I just finished Dungeon Siege III.

It was nevertheless a pretty good game. But

the degree of difficulty was odd. Most of the time to easy and

than a couple of boss

enemies  and I hat do switch down to easy.

And now, you have to roll and try to hit and then rolling all over,

no space for a strategy,

makes that sense in English.

Dragon Age 1 is a good example how a boss fight has to be.

 

Looking forward Thx Obsidion

 

P.S.

 

Is it not possible to make Neverwinter 2 with a professional control

I would pay a little money for this. a great game and I never finished

it.

 

 

The obsidion is generated by stripping outer shell electrons from the obsid element, right?

 

Obsidion, pls

Dragon Age 1 is a good example how a boss fight has to be.

I suppose. That is, if a game HAS to have Boss fights in the first place.

 

It doesn't though, except for maybe the obligatory Big-Bad-Guy(s) at the end. And a good RPG doesn't even need that. I'd argue that the best way do things is sorta like how BG1 handled it. It had "bosses", but only because they were the last thing you faced in any given dungeon and the plotline named them as such. But that's it. The most memorable fights (and often times the toughest) in Bg1 were the enemy party battles.

 

I'm hoping PoE goes that route instead of how Dragon Age 1 does it.... where a boss is a BOSS, with a big cinematic introduction and a giant orange health bar to advertise the fact this this enemy is a super-special-BOSS and therefore, get ready for a specifically designed 10 minute battle of attrition.

Edited May 12, 201411 yr by Stun

 

Dragon Age 1 is a good example how a boss fight has to be.

I suppose. That is, if a game HAS to have Boss fights in the first place.

 

It doesn't though, except for maybe the obligatory Big-Bad-Guy(s) at the end. And a good RPG doesn't even need that. I'd argue that the best way do things is sorta like how BG1 handled it. It had "bosses", but only because they were the last thing you faced in any given dungeon and the plotline named them as such. But that's it. The most memorable fights (and often times the toughest) in Bg1 were the enemy party battles.

 

I'm hoping PoE goes that route instead of how Dragon Age 1 does it.... where a boss is a BOSS, with a big cinematic introduction and a giant orange health bar to advertise the fact this this enemy is a super-special-BOSS and therefore, get ready for a specifically designed 10 minute battle of attrition.

 

 

I agree, the best fights in BG were the memorable ones and the most memorable ones were the enemy party fights. It's been too long since I played DA:O, but I more recently played DA2 and my biggest criticism of the combat in that game was that fights were too similar. Oh look another pack of bandits conveniently my level and not discernibly different from the other 10 bands I fought on the way here. The bosses were again very similar to these fights so ultimately there were few memorable or challenging fights.

 

My hope of PoE is that fights are varied, that there are some fights that challenge me and some that are memorable. Whether these are bosses or not isn't important to me; bosses are a plot device, not a combat type.

 

Dragon Age 1 is a good example how a boss fight has to be.

I suppose. That is, if a game HAS to have Boss fights in the first place.

 

It doesn't though, except for maybe the obligatory Big-Bad-Guy(s) at the end. And a good RPG doesn't even need that. I'd argue that the best way do things is sorta like how BG1 handled it. It had "bosses", but only because they were the last thing you faced in any given dungeon and the plotline named them as such. But that's it. The most memorable fights (and often times the toughest) in Bg1 were the enemy party battles.

 

I'm hoping PoE goes that route instead of how Dragon Age 1 does it.... where a boss is a BOSS, with a big cinematic introduction and a giant orange health bar to advertise the fact this this enemy is a super-special-BOSS and therefore, get ready for a specifically designed 10 minute battle of attrition.

 

 

I agree with this to an almost inexpressible extent.  Single bosses are generally not very enjoyable.  But enemy parties are the best fights, because you have to account for four to six guys' worth of interesting and varied capabilities, as opposed to one dude's boss-only abilities.

Obsidion, pls

 

;_;

 

 

Dragon Age 1 is a good example how a boss fight has to be.

I suppose. That is, if a game HAS to have Boss fights in the first place.

 

It doesn't though, except for maybe the obligatory Big-Bad-Guy(s) at the end. And a good RPG doesn't even need that. I'd argue that the best way do things is sorta like how BG1 handled it. It had "bosses", but only because they were the last thing you faced in any given dungeon and the plotline named them as such. But that's it. The most memorable fights (and often times the toughest) in Bg1 were the enemy party battles.

 

I'm hoping PoE goes that route instead of how Dragon Age 1 does it.... where a boss is a BOSS, with a big cinematic introduction and a giant orange health bar to advertise the fact this this enemy is a super-special-BOSS and therefore, get ready for a specifically designed 10 minute battle of attrition.

