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rope kid posted:I was running a combat playthrough today and was going around getting feedback from people. Sorry I couldn't make it. This sounds like more fun than an AMA, to be honest.
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Feb 26, 2014 04:26
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Over at the AMA Adam mentioned the playthrough was of level 4 of Od Nua. God I can't believe that thing is going to be 15 levels or whatever.
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Feb 26, 2014 05:46
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Have they said if Od Nua is a place you can go at (relatively) any time or is it something that's meant for end/post-game and gated as such? Because one thing I have a soft spot for is ignoring the intended path and going into dungeons I'm not supposed to be in yet just to see what I come out with (besides scars).
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Feb 26, 2014 06:00
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Lotish posted:Have they said if Od Nua is a place you can go at (relatively) any time or is it something that's meant for end/post-game and gated as such? You're supposed to progressively attempt it over the course of the adventure.
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Feb 26, 2014 06:01
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I hope that the first level or four can be completed early in the game, and then all the deeper levels are opened at some point in the mid-game.
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Feb 26, 2014 06:02
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rope kid posted:Pretty well. The pace of combat is still too fast, but that will soon be remedied. The other major issues are mostly UI/feedback related, which was expected. We already had plans to address most of the bigger problems. Out of interest, will there be any variable options for game/walking/combat speed? One thing that made multiple replays of the Infinity engine games a little less frustrating for me was being able to increase the overall speed of the game, so trudging around the larger maps you spent a lot of time on went by a bit faster. It's not really an issue for first runs, but it's quite a nice ease of use feature.
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Feb 26, 2014 06:12
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Rope kid or one of the updates once said that the story introduces Od Nua fairly early then you can dip in and out as you please.
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Feb 26, 2014 06:13
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fez_machine posted:You're supposed to progressively attempt it over the course of the adventure. New plan: Jump in as soon as it unlocks and don't leave until you get to the bottom!
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Feb 26, 2014 07:02
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Scorchy posted:Over at the AMA Adam mentioned the playthrough was of level 4 of Od Nua. You can get to the Endless Paths relatively early in the game but the difficulty will ramp more quickly than your ability to level within the dungeon itself.
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Feb 26, 2014 07:20
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Foolie posted:New plan: Jump in as soon as it unlocks and don't leave until you get to the bottom! That group of enemies isn't more powerful than me...I just need to be more careful with my strategies. I can beat them, I know it. 
Drifter fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Feb 26, 2014 |
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Feb 26, 2014 08:11
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rope kid posted:I was running a combat playthrough today and was going around getting feedback from people. Sorry I couldn't make it. Hang on a second.... you're not sorry at all! 
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Feb 26, 2014 08:23
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Jerusalem posted:Hang on a second.... you're not sorry at all! An AMA counts as a party, so of course Rope Kid wouldn't be sorry.
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Feb 26, 2014 08:35
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Drifter posted:That group of enemies isn't more powerful than me...I just need to be more careful with my strategies. I can beat them, I know it. I see you're familiar with Baldur's Gate.. Keen as hell to see how this game turns out, backed it from the beginning when I saw the names behind it.
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Feb 26, 2014 09:25
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So you've said there's no player romance, but will any of the companions have romance of their own, even if only a beau back home that never shows up? Or is love a strictly non-companion privilege? Also, I'm wondering given how undeath has been described, since there appears to be no 'contagious' undeath, will undead, unlike any other game pretty much, not flock together? Most other games have lower-ranked undead being servants of higher-ranked ones, necromancers, demons, whatever, and having minions is just about a staple of higher-ranked undead, but there doesn't seem to be any of that connection here judging by the update description. Will there be lonely skeletons barring our paths, or does game design necessity kinda take over? Cause that sounds kinda weak for an encounter.
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Feb 26, 2014 09:25
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I don't see why they wouldn't move around in groups, humans are inherently social creatures even if you strip them down to just instinct. The source of magic being souls rather than intelligence also allows them to have things like casters in groups of undead. It seems like they covered their bases pretty well for allowing room to do whatever they want with undead mechanically.
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Feb 26, 2014 09:51
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Basic Chunnel posted:The "scale" of undeath is an interesting concept. My question would be: Does undeath progress like a cancer or autoimmune illness? By which I mean, can a fampyr stave off degeneration given a steady diet of flesh or is the descent from dead-but-mostly-there person to mindless eating machine something that inevitably cascades over time and will inevitably happen on a timetable starting from the point of death? Is flesh an addictive substance that you develop tolerance toward? It's not hard to imagine a Devil In the White City-esque predatory harvester hiding in plain sight, or cultivating a herd in some hamlet, or an fampyr nobleman dealing or blackmailing his living friends into offering up their servants and subjects. This is a really good question, and I'm not sure if Obsidian wants to keep the details under wraps or not, but I'd like to know too. It also begs the question about Vampire-like undead, and of course uncorporeal undead.
