Naesh
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Crawling Terror
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The crawling terror comes at night. It is unknown exactly what kind of creature this is. We know only, that it is some form of predatory life, that instinctively tries to stay out of the light.
It poses a danger to adventurers, as it targets campfires. When everyone is asleep, except the one person on guard, the crawling terror tries to lure him / her away from the others.
It makes crackling noises in the nearby woods, imitates the moving of leaves in the bushes. When all else fails, the crawling terror tries to lure the person who is awake away from the campfire in a clearly imitated, childlike voice. At times it can be really persistent, repeating lines like
"Come see me! I'm here behind the bushes!" and "I am alone here, in the dark!"
even until dawn.
Nobody has seen it, but we know that only the bloody, ragged clothes of those remain, who give in and step away from the light of the fire, into the dark.
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Randomize party members responses to some extent. This would make them feel more alive. And this would increase replayability.
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One thing i have concluded from reading this thread is that randomizing the npc responses to some extent would make them feel more alive.
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Okay then, it's my turn at the pros and the cons.
Pros:
best fps mmorpg ever;
a game mechanics guaranteed to maximize the funsies;
big ass swords;
will have trolls in it;can play it while sitting on the toilet;very big (and sharp!) swords.
Cons:
not long enough;
not enough swords;
lack of big swords;
too short;
every game character has perfect dental health... which is not really a con, but kind of odd, if you think about it.
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>By finding obscure references to them in lore and then deducing their location.
This. Plus, i really would like this 'deducing from references' part to have at least a small amount of *replay value*. It certainly seems possible to make a riddle of some sort, that really requires nearly all parts of these references to be gathered. The treasure could be randomized, the riddle could be randomized (to some extent) in a way that without getting (more or less) each part of it, there are just too many possible locations to grind through / check.
As a bonus idea i think the best *randomized* way getting epic loot would be.... something that's influenced by the hero quests of King of Dragon Pass. (check it out)
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I have found a quick way to include mature romance in the game. There could be some ingame books containing texts from those... uh, women novels.
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Good. Then as a surface idea, i want to have huge, badass swords and scythes. Plus i want to be able to dress my pc up as the grim reaper.
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I have a possibly cool idea.
Remember the character generation phase of jagged alliance 2? You could take an optional quiz with some rather hilarious questions and possible answers, to get a suggestion of what type of character should you play. That was fun.
http://wwwx.cs.unc.edu/~chrisv/node/8
Pillars could have an optional something like this.
Plus, an ingame name converter / generator. Similar to these toys:
http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/toys/namegen/7749/
http://thequarter.org/Media/VikingName.php
The character creation phase could incorporate the name converter. There is a very good way to use this:
ingame there could be a temple or some kind of big ruin, with some sort of fresco picturing a genealogy tree or an old and dusty book containing one.
Something along the lines of 'the annals of great heroes / evildoers of old times' or something like that.
Surely, this fresco / book must contain lots of names in it. And perhaps funny little stories about how this fellow was a prince but a wild boar killed him and other gems of lore.
And here comes the most fun part : the names of these fellows could be the *converted* names of the backers.
Say, i'm a backer and i'm called James Sunderland. During the character generation phase i enter my name into the converter, just out of curiosity, and it pops out 'Jarlebanke Sunda'. And because i'm not going to play a self-insert and this name sounds rather stupid, i am going to choose another name instead. But the name that the generator popped out sticks with me for some reason.
Then during playthrough my character finds this book or fresco on a wall, containing lots of small stories, you know, lore and stuff.
Among them there is a heartwarming story about how Jarlebanke Sunda the great, was supposed to be a prodigal sorcerer and such, who always wore pajamas. Until one day he entered a magic duel while hiccupping and accidentally summoned a very large mallet over his head. How about that? :-D
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The green-robed tutorial characters of bg. Anything tutorial in nature.
I would like to be able to turn off certain soundtracks, npc voices. Possibly customise soundtracks.
I would like to be able to see die rolls and such. But for a complete beginner to crpgs it could get very annoying.
Oh, and yes, and i would like to be able to toggle some kind of 'super fast start' mode, where i don't have to sit through the whole
introductory sequence of the game. Candlekeep.
I would like to be able to set the difficulty only at the beginning of the game. I am willing to see a compromise on this, but then the player
should only be able to lower the difficulty mid-game. Being able to play through the entirety of the game on 'super easy' then turning the
difficulty up for the last fight seems.... cheaty. And cheating takes away from the challenge the bad way, it kills all the fun. Oh, i just had a bright idea.
