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This is probably unique to me, but Leliana taps straight into my own personal vulnerability: she sings beautifully. That decides the issue between her and Morrigan completely from my personal POV. My characters may disagree (Or some of them do) but it's really hard for me to get past my own weakness on that one.

I tend to characterise Morrigan as 'wild fling chick' and Leliana as 'marriage chick' though that's definitely an over-simplification in both cases. It's the classic bad girl vrs good girl, but Bioware have given it a really neat twist in that Morrigan is the bad girl you can kind of win over and make into a good girl (Or at least a less-bad girl! laugh ) because she's only a bad girl as she knows no other way, whilst Leliana is the bad girl turned good girl you can guide back into being a bad girl again if you want to. So there's actually an awful lot of thought gone into both characters, and neither is as transparent as they first appear. A thoroughly exceptional job all round, in fact.


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Morrigan won me over immediately because of her atheism. Her banter with Leliana where they debate the existence of the maker and whether faith is desirable regardless was great. Dragon Age was my first encounter with romances in RPG's besides the Witcher - and in that game it was really only a choice between two women, and then only one or two more steps before you realize you love the girl and the game is over. (There were all the one night stands of course, which were more in keeping with the Geralt of the books anyway).

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Morrigan won me over because of Claudia Black.

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EK I hate to admit that we have the same opinion on something...but I think the singing does it for me too...

NeroJB #411082 15/04/10 03:52 PM
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A scary day for both of us, Nero! laugh


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so were finished with romance
whats next Nero


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Combat

Obviously combat is a key component of the vast majority of games, I cannot personally think of an RPG in particular that does not have combat.

So. Which type of combat do you prefer? What type of system do you like? Which games do you think of when you think of great combat systems?

More importantly how should combat be synthesized into an RPG? By this I mean what does it take for combat to help promote role playing? How should combat be utilized?

NeroJB #411307 20/04/10 04:04 PM
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The best types of combat in a proper CRPG involve a system purpose built for computers, rather than trying to make a system designed for tabletop gaming work on computers. Real time is vastly superior to turn based. As such, the best CRPG combat systems are those used in Final Fantasy 12 and in Dragon Age. Both allow you to set up a set of conditions under which your party will operate during combat, allowing you to define what each character will do to a terrific extent. This not only minimises the need for pausing but also means that all those really easy fights are over fast, which is good, while still allowing you to take greater control when you need to for the really tough fights.

How could combat promote role playing is a lot harder question to answer. Short of allowing for the taking of prisoners (Options: imprison, release, execute) which so far as I'm aware no CRPG actually does, there's little that can be done once combat actually starts.

Options for avoiding combat (sneak past, bluff, intimidate, fight, disguise, etc) offer many chances for role playing, however.

As for the role of combat itself in an RPG, the best use is to either add flavour to the world, increasing immersion and believability, or - far more importantly - to advance the story and/or plot. Endless fighting for it's own sake has no place in a true RPG.


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In the old topic News from the front, part of the discussion turned to a debate on combat styles (player twitch vs character stats, click rate, the evils of micromanagement, etc).

Raze #411750 27/04/10 11:11 PM
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Arcanum did combat best, with giving the option for turn-based, real-time or real-time with pause.

Also, depending on character build it was possible to avoid most combat and even finish the final boss with dialogue (like Planescape: Torment & Fallout). I love RPGs where one can finish the quest using one's wits instead of brawn.

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Dragon age did it best

baldurs gate was cool but I juts didn"t like something about battle same with Drakensang nad many more games

so I actually prefer something in DA style with "turn" and in the same style open battle that require you to think.

but I am also OK with any other combat


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Baldur's Gate and Drakensang both suffer from the same problem: their combat systems were designed to be used for pen & paper tabletop games, not computer games. Thus while both are fine as systems, they are not really optimised for computers.


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