Community The Age of Incline: RPG Codex's 2012-2016 GOTY Results

[Lurker King]

I am not sure about this. I am obviously not part of the old guard but reading the old threads made me see lots (relative to the user-base at the time) of short negative sentences that didn't contribute anything. I have a feeling the negative ratings removed a lot of "kys" comments and the like from a thread.

This only made shitpsters mad with resentment, which is considerably worse. In the good old days we had only brofists, and in the golden age of the codex we probably had only walls of text and no memes.

 

[Zeriel]

Negative brofists were the real mistake. Before, there was just two sorts of feedback for posts: ignoring them, or brofisting them. Now, you can go around passive aggressively telling everyone how much you hate them. People are far more likely to use the panoply of options to tell someone they're a faggot than agree with them. From a hard-knocks perspective this is all well and good, but from an open expression perspective it's kind of shit. I've been on internet since 90's so I don't care, but I'm sure there's plenty of people who just stop posting controversial things because their fee-fees get hurt. Peer pressure works. This is also why Reddit is so bad. At least here negative ratings don't hide your posts from everyone.

I am not sure about this. I am obviously not part of the old guard but reading the old threads made me see lots (relative to the user-base at the time) of short negative sentences that didn't contribute anything. I have a feeling the negative ratings removed a lot of "kys" comments and the like from a thread.

That's better, though. If you want to slag someone off, that's fine. In fact, it's admirable. But you should have to actually put yourself out there, not just tag every single one of someone's posts with "HAHA WHAT A FAG, WRONG OPINION". Then again, maybe I'm just being an old man yelling at the kids from my porch, especially in light of the fact that once we didn't even have brofists.

kill yourself

 

[an Administrator]

On a different note, I've checked what percent of all players have reviewed the game they were playing and what I find strange is that UR, which has 89% positive reviews ratio has this number so low. I have my theories though.

Age of Decadence: Owners: 61,600 ± 7,250 (1,240 reviews = 2% of all players)

Witcher 3: Owners: 2,768,885 ± 48,434 (85,415 revies, 3.08%)

Neo Scavenger: Owners: 149,090 ± 11,278 (2,574 reviews, 1.7%)

Pillars of Eternity: Owners: 878,249 ± 27,347 (9,157 reviews, 1%)

Underrail: Owners: 67,626 ± 7,596 (1,080 reviews =1.6% of all players)

Undertale: Owners: 2,426,290 ± 45,359 (76,361 reviews, 3.1%)

Fallout 4: Owners: 4,097,084 ± 58,811 (90,041 reviews, 2.2%)

P.S.
Woah, I haven't seen Vault Dweller this upset in a long, long time. Achievement unlocked Mareus.

It's because of Deep Coverns that most players drop the game.

 

[Arthandas]

how good are those 2 together? Good enough to replay? Is it requiem(for skyrim) level overhaul? Not talking about its extra content, but combat mechanics change

Very good, they are made to work together (there's also a third one for the UI, I don't remember the name). Gameplaywise they change A LOT but it's not a total overhaul. Mostly fixes (apparently many vanilla skills very completely bugged or didn't work at all), tweaks and new features. wg_ghost managed to do some crazy shit with scripts - it's not just tweaked numbers.

As for Skyrim, I don't know what it is.

 

[Konjad]

I'll be live with felipepepe and Matt Barton in just under an hour (1 PM Central) on the radio show talking about these poll results. 96.5 FM The Answer in Little Rock, online at http://965fmtheanswer.com (direct stream link: http://saleminteractivemedia.com/ListenLive/Player/KHTEFM).

i'm listening...

 

[Roguey]

It's because of Deep Coverns that most players drop the game.

I doubt most people even get that far.

 

[Konjad]

He mentioned my nickname. I was on the radio. I am famous now, all chicks are mine.

 

[Konjad]

"Steve's pressing the buttons" - the new codex meme.

 

[Lhynn]

. Then we have some people like you, Lhynn, and Jazz who are convinced that it's actually a bad RPG.

Now now, i never said it was a bad RPG, i said it was a CYOA that failed to frame the choices and consequences in an engaging way. I liked AoD a lot, and in theory i should love it. In practice my playthrough ended somewhere in the second city after i killed some hobos because they wouldnt let me pass on my way to exploring the rest map. I didnt keep playing because the story was largely uninteresting, the impressive array of choices before me was always reduced to 1 because of my build, which put me off tremendously and because i was playing quality CYOAs at the time with a more interesting setting and characters.
Like you are familiar with these complains, and had you allowed for more options in a single playthrough that didnt depend on character builds, or that were more accesible to jack of many trades that didnt metagame the game would have been better received, but for that you would have had to redesign the character system and its progression i guess. And again, i think its a good offering, its certainly better than the diarrhea we have been getting from most of the AA devs.

 

[Goral]

A bit of a let down, Murphy's law at work because supposedly felipepepe could be heard perfectly well yesterday.

Edit:
Oh man, it's a total disaster... Worst radio podcast I've ever heard.

 

[Lurker King]

Lhynn, would you say that "King of the Dragon Pass" and "Darklands" are CYOAs and not cRPGs?

