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Any gamers around here?

Started by Agramon, June 21, 2013, 02:55:17 AM

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Blackleaf

#2835
The problem I have with Skyrim's difficulty setting is that the only thing it changes is numbers. Combat in Skyrim is not all that strategic. You're either sniping enemies with a bow before they detect you, or you're trying to reduce the enemy's health to zero before they can. In the latter, it's just a battle of numbers. Changing the difficulty just feels artificial.

I think the series could use an overhaul, adding more strategy to battles. Add a dodge button. Make enemies more intelligent (magic enemies and bowmen trying to keep their distance from you, for example). Add more variety in defensive spells, like a light spell that temporarily blinds enemies, or a shockwave spell that pushes nearby enemies away from you, or a shield spell that grants protection from melee damage if you activate it just before being hit. Make night eye actually useful. Allow players to eliminate sources of light, activate night eye, and slaughter them while they're confused (enemies with night eye, torches, or light spells would still be able to see you). Make poisons more potent, and last longer than just one hit, unless it's an arrow (although retrieved arrows could still be poisoned), but make it a crime to use them against non-evil characters. (Real life poisoned blades were considered taboo in medieval times.) Mods do some of these things, but The Elder Scrolls could do so much better with its combat.

Edit: Oh, and stealth can be improved too. Right now, it is yet another battle of numbers, where crouching with a high sneak ability can make you essentially invisible to enemies looking right at you. In The Elder Scrolls Online, you can sometimes wear a disguise to blend in with the enemy. Bring that in to the main series.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

the_antithesis


Hydra009

#2837
Quote from: Blackleaf on November 10, 2018, 03:16:00 PMI think the series could use an overhaul, adding more strategy to battles. Add a dodge button. Make enemies more intelligent (magic enemies and bowmen trying to keep their distance from you, for example). Add more variety in defensive spells, like a light spell that temporarily blinds enemies, or a shockwave spell that pushes nearby enemies away from you, or a shield spell that grants protection from melee damage if you activate it just before being hit. Make night eye actually useful. Allow players to eliminate sources of light, activate night eye, and slaughter them while they're confused (enemies with night eye, torches, or light spells would still be able to see you). Make poisons more potent, and last longer than just one hit, unless it's an arrow (although retrieved arrows could still be poisoned), but make it a crime to use them against non-evil characters. (Real life poisoned blades were considered taboo in medieval times.) Mods do some of these things, but The Elder Scrolls could do so much better with its combat.
Absolutely agreed.  But at the same time, immersion and lore has always been the selling point of The Elder Scrolls - not combat.  It needs to keep that a top priority.  If they can do that and make combat more strategic and not just spray-and-pray (or hack-and-pray), that'd be nice.  And considering the improvements in combat since Morrowind's whiff-tastic dicerolling system, I'm sure it'll get much better in TES VI.  But it'll always lag behind combat-focused games like Dark Souls, so don't get your hopes up too high.

drunkenshoe

Quote from: Blackleaf on November 10, 2018, 03:16:00 PM
The problem I have with Skyrim's difficulty setting is that the only thing it changes is numbers. Combat in Skyrim is not all that strategic. You're either sniping enemies with a bow before they detect you, or you're trying to reduce the enemy's health to zero before they can. In the latter, it's just a battle of numbers. Changing the difficulty just feels artificial.

I think the series could use an overhaul, adding more strategy to battles. Add a dodge button. Make enemies more intelligent (magic enemies and bowmen trying to keep their distance from you, for example). Add more variety in defensive spells, like a light spell that temporarily blinds enemies, or a shockwave spell that pushes nearby enemies away from you, or a shield spell that grants protection from melee damage if you activate it just before being hit. Make night eye actually useful. Allow players to eliminate sources of light, activate night eye, and slaughter them while they're confused (enemies with night eye, torches, or light spells would still be able to see you). Make poisons more potent, and last longer than just one hit, unless it's an arrow (although retrieved arrows could still be poisoned), but make it a crime to use them against non-evil characters. (Real life poisoned blades were considered taboo in medieval times.) Mods do some of these things, but The Elder Scrolls could do so much better with its combat.

