nikolokolus

"Healing surges" W T H ? /endofdiscussion

For this game I think I'd prefer absolute control.

I like character traits picked at the creation screen for background, but I typically hate the "chosen by fate, you're special" story arc.

LOL. I had a couple of players come to me in a game I ran that fit that description perfectly. Player: "oof, that was a tough fight. We wanna rest up and get our spells back." Me: "ummm, it's 9 am ..." Player: "So?" Me: "You're not tired" Player *blank stare*

How about undead paladins?

"The gentleman from Oregon objects"

I'm honestly stumped. I don't really "need" more features, I just need more game. How do you turn that into a stretch goal?

In the immortal words of Bill Murray, "It just doesn't matter."

At some point an encounter isn't a challenge so experience should probably fall off. What does a powerful warrior have to learn from smashing a weakly rat?

Every system has strengths and weaknesses. The only time i get cranky about change is when it's done seemingly just for the sake of change alone, or to mimic some WOW feature and pander to the lowest common denominator. Fortunately it appears that Tim and Josh seem to be focused on mechanics that create strategic considerations and deep game play, without being completely wedded to nostalgia, fan service or dumbing things down. Hopefully it works out.

Watch Zero Punctuation's review of Dragon's Dogma for my feelings on the matter. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5932-Dragons-Dogma

Sounds like you design and develop your own indie game around the "AM" concept. Personally, I just want the devs to make the story and game that moves them.

The little pet thingy, that doesn't impact gameplay is a completely different thing than buying a collector's edition of a game with additional classes, quests, and gameplay affecting items. So in the case of the former I couldn't care less, while in the case of the latter I can't say I'm a huge fan.

Exactly. It's the "rock, paper, scissors," thing.

That's now what I've heard about PE's system. What I read had nothing about per day, and even the low level spells can run out. It sounds like a 3E Sorcerer that recovers after each combat. A 3e sorcerer that recovers after each combat kind of is a 4e sorcerer, no? Regardless, I know why they want to get away from the "rest 8 hours to recover spells" mechanic; it's because this is after all a computer game and not a PnP game where a DM can utter 5 little words "You rest for the night," roll some random encounter checks and advance the action in less than 15 seconds of real-time. I'm happy to see Tim and Josh come up with their own take on things, I think they are both pretty good game designers and they've got a lot of experience with what works and what doesn't. My only concern is what I stated above in my previous post. I just hope they don't get so bogged down in making everything "balanced" and logical, that the combat system becomes sterile and kind of robotic. The strategy of conservation (and the second guessing about whether or not to cast a spell now or save it for later) can help build tension in game play. If they can build in something that makes it so those moderate to high level spells become precious resources then I think they can capture the spirit of what made magical combat in those Vancian systems so compelling. After yesterday's update from Tim Cain and reading some of Sawyer's stuff at something awful and his formspring account, I get the impression that is their aim.

I haven't really played PnP for about a year (too much field work with my job to be a reliable player) but the last group of people I played with happily switched to 4e as soon as it came out. I grudgingly made the switch with them, picked up a PHB, flipped through the pages, disliked much of what I saw and quickly realized that while most of the changes to combat were rooted in a desire for balance and logic, it's a game system without much of a "soul." Every fight feels more or less the same; people use a lot of little reference cards on the game table like they're playing Magic (a game I never really got into), powers are used ad nauseum. There's much action, but none of it seems to have much "weight" and characters all feel kind of samey and there's just no charm. Monte Carlo is right, WoTC has grinded the quirky fun out of a game that I used to really enjoy. It's weird, because I remember how much I lamented 1st ed. and it's arcane tables and mountains of reference sheets that were a gigantic pain in the butt to navigate, and 3e actually was a pretty good refinement to the ruleset, but with 4e and all of its clinical efficiency and "every player is more or less equal" ethic something has been lost. Whatever system Josh Sawyer and Tim Cain come up with, I hope PE tries to capture some of that older charm and doesn't become some efficient, sterile game without "soul."

I love live music, but knowing what can be done with electronics in creating ambient soundscapes I really don't know how the expense of a full orchestra or live musicians is going to be worth the investment. What the hell do I know, maybe it will be within the budget, but really it should come down to the team; they know best.

I'll be honest I'm still stuck on "words, words, words, etc. 8 hours, words, blah, blah, blah" Good god man.

Whatever pet we have, since it won't be part of combat or actually do anything, it really, really needs a logical reason to be un-targettable and ignored by enemies in combat. Maybe it's a falcon/hawk/parrot/raven/bat/whatever that flies away at the first sign of trouble?

Nice on the transcript. I can read a helluva lot faster than I can re-watch.

Hmmm ... I guess I don't have a preference. I liked both.

You absolutely should ... in the off-topic forum.

In my mind a class should represent a distinct function on the battlefield and during the course of gameplay. In a world without absolute moral considerations, imposed by an alignment system, is a paladin still distinct enough to call a "class?" Their role in a fight is that of a fighter with some lesser priestly powers and some special abilities directly tied to fighting "evil." Take away the notion of absolute good and evil and you're left with a class that sits right smack dab between the priest and the fighter. I'm not really for or against Paladins being included in the game, but in other similar discussions, my contention has been that if they are in the game, Paladinhood should be something proved through deeds in a quest-line, not something that is handed to you at the time of character creation -- it's a title in my mind, not a distinct "class."

A screenshot -- even if it's just a mockup -- would be pretty cool. It might be nice to see some game lore/history revealed (assuming this is already known) and I wouldn't mind seeing the bare bones of the RPG system they are mocking up. All of which is probably completely premature and unreasonable.

Nice update, great interview with Tim Cain (as usual) and intriguing sketch of a spell casting system. Interested to see how it all shakes out in game.