Academagia

Games
21

I managed to squeeze in some play time yesterday, and I agree with most of Kieron’s complaints. I find the fact that a sub-skill can sometimes be hard to find very annoying, and it’s hard to keep track of skills/locations/spells/phemes and so on.

However, the game is perfectly playable, as long as you don’t try min-maxing your way through it, and it definitely has a lot of soul, if you don’t mind reading the text. If you do mind reading a lot of text, this probably isn’t for you.

I imagine that the replayability factor must be off the chart, considering the amount of events. In this sort of game, I usually start seeing the same events after a while, but after about 10 hours or so this still hasn’t happened. I am a bit annoyed, though, that random events don’t seem to be tied to whatever you’re doing when they happen (I’ve gotten several class-related events on weekends, for example).

@Peacedog: As far as I understand it, the colours in the events tell you how likely you are to succeed at that action: red is almost impossible, purple is unlikely, black is 50/50, blue is likely and green is almost certain.

Keeping track of relationships is pretty easy, actually, since you can sort people by relationship, in the relationship list. Also, I believe that it only lists professors and students of your year, which is why the mentor isn’t there.

22

Really long post ahead, beware. If you’re a TLDR type, then: yeah, everyone’s right.

I’m actually starting to understand the 9+ age thing, now, in that if a 9 year old can stomach 13 pages of text for one of the first events they’d probably kinda enjoy it. Thanks to the interface it’s really not a game that lends itself well to attempting to understand the entire thing and work around the system, but if you’re capable of deciding “I want to be the sort of wizard who’s really good at Incantation and sneaking around being a dick with practical jokes!” and then focusing on that, then you’ll likely enjoy it.

What makes it really annoying is that there are some obvious tweaks that would make it a hell of a lot easier to play around with. The ability to alphabetically sort subskills, for instance, rather than having them hidden away in their parent tree. A display for the level you have a subskill at when you’re looking at a choice that uses it. The ability to set a default weekly calendar of your own, so that you can make minor tweaks as things require them rather than, every week, going “Okay, we’ll study Negation then, and then we’ll skip class to do this, and then instead of resting on Wednesday we’ll talk to this person…” and having to navigate the goddamn sub-trees and skill lists every single time.

Pretty much every problem I have with the UI is tied to the skills, because there are so damn many. I’ve probably got 15-20 parent trees, right now, and I know I haven’t unlocked all of them because more keep popping up. Each of these appears to have 3 or 4 subskills attached, and again, I know there are subskills I don’t yet have access to because I keep learning more. It’s ludicrous, and there’s no easy way to sort through the fucking things. Even a search box would help, and normally I’d hate a game using such an inelegant method every time I wanted to find something. It’s hard to tell how important half of these are, too - is there some reason we couldn’t have squeezed a few of the Arithmetic ones together? Do we really need Arithmetic Theory and History of Arithmetic, along with two others?

I’m curious as to the replayability myself, and whether or not there are sufficient events that you won’t see them repeat that much in second or third playthroughs; I’ve already seen one event repeat. That said, I am utterly astonished at some of the attention to detail. As an example, you get the option during character creation to choose a familiar, and I decided to go with the “exotic” option, which apparently assigns you one of around 20 random familiars as opposed to Cat, Owl, Rat, etc. I ended up getting a Shade - basically a living shadow. Kinda cool, but not something I thought would have that much of an impact.

Apparently, this Shade has a unique Adventure tied to it. At first, I figured it would be the same for any familiar, with “owl” switched to “Shade,” but apparently not - the fact that it’s a Shade is inextricably tied to the Adventure, from mentions of enchanted torches through to its incorporeal nature and the way it deals with a guard, which is Dementor-level creepy. If the game really has this many Adventures tied to little choices and decisions, then…

It helps that it’s pretty well written, too, albeit again in a slightly pulpy Harry Potter way, and it’s nice that the characters appear to be genuine characters. Unlike, say, Kudos, everyone seems pretty individual and they all have their own agendas. A few times, people I’m friends with have cast beneficial spells on me (which is only visible if you trawl through the end of day report, admittedly) while I’ve got a nice rivalry going on with one of the dickheads in another house.

Despite everything that’s great, I can’t overstate how utterly horrible the UI is. It’s kinda hard to qualify how “good” it is because I’m pretty much just going with the flow, but I’m enjoying myself. This is absolutely not for everyone, though - I think it takes a certain mentality to actually have fun with it. I’m probably making it sound more fun than it is, but it’s certainly got that “just one more turn” quality.

23

Damn, Kieron makes that game sound awesome, yet incredibly frustrating :(

24

Having not skipped out on this one, I am going to tell others to do so. There is a bit of an acquired taste thing going, and the interface is bad. Not bad in a lacking in aesthetical appeal way, but bad as it does a horrible job conveying information to player. The gameplay is almost entirely text based, and the text was to small for my not that small CRT monitor.

