Is there value in adding the ability to give yourself handicaps?

[AGX-17]

Why are you so convinced that the game will be so casual easymode that you'll need handicaps on your PC to get any kind of challenge out of it?

Edited May 30, 2014 by AGX-17

[Sad Panda]

Why are you so convinced that the game will be so casual easymode that you'll need handicaps on your PC to get any kind of challenge out of it?

Well, that's just usually how it goes. Would be nice if the vanilla difficulty settings catered for both those who want casual gameplay and those who want a real challenge, but in practice there aren't great many RPGs I can name that I wouldn't have modded or wanted to mod to be more difficult. Not because I'd feel there's more merit to overcoming larger odds -- it's just a game, after all -- but because the story feels much more meaningful when the protagonist really has to struggle to get where they're going.

[Lephys]

Well, that's just usually how it goes.

In all fairness, the very idea of this game involves how things don't usually go. I'm not sure considering it probable for this game to copy your typical modern game is at all prudent.

[Sad Panda]

In all fairness, the very idea of this game involves how things don't usually go. I'm not sure considering it probable for this game to copy your typical modern game is at all prudent.

Well, the game being crowdfunded does change things, since (in theory) the game's production costs are already all covered and Obsidian only has to answer to the backers, who did specifically want an oldschool game. That being said, I wasn't only talking about modern cRPGs. In Black Isle games, too, you could crank up the difficulty and still have a pretty easy time at it... aside from certain boss fights. >_> Not to say the games couldn't be difficult, but that usually required creating a character or party with serious lackings or disadvantages, in terms of roleplay or game mechanics, i.e. handicapping yourself.

 

I do hope the handicaps, if there are any, will come with some manner of upside, though, as discussed above. To me the absolutely best scenario would be unqiue disadvantages that lend unique advantages, both of which are recognised in story and dialogue. Something like being able to play as a deaf character would be fantastic, though I realise it would've been a very large development investment. Then again, so was the low-INT dialogue in Fallout.

[Lephys]

Ehh, true I suppose. However, I think it's still significant that they're even kind of doing the "here's wht we wish we could've done on this other game that we developed, but didn't because we weren't in full creative control of the project" stuff. So, even then... more "typical" to the general recreated oldschool cRPG, but still not quite typical, if that makes sense.

 

Basically, they don't have to make it easy just because numbers suggest 7 million people will buy it if it's easier, instead of 4 million. They're already catering to a select audience. There's still variation within that, sure, and they don't want to arbitrarily put-off anyone, but they're not really making this for the "typical" gamer.

 

That, and it'll be a lot less "hard" because of wild misses and critical hits and such, and more actual hard because of challenge. So, *shrug*. Whatever that's worth...