Why isn't Expeditions: Viking more popular here?

[Morality Games]

(c) despite what people constantly say, most people aren't interested in a grounded historical setting as opposed to a fantasy or sci fi one -- the ones who are are the ones who follow Expeditions threads

When people say they want a historical setting they usually have in mind one or two specific settings rather than the entirety of human history. Vikings in particular are everywhere nowadays and we are all probably a bit tired of them.

I want this guy.

Spoiler

Fair enough, but the problem there is that when everyone who asserts interest in a historical RPG are really just interested in a specific obscure setting, it's impossible to make a game with broad enough appeal to make it even in a full indie context.

You might as well say, "I don't want a historical RPG."

 

[Safav Hamon]

How enjoyable is the combat? Is it as repetitive as Conquistador's?

The combat is so much deeper than in Conquistadors. You have 9 weapon types with 3 special abilities each, 12 offensive abilities, 21 support abilities, and 29 passive combat perks.

Conquistadors had less than half of that. Also because Vikings doesn't use a class system, you have more freedom to customize your builds.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Here are some points I remember when I played the game on release:
-Poorly optimized, had to cap the fps to like 30/40 and even then my GPU (970gtx) kept hovering between 65-70 degrees Celsius.

-Harder to speedhack than usual, because it wasn't that well optimised I couldn't speedhack it enough so the turn based combat was slower than what I'd like it to have been.

-loading times were long, though that was back when I had a HDD.

-character progression was crap, I remember after a certain level (around mid of game) my characters basically stopped growing in power because I maxed all of their relevant skills, so I ended up randomly spending points into shit I didn't need/want because I didn't know what to do with them.

-As mentioned above about character progression, the attributes from character select didn't feel all that impactful as compared to something like fallout; basically too much soyarism for my tastes.

I mostly agree.

Still, i like the game and the settings.

Loading time/memory leaks issues killed it for me (it was alright until i hit the capital city), their biggest mistake was that clumsy engine, if it was optimized (or went 2D) with some marketing, it'd have been a hit.

Of course, there is a lot to improve if you want to make it a masterpiece but it's a good enough TB cRPG if you're not afraid of loading sessions or have a recent gaming PC.

 

[Ivan]

too many crates

 

[thesheeep]

I mostly wasn't interested because in contrast to Conquistador it didn't run on linux. And I did not love Conquistador that much that it would be one of the titles I'd switch to Windows for.
Though reportedly it runs fine via Steam Play now, so I bought it a few days ago and will give it a go once I'm done with Battletech.

 

[Safav Hamon]

A buggy launch, limited marketing reach and non-fantasy setting I think are some of the biggest factors why it is less known.
Time limit didn't help and I don't think we emphasised the differences from conquistador enough.

Does the next Expeditions have a larger budget?

 

[Morality Games]

A buggy launch, limited marketing reach and non-fantasy setting I think are some of the biggest factors why it is less known.
Time limit didn't help and I don't think we emphasised the differences from conquistador enough.

Does the next Expeditions have a larger budget?

The franchise weirdly got bought from Logic Artists by a publisher (which did *not* buy Logic Artists in the deal) who also contracted Logic Artists to make the third game.

It's basically unimaginable it doesn't have a bigger budget.

Also explains the enforced Roman theme. Rome is one of the marketing approved historical settings that can be used in games.

 

[Rahdulan]

I can't help but wonder what a different course this could've taken had devs reversed the order and started with, for example, Viking. Conquistador must've had limited appeal in comparison with that, let alone Rome.

 

[deama]

Here are some points I remember when I played the game on release:
-Poorly optimized, had to cap the fps to like 30/40 and even then my GPU (970gtx) kept hovering between 65-70 degrees Celsius.

-Harder to speedhack than usual, because it wasn't that well optimised I couldn't speedhack it enough so the turn based combat was slower than what I'd like it to have been.

-loading times were long, though that was back when I had a HDD.

-character progression was crap, I remember after a certain level (around mid of game) my characters basically stopped growing in power because I maxed all of their relevant skills, so I ended up randomly spending points into shit I didn't need/want because I didn't know what to do with them.

-As mentioned above about character progression, the attributes from character select didn't feel all that impactful as compared to something like fallout; basically too much soyarism for my tastes.

I mostly agree.

Still, i like the game and the settings.

Loading time/memory leaks issues killed it for me (it was alright until i hit the capital city), their biggest mistake was that clumsy engine, if it was optimized (or went 2D) with some marketing, it'd have been a hit.

Of course, there is a lot to improve if you want to make it a masterpiece but it's a good enough TB cRPG if you're not afraid of loading sessions or have a recent gaming PC.

Spoiler

damn this aged well

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

No rape.

You're fucking kidding me. Why the hell did I even buy this game then?

 

[V_K]

Also explains the enforced Roman theme.

Wait, what? Where are you getting that?

 

[ortucis]

I personally despise anything with vikings in it, haven't looked at it at all.

Same here.

Vikings or anything with Chinese setting. Boring as shit. I avoid them like plague.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Atrocious loading times coupled with terble rest mechanics and small locations.
It's several times worse than the most atrocious examples of unity isometric rpgs. It's Pathfinder: Kingmaker 1.0 initial loading time, but you have to endure it twice every time you want to rest.

The game is breddy good otherwise.

 

[Jimmious]

I believe we are mixing two different issues here...

a) Why the game is not thoroughly discussed in the Codex
Because it used to be in a subforum of its own, somewhere way down the list of subforums. You'd go there only if you were already interested in it

b) Why the game did not succeed commercially/became known
The release was pretty buggy and that created an initial bad rep.
Also it came out in a period of a slight Viking overdose with Banner Saga, a couple of RTS games etc. It doesn't help if your niche-y game is "one more in this setting".
Finally, it indeed didn't seel its features well. It basically was "advertised" as Expeditions: Conquistadors BUT WITH VIKINGS.
The game itself is pretty good at the moment afaik. Although I didn't really go back to it after the release, it is in my plans for the near future

 

[Ibn Sina]

I remember playing it for a while before I got bored. It was a good game. A fine RPG but does not stand out to be remembered in the long run. The problem is that it lacked variety. The weapon variations and the Armour variations where minimal. Even if they were going for a historical settings, there should have been more weapon types. There where only two types of enemies I remember. Humans and wild wolves. Thats it.

I think if they had made it a pseudo historical setting with a spice of mythology and low fantasy it would have certainly increased the variety in the game.

 

[Darth Canoli]

You're fucking kidding me. Why the hell did I even buy this game then?

At some point, after murdering father and sons from a family, you have multiple options to deal with the women, one option is to murder them as well, i'm not sure but letting your men raping them first might be included.

Vikings or anything with Chinese setting. Boring as shit. I avoid them like plague.

I disagree, i'm not a Chinese settings fan and i don't recall enjoying a single game with Chinese settings (not that i played many) but according to Chinese history, there is quite a lot to cover and if a game developer would make a game with Chinese settings for westerners, it has the potential to be pretty good.

 

[ortucis]

Vikings or anything with Chinese setting. Boring as shit. I avoid them like plague.

I disagree, i'm not a Chinese settings fan and i don't recall enjoying a single game with Chinese settings (not that i played many) but according to Chinese history, there is quite a lot to cover and if a game developer would make a game with Chinese settings for westerners, it has the potential to be pretty good.

Yeah but I, personally, don't find Chinese culture or history interesting. At all.

Everytime I see a Western developer putting anything "Chinese" in their game, architecture or whatever, I just skip that game. It puts me to sleep and I just find it funny how Westerners are trying to always trying to throw this in somewhere in their works.. well these days, it's more about profit and they HAVE to add something Chinese. Like awful Chinese actors showing up in random movies for no reason. Or those dramatic shots of a disaster movie taking place in California, suddenly doing a cut to China for Chinese reaction of events. So fucking stupid.

 

[Urthor]

Didn't this game come ~top 10 in the GOTY thread???

It was great but nobody ever knocked it, it's just that unlike Obsidian there wasn't a 400 page thread of people raging about Josh Sawyer, people just quietly played it and enjoyed it.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Because most of codex are pretentious cunts blinded by nostalgia who actually have no taste aside from "muh classics" and lack the open minds to scout actual amazing games

 

[Irxy]

Historical settings are boring. They can be fun when you do them like certain tv series do - with lot's of SEX & GORE & DRAMA & ACTION.
This game has none of it. And while I personally enjoyed both expeditions and will likely buy the next one, the lack of major interest is understandable.

 

[Skdursh]

It's a really good game but at a first glance comes across as shovelware. I was on the fence about this game and conquistadors until I decided to try an "extended free demo" of the game and realized it wasn't complete shit, so I bought it, but on the surface it still doesn't give a great first impression from the Steam screenshots and trailer.

 

[Avonaeon]

Appreciate you buying after trying

 

[Skdursh]

Appreciate you buying after trying

Lol, no problem. I'm glad you guys got a deal with THQ to make more, unless they booted all of you and put their own team on it or something, but I'm hoping that's not the case.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

To formulaic. Vikings and Brits are not interesting, just like with Civil War and nobody that interested in it outside US. Also I disagree with Avonaeon talking about "non-fantasy setting", the game felt like it was a fantasy one, or more like having that Hollywood feel with cliche characters and situations. Map and how exploration of it worked in the first one was way more interesting and gave you that feel of unknown. The romans in the ruins part was just retarded, sorry, it threw the whole premise of realism out for me. I liked the game, just wasn't anything special. It would have been cooler to focus more on the management side and make it more strategy/tactical not RPG-ish.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

You're fucking kidding me. Why the hell did I even buy this game then?

At some point, after murdering father and sons from a family, you have multiple options to deal with the women, one option is to murder them as well, i'm not sure but letting your men raping them first might be included.

So this is yet another game where I'm left with my dick in my hand and having to imagine implied rape, eh? Too many RPGs end up this way and it's an absolute crime.