I wanted to ask your opinion on the following subject:

Working on Ash of Gods we're all for hardcore battles that are truly challenging and will make the player suffer and lose team members (with permanent deaths you also lose them for the rest of the story). We're toying with the idea of having 1 button in the starting menu: "Start" which later on turns into "Continue" so you get no difficulty settings or a save/load function

However, we've been approached by some people fond of our art/lore with a question "Will I be able to play your game in a story mode with no or a simplified combat?"

Now we're not sure what to do about it yet, so I wanted to hear your opinion:

- Should a cRPG have a "story mode" for those not interested in the combat?
- What's a good way to do it? Can you maybe point some games that you think did it right?
- Please, if this was already discussed elsewhere - point me to a thread.

Whilst I doubt I'd use it myself I have seen enough people make comments in the past that they'd like the option. So if it's not cost prohibitive then I'd say yes, include it for those who don't like combat.

If the battles are important to the story you could perhaps have them resolved with a single multiple choice question… "You enter battle - Do you want to be aggressive, defensive or run away?" Depending on what's chosen do some sort of calculations in the background and apply damage and/or other penalties to the characters accordingly…?

You could also perhaps preempt combat with other options so as to avoid it altogether - dialogue, sneaking or sending in hirelings or summoned pets for example.

You also better be sure that the story is strong and long enough to handle cutting out what's usually an important and time consuming part of many RPG's.

I responded to this thread on the Codex. Basically all RPGs that aren't just 99% combat heavy like the odd Wizardry-style game, *should* have many difficulty options and modes. Story Mode, Easy difficulty, Hardcore, Insane, Ironman, etc., as well as a la carte difficulty options that players can turn on/off as they choose (limited saving options, advanced ruleset mechanics that tweak how much of the ruleset is applied (less/more), etc.).

Also, I think sliders should be implemented as well. Let the players who really want to tailor the game even more be able to with good slider implementation. NBA 2K has an entire community dedicated to sliders, and I don't see why an RPG can't do the same thing. Some dedicated users will spend countless hours tweaking them, uploading them and gamers who want to use them can download them quickly and easily.

RPG video game difficulty going forward, IMO, is going to be about options.

Perhaps as a separate project.

If you have the resources, sure. Just don't expect me to play it. I need my combat.

I say no. Put combat easy-normal-hard if you need to, but do not cater to casual audience with boss died after oneshot like EA did with ME3 IIRC.

Originally Posted by sakichop
If you have the resources, sure. Just don't expect me to play it. I need my combat.

Pretty much that. I'm all for giving people more options but I also have no clue how much it's actually going to cost to add to a game.

Originally Posted by Zloth
Pretty much that. I'm all for giving people more options but I also have no clue how much it's actually going to cost to add to a game.

Sports games have had various modes, difficulty options and extensive slider sets for many years now. Even when 2K basketball was still an up and comer before hitting it big they had these things.

I think RPGs should try to implement similar features. 2K has more advanced calculations and stats than pretty much all RPGs.

A pure story mode is an Adventure game. However, in some of the old adventures death was a common possibility for bad or indecisive play, but with replayability expected.

To have non-combat options in an RPG are nice options. It treats the game like its a puzzle to be solved and rewards the player for being clever - finding ways to for them to "beat" the puzzle. I find "solving the problem" a much more fulfilling way of gameplaying than having a sandbox with no direction, i.e. I like Icewind Dale much more than Baldur's Gate, and I dislike non-linear games. IWD was so compelling I didn't even notice you couldn't divert from the path because I busy solving to the next feature rather than feeling like I'm being lead by the nose like in Final Fantasy.

For contrast though, a combat option can sometimes be more compelling when it comes at a surprise. Like when one of your companions turns traitor and attacks you in Jagged Alliance, or in Temple of Element Evil when your Paladin detects the convenient merchant in a dungeon is evil and compels your party into a fight forever preventing you from buying any loot from him.