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derriesen

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Everything posted by derriesen

  1. strange that whenever I start a topic on something, a day later the same topic comes up in another thread... I'm with you on this topic. Less balance more fun. A balanced enviroment only makes sense for competitive multiplayer where the fun is created through the challange with other peoples skills and you need balanced tools and battle fields for this. In a single player non competitve game the challagnes come from the game enviroment and the players self inflicted challanges. Do I want to cheese here, steamroll there or do I want it extra hard and dont spend any skill points on chracter creation etc... also if your interested, here is the link to the topic I made on this issue: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/68430-on-balance-in-a-single-player-game/
  2. Hi forums, just wanted to share some thoughts on balance and why I think it shoul dbe less of a focus in single player games in general and in PoE especially. As far as I am concerned there are two basic balancing levels: 1. Player versus World - Balance 2. Intra-Party-Balance Regarding 1: Player vs. worlds balance descibes how well a character or in a group RPG the group copes with the challanges a world throws at him/them during the adventure. Namely: combat, dialogue, exploration and puzzles. There might be different focusses in which a player or a party excels which creates different dificulty levels for different characters, party compositions etc. which makes a game super replayable if there is enough variety. A prime example for a game that creates replayability by being NOT balanced is ADOM (AncientDomainsOfMistery) which is a rrougelike game and offers many different Race/Class combinations. You can have a very hard game by picking frail and nimble R/C combos or have a pretty easy game with other R/C combos (If you know what youre doing). The point is: Challange can be varied by the players decision on character creation, which also totaly changes the aproaches you take to the game. Experienced players try to win with every R/C combo and do other challanges to increase difficulty and have a real sense of achievement. In a game that doesnt allow "bad builds" and makes every combination of attributes/abilites/gear choices etc and also all party compositions viable, all this fun created by "imbalance" is prevented. I have the slight fear that PoE might be too balanced regarding "player-vs-world-Balance" and only scales by the difficulty slider which is a blant way of doing things. Regarding 2: "Intra-Party-Balance" means the balance of power levels inbetween different chars in the players group. In most role playing games there are archetypes of characters that make differnt chars good at different things so every party member can contribute in a variaty of scenarios. If youre playing PnP RPG most of the time you are pretty much free to do what oyu want and can define the role you are playing within the systems bounds and what the GM allows you to do. The balance of actions and power also does come from the behaviour of your playing partners etc. and lesser from the system itself. In a computer game the roles are super defined by the system because you cannot (at least not within this KS project ) programme a fully functional artificial AI GM... So what happend in the past was that for example BG2 took pretty much the D&Ds ruleset and ported into a system. The consequence was that for example Thiefs lacked power compared to lets say Wizards because the focus of the game was combat and all the stuff a thief could do in PnP was not well supported by the system. This is pretty much what OE are trying to get rid of and make every character equally viable in combat situations as they see that to be a major feature of their game. I find this to be very frustrating becuase it led to: 1. All chars can lockpick now 2. All chars can sneak now 3. No stealing 4. Rogue is just another Fighter Archetype. MAybe the rogues power level has been put more in line with other char types now but it also totally lost its uniqueness. And thats only one class. In BG2 I knew that Jan Jansen was a lower power combattant compared to other companions but I took him wiht me because I liked the roleplaing aspects of him. Also There where those moments when you needed a Thief! Picking lock, clearing traps and avoiding battle by stealing a hidden key etc... These moments have been devaluated by the current system and the balancing efforts which in addition makes characters feel less distinct and more ore less a random pile of attributes and abilites. The basline of my comment is: Balance should not be something to absolutely crave for in single player RPGs. It might kill diversity, role playing, uniqueness, replayability and challange. For example Dragon Age was one of those games that was dumbed down to make everything equally viable and led at least for me to beeing majorly disappointed. Give players the optios to be super OP, to be super Under Powered or to just play as they like, please dont make everything equal, because thats just boring. regards
  3. Yes please. As I suggested here allready two days ago: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67679-making-attributes-more-impactfull-and-interesting/ Did not seem to interest people much when I posted. But I see there are fellows who support this idea. Also the averages vary dependend on race. It would make the step of distributing attributes more memorable I think. Total suport for the idea from me! ^^ regards
  4. Hi forum, I got my head wrapped around the idea of more generic stats that apply equally for every class etc. I even think I'm over the Might for Wizards confusion. I even came to think that might is one of the worst stats for combat efficiency and I'd rather have other stats. But: All attributes give minor advantages, you can totally put all an like 11/12 and be fine. I dont even think youll notice much of a difference between characters with the exception of stamina/fortitude amybe. When I start the beta over and create a character I switched to solely putting points governed by how I imagine the character, so my only intent has become roleplying with the attributes. I think this is what might be one of the design goals of the current system. Once you get used to it its fine, if I were totally new to the system I would not act like this and would be upset about the way attributes work, as I was when starting the beta. My biggest complaint about the attribute system as it is right now is: There is now real negative aspect of having low stats. There is no real tradeoff when going 18/18/18.... So I came to thinnk: How can attributes be more meanignful and be kept true to the current system? How can we get more impact out of them and differntiate characters more? Here is what I suggest: Set the attributes to average values for every Race in character creation (like: 9/8/13/11/10/10 for elves for example). At the average value of about 10 the stat doesnt affect you negitively or positively. If you lower the stat you will receive penalties for the respective mechanics. Incresaing a stat gives you bonuses. I would also like to see bonuses and penalties increasing for every point you get further away from the average. This would make attribute distribution much more impactful and youll have to think of the tradeoffs. Also you would lessen the 18/18/18/4/4/4 behaviour and get more varied stat lines maybe! This is a suggestion that can be discussed and altered all the way, dont think that this is what I think is THE only best thing to happen. Just a thought that I wanted to share with you. regards
