Shooting for 30 hours?

[Musopticon?]

I don't mean to be rude, but considering the amount of devs we see here nowadays, we must be doing something right.

 

Edit: Maybe we get to "interesting" and "worth reading" eventually too. :D

Edited January 16, 2006 by Musopticon?

[Surreptishus]

It may be the thread content; it may be the wonderful relatively new employees Hey Joe. It could even be the noticeable absence of Kotor 2 bashing like what there was around a year ago. Remember when the feargus said he would close down the boards?

 

anyway - on topic (kind of)

 

Comparatively shorter game times may be a conscious effort to entice the wider games market. Those people that view gaming as more of a casual engagement than say someone like Hades.

[alanschu]

"This was not directed at me...but I was too lazy to delete it from the post...even though it would actually have been less work to delete it, rather than explaining it."

 

LOL :D  As for the rest of your post, good stuff.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I had a feeling you'd enjoy that. I lighthearted comment from me to Volo....what is the world coming to??

[alanschu]

like most threads on this board, it is the same dozen people arguing back and forth for 13 pages. 

 

tragic.

 

HA! Good Fun!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Though entertaining in a perverse, morbid sort of way.

[Judge Hades]

GAME! GAME! GAME! GAME! GAME! GAME! GAME!

 

Oh, yeah, I am just a casual gamer. REALLY!

 

GAME! GAME! GAME! GAME! GAME! GAME! GAME!

Edited January 16, 2006 by Judge Hades

[Kaftan Barlast]

like most threads on this board, it is the same dozen people arguing back and forth for 13 pages. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

No, it isnt.

 

 

 

"

[Gabrielle]

Yes it is.

[CoM_Solaufein]

GAME!  GAME!  GAME!  GAME!  GAME!  GAME!  GAME! 

 

Oh, yeah, I am just a casual gamer.  REALLY!

 

GAME!  GAME!  GAME!  GAME!  GAME!  GAME!  GAME! 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You need to lay off the sugar.

[Junai]

I wouldn't mind a little BG1 area-exploring. That would add to the game-time. Morrowind-areas might be a bit much, but the ToB-"stuff as much story as you can in every single room" can also be a bit extreme. BG1 was pretty balanced that way. Also, I'd welcome a few hidden dungeons/areas with some modest random l337 that isn't related to the main-quest. Places you only find if you search properly.

 

*shrug*

 

J.

Edited January 18, 2006 by Junai

[Gabrielle]

I wouldn't mind a little BG1 area-exploring. That would add to the game-time. Morrowind-areas might be a bit much, but the ToB-"stuff as much story as you can in every single room" can also be a bit extreme. BG1 was pretty balanced that way. Also, I'd welcome a few hidden dungeons/areas with some modest random l337 that isn't related to the main-quest. Places you only find if you search properly.

 

*shrug*

 

J.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes you said the magic words. I loved the areas you could explore in BG1. So many places and things to do, prolonged the hours spent playing the game.

[Judge Hades]

You need to lay off the sugar. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I am not on sugar. You haven't seen me when I am really energetic. I be bouncing when that happens and when tihs man goes bouncing WATCH OUT!

[Gabrielle]

You need to lay off the sugar. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I am not on sugar. You haven't seen me when I am really energetic. I be bouncing when that happens and when tihs man goes bouncing WATCH OUT!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ermm I would like to pass on that.

[Judge Hades]

BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE!

 

tee hee

[Atreides]

When's the line between loving exploring the sparsely populated areas and hating the forced treking crossed?

[Judge Hades]

In Detroit.

 

It is a world map honestly.l I mean you could just travel through each individual area to go to a location or jump directly where you need to go.

[Gabrielle]

When's the line between loving exploring the sparsely populated areas and hating the forced treking crossed?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Think of the wildlife you can kill in the sparsely populated areas for exp points.

