Violence

[LadyCrimson]

They could always put violence sliders, from "no blood" all the way to exploding heads

Would get my vote.

 

I don't really care about having visible violence one way or another ... gory goo and exploding heads, limbs flying, whatever. Half the time I find the animations rather amusing. As long as it seems appropriate to the genre, plot, setting, situation, etc. But I get that not everyone wants to see all that, so a slider or on/off option at the least is always good.

[rjshae]

I actually wrote a thread about this on BSN, and everything I said I want in Dragon Age III also applies here.

 

While reading that, a pun about "overkill" came to mind. Must... resist... bad... puns.

 

Yes, you have some interesting ideas there. I'm not sure how much the isometric view would permit in terms of detail.

Edited October 19, 2012 by rjshae

[.Leif.]

I believe "There will be blood" is confirmed.

[kabaliero]

I believe "There will be blood" is confirmed.

 

There has to be more than ujst "blood".

 

U know, all those games with 18+ rating. When there's just lots of ketchup-sprayed ragdolls floppin' around.

Even in Diablo III, there's only like 1-2 pre-made deaths with mob's head comin' off in a static manner.

And they're not even humans. Boring.

 

All those little-big schoolboys dying of overwight and their moms sueing the game companies for too much shock.

Let lord dump 'em all into the friggin sink.

Edited October 19, 2012 by kabaliero

[Chabneruk]

They could always put violence sliders, from "no blood" all the way to exploding heads

Would get my vote.

 

I don't really care about having visible violence one way or another ... gory goo and exploding heads, limbs flying, whatever. Half the time I find the animations rather amusing. As long as it seems appropriate to the genre, plot, setting, situation, etc. But I get that not everyone wants to see all that, so a slider or on/off option at the least is always good.

 

Well, I don't know. If there had been one of those in PST you wouldn't have been able to create such a memorable starting area. It might work for kills and such, but not for a creepy environment.

 

They could also even design a new decay mechanism, which allows the bodies of the player's foes to realistically decay upon a time frame consistent with the in-world clock. Think about it, Obsidian wouldn't even have to create unique models for undead creatures! They could just take a regular human model, knock out a few giblets, and set the rest of the body to decay using the same mechanism as corpses.

 

Quite an interesting thought, showing decay in some way and maybe even defining the kind of undead you get with that - zombies while there is still flesh on it, skeletons when only the bones are left, maybe ghosts if you only have a few scattered remains... (this would take corpse-eating organisms, though, or a fast decay rate).

Edited October 19, 2012 by Chabneruk

[kabaliero]

I always wondered though, where exactly is that line where an undead dude stops being a zombie and becomes a skeleton.

[Chabneruk]

I always wondered though, where exactly is that line where an undead dude stops being a zombie and becomes a skeleton.

 

Good question. 90% fleshless would constitute a skeleton, probably. But then again, as Skyrims Draugr showed, its not that easy. Maybe its about the focus of the necromantic magic: If it uses a ritual that imbues the bones with power, it becomes a skeleton, shedding the useless flesh. If it imbues muscles and flesh as well, it might become a zombie, thus also reactivating biological functions (and enabling the good old "flesh-eating-zombie")

[kabaliero]

I always wondered though, where exactly is that line where an undead dude stops being a zombie and becomes a skeleton.

 

Good question. 90% fleshless would constitute a skeleton, probably. But then again, as Skyrims Draugr showed, its not that easy. Maybe its about the focus of the necromantic magic: If it uses a ritual that imbues the bones with power, it becomes a skeleton, shedding the useless flesh. If it imbues muscles and flesh as well, it might become a zombie, thus also reactivating biological functions (and enabling the good old "flesh-eating-zombie")

 

Oh, okay.

 

Back to violence then.

[Starwars]

I don't care too much either way but if given a choice I suppose I would want the effort put into possible "gore animations" and such to be put into other parts of the game.

I loved the critical hit animations in the old Fallouts but that was also a "thing" for those games. I don't really get that vibe from Project Eternity so no gore is fine by me if that's what they choose to do.

 

I always thought the gibbing in the IE games (or was it only the BGs, can't remember) looked really stupid though, so hopefully not something like that at least.

[kabaliero]

I wonder why the "i don't care" phrase is so popular on this forum.

 

It seems unnatural.

[rjshae]

What I'm curious about is whether they will show charred bodies in the aftermath of a fireball spell? If they're going to show blood and severed limbs, then why not burnt, smoking flesh?

