A Couple Questions

Hope none of these have been covered. I did a brief search but found out I was reading ten times more info than I wanted to. Which was interesting but not getting any closer to finding out if these questions had already been answered or not. So here goes...

How will the loot system work? Is all loot placed by the developer or is there a system?

I don't really care for the random loot drop system since it rarely tends to make sense. I mean why would a rat be carrying anything? And if you kill a fighter why does all his armor and weaponry disappear or lay there on the ground yet you can not take it but you get to take a couple gold coins he was carrying, that always annoys me. I am hoping that AoD has placed items and all enemies drop what they are wearing/using.

VD, how do you guys plan on testing the game? Will Iron Tower do all beta testing internally or will you guys recruit a limited amount of testers? Or will the demo/shareware release also server as the beta testing period?

I am sure most if not all of us would jump at the chance to help beta test AoD... just as I am sure Iron Tower and/or VD wouldn't want to go that route. Has anything been decided yet?

I had a couple more questions but forgot them from earlier today when I was thinking about the game. One of them was to do with currency but I saw a post somewhat covering that. I do have a spin-off question concerning that though.

Will merchant items be realistically priced? Most games have a wacky economic system put in place by the developers where a sword costs thousands of gold pieces. I know it is mostly there to give the player a sense of accomplishment after collecting those thousands of pieces of gold he can finally buy that item he has had his eye on since the beginning of the game.

Will AoD follow the same design? If not how will it handle currency and the purchasing of the best items available in game?

Thanks.

Paranoid Jack said:

How will the loot system work? Is all loot placed by the developer or is there a system?

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Hand placed in neat loot bags.

I don't really care for the random loot drop system since it rarely tends to make sense. I mean why would a rat be carrying anything?

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Stop being so fucking selfish. Little Timmy killed a rat and wants his loot bag. Who are you to say no? We don't have any rats though - poor things were eaten during the war.

And if you kill a fighter why does all his armor and weaponry disappear or lay there on the ground yet you can not take it but you get to take a couple gold coins he was carrying, that always annoys me. I am hoping that AoD has placed items and all enemies drop what they are wearing/using.

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What you see is what you get. All enemies have inventories (to determine what they can use in combat), and once they are defeated or killed, you can take whatever they've had. I too hate that bullshit when you kill someone who has bitching armor, the shiniest fucking sword, etc, all the game gives you is 20 bucks and a fucking potion.

VD, how do you guys plan on testing the game? Will Iron Tower do all beta testing internally or will you guys recruit a limited amount of testers? Or will the demo/shareware release also server as the beta testing period?

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We'll start with an internal test, and depending on the results, we may or may not do a public beta. I would strongly prefer to test and polish the game before it's officially released, because once the bitching starts, it's pretty much over. ToEE wasn't half as buggy as the idiots made the world believe.

I am sure most if not all of us would jump at the chance to help beta test AoD... just as I am sure Iron Tower and/or VD wouldn't want to go that route. Has anything been decided yet?

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Not yet. Step 1 - internal test in a "controlled environment". The quest system is very complex. One quest may open up solution to another, may make an ally out of a useful NPC who could help you handle some quests differently. That's what I want to test the most, and I need to see how people go through the game. Step 2 would depend on the results of Step 1.

Will AoD follow the same design? If not how will it handle currency and the purchasing of the best items available in game?

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Well, there are rare items made by best smiths (several nice upgrades) out of rare meteor ore and such items will cost a lot, but that kinda makes sense, at least in my opinion. They won't cost tens or hundreds of thousands though a-la IWD2.

Tips Top Hat. Greetings.

...all the game gives you is 20 bucks and a fucking potion.

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The Elder Scrolls 69: Viagrum.

How rare is rare? Are the smiths rare too? I'm assuming so.

When you talk about things which cost "a lot", is this in straight figures or as a percentage of the money you can get in the game?

Exit.

Top Hat said:

How rare is rare?

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12 items. Out of more than 200.

Are the smiths rare too? I'm assuming so.

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There were 2 great smiths in the post-war period plus an apprentice (still alive) of one of them.

When you talk about things which cost "a lot", is this in straight figures or as a percentage of the money you can get in the game?

