Rampant lying by NPC's about time

[LadyCrimson]

"We have to hurry!"

"There's not much time, we must go!"

 

etc. etc.

 

Then leave the game running, go made some food, come back, and what do you know...apparently you have all the time in the world after all.

 

As much as I usually dislike 'timed' events in games (seems cheap somehow) I think this game might have benefited by a couple such events, even if it wasn't a seriously stressful timed event.

 

Either that, or stop having npc's holler about lack of time...I find it distracting to the immersion when I know they're lying.

[Swinny]

lol, dont make kotor realistic!

 

like how there is no toilet on the ebon hawk

 

i mean.. what do they use..?? T3..??? suppose he;s shaped like a toilet

 

and dont get me started on how you can turn atton into a jedi in like, 4 sentances, i mean wtf it takes like 10 years of training ARHGH

[Yst]

See, I guess there's enough of the P&P D&Der in me, or at least enough nostalgia for the spirit of the principle, that the idea that one's decisions regarding actions in the gameworld are not time-sensitive simply makes sense to me. I've never heard a DM say "You have precisely 7.5 seconds to decide on a course of action, roll a D20, and finish your turn, starting...now! Go!" The difference between standing still doing nothing in the gameworld, and standing still while paused, doing nothing in the gameworld in KotOR II seems trivial.

 

CRPGs are half way between real time and turn based (underlying turn-based structure beneath a real-time facade), such that real time mechanisms like timers would seem, to me, out of place. And there's no easy mechanism for measuring time across all forms of non-combat action and travel within the gameworld available in D&D really, so I don't know how you'd time player actions anyway.

[WITHTEETH]

lol, dont make kotor realistic!

 

and dont get me started on how you can turn atton into a jedi in like, 4 sentances, i mean wtf it takes like 10 years of training ARHGH

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It Took me 15 yrs

[BattleCookiee]

CRPGs are half way between real time and turn based (underlying turn-based structure beneath a real-time facade), such that real time mechanisms like timers would seem, to me, out of place.  And there's no easy mechanism for measuring time across all forms of non-combat action and travel within the gameworld available in D&D really, so I don't know how you'd time player actions anyway.

 

Kotor2 stepped a great step away from D&D though, and thus it won't be a problem to install it really.

And player actions: Swoopracing/Turretshooting (and in a degreed case puzzles) and such CAN'T be done in D&D (player action based) and thus are already an indication that these timed actions could also be added (another player based thing)

They can either:

1) Force to complete before other Quest completion (already done)

2) A timer who runs down except when paused/in menu's

[Ispep]

lol, dont make kotor realistic!

 

and dont get me started on how you can turn atton into a jedi in like, 4 sentances, i mean wtf it takes like 10 years of training ARHGH

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It Took me 15 yrs

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It took me $20 :D

[Kaftan Barlast]

The time issue is a staple of CRPG's.

 

 

How else would you have the time to spend months doing various quests while your damsel in distress sits awaiting her doom as she is captured by the evil villain?

 

I think BgII has one of the worst examples where you must hurry to free poor Imoen, but you still somehow have the time to skulk around the city and country for an eternity.

[Yst]

I'm glad most RPGs don't have timers of any sort, let alone real world timers. I often take far too long to complete them

 

My record is Dragon Warrior 1.

 

1989: Got it at release. Created my character leveled through the first several levels.

Early '90s: Leveled him up to around level 12 or so.

Mid '90s: Played him into the teen levels.

2004: I took out my cart again, and with the same controller, on the same save, on the same system, with the same character, leveled up and killed the Dragon Lord.

 

It took me over 15 years to beat the game.

 

Good thing there wasn't a timer (and good thing my cart's battery didn't die before I did)

[Stewart]

Ok, after the third time playing the game I still did not know that you could make Atton a jedi.... How do you do it?

 

In relation to the topic.... I don't like being rushed. If I got into a quest, and there are still things I would like to do, I don't want to be rushed into getting where I need to go.

[darth spock]

Apparently someone had shown him the Force so maybe it was in him already...? You just sort of say, "Awaken" and poof! Jedi Atton.

[Revan Si-Darlo]

Keep in mind that the level system is a rather simplified version of gaining experience. In real life, the Exile would probably still be at Level 8 or 10 by the end of the game. People don't learn that fast. But the point is that the game wouldn't be fun if you did it that way. RPGs are meant to be fun, not precisely life-like.

 

It does simulate life closely enough that you can imagine would it would be realistically. For example, in the case of Atton and other Jedifiable NPCs, take in mind that the Exile certainly never completes their training. Consider them still a lowly padawans by the end of the game, padawans that must learn like Luke Skywalker in the Original Trilogy to learn based on their own experience instead of that of the teachings of the Jedi.

 

Perhaps that's why there's so many differences between the Order of the Prequels and the Order of the Jedi Civil War.

[FaramirK]

I've never heard a DM say "You have precisely 7.5 seconds to decide on a course of action, roll a D20, and finish your turn, starting...now!  Go!" 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Ha! I tried that once and my friends almost beat me to death for being so foolish. I thought it would be cool, and then, for the first time in my life, understood that too much realism in a game makes it to much like real life, and no longer fun.

 

Like Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance and their stupid weapons breaking.

[LadyCrimson]

The difference between standing still doing nothing in the gameworld, and standing still while paused, doing nothing in the gameworld in KotOR II seems trivial.

 

The difference is that if time is moving in the game world (ie non-paused) then something in the gameplay should reflect it. They try to motivate you with all that 'no time' hollering but pfffft.

 

I understand that 'serious' timing of quests isn't generally done in RPG's, but Kotor would easily be adapted to it - it doesn't have to be an actual clock ticking away 10 seconds. Something more akin to the general feeling of time pressure in strategy games perhaps, for a couple quests.

 

Not the whole game...just a few events.

[Drakron]

Only way to do that is making a the player wanting to rush.

 

Its not easy but I remenber how I felt near the end of Silent Hill 2, I wanted to climb those steps and finaly end it.

 

Timers are the worst way because they are a coop out, the player simply rushes because he have too and not because he wants too and when the timer reaches 0 he have to start again.

 

Nothing really stops the game developers to force the player to go in a ceratin course of action by not allowing to leave that place, also nothing stops then from making scripts events to give the feeling of urgency and not running a timer that makes the player fail if he is not fast enough.

 

I am not looking forward to Halo Racing in games ...

[tanstaafl28]

The hyperdrive doubles as a toilet...just don't use it while in hyperspace!

 

lol, dont make kotor realistic!

 

like how there is no toilet on the ebon hawk 

 

i mean.. what do they use..?? T3..??? suppose he;s shaped like a toilet

 

and dont get me started on how you can turn atton into a jedi in like, 4 sentances, i mean wtf it takes like 10 years of training ARHGH

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Swinny]

lol, hypertoilet eh?

 

couldnt the electircal currents travel up your piss and then....

 

 

ouch... :ph34r:

[Ivan the Terrible]

I think BgII has one of the worst examples where you must hurry to free poor Imoen, but you still somehow have the time to skulk around the city and country for an eternity.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I hated that. Hated it.

 

Whenever I was playing as a goodie two-shoes, there was never a point in the game where I could feel comfortable about my inaction on the major quests. If I waited forever and did all my sidequests, I felt like I had just ditched Imoen to torture and abuse. If I got the money quickly and headed straight out to save her,

I came back to find an Elven city being demolished with me (theoretically) being the only thing between them and catastrophe.

If I beat that, the game was over.

 

At some point in BG2, all good characters have to be callous bastards if they want to do anything but the main plot. I've been able to rationalize for other games, but BG2 made it damn hard.