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Originally Posted by Romco I am using the term isometric to try to say view from the above (can be truly isometric, or can be rotatable...) |
The problem with rotatable views is that you have to rotate around something, and that something is usually the character. I would rather use the mouse to pick the center of rotation, thouth this starts to get a bit clunky (perhaps rotation should simply occur around the center of your current view). A game designed to let the player control multiple characters can't have a view plane that is by default centered on anything.
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Originally Posted by trippin_kali I've always had a general rule about arms and armor, a +1 enchantment for each 5 levels |
In a permanent world (PW) setting, this is immanently practical, but in a game with a beginning and an end, most folks like to get "cool stuff" by the finale, so I am not surprised to see "item inflation" by the end of a game that won't have a sequel. Note though: BG1 was able to avoid that to some extent; most overvalued items were either easter-eggs (*coughringofwizardrycough*) or appeared later in the game.
One issue with the insane replayability of BG2 is that overpowered items that are placed in clever places become trivial to get for game experts. If I had no access to the forums, almost all of the "twink" items in the game would have remained inaccessable for me. The only easily findable twink gear, Celestial Fury, wasn't really available to me first time thru until I had done most of the side quests, right before I headed to Spellhold. I was not familiar enough with BG tactical play when I first walked into the guarded camp early in Chapter 2, and I got squashed. That fight, though trivial to me now, was still fairly tough late in Chapter 3, but at least I was more comfortable with my abilities, and was used to handling large NPC opponant parties.
I have read a number of posts complaining about the availability of BG2/SoA items right away - but these posts are coming from people who need to increase standard monster firepower by
10x in order to feel challenged! BG3 will undoubtably be designed for the average player - who will run through 1, maybe 2 times, and might find an extra trinket or 2. Posts reading "Hey! I am upset that I can buy the Tire Iron of Whacking in the first autobody shop simply by doing the engine-repair quest and the hidden wedding shop makeover and generating 1 million dollars" are missing the point, IMO. Expect the game to get a bit threadbare by your 4th play through. Expect that access to online walkthroughs, cheats and hacks will trivialize huge portions of the unmodified game. How can they not? An RPG is partially based on hidden items, clever quests, and your reactions to scripted events. Multiple passes through the game turn it from an RPG into a tactical exercise, which is only 1 of the purposes of such a game.