The Lore Skill & identification

[Mr Happy]

Lore - The knowledge and understanding of the events long gone, ancient languages, forgotten rituals, and mysterious objects. Always a winner in a post-apocalyptic world.

One thing I've noticed is that these days, you don't have to "identify" objects in RPGs (bring them to some knowledgable guy who tells you the name/attributes etc. of the potion of death or sword of assimilation). Is this necessary in Aod? If so, will the lore skill (or alchemy skill I guess) play a role in this, or will there be a resident loremaster? Knowledge of "mysterious objects" sounds like it might be able to cover that sort of thing


If not, what applications will the lore skill have? (dialogue, exploration, etc.) I am particularily interested in the "ancient language" part and how it will play in. Is it mostly just identifying runes on the wall, or more varied? Is it simply "you know the language!" or "it looks like gibberish", or is there some grey area in the translation?


And, while I am here, I might as well ask two unrelated questions:

a) In combat, is there a seperate slash and stab move, or is it more divided interms of speed and power (or whatever)?

2) What was that big site you mentioned that expressed interest in an interview?

 

[Vault Dweller]

One thing I've noticed is that these days, you don't have to "identify" objects in RPGs (bring them to some knowledgable guy who tells you the name/attributes etc. of the potion of death or sword of assimilation). Is this necessary in Aod? If so, will the lore skill (or alchemy skill I guess) play a role in this, or will there be a resident loremaster? Knowledge of "mysterious objects" sounds like it might be able to cover that sort of thing

You can play as a loremaster, but, of course, there are other loremasters in the game. They could be more or less skilled than you are. They could also be more knowledeable in certain areas. See this thread for some details.
http://rpgcodex.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=17429

There are items and mechanisms that you may find in the game. You can describe what you saw to a loremaster and he can tell you the stories he heard about operating such devices.

I don't have much stuff on this laptop, but take a look at this.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/7308/passage6un9.jpg
Top right corner. That's an elevator. You can't operate it unless you know how.

If not, what applications will the lore skill have? (dialogue, exploration, etc.) I am particularily interested in the "ancient language" part and how it will play in. Is it mostly just identifying runes on the wall, or more varied? Is it simply "you know the language!" or "it looks like gibberish", or is there some grey area in the translation?

Other than dialogues? Well, lore gives you document forging ability. The higher the skill the better the quality. You can have a lot of fun with this one. Also, lore is very useful if you focus on figuring out what happened in the past (one of the aspects of the main quest). You can also read old languages. There are 3 levels of language skills: understand everything, understand general meaning, barely understand.

- The sign says "Don't touch this button"
- It's a warning of some kind. A button is mentioned.
- Something about a button.

No, it's a made-up example. I'm tired and sleepy, and that's all I could come up with on such a short notice.

a) In combat, is there a seperate slash and stab move, or is it more divided interms of speed and power (or whatever)?

Fast, Regular, Power, Special.

2) What was that big site you mentioned that expressed interest in an interview?

Why?

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

One question about things that are unidentified in Age of Decadence....is it just going to be the special stuff, or everything? Will you need lore to identify that the generic bronze longsword is in fact a generic bronze longsword as opposed to being special? One of the silliest things in (A)D&D games was how you could easily tell by a little blue or whatnot color if something was magical or not. Kind of took the surprise out of cursed items or the like.

 

[Vault Dweller]

No, you don't need to identify weapons/armor, only ancient artifacts:
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8186/module2az0.png

 

[Keender_surprise]

Come on man, you've sold us the game mechanics enough already, show us the pretty pictures :wink:

 

[Mr Happy]

stuff

cool. Forging sounds great. Is it all quest tied/scripted, or is there a lot of "bribe the guard to enter the town" opporitunities?

a) In combat, is there a seperate slash and stab move, or is it more divided interms of speed and power (or whatever)?

Fast, Regular, Power, Special.

Sounds good. I am a fan of being able to splitattacks based on motion (slash/stab etc.) and giving them advantages and disadvantages (a la daggerfall), but this is morethan enough.

2) What was that big site you mentioned that expressed interest in an interview?

Why?

Oh, just curious. Personally, I'd love to read another interview. Plus, if a big site expresses interest in AoD, they can't be all bad.

 

[Vault Dweller]

stuff

cool. Forging sounds great. Is it all quest tied/scripted, or is there a lot of "bribe the guard to enter the town" opporitunities?

Everything is quest-tied/scripted, but quests are flexible enough to allow/support a lot of options. For example, Feng sends you to see Antidas when you get the map. So, that's your current "quest". How you get to see him is up to you: sneak in, climb the wall (I think the RPG Vault interview had a screen showing you on the roof with some "you climbed the wall" text), do the hostage quest or do the outpost quest or double-cross Feng and save Cassius, or pretend to be a courier from another House (that's where you'd need fake documents).

Oh, just curious. Personally, I'd love to read another interview. Plus, if a big site expresses interest in AoD, they can't be all bad.

GameSpy. Well, I'm not sure what happened in the last 3 months, but we got 8 publishing inquiries and a number of interview requests. I just don't think there is a reason to do another generic "tell us about your game, does it have like magic and shit?" interview. I want to stop talking about features and start showing them.

Anyway, if you want to know something about the game, just ask.

 

[stargelman]

Anyway, if you want to know something about the game, just ask.

When will it be done?

 

[Mr Happy]

Well, I'm not sure what happened in the last 3 months, but we got 8 publishing inquiries and a number of interview requests. I just don't think there is a reason to do another generic "tell us about your game, does it have like magic and shit?" interview. I want to stop talking about features and start showing them.

Hah, I want to stop hearing about the game and start playing it Even so, a little publicity like that can't hurt. A lot more people read gamespy than the codex.

 

[Elhoim]

Well, I'm not sure what happened in the last 3 months, but we got 8 publishing inquiries and a number of interview requests. I just don't think there is a reason to do another generic "tell us about your game, does it have like magic and shit?" interview. I want to stop talking about features and start showing them.

Hah, I want to stop hearing about the game and start playing it Even so, a little publicity like that can't hurt. A lot more people look at gamespy than the codex.

Fixed.

They´ll skip the interview and go straight to the non-bloomed pics of the game.

 

[The_Pope]

I'd say it would be worth doing a few interviews close to the release date. The people who were vaguely interested probably forgot about the game by now, and it still isn't particularly well known. You need to get your hype machine in gear. It's at least as important as actually making a good game if you want to do this full time.

 

[Kingston]

All you'd end up with after a gamespy interview is a load of "l0l n00b grafix not even bl00m!1" messages.

 

[The_Pope]

Thats why you need a solid white screenshot. MORE BLOOM THAN OBLIVIANZ!!1!

 

[Elhoim]

Well, I can make some fake bloom screenshots to put on the big gaming sites!