Game News Realms of Arkania 4 confirmed

[sheek]

Yeah I have never played any of these games before. Someone give a recommendation of which one to play in order to experience the greatness everyone seems to be talking about.

I think you can download parts 1 & 2. I downloaded Star Trail from some abandonware site... I can't remember.

Can upload them if anyone's interested (only a few MBs).

 

[sheek]

OK both are on Abandonia:

http://www.abandonia.com/genre.php?search=arkania

Need Dosbox of course.

 

[Jora]

Some new info:

http://www.rpgdot.com/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... 74#2257574

f8.) Will we have to deal with the very complex rules of the DSA 4th Edition Set? How much will we be required to delve into? I assume FanPro is pressing in that direction, but i rather am a fan of roleplaying not ruleset science, have enough of that in RL. Also some elements make problems.

The rules of TDE are so extensive it wouldn´t make sense to implement them all. However, already the official canon makes a lot of them "optional", and not for nothing. That said, DSA4 (the ruleset) is our basis though from which we will make our own selection.
In any case it won´t get overcomplicated alone for the fact that a lot of them will be computed in the background.

 

[Kos_Koa]

Here we go again...

 

[Jora]

Here we go again...

Where? Where are we headed?

 

[sheek]

I find the fact that the company is from Deutschland to be reassuring.

I think German gamers on average are more 'hardcore' and put more content into games. The big companies that spew out crap tend to be American. Arx Fatalis and Gothic 3 were both Euro games.

 

[LlamaGod]

Like I said

Stupid people ruined videogames

 

[Jora]

The Kampfsystem seems to be turn-based which is a big relief.

http://www.anaconda-game.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3341

This was good to hear also:

f6.) What about system requirements? (rough assessment; and: a GPU heavygfx doesn´t necessarily make for a good game!)

Cannot be determined at this point. We´re well aware that gfx is not everything. Rest assured we´re not after limiting our customer base through exaggerated requirements.

 

[Roqua]

The Kampfsystem seems to be turn-based which is a big relief.

http://www.anaconda-game.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3341

This was good to hear also:

f6.) What about system requirements? (rough assessment; and: a GPU heavygfx doesn´t necessarily make for a good game!)

Cannot be determined at this point. We´re well aware that gfx is not everything. Rest assured we´re not after limiting our customer base through exaggerated requirements.

Lets hope their great take on graphics isn't their take on gameplay. I want a real RoA 4, not some hippy, Oblivion, new-rpg, the market has advanced, lets not limit our customer base with "complex" bullshit, streamlined, bullshit, crap, cuntface, cocksucker, what FO3 is going to be, shit. Shit fucker, fuck, shit, ass, poop. Poo.

I think Blade of DFestiny was the best. Part 3 was still great, they just had you in the one city for most of it and the immediate surrounding area. So there was no overland travel, just 3d,1st person travel. You still left the area, like on a pirate ship, etc.

And for all you stupid bitches that say you barely played the game(s): why not actually play it? Its free and great. Stop being a bunch of stupid bitches, wipe the sand out of your giners, man the fuck up, and play a game with crappy graphics and a little complexity. Myabe you'll grow a hair on your chest when your done, or think about maybe getting a real hair cut at a barber shop like a fucking man, you fucki8ng pussy ass queers. I'll piss on all your pussy faces.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

When I'm a big boy I want to be like Roqua!

 

[SanguinePenguin]

When I'm a big boy I want to be like Roqua!

Start practicing sodomy and yelling now, then. Because you can never start too early.

 

[Relien]

...bullshit, crap, cuntface, cocksucker...shit. Shit fucker, fuck, shit, ass, poop. Poo.

...I'll piss on all your pussy faces.

OMG Roqua is ANGER MAN !!!

 

[Kos_Koa]

Here we go again...

Where? Where are we headed?

Based on what you quoted, it seems like they are focusing on 'streamlining' the rpg elements. It's still early to know for sure, but when they say something like...

The rules of TDE are so extensive it wouldn´t make sense to implement them all.

and...

In any case it won’t get overcomplicated alone for the fact that a lot of them will be computed in the background.

...it doesn’t leave much to hope for, but we'll see.

RPG's and "backgrounds" don't mix.

 

[Relien]

Based on what you quoted, it seems like they are focusing on 'streamlining' the rpg elements. It's still early to know for sure, but when they say something like...

The rules of TDE are so extensive it wouldn´t make sense to implement them all.

Perhaps they were talking about the 4th edition of the rules (the last one so far), which is much more complex than the 3rd edition which RoA 1-3 was based on.

 

[Kos_Koa]

Perhaps they were talking about the 4th edition of the rules (the last one so far), which is much more complex than the 3rd edition which RoA 1-3 was based on.

You might be right, but the way he wrote it seems to imply the entire ruleset, unless TDE (The Dark Eye) was named after the 4th edition only. Was the rulesets 1-3 named TDE? I am not very familiar with the rules of this series, so I may have taken their quote out of context.

 

[DemonKing]

So is it PC, or console?

I played Star Trail & Riva back in the day, and I wasn't too impressed.

The turn-based combat was nice, but they were buggy as hell and - dare I say it - too complicated if you weren't intimiately familar with the game system.

 

[Claw]

Afaik, the original RoA trilogy was already "dumbed down" from a P&P perspective.

