Game News Age of Decadence August Update

[Infinitron]

Tags: Age of Decadence; Iron Tower Studios; Vault Dweller

Iron Tower Studio's The Age of Decadence received its second bi-weekly update on August 19th. The following update was supposed to come at the end of the month and introduce the game's final area. However, in a new development update posted on the ITS forums last week, Vault Dweller announced that the update had (surprise) been delayed, although it's not because of the area, which is already complete:

We're working on the temple (the final location) and the combat AI update, which will allow your enemies to use a wider range of attacks and respond more appropriately. It was a big chunk of work that took months and was completed only a few days ago. I must admit that I had reservations about including it in the upcoming update (last thing we need is breaking pretty much everything related to combat less than 2 months before the release), but it seems to be working quite well, so in it goes.

However, there are some issues (naturally) that we’re still working on. Two weeks should be enough, so we’ll push the next update from the end of the month to Sep 10. The temple will also benefit from extra love and attention.

^ work in progress, the final level; avert your eyes if you don't want to see any spoilers

The dialogues and text are done, all that's left to do on the writing side are the endings. We have 12 endings requiring unique text (13 with the already released god ending), although if you break it down to fundamentally different decisions there are 5 main endings. Hope you'll find them to your liking.

I won't be around next week, so if you have any questions, ask them now.
​

So does that mean the game is going to be late now? According to a Vault Dweller post on RPGWatch, the answer is no. It's still scheduled for an October release, with the exact date to be announced when the update comes out, a week from now.

 

[Septaryeth]

TL:DR Didn't read so I can savor the sweet, sweet taste of release when it's actually, well, released.



Just out of curiosity, how big is the full game now, compare to the demo?
I know Vault Dweller emphasized on the fact that this game has a focus on branching and different outcomes from your decisions.
And I remember it says somewhere that the demo is about 1/3 (it's one chapter, and there are three chapters in total, right?).
But after seeing so much updates it made me wonder if it has gotten much, much larger, not to mention all the C&C.

Great timing too, SR:HK was way too short and I don't know what else to fill in my free time from September to October. Any suggestions?

Anyway...

 

[Elhoim]

Just out of curiosity, how big is the full game now, compare to the demo?
I know Vault Dweller emphasized on the fact that this game has a focus on branching and different outcomes from your decisions.
And I remember it says somewhere that the demo is about 1/3 (it's one chapter, and there are three chapters in total, right?).

The full game has two more cities plus 15 locations more for exploration. You won't see everything in single run, of course.

 

[Pope Amole II]

I dunno why they're so keen on this october release date. September would've been nice, true, but october? Do they really want to brawl with both Wasteland 2 and Original Sin Director Cuts? Because those are for roughly the same audience, people are anticipating them strongly and, well, you can guess what the non-hardcore AoD fans will choose. I understand that it's a psychological thing and there won't be too much spots for good releases afterwards, but this october thing still looks a bit suicidal.

 

[J_C]

I dunno why they're so keen on this october release date. September would've been nice, true, but october? Do they really want to brawl with both Wasteland 2 and Original Sin Director Cuts? Because those are for roughly the same audience, people are anticipating them strongly and, well, you can guess what the non-hardcore AoD fans will choose. I understand that it's a psychological thing and there won't be too much spots for good releases afterwards, but this october thing still looks a bit suicidal.

They won't release the game in october anyway. Looking at past experiences, they will just delay it again and again and again.

 

[likaq]

They never told us which october.

 

[likaq]

I dunno why they're so keen on this october release date. September would've been nice, true, but october? Do they really want to brawl with both Wasteland 2 and Original Sin Director Cuts? Because those are for roughly the same audience, people are anticipating them strongly and, well, you can guess what the non-hardcore AoD fans will choose. I understand that it's a psychological thing and there won't be too much spots for good releases afterwards, but this october thing still looks a bit suicidal.

If not october then when?
They can't release in november because big AAA release : skyrim with guns. Every site and youtube personality will only care about skyrim with guns and ignore niche aod as shitty indie crap unlike awesome skyrim with guns.
December?

 

[Irenaeus II]

If not october then when?
They can't release in november because big AAA release : fallout 4. Every site and youtube personality will only care about fal4 and ignore niche aod as shitty indie crap unlike awesome fallout 4.
December?

There's a Fallout 4? They skipped Fallout 3 or are they counting New Vegas as 3?

