Various role-playing RPG game stuff not deserving its own thread

[Vergil]

It's pretty incredible how without fail every bethesda version of something that appeared in the og games (banana orcs super mutants, vault suits, combat armor, plasma rifles, laser rifles, metal armor etc) look brutally worse. So many swings and they're all misses.

[wndrbr]

I think it has mostly to do with the transition from 2d isometric to 3d first-person, than with Bethesda being **** at art. Fo3 actually has quite nice art.

[Vergil]

I think it has mostly to do with the transition from 2d isometric to 3d first-person,

I could buy that if it wasn't for all of the people who have faithfully recreated all those things I've mentioned in mods. They could have transitioned to 3D without totally warping and abandoning the art style.

[wndrbr]

Most of the "that stuff from fo1-2 recreated in fo3-4" types of mods look like ****.

[rusty_shackleford]

Most of the "that stuff from fo1-2 recreated in fo3-4" types of mods look like ****.

zoomerbait mods

[Vergil]

Most of the "that stuff from fo1-2 recreated in fo3-4" types of mods look like ****.

If you think this looks worse than 3-4 era combat armor you're a lying contrarian.

[maidenhaver]

Most of the "that stuff from fo1-2 recreated in fo3-4" types of mods look like ****.

So they look right at home in 3d fallouts.

[Cogemeister]

Interesting looking dungeon crawler aRPG with a focus on co-op.
Not sure if I’m a fan of the skill tree/ swapping stuff.

[Oyster Sauce]

Am I ******** or did one of the Mass Effect endings turn everybody in the universe into a cyborg?

[Irenaeus]

Am I ******** or did one of the Mass Effect endings turn everybody in the universe into a cyborg?

Never played much of the series but from what I read on Shamus' old blog, that's exactly what one of the 3 endings did. The other 2 endings weren't much better either. Just terribly written franchise.

[Oyster Sauce]

Shout out to the guy who won a contest and was face scanned in as a distractingly weird looking NPC in KOTOR 2

[Lhynn]

Am I ******** or did one of the Mass Effect endings turn everybody in the universe into a cyborg?

Never played much of the series but from what I read on Shamus' old blog, that's exactly what one of the 3 endings did. The other 2 endings weren't much better either. Just terribly written franchise.

M1 was written well enough, 2 and 3 however, are completely ********, and a sign of times to come.

[DagothGeas5]

I am, the reason they don't put party members in games anymore is because the devs are too incompetent to make party AI.

Do you have any games you would recommend that have a party like you mentioned? The only game I believe I played (unless I am forgetting more at the moment) that had an on-field party that I really enjoyed was Ice Wind Dale II (though they are player-driven) and Dragon Age Origins (which had more of an AI but still follow where you point). Would love to play more like these games.

[rusty_shackleford]

I am, the reason they don't put party members in games anymore is because the devs are too incompetent to make party AI.

Do you have any games you would recommend that have a party like you mentioned? The only game I believe I played (unless I am forgetting more at the moment) that had an on-field party that I really enjoyed was Ice Wind Dale II (though they are player-driven) and Dragon Age Origins (which had more of an AI but still follow where you point). Would love to play more like these games.

Not really, because devs basically gave up on trying to implement decent AI.
Maybe Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen? I hated that the pawns are just lifeless non-companions tho

[DagothGeas5]

I am, the reason they don't put party members in games anymore is because the devs are too incompetent to make party AI.

Do you have any games you would recommend that have a party like you mentioned? The only game I believe I played (unless I am forgetting more at the moment) that had an on-field party that I really enjoyed was Ice Wind Dale II (though they are player-driven) and Dragon Age Origins (which had more of an AI but still follow where you point). Would love to play more like these games.

Not really, because devs basically gave up on trying to implement decent AI.
Maybe Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen? I hated that the pawns are just lifeless non-companions tho

That is so sad to know I will look into this Dragon's Dogma as I heard it a few times as well, but I also dislike lifeless pawns that follow you around (had really high hopes for the likes of Skyrim and Baldur's Gate 3, but radiant dialogue is not enough to give them life to me).
Thank you for the info!

