curry
Arcane
Now kiss
-
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Disco Elysium Pre-Release Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]
- Thread starter Infinitron
- Start date
Boyo, you don't even know what you don't know:
de·i·ty
ˈdēədē,ˈdāədē/
noun
- a god or goddess (in a polytheistic religion).
"a deity of ancient Greece"
synonyms: god, goddess, divine being, supreme being, divinity, immortal; More
- divine status, quality, or nature.
"a ruler driven by delusions of deity" - the creator and supreme being (in a monotheistic religion such as Christianity).
noun: Deity; noun: the Deity
- divine status, quality, or nature.
Back to school pleb!
That´s going to be a DLC.
ArchAngel
Arcane
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2015
- Messages
- 20,067
Add some wheelchair armor into that one and then sell it for 10$.
Lucius P. Merriweather of A Most Agreeable Pastime did a cool writeup of our meeting at EGX Rezzed OVER HERE.
Disco Elysium – formerly known as No Truce With the Furies – was one of the standout games at EGX Rezzed 2018. This fiendishly complex isometric RPG promises some quite astonishing depth and customisation, along with some sublime painterly graphics.
(Incidentally, I asked ZA/UM’s Chief Marketing Officer why they changed the game’s name from the brilliant No Truce With the Furies, and in the process of asking I couldn’t quite remember whether it was ‘With’ or ‘For the Furies’. He said that’s exactly why they decided to change it – they found people couldn’t remember the name properly.)
Disco Elysium is set in the corrupted city of Revachol, and the start of the game perfectly sums up it’s ambition and refreshingly alternative take on reality. It begins with blackness, followed by a conversation between the various dark parts of your brain. Your lizard brain suggests that everything is too awful and that you really should probably give up right here. But if you persevere with the struggle, you open your eyes and wake up into the worst hangover of all time.
The tutorial is essentially you trying to find your clothes and remember what on Earth happened in your apartment the night before. The introduction to the game’s deduction system sees you attempt to work out what happened to your other shoe by analysing the smashed glass on the window and tracing back the trajectory of the thrown object. Conclusion: you lobbed your shoe out of the window from the other side of the room for reasons unknown.
There’s an extremely strong Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas vibe to the whole thing, with a heavy emphasis on drugs and drink, along with plenty of deep, dark introspection of the soul. You play a washed- up detective who’s been sent to investigate a murder – but at the start it’s revealed you’ve been doing very little investigating and quite a lot of drinking.
The focus of the game is on the dialogue, which is wonderfully written and laugh out loud funny at times. Every now and then you’ll be given a dialogue option that has a percentage chance of activation, with the percentage reflecting your skills in certain areas. If you focus on ‘Electrochemistry’ for example, you can basically become an addict, and might end up swigging from a bottle during conversations – with characters reacting to you differently as a result. You’ll also get different insights to help you with the case.
The sheer number of dialogue options is what makes this game so ambitious. With so many different skills you can alter, there’s the potential to have a very different playthrough by levelling different skills and unlocking different dialogue trees. The developers emphasised that it’s really up to you how you develop your character – you could choose to be a reformed cop in a desperate quest for the truth or a bumbling drunk who jokes his way out of every situation.
I also really like the Thought Cabinet. Sometimes examining objects or having conversations might cause you to make a connection or observation, which you then place in your Thought Cabinet. Then when you’re having later conversations, you might bring up the observation from your Thought Cabinet and unlock new lines of dialogue. It’s basically an inventory for ideas rather than objects.
Overall Disco Elysium is shaping up to be a wonderfully complex and ambitious detective RPG with a really astonishing scope for customisation and freedom. I can’t wait to properly get stuck in when it’s released later this year. Currently it’s just slated for PC, but hopefully we’ll see console versions later on.
Some fresher pics for you peepers
Cael
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2017
- Messages
- 20,581
Oprah called. She wants a word with you. Something about fat shaming.
You fucked, buddy. Me getting outta here.
:D
:D
Cael
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2017
- Messages
- 20,581
Only if you like whiny "muh bros so oppressed" kind of npc. That's what she's into these days. That and going librarian poo over Trump.
Cael
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2017
- Messages
- 20,581
Ape shit.
It's from a very famous book series by Terry Prachett. The Librarian of the Unseen University is an orang-utan who loses it when he is called a monkey (he is an ape).
