Larian Studios

How is the act system going to be in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" />²

One of my big disappointments of <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> Was that the acts had separate geographic locations. It didn't make me feel as a huge word while it was larger then in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" />.

I have nothing against story acts to guide the player. But I rather see a act system à la GTA.

Oww the bridge is broken, Well I just go do some quests till it is fixed. Later the bridge is fixed and you can go to a new location with new quests. BUT you can always return to the "old area".

I know this is hard to take but the Diablo 2 separations of acts were better then in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" />. At least there you could take the merchants wagon back to past area's.

So I humbly ask Larian not to create geographic acts with no return. Please go back to the act system of <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> and allow the player to move freely across the plains.

If I am the only one that feels this way about the act system of <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> I'll shut up

I agree.

except for the comparing thing with D2.

don't shut up. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Did that to provoke a reaction of Lar. Since he hates it when you compare <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> an diablo. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif" alt="" />

Anyway, could you imagine a world the size of GTA SA but in fantasy times where you can wander freely. *drools on keyboard*

But I hope they don't make the same mistake as morowind (what I call a walk sim <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif" alt="" />) In <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> and <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> there was hardly any dull moments while in Morowind there were hardly any action moments.

I wonder I you will be able to use the same maps of <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> to navigate in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" />² since it will be the same world. Would be nice to see the <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> scenery in 3D with new story and quests. I hope it has the familiar yet different look. Like Hmm I knew that 20 years ago there was a shop there. You see the same building but now it's an inn. Also secret caves would still be at the same locations. But I think those details are already thought of by the team.

I agree too, i look at the Act System from the Gothic Games.
Where you can reach every part of the World, but at the beginning you are not strong enough to do it.
So you can discover the World only step for step.

This is a kind of Act Building i like, this makes the World bigger.

I wouldn't call Gothic an "Act sytem" ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" /> But personally, I would like to have no acts at all ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" /> . <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Well it depends on your definition of acts. An act is like a chapter in a book that the story is divided in. An act is not a geografic location (What it was in BD) where no return is possible.

So strory acts good (like in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> first the town actn then the general arix act, stormfist act...), geografic acts bad.

Following your definition I would say that I don't like "geographic acts". I rather like "story-acts", then. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'd rather have no acts, have it like Divine Divinity, you can go everywhere, but probably be killed.

That is what I call story acts. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Duh ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Well theire could be a standard barrier to guide the player (I don't need no guide tho) like:

Ow crap the bridge is withdraw, I will have to find the bridgekeeper. Ow what luck he's just been kidnapped by the blank ring, well I guess I'll go save him as part of the main quest (louwsy bridgekeeper getting him self caught by the black ring).

But once the bridge is fixed you can thravel to the new area but also back to finish old quests or to solve a new quest foud in the new area.

Like:
Hey I found that special potion that guy on the other side of the river was searching for, well might as well go back and give it to em.


Also I will be checking if the new 3D world is exactly the same as the <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> world as they are the same (+/- 20 years) So that means caves, rivers, ruins, castles would still be at the same location. otherwise there are plot hole. Hey were did stormfist castle go to (activates plotmachine) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

epends on the amount of destruction the Black Ring has caused in the meantime. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I see it now:

In the middle of an open field lays one brick with a little sign on it. this is all that reamains of Stormfist castle.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />

And Janus's body next to it, and if you click you get an option of what do to it.

1. Mutilate body
2. Steal everything on body
3. cut head off body
4. eat heart
5. stamp on him
6. give him a good beating because of that bloody teddy bear.

Or a little sign: Castle is moved to the dark forrest (magic). <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Please go into pentagram to continue.

Sounds like Monopoly. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

The Act system should not be like <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" />...simply becuase of this reason:

In <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> my likng of the game was i met new people and no matter how far i advanced in terms of level they were always there.

Sure they maybe said the same things but just becuase they are there you bond with them and feel some sort of affection for them... in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> there are some likeable characters but unfortunately you just are not able to bond with them except maybe the imp( Talihex(sp?)) becuase once you finish the Act there is no going back.

Plus as has been said earlier the frredom to go anywhere is great.

Tragic

I completely agree. In <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> when you pissed of a shopkeeper he stay that way so you could bribe em to be friendly again. But <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> there is no reason because when you go to the next act there are new shops or go to the battlefields shops.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" />

Would be nice in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" />² that not only one shopkeeper has the best stuff. in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> you had that elven armour shop that had the best armour. It would be nice that after the first time you meet the shopkeeper some of the superior goods he has get distributed to all shops (+/- price variations). It's to bad that my favourite shop has only sword that are basicly useless to me have they never heard of import/export.

example:
You have already met 2 shopkeepers in verdistis.
Those shopkeepers have the stuff you need at that time.
after a few level ups you can upgrade to better stuff.
You find a new shopkeeper.
Give there address to the merchant guild
The 2 merchants you already know start getting the superior goods (not all of em) in there stock (how farther the shopkeeper from the source of objects how more the price range varies).


