Age of Decadence

[Crenshinibon]

The action-point system is the same one used in the Fallout games.

You can call it turn based. Basically, you are granted several points (through the agility stat and certain perks). During combat, it becomes turn based and each action costs a certain amount of these points, including movement, opening your inventory, changing weapons, healing yourself and whatever else it is that you are able to do.

[Vince D. Weller]

Originally Posted by Lady Dragonfly

What is the "Action Point-based" combat? I was under impression AoD combat system would be turn-based. Wrong?

It's 100% turn-based. Action points measure what you can do during your turn. Each action - swinging a sword, walking, accessing your inventory, reloading your crossbow, throwing a net, etc - has an AP (action points) cost. Your AP pool per turn is determined by your Dexterity. Fallout and Silent Storm had this system.

Is there any exp/lvl cap?

There are no levels. You gain skill points from quests and combat and increase your skills right away without waiting to level up.

Will we be able to create a custom char?

Yes, of course. Here is a character system:
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/images/newGui3.jpg

[Lady Dragonfly]

Thanks for the info, Vince.

OK, there are no levels, but what about skill levels? You mentioned slvl 200. Are all skills supposed to max out at level 200?
How would we increase our skills? By using it only? Any trainers? Stat/skill increasing books? Prayer?

[Vince D. Weller]

All skills go to 300. All skills have passive traits associated with skills. For example, Lore's passive trait is document forging. The higher your Lore skill is, the higher quality documents you can forge:

You spend an hour turning a blank parchment into a document mentioning the Imperial Guards, urgent matters, and free passage. You add a fancy looking seal as a finishing touch and give the scroll to the guildmaster.

or

You spend an hour turning a blank parchment into an official document stating that the Imperial Guards are given free passage. You accurately copy the seal of House Daratan and give the scroll to the guildmaster.

or

You spend an hour turning a blank parchment into an impressive looking document granting the Imperial Guards the right of free passage and requesting full cooperation from Teron's guards and guilds' authorities. Your seal of House Daratan looks more authentic than the original you copied it from. You sign the mandate and give the scroll to the guildmaster.

Axes' passive trait is a chance to split your opponent's shield on a successful block. At slvl25 you get a 10% chance. At slvl250 you get a 70% chance. And so on.

You use skill points to increase your skills. You get skill points the same way you get XP in RPGs: by completing quests and defeating/killing other characters. Some NPCs can give you a few pointers increasing your skills by a few points here and there. You can also learn from scrolls (since we don't have books in the setting) you may find or buy.

Stats can not be increased. Same goes for your hit points.

[Lady Dragonfly]

I assume it is impossible to increase all skills to level 300; 3-5 maybe. Anyway, for a 30 hrs game, that means 10 levels/hour... We will need tons of XP to increase a few skills to level 250-300.

[Crenshinibon]

While that may be true, I don't think that you will generally be doing that. You might max out one skill or so and get the others to reasonable levels. If it's like Fallout, you'd get a number of points, and they count for less and less as a kill gets closer to 300.

[Vince D. Weller]

Originally Posted by Lady Dragonfly

I assume it is impossible to increase all skills to level 300; 3-5 maybe. Anyway, for a 30 hrs game, that means 10 levels/hour... We will need tons of XP to increase a few skills to level 250-300.

You can max 2 skills at best.

300 represents legendary mastery, dedication to the chosen art, and THIS! IS! SPARTAAA!!! It would be silly if such a mastery could be easily acquired and in many different arts.

[Andurbal]

I'm also looking forward to the release of AoD. From what I've heard/written, I excpect it to be exciting. I agree with all it's features and philosophy and all those things you talked abot before.
I've played Fallout 2 and it was a great game! The system depending on APs seemed very logical and I don't recall the turn-based gameplay being a turn-off factor... It was all right for me. However, a friend of mine who likes RPGs doesn't (like to) play turn-based games... How does an RPG developer make such a choice and why has this choice been made for AoD in particular? (Does it have to do with PnP?) What would it take to implement AoD with real-time gameplay?

@Vince D. Weller: Take your time and make it us good as you can! (quote from fable: "I'd much rather wait and see a good product, than see a something that relies upon its audience to beta-test--in other words, which the gaming industry has done for a decade."