Hey I came here from a GameDevTV livestream and I just gotta say that I 100% agree with this. This is a good topic and the quality of the video is great too!
Dude first time I played Skyrim I did not even know what Fast Travel was. It took me 100 hours to get to level 50 as a result. I was dumbfounded when I found out about it. My take on fast travel is that it should be a difficulty setting. Limiting it is only gonna cause trouble. Make the hardest difficulty have no fast travel. Makes it most natural and for hardcore fans. I can’t imagine as an adult running around like I did as a kid.
When is the best time to use fire rain? When you go valley for the first time and the castle is under siege from orcs and it's implied you should sneak in but you clear out every single Orc using fire rain and other aoe spells and in the next chapter all orcs respawn so you get like extra 30,40 lvls UGASHAKA!
I wouldn't call the white arrow that shows where you are on the map "video game magic". It makes sense that the character who inhabits this world, that we play with, knows where he is in that world even if we as the player don't. Think of the arrow as him knowing and relating that information to us. Similar to how you watch a movie or a TV show and you hear an inner monologue. There's no audible voice associated with people's thoughts, that doesn't exist. It's our perception of their inner voice. We are supposed to transpose ourselves into the character so we should know what he knows, hear what he hears, think what he thinks.
We learned all the wrong lessons in open-world game design. Morrowind, Gothic 1 and 2, they're still the best. How's that possible? It's the same thing with stealth games, Thief 1 and 2 are still the kings of the genre.
I disagree with this. As much as Gothic is one of my favorite games, and you are right that it's important to have worldbuilding via faction interaction, this can only work in a setting where the number of factions is somehow naturally limited, like in the penal colony, cut off from the outside world, and post-apocalyptic wasteland. In a large and intricate world, such as The Elder Scrolls, it's the amount of factions that makes the world believable. Sure, you'll care less for some factions than others, but that's the point.
Hey. Great video! I'm wondering if you have noticed and/or will ever talk about the rhythm-based combat that G2 has? In your footage, you fight lurkers by attacking them quickly, and in another part, you use scrolls on them (or is it in the other video). But did you know that lurkers, much like other enemies in the game, can (and, I think, should) be fought rhythmically? Just wait for it to charge, and attack it the moment it tries to attack you and hisses. That way you interrupt its attack and deal damage. Do that, and you can defeat a lurker with no gear and taking no damage. Just one more thing that makes Gothic 2 so great.
A lone hero of Castle Morne was Banished Knight Engvall . Banished Knight Engvall Ashes One of the two knights dubbed the Wings of the Storm. Despite his banishment, he rejected the invitation of the Grace-Given Lord, instead keeping watch over a masterless castle for many years, gaining renown as a hero of the fringes. Castle Morne is masterless castle, only have commander , Edgar, like Castle Sol have commander Niall. When Godfrey defeated Storm Lord, Storm Knights became Banished Knights, some of them join Godfrey like Oleg, some of them continue to fight like Engvall. The storied sword of Castle Morne. A revenger's weapon, it is burdened with oceans of anger and regret. One of the legendary armaments. A lone surviving champion from a country now vanished was so determined to continue fighting that he claimed the swords of an entire clan of warriors. Engvall remain last of his brothers, forge Grafted Blade Greatsword of theirs swords and continue fighting so well that Godfrey himself must to fight him and kill him. Oleg,having slain a hundred traitors as the Lord's hand, earned the hero's honor of Erdtree Burial. Engwall, who rejected to be Godfrey knight and fight against him, was buried in Murkwater Catacombs, on more hidden spot but he still received a sword monument for his skill and courage.
i mean i still get attached to the characters going through their own hell when they die it is a massive hit to morale in the first game i usually took it to harshly and go through the stages of grief i mean it is a good thing for some but i play for fun and stories of overcoming odds
Actually in gothic 2 some enemies do respond and I'm not talking about chapter progress and in the switch versions of gothic 1 and 2 they do it better so you can still get exp some
Thoroughly enjoyed this. I've been stingy in too many games in the past and after a discussion with a buddy about 3 years ago during the pandemic, I decided to use my items more liberally. It struck me that I am good enough to beat most games on hard with very little item use, so why not use the items to make the game more fun and a bit easier? Especially since I am a mfer for being in a really tricky section of a game but not using items anyway because it slips my mind and whenever I do think about using it the ol "This might be useful later" thing kicks in. Gaming has become much more fun when I use items and get to blast through enemies in more interesting ways, it relieves a lot of stress and anxiety over losing something and also removes that strange gutted feeling at the end of a game when its all finished and I know my inventory is completely stacked with items that'll remain never used.
Same here I love in game maps or other gameplay things. Such as I love the inventory being the backpack/pockets in Outward or Last of us :) Same with the map, beeing in the game instead of beening a god view of the world not the player character. Such as in Skryim.
this is why "Archolos" (gothic2based standalone game) is better than g2 . You can drink the potion that gives you stats permamently as soon as you get it (or quest related stat increase) and it will not make your character weaker in late game (the LP cost for higher stat is unchanged just as if the potion is a ring)
However, you didn't explain how you learned taking all the trophies from the monsters at lower lvls. If you nuke a Shadowbeast with a scroll, you won't be able to take its horn because there is no way you'd have the ability to do it such early in the game.
