Realms Beyond - World Building #3

ljs23rd spotted a progress update about character portraits for Realms Beyond:

World Building #3: Faces of Argea

During the last two weeks, we have been occupied with one of the most important visual elements of traditional RPGs: Character Portraits.
We needed to find a good compromise between quality and quantity because every NPC in our world that the player can interact with, must get his/her very own unique face. For us, that’s one of the most crucial points if you want to realize a believable world.
A small but expressive 2D portrait can deliver much more personality and individuality than a high-poly 3D model with fancy shaders and physically simulated hair.
After some experiementation with various Photoshop techniques, we finally figured out a proper way to create portraits in a reasonable amount of time in decent quality. The world of Realms Beyond, Argea, will be initially populated with at least 250 unique NPCs (common villagers without dialogue lines won’t have portraits) plus dozens of unique encounter bosses and various mysterious creatures in dungeons and wilderness areas.

We will not disclose every culture and faction yet, but those examples will give you a first impression of our portrait style and the groups that populate Argea:

More information.

Elves with beards !

There is a nice AMA over at the Codex towards the end of the Realms Beyond thread.
I have very high hopes for this one. I like everything they are planning so far. Huge plus for me: Hand-made loot with backstory like in BGII.

i like the art style

Just watched some of the video on their website. Loved what i saw. Can't wait to learn more about it.

There's plenty to like about this game system thus far. I'm looking forward to seeing a combat demo.

Originally Posted by rjshae
There's plenty to like about this game system thus far. I'm looking forward to seeing a combat demo.

Apparently we will see something like that soonish. Pretty excited myself.
It is based on D&D 3.5 with some house rules, so this might be closer to BG than Kingmaker.

Very cool looking, definitely a game to watch!

Originally Posted by Darkheart
Apparently we will see something like that soonish. Pretty excited myself.
It is based on D&D 3.5 with some house rules, so this might be closer to BG than Kingmaker.

This game will have TB combat so it will surely not be closer to BG.

Originally Posted by beldurax
Elves with beards !

Half-Elves haven't their own category in that showcase

Originally Posted by Archangel
This game will have TB combat so it will surely not be closer to BG.

If BG had turn-based combat, I'd probably still be playing it today.
And if RB uses a similar rule system to BG, I think it's fair to say the combat might be similar.

Originally Posted by screeg
If BG had turn-based combat, I'd probably still be playing it today.
And if RB uses a similar rule system to BG, I think it's fair to say the combat might be similar.

Except it does not use similar rule system.. very only a bit similar.
This game will use a system similar to NWN games or ToEE.

Also there is a fairly big difference between something like ToEE combat and BG1/2 combat, this game will be more similar to ToEE in that aspect.

Originally Posted by Archangel
Except it does not use similar rule system.. very only a bit similar.
This game will use a system similar to NWN games or ToEE.

Also there is a fairly big difference between something like ToEE combat and BG1/2 combat, this game will be more similar to ToEE in that aspect.

Depends on how granular you want to get. Sure for the connoisseurs they would be wildly different, but for the general folk they are the same.

Like how all beer is beer. Until someone writes a 30 page monologue on the difference between craft, big brand, and 50 other indistinguishable brands..

This isnt FPS, so its closer to BG than 90% of the crap coming out today.

release date? !
Damn this looks awesome !!

Originally Posted by ikbenrichard
release date? !
Damn this looks awesome !!

The site says 2019. It does look awesome

Originally Posted by screeg
If BG had turn-based combat, I'd probably still be playing it today.

You'd still be playing it because BG would be 500 hours long if all that combat was turn-based.

Originally Posted by Archangel
This game will have TB combat so it will surely not be closer to BG.

I meant rules-wise. Also, anything is better turn-based.

Originally Posted by Wisdom
Depends on how granular you want to get. Sure for the connoisseurs they would be wildly different, but for the general folk they are the same.

Like how all beer is beer. Until someone writes a 30 page monologue on the difference between craft, big brand, and 50 other indistinguishable brands..

This isnt FPS, so its closer to BG than 90% of the crap coming out today.

No it is not beer. Difference between RTwP and TB is like beer and wine. Difference between BG and PoE is different kinds of beer.

Originally Posted by JDR13
You'd still be playing it because BG would be 500 hours long if all that combat was turn-based.

Very funny. Of course, BG is loaded with trash encounters. Naturally, one of the go-to "pros" for fans of RTwP is that it makes dealing with mooks more bearable (i.e., you can do something else while your party mindlessly hacks through hordes of gibberlings).

My argument is that it'd be much better to not have so many trash encounters in the first place, rather than trying to make them automated / less tedious. And this is something that I hope Realms Beyond developers are mindful of. Yes, turn-based combat takes longer- which is why it's even more important to keep all combat encounters interesting, varied, and challenging. But roasting a pack of goblins with a fireball is only fun once in a while, regardless of it being TB or RT.

I definitely prefer TB, but still really hope that combat is not the sole gameplay focus. The best classic CRPGs often give us options to avoid combat through stealth, dialogue, etc. Even if the combat is amazing (i.e., ToEE) it'd be nice to do some role-playing in an RPG. Otherwise, they might as well make it a turn-based strategy game.

Originally Posted by JDR13
You'd still be playing it because BG would be 500 hours long if all that combat was turn-based.

As a comparison, ToEE is pretty extensive and uses turn-based combat, but it certainly doesn't take 500 hours to complete. (Surveys say around 65 hours for completionists.) Part of that may be due to the D&D v3 system, which provides faster leveling up. But certainly the game designers would have changed things up if BG were turn-based so that the combat wouldn't drag things along too much. Presumably that would have meant fewer but more interesting battles.

Guess I'm just agreeing with daveyd here.