Sword Coast Legends - RTWPD&DRPG and it's out now!

[Blarghagh]

Here's the new thread about Sword Coast Legends. Last time on Sword Coast Legends thread, people discussed rolling a Paladin because you can find the Holy Avenger. Also, people seem to not like it so much - I dunno, I honestly didn't know this game existed until I checked what threads were overdue for a closing.

[Keyrock]

I'm about 30 hours in and are making my first foray into the Underdark.  I imagine I'm probably 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through the game, that's my suspicion, anyway.  Still having fun with the game.  Like so many cRPGs, the game has a crapton of filler battles against trash mobs (I really wish cRPGs would do away with this), but at least companion AI is really good so I can control one character and leave the rest of the party on auto-pilot during those filler battles and blast through them in about 20 seconds, so they're not tedious.  I only really need to micromanage at all during special/boss battles, and I'm totally fine with that, in fact, I'm quite happy about that.  The battle I recently did against a giant demon spider queen was the most taxing challenge I've faced so far.  That was really fun and required me controlling all the characters at various times to survive.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Keyrock

[Keyrock]

I'm in the Underdark on the outskirts of Gracklstugh and my observation of the Underdark is that people below the surface act a lot more sensibly than on the surface.  So, while I was in Luskan, I would barge into people's houses and rob them blind, in the video game tradition.  More often than not, there'd be nobody home and I'd just help myself to their belongings, as is standard for a video protagonist to do.  On the occasions where there would be someone home, they'd have no objection to me barging into their house and even helping myself to their valuables.  I even had one dumbass greet me by saying "My name is so and so, I am a traveler from someplace and was on a journey...  yada yada".  I'm paraphrasing here, but those were the first words out of his mouth after I walked into his home uninvited.  Who talks like that?  Anyway, I get to the Darklake district of Gracklstugh and continue with the time honored tradition of breaking into people's houses and robbing them, except here when I walk into someone's home uninvited they say "Who the hell are you?  Get out of my house right now!" which seems an appropriate thing to say to someone breaking into your house.  I even had one guy walk in on me stealing his stuff while I thought he was away and he was none too pleased about it, attacked me, in fact.  Granted, attacking a group of 4 armed to the teeth adventurers by yourself might not be the wisest move ever, but it's an understandable reaction to walking into your house and seeing strangers robbing it.  That even managed to deter me from robbing any more houses as I don't want to kill any more innocent civilians, even if they are duergar.

 

Also, derro are awesome.

Edited November 7, 2015 by Keyrock

[Volourn]

There are no 'innocent' duergar civilians. DO YOU EVEN KNOWN DnD? L0LZ You do realize that duergar love owning slaves right? And, they love to murder, rape, and pillage right?

[Darkpriest]

well considering how derro are treated in that city it should be pretty obvious that duergars, even civilians are not really "innocent"

[Keyrock]

I'm well aware who the duergar are and how their society functions, this isn't my first foray into the Underdark.  Still, I'm not in the business of slaughtering civilians, even if I don't agree with their society.  Until a duergar raises their weapon against me or I witness them committing an unspeakable act, they're innocent as far as I'm concerned.  I'm not going to indiscriminately murder them for simply being duergar, well, not unless I'm playing an evil character anyway, which I'm not (my char is chaotic good).

Edited November 7, 2015 by Keyrock

[HoonDing]

Kill them all, by Crom Torm.

[Volourn]

"well considering how derro are treated in that city it should be pretty obvious that duergars, even civilians are not really "innocent" "
 

Considering that derro are even worse I don't feel too bad for 'mistreated' derro. then again, putting derro out fo their misery is a good thing since they are victims of evil mind flayer experiements. R00fles!

[Bartimaeus]

There are no 'innocent' duergar civilians. DO YOU EVEN KNOWN DnD? L0LZ You do realize that duergar love owning slaves right? And, they love to murder, rape, and pillage right?

Unger Hilldark was an O.K. guy in my books. Sure, a little rough around the edges, but hey, he was perfectly willing to tell you where the illithium ore was, unlike that extortionist Jerlia. 1 point for Duergars, nada for humans.

 

(my char is chaotic good)

Actually, wouldn't a chaotic good character be the most likely of the three good alignments to be willing to break the law to kill evildoers? Of course, since they're chaotic, I guess they can decide to do whatever they want.

Edited November 8, 2015 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

 

(my char is chaotic good)

Actually, wouldn't a chaotic good character be the most likely of the three good alignments to be willing to break the law to kill evildoers? Of course, since they're chaotic, I guess they can decide to do whatever they want.

 

It kind of depends on who's law is being followed.  I could be playing a lawful good zealot (possibly paladin) whose deity or lord proclaims all duergar are a blight and must be purged from this world, in that case I would be bound by the law of my deity or lord to kill any duergar on sight, the laws of Gracklstugh would be irrelevant to me.  I choose to play my chaotic good character as someone who follows their heart on what is right or wrong and is not averse to breaking laws if he feels they interfere with what is right.  To the best of my knowledge, that is not an incorrect interpretation of chaotic good.

Edited November 8, 2015 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

I mean, you can come up with a rationalization for doing anything with pretty much any alignment, so yeah, haha.

[Keyrock]

I feel like I'm closing in on the end of the campaign.  I recently had a Russo swerve moment that I have to admit was fairly well executed.  The game dropped a few hints earlier and there were some behaviors I questioned a bit, but there were potential justifications in place too, so the behavior didn't bother me too much.  Now with the reveal, all of that makes perfect sense.  Then there was another mini swerve, though you could see this one coming from a mile away, one of my companions even commented as such.  Also, I got to feast on a delicious dish best served cold.  I have a few loose ends to tie up, including a personal quest, and then it's likely I'll be into the final stretch of the game.

