Wombat
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Posts posted by Wombat
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My concern doesn't lie with the globe that refills itself after every encounter. It lies with the globe that only goes down and only has one way to replenish. That's what Im referring to, healing your Health. Whats the solution for when Im 5 levels deep and at full Stamina but one hit away from dying because Im at 5 Health? Get on my hiking boots, right?1. Not correct. There are a variety of ways to heal Stamina. Recovering Health requires rest.
The rest system is yet to be revealed but isn't it a similar situation where you have no spells to proceed any further in AD&D based IE games, where you can save and rest, taking chances of possible random encounters, or backtrack to the safer area and rest?
Related, while I found that the item degradation as a mechanical money sink was not an appealing idea, I think adding another layer of resource management can be interesting for expert mode. In deeper dungeons, the players may not be able to get all the resources at once, so, they have to proceed with inefficient equipment even if the party are good in terms of health. Possible downsides for this, of the top of my head, is that it may reduce the joy of the catharsis in boss fighting with fully recovered party in D&D style game. Alternatively, the designers may place an establishment which allow the players to fix the items as well as health, but, again, they may need to come up with convincing reasons for the existence of such establishment in deeper level of the dungeons.
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I want it to look more like a script for a play. The current look is perfect.
Honestly speaking, this didn't occur to my mind. I was quite happy with the PST-ish dialogue presented at the top of this thread. Indeed, if it's more like a play script, then, it would feel more natural: If there are no other problems are involved, I'd like to see it, too. Guess even such basic thing has a room for improvement.
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Oh, but they explained what the vertical slice is in a past update…
I knew what it was, just not that it was complete already. To my knowledge, it sorta skipped from "we're so close!" to now, at which point we're at "Oh yeah, that was already finished some time ago." No biggie. I just didn't know, heh.
Yeah, I guess they have been being too busy to update the info since they had gone into the "professional-only" phases. So, big ideas related to core game systems are very unlikely to go through any more while something like UI seem to be subject to change.
Oh, belated but thanks for the update, anyway.
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I am amongst those who were clueless to this fact. Last I heard was "we're finishing up our VS right now," which I took to mean "We're working on the VS, while currently being at the tail end of its overall project duration." I didn't realize it got do'd.The vertical slice is finished and has been for some time. We are in production right now.
So... SPLENDTASTIC! ^_____^Oh, but they explained what the vertical slice is in a past update…I admit I didn't know it had ended while back but, reading the title of this update was good enough indicator. In any case, I've gotten an impression that it would be more beneficial to both ends (designers and backers) to let the designers concentrate on what they are working on till they come up with something to show off, probably except that some of us have really good ideas.
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Stronghold
Tim went on a tear and got most of the backend systems for the player stronghold in place. There are a ton of really fun things you can do with your stronghold like sending companions on missions, buying rare loot off of merchants, building upgrades, and even purchasing hirelings to defend your keep from attack. Watching Tim's stronghold get robbed blind because he has low security and high prestige never gets old.How tolerant this stronghold thing will be if I spend my time on exclusively adventuring? In Xcom: Enemy Unknown, I ignored base management and ended up with losing cities, which are not reversible-once lost they are gone forever. In fact, I made a typical mistake as an RPGamer in that game by completely ignoring resource management gameplay. Eventually, I managed to hold my hands on controlling resources enough to proceed the game but bit annoyed by the fact the game didn't allow me to play it in my own way: Simply piling up tactical successes and build characters were not enough to let me proceed the game. I know we are talking of different games, though.
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I'd hazard to guess that the short development cycle (only a year) has more to do with the short game and some of the limitations than the funds raised. It will be interesting to see how Berlin turns out, I'm expecting the length to be at least the same, whereas most expansions are shorter than the base game.
My main gripe was the abominable save system.. no reason whatever for giving the player such a pain in the a....
I thought too much expectation going on but, according to the latest update, as it turned out, the devs seem to take them into consideration. Guess sometimes asking helps.
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The best laid plans can always come unraveled and more than that is too much risk for me.
If I could be assured of their greatness, I would be more willing to contribute more, however.
Yeah, from a purely consumerist standpoint, I think it would be better to wait before risking anything. If a project is successful at all, you will find it in the market sooner or later. I feel I owe ex-BIS/Obsidian devs (Was it called Stockholm syndrome, BTW?