The other thing what is brilliant, all those things you encountered are there even if you go there for something else. It feels like the world is made out of "small scenes" that you can discover. And they all give some new info or reward. And the best part most of these scenes have some progression, with chapters or with dealing quests. At one point that guy you helped is dead because seekers are there. Or he is leaving his camp because of orcs. All kind of little story. You can also encounter them any other way, heck you can even kill everyone, and not finnish any of those quests, keep the cross bow. You can do a lot things, and the game lets you do it. You can get the Crossbow by accident, when you search for the eye of innos. And meet Dragomir after.
easiest way to beat the troll is run under his arms and always stay behind him, he will never be able to turn as fast as you run so you can beat him lvl1 and bare handed, i did that once, it took like 15 minutes but its funny. (Though its better to save that moment till you learn to skin him)
Objection. Skyrims fast travel is realistic. If you pay attention, time actually does pass. That said, my favourite type of fast travel is the type used in MMOs. Teleportation magic. Wouldn't work for all games, but does for fantasy games.
Gothic 3 has great in-game fast travel system. You need to find teleprortation stone for each town/place that equals a lot of exploration. And its transport you only to these few most important places
I've always said Morrowind was the greatest game i've ever played. Its a book that you play. I don't believe we'll ever see anything as great as that game. Truely a masterpiece.
My father bought this game when I was around ten years old and I remember playing it. I had to get him to complete the haunted house part I was so scared lol
why completely ignore the propylon indecies? it is the most useful way to get around late game. it's literally on the map you used. 13 minutes to to explain something that could be done in 5, and you didn't even mention everything
The reason they took out perma death is because most of time you DIDNT lose chars from mistakes. You lost them becuase of bad luck. One or two crits and a proc is all it takes at every part of game. A better solution would have simply been a way to resurrect chars. Maybe even limited use but possble just expensive
Another cool fast travel system I really liked was what was in Stalker: Call of Pripyat. If you were to come across a group of stalkers out in the world, and if they were on their way back to a settlement, you could tag along with them which would basically just fast travel you to the settlement. The thing is though, you have to happen across these stalker groups, and sometimes they’ll be in combat so you might even have to assist them. This makes it to where the ability to fast travel is something to be found, and not a certainty to come across, making the player appreciate those moments where they can. Because even if the player comes across other stalkers, not all stalker groups are on their way to a settlement and the player isn’t always looking to go to a settlement anyways. It’s a pretty cool little feature and as far as I know, the only game that has it.
The one game that I believe has an even better map is KCD on hardcore mode. Its just a beautifuly drawn historical map, no indicators, not even where you are currently, you have to look around to figure out your location. But Gothics map suits its world and atmosphere perfectly. And it is an actual in-world item which is just incredible, even with an animation of the Nameless Hero looking at it.
One time my brother had a man at arm that he grew really attached to he was able to lock on some really incredible quirks he was able to dodge and obviously it was level 5 however he ran into an encounter he did not plan for and the hellion which was also high in lvl got an affliction and killed him I remember how my brother after completing the quest just kicked out of the hellion out of the hamliet I had a semen directions with a party of 4 get dwindled down to one and I cherished that survivor DD! is magical
skyrim fast travel is only to major citys or when you get a dragon, unless you are a casual player and disable the survival mode, if you disable it then you can fast travel anywhere.
I haven't played Morrowind, so call me what you like, but I don't think it's that easy. I mean, look at Oblivion's map for instance. The cities are very far apart from each other, especially south of Chorrol. You only have nine cities across a map that's about 2.5 times the size of Morrowind's map, that also includes way more cities and towns. If you want a system like Morrowind's, you need to plan your entire world around that, or it will just be pain to walk everywhere.
Awesome video! I played a lot of World of Warcraft, which also included a fast travel system that looks a bit like this. I definitely prefer it over instant click travel. World of Warcraft only has instant fast travel with boats and teleportation portals: for the city-to-city travel, you have to watch a (admittedly quite fast) flying creature take you there. It shows you the world even if you're not actively walking yourself.
I think another big thing to make a world feel believable is no clear cut good guy and bad guys, the world is rarely the black and white and gothic especially all the main factions have good and evil in them.
What you're not addressing is that Gothic 2 NotR has probably the worst atribute leveling system that requires a lot of metagaming and even now, nobody made the perfect guide on when to start spending LPs on the ancient language and perma potions. This really makes people hoarding King's Sorrels, Apples, Mushrooms and Thekla's stews just to be consumed at the end of the game.
And by the way, the gold is worthless as you can buy infinite amount of steel rods from Bennet, so learning how to get trophies is waste of LP (except the Shadowbeast horns, but only if you play as merc)
Its that age old debate of destination vs. journey. Skyrim does well by providing either or, but Morrowind's is like both at once. Dark souls 1 also did well, as you had to earn fast travel. But it is easier as you the player become better. The player learns how to deal with the game, morrowind and ds1 had this cannon/meta explanation for the player becoming better after each playthrough, amazing writing and organic difficulty from both games. What happened, Todd?😂
Also worth mentioning: the non-instant fast travel options have the same effects as resting. Since you can't rest in cities, you can use them to partially or fully replace renting a bed The fact that magicka doesn't regenerate also helps to not abuse teleportation spells
Excellent. As a very stubborn old woman and having played PC games since the days of 5 inch floppy discs I walk everywhere in every game I have ever played so when I got Morrowind in 2002 I loved the silt-striders. Other than Morrowind I still don't fast travel if I can avoid it.
What I think got shoveled away the most was the feeling that I fucked up when a week was not successful. Sometimes, the RNG fucked you up good, yeah. But most of the times you did things wrong: Not enough bandages, pushing forward without enough torches, using your hands to clear a corridor instead of taking a detour, fighting one more fight. Now I don't feel like I am preparing a team for a difficult task, grinding some expeditions to raise gold so I can buy more equipment, managing the mental health of my adventurers... It's just Slay the Spire but half the fun, double the RNG.
