Sword Coast Legends - Extended E3 Press Demo

[azarhal]

Im curious about all of this (I haven't followed your conversation, but just noticed this comment) - I only looked at 5th Ed (the basic rules) last night and noted this long/short rest division. Why can't they simply allow you to 'camp' and specify how long you want to rest for? If you rest for a full span, you could suffer a very high chance of a random encounter (?) Or they could also introduce supplies as a limiting factor, like they did in PoE. Or maybe you can only do short rests outside of a town/major camp, and you can only take them every so often… Or you can find rare places to do a long rest, but they are infrequent (like spots with no random encounters in old IE games) Or..? I'm pretty sure game designers can come up with more creative solutions that don't fundamentally change important aspects of the game. Or get the community involved if they can't.

I don't think making spells/abilities operate on cooldowns is satisfactory if it's not part of the rules. I alway admired the extent to which the old IE games (and games like ToEE) - implemented D&D….cooldowns are radically different, and I dislike them to be quite honest.

I have theory on why cooldowns: the game was originally a DAO-clone and was balanced as such.

 

[Archangel]

You enter a dungeon. Your spells are on cooldowns. You open with your best spells because you want to start their cooldown timer and therefore get the maximum number of this spell out possible in the time adventuring. This solution has the "just go for it" fun of unlimited resting while also imposing limitations on how many casts you can have and the bonus of the party never having to stop the adventure, however, I can see scumming issues of boringly waiting for your cooldowns or "wait for cooldowns", cries of your party potentially slowing you down in the same place resting would have anyway, however the party might choose to ignore this request during most common encounters, as they can handle it without the wizards best spell, and only wait for CD for the final boss.

Dungeons and Dragons Online decided to throw away resting and go with Mana points. I didn't approve, but it worked. Was the mana really needed, though, or were they just going with standard mmorpg conventions due to the success of WoW?

You miss the point. D&D is not about using all your best stuff right away. This is a problem NWN2 had as it allowed unlimited rests anywhere without penalty.
D&D is about using your limited resources in a optimal or smart way. If that means preserving all the best spells for the boss you can do that. You will receive more damage in weaker battles and hopefully your tactic will pay off. Or you can use all your best spells to do previous battles with ease and have the rest of your party be at their best in boss battle.
Cooldowns remove those basic choices of D&D.

As for Mana system of DDO, that is not the problem. D&D rules have alternate rules for using mana instead of spell slots and Psionics use mana anyways. Mana system still work like spell slots, but in a more free way and ask for less planning. But you still need to decide to spend more mana on stronger spells early and not have it for boss battle or use weaker spells for less mana and be able to spam best spell in boss battle.. or anything in between.

 

[Archangel]

I have theory on why cooldowns: the game was originally a DAO-clone and was balanced as such.

No, they said in interviews it is because of focusing on MP part of SCL so much.
When people complain how MP in games ruins SP parts, SCL will be prime example for future studies.

 

[DArtagnan]

It's just a weak excuse. Countless multiplayer games have power usage without cooldowns.

The fact that these guys opt to change the foundation of the rules because it's an easy way to balance the game, doesn't really make MP a bad thing for SP games.

It's all about how you design the game and the implementation of features.

I hear the same stupid argument from people bitching about how MP ruined the singleplayer in Neverwinter Nights.

Sure, they sacrificed a lot of resources to get it right and the original campaign suffered.

Since then, however, we've had thousands of hours of quality mods that are great in both multiplayer and singleplayer - precisely because they designed their game using their hearts and brains.

The editor and solid multiplayer would have suffered greatly by focusing on the singleplayer - and then we'd have had a great 30 hour campaign, instead of thousands of hours in rich and varied mods from talented modders.

Not to mention the persistent worlds hosted by dozens.

 

[Unrestigered]

If you're talking about the efficacy of grids vs lists it has everything to do with which works better.

Are you talking about an item in a list here?

You never addressed my point about Explorer windows set to "large icons" vs "details".

Thinking now would be a good time for you to do that, icons boy.

Didn't we come up with Skyrim and Fallout3 already, though? I'll throw in one more…. Bards Tale series. You'll probably just have to trust me on that one.
You've never made a list for work or school? What about bullet points? How's your relationship with tables? Stable?

I can have fun in fantasy land! That's always been true. At home on my computer, over playing consoles with friends. I've picked up so many control devices over the years. Played Marble Madness on a trackball, NES duck hunt gun, owned about 100 broken joysticks.

See, it's not an issue for me. I can easily work with a list or a grid inventory. I can go KB+M or controller.

Playing Witcher3 recently I started KB+M then went with controller because it works better. There's a lot to be said for precise analogue control over these on/off key presses. What would a piano sound like without the accent of the varying pressure of your keystrokes?

Consoles are not a new thing and they're a driving force in the industry. Just buy a controller, it'll be like $30, and once you can use it you'll often pick it as the superior control method for loads of AAA RPGS. Witcher3, DragonAge:I, Dark Souls, etc, etc. I even tried to get Severance: blades of darkness going with controller, once. (not successfully)

You have made it clear already you are a lemming with shit taste. I am having a hard time reading your propaganda speeches, but if my interpretation is correct this is what you are saying-

God and ISIS are great.

We behead Infidels real good

LALALALALALLALALALALLALALALALLALALALALLALALALA

Is this correct?

I have to go on another business trip. This time to an undeveloped country called Canadia or something. The hut they have me staying at has no internet access so I won't be able to post for a couple weeks.

Good luck with ISIS and cutting heads off and being a lemming. TTFN.

p.s. You had me at controller