), so, I put more money on a few projects they are related. However, I'll put no money on any project since I am able to foresee that I would get angry if it turns out unsuccessful, which is the most of the cases for me.Also, to keep your expectation lower is, I think, a healthy piece of advice
-You won’t lose anything by doing so
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I spent just $15 but, even I am not quite happy with the thought that a gigantic corporation like MS may get considerable percentage of money, possibly exploiting the indie developer and backers. I'm skeptical about IP "taxing" system in general, though.
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As a combat simulation, Shaeowrun Returns is weaker than more dedicated ones such as Silent Storm while as a simulationist RPG like Black Isle Follouts, it’s quite restricted. So, although I think it has got its own charm like a short story, I understand some people are not totally happy with it.
That said, I really don’t care about what “mass” would like. I don’t count on “professional” reviews at major sites nowadays. I didn’t count on them back in old days but there are so many reviews from various people on the net. It’s much easier for me to find a product by reading reviews written by people who have similar tastes as mine.
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Well Jim Walls' Kickstarter died a sad death. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/precinctgame/precinct
The project caught my attention but, sadly, I’m not a fan of these kinds of games, I mean, at least, the gameplay.
Playing L.A. Noire little by little (having already took months to go through the story missions). Gameplay-wise, I found it a mixed bug. Investigation sequences are O.K. although it’s basically a fixated puzzle game, where, like QTE, the players need to find correct answers and do correct inputs pre-determined by the designers, which is the main reason why I’m not into point’n click adventure games in general, despite the fact that I still enjoy detective stories. I even found Rockstar’s signature gameplay of driving and shooting in a sandboxed “town” a good change even if it does not always play well with the P&C format. After all, I can keep playing the game mostly because the well-captured feel of old films, I guess. Also, I happen to have played Swat4 simply because of Irrational involvement but found quite a nice game, which requires planning and captures the tension of law enforcement tasks.
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While I enjoyed the simulationist aspect of Shadowrun Returns, I think the team is on the right track in taking the gamist direction in PE. I like games which are designed with clear design visionary in mind.
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My main concern is how 3D and 2D are meshed up each other. Art direction is quite clear so I hope the 3D models won’t stand out too much. While I can reckon they are 3D when zoomed, probably, they will not be so prominent when playing the game, I imagine.
This is going to be a regular occurrence. The team is shifting close to 100% of their efforts into creating the content for the game, so we have to space the updates out a bit more.While I don’t deny the importance of the updates to avoid possible misunderstandings, too many updates would distract them from the development process. First and foremost, the team are responsible for delivering the game. So, as far as I’m concerned, feel free to omit updates when the team feel it’s better in the long run.
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I don't play any online games so the idea of backing it didn't even come up to my mind...
maybe I'm just getting old, but I think I wouldn't have liked SRR if its campaign was not 10 but 50 hours long. that would require it to be a different game (closer to Shadowrun on teh Genesis, oh man I wish that game had a PC port with turn based combat). SRR is the new Final Fantasy Tactics. I loved that game and wanted for the longest time to play something similar (there's always Front Mission, but the story in that series has always been ****). SRR gives me that
Yeah, the game is easy to live with, which turned out to be quite important when I actually played it. I think the story is acceptable for the setting where elves and dwarves exist but also suspect that it was written with major CRPG players in mind, though.
People also sling around the description interactive novel as an insult. I don't get that, I also love novels
It's like a short story...but I agree with your point.
I'm hoping it's successful enough on Steam that they dedicate future games and patches towards the PC. The tablet interface is holding it back.
Actually, I'm curious to see the reaction of the tablet version. If they have good sales, they may be able to optimize the game for both platforms, too.
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I never played the SNES Shadowrun game or any shadowrun game for that matter. I did love the Shadowrun 2nd edition RPG (tabletop) and I like turnbased combat ala Fallout 1+2.
So, would Shadowrun returns be any good to me?
I think this depends on what you expect from Shadowrun franchise. I found some Shadowrun fans complaining of the simplified ruleset. So, don't put your hopes too high on this area. That said, some other people including me saw the game capturing the setting well, ranging from music, writing and arts except that the PC character may appear bit Bioware-ish for the dystopian setting, at times.
About the price, you may find the game bit short. As a backer, I can get Berlin DLC for free, which, however, wouldn't be the case for you. So, you may well like to wait for sales even if it's just around twenty bucks, currently.
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Managed to avoid the bug and finished it. I guess I was just unlucky to hit the bug.
