Preview Dragon Age - the future of role-playing!

[Volourn]

I hereby consider Castanova is on crack.

He's so wrong it's not even funny anymore. he makes Jed and I look like geniuses with his silly posts.

That is all.

R00fles!

 

[Shannow]

As an example, I am playing BG1 right now. My character is not a tank, and so needs protection. Every good item is on my character, while the other characters are relatively unadorned. Every character rallies to protect my character at all costs. Why? Because if my character dies, the whole game ends. And that is retarded. If Imoen dies, I can simply drag her little bod over to a priest who will resurrect her. But if MY character dies, apparently nobody can be bothered to do the same for me!

That was explained in the game. If you die, your soul goes to feed the essence of Bhaal. Thus you cannot be resurected without a soul. Of course that explanation gets even more "meh" when we look at Imoen, who could be resurected although she was a bhaalspawn...

 

[Elwro]

Correct. Imagine the vignettes from Temple of Elemental Evil, yet expanded into its own chapter rather than a quick cutscene. Eventually you are inserted into the main story at roughly the same point, but your background continues to have an effect -- especially when you end up returning back where you came from during the course of the game.

Cool!

No healing potions that heal instantly. There are potions which increase your regeneration rate, however, the difference being that potions thus don't become an endless and portable supply of instant hit points and mana.

Nice, too. The Witcher will also try to make potions something different than a way to store HPs, I wonder how it will turn out.

 

[Elwro]

That was explained in the game. If you die, your soul goes to feed the essence of Bhaal. Thus you cannot be resurected without a soul. Of course that explanation gets even more "meh" when we look at Imoen, who could be resurected although she was a bhaalspawn...

Ya know, if the guy's playing BG1, chances are he doesn't know some of the plot intricacies yet.

 

[Crazy Tuvok]

The problem is, most people wouldn't have done what you did (i.e., continue playing and selling off items to revive characters). Most people would hit Quickload the second they realized the battle was going to be a disaster.. many people would hit Quickload right after that first character died, to be honest.

I used to do this but I don't much anymore. Unless half my team is wiped out and no matter what I do I have neither the money nor the means to bring them back, I consider a few deaths/massive injuries/stat changes etc the price of doing buisness. It makes combat a lot more fun and rewarding. Having won a tough fight and barely scraped out of it and being banged up just feels more satisifying. The joy at smacking that last little fucker into chunky bits after he had been putting the hurt on me for the last 15 minutes is worth it.

Wizardy 8 does this to me all the time since you can go anywhere including places you have no business being. To date the only time I have reloaded was once when it was clear everyone was going to be dead in a round and half, and once when three of my party died, I had no ressurrection powder and was a LOOOOOONG way from civilization.

The problem is that combat in RPGs is usually inherently not fun. It's only fun because it rewards you with xp, items, and storyline advancement. ~95% of encounters in BG2 (and any other Bioware game or modern RPG, pretty much) are flat out boring. Instead of solving these issues by addressing the root of the problem (a combat game with boring combat) we get a bunch of tweaks on the risks/rewards of entering combat in the first place.

How do you make combat fun? By making it involve your brain and/or involve your reflexes. All modern day RPGs fail to force the player to use brains in combat but, to make matters worse, these third-person, RTwP titles don't really involve reflexes either.

Sorry dude, for the second time in a week I am forced to agree with Volourn - bullshit. There are plenty of RPGs with good,fun, tactical combat that will keep you riveted to your monitor. ToEE and Wizardry 8 are the two that come to mind as they are what I am playing, but fuck knows there are more.

Speaking of ToEE, I thought they had a pretty nice healing system (or 3.5 DnD does), at least for low level characters who don't know a ressurrect spell.
I like that DA is attempting to address the problem of healing/death (which in many is more of a nuisance than anything else) in RPGs. But I agree with everyone else that KoTOR and NWN were not the solution nor was BG for all the reasons stated above.

 

[aboyd]

That was explained in the game. If you die, your soul goes to feed the essence of Bhaal. Thus you cannot be resurected without a soul. Of course that explanation gets even more "meh" when we look at Imoen, who could be resurected although she was a bhaalspawn...

