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Combat focused CRPGs to play as a newfag to the genre

Morm

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Jan 16, 2017
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Paris
Why do you recommend Wiz7 over Wiz6 ?
I plan to play them soon.
 
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Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
tbqh, assuming the OP has average intelligence (and I'm sure he does, he just made this thread because he wasn't thinking at the time), I don't see how Jagged Alliance 2 cannot be handled as a first foray.

Lets not pretend you need to be an expert on games, a ridiculous nerd with no life, or quick on the uptake to play and beat Jagged Alliance 2. RTFM and experiment.

Take your time and enjoy one of the best games ever. Why waste your life playing distant seconds let alone some of the garbage mentioned in this thread, like New Vegas and Underrail?
 

Tweed

Professional Kobold
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harsh circumstances
Pathfinder: Wrath
World of Xeen is one of the most newbie friendly CRPGs around, if that's too old for your taste then MM6 is very flexible and easy going too, also has optional RT combat. It even bases weapon damage on die rolls.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
Wizardry VII or VIII (or Grimoire)
Underrail
Divinity Original Sin 1
Temple of Elemental Evil
Knights of the Chalice

None of which is a beginner's game, Maybe Temple of Elemental Evil with the Co8 + Temple+ mods, the vanilla game is hard as hell, you'd meet your maker every other corner.
Same for Knights of the Chalice, this one is for veterans or someone in love with turn-based games.

Original Sin 1, on that list, might be the better choice but if you want to start with Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, go on, they're not very good games but you'll probably not notice it at first, i know i didn't, it's probably a good introduction to the good games out there.

I'd also recommend against underrail unless you really know what you're up against, (read 2-3 pro reviews and steam useful good/bad reviews ), i like Fallout and i even replayed both with mods recently but underrail ... i really don't get the hype, inventory management is a pain, a lot of backtracking, solo adventurer, that alone is enough to avoid it unless you're fine with it.

You might want to try Might & Magic VI & VII if the graphics doesn't scare you ( i prefer III, IV and V but i think they're more beginner friendly with a more polished UI, well, there is the ugly 3D but nobody's perfect )

When you're seasoned enough, you should try Original Sin 1 and then Wizardry 8 if difficulty doens't scare you (with fast anim and fast turn mods + enhancement mod )

There's also this thread when you're ready for the best : http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/pure-combatfag-rpgs.123730/
 
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Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
The Gold Box games are the finest computer implementation of Dungeon & Dragons ever created

No.

Every time Lilura posts something "try hard"-y.

The funny thing is that you are a non-entity, a Nothing, a shitposter lost in the shuffle of a thread that will soon be buried with the rest, whereas my write-ups on BG, ToEE and Jagged Alliance 2 are the best of their kind, and continue to be read by thousands daily.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
Take your time and enjoy one of the best games ever. Why waste your life playing distant seconds let alone some of the garbage mentioned in this thread, like New Vegas and Underrail?

Might be the best move, i know i started to play the worst games (BG, IWD ) when i thought there was nothing left to play.

Elminage Original>

Elminage > read tons of reviews first, just to check if that's your thing.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
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Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
May I ask, what are your top 5 pc RPGs?

I have no such thing as a top 5, because depending on the criteria, different games will come to mind.
what's best ? Game mechanism or re-playability ?

What i can provide is a Top 1 : Wizardry 8

There's many games i enjoy very much for their mechanism, some other for their settings or overall ambient, the character depth, some for their re-playability, some are a balanced mix of this and i would rate them the higher but that's my point of view, we could have different priorities.
 
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Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
Well, this is a combat thread. But I guess it's a trick question since there are not even 5 RPGs that have good combat.
 

Bocian

Arcane
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
1,912
The funny thing is that you are a non-entity, a Nothing, a shitposter lost in the shuffle of a thread that will soon be buried with the rest, whereas my write-ups on BG, ToEE and Jagged Alliance 2 are the best of their kind, and continue to be read by thousands daily.
giphy.gif
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
Well, this is a combat thread. But I guess it's a trick question since there are not even 5 RPGs that have good combat.

