Rajaah's CRPG Blog

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Yeah Arcanum was/is really innovative with the steampunk aspect, it also gave a huge map and nearly complete freedom to go explore like Fallout but somehow even less handholding. It starts out slow and is pretty clunky and mechanically has issues, but has some really solid and epic questlines in it. I would say to focus on either magic or tech, don't go half way. But overall I found magic to be stronger and way cheaper than tech which is more resource dependent.
 

Rajaah

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Yeah Arcanum was/is really innovative with the steampunk aspect, it also gave a huge map and nearly complete freedom to go explore like Fallout but somehow even less handholding. It starts out slow and is pretty clunky and mechanically has issues, but has some really solid and epic questlines in it. I would say to focus on either magic or tech, don't go half way. But overall I found magic to be stronger and way cheaper than tech which is more resource dependent.

Alright so go magic over tech. I'd probably prioritize speed and str first, then magic maybe if I have leftovers.

I beat Arcanum with a half orc brute. All brawn and speed. A quirk of Arcanum is thst the cap of a stat is wildly better than any previous power jump. Speed cap is game breaking.


At higher speed. You have to play turn based or animations can't keep up

I recall using buff....items? Potions? Gear? To craft the best tech despite being middle intellectual.

Magic and tech compete on your sheet. If you go magic go whole hog and avoid tech. Some what vice versa, but tech is mostly about making gear to then use like normal combat gear.


The story has some incredibly memorable moments but offers almost no direction. You have to just follow every lead until you accidentally find the story. Almost like daggerfall heh.

I think my party was me, virgil(I think?) And a dog heh.

Max out Speed first, got it.

Daggerfall was pretty awesome when I played it ten years ago. The dated visuals didn't even matter because I was having fun being completely lost and fighting things / leveling / finding loot. Kind of felt like the beginning of EQ again. Then after a while I was like "how do I actually beat this game" and started following a guide to get the actual main quest done.

Oh yeah, I was gonna ask, should I play Arcanum in turn-based or the other option? Seems like turn-based would slow things way down because the combat was pretty fast when I tried it out. I guess turn-based once Speed is maxed.
 

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Alright so go magic over tech. I'd probably prioritize speed and str first, then magic maybe if I have leftovers.



Max out Speed first, got it.

Daggerfall was pretty awesome when I played it ten years ago. The dated visuals didn't even matter because I was having fun being completely lost and fighting things / leveling / finding loot. Kind of felt like the beginning of EQ again. Then after a while I was like "how do I actually beat this game" and started following a guide to get the actual main quest done.

Oh yeah, I was gonna ask, should I play Arcanum in turn-based or the other option? Seems like turn-based would slow things way down because the combat was pretty fast when I tried it out. I guess turn-based once Speed is maxed.
I used real time for lazy shit. But if a fight aces me I did turn based and it was a lot more close
 

Rajaah

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No new CRPG news from me, but I did find this video that includes most of the games that have been discussed here. Been chipping away at watching it for a couple days since it's quite long, but worth a watch.

Stuff that appears on my own list:

1:03:55 - Temple of Elemental Evil

1:36:05 - The rest of the things from my list are all in the Top 10, which starts here. Not bad!
 
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Rajaah

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Planescape_ Torment and Icewind Dale_ Enhanced Editions_20231127021516.jpg

Are these good stats? Just pulled up my Planescape: Torment file (right at the beginning) and my stats look super weird for a Fighter.

In my notes it says to be a Warrior (which I assume = Fighter) for six levels and then switch to Wizard, so maybe that's why I went so hard with Int/Wis. I'm guessing the Cha is for more story options since this game revolves around the story and text.

Regardless, somebody tell me this looks good and I'm gonna tool around with this game.
 
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Burns

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Are these good stats? Just pulled up my Planescape: Torment file (right at the beginning) and my stats look super weird for a Fighter.

In my notes it says to be a Warrior (which I assume = Fighter) for six levels and then switch to Wizard, so maybe that's why I went so hard with Int/Wis. I'm guessing the Cha is for more story options since this game revolves around the story and text.

Regardless, somebody tell me this looks good and I'm gonna tool around with this game.
Close enough, probably. The recommendations for playing a mage with maximum dialog choices are 18 Wis, 17 Int, 13 Cha.

