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Chrononaut
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Posts posted by Chrononaut
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Yes, I am suspicious of any RPG that is multi-platform, except perhaps one that is ported elsewhere maybe a year or more after the PC release with no discernable design influences to make it easier to port to console or tablet.
I mean look at Shadowrun Returns recently, game isn't even on iOS (yet), and the PC/Mac users still had to deal with a horrible, big, ugly tablet touch interface.
I like PC games, I like the small, tight UI design that only comes from being designed for mouse control first and foremost. Consoletards can whine and complain that a port is "only giving them the choice" of buying/playing on console, but in the real-world of game design it doesn't work like that. For a game to be equally controllable on PC and console, it needs to be designed (both UI and controls) from the ground-up at the beginning to be a multi-platform game. And the ONLY result of that, from what we've seen from every multi-platform game, is that the PC version suffers, because the least complex control scheme, the gamepad, is what is what is designed for first, PC controls second, it's the old "lowest common denominator" thing at work again.
I would say that it is impossible to have a multi-platform game in which the PC version, the most complex version, does not suffer as a result of the least complex version, the console version. Developers and designers actually gain a myriad of new opportunities and they gain so much more freedom when they don't have to constantly have in the back of their mind the limitations of the console, both memory and controls. It is an insidious influence because any design decision made under this influence, whether it's cutting back on the size of levels or the amount of enemies in a level due to limitations of console memory, UI design, control design, and any number of smaller decisions that might come even from the general idea that at some point in the future they may want to port this game to console and doing this now for the PC version may make it easier when they do.
It's better for the designers just to say from the start, no console version ever, and then develop the game with that freedom of knowing their platform. It's why even console games and PC games were better back in the 90's before the multi-platform era of the first Xbox, console games were console games, they were designed for console, and same for PC games, they existed in their own self-contained worlds.
Even Chris Avellone himself stated, he's sick of designing RPGs for console and console controllers. It's better for everybody to just forget about consoles entirely and concentrate on the Master Race, exclusively. PE was Kickstarter funded and doesn't have a publisher calling the shots, so OE don't have to make a mainstream "RPG for the masses".
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It probably prefers to the Linux version. As you said GOG has been doing Mac (where it can) for a while now.
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I assume it's a popular enough feature for obsidian to consider putting it in the original game.
popular =/= good design
I'm asking for a choice. Not for the game to be balanced around it.
Then wait for a mod. There's no reason that the game should officially support what amounts to cheating.
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You don't care about a pause Trudel? It would be downright impossible to control up to 6 characters in real-time all with their own abilities/spells also while concentrating on multiple enemies, without a pause button to issue orders.
That's why I think RTWP is a dumb system, it's basically the designers admitting that real-time party combat is too frenetic to be controlled in real-time, so they slap a bandaid on top called the pause button. And what does the system accomplish? Just to make the battles superficially look more "realistic"?
I said that I didn't cared about how they want to make the battles menageables for 6 characters. If they can think of a way, thats fine with me ! A good AI that you can customize to your exact needs combined with a quick way to adapt or do special things might do the trick. Of course, nothing beat the pause system for now but I do have an open mind.
What I mean, Is that it's not the pause system I want. It's control over the battlefield. If I have that, I don't care about how it's done.
For example : I played DA:O on the hardest difficulty never pausing the entire game (unless I really had to pee), switching characters only to adapt to situations. I agree that this was an easy game, but anyhow. This was menageable enough to control 4 characters with no pause.
That's cause DAO was a shallow RPG, try and play BG or IWD without pausing and see how you fare
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Ok, I want to add one more thing.
Yes you should grow a thick skin when talking on the internet, but imagine this. You work for a company that requires you to have constant contact with the people on the internet, ie. something like public relations, Then someone threatens you or worse yet your family. Now, as you work on the internet, you are not exactly incognito and it's not that far fetched that someone can figure out where you live and worse yet, years of exposure to the internet have introduced you to how bad/strange/mad people can be, it's not that strange that you could get unnerved. I mean you know that 99% it's some kid or a pathetic ****, but what if...
