What video game are you playing?

[NorthDakota]

I don't think I have ever been intrigued by alchemy in any sort of fantasy RPG.

My sign is the atronach so I can't regenerate magic. So I need potions. Early on in games money is hard to come by. So I make my own magic potions. At any given time I have about 50 of them. It's also an easy way to make money and develop better potions meaning more money and better magic regeneration.

So I get money, better potions, and essentially constant magic regeneration and the bonuses of having the atronach sign instead of the basic bitch mage.

Also bretons absorb/resist magic from foes. So if I for whatever reason am low on potions, I can go grab a glass of water while some idiot casts spells at me and recharges my magic without my health really going down.

 

[dublinirish]

I don't think I have ever been intrigued by alchemy in any sort of fantasy RPG.

not fantasy obviously buts its actually very fun in KCD2

 

[greyhammer90]

The answer to the "stealthy archer" problem is to get rid of auto-skill leveling. The issue, especially in Skyrim, is that you are incentivized by the stealth bonus to take a shot while hidden even if you're playing as a barbarian. It's an immediate way to get the upper hand on any combat encounter and if you fail there are no negative consequences. Sneaking and taking the shot raises your stealth and your archery automatically.

If you had normal leveling (ie. the players manually decides which skills get upgraded), the player who wants to be a barbarian would only upgrade the melee/armor skills and the damage bonus would lose its allure as a stealth shot becomes weaker than your normal attacks. Instead the stealth shot scales and remains the obvious first combat move throughout the whole game.

 

[ACamp1900]

It has been a while but I always go stealth archer in Elder Scrolls too but use the magic to at least have a heal spell of some sort. That was a big hangup with my earlier time with witcher, kingdom come and other games, you can't really do the stealth archer build in those games effectively.

 

[NorthDakota]

not fantasy obviously buts its actually very fun in KCD2

I still haven't ran through the first one. So need to finish that before starting 2.

 

[NorthDakota]

It has been a while but I always go stealth archer in Elder Scrolls too but use the magic to at least have a heal spell of some sort. That was a big hangup with my earlier time with witcher, kingdom come and other games, you can't really do the stealth archer build in those games effectively.

You are a bad person

 

[ACamp1900]

You are a bad person

Was,... however, I totally redeemed myself with my work against the Stormcloaks

 

[NorthDakota]

Was,... however, I totally redeemed myself with my work against the Stormcloaks

Despite my affinity for home rule, I too sided with the Empire.

 

[ulukinatme]

Yes, much like the oblivion gates, it's more a nuisance than anything else.

My current oblivion build is pretty nasty. I'm a breton mage with decent blade skills. I'm getting kinda OP for my level (like 19?). I kill trolls in two spell hits. I destroy all everyone but bretons with magic, if I run into one I conjure minions and paralyze them with my staff and chill.

I never got into soul gems in the Elder Scrolls games. Finally doing it this time.

Breton Spellsword was my go to also, it's powerful.

Soul Gems are where it's at, and that's the beauty of the Oblivion Gates. Leave at least one open till you're ready to end things and you have an infinite supply of Daedra souls you can farm. Most Soul Gems only give you limited uses on enchantments, but Daedra souls provide infinite enchantments. It's the only way to do Enchanting imo.

 

[ulukinatme]

I don't think I have ever been intrigued by alchemy in any sort of fantasy RPG.

Same, never intrigued by it and I usually avoid it like the plague. Witcher games, Elder Scrolls, Baldur's Gate, etc. I've dabbled in it with Skyrim only for the purposes of making busted Enchanting equipment for shits and giggles, but beyond that I hate generally despise collecting ingredients and having to store them. I tend to do it anyway just in case, but don't go out of my way.

I feel the same way about cooking in video games. It generally feels like a job, and if it feels like a job I begin asking myself "Am I playing a game or not? Why am I wasting my time with this shit?" I find it tedious and often a waste of time. In 7D2D, when cooking should actually be helpful and a big part of survival, I used to simply live off the Rotting Flesh dropped by zombies. You would lose a bit of max HP, but it eventually capped out and couldn't take anymore from you, making Rotting Flesh a perfect food once you've hit a certain point. Then the developer removed the ability to eat Rotting Flesh and I had to actually learn to farm and cook...oh....and I hate farming in just about every game too. Harvest Moon may have been the only game where farming was alright.

not fantasy obviously buts its actually very fun in KCD2

I will say this, while I don't really care for Alchemy, the original KCD actually had a unique system and made it immersive at least. Is it even better in the sequel?

