Dream

There is nothing inherently challenging about turn based combat (unless you're talking about being challenging to one's patience). If anything, the fact that a game is in real time forces you to account for more factors when making decisions and thus increases the challenge. Dark Souls wouldn't be more challenging if it was turn based, just saying.

This is what's wrong with wanting everything to be realistic and functional. If BG2's designer's listened to people like this there'd have been no Carsomyr. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool

For me it makes world feel more believable. And it is not really realism what I am after, but functionality, so if get vote how weapons and armouts should be designed in game, my vote always goes for designs that look like they could work in our world, in other word armour should look like it purpose is to protect it's wearer and weapon should look like it's intended for battlefield and killing not to look pretty in showcase. This of course don't mean that I can't enjoy games that don't follow my design ideology. For example I love Warhammer even though it has over sized weapons, some times very ridicilous looking armours, and mages that poses like they want arrow in their chest. But my love for fantasy orgins from Tolkien's, Eddings', Robin McKinley's and Ursula K. Le Guin (and other whose names I don't now recall) books, where warfare was descripted to be functional or there was reason why it was not. If everything was made to be functional all the armor and weapons would look pretty much the same. There's nothing wrong with having a lot of Corollas and Lancers and Focuses (Foci?), but there should also be some Ferraris and Lambos.

That's the point though. Because of RTwP those fights were all fun. If the IE games were TB then those easier fights would have been beyond obnoxious (just imagine rescuing Dynaheir late in the game and having to stop and go into a turn based UI for every single gnoll as opposed to just watching your party rip **** up while gnoll bits flew everywhere).

Those aren't very functional weapon designs, they look more like ornaments than real weapons. But they look awesome. Metal armor isn't very functional when facing fire but I don't see you complaining about that.

Good news everyone! I'd give you 2 out of 10. So everyone that disagrees with you is a troll now?

Remember how I said 90%; those are the 10, and even then only the first 3 really.

What the difference; if you're influenced by boring **** you're gonna get boring ****. Whether it's boring or not is a matter of opinion. So let's just leave it at that. In any case, the issue I had was with the strawman (that tends to be used every second page or so ) that apparently we're advocating complete realism and historical authenticity. Based on the pictures in this thread you are.

What the difference; if you're influenced by boring **** you're gonna get boring ****.

I don't think anyone in this topic called for "completely realistic and authentic armors". But every once in a while someone has to post that strawman Except 90% of the pictures in this thread are exactly that: authentic, realistic, and boring as ****.

Yeah, I got the gist of it in the thread, but I haven't played these. Soooo the kotors and nwns aren't turn based? Basically when you encounter an enemy you take turns doing actions. Some systems have it so you can only perform X amount of actions per turn (move once and shoot, move twice, shoot twice, etc.) while others have it so you have Y amount of action points and each action takes a certain amount (10 AP's and moving is 1 AP per foot while shooting is 4 AP and melee attacks are 3 AP). Who goes first is usually either determined by a speed stat or chosen at random.

If they go the realistic route then all armor would look exactly the same. I want the fancy crap to look bad ass with flames and skulls and spikes and what have you. Who cares if it's practical; it's called fantasy for a reason.

A great many TB games only use turns when the player is engaged in combat and are in real-time when not, it's not something exclusive to RTwP. Personally I would prefer a phase based combat system as I find it the most interesting kind, but since it is Obsidian that are developing this and their strong suite has never been combat I'd be happy with RTwP since the battles are over relatively quickly with it. The problem with TB games and exploring is you walk by an enemy and bam you're suddenly locked into combat. Even enemies that you'd normally one shot take forever to dispatch since you have to go through all the TB crap. This is made even worse with a phase based combat system like final fantasy (which is what I'm guessing you're referring to, if not then my bad).

What?

Very possible. Although I don't see what good looks has got to do with the discussion. And anyway, I'm just voicing my very own personal opinion. Not anyone elses. Kinda hard to tell a character is good looking if they look exactly the same as a dude in full plate. Yes if the face is covered it would be kind of hard to see if the character is good looking. But that doesn't change if you add boobs to the armor. Sure the sex becomes more apparent, but she could still look like an old crone in the face. If the face isn't covered, then the sex and possible attractivness of the character would still be apparent, even if the armor isn't obviously female. Also as pointed out by others, there are way to make armor look feminine without boobplates. The female form is much more than breasts. Most chicks prefer more feminine looking armor (boob plates and all) in video games since they're, you know, video games and not real life. The people who hate on boob plates are part of the (extreme) minority for both genders.

