AoD demo discussion.

[Black]

I'll play it and tell you how full of SHIT it is.
Stay SHI- err, tuned.

 

[Dark Matter]

Already played a game. I chose sword as my weapon proficiency and went for a balanced build (2 damage bonus, 10 APs, 45 HPs, 10 accuracy bonus). I lost against the 4th guy (the one with the warhammer).

General impressions:
- Good presentation. The music, interface, artwork (in loading screen), writing are all solid.
- Camera is a bit iffy. I wish there was an option to make it work more like the default camera mode in NWN where moving the mouse to the edge of the screen rotates the camera around your character instead of panning. Also, is there another button to rotate the camera besides the middle mouse button? Ctrl and Alt keys haven't worked.
- From what little I've played, the AI is pretty good and do the things you would expect them to do.
- Graphics/animations are nice but is it just me or is the performance not that good? It feels a little unresponsive and panning around the world doesn't feel as smooth as it should be.
- Combat seems adequately challenging/tactical so far. Need to play more to comment further.
- Since, I've only tried one build, I can't really comment on balance yet.

Also, is it possible to talk/barter with the merchants in the city? I tried walking up to them and left/right/double clicking on them and nothing happens.

 

[Black]

Try the merchant on the right.
Also fell against the guy with the sledgehammer.
And when I try to load a save the game crashes! So much for AAA title.

 

[Unradscorpion]

I can't believe I'm downloading AoD demo, that's like something from Warriors of Diversity.

 

[thekdawg21]

The demo is REALLY good.

It FEELS good, too. In fact I'm rubbing myself with it right now.

Combat has a lot to it, it's involving, and I can tell with some more polish, this is going to be the indy game that changed indy games.

 

[Helton]

How many fights are there? I was down to 3 HP against mr. warhammer I'll probably die next fight and that's when he says I get to start fighting the "big boys"... Damn.

I like it. A lot. I'm fighting with a spear, high crit, max speed, max perception, min hp. Interupts are a good feature. You see it a lot with a spear because your range is different than the enemies, so you interupt them coming in, then they interupt you trying to disengage.

Small tastes of lore, but not overhanded, enough to let players know there's some substance there. Good atmosphere.

Navigation isn't immediately easy, don't know the camera controls. I walked around the arena a few minutes after the first fight not knowing if I clicked the eye button it would readjust the camera and WHUPS, there's the exit. Thought I was bugged.

But then I just jumped in completely dry, maybe the controls are listed somewhere, maybe even somewhere obvious.

 

[Vault Dweller]

How many fights are there? I was down to 3 HP against mr. warhammer I'll probably die next fight and that's when he says I get to start fighting the "big boys"... Damn.

15 fights plus an optional fight at the end (to get pwned really hard, unless of course you are a bad enough dude).

But then I just jumped in completely dry, maybe the controls are listed somewhere, maybe even somewhere obvious.

Try the readme. It's helpful.
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/in ... 208.0.html

 

[laclongquan]

Somboedy make a torrent of it please. AoD weblink is raped, and RS is funky as usual. Dah. 3 K/s. Dah.

 

[dx__]

Somboedy make a torrent of it please. AoD weblink is raped, and RS is funky as usual. Dah. 3 K/s. Dah.

If you have a demonoid account : http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/2 ... 1261799191

 

[Helton]

Lol helpful indeed. Was getting raped by the barbis, didn't know I had 50 unused skillpoints to toss around.

 

[Vault Dweller]

http://www.filefront.com/15216873/AoD_demo.exe

 

[MessiahMan]

I know that this isn't the site to be overly positive at, but I must say that this combat demo is something truly astounding. It really captures what's good about turn based combat. I thought the three bandits were going to rape me, but I whirlwind attacked them to submission. It was the spearman after them...I didn't even get to touch him. Completely trashed my generic sword and shield type. I can see where the general polish needs applied, and as far as constructive criticism goes...nope. Maybe after I try a few more builds out, I'll see some chinks in the veneer, but it seems like you've got a really solid foundation for fun combat. Now someone point me towards the newest Dragon Age thread...I need to spew some vitriol!

