Age of Decadence - the real crpg in the spirit of Fallout 2

[hakimio]

Recently I stumbled upon one post here in the forums about the release of "Age of Decadence", googled it and was pleasantly surprised to see a game that seemed to be using the same character creation system as Fallout 1 & 2 - SPECIAL. After trying the demo, I immediately was hooked on it as I was on original Fallout - it has ALL the same features of a real rpg - decisions in quests (some of the answers require skill check), loads of side quests, 8 different professions to choose from when starting the game (poffesions not only influence stats points but also your starting faction/guild), various endings for cities, factions and important characters depending on your actions, nicely written dialogue and story. Moreover, it uses the same turn-based combat system like original Fallout, top down camera view (camera can be rotated, zoomed and panned) and it was made with a modern game engine Torque 3D (imho, on highest graphics settings it looks quite nice).

If you loved the original Fallout series I highly recommend to at least download the demo version and to try it out. You can find the old demo (aka public beta) here and if you preorder the game from the official page (might work with steam too - haven't tried) you'll get a download link for the beta version of the full game released just a couple of days ago (there are some minor bugs like text going out of boundaries or "action" text for the poison used to make poisoned arrows saying "drink", but nothing game breaking).

Finally here are some images and videos:















More images and videos can be found here.

 

[zegh8578]

It actually looks very interesting
A pity, for me, that it's so new, because I can probably forget about playing it on this computer :I

 

[Akratus]

I don't think the graphics are very advanced. It's an indie game anyhow.

But I've known about this game for quite some time since I post over on rpgcodex.

 

[PlanHex]

might work with steam too - haven't tried

It's on early access as of this Thursday:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/230070/

It actually looks very interesting
A pity, for me, that it's so new, because I can probably forget about playing it on this computer :I

Just download the demo and try? It's not too demanding and I think you can scale everything down quite a ways.

 

[SuAside]

AoD is something many of us follow closely, yes.

Hopefully it'll live up to expectations.

 

[hakimio]

AoD is something many of us follow closely, yes.

Hopefully it'll live up to expectations.

It's already a really nice game even it's not completely finished yet

 

[fred2]

Looks interesting, but until there is a final release version this is as far as I go.

 

[yarga]

yeah, about that...

Played the demo, really disliked it.

Fallout stats and skills made sense, predictable things happened when you raised them, tooltips did a good job explaining what the vault guide didn't (and damn that was a great manual!).

AoD is like the frustrating autistic younger sibling to Fallout; You can see the genome expressed on the surface but everything is silent, hidden and muddled (autism runs in my family). It's post-apocalyptic, sorta, if your idea of the apocalypse happened in Roman times, which somehow had boilers powered by mantras but inexplicably forgot/didn't invent gunpowder. Oh and there's alchemy, some magic, Gods that have no historical precedent alongside familiar Roman terms. It's just...confused.

Jumping in and playing is painful; I went through several rerolls of characters that seemed balanced for my playstyle, but weren't (streetwise is gimped without disguise, half the time, Persuasion needs streetwise, ettiquette seems just useless, etc, none of this explained). The RNG is a cruel mistress and substitutes for any tactical play. There are multiple ways to play through a quest-line, so that's great, but you need to walk around with a "bank" of skill points, because suddenly your thief might need a skill of 3 in throwing weapons to complete his "theifly" style of play in a main questline, or else back to the meanspirited RNG you go (NPCs always outnumber you, are better than you at everything, and GL figuring a balance of combat/other skills without reading guides or whatnot, so some weapons suck and some are great, some times shield is amazing and sometimes its horrible)

There are no random encounters, so keeping a bank of skill points unspent for unforeseeable occasions is frustrating and speaks to me of bad design, especially in an RPG that tries so hard to be a "tougher" version of fallout.

Oh and no companions, despite the Black Company quote at the splash screen, you're never in a "squad", always solo or with a temp quest-specific helper. No mercs to hire either.

Solo folks might have fun sneaking through it, or pure talky chars, but I never liked either playstyle, and I have an upper limit to how many rerolls I can handle in one game session before I go do actual fun things with my time.

Try the demo though, it's free on steam

 

[Lexx]

Well, I wouldn't compare AoD with Fallout at all. The game has a huge amount of old-school feels, but it certainly doesn't play like Fallout. If one wants to play AoD and expects something like Fallout, he will be highly disappointed.

