What mold should be broken?

[Mad Squ]

Horse carriages!

 

I have no idea, if it

[Sacculina]

Molds I'd like to see broken in CRPG's?

 

-Not every magic item has to be combat focused. Very few, if any, CRPG's have implemented compelling magic items that could be used outside of combat.

 

This, please.

 

It seems that a lot of posters would like to see resting done away with entirely, but I'd like to see resting mechanics tied to party skills. A party with a higher stealth skill (overall, or that of the party leader, or of the companion with the highest rating) would be less prone to interruption by wandering monsters, which could be detected in advance by a search skill. A survival skill could help in finding safer resting spots and determine replenishment rates.

 

Also, as another poster already said, picking up an item owned by an NPC shouldn't be a crime worthy of capital punishment. But rummaging through an NPC's cupboard right in front of them should cause a negative reaction of some sort. Perhaps the PC might get a specific reputation for thievery (but only if they're seen stealing), and would be mistrusted by the 'lawful' but liked by the 'chaotic' or corrupt.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Sacculina

[MinotaurWarrior]

Something every adventuring party should have, but AFAIK no game has ever provided: a goddamn cart for my loot. In Fallout 2 you did OK with this, having trunk space in the car, but that's not enough for me. Every single fantasy RPG I've ever played, every time I head towards an cave full of Gnolls, knowing I won't be able to carry all of their valuable steel weapons back to civilization, I wonder why my ultra-rich owner of priceless enchanted artifacts cannot seem to acquire the simplest and most essential of material transportation aids. In addition: how the hell can you carry so much on your body? Kelgar must have been very uncomfortable carrying all those seven-foot spears on his person. If you give us a cart, we can get by without the riddiculous personal storage capacity.

[Gurkog]

If there are elves, dwarves and whatnot in the game, they should be drasticly different from Tolkienesque tropes. As an example, the elves in Harry Potter were a nice deviation.

 

I wouldn't mind the game being based around a character from a barbarian/orc/troll type of tribal society trying to maintain its cultural identity and way of life in the face of expanding civilization. Perhaps the goal being to thwart 'progress' as it is leading to dehumanization due to the surplus of people. The huge populations and increased communication between cities lead to a homogenization of culture and a lessening of individual worth. After a while the people start to feel alienated from others as if they are all cogs in a souless machine. I think there is a lot of possibility in such a theme, and perhaps it can be explored in just one part of the world or a single side quest chain.

[IEfan]

I

Edited September 17, 2012 by IEfan

[Virgil]

Different cultures are very interesting, I agree that most of the games which use traditional Tolkien races use them in a very cliche way. Elves being better humans etc but there are notable exceptions

- DA:Origins and Witcher take on on Elves.

- Warhammer fluff about High Elves, Dark Elves and Wood Elves which in some part is amazing how they reinvented Elves along with culture, mythology, religion and theirs destiny

 

I would love traditional races in be in a game that's something I'm looking for, maybe because I just love Elves

Edited September 17, 2012 by Virgil

[Domigorgon]

No Candlekeep / Irenicus' Dungeon! Replay should take you straight into the action!

[Badmojo]

Molds I'd like to see broken in CRPG's?

 

-Not every magic item has to be combat focused. Very few, if any, CRPG's have implemented compelling magic items that could be used outside of combat.

 

This, please.

 

It seems that a lot of posters would like to see resting done away with entirely, but I'd like to see resting mechanics tied to party skills. A party with a higher stealth skill (overall, or that of the party leader, or of the companion with the highest rating) would be less prone to interruption by wandering monsters, which could be detected in advance by a search skill. A survival skill could help in finding safer resting spots and determine replenishment rates.

 

Also, as another poster already said, picking up an item owned by an NPC shouldn't be a crime worthy of capital punishment. But rummaging through an NPC's cupboard right in front of them should cause a negative reaction of some sort. Perhaps the PC might get a specific reputation for thievery (but only if they're seen stealing), and would be mistrusted by the 'lawful' but liked by the 'chaotic' or corrupt.

 

Another for non combat magic!

[Delterius]

No Candlekeep / Irenicus' Dungeon! Replay should take you straight into the action!

 

Oh, people are going to hate whatever's the introduction. The IE games, IWD and BG in particular, caused a lot of character re-rolling.

[entrerix]

just a quick thought on the issue of resting: the decision to rest mid-dungeon should be roughly the equivelent of saying "wow, we can't do this, the creatures of this dungeon are beyond our abilities, we need to retreat and heal our wounds, level up some more, then try again to tackle this dangerous place"

 

in other words, the system should be designed so that a dungeon should be completed without needing to take a rest, and if you get to the point where you need to rest and recover, then that means you failed and will have to come back and try again. resting "mid dungeon" should not provide enough healing to enable you to push forward and "beat" the dungeon.

