After nearly 2 years of work we finally have a playable build, which is very exciting. It's very rough, of course, as it's the First Iteration of the game and things will change a lot by the time the game is ready to be released.
Right now you can talk to people, fight, loot bodies, increase skills and equip new gear. The dialogue scripts are working like a charm, so you can go through all the fights and get one of 5 endings of the upcoming combat demo. The AI is doing a pretty good job seeking cover, flanking, and using different attacks, so overall things are moving in the right direction.
I'd say we need 2 months to get the combat system into shape before we start beta-testing, then another month before we release the combat demo and get some feedback.
Anyway, here are some screens (click to expand). Keep in mind, that's it's work in progress, as rough as the very first build can be:
May 2018 update
We constantly update the build sitting on the public test branch and every now and then move it to the default branch, so it's business as usual.
This time around we fixed two recently reported issues: high level poison was applied incorrectly to arrows and Gaelius' troops accompanying him to the temple were too weak and didn't stand a chance against the Imperial Guards holding the Dead River pass.
While we were at it, we decided to integrate Sunfire's (who's a giant among men) most excellent and comprehensive mod into the core gameplay files. The changelog is too long to include here, so here is a summary of fixes and improvements:
- Death screens and endings
- Quest and combat rewards (sp, cs, reputation)
- Minor consistency issues (when Faelan is killed or Ganezzar is taken)
- Map visuals, interaction, and passability
- Added proper banners and soldiers when House Aurelian or the Imperial Guards take Ganezzar.
- Typos and minor dialogue issues
- Russian and Spanish localization issues
While it's not a major update, there's always a chance of new issues popping up when you change something. If you see any, let us know and we'll fix it asap.
In unrelated news this month's The New World's update introduces the Monks of the House of Ecclesiastes and another party member, so here is a link if you want to take a look:
Since we don't have a proper page for our new game yet, I'll post the last update here in the spirit of Christmas:
A setting is defined by the factions it spawns. For example, 9th century England is not defined by dudes sporting swords and chainmail but by the warring kingdoms, Viking factions, puppet rulers, the Danelaw, and a clash of religions. In turn, the factions are defined by their leaders who reflect the current state of affairs, and the leaders are defined by the challenges they face.
Thus the time has come for you to meet the finest sons and daughters of Starfarer: the elected, appointed, hand-picked, hereditary, and self-proclaimed leaders who hold the fate of the Ship’s inhabitants in their hands. Let’s start with the three main factions fighting for control over the Habitat – the central living complex housing 80% of the Ship’s population. For more information on the Ship’s factions, see our website:
http://irontowerstudio.com/new-world-factions
PROTECTORS OF THE MISSION
When Silas Reis was promoted, he was handed the same unfulfilled mandate as every Commander before him: restore order. The meaning of this directive was simple: to exterminate the Brotherhood wherever they skulked, crawled or hid, and finally end the generations-long Mutiny. If Reis were to doubt the likelihood of carrying out this objective, he was careful never to acknowledge it. Defeatism is heresy, and heresy is punishable by death.
Every member of the Mission Control Council which appointed Reis could trace his lineage back to the original crew. Since these wise elders occupied a perch far above reproach, any failure in furthering the directive must lie with the Commander. Failure at this level was also punishable by death.
Silas’ mentor, Commander Matheson, had been eight years in the role before his execution at the Council's order. They gave no reason for their decision but it was widely believed Matheson had been too timid in his persecution of mutinous filth. Immediately after his promotion ceremony, Commander Reis began planning a major assault against the Brotherhood. Whether or not his tenure would end in execution, no one would call him timid.
BROTHERHOOD OF LIBERTY
Bill Hanson, the Chairman of the Brotherhood's Executive Council, has served longer in that position than anyone before him due to his deft handling of the Council itself - a nest of bickering, backstabbing vipers. They were a never-ending headache and more dangerous, in Bill's opinion, than their archenemies, those blowhard fools calling themselves the 'Protectors of the Mission'.
In order to keep their teeth off his throat so he could bloody think for a goddamned minute, Bill had orchestrated a few small victories for the Protectors. The rapid reversal of those victories proved that the Chairman was a necessary evil to keep people safe, and talk of removing him from power had finally died down.
