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FlintlockJazz

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Everything posted by FlintlockJazz

  1. FlintlockJazz
    Its weird how common this concern is voiced. Not only is the setting new, but its being developed especially for a CRPG series. The believability of a setting depends on it's internal consistency. If something doesn't fit with the way the rest of the setting has been set out then it will stick out like a sore thumb to me. It's precisely because they are building it from scratch that I would like to see them take the opportunity to build the best world they can, and as it's being built especially for cRPG I see that as more reason for them to try something new rather than go with the Vancian model. With regards to setting-building, you're preaching to the choir - though I'd like to point out its not hard at all to fit a magic system in a world's workings. As for the part of ditching the Vancian system, I disagree wholeheartedly. To me, the rules should be built around the lore, I find that not all magic systems work well in all settings and I tend to pick up on the dissonance when a magic system has been blagged into a setting. I don't see why you wouldn't want to see a new system, the Vancian system is not perfect and trying out alternate systems would be good.
  2. FlintlockJazz
    Regenerating mana pools is the major part of the problem. Essentially, if you always have all resources at disposal, you're still spamming magic. Not only magic may be nerfed for the game's good (to be in line with those who don't rely on it), but the strategic concerns (saving spells, etcetera) are no more. He says for it not to regenerate during combat. It restoring after battle is no different to how people would just rest their parties after every battle and as long as the mana pools are kept to a reasonable size and no mana potions it will have the same effect.
  3. FlintlockJazz
    Yeah, I'd even go as far as to say I wouldn't want trash mobs at all: everyone should have a point. Not to say that each guy I kill should have a backstory, family and social life (though it would be funny to do a Austin Powers sequence of showing the orc family getting notification of the death of the father orc at your hands and saying "No one ever thinks of the family of an orc..."), but I don't want monsters just seemingly being in a room for no reason.
  4. FlintlockJazz
    Its weird how common this concern is voiced. Not only is the setting new, but its being developed especially for a CRPG series. The believability of a setting depends on it's internal consistency. If something doesn't fit with the way the rest of the setting has been set out then it will stick out like a sore thumb to me. It's precisely because they are building it from scratch that I would like to see them take the opportunity to build the best world they can, and as it's being built especially for cRPG I see that as more reason for them to try something new rather than go with the Vancian model. Something that takes into account the difference of playing on a PC as opposed to around a table.
  5. FlintlockJazz
    I like the idea of casting times, that way you can then be interrupted from casting a spell, and I always liked that 'spellcasting' animation in the IE games.
  6. FlintlockJazz
    One of the reasons why they are using Kickstarter, and why so many of us are supporting them, is so that they don't have to build the game according to 'market forces' and what publishers think will pull in what market, but instead make the game we want. Why would we donate money to them if they were to then alter the game and what we want in order to appeal to some market demographic that's not us? I'm British by the way, so it's not like I'm not even one of those people you want to target.
  7. FlintlockJazz
    While I like to see the consequences of my choices, not everything should be world changing. It'd be nice to see that the world doesn't actually revolve around the PC and that some things he does doesn't result in nations rising or falling. The Nameless One made changes in others lives, but most people never even heard of his existence.
  8. FlintlockJazz
    Depends on what spells are available and what restrictions the mage has. Any system can be horribly abused if not set up right.
  9. FlintlockJazz
    In the end of the day whatever system they go with I'll be happy with as long as it fits the lore. No shoving something in because everyone loves it if it doesn't fit the setting. One method of controlling magic in a mana system that doesn't require rest would be to have mana pools regenerate after combat but during combat you only get what you started with and the mana pools themselves are quite limited in size, to avoid spamming of spells, instead limiting them to a few each combat, depending on how effective and powerful the spells in the system are. If the spells are designed so that the careful choice of which spell to use during combat for the current situation and/or enemy, with magic only being powerful if used right, then even better. All my own taste of course.
  10. FlintlockJazz
    If they do have dark elves, it would be interesting if they didn't make them the 'evil' subrace, but perhaps maybe an oppressed minority or something? Since all elves are meant to be good looking maybe the dark elves are the ones who were cast out for not being 'pretty' enough?
  11. FlintlockJazz
    True, but it'll be more likely that you will use them if they are still accessible as long as you have enough mana/soul/whatever it is that fuels spells in the setting. That's pretty much my stance anyway, it's not perfect but it's what I like. I'd love for there to be general and toolkit spells. In most systems magic seems to be solely about combat and/or enchanting items for combat, there are some in tabletop that have well-rounded magic systems that have roles for more mundane things, be interesting to see it done well in a cRPG. Dunno if they'll manage it but I guess that if spells require character points to be spent on them rather than just learning them from scrolls (I prefer the latter, love collecting new spells and adding them to my spellbook but I guess it depends on balance) then we may hopefully get non-combat spells as options for mages' non-combat skills (instead of buying up your persuasion skills the mage learns new influence spells, etc).
  12. FlintlockJazz
    I think I've worked out what exactly it is that I dislike about Vancian magic so much: it's like 'speccing' your mage or cleric. You pick the abilities your character in an MMO has for a certain role, and then when you want to change your role you go through the respec, Vancian magic is like that for me except even worse as you get a 'free' respec after every rest!
