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Valorian

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Everything posted by Valorian

  1. Valorian
    If the difference through level-scaling ends up to be so low, you can just do without it imho, not much of a change. And personally, it really irritates me when opponents adapt to my level, even when it's just a bit. For me, monsters, opponents, especially bosses must be constants in a game. They are the measure of my PC's power. If they aren't, I can't convincingly estimate my power-status within the world, and I can't compare how my PC did compared to PCs from other playthroughs, as everything is distorted through this artificial adaption. Good points Iucounu. Even when it's just a bit, indeed. There is level scaling, or there isn't. There is distortion of enemies' power based around our PC's level, or there isn't. The scaling-1-level thing is ridiculous, of course.. it's like someone wants to eat a little bit of [insert bad word not allowed on a family friendly forum], because, well.. there's not lots of it, only just a little! Why would it be there at all in the first place, if it's basically meaningless anyway? Distortion around the PC's level for the sake of distortion.. yay. If it's more, then we also have a problem, naturally. Also, I applaud you for your.. patience with hyperactive subjects. You responded to copious amounts of usual bewildering nonsense like a boss. Oh, and no, the critical path in BG was certainly not scaled, nikolokolus.
  2. Valorian
    Interesting approach; I suppose this may be the crux of the difference between us in that I see the game mechanics as an abstraction that never approaches "real" but simulates same (in this case, equating "real" with "true"). So as long as the mechanics are relatively consistent within themselves I'm not terribly bothered with how faithfully they adapt the setting. Two questions come to mind - (1) "would you rather have no level scaling even if it makes the game worse for all experiences because it still reads as "false" in your verisimilitude test?" and (2) "If the RPGs main storyline is a fight against another adventuring party who has also been gaining experience during the time the player has, shouldn't the adventuring party have its own leveling system that equates to what experience it has gained during the time you took to get to it so as to be "real" within your verisimilitude test(ie level scaling)?" Or am I misreading your use of verisimilitude? 1. It wouldn't make my experience worse because I despise level scaling. That's like asking; would you prefer not adding this ingredient [that you're allergic to] to your meal even if it means that it would taste a bit.. different? 2. Why are they always getting experience at the same time my party does? Are we some kind of long lost cosmic twins? Verisimilitude is just one thing on the list of why getting rid of level scaling is important. Without level scaling each player has a truly unique playthrough. Some will find xy encounter horribly hard, others will just cut through it, the third group will find it a moderate challenge. Level scaling largely evens it and it all becomes much duller.
  3. Valorian
    Just curious, here. Do you go out of your way to notice which shots were filmed with a Steadicam when you watch movies? There's a cute difference though. You need cameras to make a movie. You don't need level scaling to make an rpg. I don't find steadicams horrifying compared to shaking cameras, at all. It only enhances what cameras are supposed to do. Your vision, if you're human, doesn't shake most of the time when you look at something. On the other hand, level scaling destroys entirely an aspect that I believe enhances an rpg universe; verisimilitude. Try a better analogy, I'm sure you'll find one, one day, that can't be dismissed in less than 2 seconds. Aww, and I was just talking about excruciatingly futile philosophy that falls flat on its face... Game(play) mechanics are constructs of rules intended to produce a game or gameplay. So... unless the player can control them from within the game then they're not actually gameplay mechanics?
  4. Valorian
    The irony... What irony?You want a gameplay mechanic that is so horrible that you don't want to notice it, ever. It's quite simple, really. It is the way things work here. Even if you agree with something and you can answer with a simple "yes", it's preferable to put on a monocle, and explain to the whole auditorium, that it is perhaps 'yes', but it's also a bit 'no' - add in a copious amount of excruciatingly futile philosophy coupled with a basic misunderstanding of what is being talked about - and there you have it. Also, if you think you can have an intelligent discussion with a being that doesn't understand the difference between difficulty levels and level scaling, you're sorely mistaken.
  5. Valorian
    Trial of Iron can lead to people dying and being horribly frustrated because they have to start the game from 0... oh wait, they selected the mode for it themselves. Right, in a perfect world people would take responsibility for bad choices. Unfortunately, in our world, people wandering some place and ruining* their experience in the game by either making it too hard or too easy for themselves leads to poor reviews, snarky videos and lots of accusations of "Obsidian can't balance their game properly" and "Obsidian's QA is hopeless". At least that's my experience. *I've never thought a game being too challenging or too easy was a deal breaker when it was my choices that made it that way, but that does not seem to be the case for all people. Sure, let's start by removing Trial of Iron, Path of the Damned and other modes that make the game (much) harder or almost impossible because it could lead to bad reviews and snarky videos on youtube. This forum is full of wonderfully intelligent observations.
  6. Valorian
    The irony...
  7. Valorian
    "Zzzzzzzzzz" *annihilates the fly with a fly swatter* There. Trial of Iron can lead to people dying and being horribly frustrated because they have to start the game from 0... oh wait, they selected the mode for it themselves.
  8. Valorian
    You have the option to possess a creature, in game, with a console code and see its stats exactly. Also, there's a program that extracts/lists all creatures that appear in BG/BG2, coupled with all their stats.