Taking advantage of this tiny bit of breathing room, Chairman Hanson had established an understanding with the Protectors' Commander Matheson, which may have blossomed into a working relationship and - just imagine it - an end to the hostilities. Then one of the snakes on the Council got wind of it and scuttled the whole deal.
Matheson was executed shortly thereafter and the Protectors appointed Colonel Reis, a known straight-edge and all round git, in his place. To Bill's mind, this kind of instability and rapid change didn't bode well for anyone. As for the Councilman who got Bill's maybe-friend killed... well, if there's one thing he could not abide, it was a snitch.
CHURCH OF THE ELECT
Chaplain-General Abraham Davis had been chosen by God to battle the Devil aboard Starfarer and to deliver her crew from evil. It was at times a wearisome burden. Some of his flock questioned the Devil's very existence. Hadn't they left the Father of Lies behind on Earth? Weren't they flying away from sin, and through the heavens at that? But Davis knew better, for God had opened his eyes.
The Mutiny had not been made by man. It was one of the Devil's sideways deceptions, pushing folks to choose either Protectors or Brotherhood as their saviors when both were the Devil's guises, diversions from the true path.
A less experienced leader would have struck at once. The two groups had been weakened by their endless skirmishing. But to bring the Church into their conflict prematurely, to leave themselves vulnerable to a counterattack, would invite the infection of the enemy's lies. The Chaplain-General was no such fool. He knew that once the Devil has made his home inside your door, no military victory would save you.
Instead, Abraham would bide his time and watch the two deluded factions like a hunter scouting dangerous prey. He would learn the enemy's habits and weaknesses. Sooner or later the Devil will make a mistake and then Abraham will strike. Then will be revealed the power and fury of the Lord.
* * *
Next we have 4 lesser but nonetheless important factions: the Covenant, House of Ecclesiastes, the Pit, and the Grangers:
PEOPLE OF THE COVENANT
As happens every generation, when old age had left the Great Mother too withered and bent for her duties, she turned to her Handmaidens, the unquestioning instruments of the Mother’s will on the Ship. From among these young women her successor would be selected based on her intelligence, and most importantly, unemotional good judgement.
After seventeen long years of service, Pale Glow was chosen to wear the ceremonial hazmat helmet and sacrifice all ties to family and friends. Upon the Mother’s death, she would become matriarch of all mutants, her edicts more binding than law, for they are not subject to argument or appeal.
Her fellow Handmaidens she would know no more, as they took on the mantle of the Harbingers and scattered to every distant corner of the world. The Harbingers’ duty is to spread the word of God to the un-marked masses outside the collective, those passengers doomed to remain on the Ship during the implosion of Judgement Day.
With the old Handmaidens disbanded, it would fall to Pale Glow to select a new group of young mutant females to serve alongside her until age and infirmity would force the cycle to turn once again, until the Dawn.
/to read more about the mutants' origin and history or see what they look like without fancy helmets, click here.
HOUSE OF ECCLESIASTES
John Miller was nearly seventy when he decided to step down and pass the Chief Technical Officer chevrons to his daughter Ava. When the Mutiny broke out, his grandfather promptly sealed the Environmental Control and Life Support System center, declaring that neither side will use the ECLSS in their war. Those who wished to leave were allowed to do so; the rest remained with CTO Miller, committed to supporting life on the Ship.
Fearing that the ECLSS will fall apart after his death, Miller reshaped it into a religious, monastic order, following the teaching of Ecclesiastes: “one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.” The struggles outside the hallowed halls of the ECLSS were meaningless squabbles of children who didn’t know better. There was no greater purpose than serving the Ship and supporting life.
Over the decades the conditions slowly worsened and by the time Ava Miller took over, most systems operated far below their capacity. The length of the voyage had exceeded the ECLSS capabilities a long time ago and it was a miracle that it was still operational.
Thus Ava faced a dilemma. The ECLSS needed help fast but requesting it, let alone accepting it, threatened everything her family built. She knew enough of the outside world to know that such help would come with strings attached, that whoever helps her will control the ECLSS whether she wants to or not. On the other hand, doing nothing like her father had done, will doom both the ECLSS and the Ship sooner rather than later.
THE PIT
Wasteland is the affectionate name used to describe the now uncharted miles of scorched corridors and decks that bore the brunt of the fighting during the Mutiny. It is even rumored that the hull has been breached in certain sections, leaving them open to the void of space. This unstable no-man's-land is the principal hunting ground for folks willing to gamble their lives against the chance of finding old and outlawed tech.
