

 

[Saduj]

• You need 4 Disguise to get inside, or a [streetwise][charisma] check.
• You need 7 CS to kill the Legatus, or 6 Steal + at least 3 (or 2?) Streetwise to get the option, or some kind of [streetwise] + [streetwise][persuasion] check.
• If you don't kill the Legatus, then you need either 7 Sneak (more than 6, at least) to sneak past the guardsroom, or Disguise higher than 4, or again a pretty high [critical strike][dexterity] check that a 4 CS / 10 DEX could not fulfill.

I'm starting to wonder about how these longer complicated ones are meant to work. I love them and they are really satisfying narratively, but the only way to 'play' them is to hoard your SP and then reload until you figure out what you need, because in this case at least all the failstates are instant death, not combat. And apparently 105 spare SP isn't enough for a winning combo. Sure, there's an option to give up and return to Levir, which I'll check out now to see how that works, and there's an option to switch sides to House Aurelian.

I think it'd be fine if there's a way to mess shit up and reach suboptimal states, or if returning to Levir still has interesting consequences (which I'll check tonight).

Spoiler

I experimented a lot with this one too. The skill requirements are affected by your attributes, I believe.

I had to save up a similar # of skill points and ultimately got through with Steal 5, Disguise 5, Streetwise 4. Relevant attributes, I think, were Dex 9 and Char 5. I stole the pass from Legatus then killed the Crassus emissary and used disguise/streetwise when guard showed up.

 

[Tigranes]

Spoiler

I experimented a lot with this one too. The skill requirements are affected by your attributes, I believe.

I had to save up a similar # of skill points and ultimately got through with Steal 5, Disguise 5, Streetwise 4. Relevant attributes, I think, were Dex 9 and Char 5. I stole the pass from Legatus then killed the Crassus emissary and used disguise/streetwise when guard showed up.

Spoiler

That's very interesting, since I had Dex 10 and Cha 4. I definitely could not steal the pass with Steal 5, which doesn't make sense, since charisma shouldn't effect that check. And where I get stuck is Crassus emissary; to get that far I need to spend points on 6 Steal and 4 Disguise and 2/3 Streetwise, meraning I can only rack up CS to 4. Which doesn't seem to be enough to kill the emissary's guards. Or to talk past them.

 

[Elhoim]

Spoiler

I experimented a lot with this one too. The skill requirements are affected by your attributes, I believe.

I had to save up a similar # of skill points and ultimately got through with Steal 5, Disguise 5, Streetwise 4. Relevant attributes, I think, were Dex 9 and Char 5. I stole the pass from Legatus then killed the Crassus emissary and used disguise/streetwise when guard showed up.

Spoiler

That's very interesting, since I had Dex 10 and Cha 4. I definitely could not steal the pass with Steal 5, which doesn't make sense, since charisma shouldn't effect that check. And where I get stuck is Crassus emissary; to get that far I need to spend points on 6 Steal and 4 Disguise and 2/3 Streetwise, meraning I can only rack up CS to 4. Which doesn't seem to be enough to kill the emissary's guards. Or to talk past them.

Those checks got an overhaul for the next version, adding more options and reworked some numbers.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Can't kill Al Sazir with Sword/Dodge merc who decided to be a thief. Also, can't do shit in the thief questline

What build, what gear, what level of skills? Al Sazir was damn iffy even with max dodge and 7 in the weapon of ultimate subtlety(hammers).

STR 10 DEX 10 CON 5 PER 7, 7 in both swords and dodge, 4 crit. Tried differerent weapons, like iron shamshir or handar -- with masterwork, hardened edge. Doesn't really matter.

7 dodge wasn't enough when I tried it, 9 and 10 barely cut it, but then I was not doing anything other than simple whacking.
Did you try alchemistry on him? Up dodge a bit though.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Oh, you really don't have to. But if you'd have a moment -- thanks for the offer. Savegame sent.

Killed him with a power attack after 8 reloads (got lucky, really - hit him with a power attack, scored a critical on the counter-attack, then finished him off). Your armor's good, but it's weak against criticals and the champion is giving them out like candy. So, low HP vs frequent criticals - short life expectancy.

In general, I'd say that you tried to fight him too early. Another level of dodge would have made some difference. I'd suggest to finish your current quests, then try again. Another reason is the lack of things to buy to prepare for the fight, which is our fault (will be fixed soon).

 

[Vault Dweller]

Customer complaint:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/230070/discussions/0/666827247909243769/

"Something i ran into that's a little bothersome
on the merchant mission where you can forge the document. i'm able to forge it but becasue my intelegence is to low i fail when i give it to the guy? this seems odd to me, how exactly do i just automaticaly fail like that? it's not like i can raise my attribute now so i'm screwed? just... too bad so sad, don't do cerchant missions if you only when with high perception? i get that the game is suppsed to be hard but that just doesn't make sense. it makes me wonder if i'll be running into ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like that later on, you know on an important mission half way through the game, oh sorry your int is too low the rest of that quest chain is unavailable to you"

 

[Black]

Is he talking about his int or his character's?

 

[Excidium]

The wonders of fixed thresholds

 

[Elhoim]

The wonders of fixed thresholds

How random would be better? Plus the questline is not closed, he has to find real proof now.

 

[Vault Dweller]

There are at least 5 different options there. Failing one doesn't mean that the quest can't be completed.

 

[Excidium]

Yeah, I know. It's the whole selling point of the game. Just didn't want to miss the opportunity to express butthurt on fixed checks

The wonders of fixed thresholds

How random would be better?

Stats wouldn't become useless if you stop dumping points on them.

 

[Jim the Dinosaur]

Stats wouldn't become useless if you stop dumping points on them.

Couldn't you solve that just as well by keeping low stat checks throughout the game by having non-combat "syncretize" or whatever they call it, in the same way combat skills do? I know the game already occasionally does that, but doing it systematically could help. E.g. a 6 persuasion check can also be passed with 4 persuasion + 4 streetwise.

Still not sure how randomization, even if you use a bell curve, works in a save/reload game.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Vault Dweller Elhoim Do you guys feel amused by the butthurt? Is it more like disappointment? Or do you feel you could have done more to inform the uneducated masses about what the game is all about?

Because one thing i have noticed about AoD's public discussion, be it here or elsewhere is your constant need to keep educating/arguing with people about the game concepts and mechanics. Must get tiring after all these years.

 

[Excidium]

Still not sure how randomization, even if you use a bell curve, works in a save/reload game.

Same way death or any failure state does.

 

[Jim the Dinosaur]

Still not sure how randomization, even if you use a bell curve, works in a save/reload game.

Same way death or any failure state does.

Okay, but those failure states have to do with something more than just an RNG. Reloading after death means you adjust your tactics, reloading after failing a random check means you do the exact same thing again.

Anyway, here's how I'd syncretize/whatever the non-Combat stats:

Trade-Lore
Streetwise-Persuasion
Crafting-Alchemy
Lockpick-Traps
Etiquette-Disguise
Stealing-Sneaking

Every check you fail in one, you can compensate with the other if you have 200% of the difference in it (so 3 crafting check can be met by 2 crafting + 2 (200% of 1) alchemy).

 

[tuluse]

It should be streewise-persuasion and disguise-etiquette, imo. The latter two are more about acting in a certain maner. Trade-Lore is also an odd paring that seems to be left there just because there are no good matches.

 

[Jim the Dinosaur]

It should be streewise-persuasion and disguise-etiquette, imo. The latter two are more about acting in a certain maner.

Already switched those.

Trade-Lore is also an odd paring that seems to be left there just because there are no good matches.

Why? You can only get a better price on goods if you know the ins and outs about said goods.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

As well pair them up in a case-by-case basis.

 

[Jim the Dinosaur]

Crap, only just realized that AoD has a pretty damn steep skill progression curve, so 2 alchemy and 2 crafting might actually be cheaper than 3 crafting. So nvm.

 

[tuluse]

Crap, only just realized that AoD has a pretty damn steep skill progression curve, so 2 alchemy and 2 crafting might actually be cheaper than 3 crafting. I'll have to think of something even more brilliant.

3 crafting would be 15 points, 2 in 2 skills is 10.

4 crafting would be 30 points, 3 crafting and 3 alchemy would be 30 points. That would let you pass 4 checks in both stats though, while 3 and 2 would be 20 points.

5 crafting would be 50 points, 4 and 3 would would be 45 points, 4 and 4 would be 60 points, while 6 crafting would be 75.

I think ((2nd skill - 1) / 2) rounded down would solve this.