Age of Decadence - Combat Demo Update

Dhruin

SasqWatch
Joined
August 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
This update is current, I promise. Vince gave an update on the combat demo for The Age of Decadence on their forums:
Step by step... Step # 4217

A new build featuring a brand new save/load system, redesigned Critical Strike, numerous AI tweaks, balance tweaks, bug fixes, all ending screens, and all kinda other shit that most people won't even notice was given to the testers. Just letting you know where we stand and what's going on in general.

Other than that, now we just need to add sounds and resolutions, fix the memory issue (see below), and we'll be ready to release the demo. Thanks for the patience and understanding, guys.
More information.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
I was lucky enough to do some testing of the combat demo over several weeks. A lot of love (and even more tweaking) has gone into the effort and it shows. The player needs to make real tactical decisions, taking into account his own and his enemy's equipment and capabilities, for every fight. A couple of wrong decisions can get you gutted almost from the first opponent.

I think when this little gem comes out, people aren't going to be saying Man, the graphics are old! or Why is it turn-based? I think it's going to be a hit.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,470
Location
USA
Great to hear news on the positive progress! Thanks!
 
Joined
Sep 8, 2009
Messages
381
I wish they would focus on the final product. Work on a demo after release. I can't state I know if a demo will get a significant portion of people to buy the game or not, but I can say I think a demo now or after release will probably net the same amount of increased sales. I said probably because I don’t know how much Mr. Weller is banking on “release hype” drawing people to the site, at which point they will have immediate access to try the game, be sold, and hopefully buy it.

If I were in charge I’d say no demo. Let the hype force people to buy the game or not; blind but for the hype. And I hope everyone who spouted their glowing-hype-gibberish about all the crap games I’ve bought over the years, with the super retarded combat which you would only assume a cracked-out and half-retarded monkey wouldn’t even be able to tolerate, on just their word and without a demo, buy it and hate it. Then I’ll send them an email that says, “Revenge is a dish best served cold, bitches!!!!!!.” And then cackle madly and scratch my genitals with more glee than the usual amount of glee scratching my genitals usually gives me—and that will be a lot of glee, let me tell you what.

Of course the 20 or 30 bucks they will have dropped for this game will not make up for hundreds, possibly thousands, worth of shit games I’ve bought over the years. And I’m far too lazy to put the effort into the whole “sending everyone an email” portion of my grand scheme. I’d probably end up just emailing my wife, and she would have no idea what I was talking about, and I’d feel retarded explaining, and she’d be mad for some reason because that’s what she does. So I’m just going to imagine the first couple parts happened and skip to the cackling and ball scratching, because this is America and a boy can dream can’t he?

Well, anywho, my point is why isn’t this game out? I say we all send Mr. Weller hate mail and death threats until he focuses on releases the actual game, and then we will continue with that plan (but with an occasional nice piece of mail to keep him off-balance and guessing) until the game is released finally after being developed for 12 years. We will call this Plan A. Anyone who posts a reply that might seem negative towards me is automatically included as a ringleader in Plan A, regardless of what they say or deny. Everyone else will be assumed to be a henchman of Plan A. All right kids, we have a lot of work to do, let’s get to it. Plan A commences now.
 
Joined
Feb 16, 2009
Messages
352
The demo is being used to fine-tune the combat system, which they needed to do. Relax - they know what they are doing, other than perhaps underestimating the time to do what they need.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
I am also one of the lucky beta testers. I think for fans of TB combat, even this little demo is quite a treat. I am not a huge fan of this kind of combat per se, but even I find trying out different builds and tactics a fun metagame that easily passes several hours. Compared to other indies in a similar old-school vein (I'm thining Spiderweb, Eschalon), AoD's combat is far more involving and interesting, just about as interesting as it can be for a non-party, non-high-magic-based game, I'd say. And I agree with Dhruin that the combat testing phase was necessary - wether the public release will add much more feedback than they allready got I don't know, but I guess most of the work on the demo directly filters down to the main game, so it's not really much time waisted, and it will hopefully renew interest in the game.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,508
Back
Top Bottom