For a scavenger, Jonas Redford was more successful and more ambitious than most. One of the key difficulties for a professional scav is to extract your finds as quickly as possible, since anyone else stumbling across your good fortune will quickly try to make it their own. In order to facilitate more efficient runs into the Wasteland, Jonas set up a base camp in Cargo Hold #3, right next to the action. Such a good idea couldn't remain secret for long, and his fellow scavengers soon began pitching their tents nearby. With its increasing popularity, the camp attracted a growing crowd of traders, whores, and other hangers-on, and people began to see it as a rugged alternative to the Habitat, which promised safety, but insisted on submission in exchange.
At some point Jonas realized that more money was waiting to be made right there in the Pit, as it had come to be called, than out in the Wasteland. Thus he opened The Promised Land, the finest and only whorehouse in town. The success of this venture, and his own popularity, led to his role today as the de facto mayor of this frontier town.
* * *
THE GRANGERS
The Hydroponics Division was originally conceived to adapt Terran plants to both the anticipated environment of Proxima Centauri, and to unanticipated threats. Extensive gene-editing was employed to develop resistance to alien fungi and pests, and accelerated adaptation hacked into the plants' genetic code.
Like many other critical systems, Hydroponics was abandoned during the Mutiny. The carefully cultivated flora and fauna was left on its own in harsh environs designed to propagate rapid and brutal evolutionary cycles.
When human beings finally decided to reclaim Hydroponics, they discovered an environment as wild and hostile as any Earth jungle: animate vegetable guardians that would attack any warm-blooded thing, and a virulent fungus whose spores could kill a man in minutes.
Carlos Maney was one of the few to survive the first expedition. What he had learned from that foray earned him a well-paid position as leader of the second expedition. He was also the only one willing to return. The second expedition also failed to secure any kind of foothold, but Carlos was now able to recognize the dangers and had developed a new strategy: coexistence over extermination.
He mounted the third expedition himself, at little cost since the equipment left behind by his predecessors was free for the taking. Within a month, Carlos and his team had reclaimed the first Tower and were supplying the Pit with edible algae and leaves. They call themselves the Grangers and need little in the way of arms or security. The environment itself is enough to deter any but the most foolhardy.
* * *
Last but not the least we have three distinguished groups of fighting men (not counting the various gangs): the Regulators, Jackson’s Riflemen, and Thy Brother’s Keepers.
THE REGULATORS
Rumor has it that Captain Braxton once served a higher power, that in the days before his crisis of faith and the subsequent falling out with the Church of the Elect he was known as Faithful Gunner Jeremiah Braxton. Speculation about why he left is abundant, but as is often the case no story is more compelling than the others.
Backed up by a few like-minded men and picking up more willing recruits along the way, Braxton left the Church behind and ended up in the Pit, a place where reliable fighting men are always in demand. Around the time of his arrival, the Brotherhood had started showing a keen interest in the Pit, eager to establish a foothold there. Braxton and his newly christened Regulators offered the good people of the Pit their services and after much debate they were hired to drive the Brotherhood’s men out, which was accomplished with brutal efficiency.
JACKSON’S RIFLEMEN
Adopted by one of the gangs roaming the shattered compartments of the Factory, Moses Jackson started learning his trade young. Home was a metal shelf, preferably high off the floor and with open sightlines, and what passed for meat had to be boiled in disinfectant, but despite the hardships he was free for the first time in his life.
At the end of his first real fight he earned a battered old energy pistol by stabbing a man to death. With no cells to arm it the pistol wasn't particularly useful, but he decided to keep it anyway. Moses was scavenging for a proper holster when his prize caught the eye of one of his mates. The man was six feet tall and scowled at the world through a single blue eye, having lost the other to radiation burns. He claimed the energy pistol for himself, as compensation for keeping Moe alive. A week later he vanished. No one knew for certain he'd been killed, since there was no body or blood, but shortly thereafter Moses was wearing the pistol again, now in a sleek leather holster. None of his other confederates thought it was worth taking since, they said, there was no ammunition for it anyway.