  13. FlintlockJazz
    You mean the right tools? No, if Magic is not an essential tool for the situation, then we'd end up getting the full gamut of diverse strategies. Some people will report being able to win encounter X without using magic, while others will report being able to win that same encounter by using Spell x, then Spell y. In the meantime, whether or not the spell system was vancian has suddenly become irrelevant. I agree with what you are saying, but if someone is taking a spellcaster in a Vancian system they are going to need to find that getting the right selection of spells for the situation is important (not one set of spells but one for the specific strategy for the specific enemy) otherwise the requirement of picking your spells first to be able to cast them is going to result in people just picking their favourite spells again and again and neglecting other spells. This is why I am not keen on a Vancian system in a cRPG, I'd prefer players to have access to their whole spellbook so that those special spells that are often only used in certain situations still get a chance to come out and play sometimes.
  14. FlintlockJazz
    I'm sorry, but Jim Cummings is being fed to the Vorpal Rabbit, along with Claudia Black, Jennifer Hale, Simon Templeman, and other fan favourites for VA. VA from now on will consist of no-names and will at most do one or two lines of dialogue and that's it, the rest will be in text. You all brought this upon yourselves, I mean I even like Simon Templeman, but he had to be sacrificed for the greater good. Please replace the Grail Knights with the aforementioned VAs in order to understand just what you've all done. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg[/media]
  15. FlintlockJazz
    I was saying just this earlier. Sure the game could tell you what to expect later, but really that cannot be true in all circumstances otherwise the game itself is just giving away what's going to be happening. Having your full spell library available to you at all times really is the best choice. Didn't we already cover this? Magic should never be so vital in a campaign that failure to bring a mage, with the precise set of spells for an encounter, leads to catostrophic failure. The whole point in 'strategy' is to be able to find a way to win, with the tools you have, when presented with a problem. If the game makes victory impossible without the use of a specific set of spells, then the flaw is with the game itself, not the magic system it's using. And in the context of that, it doesn't make a lick of difference if its magic system is vancian or if it's your system of "everyone knows every spell!". If magic is not essential to get the right spells for the situation then wouldn't we end up with people just selecting the same spells all the time rather than bothering to guess what they need for upcoming battles? They'll find the 'best' spells to take and leave it at that, in which case it won't matter whether it's Vancian or Mana-based, people will just load up on Magic Missle.
  16. FlintlockJazz
    B. If done right they can add a lot to the game, tactics involved and feel of the world.
  17. FlintlockJazz
    Agreement on both counts here. Plus, sickly pale skin always struck me as more 'evil' looking and scary anyway.
  18. FlintlockJazz
    And I have found it!!! Link here. This one is older than the other one, so maybe something may have changed or they are not both working from the same sheet maybe?
  19. FlintlockJazz
    Okay, I found an interview by Tim Cain that seems to contradict what I said earlier: Link here I'm certain there was another interview where someone said differently, I'll keep looking but it appears I may have been hallucinating...
  20. FlintlockJazz
    I'm sure they've said somewhere in an interview that they have said that the actual dev time will change depending on how much money they end up with, the more money they get the longer it will take as they will be able to do more things or so they have said. They'll determine how long they take when they get the final tally of how much money they got. In the same interview I read they stated that there comes a point that throwing more people at something has depreciating value and may even cause more problems. Too many cooks in the kitchen so to speak. I'll try and dig out his interview I recall and stick up a link.
  21. FlintlockJazz
    I dislike vancian magic. Immensely. Just prevent the mana pool from getting too big, systems like GURPS has magic systems that use mana pools while still having immense tactics, it all depends on what spells there are and how they are done (even vancian spell systems can have all tactics removed from them by having the wrong spells involved).
  22. FlintlockJazz
    First off, I would try to define what a 'traditional fantasy setting' is, as while many people call it 'Tolkienesque' it really isn't if you think about it: Tolkien's stories have relatively low magic compared to the D&D usual setting, with for instance Gandalf using very little spells in them, you only ever really see him using Light and other low-key spells. It is also a monothiestic setting while the standard has polythiestic, more Greek influences, etc. So I would say a Tolkienesque setting would be different from the standard fantasy setting, even though the latter was partially inspired by it (only partially). A standard fantasy setting also has a very modern outlook and ethics amongst it's inhabitants, whereas the real historical setting would be very different, and the standard fantasy setting has many of the anachronisms of plate armour without gunpowder weaponry, strong trade, etc. The standard fantasy setting I personally find has a very specific traits, not actually associated with the sources people think they come from, and I find that even when the creator of a setting tries to use a different one he ends up importing the same traits that I would consider the defining features of the standard fantasy setting, such as the aforementioned modern outlook and society structure (even if there is supposed to be nobility they don't really have any social divisions or such like). Obsidian are at least using gunpowder in their setting and seem to be looking at how their societies would form and the justifications for it at least, that's the impression I got, so hopefully we'll see something quite different.
  23. FlintlockJazz
    I agree with pretty much the entirety of this post. DAO's stat progression was one of the things that turned me off from that game, and I agree totally that improvement should be through the ability to avoid taking damage rather than just being able to take more of it. From tabletop, I guess GURPS would be a good example of it done how I want it: hit points pretty much stay the same while parry, block and dodge increase as your character's skill increases, with even weak enemies still able to take you down if they flank you and use techniques like grappling to lower your defenses or by using ranged attacks if you fail to use cover.
  24. FlintlockJazz
    I would like climbing too. No doubt there's plenty of reasons why it won't work and why it should not be done even if it could be but it still would be cool, along with ingame horses you can use in combat.
  25. FlintlockJazz
    I'd like a priest or templar class that works completely differently from how they work in DnD and as the MMO version. Something like a Holy Warrior type who instead of casting spells like a mage instead has specific powers granted him either by his god or faith, able to harm incorporeal spirits with his normal attacks, resist supernatural effects better, etc. I know this sounds a lot like a Paladin, but then Paladins to me are closer to what clerics should be anyway minus the warhorse stuff and more preaching.
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