To be honest, I was sort of having hopes about the game after some of the updates, but this last Reddit Q&A is so full of bullshit, I'm now certain that it will suck. I even thought of changing my stance and donating something to both Kickstarter and Codex, despite the Crap Time with Pause but this...
We are designing a class-based system because we want the different characters in your party to fill different roles, and classes are the best way to achieve this goal.
What a load of bullshit. No it's not. A "role" is a meeting point of abilities. A specific single role can be filled by a single character or several characters working together. You don't need classes to get "the best way". It's just
one way of doing it and it's a way of doing it by imposing restrictions and prohibiting the potential of greater possibilities of a skilled-based system. This is why they made Fallout and Arcanum the way they were to begin with. So what, are the characters in Fallout and Arcanum not filling very specific roles? Did Virgil not fill the very specific role of a combat mage? So could not the player fill any role to any degree of ability that the player could desire? Yesand yes. But no, instead we are getting this bullshit marketing speech to justify their dumbed down bullshit game.
In a skill-based game, it's harder to tell if a companion gives you the skills you are looking for, especially before you recruit them. In a class-based game, you know what each class can do, so you can decide that you want a particular class even before a potential companion offers to join you.
More bullshit. Going from past examples, the
only reason you could tell what class a character was before they joined you was because IE games imposed silly paperdolls-per-classes. All classes had very distinctive looks while they were also devoid of the depth of finer interactions since the first game in the series, Baldur's Gate, was basically a last-minute RPG slamdunk that was initially designed to be a fantasy RTS adventure, and such it was so dumbed down, you didn't even need to do things like dressing up your characters with anything other than the best armor/cloak possible at any given time, eg. according to the weather or as disguises where their appearance could vary and blend. Even if not for that, you could tell what class a character was because the characters declared what they were like talking billboards.
In the end, you should be able to tell what any given character is generally capable of from the way they dress and from the tools that they carry and most importantly, their fucking skill sheet once you recruit them. And if you can not, that should be okay because this is supposed to be an old school game with complexities. Honestly, I would expect things like antagonist characters lying about their expertise to infiltrate or to join up your party for their own agenda. But suggesting class distinctions as a reason for being able to tell who is what is plain utter bullshit that you would expect from the likes of BioWare or Bethesda. Except they even Bethesda don't need that bullshit since there are no such bullshit restrictions in Bethesda's games. As it is now, the average Bethesda game has the potential to be a more mechanically complex game than this Project Eternal Crap.
And when you have a lot of companions and can choose which ones you want to take on a particular adventure, classes make it easier to form the group and be assured that you have your skillsets covered.
Translation: we want this game to be moron-proof. Because only morons would need that kind of instant distinction. Any fucking one worth his shit would be able to figure out what any given character offered and how he could mix them up to get the optimum results he wanted oh but no, Obsidian wants to make it so that nobody will be confused. "I want to make a party of a thief, a mage and a fighter. Oh hey, this guy is a mage. And this guy a thief. And this, a fighter. SO OLD-FUCKING-SCHOOL! BEST GMAE EVAH!"
You know, this entire thing is screaming that they want to mimic Dragon Age. Simplistic classes with lots of cool-down abilities. Yet more next-gen crap in the disguise of old school. I'm so glad they did this Reddit shit. Everything has become clear now.
