What Are You Playing Now: Gaming Lives

[the_dog_days]

Axis Football Diaries: Week 4 vs Winnipeg Devilcats: My First Win Streak

The Devilcats and Sharks are evenly matched on paper but this quickly turned into a blowout. First drive we practically sail down field for a touchdown. I'm still not sure why the were in goal line defense but I'm not complaining. They go three and out and we get the ball back and score again.

First Quarter: 15 - 0

The Devilcats put together a couple of little drives but both times have to kick field goals. My guys score twice once more and both times I go for two. I'm a little two point happy since lose to St. Louis. I should probably cut that out.

Second Quarter: 33 - 6

This is getting ugly. I'm calling good plays and my players are executing them. I'm slowing the game down and leaning on the run game just to get both teams out of here without any major injuries. I score another touchdown but go for the extra point.

Third Quarter: 40 - 6

Winnipeg puts a real drive together and scores their first touchdown. They kick the ball deep but I'm lined up for the onside. My return lets the ball bounce a few times before finally picking it up and I'm inside my own 15 yard line. Three plays and punt. Winnipeg puts together another drive, this time starting at their own 45 yard line, and score another touchdown. I get the ball back and run out the rest of the clock.

Fourth Quarter: 43 - 20

Even with the lopsided final score, the game wasn't even as close as that. This was an ol' fashion beatdown. The outside linebackers I signed after the Miami game came through for us. They had 9 and 10 tackles respectively. I noticed the biggest difference between them and the two guys I benched is they're quicker to the ball and better tacklers. Whereas the first duo would react too late for throws to in the flats and then fail to make the tackles, these two realize what's going on sooner and rarely miss tackles. In both situations there's usually a completion for the other team but the first guys would give up 7 -15 yards each pass completed. New guys give up around 3 - 7 yards.

It was nice to have a big win but now I kinda expect us to get whipped up on in the next game. 

[the_dog_days]

Axis Football Diaries: Week 5 vs Washington Senators: Our Butt Fumble Game

I'm not sure, but I think the Senators are from supposed to be from the state of Washington and not DC. Either way, it was raining hard all game. They jumped out to a 10 point lead helped by Hill my FB-turned-RB-turned-FB-turned-RB fumbling. Last time shifted him from ballcarrier to blocker was after another fumble. Thing is, he's a better runner than the actual RB. I thought I'd give him another shot 'cause my ground game is so bad.

First Quarter: 0 - 10

They score again and at this point I'm thinking we're gonna get blown out. I finally manage to get on the board half way through the 2nd quarter. I immediately go for two 'cause I don't see us winning this without some huge help. They go three and how and kick back to me. I start driving get down just outside of field goal range when one of the WRs drops a pass in open field on 3rd down. It was a hard decision to make, but I punted because I didn't want to give them a short field with a minute on the clock and all their timeouts.

Second Quarter: 8 - 17

In the first half there were five dropped balls by my team. The weather is really affecting my guys. I get the ball to start the first half and go on a long, time consuming drive and score. I went for and converted for 2 points. They get the ball and start driving. Just running the ball down our throats. The drive finally stalls out and they have to kick a field goal.

Third Quarter: 16 - 20

We went from down 17 with no offensive production to only down by four and on fire. I'm feeling pretty good. Right now I just want to make sure I don't leave too much time on the clock. I get the ball to their 40 call a pass play and somehow my RB gets called for offensive holding when he was running a route.  1st and 20. I call another pass and the QB completes a short pass to the TE for 10 yards. Another pass and QB nearly gives me a heart attack throwing to his RB in double coverage (complete for 7 yards). Third down and 3. The defense brings the house but my QB gets the ball off to the TE in the flats. Hits him right in the hands and he drops it. I'm just outside of field goal range. This time I go for the field goal and it hits the uprights.

