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Kuroiryuu

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Posts posted by Kuroiryuu

  1. Story.

     

    Not to say that gameplay isn't important, but it's not what drew me to the IE games. In fact, I honestly wasn't terribly impressed by that aspect of them (admittedly, it wasn't terrible either, so I didn't feel like I was just slogging through fights to get to the next bit of the story). The writing was--at least in most cases--above par and very enjoyable, and it kept me coming back for more. It's what made them stand out for me.

     

    Bottom line: if I want great gameplay, there are plenty of games out there which fit that criterion. For story, not quite so much.

    • Like 1
  2. Too many in that BG list. Waaay too many. I know it's been a while, but I think I should remember more of those names than I do. There's probably a reason for that.

     

    Yeah, ditto to the obvious "quality > quantity" argument that countless others have mentioned. Also, there's another disadvantage to having a large number of characters, and that's interactions between party members. Having deep and established characters is important to me, but I also really like to feel like my party is interconnected and actually have opinions and interactions among themselves, rather than just nervously avoiding eye contact while having dinner around the campfire. This is one of those little touches I liked about Dragon Age.

     

    The thing is, when you're adding more potential party members, the number of possible interactions quickly spirals out of control. For instance, three characters have three possible two-way interactions between them (#1 and #2, #2 and #3, and #1 and #3). Adding a fourth gives you six. By the time you get to eight companions, you're at 28. And at fourteen, you're at a whopping 91 two-way interactions. At that point, you might as well just abandon the idea of intra-party dialogue.

     

    So yeah, eight's fine for me.

  3. I think it would be awkward in practice for the PC not to speak for the party unless there's a compelling plot-related reason for some segment. After all, it is your party, as the de facto leader.

    I don't see why you would assume that to be the case. As mentioned above, both BG games allowed any party member to act as leader - they even got smug about it.

     

    The PC isn't necessarily the party leader. The player is necessarily leading the party (by controlling where they go and what they do), but from an in-character perspective those instructions need not be soming from the player-created character. Perhaps they're arrived at by consensus.

     

    There's simply no reason to assume the PC is the de facto leader unless you would prefer it that way.

     

    I'm not necessarily opposed to it, but I think it would take a lot to do it right and for dubious value. I recall finding the BG system rather immersion-breaking since the lines often just didn't fit whoever was talking. I always used my PC for extraparty conversations as a result. Beyond that, it just didn't feel right to be controlling the mouth of a character that wasn't mine. Maybe if the dialogue was always personalized to the speaker, it wouldn't be that bad, but I'd rather they put effort elsewhere than rewriting scenes eight times.

     

    In any case, I understand that the issue is about freedom to play a character in whatever way you want. That's all well and good, but I do think it a bit odd if your own personal avatar in the game--the one sure constant in the tale--is just some guy the others are dragging along. Maybe a compromise would be to have your companions be able to intercede in conversations on your behalf at certain points if you're lacking in conversation ability. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, the more party interaction, the merrier.

    • Like 2
  4. I think it would be awkward in practice for the PC not to speak for the party unless there's a compelling plot-related reason for some segment. After all, it is your party, as the de facto leader. You're calling the shots, you decide where everyone goes, and you have final say on what gets done... unless your party members object enough to leave. Considering all that, it would feel odd to me to take a back seat when it comes to dealing with others. Your companions have a part in the story, but ultimately you're the center of the universe here. I think it would diminish the game for it to be otherwise.

  5. I think everyone needs to calm down a little and remember something:

     

    The people at Obsidian are experienced game designers who have been making awesome games for ages. They obviously have a lot planned already for PE, and while they're open to input from their fans, they're not going to stick random suggestions into PE on a whim. Over 70,000 of us trusted them enough to give them substantial amounts of money for the mere promise of making another great game. I think we can extend that trust to their judgement on what will fit well and what won't.

     

    Personally, I'd be perfectly content to wait and let them do their thing, but open discussion is a great idea, at least in theory. The problem is that people get defensive and lash out at each other over disagreements, perhaps fearing that Obsidian will ignore their ideas if they're "shot down" (or pick up undesirable ideas if they aren't). This is perfectly understandable, as it's just human nature to want to protect your investment--both emotional and financial--in PE, but it's also just plain unnecessary and unproductive.

     

    In the end, Obsidian are pretty likely to "do what they want" no matter what's posted on the forums here, and what they want is to make a great game. If they see good ideas, they might incorporate them, but they're sure not going to let random community input ruin PE (the forum-goers here are a fraction of the backers, after all). If you think that strongly they shouldn't adopt an idea, it's probably better to offer some constructive criticism to convince them instead of just telling someone to pipe down. And on the flip side, try to take criticism of your own ideas in stride, even if you think someone else is being unconscionably rude.

