The Age of Decadence
Dungeon Rats is released
What does it have to do with AoD, you ask? Well, to let you know that another game set in the AoD world is out, in case you're interested, and to update you on the final content release for AoD.
Now that Dungeon Rats is released on schedule, we can switch back to AoD. As mentioned previously, we need about 4 weeks to do the final content update, so we have plenty of time to make sure the update is out before the end of the year.
Since Dungeon Rats contains many combat improvements, you can expect to see them in AoD when the dust settles (probably in late Jan).
As always, thank you for your support.
Recent Updates & New RPG
The final content update will be released in December (most likely). Think of it as a free DLC to thank you for your support and encouragement. It will extend the endgame and introduce a new ending (among other things).
Note for Radeon users: a couple of months ago we updated the engine to the latest version which didn’t go well with Radeon drivers, which caused slowdowns and forced some players to lower Lighting to be able to play the game. We contacted AMD , they managed to reproduce the problem and fix it, so if you have a Radeon card, make sure that you have the latest drivers (Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.9.1)
In other news, we’d like to introduce our new RPG that’s entering the final stages of development.
* * *
Dungeon Rats, named after the 7th Heavy Armored Division of the Imperial Guards, is a turn-based, party-based dungeon crawler set in the same world as Age of Decadence. This is an RPG focused almost exclusively on squad level tactical combat for players who enjoy turn-based games in general, and AoD's combat systems in particular. If fighting your way out of a prison mine - and frequently dying in the attempt - is your idea of a good time, you've come to the right place.
Starting out as a new prisoner at the bottom of the gangs-ruled prison hierarchy, and of the prison itself, you must fight to survive and develop your combat skills, acquiring better weapons and equipment as you go. Recruit allies to your struggle or carry on as a lone wolf, and kill anyone foolish enough to stand in your way.
Notable changes from The Age of Decadence:
- Party-based - the most frequently requested feature
- Flanking and other strategic bonuses. Positioning matters a lot.
- Manual placement of your characters before a fight
- Charisma determines the number and quality of your party members
- Skill points are split between the party members: more people means fewer skills points per person and slower level ups.
- 10 possible companions, not all of them human (maximum party size is 4).
- New weapons, armor, and creatures
- 3 difficulty levels: Nice Guy, Tough Bastard, Murderous Psychopath
Some screenshots (work in progress):
What's Next?
First, we’d like to thank you for your support. When we launched our game on Steam, we didn’t know what to expect. The Age of Decadence is a hardcore RPG that requires the player to forget everything they learned playing mass-market-friendly RPGs and approach it differently, which, in all fairness, is a lot to ask for.
We were prepared for the worst – ready to say “at least we tried” and go back to less exciting ways to make a living – but your support and open-mindedness ensured our survival as a studio and gave us confidence to continue and experiment with game design.
We’re a small studio. Our games will never sell hundreds of thousands of copies, which is fine, because we aren’t in it for the money. We want to make games that nobody else would (precisely because such games would never sell hundreds of thousands of copies) and with and because of your help we can do it.
Thank you. Again.
So what to expect in the near and not so near future?
The Age of Decadence
As our next “full-scale” RPG won’t be ready until 2020, we’ll continue tweaking and improving AoD, ensuring that there’s always something new for the returning players.
The next update will be released in a week or so and will contain:
- Huge performance boost in Ganezzar, minor boosts in other locations
- Animation speed now goes up to 4x.
- Separate animation speed for combat and exploration
- If a crossbow is loaded, a new icon shows the number of loaded bolts in the inventory screen.
- Pressing "R" reloads the last used bolts in crossbows.
- Option to hide skill tags in dialogues.
- New camera option: follow the player’s character.
- Separate camera modes for combat and exploration. For example, the camera can follow the player while moving in real time and switch to free camera in combat.
The Dungeon Crawler
Our short-term project is a dungeon crawler set in the AoD world. It's a combat-heavy, party-based RPG for people who like our combat system and want to play it in a party-based mode. It will use the existing engine, systems, and assets, although new creatures, animations, weapons and armor are being added as we speak.