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Lol, Matt: "Quite an interesting community, not your typical fanbase"

 

[l3loodAngel]

Liten you Konjob (dumb fuck). It's not about disagreeing with me, VD or anyone else. It's about picking a game without RPG mechanics as the BEST RPG of the 5 Years.

 

[Zeriel]

Matt still pretending he isn't JC, eh?

 

[Konjad]

View attachment 7811 View attachment 7814

Liten you Konjob (dumb fuck). It's not about disagreeing with me, VD or anyone else. It's about picking a game without RPG mechanics as the BEST RPG of the 5 Years.

lol and what are the 'rpg mechanics', srsly, because it's one of the genres that is as fluid as you mom's boyfriends

 

[l3loodAngel]

View attachment 7811 View attachment 7814

Liten you Konjob (dumb fuck). It's not about disagreeing with me, VD or anyone else. It's about picking a game without RPG mechanics as the BEST RPG of the 5 Years.

lol and what are the 'rpg mechanics', srsly, because it's one of the genres that is as fluid as you mom's boyfriends

No dumb fuck, no. Only retards argue or don't understand what is an RPG. If by now you don't understand, you will never will...

 

[Darth Roxor]

lol look at all the noobs arguing the obvious

we have established a long time ago already that rpg = really profitable game

 

[Mareus]

Woah, I haven't seen Vault Dweller this upset in a long, long time. Achievement unlocked Mareus.

Upset about what? Someone having a different opinion or thinking that AoD is shit? After years of processing feedback I'm indifferent at best. The only reason I got into this conversation is to tell Mareus that he can actually buy weapons before the starting quest and that he has more options in that infiltration quest.

Yes, lets just pretend as if I didnt explain on 3 occasions that the problem is not the inability to buy weapons before you accept the quest, but that you cant buy the weapons once you accepted the quest due to retarded teleporting mechanic. And let us also pretend that having an extra option would not make the game any better. But on the other hand, you get extra points for pretending to be a retard so that you can create your own strawman.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

we have established a long time ago already that rpg = really profitable game

 

[Mareus]

Jesus fucking Christ. Design is a very specific thing, a blueprint, a detailed plan, etc. Sandbox is a genre. All it means is that you can roam free and do whatever you want.

Again, word games. I am not denying it is a genre. I am telling you that deciding a genre is a design choice. Hell, if you want to call design a blueprint and a plan, go ahead. Its just another word for design. Go check in the dictionary what a synonym for the word design is, and perhaps you will also notice just how unreasonable you are being here. Although considering how dishonest your other answers have been, I doubt it. I wont even bother with the rest of your non-sense, since you are either objectively wrong or are intentionally arguing with your own strawmen again.

 

[norolim]

Also, buttons are a cancer on the forum.

Some Codexers refuse to use any buttons except

 

[almondblight]

Having an option to kiss Annah in one dialogue is now a full-blown romance? What?

She'll quit your party unless you tell her you love her (I ended up leaving her in the caves below Curst).

 

[Sizzle]

Having an option to kiss Annah in one dialogue is now a full-blown romance? What?

She'll quit your party unless you tell her you love her (I ended up leaving her in the caves below Curst).

Never had that happen to me, could it be tied to their moral ratings which were messed up pre-fanpatch?

 

[vdweller]

It's the decline son. In the next version of codex buttons will add themselves to the posts.

I don't know about the son part man. I'm over 30. Thanks for the insight though.

I'll be live with felipepepe and Matt Barton in just under an hour (1 PM Central) on the radio show talking about these poll results. 96.5 FM The Answer in Little Rock, online at http://965fmtheanswer.com (direct stream link: http://saleminteractivemedia.com/ListenLive/Player/KHTEFM).

Listened a bit. Too bad it was technically screwed...reminded me of an interview I did for DarkStation last year for Emerge. Thank God it wasn't live: In the first 10 minutes, the main hosts' PC decided to die and we had to do introductions all over. Then, the weather in my place went apeshit and the connection was cut every 2 minutes. I had to turn on Wifi on my smartphone to be able to proceed. When we finished, it was something like 5 AM (for me, for them ot was afternoon).

 

[Vault Dweller]

Woah, I haven't seen Vault Dweller this upset in a long, long time. Achievement unlocked Mareus.

Upset about what? Someone having a different opinion or thinking that AoD is shit? After years of processing feedback I'm indifferent at best. The only reason I got into this conversation is to tell Mareus that he can actually buy weapons before the starting quest and that he has more options in that infiltration quest.

Yes, lets just pretend as if I didnt explain on 3 occasions that the problem is not the inability to buy weapons before you accept the quest, but that you cant buy the weapons once you accepted the quest due to retarded teleporting mechanic. And let us also pretend that having an extra option would not make the game any better. But on the other hand, you get extra points for pretending to be a retard so that you can create your own strawman.

I have no idea what you're talking about. None whatso-fucking-ever.

