|
Stelas posted:It's pretty interesting. I've got it and only played a little, but need to get back to it sometime. So far it seems like a Heroes of Might and Magic 3 with bonus choose-your-own-adventure segments and camp management, and they seem to be more than willing to go 'hey, Conquistadors were shits'. This post has sort of just reminded me I should go back and finish that King Arthur RTS/RPG game. Last time I'd set up my Camelot and had just had one of my most Christian knights return from a year long internship with the Fae. He could now shoot lightning, had a sweet magical ax and a new leaning toward Old World worship.
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2013 20:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 16, 2024 21:47 |
|
|
I blew a fiver on the current Humble Bundle. Started with Avadon, because it's the only one in the pack I haven't really played yet. I'm not quite sure whether to recommend it or not. I'm about six hours in and the writing is pretty flavourful and interesting, if typical Spiderweb-grade, and there's an absolute assload of it. The gameplay is absolutely dull in every sense of the word, though. It's an endless slog of clicking the same three buttons over and over again, because you get a tiny amount of skill points per level and levelling is glacially slow. It has all the worst things about RPGs. There's no challenge, except for a few boss fights. There's cooldowns, which means you get to use the fun stuff about once per battle. Money is ridiculously scarce, as is better equipment in general. Enemies are just reskins of each other that all do the same thing, which is to blindly run at you and then die. I guess it's alright if you play it for the story, but if you do, I recommend cheating your rear end off.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2013 21:30
|
|
|
Phlegmish posted:I'm playing on the default Normal setting and this happened yesterday: after finishing the quest where you have to fight a mirrored version of your own party in dreamland,  I'm pretty certain that wasn't in the history books. There's an SA thread about it that mentions that really two of the four classes are nigh-on useless for combat. If you're having troubles it might very well be due to bad balance, but there's a lot of advice in there for general party and expedition setup. Alternatively if you cut your teeth on King's Bounty: Armored Princess you're probably used to HOMM games kicking your rear end, might be why I didn't notice it yet. Kokoro Wish posted:This post has sort of just reminded me I should go back and finish that King Arthur RTS/RPG game. Is that the one on Steam? Is it any good? Stelas fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Jul 15, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2013 21:50
|
|
|
So I just got Planescape Torment and was eager to try it out. Very good so far, even though I'm just at the very beginning of the game. I managed to piss off the Dustmen, and now every dustman, zombie and skeletons are attacking me. I really didn't want this to happen because I just loved checking out every zombie and talking to everyone I meet. Did I just screw it all up now, or is it relatively unimportant?(as in, I can just go on a murdering rampage through this first zone) edit: I mean like, am I missing out on something? I talked with the scribe, the lady with the claws and one dustman who almost immediatly called for back-up. Stalins Moustache fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Jul 16, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2013 01:07
|
|
|
Stalins Moustache posted:So I just got Planescape Torment and was eager to try it out. Very good so far, even though I'm just at the very beginning of the game. I managed to piss off the Dustmen, and now every dustman, zombie and skeletons are attacking me. I really didn't want this to happen because I just loved checking out every zombie and talking to everyone I meet. Did I just screw it all up now, or is it relatively unimportant?(as in, I can just go on a murdering rampage through this first zone)
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2013 01:10
|
|
|
thought I'd post this here as well, since I'm not getting any interest in the Steam Sale threads. I bought the RPG Maker VX Ace 4-pack, and have 3 of them available for purchase. $18, which is about $5 off the sale price, and $60 off the regular price. If you would like one, please friend me on steam, and msg me. my profile: http://steamcommunity.com/id/yegods
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2013 02:33
|
|
|
I bought Dragon Age: Origins from steam, and I kinda like it, but combat is hard as balls. Even on easy I'm getting beat up pretty regularely, what am I doing wgrong?
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 12:59
|
|
|
ManOfTheYear posted:I bought Dragon Age: Origins from steam, and I kinda like it, but combat is hard as balls. Even on easy I'm getting beat up pretty regularely, what am I doing wgrong? How many mages do you have? Get two and pretty much roll over everything in the game.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 13:06
|
|
|
Hav posted:I'll probably start up another game for this; in Broken Valley, I seem to get completely trounced by the guards on the way to the temple. Are there any general character build tips that anyone has? You betcha, but can you narrow down what your character specializes in/wants to specialize in? You could at least give us fighter/mage/ranger. Why do people who ask for help make us drag out the information about their character from them with wild horses? I assume you mean the boss fight or Black Ring fight heading towards Maxos Temple. What level are you? That area is aimed at those in the low-mid teens. Black Ring are also nastier enemies than other enemies of the exact same level. Try to use your dodge roll if you're a ranged attacker, and drink your buff potions before fights. You get lots of buff potions, more than you need, so use them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 14:54
|
|
|
Divinity 2 peoples: is the new difficulty mode they added any good? At least I think it's new, I don't remember it being here when I last played.ManOfTheYear posted:I bought Dragon Age: Origins from steam, and I kinda like it, but combat is hard as balls. Even on easy I'm getting beat up pretty regularely, what am I doing wgrong?
