Aod News Main Thread

[Elhoim]

I must say, I really wish they had decided to go down the route of some kind of expansion instead of a dungeon crawler, but then I'm a massive storyfag. Not all DLC has to be a shitty cash grab; it's often done excellently (such as in Fallout New Vegas, Dark Souls etc).

If the game sells well, the free updates we'll be adding will sum up to an expansion to the game, as VD said above.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I must say, I really wish they had decided to go down the route of some kind of expansion instead of a dungeon crawler, but then I'm a massive storyfag. Not all DLC has to be a shitty cash grab; it's often done excellently (such as in Fallout New Vegas, Dark Souls etc).

Risky. A stand alone game is a safer bet.

 

[Lgrayman]

Aren't most of the people interested in AoD in large part because of the choices and consequences and story and whatnot? That's what drew me in; the combat is just the icing on the cake that keeps me there. So a game that completely gets rid of anything that isn't combat alienates my kind. Couldn't that be considered risky?

In any case, I really hope it all works out. Been following AoD for quite some time and it'll break my heart if you guys can't continue making games.

 

[Cazzeris]

Aren't most of the people interested in AoD in large part because of the choices and consequences and story and whatnot? That's what drew me in; the combat is just the icing on the cake that keeps me there. So a game that completely gets rid of anything that isn't combat alienates my kind. Couldn't that be considered risky?

Don't you realise that focusing on the creation of content that is worth purchasing is more difficult to Vince and co. than just taking the approach that relies heavily in the previous game's systems? If Iron Tower made a game/expansion that focused on what you like about AoD, then they'd have to create a lot of full-fledged quests, areas and plots, but if he developed the combat game instead, then he would be able to take much more benefit from stuff that is already done (i.e. systems and assets). Also, from what I've read; Vince would feel more comfortable taking a very different point of view on AoD's setting in a sequel that featured the first game's gameplay (which apparently would be the Qantari lands), so releasing a spin-off that focuses on different things like combat makes much more sense for a game that takes place in the same part of the world.

I mean, if he prefers adding content to the base game for free since it'd have the same setting and gameplay instead of releasing expansions or small sequels, then the combat game is the right thing to do as a quick way to get money. If we take into account that the lack of proper creative work for a dungeon crawler would let Vince work in the Generation Ship RPG earlier than otherwise, then it becomes clear that IT's plans are quite well-thought.

On a side note, there's a big portion of the AoD fanbase that enjoys the combat more than anything else in the game. Personally, I can't wait to play an expanded version of AoD's combat.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Aren't most of the people interested in AoD in large part because of the choices and consequences and story and whatnot?

I assume so. However, I suspect there might not be enough people interested in AoD to keep us in business (i.e. fund the colony ship RPG). Our combat demo appealed to more people because it followed a traditional, linear format and offered nothing but combat. Thus it makes sense to make an inexpensive combat game with new features to boost our chance to stay in business.

The idea is to make this game in 8-10 months, while our artist and I are working on the colony ship's pre-production (i.e. we can't just start working on the colony ship RPG right away because we need areas' design, character system, combat, starting quests, etc). So we aren't moving away from our focus on settings, story, dialogues, C&C, etc but using the time between such RPGs to offer something for a slightly wider audience.

 

[quasimodo]

I liked the combat demo a lot and would like to see how the combat system would play with a controllable party.

 

[Lady_Error]

Both the dungeon crawler and the colony ship game sound awesome.

 

[SniperHF]

Can't wait to play this finally as I'm avoiding Early Access games. Do you guys have an idea how much playtime would an average play through require? An estimate of course

Okay so there's really 4 different ways you have to look at it. We'll leave the hybrids out for now.

Newbie Non-combat playthrough: 20 hours.
The first hurdle is figuring out early stat distribution and the relation to your background. This might make for some reloading and re-rolling of characters / backgrounds. Possibly some skill point banking and reloading to see different results/choices/outcomes and such. Though I highly recommend giving at least your first 3-4 characters a go without banking.

Newbie Combat playthrough: 35 hours. Maybe 15-20 if you are good.
If you wanna play it as a new player and smash all the enemies, it's gonna involve some serious reloading sometimes and combat is just a lot slower in general than Streetwise skill 6 = Win.


Veteran Non-combat playthrough: 4-6 hours.
It's really freaking easy but still mostly fun to find out all the lore bits, once you have a general idea of the checks. Talking about a total non-combat situation here, no hybrids.


Veteran Combat Play through: 12-15 hours.
Even combat characters will miss some combats by making various choices. The key is once you know what you are doing you know when not to attempt certain fights so you avoid 80% of the reloading.


We'll call a veteran someone who has gotten at least to the end of Maadoran with 3 different backgrounds of that type.

Aren't most of the people interested in AoD in large part because of the choices and consequences and story and whatnot?

Complete opposite here. Story, dialog whatever? Cool, nice to have.
I got interested in AoD whenever it was back then because motherfucking turn based combat.

 

[AbounI]

Aren't most of the people interested in AoD in large part because of the choices and consequences and story and whatnot?

