AoD Public Beta Release 2 is out

[likaq]

https://rapidshare.com/files/168284502/AoD_Public_Beta_R2.exe

https://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7235974

R2 Changelog:

Fixes:

- Thugs do not get assured criticals against Vardanis in the drifter vignette.
- Fixed issues with the character creation screen at resolutions lower than 768h.
- Fixed issue with map locations staying between sessions, even if you didn't know about them.
- Fixed issue with Persuasion and Streetwise check with Mercato in MG3.
- Failing to convince Antidas in MG2 with the fake proof now properly closes the merchant path.
- Fixed commercium reputation check in MG2, when taking the "Mercato" path.
- When failing to convince Antidas in MG2 with the fake proof, you appear in the correct place after leaving the palace.
- Fixed issue with cage in Bandit Camp not being empty when it should.
- Numery armor can be decomposed.
- Fixed issue with the guards stopping you all the time when you killed just one civilian.
- Fixed an issue when you complete MG2 if you had 7 intelligence.
- You can no longer select hidden responses with the keyboard numbers.
- Fixed problems with corpse/loot collision at the vignettte's inn.
- You can no longer get 3 SP more from the refugees if you kill them.
- Cado properly takes the gold when he takes care of the bandits for you.
- The dialogue with Zenon doesn't break the camera anymore.
- Fixed issue with character not appearing in camera when failing the disguise check in TG2.
- Fixed issue with barricades not appearing correctly if you loaded a save at the barricaded mine.
- Fixed issue with collision of invisible barricades.
- Fixed bug with map travelling out of the outpost after killing the workers.
- Fixed issue with health damage when going over the barricade in the mine.
- The inkeeper no longer is tagged as doctor in dialogue.
- Fixed issues with the visibility of the prisioner at the camp.
- Camera no longer zooms in after combat.
- At the mine, the Daratan Captain and soldier no longer stand in the same place when you talk to the captain, leave and go back to the mine.
- You get the rubys as described on the part at the bedroom in the infiltration.
- Fixed issue with Darabus giving you money instead of taking it in the infiltration under certain conditions.
- Fixed issue with not being able to cure stat damage if your HP was full.
- Categories letters in the journal screen are no longer deformed.
- Fixed minor journal issues.
- Map icons no longer stay lighted up after selecting them.
- Fixed issue with being able to talk to Cado and Mercato about help with MG2 after the quest is finished.
- Hand slot update after stat damage.
- Fixed several lag issues in combat.

Changes:

- You now have 5 more skill points to spend in character creation.
- Intelligence bonus SP now it's only applied on quest rewards, as you get them.
- Skill threshold changed from 50/75 to 50/70/90.
- Trading base value now takes into account intelligence.
- Combined checks now check for the sum of both skills (with a low min requirement), so you can compensate lack of skill points in one skill with the other one. For example, a check that was [aod.persuasion >= 36 && aod.streetwise >= 32] now is [(aod.persuasion + aod.streetwise >= 68) && aod.persuasion >= 30 && aod.streetwise >= 28].
- Faster zooming.
- Made clear which quests are not in the demo.
- The majority of the Critical strikes checks now have more outcomes than "kill or be killed".
- New THC formula that favors builds balanced in offense and defense.
- THC bonus from weapons reduced from 10 to 8 and from 5 to 4.
- Small daggers fast and normal max damage increased by 1 point.
- Manica doesn't accept techniques other than different metals and masterwork.
- 2H axes now have 2 points vsDR.
- Wooden sticks no longer have THC bonus nor Counter Attack bonus.
- Pickaxe has no longer have passive bonus.
- Buckler has an attack penalty of 5.
- Hardened armor now has 3 levels instead of 5.
- Lowered the difference between min and max damage for all weapons.
- The differences in weapons inside the same tier (shamshir and handar, for example) are now one that has more raw damage, and another that has more THC and counter chance.
- Nets reduce defense 20 points instead of 30.
- Perception and distance factored in nets THC. Also throwing influence is bigger.
- Dodge characters get a bonus to avoid AoO attacks, allowing characters focused on dodge to move around the battlefield more.
- Free defenses are based on dexterity and AP limit set by armor. Low dexterity and heavy armor characters get tired faster and get a penalty to defense when defending a lot within a turn. High dex, lowly armored character keep their full defense for longer.
- Strength now give a % increase instead of a fixed bonus. Ranges from -20% to 40%.
- Perception THC bonus changed, increases/decreases 4 points per stat point.
- Masterwork armor is getting a boost, now it decreases penalties much more, from 25% to 80% of the total amount.
- Increased the price of nets to 75 imperials.
- Iron price increase changed from 2.5x to 1.5x.
- Added two new items: Climbing hook and rope with grappling hook. Climbing now is a combined strength + dexterity check. Climbing hooks lower the bare handed requirements. Ropes rely on throwing (grappling hook makes the check easier) and then a small strength + dexterity check to climb.
- Changed the armor of the guard in the Kebab thief quest to bronze.
- Increased price of schematics.
- The blacksmith one time sells bronze, wood and leather.