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 16:31
|
|
|
Kokoro Wish posted:How many mages do you have? Get two and pretty much roll over everything in the game. Rascyc posted:It gets easier after the introduction, if that's where you're wiping. Difficulty is indeed blunted by using more casters, so the introduction is the hardest for non-mage starts since they game gives you no casters except for the generic temporary one. My main character is a warrior and I only have Morrigan, I haven't met any other casters yet. I did the elf-part first and then I went in to Ostagar and the Dead Threnches are irritating as all hell. DR:O is okay, the story is interesting enough and the writing is alright, but the combat really isn't fun at all. I've basically been playing JRPG's so I'm more accustomed to people standing in a row a waiting for commands to be issued, but constantly pausing the game to force feed people healing potions and otherwise waiting for them to wipe out the enemy by the tactics I issued isn't engaging and - in my opinion, at least - gives a broken pacing to it all. In most of Final Fantasy, you just spam attack and then throw a spell here and there, it isn't that complicated, but the pace of the combat is solid and you always have the control over things. In DR:O I often find myself dead when characters get surrounded by the enemy in a big clusterfuck and I have to play a nanny to them to change their targets and get them to heal themselves. If I'm late, they're dead. People disliked FF12's combat because the game basically played itself and DR:O a lot of same mechanics, Gambit-system and all. In FF12, though, navigating it all was way easier, because every command was in a menu you got out by clicking one button and clicking another button to issue it, while in DR:O you either have to remember the macro or use the cursor. DR:O is a PC game while FF12 is a console one, that's true, but DR:O makes more of an hassle to do the basic things. Maybe I just don't know how to play the game, but this is just irritating.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 17:33
|
|
|
Rascyc posted:Divinity 2 peoples: is the new difficulty mode they added any good? At least I think it's new, I don't remember it being here when I last played. Nightmare? It's just a enemy damage/HP boost, I think. The way difficulty goes in this game, I start on Normal, then to keep things challenging, I move to Hard at level 30, then up to Nightmare at 40.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 17:43
|
|
|
ManOfTheYear posted:Maybe I just don't know how to play the game, but this is just irritating. If its any consolation you've basically unknowingly chosen to play the game in its absolute most difficult and boring order. You aren't a mage which is effectively instantly raising the difficulty one setting and you've gone in the order that provides the least useful companions. Doing the mage tower is how you get the other mage character and basically should be where you start the game. Combat never improves, by the way, so unless you're willing to restart/grit and bear it I'd really really recommend just going into the menu and dropping the diffuclty to easy. Given your current setup the game still won't be easy but it'll at least be beatable. Once you have both mages they need to go in your party asap and you can set them up to follow a pretty decent macro of "make everything explode because magic is ridiculous" -> chug mana restoration potions.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 17:55
|
|
|
If you're playing DA:O for the writing then just cheat. The combat never becomes fun, so you might as well cheese it as much as possible and take the characters along who interest you the most, rather than those that make the combat system tolerable.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 17:58
|
|
|
Cardiovorax posted:If you're playing DA:O for the writing then just cheat. The combat never becomes fun, so you might as well cheese it as much as possible and take the characters along who interest you the most, rather than those that make the combat system tolerable. Wasn't DA:O wildly regarded as a very good game? Was it based on the story alone?
