[Endless Paths of Od Nua level 2]

The only thing the High Priest says is "Get in the pit." Then he attacks you. As far as the dying xaurip, you can't save him as far as I've been able to find out. You can either leave him to suffer or put him out of his misery. 

[Only one prisoner at a time?]

From what I saw on the in-game loading screen tips, there's a chance that you'll get a visitor who wants to take a prisoner off your hands for rare items. I haven't had it happen. There's a bunch of different prisoners out there, you need to go find the side quests for them in some cases. However, make sure your security level is pretty damn high, or they'll just let themselves out after a while.

[When is patch and documentary coming?]

Patch is coming this week or next, from what I understand. Shouldn't be too long. No idea about the documentary, but it'll probably be soonish. 

[Why don't the developers use this forum?]

I think the spoiled entitlement among the extremely vocal minority is driving away people. 

[Where is the god damn tactics system?]

RPG's are not dying. 

 

Seriously. Just stop. 

 

Aside from the fact that DA (any DA) are completely different games from this game, RPGs are hardly going anywhere. Reading people on this forum leaves the impression that everyone here is either alternate measures of Chicken Little sans falling sky, or actually being a ragey, headless chicken. 

 

If you want something different, please, go start your own kickstarter and make your own damn game. Barring that, take games for what they are and the limitations they provide. No game is ever fully going to fully live up to your standards. 

[why can't obsidian have ONE clean release ?]

There are a lot of bugs in any games that are released to the general public. Sometimes the bugs are fairly innocuous, and are quietly patched out, but no game is completely free of bugs. Skyrim was a huge release for Bethseda, and it was chock full of gigantic game-crashing bugs. Get over it, bugs happen. 

[Why allow resting in dungeons at all?]

 

DocDoomII, on 01 Apr 2015 - 4:43 PM, said:

Checkpoint based games are kinda crappy for RPGs. They feel super cheap and arcade-y.

 

I should clarify. When I say checkpoints, in this instance I mean set locations/times where the party may rest within the dungeon. You'd still be able to save anywhere but you'd need to progress to a certain point to allow your party to rest.

 

Some examples:

 

If you're invading Readric's Hold by force then resting is completely disabled until you rout the guards. This can be done by eliminating (kill, bribe, persuade) one or more captains or by killing a certain number of mooks. Rest is then enabled.

 

If you're infiltrating Readric's Hold then resting is disabled until you convince an NPC to help you. You're then able to rest in their quarters.

 

If you're sneaking into Readric's Hold you're able to rest in remote locations (sewer/dungeon) so long as your party remains unseen.

 

 

Sounds like a great idea for a mod. Also, I know that in NWN you can't rest if there's an enemy within a certain distance, and that resting in the wild win BG/BG2 sometimes triggered a random attack/event. That might be easier to code, because resting when you can physically see the enemy through FoW but he can't see you is cheesy. 

[The pretty robe I found for my pretty hat]

Even got your pimp cane swagger stick. 

[Am I the only person who have positive things to say?]

This game is great. Wonderful atmosphere, great character design, and a very compelling story. Yes, there are bugs and some things do have that tacked on feel, but for the most part, I'm enjoying the hell out of the game. 

[Aloth/Grieving Mother alongside Player]

Wizards kind of got the shaft in this game.

 

Your best damaging spell is in fact your first level spell, Fan of Flames, which does an obscene amount of damage in an AoE effect. If the monster you're fighting has large resists to fire, well, too bad. The free spell you get per encounter isn't particularly useful, as you have to stand within melee range to cast it, and it barely does more than your autoattacks. The daze effect is nice, but meh. You don't get a lot of spells per rest, and the spells you do get aren't very good. You are also extremely squishy, and a lot of your best spells require you either to be away from the party so you don't kill them when you cast a spell or within the enemies melee range. There are other problems, I am sure, but that's the things I've run into so far.

 

Go cipher. 

[Ogre strategies ?]

When in doubt, more tanks. 

 

And deflection. Gods, so much deflection. 

[Edér and animals.]

Edér is one of my favorite characters, but I have to say, Obsidian did a really wonderful job with all of them. Even the least likable character in my opinion, Durance, is actually very interesting to have around, just because of how well he is presented. Too many companies tend to equate dislike with off-putting and uninteresting. When you manage to keep around a companion you don't like at all just because of how awesome a character he is, you've done something right. 

 

 Edér also loves the cat companion, and keeps making comments about how he's going to pet it eventually. It's adorable. I haven't tried any of the other pets, because I haven't found them yet. 

[Pillars of Metagaming]

 

If you die, just reload and come back later.

 

Obsidian are the masters of creating imbalanced games that force the player to cheat and metagame.

 

They could add a "Trial of Steel" mode, in which the game bricks itself when you die.  If you want to play again you have to buy a new copy.

 

Would that be sufficiently hardcore?

 

 

Shh, EA might steal this idea. 

[Bioware Cookies!]

Good sportsmanship costs nothing, except maybe a box of cookies.

 

Here's the thing: the type of games many companies make depends on how successful the product actually is. The reason shooters became popular is because they are successful products, and they appeal to a wide audience. They are also extremely difficult to screw up from a story standpoint, and are in many ways fairly simple games with well-understood rules and mechanics. That doesn't make them incomplex as a genre and there is a lot of variety, but there's only so many ways you can shoot someone. Shooters are very focused on one strong mechanic of gameplay.

