centurionofprix
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Everything posted by centurionofprix
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Just the quickest MS Paint take on how I'd like to see it. Obviously the placement of the portraits/icons/log could be changed around for usablity - this is just to demonstrate the use of space. It takes slightly less space in absolute terms, allows the log to be expanded, and the larger part of the viewport is more open vertically. -
I guess the UI is just a placeholder, but for what it's worth, I don't like this layout at all. It seems to gather up the wost aspects of both the classic and minimalist styles, being both large and obstructive to the widescreen viewport, and rather unpleasant aesthetically in its placement and in closing off only part of the screen. If it was spread across the entirety of the bottom part of the screen, it would take the same amount of space but in a more even and pleasing way, and the larger part of the viewport would have more space vertically, which I'm certain would be more useful than the small bit in the right bottom corner.
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"Vampiric Torture" sounds quite unpleasant.
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Stick-in-the-butt Lawful Stupid is underrated.
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Speculatively: Probably your character would be one of the exceptionally skilled or lucky few rather than the rank and file (as usual - though the latter could be cool as well, the story of an individual soldier heading off to die for the machinations of those in power or for his God). Some fighters prevailed again and again, even against skilled warriors or in the chaos of the battlefield: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4 http://www.eldacur.com/~brons/Maupin/LaMaupin.html Yes! Diplomacy and intimidation would be crucial, as well as using tactics and subterfuge to tip the scales in your favour when you did choose to fight. Perhaps you'd even have to know how to back down sometimes. As you note, one possible mechanic would be the hiring of new henchmen, like in JA. Caution and survival through meaningful single encounters would the be central gameplay concerns, rather than wading through armies of enemies IE-style. The combat could function consistently if actual hits were rare; instead of landed blows eating one's hitpoints, the central mechanic would be the defence and offence to land the one blow. Which, come to think of it, might function a lot like hitpoints in practise, but on a different level of abstraction. I'm not proposing any of this for PE, mind, but would love to play an IE-like game with such mechanics.
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At least it's tasteful boob plate.
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I get the impression they will be, in Eternity.
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Music in the PE universe
centurionofprix replied to Rostere's topic in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
I would love to hear something like the embedded sacral chant in a medieval game, and it would go nicely with the themes proposed for Eternity, as well. The music (or the general spiritual/intellectual climate) of course doesn't have to correspond to that of our Renaissance even if the technology vaguely does, but it can be evocative of a certain atmosphere (as it is in Arcanum). -
Certainly not if she doesn't make sense within the setting and its values, or if she's weaker as a character than the others, being thrown in there for the sake of it.
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I don't think the issue is whether it's "realistic" or believable that the characters become romantically attached during the story. It's whether portraying this is central enough to the game to include, especially at the expense of other important aspects of the characters/setting. Games usually don't give deep portrayals of the characters' philosophical or artistic inclinations, or of their faith or health issues, although these are often of the greatest importance to one's life. P:E might include some such themes, but whether romance is important enough for the game, for reasons other than the fact that some people (myself included, admittedly) enjoy playing dating sim in RPGs, is separate from whether it's believable that romance could happen during the story. It's also a separate question whether the game would be improved by including romance - you know, whether Marlow falling in love with the native princess for the sake of having a romance aspect to the story would make Heart of Darkness better...
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I didn't mean it was insulting, just loaded with the notion that people aren't actually enjoying the game when they follow the mechanics of the action. One (I think central) meaning of the "role" of the character in a roleplaying game consists in the way the character's abilities/qualities function within the mechanics. The combat log is a sensible extension of this aspect of the game, and games with very little audiovisual representation can still be great roleplaying games because a game isn't merely its audiovisual aspect. You're right, though - different games have different (and valid) emphases between the mechanical and the storytelling aspects. (I'm equally surprised that the log's portrayal of the actions, in the abstract, should break anyone's "immersion", but that's up to personal preference as well. For me, it aids the storytelling because the abstraction, transparently presented as game mechanics, doesn't bleed over into the in-character world of the game.)
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Resting isn't always quite realistic either, but apparently Obsidian wants to allow it in order to make dungeon crawling less frustrating. If you allow the abstraction of sleeping for a day and pressing on, why not have the thieves respawn as well? They probably would use that time to regroup and set up new defenses. There are some scenarios in which respawning enemies don't make sense at all, and the mechanic wouldn't have to be used in those cases, but it could still work as a general solution.
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I usually went for "core" settings, especially when the games were based on D&D. And no, visceral gameplay of the kind I think you mean here is not my cup of a tea. Still, I'm surprised you'd rather watch that combat log than enjoy the game. A bit of a "have you stopped beating your wife yet" vibe to this statement, isn't there? Maybe that is the way some people enjoy the game -following the mechanics of the action rather than the graphical representation of characters standing still and swinging at each other- especially on the higher difficulties. (Or with mods like SCS to make the game more suitably challenging.)
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I agree in general, but even games concerned with optimized efficiency for multiplayer, like DotA, LoL and Starcraft 2, still use solid UIs. The implication elsewhere in the thread that P:E is hanging on to an outdated design sensibility while everyone else has moved on just isn't true.
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Unless you can make animation and sound display the precise amount of HP/stamina lost, in such a way that past events can also be accessed, and, ideally, also displaying the die rolls/equations that go into the actions, the same things aren't being shown at all. All of this seems Not Bloody Likely. Such design doesn't serve "immersion" either because all one would be doing is to blend the obviously game elements of HP/stamina points into the in-character world of the story itself, as a vague sort of guesswork, rather than keeping the game aspects as clear abstractions. (edit: this is in response to the general idea that information provided by the combat log could be replaced with in-game feedback.) Are you talking about P:E? Are there any BG devs working on Eternity?
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Having a combat log benefits "immersion" in the sense that it it presents the numbers in a clearly abstract format, rather than making these obvious game elements bleed over into the in-character gameworld as a kind of guesswork. And, of course, it's useful for playing the actual game if it's adequately challenging. But since the log can apparently be disabled in PE, I guess everyone will be happy.
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Absolutely. I love the concept, I just agree with chilloutman on this particular detail, and with his wish that pink/purple not become the universal colour of magic in P:E. It's not that this particular scene has to be changed, but rather that the same motif hopefully won't be used to the point of blandness. The IE aesthetic with separate colours for different kinds of magic was much more entertaining.
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If this were a real world energy generator that is outputting as a black body radiator, I might agree with you. But apparently it's not. Ergo, purple is fine and there's no reason they need to follow real world physics. I think chilloutman meant the aesthetic, and the way pink seems to have become the standard colour of magic in newer games.
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Arcane Fencer
centurionofprix replied to Vestilence's topic in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
The Witcher? -
There's also a difference between the villain slaying the player, or simply being too powerful to confront, and the villain doing something the player should be able to prevent by playing within the rules of the setting/story.
