Re: Kingmaker/WOTR, With the criticism of "too much combat / trash fights" I'm luckily not alone. Ok, google search and "confirmation bias" and all. But still.

Re: Crusade mode in WOTR, I played this on "normal" mode last year (IIRC there was an easy option for Crusades). But it never went beyond a stripped down Heroes Of Might And Magic in Easy Mode up to that point. I enjoy that kind of game, but likewise couldn't see how it was a major annoyance. EXCEPT for that is basically how the overland map is gradually being unlocked for your party to explore. Wouldn't mind for an Owlcat game that was "purely BG clone", so to speak. But it's one of those things that make them stand out from the crowd a bit -- never got the criticism towards Deadfires ship stuff either (except for the ship to ship text combat, perhaps).

If they continue to make CRPGs with light strategy/management elements, they should improve on that. Rather than toss it all out. They're not going to please anyone anyway, which they seemed to have tried with Kingmaker already. Time is of concern in that game, but the vast majority of timers are this forgiving, they are borderline flavor stuff, rendering mechanics such as carry weight slowing down the party and similar stuff pretty meaningless.

(This reminds me of the criticism geared at the Realms Of Arkania games, the first two in particular. Those games had a lot of party micromanagement -- buying food, clothes, keeping the party healthy, setting up camp. A section of the playerbase didn't like it, surprise. So they tossed it out completely for the third game. In restrospect the game's main designer (the dude on Planescape:Torment's cover artwork) regrets this, as he realizes now they were doing something special that nobody really else did. The camping feature in both Pathfinder games (and the Expedition Vikings/Rome...) series was big time inspired by Realms Of Arkania.

You're not going to please everybody. And that's fine. I personally also tend to prefer entertainment products that are unique and fully commited to what they do. Some of them I won't like, which is fine. Those that do, they hit you all the harder if they are fully commited to their cause.

Last edited by Sven_; 24/11/22 12:43 AM.