Filler combat

[Lysen]

There is one thing that I really hate about some RPGs (most of them, actually) - it's the filler combat. When developers don't know what to throw at player and they feed him more and more enemies. The examples are Deep Roads in Dragon Age: Origins and... well, Baator in Planescape: Torment. Let's be honest, PST had a lot of filler combat. I hope that we will avoid it in Project: Eternity and it will have fewer well-designed combat encounters that will be hard but also interesting. Considering all the talk on the forums about combat mechanics, it seems that the game will have a lot of combat. If it isn't skippable by use of stealth or persuasion, then please don't make it boring.

[Ieo]

There is one thing that I really hate about some RPGs (most of them, actually) - it's the filler combat. When developers don't know what to throw at player and they feed him more and more enemies. The examples are Deep Roads in Dragon Age: Origins and... well, Baator in Planescape: Torment. Let's be honest, PST had a lot of filler combat. I hope that we will avoid it in Project: Eternity and it will have fewer well-designed combat encounters that will be hard but also interesting. Considering all the talk on the forums about combat mechanics, it seems that the game will have a lot of combat. If it isn't skippable by use of stealth or persuasion, then please don't make it boring.

 

Both DA:O Deep Roads and PS:T filler combat are easy to skip--in the former, you could do the stealth-cutscene exploit (lol) and in the former you could just run off the map edge, if I recall.

 

But I'll agree that filler combat isn't all that great unless it makes more sense in the world. In BG1, if you went out at night, there was good likelihood that you'd run into bandits, which was a nice touch. I think some filler combat at lower levels would actually be a good thing--get you used to the mechanics and tactical play. Then very few or none at higher levels, with better enemies or enemies only related to quests/storyline (though the "You're a Bhaalspawn and we're here to stop you" also gets old).

[Umberlin]

I'm not really a fan of trash encounters in general. I think a good developer can do better than that. Even those times when it can make an amount of sense I feel like a better, hand crafted, encounter would be the better choice in all ways but the time/effort involved - which would obviously be greater.

[Infinitron]

One must distinguish between filler combat and trash mobs. Filler combat usually involves trash mobs, but not all trash mobs are filler combat (ie, if they're optional encounters, as they often were in BG1)

Edited October 6, 2012 by Infinitron