Going to level 6 on warrior before switching to mage gets you enough HP that you should be fine for the rest of the game, but you probably want to make sure you don't hit level 7 on fighter before getting level 7 on mage.

Here is the post where I copied over the things I found, when I started a replay months ago (includes some stat allocation recommendations on level ups): https://www.firesofheaven.org/threads/rajaahs-crpg-blog.14326/post-4449242
 
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Rajaah

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Interesting list. Baldur's Gate 2 is a little far from the top for my liking, but I've only played a few of these so it isn't like I could do a better list.
 

Gavinmad

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Interesting list. Baldur's Gate 2 is a little far from the top for my liking, but I've only played a few of these so it isn't like I could do a better list.

I was wondering why BG3 isn't even on the list because although I haven't played it yet, I'm well aware of the wildly positive fan response to it despite the bear fucking. Was actually quite confused until I noticed the video was from 2022.
 

velk

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Interesting list. Baldur's Gate 2 is a little far from the top for my liking, but I've only played a few of these so it isn't like I could do a better list.


Wrath of the Righteous and D:OS2 being better than BG2 is pretty non controversial I'd think - Underrail is a bold call though.
 

Caliane

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I'm playing Underrail right now, picked it up from winter sale. Im fairly impressed. its very low budget/indie and those aspects show. slightly dated in general as well.
Reminds me alot of fallout 1 in themes and design. Not in my top 5 yet (not nearly far enough in to make that judgement), but would recommend. also a bit similar to the shadowruns.
 

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I'm not gonna really get into anything until at least Sunday or Monday cause busy, but I did try NWN, Icewind, and Planescape out for a little bit yesterday. Figuring out what I want to play. Planescape is pretty awesome, the first conversation in the game reads like a quality novel. That's about all I did though.

View attachment 472972
NWN is interesting cause it's so different from the other two. It looks like the intermediate step between BG and KOTOR and plays sort of like a single-player EQ. I think I might do this one next instead of Planescape cause it's so different. Not sure though. ID is definitely third in the running at the moment though. For NWN I was gonna go Rogue, but I ended up going Fighter (class up to Weapon Master specializing in either scythes or katanas). Trying to figure out the Package Customization or whatever to get that class-up set up. Game is a little unwieldy to play but I like the classes and feats and that pulled me in quickly. Working towards an upgrade class is something KOTOR also does. So yeah I'd say I'm 50/50 between this and PT for next game, we'll see.

View attachment 472973
Icewind looks like it's basically BG2.75 and exactly like what I played recently. I like the snowy theme. Mostly just did character creation and had fun with that, nice to finally have a reason to make an entire party from scratch in one of these games. Also I made this hottie.

One of my characters is a Bard and I think I might change that to Shaman or something else and restart (can import all the others). Thoughts?

View attachment 472974
Rockerton - Fighter (Wanted to do this after BG)
Mario - Assassin (seems like the best variety of Rogue)
Templeton - Dorf Cleric (changed his portrait after this)
Catbird - Bard (think I might change this guy's class to Shaman since I haven't had one of those, see above. Are Bards good?)
Oasis - Monk (I really wanted a monk cause I never had one in BG)
Stella - Sorcerer (only made a second lady so the first would have someone to have sex with, cause these dudes aren't gonna cut it)

Kharzette Kharzette I feel like you'd enjoy these names
This the enhanced edition? did you ever get to start playing this in earnest?
As I was mentioning in the BG3 thread, I decided to check out Icewind dale again. I have the original. icewind dale complete. icewind dale1,2, heart of winter expac.

theres no assassin, monk, or sorcerer in icewind dale. is this EE adding them in, or were you just callig them that, while using base classes?
thief, fighter, mage?

original icewind dale has some rough edges. ha.
800x600.
can't handle 2 monitors well. edge scrolling won't acknowledge screen edge. need to use number pad arrow keys to scroll the map. so uncomfortable. even regular arrow keys don't work. can't remap it. options are not in game. you need to either directly edit the.ini, or use the separate config executable. ha.

obviously, no documentation in game. got to read the manual. manual is mostly nonsense, and finding relevant info is rough.

some funny old school dnd things., you just kindof forget about with modern dnd/pathfinder
different classes have different exp requirements. like, the mage needs 2500 exp for level 2. the thief needs 1250 for level 2, and 2500 for level3. didnt remember the gap every being that large. I think this ignore racial exp mods.
con only provides bonus hp at 15 con+
early game mage is even more useless then modern dnd. no cantrips. 1-4hp. 1 level 1 spell. 2 level 1 spells at level 2.. again, and needs 2500 exp to hit level 2.. good news, working that sling. slings need to be in more games. they are literally more effective battlefield weapons then throwing knives, axes, javelins. hell probably crossbows.
my ranger is doing 80% of the parties damage/kills.