Not only for those concepts, but also for more reasons than that:
-its unique style.You can't imagine how tired I am of RPGenerics when it's about AAAgames
-its looong loong dev time that shows how love is put in it, with the numerous update, tweaks and things like that, without cutting content.Patiently made with love & passion, and not ina mercantile goal.Respekt!
- Vault Dweller "word of honor".Seriously, I mean the true philospohy behind the name, respectfull of his customers.How many devs have launch a free demo that kindly accpet other sites to host it, in order to set a larger audience?And not only V.D is a good fucking reviewer, but in a few days we can say he's (and the whole team) also a good fucking cRPG maker.AoD is a masterpiece, specially for those who love story driven and hardcore mechanics, and despite the engine, the job of optimization is awesome (loading time, memory leaks fixes, etc etc)
- its original setting.Bye bye the heroic fantasy world.No monster, no other races, only "human relations" there ina original world

No , really, lots of reason for me to heartically support ITS (said like that, it can sound like fanboysm, but it's just the truth)

 

[Goral]

Another update, only 3 days left

http://steamcommunity.com/games/aod/announcements/detail/76917731068580903

 

[Jimmious]

Thanks for the answers guys btw. My body is ready for AoD
Although I will have to coordinate between it and WL2 DC

 

[Blackmill]

Okay so there's really 4 different ways you have to look at it. We'll leave the hybrids out for now.

Newbie Non-combat playthrough: 20 hours.
The first hurdle is figuring out early stat distribution and the relation to your background. This might make for some reloading and re-rolling of characters / backgrounds. Possibly some skill point banking and reloading to see different results/choices/outcomes and such. Though I highly recommend giving at least your first 3-4 characters a go without banking.

...


Veteran Non-combat playthrough: 4-6 hours.
It's really freaking easy but still mostly fun to find out all the lore bits, once you have a general idea of the checks. Talking about a total non-combat situation here, no hybrids.


...

I pretty much had an opposite experience. My first playthrough as a non-combatant was over in four hours. My following non-combatant playthroughs took much longer (8-12 hours) since I optimized my build to access as much content as possible. I imagine most people miss over half the accessible content on their first characters.

 

[Lgrayman]

Another update, only 3 days left

http://steamcommunity.com/games/aod/announcements/detail/76917731068580903

So they'll do the final build today. Will we get this update posted to steam before the game officially releases? I've seen similar questions asked but not a concrete answer.

 

[Vault Dweller]

So they'll do the final build today. Will we get this update posted to steam before the game officially releases? I've seen similar questions asked but not a concrete answer.

Probably not as it would mean releasing the game 2 days earlier. Not a big deal, of course, but GoG might object as we agreed to have a simultaneous release.

 

[Agesilaus]

Anything we may do to help with the success of the release? I'm sure a lot of us reviewed the game for Steam ages ago, but that's about it.

 

[Cazzeris]

First review:

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2015/10/12/it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night-in-age-of-decadence/

You could play Age of Decadence as a more gameplay oriented RPG, but I don’t recommend it. Unfortunately, this is what will happen if you want to play a combat-based character. I chose a mercenary for my second playthrough and eventually decided I couldn’t be bothered with the combat. For a system with so much detail — you can choose to aim for an artery when you swing an axe — it sure does feel pointless. Age of Decadence even warns you before you start playing. “Hey,” it says in a politely worded message, “you might want to consider avoiding combat, because we made it kinda hard.” I’ll say. Pass. I’m here for the story. If I want detailed tactical combat, I’ll go back to Pillars of Eternity. If I want visual spectacle, I’ll go back to The Witcher 3. It’s worth noting I didn’t finish the storyline in either of those games. But I sure as hell did in Age of Decadence.

I still don't get why so many people have such problems with the fucking combat. It's not the first time I read that it's not a game designed for combat-focused characters. Stupid dumbfucks don't understand that being relatively "difficult" doesn't make it impossible.

This review is extremely storyfaggy. Some people in the comment section are now interested in the game solely because the writing and the setting is heavily praised. Interesting...

 

[Lyre Mors]

I'm playing a thief right now, so I'm looking forward to a more combat heavy class play-through in the near future. I can't wait to try to push the combat system to it's limits. I can definitely see a lot of fun to be had.

But yeah, sounds like that reviewer found the idea of reloading to attempt the battle with different approaches was too hard and not part of the game or something. Everything else in the review was really nice ~

 

[Agesilaus]

"If I want detailed tactical combat, I'll go back to Pillars of Eternity."

hahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaah

I'm dying here, I'm dying

too absurd, where do they find these people

 

[likaq]

If I want detailed tactical combat, I’ll go back to Pillars of Eternity

My god, from where these people came from?
Mental hospital?

 

[Ninjerk]

I'm not crazy about AoD combat, but damn.

 

[Infinitron]

This review is extremely storyfaggy. Some people in the comment section are now interested in the game solely because the writing and the setting is heavily praised. Interesting...

Told you.

 

[kain30]

AoD will be released tomorrow, no?. but at what GMT time?

 

[darthaegis]

The Steam store is updated at 18:00 GMT, so at that time I guess.

 

[Vault Dweller]

AoD will be released tomorrow, no?. but at what GMT time?

9am eastern time.

 

[likaq]

So 3 pm my time. Not bad.