Best Owlcat Game So Far

[Dr Skeleton]

I also think crusade mode is a lot more polished and enjoyable than kingdom management was.

Crusade management in WotR is the worst thing to ever happen to mankind. It's the holocaust of videogames. The 9/11 of home entertainment. It's the Vietnam of my generation.

I refuse to believe that it's any worse than kingdom management.

It's not that it's better or worse, there's just more of it. The way events and towns work is probably better than in Kingmaker overall, but I don't want to play a bad HoMM clone in the middle of another game, it further drags down a game that's already unnecessarily bloated. Kingdom management in Kingmaker was annoying in the long run, but you could start some buildings, set people to work on events and forget about it for some time.

 

[Yosharian]

it further drags down a game that's already unnecessarily bloated

This is the key issue, neither KM nor Wrath require additional content, they are already fucking full of tons of shit to do

The fact that these unnecessary minigames are also complete garbage is just adding insult to injury

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Does anyone actually ask for these minigames that they keep adding them to games? Maybe we live in a bubble and they're well liked, but I've only ever seen people complain about them and every survey Owlcat sends me I rate them low and write them to stop making minigames, but they just don't listen

 

[Lacrymas]

Tbh, both KM and Wrath could've been significantly improved had Owlcat sat down and removed the fat while acting as a competent DM where it's needed. They decided, instead, to dedicate untold amounts of dev time to extraneous systems that almost nobody likes to engage with even in the tabletop APs. It boggles my mind why they decided to include the two APs that most deviate from a standard RPG adventure. They could've easily adapted Rise of the Runelords, the most widely loved AP Paizo have ever published, and it would've turned out way better. I certainly don't think Rise of the Runelords is the best AP, but its flaws are both well known and the community are more than willing to overlook them considering the praise it gets. Owlcat could've slightly improved those bits too and it would've been great.

If I were them, my first choice for adaptation would've been Rise of the Runelords just because it's so popular and beloved, but my second choice would be Shattered Star. Since SS is a sort of "soft sequel" to Rise of the Runelords, it would've been pretty appropriate for a second game.

 

[scytheavatar]

Tbh, both KM and Wrath could've been significantly improved had Owlcat sat down and removed the fat while acting as a competent DM where it's needed. They decided, instead, to dedicate untold amounts of dev time to extraneous systems that almost nobody likes to engage with even in the tabletop APs. It boggles my mind why they decided to include the two APs that most deviate from a standard RPG adventure. They could've easily adapted Rise of the Runelords, the most widely loved AP Paizo have ever published, and it would've turned out way better. I certainly don't think Rise of the Runelords is the best AP, but its flaws are both well known and the community are more than willing to overlook them considering the praise it gets. Owlcat could've slightly improved those bits too and it would've been great.

If I were them, my first choice for adaptation would've been Rise of the Runelords just because it's so popular and beloved, but my second choice would be Shattered Star. Since SS is a sort of "soft sequel" to Rise of the Runelords, it would've been pretty appropriate for a second game.

Rise of the Runelords would be a harder game to sell to the non Pathfinder fans, since it is a very classic D&D AP and the second half is almost all combat and dungeon crawling. Kingmaker stands out cause it is unique from the classic D&D experience and it is easier to sell a game where you become a king. Even if the process of becoming one sucks.

 

[Lacrymas]

Rise of the Runelords would be a harder game to sell to the non Pathfinder fans, since it is a very classic D&D AP and the second half is almost all combat and dungeon crawling. Kingmaker stands out cause it is unique from the classic D&D experience and it is easier to sell a game where you become a king. Even if the process of becoming one sucks.

Yeah, I know, but it's not like the second half of Kingmaker the video game is any better in this regard. They could've easily added more roleplaying in the second half of RotR instead of trying and failing to implement everything from Kingmaker. Tbh, most 1st edition Pathfinder APs struggle with combat-heavy second halves because it turns out 6 books per adventure is too much for the majority of them. That's why they've started doing 3 book APs for 2nd edition.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Tbh, both KM and Wrath could've been significantly improved had Owlcat sat down and removed the fat while acting as a competent DM where it's needed. They decided, instead, to dedicate untold amounts of dev time to extraneous systems that almost nobody likes to engage with even in the tabletop APs. It boggles my mind why they decided to include the two APs that most deviate from a standard RPG adventure. They could've easily adapted Rise of the Runelords, the most widely loved AP Paizo have ever published, and it would've turned out way better. I certainly don't think Rise of the Runelords is the best AP, but its flaws are both well known and the community are more than willing to overlook them considering the praise it gets. Owlcat could've slightly improved those bits too and it would've been great.

If I were them, my first choice for adaptation would've been Rise of the Runelords just because it's so popular and beloved, but my second choice would be Shattered Star. Since SS is a sort of "soft sequel" to Rise of the Runelords, it would've been pretty appropriate for a second game.

Rise of the Runelords would be a harder game to sell to the non Pathfinder fans, since it is a very classic D&D AP and the second half is almost all combat and dungeon crawling. Kingmaker stands out cause it is unique from the classic D&D experience and it is easier to sell a game where you become a king. Even if the process of becoming one sucks.

Who is the target audience for Owlcat's RPGs, if not CRPG players? And Owlcat RPGs aren't action games with some stats, they're RTwP/turn based D&D build autism, is a random person really going to like Kingmaker because it's 20% a kingdom minigame (that's not even in the game for the first 20h), if the other 80% is beating up kobolds? Maybe they did their research and it helps to sell more copies, but I don't see how.

