JFSOCC
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Everything posted by JFSOCC
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Yea, GW2 is a multiplayer game where you play one character. They took away the healer so that no one would be forced to play as a healer (or tank for that instance), and everyone could play DPS. That is not an issue in a single player game where you control 6 characters at once. that's a fair point. but it does prove that you can make a good game without depending on the holy trinity of tank healer dps
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Dragon Age Origins has more than five ways to enter the game, though, I would agree it's about five 'main' ways. Sorry, but you used Dragon Age Origins as a positive example, I will now precisely tell you why you are wrong, and how wrong you are. (very) That game had HORRIBLE game design when it came to encounters. I played that game once, as a human noble rogue. 1. there was a town which needed defending, when I got there it was pretty apparent that it was going to be attacked at night. this was told to you in so many words. I as a rogue, thought I would better wisely prepare. So I built a ****load of traps, and then I laid them all the way on the approach. to say it was a minefield is to do a disservice to the killing fields I had laid. it cost me quite a bit to craft, those resources were utterly wasted however. since when I signal my readiness, I got teleported to a different "nighttime" map where non of my traps were located. That's bad game design. that's the game punishing creativity. 2. I'm off to kill morrigans mother. Now she's known to be quite a dangerous woman. when I get there I drop into stealth, and I decide to lay a ****load of traps around that woman... just in case. I talk to that woman, she HOLY **** turns into a fricking DRAGON! now, my traps should have been enough to at least weaken the dragon to a manageable chunk. Except that the Dragon spawns in a different location thus never crossing my traps. Again the game ****s me hard. 3. I told you, I'm a rogue. I'm incredibly stealthy. I find myself in an elven camp. in that camp I see a delicious locked chest. I do what I do. I approach the chest, stealth on. I touch the chest and... "BOOM" I drop out of stealth and someone walks up to me and talks about how I betrayed the trust of the elves. that's again the game punishing me for being smart. 4. It's pretty late in game, there is a mission where I have to rescue the princess from an estate. I get notified beforehand that some people might see through my disguise. so, partway down the map, I see a room, and like I told you, I'm a rogue, so I have to see if there is stuff to steal. I drop into stealth, walk into the room and BOOM! I drop out of stealth AGAIN, a mini-cutscene plays where the man who I would easily have been able to ignore alerts the whole base. Again, the game takes control away from me to force something that shouldn't have happened by following the logic of the game mechanics. 5.A. Same mission, I've reloaded, ignored the room, gone down into the cellars killed my nemesis in a rather anticlimactic battle. I open the door the the princess's room. And I I proceed to walk her out of there. when, just before I enter the hallway, I see a bunch of dudes. and my spidey sense is telling me that it is best to avoid that trouble. the game designers had a different idea though. they loved their set piece so much that I couldn't avoid it. you see, I scouted it out with stealth first. except you guessed it. I dropped out of stealth and a cutscene plays. 5.B.**** that, I reload. I noticed on the map that if I go through the cellars, I will be able to bypass the trap laid for me. So I walk the princess and her dumb ass aide back to the cellars, I get a message from the aide "now is not the time to do that, blah blah" and I CAN"T ****ING ENTER THE CELLARS. again the game took control away from the player to do what IT wanted rather than allow me to do what *I* wanted. THAT is linearity per sang and you cannot ever ****ing tell me that DA:O was good. because it wasn't. it was crap. desperately trying and failing to be a baldurs gate spiritual successor. The plot was contrived, the characters one dimensional, many locations only relevant once, lots of bugs(though that is forgiveable, on its own) and it's godawful level design. Sure you had maps that allowed you to approach something from more than one location, but you had to pass the set pieces everytime, regardless. Hell, in the elvish area there was a map you couldn't access if they found you hadn't completed a quest yet. it was the only approach to the werewolves den. (so I guess that's 6.)
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I suspect something similar to the Guild Wars Paragon class
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Kicking babies to prove that you're evil. "Muhahahaha. And before I did that, I took away it's lollipop and ate it in front of the little runt. His tears sustain me." No. I hope not to see that.
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I've only ever seen it done right in one game, which is guild wars (the first) where you can buff your party with shouts. IE instant activation.
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To be fair, some chaps like Doenitz may have benefited (he was acquitted, with good reason IMO) Found guilty, I'm pretty sure, and in parts in rather dodgy fashion too. IIRC he was the guy who had Chester Nimitz say that if he (Donitz) was found guilty then he (Nimitz) should be as well since the US used the exact same unrestricted submarine warfare tactics wrt Japan. Whoops, he was found guilty on 2 counts (war of aggression and crimes against the laws of war), but not war crimes or crimes against humanity. came here to say that. Nobody at Nuremberg was tried for genocide or crimes against humanity. they were tried for planning and waging an aggressive war.
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There's some threads on the stronghold already, you may want to use the search function and read them through. As far as I know, nothing is yet set in stone, other than that 200k is going towards a stronghold.
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As long as it's not some terribly uninspired title. "Shadow of Etherion: revelations" or some bull**** like that.
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Guild Wars 2 did away with the healing class, and I think it did the game a service. (Despite me missing my ability to choose a monk) If taking a certain class is a nobrainer, then that's not a good thing.
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I thought rogues were just walking trap-be-gone until I easily took out an entire room of enemies that were single handedly dropping my whole party using only Annah and liberal backstabbing. Rogues indeed rule and I wouldn't know that if the game hadn't challenged me. I don't think that you're a bad gamer if you didn't figure out the exact mindset of the game developer when he created a challenge. I often find that, especially in older games, solutions to puzzles (especially in adventure games) would be so incredibly contrived that only the game designers could have thought of it. If a sizable chunk of your playtesters fails to buff for 6 (!) rounds to get past an encounter, the failure is not in their understanding but that of the designer. Not because the player shouldn't have to buff, that may well be the case. The trick is to teach it subtly, not handholding the player, but showing them how it's done. If they come across enemies which they have trouble defeating not because the enemy is so strong in attack, but because the enemy keeps buffing, then that demonstrates to the player how powerful buffs can be. Rogues are indeed powerful tools and it goes to show that a good game has more than one solution for every encounter, even if both solutions are combat. That shouldn't make the game easier, just different. I'm firmly a "story-timer" Playing Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition has thought me much that as a teenager I couldn't figure out.There are more ways to play a Role Playing Game than just shining through combat. That's not to say being great at combat isn't a fine way to play. But I do expect some freedom that allows for more than just a few playstyles to be correct. Maybe you could challenge yourself for your second playthrough of PE and try to avoid combat. maybe then you'll come across similar problems as some story-timers do in combat. One a different note. I think good teaching mechanics never insult the players intelligence, they don't hold hands, or point to themselves and say "YOU MUST LOOK AT ME" Rather they should take the form of doing similar things with ever increasing elements. A simplified example: First encounter, man vs man, second encounter man vs man with a special ability, third encounter man vs man with buff, 4th encounter man vs man with buff and special ability. Seeing your opponents do what you can do, them telegraphing their moves would go a long way to helping players figure out combat systems. As for dialogue. maybe instead of [tags] you could have a player talk to an NPC see a few dialogue options, then achieve something come back and see that an additional dialogue option or two are present. Do this for the different influences a player's choices, stats and abilities can have, so it's apparent all of these can affect conversation, and you could do away with tags entirely. Sawyer is absolutely right that players can miss things, despite being intelligent. (I think RPG's draw a more intelligent crowd anyway) But rather than expect the worst and assume players will miss things, why not give the players the tools they need to become better, to figure it out. Let us fail, and then let us learn from our mistakes. That same intelligence which misses things can see them once it knows what to look for (and where to look) Otherwise you run the risk of handholding your players too much. it's a fine line, but I think that might just be the difference between a good game and an average one.
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This is the best thread yet I too have been using crutches to beat games in the past. As for Baldurs gate, I'm noticing I'm playing these types of games better than I did at 15, especially the buffing. A good tutorial is subtle enough that it doesn't look like a tutorial, but yes. rather than build on the assumption of ignorance from the player, you should rather subtly let your players know what they can expect. It's ok to fail them in places to force them to become better players. but they should realise why they failed, else they won't learn.
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You can have levity and not make a comedy, humour and still be dark. I didn't mind Minsc's corniness, because it was his persona. he was a nice but stupid man, who was kind and pleasant despite the horrors of the world.
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Soulsong Or Eternal Soulsong.
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Yes I'll eat manflesh too. provided it died of natural causes and was prepared well
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What if there was a caste system but getting a special soul is a way for upward mobility? Or worse, you could be born into a caste that's quite high up, only for it to become apparent that you have a soul of one of the minor castes, like that of a barbarian. Could you change your soul? what about your place in society? This would obviously only work if the soul system is not always apparent (and only a few realise/are lucky enough to have a powerful soul inherited)
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Soulscape
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Baldur's Dale: Torment
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I've seen enough grit and greyness. I'm ok with some scary stuff, it is after all a mature game. But I want my colourful pixies and landscapes and characters and a degree of humour as well.
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Dungeonkeeps, you're new here, please remain respectful. Calling someone you don't even know a whore is unacceptable. It's in your hands to keep this forum a friendly place for discussion, or to let it devolve into yet another one of "those" forums where extreme vitriol damages discussion and divides people into parties. Your post in another thread was already quite negative in tone. this is not that kind of forum. please keep it that way.
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