Edit: Oh, and stealth can be improved too. Right now, it is yet another battle of numbers, where crouching with a high sneak ability can make you essentially invisible to enemies looking right at you. In The Elder Scrolls Online, you can sometimes wear a disguise to blend in with the enemy. Bring that in to the main series.

Yes I know. But think about it like this, when you are playing Skyrim, you are going out in a world. That is the feeling and the sense they created successfully and they designed and so sacrificed other aspects to support that. At least the sword play tells me that I don't know about the mage play.

In the real word, there is very few people who can actually handle a great sword, shield or sword of any kind. I'll not even mention the armour. And under real circumstances anyone carrying and moving with the sort weapon will be clumsy and not able to block or attack or even move in a free way, let alone strategically. Of course we are talking about a fantasy world and well, this is in a way why we played this game. So one could think doing these things is the whole point of playing a game.

But it seems to me that they took a little from that realistic aspect, put it in a fantasy world and with the story, atmosphere; lore if you will, they tried to create a higher sense of fake reality. Less is more kind of approach. And it works, if you ask me. As I see it, that terrible blocking and the very traditional, limited blunt way of attacks is the result of this motivation.

I also agree with you on more intelligent enemies, but then some are better than others. Not the bandits along the road, but higher level characters are more vigilant. I am thinking, this also must be something very difficult to set an avarage. It could frustrate players. As difficulty goes up it would be very very difficult to go through certain settings.

   

"science is not about building a body of known 'facts'. ıt is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good." - tp

Shiranu

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-02-05-star-wars-donnie-yen-says-sleeping-dogs-movie-in-production

Donnie Yen as Wu Wei in a Sleeping Dog movie?

If their is any justice and goodness left in the world, for all that is holy let this fucking happing.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Blackleaf

Quote from: Shiranu on November 12, 2018, 04:04:22 AM
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-02-05-star-wars-donnie-yen-says-sleeping-dogs-movie-in-production

Donnie Yen as Wu Wei in a Sleeping Dog movie?

If their is any justice and goodness left in the world, for all that is holy let this fucking happing.

Ha! I just finished that game last week. I got the Definitive Edition on Steam for $4.99. It was pretty good, but it felt like they were intentionally leaving open the possibility of a sequel.

"What will you do now, Wei? Go back to the states?"

"No. Hong Kong is my home."

"Yes, but which side of it?"

"..."
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

trdsf

Binged a little on Steam recently.  Finally got Universe Sandbox2, which is a blast â€" literally, sometimes.  I was a little startled to realize my mental image of a supernova was so completely flawed when I made the sun blow up in real time.  One tends to think of a supernova as an ultimate explosion that just annihilates its system in the blink of an eye... at least I did, completely forgetting about Einstein's rules.  If our sun went supernova right now (and yes, I know it can't, it's the wrong kind of star), we wouldn't know anything was up for about eight minutes... and then we'd have an hour or so to panic before the blast wave got here, at least on the night side of the planet.  The sunward side would get pretty efficiently fried in fairly short order, between the gammas and the additional visible and infrared photons.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Blackleaf

#2842
Have you guys heard about the Fallout 76 debacle? This seems so out of character for Bethesda. I don't understand what's going on. This is like EA levels of shit.

So recently, Bethesda sold this MMORPG called Fallout 76. It's big selling point was that every human you see in the game is a real person. There were no human NPCs in the game. Sounds like a recipe for disaster right? A game where the only characters you communicate with, take quests from, etc. are all robots or talking computers sounds super boring, doesn't it? But surely Bethesda knows what they are doing. They'll make it work. ...It didn't work. Fallout 76 isn't a sandbox; it's an empty box.



The game is just an asset flip of Fallout 4, without any substance, sold at full price. It even has some of the major bugs that Fallout 4 had. They didn't bother to fix the bugs fans patched out a long time ago. What the fuck, Bethesda? People have come to expect quality from this company. Sure, their big games always launch as buggy messes, but they're at least fun buggy messes.