Quest Changes:

Vignettes

- There is now a slide before starting the vignette, introducing the town and your background.
- You don't start the vignette in dialogue anymore, but in a enclosed area with minor interactions. You can save, check your gear, etc.
- Added options to buy equipment in the assassin, mercenary, thief, merchant and drifter vignettes.
- The straight attack option has been changed to "Reload the crossbow while the guard is mustering up his courage." You will take a few steps back, reload your crossbow, and have time to prepare for the attack of the guard.
- The assassin now gets 2 nets and an iron sefet (small dagger) by default.

Bandit Camp

- You no longer get directly into dialogue the first time you visit the bandit camp.
- When you send the raiders to attack the mine, now you have a chance to spend SP, check inventory, etc.
- Leader's armor is no longer lightened.
- Changed one of the archers armor from auxiliary to barbari.

Mining Outpost

- Added a new way of dealing with the mine, in which you poison their supplies. Assassins get an extra option here.
- Changed the captain's armor from steel to iron.
- Changed many of the armors there, giving them a more "romans from middle-east" look.
- Increased the defense of the soldiers, while slightly lowering their attack.
- Gave all shield soldiers an spare shield.
- Changed gladius for an Axe for the soldier that greets you.
- The captain now uses a 2H sword.
- Changed the sword of one of the interior guards, giving him a Handar instead of gladius.

Palace Infiltration

- Falling down the wall in the back of the palace doesn't cause a game over.
- Some CS have partial successes in which you kill the NPC but get severely wounded.
- Now you are actually taken to the torture room when you fail some of the checks (especially disguise ones), and there you have a chance to get out alive if you didn't kill any guards.

Praetor

- Added a new quest that deals with Feng and Cassius, that comes after the vignette.
- Added an unique, non-combat way to deal with the mine.

HD1

- Moved it to after the new quest regarding Feng.

MG1

- You no longer get into combat with Mercato if you fail cheating him and the charisma check. You can get him into debt with Cado in this path.
- There is now a sinergy between trading, persuasion and streetwise in the options, and charisma affecting the difficulty of the checks.

MG2

- Added synergies and charisma affecting checks with Antidas and in the infiltration.
- Forging the proof now requires lore, and you can try it again if you fail the lore check and your perception is good enough.
- You are not forced to craft a forge when you get Carrinas writing.
- You are not forced in a dialogue with Antidas as soon as you get the evidence.

MG3

- Added synergies and charisma influence to the checks with Mercato and Antidas.
- Removed the trading check that came after selecting streetwise/persuasion in the first node.
- You are not forced in a dialogue with Antidas as soon as you convince Mercato.

IG1

- You now can engage the enemies on your terms. You don't start in fight mode, away from them and can use that situation to equip yourself or attack them from a distance.
- Killing your party members nets no SP.
- Made the stats of the guards a little better.
- Changed the starting positions in the fight with the recruits.

IG2

- You are healed before leaving for the tower.
- You can convince a soldier to distract the guards if he respects your fighting reputation (combat and body count). Also, the charisma check is higher there.
- There is an attack option for ranged characters.
- You HP gets fully healed if you have CON damage.

IG3

- Improved the skills of the regular guards a little.

TG1

- There is now a sinergy beween disguise and stealing when trying to get the mandate.
- Combined speech checks with the guards and Flavius now have sinergies between them.
- You can convince Flavius if you are a liegeman of House Daratan.

