I think it holds true that if a player is given the ability to do something that will make it easier for him, he'll do it, even if its detrimental to his long term enjoyment. The point being, I can't stop abusing certain features of BG because they're there.
I don't know if any of these features are modifiable; I suspect some of them are hard coded. Anyway.
1. Sleeping. In BG I would happily click repeatedly on the sleep button. More often than not this would heal me up. In BG2 its 10 times worse because you can get a fullheal by sleeping after every fight, making potions redundant in 99% of cases. Not to mention this would clock up a ridiculous amount of game time, where my character has aged over a decade by the endgame.
What to do about it: Double the chances of being attacked when sleeping in a hostile place every time you sleep, and reduce the healing given. Increase the distance at which the game decides that you are too much in the vicinity of a hostile monster to sleep. Prevent skipping the sleeping movie to make it even more tedious to do it. Should only be a desperate last-resort.
2. Quicksaving. Sure, it has convenience value, but saving after every encounter gets boring, yet you can't resist doing it anyway.
What to do about it: Turn it off completely. Rely on autosaves. Whenever an autosave occurs, you get one oppertunity to save the game manually. Once that is used up you can't save again until the next autosave.
3. Pausing. I think this can be too abusable.
What to do about it: When using the pause feature, the game waits until the next round elapses before pausing. Basically like the pause-every-turn feature but you only interject it when you want it.
Alternative solution: Any actions issued when the game was paused are forced to be carried out, so you can't pause and change your mind again.
The things which made BG too easy and boring
Started by
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, Dec 18 2005 01:47 AM
11 replies to this topic
#2
Kaeloree
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Posted 18 December 2005 - 02:31 AM
Unfortunately, I believe pretty much all of things you've posted are impossible -- skipping movies, quicksaving, and pausing are all hardcoded.
Doubling the chances of being attacked is doable, but I imagine it would be a tad hard to code.
Doubling the chances of being attacked is doable, but I imagine it would be a tad hard to code.
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#3
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Posted 18 December 2005 - 04:40 AM
Unfortunately, I believe pretty much all of things you've posted are impossible -- skipping movies, quicksaving, and pausing are all hardcoded.
Doubling the chances of being attacked is doable, but I imagine it would be a tad hard to code.
Guess I'll have to rely on good old self-restraint.
#4
Lord Ernie
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Posted 18 December 2005 - 01:05 PM
Anyway, these kind of mod ideas are nice by themselves, but as long as they're player-action related (quicksaving, resting, pausing), making any mod for them would simply not work. Those that like the actions simply won't download it, those that don't usually don't use them in the first place.
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#5
Azkyroth
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Posted 18 December 2005 - 03:01 PM
Besides, there's Diablo II for that kind of gameplay. ;/
"Tyranny is a quiet thing at first, a prim and proper lady pursing her lips and shaking her head disapprovingly, asking, well what were you doing (wearing that dress, walking home at that hour, expressing those inappropriate thoughts) anyway? It's subtle and insidious, disguised as reasonable precautions which become more and more oppressive over time, until our lives are defined by the things we must avoid. She's easy enough to agree with, after all, she's only trying to help -- and yet she's one of the most dangerous influences we face, because if she prevails, it puts the raping, robbing, axe-wielding madmen of the world in complete control. Eventually they'll barely need to wield a thing, all they'll have to do is leer menacingly and we fall all over ourselves trying to placate them." -godlizard
#6
Archmage Silver
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Master of The Art
Posted 18 December 2005 - 03:30 PM
Yeah, well, there's RPing and then there's Power Gaming. I like to mix both to make it more interesting, but yeah, the rest spam isn't really anything else than power gaming. But I like the pause action, this isn't World of Warcraft... and it's good that the game can wait while I answer the phone.
#7
Plasmocat
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Incredible, unstoppable titan of terror!
Posted 19 December 2005 - 07:24 AM
You can turn off the function that allows you to sleep long enough to heal fully, and you can also turn up the difficulty level to the point where you completely lose a character if that character dies (as I understand it). Aside from that, you don't *have* to heal or ressurect a character if you don't wanna. (There are a few annoying NPCs who I've taken into the party simply to "lose" them in as violent a means possible ... Oops!)
Personally, while I do have the sleep function set to allow me to heal during rest, I don't rest after every fight. I usually wait until the current objective is completed (rp'ing under the assumption that time is of the essence--which is the sense usually imparted), or until my characters are out of spells or when they become fatiqued. So if my rest happens to last for 16 hrs I'm ok with that, thinking that it's probably justified with the amount I push them.
Right now I have both Aerie and Anomen in my party. I pretty much assumed Aerie would slow me down because of her constitution, relative to the rest of the pary. But Anomen is a big baby! "I demand that we rest. The day wasn't this long when I was yadda yadda yadda" Whatever, man. Buck up and throw me some bullets if you don't have any spells. Don't make me divorce you!