However, the biggest complaint I am going to throw at the game is I never got a feel for my character. What does an Intelligence score of 3 versus 1 actually mean? I think if they had taken more of an RPG character sheet approach to character creation and representation, a lot of the gameplay would fall into place. That, and there is just to much going on and not enough depth anywhere. Fewer, but more interesting adventures would have made the game stronger.

25

Well, poop. Having no time due to re-addiction to WoW, looks like it means my submersion in that game saved me $25 on this one.

26

Oh, you know what else I do not care for? It isn’t just that the AI is convoluted, burying a million important details in a million places. Or that it makes terrible use of screen real-estate.

Some of the key buttons (like “comfirm orders”) aren’t responsive. Maybe this is a problem local to me, but I click that area but I get nothing, not an animation indicating I clicked a button or a cursor change indicating magic is happening. This drives me crazy.

27

Well, I don’t want to double post, but it turns out Academagia is a .net Application with the UI done in WPF. And it’s supposed to be moddable.

28

I bought this on sale, remembering full well that you guys didn’t recommend it, and now I totally see what you mean. SO MUCH STUFF. Everywhere! What does it mean? WHAT DOES IT MEAN???

29

Holy crap, you’re not kidding about the wiki. It’s just a mess of game terms all linked to each other.

Here’s a manual for anyone interested.

30

I bought this for my wife on the sale yesterday, but didn’t see this thread until today. I’m going to stay quiet about this thread until after she gets her own first impressions. This should be interesting…

31

I played it a bit yesterday after getting it on sale myself and it’s…convoluted, yet appealing.

32

A new free DLC came out adding a lot more stuff to the basic game. I love the fact that the game developers keep adding new stuff to make the game more interesting.

When the Sakkanaks of the Dragon Emperor came to the Chardissian Isles, the young Queen Avila rejected all their demands. Though she had no armies, no magic and no authority, she would not yield - and this simple act alone set in motion the events that would liberate all mankind. But when is the right time to make a stand…?

What tyrannies must be thwarted? The DLC includes:
6 new Adventures, themed around the College of Avila: tea-time, a system of oppression, and a bitter harvest await!
20+ new Events, dealing with the struggles and heritage of the Students of Avila, as well as several diverse Events submitted by the community
1 new Skill, over 10 Items, and lots of new Abilities, Actions, Locations and Spells for new ways to advance your Character’s interests

33

Does that DLC come with a UI that doesn’t actively hamper your ability to understand what is going on at all?

34

They’ve released 20+ patches, and the ui is definitely much better. It’s not perfect, and probably never will be, but I certainly don’t have any problem figuring out what’s going on.

35

I want to know what Slantz’s missus made of it.

KG

36

This strikes me as a series with good potential, if they can pull off what they intend throughout the years of school - but the pace at which they intend to release the new years, for what seems to be a fairly simple process is a little surprising. I would have thought they would simply use the same basic engine, and make the appropriate tweaks - but the next year isn’t due out until 2012…

37

According to the developers, the main part of the work involved in the game (and sequels), is the writing and the artwork. They’re obviously still working on the engine, but I think that the writing in particular, is the reason for the slow release pace.

Also, I think they’re concentrating on improving the current game, for now, with all the patches and DLC they’re putting out.

38

I finally tried this out and I’m, well, not sure lost is the right word. I’m not sure what the point is of anything I’m doing. What’s my goal? If it’s to pass tests, I’m not sure why I’d do much beyond study and train. I played through 2 game weeks. There’s a bunch of knobs to turn, but I’m not really seeing the motivations to turn them.

I checked for some walkthroughs and strategy guides and the couple I found didn’t really tell me much I didn’t see in the two weeks I played.

39

Missed this announcement last January about DLC #5:

Black Chicken Studios presents the fifth free DLC for Academagia: The Making of Mages, Spells against the Enemy!

Consolidated Patch 24 and DLC 5 - Updates - Black Chicken Studios Forums

Of old, King Godina and his cohorts came down from the mountains, and there was lightning and fury in his eyes. He and his spells turned against the wrath of the dragons, their enslaved servants, and even the storms of the Inner Sea. Such a restless spirit was a mighty ally in those dark times, but what about when the conflict was ended?

When is the time for war, and when is the time for peace? The DLC includes:

6 new Adventures, themed around the College of Godina: mighty spells, the energy of music and forgotten goblin-ruins await!
20+ new Events, dealing with the intensity and decisions of the Students of Godina
1 new Skill, over 10 Items, and lots of new Abilities, Actions, Locations and Spells for new ways to advance your Character in Elumia

…have fun!

Seems like a new DLC comes out every month.

40

Pass tests and go through adventures and create relationships seem to be it. For the adventures you need a variety of skills, for the tests you need to study, for relationships you need adventures + befriending and social skills.