Age of Decadence - Combat Demo Released
 

The Combat Demo for The Age of Decadence has been released - a nice Christmas present for anyone following the game.
Currently, the file is available directly from Iron Tower's FTP server but we'll add mirrors when they turn up; expect Iron Tower tower to get bogged down with demand, so be patient (direct link, 180Mb).
There are comments in this thread and a FAQ about the demo here. There's a forum especially for feedback on the demo, so expect the conversation to migrate there.
Remember that is a special beta combat demo featuring a gladitorial arena - not a live area from the final game - and the game is still in development. Some of the mechanics have been modified (skill points are awarded after each win, for example) and you won't experience the normal questing structure.
Edit: Rapidshare mirror, Filefront
More information.

Finally a demo for AoD.

…..downloading it now..

Excellent, looking forward to trying this.

Mixed feeling so far. They weren't kidding about it being a "combat" demo, because that's really all there is to do. There appears to be only one person you can actually talk to, and dialogue is limited to one or two choices.

You enter an arena and fight opponents one on one, and they get progressively more difficult with each one you face. There's one merchant you can interact with, and he has a *huge* assortment of weapons and armor.

The graphics are pretty rough, and you can only zoom in\out afaict.

It definitely has that indie title feel, but it seems to have some promise. I'm looking forward to a larger demo that lets you do more. The combat is a lot of fun, but I'm interested in seeing what else the game has to offer.

Yes, it really is a combat demo, as it says. ;) The demo has been used to further develop the combat model (a group has been testing this for a while), gather further feedback and, obviously, provide a glimpse of the game.

I think most of us are interested in the dialogue and questing as much (or more) than the combat alone but the demo really has helped tighten the combat.

You can rotate and tilt the camera by pressing the middle mouse button, or also by pressing ctrl + mouse to the edge of the screen.

Any notes on system requirements? I'm assuming Windows only, but are there any other details?

Are you looking for something specific? It's an indie game using an engine that has been around for a while; I doubt the requirements are particularly steep. I played the beta of the beta on an aging laptop without any problems.

Its the Torque engine I think, circa 2003-4. should be pretty mid class hardware friendly. Install was smooth enough, graphics don't look to challenging. I havent had a chance to dig in though.

The game locks up for me pretty often when I try to initiate dialouge. Tried with both opengl and d3d, same effect. Playing on a pretty modern pc which has no trouble playing games like dragon age at full graphical quality.

We can't replicate the problem on our end. People are reporting that standing at least 2 squares away from the arena master solves the problem and the demo doesn't crash anymore. Please try it (if you have this problem) and let us know if it worked, which would help to isolate and fix the problem.

Thanks, and again, we're deeply sorry for the issues you're having.

Good news really. :) I'm waiting for a demo of this game for quite some time. I prefer a demo that also includes dialogs and quests though, but it's better than nothing.

Yep, that solved my problems, thanks! Finnished the demo with a dagger + dodge character and I gotto say, I love the combat. Had one more bug though and that was while I raised my dagger skill, it suddenly jumped down 10 skills when it should've hit 85 it went down to 75. But just that one time, the next time I hit 85 it stayed there.

Think i'll try an axe user next :)

Hmmm, interesting demo.

Can definately see potential here.

The Good:
The fallout battle system(sort of) was decent.
Like the overall look/style of the game.
Lots of details.

The Bad:
The responsiveness of the movement and attacks seemed off, sometimes moved instead of attacked like I wanted.
Crossbows can aim and fire at close range(plus reload) seems a bit extreme.
Font size too small at 1650 to 1050.
Didn't seem to be any sound for when walking or running.

The Ugly:
Ground textures are distracting.
The crowd watching the battle reminded me of the nut cracker.


Like I said could see potential here, some small details need work…popup different attacks was neat but crowded. Will wait and see.

I thought combat might be the weakest link of the game so its good to know they are atleast putting up a good effort.

The demo looks "ok" but its short? I hit a guy few times with a gladius which killed him. Then I looted the body. That took around one minute. Then I just stand there in the arena and nothing happens. Its hard to get feeling from that.

Font size was definetly too small even though Im playing from 52" screen.

click on the exit. There are 15(?) fights with a bit of a choice after that.

Yes, you have to click on one of the doors in the arena to exit and continue fighting.

About the font size, we'll definitely fix it.

Sound is 3D, depending on the distance the camera is from the emitter.

Thanks for your support.

My PC died and all I have left is a 1st-gen MacBook (not a MacBook Pro). I see that Torque works with Mac but the combat demo is an .exe so I am assuming AoD is Windows only. I was debating doing the virtual machine thing, or maybe trying it out on an old Windows laptop I have that's gathering dust. I have been following AoD (the game has me super excited, more than about anything else on the horizon) so I know it's a bit old school in terms of demand; I assumed I'd be fine running it but I thought I'd ask and find out if there were any official requirements.

No official requirements. If it's not much of a hassle, download it and try it.

To everyone who is affected by the dialogue crash, here is a hotfix for you:

http://rapidshare.com/files/32635920…master_fix.rar

A new version of the combat demo is out. It is an improved, new build, with many bug-fixes and improvements. You can get the download links from here:

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum…ic,1259.0.html