Larian Studios Forums General Chat RPG Chat RPG Snippets

Hm, you didn't know about the 1.4 patch ? I thought I had announced it somewhere ... because I was in the translation team for German language. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

FAQ to the patch

Release Notes to the Patch (very detailed !)

i just installed it today, it shall be worthy of a revist
perhaps its place may even be saved when the reformat comes to cleanse the land

First look on Overlord : http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/overlord/news.html?sid=6150946&mode=previews

I don't know where to put it, so I put it here :

New Website plus Trailer on Sam & Max 2 http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax

Sam Suede - a new game by Al Lowe (Larry Laffer) : http://www.pcgames.de/?article_id=469041

Funny stuff Al <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

RPGDot points out to an article that I find relatively interesting.

I wrote my thoughts on it down here.

Well personally I think, I would have to agree with you Al,(in regards to the article you wrote on RPGdot) but then again I am probably 1 of "the older generation" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Hmm thinking about that, I believe that there will be a modicum of "micromanagement" in NWN2 as you do get to find a stronghold, dilapidated and all, so that you can built it up to its rightful glory and then use the "hired" help to manufacture potions et al, which you then can sell ... but hey it IS a beginning:)

Wait a moment ... - is this REAL ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> I mean do they *really* implement suuch things I had in mind ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

I suppose I qualify as "older generation" both by my age and the length of time I have been playing video games. I have a different opinion. I think that game design is more important than size or little tidbits. For instance, Sacred had nice touches--eg. lots of graves with humorous remarks in them, but in design it was inferior to Diablo II.

Morrowind is huge and has a lot of RP potential, but the UI is awful and tedious. I don't even use Alchemy for that reason. And what fun is there in MW's persuasion and bartering? None at all. Oblivion has a much better persuasion minigame. I have gotten so tired of the bartering system in Morrowind that I have taken to using a console cheat to get money. I don't like using cheats, but I prefer it to being sick and tired of the bartering system.

As for size, what fun is there in making it hard or troublesome to make your way around? A large or openended area is good, but only if traveling is made interesting and worthwhile. Lots and lots of mountain ranges that have only 1 pass through that you have to find (as in WoW) take up more time, but don't add to the gaming experience. Again--gaming design is the key here as well as content.

have a look here ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Uh, "one's own phantasy is only overruled by reality", so to say. Someone already had my dream in mind ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

I, speaking personally, am very interested in the forum's members opinion towards the RPGDot editorial that Alrik posted.

Div2 is taking a definate direction, which will be revealed in the future. This article confirms some thoughts that are circulating in me and around the office. Keep your heads up for more news, and keep this article in mind.

It's a bright future,

Wazzz

Yeah, it's only a month til NWN2 is released <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />!

Übereil

It's an interesting article that has some relatively strong and lots of weak points. First of all, it's almost as if he wants to cancel epic 100+ story's altogether. (Not exactely, but it goes in that direction.) Here one must say no, of course not, there should always be a main quest. Sure, these are almost always the old save the world plot, but what the heck, if they are, as he points out, "written well, and serve to draw the player into a compelling, deep, rich and satisfying game world", they never cease to compel. Keep it.

Second, his main point is obviously: let me be able to do almost anything I want so I can have ten minutes of fun with an RPG. This includes short quests and all sort of extra-quest activities. Ok, I follow, but not entirely. Here's why.
The way I see it, RPG's just aren't games you spend ten minutes playing. Ten minutes is ridiculously short anyway, for any game. If we use the more realistic half an hour standard, I somewhat agree this time span should be worth the trouble of starting the game, but it's still not long. These games aren't shooters, they're meant to be more drawn out, a gradual time absorbing process; isn't that what role playing is all about? Having said that, I think he is very hard on Oblivion in this way. Any fan will agree that you can do two or even three quests in half an hour. Just join a guild and there you go. Or enter the arena and have some fun there. I mean, the majority of RPG's work that way, the term side-quest doen't exist for nothing. Even if a game is a 300+ über RPG like Baldur's Gate II, that doesn't mean it isn't filled to the brim with all sorts of minor quests that make every half an hour enjoyable.