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 17:59
|
|
|
Kild posted:Wasn't DA:O wildly regarded as a very good game? Was it based on the story alone? It was based on two things: 1) The story was to fantasy as Mass Effect was to sci-fi; leagues better than the other offerings on the market. 2) On PC at least, its basically Baldurs Gate or other isometric RPGs from that era and literally features the same camera angles and set up. It also has about the exact same issues and flaws as well.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:01
|
|
|
I dunno about wildly regarded, being that it was billed as a spiritual successor to BG and definitely fell short of that mark. Overall though I think its an ok game, with a good balance between the story and the gameplay. I thought the combat was pretty fun actually, except for a few parts that were a real slog. The plot and dialog were a bit meh to me but I can see the appeal.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:02
|
|
|
It was a throwback to Baldur's Gate which was fairly new/exciting, the origins (different starting areas for each race+gender) are still a highlight of the game that isn't replicated anywhere really, and the adventure + companions who like/dislike you how you treat them and branching stories weren't an old hat then either.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:06
|
|
|
Personally I'm still convinced that DA's positive press was 90% rooted in Bioware's PR department, not the actual quality of the game. And yeah, the gameplay's a lot like old Infinity Engine games, but those aren't something you'd play for the combat, either.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:07
|
|
|
Cardiovorax posted:And yeah, the gameplay's a lot like old Infinity Engine games, but those aren't something you'd play for the combat, either. Well that's definitely an opinion, not a popular one I'd expect. You ever try the Icewind Dale series?
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:13
|
|
|
Cardiovorax posted:And yeah, the gameplay's a lot like old Infinity Engine games, but those aren't something you'd play for the combat, either. I've only tried Infinity Engine games, but why the combat isn't appealing? Considering that the appeal of RPG's basically ends up in story/combat/customization/exploration department, the rest of the game has to be pretty drat good if combat is a hassle.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:21
|
|
|
ManOfTheYear posted:I've only tried Infinity Engine games, but why the combat isn't appealing? Considering that the appeal of RPG's basically ends up in story/combat/customization/exploration department, the rest of the game has to be pretty drat good if combat is a hassle. In Baldurs Gate 1/2 at least party composition is ridiculously imbalanced and at higher levels you're playing a game of instagib rocket tag between wizards where the only appreciable benefit to melee characters is they can be targeted instead of your casters. This of course, goes on top of a trash mob mentality where most fights require engagement to maneuver and yet are meaningless in their rewards and basically only exist to make you waste resources that you then waste time recovering just so that you can go further into the dungeon. Combat really quickly begins to feel like padding because either you're playing wrong and get gibbed constantly or you're playing right and gibbing things without challenge but having to go through a series of rote motions everytime just to get to the few interesting encounters/next bit of non-combat content.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:27
|
|
|
I've played Icewind Dale 2, but I wouldn't say that one had very fun combat either. If that's an unpopular opinion I'm honestly surprised, because most mods for Baldur's Gate 1&2 come in one of two flavours: additional NPCs for your party or gameplay hacks and rescripting of encounters to make the combat not suck quite as much rear end.ManOfTheYear posted:I've only tried Infinity Engine games, but why the combat isn't appealing? Considering that the appeal of RPG's basically ends up in story/combat/customization/exploration department, the rest of the game has to be pretty drat good if combat is a hassle. [edit] Also "save or die" spells. SO many save or die spells.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:28
|
|
|
I always interpreted the gameplay mods to be indicative of the good gameplay in those games. As in people liked it so much that they want to play again with the difficultly increased or certain things changed to their liking etc. I mean if you look at the BG thread, people don't spend a lot of time talking about the story anymore, its like 90% combat mechanics talk. Personally I think they're great, a nice balance of individual character progression and team tactics. Granted, I haven't played the vanilla versions of these games in quite a while, maybe they are mostly trash fights, although it certainly didn't seem that easy back in the day. Also, the way you describe the combat: auto-attack/buff/direct damage, sounds like it could be literally any RPG ever.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:38
|
|
|
I've always enjoyed the combat in the infinity engine games. There are some pretty memorable and challenging fights, and I've always enjoyed watching my dudes run across the map slaughtering everything with minimal interaction.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:39
|
|
|
Stelas posted:There's an SA thread about it that mentions that really two of the four classes are nigh-on useless for combat. If you're having troubles it might very well be due to bad balance, but there's a lot of advice in there for general party and expedition setup. Alternatively if you cut your teeth on King's Bounty: Armored Princess you're probably used to HOMM games kicking your rear end, might be why I didn't notice it yet. Do you happen to have a link to that thread? My usual set-up is three soldiers, two hunters and a doctor, but I'm guessing I should throw an explorer in there somewhere. It doesn't really matter since I just started cheating, though. It was that or starting over. At least I managed to make it through the first half of the game. Usually when I hear the word 'indie' I reach for my gun, but this really is a solid game for 10€.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:41
|
|
|
voltron lion force posted:Also, the way you describe the combat: auto-attack/buff/direct damage, sounds like it could be literally any RPG ever. Some of the boss fights were pretty nice and intense, though. It's just that there weren't nearly enough of them to compare to all the filler.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:45
|
|
|
Wow. That really doesn't sound like a fun pastime  Cardiovorax posted:The rest of those games is really, really good. BG1&2 are still celebrated as the pinnacle of PC RPGs almost 15 years after they were released. This is pretty intriguing. Why they are so good? I bought Planetscape: Torment from the GOG sales and I tried it briefly and I'm gonna play it more when I've got time for it. Isn't that game a really big hard-on for PC gamers?