TG2

- Added a lore check to creating the re-direction letter (so now it's perception + lore, perception modifing the lore amount required). You can try it again later now if you fail.
- You are no longer forced to go get the ring after successfully forging the letter.
- Getting the ring allows you to bypass the disguise and speech skills checks when stopping the caravan.
- When dealing with the caravan using disguise and no ring, in the checks there is a sinergy between disguise, streetwise, persuasion and charisma.
- Killing the lone guard in the warehouse has a sinergy between sneak and critical strike.

TG3

- Now you can try both speech options with Flavius. Also, they have a synergy with charisma (the higher your charisma, the easier the check).
- When dealing with the mob, trying to lure them to the inn checks for disguise and streetwise, with a sinergy between them.
- When bullshitting the guards, there is a synergy between disguise and streetwise.
- Thieves have a better stock of arrows, and will use piercing arrows against armored soldiers and barbed ones against unarmored opponents.
- You have the option to get away from the gate guards when choosing the start the fight.
- You no longer stay in front of Bracchus when ambush him using the intelligence option.
- You no longer stay so close to the ambushers after going through the wall.
- Reduced the skills of the ambushers a little.

Exploration

- Added a new encounter with a gang in the slums.
- Added a character you talk to in the graveyard.

Improvements:

- Added the option to leave screens by pressing the same key that you use to enter it.
- You can access the crafting screen by pressing R.
- You can switch between screens with the hotkeys (from inventory to character screen, for example).
- More buttons with sounds.
- Better formating for the description text in the character screen.
- You can resize and move the textbox in the main gui.
- Added synergy and background description to the character creation screen.
- Added tooltips to the tabs.
- Q and E now rotate the camera.
- Character creation is now tailored to resolutions between 900h and 1080h.
- Added new dialogues screens, with bigger fonts, darker background and better formatting.
- Anisotropic filtering now also affects all weapons, armors and some minor items.
- Now you get a rank if you are part of a faction.
- Notices in dialogue (text between *) now are centered and with a different color.
- Added expanded dialogues about the world with the Inkeeper and Feng.
- Now there is a list with all locations on the right side of the map.
- Now there is a menu from which you can select which bodies you want to loot when 2 or more are in the same place.
- Added sitting animations to filler characters.
- New look for the lorica segmentata.
- All screens fit higher resolutions better.

 

[Elhoim]

http://www.atomicgamer.com/files/97299/the-age-of-decadence-public-beta-release-2

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

Yeeehaaaaa

 

[CappenVarra]

torrenting in progress!

 

[hiver]

fuuuuuuuuuck me.

Thats some serious work. Again!
Ohhh im so playing this up and down and front to back and.... downloadan!

Oh yeah, you guys are getting a sticky on my forums so... i dont know... if i get some people overthere it might do you some good.
You cannot convince me not to. Dont even bother trying.
Im going to "borrow" some screenshots and stuff too.

 

[CappenVarra]

seeding in progress... probably won't have time to play much until the weekend, but hey...

also, at the new character starting screen and the AWESOME button

and i know this will cause murderous rage, but i liked the old dialogue font better - this one is just too bold and blocky at 1440 x 900. guess I'll try a higher res or something; it's not really a big issue.

 

[CappenVarra]

Graphics whoring and nitpicking of the worst sort, but of the kind (because text is a noble material):

Look at that lowercase 'm' in "promising, ambitious, somemartial (?)" etc. - the kerning is fubar.

Look at the baseline for the '3' and '5' in the dagger stats compared to '6' and '8'.

Look at the weight differences between 'A', 'l', 'w', 'a', 'y', 's' in the first word, or between 'A' and 'P' in action points - it's practically random (with 'y' and 'v' being the biggest offenders).

tl;dr: Linux font detected.

 

[hiver]

Seeding.


WHAT?!?!?!?! Someone needs to hang for the font!!!
I suggest "eleventh hour", wyrmlord alt on IT.

Sacrifice him to the gods of teh internets and this font outrage will be forgotten.

 

[Elhoim]

Graphics whoring and nitpicking of the worst sort, but of the kind (because text is a noble material):

View attachment 348

View attachment 349

Look at that lowercase 'm' in "promising, ambitious, somemartial (?)" etc. - the kerning is fubar.

Look at the baseline for the '3' and '5' in the dagger stats compared to '6' and '8'.

Look at the weight differences between 'A', 'l', 'w', 'a', 'y', 's' in the first word, or between 'A' and 'P' in action points - it's practically random (with 'y' and 'v' being the biggest offenders).

tl;dr: Linux font detected.

Recommend a better one, and we'll consider it.

 

[CappenVarra]

Graphics whoring and nitpicking of the worst sort, but of the kind (because text is a noble material):

View attachment 348

View attachment 349

Look at that lowercase 'm' in "promising, ambitious, somemartial (?)" etc. - the kerning is fubar.

Look at the baseline for the '3' and '5' in the dagger stats compared to '6' and '8'.

Look at the weight differences between 'A', 'l', 'w', 'a', 'y', 's' in the first word, or between 'A' and 'P' in action points - it's practically random (with 'y' and 'v' being the biggest offenders).

tl;dr: Linux font detected.

Recommend a better one, and we'll consider it.

Will do.

 

[Marsal]

Recommend a better one, and we'll consider it.

You can't even choose a non-godawful font for your game after 5(?) years of development. You aren't making an action game with full voice acting. It's like the first and most important thing you do for a text intensive game and you're asking for suggestions now?! Dude!

 

[Vault Dweller]

For the record, he didn't ask for suggestions. He responded to a comment.

 

[hiver]

i was kind of joking up there... doesnt look that bad to me but i still havent seen the game new version... cause i found some new good music and have been checking that out for a while.

But i still think you should sacrifice wyrmlords alt.
cant hurt.

 

[CappenVarra]

Graphics whoring and nitpicking of the worst sort, but of the kind (because text is a noble material):

View attachment 348

View attachment 349

Look at that lowercase 'm' in "promising, ambitious, somemartial (?)" etc. - the kerning is fubar.

Look at the baseline for the '3' and '5' in the dagger stats compared to '6' and '8'.

Look at the weight differences between 'A', 'l', 'w', 'a', 'y', 's' in the first word, or between 'A' and 'P' in action points - it's practically random (with 'y' and 'v' being the biggest offenders).

tl;dr: Linux font detected.

Recommend a better one, and we'll consider it.

Will do.

All right, I actually went looking into this. And guess what? Candara is actually a pretty sweet font - just look it up on fonts.com:

Now compare it to the mess I posted yesterday.

So the issue is not with the font, but with the text layout engine. I'm guessing(!) this is a case of Torque not really caring about text - but unlike looking up a font, that's not something I can talk about or have any constructive suggestions. So, uhm... good luck, I guess

 

[Vault Dweller]

Yes. Candara is a pretty good font, or it was until Torque butchered it.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I liked the new font, and the new introduction screens. Menus seem to be better too. The game looks professionally done. Could use a bit more music though, the 1 or 2 tracks that currently loop are starting to feel repetitive.

 

[kazgar]

I liked the new font, and the new introduction screens. Menus seem to be better too. The game looks professionally done. Could use a bit more music though, the 1 or 2 tracks that currently loop are starting to feel repetitive.

It could just be that the demo's focus on one area is giving you way more exposure of those tracks then you would notice in the game (assuming they're Teron based tracks) the whole multiple playthroughs of a focussed area as people try every variation of the demo.

In the full game, while you spend a bit of time there, you may also experience other areas with other tracks interspersed, so you wouldn't hear it as much, and as the replays will take longer due to more content, the frequency over playthroughs will also reduce?

Dunno, i'm sure VD will correct me if i'm wrong (and I might be)

 

[Surf Solar]

Recommend a better one, and we'll consider it.

You can't even choose a non-godawful font for your game after 5(?) years of development. You aren't making an action game with full voice acting. It's like the first and most important thing you do for a text intensive game and you're asking for suggestions now?! Dude!

Do you realize that it is not easy to find the good balance between "artsy-fitting to our interface" and "readable, but boring and sterile" ? Finding the correct font can last long, at the end you end up like me and just create an own font.
Anyway, you are retard for thinking that the only thing Vince and Elhoim are doing is sorting out fonts. The whole changelist and improvments posted here was nothing compared to the obviously very important font issue to you? Good to know.