 

[likaq]

Fallout stats and skills made sense, predictable things happened when you raised them, tooltips did a good job explaining what the vault guide didn't (and damn that was a great manual!).

Nope, plenty of bad design decisions:

- extremely OP traits like Gifted ( there is absolutely no reason to not take gifted ) or useless like Chem Reliant,Fast Metabolism or simply shitty/retarded like Bloody Mess.

- you can very easily increase all you stats during game ( perks, operations, luck increase by 2 in fall 2 , retarded items like glasses that increase charisma, op items like power armor etc. All of that combined, renders you choice during character creation much less significant than it should be.

- it's very to easy to become Jack of all trades, plenty of skill books, skill check way to low for instance highest science check in fall 2 is 121, but you can pump you science up to 300 and if you don't need skynet next highest science check is 70 or 80, highest repair check is ~70 or so etc.

-useless skills like first aid and overpowered skills like gambling ( high gambling = unlimited money ).

All of that is even worse in fallout 3 ( suit that increase doctor skill? ) . And of course stats in 'oblivion with guns' doesn't matter anymore.

AoD is like the frustrating autistic younger sibling to Fallout; You can see the genome expressed on the surface but everything is silent, hidden and muddled (autism runs in my family). It's post-apocalyptic, sorta, if your idea of the apocalypse happened in Roman times, which somehow had boilers powered by mantras but inexplicably forgot/didn't invent gunpowder. Oh and there's alchemy, some magic, Gods that have no historical precedent alongside familiar Roman terms. It's just...confused.

Pre war civilization didn't invent gunpower therefore I dislike setting

Jumping in and playing is painful; I went through several rerolls of characters that seemed balanced for my playstyle, but weren't (streetwise is gimped without disguise, half the time, Persuasion needs streetwise, ettiquette seems just useless, etc, none of this explained). The RNG is a cruel mistress and substitutes for any tactical play. There are multiple ways to play through a quest-line, so that's great, but you need to walk around with a "bank" of skill points, because suddenly your thief might need a skill of 3 in throwing weapons to complete his "theifly" style of play in a main questline, or else back to the meanspirited RNG you go (NPCs always outnumber you, are better than you at everything, and GL figuring a balance of combat/other skills without reading guides or whatnot, so some weapons suck and some are great, some times shield is amazing and sometimes its horrible)

Nope. No skill is useless.

There are no random encounters, so keeping a bank of skill points unspent for unforeseeable occasions is frustrating and speaks to me of bad design, especially in an RPG that tries so hard to be a "tougher" version of fallout.

And thank god for this.
1.Random encounters means unlimited number of experience point and money. And that is retarded.

2. Implementing random encounters into AoD is pure idiocy because that would give you the ability to max ALL your skills in short time.

3. Random encounters = filler combat / trash mobs . And if you want even imply that either filler combat or trash mobs is something that is good for crpg that is not a dungeon crawler or combat oriented crpg you're retarded.
And last time I checked AoD is neither dungeon crawler or even combat oriented crpg.

Crpg concepts like filler combat and trash mobs should die in fire. Permanently.

Oh and no companions, despite the Black Company quote at the splash screen, you're never in a "squad", always solo or with a temp quest-specific helper. No mercs to hire either.

Game has quote about squad therefore there should be party members.
What kind of logic is that?

And party members render your choice during character creation meaningless. In arcanum, fallout 2, bg2 . Any game.
You want create speach + thief oriented character in fall 2 and at the same time kill anything. No problem, just hire party members and they will kill anything for you. You can create warrior with 3 str + 3 dex + 3 con in bg2, hire 5 party members and they will kill any enemy for you.

I'm not against party members per se, but not every game should or must have them.

Solo folks might have fun sneaking through it, or pure talky chars, but I never liked either playstyle, and I have an upper limit to how many rerolls I can handle in one game session before I go do actual fun things with my time.

Try the demo though, it's free on steam

Aha!

Let me quess you want all crpg to be about walking around and killing things?
That would explain you dislike of AoD.

Dungeon crawler fan dislike story/ choices and consequences oriented crpg.
Truly shocking.

This game is clearly not for you.

Disclaimer: english is not my first language so i'm sorry if there is some mistakes.

 

[hakimio]

Re: yeah, about that...

