Iucounu
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Everything posted by Iucounu
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Well, yeah. After thinking about it a bit more, I don't particularly like the idea anymore. Better stick to the "teleport without error" version, or even better, portals. However I still think spells that instantly affect a target could be interesting (bypassing dodge and block defense). Maybe some sort of voodoo-curse magic, or sympathy as described in Patrick Rothfuss Kingkiller Chronicles. Even though I'm aware that's kind of difficult to build in a computer game. I actually enjoy deathspells. It was always fun to lower the saving-throws of a dragon in BG systematically and than kill with a chromatic orb, rather than simply chopping it down. Two different means to an end. And in DA it was always my favorite combo to freeze and than shatter foes, which also bypasses hitpoints, and was a lifesaver especially on the hardest difficulty. The main problem I see with deathspells and all save-or-else spells is when you try to offset their fatal effects only by probability. Good example would be this. Not a very tactical approach. -
It doesn't need to be a simple spell. On the contrary, casting spells that instantly affect a target without moving projectiles could be among the highest forms of magic. Take Naruto for example, only few ninja can control space-time jutsus there. And if you still think it's overpowered, you can always make it dependant on additional conditions. For instance, the fourth Hokage could only teleport himself to an opponent if he had previously marked him. I admit it's a challenge to integrate such spells into a game and make them logically coherent and not overpowered. But when it works..
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Isn't it just the same with Deathspells? For example THE Deathspell in old D&D, killed you for certain if you were below a certain level. But that didn't mean that you had no way to defend yourself. You could buff yourself with deathward, disrupt the caster, go invisible ect.
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Wondrous Items in Project Eternity
Iucounu replied to TRX850's topic in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
Infernal Gaunlets These gaunlets allow the wearer to touch the very soul of a being, which enables him to grip and move it. The wearer may rip the soul out of a creature by sheer force, although, depending on the soul of the creature, this requires a tremendous amount of strength or some similiar power. Furthermore, it requires great dexterity and speed to get a grip on the soul of an opponent in the midst of combat. Álternatively, for a skilled thief it's possible to "pickpocket" a soul. The thief uses his pickpocket skill and his general deceiving skill to steal a soul with the least possible resistance, and without the unfortunate victim even noticing anything before it's too late. The necessary skill to accomplish such a feat is measured by the soulpower of the victim, which directly correlates with the selfawareness of the vicitm. As soon as the soul in the posession of the wearer, he may store it through some magical means, simply let it loose, or swallow up the soul into his own. The latter provides the user with a temporal boost in power and additionally, enables him to wear the stolen soul like a mask. Within the essence of the stolen soul usually still fluctuates an echo of it's former manifestation. This enables the wearer to turn into some corrupt form of his former victim, with all the victim's abilities at his disposal. However, this is a deeply unnatural process, and puts the wearer into danger of losing himself. He may turn into an abomination of some sort, consisting of several souls that are incompatible to each other, and yet behave as one. It is also possible that a soul is torn apart in the process, and through some weird metaphysical process, two or more souls arise that manifest beings which are inherently incomplete and wrong. The origin of the infernal gaunlets is unknown. However, they once were in the posession of a legendary orlan thief, who soon turned into an emissary of "hell", which gave the gaunlets their name. He stole the souls of many powerful mortals, and instead of using them himself, traded them with a demon for youth and power. He lived several hundred years, wielded power beyond what most mortals could ever hope to achieve, but was unsatisfied. At some point in his long life, he grew weary of his existence as a mere mortal. He wanted to be more, turn into a higher being. Before he disappeared from the face of the world, he planned to steal the soul of the very demon with whom he had traded souls. if he succeeded is unknown. The infernal gaunlets, being both material and ethereal, can penetrate any physical obstacle and any known magical defense, including the arcane veil. -
Of course there should be elements, but schools of magic as well (or some other structure for an intelligent magic system). If Obsidian came up with a boring fire/ice/lighting magic like in Diablo, PE would be pretty much dead for me. Magic is just a key factor for me in such games. Basically, I think everything should be possible with the right sort of magic. Even the mind shouldn't be reserved only to Blickers, but to very powerful mages with specialised spells aswell, although perhaps not so powerful, or just different in nature. For example, the effect that Blickers become more powerful the more minds are nearby, could be something that is very difficult to translate into some spell.