They go three and out and punt the ball back to me.  They pin us down inside our 15. We go on an epic drive.* Doing a good job of both running and passing. With less than a minute left in the game we're inside their 20. I'm taking my time. I want to score with as little time left as possible. On a third and goal I take a timeout with 4 seconds left. Call a short pass. Usually the slot on an in route is wide open. That's where I'm hoping the QB goes. Snapped ball. QB drops back. They're blitzing. Slots covered but the TE on a shallow drag is wide open. I'm screaming at my screen for him to throw it to the TE but the QB just drifts in the pocket and takes a sack ending the game.

Final Score: 16 - 20

*We went 77 yards on 13 plays taking up 8:21 minutes.

[the_dog_days]

Axis Football Diaries: Week 6 vs Vancouver Mallards: Wherefore art thou, Running Game?

We get the ball first and go three and out. It isn't until midway through the quarter that either one of us get on the scoreboard. I kicked a field goal. Later in the quarter Sharks finally get into the endzone.

First Quarter: 10 - 0

Their offense is doing terrible. Luckily for them their defense forces a fumble inside my 40 yard line. After a short drive they score. We get into the endzone once more before half. Aside from the fumble everything seems to be going our way.

Second Quarter: 17 - 7

They get the ball to star the second half. Picking up right where they'd left off, they drive down the field and kick a field goal. Due to a critical third down drop my offense fizzles out for the quarter.

Third Quarter: 17 - 10

I'm suddenly getting a lot of penalties called on my offense.* Can't seem to put together a drive. Keep punting it to them, giving them a short field to work with. Late in the quarter my offense looks like they're done shooting themselves in the foot. I get within field goal range. On a 3rd and 3 I came out in 3 wide and for some reason the AI decides the best counter is a goal line formation. Blitzing the corners was cute but my QB torched them for a 26 yard bomb. I'm thinking the game's over but as soon as they get the ball the Mallards one up us with 75 yard strike of their own. We get the ball back and manage to run the rest of the clock out.

Final Score: 24 - 17

I've been in several comebacks and would-be comebacks already this season. This was the first time I was the team ahead. At one point it looked like we were gonna destroy these guys but midway through the 4th I was certain that the AI was trying to give the Mallards the game.

*Penalties are RNG. You never see a player commit a penalty. If a player's position coach and coordinator have a high value in 'discipline' players get a modifier of sorts to help them avoid (I guess) rolling penalties.

[majestic]

I'm alternating between The Witcher 3 and sucking at Enter the Gungeon.

Enter the Gungeon kicks my behind in ways no other bullet hell game has so far. It's slower paced than other games of its kind that I played (e.g. Starward Rogue) but something makes it way harder for me. Might be the perspective, I keep running into bullets and yelling "no way that was a hit" at my screen and I get regularily hit by projectiles that I could swear would be absorbed by a wall or an obstacle when they pass right through (or rather, along the outer edges of the obstacles). And sometimes they pass right along the edge and being arcing afterwards. It just breaks my head. Or my eyes, not sure.

The Witcher 3 on the other hand... I put off playing this game for a long time because I was afraid I wouldn't enjoy it. And lo and behold, I don't. Which is not the fault of the game, it looks good, it plays well enough (especially when compared to the first and second games) and whenever a main quest is up the writing and quest structure are top notch.

But that feels like it's 5% of the game. The remaining 95% is ticking off open world checklists and running around BEAUSE LOOK AT THE WORLD WE DESIGNED DOESN'T IT LOOK AWESOME oh and here's a level 25 chimera in the middle of a level 5 area, haha, thought you could complete the checklists all at once without backtracking? Silly Witcher! Hey I found cool crafting schematics. *craft craft craft* Oh look over there, an item in a tree stump. Oh wow that's better equipment, thanks random loot generation system!

I also really don't like it when games have merchants that don't buy all your loot or when they have limited amounts of gold available. Game does both, obviously. Oh, I get that having limited gold on merchants is a way to limit the overall amount of money available in a game and could be interesting for "balance" reasons (never seen that work  though) but why can't I just sell my loot haul to anyone? Because realism in a game where your horse can  teleport on a whistle, just NOT when you're on it? Riiiiiiiiiiight...

