Age of Decadence

[Gonzalez]

A game that I really want to like, but it wont let me play it

Ok, so it's a tough game, and it relies hevily in character buil, that is, you don't get our character build right: you are screwed, and I mean raped in the worse possible way. And yes, I'm butthurt, my anus is thorn and bleeding after so much rape, this is not a game for the occasional gamer, either beause it's difficult to play or difficult to master/understand how it works, and thus requiring much time mastering/learning how to play. Usually these games are more rewarding, and you can see that when you do master them, but I was unable thus far.

It does seem to have an interesting sotry, wich is yet more frustrating because I can't progress in this game. And it's not the difficulty, Megaman was difficult, Ninja Gaiden was difficult, but after enough tries you get the hang of it and you manage to get a little farther. This game is just broken.

The only way I figure how to play this game and make any kind of progress is the following:

Never fight: In every single fight I've seen so far, is you vs 5 guys, or you vs 3 guys or you vs 7 guys with no opportunity of winning, since in most cases the enemies will be, even more skilled than you in combat if possible. The only fight I was able to win was with a 3 vs 4 fight, guess what side you are on. Any other fight you will not only be outnumbered but most times also outskilled by the oponents, even if you make a combat oriented character. Now, the game makes it clear head on that you are not supposed to be a hero, just a guy, and you must pck your fights. Thus far, even the early fights, every fight is one you don't want to pick, so that is out of the question. The game doesn't want you to be a hero, but you have to be one in order to win fights as described above, and you're not.

Save your skill points and don't spend them as soon as you got them: This is the only real way I can see myself advancing in this game, you have to trial and error every situation, save before you approach any situation, and asses what skills you are going to need. Then spend the exact ammount of points, not more because you may need them later for other skills, and pass the skill check, be it persuasion, disguise, street smarts, etc. Be very careful with this, specially because you will not be able to "grind" any more skill points, and if you run out of them when you need a new skill to progrss, you will be stuck.

Personally I don't like this kind of gaming, it looks forced and unnatural, just trial and error and saving and loading at each fork. You can't live with your mistaks because if you make one you will be stucked and unable to progress in the game, so the skills choice is not really a choice, but it's defined by what you need in order to advance in each specific quest or situation, so you can't make mistakes, and it looks more like a puzzle game than an RPG, a shame because it looks like the story is really interesting and promising.

 

[34thcell]

The combat just isn't that hard. The balance was perhaps a bit off in earlier builds, in that crafting builds were much stronger than pure combat builds, but currently you can use standard RPG logic and just dump non-physical stats and kill everything. Combat can still be difficult for hybrid builds, depending on the path you take, but it's still much easier than it used to be.

As for trial and error in the text adventures, it's always going to be more beneficial to hold on to skill points and save scum, but most non-combat faction quests are well designed with plenty of solutions using different skills. You can also survive failure a lot of the time or betray your employer. Not much else the devs can do.

 

[Emperor]

Combat had become less complicated or I understand better the system now. Basically everything matters, the character build, the weapon,the metal of the weapon, the type of attack, the armor you use, the helmet, etc. Against heavy enemies you use heavy attacks and so on and THC (To hit chance IIRC) should be always over 50% or better yet 60% or you will never hit, it value varies with each weapon you use alongside with your speed and armor so keep an eye out in their descriptions.

NEVER NEVER use helmets, unless it's a light one. Those bastards takes away good chunks of THC in favor of defense (which is not quite much IMO) the same goes for heavy armor and some medium armors, sure you have more defense but you will hit less your enemies and they will eventually kill you. Shield is somewhat the same but less worse and they attack can THROW your enemies to the GROUND ( which give you a basically 100% THC).

Don't forget about nets and such, especially the net, they can stop an enemy for some time which can give you more chance to hit or time to focus on other enemies. Don't forget to use the background, use corners and corridors, if 3 or more enemies surround you are ded.

Use the training option to...train, is a good way to master the combat.

The trial and error in this game is fantastic, even if you have done everything with a class, if you start again with another skills a whole lot of opportunities open, this is one or maybe THE biggest reason this game is not finished yet, they need to account every path, choice and skills which is huge in this game.