Game Presentation Suggestions from Comic Con NY

[foxlance]

I just watched the presentation on Youtube earlier and i wanted to give my thoughts from that 15 min demo.

 

They were showcasing their engine for the game, as the player stood on a cliff overlooking the town. That's it. That's failure right there. It would be a lot better if say there is a designated point in the cliff where on a push of a button, a sweeping view of the town ahead using the in-game models will play. Kinda like the eagle vision in Assassin's Creed, only not the same 360 view of course. Additionally, if the town is part of the old DS, a narrated voice over should read a few lines for the new guys to be familiar about the lore of the game.

 

And the part where there was a statue of the farmer hero, also there should be a sort of mini in-game movie with a voice over that narrates a bit of its history. They should do it for every hero that has appeared in the game, much like the ending credits in DS2 narrates what happened with the heroes afterward. This could be part of a main quest that will ask the player to search the whole of Aranna and find all the places where a tribute has been made for these heroes, unlocking a formidable armor pack or weapon for the player.

 

Gameplay is OK for the moment. I still feel that when hacking the enemies we should get that slight feeling of resistance/feedback, but not that much since well be swarmed by creeps most of the time. Just don't let us feel like where hitting air all the time. DO NOT bring the combat speed to Dragon Age slowness.

 

Also, aside from the usual boring short sword and shield and Great swords and bows, give us new weapon types. A staff user perhaps (not wizard staff) or a spear, or a monk type with a 'Gauntlet of Zeus' type of weapon used by Kratos from God of War on the psp.

 

Also give us the ability to dodge/roll, that way players will be busier forming tactics and not just confined to jump in the swarm and hack. If you feel like adding counter attack moves thats fine, but i cant see doing it on creeps. Probably on boss fights to make them a bit more enjoyable. I know we haven't seen counter attack moves on party base rpg, but thats where you come you can be inventive. Since we are only allowed to control 1 character at a time, only he/she can do the counter move.

 

Smarter AI for the creeps where some will re group then attack a single hero and really try to take that hero down.

 

Give us rings and necklaces we can forge so we'll be busy gathering runes and enchantments for them. and don't limit us wit 2 rings per character. The more buffs we can give our heroes the better we feel about out team.

 

Crafting is another feature I'd like, for sure that will give my game additional 3-5 hours (or even more).

 

Also, please make the minimum party not 4, but at least 6 if possible, that way you will not be wasting the other heroes just having a good time on the inn while only 4 heroes takes on the bad guys. Let them have mini conversations while walking on no-creep area, its a place where they can showcase their individual character.

 

Also give us a lot of room to explore, aka open world type of maps. The demo showed a crypt, which is fine to have a specific path, but outside tombs and caves, we must be able to explore. That's the type of guys who play rpg are like, we like to explore, we like to craft, we like to discover.

 

On the games menu, give us a mass effect 2 type of lore section where we can read about places and people about the game.

 

Will pets return to the game? I like the idea of pets but i didn't know they will take a slot on my party! Cant the primary hero get 1 pet for the party instead? dont make it too powerful, more of a buff/passive type, and have a cool time base powerful attack like a 360 freeze burst to help your party survive a swarm of creeps, etc.

 

 

Thats all for now. Ill drop in more comments when i see another demo, but i really hope that, at least, player thoughts are being read and considered. Hope to hear from the community and from Enix/Obsidian!

[Draganta]

Which movie is that, do you have a link?

[foxlance]

Which movie is that, do you have a link?

The only "movie" in my post was where i was referring to 'in-game cutscenes'.

[Tigranes]

I think he's asking for the link to the video, so we know what you're talking about. I remember videos that include a cliff but not a video where they just stand around for 15 minutes while the narrator talks.

 

Anyway, since half of your post is about the video and the other half is "what I want in this game", for the first half - again, need to see the link, but I think that eagle vision stuff is down to preference. I'd rather have a realistic vista view where I see a town far off, and I know that later on I can reach that town (which was confirmed by the devs), instead of having some magical cinematic cam swooping around. All opinion, of course.

 

For the second half, I believe dodging/rolling is in? For other stuff like accessories, crafting, etc., we don't have a lot of info on concrete game mechanics yet but I don't see most of that stuff not being there in some form or other.

 

I believe (might be wrong) that the focus is on controlling a single hero character for DS3 - with a big emphasis on hotseat co-op play where people come in seamlessly into your game and control a companion.

[foxlance]

In that case, sorry for the confusion. The gameplay video I was basing my comments from came from here

 

 

Regarding the camera swoop on the town, yeah I pretty much think its more of personal taste. What I actually what from the game is to see them making efforts on improving the game, in how they package and present the game. As for the multi player, I'm not sure what to expect. I feel like playing multi player when I created my own character. Must feel weird walking with the same avatar on a multi player!

 

Glad to see the forum is still active!

[Tigranes]

Not sure what you mean about same avatar on MP - I guess you mean on hotseat coop. We don't really know how that will work yet (will it be your character teleporting into the right place, or you never really own the character?), we will see.

 

Anyway, now I know what vid you mean, as you can see it's a live presentation with live narrators, not a digitally distributed trailer - that's what you tend to get in live presentations, not pre-recorded blockbuster style narrations and such. It also seems as if they're very much focused on showing you live gameplay (loading up the game and clicking load, literally) rather than CGI or scripted segments. I'd much rather see a player standing around on a cliff rather than anything specially made up for hype. (Of course, if your game is Assassin's Creed, then you can do the swoopy camera thing, I guess.)

[foxlance]

Sorry, avatar on MP does sound confusing, I was rushing my post earlier. What I meant was, having the same CG on MP, the actual 3d image of your character. Initially I thought the MP is the usual MP where people login using their own character, which DS3 will not support, so I was thinking everyone will login using the same main character, or using the same Mage we saw on the demo. Turns out MP simply means having another player control one of your party's AI.. Which is confusing cause they have great MP on DS1!

 

I guess no swooping for the town is OK.. but please if were going to revisit the familiar castles, I guess I'd appreciate a cinematic presentation. Of course, a personal preference.

[Tigranes]

Again, we don' t know if hotseat co-op is the only MP available, or if there are other types where you do create your character and play with other people - in my mind I don't see why we wouldn't have it, but we'll have to wait and see.