 

[Infinitron]

I dunno why they're so keen on this october release date. September would've been nice, true, but october? Do they really want to brawl with both Wasteland 2 and Original Sin Director Cuts? Because those are for roughly the same audience, people are anticipating them strongly and, well, you can guess what the non-hardcore AoD fans will choose. I understand that it's a psychological thing and there won't be too much spots for good releases afterwards, but this october thing still looks a bit suicidal.

I agree that it's not ideal but only one of these three games is brand new.

 

[likaq]

There's a Fallout 4? They skipped Fallout 3 or are they counting New Vegas as 3?

My post has been improved.

 

[Pope Amole II]

If not october then when?
They can't release in november because big AAA release : fallout 4. Every site and youtube personality will only care about fal4 and ignore niche aod as shitty indie crap unlike awesome fallout 4.
December?

Umm, Fallout 4 makes no competition to the AoD. They live in two entirely different worlds. I mean, you think all the fallout 3 kiddies give two flying fucks about AoD? D:OS more or less caters to the oldschool audience. Wasteland 2 exists solely because of it. But F4? Sure, some oldschool fans will give it attention. But mostly its audience is drastically different so it shouldn't really matter.

November should do much finer. They'll also introduce more polish at that point - the game got vastly unhinged by the recent patch changes and that really needs to be addressed.

 

[likaq]

Umm, Fallout 4 makes no competition to the AoD. They live in two entirely different worlds. I mean, you think all the fallout 3 kiddies give two flying fucks about AoD? D:OS more or less caters to the oldschool audience. Wasteland 2 exists solely because of it. But F4? Sure, some oldschool fans will give it attention. But mostly its audience is drastically different so it shouldn't really matter.

November should do much finer. They'll also introduce more polish at that point - the game got vastly unhinged by the recent patch changes and that really needs to be addressed.

audience is drastically different, i agree. But my post was about mainstream gaming sites. And mainstream gaming sites will ignore aod if release date will be too close to skyrim with guns.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

audience is drastically different, i agree. But my post was about mainstream gaming sites. And mainstream gaming sites will ignore aod if release date will be too close to skyrim with guns.

Mainstream gaming sites will ignore aod anyway so what's your point?

 

[Irenaeus II]

Mainstream gaming sites will ignore aod anyway so what's your point?

Exactly.

 

[likaq]

Mainstream gaming sites will ignore aod anyway so what's your point?

I hope for a miracle.

 

[Mech]

So is the game actually fun now? Masochists need not reply.

 

[Goral]

Mainstream gaming sites will ignore aod anyway so what's your point?

Maybe American gaming sites but Polish (CD-Action, that also goes for a printed magazine with 140k circulation plus gry-online.pl) and Russian will definitely cover it. Plus sites like RPS, Gamebanshee and other smaller sites focused on RPG will definitely mention it. But it's also certain that Fallout 4 will get way more coverage, e.g. Serpents in The Staglands got 1 page while Pillars of Eternity/Dragon Age got 6 (yes, comparing PoE with DA is intentional).

Anyway, once Skyrim with guns will come out, every other cRPG will be eclipsed by it (only in terms of media coverage of course) so releasing AoD before that is definitely a good move. Even major gaming sites might consider covering a new game instead of making another F4 preview. Heck, they even might consider AoD as an appetizer before the real king of post-apocalyptic games (*/me barfs).

 

[VladimirK]

So is the game actually fun now? Masochists need not reply.

Not really, no. It can be fixed though, with some mild amount of effort. Working on a third-party dialogue editor right now...

 

[likaq]

Maybe American gaming sites but Polish (CD-Action, that also goes for a printed magazine with 140k circulation plus gry-online.pl) and Russian will definitely cover it. Plus sites like RPS, Gamebanshee and other smaller sites focused on RPG will definitely mention it. But it's also certain that Fallout 4 will get way more coverage, e.g. Serpents in The Staglands got 1 page while Pillars of Eternity/Dragon Age got 6 (yes, comparing PoE with DA is intentional).

Anyway, once Skyrim with guns will come out, every other cRPG will be eclipsed by it (only in terms of media coverage of course) so releasing AoD before that is definitely a good move. Even major gaming sites might consider covering a new game instead of making another F4 preview. Heck, they even might consider AoD as an appetizer before the real king of post-apocalyptic games (*/me barfs).

Ugh.
Both gry-online and cd-action are so retarded it's not even funny.
If they cover aod they will definitely shit on aod. There is no way that they will say something positive or even neutral.
And if you want to pretend otherwise, i have a nice quote for you from cd-action fallout 3 preview :

If you think "Fallout 3 is not Fallout anymore", remember the conversation with NPCs in the previous games, which were always presented face-to-face. I dare say that only because of technical limitations Fallout didn't use FPP from the beginning. There is no better way of quickly identifying with the character you roleplay than looking through their eyes, from their perspective...

