Larian Studios Forums General Suggestions Just finished. A downbeat (but positive) review.

Yup, it was the red hammer ones that I got stuck in myself. Most of them had a ledge at the side or front that you could get out of, but one just had a slight lip for the water to run down to the next level, but no walkable area that I could see.

And yeah - that auto-teleporting thing happened to me a few times: I'd assumed it was just my machine being weird. I guess it could be a deliberate "unstick" feature, but that seems kinda pointless when they've got the cool personal tower-teleporter. I never found it useful, but I did find it annoyingly auto-teleporting me away from places I was trying to reach. Admittedly, when I did get make it to where I was trying to get to, I'd usually just hit an invisible wall anyway, but the exploring was worth it anyway

You can't target or damage (or even SEE) ground-based foes if you're a dragon. This is arbitrary, stupid, and

I think it is a good idea not to let dragons attack ground-based foes because then people could just become a dragon every single battle and there would be 1 or 2 archers in a group of foes......

it would just be plain to easy even on hard difficulty!

but thats just my point of view

Yes, if you became a dragon in every fight, with the game as it is, and battled the existing foes that are currently game-balanced to be fought on foot, then yes, you'd kick ass in a big way, and the game would become easy.

But that's rather like saying "if you could become a dragon, and then not be hurt by the pedestrians, you cold just become a dragon and fly past every fight!"

If a game gives you an ability, then yes, you can use that ability, and the game must be balanced to take it into account.

Fortunately, there are any number of game-balancing solutions to both those problems, including:
* Forcing them to be faced on foot by preventing dragon form: foes in confined spaces like tunnels/caves or even ledges with fences; magic charms preventing polymorphing; force fields. These were used in the game already, to force you to face them.
* Rewarding the player with more XP per kill on foot: currently, if you fly past a fight, you get 0 XP, so it pays to fight on foot, rather than fly.
* Adding in flying foes and gun emplacements that ignore pedestrians, so dragons end up fighting more foes: these already exist.
* Making the pedestrian foes better at harming dragons: give everyone a bow, sling, or spells that they can use if they can't reach you. This is already needed because the AI can often not reach you if you stand on a rock, and allows itself to be mown down.
* Defending the pedestrian foes better against dragons: give them fire defence spells, grapples, and nets.
* Increasing the number of pedestrian foes: which would also be more fun, mowing down crowds as a dragon;
* Permitting more sneaking ability, and ability to talk your way out of fights, when on foot, to allow two approaches: subtlety on foot, or all-guns-blazing full frontal attack with the dragon.
* And tons more that I didn't think of, I'm sure.

I imagine that Larian, had they been able, would have done some combination of these. It is a great shame for the game that they could not, but it does mean there is still a lot of scope for the theme to be developed in future games.

I personally think the dragon should have been able to attack ground-based foes, but then the player should receive no XP for killing the foes, to balance it out.

Anyone remember the game Drakan? This game did not work with XP system, but it had the option to switch between dragon & human combat at any time. The game compensated for the overpowered dragon by including a lot of caves & dungeons that the dragon could not immediately enter.

I remember Drakan and the PS2 TAG, loved those games.

The Arokhs Lair site is still active-ish too

In truth, you known... There is a moment when you became a dragon for make your enemies burn. You can see them runaway when they disappear... If you fire-breathing them at that moment you can kill them. It's really possible to fight like that because they don't survive easily to that but it's really seem like... Cheating.

I noticed them fade out, but didn't try flaming them. Cool that it happens, but given that the game's not balanced for that, I agree: cheating.

...But probably a whole lot of fun! :P

Since this has been moved to "suggestions", there's a few other, much older threads from pre-Ego Draconis that (because they're mostly discussing theory, and because it was known by then what game engine was being used) might still be relevant to anyone interested in this one, or in this forum.

I apologise that they also all have long, boring, waffly posts by me about my personal opinions on gaming :P Call my posts "suggestions" if you will, but I know a whiny opinion-piece when I smell one. Still, the posts by other people in these threads are well worth reading, at least.

Wishlist - I only came into this thread around page 6 or so. People posted lots of suggestions/wishes for a DD sequel, stuff on alternatives to combat and so on.

moral Dilemmas in RPG's - Another thread I came to quite late, page 3 or so. People were writing some great mullings over of moral choice in gaming.

Requiring fights to the death: cool, or lazy? - One I posted, again about morality and the consequences of combat.

Is is modder-friendly? - Me asking if there's be a construction kit, and others replying with some very good arguments why they really hoped there would be.