deathknight1728
Aug 06, 2013
Myawww!!! Its rock and roll baby. But yeah, I really need to talk about game music in these games. I think that the Planet Stronghold ending game music was some of the most epic/awesome rock and roll music Ive heard in a video game in a while. It even tops dynasty warriors as the game gets old after twenty minutes
Lorens was cool because it was more of an emotional game and I can respect that but the maker of the songs on PS was a genius.
I think Roger Steel might be a good game to lay a rockin track down on.
I think Seasons of the Wolf should take after Loren.
Im not sure about the vampire game in my head. Prally would go well. Im still not sure if Jack will be ready to howl like a wolf in the future. Oh well, we'll see what happens.
jack1974
Aug 06, 2013
Ehm the one you mentioned (PS1 and Loren) were just using royalty-free tracks
The new games will have original custom soundtrack though! PS2 has already a full soundtrack with many rock tracks. Though not a RPG, Roommates has a very good soundtrack too with custom theme song. SOTW music is quite good so far, hope to manage to make more videos in next week (when is less hot) so I can also show the music.
deathknight1728
Aug 08, 2013
Thanks for that tidbit of news!
One of the things I am hoping will go in your new games is something strangely you share with Vogel in common. That is the ranged weapons having unlimited ammo. I don't mind if there is a set amount so long as the base weapons have an unlimited ammo. I think it might be the most helpful thing a game designer can do as it makes ranged just as fun as melee. Im probably going to try Loren out as a ranged character next, prally a thief as I played a warrior 1st time.
Its just very helpful and I'll be glad if you include that in all your new games.
P_Tigras
Aug 09, 2013
I'm not a fan of unlimited ammo. That's totally unrealistic. Neither am I a fan of manually having to click a lot of buttons on the screen every time I need to reload, which in some fights can be multiple times. Reloading should never be a chore for the player, even if it does have an effect in game. Ammo shouldn't be scarce, and you should shouldn't have to scrounge around for it after every fight, but if you didn't bring enough ammo to finish out the fight, then you -should- be screwed.
Lonestar51
Aug 09, 2013
Scarce Ammo can be fun. However, scarce Ammo completely changes the nature of the game. One should be aware of the fact.
If Ammo were plentiful in Day Z like in a CoD or whatever, the whole sneaking around would become pointless. But if an avarage FPS would suddenly restrict the amount of ammo to be had, the kids would run away screaming, and go back to whatever FPS gives the thrill of gunning down without pause. Not that one game is that much "better" than the other in principle, but they are different, and the crowd playing them is different too.
For a game like PS2, which is a story-based RPG with a bit of dating sim thrown in, I feel like it might not be such a good idea. Because, if I wanted to romance Rebecca but feel I cannot waste ammo on a sidequest, that would be a major bummer. Indeed, I think, really scarce ammo makes the whole game revolve about it. This would be poison for the story, romance and everything else.
Having seperate Ammo as items gives some flexibility in game design and game play. Do I use up the superbullets now, or wait for the next boss? But this is a different question to "scarce ammo". So I tend to agree with P_Tigras.
TL;DR: Scarce Ammo: Why not generally speaking, but rather not in PS2.
jack1974
Aug 09, 2013
The ammo scarcity in PS2 would affect only the missions. In practice there would be:
- ammo reserves in the colony, and there of course would be UNLIMITED basic ammo, and LIMITED special ammo
- ammo reserves in the mission, so what you bring with you on the mission, which would be LIMITED, even the normal ammo.
So it's not like if you do a sidequest with Rebecca/Tom/Milo/Lakadema/etc you waste the normal ammo, maybe only the special ammo, but is a big difference from the example you made.
In any case it could be an option depending on difficulty levels... depending how much Anima want to be an evil designer
Jokes apart, of course will listen to the beta feedback about it and change the rules for easier difficulty levels if needed.
Anima_
Aug 09, 2013
Actually Jack is the evil designer in this case, I'm the nice one for a change.
Under the current plan ammunition is finite during combat but infinite outside.
On the other hand during the initial brainstorming sessions I did pitch a version whit scare ammo and neither loot nor experience from battles. To create an atmosphere where battles are scary and best avoided, where you are on an outpost whose resources are running out. Maybe next time.
jack1974
Aug 09, 2013
That is for Planet Stronghold 3: Prepare To Die edition
Lonestar51
Aug 10, 2013
On the other hand during the initial brainstorming sessions I did pitch a version whit scare ammo and neither loot nor experience from battles. To create an atmosphere where battles are scary and best avoided, where you are on an outpost whose resources are running out. Maybe next time.
Sounds like fun. Really. Yes, it would be great fun to play such a game.
However, as I wrote before. it would totally change the game. And the traditional Winterwolves-character would be lost.
So it's not like if you do a sidequest with Rebecca/Tom/Milo/Lakadema/etc you waste the normal ammo, maybe only the special ammo, but is a big difference from the example you made.
Yes, I knew the game will run as you outlined. It was just for the sake of discussion, exploring where it leads if you make ammo scarce.
That is for Planet Stronghold 3: Prepare To Die edition
Where can i preorder?
peregrin
Aug 12, 2013
Hi,
On the other hand during the initial brainstorming sessions I did pitch a version whit scare ammo and neither loot nor experience from battles. To create an atmosphere where battles are scary and best avoided, where you are on an outpost whose resources are running out. Maybe next time.
From an atmospheric POV this is an excellent idea, IMO. The main issue being that players may end up being entirely paranoid about resources and end up not using limited resources at all. However, this could work when coupled with a reconnaissance aspect, so that players can make an educated guess as to how many/what kinds of battles they need to fight until they are resupplied (`there's a big group of armoured things coming in, so let's save our armour-piercing shells for that'). Of course, any characters sent on reconnaissance missions may not be available in the battles...