 

What? Does the thought make you a little queasy?

[Justinian]

I would like them to bring more personality to the violence than simply exploding gibs and sterile ragdoll physics.

 

I think violence is very much a mature theme, but only if done tastefully and with impact. Go have a look at how the PS3 game "Last of Us" depicts violence. They don't accentuate over the top blood sprays or glorify it in a gamey way but rather make each act of violence have impact through the reactions of the victims.

 

How does this have anything to do with how violence should be depicted in project eternity? They could start by focusing more on occasional situational animations for deaths or critical hits. Make the player flinch a bit more with the violence to give it the gravity it deserves.

[Aoyagi]

I'm all up for sliders from "Maximum psycho blood mess insanity rain" to "None". Letting the users (players in this case) choose is the best option, in my opinion.

[HansKrSG]

As gory as real life, thats how it should be. Although real life is pretty f'ing gory.

[Umberlin]

I don't mind either way. They can ham up the violence or they can downplay it. They can have blood spatter and limbs flying or that can have sparks and little BAM! messages batman style, or anything else. Violence, regardless of depiction, is really not something that concerns me in games. I have a very steadfast opinion that fictional things are, not surprisingly, fictional, and thus I don't care about extreme violence in fiction - just the same I don't care about very watered down violence in fiction. I don't read or play fictional settings for the violence in the first place, so it's a pretty moot point with me.

[Juneau]

It would be nice if someone spent some time coming up with a seriously complex "death" mechanic. Which has been mentioned by a few people already where if you hit a person in Heavy Armour you don't somehow magically decapitate some ones arm. But if your using a warhammer/maul then you could in effect crush it and render their arm completely limp.

 

And if you do manage to take someone's lower arm of this completely stuns/disarms/disorientates them so they don't instantly start swinging (unless it's the undead then they don't really register the loss of an arm).

 

I know its pause / organise attacks / let hell fly and possibly if they go the FO way / kill cam. I won't really mind as long as everything doesn't just explode or cover the entire screen with blood. There is realistic, there is fantasy and then there is just too much.

[UncleBourbon]

This might not fall into the initial purview of this topic, but what are people's thoughts on the true mortality of non-hostile NPCs? I know there was a post floating around, about the ability of plot NPCs and all, but I mean, does anyone else think a homocidal NPC - or perhaps a diehard roleplayer who finds some crime against their god/race - can basically kill off a town? I could easily see a small town that employs slave labor in their local mine ticking off my paladin enough to have him first try to convince everyone to start paying them wages or something, and then if they're being mistreated or something going conan on the townspeople (clearly a paladin of crom). I don't think it should be by any means easy, but theorhetically possible, with great costs.

[JayDGee]

This might not fall into the initial purview of this topic, but what are people's thoughts on the true mortality of non-hostile NPCs? I know there was a post floating around, about the ability of plot NPCs and all, but I mean, does anyone else think a homocidal NPC - or perhaps a diehard roleplayer who finds some crime against their god/race - can basically kill off a town? I could easily see a small town that employs slave labor in their local mine ticking off my paladin enough to have him first try to convince everyone to start paying them wages or something, and then if they're being mistreated or something going conan on the townspeople (clearly a paladin of crom). I don't think it should be by any means easy, but theorhetically possible, with great costs.

 

I am now picturing what a Paladin order dedicated to Crom would do. It is glorious and it is terrifying.

[Freshock]

I hope it's gonna be raw violence, with cruel/mercyfull decisions. The thing that really got me excited about PE is the mature theme, I'm so glad they don't have a publishing company breathing down their necks. I really liked Dragon Age: Origin's dialouge and it would be cool if Obsidian could top Bioware in that aspect.

[rjshae]

This might not fall into the initial purview of this topic, but what are people's thoughts on the true mortality of non-hostile NPCs? I know there was a post floating around, about the ability of plot NPCs and all, but I mean, does anyone else think a homocidal NPC - or perhaps a diehard roleplayer who finds some crime against their god/race - can basically kill off a town? I could easily see a small town that employs slave labor in their local mine ticking off my paladin enough to have him first try to convince everyone to start paying them wages or something, and then if they're being mistreated or something going conan on the townspeople (clearly a paladin of crom). I don't think it should be by any means easy, but theorhetically possible, with great costs.

If it gets that bad, then realistically the town people are likely to flee before every one of them is cut down. This could be followed up by a small army seeking revenge for the loss of income to the local nobility. Then a larger army.