Sure, I never justified any of the alleged threats and insults.
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I am not referring to this forum in particular, but to the internet in general. People who cry victim over insults on the internet instead of just ignoring it, blocking the person or whatever, usually have an agenda. Which is why every time Hepler is "insulted" on the net, some new article on a games site pops out trying to make out that this is an issue of sexism or something.
Professional victims with social-justice agendas, if no one insulted these people then they'd be inventing imaginary people to insult them.
It's kind of hard to ignore something that you've already read.
I've also never understood people who attack the ones that gets attacked. I mean really.
Do you really expect me to care about someone who has expressly stated that my hobby (CRPGs, more traditional computer games) should not exist because it's too niche?
The insults that the internet trolls threw at her put aside, I couldn't give a crap. The less of those vile posers in the industry trying to ruin games, the better.
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You don't care about a pause Trudel? It would be downright impossible to control up to 6 characters in real-time all with their own abilities/spells also while concentrating on multiple enemies, without a pause button to issue orders.
That's why I think RTWP is a dumb system, it's basically the designers admitting that real-time party combat is too frenetic to be controlled in real-time, so they slap a bandaid on top called the pause button. And what does the system accomplish? Just to make the battles superficially look more "realistic"?
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The thing is you are controlling 5-6 characters at once and it would be impossible to tell them all what to do in a given round if you didn't have pause. Not only that, but pause gives you a reasonable ability to respond to unexpected events, like a sudden drop in health. I see where you are coming from, but it won't work in this type of game. It will only work if the combat is so slow paced that you wouldn't need pause, but that would be boring. Let's not talk of DA2, I still have nightmares ;d
Also, unless they implement voice commands that work REALLY WELL, I don't see how you can get rid of the interface. Having a bazillion hotkeys mapped to your keyboard wouldn't solve your problem.
Y'all are gonna hate me for this - I think making a good game that surpasses the IE games on the things they did well (beautiful atmospheric environments, and in Torment at least fantastic world and characters) is more important than copying the superficial aspects of the things the IE games did very, very poorly and trying to tweak them to make them Not As ****ty. I'm fine with slaughtering the sacred cows. If I were in charge of this project the very first thing I would have done before even pitching the kickstarter would have been to make a few prototypes that experiment with radical alterations to the formula, like ways to get rid of the hotbars, or fixing the pacing problem with RTwP (Transistor, for example, has a very promising approach).
So your solution to the perceived "problems" of the IE games is to turn PE into an Action-RPG?
Kickstarter backers did not pledge their money for anything radical, on the contrary this game was pitched on the very basis of cRPG traditionalism and nostalgia. Do I have trust in Obsidian? No, I do not, not the studio that made Alpha Protocol and Dungeon Siege 3. But I do have trust that if they know if they go too far and produce a game that's too far from an IE-style game that backers will be upset, it will cause division amongst fans, and no one wants that.
The biggest problem of the IE games was that they weren't turn-based, but simply had a turn-based system running under the hood as "rounds" on a timer AD&D was supposed to work in turns and forcing it into real-time was a bad decision. IWD2 and ToEE both used Third Edition and yet ToEE had better and more controllable combat. Of course, that ship has sailed and Obsidian chose RTWP combat for
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Well, I hope that any racial stuff in PE will go beyond a few lines of flavor text here and there and a different looking character model. I know OE are probably reticent about any bonuses or penalties to races, but I feel there needs to be more to race than flavor or there's not much point having races at all. If a Human, Dwarf, Elf, Orlan or whatever all have exactly the same base stats, what's the gameplay incentive to pick one or the other?
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People who cry victim over insults on the internet instead of just ignoring it, blocking the person or whatever, usually have an agenda. Which is why every time Hepler is "insulted" on the net, some new article on a games site pops out trying to make out that this is an issue of sexism or something.