Ya know, if the guy's playing BG1, chances are he doesn't know some of the plot intricacies yet.

It's OK. I'm replaying for the 7th or 8th time, using EasyTutu. I know most of the story (although I never finished BG2 -- always get bored/unhappy around the Underdark and call it quits).

Oddly enough, though, I don't recall reading any in-game text that explained why my character cannot be resurrected. Considering Imoen, it does ring a little hollow.

 

[Texas Red]

You cant resurrect your character because that would ruin the game. PERIOD.

 

[Jasede]

As an example, I am playing BG1 right now. My character is not a tank, and so needs protection. Every good item is on my character, while the other characters are relatively unadorned. Every character rallies to protect my character at all costs. Why? Because if my character dies, the whole game ends. And that is retarded. If Imoen dies, I can simply drag her little bod over to a priest who will resurrect her. But if MY character dies, apparently nobody can be bothered to do the same for me!

This is not an issue because the game is fuck-easy, even when soloed with a wizard, bard, or thief [the only solo-playthroughs I did with BG 1]. I'm absolutely in favour of games going game over once the main character dies. Maybe his party wouldn't ressurect him anyway, and even if there is no reason given, it's a nice balancer. You actually had to reload sometimes in BG 1/2! Compare Kotor were your party is invulnerable. Did Kotor actually have a game over screen? I don't remember dying.

 

[Elwro]

Maybe his party wouldn't ressurect him anyway.

This could be an interesting feature. The party could base their decision on your relations with them.

"Jaheira spits on your corpse. Imoen says "Cool, we finally got rid of him.". The party resumes its travels, leaving your body on the ground. Game Over. *INSERT COIN* R00fles!".

OR

"Aerie remembers the nights of passion spent with you. With all her strength she lifts your full-plate-covered body and carries you to a nearby temple, where you are resurrected."

 

[Jed]

I hereby consider Castanova is on crack. He's so wrong it's not even funny anymore. he makes Jed and I look like geniuses with his silly posts.

In as far as he is referring to Infinity Engine combat, he is right: it engages neither the brains nor the reflexes. This is nothing you haven't heard from many others on this board, Volly.

I think you are getting far more desperate for attention and far less "clever" with your posts since you got your "Princess" title. Maybe it's time to start taking your medicine again?

EDIT- I like your idea regarding party relations and resurrection, Elwro.

 

[Surgey]

Great, Jasede, we get it, you're a bad-ass.

I'm assuming they made the game end when your character died since he's the only one that really had dialogue with other characters (even though according to the text boxes it was the character that initiated, it was your character). So it was probably a technical thing instead of a balance thing.

Personally, I didn't care either way, but the first time it happened I thought, "...why doesn't the game end when Imoen dies?"

"Aerie remembers the nights of passion spent with you. With all her strength she lifts your full-plate-covered body and carries you to a nearby temple, where you are resurrected."

After which the player mercilessly slaughters his entire party because of their failure to keep him alive.

 

[Volourn]

Jed, and like the others, you are simply wrong. Deal with it. Period.

 

[denizsi]

Type of thing Elwro wrote would do wonders imo.

 

[Castanova]

Sure, TOEE is more tactical (and difficult) than most but I still sleep-walked through the majority of the encounters. Never played Wizardry 8 but even if the combat is incredibly exciting, it's the exception that proves the rule. Note that I'm not referring to indie RPGs that have tiny userbases (not that Avernum doesn't prove my point either) so don't pull that card on me.

There are virtually zero modern RPGs out there where taking a minute to think out your next move is necessary. As for modern (action) RPGs that have twitch combat, almost all of them don't go far enough in the action direction, to be honest. If you're going to have aiming and reflexes in your game, take it all the way please. Even Diablo wouldn't be any fun if you took loot and levelling up out of the equation.

 

[AlanC9]

Sure, TOEE is more tactical (and difficult) than most but I still sleep-walked through the majority of the encounters.

ToEE more difficult? I thought it was a good deal easier than most of the IE games. Which is mostly because they did 3.5 by the books; D&D 3.5 is one of those games that's hard to learn but easy to master.