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If you don't see the point, I suggest you simply stop
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No need to be sensitive. I gave you a critique, you started being witty about it and I responded by being witty myself, and I guess, poking fun a bit on your worldview/belief myself. But if that's it, I see no reason to continue this.
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Other than I've said nothing like that? No.
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That's the worst sort
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I generally dislike such "tragic heros" who are just too awesome to life. I'm sure if TNO would have been anything like that, PS:T would get even more bashing in this thread than poor little BG 1. You're probably right that it's not impossible. But I would say in most cases, it is.
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Well, epic in the way of kicking everybody's ass, being glorious, having a great impact and whatnot. But when it comes to exploring a certain subject, or personal matter, like Torment did, everything that is too much outside of the topic is perhaps just an hinderance. There are many people who said it would have been best if Torment were an adventure. I can't say I agree (in a planescape setting combat just has to play a certain role), but they got a point somehow.
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@Malekith Baldurs Gate 2 was an epic game, if I ever saw one. Torment isn't. This has not necessarily something to do with how good the writing is, it are just two different games. @PrimeJunta Well, you claimed that MCA is probably deep into Buddhism, to be able to make a game like Torment, which you hold so dear. That's all I know. And yeah, you can be full of yourself when it comes to you worldview. But no need to make people with other worldviews ridicuolous.
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Question is, would a PS:T-IWD hybrid have worked? I doubt it. I'd argue that good intelligent combat, often generates a feeling of epicness, and epic just doesn't fit in PS:T. And even if not, it would be at best a distraction. Imagine how Franz Kafka's "The Trial" would have been if the protagonist had to solve some riddle every now and then, to get ahead in the story, or if there would be combat that is emphasised as if the book was written by Salvatore. Just out of place. If you try to make the best out of every aspect of a game, you may find out that these aspects are incompatible to each other. @PrimeJunta I guess it's obvious that PS:T was inspired by Buddhism and Hinduism (even though there are other philosophical influences as well). However, the notion that you need to be a buddhist to create true art, or to have grasped the concept of reality, is imho a bit far-fetched. I have yet to see a buddhist, new ager, or whatever, who isn't full of himself, especially when it comes to people with a monetheistic worldview. The world can be interpreted in more than just one way, as can most games, books, or art in general.
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Depends on the setting. I also like the Might&Magic games, but I don't think "high fantasy retardism" is something for every game.
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I fully agree. The BG 1 NPC Project actually was the best game experience I ever had, along with the Longer Road mod from BG II TOB. Although on the latter, tastes might differ.. It isn't. Must I say much more? I don't consider the half-empty maps as something bad. I mean, that's just how it usually is in the wilderness. And of course you're entitled to your opinion. But many people regard explorability as one of the good things in BG I, even if they don't like the game much as a whole. I figure that if one has first played IWD and BG II combatwise, BG I might appear rather underwhelming. But overall, it's not a bad game. It has not all elements that a modern game should have, so naturally, today's players find it lacking. But the things it does, in my opinion, it does very well.
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Well, whatever. I'm not embarassing myself any further by playing the BG I fanboy. Just wanted to make sure that you have any clue what you're talking about.
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It is silly. But you could say the same about your previous post, as almost everything is debatable. That's the same. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eacYsKqPFYg So you’re telling me, for example this is particularly bad? Not atmospheric? Don't make me laugh. I dare say most people would agree with me that IWD is harder than BG. Although my experience might be a bit extreme as I played IWD with mediocre characters, while I used to powergame in BG. But never mind. What exactly did you find repetitive in BG combat if you liked IWD in this regard? If you say so. However, I'm afraid in that case you won't like BG II either, as many of the dopey characters of BG I will appear there too.