I'm glad I didn't buy the game, since I'm more into TES than Fallout anyway, and I'm not really interested in MMORPGs. I'm especially glad I didn't buy the $200 Power Armor Edition. OMFG.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

This is a picture of what was promised to players who bought this overly priced special edition. Now take a good look at that "canvas duffel bag." Looks sturdy and well put together, made with good materials, right? Well, here's what people actually got.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

A cheap ass nylon bag. Of course, people were upset that they didn't get what they were promised, and Bethesda replied by saying that the bag in the picture was a "prototype," and that they didn't have enough material to make those for everyone. ...Okay. So the next best thing is to go for the cheapest material they can find? I call bullshit. Bethesda was apologetic, however, and promised to give everyone who could show proof of purchase of the Power Armor Edition 500 Atoms. Atoms are the game's in-game currency. Oh yeah, by the way, this hollow excuse for a game has microtransactions. Because of bloody course it does. So how much does 500 Atoms translate to in real money value? Well, to buy 500 Atoms in-game would cost you exactly $4.99. It's enough to purchase ONE cosmetic item, and only of the cheapest cosmetic items in the store. With 500 Atoms, you could buy this:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

But not this:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

And definitely nothing even slightly cool, like this:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

"Sorry we couldn't get you the bag you were promised and paid $200 for. Here's a digital hat."
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

Hydra009

Quote from: Blackleaf on November 29, 2018, 03:34:32 PM
Have you guys heard about the Fallout 76 debacle? This seems so out of character for Bethesda. I don't understand what's going on. This is like EA levels of shit.
Oh yeah.  Personally, Fallout 76 lost me the instant Bethesda announced that it was an online multiplayer game.  With no NPCs and no real narrative, no less.  For the people who love multiplayer shooters and games that allow you to "make your own fun", I can kinda see the appeal.  But me?  Nah.

I loved New Vegas precisely because you get to meet all these crazy factions and decide which ones to ally with, which to leave alone, and which to exterminate, and then the pressure builds until all hell breaks loose at Hoover Dam in a glorious day of reckoning with multiple possible endings.  Perfection.

And all the kerfuffle about Fallout 76 reminds me a lot of No Man's Sky.  Huge expectations, huge disappointment.  Salvageable?  Maybe, but the damage has already been done.  Ain't that a kick in the head.

And the thing that drives me nuts about controversies like this is that it's so difficult to get a good bearing on the situation.  Are the people who gave it good reviews fanboys or people who legitimately liked it?  Are the people giving it bad reviews haters or people who tried to like it and were disappointed?  The water's so muddy, and it's difficult to know which way the wind is blowing.  But now I can safely say that it's bombing like it's 2077.

Hydra009

#2844
Quote from: Blackleaf on November 29, 2018, 03:34:32 PMA cheap ass nylon bag. Of course, people were upset that they didn't get what they were promised, and Bethesda replied by saying that the bag in the picture was a "prototype," and that they didn't have enough material to make those for everyone. ...Okay. So the next best thing is to go for the cheapest material they can find? I call bullshit.
Imho, that kind of crap should be actionable.  If you offer a canvas bag, and people pay for a canvas bag, you better deliver a canvas bag or offer a refund.  Catfishing customers is a really crappy thing to do and it really hurts a company's rep long-term.  Bethesda has a lot of built-up goodwill over the years, but man, they've been burning through it in a hurry lately.

Mike Cl

I love FO4--hands down my favorite game--I have over 3500 hours put into it and am in another play through right now.  Fallout 76, because Bethesda.  But I hate multiple player games and have no use for internet games.  I'm am very glad I thought it would be a good idea to wait and see what bugs might turn up.  Glad I did.  It takes a rare game for me to buy it on it's release date; too many are really buggy.  So, if I am interested, I give it two weeks or a month before I buy it.  At any rate, I am very puzzled by Bethesda's actions on this game.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Hydra009

#2846
Quote from: Mike Cl on November 29, 2018, 10:42:53 PMI love FO4--hands down my favorite game--I have over 3500 hours put into it and am in another play through right now.
I like that one, but I don't love it.

It's a step forward in many ways: huge graphical improvements, huge map, interesting companions, layered armor (power armor feels like power armor now), weather (esp radstorms), crafting, settlements, looting on the fly, etc.