  9. Valorian
    Incorrect.
  10. Valorian
    Well, I guess you don't have to mimic it. I find it hard to believe that someone would write a gigantic essay of nothing, open his eyes and not find his participation ridiculous enough to delete it instantly. So I suppose it is permanent. You've added the "no way" part yourself. And indeed, those who prefer playing the game with the crit-path artificially molding with the level of their character don't need to self-regulate it. Those who find level scaling an abomination however, would need to do quite a bit more work than merely using willpower to get rid of it - in the absence of such mode.
  11. Valorian
    Why would it need to be self-regulated? You cannot self-regulate a static increase in power for enemies. As always, you missed the entire point by a landslide and went on with an amusingly superfluous amount of words. The context and point being that you can mimic a no-reload mode yourself, but you cannot mimic a no-level-scaling mode without tinkering with files and probably seeing spoilers in the process (i.e. areas, enemies). Not to mention you'd have to balance encounters you haven't designed, assigning them a static level. It doesn't need to be self-regulated. And the third point you missed, obviously, is that many people would want to play the game without any level scaling. Amentep, thanks for trying to help, but I've read that already. Maybe they've changed their minds in the meantime. This time he didn't mention any "crit-path special encounters", but instead he mentioned optional areas and encounters. We have no idea about the percentage of areas and encounters that will be optional, so it's rather vague.
  12. Valorian
    And all other areas, that are on the crit path, will scale by level? Well.. Could I suggest a gameplay mode that eliminates all level scaling? My line of reasoning is as follows. -Trial of iron mode (confirmed): *will indubitably be used by a small portion of players (die once - game over) *can be self-regulated by actually... starting a new game when your party gets wiped out -No level scaling mode (not confirmed): *would be appreciated by a much larger portion of players, I'd wager *cannot be self-regulated Level scaling, as abhorrent as it is when applied universally, can be necessary at times, especially in non-linear games. Without some amount of level-scaling, a non-linear game becomes a practically linear game by way of making some ostensibly doable areas too difficult for players of a given level to complete. It isn't necessary, at all. And that's for the player to gauge if he wants to give up on some non-linearity in favour of getting rid of level scaling, hence mode.
  13. Valorian
    And all other areas, that are on the crit path, will scale by level? Well.. Could I suggest a gameplay mode that eliminates all level scaling? My line of reasoning is as follows. -Trial of iron mode (confirmed): *will indubitably be used by a small portion of players (die once - game over) *can be self-regulated by actually... starting a new game when your party gets wiped out -No level scaling mode (not confirmed): *would be appreciated by a much larger portion of players, I'd wager *cannot be self-regulated
  14. Valorian
    Hullo! While we're waiting for the update, I'll make an update of my own. Mr. mechanics developer, I've been thinking... Engagement and "tanking" go hand in hand, so tanking is the topic of my update. When you put someone at the doorway to block access and to engage enemies, you want that character to be a good tank. In PE that means high armor and high deflection. Since armor doesn't affect your ability to dodge at all, the best tank will be someone in heavy armor and with high defense (deflection). I can see their flow of ideas: hmm, heavy armor is always the best option for tanking.. what if we added a huge penalty for some weapon vs armor combination so that heavy armor isn't always the best option for tanking? Heavy/medium armor reduces attack speed, but it's irrelevant for tanking purposes, because you have 5 more characters attacking while you engage and tank. Mr. Sawyer said he wants to support the possibility of making characters with high evasion so that's one of the reasons he added misses on the scale. Long story short, why wouldn't they add a small penalty to deflection defense for medium and heavy armor on top of the attack speed reduction? Just a tiny penalty of like -4/-8 (we're talking about a d100), if nothing else, for style reasons. It also makes sense, if your attack speed is slower - because armor hinders your movements, you'd also have more trouble dodging. --> If an enemy is hitting real hard, but isn't very accurate... you could consider going light armor instead of heavy, to avoid crits at least. On the other hand, if an enemy has high accuracy but low damage, you'd go heavy armor. It accomplishes what they wanted to do with the 50% penalty, but in an elegant way. Yes, you don't like the "redundancy" part, but I'd argue it's much less redundant than the 50% thing.
  15. Valorian
    Naturally, I like this, and I also hope the AI can be fine-tuned to not massacre itself while disengaging continuously. As has been mentioned by Josh, it doesn't address all instances of kiting, it only addresses the situation when a combatant has already been engaged. You can't now use him as a running bait while your ranged characters shoot the enemy to death. If you decide to not engage and simply kite from start with ranged attacks.. I'm not sure how that will work out. Perhaps including a stamina draining mechanic for kiters would be an acceptable solution? Grimoire slam. I'd be worried not to destroy the precious book in the process of slamming something with it, magically-charged or not.
