Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Interview Eschalon Q&A at RPGDot

Spazmo

Erudite
Joined
Nov 9, 2002
Messages
5,752
Location
Monkey Island
Tags: Eschalon: Book I

<a href="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGDot</a>'s Dhruin spoke with <b>Thomas Riegsecker</b>, the fellow behind the promising Eschalon: Book 1 and the <A href=http://www.rpgdot.com/index.php?hsaction=10053&ID=1205&sid=80856c23dd2f38844efabe693e96750d>interview</a> is up for your reading pleasure.<blockquote>RPGDot: Can you give us an overview of the setting and gameworld?
<br>
<br>
Thomas Riegsecker: E:B1 is set in an environment that should be instantly familiar to anyone who has played a fantasy cRPG in the past 15 years. It is a world caught in a power struggle between two factions and it is inhabited with many traditional and original RPG archetypes. Except elves.</blockquote>Good answer!
 

trystero

Novice
Joined
Jun 9, 2004
Messages
72
humm...

I was a bit surprised to read that quests are still in such a formative stage. I know they still anticipate a spring release.

Do quests usually go into a development cycle this late in the game? Be a shame for it to be quest poor.

- trystero
 

deus

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 28, 2004
Messages
143
Re: humm...

Since we are still creating major sections of the game, I'm not sure exactly how many zones will exist in the final product
Still creating major areas + spring release date = disaster
At least if they are taking the same attitude Lucasarts did with KotOR II. If it does come out in the spring, I'm fully expecting a massive plot hole and a nonsensical endgame due to aborted content.
 

spacemoose

Erudite
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
Messages
9,632
Location
california
With smaller developers its more likely it will be a delay than an unfinished game. About the elves - in most fantasy games I've played, their land is being taken over, their populations are shrinking and they are generally in decline. I guess Eschalon takes this trend to its conclusion - no goddamn pansy elves.
 

FrancoTAU

Cipher
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
2,507
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Yeah, i doubt an indy who is his own boss is going to put out an unfinished game rather than just delay it. Creating quests seems like the least time consuming part of making a RPG unless you develop some serious writer's block.
 

DamnElfGirl

Liturgist
Joined
May 31, 2004
Messages
313
Location
Canuckskiville
Spacemoose said:
With smaller developers its more likely it will be a delay than an unfinished game. About the elves - in most fantasy games I've played, their land is being taken over, their populations are shrinking and they are generally in decline. I guess Eschalon takes this trend to its conclusion - no goddamn pansy elves.

Someday, I will create my very own cRPG. Project: Pointy Ears. "The elves are back, and they are PISSED!"
 

Jora

Arcane
Joined
Mar 14, 2003
Messages
1,115
Location
Finland
The part about Eschalon being an action RPG is disappointing, even if it isn't "just another one". I was hoping for dialogue skills and a more modern approach.
 

LCJr.

Erudite
Joined
Jan 16, 2003
Messages
2,469
That interview pretty much dropped interest my interest level to nil.

The best part of the interview is the bit on RPG cliches.

Thomas Riegsecker: The problem with any form of storytelling, be it in games, movies or books, is that regardless of how original you think your idea is, someone, somewhere, has probably already come up with something similar. With E:B1 we wanted to avoid the "Chosen One / Save the World" cliché that is still ridiculously overused in RPGs today. The "lost identity" scenario works well for E:B1 because it gives the player a chance to mould a raw character into anyone they want without having to adhere to any predispositions.

We've decided not to use the "save the world" cliche and instead are going to use the "you wake up with amnesia" cliche.

E:B1 is set in an environment that should be instantly familiar to anyone who has played a fantasy cRPG in the past 15 years.

Said cliched storyline with all take place in an equally cliched stereotypical fantasy world. But no elves! Of course no mention of dwarves or greenskins.
 

Section8

Cipher
Joined
Oct 23, 2002
Messages
4,321
Location
Wardenclyffe
We've decided not to use the "save the world" cliche and instead are going to use the "you wake up with amnesia" cliche.

Okay, I don't really get the criticism of this as a game mechanic. Sure it's overused, but it's a lesser evil than "here's your exact backstory, unlucky if that interferes with the character you wanted to make."

But that said, I'm hoping the "familiar" fantasy world won't be completely cookie cut.
 

kingcomrade

Kingcomrade
Edgy
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Messages
26,884
Location
Cognitive Elite HQ
Okay, I don't really get the criticism of this as a game mechanic. Sure it's overused, but it's a lesser evil than "here's your exact backstory, unlucky if that interferes with the character you wanted to make."
Hey, that reminds me of how much I hate Fallout 2.
 

