Age of Decadence

[Slowtrain]

lol.

 

I love Grommy.

 

 

You're probably right, but given that "proper rpg gameplay" is going to be a pretty subjective concept, I can still take away some meaning from the term, even if my own personal defininition of "proper rpg gameplay" might (and probably is, though not terribly) somewhat different from Wrath's.

[Purkake]

If one were to use "good" or "deep" instead of "proper", one might argue that such rpg gameplay would be characterized by applying the rpg part to the gameplay, whether the game be shooter, action-rpg or something completely different.

[entrerix]

that video was definitely better than I was expecting based off some earlier stuff I'd seen. I'm now more interested.

 

its really going to come down to how well it sells it's story and atmosphere for me, plus if the combat turns out unbalanced or plagued with bad AI then it'll be a no-go

 

how many people are actively doing QA on this?

[Thorton_AP]

How much "branching" can we expect in the game?

 

The game hasn't really been on my radar at all aside from this thread, but if there's actual significant branching I'll be both surprised and impressed and will definitely look into this a bit more.

 

I think the branching and replayability is one of the main design goals they are aiming for, and judging from various previews and stuff there appears to be quite a number of ways to accomplish things depending on how you play. I believe they've said it will be a fairly short game (comparable to Fallout) but very replayable.

 

It should be noted that the game seems very based in the "text-adventure" style, which might turn some people off.

 

 

I played PST, so I can tolerate text if the game gives me a reason to.

 

I don't mind a shorter game. I think for a game with multiple paths it's probably better actually. There were things I wanted to do different in DAO and FONV, but the games were so long I always found myself losing steam.

[HoonDing]

Will the game be released in Europe?

[Wrath of Dagon]

How much "branching" can we expect in the game?

 

The game hasn't really been on my radar at all aside from this thread, but if there's actual significant branching I'll be both surprised and impressed and will definitely look into this a bit more.

There will be seven distinct paths through the game, and countless permutations along those paths. There are seven factions you can join, each of which has its own story through the game, and on top of that you can double cross and triple cross those factions. Additionally, your playthrough as a lore master will be completely different than if you chose to play as a fighter. And of course the quests have multiple solutions, it's all designed for maximum reactivity and player choice. One example given was if you join the assassins, there's a quest where you assassinate someone (or you can assassinate your partner instead). If you join the merchant guild, you set up the victim to be assassinated. The reason they can implement all that is that quests rely heavily on text adventure with screens inteface, as Starwars mentioned, while exploration and combat are in 3-D.

 

Will the game be released in Europe?

Right now they only announced sales through their website, which they will ship anywhere in the world assuming you want the boxed copy.

Edited January 7, 2011 by Wrath of Dagon

[Thorton_AP]

Hmmm, text adventure with screen interface? What do you mean?

 

Is there a screenshot example? Like I say my interest only piqued a few hours ago

[Wrath of Dagon]

This is what I was able to find quickly: http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php?topic=163.30 I'll see if I can find something more recent.

 

Edit: Here's a long text adventure, that's probably a lot more text than a typical quest though : http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?artic...;ref=0&id=2

 

Edit2: I finally just watched the video, and it seems to be showing the typical quest set up. You get several screens of text adventure, then depending on the outcome of that you may go into 3-D combat followed by some more text screens.

Edited January 7, 2011 by Wrath of Dagon

[Tigranes]

My understanding was that AOD includes some 'text adventures', where either a certain section is played out purely through dialogue choices and checks, but otherwise, the game works 'normally' - you walk around, there are dialogues, there is combat, etc.

 

The quest in the video seems to be one such 'text adventure' + 'normal combat', but certainly we've seen a lot of other dialogue that is standard conversation + skill checks.

[Thorton_AP]

Ah I can see that. Sort of similar to how King Arthur: THe Roleplaying Game probably did some stuff.

[Wrath of Dagon]

My understanding was that AOD includes some 'text adventures', where either a certain section is played out purely through dialogue choices and checks, but otherwise, the game works 'normally' - you walk around, there are dialogues, there is combat, etc.

 

The quest in the video seems to be one such 'text adventure' + 'normal combat', but certainly we've seen a lot of other dialogue that is standard conversation + skill checks.

The dialogues would be a part of the text adventures though. Yes, there is exploration, like the city in the demo, but my understanding is that the quests would be mostly like in the video. There probably would be some walking around sections though which the video didn't show. If you look at dialogue in the demo, you basically get the same screen as the text adventure screen.

 

Edit: It's like it shows in my first link, you walk up to the tower in normal 3-D, then you get the 3 text adventure screens shown, then you might get some more text screens or combat or have to walk somewhere else, that would be a typical quest.

Edited January 7, 2011 by Wrath of Dagon

[Tigranes]

I know, but we've also seen plenty of dialogue that are "normal" (i.e. Hello, what's up, yes I'll kill that bastard in return for that shiny pom-pom on your muffin, g'bye), and surely building a fully explorable 3D world is kind of silly if all your quests are going to be a series of screens. The way Vince et al talk about the text adventures also mark them out to be a specific part of the gameplay rather than how the entire game works.

 

Hard to say for sure but I haven't seen anything that leads me to think AOD quests will mostly go that way.

[Wrath of Dagon]

I think what you're talking about are the 3 long text adventures they've added, which is what the RPG watch article linked above is talking about. The normal quests would involve much shorter text adventure parts and more "actiony" parts, though that depends on whether you're going for the combat or non-combat solutions.

 

Edit: Here are some more screens which hopefully clarify how quests work http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index...opic,901.0.html

Edited January 7, 2011 by Wrath of Dagon

[Tigranes]

 

Nothing earth-shattering but sounds fun.

[WorstUsernameEver]

It's a pretty badly thought-out, badly put together video. Definitely not the way they should have shown their C&C.

 

Also, Oscar has the most hilarious accent. Love the guy.

[Tigranes]

Yeah, I think it was too hastily put together and they're catching flack for it on their forum. I think Vince & co have done a lot of things right as an indie developer but sometimes they're too concerned with doing the "we listen to the fans" thing. I guess I just like seeing the stuff since I'm sold on the game already, but it's not very good presentation.

[sorophx]

so far I've not been impressed, but if they do the combat like Troika did in ToEE, and provide better writing and design, I'll definitely be looking forward to playing this

[Wrath of Dagon]

Some cool new finishing animations:

[Hurlshort]

Some cool new finishing animations:

 

The graphics look pretty good. Hopefully it will come out eventually.

[Tale]

Oh wow. Those are impressive.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Some cool new finishing animations:

 

The graphics look pretty good. Hopefully it will come out eventually.

At least there should be a self-contained demo with about 15% of the game out soon.

[Tigranes]

Yeah, I'm just hoping that the inevitable won't happen, the demo comes out after 3 months, 50 hardcore fans give back 50 pages of feedback, Vince and Co actually be awesome dev guys and consider that feedback... for another year

 

Just waiting until I can preorder, really.

[Tigranes]

 

New AOD update, shows AI schedules and stuff like that.

[Purkake]

Wow, mad animations. Any chance the actual game part is coming out between now and the heat death of the universe?

[HoonDing]

Funny (and perhaps applicable?) how

is one of the related videos.