Really wish the game was more structured like the first one. But that's just me not liking open world games. Which exacerbates the little things that annoy me. Like having to visit a sign post to fast travel. Why, just why? So you can't teleport out of combat? There's already a check in the game for when you can't save, just use that for fast travelling. Or openening the map. Ugh. Please.

Oh I know I could just follow the main quest, but these games have a habit of having side content loop into the main story, so that's not really an option, right? I mean even if I would be able to come across a checklist and NOT tick it off completely. Silly brain.

[Hurlshort]

Heh, I have The Witcher 3 sitting in my queue for the exact same reason. Granted it also took me a couple years to finally commit to playing TW2. I also find The Witcher universe to be pretty depressing, and I need to be in a certain mood to get into it. 

I'm plodding through Wasteland 3, which is also a depressing world to live in. There is some fun absurd humor that makes it a bit easier to overlook the darker moments, but I hope I am nearing the end. It is pretty combat heavy, but that might be because everyone is terrible and I'm not a fan of just letting them off the hook for cannibalism and slavery.

[Oner]

Yeah, as much as I enjoy TW 3, it's too much. I've played it in two chunks so far with a half year gap and still have most of Blood and Wine to finish.

[the_dog_days]

Axis Football Diaries: Week 7 Tennessee Bloodhounds: Do not. Blitz. The Corners!

Axis struggles with coding defensive movement. Pass completions were too high so as a band aid fix they lowered QB accuracy and WR catching because that's far easier than recoding the whole defense position by position.

Anyway, both teams struggle in the first quarter. Quite a few yards but no points.

First Quarter: 0 - 0

Both teams finally come to life in the second half. I score a touchdown and a field goal and they kick a field goal. The Bloodhounds have a solid run game. I'm jealous. I get the ball after they kick a field goal and my RB/FB Hill fumbles. They get the ball on a very short field but have to settle for a field goal. I get the ball and on a 3rd and 3 I call a pass. They blitz the corners. My WR Cook catches a 66 yard bomb. They get the ball back and kick another field goal. I use my two minute offense to drive down and kick a field goal with 1 second left in the half.

Second Quarter: 20 - 9

The only thing that happens in the third is us completing another long pass on a corner blitz, again.

Third Quarter: 27 - 9

Bloodhounds put a really good drive together mixing up the run and pass. They score a touchdown and convert on a two point try.* I get the ball back and don't even mean to, but on a third and long I call a pass. They countered with a corner blitz. Six points to us. They go on a final drive and score a touchdown. They didn't bother trying for 2 or kicking the onside kick as there's less than 2 minutes left in the game, they're out of timeouts, and there's a 10 gap.

Final Score: 34 - 24

Sharks Current Record: 5-2

*This was a bug. I tried to back out of the special teams plays to change to goal line defense but it acted like a skip play button.

[213374U]

13 hours ago, majestic said:

The remaining 95% is ticking off open world checklists and running around BEAUSE LOOK AT THE WORLD WE DESIGNED DOESN'T IT LOOK AWESOME oh and here's a level 25 chimera in the middle of a level 5 area, haha, thought you could complete the checklists all at once without backtracking? Silly Witcher! Hey I found cool crafting schematics. *craft craft craft* Oh look over there, an item in a tree stump. Oh wow that's better equipment, thanks random loot generation system!

I also really don't like it when games have merchants that don't buy all your loot or when they have limited amounts of gold available. Game does both, obviously. Oh, I get that having limited gold on merchants is a way to limit the overall amount of money available in a game and could be interesting for "balance" reasons (never seen that work  though) but why can't I just sell my loot haul to anyone? Because realism in a game where your horse can  teleport on a whistle, just NOT when you're on it? Riiiiiiiiiiight...