Professional victims with social-justice agendas, if no one insulted these people then they'd be inventing imaginary people to insult them.
There are certainly cases as you describe. I've seen them on Kickstarter and in other places. What I try to be sensible about is the dogpiling in the first place. If someone, like Hepler, has made something you don't like, it's enough to tell them so, then the criticism can be devoid of bullying and threats and all that. Just tell the person that it sucks and why, and leave it at that.
P.S. I hate DA2 and ME3, just to get that out of the way.
Obviously, insults serve no point and as a previous poster pointed out, they dilute and destroy whatever legitimate criticism there was under all the garbage and angst.
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Are you new to the internet?
Outrageous insults and trolling just happen, getting all righteous and indignant about it won't change anything, I might suggest people like Hepler "grow thicker skin".
This! It should say it all for any civilized human being. Each continued attempt at justifying the horrors and the horrific effects of those threats is despicable. It's never, ever okay to treat any kind of person that way,
Lol, now this is cute.
Also, the whole gay thing is just how Bioware likes to deflect criticism of their terrible games. "You don't like ME3 or DA2, you are a nasty homophobic troll!"
StuffI am not referring to this forum in particular, but to the internet in general. People who cry victim over insults on the internet instead of just ignoring it, blocking the person or whatever, usually have an agenda. Which is why every time Hepler is "insulted" on the net, some new article on a games site pops out trying to make out that this is an issue of sexism or something.
Professional victims with social-justice agendas, if no one insulted these people then they'd be inventing imaginary people to insult them.
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That's much more noteworthy
It's an excellent example of when the internet goes off the rails. This should never ever happen and is utterly terrible.
Stuff like this is also why I have problems with fanatics in any given situation. The only thing they do is dillute a valid critisism and make discussions impossible.
^This! It should say it all for any civilized human being. Each continued attempt at justifying the horrors and the horrific effects of those threats is despicable. It's never, ever okay to treat any kind of person that way, and when it's been done on shady grounds, by individuals failing to deal with frustrations over one or two computer games with some fiction involving selectable gender roles, it's just so bizarre that I wish I could undo all such destructive actions in one sweep and rid the world of those problems forever.
Are you new to the internet? Outrageous insults and trolling just happen, getting all righteous and indignant about it won't change anything, I might suggest people like Hepler "grow thicker skin", but I know people like her are just playing victim to distract from real criticisms.
This! It should say it all for any civilized human being. Each continued attempt at justifying the horrors and the horrific effects of those threats is despicable. It's never, ever okay to treat any kind of person that way,
Lol, now this is cute.
Also, the whole gay thing is just how Bioware likes to deflect criticism of their terrible games. "You don't like ME3 or DA2, you are a nasty homophobic troll!"
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Neither do arbitrary power ceilings, but most devs absolutely love 'balancing' their games with them anyway.
Please explain how a level-cap is bad design. They exist to ensure the player does not hugely overlevel the content, this is bad?
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http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/15/4622252/plague-of-game-dev-harassment-erodes-industry-spurs-support-groups"Games cost much too much money to focus on a niche market," she said. "To survive, they need to be such a broadly popular part of entertainment culture that you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't play games. Women represent over 50 percent of the population, tend to be in charge of household finances, and are the majority purchasers of games (when factoring in games bought by women as gifts for husbands, children, friends, etc.). To indulge a community that is actively trying to alienate this powerful market segment (not to mention gay men, casual gamers of all types and anyone new to the hobby), is suicidal." - Jennifer Hepler
I think you should reconcile yourself to the fact that if every developer thought the way she does (and the way Bioware does) then games like Project Eternity or Wasteland 2 would not exist. Her views are are basically that traditional CRPG's (or any traditional niche games) should not exist, games should made for everybody.
Seriously, good riddance. She was a horrible, horrible writer to boot, possibly the worst in the industry.
