Agents of Mayhem gameplay details!

Alright well "shrug", Lazarus looks more interesting to me, possibly could be a really engrossing fun to play character. I do wonder if they will have dialogue/interactions/activities in the hub.

Announcing DLC before a game is finished and out is another pet peeve of mine, but other triple A companies aren't exactly better right now... :/ If it's not finished... I guess? Like, I despise Neverealm for their tactic and it's just like... ugh...


I can be won over, I guess, but I wish the game industry would understand manipulative tactics don't work, and consumer goodwill is far more profitable. CD Projekt is the obvious example, Grinding Gear Games... Klei Entertainment...

Thank you for your amazing work in Public Relations Idol, it makes a huge difference to customers knowing that their voices are heard.

I absolutely love how transparent and detailed the team has gotten about the game within streams, I don't know any other major companies that provide that much info and communication to players about the development process, especially technical design on how their animation process works!

What amuses me is this is the moment the youtube videos finally get views.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Close to E3 I guess.
 
Last edited:
I'm no more a fan of DLC mania than I was when it began. One of the reasons I don't like it is that it's an excellent reason to downplay or outright prevent modding, but at least I trust that will not be the case here. To stoop so low as store and platform specific content (even time-limited) is a pity, though. I've always wondered just how much a deal like that is worth.
 
linkfire12 said:
Announcing DLC before a game is finished and out is another pet peeve of mine, but other triple A companies aren't exactly better right now... :/ If it's not finished... I guess? Like, I despise Neverealm for their tactic and it's just like... ugh...

Thank you for your amazing work in Public Relations Idol, it makes a huge difference to customers knowing that their voices are heard.

I absolutely love how transparent and detailed the team has gotten about the game within streams, I don't know any other major companies that provide that much info and communication to players about the development process, especially technical design on how their animation process works!
Click to expand...

The thing that I never knew about DLC, is that a game is finished months before the release date, and then it's a very long submit process to first party. They check all kinds of interesting and wacky things that you would never imagine a reasonably sane player might ever do, along with their own internal set of standards that all games on their platform must pass. Things like... how many seconds does it take from system power-on to get to a main menu, or how does the game handle the loss of network connectivity, or how are onscreen prompts overlayed over a controller graphic in-game. It's weirdly fascinating detailed stuff, and each submit has their own different rules.

So, first party builds a list of of things to send back about the submission. Critical things that either A. have to be fixed now, or B. can be pushed out (waived) to a day zero patch or beyond. During this submit process, the studio's Production staff are all busy bees doing all their Production-like things with schedules, and spreadsheets, and bug regressions. Then, after all that crazy business is finished (spoiler it never is,) the physical discs need to actually get pressed and shipped out to retailers.

The point of this whole convoluted explanation, is this:

Developers often find themselves, generally, well, without a whole lot to do at this point. So, forming teams to actually create DLC content is what keeps devs employed and contributing, instead of being in a situation where the studio has to possibly let people go.

Also, an interesting thing about Agent DLC (Gat, Lazarus, etc) is that only the base agents that you don't play (Gremlin, Quartermile, Friday, etc) are actually key to the crit path and story. Any combination of field Agents (the ones you do play) can be used in these main story missions, each with their own unique dialogue. So, even if we were to, say, "rip content out of the game,"which I can confirm isn't actually true, it would absolutely not affect the core story in any way shape or form. An Agent's unlock and personal missions are just that. Personal. They explore the Agent's personal life and past, with no impact at all on the crit path story. They are all about character development and insight, and some laughs... well, hopefully... if your heart isn't dead inside, and not about the main story.

Well, an exception to the above rules is for Hollywood, Fortune, and Hardtack, who do start the game's first 2 missions, so are pretty mandatory to be there in crit path because of it.

Anyway!

Whew, that was a heck of a lot more than I intended to type. In closing, I'll say this .... I wouldn't presume to tell you if Agents of Mayhem is a game that is going to be worth your $60, but it is absolutely a game that was lovingly crafted by a team of the most wonderful, crazy, passionate, and talented group of people that I am proud to work with every day. Their boundless joy at bringing this nutball-retro-cartoon-gijoe-larger-than-life-explosion-of-fuck-yeah to life is inspiring to me. This was a FUCKING HARD game to make, on so many levels, but I truly and honestly believe that the sheer, gonzo-joy of our work shows right there on the screen when you get that controller in your hand. I personally adore this game. I have a huge amount of fun playing it. Like, for really real. Deep Silver didn't politely ask me to post aggressively positive responses while holding a beloved family member hostage. Not that they ever would, certainly. The point is that this truly comes from the heart, and I really really mean it.

Oh, and another thing about the Gat DLC was that it was a super last minute thing. We are not the brilliantly sly Marketing evil genius types you may think. We honestly never planned Gat being in the game. Like, at all. It was a late ask from parties that shall remain nameless (not who you might think.) He did turn out super fucking cool though, like a cartoon action version of Tequilla from John Woo's Hard Boiled.

Oh, and not quite done yet. Big news coming soon about stuff that I think people around here are going to very much dig. ;)
 
Last edited:
Vladimir_Dimov said:
@IdolNinja, are those upcoming big news related about SR (Saints Row) game series, or they're about the AoM (Agents of Mayhem) game itself related? :)
Click to expand...

It's related to Agents of Mayhem. Sorry, but we're not quite ready to release any other details quite yet.
 
