Add free-roam features

[jamesmcm]

Please add free-roam features in Avernum 5.

 

Like the ability to craft weapons, harvest food, etc.

 

And the ability to explore without following linear quests, etc.

[Xaiya]

You don't have to follow quests (except to advance the game), but it is rewarding if you do.

 

Harvest food? Food became useless in A4. It is said that the way A5 works will be similar to that of A4.

Besides, Empire soidiers won't waste time harvesting food.

 

Crafting? Much hope.

[Randomizer]

Avernum 4 was strong on linear plot line. The earlier games allowed for more exploration and do what you want. I'm guessing that the first part will be fairly linear with clues to direct you.

 

Avernum 4 had to be patched after release because players kept wandering off to explore areas before they were supposed to and the patches kept them in line.

[Zummi]

If crafting was so implemented..A5 will be

somewhat WoW-ish..plus..what's the point in crafting? You'll get way better equipment exploring and killing stuff..

 

Now..enhancing your equipment via Enchantments..that be good..

[jamesmcm]

Well then Spidweb should make a rogue-like using the avernum engine. So you could have a party of adventurers, forge weapons, get food, etc.

 

Also, adding LAN wouldn't be bad either.

[Kelandon]

Wouldn't using the Avernum engine make it basically not a roguelike anymore? Also, Spidweb has said that multi-player is probably just not going to happen within their games.

[jamesmcm]

Well, it depends how you define rogue-like.

 

Some people take it as being a tedious dungeon-crawl.

 

But I think Diablo and even Runescape in some ways come under rogue-likes.

[ex post slarto]

The most characteristic feature of a roguelike is that it generates random dungeons on-the-fly. For most other elements, you can find examples of roguelikes that treat them quite differently.

 

That said, the Avernum engine is really not an obvious choice for a roguelike.

[jamesmcm]

I suppose, it's just the whole party/combat/inventory/etc. system would work pretty well.

[Alorael at Large]

I'm pretty sure that party and roguelike don't go together.

 

—Alorael, who considers ASCII fairly important but not essential to roguelikes. You could make a very strong case for Diablo as a direct descendent of Rogue. Roguelikes tend to offer far more choices, though. When was the last time you carefully created and destroyed walls to arrange the perfect chamber for killing an enemy slightly slower than you in a non-ASCII game?

[Masked Man of Inscrutability]

Hmmm, I actually kind of like the idea of an Avernum-Rogue game. I kind of think Avernum 4 would have be improved with randomized dungeons, treasures and monsters, since there is very little about the plot that requires defined layouts for many of the dungeons.

 

Then again, if it made every dungeon feel like the goddamn tunnels under the Eastern Gallery, then perhaps I should reconsider.

[ex post slarto]

Quote:

Originally written by Surprised by Joy:
I'm pretty sure that party and roguelike don't go together.

—Alorael, who considers ASCII fairly important but not essential to roguelikes. You could make a very strong case for Diablo as a direct descendent of Rogue. Roguelikes tend to offer far more choices, though. When was the last time you carefully created and destroyed walls to arrange the perfect chamber for killing an enemy slightly slower than you in a non-ASCII game?

Agreed about Diablo. There are some intermediaries that cleave closely to roguelikes in almost every way aside from the graphics. Dragon Crystal was an early, console-based graphical roguelike. Dungeon Hack was a first-person dungeon-crawl roguelike that used (I think) a variant of the Eye of the Beholder engine, and AD&D ruleset, but with all the rogue trappings we expect.

There are, however, party-based roguelikes. One of the earliest (and most unusual) is the Ancient Cave, actually a subgame of the SNES RPG Lufia II. It uses the characters, items, spells, etc. of Lufia II, but everything about it screams rogue. More recently, there is the Mysterious Dungeon series of games, many of which haven't been released in America. It began with Torneko's Mysterious Dungeon, a Dragon Quest spinoff that was basically just graphical rogue, but more recent offerings like Pokemon Rescue Team have incorporated multiple PCs.

Sure, these aren't traditional roguelikes, but they have far more in common with the roguelike than with any other genre of RPG (or any other video game type).

[jamesmcm]

I've played Lufia 1 and 2 they're decent games. I would say they have more in common with Final Fantasy than Rogue though.

 

Still, I think a party-based rogue-like would be fun, and at least make a change to the hundreds of variants of hack'n'slash ones out there.

[ex post slarto]

*facepalm*

 

Read the post. I'm not talking about all of Lufia II, I'm just talking about the Ancient Cave. The rest of Lufia II clearly has nothing to do with roguelikes by any stretch of the imagination.

[jamesmcm]

Sorry,

I'll try and play that sometime.

[Alorael at Large]

I think that the transition to four-character menu-based combat entirely separate from the map you walk around on excludes the Ancient Cave from roguedom. I love that part of the game (it has as much of a plot as the rest of Lufia II!), but it's no Rogue.

 

—Alorael, who would also exclude several other randomly generated dungeons with party battles for the same reason.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by Yama:
There are, however, party-based roguelikes. One of the earliest (and most unusual) is the Ancient Cave, actually a subgame of the SNES RPG Lufia II. It uses the characters, items, spells, etc. of Lufia II, but everything about it screams rogue.

If you liked that one, try the one in Lufia III. Twice as long, and brutally unfair toward the end.

[jamesmcm]

OK, i agree that crafting might not suit a game like Avernum.

 

But I still think 'living' AI and a day/night engine, so the AI go back to their homes and sleep, etc. would be good.

[SevenMass]

The AI in A4 did roam about, well, some NPC's did anyway. Take that guard outside of Fort Monastery, the one who sells you a nice belt for 300 coins.

 

Quote:

Originally written by jamesmcm:

and a day/night engine

**coughs**

**coughs again**

[jamesmcm]

Yeah, well I'm just suggesting they incorporate it all into Avernum 5.

[SevenMass]

I mean, did Avernum move to the surface?

 

And anyway, suppose there was such a day/night system, then you'd have to wait till it was the right time of the day every time.

Sound rather annoying to me. I don't know about you, But I'd like to move one whenever it suits me.

 

Realism is nice, but Game-play always triumphs realism! Every time again!

Otherwise I'd be better off getting a life in RL, And thats what I was hoping to avoid!

[Kelandon]

Kelandon would like you all to know that he is a benevolent moderator.