Age of Decadence - September Update

Couchpotato

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With September almost over Iron Tower Studio's has posted a new development update for Age of Decadence. They even included a few new screenshots.
News from the front:

- The testing goes well and so far we’re on schedule for the mid-October release. Naturally, there’s still work to be done and issues to resolve, but all the major problems have been fixed. Still, we want to be sure, so if you want to lend to hand and test the upcoming release, please report to the nearest recruiting station.

- At the moment, we’re working on ‘Teron to Maadoran’ transition issues at the moment, fixing issues created by the switch to 1-10 system, and finishing up the pass and the tower.

- Oscar’s also tweaking the fight with the Ordu at the pass, adding various states and variables. Maybe you weakened the Ordu, maybe you just pissed them off and they came in great numbers, huffing and puffing. Maybe you managed to boost the defenses, skills, and equipment of the defenders. And finally, if you go for the Ordu’s leaders and manage to kill them first, their men will be demoralized and suffer combat penalties. Of course, fighting the leaders when they are surrounded by their men is a risky business – they pack quite a punch and are surrounded by their men. Shaping up like a fun fight.

- Nick's almost done with the system changes, Ivan's putting on finishing touches on the demon's animations, which underwent several rounds of revisions, Mazin continues making cool concepts and icons.

- I added two gangs to the Slums, another character to the pass, "expanded" a couple of characters, wrote faction and personal endings, and now I'm working on death descriptions to commemorate your failures.
More information.
 
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Mid October release?????

This year???

Two weeks from Today????

I was beginning to get a Duke Nuken feel to this game. I played about 30 min of the demo and loved the game. In spite of my huge gaming queue, this will be a day one purchase.
 
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Mid October release?????

This year???

Two weeks from Today????

I was beginning to get a Duke Nuken feel to this game. I played about 30 min of the demo and loved the game. In spite of my huge gaming queue, this will be a day one purchase.
Well at least they have a playable demo. I once thought it would be vaporware, but was proved wrong. :)
 
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Nice. I also liked the demo. I know they were dialing down the difficulty some, which was probably warranted, but I hope they didn't go too far. The demo did feel like you had to make an all-melee character if you wanted to fight at all, and I like making conversationalists or jacks of all trades. Certainly looking forward to this one. Good news. :)
 
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So it's not the full game being released in October but the Early Access.

Elhoim [author] Sep 27 @ 4:42pm
We won't release the full game on October, but we are aiming to get you an Early Access build with around 70% of the game (Teron plus Maadoran). Here is the August update from our forums:

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,3423.0.html

We are doing a closed beta test right now, and it's shaping up really well, so a late October release of the Early Access should be possible. We are doing our best, but we are just 5 guys working on the game and it's a really big and complex RPG, so thanks for your patience and for being so understanding =)



Still the game looks to be shaping up nicely and I'm excited about it.
 
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Is there an ETA for the full game release?
 
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Don't mean to take it out on this game - but am I the only one getting sick of this insane early access trend?

Are people really THAT desperate to ruin the complete experience for themselves - or are they genuinely doing it to test and provide feedback?

Seems to me that it's a very counterproductive way to play any game - and it sort of greenlights an unhealthy development discipline.

Certainly for me - I've never been able to enjoy a game properly if I've already experienced most of the content in alpha or beta form.

I find myself missing the sensation of playing a truly "final" product - or at least a proper illusion of something complete that you don't expect to change all that much in the future.

Obviously, I can just wait for a final version - but it's getting harder and harder to know when that's actually the case for a game. Especially when you take the extra insanity of constant DLC into consideration.
 
Don't mean to take it out on this game - but am I the only one getting sick of this insane early access trend?

Are people really THAT desperate to ruin the complete experience for themselves - or are they genuinely doing it to test and provide feedback?

I caved in and bought early access for MMX recently. I did it because I'm playing M&M for the mechanics, not the story. I can also vote more informedly on their many polls of course, but that wasn't my motivation.
 
Well, Exactly, if you play the game mainly for the mechanics. Then early access is a good idea so you can influence it and make it better, this is espicially true for fighting games and multiplayer games and such though.

Most RPG's is a package with story and other types of gameplay than combat. MM games were mostly about combat mechanics and puzzles though so it is an inbetween. But as I've understood the early access for this, it is more like a demo only covering the first area, and less like a complete game.

AoD is very complex and with a huge amount of different paths so it might not suffer that much from early access as it is the kind of game you can play through a lot of times and get a completely different experiance.
 
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Well, I do love mechanics - but I can't rely on them alone for enjoyment. I want the complete package - and I find the whole "discovery" much more immersive in a complete and polished environment.

I'm not saying that's how it should be - I'm just surprised that what seems like the majority are so into these games that they want to play them in such an incomplete state.
 
I am the same as you DArtagnan, the feeling of starting something complete a fresh is very good to me, and I almost never replay a game, I never buy into early access either, I did try the AoD demo just to see what it looks like though, but I didn't get into depth because I wanted to save for the final version.

