But that is making equal assumptions about people being here for the Larian brand. Sure, the forum activity could easily be a vocal minority but if you say you make assumptions one way, you also cannot make assumptions the other way. I personally know more people who share my thoughts and wanted either a BG game or a 5e DND game rather than a Larian game.
Actually the 'Vocal Minority' is what's going on in the forums. To try and say that's what skews the conversation to 1 side of the purist mentality, is a can of worms that I don't want to bother with opening. I could state that purists are a huge group of people on most gaming forums, but that's anecdotal, and spending my time trying to find data and statistics to prove that, is not something I care to do, or get into.
However, there is a big * here, Larian recently made a game, and grew its own, some could say grass-roots, fanbase. BG 1&2 are 20yrs old.
There was also a vocal minority at Blizzcon. The people who visit Blizzcon do not represent normal people. Normal people might love Diablo Immortal as a mobile game!
That doesn't mean you can walk up to them and tell them they're wrong for not liking what you like.
It doesn't matter why we're here in the forums as such. What I meant is that Larian bought access to the Baldur's Gate brand for a reason -- in order to access the good will of that brand among the "vocal minority".
I enjoy other games. But I'm excited about Baldur's Gate because of what that brand represents, and I'm enjoying what Larian have done with the story and character customisation so far.
Anyway, there will be opportunities to diversify the brand in future. Firaxis did this when they released XCOM: Chimera Squad, a game that broke away from many of the elements that made XCOM what it is. However, they were only able to do that
after looking after the vocal minority. There is a reason they didn't call it "XCOM 3".
That is still assumption. Without data, you do not really know if it is the vocal minority. You would need to look further than just the forum here, it is a view I have seen on reddit plenty as well. That in itself does not say much, aside give me a vague perspective with my immediate experiences, but without data, you cannot just assume (like you told people not to assume). It does go both ways.
Seiryu Suta just instinctively knows what's popular, I guess. I'm kind of amused by the idea that Larian would do market research by just finding one person in the forum and asking him what he thinks is really popular.
They already exist. The biggest one is Waukeen's Rest - if you get too close to it and then leave, when you come back, the councilor is gone, Bynryn is dead, and all but the one praying soldier have left. Also, when you start those quests, the fire gets worse in several areas over time and will kill Bynren and put smoke on the councilor's escape route if you wait too long.
Whether or not they already exist, I still don't like it.
And I disagree that cooldowns are more tactical. It's less. In 5e, the wizard has the choice to cast fireball twice in one encounter if the party feels they need it. Sure, the wizard can't cast it anymore until a long rest but the choice is there. And in a desperate situation, it may be deemed necessary. Cooldowns? Nope. Not an option.
And this example is just the fireball too. It gets more complex too: Do you use your 3rd level spelllslot for that counterspell? Or will you upcast a Sleep spell to put the big beastie to sleep? Maybe you will haste the fighter instead because the enemies are fire resistant?
With how 5e spells work, as well as spellslots and upcasting of spells for bigger effect, it becomes a LOT more tactical than cooldowns can ever be, really.
I dont want to oversell it. Cooldowns can be great, but spell slots can be too. The tactics are different.
In the end I think the comparisons are fruitless because removing skill slots would mean abandoning most of 5E. I'd rather talk about what people don't like about the skill slot system and how to make that system better. Let's stop trying to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Sidenote: I think it'd be really cool if D&D had decks of cards you could use to represent skill slots that look like something from Magic: The Gathering. I feel like casting Fireball would feel a little more rewarding if you're picking a card (with some beautiful art) out of your hand and slapping it down as you declare your action. Haha.