[Keyrock]

I finished the campaign, it took me a little over 41 hours.  The final battle was shockingly easy, particularly the final portion of it.  I guess I had a good party makeup for it and was well equipped, plus I had so many weapons and abilities that slow/paralyze/stun/etc that I essentially chain stunned the final boss to death.  Really, there were only 2 battles in the entire game that I found at all challenging:

 

Rhylfang

 

and

 

3 X Elite Umber Hulk

 

So, I guess the advice to anyone looking for a challenge is don't play on normal difficulty.

 

Overall, I had fun with the game.  It's not a great game, by any stretch of the imagination, but it was an enjoyable enough way to spend 40 hours.  The story is fair to middling and the characters are rather forgettable.  None of the characters are really bad, they're just not memorable.  I guess Izhkin and Hommet are the characters I liked the best, on account of Izhkin being insane and Hommet being a doofus. On the other end of the spectrum, Illydia was the only character I kinda disliked, but that comes down to my own prejudice against elves (bleh).  Hopefully we wind up getting an expansion with a much more interesting story in the future like what happened with NWN 1 & 2.

 

I didn't mind the cooldown-based combat system and the game's bastardization of 5E D&D, I just think the cooldowns are much too long.  I very much appreciated how capable the companion AI was and that I could control just one character and leave the rest of the party on auto-pilot for filler battles, because there was a metric ****ton of filler battles to go through, so it helped that I could blast through them quickly and without having to micromanage.

 

Apologies for repeating some things I put into previous posts, I kinda wanted to summarize my feelings on the game in a final post about the campaign.

 

I look forward to trying out some co-op, I'm open to play any role, be it player or DM, so if anyone wants to do that, hit me up and we'll figure out when we can get a co-op session going.

Edited November 9, 2015 by Keyrock

[Cyseal]

Rage of demons DLC

[Darkpriest]

If only game mechanics was more akin to the tabletop version... I hate the skill trees and half assed implementation of Colldown mechanics, plus retarded level scaling in the campaign.with goblins running at 500+HP and some regular mobs having 1300+ HP

[Cyseal]

http://steamcommunity.com/games/325600/announcements/detail/48774876376144247

[Volourn]

L0L That list just shows what a joke the game actually is. L0L

[Sarr]

Hmm. It's actually a good game, to be honest. Not that polished (yet?), but knowing the studio counted maybe 12 people, it's amazing feat.

Pillars have only single player campaign. To create a game having about 3-4 games / gamplay modes integrated, very easy to use (even while at this point still limited) Campaign Editor and especially very fun Dungeon Master gameplay is much.

 

Especially knowing that Pillars of Eternity isn't really trying much new. Obsidian went safe way, copying existing gameplay of legendary classic almost 1:1 and polishing it. But SCL is completely new idea - it's not that much NwN, and it doesn't try to be. It's a game of small, indie developer who has the guts to try and implement very brave ideas.

 

I just wish single player campaign was better, but it's not a game about that campaign at all. Try some great campaign done by players - yes, it that "limited" editor - like "Pirates of the Sword Coast" series, for example. You'll notice that good RPG is about story, not how complicated your editor is. Editor helps, but many greatest quests in cRPG classics weren't complicated at all, and could be replicated to some extent in vanilla SCL - in way that even if simplified, would retain much their "epicness".

 

Community Pack 3 comes very soon, then DLC Rage of Demons. The biggest limits on Campaign Editor will go away with CP3. And that's in 3rd month after Sword Coast Legends' release...

[Mr. Magniloquent]

If only game mechanics was more akin to the tabletop version... I hate the skill trees and half assed implementation of Colldown mechanics, plus retarded level scaling in the campaign.with goblins running at 500+HP and some regular mobs having 1300+ HP

 

I tried the free demo. I played maybe...3 hours. I'm a big fan of 5th edition, and I just couldn't get into the cooldown/skill tree mechanic they did. It just felt so very bland.

[Keyrock]

 

 

Community Pack 3 comes very soon, then DLC Rage of Demons. The biggest limits on Campaign Editor will go away with CP3. And that's in 3rd month after Sword Coast Legends' release...

CP3 is what I'm waiting for.  No point in me even fiddling with the Dungeon Master tools until I can do branching dialogues. 

[Cyseal]

I think CP3 won't come out this year even it's says so in release date.

Btw, how do you like the game comparing it to PoE?

[Keyrock]

I think CP3 won't come out this year even it's says so in release date.

Btw, how do you like the game comparing it to PoE?

I mean, there's less than a week of this year left, I didn't expect CP3 to come out in 2015.  As for comparing Pillars and SCL, Pillars had the far superior writing, even if the story was quite honestly boring, much better written dialogue, and a much deeper character and combat system.  Yet, I eventually wound up hating Pillars and I enjoyed my time SCL.  I think it came down to the fact that Pillars wound up being rather tedious to play while SCL was not.  I credit that to SCL's impressively competent companion AI.  I just don't have the patience to micromanage I did when I was younger and the fact that I could just control one character in SCL through all the filler battles and the rest of my party would act remarkably not like complete idiots made my gaming time so much more enjoyable.

Edited December 26, 2015 by Keyrock

[Darkpriest]

Well, the game is officially dead and N-space is closing.

 

I guess you should not false market your games is the conclusion here.

[Chilloutman]

Well, the game is officially dead and N-space is closing.

 

I guess you should not false market your games is the conclusion here.

 

Really? Wow that is strangely satisfying for me

[SadExchange]

So we shouldn't hold our breath for that free expansion then?