Judgement on Scripted Interactions

[Wormerine]

So, back before PoE1 was released I thought an idea of scripted interactions was brilliant. Obsidian often tried to to more then engine properly supported (like sensing with force in KOTOR2) and SI seemed like a good way of implimenting those ideas without being awkward. With that in mind I found PoE1 interactions to be greatly disappointed - it mostly focused on very mundane interactions.

Then White March came out, and I thought it was done really well - burning house, mine card ride, puzzles and others were all brilliant.

Then again, I was excited to see a more robust scripted interaction interface for PoE2...

So what did you guys thing of Scripted Interactions in PoE2? I don't recall any standouts. I felt most of the time they were money saving feature, then enabler of interesting moments - like it would be nicer to have actual enterance to a dungeon, or interaction with NPCs on a map, but we will do it via scripted interactions cause it's cheaper. In other words Scripted Interactions rarely did something that couldn't be done via existing systems.

Some things pop up to my mind - like storm, but honestly I didn't find it particularly memorable.There was also some fun stuff in the DLCs (like trial of a boar from SSS), though I don't think any of it was as good as White March (but what is!)
 

Edited July 31, 2020 by Wormerine

[thelee]

I absolutely love the scripted interactions. Even the simpler ones. Reminds me of table top/choose your own adventure. The ones that you get just for entering a dungeon on the world map are pretty lame, like you say, but I still enjoy them for the added flavor.

 

The ones that stand out really stand out, and I think it's a funny coincidence that in both PoE1 and Deadfire it's in the DLCs. Like you said I thought the White March scripted interactions were really good, very challenging, with many approaches, and no easy answers. In Deadfire, the scripted challenges in SSS really stand out to me - punishing, a lot of hard skill checks, and many different ways to go about it. In fact, while I liked SSS interactions already, I didn't fully appreciate it until I was doing advance research for my The Ultimate attempt and dug through the files and learned of all these alternate solutions and conditional triggers that I never knew about, simply because I generally don't play with certain classes/setups/stats.

 

My one criticism is that I really wish the game would let you use those skill-boosting consumables in a scripted encounter (like thief's putty, oil of allure, that stuff). So much of the really important and harder skill checks happen on world-map or inter-travel scripted encounters, so you are unable to prepare for them by using those consumables.

[Guest]

I rather liked the scripted interactions in both games. Owlcat seems to have liked them too, as both PFKM and PFWotR have them.

[Wormerine]

23 hours ago, thelee said:

The ones that stand out really stand out, and I think it's a funny coincidence that in both PoE1 and Deadfire it's in the DLCs.

Honestly, DLCs in both games are my favourite PoE content. They kinda make me upset that so many companies halfass DLCs so badly. That's what I imagined DLCs will look like when I heard first about it. My first encounter with it was in Dragon Age, and I thought "hey, imagine BG2 but with more awesome sidemissions added after launch"... and we got, what we got. 

I SSS has some supert interactions. I remember the one when you have to roll the stone uphill to enter the arena, and you can just sing dragon to life to carry it for you. 

As far as unique contet per class is brilliantly done in Deadfire. 

[thelee]

On 8/1/2020 at 9:11 AM, Wormerine said:

Honestly, DLCs in both games are my favourite PoE content. They kinda make me upset that so many companies halfass DLCs so badly. That's what I imagined DLCs will look like when I heard first about it. My first encounter with it was in Dragon Age, and I thought "hey, imagine BG2 but with more awesome sidemissions added after launch"... and we got, what we got. 

I SSS has some supert interactions. I remember the one when you have to roll the stone uphill to enter the arena, and you can just sing dragon to life to carry it for you. 

As far as unique contet per class is brilliantly done in Deadfire. 

i just finished watching several youtube videos doing a huge retrospective on fallout 3 DLC and on fallout: new vegas DLC and I was reminded of just how much better Obsidian's DLC was compared to Bethesda's DLC (oh god, I remember actively hating most of the fallout 3 DLC; fallout 4 isn't much better).

I don't know what it is about obsidian's development culture versus others, but they definitely seem to do well with their DLCs.

Edited August 3, 2020 by thelee

[Wormerine]

I need to play New Vegas again... I only played it once all the way through, in my pre-PoE Obsidian backlog playthrough. 

My Kingmaker playthrough hit 100h mark, and it seems I am about halfway through... when will this thing end!

[Madscientist]

I liked several things in WM 1+2 more than the original PoE1 (like the personal quest of my monk companion where you are totally stoned) and BoW and FS were better than most of PoE2 (not a big fan of SSS, but I prefer story over combat)

MotB was better than NWN2 and while Fallout NV was very good, the DLC with the crazy brains in glasses was fantastic ( Hey, I am a mad scientist )

It really looks like Obsidian is good with DLC.

I still wait until The Outer Worlds is released elsewhere ( not Epic) and I will buy it as complete Edition ( The game + all DCL after some patches).

I finished Pathfinder Kingmaker, Fallout NV and The Witcher 3 only once because they are so huge. By the way, Blood and Wine was a great DLC too, I still remember the quest were you can talk with your horse.

[Wormerine]

50 minutes ago, Madscientist said:

By the way, Blood and Wine was a great DLC too, I still remember the quest were you can talk with your horse.

I actually like Heart of Stone far far more. B&W was solid, but I thought it was much weaker with choices leading up to the ending being rather forced and artificial (really? A random ribbon is key to a god ending?)

[Madscientist]

I think TW3 is the best open world action game so far. All of it is great, but I thik B+W is especially good. Maybe I just like vampires. By the way: The one time I played it I got the best result in all side quests but I got the worst ending in the main quest. I did everything wrong with Ciri and the world is ruled by a racist zealot.

Second would be Fallout NV and Nier Automata (OK, not open world, but the environment and the music is fantastic)

I did not really like Skyrim, Oblivion was a desaster and Morrowind was my best TES game so far.

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Madscientist said:

All of it is great, but I thik B+W is especially good. Maybe I just like vampires.

I personally, don't so that could be it as well. I didn't like Bloodlines either, even though it's, objectively, a great RPG.