  5. This is true. The scaling of might doesnt make it necessary for a character to contribute to combat. You can be just fine with a low might value and dealing slightly less damage. Its more a problem of which stat to go for instead. If you want your character to be at maximum combat efficiency you need to max might. There is no other stat that achieves this. Im starting to think that might should actually not effect damage scaling at all. Its enough if it gives you stamina and resolves some dialogue and script options. That would maybe even the feeling of needing this stat maxed. What the developers had in mind when creating the attribute system is not accomplished in my eyes atm. Might and Con feel like a no-brainers. And you can still create a "bad" character: Play a fighter, dump all stats in dex, int and resolve. There you have it, char will die way to fast, does less damage and doesent even interrupt. If the bonuses are tight more strictly to situations/weapon types/char types/abilites/spells the system gets alot more complicated for everyone to understand but it would feel way more sensible and you could really specialize your character. Why have a wizard thats equally good at smashing with a 2-hander? I like it when I have the options to build such characters but atm EVERY character you build has the options regardless of the specialization you had in mind when creating him/her! Maybe I just need to get used to the system. Maybe the characters will feel different jsut by their abilities. But the Attribute system feels just bland and doesnt contribute to a character feeling special. You could as well scrape it and isntead pick stuff like: +30% spell damage +15 points of stamina -5 points of damge taken + 12% duration of abilites .... at character creation. regrads
  6. Thanks for pointing this out! So the ability does actually scale correct just the tooltip does not update. I thought that Intelect would be a pretty useless stat for my cipher... Now I can roleplay the character and am assured that he wont be gimped! ^^
  7. With his intellect score he will have tiny (fire)balls however!
  8. Hi again, sometimes characters animation for reloading loops after a battle has ended: You can see the arrow sticking through the head in the middle of the animation, you can also see (though not in this screenshot) amrs bow and stuff moving. The reload animation plays repeatedly and without delay between cicles. Encoutnered this for muscets and crossbows also I think but I am not 100% sure. Moving the character doesnt resolve it, when the chracter stops at destination the looping starts again. I did forget to see in which other ways I could end the behaviour unfortunately. regards
  9. No, people are hung up on the fact that wizards and every other class must max might before any other attribute. Yes exactly. It destroys character variaty. You possibly can play the game with mediocre build characters, there is no need for min maxing. But the feeling you could do 50% more damage if you just picked aumaua and dummped every possible point into might and picked the local option for +1 might.... Its just there at the back of my head... If magic wasnt effected by might at all and had fixed damage values I would be totally fine with that! Alternatively: Might governs melee, Dex governs Ranged and Int governs magic. Why not make it as cliché as that? ^^ Also note: I wish I hadnt pointed out the ability above, kept it a secret and enjoyed it in the full game in its present state^^ It will get toned down for sure! Just made quick progress to the ogre, put all other chars in the back: Used "Soul Ignition" once and didnt even bother to run away: Poor ogre!
  10. @TrueMenace - Havent figured that out yet aswell. Would like to no too! The ability is a cast and doesnt seem to fail? MAybe the ignited target is easier to hit while the duration? Might aswell just be something that is unintentionally shown there and has not been cleaned up?
  11. I quited to the main menu several times right after character creation, leveling and fighting the bandits (Just testing different characters in combat right away). Did not close the game in between. Tell me if you need mor information and what spcifically if it helps you guys! regards
  12. Hi forums, I jsust rolled a cipher and I really, really like this characters style. I stumbled upon the 3rd level ability "Soul Ignition": Its Insane! 460 damage over 12 secs? That kills probably evry monster you encounter in the beta in one cast ^^ I created a seccond cipher to compare the ability with different attribute scores here is what I got: Cipher One: ( M - 14, C - 10, D - 12, P - 14, I - 19, R - 9) Cipher Two: (M - 19, C - 18, D - 19, P - 15, I - 4, R - 3) SO as you can see: 460 damge vs 496 damage over 12 s. Apart from being a pretty hefty value (both actually) it only scales with might. I know I will have to get used to this systems idea of attributes beeing a generell thing but look at this specific example: Would you not think intelligence should do a thing for this ability? Its mind versus mind. ALos Int doesnt even change the time parameters even though it states that it affects durations! So either I would expect it to DECREASE the time while keeping the damage the same for higher Int to increase the effective damage or INCREASE the time of appliance while considerably upping the damage to also increase the total damage done. Or did I get it totally wrong and Int is only meant to effect BUffs/Debuffs? Even then, "Soul Ignition" can be seen as a debuff as it drains fortitude. Whatever. I think I can get used to the attribute system as it is actually intended but what is the incentive for me to even put points in something else as might apart from roleplaying motives? EDIT: I would really love to play a cipher with high attack rate and dex with a bow to gain charges quily and unleashing severeal abilities. But as it stand I would really gimp my character with not skilling much strength. As it stand I see might to be too much of a necessity for every character at least when combat is considered.
