I get some kafkaesque vibes from this - a law which forbids something obscure, somethings nobody even remembers. Can be used in some cool quests/events.Very informative.The Oldwalls are Forbidden: What are the Oldwalls, you ask? Wouldn’t you like to know…
Why?
Because it's not a standard hero's journey like ~95% of other fantasy RPGs.
MR: Tyranny is said to be, relatively to other RPGs, short and heavy on choices. Do you think this is a direction RPGs should go? Or is it just a specific design choice fit for Tyranny?
FU: I think it's an absolutely just choice for Tyranny. So let's say I have a hundred points of resources. Right, so let's say something like Tyranny can cost two billion to make. So then I have like a hundred points of resources. So I can spend those resources to have a fair number of sort of choices, right? But then I have a much longer game.
Or I can spend those resources widely and provide all these super crazy different options, but that of course limits how long I can make the game. That's really what it is. So with Tyranny what we said is we wanna make this game where you truly have an incredible number of choices and when you choose a path in the game. And that path is very different and it feels very different and the game reacts like all over the place to that difference, more so than even our previous games. So it's realy making that choice of do we go wide with choice and short with length? Or do we go shallower with choice and longer with length.
JMR: How does Obsidian plan to organize the writing on such a choice-heavy game?
FU: So on Tyranny there are currently four full-time writers, I think. It's Paul, Megan, Matt, Robert, and then...[Go go, Duraframe!] So basically there's four full-time writers, and then there's some other people that are helping out, which actually is quite a lot for us. We usually don't have that many writers on a project all at once.
Or I should say, we usually don’t have people that are only writing. We do have a lot of writing in our games, but that's done by people that were both doing area design and writing at the same time. There's often a couple of other writers that were more full time, but not with like four full-time writers for Tyranny. That's a lot for us.
So how do we organize it? A lot of it is just separating it all out. It's giving each of the writers their own thing to be in charge of. For example, let’s take Caesar's Legion in New Vegas. For that we would want a writer to kinda do all the Caesar's Legion stuff, so that they had the voice for that. We try to have a sole writer create the content for a companion, instead of multiple writers write a companion.
When creating the C&C portion, that’s when the writers and the level designers are working in tandem. Normally, the level designers are often writing and creating the content for most of the quests. When it comes down to critical story quests, because we have specific requirements in terms of re-activity and skill checks, the writers and designers need to work out how each story point is affected by each choice in that specific quest. So in that case it’s a just a lot of coordination and planning on both ends.
I'll be shocked if the C&C amounts to anything more than different ending slides, a la New Vegas.
Lol @ the butthurt fanboys. What is it exactly that makes this concept such a special snowflake? Because "what if evil won" and you are supposedly a villain now?
You may be labeled as such but I doubt it will matter... your choices will inevitably boil down to being a softy and using your position to help people, or being a jerkass who strangles puppies for fun. A.k.a. the basic "good" and "evil" paths in every triple-A RPG ever.
This just proves that you don't get this. What you described is cartoon villans doing evil stuff. If we take a more realistic approach, an evil overlord will know that to rule a land, the land needs rules and laws.and now these silly laws. I'm pretty sure an evil overlord only needs one law -- do what I say or I'll fuck you up.
First of all, I think if you don't think FO:NV has pretty good C&C, your standards might already be too high. But this seems like it'll have more.
This just proves that you don't get this. What you described is cartoon villans doing evil stuff. If we take a more realistic approach, an evil overlord will know that to rule a land, the land needs rules and laws.
Disagree. It doesn't matter how powerful the guy is. Unless he is a god being able to be everywhere at once, and he wants to rule a big empire instead of going around killing people because why the fuck not, he needs to work out the legal structure of his empire. There are no exception from this and never were in history.This just proves that you don't get this. What you described is cartoon villans doing evil stuff. If we take a more realistic approach, an evil overlord will know that to rule a land, the land needs rules and laws.
The necessity of laws depends on the goals and structure of power in society.
Since this is fantasy I am guessing Kyros himself is really fucking powerful -- there has been no indication that he is a Littlefinger type villain who is physically weak but gains power through cunning and manipulation. Also, the Archons are described as "beings of immense power" and they work for Kyros. I don't think the Archons would work for someone weaker than themselves -- remember, we're supposed to be evil, and they established in the released short story that soldiers will kill their leaders if they think they are weak.
So considering that by all indications Kyros has overwhelming force on his side -- and as an evil overlord shouldn't be too worried about being fair to people -- then no, it doesn't make sense that he would need a byzantine legal structure to govern his domain. He and his dudes are stronger than everyone, so what they say goes.
That is how evil people work IRL too, but they must use legal structures and deception to control people because they lack the means to do so directly.