We'll introduce it properly in a couple of months.
The Colony Ship RPG
Our long-term project is a colony ship RPG inspired by Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky. We want this game to feel and play differently from AoD. The core design (turn-based, choices & consequences, non-linear, text-heavy) would remain the same.
- Character System
Expect the same 6 stats (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Per, Cha) and 18 skills grouped in sets of three:
- Melee (Fist, Bladed, Blunt)
- Firearms (Pistol, Shotgun, SMG)
- Energy Weapons (Pistol, Rifle, Cannon)
- Science (Medical, Mechanical, Computer)
- Speech (Persuasion, Streetwise, Trading)
- Stealth (Lockpick, Pickpocket, Sneak)
- Melee (Fist, Bladed, Blunt)
- Party-Based.
It’s a fundamental change that affects every design aspect, most notably content “gating”. If you have 3-4 party members, most likely you’ll have all skills covered.
Charisma will determine the number and quality of your party members. The party size will range from 2 to 5. Experience points from quests will be split between the human party members (a droid will have its own leveling up mechanics and won't cost you any XP), thus a smaller party will be able to gain levels faster.
- Party Dynamics
Typically, RPG party members serve a purely tactical role, giving your more bodies to control in combat and access to different combat abilities. In a sense, you’re role-playing an entire squad as outside of combat there is very little (if any) difference between the character you created and the characters you’ve recruited or created next.
It works great in RPGs that are mostly about combat, but calls for a different approach when it comes to non-combat gameplay. The main problem is that party members offer nothing but combat benefits (occasionally, freaky sex to relieve combat stress and party banter), giving you very few reasons to treat party members any differently than the main character.
In short, the problem is that in most RPGs party members are mindless zombies lacking any free will, agenda, goals, etc – the very qualities that separate an actual “character” from a zombie. Thus, our main design goal is to create proper characters that have a will of their own, as well as agendas, beliefs, goals, and other infuriating qualities.
Unlike the player’s character, the party members will have a complex personality & beliefs system that would determine their reaction. Most likely these stats will remain hidden from the player and you’d have to figure out what you’re dealing with by talking to them and observing how they act/react.
We're planning to go with 10 traits (values ranging from -5 to +5) strictly for the purpose of reacting to different situations and the PC's choices.
- Religion (-5 means raging atheist, +5 means true believer)
- Politics (-5 filthy liberal, +5 glorious conservative)
- Loyalty (-5 treacherous scum, +5 loyal to a fault)
- Volatile (-5 comatose, +5 always ready to fly off the handle)
- Connving (-5 honest abe, +5 Miltiades)
- Opportunist (-5 a man of principles, +5 what are principles?)
- Idealism (-5 cynic, +5 starry-eyed idealist)
- Greed (-5 above money, +5 can quote Gordon Gekko)
- Altruism (-5 selfish bastard, +5 For the Greater Good!)
- Agreeable (-5 doesn't play well with others, +5 gets along with Hitler)
- Religion (-5 means raging atheist, +5 means true believer)
- Feats & Character Levels
Your characters will gain levels using experience points from quests. When you level up, you’ll select feats, unlocking or improving your abilities. The feats will be an important aspect of character development (i.e. they won’t give you minor bonuses but help you develop your characters along specific paths: lone wolf vs squad leader, offense vs defense, gunslinger vs sprayer or gadgeteer, melee vs ranged, which will go beyond which skill to develop, etc) and make as much of a difference as the skills levels.
We want the skills to determine your chance of success with certain tasks and the feats to define what you can do and how you can use these skills to maximum advantage. For example, not every guy with points in Pistol is a gunslinger, not every guy who travels alone is a Jeremiah Johnson when it comes to survival, etc. Basically, the feats will define your character much more than your skills.
- Skills & Learn by Using
You will not gain XP for killing, talking, sneaking, picking locks, using computers, fixing mechanical things and such. You will not increase your skills manually. Instead your skills will be increased automatically based on their use.