  16. Valorian
    Hey, 1 more thingie. Part of this update is "attack resolution" and defenses [..Deflection (direct melee and ranged attacks), Fortitude (body system attacks like poison and disease), Reflexes (area of effect damage attacks), and Willpower (mental attacks).], so it's probably a suitable thread to post this. Since generally about 90% of attacks will be grazes or full hits if combatants are similarly skilled, I was wondering about on hit effects such as poison, disease, stun etc. For example, a spider bites you, then you make a fortitude defense roll and if you fail it, you're poisoned. Now, I'd suggest the fortitude defense roll be made only for a full hit, not after a graze (or with a huge fortitude/willpower/reflex bonus* if it's a graze). I love a variety of on-hit effects for monsters as it makes combat much more exciting and unpredictable, but if a defense check for the effect is triggered on 90% of attacks, it could get out of hand. *Or penalty for the attack value of the effect; the d&d term would be DC.
  17. Valorian
    They're still... refining the armor system, which is ok. From an interview published yesterday: "As an example, Josh has changed the armor system in the game in the last three or four weeks. He’s changed it three times." Chronology. They started with armor being raw damage reduction, with piercing weapons having raw armor penetration properties and with blunt weapons having percentage based penetration properties. Questionable change #1) Adding the 50% AI-annihilation penalty to ceratin weapon vs armor combinations. Change #2) ?? Removing the questionable change #1 perhaps. Change #3) ???
  18. Valorian
    So the other thread was put to rest. Ah, but it'll bear the scars of gigantic posts and genocide of logic (by Hassat and co.) FOREVER... Speaking of which, continuing a tangent from the other thread: : You support kill KP. Then why you no like learn by hitting/doing!? : Because we wouldn't like kill XP to be atomized. : Ha! Why!? It can be done right, like in some other game I mentioned! : It brings several issues to the table. Why does hitting a dummy yeld no XP, then? Exploits in the form of hitting a creature, getting better by landing each blow, letting it regenerate stamina back, rinse & repeat... etc. : But both are logical!! You said it makes sense that killing a creature makes you better at combat, but so does hitting a creature! Am I right!? : Yes. : So... I win!? : No. In fact, you're offering further atomization of kill XP, i.e. hit XP, as a "counter argument" (*cat says in a derisive tone*) for a game wide application of kill XP. Since you have been vehement in defending objective XP only, atomizing XP even more than kill XP ever could, thus going even further away from objective XP only, would be a double lose for you.
  19. Valorian
    So are you saying you DON'T get experience by fighting a dragon? You only learn something if you actually kill it? That's not how learning works. And before you bash on learn-by-doing, try to rememeber that Elder Scrolls is not the ONLY LBD possible implementation out there. There are good ones - like Jagged Alliance 2. Exactly. You only get better at killing when you kill something. It's called abstraction. There's no need to further atomize kill XP. Have you noticed the irony, guys? The people who argued in favor of learn by doing, in this thread, are against kill XP. And you know why they perform this suicide of logic? Because they think they're making a point against kill XP, somehow.
  20. Valorian
    Yes. Why would we not get XP for partially eliminating threats (i.e. killing enemies)? They'll respond - because you haven't completed an "objective"! Then I ask... why would we get any XP at all until we complete the one and only objective that really matters - the main quest that wraps up the entire story and the game?
  21. Valorian
    It's excellent, yes. I love the feel, environment, visuals, combat... I did not expect them to be able to reach this level of quality. Even though I'm more of a fantasy rpg than sci-fi rpg type I had learned to like the latter with Fallout 1/2, a few years ago, so I'm eagerly looking forward W2. They seem more down to Earth when it comes to certain aspects (kill XP for instance) and I appreciate it.
  22. Valorian
    Why you *wouldn't* want kill xp in a "combat focused" game baffles the hell out of me. Yeah, it's amazing. The topic is comedy gold. 90% of a character's stats, between talents and attributes and whatnot, are focused on and meant for killing. Yet, when you kill something, you don't improve said stats. Oh, look, there's a Wasteland 2 gameplay video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8-lG1CFZR4 But... I... I can't believe it! People get XP for killing things in this game! So they get better at killing things by killing things! This shocking concept is preposterous. It is HORRIFYING!! It will RUIN the game! (Note that if Josh/Tim said they're going with a standard XP system, including kill XP naturally, not a single drone would voice their opinion against it, let alone write countless essays on how kill XP is the end of the world.)
  23. Valorian
    And kill xp isn't customly set by developers? It appears out of nowhere, randomly, like plague? Also, objectives *are* partial quests, subquests or mini quests, whatever you prefer. Exploring is now a quest in itself, you get XP for seeing new areas.
  24. Valorian
    Quests are made of mini-quests, correct.
  25. Valorian
    Well hope you are right, because reading the forums I find several opinions that quest only XP is a final decision, whether you call it objective XP or not. What’s an objective XP is still not clear though… Anyone care to summarize, what does that term mean? Edit: If you mean objective-based XP, that’s same as quest based, or what’s the difference between an objective and a guest? If you mean objective – in the sense of not subjective – then I don’t know what that means. Basically it's another term for quest, yes, that they neatly come up with trying to blur issues with it (and they succeeded to do so among a portion of the fanbase). Oh, there'll also be exploration quests - you visit some new area and you get XP for that.
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