Endrosz

The guy who created this rant is one of my favorite computer game commentators. His new video is very relevant to PoE -- "mature themes" was a major point in the original pitch video, discussed briefly by all three of the featured game designers. That's why I created this topic here and not in 'Computer and Console'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRsqAmuxjNk&feature=c4-overview&list=UUI3GAJaOTL1BoipG41OmfyA Most important line, at least to me: "But I'm not using this term [realistic] in the literal sense, I'm using it in the literary sense." I had the exact same train of thought a few years back, based on movies I watched. Mature doesn't mean extreme violence or showing titties to me, it's something else.** I would argue that Sofia Coppola's 'Somewhere' is one of the most mature movies Hollywood ever produced, yet it was panned by most critics and viewers. Boring, eh? You got to be an adult yourself and willing to look hard for small details to understand the depth of that movie, to relate to it. It takes viewer effort to unfold as an experience, as it's not the usual spoon-fed fairy tale. Back to PoE: - Josh stated in a trade show presentation that PoE is "for readers" - In a recent interview, he stated: "Exploration is one of the things we wanted to reinforce for this game, and part of that means look around. Walk around. Figure it out. We don’t want to be vague, but talk to people. Use your eyes and brain." These statements coming from the creative lead give me a warm, fuzzy feeling that they understand how to deliver mature content that isn't just about Ultra-Violence and/or objectification of women (and occasionally, men). If you like that stuff, sure, PoE will feature them most likely, but hopefully only as means to create a story, not ends by themselves. TL;DR To me, mature means two things: -- It deals with the problems of real-life adults (sometimes in a metaphorical manner) -- It presents its topics with a realistic approach (realistic in the literary sense) ** Since I'm from the EU with different standards, showing titties is absolutely no big deal for me. When you're a baby, you suck a tit several times a day, so it's a very natural sight, even though the cultural norm requires to hide them... (in many primitive cultures, women don't hide their breasts). Violence, mutilation, etc. now that's really disturbing, but also not the typical problem/situation that an adult has to deal with. I don't worry about someone chopping me up with a chainsaw, but I do worry about dying alone, without family and/or friends, for example. So if you want to sell me a movie/game with 'mature themes', start thinking about how to present an abstract concept like 'loneliness' in that medium... And you may end up with a work of art like "The Company of Myself", which is the highest rated puzzle game on Kongregate.

Heh, a good friend of mine, avid PnP roleplayer, likes to quote this when it comes to assessing relative combat strengths. "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." There's more to combat than accelerating an object designed for hurting. This reminds me of NWN2's "opening vignette", the Harvest Festival in West Harbor. Georg, the militia leader tells you the story of how Cormick beat Lorne, who was strong as an ox -- a big brute, as you find out yourself later in the campaign. Cormick evaded him, but not with the intent of tiring him out, Lorne had great stamina, too. He knew Lorne would get angry, and "his anger made him smaller", and Cormick simply delayed engagement "until Lorne was so small that he could beat him". In PoE's current terms, he used his much higher Resolve (patience, steadiness, perseverance, unswaying will) to beat Lorne by not trading hits until he had the advantage. I know this is not a real-life example, but it feels 'right' to me. I can relate this to real-life experiences. For example, I would argue that looking for a job in a bad situation requires at least as much Resolve as Intellect and skills and ****.

Yes. Isn't it wonderful that we get to create GAMES where we can set the rules as we see fit, including a more balanced approach so that more character concepts become viable? Also, if you crave more realism, would you like to roll for stats, too? Because rolling for stats is a lot-more life-like than the points-buy approach of almost every RPG in the last decade. Some people are born with higher attributes than others. I understand that we're already knee-deep in the "simulationist vs. gamist" debate, so a quick stance: I believe that a game should provide entertainment, and that depends on what it wants to be. If it aims to be a simulation (ArmA, vehicle simulators, serious tycoon games), it must be a good simulation first, and a good game second. If it doesn't aim to be a simulation, it must be a good game first, and then add as much realism as you can without upsetting the game balance. (Nobody thinks that Settlers of Catan is a good colonization simulator, but it does resemble one somewhat.) You say this as if this is a choice. "Hey, my fighter is big, strong, stupid, which is so different from..." ...nobody who uses the same dump-allowing system? There is no MEANINGFUL choice here: you either build your fighter like this, or your fighter will suck (And in a multiplayer environment, co-op or MMO, you will be ridiculed for not going with the "optimal build", possibly even dumped from parties after pinging your build! I speak from experience). Just as Josh explained, the goal is to provide a variety of viable builds. Which means you CAN build a big, strong, stupid fighter, and it will play differently than an agile, canny or stubborn fighter. Under the current system, it will be a tank with a lot of Health and Stamina and less DPS than builds with more Intellect or Dexterity. Does it actually bother you that besides the stereotypical builds, other ones will also be viable? ---- A "no dump" system that I'm very familiar with. Guild Wars 2 has 4 basic stats: Power (affects damage) Precision (affects critical hit chance) Vitality (affects health) Toughness (affects armor) Since GW2 ditched the "holy trinity" of MMOs, meaning that there is no aggro management or powerful incoming healing available (everyone has a self-heal), every stat is desirable to every character. These 4 stats have a baseline value, even if you put no points into them, you'll still have some damage, some health etc. There are also 3 additional stats which start with a value of 0, but you can spec into them if you wish: healing power, condition damage and critical damage, and 1 special stat which is class-dependent, also starting from 0. This means that GW2 has 4 primary (universally desired) stats, and 4 secondary (build-dependent) stats. It works pretty well, although I have to admit that the balance is much better in PvP than in PvE. EDIT: Ninja'd on the fighter tank by PrimeJunta. .