Instead of counting how many times you did something, we’ll assign a certain value (let’s call it learning points) to each activity (attacking, killing, fixing, sneaking, convincing, lying, etc). So killing a tough enemy or repairing a reactor will net you more points than killing a weakling or fixing a toaster. Basically, it will work the same way as XP but go directly toward raising a skill that did all the work.
- Gadgets
While melee builds will be viable, most enemies will use guns. Ranged combat will be dull if everyone just stands there, firing their weapons and dodging bullets. It needs cover but we don’t want to place cover everywhere, which means we need gadgets to make your own cover (among other things):- Depletable energy shield (absorbs x damage)
- Reality distortion field (THC penalty against you)
- Optical illusion a-la Total Recall (chance that enemies will target the illusion)
- Cloaking field aka Stealth Boy
- Stasis field (holds enemy, no damage can be dealt)
- Brainwave Disruptor (don’t leave your home without Psychic Nullifier)
Expect 10-12 gadgets with 3-4 upgrade levels.
- Depletable energy shield (absorbs x damage)
- Factions
While factions will get a lot of attention and play a large role, you won’t join a faction but will remain an outsider, free to work for and deal with all factions, which fits the setting better as these factions aren’t guilds but different hubs. However, many quests would have conflicting interests and reputation would play a stronger and more immediate role than it did in AoD, so you won’t be able to please everyone for long.
In addition to your reputation, which will play a much bigger role in the game (the main quest is sort of built around it), we’ll add two important stats that will be affected by your actions: faction strength & morale (your actions might increase or lower both or increase one and lower the other). More on that in the future updates.
Here are the first 3 design updates if you wish to read more:
Setting Overview
Party Dynamics
System Changes
Again, thank you for your support and encouragement. If you’re interested in AoD, buy it today while it’s on sale to support the games we're working on. If you aren’t sure whether or not the game is for you, read this overview first:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/aod/announcements/detail/79169731941085705
A Bit Of Everything
The update contains a lot of things that were requested by the players:
1) A Stash!
As requested, a stash to store your ill-gotten gains. Rent a room at any inn and get a magic chest that will follow you everywhere (i.e. to the inn in the next city).
2) Sneaking & Stealing
As requested, more opportunities to ply your shady crafts. Stealing from sleeping inn patrons and merchant stalls is now a thing.
3) Spearman's Kit
As requested, a one-handed spear with a longer reach. It comes with a fancy buckler, a well-crafted blue steel helmet that doesn't restrict your vision, and its current owner. Enjoy!
To get your hands on that kit you have to bravely enter a tavern in the Arena district and challenge a dreadful pirate currently terrorizing the peaceful patrons. Are you bad enough dude to save the patrons and claim the villain’s spear for yourself?
4) Trading Cards.
As requested, now you can trade cards and craft your very own badge (or two). Steam gave us hard time ensuring that the divine badge is up to the code and meets the highest requirements (shines like the North Star on a dark night), so hope you won't be disappointed.
One of the badges
5) Expanded Endings
If you always wanted to know what the Zamedi demon is up to (and other memorable characters you've met on your journey), well, now you can. As requested.
6) Camera & Interface Resolutions
As requested, the camera's code has been updated and now it's much smoother. Don't expect any miracles but it's better than before. Plus we added higher resolutions support for the interface.
7) Minor things
Several new characters, text descriptions, bug fixes, improved textures and models, minor balance tweaks.
Thanks for playing.
Expanded Ending
First things first - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 2015 was a great year for RPGs, let's hope that 2016 will be even better. Thank you for supporting us and other indie developers.
Today's update is released as beta because we updated the engine to the new version and it's safer to release it as an optional update (for now) rather than force everyone to update and run into potential issues.
To access the beta 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.
Enter the Access Code (‘blacksheepwall’), click on Check Code, and wait for Steam to download the files.
You can opt out at any time, in which case Steam will roll back the update and restore your game files.