 

unless we are talking about a dungeon that takes multiple days to explore. then resting is not to recover from wounds but instead to actually get some sleep etc. a dungeon like that should still abide by the rules of resting not healing your party though.

 

tackling a dungeon should be a big undertaking that requires planning and strategy not just plowing through it and miraculously healing up after every fight.

 

in my D&D games, resting mid dungeon comes with a very high chance to be ambushed, provides only 1hp per character level of healing, and grants spellcasters only 1 spell. if you want to rest, go to an inn. if you HAVE to rest mid-dungeon, there is a good chance you are all going to die.

[catmorbid]

No Candlekeep / Irenicus' Dungeon! Replay should take you straight into the action!

 

Oh, people are going to hate whatever's the introduction. The IE games, IWD and BG in particular, caused a lot of character re-rolling.

 

Introduction and all that tutorial **** should be done via choice. E.g. very early on, give the player a choice to go do the noob stuff or skip the crap, preferably via a dialogue option with some NPC.

[Domigorgon]

Exactly. Include a tutorial, okay, but don't make it obligatory.

[war:head]

What I'd really like to see in this game is romance, loyalty and friendship among the party members affecting combat. Serious injuries(near-death) that result in damage, attack speed or passive ability(stamina, health) boost or even new abilities for the characters emotionally attached to the injured one.

 

I don't know how death will be handled in this game but maybe even a mechanic where a character goes down incapacitated yet alive, inducing some reaction in the rest of the party to fight even stronger (with said boosts). If they are able to protect the downed (and practically dead) member, said member survives the fight. Of course this only makes sense if death is of a more permanent fashion.

 

Long story short: If a game aims to emotionally attach players to NPCs like an RPG does, given them some way to channel this emotion within combat.

[Doug Piranha]

One thing I would like to see that has not been mentioned (i think) is revised XP awards system. I would remove most XP gains for killing enemies, and leave only memorable ones. In addition to whatever is considered "boss fight" these could be your first kill, your first large scale battle, your first bar fight, a duel to the death, huntihg down a bounty etc. XP should be awarded for accopmlishing goals, if you get there by using diplomacy, being stealthy or killing everything in your path the net XP gain should be the same. Of course, the choice should have other consequences, but players shoudn't be tempted to do something out of character just for the sake of XP.

[BasaltineBadger]

No single-race areas. In most RPGs there is some common area with many races and some dwarves, elf cities etc. There should be more mixed settlements when races play different roles. For example one city when humans mages rule and dwarves are used as slaves, and low skill workers while elves are considered criminal trouble makers and the other where dwarves are rich aristocracy controlling the town while human and elves while hate each other. The difficult part would be keeping the core race traits in all variants.

[Kilroy_Was_Here]

I don't know how possible this would be but... how about some branching at the end of the main storyline based on random chance.

 

Let's say that as you're getting ready to finally track down the Big Bad it could turn out:

 

1) The BB was really a different person/faction tricking you

2) The BB is taken out by an outside force that you knew about in the game but had assumed were relatively passive (think a massive Qunari invasion at the end of DA2, or even DA:O)

3) The BB really is the BB

 

Just think it would add more spice if the villain wasn't always the same every time. And if the 3 scenarios each had different tactics/weaknesses it would discourage min/maxing if players couldn't be sure what to prepare for.

[IEfan]

One thing I would like to see that has not been mentioned (i think) is revised XP awards system. I would remove most XP gains for killing enemies, and leave only memorable ones. In addition to whatever is considered "boss fight" these could be your first kill, your first large scale battle, your first bar fight, a duel to the death, huntihg down a bounty etc. XP should be awarded for accopmlishing goals, if you get there by using diplomacy, being stealthy or killing everything in your path the net XP gain should be the same. Of course, the choice should have other consequences, but players shoudn't be tempted to do something out of character just for the sake of XP.

I actually though a similiar idea for my own idea of a RPG. It's a pretty cool idea. Your growth of characters are never exponential/could never overcome the enemies like DRASTICALLY by min-maxing all class conbos to hell... this of course would need a careful balancing of the class-race system but then again, that happens with any RP system anyways (go for it Tim). DD/ADD is horribly skewed in that 98% of combos are poor or outright piss, 1,7% works alright and last 0.3% are yber and godlike.

 

Your exp could be gained from quests or maybe levels would be gained by clearing big storyline parts. Then again, people like adventure (me too) so it's not easy to stike out but certainly possible.

 

And yeah, same reasons. No incentive to kill every creature on earth (or jesus, abuse the spell learning exp in BG2) then, actually poses dangers instead and thus anternative ways work equally well (as killing) (i mean who on earth kills everything that lives? isn't murder or war a scarring event etc etc... but no need to go over this here and now). stealth works better too as you can't grind any cheap monsters elsewhere to overcome the supposedly-tough by design - battle

Edited September 18, 2012 by IEfan

[Naurgalen]

Now that you are not limited to the infinity engine, please, make the terrain count: maybe some things are destructible, others pusheable (throwing boxes at your enemys?, making a barricade to hold a swarrm?), maybe water conducts lightning? or you can throw people from a bridge? whatever, but make it feel like its not something only aesthetic.

