|
Any recommendations from the grand finale packages? I just started buying stuff off GOG this sale so I think 95% of the stuff on the list are games that I haven't owned or played yet.
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 14:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 00:55 |
|
|
I really wish I could just get BG/BG2/P:T/IWD/IWD2/TOEE without NWN1/2 and the other two, at the special deal.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 15:13
|
|
|
Shrimp or Shrimps posted:I really wish I could just get BG/BG2/P:T/IWD/IWD2/TOEE without NWN1/2 and the other two, at the special deal. You better not be talking poo poo about mask of the betrayer We don't obsidian shame in this household
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 17:00
|
|
|
The Spiderweb Games are awesome RPGs. They're huge, fun, and usually support going anywhere you want while still providing enough direction with quests if that's what you want. More people should play them.
LLSix fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Jun 30, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 18:38
|
|
|
I've beaten all six Avernum games, the first remake and Avadon. The Avernum games are pretty great, and there are some amazing walkthroughs online if you ever need help. Just google Annotated Maps for Avernum.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 18:42
|
|
|
in that case what series is better? Avernum, geneforge, avadon?
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 18:46
|
|
|
I like Avernum the best due to the open endness and old school RPG goodness. I've not played much Geneforge, so someone else will have to comment. Avadon isn't bad, but it's much more on rails than Avernum. Edit: The Spiderweb thread is here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3537468 GreenNight fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Jun 29, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 18:49
|
|
|
I've just bought 80$ worth of rpg's and adventure games, I've started my PC adventure in late 90' and haven't had any access to many of those games. It will be fun couple of months, I've started with Jade Empire - I like KOTOR 2 vibe I'm getting from it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 19:09
|
|
|
Jade Empire's writing isn't even close to the quality of writing of KOTOR 2 just as a heads up. Jade Empire is an okay game but the ending was such a slog that I just gave up on it. It's practically just KOTOR 1 in ancient China because Bioware can't make an RPG that isn't practically KOTOR 1 in a different coat of paint.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 19:29
|
|
|
Accordion Man posted:Jade Empire's writing isn't even close to the quality of writing of KOTOR 2 just as a heads up. Jade Empire is an okay game but the ending was such a slog that I just gave up on it. It's practically just KOTOR 1 in ancient China because Bioware can't make an RPG that isn't practically KOTOR 1 in a different coat of paint. Yeah I'm getting a lot of "X is always the good choice, Y is always the bad choice." X you help people, Y you kill them / take their stuff / demand payment. The only thing I think it'll change is maybe the ending.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 19:31
|
|
|
Mortimer posted:Yeah I'm getting a lot of "X is always the good choice, Y is always the bad choice."
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 19:54
|
|
|
Mortimer posted:You better not be talking poo poo about mask of the betrayer Nah, it's just I already own them (on Steam). Shrimp or Shrimps fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Jun 29, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 22:07
|
|
|
what style combat does NWN2 use? turn based, real time, or Baldurs Gate/Icewind Dale style combat? Getting NWN2 cheap before the GOG sale ends isn't worth getting Demon Stone+Dragonshard+Icewind Dale 2 at the same time, for me. I loathe infinity engine combat, basically.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 22:40
|
|
|
Accordion Man posted:Yeah, Jade Empire was Bioware's first attempt at trying to not make a totally black and white choice system, i.e. Open Palm was supposed to be essentially the bog standard "give a man fish" style of heroism while Closed Palm was supposed to be a Kreia-esque "Teach a man to fish by making them self-reliant even if you have to be kind of an rear end in a top hat to do it." style of decision making. It just ended up being stark good and petty evil anyway just like Paragon and Renegade in Mass Effect after it, because Bioware writers were never really all that good.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 22:41
|
|
|
tuluk posted:what style combat does NWN2 use? Same as every single Bioware D&D game: real time with active pause.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 22:45
|
|
|
I bought the Sam and Max, Deponia, and Spiderweb packs. I wish there was someway to put the things into a single cart because my credit card company seems uneasy about lots of small purchases to foreign places.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 22:48
|
|
|
cool thanks. Gonna wait for GOG's winter sales event & see what happens regarding NWN2. if I do try & get back into Baldurs Gate for the 5th time: does anyone have any tips to make the combat suck less in the infinity engine games? I'll take any advice.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 22:54
|
|
|
tuluk posted:cool thanks. What exactly sucks about it? What is the cause of your frustration?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 00:03
|
|
|
