jamoecw

well given that you also get to customize your character, that means that character customization becomes much more restrictive. gaining one chance at backstab could easily be made up with better skill/feat choices, even more so if you grind slightly and use that extra ability for an extra level or during the fight. the inverse also becomes true, by specializing you are deciding to give up something else, which if a potion every now and again can partially or completely compensate for that trade off (say for noncom situations, like picking locks that are worth it via meta knowledge) diminishes that choice as a choice. so you still end up with OP vs. mundane, you've only upped the difficulty so that you need to be OP, and thus that same level of restriction has been applied to everything else as well.

the problem with getting within a certain distance for full discovery means no stealth backstabs without magical assistance, i could see that as the radii overlap they increase the detection rate, so that a stealthy rogue can still run up and stab someone without them going on full alert. though ya, visual cones would help that out considerably and allow for a auto detect at a certain distance.

Considering there are even multiple "channels" for modal abilities, my guess is you'll want to have those active all the time/ as soon as combat may be coming up. Of course, there's the compromise of allowing players to build relatively low-maintenance characters, but I don't think that'll be a real (desirable) alternative for all characters, every time. as long as the desired method isn't using an attack the second it comes off cooldown i doubt it won't be that bad.

Maybe the Elemental Plane of Fire is ill-named, and should be called the Elemental Plane of Combustible Gases? Nah, it was just an interesting thought, of how a witty person might use fire to combat living fire, in a given situation. As I said, I don't at all recommend that they try to implement that scenario into P:E. At least, not in unscripted, open-combat form. That would require an oxygen/breathability tracking system for every space in which combat could take place and flames could occur. Pretty much only suited for PnP games, really. As for the plasma, I was not aware of that. You learn something new every day, ^_^ you don't actually create plasma by using lesser heat on fire, heat creates an equilibrium, so to make fire a plasma you'd have to have something much hotter than what it would take to make fire into a plasma, then when they equalize you'd have 2 substances that are hot enough to make fire go plasma. and the problem with your scenario with the fire elemental is flash fire stuff. basically when you reintroduce oxygen to the room to fight the elemental it will return to full strength, though if it was a molten creature then the lack of oxygen wouldn't affect it, as you aren't depriving the room of heat (in fact you are adding to it). though the general idea you are going towards is good (water for the most part snuffs fire by starving it of oxygen), so anything that suffocates should be extra effective.

ya, it has been in DnD for quite some time (readying and action). i can see why they didn't have it back in the day, with times per day you could just dump all of your abilities out at once without a need for rationing, once they fixed that it became obvious that they were lacking in that area. as for balance, your right either having some trade off and/or limited set 'channels' would keep it from being OP.

That's exactly what I was suggesting, though admittedly in perhaps more detail than was necessary. And, to be clear, when they overlap, you're detected, but not quite fully;evidence of your presence is noticed in some way (the detector goes into investigation mode, but not alerted mode). Then, when they overlap enough (and/or if they overlap again with someone who's already investigating), you're fully detected. And yes, I need to work on my wordiness. 8P i imagine it would be a time thing, if there is overlap long enough then they will figure out what they're seeing. that way rogues can still backstab, but they can't sit 5 feet away and lay traps for 5 hours.

the dialog seems to be presented as separate dialog responses, adjusting this to be one fluid piece of dialog would help. ex: osmaer - description "dialog. second sentence. So, how can i help you?" the 'so' helps make the question feel like he said something earlier that was relevant to the question. slapping the sentences together makes it feel like a single response to something instead of several. the italics help separate descriptive text from dialog, which helps break up the text visually, making it easier to read (i tend to write in big blocks of text, but i do know of this kind of stuff).