I guess it depends on what kind of gamer you are :)
 
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I'm partial towards starting over; most RPG's I start over like 12 times with new characters before I finish it. I'm almost through Dungeon Siege 2 on normal difficulty (which you need to do to unlock the higher modes) but I'm already bored of my character that I built in an uninformed way.

Exploration wise to me it's really the same, wether I find a locale in the beta or the full version. What interests me though is how games change over time, i.e. what items and quests are there in the beta and how does skill or attribute X change in the full version. It's probably because balancing is my pet peeve with RPG's.
 
I am the same as you DArtagnan, the feeling of starting something complete a fresh is very good to me, and I almost never replay a game, I never buy into early access either, I did try the AoD demo just to see what it looks like though, but I didn't get into depth because I wanted to save for the final version.

I guess it depends on what kind of gamer you are :)

Yup - I guess you're right :)

I don't mind demos - though I don't play them as much as I used to. They tend to be insignificant enough to not disturb the full version experience.

Still, a lot of demos are based on nearly complete code and they like to use the "starting areas" - because it's cheaper than putting together something more unique for a demo.

The one good thing about being so jaded and less enthusiastic about games is that you're not in as much of a hurry to try everything upon release.

That said, I'd take my youthful enthusiasm over my grumpy pragmatic approach - given the choice ;)
 
I'm partial towards starting over; most RPG's I start over like 12 times with new characters before I finish it. I'm almost through Dungeon Siege 2 on normal difficulty (which you need to do to unlock the higher modes) but I'm already bored of my character that I built in an uninformed way.

Exploration wise to me it's really the same, wether I find a locale in the beta or the full version. What interests me though is how games change over time, i.e. what items and quests are there in the beta and how does skill or attribute X change in the full version. It's probably because balancing is my pet peeve with RPG's.

Sure, but what's to prevent you from starting over 12 times with the full version?

The problem with exploring in early access states or with early code is that you're much more likely to encounter bugs or game-breaking incidents.

If you play an early version a couple of times until it "breaks" you run the risk of overexposure and "build-up fatigue" - and you're less likely to enjoy the game to the same degree when it's finally fixed, right?

I'm a mechanics-maniac myself - but I wouldn't want to discover something special or really cool during an alpha/beta - only to find I couldn't enjoy the whole game at that time. The discovery is then over when the final version gets released - and I'd find myself less enthused because I've already spent hours doing my mechanics research and playing around in a broken or unpolished environment.

Well, that's my experience with gaming - anyway.
 
Sure, but what's to prevent you from starting over 12 times with the full version?

Huh? Nothing. It's just that I'm not bothered about having to start over when the full game arrives. It's not a reason in itself to get early access (that being the fact that, yeah, I'm impatient).

The problem with exploring in early access states or with early code is that you're much more likely to encounter bugs or game-breaking incidents.

True. You just have to trust that devs take proper care and don't sell you an alpha for a beta.

If you play an early version a couple of times until it "breaks" you run the risk of overexposure and "build-up fatigue" - and you're less likely to enjoy the game to the same degree when it's finally fixed, right?

If I play the beta so much that I've basically explored everything there is to it, yeah. The thing with MMX is that you can only test 4 out of 12 classes though, so I'm not running the risk of it getting old.
 
Fair enough :)

Again, it comes down to how much repetition you can be exposed to before saturation kicks in, I guess.
 
Preorder - yes.
Kickstarter - yes.
Early Access which is practically pay2betatest - no.

Good luck AoD.
 
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Don't mean to take it out on this game - but am I the only one getting sick of this insane early access trend?

Are people really THAT desperate to ruin the complete experience for themselves - or are they genuinely doing it to test and provide feedback?

Seems to me that it's a very counterproductive way to play any game - and it sort of greenlights an unhealthy development discipline.

Certainly for me - I've never been able to enjoy a game properly if I've already experienced most of the content in alpha or beta form.

I find myself missing the sensation of playing a truly "final" product - or at least a proper illusion of something complete that you don't expect to change all that much in the future.

Obviously, I can just wait for a final version - but it's getting harder and harder to know when that's actually the case for a game. Especially when you take the extra insanity of constant DLC into consideration.

This public beta testing or signing up to beta test has been around since the 80's so it isn't really a new thing and just a new name. I beta tested a couple games back in the early 90's and at the time I got floppies of the beta. They also sent them over bbs but I never really used bbs much.
 
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This public beta testing or signing up to beta test has been around since the 80's so it isn't really a new thing and just a new name. I beta tested a couple games back in the early 90's and at the time I got floppies of the beta. They also sent them over bbs but I never really used bbs much.

Oh, I've been "beta" testing since the 80s as well - and the industry has changed enormously.

It was never like this, where you pay early to gain access to incomplete software as the norm.

Maybe you can come up with some examples from the eighties where that was the business model for games?
 
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