Access to high end gear

[Prasse]

Hi there forum dwellers and developers alike.

First of all since we don't have any knowledge, i think, of how weapon "stats" and such will work this is kind of a shot in the dark.

But i am going to take a guess that there will be gear and weapons with modificational abilities, such as flails that keep reanimated enemies dead when killed. Or armor that provide better protection against ex. cutting damage. These would be considered better then usual gear, and presumably there will be "high end" gear that are very rare and hard to find. Fallout 2 is my favourite game of all time and that is a game where, if you know your way around, you could easily find very very good gear right of the bat. This is something i really like in games, where you could perchance stumble upong something of great worth. Morrwind is another game that persues this type of thing, if you know where to look.

By this i do, of course, not want this to be easy to get, but i want it to be possible. If i manage by means of luck to get past a bandit hide out or a dragons den at a very early stage it would be nice if the "loot" within is accesible. A lot of games block you off by restricting levels and attributes.

To simplify this wall of text, will you be able to use high end gear at early stages of the game if found?

Also if you would be so lucky as to kill a powerfull mage at early stages, would this grant you a massive boon to thaumaturgy?

Hope i didn't ask something that they allready explained ^^.

 

[The Urban Spaceman]

I'm pretty sure any rare & powerfull items would be unattainable early in game due to the sheer difficulty of combat. I imagine it will take quite a while before we can even take on a weak human in Sui Generis since they are aiming for every battle to be a big deal.

Should be interesting to see what kind of special properties BMG puts into rare/powerfull items though!

 

[Prasse]

I understand that they would be hard to get, but with a lot of luck and skill you know. The satisfactory reward for aquiring such an item in that stage is really awesome. And hightens the sense of exploaration!

 

[The Urban Spaceman]

Don't forget there will be no 'saving' in this game. Every injury & death will have profound implications in the long & short term.

 

[Prasse]

I know, but i don't see how that is relevant =/.

 

[Madoc]

Prasse, everything you describe is pretty much right. We also really like that aspect of open world games, it's also partly the whole risk vs reward aspect. We're not so keen on just having to know where something is, rather we like the idea of accomplishing things by means of ingenuity and the non rigid mechanics and physics etc. allow you to do such things.

What The Urban Spaceman says is also mostly right and quite relevant. So you're both right

There are no artificial restrictions on equipping items (but character skills are important in using them), you also only need to be near a dying thaumaturge, you don't need to explicitly kill them yourself. Some other aspects of the game play a part in keeping things balanced and we'll probably release some relevant information on this soon.

 

[NoSoAna]

Ther are some restrictions which make sense, like limiting a twohanded sword (extralarge) to characters with high strength. However, like the OP, I really hate the arbitrary restrictions some games are s fond of: "Only class X of Level Y+ with Stat being greater than Z" where every value feels arbitrary.

This also applies to items bought in a shop: If I want to spend all my money on a special scimitar (and run around in rags instead of armor), why should there be any arbitrary limit on usage of the item?

 

[Prasse]

I understand that you would want to keep powerful items hidden away and demanding tasks to aquire them. As it should be . But i am glad to hear that there are no such restrictions, and i understand that skills will play a huge role. This is no, +9 broadsword game .

But if you are smart and manage to use perhaps physics to get by an enemy lair instead of fighting that could mean earlier acces then if you have to wait until you are strong enough.

Really digging the system with absorbing power of a mages, and even more that you could aquire the power by being near, not necessarially be the one killing them. Makes sense!

As NoSoAna says, wearing what you want is really nice and gives you a sense of the PC being you.

 

[The Urban Spaceman]

This reminds me of Fallout New Vegas. In that it was possible, with the help of the internet, to learn a relatively safe route all the way to Vegas from the start of the game. There you would cheat the slot machines to win enough to buy the intelligence upgrade at level 1 thus maximising the amount of points you could spend on perks for the rest of the game. The hard part was avoiding the giant radscorpions. At one point I was swarmed by 4 & it was a real buzz barely escaping with my life. That & the fact that it was about an hour of in game trekking made the reward at the end feel well earned.

