rjshae

My concept of most CRPGs is that there is a hidden economy that covers all the little details of adventuring: acquiring food and drink, repairing items, and paying taxes and fees. To pay for those, there's an invisible tax on the loot so that all the little tradeable knick-knacks don't show up but instead go to pay for the expenses. To me this just part of that economy poking its head up into the game, in much the same way that you have to pay for a room to rent at the Inn. In the Fallout series the repair added a lot to the survivalist flavor of the setting; here, it's probably compensation for having so much lootable gear. You get extra loot, so you get extra expenses. I don't mind because it provides a certain level of grittiness to the game, much like the picture of a swordsman sharpening his blade after each battle. Those who don't like it seem to view it from a meta-gaming perspective as an extra maintenance activity.

Definitely not. They've taken so many things out of the game that it's obvious it was mismanaged. No stealth, no ammunition, no saving or loading(!!!) Taking things out of a game does not necessarily equal mismanagement. It can be essential to keeping the game within the budget.

Shadowrun Returns is set for release this month. If they come out on budget then I'd say they're probably a candidate.

Chocolate chip cookies of butt kicking for goodness...

I'm pleased with the item degradation mechanic because of the element of realism it provides. But perhaps it should just be part of the expert mode? That way all the cheese-eating surrender munchkins will be happy.

I've never been much of a fan of crafting so I rarely use it unless it is essential. On the other hand, item degradation is a nice touch of realism so I appreciate that addition. Thanks for the update.

You don't use them because: 1) you can save/load so you don't REALLY need them in this fight 2) they are good forever, so no reason to use them now 3) hoarding conditioning Well no, I think I mostly just forget they are there. Many specialty potions are only useful in certain conditions, so they tend to sit in the pack and become forgotten. On the other hand, healing draughts that are readily available, or frequently needed, do get used.

Okay, I get the business motivation for the first two; they just better not expect any future Kickstarter contributions from me. The third one sounds like just plain bad planning. It won't surprise me to see a number of video game Kickstarters running out of money as many of the goals seem far too optimistic for the amount of money being requested.

For what it's worth: Freeport: the City of Adventure -- a Pathfinder setting in a port city with pirates, rogues, cultists, and so forth. Achtung! -- Lovecraftian horror setting during World War 2. Throne of Night -- stand-alone Pathfinder adventure in the underground world. Wicked Fantasy -- Pathfinder setting featuring redesigned fantasy races. The Guide to Glorantha -- Two volume guide to Glorantha for any system. Sovereign Stone -- Looks like a traditional fantasy setting by a collaboration of Larry Elmore, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. The KS is based upon the Pathfinder mechanics, with new creatures, magic, and setting. Crimson Exodus -- A skills-based RPG system with the usual fantasy elements. The Elves of Uteria sourcebook -- A sourcebook of elves detailing five different cultures. Witch Hunter: The Invisible World -- 2nd edition of a cinematic, free-form RPG based upon the works of Solomon Kane. It is set in an alternate history 1690.

Whenever a character gains a condition and has a potion that will remedy it, show the potion as a small icon next to the condition. Clicking on the icon will cause the character to imbibe the potion as their next action.

I love OpenOffice; use it all the time. Yes it has its little quirks, but it pretty much does everything I need it to do.

Perhaps you assume to much capability for intelligence? Being able to open the magical gate using your intelligence doesn't necessarily mean you can use the same means to control how wide the gate can open. Perhaps the ability to control the effectiveness of a spell instead depends on your biological heritage?

I find it contradictory that the aim is to be able to avoid most combat yet most of the class features presented thus far have been combat-oriented. I'll put in a preference for having a decent amount of combat in the dungeon.

Note that the Kickstarter was pretty general in the descriptions of what they said they would deliver. Thus far I haven't seen them stray from that broad vision. People who are disappointed need to go back to the original presentation and see what it actually says before they start making accusations about what Obsidian is delivering.

Do you know that original Syndicate(1993) involved capturing resources, conducting research and equipping your agents and also capturing human material for future agents? That is exactly what strategy is. Okay, but how is that relevant to the current Kickstarter? The description does not appear to mention such strategic elements.

^^^ The "Strategy game" statement actually lowered my interest until I read further. Other than having an overarching strategic goal, which many CRPGs have, how is it a Strategy game? It doesn't sound like the player is controlling large forces at the operational level.

Whenever I play a game with potions I almost always seem to end up using them a lot less than I probably should. The exception is usually potions in games where they are frequently necessary to survive combat, such as healing potions in DA2.

Well, the style used isn't all that different from historic maps. For example: I think it's meant to be more representational than precise. A hand-drawn look for the icons would probably be more attractive though.

It looks pretty faithful to the original map. The biggest change was fixing the rivers.

Per an April Kickstarter update, the Numenera setting corebook and player's guide will ship in August. Here is a summary written back in March. The Numenera kickstarter took in US $517,255; pretty good for a RPG setting.

Except few civilizations used the English longbow other than the English, who were still a bunch of island-bound savages to a good Continental. And rate of fire is of little benefit if you can't penetrate armor consistently. True, but... getting back this game, fantasy CRPGs often include both longbows and composite bows, even though neither were common in continental Europe. I think we can take them as a consideration until we hear they have been excluded.

Yep. However, the gun also has several advantages, it can store and release the energy with a trigger pull like the crossbow, it can penetrate the front of a plate armor, penetrate the knights body and often even exit the back of the plate. Very few weapons could do that other than firearms, like the cumbersome huge siege Arbalests.A lowly peasant with very little training could kill a knight which were almost invulnerable back then. Funny, a similar complaint was levied against the crossbow--a weapon that took a week of training to master and was used to great effect, in combination with pikemen, against mounted knights. That's war for you. I think the point here is that the party is portraying highly skilled combatants who can take advantage of weapons that take a long time to master, giving them an advantage under most conditions. That lowly peasant would probably be dropped before he ever got close enough to be accurate with that gun.

Interesting info, thanks.

Yes, good writers can sometimes produce poor endings. Then again, poor writers are much less likely to create good endings.

Perhaps even an NPC who will show up on more than one occasion and continue into the sequel? There's bound to be one or two NPCs whom the players dislike the most, so a potential future replacement character or two may be useful.