From my point of view, one of the greatest flaws of the DA franchise (yes, I'm talking about DA:O too) and of the contemporary CRPG market in general, is the complete loss of any kind of strategical depth. If you remove your long term levelling build for the party or the single charachter, the average gameplay is 100% based on action and tactics. There is no mid/long term planning involved whatsoever, there is no management of resources if not, say, gold or crafting materials.
I believe that there are a lot of players like myself who are not interested in completing the game on Nightmare difficulty since it's too punishing but that would love some kind of pure strategical challenge, just like plain old CRPGs has allways done so well since the time of Wizardry I. I understand that it cannot be the rule for everyone because in Dragon Age "when you push a button something awesome has to happen".
But since the dev team is listening, what about an optional Hardcore Mode for DA3? I repeat, just an optional mode that changes some parameters adding some kind of strategy and management to the game but that do not touch too deeply the overall gameplay. It would not cost a lot of resources and if it proves unseccessfull, it's not that big waste and at least Bioware would not be attacked for trying (maybe, it could even help their relationship with the camp that's more interested in classic RPG features).
I'm no game designer so it's not my place to develop a complete plan for an Hardcore Mode, so I'll just try to give some basic ideas (that could work or not, I've not reflected a lot about the general implication of each change and maybe
some of them are impratical and request too work for implementation):
- No or very limited level scaling.
- No Mana/Vigor potions.
- Health and Mana/Vigor regeneration changes speed according to the general level of danger of the location your party is in. Something like: very fast in cities (as fast as the normal game) and very low in the deep roads (just a
little faster than regeneration in combat).
- Limited saves in dungeouns, in wilderness area or in urban "combat" area: the games allow you to save only when you reach certain milestones.
- Permadeath is not possible for issues related to the story. But what about a very strong incapacitating effect? Something like: at the third injury caused by combat, the charachter is totally incapacitated and you have to start from a previous save or bring him back to the stronghold to rest a certain period of time.
- Injuries: they should have stronger malus.
- Injury kits: still in, but they have a short term "expiry date" and should drop scarcely from fights. IE: If a charachter has allready 2 injuries you should play him very conservatively in combat or turn back and go to the nearest vendor for an injury kit (or fight the ingredients for an injury kits where you are and craft it).
As I said, those are just ideas and they could be wrong: what matters is the most general idea of an Hardcore Mode. What do you think? Would you value such a feature in DA2? I know I would.
Modifié par FedericoV, 06 septembre 2011 - 01:37 .
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