Information Vote on how Chris Avellone will LP Arcanum!

[Roguey]

He dug that hole himself, Arcanum is a impressive game that the God-Emperor of storyfag RPG's should defintely know, and he actually managed to turn his disturbing lack of repertoire into a way to squeeze a bit more gold bars with that whole "at $4.0m Chris Avellone will be forced to play Arcanum"... MCA could've easily said "I'll bake a cake at 4M" and things would probably end mostly the same.

Also, we gave him that game years ago and he never played it, humph.

One RPG in the past I've never played because I'm aware there's one low-level spell that makes the critical choice with your character progression in the game meaningless because that spell is overpowered.

 

[Gondolin]

So play a tech guy. Don't tell me he simply can't control himself.

 

[felipepepe]

Yeah, pretty bullshit reason... quite douchey thing to say too, considering Obsidian's history. Bet he would be pretty pissed if someone asked Todd Howard about New Vegas and he replied he never play it due gamebreaking bugs.

 

[Roguey]

So play a tech guy. Don't tell me he simply can't control himself.

He can't because the ~path of least resistance~ option is spamming harm. Though melee tech can be pretty good. Just as long as he stays away from ranged.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I bet he will grow tired of it real quick. No Obsidian game has had half the mechanical depth of Arcanum. Obsidian is a storyfag's developer with simplistic gameplay. Quite ironically, their most mechanically deep game is FNV, a wreckage passed down from FO3.

Somewhere out there, Josh Sawyer is crying.

 

[Roguey]

Why would he cry when he was the systems lead on FNV and had very little to do with the systems of their other games?

 

[ghostdog]

Sad thing is that probably nothing he learns will go on into Wasteland 2, since all the design documents are already written...

Well, since Arcanum is basically Fallout in a steampunk setting with crappier combat and some neat ideas about magic/tech where half of them work good and half of them not so good...

...I'd say he's got nothing new to learn except from the fact that Arcanum is a game with extremely high ups and very low downs, and depending on how you approach it and how lenient you are with its shortcomings you might find it a flawed masterpiece, or downright unplayable.

I am one of those that think of it as a flawed masterpiece, but I almost stopped playing it at least three times when I first tried the game. The first one one was at the starting area which is one of the worst areas of the game in all aspects, the second was when I was sick of the combat and went back and re-rolled an agile magician, and the third was when some quest items simply disappeared from my inventory due to Arcanum being a buggy mess. So I understand perfectly all those people that couldn't bring themselves to keep playing the game.

Now that I think of it, MCA *could* learn something from Arcanum, and that is why people actually care for Obsidian's games so far. Most of them are flawed, buggy and unbalanced but they have moments of brilliance that elevate them from the sum of their parts.




BTW, (I speak from experience here) LPs are a double-edged sword. They can give you extra incentive to play the game, experiment with options, forgive shortcomings and find it more enjoyable in certain cases, but they can also wear you down FAST. I would never try my hand at LPing such a massive game as Arcanum.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Why would he cry when he was the systems lead on FNV and had very little to do with the systems of their other games?

Because he's someone with extreme focus on systems and mechanics, and someone just summarily dismissed his company as a "storyfag developer". It must sting a bit regardless if he's personally responsible.

Maybe you should send him a comforting e-mail, Roguey.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

He should play the way I do: Standing, legs apart, naked, a layer of jelly spread over my ass and then a layer of peanut butter. This work of art is completed only by Russian orphans gleefully licking away, enjoying my peanut butter, jelly, and ass sandwich.

 

[Kz3r0]

So play a tech guy. Don't tell me he simply can't control himself.

He can't because the ~path of least resistance~ option is spamming harm. Though melee tech can be pretty good. Just as long as he stays away from ranged.

No, the path of least resistance is a diplomat that recruits an army to deal with all the silly combat.
Without mentioning the fact that you can solve almost all the quests without combat in this way.

 

[felipepepe]

True, fools are more abundant than mana.

 

[Carrion]

Well, since Arcanum is basically Fallout in a steampunk setting with crappier combat and some neat ideas about magic/tech where half of them work good and half of them not so good...

...I'd say he's got nothing new to learn except from the fact that Arcanum is a game with extremely high ups and very low downs, and depending on how you approach it and how lenient you are with its shortcomings you might find it a flawed masterpiece, or downright unplayable.

I'd say Arcanum is in many ways more impressive than Fallout. The scope is much bigger, for instance. A lot of the stuff you do in FO doesn't really affect the game world that much, and all of the locations are quite independent from each other. Arcanum lets you take part in all sorts of political meddling, and some of your choices have pretty drastic consequences in the game world. I also really like the skill system, how persuasion is handled, how your race, sex and background affect the game, and lots of other things that are quite different from Fallout. It's not as good a game as Fallout, but it's probably a more ambitious one.

Every developer of a post-apocalyptic RPG should also take some notes of Arcanum's early-game gunslingers. Having to conserve your ammo and craft some stuff yourself is something you just don't see often enough.

 

[selkin]

I think he probably had stopped playing it at the starting area, just as you mentioned ghostdog.
This is what I did.
So he just didn't want to insult Obsidian by saying it was a unplayable. In my opinion.
By the way the music was also very beautiful but very annoying after a time. An other reason I couldn't continue playing it.

 

[Surf Solar]

What happened to you man? You're so depressed in every News thread recently. More womyn problems?

Huh, I am feeling mighty fine actually, no problems here. Wasn't supposed to sound depressed. I just don't get how this is such a big deal, let that man play the game the way he wants so he can draw conclusions out of it or get some ideas in his way. I realize that him playing Arcanum was sort of a stretch goal and people might feel entitled to have a say how he plays that, but ugh.
I wouldn't even be mad if he wouldn't stream or record it at all and just writes some feedback about it. Let that man play it the way he wants it.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I'm aware there's one low-level spell that makes the critical choice with your character progression in the game meaningless because that spell is overpowered.

This coming from the guy who said he was taking useless skills in Wasteland if they fit his imaginary "character".

Brainrot is apparently attacking Obsidian hard. This, together with Tim Cain's "how to grapple centaur???" are real gems.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

This, together with Tim Cain's "how to grapple centaur???" are real gems.

So where was that gem? I didn't see it.
Also, any updates on races or anything like that in the game?

 

[FeelTheRads]

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61129-reddit-qa-part-2-with-tim-cain/

Admittedly, "how to grapple ooze or dragon???" are even better. Forgot about those.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

If it involves reading I'm not interested.

 

[Infinitron]

Yep, they haven't invented a way to stick your cock into Reddit...yet.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

When they shall, I shall become active again.

 

[marooned]

Arcanum LP can't be other than a written LP. It's not a Doom game, you don't want to see the frigging dialogue screen on youtube for 5 minutes, with MCA reading the lines or without.

Besides, MCA is quite verbose in his blog posts. A written LP would allow him to comment on things he finds interesting and why in detail. In a (recorded or live) video he can only give his first thoughts if that, which at this point can be amusing but worthless.

I also very much doubt he'll take the LP very far but we'll see.

 

[Saduj]

If not for the fact that he made it a KS stretch goal, I would agree with what Surf Solar said. Just let the guy play the game and hopefully enjoy it. Then he could write a book report on it if he feels like it.

But if he offered an LP in exchange for increased pledges then he needs to give people that for which they've paid....

 

[Micmu]

Pretty much. If MCA is known for his writing then a classic, written LP would be the best. This would give him time to actually play the game on his own terms and write a fun and witty article to read.
But NO, in a shocking turn of events, obsidianite fanbois demonstrate their amazing common sense once again. Fuck youtubers.

 

[Roguey]

Because he's someone with extreme focus on systems and mechanics, and someone just summarily dismissed his company as a "storyfag developer". It must sting a bit regardless if he's personally responsible.

He doesn't care about these kinds of statements: http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/1383503655

No, the path of least resistance is a diplomat that recruits an army to deal with all the silly combat.
Without mentioning the fact that you can solve almost all the quests without combat in this way.

Combining both would be best. If you rely solely on companions without contributing to combat yourself you'll have a difficult time in a few spots unless you micromanage in turnbased mode.

Every developer of a post-apocalyptic RPG should also take some notes of Arcanum's early-game gunslingers. Having to conserve your ammo and craft some stuff yourself is something you just don't see often enough.

The notes should be "make your guns better than this or no one but a few masochists will take this as a skill."

 

[Carrion]

The notes should be "make your guns better than this or no one but a few masochists will take this as a skill."

Playing a gunslinger is the only correct way to play Arcanum.