Let's encrypt the saves. No save-game editor. Ever. Guhoh-guhoh! ....okay, maybe not. Not being able to debug ingame kills way more fun.
Aaaand.... i thing it would be fun to see an animated lizard-type creature crawling on the interface from the edge of the screen, occasionally. But
i want to be able to turn it off.
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The random rolls at character creation could be handled differently than in bg.
On 'easy' / 'normal' difficulties you can reroll arbitrarily many times. On 'hardcore' difficulty setting you can reroll at most X times.
Plus, it would be nice to actually see the dices rolling on the screen. And the color / transparency of the dices could be randomized. Or not. I don't know yet.
There is also the idea of throwing dices with the cursor, but i'm not sure about that. It's pretty annoying.
And i don't want a detailed, immersive 3d like world map. I would rather have in-game made maps, that can be purchased from vendors / etc. (or tattooed on someones back)
If you want to go somewhere, you can start by going from one end of the screen to the other, or, just obtain a map and select where you want to go.
A precise, correct map. Not a fake one. Heh-heh.
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I think it would be fun if the tone of narration changed depending on some variables.
For example what sort of npc's are in the party overall, average use of magic / brains / brawl, things like that.
Plus, it would be fun if the narrator was heavily biased against the heroes, portraying them as the evil antagonists of the story.
"Thus, the heroes defeated the mighty warlord and tyrant, Tazok, ruler of the seven kingdoms. After helping themselves to the many trinkets the taxpayers have paid for, the heroes boldly ventured forward to the lands of Kuldahar, seeking new adventures without giving a single tought about the many years of unstability and civil war they have caused by removing the strong militaristic leader these lands covet so much. Indeed, they were too dumb and too self-absorved in the petty trinkets they have gained by looting the corpse of Tazok, mighty champion and hero, to even try to think about the logical consequences of their actions - the starvation and suffering of the innocent folk, for many years to come. "
Imagine this text read by the narrator of Dungeon Keeper:
But maybe doing something like this would be too hilarious for a game with a mature tone.
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I gotta say, the whole spells idea is quite creative, and technically interesting in isolation, but enemies getting to essentially reload quicksaves or alter time to that extent is going to be 99% annoying and 1% cool.Yeah, you are right on that. Hmmm. The time-warp spell should work / be castable only if a given time has passed after the last time-warp spell was cast in the vicinity of the area.
Years / hours .... this depends on the particular area.
Aaand.... let's put a code into the AI script that limits the use of this type of spell depending on the real-life hours since the last time-warp spell was cast.
So, the player encounters this type of spell at most once in every X real-life hours.
How does that sound? Still too annoying? Hmmm.......
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I think it would be really cool if you could give your party a name. I also think it would be cool if Obsidian gave party names to rival parties in the world and integrate them into the lore.
The name of the party could be named after the leader, by default. For example, "Tazok's group" or "Tazok's party".
And you could have the option to rename yours, if you want.
But i have a new suggestion: make the game with solo players in mind.
So, if you decide to go solo, there should be no reference to a party or to multiple people in the conversations.
(if you solo icewind dale you will notice that in the conversations everybody is talking in plural)
Some other ideas: enchanted tattoos, poisoned tattoos, cursed tattoos. Tattoos that glow in the dark, but are invisible in the day.
In an other thread i have already mentioned an ironman mode, where the save / load feature is disabled and there are time-travel spells instead. These spells actually load up an autosave (after playing a nice looking casting animation). The casting character might retain his/her experience and maybe other things.
There could be bookmark spells as well, that work just like the usual save / load feature. There could be an upper limit on the number of uses of these type of spells. This limit could be achieved by making the casting dependant on some (very rare and expensive) consumables. If you play on ironman mode, then there could be, say, only seven of these in the world. So you can save / load your game at most seven times. When the party gets wiped out, the spell (provided that it is still in effect) loads up the latest save and consumes it.
And of course, on very rare occassions enemy mages could also know of these spells. Imagine that you have almost won a fight, but then the enemy mage casts something (that takes unusually long) and boom, you are back at the last autosave. But this time the same mage will be more prepared, stronger and perhaps some traps and other enemies will be waiting for you as well.
Backpacks, bandoliers of different size. Magically enhanced backpacks. Cursed backpacks, that make items disappear or change them into useless crap.