Now that I think about it, maybe the problem is simply that we have 6 stats and not enough always relevant ("omnipresent") duties to distribute between them. Doesn't matter how we juggle them, at least one of the stats will be lacking. Solution: Either come up with a new always relevant duty and assign it to the least attractive stat, or reduce the number of stats to 5, and redistribute.

I fully agree with the goals of the system, and hope that during testing a good all-around balance will take shape. Re: Strength not an attractive stat I have this gut feeling that Health coming from Strength will be a bigger issue than people make it right now. We have to get rid of your old perceptions, several things are vastly different in PoE than in DnD&Co, starting with very limited healing. Whether our favorites are the old-school RPGs from '80s, isometric RPGs from the '90s, action RPGs from the past 15 years, we're accustomed to powerful healing readily available. Chug a Full Rejuv Pot in Diablo 2, cast Heal in ADnD games, wait for the healers to heal you in an MMO raid, it's all the same: HPS (healing per second) keeps you alive, your health is simply a buffer against a DPS burst. For example, while Con in DnD isn't a dump stat, I never, ever remember raising it above 14 via the points-buy system, or assigning a really high value to it in the older stat rolling games. With Con ~14 and buffs, I have enough HP not to die from, say, an initial swarm of high-level sneak attacks in NWN2, and after that, it's Heal/Greater Restoration/Mass Heal time, baby. If you remove powerful and constant healing, suddenly Health is much more important. We'll see, of course, it's just a guess.

^ Promising the stars and then delivering a burnt-down candle? Standard procedure for Peter Molyneux. Move along, citizen, nothing to see here. ... Don't take the above the wrong way, I feel for you, I really do. Also, thanks for telling us the details about Godus. So far, I've yet to see a serious disappointment funded with my pledge. Besides the old-but-new RPGs, Telepath Tactics is coming along nicely.

RPGWatch received a couple of Steam keys for Blackguard Early Access Whatever Edition, and they're giving them out via lottery. All you need to do is write an answer to the following question: "Why is turn-based combat better than real-time combat?" http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22696 The answers will not be considered, the drawings will be random. They're there to amuse ourselves/troll others.

Quote from the OP by Brandon Adler: They have a current production schedule, which needs to be expanded to accommodate the additional content. Unless they're time wizards or something. Re: Impatience Yes, I'm the more patient one, because I'm willing to wait more for stuff that's not in the current production plan than people who want that content in "vanilla" PoE. My point is that don't feel that you're losing anything if you don't vote for more content. There'll be tons more content for this world even if these goals are not added -- it'll just happen in another form, later down the road.

What, over 70% who voted want the game delayed? Re: More companions I recently replayed NWN2 OC and MotB back-to-back, and I have to say that while the latter has far less talking companions (11 vs 5), the party experience is still leagues better there. OC is spread thin is this regard, the more focused but at the same time more branching, more complex approach of MotB felt a lot more rewarding. Just like a few people said, more than 8 companions is... a burden for me, even though I'm perfectly aware that I don't need to take them on. 8 is more than enough to create a ton of inter-party banter and reactivity, I say. MotB was able to get very far with just 4 at a time (since you can't get both Okku and One of Many in a single playthrough). Re: More wilderness areas After PoE is out, we can have a GAZILLIONOODLEVASTHEAP of expansions, sequels and the like. With digital distribution and an IP they own (so they gain a lot more revenue from sales than a simple contract bonus) and the opportunity to do more crowdfunding for new projects, the road's open before Obsidian, the blocks have been removed. It's not like this game, as it will be, is only thing that can satiate your appetite for an IE-style RPG in this entire century... There will be room for more, there will be time for more, so don't act like impatient children wanting all the gifts ever, now. TL;DR Don't delay this game, please. Obsidian can and will do more IE-style goodness after PoE ships, rest assured.

