D&D - what a waste of good license?
I never played a tabletop game with the later D&D versions (4th etc.) and no CRPGs were ever made with them, but it looks like, not only did they screw up and excise away a lot of their background and pantheon, but also UTTERLY failed in licensing believable worlds to play in.
Here we are, still playing, gratefully, BG & BG2 (and other Infinity Engine games) because after 15 years nothing better was ever made.
This is at least partly due to the complex but well balanced game mechanics of D&D, coupled with a detailed mythology. You don't balance a complex game world without years of play testing by thousands of people.
In comparison, the new D&D Online looks like crap MMORPG fodder.
Why is there no decent online recreation of a table top like D&D environment?
OR, failing that, another intricate single player CRPG in the same cosmos?
The Suits, it seems, have control of the field to our collective chagrin. And their tastes are that of a twitch-happy 13 year old...
Here we are, still playing, gratefully, BG & BG2 (and other Infinity Engine games) because after 15 years nothing better was ever made.
This is at least partly due to the complex but well balanced game mechanics of D&D, coupled with a detailed mythology. You don't balance a complex game world without years of play testing by thousands of people.
In comparison, the new D&D Online looks like crap MMORPG fodder.
Why is there no decent online recreation of a table top like D&D environment?
OR, failing that, another intricate single player CRPG in the same cosmos?
The Suits, it seems, have control of the field to our collective chagrin. And their tastes are that of a twitch-happy 13 year old...
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Anyway, an MMO has a continuous world. Players get attached to their characters. You can't launch an MMO expansion saying 300 years have passed and your characters have died from old age. Feel free to start from scratch and enjoy the story. It's suicide business-wise. But you can't release an expansion without a new Archvillain of the Year either or players can't be heroes.
It's just that the more time passes the less you find it credible that you keep saving the world from a different flavor of apocalypse every year. I realize they initially pick a conflicted time and can say there was relative peace for a long time before but I don't buy the plethora of important characters Blizzard had me kill off in the space of a decade.
So yeah, don't put any hope in MMO's for lore. They are bound to disappoint you. They have to pull off lamer and lamer excuses for placing conflict in your path. Go for a good single player game with a definite ENDING.
And on that note, someone recommended https://eternity.obsidian.net/game today, which although it's not a D&D game it has the BG perspective, and presumably a lot of modern gameplay ideas. Apparently they have devs that made many of our beloved games. And it is NOT going to be an MMO.
Absolutely right about MMOs!
Also, very interesting news about Eternity...
When is it expected to be out? What are its license conditions?
And yeah, Mask of the Betrayer was made. While suffering from the NwN2 engine, it still blows BG and BG2 out of the water when it comes to rpg content.
>fighter/mage
But yes, I would really love to see more dnd titles, especially 3/3.5, and it's a shame that there haven't been any for almost a decade.:\
There's still definitely a market for mainstream Fantasy CRPGs as Skyrim and any number of other triple-A titles prove, and Gaming is bigger than Hollywood nowadays. Why the hell are they not trying to take our money?
Even if they just licenced something like Spelljammer for a weird and wonderful one-off game it'd be good.
WOTC have an offensively good IP and their direction of MMOs and facebook games is completely derivative.
*Edit* I've posted a thread on the D&D forums requesting the above:
http://community.wizards.com/forum/dd-future-releases/threads/4068796
I have high hopes for Pillars of Eternity, Tides of Numenera and Overhaul's future projects, but D&D still has huge potential.
Unfortunately, it was marred by bugs. (Co8 updates fix much of this.)
Too bad NWN/NWN2 went into the opposite direction of more WoW-like gameplay, at the expense of a better intense single player experience.
It also has very faithful implementation of 3.5E combat systems, with loads of scope for attacks of opportunity, flanking and stuff. It also does the customisability and character progression in 3.5E justice. If the module included was better, with more interesting joinable NPCs, better written dialogues and so on then it would be a top game. The CO8 mod does improve on aspects of it and is obviously a labour of love.
If Ironman version of a ToEE-like D&D was playable (*cough* save game corruptions *cough*) along with Planescape level writing it would have been the best CRPG ever made.
One can hope...
Temple of Elemental Evil-Great game but have not finished yet.
Knights of the Chalice-Excellent and I have finished.
Pools of Radiance Ruins of Myth Drannor-Havent played because it isnt on steam or gog
Eye of the Beholder (gboy advanced version) havent finished but in progress
Thats about it. There are 4 turnbased rpgs in the setting with 3rd and early edition rules. The old ones I could never stomach as I prefer the new editions. Is there something wrong where there are 4 games with 1 sequel in progress. Ahem, yet there are like almost a dozen real time ones. They are all great in their own way but someone needs to make some more. Either that or someone on here needs to tell me of another.