"Qwinn: I think it's clear from this passage that combat -was- supposed to be an integral part of the game, and efforts to fix and balance it have not been "beside the point".My two cents: I agree that combat has benefited from your changes, and, in fact, I wish much more could be done (I know you are still working on it).
First, for a game in which much combat is not avoidable, it makes a lot of sense for it to be well-implemented. The dialogue, which is an integral and essential and unavoidable part of the game, is well-implemented -- maybe buggy sometimes but rich and with many many stat-checks and consequential choices. Combat is unavoidable and, I would argue, essential to the game as well. Your character is, after all, a veteran of the Blood Wars and a leader of warriors. Not to mention he is horribly scarred, which gives testament to his combat-heavy past. The difference between dialogue and combat in the game is that dialogue benefited from the majority of development work, while combat is left undeveloped in comparison, in addition to being bugged. So, I am certainly in favor of fixing combat bugs (like the STR exploit) and in favor of changes that better balance combat (like addressing the placement of the gauntlets), and, in fact, I would be in favor of even creative changes that would improve and make more important the combat-related choices the player has to make during the course of the game.
When I first started playing Torment it was clear very quickly that as long as I threw some points at STR combat was not going to require much thought. Just hack away until the mob attacking you is dead. Hardly ever even resulted in
TNO's death. With the fixes you have introduced and are planning to introduce I find myself spending more thought and time planning character development, which is one of the great pleasures of RPGs after all.
Here's some specific thoughts I've had:
1) Could an engine fix make
TNO's inventory armor slot a blank unusable field (like Fall-From-Grace's unusable tattoo fields)? It seems to me that the absence of armor for
TNO in the game makes it clear that he is never intended to have any. My own understanding of this is that his regenerative powers are a wonderful trade-off for his poor
AC.
2) Tattoos: I like the fact that tattoos only give you benefit when worn. Since you have limited slots, you have to really make hard choices about what stats you want to increase. And since many tattoos are class-specific and carrying around extra tattoos uses valuable inventory slots, you simply can't have everything available all the time. However...
I wish many tattoos had more useful application. For instance, most if not all of the tattoos that give experience when invoked are useless afterward. I always buy them because money for experience is a good trade. But, then I leave them in a pile on the ground (which is pretty gross -- I've often imagined some poor innocent coming across a pile of discarded tattooed hunks of skin!). I think the way to make them more useful is not necessarily to change what they do but instead to make things like poison-resistance, fire-resistance, magic fire-resistance, etc., more important in combat. This would probably mean drastically overhauling enemy AI, so is probably not realisticly doable. But, imagine if, for example, skeletons were not only more susceptible to crushing damage but actually immune to slashing and piercing damage. Or, imagine that all wererats inflicted heavy poison damage. The more varied the enemies' attacks, the more character-development choices have real effect in combat.
3) Factions: I love the faction-specific items and weapons. However, I wish that there was actually more consequence for leaving factions. I like what you've done with Fix #50: (Snitching the Anarchists out to the Harmonium did not carry any of the obvious consequences. Now it does, with both factions.), and I wish there more such consequences scattered around. Maybe, for example, the Godsmen won't take you if you have previously joined and left more than one faction. My thinking is that certain factions are serious about lifelong commitment. The Sensates, in contrast, would be delighted that have joined and left many factions, since they think that life is about collecting experiences. The dustmen, too, should be somewhat unfriendly to you if you lied about your belief in order to gain some temporary benefit and then left the order. Consequences like these would make a choice to join or leave a faction in order to gain a cool weapon more meaningful. This kind of situation would also integrate combat and dialogue choices more meaningful.
4) Weapons: I actually wish the really good weapons in the game were more expensive, in one way or another. Right now, I find no difficulty just buying the latest greatest weapon for
TNO, Annah, Morte AND Nordom. I'm never short of cash. I understand that part of the "price" is often joining a particular faction, but that doesn't affect the big-league weapons for party members. In contrast, I really enjoy the way it works with Da'akon, especially with the morale fix. How you treat Da'akon has a real effect on the quality of his weapon. Now there's choice and consequence for ya!
So, only 1) above is something I am realistically hoping can be implemented, but I wanted to share my thoughts on combat in this wonderful game.
Keep going, Qwinn!
gothemasticator
Edited by gothemasticator, 14 January 2009 - 11:30 AM.
