Your Personal House

[Osvir]

EDIT: Inspiration to make this thread came from reading this thread about Drugs, he mentions somewhere "Crafting drugs" which brought me to Gardening (which in turn brought me to Suikoden):

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61213-drugs/

EDIT END.

 

Suikoden is one of my favorite games of all time (Suikoden, 2, 5 preference, I do love and like 3 and 4 as well just not as much).

 

Suikoden was a console RPG, released for PSX, PS2 and DS. Still waiting for a PS3 release <3

 

Anyways, Suikoden is a great RPG, you have an open world you travel. The idea is that you gather companions (108 Stars of Destiny, as they are called), you get a castle (which grows the more companions you get). Most of the companions serve a purpose (One is a Chef, one is a Fisherman, one is a Gardener etc. etc.) and there's quite a few mini-games, side-quests and so on. Great game.

 

I am wondering what you feel about some of these features at your own, personal house, in P:E? What would you like to see? Would you like to have a pond where you can fish and then cook? Or Gardening so you can get herbs. Hire some slaves to take care of your house for you (and your Garden), butlers that keep it tidy and clean whilst you are out adventuring.

 

Furniture? Harvest Moon growth? (I.E expand your land, to a start your house is a shabby old hut ready to fall apart, late-game if you invest in the house you might get a big mansion). Of course, the bigger the house, the bigger the threat. If you have a museum with artifacts and National Treasure, burglar's could target you.

 

Maybe you have something more subtle, hidden, a Bat-Cave. Or a Phantom Cave. Perhaps you are paranoid and want as much defense as possible and get a Castle with fortified walls. Or simply a mini-hut that's about to fall apart. The preference for this is big so I'll just suggest 3 different ones for now:

 

* "About to fall apart"-Hut

* Secret Cave (With your Bat-Horsile)

* Mansion/Castle

 

Thoughts?

Edited October 8, 2012 by Osvir

[AlphaShard]

I loved the suikoden series my self and seems like the house will evolve into a stronghold

[jivex5k]

I always liked the housing in Ultima Online, extremely customisable, and you could place it anywhere you found room.

They added gardening in later which was a fun distraction with a possibility of generating rare resources.

Not sure how that would fit into an IE game though, I just wanna be able to place my funiture and stuff.

[Tale]

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60874-updated-summary-of-the-qa-in-the-kickstarter-comments-page/

 

Some stuff in here I'd like to reference. Feargus has talked in the Kickstarter comments about possibly upgrading the player housing into a Stronghold with a stretch goal. This one's good.

Question: How functional and customization is the Player house going to be? Will there be shops, storage, etc?

Feargus: t will have elements of those, but it will still be a house. When we get to a stretch goal that turns the house into a Stronghold the size of Crossroad's Keep, then it will have multiple versions of all that stuff. Wait, what did I say?

[Osvir]

I always liked the housing in Ultima Online, extremely customisable, and you could place it anywhere you found room.

They added gardening in later which was a fun distraction with a possibility of generating rare resources.

Not sure how that would fit into an IE game though, I just wanna be able to place my funiture and stuff.

 

Agreed, I think it could work though, like anything could. Personally I kind of want it just simple, simplicity is king. Some of the best guitar riff's in the world are only one or two chords

[HangedMan]

http://forums.obsidi...-comments-page/

 

Some stuff in here I'd like to reference. Feargus has talked in the Kickstarter comments about possibly upgrading the player housing into a Stronghold with a stretch goal. This one's good.

Question: How functional and customization is the Player house going to be? Will there be shops, storage, etc?

Feargus: t will have elements of those, but it will still be a house. When we get to a stretch goal that turns the house into a Stronghold the size of Crossroad's Keep, then it will have multiple versions of all that stuff. Wait, what did I say?

Ahahahaha. If anything could get another twenty out of me, it's that.

I loved the suikoden series my self and seems like the house will evolve into a stronghold

I always liked the housing in Ultima Online, extremely customisable, and you could place it anywhere you found room.

They added gardening in later which was a fun distraction with a possibility of generating rare resources.

Not sure how that would fit into an IE game though, I just wanna be able to place my funiture and stuff.

Merging these two ideas would make me so happy, some people might think I have a problem.

[rjshae]

Hmm, can I capture evil monsters and cage them in the basement for use in alchemical experiments?

 

If I'm going to earn a stronghold, I'd also like to have something to defend (and suffer the consequences when I don't).

Edited October 8, 2012 by rjshae

[Osvir]

Hmm, can I capture evil monsters and cage them in the basement for use in alchemical experiments?

 

If I'm going to earn a stronghold, I'd also like to have something to defend (and suffer the consequences when I don't).

 

Yes! Like, one of those artifacts you found when you were out treasure hunting. Burglars or Bandits, attacking your house.

[Orogun01]

Hmm, can I capture evil monsters and cage them in the basement for use in alchemical experiments?

 

Hmm, can I capture evil girls and cage them in the basement for use in "alchemical" experiments?