I think the game is rather short as expected, which is justifiable considering the replay value, I guess (and the Berlin DLC is coming). I put points exclusively on shaman abilities this time around and I'd like to play a different character when I find time. Very happy with how things turned out with this Kickstarter project. -
I found the game quite addictive and enjoying it so far. Hit the bug at Stop the Ceremony quest.
From the look of the official forum, the devs seem to be working on it and I guess it's time for me to go back to other things in my life. Still very happy with how the game turned out. Absolutely no idea why some people complaining.No looting - yeah, I'm happy with that. I don't think container clicking is a vital part of CRPG, at all.
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Played a bit. I like the game play, the mild adventure book-ish riddle solving and definitely the atmospheric writing. Actually, who needs voice-acting when just writing is good enough to stimulate our imagination? Graphic, accompanied with similarly atmospheric music, is good enough for me - in fact, I like it capturing the theme and atmosphere of Shadowrun rather than some ugly 3D lukewarm graphics which lacks such thematic focus. Autosave-only feature may not fit my play-style but rewind feature like in the Walking Dead allows moderate experimenting as well as the forgiving combat difficulty.
Nowadays, I began to think I was difficult to be pleased in terms of gaming but I guess I had been in a wrong place with wrong expectation for a decade or so: While I'm quite happy with the recent success of narrative-focused games, most of AAA titles are just not made for me. I guess I continue spending on Kickstarter and/or Indie games even if some projects are bound to fail.
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Combining those with with the two points at the top, it's hard for me to figure out where the gold is going to go. There is also the possibility that players don't actually want a long-term gold economy in a SP game, that gold in the mid- and late-game is ultimately something to accumulate and that most/all forms of gear upgrading simply happens through quests and exploration. That's not an invalid way to go, but I'd like to hear thoughts on it if you have the time.
Personally, I don't see a problem in my party getting wealthy in a single player game. One of the reasons why degeneration seems to be getting relatively negative reactions is, probably, it appears passive and taxing rather than giving an active choice. If the players complain whatever the designers do, why not take the former choice of allowing the party to be wealthy since I think it is not a problem in practical sense (The designers still should be able not to give the players items which break the game balance)?
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I tend to go for designers' profiles, first, and do search for their recent posts (BTW, why is there no developer search yet?). If you don't frequent the boards, it's the easiest way to avoid repeated discussions while I am most likely to miss some potentially interesting posts. As a result, I end up with just "liking" some key posts by the designers even when I don't wholeheartedly agree with them. So, yes, guess I regard them as worthwhile rather than really liking them. In most cases, just "liking" suffices mainly because some people have already come up with possible discussions in many cases and even liking a post may appear rather "political" than encouraging. Especially after I got clear view of my own standpoints, I'm not into being involved with any form of "political" disputes. For winning or losing an argument is irrelevant especially if it doesn't serve for the game development purpose directly or indirectly (I don't visit a game board for any other motive).
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I don't think it matters to the majority as long as they look like "fantasy world languages." In my case, too, I cannot even discern a Celtic language from another. When I read a translation of War and Peace many years ago, the sheer number of Russian names overwhelmed me till I found the number of the main characters were not so many. Also, if you are familiar with logograms such as Chinese, you can tell the meaning by seeing them even when you have no idea about how they are pronounced at all (This may be hard to grasp if you are only familiar with phonogram languages, though). So, as long as the team don't spam too many proper nouns in a dialogue, this will stay as an issue for voice actors rather than for the players (and the majority of the dialogues won't be voice recorded). Personally, I don't regard even Bean Sí is an issue, as long as the team put how they are supposed to be pronounced/mean in lore part, which would be a help for translators, too.* Italicizing is a good enough indication that the words are "foreign", I think.
* In this way, they can choose how they translate. Tolkien is said to encourage translators to focus on meaning in the context of the target language rather than pronunciation (e.g. "woman of the Sidhe" over "Banshee" for Bean Sí) as someone pointed out.
Oh, and as in the Italian example, it certainly is a good idea to have a native speaker / reader of the base languages have a look at the outcome to avoid silly sounding words or such with unintended meaning
In the case of the Darcozzi Paladini, that would never make sense in any of the source romance languages because it's exhibiting characteristics of a cased language. Vailian, unlike Italian, French, or Occitan, is cased. If we used prepositions and articles to represent those relationships (especially to the extent that Italian does), it actually comes across as too Earth-like, IMO. Consuagli asegia seems "Romance-y", but consiglio dell'assedio looks unmistakably Italian.