    • Like 1
  6. I'm perfectly happy with Baldur's Gate levels. Enough to give us more of a taste of the characters and events, but not so much that it constrains the writing.

     

    I really want to see lots of variations when it comes to the activation and reaction sounds of the party members, since those are the sounds I'm going to hear constantly throughout the game. So a constant repetition of "It's me, Imoen" can wear you down like water wears down a stone.

     

    Ugh. So very, very true.

  7. I think it would be difficult for a name like "Project Eternity" to fit well with the story or setting they seem to have in mind, and they've confirmed it's just a codename anyway. Of course, there are about a billion ways to fit the name "Eternity" into a fantasy game title, so I could definitely see that happening. But don't count on them shoehorning the word in just for the heck of it.

     

    In any case, given what we (don't) know about the game, it's probably just a wee bit little early for speculation.

  8. I spent about as much as I could reasonably afford ($165), so I'm satisfied I did my part. As it was, I had to think long and hard about that figure. But given the history of this team, in the end I felt justified in spending quite a bit more than I usually would on a game. I think it's a pretty safe gamble that PE will turn out to be worth the extra money compared to a lot of games I've shelled out fifty to sixty bucks for.

  9. It's funny you should mention the Transcendent One (TTO). Torment was very much about a personal journey, TTO wasn't revealed till the endgame IIRC and the game didn't suffer from that at all.n In fact I would argue that having an antagonist at all is kinda cliche. Of course Kotor 2 had several and that worked out pretty awesome as well..

     

    Considering that a good portion of Torment you were battling against past lives of yourself and their actions, the argument could be made that you were both the hero and the villian w/ personal reason to hate.

     

    One of the countless reasons I dearly loved that game. Considering that we have many of the same people on board with PE, I don't think we need to fear not having interesting villains.

    • Like 1
  10. Voted 'for' here. While personally I'm more a fan of systems that improve skills based on use (TES games come to mind, though they certainly had their quirks), I'd far prefer to have greater freedom in how to approach an objective than to feel compelled to kill everything in my path like a bloodthirsty psychopath. While combat is fun and all, you shouldn't be punished for approaching a problem in a more diplomatic or stealthy way, if that suits the type of character you're trying to play.

     

    Besides, like others have noted, having situations like "survive the ogre attack" are perfectly plausible. Does anyone seriously think that they'd put in encounters where you had to wade through an army of monsters and not get rewarded for it? Have a little faith.

    • Like 1
  11. I'm more interested in an attempt to capture the feel of the IE games than attempting to reproduce the mechanics exactly. We have BG Enhanced if we want an old game with new technology. I want a new game in a new world with new mechanics that have the same feel as the old well written and well loved games of the Infinity Engine.

     

    This. What made me fond of the IE games wasn't the mechanics, some of which I honestly found rather lacking at times. It was the world and the characters and the story. So if they can offer more compelling gameplay for PE, that's all well and good in my book. Personally, I'm looking forward to a deep and well-written tale with unique and interesting characters and a vibrant new world. Heck, if they manage to deliver something half as impressive in that regard as Planescape: Torment (which I still consider to be the best cRPG ever by far, story-wise), I'll be more than happy I supported them.

    • Like 2
  12. I'd be disappointed if they stuck with the traditional D&D stat system, for reasons that have already been touched on by several people here. Obsidian is working with a clean slate for PE, and I think they can and will do better. Given the universal importance they place on the "soul" concept, I wouldn't be surprised if that ends up being a major stat itself.

     

    But whatever specifics they decide to go with, I do hope they make a wide range of stats--ideally, all of them--useful to every class. Again, the broad applicability of "soul" to pretty much everyone seems to lean in this direction. I like the idea of having an intelligent fighter who might not be the biggest muscle in town but is a brilliant tactician. There's no reason all mages have to be bags of skin and bones either, and the description they gave for the classes even notes that "a surprising number of wizards are quite fit", so maybe they have something in mind there.

     

    As for out of combat uses for stats, it would be nice if less socially developed characters had plenty of opportunities to flex their muscles or show off their dexterity now and then. A strong character might find it easier to physically intimidate or impress others, and one with skilled hands might be able to swap that golden idol sitting on the pedestal for a bag of sand without setting off the trap. The conversationally inclined need not have all the fun.

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