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You probably just don't like one or two aspects about it, and now you're trying to make the game look bad as a whole. The music, while perhaps no masterpiece, was above average. The candlekeep track is even one of my all time favorites. It's not like the combat was much different from Icewind Dale. Icewind Dale was harder, but that's about it. If anything, Baldurs Gate had more combat with other adventuring/mercanary groups, which I think is always the best part. And you can't really compare the characters to, let's say, the one's of Planescape. Baldurs Gate I never demanded to be an "adult", realistic or particularly intelligent game, it was more of a fun game most of the time, that didn't take itself very seriously. Minsk, Edwin, Xan, Kagain all were rather caricative characters, or well, just dopey. But I don't think Bioware made such a bad job there. No it isn't.
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um, well then, I don't want to push this discussion any more than necessary. It's just my opinion that it's possible to make a good high-power fantasy RPG without or at least with limited HP inflation. Not terribly. I mean that would be just the same as in the IE games. But I could live with it.
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You can set the base HP higher and still limit HP inflation. Besides, good hits mustn't be something that happens in every strike, unless your opponent is far more skilled. You can always, parry, block, interrupt and whatnot. And what's so bad about resist damage items? I've always preferred it in a game when armor, or equipment in general, was more important than HP. Maybe some characters could have the ability to absorb a certain amount of damage through the power of their souls (probably with tradeoffs), as you proposed. Others would have to dodge, parry, block, feint, using magical defenses, teleportation, illusions, counter spells, equipment, resistances, killing or disturbing or otherwise disable the caster, or well, just do nothing and die or get seriously wounded. Spotting, divination, traps, magical defense, armor? There are certainly ways to deal with that. Like offensive stances, that are inefficient or suicide against high level opponents, but effective against low level ones. Feints that only work consistently on unskilled fighters, and cause tremendous damage. Counterattacks on critical and not so critical misses, that instakill an opponent without the necessary feats and skills. Just examples, I think there are lots of great ideas in this forum that show that combat is more than just damage vs HP. Besides, low-level opponents are unlikely to wear the best magical armor and equipment. So that's something that could be a great advantage too. BTW, I have nothing against a bit of HP inflation if it's necessary. But for me that's the last thing to do, when you just have no better ideas anymore.
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@JFSOCC: But in the end, it's stamina that decides how much damage you can take in a fight. So what would be the difference to mere HP inflation? Or is there something I don't get? @TrashMan Depends. If for example you wear a Full Plate Mail that grants you 10 points damage-reduction you could easily hold yourself against foes who strike for 7-12 damage/hit. Of course against a dragon who does 30 damage-points in a hit, you would be ****ed. But that's realistic, right? Only problem I see with that is to balance it out with light-armored fighters and magic spells. But in the case of magic, I have no problem if it's overpowered. I always found it dull if I've needed 5 lighting bolts to kill an opponent. Makes magic look so unspectacular. I'd rather have the option to dodge or even parry damage-spells fully or partially, than just to let characters withstand it through hardiness. Similiar to NWN with monks and rogues.
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Problem with Arcanum is, you level rather slow with a character who sucks at fighting, as every successful hit gives XP. You might want to put some points into melee or firearms.
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@Trashman Thanks for the information. I've actually assumed you've implemented some of hardcore system where every character gets only 20-30 HP. Might have even worked that way considering you already introduced damage-absorbing armor. @general_azure I think in the case of PE it's a bit more complicated, as conventional HP is also stamina. So if you leave out HP inflation, you end up with always the same amount of fuel for special attacks, unless you lower stamina costs for high level fighters. In any case, a thread or even a poll about HP/stamina inflation would be a good idea.
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While in some cases it this might be interesting, familiarity is still a big factor. And because we're generally most familiar with reality, a fantasy world must always uphold a certain degree of realism if it's supposed to be appealing. The most successful fantasy settings are those with worlds where basic physical laws like gravity apply, and with humans as protagonists, not insectoids. Of course tastes may differ on how familiar a certain setting is supposed to be, and it might be possible to adapt to even the strangest scenarios after a while. But we're talking about a game that's supposed to resemble the IE games. And while there is magic in these games, there is still a world outside of magic, which is similiar to the real world. If this wouldn't be the case for PE, it would be completely different from any IE game, and practically almost every other fantasy setting. Believability has more to do with logical coherence of a setting and a story I think.
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If I may ask, what things have you modified in the mod? How high was the base HP? And is the mod available somewhere?