 

RPGs differ widely from one another, and there are dozens of rulesets and paths to dealing with how to present the game, and that's really the problem. Since RPGs are heavily story-based, the myriad of different ways to tell a story means that you have nearly as many ways to present that story. Even looking at the different way Obsidian has handled their recent RPGs is telling. South Park: SoT uses a more Final Fantasyish approach with their combat, while Pillars is familiar to people who play games like Neverwinter Nights or Balder's Gate. KotOR 2 used a first-person system that had elements of PnP rulesets for hits and spells. 

 

RPG and RPGish games probably now encompass the largest range of games, and many genres that would not be RPGs at all have taken to use RPG-like elements like leveling, side-quests, story progression, and character customization. Even games like Cities:Skylines kind of have that leveling-up feature, as you need to gain population in order to unlock things like new buildings, vanity objects, and open new spaces for development. 

 

Because of this increase in the genre, I think a lot of what made more traditional RPGs was lost. I think a lot of developers saw that the RPG had moved from being a genre in itself and instead birthed an era of RPG-like games that had none of the difficulty of creating an RPG game from scratch but kept a lot of the elements of RPGs while keeping to relatively familiar mechanics. Shooter-type RPGs began to dominate, the Skyrim/Fallout/Mass Effect game becoming the norm rather than the exception, and appealing to a much larger population than your traditional RPG. 

 

But a lot of other things that made RPGs were lost, like the rulesets, strategy, and tactics. Parties in these games usually consisted of maybe two other people at most, and micromanaging them is almost always sub-par. A lot of the complexity was lost, and a lot of the thought process involved in boss and even normal fights was lost. In games like Fallout or Skyrim, defeating enemies and advancing relies on basically having the biggest/fastest/best weapon and shooting/swinging it a lot, with the occasional spell or blocking of an attack. 

 

The recent success with a relatively small game like Pillars may actually help to revitalize the more traditional computer RPG game and help developers to realize what made these games actually fun, and I hope it does, because it's been an incredibly fun and rewarding experience so far. It's far from perfect, especially on the balance end, but it's refreshing as hell. I hope Bioware and others wakes up and realizes how untapped and successful that this niche can really be. 

[Inbox size]

You could start a text file backup, and just copy-paste what you delete so you don't have to lose anything. 

[Why does Obsidian have physical offices?]

As someone who's worked on an (albeit small) number of modding projects over the years, you have no idea how often I've wished that there was a physical location for people to get together and discuss the project. The internet is a wonderful tool for many things, but it's not a wonderful place for trying to build something as complex and nuanced as a game. Games need a lot of direction, and trying to provide that over the internet can be like herding cats. Because you work online, you can have your staff doing a bunch of different things at once, and it's a lot more difficult to check and make sure everyone's doing what they're supposed to. 

 

There's also a sense of ownership that comes with being in a physical location. It's difficult to impart that sense of belonging and importance unless you have somewhere to physically meet. That sense of community can help drive a product to be of better quality than it otherwise might have been. 

 

As well, everyone's personal hardware and software requirements are going to be very different based on what job they are performing. It's a logistical nightmare to try and ship computers, software, and replacements all over the place. It would be extremely expensive to ship large, heavy objects like desktop computers around. 

 

Also, homes are not reliable places as far as power or connectivity goes. Power goes out and bam, you've lost hours of work, whereas in a physical location, you'd probably have things like backup generators and backups for the work itself if the power went out. The lack of security is also an issue, as home networks aren't always the most secure, not to mention someone actually physically breaking in and jacking your extremely expensive hardware and software. Not only are you out that hardware/software, but your employee has to physically wait for a replacement, further pushing back development time. While it can happen at these companies, it's a lot less likely and a lot more difficult. 

 

In short, there's a lot of reasons to have a physical location, and there's a lot of reasons not to try and coordinate a game online. 

[Why the hype?]

IE games were some of my favorite moments as a kid, and it's been a long time since anything similar has been made. While the game lacks some polish, it's a very solid experience. It has that same feel as when you booted up an IE game way back in the yonderyears, the atmosphere is wonderful, and the characters are actually quite enjoyable. I haven't found an NPC follower I just immediately want to kill, and the fact that they have such diverse backstories and they don't feel hastily tacked on makes it a refreshing change from many so-called RPGs that have come out recently. While I've yet to find anyone who comes quite close to matching the charm of this fellow, they're all quite refreshing in their own ways.

 

While there are some issues with gameplay that have been found, they are on the way to being fixed. There are features that are tacked on and could be a lot better (looking at you, Stronghold) but overall, it's a pretty solid game. Is it as good as Baldur's Gate or Baldur's Gate 2? Not really, but it comes close to capturing that spirit. 

[Bounty permanently fail if I imprison sly cyrdel?]

You apparently can get items for the prisoners from random events/people wanting to claim them, but you shouldn't be taking prisoners unless your security is ridiculously high. 

[Pillars of Metagaming]

Because saving a game and reloading it hasn't been a feature of video games, ever. 

 

How dare you, Obsidian. 

[Controversial Limerick Discussion]

I've actually found a few of them very creatively done, but some of them are quite bad. Honestly, I just ignore them at this point, and pretend they're all just commoners. 

[Manual Resolve for Stronghold - No Looting?]

Aside from the fact that this feature seems tacked on (they appear right in the middle of the Stronghold main hall? Why did I build walls?) the lack of being able to loot seems to add another layer of disgruntlement. After fighting a large amount of skeletons, I was hoping to loot their corpses and at least get something from the experience other than... well, experience. Unfortunately, as soon as the battle ended, I was kicked from the area and the corpses removed. There seems to be no reason to bother manually resolving unless you have a very weak security rating. 

 

Unless I am utterly missing something here. Even generic loot would have been really nice to have, or SOMETHING.