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Originally Posted by meme
I'd like a really large endless maze that has a very nice suprise at the end.
By definition that contradict itself. smile

I'd like to see better (more reliable and balanced) item distribution.

An improved and more advanced spell/skill system.

More dark and grim fantasy or sci-fi (not space but rather future high tech earth) setting.

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Jesse Cox should have more influence on the design, top to bottom.

You should also work with Inxile more to get how they create their awesome writing and emotionally engaging quests...




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A collaborative effort. Interesting, I like that idea.

I doubt inExile is a good choice, considering they are now hard at work with Numenera.

I'd rather say Obsidian would be a team to work together with, personally. Pillars of Eternity is almost finished, and nothing has come up to what the studio would be working on next.

I can see a beautiful, engaging and fun Sci-Fi RPG from Larian, especially if they work with people who have some experience in that field. Always, and I mean ALWAYS have wanted to definitive Steampunk or Dieselpunk RPG experience.

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Originally Posted by Jimmious
I would personally like a different, grimmer setting. Since there are at least two of them coming, I would love if one of them at least was darker, with less humor around.


This.

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Originally Posted by Estrogen
Originally Posted by Jimmious
I would personally like a different, grimmer setting. Since there are at least two of them coming, I would love if one of them at least was darker, with less humor around.


This.


Larian is humour, though. Even when It's not intentional. Divine Divinity is often times hilarious, even when It's not meant to be funny. No matter what they do...

I guess with OS they figured, hell with it! Lets put our comedic hats on and give them something to laugh about!

Not that they couldn't do a more darker toned RPG, I would love them to do so. Humour has become something of a trademark for this studio, though.

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-Crafting, Loremaster or Trade Skills on Equipment

Out of Combat switching must be not a abuseable strategy!

Smithing 2 for Repair and grindstone are easy avaiable without 1 point in the Skills.
Loremaster for identify stuff for selling or maybe a Boss encounter with Loremaster 5.
Make a few potions with crafting equip.

Its a matter of Immersion, i dont like that crafting and smithing is abusable like an MMO in which everyone is a Masterweaponsmith as second profession without penality to his combat abilitys.

Solution 1 Hard:

No Crafting, Smithing, Trade, Loremaster on Equipment

Solution 2 Soft:

Set a Maximum Push Limit like (Pushmax = Skilllevel-1) because Level 1 is simply to cheap.

Solution 3 Expert:

Not possible maybe but i dont like the current concept. Darksouls concept with the healing potions was brilliant. On the way to the boss are oft minions. How good you are on this way so more healing potions you have in the bossfight because they are limited. Restock you potions on a Bonefire let the minions respawn. This encourage a very perfect gameplay for every low level enemy. How strong this feature is can see when in DarkSoul 2 you can buy endless small Healing Gems. It kills a lot of the concept for the whole game.

In the current Situation in Divinity you slay all Minions, stop 20m for the boss, maybe port back to sleep, heal, repair port back 3 days later and kill the Boss 100% prepared. Such a system in a Party RPG with a Base like a Bonefire or Caravan, Outpost and real Ressource Managment will be Mind Blowing.

Last edited by Caparino; 11/01/15 10:47 AM.
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@Caparino: I agree that +skills on items makes your class choices a little meaningless. I may take them out in my mod, or at least make them legendary modifiers (while also adding a whole bunch of other legendary modifiers so you don't get like five legendaries with +loremaster anyway). Of course, that means you're more likely to get +stats on rings and the like, which might overpower characters a little, but at least people would then have to spend points on abilities like crafting so they'd have less points for combat skills. Finding +ability points on anything should be incredible, not annoying like it is now where you find 50 rings with +loremaster in Cyseal alone.

As for your "expert solution," D:OS isn't really designed with the idea that your characters are weakened by fighting multiple encounters in a row. They could make an encounter that's something like multiple waves of enemies where you only get a few seconds inbetween each battle to recover cooldowns and heal, and then you'd have to manage your skills and resources well.


I've also been thinking about the tone of the writing. I was originally a big advocate of serious writing, but after writing some of my own dialogs for my mod, I realize that making funny dialog is often easier than actually good serious writing. That said, I think it's a matter of balance. Larian's dialogs felt like 25-30% serious, 70-75% absurd. It was just a weird balance where I was constantly trying to find what was funny in the more serious events and dialogs,
like the scene someone mentioned where the immaculates are butchering all those animals and you find all those bodies behind the waterfall.
Maybe something like 60% serious, 40% funny would be a nice balance for one of their next RPGs.

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A near future scifi setting would be nice, on that offers a goood contrast to the colourful fantasy setting of D:OS. And I wouldn't mind if there was an overworld map with freeform traveling between the hubs with random encounters ala Fallout and Fallout 2.

This I consider more important though:
More even focus on the amount of different content types. D:OS was great and the combat was really fun, but despite all the little things the player could do besides that, combat felt it was the main feature and for a massive game like D:OS the experience tends to get really heavy in the long run when lions share of it goes on doing combat, figuring out how to be better in combat, observing whether the upcoming combat situation is manageable, and recovering from combat.

Spread out the content and possibilities; more variety. More utility skills with quest and non-quest related uses, more quests that don't inherently or at all require combat, more ways of solving situations, all of which would lead to wider array of possible character builds. Let combat be as fun as it is in Original Sin, but let it also be just one of the features instead of "the" feature of the game (or, so it appeared to me). It remains fun for longer when it is more evenly paced and valued in-game with the rest of the content.

