The Age Of Decadence Book

Age of Decadence is one of those games that comes around only when pigs grown wings and fly. It's so rich in content, that is overwhelming ( in a good way) and it's world is so rich that I got to ask? Where you guys pull all of this stuff?What are the inspiration for the Qaantari? ( I think I got it right).How did you guys made those names? Those Al something, I mean, you need to know some things to create those things, do they mean anything?

In The Age of Decadence Simon Heffer exposes the contradictions of late-Victorian and Edwardian Britain. He explains how, despite the nation’s massive power, a mismanaged war against the Boers in South Africa created profound doubts about her imperial destiny. Decadence in the Age of Modernism begins where the history of the decadent movement all too often ends: in 1895. It argues that the decadent principles and aesthetics of Oscar Wilde, Walter Pater, Algernon Swinburne, and others continued to exert a compelling legacy on the next generation of writers, from high modernists and late decadents to.

Or better, does any name means something, like the gods and the lords?Have you developed more of the world where AoD takes place? Does it looks like ours or is completely different?

We will see more of it in a sequel or a spin off?I have noticed that there is a lot of our history on AoD, apart from Rome, I have seem Egypt, Babylonian ( I think) and etc. Some of you guys are some degrees in history or what because I have read somethings where I only have found on some 'hardcore' books about history.What's next in the future? We will see AoD 2 or some another new setting or something unexpected? You guys will not leave us after delivering this masterpiece right? Originally posted by Emperor Rajuma:Age of Decadence is one of those games that comes around only when pigs grown wings and fly. It's so rich in content, that is overwhelming ( in a good way) and it's world is so rich that I got to ask?

Where you guys pull all of this stuff?Some of you guys are some degrees in history or what because I have read somethings where I only have found on some 'hardcore' books about history.Thanks. I don't have a degree in history, but history is a fascinating subject and I've collected over a thousand books over the years.What are the inspiration for the Qaantari? ( I think I got it right).

The Aztecs.How did you guys made those names? Those Al something, I mean, you need to know some things to create those things, do they mean anything?

Or better, does any name means something, like the gods and the lords?Some do, some don't.' My kind does not define itself in the bleating sounds of lesser beings.

Your kind called us the Yazatas – worthy of worship.” A huge square of people kneeling, heads touching the ground. “From a long dead language they named me Balzaar. Bal meant to cross over. Zaar meant vessel.

Thus, the one who crossed over and was poured into a vessel, a crude attempt to describe a god.”^ He's referring to the Sumerian language.Have you developed more of the world where AoD takes place? After all, I had 11 years, which is a long time by any stretch.Does it looks like ours or is completely different? We will see more of it in a sequel or a spin off?Different. The way the game ends, there isn't much room for a direct sequel.

The only option is to explore the Qantari culture. The Commercium would send an expedition to explore the far away lands for gain and profit. It would take place shortly before the events of AoD.As in AoD you'd start the game as one of the characters from the expedition: a merchant, a praetor ready to claim the new lands for his/her House, one of the mercenaries hired to protect the expedition, a thief who was caught and chained to the galley, etc.What's next in the future? We will see AoD 2 or some another new setting or something unexpected? You guys will not leave us after delivering this masterpiece right?

Here is our plan for the near future:We're planning to make a party-based dungeon crawler set in the AoD world (set in the prison mine Dellar mentioned). It will be a combat game without much text or dialogues (basically a game for people who liked our combat system and wanted to experience it in a party-based setup without other things getting in the way). The game will use the existing systems and assets and will be relatively inexpensive (under $10).Simultaneously, we'll start working on the 'generation ship RPG' (our next full-scale RPG), inspired by Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky. The concept artist and I will need 8-10 months to define the art style, various environments within the ship, and write the setting/story/the first iterations of quests, etc). It was lot of text, Vince.Personally I think you can grab text from here and there and write some article about how this game is made. I think quite a few people will be interested in this (me included).I love history myself and your setting is very believable.

Maybe you can name some books you liked.It is sad you don't have plans for AoD2 or even add-on. Addon can be like in Pillars of Eternity - add things and locations in main plot + expand side-quests. With high replayability of AoD some people will be glad to try it with add-on.But, I think if you really want to make 'generation ship RPG' - it is always best to do something you like to do and not something others want you to do. Quality will suffer then people do things that they don't want to.Do you still have 'main' job? I heard it was so then you started to make AoD and it was main reason why development took so long. Or i'm wrong? Originally posted by:Personally I think you can grab text from here and there and write some article about how this game is made.

I think quite a few people will be interested in this (me included). Something like this?I love history myself and your setting is very believable. Maybe you can name some books you liked.Too many to name.

Two recently read books that I really enjoyed are:The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000andCity of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire (simply fascinating, especially from 'choices & consequences' point of view; no land nobility - completely different development path, different society, different skillsets, etc)It is sad you don't have plans for AoD2 or even add-on. Addon can be like in Pillars of Eternity - add things and locations in main plot + expand side-quests. With high replayability of AoD some people will be glad to try it with add-on. I dislike DLCs, so we won't charge anything for all extra content related to the game. The dungeon crawler is a different story but it will be a stand-alone game with different features.As for the planned content, we've allocated 3 months to support the game no matter what. During these 3 months we'll work on extra content because why not?

Let's call it minor content: extra dialogues, extra quest solutions, minor quests.If the game sells well enough to extent that time by another 3 months (i.e. We aren't forced to drop everything and start working on the dungeon crawler to stay in business), then we'll add 'major' content: extra quests and sub-locations. This isn't cut content but ideas that occurred to us during development but weren't part of the original design.Do you still have 'main' job?