[rjshae]

Somebody needs a hug. I can tell.

[eimatshya]

I loved the Suikoden games, but how well such a system would work in P:E would probably depend on its story. If it involves lots of wandering, and often lacks a clear sense of urgency, then recruiting gardeners and stuff wouldn't seem too out of place. If you are involved in some highly focused quest, however, it might be a bit of a tangent for your character to be fiddling around with such things.

 

If it wouldn't feel out of place, however, I would love to see something along these lines. The crossroads keep portion of NWN2 was by far my favorite and is one of the main reasons I replay the game.

[Orogun01]

Somebody needs a hug. I can tell.

There's already a thread for hugs.

[Guest miller]

Hmm, can I capture evil monsters and cage them in the basement for use in alchemical experiments?

 

Hmm, can I capture evil girls and cage them in the basement for use in "alchemical" experiments?

 

 

Hey man... its a rated M game. Not that I will be trapping humans of any kind during my... _first_ playthrough. But I would tilt my hat to the devs that made that possible for my next... I love them games that actually make me say "WOW... the game let me do that"?

[Falkon Swiftblade]

Not sure if anyone played Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning with the expansion with Dead Kel? But that was the most fun upgrading the player's home into an awesome keep. I loved the quests to do that allowed me to build upon the foundation, and I liked that you could recruit NPC's to come move in and they offered services for you that added more game play, such as the guy who would allow you to tame a creature into a pet, and the guy who made a small fighters pit giving you options of mini fight games. The only thing I would have liked was a final quest to defend it from pirates or something as a final stake in the ground that it was finders keepers.

[rjshae]

You could also turn the place into a safe house where you can protect all the poor innocents you helped along the way. Transform the land into a little commune and start a walled village. Maybe it is located on a lonely headland with cliffs overlooking the sea below. Or the same place could become a smugglers headquarters with a warren of tunnels leading to a sea cave.

[FlintlockJazz]

Well, now it looks like we can have a stronghold at the 3Mill mark. While I enjoyed Crossroads Keep I do hope it's not going to be about raising armies and such for this stronghold. Thinking about this made me realise one of the problems I've had with recent games: they always seem to end up due to their 'epicness' having huge armies marching against each other and also have you become a 'commander' and a 'great leader of men', meeting the king and leading his troops. Not only does it presume your character is a great leader of men, but the gameplay never actually incorporates it: it's all built around the small party, and 'leading the men' usually boils down to a few dialogue choices. I hope in this one we don't get that, that it is indeed more personal, and I hope the stronghold reflects this, becoming something other than just a keep, and more like the class strongholds in BG2 or like some of the ones proposed here by people like rjshae's last post.

[Osvir]

Well, now it looks like we can have a stronghold at the 3Mill mark. While I enjoyed Crossroads Keep I do hope it's not going to be about raising armies and such for this stronghold. Thinking about this made me realise one of the problems I've had with recent games: they always seem to end up due to their 'epicness' having huge armies marching against each other and also have you become a 'commander' and a 'great leader of men', meeting the king and leading his troops. Not only does it presume your character is a great leader of men, but the gameplay never actually incorporates it: it's all built around the small party, and 'leading the men' usually boils down to a few dialogue choices. I hope in this one we don't get that, that it is indeed more personal, and I hope the stronghold reflects this, becoming something other than just a keep, and more like the class strongholds in BG2 or like some of the ones proposed here by people like rjshae's last post.

 

Yes I hear that. I totally agree with this entire post.

 

However, I can also "envision" how it could be done more personal, where there are more effects to your decisions (e.g., Visit the battlegrounds after the battles, take part of the battles on the front lines, Braveheart style, villages burned after your cruel tyranny, villages saved because of your intervention, military power and you causing a police state if you tend to play more evil. Or perhaps you create an army of love and all your guards are dressed in flowers, or an army of nature. Perhaps an army of order and justice, and friendship, unity and harmony). However, too make a good personal army stuff management for a game like Baldur's Gate (or P:E for that matter) I think that you'd need a lot of time and resources and a strict direction.

 

You'd have to make two individual games/genres and puzzle them into each other. So it'd be like making 3 games (to make it the best as possible).

Edited October 12, 2012 by Osvir

[FlintlockJazz]

Well, now it looks like we can have a stronghold at the 3Mill mark. While I enjoyed Crossroads Keep I do hope it's not going to be about raising armies and such for this stronghold. Thinking about this made me realise one of the problems I've had with recent games: they always seem to end up due to their 'epicness' having huge armies marching against each other and also have you become a 'commander' and a 'great leader of men', meeting the king and leading his troops. Not only does it presume your character is a great leader of men, but the gameplay never actually incorporates it: it's all built around the small party, and 'leading the men' usually boils down to a few dialogue choices. I hope in this one we don't get that, that it is indeed more personal, and I hope the stronghold reflects this, becoming something other than just a keep, and more like the class strongholds in BG2 or like some of the ones proposed here by people like rjshae's last post.