...though this is slowly turning into a turn-based strategy game here. Next we'll be building settlers and barracks and the Great Pyramids of Mars^H^H^H^HPlanet Stronghold (I forgot, was that the actual planet's name?).
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
-- peregrin
jack1974
Aug 12, 2013
Well after the main game is out I wouldn't mind trying to experiment making some "nightmare versions" for the more hardcore players. Personally I HATE hard games, but seems that there's a good amount of people who like it
Solvus
Aug 12, 2013
Do a voting poll of difficulty levels people are ok with playing?
Personally I play easy first time to see the story. 2nd time playing I focus on combat with hard and realize that the best equipment was limit more than expected, so were the abilities I didn't want to spend points on. More passive skills and/or equipment please.
peregrin
Aug 12, 2013
Hi,
to be clear, I'm not asking for particularly large amounts of saving and reloading.
Anima's concept is, however, consistent with the idea of a colony cut off from external supplies. Having to manage your supplies emphasises that and increases immersion. On the other hand, a LLTQ-style notion of high-level dialogs can already help with that, and it is terribly annoying to have to go back to the beginning of the chapter because you couldn't foresee just how many battles you'd be fighting.
Some ideas:
[list]
[*] Scouting/reconnaissance, as I suggested earlier, to give players the information that is actually needed to make strategic decisions about supplies
[*] A small number of `get out of jail' cards: if you didn't plan ahead, you can get supplies/support from other factions, but at a price (affecting the storyline/epilogue/achievements), or a party member sacrifices themselves
[*] Have the story schedule hard battles right after events that provide supplies (though that'll look rather silly if it happens more than once or twice)[/list]
Then again, don't you already have a colony simulator planned (and, hence, the potential necessity to back-track if you made poor decisions initially?)
-- peregrin
jack1974
Aug 12, 2013
Personally I play easy first time to see the story. 2nd time playing I focus on combat with hard and realize that the best equipment was limit more than expected, so were the abilities I didn't want to spend points on. More passive skills and/or equipment please.
More equipment you mean more variety or more equipment slots?
Don't know if you refer to PS1 or Loren, because in Loren I had over 200 weapons and 200 armors... I thought that was enough ! But what I really would need to do is a random or pseudo-random item generator, and then manually do the unique/special items.
Then again, don't you already have a colony simulator planned (and, hence, the potential necessity to back-track if you made poor decisions initially?)
Yes, and the impact of that part could be much higher in the hardest difficulty levels, so for those who like to suffer
I think that should be already enough.
However I think that higher difficulty, IS fundamentally save/load. Otherwise how do you achieve higher difficulty? Harder=more likely to lose=more likely to reload. It's science!
jack1974
Aug 12, 2013
Have to say though that of your 3 ideas, some are planned like the scouting/reconnaissance (in the pre-mission brief screen) and the hard battles right after you get some supplies is also something I had in mind. I didn't think about the "bonus card" idea though, is interesting
peregrin
Aug 12, 2013
Hi,
Otherwise how do you achieve higher difficulty? Harder=more likely to lose=more likely to reload. It's science!
Well, under the assumption that players will always complete the game, you are right. But reloading to try a different strategy is very different from reloading to squeeze a different sequence of numbers out of the pseudo-random number generator.
By the way, when it comes to extra difficulty, another indie game, Eschalon, has an interesting strategy: players can choose to enable/disable game mechanics (such as having to manage food/water, or being allowed to save near fights). I'm not sure if that is what you had in mind, but I suspect that it may be easier to balance than scaling monster difficulty in four rather than in three levels.
-- peregrin
jack1974
Aug 12, 2013
Well I remember some battles in Loren that could be won using different strategies (not always, but often yes).
I know Eschalon guys personally, but never had time to play their games much (shame on me!). What you say is interesting, though to use that you need a RPG with much more gameplay elements. Don't think that would work in SOTW, but for PS2 maybe yes (ammo quantity or even water/food) and Loren too.
I am also a fan of letting the player decide when to face a tough battle, or when that is not possible for plot reason, give a good warning. Jumping into battle in hard difficulty is one thing, being warned and having time to prepare (maybe with a bit more grinding or crafting/buying some new items) is different.
Anyway, in general, I agree with all your suggestions (as well as many from other people), the only problem is having time to add the features needed to make them work in my games
Solvus
Aug 13, 2013
More equipment you mean more variety or more equipment slots?
Don't know if you refer to PS1 or Loren, because in Loren I had over 200 weapons and 200 armors... I thought that was enough ! But what I really would need to do is a random or pseudo-random item generator, and then manually do the unique/special items.
More variety, talking about Loren, well there was a point of level grinding then the equipment stuff didn't get any better on par. Like being lvl 20 but the equipment was mostly great at lvl 15-lvl 17? Been awhile since I played, remember especially that the daggers weren't that great either(which my MC used). I wonder if it is possible to have a weapon that lvls up with you and evolve that would be cool, limited of course
jack1974
Aug 14, 2013
Yes, because I didn't really foresee people getting past level 17-18
But as I said I think the only viable solution would be to have pseudo-random items like in Diablo or Torchlight, and then a few unique "handcrafted" items.
Lonestar51
Aug 14, 2013
I can easily see people passing level 18 - even if I did not in my recent playthrough. At least if you have the N'Mar expansion, you reach lvl 17 alone through main and some (maybe two thirds) sidequest, and random encounters. Once a player starts a bit of grinding in the towns, the party will go beyond. Of course this assumes you always use the same chars in combat.
Loren without N'Mar has IIRC no sidequests, there you will need a lot of grinding to reach level 20. (I would have to check my old saves to see what I reached last year, but with some grinding.)
