ROSS'S GAME DUNGEON: DUNGEON SIEGE

[cutiepyro]

i found another game that's kind of like dungeon siege, the first one at least. it's called pathfinder: kingmaker. it has this fighting system that could go either traditional dungeon siege style, or turn based combat the flick of a switch. unfortunately that means the game is probably more balanced for you to pause, tell your units where to attack, then unpause to watch the mayhem. good news though, as far as i can tell, your units will automatically attack any nearby enemies without having you telling them to attack them, and i think after they're done attacking their target, they just bolt towards the next guy to kill. here's some gameplay

and now some images from this video

 

 

[Mira]

I'm still really thankful for this video; this was one of the first games I remember playing and I've come back to it (as well as part 2) so many times since that it still shows up in my dreams now and then. I never heard anyone talk favourably about it (if at all) until this video spread the good word about it; being validated in not being the only person who loved this game was very heartwarming.

 

About the backtracking: something I didn't know until many replays is that there's a small payoff to the 'subplot' of the old man in the travellers' camp ("may the road you follow be pleasant and your vengeance complete") whose daughter Sikra has been captured. It's not until hours later into the game that you actually find Sikra and can recruit her into your team, but if you then walk all the way back to the camp with her (which would take another hour and which you'd have no reason at all to do) he'll actually acknowledge it and thank you; discovering that made me feel like an adventurer. According to a Wiki page he was originally also supposed to give you a discount at the local store if you do this, but this code was left unused. To my knowledge this would be the only 'benefit' to walking back in the entire game (besides soaking in more of the environment of course).

[chiefwhosm]

So I re-watched this video yesterday and it got me wondering if there was a demo to try out, tried the original site on archvie.org and eventually got the demo - but from ausgamers as the archive.org version kept corrupting.

 

Anyway, on the original site is a 'making of' video amongst other things which is quite interesting, especially because of the chosen music...

https://web.archive.org/web/20040512210642/http://www.microsoft.com/games/DungeonSiege/8.asp

 

Also someone in the thread linked to Scott Bilas' blog which is no longer online, so here's the archive link for it too:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170519211136/http://scottbilas.com:80/games/dungeon-siege

[Space Pirate]

Not sure if this is the place to post this or if I should just email the admin directly, but he can't be the only person who's interested in the subject. Any input would be appreciated.
 

I'm just starting out as a part-time solo-dev and Game Dungeon is probably the only show I can think of that still talks about Dungeon Siege and wants to see more of that style of game. The video answers most of the questions I could have on making something to fill that niche, but I'm stuck on the tone I want to go with.
 

Regarding plot: is it better to attempt a fantasy-thing that's trying to stay somewhat serious without messing with the formula of having a beatdown crew, or to go with the interpretation of "this isn't the first time this has happened but it will be the last"? I'm just torn on this because there usually isn't a good reason to make something intentionally bad, even when the premise lends itself to that style of dialogue and narrative.

Party Composition: More guys? More guys! Dungeon Siege II felt great for giving me options on how I wanted to build a character. It was like Diablo II but with extra characters, but the smaller party size just made everything feel more cramped. You get a melee, a physical-ranged, a combat mage, and a nature mage... if you don't switch any of them out for the myriad of beasts you can get as pets. Either way, with your sapient fighters, you'll end up sinking skill points into a tree, and losing out on all the cool gear you aren't spec'd into. So few RPGs give crossbows the respect they deserve, but throwing knives and bladed crescents and chakrams are cool too, but who wants to devote two party slots to ranged physical attackers?

More Guys is definitely the correct answer to this problem, but how many more? How many inventories do we want to keep track of, before stopping into town halts everything for an hour while you sort everybody's equipment? At what point does this become too much? Twelve characters? Fifteen? Is creating a "sell all" button and giving the option to lock certain things into your inventory, that they don't get sold by accident, a good workaround for this, or should the system be left as-is to give players a good indicator for a stopping point or downtime?

Should I just try to see how many health and magic bars I can fit on the side of the screen without taking up too much space or making them too tiny to read?

Elevators: With an enlarged party size, do we want massive elevators that everybody can fit on regardless of whether immersion gets broken, or somewhat realistically sized platforms that you'll need to do multiple trips on? Or, a mix of both, or an arbitrary character / weight limit in some places specifically designed for a small party?

I'm probably not even starting on this project for a few years because it's probably going to be a massive undertaking and I'd like to at least sort of know what I'm doing before I start, but there's no reason I can't compile notes early.

[Im_CIA]

On 1/23/2023 at 4:34 AM, Space Pirate said:

Not sure if this is the place to post this or if I should just email the admin directly, but he can't be the only person who's interested in the subject. Any input would be appreciated.
 

I'm just starting out as a part-time solo-dev and Game Dungeon is probably the only show I can think of that still talks about Dungeon Siege and wants to see more of that style of game. The video answers most of the questions I could have on making something to fill that niche, but I'm stuck on the tone I want to go with.
 

Regarding plot: is it better to attempt a fantasy-thing that's trying to stay somewhat serious without messing with the formula of having a beatdown crew, or to go with the interpretation of "this isn't the first time this has happened but it will be the last"? I'm just torn on this because there usually isn't a good reason to make something intentionally bad, even when the premise lends itself to that style of dialogue and narrative.

Party Composition: More guys? More guys! Dungeon Siege II felt great for giving me options on how I wanted to build a character. It was like Diablo II but with extra characters, but the smaller party size just made everything feel more cramped. You get a melee, a physical-ranged, a combat mage, and a nature mage... if you don't switch any of them out for the myriad of beasts you can get as pets. Either way, with your sapient fighters, you'll end up sinking skill points into a tree, and losing out on all the cool gear you aren't spec'd into. So few RPGs give crossbows the respect they deserve, but throwing knives and bladed crescents and chakrams are cool too, but who wants to devote two party slots to ranged physical attackers?

More Guys is definitely the correct answer to this problem, but how many more? How many inventories do we want to keep track of, before stopping into town halts everything for an hour while you sort everybody's equipment? At what point does this become too much? Twelve characters? Fifteen? Is creating a "sell all" button and giving the option to lock certain things into your inventory, that they don't get sold by accident, a good workaround for this, or should the system be left as-is to give players a good indicator for a stopping point or downtime?

Should I just try to see how many health and magic bars I can fit on the side of the screen without taking up too much space or making them too tiny to read?

Elevators: With an enlarged party size, do we want massive elevators that everybody can fit on regardless of whether immersion gets broken, or somewhat realistically sized platforms that you'll need to do multiple trips on? Or, a mix of both, or an arbitrary character / weight limit in some places specifically designed for a small party?

I'm probably not even starting on this project for a few years because it's probably going to be a massive undertaking and I'd like to at least sort of know what I'm doing before I start, but there's no reason I can't compile notes early.

You're better off writing your own design doc instead of crowdsourcing ideas. You're trying to make by committee in a solo venture

[Space Pirate]

Yeah, and on top of that there's the whole "advice is usually worth what you paid for it" thing. Thanks anyway.

I'll be lurking.