Not that I disagree with his wanting to be able to do all sorts of stuff, even ploughing fields perhaps ( <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> ), but let's not exaggerate. If one can raise bunnies in Larian's next game and sell them on the market, ok, but who will seriously spend time doing that? If you want a quick fix, play an online shooter or, as he suggests, GTA. If you want to play an RPG in segments of ten minutes, I'm sorry, but then frankly I don't think it's your kind of game.

A short word about the stronghold: yes and yes again. Properly worked out it can be an amazing part of the game. I loved how you had to build a stronghold in Morrowind, fulfilling different quests to get it and enjoyed even more the setting up of an entire miner's village on Solstheim. Fun and rewarding: the corner stones of a good quest.

I don't play an RPG because there's so many things you can do. And I don't play them in order to be able to grow my own in-game carrots either...

I play them because I want to experience a story. And to that I want to develop a character and play through some fun and varied quests. Add in the occational joke, some interesting NPC's and an opportunity to be the good guy who stands up for your principes for once (or alternativelly burns everyone his dog <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif" alt="" />), and you have the stimulateing escape from reality I'm looking for.

What RPG's fail to do these days, is to execute these things (maybe apart from the good/evil aspect), and instead they try to replace them with combat. Instead of haveing to figure something out (by scouting for clues in your surroundings and by talking to NPC's) you'll have to hack through endless hordes of creeps. There's a reason I play RPG's and not FPSes (and it's mentioned above), so when I DO play an RPG I don't want it to be an TPH (third person hacker <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />). Unfortunantlly it's those TPH's that sells <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

Yup, I must agree with Ube, (like it or not <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> ) I play RPG's as if they are a good book, an interactive book sure, but I like to follow the story, even diablo has a story (minimal) but the more immersive the story the better the game, so yeah story driven quest driven is my type of RPG, which is why I enjoyed DD it was a wonderful tour de force, to find out how what and why <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Just to make that clear (I've already been misunderstood elsewhere) :
I never said that i meant the whole game to entirely consist of things like a Stronghold !

It'Äs just that I thought that these could be a nice addition to make a game more richly, to appeal to people who don't concentrate on the RPG Genre also.

We've had some very strong discussions about that in the German-language Drakensang forum (there also exists an English-language one) : As how much role-play should be included and how much action.

I, personally, have grown into kind of an distaste of action-hacking games. I really liked LOD, but at a point it just became boring.

What I *really* want is an rich universe, full of things to do, but in a way also kind of "realistic", like the possibility to roast my own beef or build my own sword like in Gothic 1. I really like diversity, to put it short.

And that also means that monsters act like living, breathing beings with a reason to be. Not just like experiemce-point-generating cannon-fodder.

The thing I like is the ability to customize my character build (D@ is a great example of this.) and find new ways to beat the game. The story line is not terribly important. Quests need to be interesting. I enjoy the combat. Good graphics are a big plus.

I agree with Macbeth and Ubereil. If I had 10 minutes for gaming I'd play solitaire or mahjong. If I wanted to raise a pet or micro-manage a building / region / economy, I'd buy an appropriate game of that genre.

That said, these elements can be added to an RPG in a beneficial way. A pet could allow you to customize your party and character, as long as it provided some use (preferably something unique to the type of pet) and didn't require a lot of babysitting. If you can build and manage a castle by actually interacting with characters and have the result be determined by your choices and previous quests, that could be good. If you have to tell peasants to go gather resources and bring them to the appropriate building, etc, you'd end up with a genre mix that probably wouldn't work (it wouldn't for me, anyway).

DD had a good mix of combat and quests, and was fairly open, so there were few places in the game where I couldn't do whichever I was in the mood for. If DD2 incorporates some shorter (non-Fedex) quests, mini-games or other diversions, that's fine, but my main interest would be with the core RPG.