By the age of 25, Moses was running his own crew with some success. Thinking their superior numbers would carry the fight, he had attacked a group of mercenaries guarding a still-working rail transport. Moses had the numbers but the mercs were better armed, and when one of them got sprayed with the brains and blood of the man next to him, he didn't panic. He kept right on shooting. Moses lost half his crew in the assault and still didn’t secure the train. It was a costly lesson, but he learned to temper his ambition with consideration and better planning. Over the following year, he came to be known for picking the right jobs, for sniffing out trouble and finding a way around it.
When the time was right, Moses set his sights on an even bigger prize. The Shuttle Bay was a well-fortified base with a machine shop specializing in custom weapons. After many months of intelligence gathering, and finding and training the right people, Moses’s crew took the Shuttle Bay in an action that people in the Factory and the Pit would be talking about for a long while.
Though he seemed to be sitting pretty now, Moses Jackson never forgot his most important lesson, the first the Factory had taught him: it's not enough to get what you want. You must be ready to defend it against anyone willing to take it from you. To that end, he hasn’t stopped improving his crew, their armaments, and their training. Everything points to Moses becoming a major player, perhaps the major player, outside of the Habitat.
THY BROTHER’S KEEPERS
Thomas Stanton had always been good with guns so it made sense that's where he would make his living. Robbing traders and prospectors would have been the obvious choice. The payoff was quick but picking targets was risky work, and the chance of a fatal error always high. Instead, he organized a small crew to offer protection services. They called themselves Thy Brothers' Keepers and quickly established a name for reliable service in the Wasteland.
It was around this time that traffic through the Factory sharply increased, and when Tommy caught wind of the escalating violence that came with it, he smelled opportunity. He relocated his entire operation to the Factory, a decision which at first looked like a serious mistake. The Keepers lost more men on their first day in the dead city than they would have on a paying job. In return they had advanced all of four blocks. That’s when the idea of the Toll Road was born.
Leaving the rubble-choked ground level to the gangs, Tommy and his Keepers secured the remains of the rail overpass and the upper floors of a few key buildings. High above the strife and mayhem of the Factory floor, they began work on establishing a safe route through the area. The first month was rough; their waypoints were attacked almost daily. But the ragtag gangs didn't have the organization or mentality to maintain a real siege. The Keepers fortified their positions while their attackers received an education in the many disadvantages of attacking from low ground.
The rough part is all behind them now, and Tommy's business is flourishing under the best conditions: he offers what nobody else can, and is free to name the price for his services. Since Tommy decided on quite a high price, he's also keen to discourage competition. The Keepers have a standing order to fire on anyone armed or suspicious looking who isn't under their protection, making it impossible for anyone else to get a foothold in the Factory.
/The missing portraits will be added in the next few days so stay tuned.
Updates
While we stopped adding new content, we haven't stopped updating the game so every now and then you'll see 'update queued'. There is no reason to post an announcement every time we fix or tweak something, so I'll post everything here to avoid confusion and multiple threads.
This particular update:
Adds missing combat skill points
Tweaks some post-Maadoran endings not taking into account certain decisions
Fixes several localization issues affecting Russian and Spanish versions
Improves localization support for mods
Adds modding options for alchemy
As always, we'd like to thank you for your continuous support and patronage.
PS. Don't miss an upcoming The New World update. You'll meet the finest sons and daughters of Starfarer: those elected, appointed, hand-picked, hereditary, and self-proclaimed leaders who hold the fate of the Ship’s inhabitants in their hands.
* * *
Хоть мы и перестали добавлять новое содержимое, но не перестали обновлять игру, поэтому время от времени вы будете видеть "очередное обновление". Нет никакого смысла размещать объявление каждый раз, когда мы что-то исправляем или изменяем, поэтому я буду размещать всё это здесь, чтобы избежать путаницы и множества тем.
Конкретно это обновление:
добавляет пропущенные боевые Очки Навыков;
изменяет некоторые концовки после Маадорана, не учитывающие определённые решения;
исправляет некоторые проблемы с русской и испанской локализациями;
улучшает поддержку локализации для модов;
]добавляет варианты моддинга для алхимии.
Как всегда, мы хотели бы поблагодарить вас за вашу постоянную поддержку и покровительство.
P.S. Не пропустите предстоящее обновление "Нового мира". Вы встретите лучших сыновей и дочерей "Звёздного путника": всех этих выбранных, назначенных, отобранных, наследственных и самопровозглашённых лидеров, которые держат в своих руках судьбу жителей Корабля.
* * *
Thanks, Sunfire.
