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Game News Age of Decadence April Update

Infinitron

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

It's May, so naturally that means it's time for the Age of Decadence April update. It details what the guys at Iron Tower are up to as the game's development enters its (hopefully) final stretch:

We spent the first 10 days of April finishing up the last update and then spent the next 4 weeks:
  • Fixing bugs (mostly loops and ‘ghost’ npcs)
  • Working on improving the new locations (more stories, people to talk to, alternative solutions)
  • Working on Caer-Tor (to be released in 2 weeks or so)
  • Working on the Hangar (the south shall rise again)
  • Working on Ganezzar (it’s about time)
Overall, it’s a very chaotic but manageable schedule. Now that 15 locations (75% of the game) are out, we can finally see that light at the end of the tunnel. After 10 years of working on nothing but faith and enthusiasm, it’s a great feeling.

So, things to look forward to in the next 2 months:
  • Improved Monastery (we released the skeleton version as we were running out of time and didn’t want to delay the update, now we’ll add some meat to the bones)
  • Caer-Tor to continue the IG storyline, meet new people, prove your worth once again, and be able to explore other locations before being sent to Ganezzar
  • The Hangar (requires the jellyfish artefact, having that mantra from Antidas’ palace won’t hurt either)
  • Two creatures from the wasteland
  • New weapons and armor
As usual, the update includes a spoilerish preview section. This one showcases an encounter with a rather credulous individual by the name of Lord Meru. We don't do spoilers here though, so as a replacement, check out this preview of AoD posted at a gaming blog called Pixel Related:

Whenever I play an RPG on the computer, since the days of Baldur’s Gate I’ve employed a simple and effective system. At any point in a game where I’m about to take action, or have barely succeeded in some risky maneuver by a lucky roll of invisible dice, I make a separate save file. To keep things straight and organized, I name the files with keywords relevant to what I’m doing, so the next time I try something as equally risky I already have a file waiting to be overwritten. For the last fifteen years, “main,” “pre combat,” “post combat,” “thieving,” “lockpicking,” “trap disarming,” and keywords related to plot decisions have all served me well, in a save-naming system I intended to use in perpetuity. But now The Age of Decadence is making me change all that.​

The game gives fair warning that the best way to win a fight is not to participate, and that while avoiding conflict may not be the warrior’s way, it is in fact “the staying alive way.” Still, all those old habits are hard to break, and there’s admittedly a little ego involved in thinking that if I can just min/max my stats the right way I can in fact play this new RPG the way I’ve always done. Wrong. And the moment that finally dawned on me was when I realized I had to change those save file names.

I found myself in a dark, post-apocalyptic, Romanesque world, where thieving was a way of life. Consequently, every save I made involved some element of immediate danger. So rather than being moments few and far between where I was doing something risky, which I could revert back to later if I wanted a different outcome, I had to simply accept being in constant peril, parsing out those truly significant moments where outcomes were radically divergent.

Because the hazard of “walking down the street” happens so frequently (where you’re bound to encounter someone who intends you harm), I instead found myself marking the happenings of the world with phrases like, “negotiating,” “trading,” “crafting,” and “charming.” Those things bear much more significance in the world of Decadence, where conversations end more lives than your sword can, the coins in your purse are coveted by lying merchants who exaggerate the value and rarity of their “goods” and your ability to repair a small switch can lead to big treasure.

More often than not, I take to playing the good guy hero, where my strategy to succeed in an RPG is to find some form of sustainability – whether that’s health or mana regeneration, or even the ability to make my own healing supplies. As gamers we’ve been trained for years to anticipate conflict and injury, and to focus our efforts toward achievement in the combat arena. But after an unsuccessful attempt to live the honest life of an armor-clad, charismatic praetor, (who lost all his money and was thrown on a corpse heap countless times) I turned in my golden cloak. And for the first time ever I created a starting character who was shrewd, self-serving, prone to wearing black, and pretty good with a dagger. Who is still healthy (and wealthy) to this day.