Little is actually jogging my memory for iwd 1. I'm actually wondering if I didn't play the first one previously.
 
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Rajaah

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This the enhanced edition? did you ever get to start playing this in earnest?
As I was mentioning in the BG3 thread, I decided to check out Icewind dale again. I have the original. icewind dale complete. icewind dale1,2, heart of winter expac.

theres no assassin, monk, or sorcerer in icewind dale. is this EE adding them in, or were you just callig them that, while using base classes?
thief, fighter, mage?

original icewind dale has some rough edges. ha.
800x600.
can't handle 2 monitors well. edge scrolling won't acknowledge screen edge. need to use number pad arrow keys to scroll the map. so uncomfortable. even regular arrow keys don't work. can't remap it. options are not in game. you need to either directly edit the.ini, or use the separate config executable. ha.

obviously, no documentation in game. got to read the manual. manual is mostly nonsense, and finding relevant info is rough.

some funny old school dnd things., you just kindof forget about with modern dnd/pathfinder
different classes have different exp requirements. like, the mage needs 2500 exp for level 2. the thief needs 1250 for level 2, and 2500 for level3. didnt remember the gap every being that large. I think this ignore racial exp mods.
con only provides bonus hp at 15 con+
early game mage is even more useless then modern dnd. no cantrips. 1-4hp. 1 level 1 spell. 2 level 1 spells at level 2.. again, and needs 2500 exp to hit level 2.. good news, working that sling. slings need to be in more games. they are literally more effective battlefield weapons then throwing knives, axes, javelins. hell probably crossbows.
my ranger is doing 80% of the parties damage/kills.

Little is actually jogging my memory for iwd 1. I'm actually wondering if I didn't play the first one previously.

ID EE does have assassin, monk, sorcerer. I think assassin is a rogue subclass and sorcerer might be a mage subclass. Monk is its own thing and had a couple weird subclasses I didn't fool with. You choose all of this on character creation.

Unfortunately nope I never started any of these "for real". They've been hovering near the top of my list for ages. Couldn't decide between ID, NWN, and PT, then other things came up. It's in that "want to get to that soon" purgatory with Nioh. I'll probably have a lot of free time this summer, but we're getting EQ TLPs and Elden Ring DLC then so I don't know if CRPGs are happening then either. Maybe I can get COVID for two weeks and plow NWN.
 

Caliane

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Another bizarre 2e thing from icewind dale.

A turn is 10minutes, a round is 1 minute. A turn here is primary an out of combat concept. a torch lasts 1 turn, a lantern needs refueling. a 10min turn to search for traps, etc. also, every combat is considered to take "one turn", regardless of how many rounds it actually took.
 

Rajaah

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Another bizarre 2e thing from icewind dale.

A turn is 10minutes, a round is 1 minute. A turn here is primary an out of combat concept. a torch lasts 1 turn, a lantern needs refueling. a 10min turn to search for traps, etc. also, every combat is considered to take "one turn", regardless of how many rounds it actually took.

You still playing IWD?

Another really good long-form video worth adding here that mostly focuses on CRPGs but also gets into the contribution of JRPGs a bit, or at least the late 80's early 90's ones that branched off of the CRPG genre. This video single-handedly got me pumped to do more CRPGs:



After this video, adding Disco Elysium, Wasteland 2, and Wasteland 3 to the list in the first post. Want to keep the list limited (considering how long it takes me to get to things) but I think those 3 are musts. How feasible is it to play Wasteland 1 at this point? Is there even a reason to play Wasteland 1? Some kind of remake would be great.
 
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Caliane

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Yeah, still pushing through. I don't love it.

