Age of Decadence Reviews

[Excidium II]

5 years sounds like a gross overstimation to me but you're the one that was on the same project for a decade.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Like I said before, there is a reason why RPGs "specialize" - you can't have it all in one game. What you describe is a massive project for any team that would add at least 2 years of work to a mid-size team and at least 5 years of work to a very small team like ours (the man-hour cost is the same, so you either add more men or more hours or both).

We focused on parallel questlines and C&C, which was a scripting hell. The Underworld Ascendant team is focusing on exploration and environmental interaction. It would be very interesting to see what they manage to accomplish and how long it would take (for an experienced team that managed to raise 860k).

 

[anus_pounder]

So. AoD Reviews. They're really something, aren't they?

 

[Darth Roxor]

So. AoD Reviews. They're really something, aren't they?

all of them are shit, except for one

 

[ntonystinson]

Indeed. Sad that's more or less the point where CRPGs stopped.

This is true because CRPG'S have refused to move on from the dungeons and dragons origins. Why is it always the same solutions: Talk Smash or Lockpick your way out of a quest. Why are game worlds and NPC just guiders to the next dungeon /cave /underworld /abandoned subway. The unique ones, the ones I think should be the future of RPGs are those that shift the focus to people and people interactions not dungeons caves and loot(everyother RPG is already about this and has already done it). The games trying to be different are hardly recognised here: games like Mount and Blade, Crusader Kings 2. This is what rpgs should be about: Role Playing with actual simulated people with behaviors not just being there as quest givers to the nearest dungeon. People who act according to their set traits not the next scripted event.
But no every developer is just happy remaking old things. Underail is just another Fallout. POE just another Baldur Gate. Tyranny just a shorter POE.
Am tired of looking at the same old games

 

[ERYFKRAD]

So. AoD Reviews. They're really something, aren't they?

all of them are shit, except for one

Nobody's read that one good review.

 

[Whisper]

In December, most likely before Christmas.

And when next upgrade for DR?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Hopefully in December too.

 

[Lurker King]

5 years sounds like a gross overstimation to me but you're the one that was on the same project for a decade.

Let’s do the math. Vault Dweller and Nick spent four years working on this project on their spare time. Mazin and Oscar came later. Mazin, Oscar and Nick also worked two (maybe three years?) on Dead State. Thus, we only have six years of a four people team (half of it get together over the years) releasing a massive C&C game while simultaneously working on another game. Styg, which some people here praise as a Mozart that supposedly does all by himself and using decline MMO design in cRPGs, had a team of seven people (Stefan Cupovic, Mario Tovirac, Ivana Radisic, Mark Wowk, Diego Candia and Kira Mayer) and took seven years. ITS also made Dungeon Rats, which is an awesome game, in what, one year and half? Ok, but that doesn’t count because you don’t give a shit about facts. You just want to talk out of your hat.

 

[Elhoim]

ITS also made Dungeon Rats, which is an awesome game, in what, one year and half?

10 months.

 

[Tigranes]

 

[Excidium II]

5 years sounds like a gross overstimation to me but you're the one that was on the same project for a decade.

Let’s do the math. Vault Dweller and Nick spent four years working on this project on their spare time. Mazin and Oscar came later. Mazin, Oscar and Nick also worked two (maybe three years?) on Dead State. Thus, we only have six years of a four people team (half of it get together over the years) releasing a massive C&C game while simultaneously working on another game. Styg, which some people here praise as a Mozart that supposedly does all by himself and using decline MMO design in cRPGs, had a team of seven people (Stefan Cupovic, Mario Tovirac, Ivana Radisic, Mark Wowk, Diego Candia and Kira Mayer) and took seven years. ITS also made Dungeon Rats, which is an awesome game, in what, one year and half? Ok, but that doesn’t count because you don’t give a shit about facts. You just want to talk out of your hat.

Number of people really isn't comparable like that, since you don't know what exactly are their contributions. But as far as I know Styg did a much bigger percentage of the work by himself, including programming the engine.

 

[AbounI]

5 years sounds like a gross overstimation to me but you're the one that was on the same project for a decade.

Everything seems to be wisely planned according to the CSG Update#3
And don't forget Vince's cautious nature, don't you remember his earlier estimations about the sales of AoD ?
Better see this than something underestimated. Games that are delayed are legions nowadays

 

[Lurker King]

In the first post in the Codex about what would be AoD, Vault Dweller said that he planned to make three games, including a dungeon crawler and a colony ship game. It's amazing how he mantained his vision after all these years. Kudos to him.