[Falkon Swiftblade]

I personally would like an option to turn off anything with brutality. I'd prefer implied destruction, such as a giant flash of light and afterwards a pile of ashes for a big spell, and maybe realistic sound fx of a bunch of smashing or stabbing, but without the gore on screen. When it goes beyond that it seems like overkill and not only cheapens the impact they're trying to create, it desensitizes you and can cause you to objectify acts of violence. I watched the entire DBZ saga and even as a guy in my 20's I felt like the damage and fights were just as brutal as a crazy HS massacre, but without the shock value included. And it was still believable to some degree because they were always training and perfecting their technique. I'd like Environmental damage though, maybe if I hit something really hard there's a crater around where they were standing, or walls that crash on top of them, etc.

Edited October 19, 2012 by Falkon Swiftblade

[Freshock]

This might not fall into the initial purview of this topic, but what are people's thoughts on the true mortality of non-hostile NPCs? I know there was a post floating around, about the ability of plot NPCs and all, but I mean, does anyone else think a homocidal NPC - or perhaps a diehard roleplayer who finds some crime against their god/race - can basically kill off a town? I could easily see a small town that employs slave labor in their local mine ticking off my paladin enough to have him first try to convince everyone to start paying them wages or something, and then if they're being mistreated or something going conan on the townspeople (clearly a paladin of crom). I don't think it should be by any means easy, but theorhetically possible, with great costs.

If it gets that bad, then realistically the town people are likely to flee before every one of them is cut down. This could be followed up by a small army seeking revenge for the loss of income to the local nobility. Then a larger army.

 

Really liked you two's ideas! Adding a bounty on the player's head when crime against non-hostile NPC's are done sounds awesome. Kinda reminds me of those few NPC's that follows you in Skyrim - but to instead add a army to do the task would probably be more realistic and more exciting. And to discover hidden secrets behind NPC's and then have the option to kill him/her if it strides against the "players" beliefs and faith sounds so cool.

[UncleBourbon]

I do think most townsfolk would flee, but I just want that sort of option to resort to violence if my character would reasonably do it. And I do think there should be logical, reasonable consequences. As to what Falkon is saying: from the setting, there has been a large bomb detonated, over a religious dispute. But yeah, I might a Paladin of Crom might do that, or maybe a cipher goes through a town and is attacked by strange acting townsfolk, but his cipher mind powers enable him to know they're being compelled to attack him by some force. This would give him the option - or perhaps the option would be there anyway - to incapacitate the townsfolk and seek out the cause. I dunno, I want violence and subdual to be incorporated as ways to roleplay, but I understand they may be hard to implement.

 

Also: I imagine any Paladin order of Crom would use this

as their primary hymn, and be feared and renown throughout the known world.

[JayDGee]

I do think most townsfolk would flee, but I just want that sort of option to resort to violence if my character would reasonably do it. And I do think there should be logical, reasonable consequences. As to what Falkon is saying: from the setting, there has been a large bomb detonated, over a religious dispute. But yeah, I might a Paladin of Crom might do that, or maybe a cipher goes through a town and is attacked by strange acting townsfolk, but his cipher mind powers enable him to know they're being compelled to attack him by some force. This would give him the option - or perhaps the option would be there anyway - to incapacitate the townsfolk and seek out the cause. I dunno, I want violence and subdual to be incorporated as ways to roleplay, but I understand they may be hard to implement.

 

Also: I imagine any Paladin order of Crom would use this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBGOQ7SsJrw as their primary hymn, and be feared and renown throughout the known world.

 

I had forgotten how great that was, thanks for reminding me

[TristanD]

This might not fall into the initial purview of this topic, but what are people's thoughts on the true mortality of non-hostile NPCs? I know there was a post floating around, about the ability of plot NPCs and all, but I mean, does anyone else think a homocidal NPC - or perhaps a diehard roleplayer who finds some crime against their god/race - can basically kill off a town? I could easily see a small town that employs slave labor in their local mine ticking off my paladin enough to have him first try to convince everyone to start paying them wages or something, and then if they're being mistreated or something going conan on the townspeople (clearly a paladin of crom). I don't think it should be by any means easy, but theorhetically possible, with great costs.

 

What if slavery is legal? What if the slaves are fulfilling penance for crimes they committed against Crom? So many moral dilemmas.

 

On another note, your post reminded me of the times I assaulted Beregost in Baldur's Gate with my cleric and his army of undead. It was always fun to see how many mage battlegroups I could destroy before they killed me off.