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The Guilty Party

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Posts posted by The Guilty Party

  1. On one hand, yes, it's a little forehead-smacking to read a preview of a game like this that doesn't know about pausing.

     

    But everyone has to start somewhere. And if you're starting from, say, Diablo (which at a quick glance PoE looks like) then the concept of pausing to control things is foreign to you and PoE is just going to slaughter you and you're going to say 'wtf is with this game, it's impossible'.

     

    This guy's feedback is actually useful. If this is how a new player greets the game, then a gently-ramping (and hopefully skippable for us) tutorial would be very helpful. Now, that sort of tutorial doesn't really make sense in a Beta so in that sense, he's kind of off-base with his complaints. But I'd rather not have one of my favorite game-styles (isometricish pauseable rpgs) turn into some dwindling niche because no one new ever gets into it due to a cliff-like learning curve.

  2. To be snarky, most people use 'realistic' to mean 'things I like' and 'unrealistic' to mean 'things that I don't like'.

     

    To actually address your point, there's a certain suspension of disbelief that's important. We're willing to suspend disbelief more when the foreign thing is more alien and mysterious. That is to say, we don't actually know what a Wizard can do. If you present in a internally consistent way, most people will give it a pass. It's magic, it's part of the agreement we made when we picked up a book with an orc riding a unicorn on the cover. If you violate something that we know how it works, suddenly that snaps us out of it. We'll accept that a wizard can levitate a pillar with his mind, but the thought that some dude who is not magical can just go pick up a 2 ton block of stone offends our sense of logic.

     

    But there's another layer going on here: crpg players have, in general, learned to tolerate a fair amount of unrealistic things in the name of Fun Game Time. And this is where the real trouble starts, because everyone has a different line where on one side, it's just a game, and on the other side, you ruined the game because you made it seem just ridiculous.

  3. Ok, I'm replaying Icewind Dale 2 now and I have no idea of how to control combat.

    I try to advance with my tank (deep gnome fighter, superb AC but hitpoints of a butterfly),

    if the enemy spots and attacks him like I want I'm all cool.

     

    But every now and then some orc decides to rather charge my spellcaster and then we go like in a Benny Hill show.

    Caster rapidly zigzagging trying to get away, couple of orcs behind her, my gnome trying to catch the orcs but failing.

    Just add Yakety Sax and it's all there.

     

    I don't think the IE games really work well with the MMO-style 'tank, dps, controller, healer' approach. Aggro wasn't a hate meter that you have to keep maxed with aggro-gaining attacks, it was generally just some (potentially crappy) script. If you really want the only one person to be attacked (like with the Shield of Balduran and beholders) I generally only sent that character out into battle.

     

    It's more like 'Dps, controller, healer', if anything. You want to start fights by disabling as many enemies as you can (usually with your wizard or priest). Fighters and Paladins aren't really tanks, they're beefy damage dealers. If monsters start peeling away from the main melee, you need to have some spells prepared to stun/hold/instantly kill them. Or summon some meat to slow them down a bit.

  4. I think there is real enjoyment and fun to be had from crawling through some long dungeon and then finding an awesome item at the end that does cool stuff that no other weapon does and makes you noticeably more powerful. But there is a definite risk of magic inflation. As much as I like BG2, the items were getting a bit ridiculous in the end. I don't know the solution to this, but I hope it's not just 'you got a long sword +1! woo!'

  5. Launch game. Click new game. Wait for 'Obsidian Entertainment Presents' to fade away. I start hearing crickets and birdcalls, see a mouse pointer that I can freely move around. Screen is 100% black. Game has crashed.

     

    I have tried three times (once in Windowed mode at a lower resolution, twice at my normal desktop resolution in full screen), each time the same result. Dxdialog and one of the crash report folders (zipped) attached.

    dxdiag.txt

    2014-08-19_175414.zip

  6. I dislike Kiting and Pulling. They feel awkward and game-y and are generally tedious.

     

    I'm okay with reasonable dividing-their-forces behavior. If there's some patrolling guard, making some little noise to grab him around the corner and then bashing his head in: good planning. Inching forward on the map to reveal one monster in a group of monsters so that only it responds when you shoot it? Lame.

    • Like 3
  7. I think many, many players will see this as 'I did the right thing, and after 8 hours of going through the Mage's tower, I got back and everyone was dead. Screw this game'.

     

    I am sympathetic to the desire for a simulated world where you have to live with the consequences of your actions, and to a game that's different when you replay it. But the way most games are designed (i.e., with reasonable save systems), random chance of suck is just arbitrary punishment. There has to be a better way of doing it. What that is, I don't know.

     

    Alpha Protocol actually tried for this, with their checkpoint-only saving system. Not sure it really succeeded though. It's tough to balance Choice with I Have A Real Life and Need To Be Able to Pick Up And Put Down This Game When It Is Good For Me.

  8. I dunno. It sounds good in theory, but when you place it in a video game, suddenly it becomes a case of getting the best result by taking the risky-but-high-reward outcome and just reloading until it succeeds.

     

    From that perspective, it's not a lot of fun. You're saying 'Save yourself some time and accept the slightly worse results, or reload half a dozen times and guarantee your character a better result'.

  9. I prefer a low-magic, slightly less gear-dependent world. BUT I also like to spend some effort and time and unearth some kick-ass items once in a while, you know? It's a fantasy world, not a 15th century simulator.

     

    So, no +5 spears on the random results table, but yes to wielding the Broken Spear of Ygranabrkoth as a short-sword that is infused with the blood of those it has slain and burns like acid and you found it in some holy shrine where you had to slay a bunch of innocent-but-deadly monks to get it.

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