 

[ulukinatme]

The answer to the "stealthy archer" problem is to get rid of auto-skill leveling. The issue, especially in Skyrim, is that you are incentivized by the stealth bonus to take a shot while hidden even if you're playing as a barbarian. It's an immediate way to get the upper hand on any combat encounter and if you fail there are no negative consequences. Sneaking and taking the shot raises your stealth and your archery automatically.

If you had normal leveling (ie. the players manually decides which skills get upgraded), the player who wants to be a barbarian would only upgrade the melee/armor skills and the damage bonus would lose its allure as a stealth shot becomes weaker than your normal attacks. Instead the stealth shot scales and remains the obvious first combat move throughout the whole game.

Yeah, Stealth Archers are too easy in Skyrim and some of those other games. One of my favorite playthroughs of Skyrim was a pure caster build, no melee, no bows. You could only kill things using your magic. It required a lot of creativity at times on Harder difficulties, especially in the early parts when your Mana pool is low. It usually required some Conjuration/Charming to turn enemies against each other and help keep your Mana pool filled. It forced me to use a lot of other spells that I normally wouldn't touch like Telekinesis, Calm, and Muffle. The other thing is I refused to Lockpick normally as I felt like that was beneath a true Mage. Oblivion used to have an Open Lock spell, so I created a mod that had a series of Unlock spells for various lock levels, and they would become available as you leveled your Alteration skill just like how other spells become available.

 

[dublinirish]

I will say this, while I don't really care for Alchemy, the original KCD actually had a unique system and made it immersive at least. Is it even better in the sequel?

its pretty much the same but with new receipes but they have a blacksmithing mini game now and you can actually make weapons that are statistically better than anything you can loot or buy in game from vendors so its worth doing. Theres a future DLC that will allow you to create your coat of arms and armor with your own decals and what not which looks fun

 

[ulukinatme]

its pretty much the same but with new receipes but they have a blacksmithing mini game now and you can actually make weapons that are statistically better than anything you can loot or buy in game from vendors so its worth doing. Theres a future DLC that will allow you to create your coat of arms and armor with your own decals and what not which looks fun

I love me some smithing.

 

[calvegas04]

 

[ulukinatme]

Woof, saw this on another site. Great time for Microsoft to raise prices as they're struggling in console sales. Price hikes aren't going to help that. $80 seems too pricey for a game. I realize for the longest time games were stuck at $60, like for decades, and then recently they jumped to $70. Still, distribution and manufacturing has improved over the years, and a lot of games are digital sales now anyways, which cuts out the manufacturing and distribution part entirely. The real crappy part about an $80 digital game is someday the servers will go down and there will be no way to play it.

 

[greyhammer90]

Woof, saw this on another site. Great time for Microsoft to raise prices as they're struggling in console sales. Price hikes aren't going to help that. $80 seems too pricey for a game. I realize for the longest time games were stuck at $60, like for decades, and then recently they jumped to $70. Still, distribution and manufacturing has improved over the years, and a lot of games are digital sales now anyways, which cuts out the manufacturing and distribution part entirely. The real crappy part about an $80 digital game is someday the servers will go down and there will be no way to play it.

Lotta jolly Roger's are about to go up. Yes inflation has reduced the value of $60 but the reality is that most games still aren't really worth $60. The value proposition for AAA titles just isn't there. Graphics were always the big push for the average joe to buy the next best thing, and those have reached a point where you need a magnifying glass to tell the difference between generations. There's only so many samey third person action games people will buy.

 

[dublinirish]

GTA6 delayed until May 2026 lol

 

[zelezo vlk]

Boooooo

 

[IrishBryan77]

GTA6 delayed until May 2026 lol

Shocker.....even though Rockstar abandoned the game, Red Dead 2 is still better. (In my opinion)....like WAAAAAAY better.

