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[Firky]

Perhaps it's just me, but I get a kind of RPG burnout in games where there is no "down time". I'm like play, play, play, play, then go away and play Civ IV for 2 weeks for a rest. (Then come back and play, play, play.) I was like this in DAO because, although the main action/combat was broken up with side-quests, dialogue heavy sections etc, there just didn't seem to be much point to hanging around anywhere. You talk to everyone in Redcliffe tavern, for example, clean it out once, come back to see if anything has changed after the battle and that's that. DAA had the Keep which was cool, but I found myself just going there (in addition to for quest purposes) so I could shuffle my inventory around a bit and take a walk around the battlements.

OK, it probably is just me, that sounds a little weird. But in BG II, there were class specific strongholds (lots of them) where things would happen 2, 7, 11 days later. Little quests that made you feel important and grounded - and like it was worth slowing down and hanging around. And NPCs would leave you for a few days to sort out their lives and I often just took my party to the Copper Coronet to sleep if I didn't have any nighttime plans. Of course, other RPGs like Ultima with its breadbaking and fox that you could follow around its daily routine come to mind as good examples of "hanging around in a game's world". (Fox is interesting because it never slept.)

Obviously, this feeling of "down time" is linked to some kind of clock. Dragon Age lost the 24 hour/time must go on thing and I assume its not coming back for DA2. I wonder if there is some other way to get more "down time" into the game, though, which would make it more immersive and make me (at least) feel like hanging around in the world. Here are some ideas. Please add any - because I'm otherwise stumped - and my ideas aren't that great.

- Food? Or, needing to eat at certain times? I crammed my backpack full of delicious food in The Witcher and carried a watermelon to the end of the game! Mmm. Watermelon.
- Sleep? Yes, we have camp but I played my first game only visiting camp about 3 times. I think I did most of everyone's available dialogue in one hit - apart from dialogue after events. Could there be new dialogue/quest etc not just progressed by event/approval but also time - like new quest after 10 hours of gameplay?
- Other timed events? Like new quests/dialogue popping up after a period of time so if you go back to a place, there might be someone new hanging around. QFG V strikes me as an excellent example of how exploring the same place over and over again was always fresh and new (although this was based on a 24 hour clock).
- Strongholds? One for each class or maybe for choices made? With timed events/extra dialogue? 

Tell me your thoughts. Perhaps having this kind of clock is too difficult to implement. I really have no idea. But I'd love to have "down time" in DA2 and a greater feeling of being immersed in the game's world.

[TMZuk]

I'd love for the game to become more like BG2, oh yes.

However, where I considered DA:O to be a step back in that dirction, DA:A went away from it again. Granted, there was the management and the improvement of the Keep in DA:A, but still, it did not feel involving, mainly because of the AWFUL dialogue system in DA:A, which caused the whole expansion to appear flat and soulless.

DA2 feels like it's moving even further away from DA:O. What I've seen and heard so far, gives me the impression that it will be a hybrid between Fable 2 and Mass Effect 2. I hope I'll be proven wrong, but so far I am extremely dissapointed.

Modifié par TMZuk, 18 juillet 2010 - 10:52 .

[Firky]

It's a tricky one, hey? How would you have improved the Keep? Was it just the dialogue? Would timed events have worked? I didn't really dig having to make the nobles leave for example. Could they just have left after 20 mins game time or something.