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks. Enjoy the demo.

 

[Unradscorpion]

That was pretty good.
All my nitpickings are cosmetic
the spear power attack animation looks sort of strange.
The arena audience has weird square shaped heads.
Animations look a bit unnatural.
At one point my character turned his back on the enemy for no reason.
It would be nice if ap cost wrote itself out faster when hovering over the fields.
You could add ap cost of an attack next to it's name on the scroll menu.
Some more hairstyles would be good.

I hope not all of the characters have the same personality as the arena master.

 

[Helton]

Just encountered some weirdness against the two Ordu. I mean I've been fighting them forever so prob twenty loads by now, no surprise it gets a little wiggy but:

Swordsman got within range, I triggered my passive (spear) attack and the Archer dodged it. The archer dodged it. It was activated on the swordsman.

Then I attacked the archer and hit the swordsman.

Weirdness.

edit: Yeah man its all messed up, even after reload. First few attacks go fine, I charge archer and hit him with an aimed torso shot. Swordsman gets in my range, I passive-attack the archer. Now whoever I click on, the other person is attacked. Fast attack swordsman which kills the archer.

And now the swordsman just hit himself. Not sure if thats a "critical failure" or part of this glitch.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Glitch.

 

[Ch1ef]

:chief posts his impressions:














:twenty pages of rage appears:

 

[Helton]

Well, calling it a night. Awesome stuff VD, loads of fun and very challenging. All kinds of different dynamics based on who you're fighting. That archer wouldn't stand a chance one-on-one but if left alone for more than a few turns he's going to kill a lightly armored character, which makes him a priority, which gives the slow armored guys a chance to get at me... Seems like every situation is best handled by a different type of character, and you're going to have to really shake your tactics up to deal with some problems.

I'm really impressed by this demo, though I'm prob done with it as long as its glitching. Looking forward to full release.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks. We'll try to fix all the issues asap.

 

[Ch1ef]

Oh, so it's a "Combat" demo... :sigh:

Why mouse cursor is so big?

Why merchants have same counters? (I'm talking about design)

Why there is no "End turn" button on the screen?

The arena audience has weird square shaped heads.

I lold

 

[Serious_Business]

AHHHHHHH FUCK YEAH

I got through all the fights except the last one. 6 guys is too crazy, damn. Well, I am still a fairly bad dude, right?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Can I talk my way out of these fights? Can I convince the other fighters to bet in my favor and throw the match? Can I show them the error of their barbarous ways? Can I have sex with anything in this demo?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

And most importantly of all, is it going to be on Steam?

 

[Unradscorpion]

Well, weird glitches.
First I start walking before entering combat and stay frozen trying to walk to that spot without any combat happening.
I attack a guy and it says "you score a critical on Titus" after which I am knocked down. The Triari leader attacks me and kills himself with a critical strike.

 

[Wilco]

Altogether a very solid demo.

I like the atmosphere and lore, writing is good (I sometimes get the feeling that the text that comes up when you die is a little bit on the sadistic side, but it's all good and reminds me of FO), the city could do a bit better with some random NPC walking around and city background sounds that are similar to those found in IE games but it's fine for the most part.

Combat is really fun, and quite tactical. Since my character uses spears I found myself needing to change weapons/tactics depending on the enemy I'm fighting.

What I don't understand is reactionary attacks. It seems when I was fighting the guy with the trident he was able to react to me walking towards him after each turn, which led to a pretty quick death for my character. When I changed tactics and equiped a long spear, we were on relatively even terms but he died fairly quickly. I thought that using a long spear would have some pretty good advantages (I could rely on reactionary attacks), especially against the guy with the broadsword, but reactions don't seem to go beyond the first turn, during the second turn the broadsword guy walks right through my green square and cuts me to pieces.

Anyway, it's still very good. I'm looking forward to the full game.