I stopped ticking checkboxes in games and found I enjoy them a lot more if I play organically and avoid anything that feels remotely like a chore. I believe it also breaks the game less because I'm not going to be hitting the XP cap by the mid game or ridiculously outlevel bosses if there is no cap. This also ties with the merchants thing -- if you don't turn every stone for a copper and take every rusty sword back to the vendor, you won't have a huge bag of gold to throw in merchants' faces as you clean their inventories out.

Not saying your complaints are invalid, of course. It's just that the min-max, 100% ALL THE THINGS, OCD playstyle hurts players but also negatively affects design because developers have to account for people obsessively going for absolute BiS gear in optimized builds who then go on message boards and post "lol gaem 2 ez" nonsense.

Arbitrary limitations on quick travel, on a single player game, are hard to justify though. And I hate crafting with a passion.

Regarding side content, I think some of them you could safely skip, but others tied to main characters, possibly affecting their epilogues and such. It's a huge game and even reading any such guide would probably take a good chunk of the fun out of it.

Edited October 10, 2020 by 213374U

[ComradeYellow]

After going through complete system driver updates, playing Monster Hunter: World again.  It has not crashed yet so fingers crossed that this update buffet actually fixed the issue.  Crashing aside, I recommend this only on a big sale.  It's quite fun if you're actually willing to get into it, has some Witcher 3 vibes but much more crafting features but so far kinda but the world doesn't seem as open-ended as Witcher 3.  I mean you have this central hub and you go on missions and it takes to "zones" I guess you could call them where you find crafting materials, find monster tracks that update research (which helps unlock info that makes hunting them easier like finding their weaknesses), complete the mission then return to the hub and upgrade your weapons and craft ammo and stuff (I'm using the Light Bowgun as a weapon and one of its features is a wide variety of ammo you can craft for it, right up my ally!).

So yeah, I'd say it's good at a nice discount, but not full retail.  It has DLSS and that's a huge plus, as I can get +120 fps on high settings.

Also, if you have good hardware, I recommend checking out the list of games that actually have DLSS and picking a few up, DLSS is like magic and gives a massive fps boost at very minimal cost to visuals.

https://www.ozarc.games/best-dlss-games/

What a time to be a gamer!

Edited October 11, 2020 by ComradeMaster

[LadyCrimson]

35 minutes ago, ComradeMaster said:

if you have good hardware, I recommend checking out the list of games that actually have DLSS and picking a few up, DLSS is like magic and gives a massive fps boost at very minimal cost to visuals.

https://www.ozarc.games/best-dlss-games/

What a time to be a gamer!

It's important to note that one should look for games that have DLSS 2.00 or higher. 

I was scratching my head when that linked article listed FF-XV in the little box of contents stating "DLSS 2 games" at the top of the article.  Because it's not.  If you scroll way way down to the actual entry for it, they mention (correctly) that what FF-XV uses is still a very early version of DLSS, possibly even a late beta of it.  And it looks like butt.  I mean I suppose on smaller resolutions or if you aren't all that picky/attuned to image clarity or sit far back, it's not the worst in the world and you'd get a fps boost but far as I'm concerned, FF-XV in 4k with DLSS looks like someone put a pixel blurring or oversharpening filter over everything -  no-DLSS/natively High-Max looks tons better. So don't buy FFXV just to try DLSS. lol

Anyway ... DLSS 2+ good.  Games that have earlier versions and that aren't likely to ever be upgraded/updated ... only good if you're desperate for that 10-20 more fps just to play, but not good for looks.

Edited October 11, 2020 by LadyCrimson

[ComradeYellow]

^Absolutely what Mrs. Crimson said!  Should have mentioned that, DLSS 2.0 or higher is the gold standard.

[Tale]

I finished the Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access. I think. It's hard to tell. I've got quest markers up that don't seem to point to anything. And there's no big notice beyond the game saying I can't access other areas when I try.

I might finally finish PoE since I'm still craving RPG.