"Ape shit" would have sufficed, thank you.
fantadomat
Arcane
As long as there is an option to kill it slowly and painfully. Will there be a wood chopping machines in the game?
Cael
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2017
- Messages
- 20,581
You're supposed to be a detective, damnit! What's with this wood chipper shit? Just throw him out a ground floor window. Repeatedly.
luinthoron
Learned
Haven't you read a thing on the last few pages? Defenestrations are clearly meant for shoes in this game.
Cael
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2017
- Messages
- 20,581
A shoe is a step up for an Oprah written NPC, dude...
I very much hope that it's ZA/UM's policy to always tell people that the reason they had difficulty with the name was why it was changed.
"Why'd you change the name? You know, I can't even remember if it was 'With the Furies' or 'For the Furies'."
"It was indeed hard to remember; that's why we changed it."
"Why'd you change the name? You know, I always got weirdly aroused by the original name because I'm into furries."
"We heard that a lot and kinky sex isn't entirely what the game is about; that's why we changed it."
"Why'd you change the name? You know, although the game seems to feature a protagonist with many weaknesses which are invariably punished, advertising that every playthrough must end in failure and death due to the relentless and unforgiving nature of the chthonic goddesses of vengeance, or their more literal counterparts, might have made it a harder sell among those not plagued by cynical fatalism."
"Yes, we felt that while death must come to us all as celestial punishment for each of our sins and no man is exempt due to our inherently corrupt nature, it is still important for each of us to strive for divine grace and the perfection of a life lived with maturity and mindfulness yet without losing the original virtue each is born with, and the original title, though accurate, was too blatantly pessimistic. That's why we changed it."
Kalarion
> Back to school pleb!
Thank you
Last edited:
Prime Junta
Guest
Prime Junta
Guest
Ooh this one's too easy. I'll leave it for Kasparov.
Ah, kids. Simply READ THIS and let it rip:
COMBAT IN DISCO ELYSIUM
ROBERT KURVITZ
Game Designer
Now that we have a flashy screenshot to illustrate it, let’s talk about combat in Disco Elysium.
1. There are only a handful of instances of it. These are half-scripted, pseudo turn-based, set piece combat encounters. They are not cheap to animate and program. They come along as the pace and style of your investigation dictates. When you get cocky. When you push a violent angle. When you don’t move fast enough. When you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is the narrative logic of a cop thriller, or a hardboiled novel, not a war game.
But they will come along (although only one of the encounters is entirely unavoidable).
2. There are tactical choices to be made. Let’s take the screenshot as an example. The entire scene is one nerve-racking tumble of choices. These bad dudes are trying to get to what’s behind you. (Spoiler territory – not shown in the screenshot). Do you try to talk them down, try a peaceful angle? Or shoot first? As you deplete topics, the conversation will return you to this hub. Taking the shot may have gotten easier if you lulled them into a sense of security – or harder if you’ve been tricked. Your skills will advise you, guide you. But are they right? Maybe they’re just scared?
And that’s only the foreplay. When you do decide to shoot, you do so by clicking on that Hand/Eye Coordination red check. (If it’s your attack of choice of course – what’s available depends on your weapons: more on that later).
What follows is what we writers call a whirl. Think of it as a pseudo-turn. First you either hit or miss with that Villiers 9mm. The resulting havoc will play out in cool and insanely budget-consuming animations. The opposing force will then try to retaliate. At that point the screen will freeze into a time-stop. During this time-stop you take in your immediate surroundings and consult your skills. This is the titular whirl, since you’re constantly directed back to a hub of choices. You may gain tactical information from your surroundings. See what your partner is doing. All the while you’re confronted with a Reaction Speed red check to dodge the incoming enemy fire. That active check becomes harder or easier depending on your skills guidance via passive checks: Visual Calculus has drawn your attention to the angle of attack, Half Light has gotten scared and wants you to run!
Once you click on that red check, you either get shot or dodge the bullet, and enter another whirl.
Using these whirls we can (painstakingly) build any custom combat encounter, and give it the detail and skill-focused storytelling we’re going for.
3. As demonstrated, there are dice rolls, with percentages. A ton of them. We use active dice rolls of the red check variant, where both the negative and positive outcomes are played out. The stars of the show here are: Hand / Eye Coordination, Physical Instrument, and Reaction Speed, but others feature too. And as always, you can buff these rolls with the Electrochemistry system, by carrying a bottle and a ciggie into combat, bad cop style.
