Originally Posted by Lightzy
I can prove it to you.

1) In your statistical analysis, check how many times players reloaded just after a failed roll.
I guarantee you will see that a significant portion of people's playtime is spent in the load-save screen, concentrated wherever you have a skill check roll.
Also publish this information if you got balls.

2) In forum discussions about certain encounters and quests, people often give advice on how to get the best roll chances in order to have to load-save the least amount of times.

3) YOU, LARIAN, had to put out an official message asking people to please not reload constantly and to "let failure happen".
And of course, that doesn't work. That's not how human nature works. Definitely not gamer human nature.


So my advice is, trash that whole system. It works for tabletop, but not here.
Use the (much better) skill-threshold system from D:OS, where if you cross a certain threshold of ability-score/class/race/proficiency/item in party inventory/prepared spells and cantrips and abilities/etc or a combination thereof, you automatically pass the check.





Skill checks are interesting, and add something to a cRPG that we rarely see. "Oh no I save scummed", well boo hoo, that's on you.
I think the thing they should do is introduce more inspiration points. The option to reroll is a nice feature to help out those people who can't handle not getting what they want.

But the thing is: Failed rolls rarely change your outcome, you get the default outcome. It's supposed to be a choice to try and get a better outcome, or in the case of talkin to your party members it's a risk to use the tadpole roll to peer into their mind. It can give you some cool information, at the risk of losing approval.

cRPGs have very often been very binary. "Have high enough stat, get the chat option", now that's boring. Especially if they show you "Oh hey, if you had more of this stat you could have gotten a better outcome".

I would also like to see some indication of which roll option has the best DC. Sometimes you choose to use the skill you are the most proficient in, but that isn't always the one with the best DC. But again: It's not supposed to be a "gimmie".



Originally Posted by Corren
I think the title of this topic is TERRIBLE. But the issue brought up isn't.

I agree that a BIG challenge the devs will face is "how to make failure interesting?"

So far, honestly, I'm pretty underwhelmed. I haven't found interesting outcomes after failures, just the feeling of missing out. But maybe those will be more apparent AFTER the first region. It's a bit too early to judge.


As I said, most of the failed tests just defaults back to what would happen if you don't try a test. You are trying to change someones mind, when you fail, their mind isn't changed, and they go on with their day.