The New World - our next RPG
http://irontowerstudio.com/new-world-features
As you probably know, our next game is a sci-fi RPG inspired by Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky (a generation ship novel). The overall design will be similar to that of The Age of Decadence and follow the same principles:
Turn-Based combat with action points and different attack types based on tradeoffs.
Skill-Based character system.
Class-based systems offer you different packages of skills and abilities, designed to ensure that no man is left behind and your rogue can kick as much ass as your fighter. It’s a good, time-honored design that makes it very hard to make mistakes. In comparison, skill-based systems offer all the freedom you can handle and don’t restrict you in any way, so the chances of you screwing up your character is fairly high, especially for the first time players.
Neither system is better by default so it comes down to personal preferences and firmly held beliefs, which is where it gets a bit complicated. Some folks believe that games shouldn't allow the player to make bad builds and choices; anything else is bad design. I think that if every decision is awesome, it hardly matters what you choose. Making mistakes is part of the learning experience but not everyone has the patience for it.
Stats & Skills Matter not only in combat where they provide various bonuses but outside of combat as well, when exploring or dealing with people. It’s a deceptively simple aspect, so let’s examine it in details.
What it means in practical terms is that your character would succeed in areas where his/her stats and skills are strong but fail where they are weak. For example, a perceptive person would notice something others won’t; a brute would be able to move a heavy object, etc.
Obviously, the effect can be minor (i.e. you moved a boulder and found a couple of coins underneath it!), major (you moved a boulder and found a passageway to another area!), or anything in between (you moved a boulder and found a passageway to another area where you found … a couple of coins! T’was a good day for adventuring).
Usually, stats and skills are checked in the following situations:
Multiple solutions (i.e. different ways to arrive to the same destination, everyone’s happy and nobody’s upset)
Multiple solutions are an important gameplay element, which allows you to go through a game in a manner fitting your character, but it is the optional content that truly differentiates one playthrough from another and boosts replayability (because solving the same problems in different ways isn’t enough).
Naturally, optional content must differ in accessibility. Someone’s old shed should be easy to break into (let’s say everyone with a single point in lockpick, which is 80% of all players). An area that resisted all attempts to get into for decades or centuries like the Abyss should force most people to turn back to preserve the setting’s integrity (let’s say only 10% of players should be able to explore it). The rest of the content would fall somewhere in between.
This approach greatly upset some players who felt that they were punished “just because they chose the ‘wrong’ stats”. Some RPG players are notoriously obsessive-compulsive and won’t rest until they create a character that can get the maximum amount of content, which does require reading online guides and meta-gaming like there’s no tomorrow – the fastest way to kill all enjoyment and ruin the game. Of course, the counter-argument is that failing repeatedly (considering how easy it is to make a character ill-equipped for what you're trying to do) is an equally fast way to kill the enjoyment.
I’m not sure there’s a way to “fix it” as those who want to get maximum content in a single playthrough will continue to metagame no matter what. The moment you tell the player "sorry, buddy, you need to be this tall to ride this", some players won't accept the failure and would want to know this kind of info in advance. Not many people see it as "you win some, you lose some" design. Anyway, I'd love to read your thoughts on this matter.
Non-Combat ways through the game
While combat should always be the main pillar of RPGs, allowing the player to avoid combat and progress in different ways opens up more role-playing and story-telling opportunities. Also it makes killing your way through the game YOUR choice rather than the only thing to do.
AoD allowed you to talk your way through and in the CSG we’ll add a stealth path through the game. Here is what it means design wise:
Combat should be avoidable in most cases. Enemies shouldn’t turn hostile on sight, which means that filler combat is out, which in turn makes the game much shorter. Populating a map with “enemies” is easy. Providing paths to sneak past and writing fitting intros and dialogues with logical speech checks (you can’t just ask them nicely and passionately to let you through) for each encounter, as well as reasons for them to be there in the first place isn’t. It’s also very time-consuming and heavy on scripting, which is always an issue for a small team.
Even playing Pillars of Eternity I was surprised how much filler combat the game had and wondered if cutting it out wouldn’t have boosted the game’s replayability as I’d rather play a shorter game several times to explore different options than run through an endless bog of generic encounters that serve absolutely no real purpose.
