RPGWatch Feature: Eschalon - Book II Interview

VPeric said:

You escape from critters by virtue of them not following you on that particular turn (plus there's a bug, so if you just hold the mouse, you'll get away sooner or later).

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Or by a Haste spell/potion, of course.

Well, I really don't feel there is any value AT ALL in adding a female character! I mean, what makes it female? breasts? You mean redo all that artwork for a lumpy chest? are they mad!? What a waste of resources.

My problem with the game was 100% the walking speed. I enjoyed the game a lot until id cleared a lot of the map and then one day just couldn't be bothered exploring because of how tedious the walking was. Teleport to anywhere you've been (passing game time) would really make this game better. Walking a character around is boring.

Well, he said that there should be some differences in the role-playing for gender as well ... and that can definitely make it a nice addition. And in general, your perspective is very male-centric (i.e. sexist) - why *not* have a choice? Perhaps women playing are sick of 99% of the time being forced to play a male?

txa1265 said:

Well, he said that there should be some differences in the role-playing for gender as well ... and that can definitely make it a nice addition. And in general, your perspective is very male-centric (i.e. sexist) - why *not* have a choice? Perhaps women playing are sick of 99% of the time being forced to play a male?

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Exactly. I don't mind playing a male with a specific story like TNO or Geralt, because it pulls you into the game. However wandering around as a generic male is not nearly as interesting for me.

He has already said the movement speed is +20%, so that's been addressed (at least to Thomas' mind). I don't think that took too many resources and I doubt adding a couple of female avatars is that big a deal when planned from the beginning.

@SirJames: You know it's a "role-playing" game, right?

I found the walking about refreshing, actually. I liked the sense of space it gave me as a player. I think some developers get caught up in the modern malady of feeling pressure to keep getting in the player's face non-stop as if they're afraid of losing your attention any second. Very juvenile. With Eschalon, I felt like I was really adventuring around a world. Not playing a pinball machine.

Food

amoebe said:

<quote>I can't recall a single game where food 'n' water requirements was a fun feature.</quote>
I remember starving in Dungeon Master the first time I played it! Taught me a thing or two about resource management and was great fun. It was a great moment when I found my third waterskin. Much more precious than yet another weapon. I still remember that weird 'gulp' sound when you swallowed.

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Exactly what I was going to say. Dungeon Master was the only game that I can recall where food was as valuable as other treasure. It worked well in that game, probably because of the 'puzzle' feel that game had. I don't see it working well in Eschalon Book I, at least. If it is just a mindless must do, then it is tedious. To limit camping abuse? Not going to happen, it just means I have carry more food. The camping, save/reload tactics are basic strategies of old-school CRPGs.

VPeric said:

I believe the moverate is the same for everyone, one square per turn. You escape from critters by virtue of them not following you on that particular turn (plus there's a bug, so if you just hold the mouse, you'll get away sooner or later).

You can see the grid by pressing tab (IIRC), I assume that's what you want?

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Ah - didn't realise everything moved at the same rate - some monsters seemed to move rather slowly? Not sure why they wouldn't pursue you...if they are pursuing you. Yes, I used Tab but not really in any tactical sense (just when things were a bit unclear - seems to illuminate monster nicely too ;-) )
I also found the ability to run across an area transition and not have monsters follow a life saver...they really just make them follow you (not sure what technical changes that would entail tho).

Thomas Riegsecker said:

We are still unsure about character imports because if we implement this feature, your character will need to be “version adjusted” for the new game which essentially undoes your gains from Book I. Since the game takes place a few years after the events in Book I, we’ll start all players off as a Level 1 character with the realization that without the constant honing of your abilities you’ve become rusty and must rebuild your skills. Fans have overwhelming suggested to us that the building of a character from level 1 is more important than a straight import of a pre-developed character.

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That's disappointing. I feel importing characters is a great feature not used often enough. Especially in CRPGs, I'd much rather play many different adventures with the same characters like in Pen&Paper RPGs than have a new character and new rules and features in every game.
Now in Eschalon especially it would make sense to play the same character in all games. It's not like the option to import a character from the first game precludes starting a new character from scratch.
I don't see a big issue with "version adjusting" either. I mean, what's the difference? You don't have the new skills? Big deal, make a new character if you want those. Old skills are abandoned? Give the player his skillpoints back.
Heck, even with far-reaching changes to the character development it shouldn't be a a big challenge to "recalculate" the character. Just let the player import his character and make any changes that can't be easily automated on the character creation screen.

I guess the main issue is that this wasn't planned from the start, and many skills are only useful within a limited range, so a high-level character could easily master all skills.
It wouldn't be anathema imo to take an imported character down a few levels - it's certainly not less convincing than the "all the character's abilities have deteriorated to the point where he starts back at level one" excuse.