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Unified Vidya Games thread

Started by Cain, November 21, 2013, 05:10:58 PM

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Cain

So I've been playing the Interesting NPCs mod sections of Skyrim, in my roflstomp/mess around/do whatever SkyRe install (because I'm waiting for T3nd0 to fix the bugs in Dexterity and Speech for PerMa 1.2).

Is pretty good.  I've been doing some of the actual quests, instead of just talking to people, and they're not bad.  Not difficult, per se (aside from the self-imposed no fast travel and no save-scumming limitations), but with far more dialogue and far more interesting than anything in vanilla Skyrim, including the main quest.  I've just finished up Raven of Anvil, which was practically tailor made for my character, given they're a bard and a thief themselves.  Dusk on Anvil Harbor was a pretty good song, too. 

Junkenstein

Finished first run of Pillars of Eternity.

Not bad. Not bad at all. Ending went a little sideways but that may be me.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Reginald Ret

Quote from: Junkenstein on April 09, 2015, 11:47:11 PM
Finished first run of Pillars of Eternity.

Not bad. Not bad at all. Ending went a little sideways but that may be me.
How long did it take? (please avoid spoilers, I just started)
I don't get the lack of respect mages get in this game, they can do insane amounts of damage. Granted, I usually hit one of my own as well but once i get some fireresistance gear for my frontline characters there won't be a problem.
Lord Byron: "Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."

Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

"The worst forum ever" "The most mediocre forum on the internet" "The dumbest forum on the internet" "The most retarded forum on the internet" "The lamest forum on the internet" "The coolest forum on the internet"

Cain

I'm only just downloading it today (been busy with...life).  From what I'm hearing though, it's a combination of the best of BG2, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment.

Reginald Ret

Quote from: Cain on April 10, 2015, 05:57:01 PM
I'm only just downloading it today (been busy with...life).  From what I'm hearing though, it's a combination of the best of BG2, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment.
I've got 14 hours in it now.
Fun fact: you can own and run a keep. I've loved city building in RPG's since Breath of Fire 2.
The keep has some kind of infinite dungeon under it, constantly getting additions.

There are many shoutouts to their backers though, often 10 fan-written ghost stories per area and all graves/memorials are fan-written. They can break immersion.
Lord Byron: "Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."

Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

"The worst forum ever" "The most mediocre forum on the internet" "The dumbest forum on the internet" "The most retarded forum on the internet" "The lamest forum on the internet" "The coolest forum on the internet"

Cain

Meh, if I wanted immersion, I'd play Skyrim/Requiem/Frostfall/RnD/Hunterborn.

The minor drama about one of the backers having an "offensive" poem was amusing.  It wasn't that offensive, IMO, although undeniably a little tasteless.  Obsidian did exactly the right thing - they contacted the backer and asked, in light of the complaint, if he wanted to change it.  He provided an alternate poem, making fun of the drama, and everything was good.

Well, except for the Gamergaters getting up in arms about Obsidian "selling out" to the "feminist agenda".  But that's practically expected nowadays.  I have no doubt Killing Floor 2 will be criticised for selling out to the feminist agenda, because it's about ethics in slaying zombies, or something.

Junkenstein

Quote from: Reginald Ret on April 10, 2015, 08:12:14 AM
Quote from: Junkenstein on April 09, 2015, 11:47:11 PM
Finished first run of Pillars of Eternity.

Not bad. Not bad at all. Ending went a little sideways but that may be me.
How long did it take? (please avoid spoilers, I just started)
I don't get the lack of respect mages get in this game, they can do insane amounts of damage. Granted, I usually hit one of my own as well but once i get some fireresistance gear for my frontline characters there won't be a problem.

Call it approx 50 hours or so, some significant chunks missed and/or ignored (Companion quests/ misc sidequests). Custom party of 4, hit level cap around 2/3's of the way through. Level cap surprisingly low, thought it would have been higher. Apparently expansions in works comparable in size to the expansion for Baldurs gate 1.

Overall, I'd say:

Plot - Nowhere near Planescape: Torment. Very little is ever likely to be, but it's on par with say baldurs gate 1 in terms of overall size/scope/potential setup. How it's handled, well, that's another matter.

Combat - More intuitive than IWD, somewhat more forgiving mainly due to the potential interface options. Mechanics have been rewritten from whatever BG2 (?) was and it works largely for the better.

Actual fun - Pretty damn fun. Will be good to get a spoiler thread up when appropriate as there's a couple of "Eh, what the fuck?" that I'm replaying to try and figure out now. Loading times seemed a bit excessive but no BSOD or gamebreaking issues. I wouldn't say "best of BG2/PST/IDW combined, but it's a damn good attempt and often comes close. In general they seem to have built the foundations for a pretty solid IP so with any luck they'll be doing more with the setting


Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain

That was kinda my hope, that this would be a "success", however Obsidian measure that, which would allow them to develop the franchise in the future.

Not that I've played it yet.  Probably wont have a chance for at least another week.

Junkenstein

There seems to be solid plans for a sequel, and the basis of which I can guess but would involve spoilers to fuck and back.