4. Your items decide what you can do. No gun – no shooty, etc. They also provide old fashioned bonuses and penalties to the active checks you’re rolling. Wearing a heavy armour makes dodging that shot harder. Having a better gun makes hitting that shot easier. A sports visor keeps the sun from your eye and makes you more likely to get that Visual Calculus tip during the second whirl.
And not only that – thoughts in your thought cabinet may also contribute. These mercenaries are wearing a strange new type of ceramic armour. Research it – for weaknesses! – and that Hand/Eye Coordination gets one of those massive bonuses game devs like to talk about.
5. It’s not all number crunching, it’s also about style. You’re going to want to have a high Pain Threshold character for a combat encounter, just to get painfully immersive information about your body breaking down, in exquisite, spleen rupturing detail. It’s like Nabokov said: dying is fun. (Only it’s really not). Or max out on Shivers and see what this muzzle flash looks like from the perspective of the wind; hear it echo down the street. And you can still use Rhetoric, Drama, Authority etc too — you don’t have to stop talking the opponents down, or taunting them, or relaying information to your squadmate, because the “battle grid” came out. Dialogue options can be part of the whirls.
Okay, so to recap: each whirl begins with all actors moving in a totally unique way, animated by Eduardo Rubio, our animation lead — one hell of an animator, that guy. We use time-stops at the end of each whirl. Then there are options to consult your senses, where skills jive in. And each whirl is exited by rolling another red check that begins another animation, etc. Until the situation is resolved, or you’re dead.
Oh and:
6. If someone gets killed during all this – someone important to you or the case – they stay dead. There is no disconnection between story and combat in Disco Elysium. The results of each decision you make – or fail to make, because you were trying to be diplomatic – is played out. People die, people have their bodies broken. They remember that you tried to punch them and fell over, because you were drunk. This stuff stays with you. You sustain a wound and people say: hey, you don’t look so good officer, stop bleeding in my fishing village.
If this sounds like a lot to produce, then that’s because it is. Do not expect an encounter to await behind every corner. But I thoroughly believe this approach is, if not the future of RPGs, then an early warning of that future. Consider the possibilities: fisticuffs in a burning building, a direct artillery hit on your Station, an exchange of fire during a car crash. These are all action scenes we’ve told in the pen and paper version of the Elysium role playing system. It’s our brand of pen and paper action scene – and this set piece centred combat system is our way of getting it to you, in a video game.
The beauty of the system is — we can just as well put you in a squad based combat situation, as we can have you jumping over a chasm to get into the harbour. It’s a one-size-fits-all solution for action scenes, comprising both combat, and acrobatics / environment interactions. Both use whirls and time-stops.
It is powered by Metric, our downright vitruvian character customization that represents the human mind and body in a realistic manner, and was made possible with some pretty complicated animation programming.
Next time we’ll talk about those Motoric skills that are crucial to surviving a situation like this:
COMBAT IN DISCO ELYSIUM
ROBERT KURVITZ
Game Designer
Now that we have a flashy screenshot to illustrate it, let’s talk about combat in Disco Elysium.
1. There are only a handful of instances of it. These are half-scripted, pseudo turn-based, set piece combat encounters. They are not cheap to animate and program. They come along as the pace and style of your investigation dictates. When you get cocky. When you push a violent angle. When you don’t move fast enough. When you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is the narrative logic of a cop thriller, or a hardboiled novel, not a war game.
But they will come along (although only one of the encounters is entirely unavoidable).
2. There are tactical choices to be made. Let’s take the screenshot as an example. The entire scene is one nerve-racking tumble of choices. These bad dudes are trying to get to what’s behind you. (Spoiler territory – not shown in the screenshot). Do you try to talk them down, try a peaceful angle? Or shoot first? As you deplete topics, the conversation will return you to this hub. Taking the shot may have gotten easier if you lulled them into a sense of security – or harder if you’ve been tricked. Your skills will advise you, guide you. But are they right? Maybe they’re just scared?
And that’s only the foreplay. When you do decide to shoot, you do so by clicking on that Hand/Eye Coordination red check. (If it’s your attack of choice of course – what’s available depends on your weapons: more on that later).