Icewind dale 1 thoughts.
its a grind. The return to 2e is fairly interesting at times. The leveling is interesting. as I noted, character exp tables are not even. which is just fascinating. as they shift.
my party is at 230,000 exp now. fighter/paladin/ranger are level 8. fighter will hit 9 at 250k, pala/ranger 300k. thief is at level 11. cleric is 9, mage is 9. will hit 10 at 250k.
so like the mage started leveling slowly. 2500 for level 2. 5000 for level 3. fighters start medium. 2000 for level 2. but need 32k for level 6, and jump to 64k for level 7, from there they level slower then mages/clerics/rogues. and paladins/rangers even slower still.
mages in2e are also 4hp/level. yikes. they are 6hp/level now. class hp/level also caps out. at 10 they start getting 1 or 2hp/level instead of hit die.

the attribute tables. also uneven.
like str. 8-15 has no effect on combat. str 16 gives +1 to damage, str 17 +1 to hit/+1 to damage.
con. +15 con=+1 hp. 16con=+2 hp for all classes. 17 or more con does not scale at all for classes, that aren't warriors. (fighter,ranger,paladin)

attacks per round mechanics are odd as well.

everyone talks about Thaco, and forgets about this stuff. Thief's leveling fast makes a ton of sense to me. the mage/fighter/cleric balance not as much. mages start out so so weak.

actual game. its extremely linear. not exactly dungeonsiege... but not too far.. 6 man party is nice. constantly resting, and returning to town to sell shit. (probably not worth it to sell shit like I do.) ranger burns through arrows like a madman. slings aren't as bad, as they don't have as high attacks/round.
if you do play, be sure to split it up. 1 bow user, 1 sling user. with mage/cleric,etc using slings. arrows get burned through quick. imho, only take 1 bow user. also in chapt 3 someone sells unlimited +2 bullets, and alot of +2 bullets of fire, but no arrows. slings in general, are quite good. my mage was doing decent work with a sling for a long time.

trap sense in this game sucks. this is something very very few crpgs get right. they usually go one of 3 ways. manual like this game. combined. like iirc neverwinternights, or 100% totally passive. like wrath of the right.
this game has you have to manually click your rogue, turn on trap finding. stand within 10ft of a trap, and wait 1-3seconds for it to detect it. its so tedious. you almost have to know the trap is there. and its not like theirs actual visual tells. also, trap finding breaks stealth. so you can't even stealth ahead, with trap finding on. Game loves to put traps right in the middle of enemies too. any action breaks find trap. looting, need to turn it back on. disarming trap, need to turn find trap back on.
that its fairly short range, and not instant is brutal as well. so you can't really turn it on and just party move. or, you need to put the rogue in the front line if you do, and then still 5ft. stop. 5ft stop. 5ft stop. etc.

games like divinity, nwn iirc are a bit better. happy medium. I think they have passive detect. but hitting stealth, turns on active search, with increases range, and effect. usually instant iirc too. so can be flickered on an off. that said, these games do tend to still just have you moving around in stealth slo-mo nonstop. ugh.. might be nice if games had a "time speed up" effect, when the party is stealthed, so its not physically slower for the player.

owlcats pathfinder games, iirc just make it passive entirely. spot checks are just completely passive. this of course just totally reduces it to a character sheet stat, of yes or no. no real gameplay to it at all. they do create gameplay from it I suppose, by having the mechanisms for disarming, be SEPERATE from the trap. so, you spot a trap, but then need to track the source, which might be in another room entirely, or past the trap, which means manually stepping around it, going forward and disarming it..

this is active with pause, and unit A.i. the A.I. kindof sucks. constantly fighting with it. standing around doing nothing. walking into melee. pathing getting stuck. move order, mage is first one into the room.. i just VASTLY prefer turn based. sometimes Ill give a ranged unit an attack/spell order and they will just like... teleport out of range.
alot of quickloading...

controls are a bit rough. I think your EE adds a bit here. Early days of mouse? programmers couldn't imagine a pc with 2 monitors?
camera move is edge border, or number arrow keys. not arrow keys, only NUMBER arrow keys. if you have a 2nd monitor, it doesn't recognize screen edge. so,every time I want to shift the view to the right, I need to either move my hand to the right of my key board, or take my hand off the mouse, and do it. or, open up the map, click and drag the screen over..
quick save is also Q, and quick load is L in another silly earlygame, ununified design..

