Age of Decadence - Public Beta Released

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
I think in the full game you could just move on to the next city, which would auto-resolve any unsolved quests in Teron,

Uh , sorry ? Does that mean that there is no "I'll be back" possibility ?

Originally Posted by CraigCWB
That transition to extremely short games where even the 20 or so hours you do invest in them is mostly spent on experimenting with "choices" and the assumption that players should replay games numerous times is one of the things that killed my enjoyment of RPGs.

Really? Do tell, which recent games have increased replayability thanks to c&c? I'd say real game altering c&c and true nonlinearity have always been rare. Heck, as far as mainstream games go, these qualities have only become rarer over the years.

Originally Posted by tolknaz
Really? Do tell, which recent games have increased replayability thanks to c&c? I'd say real game altering c&c and true nonlinearity have always been rare. Heck, as far as mainstream games go, these qualities have only become rarer over the years.

I never said any of those contrived design mechanisms increased replayability. I actually agree with you that they don't, and I don't replay games as a general rule. Even back in the old days, I waited a few years to replay some of my favorites from amongst the classics. I'm nowhere near OCD enough to want to watch the exact same cutscenes, listen to the exact same dialog (with minor variations!) and wade through the exact same encounters, over and over and over again. I am OCD enough to restart these pathetically brief RPGs numerous times because I feel like I want to get everything I can out of them the first time through since I know I'll never play them again, though. That's something I never used to do, and I blame the devs for shorting me so bad on content that I feel like I need a return on my time investment in even bothering to learn how to play their stupid trivial interactive movies.

Anyway, my take on it is they didn't have many ideas and they didn't want to invest much money so they made a conscious decision to pimp the idea of replaying games numerous times. Achievements and awards for levels of anal retentiveness and obsessive-compulsive behavior are part of that marketing strategy, as are DLCs where the devs extend the life of their games and convince people to replay them even more (with new trivial content of at least 1 hours worth for only $7.99!) than they already have.

Originally Posted by DR490N
Uh , sorry ? Does that mean that there is no "I'll be back" possibility ?

I think you can go back, maybe there are even quests that send you back, but when you leave a hub, unfinished business will default to a standard resolution.

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
…but when you leave a hub, unfinished business will default to a standard resolution.

Mmm, first time I heard about it, thanks for making that clear. Not sure I'll like this, it sort of linearizes the game. And I love to come back and make the guys who made my nose bleed the first time eat their teeth and tell them "I told you I'll be back !".

Originally Posted by CraigCWB
I'm nowhere near OCD enough to want to watch the exact same cutscenes, listen to the exact same dialog (with minor variations!) and wade through the exact same encounters, over and over and over again.

I understand your concern, but I can assure you that it's not the case here. Whether or not you choose to believe me and give it a try is up to you.

Well if you have to trial and error your way through to a viable build with the C&C options you take, it does sound repetitive to eventually gain a win. More of a puzzle.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Well if youy have to trial and error way through to a viable build and with the C&C options you take, it does sound repetitive to eventually gain a win. More of a puzzle.

Well the different backgrounds / different faction questlines are very different and offer plenty of unique stuff, and the non-combat paths are mostly not that hard to get through. Many failures are not dead ends, and depending on your skill set you may be able to find alternatives - but not always. But overall yes, in a way it IS more like a puzzle. The comparison to choose your own adventure stories is apt (IMHO), only that your adventure is >70% determined by the choices you make on the character sheet, rather than by choices of the "go left - pag 234" "go right - page 477" type, and events are far more branched than the stories in those books were.

Originally Posted by CraigCWB
I actually agree with you that they don't

I never said they don't. I said it's an extremely underused mechanic. Personally i love C&C, when it's done right. In this particular case it is. Different character archetypes actually handle very differently and get access to different content as they should imo. Otherwise why have these different archetypes at all? I could understand doing everything there is to do during a single run in a party based RPG like Wizardry or M&M.

Originally Posted by rk47
There are some positives, but damn, it's overwhelmingly obvious that some fun is missing here. Personally, I won't buy this game after this demo. Too much 'powergaming' for my tastes.

My impression of the Beta was completely different, but to each his own. AoD is pretty high on my list now after getting a taste of what the full game is going to be like.

Funny thing is.. I had completely written this game off because of how long it's been in development. Now it might be my most anticipated game after Risen 2.

Originally Posted by JDR13
My impression of the Beta was completely different, but to each his own. AoD is pretty high on my list now after getting a taste of what the full game is going to be like.

Funny thing is.. I had completely written this game off because of how long it's been in development. Now it might be my most anticipated game after Risen 2.

Just realize that it will be a while (unless preorders go super well, and they can quit their day jobs) - it took 7 months of testing to get this demo to the level of polish it has now, and feedback indicates there are still bugs, and maybe balance issues. While a lot of interface and technical stuff should carry over, there will also be additional complexity within the remaining 75% of the game.

Vince made a thread and a poll to get feedback on what the weakest points in the demo are / what they should best spend their time improving. Would be great if the players from the Watch could also provide some feedback there:
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum…ic,2564.0.html

What bothers you the most?
Combat difficulty
Exploration
Few choices within a path
Min-maxing (uneven skills/stats)
Metagaming required to pass quests

If they ask me to pick one, I'd disagree.
They all have issues. And I really want to see all of them fixed. Bothers me the most? Gotta be the last one. I felt like the devs are gaming me instead of me discovering new ways to solve the problem.

There is a lack of fun attached with the world interaction. Registered and voted. Best of luck. They'll need another preview demo to convince me to buy, though.