just about every part of Baldur Gate combat frustrated me. I grew up with the mechanics from other RPGs (bards tale/wizardry/dungeon keeper/might&magic/etc) & earlier SSI goldbox games. the infinity engine combat felt like a downgrade in every category compared to those earlier RPG titles for me. In game, the character models all blended together, and looked tiny & blurry against the backdrops. Even with with every character set to a different primary color(SSI goldbox trick), I was never quite sure which character was were during combat...until I paused & clicked portraits. the AI scripts for characters was really horrible, especially in real-time mode. Characters would run off/never switch from ranged to melee combat. Maybe the formations I used were to blame? I had to pause/micromanage every character action, unpause the game and see if/when the commanded characters would do what I instructed. Direct control of 1 character with pause after every turn wasn't much of a improvement. Then I could never get a feel the ranged combat. Or when to restock on arrow & stone ammunition for mages/thiefs/clerics. Mages would either never use their slings or wander around trying to get enough distance for a sling shot. A chapter 4 battle could take 1-3 arrows or a entire stack of arrows for a bow character. Ammo stack amounts annoyed me. Spellcasting/special powers: when I did use them, they went off. I wish there was a script for more granular NPC AI spelling casting intelligence. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Jun 30, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 00:46
|
|
|
tuluk posted:just about every part of Baldur Gate combat frustrated me. You should just turn off all AI you can and you should never ever use it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 01:16
|
|
|
Jamesman posted:I wasn't trying to come in and be like "Oh woe is me" or anything. I just wanted to know if there was anyone else who experienced this that would make the coincidence not seem so coincidental to help me further solve this issue for myself. I haven't ever had any trouble buying from Gog before, but I remember hearing that some banks are more wary about gaming sites due to gambling or something. Although, I think that may have been in reference to Green Man Gaming specifically. My bank canceled my card after I bought a Humble Bundle a few months ago, but I looked online and no one else seemed to have any trouble with them and I haven't since, so it might just be bad luck. Either way, I usually use Paypal for game purchases now, just in case.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 01:16
|
|
|
tuluk posted:just about every part of Baldur Gate combat frustrated me. You shouldn't use the AI ever. As far as managing characters, the best option is to limit how many are in melee combat. Ideally you want two guys as the muscle and the rest casting spells or firing from range. As for ranged combat, I don't really know what to say about your issue. Characters will fire their bows at any range, including melee which you don't want because it gives the enemy a bonus to their attack. But in the 2E ruleset, ranged weapons are the best. A fighter with specialty in darts or bows can get like 5 attacks a round and will disrupt any caster instantly. So all I can say is to turn off the AI completely. When you engage a hostile enemy, pause and direct your melee characters to engage them. Then order your casters and ranged fighters to target the enemy. If everyone attacks at once or you set the AI then it's likely the ranged/casters will hit first and the enemy will bypass your fighters which leads to a confusing jumble. This will spell your death instantly. I like the Infinity Engine battle system because it puts a focus on battlefield control. You can set detailed parameters for when the game will pause like every time you or the enemy takes damage. You can set it up to simulate a turn based field. But if you're not willing to manage 6 characters in a fight then no, you'll never like it
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 03:14
|
|
|
al-azad posted:You can set it up to simulate a turn based field. This, this right here is a dirty, dirty lie. Even though that's what the box said when it first came out. I enjoy BG, but combat doesn't feel remotely turned base, not even with setting it to pause at the end of every turn. It is much easier to control 12 guys in a truly turn-based system like X-Com than to manage 6 in the Infinity Engine. I usually play solo or with a small party because micro-managing all six characters in gets tedious for me pretty quickly. Combat is much more fun with a solo character, but then you lose out on the charm of the npcs.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 03:59
|
|
|
Then I'm satisfied with being an IE savant who can manage 6 characters plus summoned monsters with zero issues telling who is who or what to do or where to go. And at the end of the day I prefer real time in BG's environment. Turn based games need smaller parties with smaller monster counts, otherwise you get battles that go 30 minutes or more just like the tabletop game.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 04:48
|
|
|
al-azad posted:You shouldn't use the AI ever. LLSix posted:Combat is much more fun with a solo character, but then you lose out on the charm of the npcs. Thanks for the advice. I've tried baldurs gate 1 four times up to mid cloakwood mine(3 times with bgtutu) before burning out from frustration with AI managed combat & NPCs grating on me. Nobody in the Baldurs Gate advice threads I've read flat out admits that the NPC AI loving sucks. Maybe it's a unwritten rule to gloss over that point while hyping up overpowered PC builds & the "best" NPC companions to use. The only team build I wasn't wishing death on by mid-chapter 4 was team neutral evil (me, imoen, that neutral female cleric NPC, edwin, and that drow elf cleric). So maybe a solo run, or all custom built PC characters in Multiplayer mode would be better.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 07:27
|
|
|
tuluk posted:Thanks for the advice. It's pretty much a given that the AI of party members in any RPG aren't going to be worth a drat. There's plenty that one can complain about concerning Baldur's Gate, but party AI is the most bizarre thing to complain about. I'd say give BG2 a try since not everyone like BG1, but if you're not actually controlling your party then uh 
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 08:33
|
|
|