Just like diseases can (and should) be identified by doctors only, these curses could be identified by specific npc's only. I wonder what's going to happen, if the npc you turn to mistreats the curse / mushroom-poisoning, due to lack of competence or something else. "Oh wait! It's not that potion, it's this one, don't drink it!" :D And what about the priest, who tried to cure sickness by mixing some healing herbs into a turn-to-stone potion? :D
And how about long lasting spells or curses that mess with the automap?
You don't even know when your map started to behave strangely, or when the items started to disappear from your backpack. "Hey, where is my +2 dagger? And what is this smelly dead fish doing in my backpack?" :D How about a cursed backpack, with a periodically opening portal in it? Wonder where your items went? Perhaps that goblin shopkeeper stole it from you, who sold you this backpack? So that's why it was so cheap! Of course the same goes for gem bags / other container items.
An additional bonus feature would be if we could tint / paint the armors / shields / swords somehow. Mmm. I would tint everything black.
In bg the color of each avatar was customizable, if i remember correctly. It's a nice alternative to have.
And i want a sidequest, where someone from the party accidentally breaks a (fake?) item from a shop and we end up having to pay for it / go for a fetch quest / use magic / silence the shopkeeper. How about forged money by the way? Or thieves disguised as city guards, who claim that some of our money is forgery, therefore they have to take it?
Imagine that the party enters a city for the first time, then a couple of (fake? corrupt?) guards claim that we are in breach of custom / law, therefore we have to pay a fine.
Imagine the reactions of the party members, when they find out that there is no such custom / law!
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[....] it's basically an insta-death spell because you can go and kill them while they don't harm you. Does it detract from the game? Hell, no. It's frickin hilarious if she pulls it off. Games are meant to be fun and stuff like this is fun for a lot of players. If it's not fun for you, then play the game your way. Don't use the spell. Nobody's forcing you. But at least let us who enjoy the spells in BG2 to have fun with them. If the rules or game allows it, I don't see a problem with insta-death type spells.
I think insta-death spells with a small chance of success would work just fine with an ironman mode what i mentioned earlier.
) And you could decide at the start of the game if save-scumming is for you or not. Because lets be honest: any player who can't overcome an enemy at a certain point of the game (due to bad character build, for example) will try the save-scum-insta-death-spell combo, using the possibility to load the game arbitrarily many times to manually raise the chance of the success of the spell. I think some people will play this way and they will enjoy the gaming experience, despite the cheat. But an ironman mode, where saving / loading is limited to some rare resources found in the game.... now that i would try! -
I was wondering if there will be an ironman mode, where you can't save at all. If there will be something like that, then a 'reverse time' spell would perhaps make some sense.
How about implementing an autosave feature, but not allowing the player to rely on that (in ironman mode).
Instead of loading, the player makes a mage from the party cast a 'reverse time' spell and voila, autosave loaded. Cheap trick, but with a little tinkering (and some cool-looking casting animations) you could go to lots of places with this starting idea.
For example, there could be a 'simple reverse time' spell, which sends you back in time circa 5 mins. It is enough to send the party back in time just before a battle has started.
Wouldn't it be totally frustrating if some enemies were to use this spell? Heheheh. :D Once you are familiar with this trick, you will be thinking that you absolutely cannot allow an enemy mage to cast it.
And there could be a 'reverse day' spell, which sends you back in time, say, a day. It could load an autosave from the last time the party rested / something occured.
Enemies using this spell.... well.... could be more prepared the next time you meet them. Too much of this type of fun would break the game experience though.
And of course, maybe, there could be an 'enhanced reverse time' variant of the spell, which sends you back in time, but the wizard casting the spell retains the exp to boot.
(and perhaps other things (it's not that cheaty if you can limit the number of uses of this type of spells))
And there could be some 'bookmark'-type spells too. You cast the spell, game saved. This saved game can only be loaded once, then it gets automatically deleted.
Each time the party gets wiped out, the bookmark spell (and some mighty casting animation) gets triggered and the last saved game gets loaded.
All you need is some necessary component to force an upper bound on the number of uses of the 'bookmark' spell and you're done.
Ironman mode 2, where you have to micromanage your saves too, not just the characters.
I was thinking that this lot might enhance immersion. (of course this would make the beginning of the game much more deadly)
Opinions?
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I wonder if there will be romance in the novella..... :D:D:D
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Bad, bad troll instinct.....
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There is so much ignorance in this thread that I have to resist writing a long ranty post correcting EVERYONE.
Someone is wrong on the internet, but I'm going to bed.
Then please correct only what i wrote, mr JFSOCC. I am always happy to get some critics that can possibly enrich me. Especially when we disagree and i get to see the reasons why. I won't get into a petty argument, that's a promise.
