Finally got around to the Age of Decadence Beta

I must say, I think there is a ton of potential here. I was definitely drawn in by the writing, which doesn't happen too often for me. I attempted the game with high intelligence, perception, and charisma, but haven't had a lot of chances to really make use those abilities yet. My character was built with some bow skill and specializes in persuasion and street wise, but so far has been pretty worthless in combat. I have encountered two battles and was hopelessly outmatched both times. I suppose a more combat-centric build would handle those moments easier. Still, seems to have a lot of promise and the world has an interesting background. I'm intrigued.

I really enjoyed the AoD Beta, and I must have played through it at least 5 or 6 times with different builds. I like how each profession has its own beginning to the game.

But yeah.. combat is extremely difficult if you're not specialized for it. I think they said something about making it a tad less brutal in the final release.

My only complaint was how little interaction there is in the game world. It's also easy to screw up your build in a way that makes it impossible to continue at certain points.

Mastering combat relies at least by 50% on mastering character building in this game (that includes optimizing equipment and skillpoint gain). The game is built around the idea of replaying, keep that in mind. The other 50% is finding the suitable approach to each individual battle (choice of attacks, positioning, etc.).
On the ITS forums you can find pages and pages of combat and character building tips, if you feel you need a bit of help. However, if you have the time and patience, finding a working build for yourself is the most rewarding approach.

Yeah, I joined the imperial guards or whatever they are called and they sent me on a mission to ambush their own trade (I guess to get the items free instead of pay? Haven't found out the reason why yet). I didn't exactly know how strong the other guards/raiders they sent with me were, but we were out-matched 5-3. I tried to stay back and fire arrows while they did the inside battling, but they were dead in no time, having only killed 1 of their guys. So pretty soon I had four enemies coming after me. I'm not sure about the whole chance of enemy attack if you try to "disengage" combat...I had no choice but to try and back away and fire another arrow or two. Oh well, I guess I'll just give it another go and try to do better.

rossrjensen said:

I suppose a more combat-centric build would handle those moments easier.

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Of course, even though the demo (I´ve played only the first version) had some combat scenarios which could give fits even to combat specialized characters .

I think that some stuff in the demo was a bit too difficult (mostly not combat though imo, but the text checks), but I´m sure the game got some rebalance since then.
However, I really like the approach to difficulty in general - character development plays a major role in the game so it´s good that right from the beginning the game screams "take character development seriously".

I also suspect the demo areas may not be very representative when it comes to success of hybrid characters - one just has to specialize to overcome some of the early challenges, but once some skills are built well enough, possibility to branch out will probably open up.
Also, judging by the demo, building a hybrid from a combat class might be more straightforward. I had a reasonable success with assassin, for example. First I´ve upped one offense and one defense skill, then added crafting and in the latter parts of the demo I already had quite a few spare points to invest into dialogue skills, not to mention body count which also allowed me to complete few quests without combat.

The issue with primarily diplomatic characters is obvious - in dialogues they don´t get the benefit of player´s skill, unlike more combat oriented classes who do in fights.
A failed check in combat may mean one hit missed, but a failed check in text may mean death (or impossible fight).
Hopefully more text options and changes to dual checks will alleviate this somewhat.
I´m also curious how the alchemy system will turn out.

rossrjensen said:

I was definitely drawn in by the writing,

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Me as well, the style is refreshing.
Even though I expect strictly diplomatic characters to be most boring to play (least gameplay variety), I´ll still try to take one or two through the game since this character types will likely get the most out of the story/writing.