Game News Might & Magic X Update: Travelling, Questing, Itemization and more

[Infinitron]

Tags: Limbic Entertainment; Might & Magic X: Legacy; Ubisoft

Today's Might & Magic X Legacy open development blog update has details about a whole bunch of game mechanics, including travelling, questing, itemization and more. Since MMX's itemization is a topic that has recently come up in discussions here on the Codex, I'll quote that part:

EPIC LOOT, ITEMS AND INVENTORY

There are four general ways to get items in the game: monster drops, quest rewards, NPCs and treasures. And once you get an item, you have to put it somewhere. Your characters probably don’t want to carry lots of stuff in their hands while exploring the world. That’s when the inventory is for. Your four party members share it among them. Are you a pack rat who needs a big backpack? There’s a hireling for that!

Each item you get can be stored in a single slot of the party inventory, however consumable items (like potions) are stackable. Most items can only be equipped in the dedicated slots of the character equipment, and some require a certain tier of a certain skill in order to be equipped.

Some items can be bought from and sold to NPCs, some can break and be repaired. Some items can be consumed, but they can’t be dropped to the ground.

(However, you can decide not to pick up loot from a chest if you don’t want to. And if your inventory is full and you kill a monster, the superfluous loot will stay on the ground until you pick it up.)

Some items hide their attributes except for class, type and subtype until they get identified. Before that, they cannot be equipped, and they will only sell for a very small price. There are several ways to identify an item; one of them is to pay an NPC to do it.

ITEM CLASSES

Items are categorized into the following classes:

• armor (increases armor value)
• jewelry (no general effect)
• shields (increases armor value)
• melee weapons (add melee damage and critical melee damage)
• magical foci (increase critical damage for spells)
• ranged weapons (add ranged damage and ranged critical damage)
• potions (consumed upon usage)
• scrolls (consumed upon usage)

ITEM ENCHANTMENTS

Except for consumable items, all items can have up to two enchantments. Different item classes and types have different pools of possible enchantments. Enchantments are indicated in the item name by a prefix (e.g. Fire Dagger) or/and a suffix (e.g. Dagger of Might).

Prefixes relate to one of the magic schools and their effects. They can for example add elemental damage, or increase protection against the corresponding school. Suffixes on the other hand are more versatile, they can consist of any combination of several conditions, a chance and an effect.

RELICS

In contrast to the ordinary generic items, relics are unique. They are assigned to a certain class, type and subtype, they can have more than two enchantments, and they can level up, which also has an impact on their attributes. While equipped, relics receive the same amount of XP their wielders are receiving.​

By the way, did you know that Ubisoft's Arnaud Fremont has played Arcanum SEVEN TIMES??

 

[IDtenT]

But he's not finished it a seventh time. Clearly an inferior game compared to KotOR.

 

[Zeriel]

Couldn't it possibly be that Ubisoft's marketing department is just so cutting edge that they realized dropping the hint that their developers totally finished that nerdy RPG you faggots love SEVEN TIMES! would sell more copies?

(I'm joking. Mostly because that guy is more of a hardcore Arcanum fan than I am, by that measure.)

 

[Excidium]

That’s when the inventory is for. Your four party members share it among them.

of inventory organization.

Some items can be bought from and sold to NPCs, some can break and be repaired. Some items can be consumed, but they can’t be dropped to the ground.

That's retarded but ok, I guess. Could at least let us destroy it but I can liv-

(However, you can decide not to pick up loot from a chest if you don’t want to. And if your inventory is full and you kill a monster, the superfluous loot will stay on the ground until you pick it up.)

...Wut? Then why can't we drop items from the inventory? This some Harebrained shit

Some items hide their attributes except for class, type and subtype until they get identified. Before that, they cannot be equipped

Behold, massive

 

[Zeriel]

How is that decline? What specifically about identification? Pro tip for all future posts: it's not "decline" if it's "exactly like in previous games". Stop using "decline" to mean "something I don't like".

Edit: you can absolutely "drop" items in the sense that you can throw them away from your inventory and they get destroyed. So you either sell, keep, or destroy. Admittedly 6-8 had the ability to put items on the ground, but doesn't seem like a huge loss to me.

 

[Excidium]

Why wouldn't you be able to equip unidentified items? Finding out what an unindentified item does by using it is half the fun in having magical gear.