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:56
|
|
|
Cardiovorax posted:I've played Icewind Dale 2, but I wouldn't say that one had very fun combat either. If that's an unpopular opinion I'm honestly surprised, because most mods for Baldur's Gate 1&2 come in one of two flavours: additional NPCs for your party or gameplay hacks and rescripting of encounters to make the combat not suck quite as much rear end. Existing mods influence the actual combat portion not by messing with the mechanics, but by tweaking the content. To put it simply: the content designed for IE games targets the casual gamer (which was a good decision in all honesty since the system is pretty opaque without extended reading). Mods like SCS2 take it to the extreme by re-adjusting all the content for D&D'ers or people willing to learn all of the mechanics especially with the spell system. Whereas the Tactics mod hits a middle ground between D&D systems and RPG game (and ends up being harder).
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 18:56
|
|
|
ManOfTheYear posted:Wow. That really doesn't sound like a fun pastime Well Planescape has a great story that you interact with a lot via dialog options and a setting that lends itself to a lot of interesting encounters. People mainly love it for its plot since its practically an adventure game given how much dialog there is and how little the combat aspect is emphasized.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 19:05
|
|
|
ManOfTheYear posted:This is pretty intriguing. Why they are so good? I bought Planetscape: Torment from the GOG sales and I tried it briefly and I'm gonna play it more when I've got time for it. Isn't that game a really big hard-on for PC gamers? The thing is, they both do their particular thing spectacularly well. PS:T is all about character interaction, exploring the past and just enjoying the surreal atmosphere and soaking up the great writing. It deals with themes of with perspective, identity, what's real and what isn't, stuff like that. Everything is really tightly integrated into the greater whole and you'll often be given an important piece of the plot and only realize it hours later. Baldur's Gate 2 is more about giving you a huge loving world to run around in and explore, as fully realized as possible. There are easily 200+ hours of content to the whole thing. There are hundreds of NPCs to talk to, dozens of quests and giant, hand-drawn maps, literally thousands of unique items to find and so many things to find and do that I honestly believe I still haven't seen everything that game has to offer, and I literally bought it the week it was released. You can do anything from running your own wizarding school to fighting a war of succession in a society of fish people, and you never get the feeling that any part of it is just tacked on or incomplete. It's the closest thing to playing a D&D campaign short of actually joining a P&P group. Honestly, when in doubt, get both. They're both really cheap on GOG and worth every cent.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 19:09
|
|
|
Barudak posted:Combat really quickly begins to feel like padding because either you're playing wrong and get gibbed constantly or you're playing right and gibbing things without challenge but having to go through a series of rote motions everytime just to get to the few interesting encounters/next bit of non-combat content. This describes about 90% of RPGs, though. I had fun with the DA:O combat back when it came out, but I had never played any of the Infinity Engine games so I didn't really have a reference. Played through once with a Rogue main and only one Mage in the party, and that kept the combat interesting. It's true that with 2 Mages the combat basically becomes an annoying chore, because every battle has basically all of the enemies stun-locked.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 19:12
|
|
|
ManOfTheYear posted:This is pretty intriguing. Why they are so good? I bought Planetscape: Torment from the GOG sales and I tried it briefly and I'm gonna play it more when I've got time for it. Isn't that game a really big hard-on for PC gamers? Because a lot of people played it when they were thirteen and it was their first pc rpg. That isn't to say Baldurs Gate was bad, it's just that it had a lot of real neat things and winks and nods that people remember far more than the mountains of obtuse to straight out bad mechanics and pacing. They really are only worth playing if you have a tolerance to that kind of game. Not necessarily needing as high of a tolerance that is needed for enjoying your Ultimas and Wizardrys, but still a willingness to put up with dumb bullshit from old games.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 19:12
|
|
|
Phlegmish posted:Do you happen to have a link to that thread? Here you go. Sorry to say, but apparently the second part is a meatgrinder? I guess I should give it a proper go sometime. When I'm not replaying Wizardry 8.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 19:40
|
|
|
Lotta people ragging on Baldur's Gate's combat in here, which holds up rather well considering its age. Yeah, the engine limitations and somewhat poor pathfinding can be annoying, but if you think it boils down to "buff, right-click attack" or gib-or-be-gibbed, then play without the training wheels. The difficulty mods actually make melee classes more useful, since a dual or multiclass melee-caster is usually superior to a pure caster.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 19:58
|
|
|
Just about to play Titan Quest for the first time. Anything I should know? I'm reading up a little bit on classes but most of the guides--as per usual with Action RPGs--are written by spergy powergamers who are willing to have an incredibly unfun game experience until they're level 4000 or whatever and their character build finally stops sucking rear end. Any good builds for people who aren't great at ARPG min-maxing and just want to have a good time?