 

[Ghost Of Iron]

Rogue Trader is the best of their efforts so far, they improved on virtually everything, finally shifting over to actual turn based combat, removing the pointless and bloated trash encounters as a result, much better narrative direction and a much better cast of companion characters, and of course they have finally departed from the steaming pile of garbage known as Paizo and their disgusting world, Golarion. They still need to make major efforts to improve the character building and they are STILL caught in the alpha strike combat trap, but overall RT is a significant improvement over the Pathfinder games.

 

[Swen]

Owlcat is desperate and will try to emulate everything Larian does now.

 

[Cryomancer]

Owlcat is desperate and will try to emulate everything Larian does now.

Nope. Larian is a AAA studio. Owlcat is a company that leverages cheap but highly productive ru workforce, cheap to license ip for brand recognition, the business envoriment of Cyprus and a audience so desperate for anything that you can sell early alpha as full games at full price.

Is like comparing McDonald's with a local gourmet restaurant.

 

[Swen]

Owlcat is desperate and will try to emulate everything Larian does now.

Nope. Larian is a AAA studio. Owlcat is a company that leverages cheap but highly productive ru workforce, cheap to license ip for brand recognition, the business envoriment of Cyprus and a audience so desperate for anything that you can sell early alpha as full games at full price.

Is like comparing McDonald's with a local gourmet restaurant.

Sure for now but their goal is to become a second Larian. For example I would be surprised if their next game isn't fully voiced.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Owlcat is desperate and will try to emulate everything Larian does now.

Nope. Larian is a AAA studio. Owlcat is a company that leverages cheap but highly productive ru workforce, cheap to license ip for brand recognition, the business envoriment of Cyprus and a audience so desperate for anything that you can sell early alpha as full games at full price.

Is like comparing McDonald's with a local gourmet restaurant.

Sure for now but their goal is to become a second Larian. For example I would be surprised if their next game isn't fully voiced.

They will fail. They went for the Obsidian route, leaning way too much into licensed stuff, so the people coming for their games are there just because there are no other options for a particular license they want to see. Mark my words, the moment they come up with their own IP it's going to be even more sleep inducing than Pillars of Eternity's.

 

[Cryomancer]

Mark my words, the moment they come up with their own IP it's going to be even more sleep inducing than Pillars of Eternity's.

I think that depends. If their new ip has the same balance cultism of rt where telepaths can't control enemies, will be bad. If is like a retroclone, can be great.

their goal is to become a second Larian.

Nope. They are closer to Obsidian working in licensed stuff. Larian made it's own IP long time ago.

 

[Swen]

their goal is to become a second Larian.

Nope. They are closer to Obsidian working in licensed stuff. Larian made it's own IP long time ago.

Licensed or not, I'm talking more about how they will emulate Larian's game design. Fully voiced, lots of c&c, more cinematic,...

Don't they have the money to make such a game by now? I mean Larian was almost bankrupt before OS1. It only took Larian 2 games before they could make a "AAA" crpg like BG3.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Oh, you can rest assured that rpg devs are going to ape what they perceived was BG3's key to success. Solasta's devs already bent the knee.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'm not aware of what made BG3 successful.

 

[Rhobar121]

Oh, you can rest assured that rpg devs are going to ape what they perceived was BG3's key to success. Solasta's devs already bent the knee.

You mean they'll create something that you can look at without gagging in every cutscene?

 

[Swen]

Oh, you can rest assured that rpg devs are going to ape what they perceived was BG3's key to success. Solasta's devs already bent the knee.

Indeed, seriously thought Solasta II trailer was BG3 for a moment.

 

[MerchantKing]

Owlcat is desperate and will try to emulate everything Larian does now.

Larian is already emulating everything Bioware did.

 

[Swen]

Owlcat is desperate and will try to emulate everything Larian does now.

Larian is already emulating everything Bioware did.

Everything besides the garbage RTWP system.

 

[Tyranicon]

I'm not aware of what made BG3 successful.

 

[MerchantKing]

Owlcat is desperate and will try to emulate everything Larian does now.

Larian is already emulating everything Bioware did.

Everything besides the garbage RTWP system.

Yup. Like Bioware they included, the degenerate and homosexual romances, the marvel movie garbage cutscene dialogue game, the shitty storylines, the campsite from KOTOR, simplification of the ruleset, slow boring gameplay revolving primarily around trash mob fights, and the design philosophy of the awesome button where gameplay revolves around spectacle rather than working with a well designed ruleset, and so on.

 

[Gahbreeil]

Owlcat is desperate and will try to emulate everything Larian does now.

Larian is already emulating everything Bioware did.

Everything besides the garbage RTWP system.

Joke's on you, Mr. Vincke. RTwP is a Turn-Based system that allows for seamless simultaneous turns with full player control over when the game stops.

It's simply better.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Owlcat is desperate and will try to emulate everything Larian does now.

Larian is already emulating everything Bioware did.

Everything besides the garbage RTWP system.

What else are they "emulating", apart romances?
P.s. Rogue Trader is the best for me.

 

[MerchantKing]

Owlcat is desperate and will try to emulate everything Larian does now.

Larian is already emulating everything Bioware did.

Everything besides the garbage RTWP system.

What else are they "emulating", apart romances?
P.s. Rogue Trader is the best for me.

Rogue Trader does seem to be a very different game compared to anything Larian produced.