Game News Dragon Age forum updates: non-violent solutions

[Sarvis]

Yes, interesting applications for the skills is one thing... but oddly enough blowing things up and corroding metal sound like things you might be doing in combat.

It can go both ways. Blowing up walls and blocked passages, corroding locks, knocking people unconscious, etc

Spending three game days figuring out just the right formula to corrode metal with? Well, go ahead if you want...

Do you practice combat moves, magic, study locks mechanism for days? Then why should you do that with anything else? Double standards strike again! :wink:

I practice keyboard and mouse skills 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. So there!

 

[Oyarsa]

@Oyarsa: The trolls are spice of this board.

Indeed, and grinding spices releases the flavour.

 

[almondblight]

Please. I doubt even actual scientists find their research fun. Pouring one chemical into another and then writing down the temperature of the solution every hour for 3 days straight is not going to be fun. Rewarding and profitable maybe, but fun?

Hell, I enjoy coding... but I wouldn't call that fun either.

Yeah, but in real life, being run through with a sword isn't particularly fun. In real life a firefight isn't the same as in a paintball game. The whole concept of an RPG is that it is unrealistic so that it becomes fun, a game. No reason why we can make something as horrible as war fun and not make something that people actually enjoy, like science and diplomacy, fun.

Anyway, Diplomacy and Lockpicking is somewhat lacking in an RPG. If combat worked the same way, you would either:

a) Have 3 options in a fight. Get hit by a guy, give him a soft punch, or give him a punch strong enough to beat him. Of course combat would be just you picking the 3rd option.

b) Click on your fight skill and select the ogre. Combat failed. Try again. Combat successful. Try on the next ogre.

Perhaps conversation should be seperated from plot linked, which would be Fallout style dialogue and only present choices; and diplomacy type, which would be you trying to convince the other person of your side, which would have it's own engine like combat does. Perhaps the same should be done for lockpicking, but it depends on how much emphasis you want to put on it. The chance of a mild setback like breaking your picks might be enough to make lockpickig interesting, if it is combined with other thief skills. If you make the cost of failur too drastic though, people will simply reload until they open the damn door.

 

[Hajo]

@Oyarsa: The trolls are spice of this board.

Indeed, and grinding spices releases the flavour.

Well said :D

 

[Volourn]

Oyarsa wins.