Asking a little TOO much from Spector...

Dragonclaw on 5/4/2002 at 10:46

To a ->smuggler<- ?

What do you expect? He gives you a discount (a big one, if I remember right), and after all, he makes his money with selling weapons...

King Ronald on 5/4/2002 at 16:48

Hey, how about in Deus Ex 2 they include a "Haggle" option, when dealing with traders!

Imagine:

Smuggler: "Box of LAMs, thirty-five hundred."
J.C: "Come off it mate."
Smuggler: "Sorry?"
J.C: "Your twisting my arm aintcha? 2000."
Smuggler: "No way!"
J.C: "Come on mate, I have a family to feed!"
Smuggler: "Alright - 3000."
J.C: "3000? 3000!?! Are you asking ME for 3000, your best customer....etc. etc.

Good innit?

Alternatively, perhaps the option of hoisting the trader guy against the wall with a crossbow pointed at their crotch could add "incentive" to a deal....

Just a few thoughts. ;)

King Ronald on 6/4/2002 at 17:34

Also, J.C should have better maps. Don't get me wrong - the maps in Deus Ex were great. Particulary ones like the LaGuardia airfield or Liberty Island, but:

1) Perhaps J.C could link up to a satillite and have a view of the area he is in, thats real-time and you can spin round etc. That would be better than photos.

2) You could have a map for every area you go. J.C had quite a good set of "whole-area" maps for the first few missions he went on, but about half-way onwards they dried up. There were still a couple, Area51, Paris Catacombs, SoCal Docking bay, SoCal underwater base, but we need MORE! MORE i tell you.

More detailed maps - good or bad for the sequel?

ICEBreaker on 7/4/2002 at 05:08

I agree, but it is hard for JC to get maps of secret places. It is already amazing how he got the entire set of HK Maps including Versalife!

King Ronald on 21/4/2002 at 11:08

I haven't written anything here for ages but here goes -

In Deus Ex 2 It would be really, really ace if you could kill major characters when you wanted. I mean, if when Walton Simons is talking to Manderley, you could just suddenly flip and kill him, spin round and whack Anna Navarre, shoot Manderley and leg it to the helicopter and help the NSF. Just because you wanted to. I mean, your going to have to kill them later on anyway, so its just gonna help you.

Or would that be too hard to program?

Random on 21/4/2002 at 12:31

I agree, Ronald. I think that would be great. Unfortunately it takes a ton of work on behalf of the developers. It's been done in top-down RPGs of course, but not very often in FPS. It would be one massive game that lets you go anywhere, do anything, kill anyone, etc. In fact, I remember an interview with Warren Spector in which he said that Ion decided to go with the mission-based, linear style because a completely non-linear approach is 'an insane amount of work, most of which is not apparent to the player'.

Also, Harvey Smith has said that DX2 will be a shorter game which pretty much means that it will also be a linear, mission-based game (if it was open-ended, it would go on for a long time). I'm very interested to see how they handle the 'invincible characters' thing, because this was certainly one of Deus Ex's flaws.

King Ronald on 21/4/2002 at 14:32

Well, as long as they improve on the flaws of the original, that's the main thing.
It's a pity it will be shorter though - Deus Ex was massive, and that is often a good thing, unless people get put off playing it all over because it's such a big commitment. Maybe if DE2 goes well, DE3 will be the originals length.

ICEBreaker on 21/4/2002 at 16:10

I for one hope DX2 will be shorter. The development effort and time is constant, so reducing the quantity will increase the quality. I would prefer more detailed maps which requires more attention. This is good marketing as well because impatient point-and-shoot players can just walk though a map and never interact with the NPCs, while true fans can spend 5 times longer looking for secret areas and trying out everything possible. I didn’t particularly enjoy revisiting old maps like Hell's Kitchen three times either. In summary, more Hong Kong maps, and less underground dirt tunnels (Mole People / Catacombs).

Amorpheus on 21/4/2002 at 17:48

It won't be shorter. The levels will be smaller but more dense, so it should take more time and be more fun...

ICEBreaker on 22/4/2002 at 03:24

EXACTLY!!