Here is how the quest works. You start the game at the inn, the innkeeper tells you to go guard one of the guests, you can say sure or you can say I need to buy some weapons first. Then you go back, tell the innkeeper you're ready and go upstairs. After the guest is killed (that's one outcome you can't change but that's the intro basically), the innkeeper offers you to an optional quest. At this point you aren't offered another option to go and buy weapons because now it's the middle of the night and because you (the player) just did 5 min ago and nothing has changed. If that's what's bothering you, then I don't know what to tell you. If you overlooked the fact that you could have bought weapons & armor earlier, well, now you know.

Jesus fucking Christ. Design is a very specific thing, a blueprint, a detailed plan, etc. Sandbox is a genre. All it means is that you can roam free and do whatever you want.

Again, word games. I am not denying it is a genre. I am telling you that deciding a genre is a design choice. Hell, if you want to call design a blueprint and a plan, go ahead. Its just another word for design. Go check in the dictionary what a synonym for the word design is, and perhaps you will also notice just how unreasonable you are being here. Although considering how dishonest your other answers have been, I doubt it. I wont even bother with the rest of your non-sense, since you are either objectively wrong or are intentionally arguing with your own strawmen again.

This is borderline obtuse.

Let's say some developers get together and say let's make an RPG and make tons of money. What a great idea! What kind of RPG? A sandbox RPG with awesome graphics! Why should Bethesda make all the money?

Is it a design discussion? It's not. The sandbox thing merely indicates a general direction at best, a personal preference (I like sandbox games!) or a business decision (I like money!). It's the design phase that fleshes it out: the character system, combat, magic, quest design, travel system, inventory, dialogue, etc. Until this phase is done, you have no design at all because sandbox can be done in many different ways. Tell me you understand this.

 

[Lurker King]

Here is how the quest works. You start the game at the inn, the innkeeper tells you to go guard one of the guests, you can say sure or you can say I need to buy some weapons first. Then you go back, tell the innkeeper you're ready and go upstairs. After the guest is killed (that's one outcome you can't change but that's the intro basically), the innkeeper offers you to an optional quest. At this point you aren't offered another option to go and buy weapons because now it's the middle of the night and because you (the player) just did 5 min ago and nothing has changed. If that's what's bothering you, then I don't know what to tell you. If you overlooked the fact that you could have bought weapons & armor earlier, well, now you know.

The player doesn't need to buy weapons. He starts with a weapon in his inventory according with his skills - for instance, if you have more points in axe, you start with axe, etc. If you decide to move foward without equipping the weapon, you have to waste one turn to equip the weapon. So the "poor design" is basically lack of handholding.

 

[vdweller]

Is it a design discussion? It's not. The sandbox thing merely indicates a general direction at best, a personal preference (I like sandbox games!) or a business decision (I like money!). It's the design phase that fleshes it out: the character system, combat, magic, quest design, travel system, inventory, dialogue, etc. Until this phase is done, you have no design at all because sandbox can be done in many different ways. Tell me you understand this.

Mmmm...you could say that it's a very early stage of the design process, although actually fleshing out those initial mental directions and turning them into a complete game is like 99% of what game design is about.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Here is how the quest works. You start the game at the inn, the innkeeper tells you to go guard one of the guests, you can say sure or you can say I need to buy some weapons first. Then you go back, tell the innkeeper you're ready and go upstairs. After the guest is killed (that's one outcome you can't change but that's the intro basically), the innkeeper offers you to an optional quest. At this point you aren't offered another option to go and buy weapons because now it's the middle of the night and because you (the player) just did 5 min ago and nothing has changed. If that's what's bothering you, then I don't know what to tell you. If you overlooked the fact that you could have bought weapons & armor earlier, well, now you know.

The player doesn't need to buy weapons. He starts with a weapon in his inventory according with his skills - for instance, if you have more points in axe, you start with axe, etc. If you decide to move foward without equipping the weapon, you have to waste one turn to equip the weapon. So the "poor design" is basically lack of handholding.

But if you want to buy a different axe or better armor, you can.

 

[Lurker King]

But if you want to buy a different axe or better armor, you can.

You can, but you don’t need to, and while I’m dismissing this criticism as a demand for handholding, implementing simple things like ensuring that the player starts equipped and presenting information with a more pristine interface goes a long way. Right now, I start the game and the camera is focused on the wall. I think this is a bug because I’m loading in other saves and the camera is always unfocused. I refocus the camera on my character and there is an ugly F1 and a bunch of shenanigans written. I click on it and a screen pops up with a manual. I read it and close it. Finally, I can play the game. I start a fight. The ugly F1 appears again accompanied by a grotesque lump with a bunch of useless information (attack rating, defense rating, etc.). This is completely useless because when I hover the mouse over my enemy I can see clearly the THC, which is all that matters. I click on the lump, but it doesn’t go away, it only retracts. This annoy me immensely because I will have to see the border of the lump in the corner of the screen for the rest of the game. Anyone who doesn’t know you would think you are obsessed with spreadsheets. I noticed that players struggle with these simple things, but you don’t give the importance that is required. Now compare AoD with Banner Saga. I start the game with a fight. The game carefully teach me step by step each command, icon, etc. You could say this is handholding, but I think this is just presenting information in a more didactic way. This is not an exercise in futility. You need to invest more on the presentation because you are losing costumers over this.