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Feb 26, 2014 10:41
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Clever Spambot posted:I don't see why they wouldn't move around in groups, humans are inherently social creatures even if you strip them down to just instinct. Well the issue is, for the first few stages of decomposition when they still have some intelligence, there's the issue of secrecy - the Fampyr can straight-up blend in with society, so they'd be unwilling to risk much by outing themselves as undead to potential fellow Fampyr. Obviously it could still happen at this stage though. At later stages, it's simply an issue of scarcity - usually undead end up banding together because they're CREATED together, and/or with a specific purpose through necromancy. However, a person degenerating into a Gul or Revenant or Skeleton won't exactly have a community of fellow undead to hang out with, I doubt they have undead craigslist around. I guess if a bunch of people decided to go for 'clinical trials' simultaneously maybe, but even then it sounded more like undeath only started AFTER death, so unless they all died at similar times that still doesn't seem to check out.
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Feb 26, 2014 10:43
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I can totally see old wizard-kings binding souls to the flesh of all their soldiers. That's like doubling their effectiveness in battle! if they die, they go back up! (Nothing could go wrong).
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Feb 26, 2014 10:50
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I also wonder if degenerating into deeper stages of undeath is reversible? As in, is a revenant who consumes sufficient mortal flesh able to regenerate some of its skin and/or intelligence? Also, does it matter what species the flesh comes from? Can a Fampyr sustain itself on a diet of cows or other animals?
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Feb 26, 2014 10:52
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double nine posted:I also wonder if degenerating into deeper stages of undeath is reversible? As in, is a revenant who consumes sufficient mortal flesh able to regenerate some of its skin and/or intelligence? Based on the update, the best they can ever manage is to (temporarily) halt the decomposition, not reverse it.
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Feb 26, 2014 11:00
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Jerusalem posted:Based on the update, the best they can ever manage is to (temporarily) halt the decomposition, not reverse it. That doesn't mean we won't meet a powerful Fampyr who's an undead rights activist, previously being a lesser form of undead before somehow clawing his way back to almost alive status, and now seeking to help others do the same... Mostly by massacring villages with them while doing some sort of nasty arcane poo poo. The fact that it hasn't happened doesn't mean it won't as a plot point.
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Feb 26, 2014 11:05
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It makes sense there will be at least somebody out there who is desperately trying to find a way to reverse and permanently halt the inevitable, especially considering the update mentions the people who undergo this process voluntarily are seeking immortality. I like the idea of an intelligent undead desperately trying to cling on to their mind and escape the inevitable decline into a ravening, mindless monster, and just how far they might be willing to go to achieve their goals.
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Feb 26, 2014 11:10
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Reminds me a lot of Dark Souls, amazing stuff.
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Feb 26, 2014 11:16
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Seeing as at least one of the devs mentioned on the AMA that Dark Souls is his current favourite game I don't think that's entirely coincidental.
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Feb 26, 2014 11:29
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I own Dark Souls and I should probably try to play it before GFWL shuts down and it requires fan-mods to play, but I have so much else waiting to be played, including Stick of Truth. It's a nice problem to have, at least.
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Feb 26, 2014 11:38
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Jerusalem posted:It makes sense there will be at least somebody out there who is desperately trying to find a way to reverse and permanently halt the inevitable, especially considering the update mentions the people who undergo this process voluntarily are seeking immortality. I like the idea of an intelligent undead desperately trying to cling on to their mind and escape the inevitable decline into a ravening, mindless monster, and just how far they might be willing to go to achieve their goals. It would also make them the most gluttonous or voracious: the mechanics of the system drive those who are most afraid of losing their grip on their intelligence to eat as many mortals as they can get their hands on just to avoid losing even a single IQ point. I don't know how this will play out in terms of power level though: what is the more powerful and dangerous entity? An undead who still has its mental faculties, able to place traps, cast spells and use items, weapons and tools; or an undead skeleton that has lost any semblance of self, but is ferocious in its urge to kill double nine fucked around with this message at 11:43 on Feb 26, 2014 |
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Feb 26, 2014 11:39
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Jerusalem posted:I own Dark Souls and I should probably try to play it before GFWL shuts down and it requires fan-mods to play, but I have so much else waiting to be played, including Stick of Truth. It's a nice problem to have, at least. I was worried about that as well, hence rampantly been playing it lately. It takes a while, but once you get the system down, it's a fun game and the difficulty greatly exaggerated. And it is art of storytelling, in that NPC's do not really say much at all, but the environment itself tells a greater story than most RPG's I've played. Obsidian does well with words, but From Software has to be some of the most brilliant users of the visual language I've seen.
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Feb 26, 2014 11:56
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gently caress now I want to play Dark Souls, a game I thoroughly ignored because it's twitch-based, but you guys make it sound like it's actually good.
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Feb 26, 2014 12:56
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Furism posted:gently caress now I want to play Dark Souls, a game I thoroughly ignored because it's twitch-based, but you guys make it sound like it's actually good. It's really not all that "twitch-based", unless you have a different definition for it than I have (which is perfectly possible, I've heard people call Morrowind twitch-based, so..). None of the scenarios require you to have very fast reflexes, and the combat tends to be fairly slow-paced. It's more about not panicking and making good choices, both in terms of what to do moment to moment in combat, and in terms of what to equip and what to level. It's a really engrossing title, give it a try!