 

[Black Angel]

Styg, which some people here praise as a Mozart that supposedly does all by himself and using decline MMO design in cRPGs, had a team of seven people (Stefan Cupovic, Mario Tovirac, Ivana Radisic, Mark Wowk, Diego Candia and Kira Mayer) and took seven years

Read the wiki page again. What I heard mostly was Styg worked on Underrail alone for quite a long time, before joined by others. Besides, he also worked on the engine from scratch (!) by himself (!) in the beginning. As confirmed by the wikipedia, at first it was "one full-time developer" turned into "a team of three developers" thanks to sales on Steam Early Access in 2013 (development of the engine began in late 2008, game development began in late 2009).

But hey! This is by no means me saying one is better than the other. Both ITS and Styg each releasing such an awesome game in 2015 was nothing short of an awesome feat. Instead, let's compare ITS's and Styg's proper video game project direction, management, and development to a certain company making a certain shit game supposedly taking 7 years, that even though we all know it's shit the majority of the Codex still buy it and play it anyway.

Still, as an experienced developer who had released 2 games and is now on his way to begin pre-production for a new project, I trust VD knows what's best for ITS and his target audience

 

[Fenix]

I know that animations for Underrail were done with outsource.

 

[Jazz_]

Underrail using decline MMO design? What?

 

[Fenix]

Well, they say that skills with cooldowns is no go...

 

[Old One]

I just spent about twenty minutes reading negative user reviews for AoD (skipping the positive ones).

This game has some of the dumbest negative reviews I've ever seen. I mean, I can respect a negative review if it's well-considered, but most of the ones I read are just...braindead. The phrase that seems to recur most often is:

"It might be fun...if you're a masochist!"

 

[Emmanuel2]

Alot of the negative reviews for the presumably "Old skool" (UnderRail, AoD, ADOM, Expeditions, etc.) games have always been along the lines of: Bad controls, "game too hard", "recommended for masochists only", etc. Though it's a review for a different game, I found this one to be a great example of well-written butthurt "I'm really bad at RPGs but I can't admit it" of all time.

 

[Lithium Flower]

I'd argue that reading AoD steam reviews is clearly more of an exercise in masochism than playing the game.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I'd argue that reading AoD steam reviews is clearly more of an exercise in masochism than playing the game.

Reading about about RPGs anywhere on the internet beside the Codex is a pure masochism. Yesterday made a mistake of reading some yt comments on some miserable video about RPGs. Both gave me cancer and I am still angry.

 

[Cadmus]

I'd argue that reading AoD steam reviews is clearly more of an exercise in masochism than playing the game.

Reading about about RPGs anywhere on the internet beside the Codex is a pure masochism. Yesterday made a mistake of reading some yt comments on some miserable video about RPGs. Both gave me cancer and I am still angry.

Indeed. It's no wonder one cannot quit the Codex. It's our safe space. If you are into BDSM try reading Leddit RPG discussions.

 

[Trashos]

I think that the learning centres of the brain are not very functional for most people/gamers. So a game with a decent learning curve is out of the question for them.

Sadly, I see the same thing happening to my childhood friends as they are growing. Some of them were even really smart once upon the time, but their brains aged to TV-level idiocy rather fast. They left their brains untrained for a while and then it was all over.

 

[Lithium Flower]

I think humility (or lack thereof) is a bigger issue. For instance, a friend of mine has recently said, "if a game feels unfair, that is probably a fault of its design." That is such nonsensical thinking and I feel like I hear it very often in mainstream RPG discussions. At some point it was expected that if you were going to play an RPG, you had to learn its systems - and if you couldn't do that, it was your fault. Now there are a bunch of people who don't even try to learn, which is fine on its own, but they also conclude that "I can't grasp the game therefore the game is bad".

I am shit at RTS. If I try to play StarCraft 2 online without spending a minute learning the game and get raped, I'd never say "shit man, the game wasn't accessible enough for me, it felt unfair, therefore it is flawed." I feel like even the casuals would agree with the Starcraft example - but for some reason, RPGs are different. RPGs are expected to be accessible even to those that can't even learn their systems.

Perhaps this expectation was set by mainstream trendsetters, like Bethesda's games? "I have to be able to be beat the game as a cool fighter who is also stealthy and good at magic, just like in Skyrim. Man, I just love running around places hitting dragons with my sword."