However, it's also a step back in a few ways:  a lot of the encounters seem very samey and tedious, the dialogue options were a friggin' joke (why change what ain't broke?), far less factions and towns/outposts than New Vegas, skills are gone, the perk tree has been simplified and is less interesting (mostly +x% to y, nothing very flavorful or situational like Night Person or Four Eyes or Wild Wasteland), and god help me if Preston bothers me to defend another settlement.

Fallout 4 has been described as 100 miles wide and an inch deep.  While I think that's exaggerating its problems, I think there's an element of truth to that.  Suffice it to say that I hope the upcoming Elder Scrolls VI is follows a completely different design philosophy than Fallout 4.

Blackleaf

Quote from: Hydra009 on November 29, 2018, 11:32:06 PM
I like that one, but I don't love it.

It's a step forward in many ways: huge graphical improvements, huge map, interesting companions, layered armor (power armor feels like power armor now), weather (esp radstorms), crafting, settlements, looting on the fly, etc.

However, it's also a step back in a few ways:  a lot of the encounters seem very samey and tedious, the dialogue options were a friggin' joke (why change what ain't broke?), far less factions and towns/outposts than New Vegas, skills are gone, the perk tree has been simplified and is less interesting (mostly +x% to y, nothing very flavorful or situational like Night Person or Four Eyes or Wild Wasteland), and god help me if Preston bothers me to defend another settlement.

Fallout 4 has been described as 100 miles wide and an inch deep.  While I think that's exaggerating its problems, I think there's an element of truth to that.  Suffice it to say that I hope the upcoming Elder Scrolls VI is follows a completely different design philosophy than Fallout 4.

As someone who started these games with Morrowind, I completely agree. Each game since Morrowind has been better in a lot of ways, while taking steps backwards in a lot of other ways. I think the problem is that they've shifted from appealing to roleplaying fans, the type of people who play D&D and such, to appealing to casual players. The games have been getting more and more casual friendly, and have lost their depth as a result.

For example, take lycanthropy. This is a disease/curse which has been present in The Elder Scrolls games since Daggerfall, the second entry of the series. In the original game, you got a lot of perks for being a werewolf (or wereboar, which was basically the same thing), but it also came with a ton of disadvantages. You couldn't choose when to transform. The beast came out at night whether you wanted it or not. Fast forward to Skyrim, and lycanthropy is this thing you can get and forget about. You don't have forced transformations at night; rather you transform at will, whenever you want. Not only that, but you can get cured from lycanthropy and get it back again, like changing clothes. In the original lore, a person was immune to lycanthropy once they were cured of it, but you can't have that or the casual players will get mad that their choices have permanent consequences. This kind of catering to casual players extends deep into the design philosophy of both Skyim and Fallout 4, and it makes them feel kind of hollow compared to their previous entries.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

Hydra009

Yeah, less roleplay and more "convenient" features.

I'm reminded of a pen-and-paper RPG experiment where players were assigned random and major disfigurements from a campaign gone awry.  Rather than be deeply upset at their gimped (sometimes literally) characters, they chose to roleplay them - and found creative ways of overcoming their problems, sometimes using their deformities to their advantage - like the one-eyed character taking off his eyepatch for intimidate checks or the deaf character setting off a massive sonic bomb.

In short, people want to play as interesting characters, not perfect characters.

Blackleaf

I'm cautiously optimistic about TESVI. Hopefully it'll be better in more ways than it is worse. I'm curious to know what they have planned, which they claim that modern technology "isn't ready for yet." Hopefully that's not just Todd Howard talking out of his ass, trying to appease the fans while also hyping them up. After this Fallout 76 stuff, I don't know if the team is moving in the right direction. There are a lot of casual features I hate in Skyrim that I just know will carry over to the next game. Remember when we had an actual journal rather than the bullet point slides plainly telling you what to do? Heck, I wouldn't be very surprised if they removed even more skills and simplified it to just five skills: melee, archery, magic, armor, and thievery.

Just please, for the love of Talos, Bethesda, try to write more interesting quests this time. Not just "go here, kill this, get this, and come back" kind of quests. Compare Skyrim's quests to some of Oblivion's quests. They were so much more interesting back then.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--