  13. Hey there, I just started several games just to try out every character and how its creation and leveling feels and when I created a deatth godlike cipher (I think thats what I will start the main game with, just for RP reasons...) I came across the following: Thats what I found right after the game started. I did not do anything yet but leveling my main char. Funny bug!
  14. Hi there, another thing i`ve noticed: When clicking on the inventory close button or selecting a charcter via the porrtaits the previously selected character sometimes gets a move order to the point I clicked. Annoying. Maybe just block move commands while in inventory. For the portrait selection thing I dont know how to avoid it... regards
  15. I see the developers intention to make every class impactfull and interesting to play. However the amount of available abilities is pretty high and there is only a limited amount of abilities which actually make sense before thy become copies with just adjusted stats of each other. I would like to see abilities that are very distinct from another and change the position I´m in in combat alot more. Right now I´m always just autoattacking every trash mob with all my chars and on harder fights I cast the same three buffs from my cleric, nuke the strongest target and thats it. Paladin, fighter and rogue have the same stuff on all the time. There is no need for situational awareness atm and no real abilities to support it. Id rather have less abilities with stronger limited use otions than having a ton of stuff that basically does the same and makes the game feel more like an arpg. Dont get me wrong I like the game very much so far and I really like that thise old boring character types like fighters get more involved right now. But jsut as I said, more impact less redundance.
  16. Hi there, I could finsih the Ogre quest however I could not deal with the following: 1. Skeleton Key aquired - cant open the door. 2. Dragon Egg aquired - text option to finish the quest is missing. 3. Stone heads dialog finished, runes are glowing, standign on the right spots having aq1uired the soul vessel - nothing happens. 4. strange leather cave men cultist cave - broken brigde with serious hint to use rope and hook, have it right there in my inventory - cant use. Reloading, quitting reloading quiting game and reloading had no effect. Btw. I just checked and yes I do have the acording quest items in the quest item backpack. So I visited everything I could and am stuck right now. Starting over, lets see what I can reproduce and what will be finishable this time ^^ regards
  17. Another thing I encountered: status effect Icons over the protraits do not vansih long after the effects are gone, alos strange symbols over the head of my BB wizard: [/url]">http://http://www.directupload.net'>
  18. I also noticed that my chars often change their weapon sets without me ordering it. I think the whole issue might be connected to the sets. So maybe try putting everything out of the second slot and see if the problem still occurs? I havent had the problem right at the start of the game yet. My last attempt at playing went pretty good, I avoided the Inn and visited it last on my tour to town and havent lost any equipment yet. Maybe its not the Inn. I just thought so because on two games everything I did was pretty much the same: start, level up, talk to bounty hunters, head straight for the Inn, go in: BOOM Grimoire and Rod lost...
  19. In know it has been reported that characters lose items. Here is what I found: When entering the Inn, the BB Wizard loses his Grimoire and Weapon, rendering him useless. Reloading does not solve the issue. Quiting to menu and relaoding neither. And restarting the game and then reloading doesnt solve it either. I have started 2 games today and on both occasions the wizard lost his equipment. Apart from that, the game looks and feels great!
  20. Generally there seem to be some issues regarding items and inventory management: - Some items just get lost for no reason -- I think this was when changing area or reloading --> lead to my wizard having no rod or grimoire anymore thus being absolutely useless. I think many players who cant figure out why their mage has no spells have encountered this issue but havent figured why he lost his spells. -- Noticed this several times with other items too, after reloading for example the one handed weapon of my fighter and cleric where gone. Dont know if this related to weapon sets anyhow? Only seemed to accur while having two sets with weapons, on my main char with just one set I havent encountered it yet. - Items change stats: -- Have equiped two daggers with lets say 13-18 damage, two stilettos with 17-27 in inventory after swapping the weapons out all four items have the same stats. -- If this is related to ther weapon scaling its damage with character stats that should not happen: show weapon base damage on the item and show in the tooltip how the damage plays out with the character stats. Dont know if this happens here but its hell alot confusing me. - Shop prices change after reloading or revisiting - When I get back to playing this evening I might write these issues down seperatly. For now I just can say there is like a black hole absorbing and changing items ^^
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