class restricted encounters/areas

[Failion]

I remember seeing this used in some rpgs I have played. You can only advance in a certain area in a game if you have the required class. Since project enternity has a adventurer market where you can create party members the developers can really flesh out if they want to. They can make a mountain they can only be scaled if their is a paladin or cleric with the correct faith in the party to shield them from the mountains blasting winds. Or they can go all out with this idea. If you have a party of monks you can encounter a rival party of sinister uptight monks who say your martial art is no good compared to theirs. And get invited to their martial arts dojo and get yourself into a giant martial art battle.

[Rabain]

Lots of games have done this, the only downside is the amount of work it requires. If areas and quests etc are class specific it means a lot of content is not seen by many players and rather than it seeming like you are providing more content some people feel as though they are being forced to play all characters in order to see everything.

 

Given that PE is being done on a smaller budget I'd be happy with just class, race, gender, faction options in dialogue rather than restricting specific areas to some subset.

[Frisk]

Well, you don't need entire areas to provide interesting class/race/gender/faction-specific experiences. I would for example imagine that in the big cities there will be a number of NPCs that will only really interact with you if you meet certain requirements - each class might have its own quest line, but the quests would take you through the same area - the experience would just be different.

[Sensuki]

Nope.

 

There will be one stronghold, not 7

[JOG]

It depends on how obvious a class is, and how people actually recognize someone as a member of a certain class.

 

Assuming there is no silly "you are a rogue, thus you can't wear heavy armor" rule, what keeps a rogue from equipping plate mail in order to be treated like a fighter?

And why should a thieves guild bar out a talented illusionist with a knack for thievery just because she is no certified rogue?

 

IMO your actions and your talents / skill should determine who deals with you, not some class title. When every rogue is automatically a good cutpurse, and no other class can learn that talent, and when decades of training are required to wear heavy armor, then NPCs can be aware of your class at a glance and deal with you according to your class, rather than your actions.

 

That said, of course there should be areas that give spotlight to a certain class, say a mage college an arena or a dungeon full of traps for the rogue, but there shouldn't be a doorman that checks whether you're the required class.

Edited October 27, 2012 by JOG

[Merin]

While I'm all for content available only to certain situations....

 

in a party-based cRPG, especially where you can create new party members... this kind of feature (parts of the game accessible only to a certain class) will kind of be lost, or make people create the odd rogue or monk or whatever just to run off and see that content then drop said rogue or monk.

 

I do think there will be reactive parts of the game that will take into account / acknowledge your main character's race, gender, class, culture... but this is likely to be dialog reactions and options of what to say, small things like that. Nods to player choices in character design.

[Utukka]

If it adds to the experience, it should be added in. The game shouldn't be "lessened" because a person who wants all achievements doesn't want to have to make a 2nd character. Just my opinion tho.

[Nerei]

My main problem with unique areas for each class is the amount of work it requires compared to the benefit it gives.

If we assume everything else being equal adding a class specific area would give at best 6/11 the benefit with a given group (due to the 11 classes). That is assuming the player does not bring a specific class to unlock the feature. Also if they pick the BG2 stronghold style approach to it (only protagonist counts for getting it) it drops to 1/11.

Unless they have changed it since last time I checked you only got 8 companions (might have happened it is not something I check up on). That means 9/11th cover of the classes at best in a run unless you specifically create and swap characters for this.

 

If they can find a non labor intensive way to add it sure I would definitely not mind. Making a new quest/encounter that puts the spotlight on a specific class in an existing area (or copying a generic area like BG did with houses) should be fairly easy adds flavour. However if it comes at the cost of making a completely new area just for this purpose, I do not think that with a limited budget and limited time it is worth it.

Naturally this is not to say there should not be areas that appeal to a specific class. A thieves guild (probably) appeals more to the rogue than the paladin and such places should be there, just not simply for the benefit of 1 class. That is just my opinion though and the devs might have another approach.

[Sannom]

in a party-based cRPG, especially where you can create new party members... this kind of feature (parts of the game accessible only to a certain class) will kind of be lost, or make people create the odd rogue or monk or whatever just to run off and see that content then drop said rogue or monk.

No, the class-based content would obviously be linked to the class of the main character, not the class of any of the companions, be they be NPCs or mercenaries created by the player.

[Nomine Vacans]

While I'm all for content available only to certain situations....

 

in a party-based cRPG, especially where you can create new party members... this kind of feature (parts of the game accessible only to a certain class) will kind of be lost, or make people create the odd rogue or monk or whatever just to run off and see that content then drop said rogue or monk.

 

I do think there will be reactive parts of the game that will take into account / acknowledge your main character's race, gender, class, culture... but this is likely to be dialog reactions and options of what to say, small things like that. Nods to player choices in character design.

This.

[Umberlin]

I remember playing through as a Paladin in SoU, which is a fairly strange for me (I don't tend toward melee classes at all) and thought it was interesting to see an area, within an area, open up that had never done so before. I believe it netted me a Holy Avenger. It wasn't even big, just a small aside. Just enough. Made the playthrough feel different, in the midst of most things, obviously, remaining the same.

[Skapanza]

One of the major motivations for playing different classes in BG2 was the opportunity for a unique class-based experience. As the EE approaches, I find myself thinking more and more about which classes I've yet to see the unique areas and quests for so I can pick a class that will reveal a new part of the game for me. While BG2 did make special areas, they were incorporated into the grander plot. All characters explore Nalia's keep and kill the trolls there, only the fighter-types get to move in and take it over. Same goes the the Thieves' Guild or the Planar Sphere. Those little touches made multiple playthroughs a must for me.

[Hassat Hunter]

Like above poster, I do agree, some small areas to be class-dependant could be okay.

 

But I think seperate quest-lines on the same map (like the city one mentioned before) would be much preferred.

 

But no "you can see everything in 1 playthrough, join every fraction even if opposing etc." from the TES games.

[Thangorodrim]

I would like the idea of some class guilds (Mage Guild, Fighter Guild, Rogues Guild, etc) that the main character could join and possibly advance in. There could be class specific quests from within the guild but they should be limited (5-8 maybe?). I wouldn't really want to see too many non guild class related quests though. I would have no problem with some quests awarding class specific items as rewards that might or might not benefit the party. But I wouldn't want to see too many quests limited to just one class or another. You might balance some quests though so they are easier for one class or another. That might work.