[LadyCrimson]

Just now, Tale said:

I might finally finish PoE since I'm still craving RPG.

I'm craving RPG lately too, just a different type. So I'm going to install Might and Magic 7 (GoG version this time, not CD) and see how well it works on Win10. Been years. Can't be evviiillll but you can pick dark magic, which is the best magic. Running around Souldrinking everything in sight was a blast.

[ComradeYellow]

I might try PoE again, but this time, no Aloth!  I hate wizards.  Priests and druids are fine but not wizards. 

Durance, Sagani, Kana, Hiravius, and Pallegina only.  Grieving Mother is too friggin' creepy.

[BruceVC]

21 hours ago, majestic said:

I'm alternating between The Witcher 3 and sucking at Enter the Gungeon.

Enter the Gungeon kicks my behind in ways no other bullet hell game has so far. It's slower paced than other games of its kind that I played (e.g. Starward Rogue) but something makes it way harder for me. Might be the perspective, I keep running into bullets and yelling "no way that was a hit" at my screen and I get regularily hit by projectiles that I could swear would be absorbed by a wall or an obstacle when they pass right through (or rather, along the outer edges of the obstacles). And sometimes they pass right along the edge and being arcing afterwards. It just breaks my head. Or my eyes, not sure.

The Witcher 3 on the other hand... I put off playing this game for a long time because I was afraid I wouldn't enjoy it. And lo and behold, I don't. Which is not the fault of the game, it looks good, it plays well enough (especially when compared to the first and second games) and whenever a main quest is up the writing and quest structure are top notch.

But that feels like it's 5% of the game. The remaining 95% is ticking off open world checklists and running around BEAUSE LOOK AT THE WORLD WE DESIGNED DOESN'T IT LOOK AWESOME oh and here's a level 25 chimera in the middle of a level 5 area, haha, thought you could complete the checklists all at once without backtracking? Silly Witcher! Hey I found cool crafting schematics. *craft craft craft* Oh look over there, an item in a tree stump. Oh wow that's better equipment, thanks random loot generation system!

I also really don't like it when games have merchants that don't buy all your loot or when they have limited amounts of gold available. Game does both, obviously. Oh, I get that having limited gold on merchants is a way to limit the overall amount of money available in a game and could be interesting for "balance" reasons (never seen that work  though) but why can't I just sell my loot haul to anyone? Because realism in a game where your horse can  teleport on a whistle, just NOT when you're on it? Riiiiiiiiiiight...

Really wish the game was more structured like the first one. But that's just me not liking open world games. Which exacerbates the little things that annoy me. Like having to visit a sign post to fast travel. Why, just why? So you can't teleport out of combat? There's already a check in the game for when you can't save, just use that for fast travelling. Or openening the map. Ugh. Please.

Oh I know I could just follow the main quest, but these games have a habit of having side content loop into the main story, so that's not really an option, right? I mean even if I would be able to come across a checklist and NOT tick it off completely. Silly brain.

Im surprised you dont like the W3 for the reasons you mention, most of those are the exact reason I play RPG like the W3

For example I love the random quests and " easter egg " encounters that were designed to reward exploration and the real sandbox element of games like this....you cant call it an open-world, sandbox RPG if you dont have the 25th level Chimera as a possible foe in the 5 th level quest. In these encounters you come later and defeat that particular monster. And you need a balanced economy like merchants with limited money so you dont undermine core " risk and reward " game mechanics  and basically realistic free market economics. In other words " its unrealistic that a blacksmith in some rural, indigent village will have money to buy my Sword + 4 " 

Its like normal banking in RL and we need to support that 

Its an amazing and brilliant RPG, my favorite next to BG2 ToB. I spent 300 hours on W3, you must play it 

[BruceVC]

1 minute ago, BruceVC said:

DOUBLE POST 

 

Edited October 11, 2020 by BruceVC

[majestic]