Guess it can't be helped then since it's rooted in the grammar, different from the case of Bean Sí, where simply a word "bean" coincidently looks like a familiar English word with a different meaning, which can be solved independently. Once a problem has been dug enough to make it the matter of the perspective, that of the majority matters most (Native Italian speaker players < Native English speaker players + Players employing English as their second language). I like that Obsidian are trying to make role-playing games as they are or let the players simulate the perspectives of their characters. However, the team cannot ignore players' perspective, at the same time. Some PnP RPGs are too demanding or rely too much on the knowledge of the players to grab the interest of the majority. I like their way of "game-mastering" not to scare off the majority while exploring possible depth in role-playing.
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As for orlan or any other possible animal-like intellectual race, one of the fond memories from IWD2 was Pondmuk (IIRC, Chris Parker's creation), who had difficulty in adapting himself to harsh goblin culture surrounding him. I understand opinions like "just go and serve yourself with Animal Crossing, idiot" but, just for a change of pace, why not put characters like that, or some kind of comic reliefs where a bunch of orlan plotting what can be taken as a harmless mischief while seriously taking themselves as freedom fighters. Alternatively, an orlan may fall in love with a human who has been kind to him/her and rejects to obey or sabotage what they plan to do (can be comical in a way). In the PE setting, human could traffic them as "pets" but it's not rare even among us who take care of their pets (maybe way too seriously in some cases) even if they aren't conscious of treating them as equal in ideological sense.
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As for the map, sci-fi looking objects in a fantasy setting are not my cup of tea. I like other catacomb-looking areas, though.
Both hearth and wild orlans have vertical slit pupils, but the hearth orlans look more like the cipher concept that Kaz did. Wild orlans are more evenly covered with hair to the point where it looks more like fur.Guess that's the reason why Chris found them catty. I'm sucker to small animals and, somehow, I began to imagine wild orlans similar to characters in the Wind in the Willows, which should be totally wrong considering the info revealed so far.
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"When somebody offers you something as an independent studio, you take it. You take it, because it's feast or famine. That's what we've found." by Feargus. Also, from TV Tropes Org,
One thing to note about Obsidian is their business model. Obsidian is hired by publishers for fixed amounts of money, rather than being an internal studio or making a game then looking for a publisher to publish it. This results in Obsidian not bearing the financial cost or gain of the failure/success of any game they make beyond reputation or future deals. This mercenary model is responsible for their buggy reputation, as the release schedule or budget is not as negotiable once the deal is made.
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* Better use of space overall. Not all of the decorative elements need to be there. We would like to have more room for the ability icons in particular.
Hope so. This may be simply because I'm a hotkey type but I personally dislike overdecorated GUI. However, at the same time, I don't like GUIs in NWN series, which constantly reminds me that I'm playing a game on PC, either. So, I like buttons and info to be integrated into an atmospheric GUI, which would combine practicality and artistic integration. Also, if I'm reading something such as combat logs, dialogues and narrations, I would like not to squint only to read it. The gamebook-like texts are welcomed since to which, some of dialogues and narrations would be assigned. (Yes, you get it. I mainly use hotkeys for controls so the main purpose of the GUI is for me, to gather information, the importance of which may not change even for those who command through GUI, though.) Just my opinion.
That said, we are yet to know how the game plays out and I cannot but feel I'm trying a shot in the dark. And yet, thanks for the update as usual.
So... SPLENDTASTIC! ^_____^
), so, I put more money on a few projects they are related. However, I'll put no money on any project since I am able to foresee that I would get angry if it turns out unsuccessful, which is the most of the cases for me.
From the look of the official forum, the devs seem to be working on it and I guess it's time for me to go back to other things in my life. Still very happy with how the game turned out. Absolutely no idea why some people complaining.
Thoughts On Roles, Classes, And Diversity
in Pillars of Eternity: Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
Posted
What would the other two pillars be? Off the top of my mind, they are (dungeon) exploration and interactive dialogue choices, which personalize the story, but am I right here?
Also, do you mean you cannot make a good tactical combat game with a skill-based system? Or it's another resource issue? Means, presuming I am right about the other pillars, while you could make something combat-focused such as classic Jagged Alliance series or something more interactive like old Fallouts, it's hard to make a game which excels at both areas. With the former, the players will get only one of the pillars while the latter offers them more or less a watered-down combat. I agree with your opinon about PnP rulesets but, here, I think you are desigining CRPG. So, I placed my quesions in such a way.