Tylaris

This is a post from Resetera where one of game designers explains why it's much more complex than "changing the camera". ( On cyberpunk 2077, but same applies). It's interesting to read as most gamers see only a fraction of what it affects. Also keep in mind, New Vegas was done on someone's else's engine where Obsidian didn't have to design everything from scratch. It's going to depend drastically on how a number of systems are implemented. The gist is that the difference between the game knowing that the player is going to ALWAYS be "a camera" vs. the game having to deal with the player SOMETIMES being "a camera" and SOMETIMES being "a model that the camera is pointed at" is enormous. That kind of ambiguity suddenly opens up a huge, huge space for bugs and edge testing and bizarre ugly considerations. Some things that may be particularly problematic in a game like this: As tuxfool mentioned, you basically have to roll a new character controller from scratch. That is not trivial. That doesn't just mean moving around the world—it can also mean handling things like hit detection, interaction prompting, AI behavior, any of which can queue state changes or poll for proximity based on character position. You need to design a brand-new system for handling animation transitions. This is a very different thing than having the rigging/animations themselves. Animation transitions can be tied to a number of things—architectures like state machines, discrete components, centralized event systems that used entity pooling. If your game is first-person, that means that every single thing in the entire game with an animation is an entity or an object—meaning that changes to e.g. the state machine that runs its transitions are going to happen in response to changes in the game state. Now you add third-person. Suddenly, your game has thousands and thousands of pieces that change in response to changes in the game state, and one thing that changes in response to a combination of player input and the game state. Hoo boy. You need to design levels allowing for the possibility of players looking down on them from above.This is, again, a non-trivial design concern. It is hard to design levels for one perspective—now you're doing it for two. Want a key to be tantalizingly barely-visible through a window? Well, maybe the player's going to be in third-person, so they couldn't see through the window. Want to have the bad guy spawn behind a group of boxes and walk out? You can't, the player might be looking there. Did you lay this room out so that players' eyes are drawn upward when they first walk in, which brings their attention to the ventilation system leading from the office to the security room? Well, unfortunately, they're not going to see any of that. You need to make sure all the colliders in your level play nicely with third-person. If you're designing a game for first-person, you get to design physics for the player object and the player camera at the same time, because they're one and the same. That's really great when you're making a game set in a dense, urban environment. Oh, you're switching to third-person? Okay, now you need to make sure that the underside of every single ceiling in your entire game not only has the right bounding box, but that walls don't let the camera pass through them...unless the camera gets stuck on the other side of one of the futuristic sliding doors that's all over your game, then the camera needs to pass through gracefully. Anyone who has developed games knows that the difference between one option and two options is enormous. If you take something like "is the player a camera", something that touches probably every single other piece of the codebase, and change the answer from "yes" to "maybe", you are making a very, very big change to the questions that the game has to ask to get anything done. Anyone who has developed games also knows that it is deeply, totally impossible to guess how much work something is going to take if you haven't worked on the game in question yourself. The above are some things that might come to mind for a normal 3D project—I guarantee you that there are so, so many things particular to this game (and any game) that we would never guess, owing to decisions that developers made years ago about how the engine works or what kinds of functionality need to be available. And all of this is to say nothing of the amount of QA necessitated by this change—suddenly, the number of places the player's camera can be has increased by an incomprehensible factor. In first-person, the player's camera can be at any position between (normal height + jump height) and (crouch height), and only in places where the player's body can possibly be. Now, you need to test for the possibility of the camera being at any point within (possible first-person camera positions) + (every possible vector from the player object to the camera). That is...so, so much testing. This is a teeny tiny glimpse into the amount of work that this change could require, and even this is assuming that you make the decision to have both from the outset. If you make that decision later on? And you have to refactor this functionality in? Whew. Nope. Animations are a lot of work. They are...a fraction of the work this change would require. It is absolutely incredible that any game gets made at all.

True...oddly enough, the best romances I've seen in these kind of games come from mods...I remember Amber and Fade mods that added a lot of humor and the romance track went along very well with the friendship one. And then, there is Hubbelpot.

Well said... this is a very good game, that needs a lot of refinement in different areas, especially when it comes to combat, to reach it's full potential. But the strong foundation for a great rpg series is there and I'm hoping that expansion will give more depth to stronghold and add more Act III Content concerning your faction choice...perhaps culminating in something like NWN2 OC siege, which was probably the best part of that game.

Some good ideas here... I like how someone offered his Perspective and doing it in polite way, for once. Personally one thing that bothered me is monk's wound mechanic...Monk should be able to build his 'Chi' ( or something) through hitting his oponnent, since we usually picture them as fast, finesse (spiritual) warriors. I would change Cipher attacks into something similar to NWN2 warlocks... by using their psychic leash innate attacks, (some kind of unique ray attacks, (it makes no sense to do it through crossbows), which would be weaker than weapons or magic, but capable of empowering them with different effects( strength drain, slow...etc)), they would build up power for their special abilities. On the other hand, "Wounds" would be perfect for barbarians, as something that intensifies their abilities...so that barb would really release Raaaaaaaaargh! battle cry, when near death, as opposed to usual Whelp! I would also change stealth to single player "mechanic", but allow rogues to develop something like 'back flip'/fall back' ability so that they don't instantly get swarmed by enemies.