13 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Im surprised you dont like the W3 for the reasons you mention, most of those are the exact reason I play RPG like the W3

For example I love the random quests and " easter egg " encounters that were designed to reward exploration and the real sandbox element of games like this....you cant call it an open-world, sandbox RPG if you dont have the 25th level Chimera as a possible foe in the 5 th level quest. In these encounters you come later and defeat that particular monster. And you need a balanced economy like merchants with limited money so you dont undermine core " risk and reward " game mechanics  and basically realistic free market economics. In other words " its unrealistic that a blacksmith in some rural, indigent village will have money to buy my Sword + 4 " 

Its like normal banking in RL and we need to support that 

Its an amazing and brilliant RPG, my favorite next to BG2 ToB. I spent 300 hours on W3, you must play it 

 Really Bruce, you defeat your own agrument by saying The Witcher 3 is your favorite game next to Baldur's Gate 2: The Monty Haul where every rural village merchant has unlimited gold, almost always buys literally everything you have in your bags (except for items with no sell value) and you find loot that makes the game a snap right out of the first dungeon. What risk and reward mechanics?

BG2 becomes only challenging only if you make it, either through modifications or arbitrary restrictions you put on yourself. It has all the rewards, but none of the risks. Beyond the initial learning phase where you are dumbfounded by the game rules, but for me that happened in the early 90ies for 2nd edition AD&D, so I can't comment how that would be for someone whose first contact with the ruleset was BG2 (or BG1, as it were).

8 hours ago, 213374U said:

I stopped ticking checkboxes in games and found I enjoy them a lot more if I play organically and avoid anything that feels remotely like a chore. I believe it also breaks the game less because I'm not going to be hitting the XP cap by the mid game or ridiculously outlevel bosses if there is no cap. This also ties with the merchants thing -- if you don't turn every stone for a copper and take every rusty sword back to the vendor, you won't have a huge bag of gold to throw in merchants' faces as you clean their inventories out.

Not saying your complaints are invalid, of course. It's just that the min-max, 100% ALL THE THINGS, OCD playstyle hurts players but also negatively affects design because developers have to account for people obsessively going for absolute BiS gear in optimized builds who then go on message boards and post "lol gaem 2 ez" nonsense.

Arbitrary limitations on quick travel, on a single player game, are hard to justify though. And I hate crafting with a passion.

Regarding side content, I think some of them you could safely skip, but others tied to main characters, possibly affecting their epilogues and such. It's a huge game and even reading any such guide would probably take a good chunk of the fun out of it.

Breaking the system and making the games easy is half the fun. I love it when a build comes together. Granted, that's probably more true for ARPGs, finding something that works with the new season, patch or expansion. I don't mind broken mechanics or unbalance in games to be honest, it was my biggest beef with the ongoing support for both Pillars of Eternity and Deadfire. It's a single player game, just leave the "balancing" at home. As long as none of the classes are so broken that you can't win the game playing it then leave it alone.

It's the checklists that cause the OCD to kick off though. If the game had no checklists and you would simply find out about interesting things by randomly wandering into the area or actually reading the notice board descriptions instead of just wildly clicking on them to get a waypoint it wouldn't be so bad. I had a lot of time in Morrowind as well, a game that lets you unabashedly break it. By the time I started the main quest in Morrowind my character was literally invulnerable. It's not like the gameplay was hurt much by it.

I never finished the main quest in Morrowind, but not because it was "lel 2 ez" after becoming invulnerable, but because Bethesda's writing is... on the exact opposite side of their ability to create fun worlds to explore. So I just read what happens, was glad I didn't bother and that was that.

Crafting I don't care much for in single player games, and more often than not it's either completely pointless or too good to skip. Multiplayer games of course have the advantage of being able to trade with other players, and if it nicely fits into the game world and requires player collaboration then all the better, i.e. I thought EQ2's original crafting system was fantastic. Not for me, I'd just rather simply buy the finished products, but if someone wanted they could really just roleplay (and level) as carpenter.

