Dragon Age - TTLG Forums

Andarthiel on 30/11/2009 at 00:23

Quote Posted by AxTng1

Anyone here played NWN2? Where walking over an arbitrary trigger line would spawn about 12 enemies all around you AND THEN LEAVE THE LINE THERE FOR WHEN YOU CAME BACK THE OTHER WAY? Where every fight against a minor mook would use 90% of your resources because of an Oblivion-style challenge rating calculator? That is why we have OCDs about resting for HP and Spells.

Dragon Age simply does not have this problem. A few skillpoints in Survival lets you see what is coming up (not realistic but good for this style of gameplay), and the only "ambushes" are by characters that are justifiably stealth-capable. Getting ganked by two Darkspawn Assassins is OK, gankage by 14 Orc Warriors in the Old Owl Well is not. imo.

I don't think Dragon Age is perfect, I think that it is a big step back towards the right direction. I predict the first EXPANSION PACK not dlc EXPANSION PACK will probably be quite good.

Free Avellone!

Ugh, don't even mention NWN2. That game was one of the most horrible sequels I've played. Neeshka was the only good thing about it, the rest was tedious and uninteresting, the game itself felt like a chore.
NWN1 was one of the best RPGs I've ever played but the sequel just sucked.

steo on 30/11/2009 at 01:09

Quote Posted by Andarthiel

Wha!?! Neeshka is perhaps the most annoying character in any game ever. I can't understand how anyone can possibly like that kind of character. The worst thing about NWN2 was having to take her until you got to Neverwinter because they didn't let you change party members until then. Grobnar was NWN2's best NPC in terms of character, though he doesn't quite live up to Jan Jansen.

I actually rather enjoyed NWN2 once I turned all party AI off. NWN's original campaign wasn't really all that, I think the sequel was better in that respect. Hordes of the Underdark was where NWN really shone, I thought that was one of the best RPG campaigns I've ever played. Similarly Mask of the Betrayer was much better than the original NWN2 campaign, but not as good as HotU, and I can see how some people might find the whole spirit eater thing annoying, though I personally didn't.

I've come up with a strategy for killing the revenants in DA, though the taunt/forcefield combo would probably improve it - I didn't realise the AI was stupid enough to carry on swinging at an enemy it can't hurt and that can't hurt it. By having one tank attack it in melee, and the other party members attacking from range, it never uses it's double swing attack which hits everyone close enough twice. I've killed the two in the forest, but used a lot of healing potions in the process.

Swiss Mercenary on 30/11/2009 at 07:54

Quote Posted by Zygoptera

I have nothing against regen in the right context, and I think I laid out why I think it doesn't work in DAO. My major gripe is that Swiss Merc was building a man of straw with his complaints about rest spamming as that way of playing is entirely a player choice (or not being very good/ playing on too high a difficulty).

I have a problem with regen in games. What I don't have is a problem with out-of-combat regen in games where you are already granted an infinite supply of spells, and health.

You know. Games where you can tap a Rest button.

You were talking about regeneration taking out the need for consumable management? I consider it a non-issue - Why, from a gameplay point of view, would you pop down healing potions after a fight is done, when you could just... Tap the rest button, in less time then it takes to open your inventory?

Koki on 30/11/2009 at 12:10

Tapping the Rest button means 50% chance of another fight.

But I guess people who play Dragon Age, which is essentially same fight over and over, wouldn't mind that either.

You really just don't mind much

nicked on 30/11/2009 at 13:24

Being awakened from rest is what Quicksave and Quickload are for.

Swiss Mercenary on 30/11/2009 at 13:28

Quote Posted by Koki

Tapping the Rest button means 50% chance of another fight.

Oh noes I was ambushed by six goblins. What will I ever do.

Koki on 30/11/2009 at 13:53

Well, to find a bright side to your post, at least you didn't say "Murlocs"

steo on 30/11/2009 at 15:00

In the Cloakwood mines of BG1, for example, the probability of being disturbed, coupled with the not entirely insignificant threat of the disturbers made resting pretty difficult, though possible with a lot of patience. You probably did it anyway before the boss fight though.

Swiss Mercenary on 30/11/2009 at 18:19

Koki sure has a massive hard-on for WoW.

Quote:

Yet by the time of BG2, I can think of... Two areas with random encounters that are remotely dangerous? (One of which even comes with a "DO NOT REST HERE, USE YOUR POCKET PLANE INSTEAD ZOMG" warning when you first try to rest. Speaking of which, I guess by then resting is no-consequence. Damn... Who would have thought it.)

Zygoptera on 30/11/2009 at 20:45

I still think you're missing the primary point- you don't have to rest all the time in BG2. In DAO you don't have choice, and, imo, that has detrimental effects on the gameplay by promoting generic-monster-spam-as-gameplay-mechanic even beyond levels seen in most other RPGs.

Quote Posted by nicked

Being awakened from rest is what Quicksave and Quickload are for.

For a gameplay discussion that's irrelevant though, really- as a developer you should not be setting difficulty based on someone QL/QS/rest spamming (metagaming, basically) after every fight with a kobold or you will find it impossible to balance properly as the player can always get an optimal outcome if they are willing to spam enough. If someone is going to abuse rest or quicksaving that's entirely their choice. Deciding to give up on the whole thing and kowtow to the gods of simplicity and hand holding is not really a good solution. Not in Bioshock, and not in DAO either. Rather ironically in DAO's case the solution also leads to lots of complaints about the game being too hard because of the plethora of identical challenge generic mobs, which is at least better than the cakewalk BS was for 90% of its length.