Edited January 18, 2006 by Gabrielle

[Atreides]

Killing the black bears and the Xvart village for no reason was interesting in a I LIEK XP powergaming sort of way, but mindless. As was targeting the squirrels to see whether Kivan was a better shot than Imoen (Kivan won).

 

Maybe when you kill some wildlife for no reason in NWN2 you'll get a bunch of PETA hippies on your case.

[Judge Hades]

Hey, don't call people from PETA hippies. That is an insult to the real hippies.

[Atreides]

Imagine the "fun". They can insist on following your party around, make tons of noise to scare off all the animals, enemies, getting in your way and whatever. Kind of like how those guys are running their boats right next to the Japanese whalers.

 

Kind of like Noober but more annoying. When you tell the to GTFO they'll defend their right to go where they want etc etc. However, when they find out that some wolves aren't as cuddly as they think they are you can choose to save them or let them have it (ALLIGNMENT SHIFT YAY).

[astr0creep]

For a CRPG, 30 hours is not enough. 80-100 is just perfect, with the possibility of more if one wants to.

 

The first time I played FF7, I loved it so much it took me 204 hours! Everyone at Lvl 99!

 

I remember older CRPGs like Lands of Lore and the Might and Magic series. Those lasted a lot longer than 30 hours and they were much harder also.

 

I believe the reason for shorter games in general is 2 things. First, games are tech demos.

Second, the sooner you finish, the sooner you'll buy another one.

 

$$$ people!

Edited January 18, 2006 by astr0creep

[Atreides]

I bet if you keep reloading forest areas and hunt the respawning fauna, you'd reach the max level before you reach the boss and make the game really really long.

[Judge Hades]

Actually that wouldn't work if they follow the rules of experience. By the time you get to 8th to 10th level you get zero experience for critters less than 2 CR.

[Atreides]

The critters could be huge, like XBox.

[Judge Hades]

Um... No.

[mkreku]

I was at a press showing for Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach yesterday, and at first I thought it would be a game that Hades would like. It's a MMORPG with a level 10 level cap! It takes a looong time to level in that game. Also, the world is consistant for every player, meaning that if you blow up a bridge with a fireball (which is entirely possible), the bridge will stay blown up forever (not sure how that works, but it has to do with instancing)! That's very uncommon for a MMORPG. Also, the game heavily favours groups. There's no soloing in DDO: Stormreach. Another thing that's bound to suit old PnP players is that there's an automated gamemaster talking whenever there's something special to be told. For instance, if you're a thief and your Spot skill is high enough and you happen to find some tracks, the gamemaster will say something like "Heavy footprints in the moist sludge on the floor leads off in the direction of a moldy brick wall, where they come to an abrupt halt", but he says that only to the thief and not to the rest of the group. Then it's up to the thief to inform the rest of the group about what his skills have told him, if he chooses to. I liked the gamemaster system, it really gave the game some unique atmosphere.

 

Unfortunately, there were some weaknesses in the game too. There's no alignment, for example. Everyone's forced to play a hero. I know that will kill the experience for a lot of people. Also, there's no seamless world. When you travel in Eberron, you'll see a map and a red dotted line representing your travels between places. The combat is (for once) both twitch and skill based. Twitch is very uncommon for MMORPG's, but it seemed to work very well. You block and hit and dodge manually, but you can always see a little dice roll in the lower right of the screen, to see if your swings hit or not. The best part about the combat is that it doesn't give any xp! All xp in the game comes from solving quests, so those who don't like to fight can choose other ways of completing quests (except for some boss fights of course).

 

It will be fun to try it some more when I get my beta account. It looks promising and quite unusual so far. I only played for 2-3 hours, but it really seemed like they'd gotten rid of the boring "kill 10 rats to complete the quest" quests and xp farming. I actually managed to solve even the first beginner's quest in several different ways, while finding hidden objectives and bonus xp along the way! That impressed me.

 

By the way, what the hell is a construct? I made a Construct fighter and boy did I kick ass. I felt totally overpowered as I could kill most anything in one hit.