Jump to content

Stephen Amber

Members
  • Posts

    246
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Stephen Amber

  1. The maps of fallout:tactics were simply too large to make turn based tenable. The toee foks had a bit too much to handle with such a small team and short production schedule. I was shocked when I saw a group photo today... it was only like 10 or so people who worked on toee. No wonder it was lacking in some areas.

  2. ?

     

    Unless all the weapons in stalker have been sitting around unused for hundreds of years that analogy makes no sense.

     

    As long as a fire arm is taken care of(kept out of the elements, oiled and such) it should work. Unless your talking about old french WWI guns... hah

  3. The exception being a game like STALKER where weapons will degrade with use and cannot be repaired. In which case the rarity of a weapon is much more of a balance factor since once you find a powerful weapon, if you use it, the weapon will eventually get "used up" and can only be replaced by finding another weapon of the same type. Which is a fairly uncommon gameplay mechanic since it tends to make gamers angry. Though, I must say I prefer it personally.

     

    System Shock 2 did something like this as well. Sort of a neat mechanic if a bit nonsensical. You should be able fire a double barrelled shotgun, for instance, hundreds of times without anything happening to it.

  4. Yeah, I figured it out as well, even the first time I was playing Fallout 2 (I played it before 1, and that was even the first RPG I played, btw) I just sorta knew energy weapons would be "wow, dude, energy weapons" and therefore not available from the get-go. I didn't even tag it, I knew it was a job for after half-game.

     

    And yes, FO 1&2 did have a good balance and feel overall, except for the occasional "less useful" skill (not worth tagging, some not even worth investing in). Bethesda (I think) tried to address these balance issues (you might call them "unfairness among skills") by trimming the number of available skills (lowering them to a mere 13) but making them more worth your time / skill points. But while they're at it, they broke energy weapons. They made 'em expensive "pew pew" toys in the hands of laymen, visual effects and all, and made them available pretty much everywhere... The same thing with Big Guns. They were "big" in size, weight & numbers, and nothing else.

     

    I really hope Obs devs will be the ones to get it right this time.

     

    I'd prefer the first 1/4 or so of a post apoc rpg to be devoid of guns altogether. Like in Road Warrior, where it was all pretty much crossbows, knifes, head butts and such til Lord Humongous takes that scoped pistol out of it's case like it was a holy relic. Max has his shotgun, of course, but no ammo for it.... The sticks 'n stones level of combat Einstein talked about.

     

    I agree the mid way point is the right time to start introducing energy weapons and big guns, though I"d not make it possible to scavenge the things in the aftermath of a caravan run battle, as in F2. It would be cool if initially your laser was broken, in separate pieces or something, with maybe a combo of science & repair skills to fix it. That or find someone that can repair it for a big cap expense...

     

    Are the whizz bang console kiddies going to have patience for any of this? Probably not. And that's our real problem...

  5. or let the player know what the relative imbalance is.

     

    Which is basically just spoilers... You won't see an energy weapon til New Reno, so don't bother maxing that skill early. Dole out such weapons earlier, like in Fallout3, and the scarcity/allure of such is impacted. I liked the optional skill boosting methods seen previously... like the nomad who can teach you unarmed combat tricks, or the magazines you can invest in or search for.

  6. The only way to figure it out is to tag and/or advance skills for several hours and realize (maybe) that the game doesn't really support the use of those skills.

     

    I don't think it's unreasonable for players to expect that a game's content is going to actually support individual skills throughout the game (unless explicitly stated otherwise).

     

    Especially when those skills have been amalgamated and dumbed down... like someone wanting to lump together all the guns skills into one skill or something.

  7. I played through Diablo2 this past christmas break for the first time ever. Didn't beat it either as couldn't get past Diablo at the end. I felt the need to play the necromancer character...

     

    Tron 2.0 was a very good game. I remember a small group of folks trying to do light cycle racing and such multiplayer back in the day. Had thought that sort of multiplayer might take off, but it never really did.

  8. This will actually be the 7th edition of the game, which shows there has been at least some interest throughout the years. Poorly reviewed may have been a bit too strong... 6th edition met with mixed reviews, as things like psionics and nanites became more prominent at the expense of basic mutations. And there were issues with editing and ommisions throughout the books. This latest edition sounds like it will be all about mutations... draw a new mutation card once a day. hah.

  9. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=...ndacc/254600000

     

    Thought this was interesting. There was a Gamma World line of books published not too many years ago, forget the publisher, but they got poor reviews.

     

    Looks like Wotc is doing the game this time and it will be d&d 4e based mechanics wise. Will probably have to get this one.

     

    Hope it sells well and that there is a crpg spin off... Dark Sun or Gamma World would be waaaayyyy cooler than Wheel of Time.

  10. Bishop & Sand were hilarious. You don't see henchmen like them everyday.

     

    Most of others were stereotypical... Typical air headed gnome, dwarf fighter type, righteous paladin. Ho hum.

     

    I like SoZ. You're not dragged along through the plot on a leash and the overland map is how it should be done... with the exception of overland encounters being a bit too frequent, though they could usually be evaded and avoided. The yaun-ti areas towards the end were very well done.

  11. Been gaming a bit too much to get any reading done, but I still intend on finishing Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"(which pretty much sums up the city of chicago) and Poul Andeson's "Boat of a Million Years"(seams like this one has a strong highlander vibe to it) before winter is over.

  12. Nope. Not overpwoered. powered just right. Mages should be wickedly awesome. That's why it's called magic. This is soemthing D&D got right, and since the goal for DA combat to be like D&D, it's the way it should be.

     

    Again. It's pnp legacy where arch-magi were supposed to be relatively rare and things like spell components would force a bit of restraint. It would be something like verbal, somatic, and 1,000 gold worth gems which go poof upon completion. In all of crpg history has any game attempted to get this right? Of course not... save from a few nwn/nwn2 persistent worlds. But those don't count.

  13. He should have out sourced some of the work to Ossian or something. One guy working with that bear of a toolset just isn't going to get it done. Of course it couldn't have been a true expansion but no reason it couldn't have been a downloadable adventure pack.

  14. NWN was definitely criticized for the graphics, it also came out the same time as Morrowind. Oddly enough, over the next year or so modders managed to do some amazing things with the NWN engine, and really helped it reach its full potential.

     

    And the work continues to this day... There is a group completely overhauling NWN1.

  15. Yea, vampiric feast would wipe out pretty much everything... even got the demi-lich Rammaq with it. Other than that, and a few other choice spells, most of time is spent watching the "pack mule" Okku roll over everything... Same with Hotu. You give the fallen paladin/blackguard Aribeth a storm giant belt and +10 sword of death and she cuts through everything. Epic play sucks.

     

    BG2 post Jon Irenicus is anti-climatic. That and the never ending series of over the top epic boss encounters of ToB just burned me out.

×
×
  • Create New...