At least the magic item system is more or less the same, except it seems they got rid of the items that cast spells and have consumable spells just as scrolls, which is p. lame.

 

[Zeriel]

Not saying it makes reasonable sense, but it was the same way in 6-8, don't recall in 1-5. I remember countless times in 7 having my inventory full of undentified plate mail blobs that couldn't be equipped. So this is rather "questionable choice" than decline.

 

[Excidium]

in 3-5 you can, all identifying does is tell you what the item's name affects.

It is pure . Not only decline of it as a Might and Magic title but as an RPG in general

 

[Infinitron]

in 3-5 you can, all identifying does is tell you the item's name.

It is pure . Not only decline of it as a Might and Magic title but as an RPG in general

I can think of reasons for it. Basically it structures your dungeoneering sessions such that you must regularly return to town to identify your latest haul. You can't "live off the land", like in a roguelike. The game seems to incentivize "town returns" in a number of ways, and this is just one of them.

 

[Excidium]

Sounds like bullshit to me

 

[Infinitron]

Here's another reason not to allow use of unidentified items - you want the magical items in the dungeon to serve as a reward for players who have completed the dungeon (or alternatively as a consolation prize for players who were forced to retreat before they were done).

I think that was the idea in the AD&D/D&D CRPGs. Part of the fun of completing a dungeon in those games was that once you were done, you got to go back to town and unwrap all your new presents at the temple.

You could also say that it rewards the foresight of players who brought Identify spells/scrolls with them by giving them access to those items earlier. That adds a little bit of a resource management tradeoff to the game.

 

[Broseph]

They probably realized that "oh shit, being able to equip unidentified items makes the identify skill worthless." The only reason I used it in 6-8 is because I'm a sperg and I hate seeing green shit on my paper doll.

 

[Excidium]

You can equip unindentified items in the majority of AD&D games, in fact that is p. central to the system. Figure by use is a risk you take when there are no immediate means of id'ing it. Cursed items do not make much sense otherwise.

 

[Excidium]

They probably realized that "oh shit, being able to equip unidentified items makes the identify skill worthless." The only reason I used it in 6-8 is because I'm a sperg and I hate seeing green shit on my paper doll.

Suddenly cursed items. Or a ring of fireballin' going off right in the middle of the party. That is why you id items. In a good game, anyway.

 

[tuluse]

You can equip unindentified items in the majority of AD&D games, in fact that is p. central to the system. Figure by use is a risk you take when there are no immediate means of id'ing it. Cursed items do not make much sense otherwise.

That usually just leads to save scumming. I know that's what I did in IE games (or just rest scum to identify everything for free).

 

[Infinitron]

You can equip unindentified items in the majority of AD&D games, in fact that is p. central to the system. Figure by use is a risk you take when there are no immediate means of id'ing it. Cursed items do not make much sense otherwise.

That usually just leads to save scumming. I know that's what I did in IE games (or just rest scum to identify everything for free).

That's probably why NWN removed the ability to equip unidentified items.

 

[Excidium]

So? It is your choice to cheat.

 

[Gozma]

Eh, item identification is a borderline worthless system even in a game as tight as Dungeon Crawl where many pains have been taken to make it as interesting as it can get, all in the context of a merciless permadeath game. I don't see how it could possibly be non-shitty in a save and reload game.

 

[Excidium]

That is some retarded mindset.

 

[Gozma]

I'm not saying "I will save scum it to identify items." I'm saying save and reload makes the stakes lower, so it's less likely to make subtle shit like item identification salient.

 

[Excidium]

If we start removing the things that are trivialized by savescumming we won't be left with much

 

[Infinitron]

If we start removing the things that are trivialized by savescumming we won't be left with much

You'll be left with Project Eternity.

 

[Jim the Dinosaur]

Equipable unidentified items + randomized loot + lots of cursed items that have interesting tradeoffs instead of purely savescum-inducing downsides = a point to unindentified items. Them being unequipable just makes identifying an additional chore/minor moneysink. Might as well cut identification altogether if you're going that route.

 

[Infinitron]

Them being unequipable just makes identifying an additional chore/minor moneysink. Might as well cut identification altogether if you're going that route.

As I said above, that "chore" did have useful effects in terms of pacing and sense of reward.

 

[Jim the Dinosaur]

Meh, I can't say I consider "buy identification scrolls" and delayed satisfaction more interesting game elements than being surprised by interesting cursed items, but whatevz yo.