Sword Coast Legends

[Garage Trashcan]

Sept 29, 2015 19:23:26 GMT -5 valiea987 said:

Sept 29, 2015 19:10:55 GMT -5 Garage Trashcan said:

-DMs also have the ability to create full-fledged campaigns in a toolset, much like NWN (something I feel didn't shine as much in NWN. Then again, I never made it past chapter 1 of the campaign). They'll be able to create their own cities, dungeons, lighting, monsters, etc., with a surprising amount of depth.

This is what I was wondering about... Because if it has this, then the game could very well do what NWN has done. Although I suppose that also depends on if they make the controls open enough, and then if they get enough people who want to design campaign settings and run servers based on it.

Either way, I am looking forward to it for some quick dungeon crawler fun.

Running servers isn't going to be a thing, and doubtfully something they'll add later. The tools are pretty extensive and give you a lot of versatility--not sure how to compare it to the Aurora toolset, though. But games are going to be limited to 4 players and 1 DM. The closest you'll get to having it replace NWN is running a series of chatrooms and hearken back to the day of text-based MMOs and limit yourself to parties of 4. At that point, you're better off sticking with NWN.

[Kymus]

Why can't Bioware or someone give us the new NWN that we deserve? T_T

I think we should petition the White House for a NWN 3

[Edge]

Probably mostly because the business model of "let people pay once and create their own MMO" is less profitable than an actual MMO.

[Kymus]

Oct 3, 2015 9:56:24 GMT -5 Edge said:

Probably mostly because the business model of "let people pay once and create their own MMO" is less profitable than an actual MMO.

Pft, you and your common sense 

[valiea987]

Yeah... I am just hoping some developer will figure out some other way to monetize to be honest. I remember seeing this quote from the head of Valve, who said "You can't out-produce your consumer." That strikes with me because that has been my problem with pretty much every MMO I have tried to play, but why NWN and D&D retain my attention even after so long. Though you can't out produce the consumer, what you can do is offer the players means of creating content in a useful way so they can entertain themselves through your game system. D&D manages this just because the game itself is in the mind of the DM, and that can be put into action quickly. NWN has the toolkit, which does take longer, but still offers the freedom to keep it interesting. Both last so much longer than any other game I've played just because there is, truly, always something else to do.

I'm just not sure how a company could monetize a game like NWN without hurting that aspect of the game.

[foo]

A game like NWN could totally be a sustainable model if you say built a good game, and then a platform where servers could register by paying a one-time registration fee, and then players 'subscribe' to the system for like $5 a month with the idea that most of that cost goes to maintaining the base source code, and server structure, but the most expensive part of the game development - new modules, graphics, etc could be done by modders for free. Then players get the game they always wanted, devs get their money, and the subscription is low enough to not make people run away from the game.

[valiea987]

Now all we need is someone with an in with a game developing studio, lol.

[Garage Trashcan]

So after browsing some of the comments on reddit.com/r/SwordCoast, it seems like the impressions from the "head start" weekends have been as such:

--Currently, multiplayer is more like Diablo II than anything else

--Multiplayer is rife with ninja-looting, so casters are screwed. No current plans to implement Need/Greed system.

--Dying is more effective than using potions since they're so wildly expensive, but everyone can use a healers kit that stabilizes you with a portion of your HP.

--Limited conversation options for module builders--seems like this will probably be expanded later. Problem is more or less alleviated if you're playing with a live DM.

--No triggers. Once again, module builders are screwed here. No announced plans to implement them. In fact, there seems to be very little post-launch support aside from some bug-fixes, balancing, and plans for DLC. Also more or less alleviated with a live DM

--You can opt to play modules solo with AI allies though.

--Some have said it doesn't really feel like D&D. More or less a re-skinned Diablo II. The single-player/co-op campaign has not been open for play yet, though they boast 40+ hours of gameplay. However, that seems to include all of the sidequests, meaning the main story may only be 20 hours or so. There's also the fact they opted for a skill tree and upgrades more akin to Dragon Age (not necessarily a bad thing) that use cooldowns, as opposed to the classic D&D spells/abilities. It keeps things a little more fast-paced when you're not using pause-and-play for the difficult encounters.

The big "solution" I've seen to all of these issues is to play with friends. The comradery, the dungeon crawling, and playing with a live DM all enhance the feel of the game. The problem is it should be able to feel like that anyway. The main story campaign still has some hope and if your play multiplayer exclusively with friends, your experiences should remain pleasant. This goes for running the quick/long dungeon crawls, or if your DM is making their own module.

There's some positive reviews of people who love the game, but most of it seems like people were sold something they weren't expecting, it doesn't feel right, or that the project was too big for this small dev team. While they've been very involved with the community and taking feedback, it's a bit more than they could chew. People crying for refunds willy-nilly. Lesson learned, don't pre-order.

Considering it was only delayed a month and the preview weekends have appeared to be very bare-bones, it feels like we'll be getting an unfinished product. I'll still keep an eye on it to see how it pans out, though.

[Kymus]

Ouch. That's really disappointing

[valiea987]

Playing it now. This is nothing like Diablo 2. This is a lot more like NWN in combat... However, it still feels "sticky" like NWN2 did.