Also... More involving narrative structuring and writing.

Other than that, I can't really think of anything "big" to "change" for the next game(s). Aside from the above criticism of combat centricism, the general direction of Original Sin was pretty much spot on for what I look for in good cRPG. Just keep improving that formula.


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I would agree with a steampunk or scifi game in this style.

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Wasting time on Internet forums was a thing past, but D:OS brought a blast from days of yore, so let's do this!

Many people here discuss settings, atmosphere and the like which I think are best left to the developers/artist, although the imps sure make some fine machines and a lot of time has passed since Arcanum:Of Steamworks and Magick obscura. This would btw. be an awesome IP if it could be acquired, and the style of that game would lend itself really, really well to Larians strengths - freedom, tongue-in-cheek, meaningful character development, actually difficult puzzles and the like.

Ack, five minutes in and I start rambling again. Back to D:OS. Here are a couple of points regarding gameplay mechanics:

Dialogue system: Dialogue in all CRPGS is in a sad state. D:OS as so many other games limits us to clicking on predefined answers, irrespective of our stats, talents and skills or those of our companions.
I would very much like to see a system where a perceptive character notes that the other guy is fidgeting nervously once certain topics come up. Where a charismatic person may discuss more controversial subjects before the other clams up. Where companion with the appropriate stats may interject with helpful (or not that helpful) comments. Where a more intelligent person has more topics to discuss. And so on.

This has great potential for the co-op partner (we will still have co-op, right?) to actually partake in dialogue. For companions to show they are more than just pack mules and cannon fodder. And to drive the writers insane ;-)

I would also like to see this *not* presented as more / different answers to click on. There should be some way to include chance, strategy, etc. Make dialogue its own little game, a combat with words - with different ways of attacking, different resistances, maneuvering, etc. Could be really awesome, or really tedious. And has the possibility to thoroughly break immersion - but something needs to happen to CRPG dialogue besides adding voiceovers, which is all the big studios have done in the past 20 years. You can do better.
The last game I remember that tried something new regarding dialogue was Starship Titanic in 1998!

Items: The random loot system has been criticized rather heavily by others. Actually I think the random loot by itself is fine, but the game needs some other component with somewhat more predictable results which is also fun. The most potential to achieve that goal I think lies in the crafting system.
There, I would like to see the following changes:
- some (not complete) control over the properties of the crafted item. No craftsman hammers blindly away.
- a chance to recover used materials (essences, rubies, etc.). That should depend on the level of the item and the skill level of the crafter. This would reduce the main risk of the crafting process, using rare ingredients on sub-par items, and thus make progression more dependable. This will also make ingredients more valuable, and thus will retain the joy of the "lucky drop".
- a link to party mechanics. Why can a fresh hireling from the Hall of heroes produce items which fit my characters just as a well as Jahan who had half the game to study the fighting styles and special needs of my characters, and is emotionally deeply invested with the party? Both, opinion and time spent with the party are variables which could be easily incorporated into a crafting system, and would make player choices regarding party composition more meaningful by introducing more consequences - sure the player *can* swap henchmen, however he will lose tangible benefits in the process (while he should gain something else, naturally).

Enemies: Single enemy design is alright. Most boss encounters are creative and entertaining, sometimes even surprising (lava and teleport).
The more standard encounters need a bit of work. The worst offender is the phantom forest, where small groups of enemies guard a central structure within easy shouting distance of mostly each other. However, the party just picks them off one by one. This has an extremely unrealistic feel, and due to the number of enemy groups devolves into grind.
Enemy placement should at least create an impression of a responsive environment, where opponents try to organize. A good example that comes to mind is the assault on the Drow outpost back in BG2: Throne of Bhaal, where you first kill the guards, then meet a strike force inside and finally have to beat the core of the enemy troops before progressing to a challenging boss fight.
I would also like to see more variety in setup and troop composition. Examples like archers behind a barricade, a group of mages supporting each other e.g. in a circle, a bum-rush by a "Forlorn Hope", etc. D:OS presented me far too often a group of two or three of each melee, ranged and magic.

Congratulations, you hace scaled the wall of text!

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I think most problems can be solved without headaches; More quests and more variety in quests. Quite simply.

Add many simple humor driven quests set in towns like investigations, and inventory puzzles. With a few funny characters, simple little quests based on funny stories and characters, you can spend quality time in the game without necessarily have to go out and fight. That way you can A; get more information on locations and quest based exploration. B; Earn useful items even if you're not necessarily gaining levels and/or xp.

It would add a sort of Monkey Island or Discworld feel to the game and would lighten many of the typical problems within the game. You could get involved with some quests for the simple purpose of fun and character based humour and story. With just a minimal interest for a loot, xp or monetary finality.

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Originally Posted by Hiver
Jesse Cox should have more influence on the design, top to bottom.

Wait... Was this intended as a serious post?
No, he really shouldn't.
Most of his suggestions about how to improve Original Sin could be summarized as "casualize it".
he's the last person they should take as reference to have competent feedback about how to improve core design.


Party control in Baldur's Gate 3 is a complete mess that begs to be addressed. SAY NO TO THE TOILET CHAIN
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