Having said that, where Sui Generis is concerned, this does raise a question in my mind. Will I one day be able to start a new game of & use the internet to guide me to all the good stuff? It seems inevitable but what if it where possible to randomise the location & or qualities of rare equipment?

 

[The Urban Spaceman]

I dream of an RPG where no guide can spoon feed me all the best equipment!

 

[SergeDavid]

Alright so there are three mystical weapons created by a legendary smith spread throughout the land. Each was given to a brother of the ruling house. The Sword of the Wise that was given to the eldest son who passed it down from son to son and which now sits beside the royal throne. The Mace of the Vengeful which was given to the second son who in rage split his house from the royal line and made war against his brothers only to be driven down into the deeps and lost. And finally the Bow of Truth which was given to the youngest son and who in grief departed the capital city when his brother's war was at an end and was last seen wandering the wilds.

One is in plain sight and can easily be taken though getting away uncaught or alive might be a little difficult as its image is known to most of the realm and he who steals it by blood or stealth will see their doom neigh. The Mace lays deep below where malice slumbers in cruel hatred of the world and its people for perceived wrongs and slights. Then the bow, hidden away upon the plains and hills for he who knows grief to find in weeping pools.

Two require stealth or brute force to acquire though the sword could be won by persuasion or valiant deeds. The bow however requires adventure to find and may not be where it was left for those who hide can find, and those who find can hide. It is not that something requires something to wield, you could be carrying around Porkies mace thing and have it equipped though you might not be strong enough to swing the darn thing without some magical aid. Then there is the bow that anyone can use but to use accurately and effectively you'll need some experience.

 

[NoSoAna]

I dream of an rpg where everything is random and procedurally generared.

Say there is a starter quest where you need to get three people to agree to something. In one game the questgiver is called john in the next mike. In one game the ppl are north but for someone else they are southwest.
The same for dungeons location and layout, where towns are and where bandits.

Btt: in such an world you can really hand out superweapons to lucky/adventuring/sneaky players without fear that some internet guide would spoil everything.

 

[Prasse]

I understand the whole guide thing, but i really think it is unavoidable. In Fallout 2 you could get a RPG and a power armor in like 15min if you knew where to put your points and had a little luck. I've beaten Fo2 like 18 times and even after all those playthroughs the game felt rewarding. I don´t think that internet guides would be that much of a hazzle if ppl stay away from them . The reason i know how to get from 0 to OP in 15min in Fo2 is not from guides but from multiple playthroughs. Stay away from the internets .

But randomization is always good, as long as it´s kept in shack. Everything random makes the game more of a lootfest =/.

 

[The Urban Spaceman]

This is the thing, I don't think it is unavoidable. BMG just needs to randomise certain things like location & qualities. Obviously it would take time to implement in a way that makes sense. I just think it would be a cop out if the ring of pleasant flatulence is always in the second drawer of the table in third room on the right ect ect

 

[BrecMadak]

Definitly 'randomization' factor plays a huge role here, and shall have a dramatic affect on the game for to be a successfull RPG in the final outcome if done right, which i believe without a doubt. Within all those many and many circumstances that one could experience throughtout the game, randomization (where possible to implement) is an obligatory feature for SG.

 

[Cooper Holt]

I don't want to have to kill a mage to advance in thaumaturgy... I hope you can advance your skills through trial & error, and experience.
Am I missing something?

 

[SergeDavid]

I don't want to have to kill a mage to advance in thaumaturgy... I hope you can advance your skills through trial & error, and experience.
Am I missing something?

How about me? I want to read a thaumaturgy for dummies book, take a quiz, and then roll a D20 to see if I made it. Also there is something about a goat in there...

It would be nice to learn by killing in some forms, but that is the destructive spells that lead to the dark side.

 

[Prasse]

Magic really needs to be learnable without killing other mages =/