Epic levels suck.

 

20 is fine.

Being a god/goddess by the end of the game is my goal.

Being a god is boring.

Not at all.

Power issues? "

Absolute power FTW!

Push one button to win the game-feature for the win!

Don't put words in her mouth, Muso. That's not what she said.

Push one button to win the game-feature for the win!

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It already exists. Its called the power button. You press it. You beat the game.

But that age of gaming is gone, guys. There's just too many variables, and a current game with that kind of freedom would probably take a decade to make.

 

Not at all. As someone who's fiddled with NWN Toolset before, I can definitely see it being possible. But on BG2's level and scope, it'd take about as much work as BG2. And BG2 was just stupidly big in terms of the work it took. One of those games that actually did most things on the design document.

 

Epic levels are another thing. I've been saying this since the TOB days; the game needs to change at epic levels. You can't have the same game as pre-20 post-20, or it becomes an unbalanced, stupid, boring diabloquest. You need to get some of this epic stuff. I think we can do it now or very soon. Get a stronghold. Lead an army. If you're a mage, actually make golems and enchant objects (not items), etc, etc - not just your silly items to have Continual Flame. Lots of stuff on reputation. That's how you play an epic character, not the exact same person you used to be in the exact same world, just with +3 of stuff. NWN2 could make a decent attempt at it IMO, because it can do all the post-20 stuff in an expansion and concentrate that particular campaign on making it truly 'epic'.

 

Since who doesn't see a post-20 expansion coming?

I +20 levels. I like epics, and not "epics" in the sense of a grand adventure like KOTOR, but the kind of epic BG was, which was the same storyline extended through 2 games and 2 expansions. I don't know if anybody has the balls to pull that off these days, but I'd like to hope that they do. It was pretty wild and risky to make a game with a level cap of 8. ToB paled in comparison to the other games, true, but it fared admirably for what it was (an +18 level 2nd edition campaign)

 

I might be the only person alive who enjoyed SoU / HotU It was odd of them to make a non-traditional expansion, and then release an expansion of the expansion. I thought it was cool that they linked the OC and the expansions through the NPCs and such. I would have loved it if they had explored what had happened to the Hero of Neverwinter after Aribeth died. I had always envisioned him/her becoming an end-game villain

A lot of people enjoyed HOTU. I finished HOTU but thought it was just mediocre... better than NWN OC, but nothing to write home about.

 

I suppose I coudln't care less about Fenthick or Aribeth or Neverwinter because I hated that campaign with a passion. It wasn't terrible, it was well polished and mediocre... but it was so 'dead'. Nothing in it had life or passion.

HOTU ftw! Just when I was thinking the Underdark part was awesome (Hallaster's dungeon wasn't half bad either btw) there's planeswalking! And Aribeth!

HotU was just too overpowered.

And, you liked it!

Metadigital summed up what I had in mind. It takes a lot more thought, and allows lower level enemies to have an impact for longer. Vampires, Dragons, those kind of things were the badasses I always imagined them to be. In the newer games, these creatures make up the new 'Goblins' because your level rises so damn fast.

 

More tactical options are needed at lower levels as well. BG pulled this off quite well in not handing out a level every five minutes, and it felt like you were adventuring around, taking time to earn these levels and powers.

 

In NWN, levels were like candy. You can become on the verge of Godlike after a couple weeks of adventuring (In game time). And this was after learning how to swing a sword in the academy at level 1.

 

I think DnD games on PC's should start looking at taking advantage of the technology along the lines of 'Rogues being able to climb the wall instead of fight a guard foozle', various ways of completing quests that take advantage of what older computers couldn't have in them.

 

I will stop rambling now

"In NWN, levels were like candy. You can become on the verge of Godlike after a couple weeks of adventuring (In game time)."

 

Outside of the BGs, and the gold box games very few games handled levelling pace better than the OC.

Doesn't say much for those 'other games', does it?

 

Arcanum was alright just because it was so paltry with points in the first place, though it did break later on.. but then, the game was pretty darn open-ended in terms of where you could go.

 

With a game as linear as the OC (as opposed to FOs, TES or arcanum), objectively not relatively it was pretty poor.

it is all about the *illusion* of freedom...obviously, there is still the Yellow Brick Road.

 

let us say that you fired Carth and got another pilot in KOTOR. Now Carth has some important clues to give you about Saul and Malak. Well, he can still give you those clues in a ship-to-ship transmission, a holomessage that your droid picks up on a certain planet, etc.

 

now, if Carth actually dies, it becomes a little trickier but the info can still get to you (a bartender somehow knows alot about Admiral Saul, etc).

 

the idea is not to create another Yellow Brick Road but to give you some options, making you feel that you really are the party leader....party leaders hire and fire people....that cannot (or at least should not) be denied.

And, you liked it!

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Indeed we did enjoy HotU. Drow rule supreme.

And, you liked it!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Indeed we did enjoy HotU. Drow rule supreme.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I knew it! You're a Hades Alt!

 

I am teh bestest detective!!! Move over Lou Gutman.

 

 

EDIT: Oh wait, I forgot: "It's Hammertime!"

Edited October 17, 200619 yr by alanschu