in bg my problem with potions was that the tank was also the high non friendly fire dps, so if he was tanking and needed to swig potions to survive, the loss of damage output tended to drop, which meant the fight ended up standing still until i ran out of potions, which led to the same result if i hadn't used potions. i didn't use potions on easier enemies because i knew that i didn't need them, and i could just rest afterwards. so i for my first couple of playthroughs i hoarded potions but after those i would treat them as vendor trash so i could get slightly better equipment, which meant that tactics let me beat those tough encounters that would have drained my potions. had the high non FF dps been someone other than the tank then things would have been different, or if there was some potions of spell shaping. invisibility wasn't super great, as they had dialog triggers for tough enemies to prevent sneaking up on him and opening with a backstab, and other fights didn't need your rogue exposed once he performed the backstab, the ai rogue's had an infinite amount of invis potions and so became a threat with their backstab. in other words potions can become more useful based on how other mechanics work, you still end up with the whole overpowered vs. mundane issue though, so i am not sure if they would have toned down to a level that would have considered them to be vendor trash or not.

most of the time savages are quite skilled at fighting smart. sparta was quite refined yet was pretty slow to react to things. but ya the general idea is that wolves and such shouldn't focus the mages behind the ranks of fighters, they wouldn't do that most likely.

well to answer the original question: 1. don't have anything that doesn't have a non meta method countering. 2. have the AI counter in battle 3. have the faction that the AI belongs to adapt its members bit by bit to be geared against your tactics from the get go. so if you have 6 mages, and each of them just casts death combo spells, the enemies will spread out/break line of sight/etc. and try to live, and those that do will adapt so that you can't do the same thing twice. after a day in game or so any battle you have with that faction again will from the start of battle be expecting the death combo spells and you won't be nearly as effective with them, and whatever your cleanup method used for now most of the enemy will be prioritized to be countered from the get go in addition to the death combo spells, assuming that they aren't mutually exclusive. the cycle keeps iterating itself countering the most effective thing you did in the previous day's battles. that way if you do the same thing over and over the game will get harder and harder until you start adapting, also if the ai can't adapt anymore and something is still working then a change needs to be made, either to the mechanics due to there being no counter, or the ai for not being able to execute the counter. in the end that should ensure that there isn't anything that is the one way to beat everything, and that everything is more or less balanced against other methods. the down side is the need for patches and constant support for at least a few months after the game is done, as well as decent amount of foresight in mechanics and ai programming.

fallout was going to be based on the twilight system from what i've heard, but they messed up and decided to just go with it instead of changing it. fallout is very similar to twilight so it is a believable tale.

well the groups are pretty general, tech was just building things, ranged was all ranged including firearms. you pretty much echoed what i said aside from not needing any combat skills. i don't think you can get out of shrouded hills with just your 2 companions and all your points in charisma and persuasion. willpower is needed for haggle, if you aren't getting haggle then no reason for willpower as a noncom diplomat. if you aren't looking for better dialog options then no reason for beauty. intelligence was listed as it can't be used as a dump stat (below 5 means poor dialog choices). aside from explosives, which is pretty much the 'anyone' method of balancing encounters.

given that having a different effect for each class means that in effect you have 11 different potions that need to be made and balanced at each place you put them, as well as any time after, as well as combinations of different class/potion combos, the dev resources to pull this off and have lots of potions is pretty high. if you don't have lots of potions then you don't have to worry as much about them being overpowered. in BG a healing potion costs the same as chainmail armour, at low levels the chainmail is a better investment if you are fighting conventional enemies, but the potion is good for unconventional enemies, though you will probably will need more than 1. so really the issue is the cost, yet in games like diablo where they are so cheap you drink health potions instead of water they become mundane and worse than boring (annoying sense you really need an IV strapped to you with the stuff so you don't have to keep spamming the same key over and over). in BG they are weighted so that you should hold on to them for specific tough encounters. in pathfinder PnP you don't get to keep them, either use them in the session or not at all (and no selling them for more money either). it would seem you are right in that consumables are problematic, i really should offer a solution after pointing out the faults with yours, but i just don't know of any that are easy to implement, aside from cutting consumables entirely from the game, which isn't exactly a good solution.

no they had channeled, instant and modal, but not set. channeled is pretty much anything that takes time to do. set is anything you ready in preparation for an enemy action. instant is something that happens instantly (like the dog's howl). and you know what modal is, DA even had channels so that you could have multiple modals on so long as they aren't exclusive to each other. a simple example of set would be DnD's readying of an action, only it probably would mean that you don't sat there and did nothing until the enemy does what you were expecting, kinda like AoO. fighting spellcasters should have been easier if you could reach them had they had set abilities so that you could interrupt their castings, archers would be more useful as you could automatically stun people charging you instead of hovering over the pause button, or stick to controlling them and only pausing every so often to que up new orders for everyone else. my previous post comes off as a little angry i think, it is just frustrating to see both sides of this age old argument knowing that smart combat is about adapting and countering, and that the old school method for this has always been readied actions, and yet both sides completely forget about when it tends to be the answer to both of their arguments, but instead opt for some sort of dumbed down alternative solution that makes little sense.