It's also somewhat questionable about how the expansions will work, either as just additional explorable content or furthering the main plot. If main plot, then great. If just content, less so.

I think my only real gripe with the game (beyond some plot elements/presentation) is in the presentation of the main plot. It's very strongly reminiscent of BG1 with the low-level/relatively minimal direction. Compare that to how BG2 was presented with relatively constant main plot pushes/rewards. The XP system ties into that mechanic strongly with less emphasis on "kill all the things". Though there are arguably several benefits for doing so, XP isn't the main. Moving on to the next quest stage is where the bulk comes from. This becomes a little odd in places when you're probably overlevelled for the area/quest undertaken.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain

Between them, Bethesda and Valve have successfully managed to make the Skyrim modding scene implode with Valve's "paid mods" scheme.

Basically, Valve and Bethesda said it would now be cool for modders to charge for their mods in the Steam Workshop.  The modder takes 25%, with Steam and Valve splitting the rest.  In theory it sounds good, in a way, because modders often put 100s, if not 1000s of hours into their mods with little in the way of recognition.

But oh man the implementation has been awful.  Firstly, modders only get to see the profits if they achieve over a certain threshold of overall earnings.  Secondly, their cut is so small, considering this is a game that has been out for almost 5 years at this point, it's practically insulting.  Then there are the legal issues...most mods rely on assets and scripts that were developed by other modders.  Most modders are fine with simple acknowledgement...back when modding was a free system.  Now people who are determined to keep their mods free are having their intellectual property used as part of paying mods, without their permission.  And that's the other thing - the Steam Workshop is notoriously badly policed.  Mods from there steal from the Nexus mod site quite freely, and Valve are very slow to react to claims of theft.  Now people will have to pay to see if their work is being stolen.  And there is a question of support and updates...with free mods, if things didn't work, eh, whatever.  You didn't pay for it.  Now Bethesda and Valve want money, I in turn will want to see things fixed...and modders simply are not being paid enough to mod full time.  The Steam Workshop will also never remove mods people have downloaded...once people have bought them, they will continue to provide access, regardless of the modder's desires.

Add into this that, from a modding POV, the Steam Workshop is the worst option for modding (you have virtually no control over the mods when compared to a program like Mod Organizer) AND that this is likely a trial run for some terrible modding scheme in the run up to Fallout IV or TES VI....and well, you can see why people might be losing their shit.  Oh. and even better - some modders are now putting in-game pop-ups into unpaid versions of their mods, to try and force people to buy the paid versions (I think this was Midas or Phendrix spells).

Notably, SkyUI, one of the most critical mods for Skyrim, has said they will only release future updates on a paid basis (and they've been sitting on an update for over a year at this point).  Chesko, the noted creator of Frostfall (among others) has run into legal and ethical issues and basically deleted his entire social networking presence and Steam workshop portfolio.  Apollodown, the creator of several hugely popular overhaul mods, has temporarily taken his mods down from Nexus in protest at SkyUI and Valve's connivance.  Isoku, the creator of several popular immersion mods, who had been recently hyping updates to some of his more script heavy mods, was found to have been holding his mods back in preparation for the paid scheme and only releasing the updates on the Steam Workshop.  He's since been forced to recant by public pressure, and state he will offer his mods on Steam first, then for free after 1-2 months on Nexus.

It's been a complete clusterfuck.  The modding community used to be an actual community.  People shared knowledge in the spirit of learning and enjoyment...now knowledge is going to be more jealously guarded, as today's novice may be tomorrow's competitor.  And there is going to be a very real divide between the modders who keep their stuff free, and who choose to chatge from it.

I guarantee Valve has not run this past any lawyer who knows anything about copyright and video games.  Their legal disclaimer is so poorly written I am sure I could argue against it, in a legal setting.

Reginald Ret

Well fuck.
I was thinking of playing a heavily modded version of Skyrim soonish but now I won't bother.

I can do without that particular headache.
Lord Byron: "Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."

Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

"The worst forum ever" "The most mediocre forum on the internet" "The dumbest forum on the internet" "The most retarded forum on the internet" "The lamest forum on the internet" "The coolest forum on the internet"

Cain

The vast, vast majority of mods are still free and available on Nexus, I should point out.  A lot of top modders have affirmed their belief that mods should be freely available, including the authors of almost all the major overhaul mods.  The STEP website has also said it will only approve and recommend free mods also.

Even with the whole SkyUI debacle, the current 4.1 build will remain free to use, as well.

Cain

Bethesda and Valve finally realised how badly they fucked up, and have backed down.  No more paid mods.

Junkenstein

Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Reginald Ret

Quote from: Cain on April 28, 2015, 01:22:01 AM
Bethesda and Valve finally realised how badly they fucked up, and have backed down.  No more paid mods.
Good!

Fuckers.
Lord Byron: "Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."

Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

"The worst forum ever" "The most mediocre forum on the internet" "The dumbest forum on the internet" "The most retarded forum on the internet" "The lamest forum on the internet" "The coolest forum on the internet"