The content:
- Expanded the temple's interior (new NPC, potential combat, various checks, including Traps)
- New ending path and extra content for the 'chosen one'
- Ambushes to reward you for reaching low rep with factions
- Improved engine performance and stability
- Fixes: reported bugs, missing SP, references to dead characters, etc
- Improved combat and items balance
We'll continue supporting the game and adding more content as per your suggestions. While we had a different update plan, we've heard your complaints about the ending, so it will remain our focus for the next 6 weeks. We'll add more options and alternative solutions fitting your characters.
As always, thank you for your continuous support and patronage.
Arena Challengers
First of all, thank you for the great reception. Thanks to you we can continue making RPGs. The future of our studio isn’t certain yet but you gave us a chance and we’re very grateful.
Your goodwill also buys us 4 months of work before we move onto the next project. Instead of rolling extra content into a DLC and selling it to you for a few extra bucks, we’ll add it via monthly updates to show our gratitude and appreciation.
This month’s update adds 3 things:
1) The arena challengers. We went far and wide to search for the finest warriors and found them in this thread:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/230070/discussions/0/490123197946992902/
The first challenger is Hamul, a man of faith and much violence:
The second challenger is Plaudius, a man of average stats and many talents
Last but not the least is infamous Widowmaker with over 300 confirmed kills and no defensive skills whatsoever. After all, why waste points on defense when you can spend them on Critical Strike and kill your enemies with extreme prejudice?
2) Basil's questline continues, giving you a chance to strike against protection racket (or join in and make some easy money).
3) Trainers, various improvements, and fixes. Notable items (not the full list):
- You can talk your way past Hermon without having to pay or fight.
- Random crashes on level switch should be fixed
- Fixed passability and building collisions
- Monastery's Elder has the strongbox key
- Poison only applies on damage; weak poison no longer overrides strong poison
- Rebalanced the Thieves Guild's questline, making it a bit easier
- Increased monetary rewards
Notes:
- The new update requires installing new Microsoft libraries (installed automatically by Steam). If you have any issues, please install them manually:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145
- The Russian version is now temporarily out of date, which should be fixed in the next few days.
Once again, thank you for your support.
Russian localization
First of all, we’d like to thank you guys for your support. Thanks to you we had a great launch and we’ll continue making RPGs.
Some of you have concerns about the difficulty. We hear you. While we won’t change the core of the game, we *will* add options that make mandatory fights for certain characters (like the mine for the praetors) easier.
We’ll continue supporting the game and going through your feedback for the next 3 months, during which we will work on extra content and improvements requested by the community.
Today’s update mainly adds Russian localization, courtesy of the Russian supporters of our game who worked for more than THREE years to bring it to you, and minor tweaks, improvements, and bug fixes.
Improvements:
- New Path: Praetor can get a strong poison for the mine from Dellar.
- Added better cape icons.
- Added healer and blacksmith fast travel points on the maps.
- Improved the map quest’s flow. If you couldn't talk to Antidas about it, you can talk to Abukar and he’ll send you to Domitius.
- Changed Hellgate lasers generators’ position, lockpick required, disabling gives civic SP. You can disable them without going through lasers first.
Fixes:
- Fixed minor journal issues.
- Fixed issue with Hector’s quest when you met him via Claudia.
- Fixed issue with being transported to Senna's house when you talk with him at the palace.
- Fixed issue with the blank slide in Maaadoran endings.
- Fixed issue with HD achievement and blowing up Al-Akia.
- Fixed TG fence in GNZ having no items.
- Added a few missing combat SP.
- Fixed issue with Hellgate’s constructs not activating.
- Fixed issue with the bolter and aimed attacks.
- Fixed a rare issue in monastery storm walls fight.
- Fixed issue with animation speed setting not applying.
- Fixed rare start-up issues.
Changes:
- Tweaked reputations in Teron.
- Tweaked Praetor’s monetary rewards.
- Thieves in TG2 have more arrows.
- CS partial failure with mine guard lowers his HP by 20 (was 10).
- All players start with some basic crafting schematics.
Combat Balance:
- Bash has better chance to knock down.
- Constructs have slightly bigger CS chance, lowered damage.
Thank you again for your support. Expect the next update by the end of the month.
Released!