Wizardry 8
ToEE (without Co8) + Temple+
KotC
Arx Fatalis
King's Bounty

Some games doesn't have "good" combatsystem but make-up for fast/fun combat. (not on that list)
Well, mostly, i prefer tactical-RPGs combat-wise.
 
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Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
5,274
Yeah, I guess we can break it up into combat system, combat encounter design, and combat unit building.

It is rare that a game will do all three well.

Warband scratches the itch of fast/fun combat. It's too easy to break/brute-force, though (mamluks, huscarls, rhodoks).

EDIT - Deus Ex and System Shock 2 are also very fast/fun once you get good/build for speed.
 
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cloudropis

Educated
Joined
May 25, 2014
Messages
51
Thanks for the replies fams.
A bit of clarification I partially included in the OP but not in the thread title, since I've seen some games mentioned that contradicted them:

I'm looking for a CRPG that is:
- party based
- with DnD rulesets rather than proprietary systems like PoE in order to build a base knowledge that will carry me over more games
- either turn-based or RTwP, leaning towards the first

So no real time action games I've seen recommended that I didn't bother including in the OP, I played a good chunk of them already as well (NV, DaS, ELEX, DMoM&M, Deus Ex, SS2 and Prey etc).

Regarding why I want an introductory, more beginner friendly game is that I just want to maximize my chances of getting myself acquainted with the systems so I will be able to face less barriers when trying some of the clunkier, older games: for example, if I had to start with Champions of Krynn I'd have to deal with the accessibility barrier in regards of HUD and stuff like that ON TOP of having no fucking idea what an attack of opportunity or a thac0 is. Tl;dr yes I'm a casual faggot who wants stuff easy on the eyes and hands at least to start with, you don't need to tell me.

So far I'm gravitating towards BG1, ToEE, JA2 and IWD, I think I'm just gonna pop my cherry with BG1 and be done with it, then I'll see how to go forward from that. Feel free to debate over my choice if you have other ideas.
Last thing last, as I've mentioned I have really no idea how DnD combat works and most terminology associated with it. Is pulling out a manual or guide for the DnD version the game is based enough of a required reading or whould you suggest something else?
 
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octavius

Arcane
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Joined
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Bjørgvin
Every once in a while an "expert" will ejaculate the same "truths", but they never say which other RPG rulesets have produced better CRPGs.
Which other ruleset has produced CRPGs as good or better than the Gold Box games, the IE games, and Temple of Elemental Evil?
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
D&D has precise, robust and fun combat rules, traditional D&D players like combat and many of them even use action figures for combat which makes their experience fully transposable to cRPGs, like Pool of Radiance or ToEE are close to my experience of D&D.

Regarding non combat mechanisms, I think it's more complicated, in my opinion games like Quest for glory, especially since it uses a parser so you can directly propose your solutions, or Fallout or maybe Ultima Underworld since anyway the game won't aknowledge everything you propose work decent because of a world which is made to be interacted with the character skills you're given. It's not only about giving you the tools, Morrowind has tools, it's also about giving interesting problems to solve with these tools, which Morrowind has not. But I still think RPGs not focused on combat are harder to implement than simply implementing a D&D module, so yes D&D is better for cRPGs. Also I hate when players associate a lot of dialog choices with NPCs with heavy RPG mechanisms since dialog choices with NPCs are different from dialogs with a GM, dialogs with a GM are a big part of the tabletop experience but especially in dungeons those are, for a big part, dialogs about how you interact with the environment, dialog with NPCs can only be a very small part of it (and I think that in that case in video games looking for information via keywords is better than dialog choices but I understand why that's arguable).

Sure if what you enjoy of tabletop RPGs is not roamming through dungeons, rolling dices, checking stats and killing things but having a beer and chatting with your friends then not any video game will work, these are not game mechanisms.

Also, IMHO Rtwp is stupid because it has absolutely nothing to do with action figures combat, it's derived from Warcraft of whatever games which never had the intention of translating tabletop RPGs into video games. Abstract turn-based especially or phased-based to some extend combat is close to what RPG combat generally is, and Pool of Radiance combat close to what some players use, Baldur's gate combat is as far from tabletop combat as combat in a video game can be.
 
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aweigh

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
17,978
Location
Florida
DND also birthed Wizardry as well, can't forget about that.
 

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