Age of Decadence round-up

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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Dhruin of RPGWatch has done an excellent round-up of news from the post-apocalyptic Roman-style indie cRPG Age of Decadence. Dhruin reports Elhoim has been recruited for interfaces, on which you can read here. You can also read something about character creation and options here and about the annoyances of combat systems here. Now something about the status:<blockquote>So, from one, purely technical point of view, you can say that it's 100% done and playable. From a more demanding point of view, it's about 60% done, meaning that I would like to replace about 40% given an opportunity (just like we replaced the interface, for example). I can post a list of things I want to fix, if someone's interested and, perhaps, would like to help.

(...)

Well, one thing that always bugged me was the complete and utter lack of anything resembling art direction. I underestimated this aspect, which is probably the biggest mistake I've made developing AoD. We have visually interesting locations like the towers, the Petra-inspired location, the temple, some tombs and underground places, but the towns look... I don't even know what word I'm looking for. Generic? Uninspiring? Boring?

Somehow they don't look like towns, but like a loose collection of buildings. At least in the Spiderweb games the towns are way too abstract for someone to say "wait-a-minute! That doesn't look like a proper town at all" (I'm too lazy to take screenshots right now, but I think we have a town shot on the website, so take a look). Anyway, we decided to throw away the town maps and start basically from scratch, splitting each town map into districts and spending more attention/time on each district, doing it right this time. </blockquote>Link: Age of Decadence news catchup on RPGWatch
 
Goodie. I want to buy this thing already.

Warren Spector at one point said that the key to building believable and atmospheric environments is to believe that they're real, and that real people live there. That way, you'll get town and building layouts that feel logical and right.
 
This is probably the game I'm looking forward to the most at the moment.

It looks so very promising on paper, I really hope that Vault Dweller and company will be able to bring it together in a satisfying gaming experience as well.
Hopefully it will also serve as an inspiration for more indie developers.

I'm glad that he's taking his time with the game, and for some odd reason I'm very confident in that this game in particular will be released (I'm often very skeptic about indie releases). I guess it's due to the fact VD posts on the Codex quite often.
 
The fact that from his description, he could release it right now is a good indication it will be released, Starwars. He's done, he's "just polishing." Which is further than most indies get.

Will it be good? I don't know. The problem with indies is often good intentions but not enough resources to work out the good intentions. But Vince (heh) himself is a good writer, and he looks to have a good staff about him. Barring bad sense of direction ingame, it should be good.

For me, personally, it is too bad about the Roman-like setting. I find the "Ancient Times" very boring and unattractive, and studying it for a year as an obligated subject in university, even writing a boring paper about whether Roman families are extended or nuclear families, I kind of despite it.
 
The fact that from his description, he could release it right now is a good indication it will be released, Starwars. He's done, he's "just polishing." Which is further than most indies get.
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Hehe, yeah. Still, the act of polishing seems to have that question... When is it enough? I think if I were to create something like a game, I'd probably have a hard time stopping. :P Though I really do think he should take his time and not release it until he is satisfied with it.

I agree somewhat on the setting, but only in the sense of aesthetics. I'm not to fond of the whole look, but I haven't studied it myself, so that part of it will probably feel pretty fresh to me. Is there any mention anywhere about how much/accurately the setting will tie in with our history? Gonna have to look for that.

I also forgot in my previous post, I agree with VD when he says that he needs to 'revamp' some of the looks for the towns. It's not a huge problem for me personally, but I feel it's worthwhile to have a good visual (not in terms of shiny graphics but in direction), and also logical, hook for the game.

It's fun though in the sense that it's a pretty unique setting for a RPG.

I also really hope that the combat will be good. When I look back, I'm always kinda surprised at how few RPGs I've played where I've actually really enjoyed the combat. ToEE (which I'm replaying atm) probably has my favourite combat in a RPG.
 