 

[NorthDakota]

Lotta jolly Roger's are about to go up. Yes inflation has reduced the value of $60 but the reality is that most games still aren't really worth $60. The value proposition for AAA titles just isn't there. Graphics were always the big push for the average joe to buy the next best thing, and those have reached a point where you need a magnifying glass to tell the difference between generations. There's only so many samey third person action games people will buy.

$60 started with the PS3/360 right? Even Wii games were $50 I think when they started.

Agreed, the graphics changes are pretty nominal at this point and people are no longer really set on seeing miniscule differences. Gameplay is everything. Look at that phenomenon that is Schedule I on steam. Basically Wii sports graphics and people love it.

I'd pay $70-80 or more on a big game I'm looking forward to. Like an NCAA game maybe? Or Bethesda where I know I'm going to play several dozen hours minimum.

 

[dublinirish]

Shocker.....even though Rockstar abandoned the game, Red Dead 2 is still better. (In my opinion)....like WAAAAAAY better.

the shitty treatment that RDO got from Rockstar is my biggest gripe in gaming, i've said it before on here but i'll never get over it

 

[IrishBryan77]

the shitty treatment that RDO got from Rockstar is my biggest gripe in gaming, i've said it before on here but i'll never get over it

Yet here I am currently playing the game even at level 331. It's an addiction at this point. 🤣

Soooo many possibilities with this game. Such a shame

 

[IrishSpartan]

very addicted to Clair Obscure exhibition 33. Game of the year

 

[ulukinatme]

$60 started with the PS3/360 right? Even Wii games were $50 I think when they started.

Agreed, the graphics changes are pretty nominal at this point and people are no longer really set on seeing miniscule differences. Gameplay is everything. Look at that phenomenon that is Schedule I on steam. Basically Wii sports graphics and people love it.

I'd pay $70-80 or more on a big game I'm looking forward to. Like an NCAA game maybe? Or Bethesda where I know I'm going to play several dozen hours minimum.

The $60 price tag has been around for about as long as I remember, like going back to the N64 and even the SNES days, although for certain big titles like Square RPGs you saw games going into the $70s. Some smaller games may have been released around that time for less, but $60 was kind of the standard for a long, long time it seems. Popular NES games went for around $50 I think, and after that is when the price went up. Most of my NES games were purchased for me though, I was 6-10 during that period.

 

[calvegas04]

The $60 price tag has been around for about as long as I remember, like going back to the N64 and even the SNES days, although for certain big titles like Square RPGs you saw games going into the $70s. Some smaller games may have been released around that time for less, but $60 was kind of the standard for a long, long time it seems. Popular NES games went for around $50 I think, and after that is when the price went up. Most of my NES games were purchased for me though, I was 6-10 during that period.

Def don't remember that, PS2 games were $50 when first released

 

[ulukinatme]

Lotta jolly Roger's are about to go up. Yes inflation has reduced the value of $60 but the reality is that most games still aren't really worth $60. The value proposition for AAA titles just isn't there. Graphics were always the big push for the average joe to buy the next best thing, and those have reached a point where you need a magnifying glass to tell the difference between generations. There's only so many samey third person action games people will buy.

With graphics hitting a plateau, maybe we'll see a return to great storytelling and characters, more emphasis on gameplay, you know...the stuff that should have always been the bread and butter of gaming. Too many companies lost sight of that.

 

[ulukinatme]

Def don't remember that, PS2 games were $50 when first released

Yeah, there was a bit there in the early 2000s where PS2/Xbox games were $50. It was probably the competition that drove the prices back down, in addition to the disc based methods cutting some costs over cartridges. For the most part though $60 has been a staple for much of the 90s and then from PS3 till recent.

 

[NDVirginia19]

Gaming companies are in a tricky position with the $60 price tag. With Microsoft game pass, there’s so many games I can play for essentially free. I can easily justify a purchase for a $80 game if I wanted to, but a Core Video game audience will have a harder time doing so. Relevant Dunkey Video

 

[dublinirish]

 

[greyhammer90]

Rockstar games just hit different.