No, what they should do is enter into a advertising business venture between them. They all cator to the same crowd why not use each other to get more sales?

I really need to play Depths of Peril. I still haven't finished MotB, and I need to finish Eschalon with at least one of my 12 dudes, all this while mucking about in Chapter 2 of Witcher. Who would have thought I'd have too many crpgs to play….

Originally Posted by chamr
I just had a brilliant idea: Tom, Steven and Jeff ought to form a limited partnership for the purpose of developing one, single cRPG together! Think of the possibilities…

I second that idea Seems like a win win situation to me.

could be really sweet to take the best part of each,,,, while I can easily see spiderweb game and eschalon merge it's best part it'd be hard to mix it with DoP, since it is action oriented…. hmm some ideas look best on paper… I think they should each keep doing what they are doing very well! joint ventures never go as well as expected!

They could always get back to their own mojo after their joint master-work was released. And, yes, they'd have to be very open-minded and cooperative to ever pull it off.

On the Steven part, I can see him putting his talents to an cRPG idea I've always been intrigued with: NPC's that are true rivals/equals to the player. NPC's that roam the world and adventure and perhaps compete with the player for quest rewards, faction favor, loot, etc. Maybe even a plot-line NPC or two that actively work against or to the benefit of the player even when the player isn't directly interacting with them or even near them. And it would have to be dynamic, like DoP, rather than strictly scripted. Wouldn't it be cool to stumble on your arch-nemesis by pure chance in a town and have an old fashioned Western showdown in the street while the townsfolk scurried for cover? Then you find that key artifact on him that you had been looking for to continue a side-quest you'd had to abandon earlier? Or think of a Belock(sp?)-Indiana Jones type relationship where you're always going back and forth with each other throughout the game stealing stuff from each other and trying to get the other guy killed without directly doing it yourself, because it's too politically sensitive or morally hazardous.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
I really need to play Depths of Peril. I still haven't finished MotB, and I need to finish Eschalon with at least one of my 12 dudes, all this while mucking about in Chapter 2 of Witcher. Who would have thought I'd have too many crpgs to play….

I feel your pain; I'm in a similar situation!!

Maybe even a plot-line NPC or two that actively work against or to the benefit of the player even when the player isn't directly interacting with them or even near them. And it would have to be dynamic, like DoP, rather than strictly scripted.

Yeah, I think we all want this kind of RPG it is just too darned hard to pull it of. Steven is the one who have come closest!! Which means he has to be very great indeed!

I'm with you totally—it would be awesome to actually have to worry about the AI doing something outside the box like that. Fights may be difficult and tactical, but almost always they're either rote map-clearing or at the player's convenience—you can buff up and know what to expect in them—and when they're not, it's because the games cheat and suddenly you've been railroaded thru an irritating cutscene that dumps you somewhere with a horde of slavering minions and a stupid but powerful boss thirsting for your blood, all of which you could have easily defeated if you hadn't been thrown naked into the fray.

Some excellent ideas, chamr. And I agree w/Gothicness, Steven Peeler is the only one who's even tried to experiment in this direction with rpgs. There's a little of that feeling in some strat games, like HoMM, where you dread meeting the hero down the block, and tailor all your moves to maximize your ability to beat him when he turns up, but that's a far cry from giving the AI an autonomy similar to the player and also interwoven with story events.

It's an interesting idea (that has been mooted before) but would it actually work? If the competing AI finished a major story link before you even got there, would that actually be entertaining gameplay? How would you feel about not necessarily being able to explore and smell the daisies at your leisure?

It works for DoP because the action is direct and simple and the quests are random. I'm sure there's a balance that could be achieved but I think it would be hard.

Still, if you could get that right balance…

Wizardry 7 had something similiar to that. Where the chests would be empty if you took too long getting to them. Then you had to track down the people who had the pieces of the map. Though the NPC's couldn't finish the game before you, it made the game more interesting.

If someone did something like that I think it would still be fun to play. It would help get away from the theme of "You are the CHOSEN ONE, only you can save the world."

Originally Posted by Dhruin
It's an interesting idea (that has been mooted before) but would it actually work? If the competing AI finished a major story link before you even got there, would that actually be entertaining gameplay?

Obviously, you'd have to balance well. No NPC's should be taking away major main plot lines away from you. That would be a bit overboard. The way I envision it, these semi-autonomous NPC(s) would fall into three categories:

1) competing with you for a few side quests only
2) making a couple of the main line quests easier if you play your cards a certain way, per quest
3) making a couple of the main line quests more complicated if you play your cards a certian way, per quest

IOW (to steal a page from PJ's book), dont' go crazy with it. Do enough to make it fun and interesting, but not too much so that it's frustrating. "Eschalon It".