Stark

Liturgist
Joined
Mar 31, 2004
Messages
770
kingcomrade said:
Okay, I don't really get the criticism of this as a game mechanic. Sure it's overused, but it's a lesser evil than "here's your exact backstory, unlucky if that interferes with the character you wanted to make."
Hey, that reminds me of how much I hate Fallout 2.

how so? the given background story in Fallout 2 did not limit/impact the gameplay in any way.
 

LCJr.

Erudite
Joined
Jan 16, 2003
Messages
2,469
Okay, I don't really get the criticism of this as a game mechanic.

Where exactly did I criticize it as a game mechanic??? I find it amusing and ironic that he knocks one cliche as being "ridiculously overused" and then goes with the amnesia cliche.
 

kingcomrade

Kingcomrade
Edgy
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Messages
26,884
Location
Cognitive Elite HQ
Stark said:
kingcomrade said:
Okay, I don't really get the criticism of this as a game mechanic. Sure it's overused, but it's a lesser evil than "here's your exact backstory, unlucky if that interferes with the character you wanted to make."
Hey, that reminds me of how much I hate Fallout 2.

how so? the given background story in Fallout 2 did not limit/impact the gameplay in any way.

You are a tribal villager. You're part of a stupid Injun-style superstitious barbarian tribe. Why do you get to have high intelligence, or energy weapons tagged, or anything else? Why is your character so out of place among the villagers if you don't play a low-intelligence melee warrior? AND you're teh chosan wun!

In Fallout, your character had no backstory at all. You were just the guy they picked to go find a water chip.
 

aweigh

Arcane
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
18,142
Location
Florida
I've always hated the whole tribal/chosen one thing with FO2. It's so retarded. Right from the start it makes you dissasociate yourself from the game.
 

RGE

Liturgist
Joined
Jul 18, 2004
Messages
773
Location
Karlstad, Sweden
DamnElfGirl said:
Someday, I will create my very own cRPG. Project: Pointy Ears. "The elves are back, and they are PISSED!"
I read about something like that recently. Elves do rule, and that's why everyone hates them. Especially the über-elves who prance around and talk over the poor human heads about things which happened millennia ago. "Oh, I forgot. Your grandparents weren't born at that time." Suuure. You 'forgot'. :roll:

I may not like old-school CRPGs enough to enjoy Eschalon: Book 1 just because it's old-school, but exploring a world and running around between NPCs in strange places is usually fun, so who knows? There wasn't much deep conversation in Ultima V, but it still felt like an adventure.
 

Stark

Liturgist
Joined
Mar 31, 2004
Messages
770
kingcomrade said:
You are a tribal villager. You're part of a stupid Injun-style superstitious barbarian tribe. Why do you get to have high intelligence, or energy weapons tagged, or anything else? Why is your character so out of place among the villagers if you don't play a low-intelligence melee warrior? AND you're teh chosan wun!

i agree the bit about energy weapons tagged being out of place, but i disagree the bit about high intelligence. there's nothing wrong with a tribal villager being intelligent.

if you feel out of place among villagers... that just goes to show you're unique among your villagers, but by no means its impossible.
 

LCJr.

Erudite
Joined
Jan 16, 2003
Messages
2,469
The Vault 13 dissidents degenerating into ignorant tribals over one or two generations is silly.

Think about this silly little bit. Tandy is still alive and was a teenager in FO1. The tribal elder has to be near the same age or older than Tandy. Wouldn't this make the elder old enough to be one of the vault dwellers? Then why is she portrayed as some ignorant tribal?

Living in hide tents and having a little rope and plank they cut as their main means of defense when they can build a stone structure the size of the Temple of Trials is silly.

The Temple of Trials is just plain silly. Seems like a lot of effort just to store one old shirt and kill your own people. Why didn't they just build a castle to live in and put the giant ants in the moat?

Keeping the vault suit and losing the power armor, tweaked plasma gun, etc... is silly.

And last but not least. Taking this thread this far off topic is silly.
 

Drakron

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
6,326
Considering that those "tribals" are direct descendents of Vault 13 people ...

But lets forget about that right ... it just screws up a reason to complain about Fallout 2.
 

Drakron

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
6,326
Bah, you posted just before me ...

LCJr. said:
The Vault 13 dissidents degenerating into ignorant tribals over one or two generations is silly.

Yep, unless its a put up to make then look just like a normal tribe.

Think about this silly little bit. Tandy is still alive and was a teenager in FO1. The tribal elder has to be near the same age or older than Tandy. Wouldn't this make the elder old enough to be one of the vault dwellers? Then why is she portrayed as some ignorant tribal?

Its not, the elder is pretty good at explaining stuff over back in the Oil Rig.

My guess is the elder was simply being anoying and putting up a show since people might get ideas about then.

Of course why I suspect is who created that area had no idea what it was going to happen in the Oil Rig later on and so we have conflicting views.

