Age of Decadence

[Wrath of Dagon]

The extended demo (R4) is now available for those who preordered. This is about 60% of the game (2 hubs). http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,3493.0.html

[Oner]

Tempted to download it, but I think I'll wait for the full game.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Tempted to download it, but I think I'll wait for the full game.

I will as well. See you in 2020.

[Wrath of Dagon]

The new stories in Maadoran are pretty much self-contained, as was the Teron demo. And the game is meant to be replayed many times anyway, to see all the different paths and events from all different points of view.

[Darkpriest]

Hmm, guys, I noticed it on Steam Early access now. I wanted to grab that game before, but would like to make sure that it is a really good purchase.

 

So what are your thoughts on the current state of the game? How is it shaping up? and most important, is it really worth it?

[Labadal]

Try the demo that is also on STEAM.

[Darkpriest]

Try the demo that is also on STEAM.

 

I did try the demo long time before and it was interesting I was just wondering how people who have this game rate it?

[Labadal]

Oh, I haven't played it myself even if I am interested.

[Oner]

I only played the second demo, which is ages old, and only contained a few starter quests.
Basically, it was awesomesauce. You get a different viewpoint of the initial events depending on your class, the world is an interesting mix between pos-apocalyptic and ancient Rome, and the characters are very down to earth, believable. I'm not sure how well the character progression will work, because social skills seem to be the One to Rule Them All skills, and mixing and matching didn't seem viable as far as combat/non-combat skills are concerned. They said they wanted combat oriented builds to be the Hard Mode, but IIRC they redesigned combat since then.

[Darkpriest]

Hmmm... I decided to grab it,  I got it, and played it... to be honest, while the concept is really interesting and the story points look good, the execution is very unappealing.

 

You basically have to metagame hard to be able to progress in the game at all. Create a character -> check the starting dialogs skill tests, reroll with new character and put skill points accordingly, and then always just keep your gained points until the moment you hit an obstacle with some tests that you currently can't pass, and add points in those skills.

 

Do not bother with combat skills at all. While the combat has many options attack types etc. It simply sucks and is frustrating. Unless you build some kind a full dodge, one weapon (spear it seems is the best choice) super high dex character, you will just die whenever you will encounter more than 1 enemy.

 

The problem is, that if you won't metagame the skill points assignment, you will hit hard obstacles that you will not be able to overcome with combat, because from what I've seen, you do not have party members, and you always hit packs of 3 -5 various types of enemies, which would be a really good challenge for a party, but are a complete hard wall for a solo character.

Edited November 30, 2013 by Darkpriest

[Tigranes]

The metagaming aspect is true to an extent (i.e. never spend all your SP), but not entirely, because when you fail at something this leads to other outcomes. You can also metagame until you beat strategy game missions without losing a single unit, but...

 

Combat is the most fun part of the game, actually. Yes, you are meant to focus on one weapon & one defense stat, and also pump some of the combat attributes, or you will just get splattered all over the place. The idea being you can't be a smooth talking lock picking spear wielding dodging alchemist. An example of a character that can beat the majority of enemies out there would be an Assassin with 5 STR / 9 DEX / 5 CON + starting with something like 3 Dagger and 3 Dodge. Still leaves sufficient points to pass various Sneak and other checks in the game.

 

I do think Block remains underpowered and high dex characters have an easier time, and that the game requires you to die a few times to figure out which challenges are too hard for you right now and which you should do first. But after some acclimatising I'm having a blast. I think I've tried about a dozen characters, 4 of them have finished the whole demo, about 4 were 5-minute experiments to play around with skills, about 4 I found I had sunk points in suboptimal ways. I still got fun out of those characters (who could for example win some of the battles).

 

If you do want to give it a go I can give tips based on what you're trying to do. 

[Darkpriest]

Well first of all, i had an idea, of a preatorian that is good at eti and persuasion, but is also good with sword and shield, so really not a "jack of all trades" but someone with specific focuses in each of the trees.
 

I used a template for Praetor - 7 str, 7 dex, 6 con, 6 PE, 7 int, 6 cha

 

2 dagger

3 swords

3 block

2 crit strike

 

3 eti,

3 persu.

2 streetwise

2 trading

 

I thought it will be ok, it actual fit very well the first few dialogs, got a free praetorian armor and some other stuff, which i won't spoil, but the first situation where i could not deal in the dialog and resulted in combat, I could not beat it without 1000000000 reloads and it was a 1 enemy. He could not hit a thing with a gladius, while wearing shield and helmet and the enemy was hitting like 90% of times...

 

Then I decided "screw combat in this game" and started load/save route with hoarding skill points to build up only social points that were required at that time. Managed to reach the second town and do I think only two quests there and then got bored that a nice armor reward from the ending of plot line in Teron can't be used.

 

My second character was a Merchant:

 

5, 6, 5, 7, 8, 9

 

2 dagger, 3 dodge

 

2 disguise, 3 persu, 3 eti, 2 streetwise, 2 lore, 3 trading

 

ended up with 2 disguise, 7 persu, 5 eti, 5 trade, 5 streetwise, 4 lore and managed to complete all the quests in both cities related to the main plot line for Commercium and some sidequests. (had to hoard 1k gold for one thing though, which otherwise would always result in combat)

 

I got frustrated to no end once, when I've managed to get for a certain event 5 Imperial Guard bodyguards and they could not beat 3 assassins without like 30 reloads... at that point I thought I will just go some kind of a rage mode.

 

My last char is a merc

 

8,8,8,6,5,5

 

4 spear, 4 block, 3 crafting, 2 streetwise

 

I wanted the guy to excel at fight in heavy armor... and guess what.... this build sucks... cannot even handle one unarmored enemy at times, not to mention more than one enemy

 

Heavy armor makes you have some AP restrictions, and you can't dodge in it, but wait, there is more stupid things, helmets and shields penelize your to hit chance so heavily, that you can't hit a barn, even when standing next to it.

 

He also barely blocks anything (with 4 points!) and it seems like armor is penetrated by sneezing at it. I guess that in the mind of designers a scant with a dagger should beat a heavily armored soldier with longer reach.

 

Now, dex based assassin for example can have 1134230000 action points, with his dagger that takes almost no AP to use, and can dodge and get free counter attacks (sometimes flurries) that go through armors...

 

I think that Romans apparently were doing things bad... they should have used nothing more than rags and daggers and would never cease to exist.

 

I do not know what is the idea about penelizing THC so heavily by using helmets and shields.... you are already penelized by not being able to dodge and having restrictions on your max AP. It also feels like there needs to be some improvement to shield defense and ability to block attacks. Heavy armors should not also get penetrated by 80% of hits... what's the point of it then? blunt weapons, ok, they cause blunt trauma, or some special high AP cost attacks, that also can cause an Attack of Opportunity and be interrupted... otherwise it is really pointless to go any other route than full dex, dodge, "weapon" if you want to have some decent combat experience.

 

At least I feel like it right now.

 

If this game requires you to min max from the start, just to have a shot at the game, then it is a bad design IMO. I can agree, that you should not be able to do everything with your character ( so no stealthy lockpicking masters of lore, trade and oratory that can shot beans with a bow and tumble with spear in one hand and sword shield in the other while bouncing the attacks off with the shield on his back) , but to be good with 2 weapon techniques and 2 non-combat skills is something I would expect from a good game.

[Darkpriest]

Hmm since I can't edit the above.

 

I rolled with 10 str, 10 dex, 7 con, 5, PE, 5 Int, 4 Cha drifter

 

went for 4 dodge 4 spear 3 crafting, and he had 0 problem with dealing with initial combat encounter with 2 thieves (70-80 THC and dodging 80% of attacks)... The balance of armored vs non-armored combat builds needs a lot of fixing in that game

[Wrath of Dagon]

Keep in mind this is still Beta and hasn't been balanced well at this point. I think most of your issues are being addressed as the developers are getting a lot of feedback similar to yours. Also just having the right combat skills isn't enough, combat is meant to be very hard and in most battles you have to figure out a good strategy first to have a chance of winning (battles that have been properly balanced that is).

[Wrath of Dagon]

Lots of content added : http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,4031.0.html Also pretty screenshots. Warning : Many spoilers.

[Wrath of Dagon]

The third and final hub (Ganezzar) is firmly set to be released Jan 19, although it won't quite have everything at that point. Also some stuff on their design process : http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,6067.0.html

[Wrath of Dagon]

As mentioned in another thread, after 11 long years, after many have lost hope, Age of Decadence is finally out! Available on Steam and GoG, where it's featured prominently. If you're not sure, at least try the demo, it's on Steam but I don't see it on GoG, although there's 30 day money back guaranty. Edit: Here's some info for the uninitiated : http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,6890.0.html

Edited October 15, 2015 by Wrath of Dagon

[Hurlshort]

I'll be picking it up at the end of the month, it looks like they really pulled it off.  Huzzah!

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Well ****, I bet $20 that this wouldn't be released until 2020.

[Darkpriest]

Do you still have to hoard skill points and metagame with saves in order to be able to complete the game? Do you still have to heavily min-max for combat otherwise?

[Rosbjerg]

Would you look at that, thread is too long as well, so might as well make a new one for launch. New one here.