 

[Marsal]

Do you realize that it is not easy to find the good balance between "artsy-fitting to our interface" and "readable, but boring and sterile" ? Finding the correct font can last long, at the end you end up like me and just create an own font.
Anyway, you are retard for thinking that the only thing Vince and Elhoim are doing is sorting out fonts. The whole changelist and improvments posted here was nothing compared to the obviously very important font issue to you? Good to know.

Calling me a retard for stating the obvious? Everyone is making their own vaporware, thinking they know something, these days. The font should have been a done deal years ago. Engine "problems" are irrelevant. Excuses are cheap. Improvise, make your own font, just make it work. It's not like there are 3 lines of text in the game. It is imperative to have clear and readable text.

Now let go of the cock and crawl back to your hole, little bitch. Adults are talking.

 

[Infinitron]

I'll say it again - the real problem with the text isn't the fonts. It's the colors.

 

[hiver]

Do you realize that it is not easy to find the good balance between "artsy-fitting to our interface" and "readable, but boring and sterile" ? Finding the correct font can last long, at the end you end up like me and just create an own font.
Anyway, you are retard for thinking that the only thing Vince and Elhoim are doing is sorting out fonts. The whole changelist and improvments posted here was nothing compared to the obviously very important font issue to you? Good to know.

Calling me a retard for stating the obvious? Everyone is making their own vaporware, thinking they know something, these days. The font should have been a done deal years ago. Engine "problems" are irrelevant. Excuses are cheap. Improvise, make your own font, just make it work. It's not like there are 3 lines of text in the game. It is imperative to have clear and readable text.

Now let go of the cock and crawl back to your hole, little bitch. Adults are talking.

Adults? Where?

You mean Surf? That i could agree with. What you write seems like its written by pimplefaced little whiny bitch.

 

[hiver]

Anyway, some impressions and a few minor bugs, i think.

Went with the normal mode, made a mercenary.

The start of the game feels much better and clear than before.
While i was allocating skill points and making my Spear wielding dodger... i noticed that few attributes have huge influences across the board.
of course... changing that is probably out of reach by now, but still...

a few impressions.

Intelligence now gives a boost even at 4. While all other attributes give negative effects or none at all at that level.
That seemed way, way too much at first but... As i was making a fighter character i noticed i can now lower the int to minimum and still get a 5% boost - which is now applying only to solving quests, not killing NPC s- so i really didnt have any need to raise Int anymore,
while still feeling i am not loosing anything. Except some minor reduction in skill points available at character creation.

Which is good. I guess?

Dexterity however is totally over valued.
Not only it affects its primary related abilities such as number of action points, dodge and throwing chances to hit, but it influences all of weapon skills and five of the general skills.
While Strength does not?

To me that doesnt seem a good design decision either from the gameplay point of view or some sort of realistic explanation.
Even pure fighters in AoD simply have much more reasons to increase dex, even if they are shield users, - then investing in strength and especially Constitution which is the most undervalued of them all.

Strength should affect THC much more than Dex. And Criticals. In order to hit the target in the right spot you dont need speed and flexibility so much as you need a firm grip, balance, steadiness and just pure power. All given or reinforced by Strength.
I use to think that simply reducing the importance of some attributes might work as a sort of quick fix but, maybe some just need to be made more important?
Shouldn`t strength increase at least blocking and critical`s too? But really, much more.


I already suggested making Con a synergic part of calculation for Action Points together with dexterity, even if its influence is lesser than dex has in that equation.
It really needs a boost to be as useful as it usually is - in reality. Which would work very well for gameplay side too.

One thing more guys... really... cant you just borrow some female body and face models from Dead State?
I mean... this is obviously male body and male face here... Luckily you turned off the beards...


anyway... Red Viper enters the lists and gives his best shot with attributes and skills as you see them.

this is a very nice touch.

Oh look! A rope and a amphora of wine... well... my instincts tell me i should just buy them and keep with me.
Or... i just shouldnt and later on i can cry and scream how unfair this game is?

ok... so my patron got wasted and i didnt save... ahem... well... live to fight another day?

And i fought that same night....

and guess what?
i got :felipepped:

but i was very close.

So... with no place to save in between... the Red Viper perished forever.


