eimatshya

Hmm... Josh is done with party-based, medieval fantasy for the short term. Hopefully that means his next project will be something else?

Yeah, the AI and pathfinding is a little too old-school for my liking. I can't count the number of times I've had characters get locked into and engagement because they took an idiotic route to get to their destination. But I guess that's life when you have an RTwP system. Anyway, welcome to the forums!

I've always liked this one:

Interesting idea. I'll take a look when I get the chance.

In my experience, there isn't much roleplaying on RP servers unless you're in a heavy RP guild or hang out in certain areas. Most people go about their business much as they would on any other server.

I remember being hit surprisingly hard by this moment in one of my playthroughs of KotOR II with the restored content mod:

I've never heard of it. Is it unpopular? I played it back in the day but have only vague memories of it. I think the only remarkable thing about it was that it was one of the only, if not the only, RPG for the N64. Maybe that's why I gave it such a high ranking

Here's my list. I narrowed it down to games that I both loved at launch and still love now. As a result, games like Civilization II and Civilization: Call to Power didn't make the list even though I played them a LOT because I no longer play either. Likewise, I've played a lot of Titanfall 2 and Overwatch over the last year, but they are too new to stand the test of time, and as a result, did not make the list. I know Dragon Age 2 gets a lot of hate, but I personally like it. It did something different--a story about the trials and tribulations of a single family over several years set in a single city. The combat wasn't great, and it was more rail-roady than I'd like (DA:O did way better when it comes to endings), but despite it's failings I always enjoy playing through it (whereas I now fall asleep when I try to play through DA:O). Finally, I included SWG even though I no longer play it because it's a game I definitely would like to play again if I could (haven't got around to trying to figure out all the various Emu servers that exist... they seem to have really volatile populations). Everquest (I still play project 1999 on and off and love it) Knights of the Old Republic 2 Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines Alpha Protocol Fallout 2 (Fallout 1 is the classic, but I've played Fallout 2 sooooooo much more over the course of my life) Final Fantasy Tactics Civilization V Baldur's Gate Super Smash Brothers Mass Effect 2 Dreamfall: the Longest Journey The Longest Journey Dragon Age 2 Fallout: New Vegas Golden Eye 64 Dark Forces System Shock 2 Jagged Alliance 2 Master of Orion 2 Star Wars Galaxies Daggerfall Deus Ex Jade Empire Planescape Torment Civilization IV

My preference would be for a science-fantasy, martial-arts-adventure RPG. Something like Avatar the Last Airbender meets Star Wars with a story of spiritual growth set against a conflict taking place both in space and on several planets, complete with some sort of climactic space battle where you fight your way to the enemy flagship and board it for the final confrontation with the villain. As that game will almost certainly never exist, some sort of sci-fi or urban fantasy RPG would be cool. I'm a bit burnt out on medieval and post-apocalyptic settings.

Very nice. I've set it as my desktop too. Thanks!

Classless is always my preference. The only class-based systems I've enjoyed were Shadowbane and Star Wars Galaxies--the former because there was such a huge selection of classes to choose from and so many different combinations to toy around with, and the latter because of the ability to mix and match skills from different classes so I could make a commando medic with a few smuggler tricks.

I think Bethesda would be the one to ask about Fallout 5. Unless you're asking about another spin-off game like New Vegas, in which case we have no news to suggest that this is going to happen.

I agree with the others who have said that voice acting can enhance a character, but does not inherently do so. David Warner's performance as Irenicus was extremely engaging, and I doubt the character would have been half as memorable without it. On the other hand, weak performances can substantially detract from a game. Bloodlines has this problem. While there are some amazing performances, a lot of the minor characters make me go, "Really? That was the best read they could get?" which draws me out of the experience of being in the game. Indifferent performances also are a net negative for me. The voice acting in Pillars and Tyranny is competent, but none of the performances are particularly evocative. And I'm hard pressed to remember any of them. They do, however, prevent me from creating my own voice for the characters, which does make the characters less memorable. Most of the characters in Final Fantasy Tactics are not particularly deep or developed, but they are very memorable for me because I've given them all distinct voices in my head. That is, when I read their lines, I visualize how they sound in my head with distinctive accents and deliveries. This is possible because none of the lines are voiced, leaving me free to interpret the characters however I want. So unless the performance is great, I prefer no voice acting.

So, what I like about most turn-based games is that when you tell a character to do something, they do it immediately. In almost every RTwP game, when you tell someone to do something, they stand around for a while, and then they maybe do it. This requires you to focus on the character for several seconds to find out if the action has the desired effect and to make sure that the character actually does what you've said. Meanwhile, other things are happening that you aren't able to focus on while you wait for your order to be carried out. In some games it is possible to pause periodically and read through the combat log for the last several seconds to see what has happened, but that is a lot of information to sift through and doing so regularly makes the fight even slower than in a turn-based system. The problem of responsiveness is especially true with movement and positioning. In turn-based games, when you tell characters to move somewhere, you can be fairly confident they will do so provided the destination is within range and they don't die along the way. In a RTwP game, you run into all kinds of pathfinding problems. Characters can't figure out how to get where you've told them to go so they wander around getting drawn into unnecessary engagements and failing to reach their intended position (I've been having this problem with Tyranny).

I liked all the cities in classic Everquest (not sure if MMO's count). Each one had its own unique feel, and learning your way through each one was a quest in and of itself. For single player games... the most memorable might be Daggerfall. I can't forget the first time I arrived in the city at night and almost had a heart attack when I had to immediately flee a bunch of specters while a booming, disembodied voice yelled, "veeeeeeeengeaaaaaaance!"