You can also set the pause to your liking. You can set the pause to stop when you see traps or enemies, after you cast spells or at the end of rounds. I pause when my thief sees a trap and after a spell has been completed ... logic being that if my thief saw a trap he wouldn't then walk into it just so he could get to the spot I'd clicked on the other side of the room, and that once a spellcaster had finished a spell s/he would then go on to whatever action s/he would do next. But, you can give your characters scripts telling them how you want to fight and then turn off the pause altogether so that the only way the action would stop would be by your intervention.
But I digress ...
Point being that I think you can play the way you're wanting to play without having to download a mod.
Personally, while I do have the sleep function set to allow me to heal during rest, I don't rest after every fight. I usually wait until the current objective is completed (rp'ing under the assumption that time is of the essence--which is the sense usually imparted), or until my characters are out of spells or when they become fatiqued. So if my rest happens to last for 16 hrs I'm ok with that, thinking that it's probably justified with the amount I push them.
Right now I have both Aerie and Anomen in my party. I pretty much assumed Aerie would slow me down because of her constitution, relative to the rest of the pary. But Anomen is a big baby! "I demand that we rest. The day wasn't this long when I was yadda yadda yadda" Whatever, man. Buck up and throw me some bullets if you don't have any spells. Don't make me divorce you!
You can also set the pause to your liking. You can set the pause to stop when you see traps or enemies, after you cast spells or at the end of rounds. I pause when my thief sees a trap and after a spell has been completed ... logic being that if my thief saw a trap he wouldn't then walk into it just so he could get to the spot I'd clicked on the other side of the room, and that once a spellcaster had finished a spell s/he would then go on to whatever action s/he would do next. But, you can give your characters scripts telling them how you want to fight and then turn off the pause altogether so that the only way the action would stop would be by your intervention.
But I digress ...
Point being that I think you can play the way you're wanting to play without having to download a mod.
Edited by Plasmocat, 19 December 2005 - 07:29 AM.
All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. -- Albert Camus
#8
Azkyroth
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Posted 19 December 2005 - 10:12 PM
Incidentally...
Say...you wouldn't happen to be a high school/college student with a light workload and no job or family responsibilities taking up your time, would you? *sighs*
2. Quicksaving. Sure, it has convenience value, but saving after every encounter gets boring, yet you can't resist doing it anyway.
What to do about it: Turn it off completely. Rely on autosaves. Whenever an autosave occurs, you get one oppertunity to save the game manually. Once that is used up you can't save again until the next autosave.
Say...you wouldn't happen to be a high school/college student with a light workload and no job or family responsibilities taking up your time, would you? *sighs*
"Tyranny is a quiet thing at first, a prim and proper lady pursing her lips and shaking her head disapprovingly, asking, well what were you doing (wearing that dress, walking home at that hour, expressing those inappropriate thoughts) anyway? It's subtle and insidious, disguised as reasonable precautions which become more and more oppressive over time, until our lives are defined by the things we must avoid. She's easy enough to agree with, after all, she's only trying to help -- and yet she's one of the most dangerous influences we face, because if she prevails, it puts the raping, robbing, axe-wielding madmen of the world in complete control. Eventually they'll barely need to wield a thing, all they'll have to do is leer menacingly and we fall all over ourselves trying to placate them." -godlizard
#9
Aussie Muscle
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Posted 05 February 2006 - 05:39 PM
quick pausing of BG is great, you need this feature to ensure you get everyone fighting, etc. It'd be pretty frantic if you had to rely on your eye and reflexes to do this on the fly and i'm sure i'd loose a lot more characters if i had to. i usually turn on rest till healed as well.
#10
Feanor
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The Elven Lord
Posted 06 February 2006 - 03:12 PM
2. Quicksaving. Sure, it has convenience value, but saving after every encounter gets boring, yet you can't resist doing it anyway.
What to do about it: Turn it off completely. Rely on autosaves. Whenever an autosave occurs, you get one oppertunity to save the game manually. Once that is used up you can't save again until the next autosave.
Since I know this was a great cause of frustration in Diablo 2 (the lack of a quick-save I mean) for a great number of players, I don't think it would be a good idea.
#11
AnnabelleRose
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The great pretender... of modding!
Posted 06 February 2006 - 04:21 PM
I'm inclined to agree with everything posted here as a counter arguement against a mod like this.
Sorry.
I will say that mod mod players/downloaders tend to be silent, so if someone wants to make a mod they should.
Sorry.
I will say that mod mod players/downloaders tend to be silent, so if someone wants to make a mod they should.
- The transitioned former modder once known as MTS.
#12
Delight
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Posted 06 February 2006 - 04:47 PM
How about not loading game when something goes wrong, but facing all consequences of player's choices and events?
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