The Age of Decadence, our first but hopefully not the last RPG, is now available. If you've been following it or playing it in Early Access, you know what to expect (if you did play an earlier version, please delete prefs.cs file from your Documents/My Games/Age of Decadence folder before starting a new game). If you've just discovered it, "stay awhile and listen".
The most commonly asked question is:
What Kind of Game Is It?
It’s a very different game than anything you’ve ever played. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the RPG genre hasn’t really been explored yet and most RPGs follow the formula that didn’t change in 20 years. While there were always games that strayed off the beaten path – Darklands, Planescape: Torment, King of Dragon Pass – such games were the exceptions that only reinforced the rule.
The Age of Decadence is an experiment, an attempt to explore a different direction, taking you back to the PnP roots of the genre. It doesn’t mean that the game is awesome. In fact, there is a good chance that you won’t like it, precisely because we took too many liberties with the established design.
So What Sets The Age of Decadence Apart From Other Games?
1. The Setup
Traditionally, many fantasy RPGs are about killing things, clearing up dungeons, and being a hero. There is nothing wrong with mindless fun and wish fulfillment, but we want to offer you something different. To quote Tom Chick (Quarter to Three's game critic):
"But Age of Decadence wants nothing to do with kobolds, just as it wants nothing to do with Doo-dads of Unimaginable Power. The overarching idea is a crumbling society divided among three noble Houses, each fumbling around in its own version of darkness to comprehend what destroyed the world. That’s the central mystery. It plays out like noir in that you are the detective, piecing together what really happened from differing accounts, all vividly written with clear voices and efficient prose. And like a detective in a noir yarn, you can’t help but become part of the central mystery, effecting an outcome you might not have intended."
The Age of Decadence is not a game about killing monsters or exploring mystical lands, but rather, surviving amid the greed and brutality of your fellow humans and carving out a name for yourself. Good and bad are purely relative. It’s a world of scheming and backstabbing in which your words and actions have the potential to forge alliances and sow discord, and your path is never certain.
You get to play with seven different factions: three Noble Houses and four 'professional' guilds: merchants, assassins, thieves, and the army, all fighting for power or influence; over 100 named characters, over 750 ‘generic’ characters with unique IDs taking part in violent take-overs, assassinations, and power grabs, and over 600,000 words of dialogue: a well-developed and thought through world, believable characters, realistic motivations, but no elves, dwarves, magic, and wizards in fashionable, pointy hats.
2. Combat difficulty
Another design aspect worth mentioning is combat difficulty. It’s a hard game.
Combat difficulty is integrated into the setting. You can’t say that the world is harsh and unforgiving and then let the player kill everyone who looks at him or her funny. The game has to be hard, dying should be easy, and you should have reasons to pick your fights.
You aren’t a powerful hero who can defeat anyone and save the world and it is the difficulty that reinforces this notion. Make the game easier and we’re back to the powerful hero setup. So unless you’re a natural born killer, watch what you say and think before you act or you’ll end up dead before you can blink.
[IMG]http://media4002.dropshots.com/photos/1181160/20151015/084659.gif[/IMG][IMG]http://media4001.dropshots.com/photos/1181160/20151015/084931.gif[/IMG][IMG]http://media4001.dropshots.com/photos/1181160/20151015/084544.gif[/IMG]
[IMG]http://media4001.dropshots.com/photos/1181160/20151015/084619.gif[/IMG][IMG]http://media4001.dropshots.com/photos/1181160/20151015/084853.gif[/IMG][IMG]http://media4002.dropshots.com/photos/1181160/20151015/084746.gif[/IMG]
No, you're the other guy - the one who's being brutally murdered.
3. Choices & Consequences
Choices are what the game is all about - crafting your own narrative via a variety of choices that alter the story, playing field, and your options down the road. From multiple quest solutions to branching questlines you'll have plenty decisions to make and consequences of said decisions to deal with, which is what makes the game incredibly replayable.