[WhiteShark]

That is so sad to know I will look into this Dragon's Dogma as I heard it a few times as well, but I also dislike lifeless pawns that follow you around (had really high hopes for the likes of Skyrim and Baldur's Gate 3, but radiant dialogue is not enough to give them life to me).

Pawns aren't totally lifeless. They don't have scripted personalities like Bioware companions do, but they actually adapt to your tactics, remember things, and can guide you to objectives they've done before while loaned out to other players.

[DagothGeas5]

That is so sad to know I will look into this Dragon's Dogma as I heard it a few times as well, but I also dislike lifeless pawns that follow you around (had really high hopes for the likes of Skyrim and Baldur's Gate 3, but radiant dialogue is not enough to give them life to me).

Pawns aren't totally lifeless. They don't have scripted personalities like Bioware companions do, but they actually adapt to your tactics, remember things, and can guide you to objectives they've done before while loaned out to other players.

Sounds very interesting to try for myself at least, thank you!
Not very related perhaps, but it reminds me of Vilja, a companion from a mod made for Oblivion. I haven't played with her as much as I would like, but I recall reading on her and her, for the time, pretty intricated AI and reactions. She was also ported for Skyrim, but she did not have the same feel in there as she did in Oblivion for me (careful if anyone wants to give her a try because last time I played there were some of her audio files that were ear-piercing).

[rusty_shackleford]

That is so sad to know I will look into this Dragon's Dogma as I heard it a few times as well, but I also dislike lifeless pawns that follow you around (had really high hopes for the likes of Skyrim and Baldur's Gate 3, but radiant dialogue is not enough to give them life to me).

Pawns aren't totally lifeless. They don't have scripted personalities like Bioware companions do, but they actually adapt to your tactics, remember things, and can guide you to objectives they've done before while loaned out to other players.

They're lifeless in the sense of an automaton.

[Oyster Sauce]

Remembered Pathfinder's bonus system and now I'm mad again. Learn to design a game you ratfuck bastards. Hope you like juggling racial, inherent, untyped, alchemical, profane, sacred, morale, enhancement, size, polymorph, and meal bonuses to attributes on at least 6 characters!

[rusty_shackleford]

Hope you like juggling racial, inherent, untyped, alchemical, profane, sacred, morale, enhancement, size, polymorph, and meal bonuses to attributes

That's what made DDO itemization good tho

[rusty_shackleford]

More RPGs should have you played with a randomized character class/stats.

[aweigh]

Sadly, combat is never going to be particularly engaging, but combat is not why you play Fallout 1 and 2. I consider FO1 to be one of the best cRPGs ever made, and if you can look past its age you'll find a great game underneath.

Never been able to fully understand this complaint about the Fallout 1 and 2 games. I always found the turn-based combat in them to be just fine.

It's something I could say about Arcanum, "sure, Arcanum isn't really about the combat"; but not about Fallout 1 and 2. They had enjoyable combat to me, with good itemization and even a serviceable companion system (at least in 2). I just have to wonder what more did you expect out of the combat in Fallout 1 and 2 that what's there is considered bad?

[aweigh]

More RPGs should have you played with a randomized character class/stats.

The older I get the more I can agree with this. If done right it can be quite fun, but the game has to disallow "re-rolling" or save-scumming to get better results.

[aweigh]

Shout out to the guy who won a contest and was face scanned in as a distractingly weird looking NPC in KOTOR 2

How quaint, an actual member of the genre's main audience won that contest. Reminds me of prehistoric times.

[Rand]

Yammersplat just released a video about something I'd never heard of before:

[1998]

Yeah I don't know about that one

[1998]

Released for 13.49USD. Looks pretty **** tbh.

[Acrux]

It's literally a mobile game.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1478850/ ... 645779932/

[1998]

It's literally a mobile game.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1478850/ ... 645779932/

That explains that weird encounter design. Looks like straight out of Raid or any other Gatcha game...

[Statesman]

I could buy that if it wasn't for all of the people who have faithfully recreated all those things I've mentioned in mods. They could have transitioned to 3D without totally warping and abandoning the art style.

Modders can afford to dedicate thousands of hours to making a single model/texture perfectly faithful. Actual paid "professionals" just want to get it done as quickly as possible move along with the next task at hand AND they are also constrained by "producer/investor" preferences. And yes, I'm implying that dedicated modders are simply superior.