 

 

I agree with this to an almost inexpressible extent.  Single bosses are generally not very enjoyable.  But enemy parties are the best fights, because you have to account for four to six guys' worth of interesting and varied capabilities, as opposed to one dude's boss-only abilities.

 

I'll +1 this as well. While sometimes boss fights can be fun and/or interesting, they're generally, as Stun puts it, battles of attrition that tend to be more tedious than fun. Now, group battles where you need to think about different spells and abilities that the enemy is going to throw at you - that can be a helluva lot of fun.

Not a single mention of Pillars of Eternity in the OP.

 

Why does this thread exist here?

Because I think it's a poem. Maybe haiku.

Because I think it's a poem. Maybe haiku.

 He could be a poet... the guys tag is ZenForAll, I guess.

 

"Roll and try to hit

​This post does not belong here

Please Ob-sid-ion"

Not a single mention of Pillars of Eternity in the OP.

 

Why does this thread exist here?

 

nikolous, pls

Edited May 15, 201411 yr by Messier-31

The boss fight is a computer game trope that should be buried at a crossroads with a stake through its heart and garlic in its mouth. They're contrived, artificial, and tedious.

 

And they're not at all the same thing as a tough encounter that flows naturally from the narrative.

 

King of Shadows = boss fight.

Akashi = boss fight.

Baron Firkraag = tough encounter that flows naturally from the narrative.

Yuan-ti temple in SoZ = tough encounter that flows naturally from the narrative.

The boss fight is a computer game trope that should be buried at a crossroads with a stake through its heart and garlic in its mouth. They're contrived, artificial, and tedious.

 

And they're not at all the same thing as a tough encounter that flows naturally from the narrative.

 

King of Shadows = boss fight.

Akashi = boss fight.

Baron Firkraag = tough encounter that flows naturally from the narrative.

Yuan-ti temple in SoZ = tough encounter that flows naturally from the narrative.

I agree. I'll also add that when Developers focus too much on the concept of "Boss Encounters" they inevitably fall into the trap of making that narrative flow too predictable.

 

In a linear game it's like this: Chapter 1: Trash mob + trash mob + trash mob + BOSS! Chapter 2: rinse and repeat

In an open world game it's like this: Discover dungeon/area.....Explore area....Trash mobs along the way.... then BOSS at the end! Discover next area/dungeon. Rinse and repeat.

 

 

It'd be nice if they mixed things up a bit. There's nothing wrong with putting that unique, named encounter at the entrance to that dungeon instead of at the end. There's nothing wrong with making that hidden optional encounter be tougher than that chapter's end battle. There's nothing wrong with that dungeon having unrelated 2 "bosses" instead of just the one. Or having a tough, boss-like enemy be a random encounter/ambush that you may or may not ever see. Or here's a crazy thought.... making a dungeon be uniformly tough from start to finish, without placing any bosses in it for the "spike" effect.

Edited May 15, 201411 yr by Stun

I'm in agreement with Stun. The other thing that irks me about boss fights, would be how they are typically immune to almost all normal abilities. You just have to hit them for damage until the timer runs out. Right now I'm playing Bloodlines: The Masquerade for the first time (finally), and it's so irritating to me how the only foes I can stealth kill or decimate with my character's abilities are the creatures which pose absolutely no threat to me. I could death spell Firkraag, back-stab Daeveron, and sunray the Shade Lich.

 

It's understandable when some of your abilities may not be effective due to a stituational/tactical circumstance; IE: being a fire oriented mage on the Shadow Plane. However, throwing out just about all of the abilities and tactics your character uses just because this enemy is "special" is very poor design.

It's not boss fights that are bad, it's artificial difficulty.

 

Amelysan the Black (final fight in ToB) suffered from some of that. I had no problem with Kangaxx though, I think that was a fun (if save or die) fight.

Edited May 15, 201411 yr by Sensuki

Yeah, typical boss fights are bad, but I think it's the cookie-cutter that's the problem, and not the very idea of some singularly tough opponent.

 

You've gotta make the reasons he's tough more tactical and less quantitative. More "He uses really crazy combinations of abilities and/or moves in a really crazy fashion," rather than "he's got 75% more HP, resistance, and damage output than you do."

I'm hoping PoE goes that route instead of how Dragon Age 1 does it.... where a boss is a BOSS, with a big cinematic introduction and a giant orange health bar to advertise the fact this this enemy is a super-special-BOSS and therefore, get ready for a specifically designed 10 minute battle of attrition.

 

 

 

BBB, The BIG, BAD, Boss 

 

like Fallout 2, Frank Horrigan