I can see both sides of this. But consider that a guy trying for a shield bash is going to to do exactly that: try for one. I understand what you mean about the cool down being an artificial limitation on how often a guy can do a shield bash, but consider the alternative: you can shield bash at any time, but the odds for success would go way down (as they would realistically) since using a shield bash -- to knock someone over, move their shield aside, push them back, etc -- would only work if it were timed perfectly. And, yes, doing it too much could be exhausting. So cool downs act as approximations of these two limitations: stamina and timing. Instead, the chance for success is driven way up, but the ability's usefulness is now regulated by scarcity (instead of just stamina, or just timing, or both). 90% of the time an activated ability shouldn't be an ability, you shield bash is a perfect example. slapping someone with your shield doesn't work well when their guard is up, in fact moving your shield out of position when they are ready to hit you is pretty stupid. pretty much if you can't do something constantly you should wait until an opening presents itself then do it, which means shield bash would be a set ability rather than an instant fire. this means that the different types of abilities would be charged up/channeled, set, modal, and instant. using an arrow of slaying would be a charged/channeled as you tell them to do it and they then take the time to do it. sunder weapon would be a set ability as you tell the character to do it and they wait until the enemy lets them. modal are things that are constantly done so long as they are able, like attack an enemy, or use your shield offensively. instant actions would be things like throw a readied grenade, so pretty much anything charged/channeled that you might what control of when to commit, and doesn't rely on the enemy doing something (like making a mistake). most rpgs try to be more active by having you determine when to swing your sword (or some other mundane task), which is what most people think of with cooldowns on abilities. the justification devs often give is that it is something you can't do all the time, and so it has to be limited. DnD bullrush is what most people consider shield bash, which actually doesn't need a shield in real life, and you should just do it whenever somebody tells you to do it, unless it is part of a coordinated plan, and even then it should be done within a window of time, so setting a bullrush to be done when there is an opening in say the next round would be a better way to do abilities instead of the DA/WoW method, in essence CD on basic attacks (like shield bash) and special attacks (like bullrush) is only useful if they don't already have stamina. CD on being subject to various things is another animal all together, as if someone has tried to bullrush you, then you'll be weary of such things in the near future. as for combat being boring if you aren't telling everyone when to do things, think of it like this: if you are losing a battle, don't you do something to change that? like run away, or try to flank or somesuch? so why doesn't the enemy ai do such things when you have the upper hand, forcing you to counter them, and then they counter your counter, so on and so forth. and it doesn't have to be positioning that changes, it could be stances, or targets, or even items being used. if done right the only time you don't have something to do would be if you were either losing or the enemy thought you were losing. of course magic is something else entirely, as it is some weird nebulous thing that works via magic. and ya, CD is in some ways better than 'per day' stuff, but both are flawed, and yet games can be very good with either of them, so in the end all that matters is that things are fun.