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 21:14
|
|
|
OSheaman posted:Just about to play Titan Quest for the first time. Anything I should know? I'm reading up a little bit on classes but most of the guides--as per usual with Action RPGs--are written by spergy powergamers who are willing to have an incredibly unfun game experience until they're level 4000 or whatever and their character build finally stops sucking rear end. Any good builds for people who aren't great at ARPG min-maxing and just want to have a good time? I always had good success with Defense/Hunter? since you can exploit stacking pierce damage and also come with a good quantity of defense abilities on the side. You get to charge, stab stuff really hard with a spear, bash with the shield etc. It's not super powergamey either and is good fun if you like to just charge into the thick of it. It has the potential to be seriously min/maxed so you can take it easy or go balls deep in the powergame.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 21:18
|
|
|
OSheaman posted:Just about to play Titan Quest for the first time. Anything I should know? I'm reading up a little bit on classes but most of the guides--as per usual with Action RPGs--are written by spergy powergamers who are willing to have an incredibly unfun game experience until they're level 4000 or whatever and their character build finally stops sucking rear end. Any good builds for people who aren't great at ARPG min-maxing and just want to have a good time? I never got into it because melee characters really seemed to get the shaft for a number of reasons, the greatest of which they have to get close to do damage and that's a recipe for disaster at least early to mid game. If you play with other people who play ranged/magic it's also not much fun because everything is dead before you can even get close to do anything at all. That may have changed since I played but my recommendation is to stick with a ranged/caster character.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2013 00:38
|
|
|
Levantine posted:I never got into it because melee characters really seemed to get the shaft for a number of reasons, the greatest of which they have to get close to do damage and that's a recipe for disaster at least early to mid game. If you play with other people who play ranged/magic it's also not much fun because everything is dead before you can even get close to do anything at all. That may have changed since I played but my recommendation is to stick with a ranged/caster character. This is good advice for the long-haul as well. A Melee character will become pretty strong during the 2nd half of a first play-through, but if you jump up in difficulty after one completion the danger comes full-circle and you'll be getting crushed by most of the beginner monsters again. Best advice is to try to build towards a character that will allow you to summon/maintain at least one good pet(or set of pets, in the case of /Nature) to help absorb some of the incoming damage.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2013 01:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 16, 2024 21:47 |
|
|
Back on page 77 about FF4.BadAstronaut posted:I'm about ready to give up on FF4. Not because it is too hard or because it is frustrating me, but simply because I am not all that engaged, and I am finding it very samey. I'm at the point where I've just got the Earth Crystal and I'm about to track down Kain in the futuristic sci-fi looking place to save Rosa and I'm getting annoyed with the frequency of random battles and the sameyness of everything I've done thus far. Maybe FF4 just isn't for me, but I'm not all that engrossed in the characters or the story, and find the levels to all be simple variations of the same thing. Combat is also very samey - and what is surprising is how much I loved Dragon Quest 4 and 9, as well as Lufia 2, so it's not like I dislike this style of game. How often did you run from battles in FF4? The reason the battle frequency never bothered me, unlike let's say FF9 where I found the encounter rate to be game ruining brutal, is because there's always a 100% success rate in running. And you run instantly. It's like it never happened. If you don't want to fight battles you don't have to. I never liked the enemies in the Tower of Zot, so I run from every 4 out of 5 battles each time I'm in that area. That's the way I've played it since I first played the game in 1991. It's too bad that you quit before getting to the underground portion of the game. I really can't imagine how you could tolerate FF9 if you found FF4's encounter rate annoying and didn't like FF4's setting. I definitely think you'd prefer 6 or 7 way over FF9 based on this post.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2013 02:33
|
|
