Age of Decadence - Choices and Consequences Video

There's a new video for The Age of Decadence, showing off choices and consequences. The trailer offers around four minutes of footage with voiceover from Lead Artist Oscar Velzi explaining the setup. The clip follows a quest to assassinate Marcus Carrinas, a Commander of the Imperial Guards. You'll need to expand the video and pause frequently to read the dialogue, if you want to understand what is happening.
Head to Youtube to watch the video and for social types, they have a new Facebook page, as well.
More information.

I want to hear about a release date for this.

I am looking forward to this game and will buy it. But… I find the choices & consequences too often come across as a gimmick and not add much to gameplay. C&C is only one way to add variation to a game. There are many other ways of doing it. Randomly generated areas, random encounters, random loot, time of day changes, hidden areas, multiplayer/coop, etc etc etc.. I wish people would get off the C&C as being the best way to add replayability to games. It's a fad and it's not true. Sorry this speech is not just meant for this game.

I'm loving these different choices and consequences. I am more likely to replay a game that offers different choices along the way.

@Daroou Sounds like you're talking about rogues or action rpgs. I like those as well, but I like C&C more. Seems to me more like a real roleplaying experience other than just what junk you get or if you can play with your buddy. I'd rather have interesting choices along the way than any of that.

Originally Posted by Daroou
I wish people would get off the C&C as being the best way to add replayability to games.

C&C exist mainly for the purpose of roleplayability .
Even moreso when viability of included choices depends on your char´s skills.
That it also tends to help on replayability front is a bonus.

I see choices and consequences as completely separate to randomisation. In fact, I rarely have time to replay games so that isn't a concern for me. However, even if I don't replay, choices make me feel like my character has some impact and makes me feel rewarded for certain character development choices - even if I never re-play it to see a different outcome.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
I see choices and consequences as completely separate to randomisation. In fact, I rarely have time to replay games so that isn't a concern for me. However, even if I don't replay, choices make me feel like my character has some impact and makes me feel rewarded for certain character development choices - even if I never re-play it to see a different outcome.

Exactly. Also I have to say that randome encounters do very little with regards to replayability, although I imagine there is untapped potential there as well. But usually it just means "oh another fight with 3 goblins, 2 Orks, and 1 Ork Lord" which will not be a hell of a lot different from my last one with 6 gnomes and 1 Orc Shaman.
@Daroou: with regards to AoD which is really built around C&C as a central cornerstone (the second one being classic TB combat),your critique is really not well placed. For randomization and coop you will definitely have to look elsewhere, and there is plenty of that in Roguelikes, Diablo-clones, including indie efforts like Din's curse.

Looks superb… but how about showing something not in some way related to assassins? That's about all we've seen of the game so far!

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
Looks superb… but how about showing something not in some way related to assassins? That's about all we've seen of the game so far!

Uh, they have already shown too much, if you ask me. Of course many things were only shown in the forums, so you might not have seen them.

Well, I was talking about videos……. during the let's play they showed some other things… not that I followed anywhere near all of them…. if there are some videos of other things that would be great though…

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
Well, I was talking about videos……. during the let's play they showed some other things… not that I followed anywhere near all of them…. if there are some videos of other things that would be great though…

Yes. We are lobbying for a factions and world video on the forums . But Vince clarified that what they release at the moment is mostly targeted at their existing fans, they'll do more ProMo stuff when the actual release is imminent.

There is a difference between conscious choices and "hidden" choices.

"Do you want to kill this guy or let him live?" is a conscious choice.

"Oh by the way, remember that fellow beset by wolves you met back in the beginning of the game? Yes, that's right, you should have saved him, because he only knew the location of the Anti-Bad-Guy-Sword of Badassness +9 that you really need at this point." is a hidden choice.

Conscious choice I don't mind, but I stay WAY clear of games with hidden choices. Sorry, not my cup of tea at all.

Originally Posted by fatBastard()
There is a difference between conscious choices and "hidden" choices.

"Do you want to kill this guy or let him live?" is a conscious choice.

"Oh by the way, remember that fellow beset by wolves you met back in the beginning of the game? Yes, that's right, you should have saved him, because he only knew the location of the Anti-Bad-Guy-Sword of Badassness +9 that you really need at this point." is a hidden choice.

Conscious choice I don't mind, but I stay WAY clear of games with hidden choices. Sorry, not my cup of tea at all.

Depends on the frequency, and the severeness of the consequences. Used in moderation I think this can be interesting, but it can be annoying if it is overused or unjustly punishes the player.

Choices - if done properly these can surely add to the game and be of valu…blah blah blah…just gimme that SWEET TURN BASED COMBAT already!

Sorry…but seeing things like "Weapon Mastery! Fulvio hits guard for 6 points knocking him down. The armo(u)r absorbed 3 points." in 2011 makes me overexcited & all else irrelevant :)

Sure as hell, lots and lots depends on this games success…I won`t dare say "revival", but if they do well…who knows what might happen? :)

Originally Posted by zadokAllen
just gimme that SWEET TURN BASED COMBAT already!

I'm playing Geneforge 5 and it was ages ago the last time I played something with a turn based combat system. It's great and I really would like to see more games with such a system. I have some hopes for AoD.

Originally Posted by rich ruffo
I want to hear about a release date for this.

I second this request.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
Looks superb… but how about showing something not in some way related to assassins? That's about all we've seen of the game so far!

What do you want to see?

As for the release date, the game is still in development, but I hope that our progress speaks for itself.

It would be especially interesting to see some exploring / treasure hunting…… I am not sure how much dungeons or puzzles it would have but that would be intersting too.

The really cool text-quest would probably not make a good videos though.