Yeah, to make sure I have this right in my mind: If you have a Rogue with a Stealth of over 9,000, maybe he has a 10ft ehh... detection radius, we'll call it. But, enemies have a perception radius (just as your character has in regard to things trying to hide from him). So, it's still easier for him to sneak past a drowsy Human with a perception radius of 5 ft than it is to sneak past an alert Skuldr with a perception radius of 50 ft. Whereas, even though the drowsy guard's detection radius is only 5 ft, it might be really tough for your unstealthy, plate-clad Fighter to sneak past him if said Fighter has a perception radius of 30 ft, since he's got to stay THAT much farther away from even the guard's tiny perception bubble. Also, since your detection extends out in a radius around you, I'd wager that sound's incorporated into that. Of course, I do hope that things that affect sight and sound can modify the radii, be it lighting, armor material, floor material (grass quieter than cobblestone), etc. I only say that because, technically, all that was mentioned was "based on the character's actions." Though I realize that that was just an example of the fact that it could be affected, and not necessarily a list of all the things that can affect your base detection radius as calculated straight from your Stealth skill. i'm fairly certain that it is just 2 different circles, if they overlap, then you have been detected. though another way to do it would be if someone enters into either circle, so a sneak walking into a wide perception circle, or a guard walking into a sneak's stealth circle. there are pros and cons to each, but the former gives more importance to the stealth skill when trying to sneak past guards.

basic break down of character viability: well there are 13 areas to spend your points on: str, dex, per, con, will, int, bea, cha, HP, fatigue, spells, tech, skills melee - str, dex, skills = 3 (if you lack points in melee skill you injure yourself and thus dex and skill is highly required) tech - int, tech = 2 (can't use on its own, needs to be hybrid with a combat capable group other than mage) ranged - per, dex, skills = 3 (low damage output, low survival by itself, especially at low levels when you crit fail and drop weapon wasting time needed to kite) mage - int, will, spells = 3 (potions and spells get stronger as you progress down this path, spells can boost attributes and replace some skills) rogue - str, dex, per, skills = 4 (risky damage output, especially at low levels when getting the backstab in is a gamble) diplomat - bea, cha, will, int, skills = 5 (can't use on its own, needs alignment and level to gain most followers) resources needed for each general character type: melee - gold, loot, HP, fatigue = 4 (needs gold to purchase equipment, repair equipment, and for training, has highest uses of HP of any group) tech - gold, parts = 2 (needs gold for components and a lot more for schematics, may generate gold though, may find and use junk for parts) ranged - gold, ammo, loot, fatigue = 4 (needs gold for ammo, repair, and training, needs to move a lot in combat to kite enemies) mage - fatigue = 1 (spells cost fatigue, will need lots of it, only group that needs it more than melee) rogue - loot, gold, lockpicks = 3 (gains lots of loot and gold when good enough, may have to be a melee class when failure happens) diplomat - levels, alignment, follower, dialog choices = 4 (you start with nothing and thus can't use the skills) gold requirement for each general character type: melee - needs to buy armour and weapons, repair said items, and pay for a few select trainings tech - if not built to make money then will need high income from somewhere to pay for parts and schematics, otherwise generates gold ranged - needs to keep buying ammo, needs to buy and repair weapons, and pay for a few trainings mage - none rogue - buy lockpicks, buy and repair weapons, pay for lots of training diplomat - arm and equip followers, can haggle for extra money, pay for some training non violent gains: melee - none tech - produce items, one quest (it is possible without the schematic, but easier) ranged - none mage - 2 quests, free companions, poor man's lockpicking, free attribute gains (attribute gains are sustained spells, likewise the companions, lockpicking and companions have consequences, quest info possible through other means) rogue - anything with items and gold can be yours (bad consequences if you fail) diplomat - sell more, pay less, more dialog/quest options (dialog and quest options may be negated by other actions) by using the above you can see how difficult a character combination can be even before playing. going strong diplomat from the get go is pretty hard to do with the hefty CP drain and no real immediate benefits. mage has lots of utility and only requires an average or less amount of CP, as it starts out viable and gets stronger it is also a far easier path than say a ranged tech user. had the devs broke things down and balanced things for the different themes you might see more immediate uses for diplomacy, and a weaker starting spell selection. pretty much the way the game is made you pick if you are going to back tech or magic from the get go if you want an easy playthrough.

strategy games have had theft for quite some time, all you have to do is decouple the roll for getting caught and the roll for succeeding. then change the auto hostile into a hidden reaction penalty. if you succeed you can still piss off the guy, and him being a civilian and you an armed menace he may just inform the cops at a later date instead of jumping on your sword. you may fail and he may be none the wiser. as for the dialog stuff, just have the pickpocketing click bring up an option to do pick pocketing option for both dialog and for non dialog, and any other options/modifiers. so if you choose dialog you have a greater chance of succeeding, but less chance of getting away without him realizing it. then add feats that increase the range of items you can go after and then you have different variables to make pickpocketing more nebulous as far as consequences are concerned and then you won't know all the time whether or not you should reload. you also increase the expense at getting ahold of massive quantities of cash and items (instead of it always being the cheap and easy way to finance yourself). that way you have depth more natural consequences and little extra development resources being spent.