 

[Goral]

likaq
Both these sites are in Bethesda's pocket so yeah, they will definitely praise Fallout 4 just as they did with 3. GOL is way worse though, I've been banned years ago after writing a long list of idiocies in Fallout 3 and pointing out that they're praising a game which they advertise everywhere (F3 was in set as the background of GOL site, one of the reasons to use adblock).

Anyway, in CD-Action there are some people who appreciate a good RPG. You've obviously missed their AoD preview: http://imgbox.com/jSoYU4Cw
"Role-playing of the highest degree. Hats off" is the complete opposite of "it's shit". Plus they've praised SitS, W2, etc.

 

[Fenix]

I dunno why they're so keen on this october release date. September would've been nice, true, but october? Do they really want to brawl with both Wasteland 2 and Original Sin Director Cuts? Because those are for roughly the same audience, people are anticipating them strongly and, well, you can guess what the non-hardcore AoD fans will choose. I understand that it's a psychological thing and there won't be too much spots for good releases afterwards, but this october thing still looks a bit suicidal.

True words. AND I'm starting to worry about Underrail release too. It will have the same problems.

If not october then when?
They can't release in november because big AAA release : skyrim with guns. Every site and youtube personality will only care about skyrim with guns and ignore niche aod as shitty indie crap unlike awesome skyrim with guns.
December?

If not october and not november, then - Winter or Spring?
I know it hurts, but we should understand, that clumsy release in unsuccessful date will sink those games or devs.

audience is drastically different, i agree. But my post was about mainstream gaming sites. And mainstream gaming sites will ignore aod if release date will be too close to skyrim with guns.

Exactly. There is such thing like overfeefing with RPG. There are many people who loves games like Fallout (1, 2), Arcanum, P:T and such, and they also love (or like) to play Skyreem, Bullshitllout 3 etc.
Do we want them to choose - this or that? Don't think so.

Maybe American gaming sites but Polish (CD-Action, that also goes for a printed magazine with 140k circulation plus gry-online.pl) and Russian will definitely cover it.

I have to honestly say that Russian audience, in part what is called like "hardcore" are constantly evaporates last 10 years.
Russian gamedev is dead, so the community dying out.
It may seem that these things aren't related, but they are.
It's hard to find (populated) sites , where you can find some activity about Serpent in the Staglands e.g.
But they have regular updated theme about shit like DA:I haha. Bunch of faggots.

Plus sites like RPS, Gamebanshee and other smaller sites focused on RPG will definitely mention it. But it's also certain that Fallout 4 will get way more coverage, e.g. Serpents in The Staglands got 1 page while Pillars of Eternity/Dragon Age got 6 (yes, comparing PoE with DA is intentional).

Absolutely true.

Anyway, once Skyrim with guns will come out, every other cRPG will be eclipsed by it (only in terms of media coverage of course) so releasing AoD before that is definitely a good move. Even major gaming sites might consider covering a new game instead of making another F4 preview. Heck, they even might consider AoD as an appetizer before the real king of post-apocalyptic games (*/me barfs).

Or even better after, when audience get hungry for RPG again, when they want something more deep then Bullshitlout 4.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

So many games, so little money. Be thankful I am saving my money on this instead of metal gear v.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

I have to honestly say that Russian audience, in part what is called like "hardcore" are constantly evaporates last 10 years.
Russian gamedev is dead, so the community dying out.

Interesting that was never my perception, I always thought Russians were a pretty heavy pc crowd, like the krauts, relatively speaking ofcourse since consoles are strong anywhere for obvious reasons.

Although I would not be surprised, after all this is kinda of a pc renaissance we are living and the only thing that comes to mind isntead of those wacky tanks simswe get F2P WoT and War Thunder etc.

I blame Putin.

 

[Fenix]

We were, and we are, I just meant "pool dries up", although we are still more hardcore than major portion of other countries, happily being cuntsoletard is expensive, while being not rich is good for your mental health if you forced to use PC.
But popamole stuff attack, attacking PC from every angle (also wtf is popamole? )))))))))))))))))), just tonight someone with corroded mind said about so called "Fallout 4" that only "voiced text" can be called like "dialogues", and for example in "Fallout 4" it is dialogues, and in Planescape: Torment it is just "footcloth with text", "wall of text" and definitely not a dialogue. And it was not a trolling lol, I even make a fucking screenshot.

I blame Putin too but for different reasons.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Fucking casuals man