Aeon Trespass Odyssey

I haven’t posted an update in a while because I found that although the monster fights continued to be a challenge and the story elements were interesting, the write-ups were very samey. So I kept playing but didn’t bother to do a write-up after every session.

To summarise, I’ve circled Crete once and have now developed the technology to explore the internal rivers of the island. I’m trying to find King Minos in here somewhere.

And then…

I got to turn 42 and the game ended.

Bummer.

The loss mechanic for the game is the accumulation of doom tokens. Every five or six tokens progresses the “negative” side of the story, and once you finished the sixth “negative” phase the game ends. Conversely there are six “positive” sides to the story, and to finish those you either collect progress tokens or achieve some other objective. I was on the fourth “positive” phase when the game ended.

I am a little miffed. I amassed 11 doom tokens simply from exploring the map, and I therefore had no way to avoid them. The other 20 or so came from in-story decisions I made, but again I could not avoid these unless I read ahead and cheated to avoid them. I tried to determine which choices I am “supposed” to be making but was never able to do so. In one story I’d be aggressive and be rewarded, in another I’d behave the same and be penalised. I never gained doom tokens for loosing a monster fight (i.e. when player skill comes into play).

Given the above, and the fact I’ve spent about 40 hours spread over four months playing so far, I’m just going to keep playing. I’ll find some other way for doom token’s to penalise me, so I’m not just ignoring the negative consequences of them.

While I’m reflecting on the game there are a few other things I’ve noticed.

• The technology tree seems “bugged”. Techs come in two flavours – combat and non-combat. The non-combat side has been stuck for 20 turns. I researched everything I could and then the only tech left to me requires that I have explored at least 45 map tiles (which is impossible before turn 45 at least). So I’ve missed out on the last 5 non-combat tech upgrades.
• The cards for two of the Titan upgrades are missing. I’ve searched the entire box twice and they just seem to have not been produced, or they are in a secret envelope I have not been instructed to open yet.

Overall I’s still enjoying the tactical combat and the interesting stories, so I’m happy to keep playing. I’m just going to ignore the seemingly arbitrary “game over” message.