That said, Obsidian is made up of amazing folks who have made some of my favorite games
There are lots of guys still around who worked on MOTB.That said, Obsidian is made up of amazing folks who have made some of my favorite games
But not while working at Obsidian, rite?
As for things that Feargus or Sawyer or whoever says, I will take it with a grain of salt. I have nothing against the company but we all saw what they promised on PoE versus the end result. So I don't put much stock in their words.
As for things that Feargus or Sawyer or whoever says, I will take it with a grain of salt. I have nothing against the company but we all saw what they promised on PoE versus the end result. So I don't put much stock in their words.
My impression is that high profile Kickstarters and similar RPGs generally deliver exactly what they promised...and not one bit more. People get disappointed when they assume that they're really going to deliver more than what they promised. See: Vault Dweller's assumption that PoE was actually going to be fantasy Fallout or MotB 2 or whatever "because it's Obsidian!", and not the souped up Baldur's Gate they always said they were going to make.
In other words, when a developer tells you "X will be more than Y" you can usually believe that. What you shouldn't do is go on and assume that both X and Y will be off the charts, best game ever.
For the record, I've never expected fantasy Fallout (lolwut?) but I did expect more than "souped up" BG and a for a good reason:As for things that Feargus or Sawyer or whoever says, I will take it with a grain of salt. I have nothing against the company but we all saw what they promised on PoE versus the end result. So I don't put much stock in their words.
My impression is that high profile Kickstarters and similar RPGs generally deliver exactly what they promised...and not one bit more. People get disappointed when they assume that they're really going to deliver more than what they promised. See: Vault Dweller's assumption that PoE was actually going to be fantasy Fallout or MotB 2 or whatever "because it's Obsidian!", and not the souped up Baldur's Gate they always said they were going to make.
In other words, when a developer tells you "X will be more than Y" you can usually believe that. What you shouldn't do is go on and assume that both X and Y will be off the charts, best game ever.
This just proves that you don't get this. What you described is cartoon villans doing evil stuff. If we take a more realistic approach, an evil overlord will know that to rule a land, the land needs rules and laws.
The necessity of laws depends on the goals and structure of power in society.
Since this is fantasy I am guessing Kyros himself is really fucking powerful -- there has been no indication that he is a Littlefinger type villain who is physically weak but gains power through cunning and manipulation. Also, the Archons are described as "beings of immense power" and they work for Kyros. I don't think the Archons would work for someone weaker than themselves -- remember, we're supposed to be evil, and they established in the released short story that soldiers will kill their leaders if they think they are weak.
So considering that by all indications Kyros has overwhelming force on his side -- and as an evil overlord shouldn't be too worried about being fair to people -- then no, it doesn't make sense that he would need a byzantine legal structure to govern his domain. He and his dudes are stronger than everyone, so what they say goes.
That is how evil people work IRL too, but they must use legal structures and deception to control people because they lack the means to do so directly.
I've never expected tactical combat, but I did hope to get that "story that is both personal and far-reaching, with believable characters and factions that create compelling dilemmas for players" and not "because it's Obsidian!" but because it's always been Black Isle/Obsidian's strength: lore, worldbuilding, dialogues. Considering the writing talent, I think it's fair to say that Obsidian did drop the ball there and few people could see it coming.
You do realize that outside the Codex, the world thinks that Baldur's Gate had a "story that is both personal and far-reaching, with believable characters and factions that create compelling dilemmas for players." Thus, I don't think when Avellone said it would be "primarily modeled after Baldur's Gate," he was disavowing prior statements re: the quality of the story-telling. I assumed he just meant the balance of exploration/combat/narrative, the high-fantasy setting, etc.I've never expected tactical combat, but I did hope to get that "story that is both personal and far-reaching, with believable characters and factions that create compelling dilemmas for players" and not "because it's Obsidian!" but because it's always been Black Isle/Obsidian's strength: lore, worldbuilding, dialogues. Considering the writing talent, I think it's fair to say that Obsidian did drop the ball there and few people could see it coming.
I could argue with you about those things (including the idea that Obsidian, a company that made their name working with other people's IPs, are supposed to be "strong in worldbuilding"), but I'm not really thinking about Kickstarter buzzwords here. I'm talking about the things developers say when the game is already a concrete thing in development. We have a talk by Chris Avellone saying "This game is primarily modelled after Baldur's Gate". Don't feel too bad though, even Roguey didn't believe him then.
You do realize that outside the Codex, the world thinks that Baldur's Gate had a "story that is both personal and far-reaching, with believable characters and factions that create compelling dilemmas for players." Thus, I don't think when Avellone said it would be "primarily modeled after Baldur's Gate," he was disavowing prior statements re: the quality of the story-telling.