Codex Interview RPG Codex Retrospective Interview: Guido Henkel on Realms of Arkania

[l3loodAngel]

Conquistador didn't go that good because it's setting is uninspired and boring

Ok, I really want the anti-brofist button now.

He is right. To some really old fags the concept of people with guns against people with spears may seem fascinating, but to younger people playing in a historic and predetermined universe is as fun as watching paint dry. What are your options in the game? To not colonize LATAM? To not fuck local tribal women?

 

[mondblut]

You know, RoA 1 and 2 are one of the few games were it's really easy not to reload when someone dies because it'd completely break the P&P feel and because especially in 1 nobody wants to lose a lot of progress (and you would, 'cause you have to pay XP to save anywhere but in towns). Worked great for me.

Bring on the XP penalties for saving!

In the German version all XP rewards were divided by 50 compared to the English ones.
So the minimum XP for a fight was 1.

Saving cost 50. It was a big deal. A huge deal.

You should also consider taking a hammer and smashing your balls anytime you save in a game. It must bring immersion and enjoyment to a whole new level for you.


Thankfully, an acquaintance of mine hacked off this silly xp penalty pretty much as soon as the game went out. And levelup increase failures as well. Made a much better game. I hope I still have those patches somewhere in case I ever want to play them again.

 

[kaizoku]

*save scumming fan*


updated my mondblut.txt

 

[JoKa]

And levelup increase failures as well. Made a much better game.

Playing ultra-easy mode? mondblut, I thought better of you!
(really, you gain that many more stats and skills by modding out failures, it's not even funny)

 

[mondblut]

Playing ultra-easy mode? mondblut, I thought better of you!

Amusingly, even DSA authors themselves (if Drakensang and those mobile CYOA games are of any indication) have realised how utterly retarded a mechanic is that, screwing up player's hard-won levelups, and dropped it in subsequent editions. Took them what, 10 years?

We were quicker.

(really, you gain that many more stats and skills by modding out failures, it's not even funny)

Yep. Awesome, isn't it?

 

[Gord]

Amusingly, even DSA authors themselves (if Drakensang and those mobile CYOA games are of any indication) have realised how utterly retarded a mechanic is that, screwing up player's hard-won levelups, and dropped it in subsequent editions. Took them what, 10 years?

We were quicker.

(really, you gain that many more stats and skills by modding out failures, it's not even funny)

Yep. Awesome, isn't it?

More like they have finally realised that the players are powergaming munchkins.
From a gameplay perspective, the random level-up works perfectly fine and is balanced around the average rolls you'll get.
Modding it away to simply succeed everytime is childish powergaming.

But hey, it's singleplayer, if you need that stuff to enjoy the game, go ahead.

The new editions make more sense from a psychlogical point of view, but they don't simply take the maximum skillpoints from the old system, they are balanced around an average character.