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malolis

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    Playing other Kickstarter funded games makes me nervous

    in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted

    In my opinion, Shadowrun Returns was a very poor game. There was so little depth and scope that I felt bored after about 2 hours in. While the plot and setting were interesting, they didn't make up for the lack of solid content.

     

    I think that if that game did not have the Shadowrun name attached to it, it would have been criticised much more harshly. I really hope PoE does not turn out that way.

    • Like 2

    Mega-Dungeon

    in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

    Posted

    Dunno. Dungeons (even megadungeons) can be engaging. But...

     

    "Whenever I design a large dungeon, and whenever I was in a dungeon designed by someone else, the default assumptions are:

    -There is a wide variety of monsters in the dungeon.

     

    -It's really big.

     

    -The design is nonlinear so you that you can end up doing the dungeon in any number of different ways.*

     

    -There are traps. These traps make sense considering who built them and what they were protecting.

     

    -There are weird nonstandard tricks--these things are weird but they have a reason they're there. If all else fails its some kind of "test" and if even that fails then maybe it was designed by an insane wizard.

     

    -There are enough traps that PCs look at every single thing in the dungeon sideways. Therefore every detail--even if harmless--is potentially important.

     

    -The culture(s) that built the dungeon aren't the ones who live in it now (that's why there are traps and tricks guarding ancient hidden treasures rather than just guards in front of what amounts to a bank vault.)

     

    -There is more than one intelligent faction living in the dungeon and controlling what goes on there (that's why 3-8 random adventurers have a chance of getting in and out--the enemy isn't inept, they just have to simultaneously deal with other **** besides you.) (That's also why there's more than one kind of trick and trap.)

     

    -The whole dungeon functions together. A lever or key in location A can affect things that happen in location B. You have to go back sometimes to find these things.

     

    -Dangerous features of the dungeon can be used against the dungeon inhabitants by clever PCS.

     

    -The tricks and the traps alternate with monster fights but--more than that--they are integrated with monster fights so that they can work together. You never fight the same monster twice because environmental factors make a difference."

     

    Usually, CRPGs end up somewhat lacking in the features that make dungeons fun.

     

    If the mega dungeon in PoE has even 50% of these features, I'd be a pretty happy bunny. 

     

    When playing a dungeon, the thing which tends to put me off the most is the feeling of a linear, modular progression through it, no matter how well designed the traps and encounters are. I'd prefer to have a well fleshed out atmospheric dungeon rather than one which is just a series of shallow, barely related challenges.

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