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#599078 01/02/17 02:44 AM
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One thing that really sucked about DOS:1 was that you end up with an empty world littered with corpses. After looting the world, there is pretty much no point in going back.

What I'd like to see is more of a kill and replace aspect to the game. Such as the three Voidwoken Turtles for example. After the battle, it would have been cool to see a new turtle family there you can talk to.

Not all battles would have this, but would be nice that if after about every 5 areas where monsters were killed off that forest animals or even peasants trying to rebuild what was destroyed. Even if they have little to talk, would still be nice to repopulate the world. Maybe they could even have found items of use later on in the game.

Animal dialogue idea after Voidwoken turtle battle.

Turtle: "You wouldn't believe how congested the current way was. All you need is one whale that wants to rubber neck and it just jams everything up!"

Character: "What is a rubber necking?"

Turtle: "You know, sight seeing. Looking at the same old coral reefs and galloping sea horses in the distance. Instead of paying attention and swimming, gotta slow down looking around and back up 8 lanes of fish up trying to head home at the end of the work day...

Character: *clearly the turtle is dealing with some kind of odd stress your unfamiliar with and kindly depart*


Every time there I run into trouble on the road, there is always a dwarf at the bottom of it. Don't they know how to drive above ground?
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You do realize that we're never returning to Fort Joy after leaving the island, right? The only reason to ever go back to those turtles in fact is to open that locked chest and grab a source pool, and that's one of the few areas with a reason to revisit it once you have cleared it once.

And Larian doesn't want respawning things so people don't farm XP. Just saying.

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Originally Posted by Stabbey
And Larian doesn't want respawning things so people don't farm XP. Just saying.

That's always been a point of serious ambivalence with me. I agree with the point of not grinding XP in a carefully-designed game, but sometimes it's cool to revisit old areas and not find them forever devoid of life and interest.


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I wouldnt mind having to come back to find new stuff like npcs/quests/hunts/treasures. I don't think it would be that hard to implement since they can reuse some of the stuff that is already there. Maybe see some consequences of how you completed the Act/quests.

I don't see why we would be blocked from coming back to Fort Joy Island since we can teleport anywhere like in DOS1, you can actually complete the island by missing a lot of stuff, blocking you from backtracking would hurt a couple of players.

As for the XP, it should be part of the designed maximum XP by balancing it with other content or give really little XP, maybe even no XP but treasures/money/lore/tools/or other bonus stuff that doesn't break the game.

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It would certainly be nice to see areas change and new NPCs move into areas you've cleared out, but it's quite a lot of work for something most people probably wouldn't even notice or be bothered to deal with. Some people would feel compelled to return to every place after a while just to see if something has changed, when most places probably wouldn't have. I'd file it under the ideal, but probably not happening to any meaningful scale.

I think being able to go back to Fort Joy is unlikely, but I could be wrong. You're trying to escape from the magisters, so going back to one of their places would be very dangerous. I don't think the teleporting statues necessarily would have the power to send you across huge expanses of land, considering they've already removed their power to teleport you anytime like in D:OS1. After all, it seems like if a prisoner was attuned to a statue from another land, they could just teleport away from the prison once they got their (although, that assumes that everyone has the power to use these statues, which probably isn't the case.)

To me, there's something about gating off old areas (with good reason) that actually makes moving forward more exciting. There's more of a thrill to finding merchants instead of just going back to the old ones and there's a sense of isolation to your characters, like they're really on their own. And really it gives a sense of consequence, like you've left everyone else on the island, and you can't just come back and deal with their problems on your own timeframe. In a way, it makes it unnecessary to actually program changes on the island, because it can just leave room for your imagination of how it has changed.

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Originally Posted by Baardvark
To me, there's something about gating off old areas (with good reason) that actually makes moving forward more exciting.

I really hope they don't do that: closing off areas is one of my top three most disliked things (the others being timed missions and escort quests). That's one of the few things that spoiled the otherwise excellent Ego Draconis for me.

That's not to say you don't make a good point, but it's a feature I really don't care for.


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I've actually heard that at first, they didn't even want players to be able to return to the prison (and kill all the guards, thus forcing more reactions they'd have to add).

I think it's not a terrible idea to gate off areas you've already finished and prevent you from returning there - as long as it's made extremely clear that it is a one-way trip so you better finish everything first. In my view it can be better for immersion even if it can make some things less convenient.

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Originally Posted by vometia

That's always been a point of serious ambivalence with me. I agree with the point of not grinding XP in a carefully-designed game, but sometimes it's cool to revisit old areas and not find them forever devoid of life and interest.

Personally I'm all for "adding new unique content to replace enemies killed" as seeing the game world change as consequence of your actions adds a sense of place, progress and achievement.

On the other hand I'm fiercely against any form of respawn and any mechanic that could encourage or reward grinding.

I think they are (and should be treated as) two entirely different things.


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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Consequence, that got me thinking.

Would be interested having NPCs that are both grateful and ungrateful. Such as if a water barrel got smashed in the fight that the NPC would just have a hilarious fit over it.

"It's one thing to kill all these smelly orcs, though I doubt you provide cleaning services or fumigation for the smell of wet fur and rot. I guess it is the home owner's responsibility..."

"I'm so grateful for the corpses of the ogres. I'm going to make a lot of gold by grinding the meat up for dog food and ... just maybe some sausages if it isn't too rancid."

Last edited by LightningLockey; 04/02/17 04:16 AM.

Every time there I run into trouble on the road, there is always a dwarf at the bottom of it. Don't they know how to drive above ground?

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