Armed with that knowledge and a different take on attributes.... Nuadas stepped in.

And tried the assassin.

btw... this was the only time i saw the netted icon in all of these fights. Later on it simply didnt show even if i scored a hit and the enemy was behaving appropriately.

However... even netted, that bastard is one tough SoB.
WTF is this shit???? He kept disarming meeeeee!
And i got felipepped again.
Not even a Krokspar spear helped.


That was great.
I thought making him easier would be a quick fix but.... this is actually much, much better.
You have a nice chance to avoid it, and if you dont... then...pay the piper buddy. And dance the dance.
This is actually great because it shows the players immediately where they've come to and that assassins are not just funnily dressed dudes you kick for giggles.
Next time you come up against an assassin... youre going to think about it most seriously.

Luckily, Nuadas made a smart move and didnt throw all his eggs in one basket like old Red Viper.

I found myself in front of Merchants guild trader once again and decided to go for light armor and Dori.
Here i ran into a repeat of a small bug i had with Red Viper.
The icons for splitting the goods in trading screen to weapons or armor stop working. the rest works fine but first two just became unresponsive.
Luckily the one that gives the full overview is usable.

So i bought myself some nice Ordu silk armor and a dori.
(this screenshot is with krokspar but i reloaded and bought a Dori instead)

And ze Assassin got felipepped.

The only thing i would add here is a bit more money or something, in assassins inventory. Since it is a bit of a hard fight i think the reward could be a bit better. Nothing fancy... just...something little extra.

And this is of course a great move. very, very nicely done too.

 

[felipepepe]

Even pure fighters in AoD simply have much more reasons to increase dex, even if they are shield users

But heavy armours severly limit your action points, a heavy fighter would benefit much more from strength damage bonus to smite his foes than from some extra skill points. You'll gain skill points through the game, but that sweet +20% weapon damage is only on char creation.

i got :felipepped:
And i got felipepped again.
And ze Assassin got felipepped.

Good Fucking Riddance!

 

[hiver]

I agree with that!

But, i still think strength and Constitution needs to be made even more useful because DEX doesnt give only extra skills points. It influences a whole pile of things.
Thats why its really almost unfairly too useful.
Either it needs to be cut down to size or other skills need to be made more attractive.

Strength should influence far more weapon skills then it does, and thats just for starters.
Of course.... i have no idea if IT will think the same or if that is even feasible to do at this point.
Still... it is still a beta of the Demo and... im just making suggestions.

Also, please guys get rid of the males dressed up as females.... please!?
That, however, is nothing urgent and something you could do in time for final release.

If you need i will make you some basic female faces... for free!


quick bug reminder:

- Netted icon doesnt show more than it shows during the inn fight. In fact, in four or five fights i head i saw it only once out of all times i successfully thrown the net at the assassin and scored a hit.

- When you decide to go to buy some gear before going up to guard the Merchant and start trading with the merchant trader, the icons in the trading menu that separate the equipment into weapons and armors only, stopped responding several times.
The rest of them kept working.

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

I found that strength matters the most when you are fighting heavily armored people (in my game, those are the only tough fights). If you are using a sword doing 6 average damage (with 2 DR) against DR 6, you are really only doing 2 damage on average. Adding one more point in strength adds a point of base damage, this increases your killing power by 50%. Obviously if you are blowing through the armor going from 6 to 7 damage is not as significant, but in that case I find that those fights are not as hard.

Not to mention, it makes it easier to carry all of your lewt.

When I get home I intend to play around with a dex 7 heavy armor merc to see how it works. I am trying to decide between axes and swords as a primary weapon (while hammers are deadly in packs, I feel that knocking your target out of melee range is sometimes counterproductive).

As a spoiler question, I saw VD mention something about a "Grain of Truth" quest. I've played every background, but I was unable to get that quest. Can someone give me a hint on where to look?



Also, I may be in the minority, but I like the way the female models look (ok, the heads are...not ideal), and I certainly don't think it is worth spending the time to tweak them. Muscluar men and muscular women do tend to look alike to begin with, and I sometimes find female models have grossly exaggrated dimenentions and it breaks my immersion. I don't think that 110 lbm women with DD breasts and a 27" waist generally run around in heavy armor.