AoD is like the frustrating autistic younger sibling to Fallout; You can see the genome expressed on the surface but everything is silent, hidden and muddled (autism runs in my family). It's post-apocalyptic, sorta, if your idea of the apocalypse happened in Roman times, which somehow had boilers powered by mantras but inexplicably forgot/didn't invent gunpowder. Oh and there's alchemy, some magic, Gods that have no historical precedent alongside familiar Roman terms. It's just...confused.

So just because you didn't like the setting you call it "frustraring autistic sibling"? Personally I like what they did, because it's not just another poor clone of fallout, they actually have some interesting ideas of their own.

There are no random encounters, so keeping a bank of skill points unspent for unforeseeable occasions is frustrating and speaks to me of bad design, especially in an RPG that tries so hard to be a "tougher" version of fallout.

You can choose different difficulty level if you find it too hard and when you don't have random encounters developer can better predict player's strength.

Oh and no companions, despite the Black Company quote at the splash screen, you're never in a "squad", always solo or with a temp quest-specific helper. No mercs to hire either.

I agree that companions would be a nice addition but it's definitely not a must. Also, remember that it's an indie game, which means there are very few developers and not so much money to spend on additional features.

Solo folks might have fun sneaking through it, or pure talky chars, but I never liked either playstyle, and I have an upper limit to how many rerolls I can handle in one game session before I go do actual fun things with my time..

I am playing an assassin and I am having a lot of fun.

Well, I wouldn't compare AoD with Fallout at all. The game has a huge amount of old-school feels, but it certainly doesn't play like Fallout. If one wants to play AoD and expects something like Fallout, he will be highly disappointed.

Yeah? Any justification for your opinion? Is it because it doesn't have exactly the same atmosphere/setting?

 

[Lexx]

Re: yeah, about that...

Well, I wouldn't compare AoD with Fallout at all. The game has a huge amount of old-school feels, but it certainly doesn't play like Fallout. If one wants to play AoD and expects something like Fallout, he will be highly disappointed.

Yeah? Any justification for your opinion? Is it because it doesn't have exactly the same atmosphere/setting?

It doesn't play the same at all. You have dialog and skill / stat checks. So what, that doesn't make it "plays like Fallout". Baldur's Gate has the same, yet nobody says it plays like Fallout. Also, in Fallout you are always a special person and you are easily killing hundreds of people. This again, is not possible that easily in AoD.

Just because the mechanics are sharing similarities (turn based combat, skill / stat checks, running around in towns), it doesn't become a game that is like Fallout. It's as simple as that.

 

[Crni Vuk]

exactly, JA1/2 was turnbased, yet its nothing like Fallout.

 

[yarga]

Nope, plenty of bad design decisions:

- extremely OP traits like Gifted...

l said "stats and skills", not "perks/traits", AoD doesn't have perks/traits. FO stats and skills do make sense, raising them yields predictable results. AoD has a skill called disguise that is actually just persuasion2/acting, doesn't require actual disguises, except sometimes it does... etc. Streetwise is required for pretty much every character, to the point where it's beyond overpowered, its take it or fail. The tooltips suck, and the devs think hiding the answers in the obscure design adds to the "difficulty".

u can very easily increase all you stats during game ( perks, operations, luck increase by 2 in fall 2 , retarded items like glasses that increase charisma, op items like power armor etc. All of that combined, renders you choice during character creation much less significant than it should be.

You cannot "very easily" do any such thing. The first time I played through the Fallouts, when they came out, we had rudimentary internet, dialup, some edu usergroups, but hint lines were still by telephone mainly or strategy guide for $20 from a game store, so there was alot of trial and error. So I missed about 80% of the game items, ecounters etc, my first playthrough, I didn't find half the skillups or special enchancing gear, and there's nothing easy about going through fallout totally clueless lol.

Anyone who says Fallout was "easy" to do these things either save/loaded through every dialogue choice, played for 200 hours multiple playthroughs, or f***ing cheated/sploited their way through the game. You probably did all 3.

This goes double for skill books, there was one hint guide I remember that listed the location of every book in game, I hadn't found 1/3 of them when I saw that list.

-useless skills like first aid and overpowered skills like gambling ( high gambling = unlimited money ).

All of that is even worse in fallout 3 ( suit that increase doctor skill? ) . And of course stats in 'oblivion with guns' doesn't matter anymore.