Living in hide tents and having a little rope and plank they cut as their main means of defense when they can build a stone structure the size of the Temple of Trials is silly.

Well you assume the Temple was build by then and not a existing structure converted into that use.

The Temple of Trials is just plain silly. Seems like a lot of effort just to store one old shirt and kill your own people. Why didn't they just build a castle to live in and put the giant ants in the moat?

The Temple was the "Tutorial" area and if BIS was never good at them (point-in-case, PS:T) then they were not good at then before they were BIS.

Keeping the vault suit and losing the power armor, tweaked plasma gun, etc... is silly.

That is Video Game logic ... giving some of the most powerful weapon and armors right at the start would make the game too easy.

Also asuming that you got then in FO1 is bad, none was required to progress or complete the game.

And last but not least. Taking this thread this far off topic is silly.

Bitching about "Video game Logic" is silly.
 

Human Shield

Augur
Joined
Sep 7, 2003
Messages
2,027
Location
VA, USA
Unless races are alien enough having very old ones is just annoying, "I get to stay a hot bitch for 300 years!". History moves so fuckin slow in fantasy games, their tree houses would get blizekrieged by Dwarf Hitler's "final elf solution".

If they used magic to unnaturally live long and go insane from doing so, it would be pretty cool.

And people complaining about Fallout 2 setting:

FO2 Setting Improvement Mod v3

Extract the data from the patch for the game and overwrite the files with modded ones to get some the patch fixes with it.

Replaces gold coins with beautiful, beautiful caps. [Cap treature is now useless paper money]

Changes some silly Easter Eggs, now more useful.

Real-world weapons renamed.

Removed electric maze on oil rig.

Replaces Temple of Trials with short path.

Lots of new Arroyo dialogue, better reason for getting GECK.

Altered Arroyo maps.

San Fran is now a fight between two gangs, one for more order and power (The Dragon), the other for more freedom and power (The Tiger [formerly Lo Pan]). The two gangs are now more between order and chaos instead of good and evil.

Shi have some less tech and less old Chinese culture. No more stereotype responses.

Hubologists are changed. It is explained the Hub was a step towards civilization and that is what they are about now: Advancing humanity beyond known limits by any means. They want to get into orbit because zero-g and space stuff is the thought to be the final key in their research. They have some dark secrets now (that are mostly left to the players to make the connections, they still don't pose much of a threat) and don't have two stupid porn stars as spokesmen.

Tanker monsters explained.

BOS can no longer have the resources to issue power armor (BOS combat armor mite be worn now).Hopefully armor progression will no longer be metal or combat armor -> adv. power armor.

New Reno has more of its shit together. Big Jesus family deals with trade goods and supplies water and power. Biship family deals in drug and entertainment (owns boxing, porn, etc..). Sal family has adv weapons (old guy is leader because he is smart about technology). That hick family supplies farm crops and alcohol. No longer prohibition-gangster/"OMG drugz and whorez" town.

Some simple merchants that don't restock and can't be pick-pocketed.

Remove force fields and some advanced tech from NCR.

Ants in broken hills caves reduced.

New way to find sierra army base.

New Navarro dialogue. Enclave in NAVARRO no longer hands out plasma rifle and Adv. Power Armor to new recruits (great policy guys). Now they hand out yellow key pass for uniform. Enclave in Navarro now have less adv. Power Armor to hand around to guards.

No more super deathclaws. Never again hear this out of mouths of Fallout 1's savage killers:

"I have spent many sleepless nights, deep in thought, pondering just such issues. I have finally come to the conclusion that the burdens and responsibilities associated with the gift of intelligence are countless. There are only two choices available to any thinking being. Either accept life as it comes and make the best of it for yourself and others, or simply cease to be. I have chosen to accept the challenges of life. If this makes me a threat to humankind, then I pity the small mind that finds it so..."

The Enclave experiments were failures, no one can alter their animal instinct to survive. They won't attack you as long as you don't threaten their survival. Goris can still join.
 

Zomg

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
6,984
@Drakron: Man, I imagine Barry Unger voice-acting everything you say.

As far as FO2, I thought the stuff with Vault City was almost worth all the tribal bullshit. That was pretty much the payoff of the tribal setup, and it worked. Of course, that happens about 20% of the way into the game, assuming you follow the obvious clue path, and the tribal motif is either malignant or dead narrative weight for the rest of the game.
 

Section8

Cipher
Joined
Oct 23, 2002
Messages
4,321
Location
Wardenclyffe
Where exactly did I criticize it as a game mechanic??? I find it amusing and ironic that he knocks one cliche as being "ridiculously overused" and then goes with the amnesia cliche.

Guh, I knew what I wanted to say, but it didn't quite come out right. Let's try again. A cliche that is also an integral part of a core game mechanic is completely forgivable.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom