RPG General discussion thread

[Brian Boru]

Is there any decent RPG set in the Arthurian mythology? The Round Table is a natural base for various warrior classes, before heading for Merlin and his classes—is it not?

 

[Sarafan]

Is there any decent RPG set in the Arthurian mythology? The Round Table is a natural base for various warrior classes, before heading for Merlin and his classes—is it not?

Check this: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1157390/King_Arthur_Knights_Tale/

I have this game on my wishlist, but waiting for a decent sale.

 

[Zloth]

I had completely forgotten about this game, and certainly never played it, but:

View: https://youtu.be/IPQQTz_3ODs?si=Bj7PZbOhfH-KjIx9


Here's a PC Gamer review of the second game.

King Arthur 2: The Role Playing Wargame review

I’m in a dank bog, talking to the ghostly wife of a Roman lunatic who thinks that he’s the Emperor Hadrian. I’m desperately trying to persuade her to make him go away. Where did my life go so wrong? I’m supposed to be the son of King Arthur, for the Old Gods’ sake.Arthur is nearly dead, thanks...

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Colif]

Rocket Propelled Grenades are my fav game type

surely thats what it means, it has so many descriptions

 

[Sarafan]

Rocket Propelled Grenades are my fav game type

Xplosive stuff…

 

[Brian Boru]

Check this:

King Arthur: Knight's Tale

Thanks for that
"It's Xcom perfectly mixed with Dark Souls"
Gulp x 2

Steam reviews suggest repetitive play and very player-unfriendly, in that when you discover you can't finish the game due to squad mismatch, you have to start over from the beginning.

Sounds ideal for RPG players who enjoy the figuring out side of things, but I'll pass

Rocket Propelled Grenades

Zed will tell you about Rebounds Per Game, latest of which he missed due to industrial action by the Ryanair Pilots Group union.

Oh, make sure you have Regulation Prescription Glasses if you want to properly visualize a Retrograde PyeloGram—nasty yokes, those.

this game

King Arthur Collection

Hmm thanks, looks like influenced by Warhammer & Total War & HOMM.

 

[ZedClampet]

There's nothing I would recommend. I could have sworn that another Arthurian game came out last year, but either I just can't find it, or I'm actually thinking of Knight's Tale.

Edit: Never mind. I found it in my wishlist. It was just Knight's Tale.

 

[Pifanjr]

It has its own Wikipedia page:

Category:Video games based on Arthurian legend - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Brian Boru]

Wikipedia page

Oh nice one—52 pages = 52 games I assume. I didn't know there was a Tomb Raider around this theme. Page says…
"Last edited 5 years ago by Armbrust"
…so anything released since 2018 won't be there at the moment.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Brian Boru

I FOUND IT!​

Despite declaring it was another game and briefly giving up, it kept nagging me that I had seen another Arthurian game. I finally found it.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon on Steam

Step into a dark reimagination of Arthurian legends in this first person, open world RPG. Explore a world stuck in everlasting autumn, witness falling legends and make meaningful choices woven into a complex, branching storyline.

store.steampowered.com

First person, open world. But it's early access, so probably a no go for now. I mean, I'd like it, but most on here don't play early access.

By the way, searching Steam with "Excalibur" brings up a bunch of games, but they all looked like trash to me except for this one that hasn't been released yet:

Dark Life Excalibur on Steam

Dark Life: Excalibur is a fantasy action adventure that tells the story of Aron, a human who is linked to the most famous and legendary sword of all time: Excalibur.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Zloth]

I didn't know there was a Tomb Raider around this theme.

 

[JarlBSoD]

Not sure Dark Age of Camelot counts but it has Camelot in the name so.

Found this on GOG, it is old and i havn't played it myself but if one likes that type of game it might be fun maybe.

Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail

In pagan times, the legends of Camelot were told as epic tales full of faith. Bold, color

www.gog.com

 

[Brian Boru]

No need to worry if Viva La Dirt League ever go off the air
4m video:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH65ovpVJDg

One of the comment threads is about a collab between the 2 groups—I'm up for that!

 

[Aleksandr13]

What is the best rpg game?

 

[Brian Boru]

What is the best rpg game?

Skyrim.

 

[Zloth]

Skyrim.

Only with the right mods.

 

[JarlBSoD]

BaldurSkyWind i say!

 

[Zloth]

DD2 reviews are out! Sounds like we need to talk to OSHA about Fraiser working until he dropped.

Here's another review, with a direct jump to a "yellow paint" reference, just because that topic is big in some corners of the forum right now.

View: https://youtu.be/q04wzXTuS2Y?si=tHUUkV-GnOdFIB4H&t=1021


I do worry about what he said regarding difficulty pacing. That's often a problem in RPGs where you have some players getting super powerful because they are exploring every bit of the game while other players stick much more closely to the main quest. (Mods to reduce xp gain can help if done right.)

 

[Brian Boru]

some players getting super powerful because they are exploring every bit of the game while other players stick much more closely to the main quest

But there's no harm in some basic strategic choice in an RPG, is there?

 

[Colif]

I didn't watch but choice between having to do it all to finish game or just having it as extra isn't a new thing. Sacred 2 did it 15 years ago. Could just do the main quest chain or you could do any of the 600+ side quests in game.
Why not make it super deep for those that want to spend years in the game?
Why make the advantages from doing all the extra things meaningless? Reduce their value? Just to make it "fair" for those who don't... how is that fair to those who do?

Is it single player or online? If its single player, who cares if others are more equipped than you? and if its online, the devs must have thought of that already and reward those who spend more time playing.

 

[Zloth]

But there's no harm in some basic strategic choice in an RPG, is there?

Is it single player or online? If its single player, who cares if others are more equipped than you? and if its online, the devs must have thought of that already and reward those who spend more time playing.

Hmmm, let me explain in more detail.

So, you've got player A that has been playing for 30 hours and is level 30. You've also got B, who hit the level cap of 50 and has been playing for 100 hours. Now you want to design a good boss... <looks at Brian> ... you want to design a final battle that will be a good challenge for both of them. If you design it around the level 50, highly experienced player, poor level 30 gets trashed. Design it around the level 30, and the level 50 is writing a negative Steam review because the finale was a pushover.

There have been many answers to this problem.

• Don't have side quests. There's the main quest and that's it. Or at least have smaller side quests, or side quests that reward people with costumes and other such things that don't increase their power level.
• Level scaling. The stronger you are, the harder that final battle will be. Level 30 may face hill giants, while level 50 is up against vampiric storm giants. (Or, if the devs are... putting effort into other aspects of the game, then it will be the same enemies but with more hit points.)
• Design it for the level 30 but let the level 50 find a secret door after the battle that leads to another encounter designed for level 50s and show them the "true" ending.

OK, I've never seen the last in that list, but I hope to some day!

Anyway, from the sound of that review, that sort of issue could be facing the whole world in DD2. As long as you don't do too much, everything is fine, but players that are trying to do a lot of side content will find the world unchallenging halfway through the game. If you can defeat a cyclops at level 15, fighting them at level 40 is not very fun unless the developers do something to make it harder.

 

[Brian Boru]

design a final battle that will be a good challenge for both of them. If you design it around the level 50, highly experienced player, poor level 30 gets trashed

I don't see the problem with this. If I'm the level 30 guy and get hammered, a quick search will tell me I need to do more quests to level up before tackling final battle.

Alternatively, have different difficulty levels so L30 can complete game on Easy whereas L50 should have a good chance on Hard. Loads of games work that way.

 

[Pifanjr]

I don't see the problem with this. If I'm the level 30 guy and get hammered, a quick search will tell me I need to do more quests to level up before tackling final battle.

I would also assume that the level 30 would have been struggling for quite a while before reaching the finale. If the developers balance the finale for a level 50 player, then a significant chunk of the content before that would have been scaled for a level 40-50 player as well. It would be very poor game design if the difficulty spiked such that a level 30 only realized they were 20 levels behind at the finale of the game.

 

[Frindis]

I tried Dragon's Dogma 2 and it was a mess for me. I knew what I was getting into watching YouTube/Steam reviews, but I had to see for myself. The game is incredibly poorly optimized, like some of the worst I have seen for some time so here is at least a warning for anyone wanting to try it out: You will need a MONSTER PC to run this smoothly and even then you will see performance issues.

Maybe it will get better in the future, who bloody knows, right? But I am not paying for a game to potentially work better in the future, it should run like butter from the start. At least I have the Dragon's Dogma: Arisen, which runs well, looks all right and is a joy to play!

One weird thing Capcom also did was to introduce character change as an MTX option while at the same time not informing more about how you can also change your appearance IN the game through currency you accumulate on your journey. So now you have tons of reviewers bashing the game because they believe this is the only option. It also definitely does not help to have tons of MTX options juuust after release when they already know about these bad performance issues. That is like putting out a fire with more gasoline...

 

[Zloth]

I don't see the problem with this. If I'm the level 30 guy and get hammered, a quick search will tell me I need to do more quests to level up before tackling final battle.

They could. They could stick a level requirement or just a suggestion that you not try until you get to level X. The optional sidequests would be more like electives in college: you can pick the sidequests you want, but you need to pick at least some of them.

A common mod is an XP multiplier. Those can be used to give more or less xp. Maybe that could be included in the game as an option? Basically, ask the player up front if they plan to play most of the sidequests or few of them and adjust XP accordingly. Let them change it later if they change their minds. Then the people sticking close to the main quest and the completionist types will both be at about the same power level.

Alternatively, have different difficulty levels so L30 can complete game on Easy whereas L50 should have a good chance on Hard. Loads of games work that way.

Nah, that's not really what the player are looking for, IMHO. Just because somebody wants to get through fast doesn't mean they want it to be easy, they just want it to be shorter.

I tried Dragon's Dogma 2 and it was a mess for me. I knew what I was getting into watching YouTube/Steam reviews, but I had to see for myself. The game is incredibly poorly optimized, like some of the worst I have seen for some time so here is at least a warning for anyone wanting to try it out: You will need a MONSTER PC to run this smoothly and even then you will see performance issues.

The PC Gamer review found that the issue hitting framerate is the NPCs. Having just a few isn't a problem, but in town, they kill the framerate. What's more, they do it by spiking the CPU! Dumb the graphics down to 1990 graphics and you'll still have problems. I didn't pay attention enough to find out if there's a limit on how many cores get used for the calculations. If it's all done on a single thread, even a beefy CPU won't help all that much more.

I don't really care, though. By the sound of it, you can get 50+ f/s outside of town without too much trouble. For a game like this, that should be all I need. Close counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and when dropping tornadoes on your foes.

At least I have the Dragon's Dogma: Arisen, which runs well, looks all right and is a joy to play!

You will tell us about your exploits, right? I need to know when to send the passkey to Capcom so they can get to their recent code changes.

One weird thing Capcom also did was to introduce character change as an MTX option while at the same time not informing more about how you can also change your appearance IN the game through currency you accumulate on your journey. So now you have tons of reviewers bashing the game because they believe this is the only option. It also definitely does not help to have tons of MTX options juuust after release when they already know about these bad performance issues. That is like putting out a fire with more gasoline...

Wakestones and rift crystals - bah. Just cheats to make the game easier and, from the reviews, there's no need for that at all. I guess the warp location marker simply shows you where fast travel locations are? I would be more likely to pay to keep those from being marked than the other way around.

The character editor is more concerning. I think this must have been what FextraLife was talking about. Like, there's a way to edit your character in game, but this DLC makes it so you can do it anytime, or something like that?

A lot of games like to put these stupid cheat microtransactions out there. "Make the game easy by paying more money! Sure, you could lower the difficulty, but you're too good for that!" There's a psychology paper in there somewhere for sure.