Ehhh... I loved BG I and II and will defend them to the death, but they also taught me number one rule of Bioware games...Do not analyze. Running high on drama, easy to get into, your ego goes through the roof, but plot wise, it makes you wonder if the writers are even using their brain. The whole Highlander theme ... There can only be One!... is ridicilous, because there is no need for Bhaalspawn to slaughter one another, due to the absence of lightning show after extended family decapitations. Sarevok's plan made no sense.... start a massive war and cause as much bloodshed and this would somehow turn him, or bring him closer to becoming Lord of Murder!? Good luck with that. And Irenicus, in the end, reveals psychological subtleties of a self intitled brat... goes for the genocide( spiritual and the regular one, of course) on his own people for his own selfish gain, so he could join the Seldarine like it's some kind of elite golf club, fails and what does he expect...to simply walk away with a slap on the wrist? I would rate PoE on the same level with BG II, it has better atmosphere, lore and different themes interacting with one another, but less personal and less focused on strongly motivated characters. High above the BG I, though.

There is a limit to how far personal likes/dislike can affect someone's rating whether it's a book, movie, video game or anything else. And for a professional critic that should be as minimized as possible. I have no objection to this score... while I consider it even better than BG II or Torment, I would rate it the same. 10/10 is a game that will never be made, 9 is nearly flawless, so 8 would be something that excells at several areas while could use significant improvement in others. What I don't get is how Dragon Age 2 can receive exactly the same score? Or even higher one for the Inquisition that lacked depth, focus and character in practically every aspect of the game?

Miria? Waaaait... the one from the shotgun wedding? Good thing, Father Tully can also perform divorces...when he isn't dead drunk, that is. Now that was a fine romance.

It really is a masterpiece and the best Obsidian game so far... and it has so much soul in it, it feels like breathing with an extra lung while playing it, compared to most 'GOTY' rpg's we've had...god, has it been a decade? Aside from polishing/balancing issues, only thing I would have liked to have been released is a good companion AI package... I think a large number of people, will be amazed with art style, writing and depth of rpg mechanics, but still give it a pass because of the required combat micro management.

Personally, I rated this game 10 on meta critic( to combat the trolls!), but in all honesty I would give it more of 7.5 or 8. But then again, games as complex as this will never reach a perfect score (when I saw Skyrim reviews, I thought entire human race had gone insane), and the older games that we all idolize are far from one as well ( Morrowind, BG2 or Torment are my all time favorites, but I could write a whole book from just listing their flaws). People need to step back and think before hitting post button and consider what they're complaining about... majority of 'problems' they go on about come to differences in opinion and they refuse to see anything from any perspective, but their own.

Bound by Flame, had a pretty good system with converting pretty much anything into crafting components and you could do it whenever you wanted. This way players has to prioritize and keep any quality items they think are worth holding onto, while resisting collectomania and going through those back-and-forth pedalling from one merchant to another.

Really? I'm not pulling any judgement here, but how are people scared of even animated images? They are only spiders... adorable and cuddly, eight legged things that just crawl up your leg and...ehh... I'll probably end up banned for this. Now if they had placed sharks in this game, that would be a different story. And no, like someone mentioned, especially not clowns... i hate all of them, ever since seeing that crazy one from a horror movie.

Agreed. That's why i liked Mina's 'romance' in AP... she was a professional, fully focused on her work, so any of Mike's flirt attempts at her would only end up in failure. But as you move through the story, she begins to respect you as a result of your actions( if you go down that route...like avoiding civilian casualties etc...), and she assumes more relaxed and flirtatious disposition towards him. It felt more natural, more humane...than quick jumping in the tent with Morrigan( and count yourself lucky if you never see gay dwarf/Zevran scene in that game, you'll end up praying for amnesia). Bioware can write some pretty good, 'heartwarming' scenes( like Jack romance from ME2/3)... but I think they try too hard to accommodate to everyone's taste, so their romances , feel too fast forward, lack subtlety and leave unfinished impression in the end.

My point is... either do it right or don't do it at all. I liked, to some extent, Jaheira Romance from BG II, because it was tied to a number of side quests, and it involved building of trust between characters, rather than dumping 'gifts' on their portrait icons or approving with everything they say. Her character was more complex and never felt too needy or dependent on the protagonist. It was more about developing strong friendship than can possibly turn into romance(with the whole, warm, walk into the sunset together, mental image) ...she says something like this at the end...'We are great friends... and more'. And you're missing the point of why I mentioned 'Last of Us'... it's all about context in which the relationship between characters is played out...it's what the whole game or as you call it, 'pretentious movie', is all about. Either way, there are far more important things than romances in video games, that the writers should put their effort to... take Mass Effect 3 for instance... completely nonsensical story that consists of nothing but plot holes, but hey, your Shepard can bang most of his crew, before (possibly) impregnating the whole damn galaxy in the end.

Problem is, most of these 'romances' usually end up as a cheap fan boy service... who I doubt are succesfull at seducing every 'real life' woman they come across. Take father/daughter relationship from Last of Us, between Joel and Ellie...it is a focus/theme and something that is being developed over the course of the ENTIRE game and both characters are complex and believable as well as equally vital for the game...In comparison, Bioware romances are more alike to Leon and Ashley from RE4, and the 'romance' involves picking heart icon three times in the upper left corner of the dialogue wheel, solve /insert here/ emotional trauma ( that usually defines the romanced character), followed by characters dry humping one another. Only 'romances' from Obsidian games I liked were Sie/Mina from Alpha Protocol.... they were simple, humorous interactions that involved building some measure of trust and respect between characters and it did not aspire to be anything more than something that adds more levity to the game.

Same here. i always knew Obsidian had the talent and understanding of rpgs better than anyone to create something like this... and FINALLY the curse is lifted and they were given enough time to realize what they wanted. I'm really hoping this is only beginning for a new series. For now, get drunk and celebrate, you fully deserve every compliment for this masterpiece. Best wishes from Croatia.