[BasaltineBadger]

@Naurgalen

I really like it. They should also make certain types of terrain affect player (walking on swamps makes you slower), make height matter and some cover system.

[Delterius]

No Candlekeep / Irenicus' Dungeon! Replay should take you straight into the action!

 

Oh, people are going to hate whatever's the introduction. The IE games, IWD and BG in particular, caused a lot of character re-rolling.

 

Introduction and all that tutorial **** should be done via choice. E.g. very early on, give the player a choice to go do the noob stuff or skip the crap, preferably via a dialogue option with some NPC.

The tutorial itself could be skipped, because it was integrated to non-essential NPCs. What may suck is rerolling 10 times because you can't decide between the right measure of each class your multi/dual abomination needs and watching Irenicus' cutscene 10 times, or really going through Irenicus' dungeon 10 times.

[Nonek]

Two molds that i'd like to see broken, and both have been broken before in Obsidian games repeatedly, so i'm hopeful:

 

Starting out as and repeatedly being referred to as "lad/lass" or other such phrase, indicative of our youth. The Exile, the Courier, Manx, they all felt like they were carrying more than a few years and had more of a depth to them because of it. Indeed it would be refreshing to go the other way and have a character like Druss the Legend, sixty and still striding the earth as fearsome as ever.

 

Having our every request granted. Too often of late we're never given a simple no, indeed the refreshing part of the Qunari character Sten in Dragon Age, was that he felt no call to please you or answer your questions. Thus we learn to treasure the holds we have over people, and hold favours and such to be more precious than even gold. It was great to be able to ask a boon of the King when your paths crossed again in New Vegas, and even more satisfying when you realised you'd wasted that favour on something as trivial as a hairdresser.

[Crosmando]

No tutorial damnit, it ruins the tone, and it's too linear. The tutorial should be reading the manual.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Crosmando

[Nixl]

I have a few, but they would be probably be weird for the gameplay.

 

1) You always get stronger. Most games have a character go from zero to hero without question, but imagine the oppossite to an extent. Rather than always gain power, you are faced with the dilemma that you may lose power and must plan accordingly. I think in a recent interview one of the concepts for Eternity was that one's power was determined by the completeness of their soul. Imagine if your character's soul(and therefore power) is negatively affected by the game and the choices you make. Perhaps that could be a side quest or even a gameplay mechanic that would make players think before making a rash combat/dialogue decision. It could also be a moral dilemna with a real consequence. For example, you did the "right" thing, but you had to weaken/damage your soul for it.

 

Ultimately, I think you guys have a very flexible premise to work with. For instance, one could have a passive and constant soul decay system to make the game more challenging, especially if you are inefficient. Additionally, if you are evil you could steal the souls of others to combat the decay, etc.

 

I am excited to see what Obsidian comes up with.

 

2) Your character is always pristine or unscathed. No matter the situation, the hero always escapes crippling wounds such as blindness or a missing limb. I realize that there are limitations to this idea, especially for a game that is trying to get the basics down first. For example, it would probably be hard to write for and have combat for a character with no legs. However, I do not think many games or stories explore this aspect much. Part of what I enjoyed about Kreia in Kotor 2 is that even though she was nearly blind and missing a hand, she did not let that stop her.

 

3) Combat being the only answer. Do not get me wrong, I love combat. However, I do like it when the character is allowed to come up with a nonviolent solution whether by intelegence/charisma or the option is opened by completing a few conditions. Furthermore, I enjoy when that gameplay also has its own rewards whether through xp or certain items. I guess I am imagining Planescape Torment to an extent.

 

4) Being the student. Plenty of games have your character begin as a student, but few allow you to teach and spread your own philosphy. Kotor 2 gave a nice opportunity to guide your companions' training. If I remember correctly, you could even turn your companions away from the force, which I felt was a fantastic choice to provide.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Nixl

[KateM]

I don't want to play a game where you start as an incompetent who has difficulty kililng a rat or large insect.

 

No Candlekeep / Irenicus' Dungeon! Replay should take you straight into the action!

Yes. No hour long starting area. Just walk out of Lord Mitchell's house in Nicesprings and go where you please.

[fan]

No tutorial damnit, it ruins the tone, and it's too linear. The tutorial should be reading the manual.

 

A bad tutorial does all these things, while a good one might leave one of the most lasting impressions of the game. (First thought that comes to mind is Bastion)

I'm absolutely in favor of a well done tutorial, that becomes optional as soon as you have a savegame further down the road.