This way you could create regions
Region 1 has the best leather wares (beginning of the game)
region 2 has the best chain mails. at this point the chain mails get exported to region 1
region 3 has the best plate armour. plate armour gets exported to region 1 & 2 but region 1 is more expensive then region 2 and region 3 is cheapest. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mage.gif" alt="" />

Your idea is quite good, but has the thing of people who might complain about long travelling routes ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" /> So it needs Teleporters near to these shops.

That's why I liked the market centrer of Rivertown. Had a transporter near by but the stuff selling there became absolute a bit fast. With that system I would still get items worth buying.

Also it's not that hard to write into code. In the dB just add a field that gives a value to a certain item and an integer in the save game that says at what level the current shops are at.

Maybe some items of a region (the most powerful ones) only become available in other shops when you're discover 2 more shops (to make the player it worth wild just to walk that extra mile). Also you could use it in a skill capacity. the traders tongue would not only reduce prices but also speed up the distribution process of a new discovered shop

example:
5 days after the discovery of a shop items begin appearing in other shops.
With traders tongue it only takes 2 days and the quality of items that the others shop get is higher. When traders tongue is maxed out shops get new stuff instantaneous and also the best stuff the new shop had to offer, this means that the player can buy any item at any shop. (well limited in number of items a shop can only have 30 items but the random generation of the shopitems uses all items while a player with lower traders tounge leave some of the "super" items (like lightning damage +25 sword) out when items are generated in a shop)

this is getting complex. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" />

But it would make the traderstounge skill worht investing in.

Yeah it would be great to have teleporters that are near shops. But don't think the teleporter have mysteriously relocated them selves in 20 years (same world same places of transporters) maybe new ones can be "discovered"

Well, the Desert never had Teleporters. *hint, hint* <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Well maybe there were but no one discoverd em.

@lar: *hint, hint*

I'm full of ideas now: latest teleportation building skill to add to the current ones and the pyramids. 1 skill point buids one teleporter at a certain location (unless a dampening field is active (to make sure that you can't escape where the story doesn't allow it)). But be carefull you can't relocate once a transporter build it says there and you can only build a new one when you invest a skillpoint in the skill (lets not make it to easy you still got your pyramids). So when you find a teleporter a screen furter than the screen you just build one *DOW*.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" />

return of the succubus (in all her 3D glory) and Yes I will be playing as female warrior. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

well, i hope all these will happen, Morbo.

maybe plotholes such as carts & travelling merchants will be resolved as well since teleporter stoens are the norm for society in the DD2 timeline. meaning there is no impending doom or some wars between races. all is well until ..... .

that way, teleporter stones are no longer a jumping point to some lonely places, instead they have become economic hubs. if u have watched Cowboy Bebop & the hyperspace gate technology in the anime, the gates are always the centre of human civilisation, where humanity concentrate themselves at.

well of course, the teleporters can't be totally understood as they are alien artifacts. meaning if one learns rune alphabets (yes, the revival of rune reading) , one can truly harness the power of the teleporter stones & travel to places other people don't think of.

Well the reason why the teleporters aren't vibrant hubs of economics is because there is that pesky thing that you need scrolls to activate em.

I also hope they expand the world a bit. Maybe a new region (with a new race in it). The wastlands might get a bit remoddeled (vilages are rebuild (also the destroyed by orcs village)). Or maybe the location of the order of the divine or the temple where the divine one discovered the riftrunning portals (believed it was in a forrest). So you have familiar and new areas.

Travelling merchants ... Hm ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" /> What about an merchant literally travelling around ? Like some sort of NPC whom is met quite randomly ? He should be able to defnd himself in order not to be killed by some monster, though ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />



Well, nobody knew about them abnymore. They were ancient relicts of a more peaceful time, long ago, and the farmer perhaps just wondered about "that metallic thing in my garden".

Zandalor was perhaps the last one who knew how to activate them - even the keepers of the scrolls didn't know much, otherwise they would've tried to collect them and re-activate the teleporters. But mistrust and war kept most of them from using them.

Gothic had a "Chapter" system -- which was basically that chapter changed, when you completed the main quest stuff. You could always roam the world freely, to your very own liking.

So, if you want an open DD2, what DD2 needs to do is to have an "act" system govern just by the main quest, not by what location to open and unlock like GTA.

Sounds nice. A bit like Arcanum, acually <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. And this WOULD keep the feeling of freedom, since you can go wherever you like, but still keep the main story intact.

Übereil

Or you could have no Acts or Chapters whatsoever, like in Morrowind. You just do what you want to do. Come to think of it, that's like Divine Divinity <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> Back to the roots Larian! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kitty.gif" alt="" />

But I didn't like Morrowind <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />...

To be honest, I think the open chaptersystem MysterD talked about will have allmost the same effect, only that the main story is more structured. So, we'll have a free game with (hopefully) a good main story. A bit like DD. But better main story... (At least bigger part ofthe game, it feels like I spend most of DD in the forest or in a dungeon, and I don't like dungeons and forests THAT much...)

Übereil