Still under construction but available through Steam’s Early Access, The Age of Decadence strives to be the sort of RPG that changes the way you play the genre. Similar to the way that Dark Souls wowed gamers years ago by bringing difficult combat back into fashion, The Age of Decadence is making huge strides in creating a world so brutal that it’s impossible to be the knight in shining armor. It gives you something you’ve never experienced before, in a way that forces you to wake up, pay attention and adapt to the game world around you. I tried to resist the force of that change. But I’m glad I saved my game first, because as predicted, I died. Now, I encourage you to take on that same worthy and exhilarating challenge.
This guy gets it.
 

t

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This article just might have been key to propelling AoD's sales from out of top100 early access just a couple of days ago into almost as high as D:OS on steam right now.
 

JoKa

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Vault Dweller

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We don't have anything planned as until a few months ago we weren't even sure if the game can sell enough to keep us in business. Now that it seems like we have a chance, we'll look into it. Naturally, we'd love to translate the game into different languages, but due to the volume of text it might be quite a project. It took the Russian team about 6 months to translate the demo and they had quite a few volunteers and professional editor.
 

Western

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Codex 2012 Codex 2014 Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2
Out of curiosity VD have you ever considered implementing an iron man mode (saves disabled)?

Are you incapable of doing this yourself?

Yes, but acheesements.

You mean those meaningless stickers you get when you Beat The First Enemy and Complete Your First Jump?

Completing AOD without any saves would actually be an achievement though. I was thinking more along the lines of Temple of Elemental Evil though, it's occasionally enjoyable to have hardcore mode mechanically enforced rather than have it imposed on yourself. It may be superfluous and it may be possible to do it yourself, but it's a feature that may require a minimum effort as well.
 

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Hopefully there will be a save corrupting bug close to the end of the game.
 

J_C

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Is there possibility that the full game will be released by the end of the summer? Seriously!
 

VentilatorOfDoom

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Out of curiosity VD have you ever considered implementing an iron man mode (saves disabled)?
Yes. People keep asking about different difficulty modes and we want to keep our customers happy.
Making an easier difficulty mode which would enable the less tactically inclined to enjoy combat too in addition to the other aspects of the game will make a lot of customers happy. Smart move.
 

Vault Dweller

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Is there possibility that the full game will be released by the end of the summer? Seriously!
Yes. There are 7 locations left. One will be released in 2 weeks, another in 6-7 weeks, the remaining 5 will be tested through the summer and released in the fall (although maybe we'll release 2 in the summer and leave 3 (Ganezzar, Al-Akia, and the temple) for the final release. Either way, it's not a monumental task anymore.
 

Vault Dweller

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Also, a Hungarian magazine (PC Guru) printed a 2-page preview:

"Despite the fact that the Age of Decadence is unfinished, it has so much content, depth and unique gameplay elements that it is nothing less but a game that every fan of the genre must have in their library."

Mighty nice of them.
 

Infinitron

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Making an easier difficulty mode

497.jpg
 

Vault Dweller

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Out of curiosity VD have you ever considered implementing an iron man mode (saves disabled)?
Yes. People keep asking about different difficulty modes and we want to keep our customers happy.
Making an easier difficulty mode which would enable the less tactically inclined to enjoy combat too in addition to the other aspects of the game will make a lot of customers happy. Smart move.
I meant the default difficulty mode (Hard) and ironman (to give the :obviously: gentlemen the satisfaction of claiming that the other people are playing it on Easy).
 

J_C

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Also, a Hungarian magazine (PC Guru) printed a 2-page preview:

"Despite the fact that the Age of Decadence is unfinished, it has so much content, depth and unique gameplay elements that it is nothing less but a game that every fan of the genre must have in their library."

Mighty nice of them.
Yep, I saw one of my ex-colleauge playing it. Thank God he is one of the older, veteran writers, who knows and appriciates old-school games. The other writers are in full popamole mode at the magazine.
 

Jasede

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
Honestly, a German version is a good idea; that GS article is really positive.

And you know, I stopped reading Gamestar 10 years ago but they still write in the same style. Decline-proof?
 

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