On the other hand, the crafting system in EQ2 also was designed so that a few bad dice rolls could destroy your very valuable components. Or kill your character just in case your forge explodes in your face.

That said I fully realize that my inability to let checkboxes lie unticked is my problem, not the game's.

At least, and that has The Witcher 3 going for it, it doesn't look like the game's narrative focus was diluted by being placed in an open world. At the expense of making the open world feel tacked on to what could have been a chapter based game like TW or TW2. If this were a chapter based game you could have Velen first, on a much smaller map, then go to Novigrad and finally to Skellige with an introductory chapter and an epilogue later.

You'd then be able to follow Ciri on her way, and not just look for her everywhere your whim takes you, and you wouldn't need to untangle a web of interlocked main quests and wonder why a level 6 main quest sends to into a level 10 main quest area until you realize finishing the level 6 quest actually locks you out of level 14 content. I mean, what in the what now? How did that mess happen unless making the game open world came later in the development cycle?

 

[BruceVC]

13 minutes ago, majestic said:

 Really Bruce, you defeat your own agrument by saying The Witcher 3 is your favorite game next to Baldur's Gate 2: The Monty Haul where every rural village merchant has unlimited gold, almost always buys literally everything you have in your bags (except for items with no sell value) and you find loot that makes the game a snap right out of the first dungeon. What risk and reward mechanics?

 

 

No I havent defeated my argument because you are assuming I consider BG2 ToB an " open, sandbox " RPG like W3, I dont at all so I measure and rate  BG2 in a different way than W3 but its still top of  my list like W3

Risk and reward in a game like W3  can be seen in different ways, for example where only certain weapon smiths of a certain level can repair and sell certain weapons. You gain more experience and that allows you to travel to more advanced cities that have a larger and better pool of resources and skills you can use and yes that logically means a " Sword +4 " is something you can sell to any weapon enthusiasts in a large city but its unlikely a rural blacksmith will have the money for this

Its about economic realism 

[majestic]

2 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

No I havent defeated my argument because you are assuming I consider BG2 ToB an " open, sandbox " RPG like W3, I dont at all so I measure and rate  BG2 in a different way than W3 but its still top of  my list like W3

Risk and reward in a game like W3  can be seen in different ways, for example where only certain weapon smiths of a certain level can repair and sell certain weapons. You gain more experience and that allows you to travel to more advanced cities that have a larger and better pool of resources and skills you can use and yes that logically means a " Sword +4 " is something you can sell to any weapon enthusiasts in a large city but its unlikely a rural blacksmith will have the money for this

Its about economic realism 

I fail to see the distinction between shopping systems in sandbox and regular RPGs, unless we're talking multiplayer sandboxes, in which a self-regulating economy is a good thing and a necessity. But we are talking single player games here.

[Hawke64]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. I am still at the desert and it feels duller after the arena. I go into a dungeon, murder everything, go out, repeat. I am also pretty sure that 2 of them were story-related and meant to be visited later (there were locked doors, which I could not open). Though, the side quests are reasonably interesting. Like provoking a war between two local tribes, then finishing off the victor (there was no choice but to accept or to decline the quest).

----

Has anyone here played the Sword Art Online series? Does any of the games feature actual roleplay (i.e. I, the player, make story-related choices, instead of skipping non-interactive cut-scenes)?
I've been watching SAO Abridged and it is truly amazing, so I am curious about the source material.

[melkathi]

The desert is probably the worst part of Amalur.

[213374U]

5 hours ago, majestic said:

You'd then be able to follow Ciri on her way, and not just look for her everywhere your whim takes you, and you wouldn't need to untangle a web of interlocked main quests and wonder why a level 6 main quest sends to into a level 10 main quest area until you realize finishing the level 6 quest actually locks you out of level 14 content. I mean, what in the what now? How did that mess happen unless making the game open world came later in the development cycle?