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Concepts like self-respect and self-worth are not things in and of themselves, they are definitions or descriptions of certain sets of behaviors, thoughts, or traits. It's like how colors are not actual things, they're just labels of certain spectrum of wavelengths that we use as an effective method of conveying information. To say that someone does something because they have low self-respect is to confuse definitions with causes. It's like saying that a beam of light has a wavelength of 440 nm because it's purple when in actuality, the reason why we call this beam of light purple is because it falls within a spectrum that we've arbitrarily decided should be labeled "purple."
Also, the experiment with the rats being shocked was an experiment on aggression. It's basically just a survival instinct and has nothing to do with self-worth. It's kind of like animals will avoid a certain food if they're subjected to radiation that causes nausea after they're given the food, even though there's no natural connection between the food and the cause of the nausea.
Yes, but you see we can only talk about models of reality. We cannot say anything about reality itself. Models are built up from concepts, that have to be defined and we have to be precise. Yet, when i ask someone what time it is, i never get "state your definition of time" or "depends on the location of measurement" as the answer. Judging from your response what i wrote was good enough to come across and that's good enough for me.
I don't agree with you on the explanation of the behaviour of the rats though. But, just out of curiosity, how would you explain the bystander effect?
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The problem with religions in fantasy RPGs is that gods exist and we have two paradigms of how that intereaction goes i.e. fending machine, worship/reward, sacrifice/reward, charity/reward and "mysterious ways". In reality gods do not exist, we only have superstition as a basis for gods interacting with the world, and that's basically people believing what's convenient or flattering to them most of the time.
Gods do not exists? That depends on your definition of the word 'god'.
As i see it, people created gods because they needed them. The great bull aided the hunters, the sun god watched over the crops and the wind god brought luck to the explorers. (i made these up)
God, in this sense, is actually the real face of the person who called him or her into existence. Of course god exists. Just look into the mirror if you want to see him or her. God is the externalization of the deepest wishes of humans onto the forces of nature. And it's not hard to see why people *needed* the gods in the age of pestilence. And if you look at the right places it's not hard to see why people *need* the gods in the modern world, today. And will keep needing them.
So what is the definition of self-respect then? What is self-worth? I dont know exactly. But i know that it depends on the feedback of your own actions and it depends on the feedback you get from others - the opinion of the group you feel you belong to. Self-worth is kind of an 'average rank' in the pecking order, based on 'overall usefulness' from your own perspective, or rather, your control over reality.
So, why do i think that low-self-respect is an unhealthy state of mind? Why am i against the subtle messages that promote low-self-respect? (for example, the popular message that self-sacrifice is a virtue - now this can be found in lots of places in the popular media.... and it's really saying that being useful to others even at the cost of your own peril is a virtue)
Some time ago an experiment was conducted at an american university (if i remember correctly -- perhaps i could find the original article if anyone is interested). During the experiment a couple of rats were periodically subjected to a small dosage of electric shock. They felt the pain, but they didn't suffer any major damage. What do you think happened after a while?
The rats ganged on one of their own and tore it to pieces.
You see, they were protecting themselves from getting shocked. They protected their own self-respect, their illusion of control. That's why it had to be this one rats fault.
History provides plenty of evidence of similar behavioral patterns from humans. The nazis, the commies, etc. It's also not hard to see why evolution could be the real culprit behind this behavioral pattern: like rats, humans are social animals.
Let me explain that a bit more.
If you are practically useless to *your* group, your self-worth goes down. Then you feel that self-sacrifice is a virtue and this feeling is the product of both the culture you live in and your genetics. You will want to sacrifice *for others* to show *to others* that you are a good person. And because of this, the effectivity, the chance of survival of the group might increase, since the resources are going to the more successful members. Of course, nobody wants to be the omega dog or the kid who is being bullied, so eventually you will try to fight to restore your self-worth and become the bully in some form or other. That's why you really can't blame the rats for ripping one of their own into pieces.
Because, if you think about it, a small burst of gamma ray radiation from a nearby star could sterilize the planet without causing any ruckus in the galaxy whatsoever. Everything that matters to you could be gone in a small puff, in the blink of an eye. This is the insane reality that completely undermines your self-worth, that takes control away from you. The a-bombs have the same effect on your ego.... just knowing about the threat causes damage.
