Frayed Knights - Update
 

I meant to come back to this a couple of days ago and forgot…a tired Jay Barnson has kicked up an update on Frayed Knights as he overhauls the combat system:
More information.

Can't say I'm thrilled to hear about character level affecting damage and it seems he isn't too thrilled about it either, but what's a programmer to do when the game is unbalanced. It's not that big a deal depending on how it is implemented. Just stay away from more JRPG style gameplay and I'll be a happy camper:)

The feats are a great feature, especially after he's renamed them.

Does anyone know if he is keeping the ….not exactly sure what he calls this feature…but it's the stars at the top that give you bonuses if you don't reload a game? That was the most unique and interesting gameplay additions in the pilot. That and the writing was what I loved about the pilot.

The drama stars . . . I hope they stay in, I thought that was a great idea.

I'm generally against elements like that. I don't like in-character and out-of-character elements to mix, at least whenever they can be avoided. And it bugs me that Jay (per his interview w/ Dhruin) or any developer sees saving/loading as a battle against the gamer. I think save/load is something totally separate from the game and shouldn't be considered part of the balancing. It's up to the player whether he/she want's to be a wimp and quickload on every setback or be a trooper and push through. If you abuse it, it's cheating every bit as much as using a cheat code or a trainer.

That said, I think the drama stars idea is a far better one than any other save limitation I've seen such as save points, limited saves, permadeath, etc. So while I prefer no save limitations at all, I think this is the next best thing in it's attempt to give you rewards in-line w/ the "reward" of loading after a setback. And while I don't like the IC/OOC mixing, I have to admit the drama stars sound like a fun gameplay element, albeit one that's bad for my immersion.

It would be nice if a "save and quit" option were available to save your stars when you really are quitting out of the game (for overnight, going to work, etc.) though, whereas normal save/quicksave do not.

Like the "fate points" in Arcanum, I forget they're even there and never use them. The former sounded really good before the game was released, but in practice they were too abstract and were next-to-invisible in the interface.