 

Yes I hear that. I totally agree with this entire post.

 

However, I can also "envision" how it could be done more personal, where there are more effects to your decisions (e.g., Visit the battlegrounds after the battles, take part of the battles on the front lines, Braveheart style, villages burned after your cruel tyranny, villages saved because of your intervention, military power and you causing a police state if you tend to play more evil. Or perhaps you create an army of love and all your guards are dressed in flowers, or an army of nature. Perhaps an army of order and justice, and friendship, unity and harmony). However, too make a good personal army stuff management for a game like Baldur's Gate (or P:E for that matter) I think that you'd need a lot of time and resources and a strict direction.

 

You'd have to make two individual games/genres and puzzle them into each other. So it'd be like making 3 games (to make it the best as possible).

 

Aye, exactly. It's why I don't ever expect to see a Pirate RPG done the way I would want it: to do it 'right' you'd pretty much need to combine an RPG with a game like Sid Meier's pirates, and to do that right you'd need to make each part as detailed and good as a game that only took the one part, and work out the best way to combine them (to avoid having a game that played like two separate games with very little links), ending up with three times the work.

[Hassat Hunter]

Personally I hope the stronghold and house are seperated... upgrading a house to a castle? Seriously?

That sounds pretty steep.

 

Yeah, rather have them 2 seperate entities, both with their own functionality and upgrades and such...

[Osvir]

Baldur's Gate fusion with Side Meiers Pirates Do it!

[AGX-17]

Suikoden was a great duology (3+ do not count on account of their being BAD.) But there wasn't a lot of customization involved in your castle.

 

Anyway, it would be nice to get a choice of type of home. Personally I'm rather smitten with the tower-houses that started appearing in Europe in the late middle ages (and were a necessity of space constraints in renaissance cities.) Since this is a European-style setting, unfortunately, no Mesa Verde or Macchu Picchu type settlement is likely to be on the drawing board. Those places are aweesoooome.

Edited October 12, 2012 by AGX-17

[elminster]

If there are enough backers for the stronghold I hope it gets a bit more individual than the stronghold / places you could possess in BG 2. Different options for furniture / decorated rooms would be nice.

 

Different kind of strongholds as castles / towers etc. would be even great. But concerning this I'm probably dreaming (of my own mage tower )

[Xienzi]

If we do get a stronghold, it would be nice to have the option of creating companions in the Adventurer's Hall and hiring them to run errands around the place. Maybe even have your unused companions do things too.

[Darsim]

What I'm hoping for in the stronghold is customization and the ability to upgrade how you want, possibly through sidequests. For example, maybe you start off with a wooden wall for your stronghold and have to clear a quarry of a monster infestation so the miners can get in to mine the srone, allowing you to create stone walls and builidings. Or maybe before you even start your stronghold, you have to help a group of loggers establish a camp in a forest, possibly by clearing out monsters, or alternatively through helping the loggers set up defences and traps.

 

In the start, your party and companions recruited may all live in a single home, but as you upgrade your keep, maybe the companions gained through the story will gain their own homes, which they will uprgrade and customize how they want, possibly by you doing sidequests for them. The stronghold should also be a place where you can send your companions when you don't want them in your party, so you don't have to memorize where you left them, and perhaps they can do useful tasks for you if you have the right buildings in your stronghold. For example, if you build a library, companions (especially wizards) will be able to do their research there, and maybe you can do sidequests and buy books for it, the research will be more effecient and if it is a good enough library perhaps it can give your party a slight intelligence bonus. If you build an obstacle course/training ground, your companions will be able to train physically, learning new fighting techniques and skills, and maybe your party gets a constitution/strength bonus. Similarly, a zen garden for monks and ciphers to meditate at, and for everyone to relax at, a temple for paladins and priests to worship at, and for companions to pray at, and a bar for entertainment and honing charisma. Maybe there can even be sidequests to recruit NPCs to improve these buildings, such as getting a bartender for the bar, a librarian for the library, a drill master for the obstacle course and training grounds, guards for your stronhold in general, etc.

 

Perhaps we can even build buildings that effect the gameplay. For example, if you build gardens, recruit gardeners, and bring them seeds, they will grow the plants for you, and you won't need to go into the wilderness and harvest the herbs for crafting. Similarly if you build a mine within your stronghold, you will be able to get miners to get you stones and ores for crafting weapons and armours. Perhaps if you live on an ocean or river, you can build a dock and hire a dockmaster so you can have fast travel between ports, or build a fishing boat and hire fishers to give your stronhold a source of food. Or you can build a stable for fast travel on land, and later build carvans to allow for trade between your stronghold and other communities.

 

The point is, you build and upgrade your stronghold how you want, and the time you invest in this gives you greater rewards, both aesthetically in how your stronghold looks, and in terms of gameplay by giving you better companions and talents, and how the game can be played.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Darsim