Starting the game as a mercenary and joining the Imperial Guards will give a completely different experience, different quests, different content and points of view than, say, playing the game as a merchant (less buying low and selling high, more scheming and plotting to gain advantages for the guild), a praetor serving a Noble House, or an assassin.
The questlines are interwoven, forming a large, overarching story, so playing the game only once will be like witnessing events from a single perspective, which is limited by default. You will have to play the game several times to better understand what’s going on, piece everything together, and see the full effect of the choices you make.
The Big Question: Should You Buy The Game?
Try before you buy. Even if everything I said sounds exactly like your kind of game, try the demo first. That’s what it’s there for. It gives you access to the first Chapter, consisting of 3 locations and about 30 quests split between mutually exclusive questlines and decisions.
Shop Smart! Shop S-Mart!
What's Next?
- We'll continue supporting the game and paying attention to your suggestions and concerns (as long as they fit the core of the game). During the next 3 months we'll work on extra content because why not? I dislike DLCs, so we won't charge anything for all extra content related to the game.
- Our short-term project is a party-based dungeon crawler set in the AoD world. One of the characters mentions a prison-mine called The Second Chance and you'll be given an opportunity to escape it or die trying. This game will use the existing assets and systems.
- Our long-term (i.e. a full scale RPG) project is a "generation ship" game, inspired by Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky. We're aiming to create a different experience with the same core ('hardcore', TB, C&C).
We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported us over the years. We wouldn't have made it this far without you.
3 days to release - update 7
Improvements:
- Added fence trader in Ganezzar TG.
- Added two new hair options, and improved textures for hair.
- Improved visuals in Ganezzar and Al-Akia interior.
- Added animated filler NPCs in Maadoran and Ganezzar.
- Gave Hermon a portrait
- Added accelerators to CountPopup: left, right, end, home, enter, escape.
- Continue in main menu loads latest savegame if no game is running.
- Added more music.
- Taught rangers to use push when cornered or immobilized, and the enemy is near.
- Added Aurelian Praetor personal endings.
Fixes:
- Fixed issue with being able to start TG9 before TG8.
- Fixed issue with money and workers in Teron Palace TA.
- Fixed issue with loading combat autosave of AG2.
- Fixed issue with bottom inventory items in crafting interface.
- Fixed issue with quick jab being selectable when interrupting with hasta + shield bash selected.
- Fixed bleeding icon remaining after using the healing salve.
- Fixed crash when pressing 1 with no weapon equipped.
- Added missing SP and reputation to HD questline in Ganezzar.
- Fixed an issue when push stays selected after CA with crossbow.
- Fixed ranger running towards you instead of shooting from his position.
- Fixed minor scripting issues in "Blow Up Alkia" events for HD.
Changes:
- Increased SP reward for reaching the bottom of the Abyss.
Combat Balance:
- Tweaks to Hermon's Gang and equipment.
Almost there, folks.
5 days until release - update 6
Improvements:
- Added faction and location journal pages.
- Improved visuals: TG6, Al-Akia.
- Added faction and locations journal pages.
- Improved dialogue camera in several places (TG questline especially).
- Added more sounds.
- Added ending dialogue for Darista and Senna.
- 1-2-3 selects fast-regular-power attacks.
- Improved visibility of Elias quest.
Fixes:
- Fix issue with Iola not being gone from the inn after you pay her.
- Fixed issue with hit sounds.
- Fixed issue with leaving Maadoran early as MG.
- Fixed issue with Athanasius not having a job for you if you left Maadoran early.
- Added missing SP rewards.
- Fixed "teleporting" feint with 1h crossbows.
- Fixed issue with Meru not being reported dead when the Ganezzar was taken.
- Fixed minor journal issues.
Changes:
- Tweaks to healing machines. Removed experiment from Iola. Basic function increases CON, hack lets you choose. Removed perception increase from both.
- Removed alchemy check from TG6 as you already have poison
- Tweaks to HD praetor armor reward in Teron.
- HD MDN questline closes when you go to another city.
Combat Balance:
- Tweaks to TG9 HA vs TG fight.
- Tweaks to TG9 HA vs HC fight.
Thank you for your help and support.