FAQ

I. What is Decadence?
Decadence is a Half-Life 2 modification currently in development. It will offer a strategic two versus two player story-driven multiplayer experience. You will be able to play as one of four unique characters with their own advantages, weaponry and personalities. The character you choose will stay unique to you; no one else can pick the same character you did. You play in one of two gangs whose mission it is to capture certain checkpoints throughout a city in order to gain control. The gameplay focus more on strategy than on full on action, you have to use your surroundings in order to outsmart your enemies and to find cover from enemy fire.

II. What do I need in order to run Decadence?
You need is a copy of a game based on the Source Engine. That will let you download Source SDK Base which is needed to run the modification. The modification itself is free.

III. How many players can play on the same server?
Decadence is limited to four players per game, but nothing stops you from running several servers on the same machine.

IV. What does Decadence mean?
decadence |ˈdekədəns| noun moral or cultural decline, esp. after a peak or culmination of achievement : he denounced Western decadence. behavior reflecting such a decline : the rituals of joy and grief had become so ornate as to verge on decadence. luxurious self-indulgence : “French” connotes richness and decadence, and that's the idea of this ice cream. ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from French décadence, from medieval Latin decadentia; related to decay.

V. How does this revival and regenerate health actually work?
Death isn’t the end in Decadence, you always have the chance to get up on your feet again. If you get shoot down, you’ll fall down on your knees and you’ll be unable to move, and the fastest way to get into the game again is to have your teammate come over and revive you. This might put your teammate in danger, as the enemies will probably try to take your teammate down as he comes to revive you. However, you put your team in a big advantage if you take separate routes.

Regenerative Health is a little different from a normal health system. When you take damage, your vision will start to deteriorate to let you know death is just around the corner. What you want to do in this situation is to take cover and wait a few moments, and you vision will clear up to let you know you’re fit for fight again.

VI. Hmm, story-telling in multiplayer mod? I don’t know about that.
You are not forced to take part in any story. The story is designed to give those who want to read into the world and characters a chance to, but not interrupt the actual gaming. You will be able to read the bulk of the story on this page, in a very personal way as each character will give you their version of the world and what they deem important in it. The story in-game is mostly constructed using symbolism and other underlying story writing techniques to experience the story, rather than reading it. After all, you’re in a multiplayer game to experience, not to read.

VII. What’s with the idea of having the story to take in one single city?
The whole city has a deep story attached to it. We have a map of the city and most of the locations you can see have a story behind it. The city is alive and all the levels are coherent with the events taking place in the city. You are also able to locate landmarks from other levels from the level you are currently playing on. The aim is to create a more personal connection with the city itself and in that way get you, the player, more interested in reading about it and find out more.

VIII. Could you please tell me more about what you mean with a push style gameplay?
Each level in Decadence is divided into smaller areas we call “arenas”. One level could feature five arenas, two arenas belong to one team, the middle arena is neutral and the remaining two belongs to the second team. Each game starts out in the middle arena which is neutral. The goal is to capture a checkpoint and to do so; players have to be near the checkpoint for a certain timeframe. If a team manages to capture one checkpoint, the fight moves over to the adjacent arena in favor of the winning team. The match is over when a team captures all the checkpoints.

All arenas are designed according to a number of criterions. You should always know where you goal is, and you should also be able to know the whereabouts of your enemies so you don’t have to go look for them. We took it on us to create each arena with a special gameplay so players are forced to change their strategy depending on which arena they are currently playing on. This creates a fast-paced thrill and the tide can change many times during a match.

IX. No HUD? But how will I be able to know… anything?!
We are not fond of having an abstract layer of information between you and the game world, so we moved all the information you would otherwise see on the HUD into the game world instead. Here are a few examples:

• Aiming
  All weapons will use laser sight instead of a traditional crosshair. However, one downside to this is that enemies can see where you’re looking.
• Ammunition counter
  How much ammunition you have left in you clip will be displayed on the weapon itself.
• Damage
  Your vision will start to deteriorate when taking damage, and you will have a hard time trying to see. This will fade away if you take cover for a few moments.

X. What’s the deal with only two versus two players?
The modification is focused on team-play, and limiting the player count to four players is a way to put emphasis on the individual player and the interaction with her teammate. Other advantages are that servers doesn’t require as much bandwidth and the ease of finding people to play against. You only need three other people to have a full server. Most servers are able to run several Decadence game servers at once.

XI. How hard is it to kill people?
It’s certainly a bad idea to stand up when a barrage of bullets is heading your way. The aim is for players to take cover and moving from cover to cover represents a great risk of death. Strategy and suppressing fire is a good way to keep your enemies at bay while still moving forward. Different characters can handle damage better than others, but there will not be any rocket jumping around the arena.

XII. How about system requirements?
It’s a bit too early to give a definitive answer to this question; we are however looking at higher system requirements than the original Half-Life 2, but not with a whole lot.

XIII. When will Decadence be released?
We do not have an answer to that question right now, so let’s use the “It’s done, when it’s done” thing.

XIV. Can I be a beta tester? It’s a bit early to decide on that. All the play testing is currently taken care of by the development team, and no outside testing is needed for now. This might change in the closing phase of the development cycle.

XV. What kind of people is developing this modification and where can I join?
The core team consists of game development students at the University of Skövde in Sweden. They cover all of the necessary fields of development, design, graphics and programming. However, there are a couple of outside contributors working on Decadence as well. We are always interested in hearing from talented people, so if you think you got the skills needed and want to help us out, please head over to the jobs page or hurl an e-mail towards contact@decadencemod.com.