Umm, so filling out the survey is not enough, I have to post the forum title I want here, too? Okay: Silent Prospector of the Obsidian Order

This is actually a hard question... I want so many RPG-things done right - and I put my faith in Sawyer's design principles that I'll get most of those with PoE - that it's difficult to pick one that I want the most. I think I'll go with simply Choice and Consequence. It's a funny thing to say, because the label 'RPG' has been so inflated and bloated over the past two decades that currently it only means 'it has character leveling and item equipping mechanics'. When I say 'I want C&C', I actually mean 'I want an RPG', you know, a ROLE PLAYING game, but the meaning has changed so much that we had to invent another term just to be able to say what we want. In these past years, only MotB, the Witcher and F:NV gave me fulfillment in this regard (and those are weighed down with the costs of voice over and full immersive 3D). Then Age of Decadence is THE game for you (currently in Steam Early Access). There is a demo, I played it twice, first with an assassin, then with a loremaster, and I was completely blown away how different and non-violent the gameplay was with a non-combatant character. It is one of the very few computer RPGs which reminded me of PnP roleplaying. Check it you for yourself: http://store.steampowered.com/app/230070/ (demo download link on the right). The recommendation also goes to mcmanusaur, for the same reasons. As a Witcher fan yourself, you know about the Witcher 3 coming along, right? It promises exactly what you're talking about, plus the pointless sex.

Excellent news overall, but I have two points to discuss . 1. Prestige vs. taxes Your take: Higher prestige means higher taxes My point: Common people like it when the taxes are LOW, and then they love BECAUSE of that. So, either low taxes and high reputation, or high taxes and low reputation, that's how the world works. Prestige should have different rewards: valuable NPCs showing up and volunteering for service, more people signing up as guards, and also what you said, lower chance of "bad" events. This creates decisions: do I want MOAR money to upgrade the castle and buy unique stuff, etc., or do I want to become popular with the people, so that I can enjoy other, less material advantages? (see: Castles 1-2, King of Dragon Pass). 2. Reputation as a lord and the "bad guy" approach One of the most definitive books on the subject of rulership is a classic one, "The Prince" from Niccolo Machiavelli (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1232). In that book he shows that there are two basic ways to maintain rulership for a longer period: to be loved (charismatic, the Renly Baratheon way), or to be feared (oppressive, the Tywin Lannister way). Then he argues that "it is better to be feared than it is to be loved". Whether that's true, I won't go into that now (and it's also possible to mix up the two to some degree). As several people pointed out, the current framework only supports the charismatic way of ruling. I would like the mechanics and rewards changed so that it's possible to rule via the oppressive way, and get appropriate -- and somewhat different! -- rewards for that. Instead of prestige, a single measurement, I would like to have a Love-O-Meter AND a Fear-O-Meter. That would improve the whole stronghold experience immensely, and also open up a lot of new possibilities in the stronghold content.

I felt the same! The stone-skinned (heh) UI concepts didn't appeal to me, the wood does. I recently played the original BG, and found that I didn't like the stone there either -- now. Nostalgia kind of cheats you in subtle ways. Also, thanks for movie recommendation! Me and a good friend of mine now have an interesting film to look forward to.

As an avid Guild Wars 2 player, I approve of the name Shake It Off. Follow the link for a skill with this exact same name and similar effect. Also, in GW2 your character actually shouts out this skill's name, since it's a shout-type skill there, which is really cool. Everything is else fine by me, but I don't make a post just to say that.

So the "battle of the UI" is still raging, eh? My 2 cents: I play on a laptop with 760ish vertical resolution, and vertical space is premium for me. I prefer a left OR right sided UI above any other solution. My suggestion: - create a rectangular shaped UI block with everything minus the dialogue - allow that UI block to placed left, right, bottom left, bottom right (4 options) - the dialogue block is automatically placed on the other side, bottom. Here's a basic mockup of my suggestion, no fancy graphics. http://www.flickr.com/photos/96984471@N05/8957730610/ (I was unable to embed an image...)

But that's my entire point. Reaching Tarant doesn't constitute a "playthrough" - at least, for me... There are so many late-game twists and turns, I really, really want to see him react to that. Like the ones involving Nasrudin, the Panar'ri religion, St. Mannox... That's what would be worth watching.

First post, long-time lurker... I was eagerly awaiting the Arcanum playthrough. Tim Cain delivered on the promise that games don't need to be about heroes saving the world, so it should be fun to watch MCA discover all that's inside. However, after this second Let's Play update, I must voice my concern about his "natural playthrough" shown in real-time, with no cuts. It's been 2 updates and 1 and 1/2 hours and Chris still hasn't reached Shrouded Hills, which is just the very first stop on the long road to solving the mysteries of Arcanum. At this tempo, it' going to take him 200 hours to get to the end, and probably more... Cut to the chase, only put up 10-minutes edited videos of him doing something that actually matters, please! The poll that was put up here on the forum ended with "10 minute YouTube chunks" winning - I voted for that option, too. However, that option doesn't simply mean that we prefer 10 minute chunks of a longer video (that's just a technical difference, not a content difference), we want the gameplay edited down to that size, with only the juicy stuff shown! The first update was decent because it included the character creation and other general commentary, and that was nice to hear. But this second one was an almost complete waste of time. I would be completely accepting that instead of live commentary, the commentary would be dubbed later on, to allow for more insight on the events playing out. I want Chris to be in the thick of Arcanum's excellent story and location-packed world, not fumbling around with the UI and getting his party killed. The clueless berk (see what I did there?) doesn't even know anything about the byzantine character advancement system, with mastery levels and attribute requirements and all that jazz. I would advise him to consult the excellent manual, spoiler-free and written in period speech, really fun to read.