well positioning before the fight has been critical to success in any decent tactical rpg, heck even diablo relied heavily on positioning. running around in the middle of a fight is pretty silly, unless you are gaining a flanking advantage against a target in cover, or happen to be using skirmish tactics. skirmish tactics are generally not supported, as map edges tend to confine you, but ya mobility has its uses in the middle of combat and only a handful of games allow this advantage, mainly due to the inability for developers to understand tactical mechanics in order to create a realistically balanced combat system. but let's face it, they have quite enough on their plate already, can't really blame them for not having the tactical intricacy that only a handful of turn based strategy games have.

i am pretty sure you have only played AAA titles if you think this, in fact it is the main reason why i started playing indie games. you should try walking dead and minecraft, two very different games, both excellent. walking dead has is almost all dialog and narrative, but allows choices that change what happens in the game, kinda like the ever fabled epic choose your own adventure. minecraft has no story, no set rules about what you are supposed to do, it is complete freedom in a sandbox environment. Dragon Age, of course! Now I remember those random encounters, and yes they were very annoying. I think most of them were tied into the main story, however. But yup, other than Dragon Age, I can't remember any RPG that had this specific problem. There are other reasons why I don't like combat in most RPGs. For example the discrepancy between being the hero and murdering hundreds of creatures because the game left me no other choice, then getting berated for this type of gameplay I didn't enjoy in the first place by games such as Shadow of the Colossus (or Spec Ops The Line). I'd love to see a game where the number of enemies I face is realistic and where I don't kill all of them. I'd love to see an RPG that was 90% dialogue. Won't ever happen, though. :/ walking dead, king of dragon pass, there are others, but ya no AAA titles. way of the samurai was pretty good with its combat as far as numbers and such. the weakest enemy in the game could come at you in 4s and you would be hard pressed to survive if you just stood your ground and was a total badass. two if you were pretty built up was a good amount to match you, and combat didn't drag on unless it was fairly evenly matched, in which case it could be over quickly if either side made a mistake. running away was alway an option, and a lot of times avoiding it was too (either through physically avoiding the fight, or by dialog). the best ending to the game didn't have you beating everyone, just fighting hard enough for people to escape getting two smaller powers to fight the good fight. it was fairly short, but you could replay it to build up your character to make him stronger (sort of, you would build up your swords). back in the day during the AAA era (after studios were big, and before the 'indie' games) it was a real gem.

perhaps whichever companion is the most eager for some R&R could initiate dialog in an 'apparent' safe zone. that way you don't actually know if it is safe, you might be scattering your party just prior to an ambush. for further role play you could have the party members like you for letting them get some R&R, and if bad stuff happens like it when you swoop in and save them. likewise some might get annoyed that you let a fellow party member get into trouble, and others annoyed that you denied them R&R. so that characters with authority issues like it when you let the party do what it wants and then swoop in and save them when they get into trouble, while those without authority issues like it when you deny R&R in risky areas. though i think a toggle option in the options menu would be nice, after all if someone wants just a hack & slash experience why not give it to them?

ya, completely forgot about how AT guns in ww2 generally kept anti personnel rounds so they could be makeshift artillery if they had to swap out mid battle. artillery in the early part of the war functioned as AT, AA, and as artillery, though i am unsure if it was capable of all three within a single battle. squeeze bore aren't used just to take out specific targets, just a way of boosting the weapon's penetrating ability (in addition to longer range and flatter trajectory).