Keep in mind that combat is an active gamepay aspect – basically, its own game with its own rules and complex mechanics. Dialogues are a passive aspect. You choose a line, click and see what happens. Unless dialogues are the main and only gameplay element, it will always be inferior to combat on a system level, much like no RPG has managed to offer a stealth system that rivals that of Thief.
Thus the talking and sneaking paths will be much shorter by default but the assumption is that it’s part of the meal not the meal itself, i.e. the full experience will require several different replays, combat AND non-combat, which brings us to the next item: replayability.
Non-Linear & Replayable
First let’s define what it means. Linear design is easy to understand: you move from A to B to C, always in this order, which takes away the freedom of choice completely. Then we have the “Bioware design”: do 4 locations in any order, which as an illusion of choices, much like dialogues where you get to say the same thing in 4 different ways.
True non-linearity requires two things:
Multiple ways leading toward the endgame location (i.e. branching questlines), so you never have to travel the same path if you replay the game
Very few “required” story-telling nodes (locations, conversation, events) the player simply must visit or trigger in order to progress.
The positives are clear. Now let’s take a look at the negatives:
The game will be short because you’re taking all available content and splitting it between multiple paths and filter it down via mutually exclusive decisions. AoD has over 110 quests, which is a lot, but you get no more than 20-25 per playtrhough and that’s if you leave no stone unturned.
Overall, I believe that it’s about finding the right balance, which is always the case with all sufficient complex systems and issues. Your feedback is critical, provided it fits our design core, so regardless of whether or not you agree or disagree with my take on these aspects, feel free to share your thoughts.
Modding Support & Font Size
Now that we're done with the content and mechanics we can look into various non-critical improvements. Modding support and a larger font size were two most frequently requested features so let's start there and see what happens.
Modding
What's done?
you can modify all scripts permanently or by copy-pasting modified files into mods\ folder
mod files are isolated and don't require overwriting game files;
individual mods can be enabled/disabled, mods can be loaded by categories (requires manual text file editing right now)
the mods will override any scripted functionality: combat formulas, scripted events, AI functions, etc. I.e. everything that is in
.cs files
theoretically you can override GUIs too, but we haven't tried yet.
What can be added:
loading new or overriding existing dialogues from mod folder
adding or modifying items (weapons, armor, etc) but not adding new in-game models
adding "Mods" tab to options menu, so players can enable / disable mods with GUI (this would take some time);
adding Steam Workshop support to share/download mods
overriding resource files - models, textures, sounds, etc. Torque (the engine) doesn't support it but we can probably tweak low-level Torque's resource loader to query module manager, which is a relatively big task, so we'll do it only if there's enough interest and not because there are no katanas in the game)
Improvements
You can finally increase the font size.
Tweaked several fights to acomodate DR mechanics better.
Updated item descriptions with 'how to use' hints from DR.
Improved interaction with Maadoran merchants, including camera and visual preview of the special items.
Added special and scoped crossbows schematics to the 'ranged' trader in Maadoran.
Added an option to fast travel back to Glabrio after the fight in TG7.
You can buy the stone amulet from the old man near the Abyss.
Added the courtesan portrait in TG6.
Minor fixes and improvements in the Mountain Monastery.
Added a hotkey to Wait command (T).
Changed the hotkey for camera center to (V) and button in the bottom right corner.
Balance Changes
Changed axes' passive to higher critical strike damage.
Increased the SP cost to 5-10-10-20-20-30-30-35-40, increased the SP rewards.
Lowered the poison effect to 3-4-5-6-7 from 3-5-7-9-11.
Increased the potent poison's modifier to 4 from 2.
Tweaked Zagros armor and helmet stats.
Added more gold to the arena vendor.
Reduced bleeding from whirlwind to 3 from 4.
Fixes
When you break the siege using the airship you can no longer ask Carrinas for help or have any issues in the TG questline.
Fixed issues with Daratan Liegeman and other ranks.
Fixed duplicated weapons in Shorty's inventory.
Fixed restorative liniment appearing as healing salve (strong).
Fixed acid's HP damage.
Fixed extra combat SP in any Maadoran combat after fighting the gate thugs with the mercenary.
Fixed the font size in the belt slots.
Fixed floor collision in the tower elevator.
Fixed the missing gold and weight text in alchemy screen.
Fixed TG and AG ambushes not triggering correctly.
Any questions, just ask.