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That depends:

Weapons made by Joe Blow:

Simple (no upgrades) short sword, bronze, made by Joe Blow - 25 coins
Simple short sword, iron - 75 coins
Simple short sword, steel - 250 coins
Simple short sword, mithril - 400 coins
Simple short sword, meteor metal - 750 coins

Same weapons made by a master smith (extra damage): 75, 150, 400, 600, 900

Plus the upgrades

Balanced (-1AP) short sword, bronze, master smith - 200 coins vs 25 for a simple sword
Fully upgraded (by the player) short sword, meteor metal - 2,500, a decent price for a legendary weapon that cuts steel like paper.

Hand placed in neat loot bags.

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So every item is placed by the team no system that equates this kill to be a "1 gold and 1 small health potion" loot drop? Good to know... basically kill the baddie he drops all his loot items to include a loot bag (or purse)? Or will some items like weapons/shields drop visibly to the ground and the body requires a search to turn up the remaining items?

What you see is what you get. All enemies have inventories (to determine what they can use in combat), and once they are defeated or killed, you can take whatever they've had. I too hate that bullshit when you kill someone who has bitching armor, the shiniest fucking sword, etc, all the game gives you is 20 bucks and a fucking potion.

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Great to hear.... also happy to read the best items are not going to be tens of thousands of gold pieces. A few thousand for a rare item and/or the quest to get ingredients/components or what-not makes more sense.

While playing PnP D&D games how many DM give you an item or three every time you smash a barrel or open a crate? And why have most cRPGs turned into a stupid barrel looting lottery system? Better yet... why do developers think it is a good idea to have a loot drop that make absolutely no sense what so ever... like a rat with gold coins?

My opinion is that our society has gone off the deep end when it comes to instant gratification. We want something and we want it now! So the developers know that whack-a-barrel lotto is fun for little Johnny and if its fun for little Johnny it must be good game design.

Same thing when you look at how fast 90% of the cRPG games handle leveling. Why should we expect our character to level every hour or so? It just turns into an action game because you've moved away from the story and become focused on leveling your character. So when you gain all those levels so quickly it takes away from that sense of accomplishment you get from a gradual progression.

We'll start with an internal test, and depending on the results, we may or may not do a public beta. I would strongly prefer to test and polish the game before it's officially released, because once the bitching starts, it's pretty much over. ToEE wasn't half as buggy as the idiots made the world believe.

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As far as ToEE goes that game was far better than most people made it out to be. It was a module type game design not an "epic" story driven two hundred plus hour game like BG/BGII. I would say it had the best turn-based combat of any AD&D game to this day. And since it was a module you could prematurely end the game early if you went to the proper location too soon. Which happened to me. But I must have lost a half dozen unique parties rolled/created while playing it on iron-man before that happened. Great times.

I've beta tested about a dozen games starting with the original Ultima Online... so I am most definitely down with assisting if or when the time comes. I would even be willing to purchase the game in advance as part of a beta test. I think that would be a good way to go for an indie studio. Since it does cost you to do a beta.

When I beta tested Arcanum they shipped us CDs with a size-able chunk of the game to play through as often as we could. Besides Origin with UO, (and another small indie MMORPG I can't even remember) Troika was the only developer who mailed out CDs. With today's wide-spread use of broadband you could easily just post a file to a FTP site (or a file sharing site) and e-mail passwords to the lucky beta testers. Or go full blown open beta and let some of the file sites and community sites host it for you... but that can generate a lot of info/posts a lot of which will be useless to you. Of course using the forums here with a beta test section would work also. The crash logs/saved games/etc. could all be uploaded/e-mailed to your team. Not sure how all that would work for you but I am sure you'll figure it all out later this year.

Troika was also the only studio that actually shipped all beta testers a free copy of the Arcanum retail release shortly after it hit store shelves. No other studio has done that that I know of. That was a classy studio... sad to think they are dust in the wind.

Whatever you decide it won't change my mind. I will still be one of the first to purchase AoE. From the design to the turn-based combat to the PA story-line... I am interested.

We want a real cRPG for the Fall or next Spring. So keep up the good work and don't sell out to "the man". You can always go "big-time" on us for the sequel. :wink: