Caltrops - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

Forum Overview :: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

by Bill Dungsroman 03/03/2003, 1:08pm PST

THE HOLY GOAT OF POWER wrote:

Cut out leveling up entirely. Lose those fucking XPs. For once make an RPG where the characters start out competent and badass so they can deal with the big cool badass things from the start. Did anyone seriously enjoy mugging quivering blobs of jelly for gold and exp for hours on end before finally EARNING the ability to wear the super badass armor and wield the sword of goodness and peace +5 for disembowling Seven-headed Dragons? If I want to do brainless repetitive labor for the satisfaction of EARNING something, I'll go get a retail job where I at least get a small amount of cash for my labors. Fuck earning, let's make an RPG that's FUN FROM THE GET GO! The Anti-Diablo, if you will.

Everquest fans hate you, MM. But therein lies the double-edged sword of Damocles, or whatever. Start out your character in upper levels (like BG2), and what do you get? Higher level monsters to fight. Plus, (especially for D&D-derived games), levelling is quicker between lower levels, which is supposed to be fun. Anyway, if you get the SBA and wield the SwordoGaP+5 right off the bat, it's automatically devalued anyway; where's my Inconceivabely Supremest SuperDeeDuper Phantom Armor and my +30 Falchion of Instant Disembowelment?

THE HOLY GOAT OF POWER wrote:

"But Holy Goat of Power!" You mewl, "If you take the leveling and monster-mugging out of cRPGs, what's left?"

How about plot? As I recall, the original premise and appeal of role-playing games is actively taking the role of a character from the kind of stories you enjoy reading and going on wild adventures filled with excitement and danger, not rolling those three six-sided dice over and over again until you luck out and get all 17s and 18s on your attributes. Did anyone enjoy Planescape's clunky class-changing system or going on quests to deliver a message about labor troubles to the local warehouse? No! The plot was what made the game great. If anything, the chores and the stats detracted from the game.

But the chores and the stats are the easy part, and gamers take what they can get. You know and I know that another Planescape (literally and figuratively) isn't likely, at least for awhile. Hasn't been, either. Plus, how much of a success, sales-wise, was Planescape? Not as much as either Baldur's Gates. Icewind Daleses, even, I'd wager.

THE HOLY GOAT OF POWER wrote:

Why not leave the numbers to the computer and replace stats with simple adjectives? Rograhn is Mighty, Slow, and Highly Skilled in the Battleaxe. Lyphwynn is Weak, but Quick, Very Stealthy, and Expert in the use of poisons. Go storm the castle of darkness and reveal a deeper mystery than you were originally tasked with solving!

HOW DARE YOU ABSTRACT MY MIN-MAXING TRAITS YOU FAG! Or whatever the trendy complaint will be from the grognards. IMO, converting a base-18 attribute scale into three of four adjectives is just convertin git to a base 3 or 4 system, which is "simpler" and thus "not desirable" amongst the number-crunchers and EQers alike, who make up a significant portion of a game's sales nut. I don't like it, you don't like it, but the bank a game dev's SUV has its loan from does, with a degree or two of separation.

THE HOLY GOAT OF POWER wrote:

The sad fact is, japanese cRPGs are just Anime with chores between the movies. At least they have better movies now than in the original Final Fantasy days.

Final statement: More meat, less filler!

"The sad fact is." Someone should publish a computer gaming mag with that title.

BDR