4th Edition is the entire ruleset of course, including, as a dev mentioned, many optional rules.
I don't see what the point of adressing different editions would be. In any case, it's clear that CRPGs generally use simpler rules than many P&P RPGs, no matter how counter-intuitive that seems to be.


PS: I can't say Star Trail seemed buggy to me - unless you count the fact that a few skills and spells were necessary to complete the game, and lack thereof might have been disastrous.
I did not, however, ever play the P&P version. If you found the computer game too complicated - I don't know how to qualify that. It just isn't very complicated at all. You just have some large tables. What's complicated?

 

[Relien]

Perhaps they were talking about the 4th edition of the rules (the last one so far), which is much more complex than the 3rd edition which RoA 1-3 was based on.

You might be right, but the way he wrote it seems to imply the entire ruleset, unless TDE (The Dark Eye) was named after the 4th edition only. Was the rulesets 1-3 named TDE? I am not very familiar with the rules of this series, so I may have taken their quote out of context.

Yes, it was called TDE from the beginning. I don't know if we can hope for a really complex RPG today, but it's in their best interest to make a good game. And since they decided for TB combat, there should be some interesting combat/tactical elements/statistics/options/whatever otherwise TB combat would be just boring. Let's hope they know what they're doing.

 

[TotS]

Well, my first reaction to this announcement was "Must be a belated April Fools", closely displaced by "OMG this is sooo cool!!one1eleven", followed by a "Hm.. now, who is developing it."

Now, I haven't played any games developed by Radon Labs, but seeing an adaptation of a telenovela and a fishing simulator, won't get my hopes fired up.
The only hope, I see for this game is, that they might be die hard fans of the P&P RPG.

 

[LlamaGod]

Complexity is only simplicity multipled, you jackanapes.

 

[Brother None]

"More skills than you can remember" is good but "making every skill meaningful and useful" is even better. Sadly, I think it's inevitable that some skills have to be cut so that the usefulness of the remaining skills can be improved.

Well, DSA as a ruleset has different levels of complexity to drop back on. I think version 4 had about 14 main characteristics negative and postive and who knows how many different skills (around 50, I guess). But version 2 (I think) had 10 negative and positive characteristics and slightly less skills (maybe even two dozen less).

The old basic version had 5 characteristics and no skills, but that one sucked.

DSA can be balanced for any of those sets, it's a fairly easy game to adapt without fucking it up. And a simple ruleset is not automatically a dumbed down game.

RPG's and "backgrounds" don't mix.

Depends on what he means. DSA as an RPG was always heavy on the game master influence. And remember it is translated, he might just have been sayin' that naturally a lot of what your skills influence isn't directly viewable by you.

You might be right, but the way he wrote it seems to imply the entire ruleset, unless TDE (The Dark Eye) was named after the 4th edition only. Was the rulesets 1-3 named TDE? I am not very familiar with the rules of this series, so I may have taken their quote out of context.

Since he was referring to DSA, yes, they're all called DSA edition 1-4. TDE refers only to ruleset 4, as released by FanPro. RoA refers to ruleset 1-3, as released by I forgot who. Not that that really matters.

The turn-based combat was nice, but they were buggy as hell and - dare I say it - too complicated if you weren't intimiately familar with the game system.

The complexity was exactly right. The mini-management wasn't, though.

And that has nothing to do with being an ADD kiddie, but as a developer you have to draw a line at how much a player will have to manage during the game. I don't like having an entire party and having to check if they want to go to the bathroom every hour.

The food-management system of the old RoA-games was tres The Sims. I won't cry if they dump that.

 

[Trash]

Played all three of them and loved especially star trail. They were fun dungeon romps in a huge world with one of the best travel systems I've seen so far in a game. Lets hope they'll create a worthy sequel.

 

[HotSnack]

The complexity was exactly right. The mini-management wasn't, though.

And that has nothing to do with being an ADD kiddie, but as a developer you have to draw a line at how much a player will have to manage during the game. I don't like having an entire party and having to check if they want to go to the bathroom every hour.

The food-management system of the old RoA-games was tres The Sims. I won't cry if they dump that.

I thought the nutrition management complimented the travelling aspects well (recounts all those times my party almost starved in the mountains when I failed to prepare), the only issue I had with it was that the devs should have had the foresight to include "feed all" and "use whetstone for all" options.

 

[sheek]

The complexity was exactly right. The mini-management wasn't, though.

And that has nothing to do with being an ADD kiddie, but as a developer you have to draw a line at how much a player will have to manage during the game. I don't like having an entire party and having to check if they want to go to the bathroom every hour.

The food-management system of the old RoA-games was tres The Sims. I won't cry if they dump that.

I thought the nutrition management complimented the travelling aspects well (recounts all those times my party almost starved in the mountains when I failed to prepare), the only issue I had with it was that the devs should have had the foresight to include "feed all" and "use whetstone for all" options.

About all this complexity and whehter micromanagement is good discussion...

Both ROA1 and ROA2 already had 'Simple' and 'Advanced' modes. Simple mode meant skill points were distributed automatically when you levelled and stuff like that. Characters ate and drank when they needed to. I think it might have simplified gameplay (setting sleep watches, hunting etc) but I can't remember - I always played 'Advanced'.

 

[HotSnack]

Well characters will automatically eat/drink once they fill up their respective meters, you only do it manually if you want to lessen your carrying weight. Also if you're playing the simple mode, the game will pick the most appropriate character to use the requested skill.