Stop. FO3 isn't fallout. Done and done, don't ever compare the two again.

First Aid wasn't "useless", just redundant to doctor, and there were consumables and dialgue options for it... I think it took less time than Doctoring, and that mattered when there was a timer on game.

Knowing that "gambling" was OP was only something you would find out after multiple playthroughs or through reading a guide, and then exploit and save/load scum. You can break any game that way, I never put 1 point into gambling, and I imagine plenty of others didn't either.

Pre war civilization didn't invent gunpower therefore I dislike setting

I have no idea what the hell the setting is, that's my point, its a confusing mess: Romans, unknown gods (what are romans without roman gods anyway, makes no *&^%ing sense), magic, science, steam engines... whole "story" is just a bad mash-up of several genres, stop defending it, it's nonsensical.

Nope. No skill is useless.

Great comebacker, I'll have to remember that: "No, you!"

And thank god for this.
1.Random encounters means unlimited number of experience point and money. And that is retarded.

2. Implementing random encounters into AoD is pure idiocy because that would give you the ability to max ALL your skills in short time.

And you missed my point again. It's not that I like or dislike random encounters, it's that this game is poorly balanced and designed for the lack of them. Quit your frothing, your keyboard must be covered in spittle by now.

Game has quote about squad therefore there should be party members.
What kind of logic is that?

Um, logical logic? You quote the premier fantasy squad series of all time (or Abercrombie, take your pick), at the splash screen, in order to set your tone... and then there's no squad, no compadres, no henchmen or hirelings. It's bizarre is what it is. Why not just quote another book the game designer liked, how about Green Eggs and Ham, its as apropos as anything, given that there are neither eggs nor ham in the game.

Aha! Let me quess you want all crpg to be about walking around and killing things?
That would explain you dislike of AoD.

Dungeon crawler fan dislike story/ choices and consequences oriented crpg.
Truly shocking.

This game is clearly not for you.

I'm a member of NMA, a forum so niche that I think there are otaku usergroups with more members than us, and you question my interest in RPGs like Fallout?

That's a fanboi for you, as soon as logic runs out, it's back to The True Scotsman fallacy we go: Only a true scotsman can enjoy this game, ergo you must not be one.

I don't enjoy *PURE* talking games, like dialogue box to dialogue box, I like a bit of hybrid, I expect the occasional fight in the wasteland, I played Zork and enjoyed it, but obviously FO 1/2 is what I love most, and you cannot call those "dungeon crawlers"

Oh and the lead designer for AoD, Vince, he thinks Wizardry 8 is the most hardcore RPG ever lol. Yeah, try and explain that one away, because while I loved Wiz series, that was first and foremost a straight-up dungeon crawl.

 

[VDweller]

Pre war civilization didn't invent gunpower therefore I dislike setting

I have no idea what the hell the setting is...

Play the game to find out?

Nope. No skill is useless.

Great comebacker, I'll have to remember that: "No, you!"

It's not a comeback. It's a factual statement.

Game has quote about squad therefore there should be party members. What kind of logic is that?

Um, logical logic? You quote the premier fantasy squad series of all time (or Abercrombie, take your pick), at the splash screen, in order to set your tone... and then there's no squad, no compadres, no henchmen or hirelings. It's bizarre is what it is.

The quote is about the setting. It explains the word 'decadence' in the title and let you know what to expect.

"That kind of thing is common here. Conspiracies and assassinations and naked power-grabs. All the fun of decadence."

It doesn't say a word about squads, mercenary companies, and such.

Oh and the lead designer for AoD, Vince, he thinks Wizardry 8 is the most hardcore RPG ever lol.

I didn't. I said it's a hardcore game, not the most hardcore game there is.

 

[yarga]

wat

I have no idea what the hell the setting is...

Play the game to find out?

Ok, so, it's on me to be confused as to your mash-up of 3 genres, not on you for failing to adequately explain it? And I have to shell out $25 to find out whether it ever starts to make sense? Got it. Pass.

The quote is about the setting. It explains the word 'decadence' in the title and let you know what to expect.

"That kind of thing is common here. Conspiracies and assassinations and naked power-grabs. All the fun of decadence."

It doesn't say a word about squads, mercenary companies, and such.

Now you're being deliberately obtuse. I was talking about what *I* expected when I see a quote about the Black COMPANY at the start of game, not how *you* intended it. As a fan of the series, who read it as a tween/teen as it was released, I seem to recall it being from the POV of the band's historian, but it was always a group adventure, not a solo one. Sure, if I never read the Black Company, I could only read the quote without context, but having the experience of reading the series (and its a fair bet fans of the genre crpg you are shooting for would have read it also) I have a particular view of what a game that quotes *that* particular series would have in store for me. The wrong expectation, as it turns out.

Edit: Additionally, how could any game be "the real crpg in the spirit of fallout" the way the OP claims, and *not* have henchman/companions? Expectations not met, again, even Wasteland had a party system. I'm not saying a "hardcore" RPG can't be a solo one, I think the term "hardcore" is essentially meaningless the number of uses it has now, but I think "party" when I think classic CRPG, for the most part.

 

[Surf Solar]

So you hate on the games story not shoving everything in your face in the first two minutes?

Ok then...

 

[VDweller]

Re: wat

Ok, so, it's on me to be confused as to your mash-up of 3 genres, not on you for failing to adequately explain it?

Out of few thousand comments (the demo was released last March, so we got plenty of feedback), only two people couldn't understand the setting (you and another guy), so yeah, it's on you.

And I have to shell out $25 to find out whether it ever starts to make sense? Got it. Pass.

No. If you don't like the free demo, which was released for this very purpose, I can guarantee you that you won't like the game, so rejoice - your 25 dollars are safe and secure.

Now you're being deliberately obtuse. I was talking about what *I* expected when I see a quote about the Black COMPANY at the start of game, not how *you* intended it. As a fan of the series, who read it as a tween/teen as it was released, I seem to recall it being from the POV of the band's historian, but it was always a group adventure, not a solo one.

You saw the quote from the Black Company, didn't read the quote, assumed that the game is like the Black Company, discovered that it wasn't the case, started complaining.

Edit: Additionally, how could any game be "the real crpg in the spirit of fallout" the way the OP claims, and *not* have henchman/companions?

Were the Fallout games defined by the companions? No. PST was. Fallout was about the setting, atmosphere, great dialogues, role-playing. The companions tended to get in your way and didn't really make much difference.

Expectations not met...

I'd suggest to put your expectations aside and just play the game.

 

[yarga]

Re: wat

Ok, so, it's on me to be confused as to your mash-up of 3 genres, not on you for failing to adequately explain it?

Out of few thousand comments (the demo was released last March, so we got plenty of feedback), only two people couldn't understand the setting (you and another guy), so yeah, it's on you.

Now you're being deliberately obtuse. I was talking about what *I* expected when I see a quote about the Black COMPANY at the start of game, not how *you* intended it. As a fan of the series, who read it as a tween/teen as it was released, I seem to recall it being from the POV of the band's historian, but it was always a group adventure, not a solo one.

You saw the quote from the Black Company, didn't read the quote, assumed that the game is like the Black Company, discovered that it wasn't the case, started complaining.

Edit: Additionally, how could any game be "the real crpg in the spirit of fallout" the way the OP claims, and *not* have henchman/companions?

Were the Fallout games defined by the companions? No. PST was. Fallout was about the setting, atmosphere, great dialogues, role-playing. The companions tended to get in your way and didn't really make much difference.

I'll start at the end: For *you* the fallout games were not defined by companions (although I never used the term "defined", you added that, I find their mere *absence* to be not in the spirit of Fallout), but for *me* the stories of Cassidy, Ian, Dogmeat and others were central to my enjoyment of the game, and the genre. I didn't enjoy their wacko behavior sometimes, but I can't tell you how many times I reloaded to save that *&^%ing dog until the end. Their stories were the most interesting to me, and if it was hard for me to die and reload, it was ridic easy for them to do so (or get lost, wander away, stuck in landscape, etc).

No "spiritual" successor to Fallout will be considered without compadres, thank the Fallout devs for that, they hooked me, headaches and all.

As to my "not reading" the quote from the Black Compamy, good christ you are arrogant. Seriously, STFU and let someone else flog your game, you are insufferably insulting. You entirely ignore my point about BC being a squad fantasy, and your game not being one, cherrypicking your own words as if your interpretation of them is the only one that matters. You want to ignore my point, fine, I can't stop you, but quit telling me that what I read into your quote isn't there, If you quote Hitler it sure as shiat matters who the guy you're quoting is, as much as the words between the quotation marks does, moreso in that case. You know this.

As to how many of your early backers contributed a few posts that showed they all got it: Well duh, they've been following your game for years in some cases, and pre-ordered/played other demos and talked lore in your forums for hours. Of course they are comfortable in your 'verse, they've been there for years.

I've been there for days, and I do not get it. 1) The Roman Empire never fell... historical fantasy, great, I follow. 2) The Roman Empire having never fallen, advanced to some historical point, retaining all their knowledge of their own culture, but not their Gods, not their calendar (srsly, a Roman who doesn't know what year it is lol?) and not whatever else you pick and choose for them. It's bizarre. Romans are named for the Romulus and Remus, any child knows, how can they call themselves Romans and not know this mythology. That's why Cook created a completely new universe, based loosely on the legions, not beholden to their historical baggage. Because your version doesn't make the least bit of sense.

Maps? I'm in a post-Roman empire where? Rome had mapped all of the med, hell the Phoenicians had done that, plus a fair amount of Africa, Europe and the Middle East. How does that knowledge disappear but not the knowledge of how to work steel? I could go on but whatever.

That's why so many games begin in media res, with an amnesiac, or a Vault that's been sealed for so long and had their information completely controlled could now have a (small) community in a state of ignorance. Low magic, + tech, + historical Roman, but not, +apocalypse... too many variables, if you can't explain the background in a few sentences, you're gonna have problems:

"In 2077, the storm of world war had come again. In two brief hours, most of the planet was reduced to cinders. And from the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new civilization would struggle to arise. A few were able to reach the relative safety of the large underground Vaults. Your family was part of the group that entered Vault Thirteen. Imprisoned safely behind the large Vault door, under a mountain of stone, a generation has lived without knowledge of the outside world. Life in the Vault is about to change."

How I would describe Fallout to friends "RPG set in post-apocalypse America, in a retro-futuristic reality where technology and history diverged from the beginning of the Atomic Era and followed the glowing might-have-been paths of those techo-optimists until World War III"

Or just "Robots, retro-futurism and radiated mutants".

Your game: "Intentionally mysterious, yet somehow historical Roman Empire (but not mythology, geography or many other things, like assassins guild, that was Persian) alternate-reality, post-apocalyptic mash up with magic, tech and Black Company (somehow, but not in the sense that you have a squad, or that you necessarily have to be a merc)."

That's how *I* would describe it.

 

[VDweller]

Re: wat

No "spiritual" successor to Fallout will be considered without compadres...

Possibly, but AoD is not a spiritual successor to Fallout. It's inspired by Fallout and Arcanum, but it's not the same thing.

As to my "not reading" the quote from the Black Compamy, good christ you are arrogant. Seriously, STFU and let someone else flog your game, you are insufferably insulting. You entirely ignore my point about BC being a squad fantasy, and your game not being one...

The quote describes the world and explains 'decadence' in the title. It doesn't fucking matter what book it came from. Can you not understand that?

Epigraph - a quotation set at the beginning of a literary work or one of its divisions to suggest its theme. The theme in this case is the content of the quote, not what the book is about. This is how these things work.

As to how many of your early backers contributed a few posts that showed they all got it: Well duh, they've been following your game for years in some cases, and pre-ordered/played other demos and talked lore in your forums for hours. Of course they are comfortable in your 'verse, they've been there for years.

Sure, let's imply that everyone who pre-ordered (about a thousand people) is an old fan. Clearly, there is no way someone new to the game could have figured out the setting and enjoyed the game enough to pre-order.

I've been there for days, and I do not get it. 1) The Roman Empire never fell... historical fantasy, great, I follow. 2) The Roman Empire having never fallen, advanced to some historical point, retaining all their knowledge of their own culture, but not their Gods, not their calendar (srsly, a Roman who doesn't know what year it is lol?) and not whatever else you pick and choose for them. It's bizarre. Romans are named for the Romulus and Remus, any child knows, how can they call themselves Romans and not know this mythology.

It's not the Roman Empire and there are no references to Rome in the game.

...Black Company (somehow, but not in the sense that you have a squad, or that you necessarily have to be a merc)."