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Re: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 7:58 pm
by Riedquat
Thebestoftherest wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 7:00 pm Yeah, I think Yahtzee of zero punctuation said it best, the evil choice should be something someone weak will would have chose instead.
Games have a somewhat harder time of that though, it's fairly difficult to bribe or threaten a player, and even more so without it coming across as contrived and railroaded.

Re: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 8:08 pm
by TGLS
Riedquat wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 7:58 pm
Thebestoftherest wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 7:00 pm Yeah, I think Yahtzee of zero punctuation said it best, the evil choice should be something someone weak will would have chose instead.
Games have a somewhat harder time of that though, it's fairly difficult to bribe or threaten a player, and even more so without it coming across as contrived and railroaded.
Eh, bribes are more effective if the currency you're bribing them in is harder to find. If a player is frequently broke, they'll be more receptive to taking a bribe. Cut down on the rewards given by doing the right thing, making them smaller or perhaps literally nothing (except maybe XP).

Re: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 8:42 pm
by Beastro
Thebestoftherest wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 7:00 pm
Beastro wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 5:42 pm
Thebestoftherest wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 12:26 pm I agree with you, I say if he wants a straight forward story lile a movie there are no shortage of games th at do that, why chose a roleplaying game where such story telling is harder.
Linear RPGs have their place. If they didn't, JRPGs wouldn't exist.

The problem is that DA is made in the spirit of games like Fallout. The problem is that so many C&C games don't really have much C&C and it's effectively a marketing trick to suck people in unless the designers really go out of their way to work on it.

Even then, many textbook examples of C&C games, like KOTOR 1, are divided between sensible choices and comicbook evil ones chosen for the fun of it simply because C&C is a feature. Even then with many that try, too often the C&C is just in the ending image reel.
Yeah, I think Yahtzee of zero punctuation said it best, the evil choice should be something someone weak will would have chose instead.
I prefer two approaches. One is the temptation of "I do evil so that good may come" where you're harsh decisions often have a utilitarian purpose, think Mongol's wiping out whole towns to get the message out that towns should just surrender to be treated fairly should they arrive on their door step.

Either that or split the moral reward. Good decisions in almost all RPGs offer greater exp. Just continue with that but factor it into the gameplay. Good players garner more exp and be a higher level to afford more abilities in order to compete with encounters while evil characters get more loot or abilities through interaction and make up for their lower relative level for content with better equipment.

That blends perfectly well with a murder hobo playstyle while acquiring abilities through your actions could have evil characters gaining ways to intimidate based on their murder hobo reputation.

Re: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 9:34 pm
by Thebestoftherest
TGLS wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 8:08 pm
Riedquat wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 7:58 pm
Thebestoftherest wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 7:00 pm Yeah, I think Yahtzee of zero punctuation said it best, the evil choice should be something someone weak will would have chose instead.
Games have a somewhat harder time of that though, it's fairly difficult to bribe or threaten a player, and even more so without it coming across as contrived and railroaded.
Eh, bribes are more effective if the currency you're bribing them in is harder to find. If a player is frequently broke, they'll be more receptive to taking a bribe. Cut down on the rewards given by doing the right thing, making them smaller or perhaps literally nothing (except maybe XP).
I think you could do it, you could do a side quest and save the royal family or you could let them die and leave the people to find a new ruling body.

Re: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 12:05 am
by Riedquat
TGLS wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 8:08 pm
Riedquat wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 7:58 pm
Thebestoftherest wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 7:00 pm Yeah, I think Yahtzee of zero punctuation said it best, the evil choice should be something someone weak will would have chose instead.
Games have a somewhat harder time of that though, it's fairly difficult to bribe or threaten a player, and even more so without it coming across as contrived and railroaded.
Eh, bribes are more effective if the currency you're bribing them in is harder to find. If a player is frequently broke, they'll be more receptive to taking a bribe. Cut down on the rewards given by doing the right thing, making them smaller or perhaps literally nothing (except maybe XP).
If it's just a bit of slowdown of play, longer to gain whatever, I think most players (or at least those aiming to play a good guy) still won't take it. A shortcut to avoid lots of tedious grind, I could possibly see that working, but then people will grumble about the grind.

Sometimes I'm glad I'm not a game designer!

Re: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 11:54 am
by Poipoi
RobbyB1982 wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 3:02 am My big issue with the Corphy reveal is that... I didn't place teh DLC for DA2. I really like the game, played through it twice, but wasn't inspired to play the DLC.

And yet it was the single most important thing to actually carry to the next game. So when I started Inquisition, even thoguh I'd played through DA2, twice! and loved Varric, I was still lost and confused.

So them assuming the players didn't know anything about the guy was the safe way to go... though made weird because of Varric being there.
Shame you never played the DLC. it did reveal things about the father of Hawke.

Re: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 12:31 pm
by Thebestoftherest
Poipoi wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 11:54 am
RobbyB1982 wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 3:02 am My big issue with the Corphy reveal is that... I didn't place teh DLC for DA2. I really like the game, played through it twice, but wasn't inspired to play the DLC.

And yet it was the single most important thing to actually carry to the next game. So when I started Inquisition, even thoguh I'd played through DA2, twice! and loved Varric, I was still lost and confused.

So them assuming the players didn't know anything about the guy was the safe way to go... though made weird because of Varric being there.
Shame you never played the DLC. it did reveal things about the father of Hawke.
if that character is so important he goes to the next game he should have been in base.

Re: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Posted: Sat May 08, 2021 4:38 pm
by Ranadiel
Thebestoftherest wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 12:31 pm
if that character is so important he goes to the next game he should have been in base.
Dragon Age has...a tendency to include a lot of the super important plot stuff in the DLC. Corypheus being introduced in DLC is not the first and was not the last time that an important plot thread is introduced via DLC.

Off the top of my head, Awakening introduced the Architect who has very major lore relevance once you understand who/what he is. Then Legacy introduced Corypheus. Descent introduced/expanded lore on the Titans, which are likely to be major players or plot points in future stories. Trespasser... explains a lot of stuff and pretty much is the actual finale to DAI/setup for DA4. And I am sure there are more that I am either forgetting or not appreciating the importance of.

Whether it is good or bad, the Dragon Age DLC philosophy is to set up stuff for future stories, even if some of it may end up not really being important when it does come back like the Harverster cameo in DA2.

Re: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Posted: Sat May 08, 2021 5:52 pm
by Beelzquill
So, in his playthrough has Chuck missed his opportunity to get the Iron Bull and Sera? I always remember getting them before the Mage or Templar levels, but that might just be me autistically making sure I complete everything I can before the main quest.

Re: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Posted: Sat May 08, 2021 6:45 pm
by Riedquat
Beelzquill wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 5:52 pm So, in his playthrough has Chuck missed his opportunity to get the Iron Bull and Sera? I always remember getting them before the Mage or Templar levels, but that might just be me autistically making sure I complete everything I can before the main quest.
Could be that he already has but will show it later, editing it together in a different way to make the review flow the way he wants.