Brother None said:
For me, personally, it is too bad about the Roman-like setting. I find the "Ancient Times" very boring and unattractive, and studying it for a year as an obligated subject in university, even writing a boring paper about whether Roman families are extended or nuclear families, I kind of despite it.
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I doubt it's as Roman-like as you fear. From what I've read, it's a fantasy world influenced by Roman elements such as gladiator helmets and fancy words like Commercium.
 
Starwars said:
...and for some odd reason I'm very confident in that this game in particular will be released ....
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Can't guarantee that it won't suck, but it definitely will be released.

Still, the act of polishing seems to have that question... When is it enough?
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When I feel that it's a pretty damn good game now. I know, it sounds kinda vague, but that's the best answer I can give you.

Is there any mention anywhere about how much/accurately the setting will tie in with our history?
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There are no ties with our history. It's NOT an "ancient Roma and shit" game.

I also really hope that the combat will be good.
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Showing the combat system in action is our priority at the moment. If everything goes well, we'll show new screens and a video within a week or two.

Brother None said:
..."just polishing." Which is further than most indies get.
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Not anymore. Eschalon: Book 1 already has a playable demo; everything seems to be working fine. I'm playing Depth of Peril now (an alfa preview copy for the Codex) - surprisingly stable and good (if you like action Diablo-like RPGs).
 
wyatt said:
Keep up the good work VD!
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Thanks.

Sorrow said:
I'm looking forward to playing it. Will a demo be released?
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Of course. It's an indie game. You download the demo, play a bit (one town, 20+ quests), and if you like what you see, then and only then you purchase the game.
 
VDweller said:
I'm playing Depth of Peril now (an alfa preview copy for the Codex) - surprisingly stable and good (if you like action Diablo-like RPGs).
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I do! I'm playing Titan Quest (Diablo's most successfull clone so far, betwwen the ones I've put my hands on).

When it's fully complete and out to be played, do you mind posting here on NMA to let us know? Or maybe PM me ^^


Edit: OMG, finally I wandered in from the wastes! Was tired of being a hideous freak of nature...
 
Personally I don't care much for niche projects that just try to copy mainstream products. If I want the same as the main market is producing, I'll play what the market is producing. What the hell is the point of making niche copies of mainstream products?
 
Brother None said:
What the hell is the point of making niche copies of mainstream products?
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So people playing them can feel 1337, being part of the "underground", kek pew pew.

Back on topic, AoD looks like hot lesbian sex, can't wait for the demo. Good job on pulling through with it, VDweller.
 
You mean Depths of Peril? It's not really the same as existing action/RPGs. I mean, it is in the sense that the main gameplay is pretty standard hack'n'slash, but the strategy wrapper and competing heroes (who go out and adventure just like you) make it different enough.
 
I can only say: keep up the good work :-)

I'll give the demo a shot and surely buy it if there are no awful issues I run into. Are there any plans for the final pricing of AoD? I guess 50 USD would be pretty reasonable considering how long your team worked on it. Will there be a Paypal option especially for European users who normally don't own a credit card?
 
Role-Player said:
Dhruin said:
competing heroes (who go out and adventure just like you)
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Is that anywhere close to what Fable was supposed to have?
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To be honest, I don't remember what Fable promised.

The heroes in DoP definitely go out and do the same shit as you. You see them in the field and they can beat you to certain things. On the other hand, it would be nice to have a lot more interaction with them.

Preview coming soon - and I guess VD will have one too. It won't set the hardcore CRPG crowd on fire (because most of the gameplay is hack'n'slash) but it does make a nice "filler" game - the type you keep coming back to between "serious" games or to kill a few idle hours or whatever.
 
Brother None said:
For me, personally, it is too bad about the Roman-like setting. I find the "Ancient Times" very boring and unattractive, and studying it for a year as an obligated subject in university, even writing a boring paper about whether Roman families are extended or nuclear families, I kind of despite it.
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Really? May I ask your graduation, if I may ask? I'm studying Archeology :P
 
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