perhaps you can take total cover behind your tower shield so the mage doesn't have a target for the spell? (i know dnd didn't allow this), or the rogue uses a smoke bomb? druid casts mid sand storm to blow some sand in the caster's eyes? the ranger shoots the mage's hand so he can't perform the necessary gestures? if it is just spell on spell action then it gets pretty boring. the first example is pretty much just a 100% damage spell, not really a death spell, again maybe any sort of magic mitigation would reduce the damage, not just a spell so it isn't spell on spell action. the second example still just relies on magic, why have non mages at all? throw out enough spells and the enemy dies, no matter how powerful or numerous. not saying it isn't an option, but i don't see how it helps to sell your method. the third is like the second, only more specific and may be conditional on area (like an area that has demon killer hornets), and if they are in the area then maybe there is some known defense against them that would have to be used, which means casting fireball or some such to destroy that protection, then cast honey poison and then survive until the bees show up, assuming your protection is still up by that time as well. in your last example one class is the instigator of both offense and defense, and the threat isn't ties to an area, so it can happen at any time. that is the issue with it. in games they tend to shy away from insta-kill traps, yet they keep the spells, it is a double standard that cheapen rogues, while the strength of save scumming and program triggers strengthen enemy mages, which as the defense against mages is mages, makes your mages more important. example of program triggers: a powerful mage speaks to the character that is in visual range, whether or not he can be seen, which breaks stealth and removes time from buffs while speaking, then the mage prepares for the fight, even if he should not be aware. the reason as to why they tend to remove insta-kill traps is due to the lack of counterplay or the dependance on having a class in your party for just that reason. in other words game designers often feel that forcing players to spend resources to defeat insta-kill traps just for the sake of having insta-kill traps in game is pointless, though they don't see how insta-kill spells are in the same boat, mainly due to the greater utility of the mage, which means that anything that strengthens such class is a step towards unbalancing a delicate mechanic. as it is seen that rogues have limited viability it would have been more prudent to keep them as guardians of the party against insta-kill, rather than a class that is still seen as useful even without such benefit in order to maintain balance, though if they did we might be talking about insta-kill traps right now. this is a post that is a good one as to why insta-kill mechanics are good, and also how to do them right. the thing that made greek mythos so epic was that it was about weak little mortals being cunning and smart in order to overcome godly magic, rather than some other god out godding another god.

well my favorite thing was how you could make your own class (same thing as the OP mentioned but he didn't put it in the poll) as it was a well done classless system. though i think that how things were done really highlighted its flaws, just look at chris's playthrough, when he got to the bandits he tried to walk to town he was boned even though it made no sense that he could even get to town if he couldn't walk there. then again with the bandits, he went for a charismatic character, using negotiation and guile to talk his way through situations, yet was flatly denied that aspect due to design of the encounter without any logical reason. i did a playthrough as a dnd paladin, and so i sold the explosives and didn't invest in the dark arts, so i had to cheese my way through a few unarmed bandits even though my party had equal armor and enchanted swords. when you leave the town you need a high reputation in addition to a high charisma in order to get the npcs to join up with you, and you can't get very many npcs either, so the first town you get to (shrouded hills) you end up with nearly the max party amount you're allowed, so the other npcs have a relatively high cost, and thus it doesn't benefit you to invest in gaining these npcs as you can't get them until you have gained enough exp with your initial npcs and tackled tough enough situations to make it so that you shouldn't need them by the time you can recruit them. in other words they give you lots of options (good thing), but then optimize the game towards one set of options, so that using those options is frustrating. to make the other options playable they added in a few catchall options (like the explosives) and a few neat uses for the options, but on the whole there is a 'right' way to play the game. so to recap: i love how there is a sandbox approach to the mechanics of the game. i hate how the game is designed with a 'right' way to play.

most of you guys are asking for the credits before the game is even finished, which is silly. the larger the project the more things are in flux as far as who does what, heck stuff could be done by multiple people, then one of them is selected for the final product, they might not even be done simultaneously. as for a devlog, that time can be used for further developing, and we do get semi regular updates already, so maybe how big the team is or something would be nice for the next update, but have a second series of updates is a bit silly for time efficiency when things have to get done. at the very least we should trust in the work ethic of those we have hired and be patient, though the OP question isn't a bad one to ask, whether or not it is included in the next update or someone simply gives a 1-2 sentence answer here on the forum.