What? I don't remember this. Granted, even my first playthrough was heavily modded, but I don't remember the game permanently locking me out of content that I couldn't do at the time natural progression would take me to another area. Are you speaking of Velen?

And I don't remember actual checklists, but I have very bad memory for games. Is this a task list in your log, or in the interface? Can't you disable secondary quest tracking so that it's not in your face all the time?

I definitely see your point that designers shouldn't be overly concerned about balance in single player games. But as for breaking the game, different strokes I guess. To me there's a difference between finding an effective build, and stacking every thinkable advantage in possibly unintended ways to trivialize the content. It's also different from grinding XP out in higher level, easier sidequests or mobs so I can heavily outlevel encounters that are meant to be challenging when faced "naturally" at an earlier point in the game.

When that happens I usually lose motivation to continue. It's also a reason why I've become wary of all games now apparently needing RPG mechanics with levels tacked on to them. STALKER is the perfect example of a game that had tangible progression without having a character sheet or assigning arbitrary levels to areas and enemies. I think open world games in general would work better with a similar approach than simply using the typical contrivance of "area is 5 levels above you, rats here will one‑shot you". A satisfactory solution to this problem hasn't been found yet to my knowledge. Oblivion level scaling was widely derided, and DOS2 punished you heavily for going into an area even two levels higher which effectively railroaded progress. In New Vegas literally taking a wrong turn at the start would quickly lead the player to an area with deathclaws that were simply not meant to be dealt with that early in the game. Each of those approaches had a con for each pro. People want to have their cake and eat it too and there's no one‑size‑fits‑all fix.

Edited October 11, 2020 by 213374U
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[majestic]

22 minutes ago, 213374U said:

What? I don't remember this. Granted, even my first playthrough was heavily modded, but I don't remember the game permanently locking me out of content that I couldn't do at the time natural progression would take me to another area. Are you speaking of Velen?

Finishing Family Matters for the Bloody Baron by telling him about this wife's fate can lock you out of all sorts of sidequests, even if you found out what happened to his daughter you can't tell him about it, and it removes a smallish quest in Skellige that only pops up if Ladies of the Woods/Family Matters is unresolved at the time you do The Calm Before The Storm. It was originally a quest given by the Bloody Baron but was then later moved to pop up in Skellige for some reason - just not with the cutoff trigger changed.

(I got this from the interweb after looking up quest cutoff points to be honest.)

edit:

And no, there aren't actual checklists like in the new Tomb Raider games, but the map shows undiscovered locations and a neat little counter how many there still are. It's checklisty enough for me to be bothered by it.

I mean, it also bothered me in Romb Raider and that was not open world at all. There it was just ridiculous when Lara was looking for the last corpse to burn she missed while the cave around her was quite literally exploding in her face. Geez.

edit 2:

It's always been that way. Way back when I played Jedi Knight I kept replaying the levels until that counter at the end told me I found all the secrets. And bloody hell some of them were well hidden.

Edited October 11, 2020 by majestic

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, 213374U said:

ge. Oblivion level scaling was widely derided, and DOS2 punished you heavily for going into an area even two levels higher which effectively railroaded progress. In New Vegas literally taking a wrong turn at the start would quickly lead the player to an area with deathclaws that were simply not meant to be dealt with that early in the game. Each of those approaches had a con for each pro. People want to have their cake and eat it too and there's no one‑size‑fits‑all fix.

Good post and  your option 3, F:NV, for any true " sandbox, open-world " RPG is the only reasonable answer around game design and mechanics 

You take huge risk going into certain areas that have much harder enemies but they can be defeated albeit requiring a certain strategy and or items and your level cant be 8 or more below their level 

But there are real rewards like rare items and general loot which in all the Fallout games I have played from FO3 onwards has real benefits in the game economy 

Edited October 11, 2020 by BruceVC

[BruceVC]

1 minute ago, BruceVC said:

G

 

Edited October 11, 2020 by BruceVC