The Final Update
This update transfers all applicable changes and improvements from Dungeon Rats, our combat-focused, party-based spin-off set the AoD world.
While the changes are too numerous (and in many cases too minor) to list, here is an overview:
Overhead combat info
New passive for axes
Mouse cursor shows enemies' HPs
Expanded info on weapon types
THC, CS and ADC stats on area of effect attacks.
Tweaked CS formula for aimed strikes.
Ranged weapons use Perception for aimed: arms and legs attacks
Whirldwind effect for daggers, swords and 1h spears is bleeding instead of knockdown; higher chance to score.
Bombs: increased damage and vsDR bonus; the center of explosion does more damage and increases critical strike chance by 50% (goes down with every tile). CON is more effective. 25 + Center of Explosion Bonus - (Victim CON-6) x25; better visuals and sound.
The Crafting screen now separates schematics by weapon type and armor material and orders them alphabetically.
You can now select techniques without the required materials, to preview the bonuses.
No further content or mechanics updates are planned at this point. All translations are now up to-date as well. We'd like to thank you for your support and willingness to try different games.
While our next full-scale RPG is still in the early stages, your feedback will be more than welcome:
A test build containing many changes and mechanics from Dungeon Rats, a party-based RPG set in the Age of Decadence, is now available, should you wish to give it a try.
To access the test build, right click on the game in your Steam library, select Properties, click on Betas tab. If it’s set on “None - Opt out of all beta programs”, change it to "Test – Public Testing Branch".
We've tested the build and so far everything *appears* to be working correctly, but there were quite a few changes to the scripts so it's possible that we failed to detect something.
We'll continue testing for another week or so. You can either try the build now or wait until it's released officially.
The Final Content Update
The final content update expands the endgame, which makes it difficult to describe the update without spoiling it for those who either haven't played the game yet or just started playing it. Thus I have no choice but to be cryptic about it:
If you decide to return to the temple and bring one of the lords with you, you'll get a proper road trip with various challenges. Different lords will have different escorts and ways of dealing with said challenges.
You'll see the changes taking place in and around the temple, which will explain a lot, and witness a certain conversation.
If you saved a certain guildmaster, he'll make an appearance and you might regret saving his ungrateful ass.
A certain unscrupulous gentleman might be convinced to tag along and get his own, much anticipated ending
If you did nothing of importance in the third chapter and a certain ritual took place without you, it will unlock an exciting new career in manual labor and pyramid building.
If that ritual did take place without your knowledge, it will change your options at the temple.
While it's the last content update, it's not the last update. We're still planning to transfer some changes from Dungeon Rats, a tactical squad-based RPG set in the AoD world, but it will take some time as such changes can easily change balance.
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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thank you for your patronage. If you're following our next game, don't miss our latest update introducing the first party member and showing two new locations:
La versión en español de The Age of Decadence ya está disponible. Pueden cambiar el idioma en el menú Opciones (a través de la selección desplegable Idiomas). Esperamos que disfruten del juego. Si tienen alguna pregunta sobre el juego o su mecánica, por favor publíquelos en los foros de Steam o Iron Tower Studio y le responderemos con prontitud.
Queremos agradecer a la comunidad de juegos de habla hispana que hizo lo que creíamos imposible y tradujo 600.000 palabras de texto en el juego. Nos sentimos honrados y muy, muy agradecidos por su esfuerzo para llevar el juego a la gente que no sería capaz de jugar de otra manera. Su trabajo duro es un sello de aprobación y nos gustaría agradecer a todos los que fueron parte de ese proyecto. Esperamos que muchos jugadores de habla hispana tanto en el Nuevo y el Viejo Mundo que gustan de los RPG hardcore aprecien su esfuerzo.
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The Spanish version is now available
The Spanish version of the Age of Decadence is now available. You can change the language in the Options menu (via the Languages drop-down selection). We hope you will enjoy the game. Should you have any questions about the game or its mechanics, please post them on the Steam or Iron Tower Studio forums and we'll reply promptly.
We'd like to thank the Spanish-speaking gaming community who did what we thought was impossible and translated 600,000 words of in-game text. We are humbled and very, very grateful for their effort to bring the game to people who wouldn’t be able to play it otherwise. Their hard work is a stamp of approval and we’d like to thank everyone who was a part of that project. We hope that many Spanish-speaking players both in the New and the Old World who like hardcore RPGs will appreciate their effort.