Very possible. Although I don't see what good looks has got to do with the discussion. And anyway, I'm just voicing my very own personal opinion. Not anyone elses. Kinda hard to tell a character is good looking if they look exactly the same as a dude in full plate.

I think you've missed the basic point about this discussion. It's about the "over" part. Exaggerated sexuality that doesn't make any sense. Heavily slanted towards one gender. Heavily slanted toward the demographic that buys these games? Heaven forbid. I think you'll find that there are plenty of women into video games nowdays. Especially RPGs. And I think you'll find that plenty of them either don't give a **** about boob plates or would prefer to play good looking characters.

I think you've missed the basic point about this discussion. It's about the "over" part. Exaggerated sexuality that doesn't make any sense. Heavily slanted towards one gender. Heavily slanted toward the demographic that buys these games? Heaven forbid.

There is a difference between suspending disbelief for a fire-breathing dragon and doing so for a bunch of poor shacks right inside the city walls, because the second has to do with common sense. No one is going to defend some slums on the outskirts with walls. No one is going to mass produce boob plate armor just to please the male population. It is difficult and prohibitively expensive. For the last time medieval armor with grotesque codpieces and Greek or Roman heroic cuirass is purely ceremonial. No one is going to wear metal armor of any type when facing a situation involving large amounts of fire. No one is going to sleep off shattered limbs. Hell, if you want things to be realistic then it should be impossible for a female half-elf fighter to be as strong as an a half orc. If you can suspend your disbelief of that then you should very easily be able to suspend your disbelief of a little something like impractical armor.

Boob plates are probably the least unrealistic thing in most fantasy games. If boob plates truly put even a dent in someone's "immersion" then the rest of the stuff in fantasy games should rip that immersion to shreds. The fact of the matter is that the whole "realism" argument is just a smokescreen for a bunch of white knights to hide behind.

So you are okay with everything else in a fantasy game that breaks immersion, but boob plates, of all things, cross the line? Realistically metal armor in general is an awful idea in a world where fireballs are commonplace; thermal conduction being what it is and all that. Oh and saying you can't tell the sprites are wearing boob plates is just a lie (unless your eyesight really is the worst in the world, then my bad).

Except they aren't represented by letters, and you can easily tell that they're wearing boob plates. Saying it doesn't matter in IE because the sprites are small is a cop out to justify actually liking a game that has boob plates. Either boob plates ruin the experience and as such IE games should be considered ruined, or they don't. As for "damaging immersion," I'm pretty sure sleeping off shattered limbs and 50 arrows sticking out of your chest is more unrealistic than sexy armor. At least armor being used to amplify to a person's aesthetics has been used throughout history (cod pieces, roman 6 pack breastplates, etc.). If the game takes place in a society where it is acceptable for women to be warriors then it stands to reason that women, like their male counterparts in our history, might also like to don this type of armor.

Either you and Heresiarch have the world's worst eyesight, or, more likely, you're using the world's worst cop out to try and keep your arguments on life support. I wonder which is the case...

Why are you even here then? Every single game that inspired PE had boob armor or worse (better?). Hell, PS:T had pretty much every female character looking like a super model hooker. If you're actually being serious then the "experience" would have been ruined for you from the get go in each of those games and you wouldn't be a fan of the genre. You should read what people say before you start replying. I didn't say I'm against sexy, I said I'm against stupid. I couldn't care less if there was boob armor in BG or not, since you need a magnifying glass to see this stuff on 800 by 600 pixel screen. I could certainly see that there were no chainmail bikinis and that was quite enough for my exquisite taste. As for PST none of those overly sexy outfits were designed for protection. If skimpy clothing is fashionable in Sigil, I don't mind. "stuff like "boob armor" or mail bikinis totally ruins the experience for me" "I couldn't care less if there was boob armor" I want to know who taught you how to argue 'cause that's impressive. Additionally, Annah's armor was skimpy as all get out and I'm pretty sure she didn't give a **** about fashion.

Turning into Arthas in Icecrown.