Tyranny - Dev Diary #2

Originally Posted by Sacred_Path
I would expect subterfuge to be at least in part a conversational skill.

But whatevs, all of that is speculation. It's just that I had a lot of interest in this project but I have trouble trusting Obsidian post-PoE.

I would have agreed with having trouble with Obsidian 2 months ago. I believe that a year later PoE is a great game now. I hope they have learned from the mistakes made on its release and I have more faith in them now.

Originally Posted by Sacred_Path
Of course it would fit with Sawyer's professed hate of conversation skills

Why does he hate conversation skills?

Originally Posted by Farflame
Why does he hate conversation skills?

I don't remember exactly. It was brought up on the Obsidian forums during PoE's development. I think he finds them both gamey and hard to balance… probably the latter is more important. I think the example of someone who could bluff his way out of any situation but can't intimidate anyone was brought up. I find them gamey too, but not so much that it bothers me. Also, PoE's attribute system is ultra gamey and he didn't mind that.

edit: I also remember, he was dissatisfied with how conversation skills are used relatively rarely in a game, which means that if you fail a skill check your investment was wasted. OTOH, if you need a fixed amount of skill, you still don't know how much you need so you will still max the skill. He also noted how it makes much of the content "gated" behind skill checks so he finds it hard to balance the game and also feels like it compels people too much to invest in conversation skills so they won't "miss out" on content.

Originally Posted by Sacred_Path
I don't remember exactly. It was brought up on the Obsidian forums during PoE's development. I think he finds them both gamey and hard to balance… probably the latter is more important. I think the example of someone who could bluff his way out of any situation but can't intimidate anyone was brought up. I find them gamey too, but not so much that it bothers me. Also, PoE's attribute system is ultra gamey and he didn't mind that.

edit: I also remember, he was dissatisfied with how conversation skills are used relatively rarely in a game, which means that if you fail a skill check your investment was wasted. OTOH, if you need a fixed amount of skill, you still don't know how much you need so you will still max the skill. He also noted how it makes much of the content "gated" behind skill checks so he finds it hard to balance the game and also feels like it compels people too much to invest in conversation skills so they won't "miss out" on content.

All valid points actually.

Yeah, but a bit exaggerated. You could put frequent skill checks in a game, always giving the player a small advantage, like items. Not much "content" that players would miss out on, and the skills wouldn't be so rarely used, so the occasional failure would be ok.