If you think about it a little bit more, you might find it strange that despite the impossible odds, the huge amount of time that was needed for life to emerge on this planet, there actually *is* life on Earth. This evidence suggests that life is a very potent natural force. But you yourself are connected to this mysterious, hidden natural force in a very personal way, since you live. This connection is the real reson for the need for gods. This is the reality that gives your self-worth, your control back to you.
So, i'm against rubbing it into the peoples faces that "there are things out there far-far-far greater and more powerful than us". Of course there are. A waterfall, a whirlwind, a lightning is much more powerful than you. Even a gorilla is much stronger than you will ever be.
I would have said to G'Kar that perhaps we are ants now, but guess what, we lived in caves once. In time, we will get there, buddy. And i'm against thinking that humanity is "flawed" in any way for reasons mentioned above. Anyway, i just wanted to shed some more light on what i wrote in the opening post. And of course it's just how i see it, an opinion, my opinion, and i borrowed it from various books and articles refining bits and pieces.
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Some of OP can well expand and add depth on previous, pretty stale mechanics that were in infinity engine games. Tempels in BG series felt more like glorified shops.
I am just not sure about your take on "higher entities". I feel you have certain arrogance going on about it. Here is a scene from Babylon 5 to sum how I usually feel about these entities, whatever franchise tends to call them, aliens, gods, demons, angeles, fairies etc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLZW8Deq8vE. Loved that show, G'Kar and ants analogy is pretty awsome.
Is it really wrong to feel important? I think that everyone should feel himself/herself the most important thing in the universe. What is there to gain from feeling like an ant? As far as i see it, the culture that promotes low self-respect is exactly the reason why things such as the bystander effect can be expected.
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Message category: ridiculous request
I want Lampyris noctiluca (the common glow-worm) lights visible in forests of Eir Glanfath during night-time!
and i want swampflames in swamps!
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The problem, as vividly displayed here (especially in the OP), is twofold: pretty much nobody in the modern era, or at least very few rpg grognards, have ever done a serious study of any particular religion, let alone practiced one as an adult (and those which are practiced today in Europe and the Americas are more or less affirmational therapeutic Deism rather than a real faith, with some small-but-loud pockets of morally-assertive but mindless Deism mixed in). Thus both observational knowledge and experiential knowledge are absent. When people use theological language, they don't even know what the words mean, freely substituting folk pseudoknowledge and making logical leaps from foundations of sand. It's cringe-inducing, similar to listening to someone speaking of physics when they clearly don't know what the terms "force" and "power" (much less "uncertainty" or "spin") mean, then going on to assert various absurd feats of mechanical engineering are real based on their faulty major premise.
From my perspective, the popular religions (in real life) operate by undermining self-worth, offering "poison" to those who need to lean on it. I also see that this needn't be this way. I have serious issues with practically everything they offer, starting from the core concepts to the entire value system that serves as backbone. I guess you reacted to my condescending opening post. I hope i was not offending you or anyone by voicing my opinion, but you see, this is my opinion, and perhaps, my opinion doesn't really matter for anyone but me. As for primary / primitive - well, i am working with a language barrier here.
But you opened my eyes to the possibility that some people might find certain ingame religions as offesive caricatures of their real world counterparts. That could be an issue especially with prophets, who shouldn't be portrayed.
But let's get back to our main topic: what nuances would you use to improve the ingame religion system? Would there be small-but-loud pockets folk having (shallow) faith in the god of hunt, for example?
What i would really like to see in a game such as this is an almost real cultural diversity. How characters who come from completely different cultures interact with each other.
In this perspective i found both baldurs gate and dragon age: origins severly lacking. Yes, there was an attempt at diversifying cultures, but all the people you met worked essentially the same way. They essentially had the same core values, which came from modern western real-life world counterparts. How about using words for feelings we don't have words for?
How about connecting certain tribal rites or rules of behaviour with personality development (and (divine) magic)?
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) And you could decide at the start of the game if save-scumming is for you or not. Because lets be honest: any player who can't overcome an enemy at a certain point of the game (due to bad character build, for example) will try the save-scum-insta-death-spell combo, using the possibility to load the game arbitrarily many times to manually raise the chance of the success of the spell. I think some people will play this way and they will enjoy the gaming experience, despite the cheat. But an ironman mode, where saving / loading is limited to some rare resources found in the game.... now that i would try!
Small suggestions. Easily implemented ideas, quickfire thoughts.
in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
Posted · Edited by Naesh
I think it's a great idea to vary classes too, on hardcore difficulty. Basically, it disables calculated powerplay. You won't know what type of party you could put together until you have met all the companion characters.