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That's much more noteworthy
It's an excellent example of when the internet goes off the rails. This should never ever happen and is utterly terrible.
Stuff like this is also why I have problems with fanatics in any given situation. The only thing they do is dillute a valid critisism and make discussions impossible.
Hepler made no secret of the fact that she hated gameplay, and yet she continued to continue to work in the games industry. She is/was also a vocal proponent of the idea that video games shouldn't cater to niches of audiences, but instead be made as big an audience as possible.
Honestly, Bioware are responsible for so much decline in the video games industry that I cannot feel any sympathy for any of them.
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I assume it's a popular enough feature for obsidian to consider putting it in the original game.
popular =/= good design
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Just wait for a mod
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I don't believe PE is going to have any xp points for killing monsters, it'll all be from quests. I might be wrong though.
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Well, that's sortof what I meant. The part where it becomes a chore is when you're given a blank wilderness map with 800 hexes on it, plopped down onto a starting location, and told to pick a direction to explore. If you don't at least have a hint as to what kind of content lies in each direction, it's not a meaningful choice which direction you pick.
A good approach is to give some broad outlines of "regions" on the map where the player knows what sort of thing to expect when they go there. Here's the haunted forest ruled by an evil faerie prince. Here's the mountains dotted with entrances to old dwarven ruins. Here's the swamp settled by (peaceful) frog-people.
That is the joy of exploration, to find out what's there. "Telling you what to expect" is sucking the mystery out. There's no reason the player should be given this information. Wandering about the wilderness and finding something you don't expect is fun.
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All UI's with floaty crap must burn in fire
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Just let it die. It was bad enough for older Fallout fans to see Fallout turned into an Action-FPS hybrid game. Fallout will always only be Fallout 1 & 2 in my eyes, it was the brainchild of Jason Anderson, Leonard Boyarsky, and Tim Cain, not Bethesda and not even Obsidian. It was blasphemous to turn it from an isometric turn-based RPG into a FPS, and to be honest I'm sick of all these disloyal spinoffs. Let it Rest in Peace.
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So, I'm curious, is there any indication which direction stealth in PE is going to take. I would be a tad disappointed if it essentially becomes "guerilla warfare", ie it works like an activated "cloaking" ability that allows repositioning of character/s before a fight for an advantage, and/or ambushing with backstab attack.
That isn't a bad idea, it is, but it isn't really stealth, it's more like "guerilla warfare". Do you guys think PE should allow for the possibility of bypassing combat encounters entirely, providing alternate solutions to combat? Obviously PE is going to be combat-centric, but I don't think combat encounters should literally "block" the adjacent map until the enemies are killed.
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Hopefully it has a puzzle or two, and it isn't too much of a straight dungeon crawl. Perhaps some trapped chests that can be disarmed before opening, traps that let monsters etc out of hidden areas if you trigger the trap, give the Rogue something to do outside combat. Also the fountain things in Wizardry 6 would be a good idea, ie you find a fountain you can select a party member to drink from it, the water either can do something bad (like poison) or have a good effect.
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So, just to clarify - why wouldn't Bossidian go oldschool with the P:E UI and just make it like it was in BG/IWD?
I for one wouldn't mind having an option to switch between a classic Balduresque UI and that (ugly) modern floating stuff a'la NVN... If an option is not an option i'd just love to have an oldschool hybrid horizontal/vertical bars. With big-ass vertically arranged portraits. But then again, who cares what i'd want.
Probably because when Obsidian did reveal a mock-up of a UI against the waterfall environment, all the decliners came out of the woodwork saying it's "too big" and "clunky" and that they wanted a "modern", "streamlined" RPG UI. It's impossible to be nostalgic for BG/IWD when you've never played them and your only frame of reference for RPG's is Dragon Age or Mass Effect.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
in Computer and Console
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lolololol, playing it with an xbawks controller right up against the monitor
I bet these losers have never played a PC game in their lives. Will be some sweet schadenfreude when this game bombs