This game really needs a toolkit.

[Sacrosanct]

Obsidian should take a leaf out of Bethesda's book imo. If you're going to treat PC gamers with absolute contempt and give them a pile of junk ported from console (Oblivion) at least give them the tools to fix it for themselves. It wouldn't take more than a couple of months for modders to create the PC version of DS3 that Obsidian couldn't be bothered to do. I suppose that might pose a problem for the marketing genius at Obsidian who was recently quoted as saying these kind of fixes would be good to release as DLC (I still can't believe he said that) so it will probably never happen.

[C2B]

Obsidian should take a leaf out of Bethesda's book imo. If you're going to treat PC gamers with absolute contempt and give them a pile of junk ported from console (Oblivion) at least give them the tools to fix it for themselves. It wouldn't take more than a couple of months for modders to create the PC version of DS3 that Obsidian couldn't be bothered to do. I suppose that might pose a problem for the marketing genius at Obsidian who was recently quoted as saying these kind of fixes would be good to release as DLC (I still can't believe he said that) so it will probably never happen.

 

What?

 

Nobody said that AFAIK

[MonkeyLungs]

That would be an interesting quote to see for sure. I would not put it past a marketing person to say something like that though.

[Tigranes]

Nobody said it.

 

On the toolkit, I think it's unlikely for DS3 - from what we've heard so far a toolkit isn't impossible for the Onyx engine, but this wasn't a game with a 3-4 year development cycle and oodles of money in the budget like Oblivion, and creating a toolkit for this new engine would have taken a lot of work. Perhaps in the future.

 

Good news is that once the .oaf files are unpacked, a lot of variables seem to be fairly easily edited.

[C2B]

Nobody said it.

 

On the toolkit, I think it's unlikely for DS3 - from what we've heard so far a toolkit isn't impossible for the Onyx engine, but this wasn't a game with a 3-4 year development cycle and oodles of money in the budget like Oblivion, and creating a toolkit for this new engine would have taken a lot of work. Perhaps in the future.

 

Good news is that once the .oaf files are unpacked, a lot of variables seem to be fairly easily edited.

 

They have their own toolkit already. I'd think it is not beeing released for other reasons.

[Tigranes]

Of course - what I mean is that often it takes work to get an internal, developer only toolkit then make it something that can be released to the public. Sometimes use of third party tools is a factor (which is why AP couldn't get a toolkit), but I don't know if that's the case here.

[Sacrosanct]

Nobody said it.

 

Actually, they did. I can't remember where I read it. I think it was related to the patch notes saying they were working on fixing the horrible PC controls. Someone from Obsidian definitely said that kind of thing would be good to release as DLC. I'll see if I can find it.

[Sacrosanct]

Okay sorry my mistake it wasn't directly related to that. From Joystiq:

 

"Obsidian plans to release an update that will improve the traditional PC controls. According to Chapman, better PC controls for the game is "one thing I would have liked to have spent more time on, and we are actually spending time on now."

 

Chapman also hinted that Obsidian would like to have made "a more fleshed out tutorial system" and "more unique armor variants" for the game's four playable characters. But those will have to wait for future versions of the game: "It's always good sequel or DLC material," he said.".

 

It was his comment that a more fleshed out tutorial system would make good DLC material that I found astonishing. Also he's saying proper PC controls is something he would have liked to have spent time on. LOL, so why didn't he? Basic controls weren't an issue?

 

Anyway, if the game has a toolkit that doesn't lend itself easily for player use it's a shame. If ever a game needed it, it's this one.

[C2B]

It was his comment that a more fleshed out tutorial system would make good DLC material that I found astonishing. Also he's saying proper PC controls is something he would have liked to have spent time on. LOL, so why didn't he? Basic controls weren't an issue?

 

At the beginning of the development much time was spent to perfect Controller controls and beeing able to put a certain number of skills on it. PC controls were focused on towards the end of the development. They were actually pretty far on them but apparently there were problems with it which lead to the original pc controls beeing used for the game. Thats why he liked to spent more time on it.

 

And the tutorial thing could mean anything, really. For starters better introduction of new skills/statistics in a dlc/sequel.

Edited June 28, 2011 by C2B

[Tigranes]

Nathaniel Chapman: I think our loot system has a lot of strengths but one of the weaknesses is that it's not very clearly communicated what each of the stats does... I think having a more fleshed-out tutorial system for the stats and what they do and how they function would be a nice thing. Having more unique armour variants too. It's always good sequel or DLC material.

 

It's a standard interview answer about what kind of things he'd like to have changed or done more work on, had he more time and resources - i.e. exactly the kind of thing people always say they want the devs to admit to. Of course, when they do this, everyone cries "WHY DIDNT YOU DO IT ALREADY / WHY HAVENT YOU DONE IT YET / YOU SUCK". Seeing as the game has a detailed tutorial system already in place, fussing about nothing here.

 

Now keymapping for DLC, that would be funny. That'd be even worse than horse armour!

[MonkeyLungs]

They don't need a bigger tutorial. They need to include an interactive pdf type thingy that is a fun and interesting rulebook of the RPG mechanics of the game. They can include tutorials and little how to videos in the interactive game mechanics and rpg ruleset book/file/thingy.

[Tigranes]

It's not like this is a complex game in any way, it would feel like a waste of resources. A single place where you can see all the keys & commands would have been good though.

[XxTaLoNxX]

It's not like this is a complex game in any way, it would feel like a waste of resources. A single place where you can see all the keys & commands would have been good though.

 

The keys are explained as you play through the burning manor. The single place where everything else is explained is the Pause Menu Help File. And what blows my mind is that people still harp on the "dumbing down" thing when they themselves are not intuitive enough to figure out simple controls and read a Help File that is already included in a game. To be perfectly honest I HATE tutorials, and I HATE it even more when you can't turn the tutorial messages off. Especially after I have completed the game once or I am playing on Hardcore (High, Hard, Nightmare, etc, etc).

 

So it was already done. The only two things about this game that should have been done on release are 1) Keymapping 2) New Game+

 

BTW I am just chiming in and dropping my $.02, so this is not directed at you. Just building upon your quote.

Edited June 29, 2011 by XxTaLoNxX