What follows is what we writers call a whirl. Think of it as a pseudo-turn. First you either hit or miss with that Villiers 9mm. The resulting havoc will play out in cool and insanely budget-consuming animations. The opposing force will then try to retaliate. At that point the screen will freeze into a time-stop. During this time-stop you take in your immediate surroundings and consult your skills. This is the titular whirl, since you’re constantly directed back to a hub of choices. You may gain tactical information from your surroundings. See what your partner is doing. All the while you’re confronted with a Reaction Speed red check to dodge the incoming enemy fire. That active check becomes harder or easier depending on your skills guidance via passive checks: Visual Calculus has drawn your attention to the angle of attack, Half Light has gotten scared and wants you to run!
Once you click on that red check, you either get shot or dodge the bullet, and enter another whirl.
Using these whirls we can (painstakingly) build any custom combat encounter, and give it the detail and skill-focused storytelling we’re going for.
3. As demonstrated, there are dice rolls, with percentages. A ton of them. We use active dice rolls of the red check variant, where both the negative and positive outcomes are played out. The stars of the show here are: Hand / Eye Coordination, Physical Instrument, and Reaction Speed, but others feature too. And as always, you can buff these rolls with the Electrochemistry system, by carrying a bottle and a ciggie into combat, bad cop style.
4. Your items decide what you can do. No gun – no shooty, etc. They also provide old fashioned bonuses and penalties to the active checks you’re rolling. Wearing a heavy armour makes dodging that shot harder. Having a better gun makes hitting that shot easier. A sports visor keeps the sun from your eye and makes you more likely to get that Visual Calculus tip during the second whirl.
And not only that – thoughts in your thought cabinet may also contribute. These mercenaries are wearing a strange new type of ceramic armour. Research it – for weaknesses! – and that Hand/Eye Coordination gets one of those massive bonuses game devs like to talk about.
5. It’s not all number crunching, it’s also about style. You’re going to want to have a high Pain Threshold character for a combat encounter, just to get painfully immersive information about your body breaking down, in exquisite, spleen rupturing detail. It’s like Nabokov said: dying is fun. (Only it’s really not). Or max out on Shivers and see what this muzzle flash looks like from the perspective of the wind; hear it echo down the street. And you can still use Rhetoric, Drama, Authority etc too — you don’t have to stop talking the opponents down, or taunting them, or relaying information to your squadmate, because the “battle grid” came out. Dialogue options can be part of the whirls.
Okay, so to recap: each whirl begins with all actors moving in a totally unique way, animated by Eduardo Rubio, our animation lead — one hell of an animator, that guy. We use time-stops at the end of each whirl. Then there are options to consult your senses, where skills jive in. And each whirl is exited by rolling another red check that begins another animation, etc. Until the situation is resolved, or you’re dead.
Oh and:
6. If someone gets killed during all this – someone important to you or the case – they stay dead. There is no disconnection between story and combat in Disco Elysium. The results of each decision you make – or fail to make, because you were trying to be diplomatic – is played out. People die, people have their bodies broken. They remember that you tried to punch them and fell over, because you were drunk. This stuff stays with you. You sustain a wound and people say: hey, you don’t look so good officer, stop bleeding in my fishing village.
If this sounds like a lot to produce, then that’s because it is. Do not expect an encounter to await behind every corner. But I thoroughly believe this approach is, if not the future of RPGs, then an early warning of that future. Consider the possibilities: fisticuffs in a burning building, a direct artillery hit on your Station, an exchange of fire during a car crash. These are all action scenes we’ve told in the pen and paper version of the Elysium role playing system. It’s our brand of pen and paper action scene – and this set piece centred combat system is our way of getting it to you, in a video game.
The beauty of the system is — we can just as well put you in a squad based combat situation, as we can have you jumping over a chasm to get into the harbour. It’s a one-size-fits-all solution for action scenes, comprising both combat, and acrobatics / environment interactions. Both use whirls and time-stops.
It is powered by Metric, our downright vitruvian character customization that represents the human mind and body in a realistic manner, and was made possible with some pretty complicated animation programming.
Next time we’ll talk about those Motoric skills that are crucial to surviving a situation like this:
Master
Arbiter
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2016
- Messages
- 1,160
The future of RPG combat? Well can you at least shoot a guy in the leg if thats the case? Groin shots?
I reccommend you replay Fallout. I used to do that at least once a year for 12 years. Cured my cravings for groin shots.
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