I heard it was so then you started to make AoD and it was main reason why development took so long. Or i'm wrong? Battle for the galaxy 2.

I quit my job 2 years ago to focus on the game full time. We worked part-time for the first 8-9 years. Originally posted by:I dislike DLCs, so we won't charge anything for all extra content related to the game.Add-on different from DLC. It can add some new content or some to the old, or both. If it can give income (and I understand money-wise AoD wasn't huge success) and people want it- why not? I mean - some 'New clothes' DLC is silly but.

CD Project have same attitude (and they praised for that) - but they make free small DLC and 2 large addons. And still they are cool with community.Just my thoughts about topic. Thanks for you answers anyway ). You could take all of the lovecraftian stuff & magic out of AoD and it would.still. be a fascinating world to explore. Not only the sheer amount of influences from our history (Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Chinese, Mongol, Turkish, Arabic, Aztec.), but the depth and detail as well.Talking to Feng for the first time I expected some cliche: 'Confucius says.'

Instead he starts discussing a philosophy that reminded me of Legalism. Freaking Legalism. In a videogame.+ Yazatas, Flos Duellatorum, etc.Impressive.

'A riveting account of the pre-First World War years. A gloriously rich history.

Balanced and judicious. The Age of Decadence is an enormously impressive and enjoyable read.' - Dominic Sandbrook. Sunday Times.

'Heffer has given us a magnificent account of a less than magnificent epoch. Vital and energetic.' - Jonathan Meades. Literary Review. 'Magisterial.'

- Sam Leith. Spectator. 'The Age of Decadence is an impressively well-constructed book.

Heffer weaves his wonderfully diverse strands of inquiry into a devastating critique of prewar Britain. Heffer's criticism of unbridled traditionalism is devastating and convincing. It's also disturbingly relevant to the world in which we live.' . The Times. 'Mr Heffer combines a scholar's command of the primary literature with a journalist's eye for detail.

He writes with admirable sensitivity about both music and literature: a better account of Elgar or Arnold Bennett would be hard to find. He does a brilliant job of exposing the rot beneath the glittering surface of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. He writes with such exuberance - indeed with such Edwardian swagger - that he leaves the reader looking forward to his next volume.' . The Economist.

'A rich social history of a time when progress and cruelty collided. Heffer provides a painfully relevant story about the dangerous decadence of traditionalism.' - Books of the Year.

The Times. 'Monumental. Heffer writes with much illuminating detail to carry the story forward.' . Spectator. 'An intelligent, richly detailed and comprehensive survey.'

- Allan Massie. Standpoint. 'The Age of Decadence will be consulted with pleasure by the general reader as well as by the student. So well written that one would not have it a page shorter.' - Vernon Bogdanor.

Daily Telegraph. 'The rise of the middle class is just one of the grand narratives that runs through its pages, along with Irish Home Rule, women's suffrage and a taste of Elgar. A really riveting read.' - Rana Mitter, BBC Radio 3. Free Thinking.

'This is scholarship of a high order: an impressive ability to synthesise wide-ranging sources and provide a cogent, readable narrative is spiced by the confident opinions, not to say barbs, of the newspaper columnist.' . Country Life. 'Covers as much ground as the miles of Edwardian housing spreading out along the new Tube lines of London, and is as packed with pompous politicians as the House of Commons was on a busy day in the debate about Irish Home Rule. The fact that I now know about all those things shows how rewarding the book is.' - Book of the Week.

Daily Mail. 'An account of the thirty years or so leading up to the First World War. Heffer is interested in exploring the political and social tumult of the time, which really can't be exaggerated' - Jim Naughtie, BBC Radio 4. Today. 'Simon Heffer's Age of Decadence covers a period of British history - 1880 to 1914 - that few would at first sight equate with decadence.

As the British Empire reached its height, stiff upper lips seemed more in evidence than the louche trappings of decadence. Yet Heffer makes a convincing (and beautifully written) case that those upper lips were in fact quivering away, as the world went clanking towards its destruction.' - Andrew Roberts 'Heffer's history of fin-de-siecle Britain is full of decadent delights. Richly and wittily written.' - Books of the Year. Sunday Times. 'There is a view, commonly held, that grand narrative histories are a thing of the past.

This view is mistaken, as Simon Heffer proves happily and beyond doubt with his latest book.' .

Catholic Herald. 'There is much to enjoy in this long account, packed with detail.' . New Statesman. 'A superb history' - Dominic Cavendish. Daily Telegraph.

'Beautifully written and packed with intriguing facts, The Age of Decadence is an engaging read that will appeal to historians and general readers alike. Book of the Week. The Lady. 'A social, political and cultural history of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, carefully examining the contradictions of the period.

Highly readable.' . Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine. 'Heffer has really excelled himself with this epic study of Britain in the years before the First World War. Majestic in its scope, meticulous in its scholarship, compelling in its thesis and stylish in its prose, his heavyweight book challenges the familiar historical tale of confidence and swagger and presents the age in a more complex, sombre light. The author has done an extraordinary amount of research, unearthing a wealth of new material from archives.

It is impossible to read this magnificent work without gaining a deep new understanding of a unique and troubled age.' . Daily Express. 'One of the best historical books to gift others this Christmas.' .

Daily Mail. 'Heffer has turned himself into one of Britain's most accomplished and formidable men of letters. Heffer is a genuine intellectual with a shelf of books to his credit.' - Peter Oborne. Spectator. 'An epic survey. Simon Heffer's intricately detailed account ends with Britain diminished and on the brink of catastrophe.'

- Jane Shilling, `Must Reads'. Daily Mail. Read more.