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Feb 26, 2014 13:04
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Furism posted:gently caress now I want to play Dark Souls, a game I thoroughly ignored because it's twitch-based, but you guys make it sound like it's actually good.
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Feb 26, 2014 13:09
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Maybe I use the term incorrectly, because I consider Skyrim and Morrowind to be twitchy too. Maybe I should say "actively reactive" or something. In IE games, the dice rolls decide if you hit, or get hit, etc. In the other kind, you have to actively block, time your attacks, etc. I'm not a fan of that, especially when melee is involved (I'm fine with FPS or Fallout). It's not that I'm bad at it or anything, I just prefer die rolls. However for a very good game I could overlook this (after all, I went through Skyrim and that game made me cringe all the time). I guess I'm inconsistent.
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Feb 26, 2014 13:12
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Parrying is pretty twitched based and rolling can be too, but yeah it's perfectly possible to play without those mechanics and succeed pretty much on good tactical decision-making and strong build planning, they really made a conscious effort in Dark Souls to let you legitimately play the game in multiple styles.
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Feb 26, 2014 13:16
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Furism posted:Maybe I use the term incorrectly, because I consider Skyrim and Morrowind to be twitchy too. Maybe I should say "actively reactive" or something. In IE games, the dice rolls decide if you hit, or get hit, etc. In the other kind, you have to actively block, time your attacks, etc. I'm not a fan of that, especially when melee is involved (I'm fine with FPS or Fallout). I'm usually pretty terrible at third person action games, especially those needed controllers rather than keyboard+mouse, but I found Dark Souls to be extremely pleasant to play. It's way more methodical than any other action game I've played, though you do still need some fast reflexes in a few situations.
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Feb 26, 2014 13:20
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Furism posted:Maybe I use the term incorrectly, because I consider Skyrim and Morrowind to be twitchy too. Maybe I should say "actively reactive" or something. In IE games, the dice rolls decide if you hit, or get hit, etc. In the other kind, you have to actively block, time your attacks, etc. I'm not a fan of that, especially when melee is involved (I'm fine with FPS or Fallout). I kinda get where you come from, I kinda find the Witcher to fall into this category for me, where it is unejoyable twitch gameplay and to be honest, I had pegged Dark Souls as the same. The difference I found is that Dark Souls does encourage you to observe your enemies, block their attacks, try to recognize a pattern if they have any and then go loose on them. Bosses are usually more gimmicky, but most of the gameplay goes the same: Either you dodge an attack, block an attack or attempt to parry at great personal risk, or you circle-strafe for a safe, powerful hit. It's more about observing your enemies and using your environment than it is about timing your attacks. Kinda hard to explain in detail, but the PC version should probably be on sale soon. (that said, it is a terrible port and is only made good with help from a user fix, which you can get help working in the SA DSPC thread)
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Feb 26, 2014 13:37
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Furism posted:gently caress now I want to play Dark Souls, a game I thoroughly ignored because it's twitch-based, but you guys make it sound like it's actually good. I'm pretty surprised you've missed over two years' worth of nonstop praise and only now figure that it's "actually good". 
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Feb 26, 2014 13:50
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Dark souls is twitchy in the sense that if you have good reflexes and timing you can avoid ever taking damage without thinking about it too much, or you can be very methodical and pay close attention to every enemies attacks and patterns and react accordingly. It really depends on how you want to play.
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Feb 26, 2014 14:05
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Ooh, I'm imagining a Fampyr ruler that's still benevolent and has a certain sense of morality that secretly has the freshly dead brought from the graveyard to eat to stay healthy, but won't have anyone killed for that purpose. Until he gets a little underfed for a while and his mind starts to falter, or his secret comes out and some Baddie McBaddie tries to turn the people against him and take his place, even though he's actually a good ruler apart from the desecration of the dead thing.
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Feb 26, 2014 14:16
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A Steampunk Gent posted:Parrying is pretty twitched based and rolling can be too, but yeah it's perfectly possible to play without those mechanics and succeed pretty much on good tactical decision-making and strong build planning, they really made a conscious effort in Dark Souls to let you legitimately play the game in multiple styles. The enemy attack animations generally have fairly long wind-ups. If you're trying to dodge or parry them reflexively, you're most likely going to mistime the parry/roll and get punished. It's not about having fast enough reflexes, it's about being able to read the enemy movements correctly and responding appropriately, with the right timing. Dark Souls is twitch-based only in the sense that you do need to be able to input commands accurately and precisely in response to predictable enemy behaviour. Fast reaction times are not necessary, and impatience will be punished.
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Feb 26, 2014 14:21
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You do sort of wonder what an undead dude could do as far as mummification/preservation. Like if you could properly pickle or dry yourself out and live in the desert or whatever...
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Feb 26, 2014 14:29
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Fintilgin posted:You do sort of wonder what an undead dude could do as far as mummification/preservation. Like if you could properly pickle or dry yourself out and live in the desert or whatever... I imagine that you'd still get rot on the brain, though. Can't really pickle your prefrontal cortex without some serious side effects on the ole IQ scale...
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Feb 26, 2014 14:42
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