Turn Based Mode Concerns and Advice

[Saito Hikari]

I think Saito does bring up an interesting point though... Games that are entirely new, no succeeding, no copying, no imitation.... They have a far higher ceiling of sucess. They also fail, a lot, but that heightened top end is worth noting. On top of that, part of what might be 'holding back' POE 2... Is that it IS a 2. People look at it and go, I didn't care and/or hear about the first one, why would I care about the second? Divinity has a lot of other games that sort-of-kind-of go with it, so it doesn't run into that issue in quite the same fashion.

That is true. I now recall that during D:OS2's pre-release period, everyone especially emphasized that playing D:OS1 was NOT a requirement at all to understand D:OS2, taking place a whole two thousand years apart.

 

Indeed, when I played D:OS1 after finishing D:OS2, they were completely right. Even within the D:OS series, there was a lot done differently between both games. D:OS1's combat system didn't have elevation or the armor system, and relied more on RNG. It also had a far greater emphasis on puzzles and exploration, while OS2 by comparison is almost completely focused on combat. The tone of the writing between both games is also incredibly different. OS1, despite being a much more lighthearted game, was actually far closer to a proper cRPG than OS2 was, with a crafting system that isn't an afterthought and with a greater emphasis on roleplaying your two main characters in specific ways (even to the point of having your two main characters argue with each other and trying to pass persuasion checks against each other if you wanted to go that far).

[Moriendor]

To be quite honest, I have the exact opposite reaction to the OP's re. why Obs hasn't made any comment. I think this was a feature they thought about including at the very beginning, and they played around with the code for it within the game, but then abandoned the idea as being unworkable. But core elements of the code remain within the game. And something in the most recent patch unintentionally triggered that old bit of code. I just don't see any evidence anywhere to believe this is something they're working on right now.

 

Obsidian has inadvertently done some crazy stuff in past patches of their games like that one time with PoE where you would get negative XP if I recall correctly(?) but to "accidentally" release a patch with a turn-based mode? Nah. That's a little too crazy even for them .

 

It was right before xmas, too, so I think this was a fully intentional "secret" xmas gift leak to trigger a reaction and see what people have to say about it. From a business perspective they might have been looking at Larian Studios D:OS games that have sold millions of copies so who knows? With MS cash behind it now and a pending console release maybe we'll get turn-based and even coop multiplayer down the line?

Edited January 1, 2019 by Moriendor

[house2fly]

If it was something they'd abandoned then it was a super bad idea to not say that right away. At this point it's been nearly two weeks, if it's not happening and they say so now, well, there'll be fireworks

[juanval]

If it was something they'd abandoned then it was a super bad idea to not say that right away. At this point it's been nearly two weeks, if it's not happening and they say so now, well, there'll be fireworks

 

I think the same. Maybe in next update we'll know something about their TB feature plans.

[Ancelor]

I wouldn’t want to turn this into a totally unsubstantial commercial discussion.

So talking only from a gaming/fun perspective I would adore a turn based mode for the game.

Would it be easy to implement? No. But if done right I think for many of us it would bring an additional dimension of enjoyment to the game.

On a side note, in case this was a fluke and Obsidian didn’t bother to state so from the moment it came out I’d be really disappointed.

[kanisatha]

 

But neither you nor anyone else has provided any evidence whatsoever that TB is the reason for D:OS2's sales success. Not one shred of evidence.

 

D:OS2 has co-op play, so maybe Obsidian should add co-op to PoE2. D:OS2 has complete player freedom, so maybe Obsidian should add that to PoE2. D:OS2 has DM mode, so maybe Obsidian should add that to PoE2. I could go on and on.

 

I'm really sick of the whole 'D:OS2 is the awesomest game ever and developers should make every game exactly like D:OS2' meme. D:OS2 sucks. I do not want PoE2 or any other Obsidian game to be anything like D:OS2. Ever.

Point being, you can't really compare the D:OS series to anything. That's how unique it is, and it's the real factor to its success. It was never trying to become a spiritual successor to anything that came before, and completely succeeded in what it set out to do, a rarity in today's gaming market. One could argue that the D:OS series are barely cRPGs, but it's the closest classification that exists for a game merging tactical combat with cRPG-type exploration. I can easily see D:OS2 leading the charge for a revival of turn-based tactical combat in the near future. Or at the very least, inspiring a lot of turn-based combat systems in taking field conditions into account.

You are right about this, and this is exactly why it bothers me when people try to create an equivalency between PoE2 and D:OS2 to justify their claim for a TB PoE2. D:OS2 is not an RPG. It is a TB tactical combat game with some RPG elements thrown in as a very secondary aspect of the game. And the fact that it is a tactical combat game first and foremost is why I don't care for it.

 

As a separate note, it also bothers me greatly that some TB fans (obviously not all, but including some in this forum) have an entitlement attitude when it comes to their preference for TB over RTwP, meaning that a developer who creates a RTwP game must as an obligation include a TB option if they want their game to be considered "good", because making the game RTwP was a "mistake".