[V] IdolNinja said:
.... I wouldn't presume to tell you if Agents of Mayhem is a game that is going to be worth your $60, but it is absolutely a game that was lovingly crafted by a team of the most wonderful, crazy, passionate, and talented group of people that I am proud to work with every day. Their boundless joy at bringing this nutball-retro-cartoon-gijoe-larger-than-life-explosion-of-fuck-yeah to life is inspiring to me. This was a FUCKING HARD game to make, on so many levels, but I truly and honestly believe that the sheer, gonzo-joy of our work shows right there on the screen when you get that controller in your hand. I personally adore this game. I have a huge amount of fun playing it. Like, for really real. Deep Silver didn't politely ask me to post aggressively positive responses while holding a beloved family member hostage. Not that they ever would, certainly. The point is that this truly comes from the heart, and I really really mean it. ...
Click to expand...
And it's for THAT reason I will spend my $60 0n it. Because, even if it's not the Saints Row 5 game I was hoping for, I can see the love and passion that went into it, and that does count for something. And, members of the Volition team have been so willing to help out modders here, I feel lucky to be a part of this community. To top it all off, Volition was smart enough to hire you! So, even if I completely HATE the game (which is very unlikely), my $60 would be a trivial donation toward your paycheck as gratitude for all the things you, Mike Wilson, and may others have volunteered their personal, unpaid, time for to contribute to the modding community. I've already gotten MY money's worth even before I play one minute of the game. I know that sometimes I've been very critical, but it's only because I know the amazing things you guys can do, and I just want you to keep doing it. Honestly -- and I say this very sincerely -- thank you for everything!

And, I could never refuse a game with Johnny Gat in it. :D
 
I re-watched the first aom trailer and it makes more sense now that we have more info.

It's mentioned that Lazarus was an expiriment and her code name was Dynamo whiles the scientist in the start of the cg trailer is working on a project called Dynamo (it's limitless and free)

And Johnny was put in a coma during an event called "Devils night" which is likely the part of the trailer when the giant dish covers the sun and legion attacks.
 
[V] IdolNinja said:
The thing that I never knew about DLC, is that a game is finished months before the release date, and then it's a very long submit process to first party. They check all kinds of interesting and wacky things that you would never imagine a reasonably sane player might ever do, along with their own internal set of standards that all games on their platform must pass. Things like... how many seconds does it take from system power-on to get to a main menu, or how does the game handle the loss of network connectivity, or how are onscreen prompts overlayed over a controller graphic in-game. It's weirdly fascinating detailed stuff, and each submit has their own different rules.

So, first party builds a list of of things to send back about the submission. Critical things that either A. have to be fixed now, or B. can be pushed out (waived) to a day zero patch or beyond. During this submit process, the studio's Production staff are all busy bees doing all their Production-like things with schedules, and spreadsheets, and bug regressions. Then, after all that crazy business is finished (spoiler it never is,) the physical discs need to actually get pressed and shipped out to retailers.

The point of this whole convoluted explanation, is this:

Developers often find themselves, generally, well, without a whole lot to do at this point. So, forming teams to actually create DLC content is what keeps devs employed and contributing, instead of being in a situation where the studio has to possibly let people go.

Also, an interesting thing about Agent DLC (Gat, Lazarus, etc) is that only the base agents that you don't play (Gremlin, Quartermile, Friday, etc) are actually key to the crit path and story. Any combination of field Agents (the ones you do play) can be used in these main story missions, each with their own unique dialogue. So, even if we were to, say, "rip content out of the game,"which I can confirm isn't actually true, it would absolutely not affect the core story in any way shape or form. An Agent's unlock and personal missions are just that. Personal. They explore the Agent's personal life and past, with no impact at all on the crit path story. They are all about character development and insight, and some laughs... well, hopefully... if your heart isn't dead inside, and not about the main story.

Well, an exception to the above rules is for Hollywood, Fortune, and Hardtack, who do start the game's first 2 missions, so are pretty mandatory to be there in crit path because of it.

Anyway!

Whew, that was a heck of a lot more than I intended to type. In closing, I'll say this .... I wouldn't presume to tell you if Agents of Mayhem is a game that is going to be worth your $60, but it is absolutely a game that was lovingly crafted by a team of the most wonderful, crazy, passionate, and talented group of people that I am proud to work with every day. Their boundless joy at bringing this nutball-retro-cartoon-gijoe-larger-than-life-explosion-of-fuck-yeah to life is inspiring to me. This was a FUCKING HARD game to make, on so many levels, but I truly and honestly believe that the sheer, gonzo-joy of our work shows right there on the screen when you get that controller in your hand. I personally adore this game. I have a huge amount of fun playing it. Like, for really real. Deep Silver didn't politely ask me to post aggressively positive responses while holding a beloved family member hostage. Not that they ever would, certainly. The point is that this truly comes from the heart, and I really really mean it.

Oh, and another thing about the Gat DLC was that it was a super last minute thing. We are not the brilliantly sly Marketing evil genius types you may think. We honestly never planned Gat being in the game. Like, at all. It was a late ask from parties that shall remain nameless (not who you might think.) He did turn out super fucking cool though, like a cartoon action version of Tequilla from John Woo's Hard Boiled.

Oh, and not quite done yet. Big news coming soon about stuff that I think people around here are going to very much dig. ;)
Click to expand...
See, this is why I'm pissed off when I see people shit-talking Volition for whatever reason because I know you guys do good work.
 
Thank you so much Idol, that is really interesting and elucidating to hear about. I absolutely love how open the studio has been, it's a breath of fresh air. I'm really excited because of the positive outlook on modding too!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top