tuluk posted:The only team build I wasn't wishing death on by mid-chapter 4 was team neutral evil (me, imoen, that neutral female cleric NPC, edwin, and that drow elf cleric). So maybe a solo run, or all custom built PC characters in Multiplayer mode would be better. It's funny you mention that because Branwen, Edwin, and Viconia are among the top tier NPCs. And in BG2 Edwin and Viconia are frustratingly the best NPC casters (and Edwin has the best story/loyalty side quest in any RPG ever made ever) but they'll ditch you if your alignment is too high. Although I believe you can convert Viconia to Chaotic Neutral through the story. With that said, Baldur's Gate is basically a dungeon crawler. There are story elements but BG2 and Throne of Bhaal are where Bioware hit their sweet spot between story telling and fighting. You can even see it in the design how BG has dozens of minor areas while BG2 is a handful of large areas. I'm biased in my love for the game but all I can recommend is to turn off the AI and manage the fights by sending out a scouting party of squishy summons or tanks then pausing so you can assign people to deal with the enemy. There is a button in the lower right corner that turns on/off AI scripting so what I do in a major fight is take out the major enemies then turn on the AI with an auto-attack script (I never let the game decide spells or abilities) and my characters will mop up from there.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 10:31
|
|
|
If you can't get over a certain level of jankiness and enjoy the game despite it (sometimes even find its jankiness charming) then maybe PC RPGs aren't for you. Some of the best, most memorable RPG experiences come from games that are just barely being held together by sticks and glue (Arcanum and Gothic, off the top of my head)
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 10:36
|
|
|
SolidSnakesBandana posted:If you can't get over a certain level of jankiness and enjoy the game despite it (sometimes even find its jankiness charming) then maybe PC RPGs aren't for you. Some of the best, most memorable RPG experiences come from games that are just barely being held together by sticks and glue (Arcanum and Gothic, off the top of my head) I love arcanum, Gothic 1/2 & the divine divinity series. Sometimes people just don't get certain games...BG series is that for me. Anyway back on topic: I'm wondering what time Divinity: Original Sin is going to appear on GOG today.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 13:36
|
|
|
I finally bought the Tex Murphy games for old times' sake. Now I just hope I eventually get round to playing them. I owned too many games before the GOG and Steam sales and now I own more than too many games.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 14:44
|
|
|
tuluk posted:I love arcanum, Gothic 1/2 & the divine divinity series. Well then dang dude, I'm sorry  Hopefully you'll find something to enjoy in all these new kickstarted old-school RPGs that are all claiming to be successor's to Baldur's Gate. Divinity: Original Sin got released just today in fact!
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 16:21
|
|
|
SolidSnakesBandana posted:Well then dang dude, I'm sorry Yeah, I backed Divinity :Original Sin, Wasteland 2, Xenonauts tides of numenera, and pillars of eternity on kickstarter. I doubt I'll dislike any of those still-in-progress RPGs when they come out. Even the direct Baldurs Gate influenced ones will have better combat + better storylines than the BG series. Looking forward to whenever GOG finally puts Divinity: Original Sin up for download, I already registered my GOG key there. 
quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Jun 30, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 17:50
|
|
|
Yeah, I couldn't get into Arcanum at first because real time goes at the speed of light and turn based is too slow. And I loved Gothic 1 but holy poo poo Gothic 2 is impenetrable and expects you to do so much before you gain any kind of good gear.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 18:12
|
|
|
al-azad posted:Yeah, I couldn't get into Arcanum at first because real time goes at the speed of light and turn based is too slow. And I loved Gothic 1 but holy poo poo Gothic 2 is impenetrable and expects you to do so much before you gain any kind of good gear. Are you playing Gothic 2 with its expansion? Because the expansion makes advancement significantly harder than vanilla. Might want to try it without at first, though the added Night of the Raven quests are pretty great. There are also plenty of quests you can take on in the first city without good gear to at least gain you a few levels to increase your survivability. It's still not an easy start by any means though.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 19:45
|
|
|
If there happens to be someone who didn't get the free Alan Wake's American Nightmare promo here's my extra gift code: 8C49-NE6Q-7QZQ-R95T Let me know if you use it so I can edit this post later.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 20:00
|
|
|
Genpei Turtle posted:Are you playing Gothic 2 with its expansion? Because the expansion makes advancement significantly harder than vanilla. Might want to try it without at first, though the added Night of the Raven quests are pretty great. Pretty sure I was playing the Gold version or whatever is on GOG so Night of the Raven was probably installed. Gothic's biggest issue is that it's gear dependent. A new set of armor is the difference between being one-shotted and near invincibility.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 20:01
|
|
|
Divinity: Original Sin finally posted to GOG with download links. 6.4gb installer w/ 20mb of bonus content at this time. However, Divinity:Original Sin is not searchable/purchasable from GOG main page yet.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2014 00:42
|
|
|
So I'm pretty bad at Covert Action but I'm still finding it really fun. Why is this ignored in comparision to the other Sid Meier games?
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2014 11:33
|
|
|
Testekill posted:So I'm pretty bad at Covert Action but I'm still finding it really fun. Why is this ignored in comparision to the other Sid Meier games? Sid posted:The mistake I think I made in Covert Action is actually having two games in there kind of competing with each other. There was kind of an action game where you break into a building and do all sorts of picking up clues and things like that, and then there was the story which involved a plot where you had to figure out who the mastermind was and the different roles and what cities they were in, and it was a kind of an involved mystery-type plot.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2014 12:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 00:55 |
|
|
That's actually kind of funny, because doesn't XCOM: Enemy Unknown (a Firaxis title that Sid Meier had input on) violate the Covert Action rule?
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2014 12:22
|
|