Overall, I would probably say icewind dale is not required to play for a modern gamer. it doesn't really stand out as bringing anything super new, or anything. it really is mostly just a combat focused expansion pack for baldur's gate imho.
 
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Caliane

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I didn't really talk about it, but I also was doing some other rpg roundups myself.

I did talk about Tyranny. unfinished masterpiece.

I got about 50% through Might and magic 9.
9 was 2002. much like ultima 9, it killed the series for the most part. released buggy, and unfinished.
it wasn't the most awful thing, but that buggy/unfinished elements just kill it. the opening is one of the most absurd tacked on tutorials I've ever seen. Eventually I quit due to a soft lock on a quest. and I just didn't want to go back 3 days worth of gameplay to restart it.

did might and magic 8 (2000)
made it about 80-90% through that one, before deciding to call it. all around decent enough. nothing amazing. some steps down for the genre imho. the 3d world for the date, is a bit sparse compared to its competition as well. pretty sure this was also largely rushed.
stopped due to basically maxing out character progression. just didn't feel the need to actually finish it off.

Spring sale on steam, and general gog I picked up a few things as well.
morrowind/oblivion on gog, and the age of decadence, troubleshooter, and mechanicus on steam. (which are all more modern)

installed oblivion and started it, just to do a quick look. going to continue with icewind dale first. I had to look up a few things as I got stuck on some basic ui issues. and I forget what lead to it exactly. like, the first issue was lockpicking, closed the popup, and then could not figure out how it was supposed to work. so tried opening up the menu and FIND the tutorial popup... and ffs that too forever. like literally 2 hours later I found it.
J-journal ok. clicking on the weapon/spell for inventory and spell/ability list. ok. Figuring out clicking on the health bar brought me back to the stat list.. nope. Figuring out clicking on the compass brought up the map, and then the goblets was the quest journal. fucking what mate? The early attempt at a diagenetic U.i is neat... but ffs was that obtuse.
anyway, at some point I did figure out sliding up on the mouse, moved the pick up.
but, somewhere in this journey, i came across the leveling up warning. I had heard of this in passing in the past, and didn't have any context, so didn't really pay attention. But, having started playing, it caught my eye, so I had to look into that. and the character creation. FFS, what a trainwreck of a design. it essentially penalizes you for playing a default class, or focusing on your logical prime skills. its surprising it was never patched?


Really, your list could just keep ballooning out. haha. theres just SO many good, or massively influential rpgs out there.

kings field series. 1994, 95, 96, 2001. (kings field 1 didn't release in the US, 2 and on was.. but renamed. with kings field 2, being released in NA as kingsfield 1)


or shadow tower. also from... Fromsoftware.



Wizardry. did I link this before? Wizardry is largely a must play. its one of the granddaddys as well, and is INSANELY influential. especially in japan, where its even more popular.
all the dnd tropes in anime. Wizardry. dungeon party with boss monsters, levels, etc. wizardy. party getting wiped out. wizardy. Dragon warrior. 1:1 adaptation of wizardy. the menus and monster fights are lifted DIRECTLY from wizardry.


which one to play is more up for grabs. the new remake of wizardry 1? maybe. Wizardy 8 is its own beast, but also very very good. if you watch that above review, it talks about the us/japanese separation and the older vibe of wizardry versus modern. old school blobbers like wizardry 1-5ish, were death traps. slogs of being lost, half dead parties, praying to find your way back to town after you fell down 3 floors in an unmarked pit.
wiz 8 is more modern us style. fantastic party positioning system. insanely good companion system and voice acting.


Caught this vid recently too, and was reminded of Elvira game. a mix of dungeon master, and point and click adventure/kings quest. I had forgotten all about this game.
 
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Rajaah

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Yeah, still pushing through. I don't love it.

Icewind dale 1 thoughts.
its a grind. The return to 2e is fairly interesting at times. The leveling is interesting. as I noted, character exp tables are not even. which is just fascinating. as they shift.
my party is at 230,000 exp now. fighter/paladin/ranger are level 8. fighter will hit 9 at 250k, pala/ranger 300k. thief is at level 11. cleric is 9, mage is 9. will hit 10 at 250k.
so like the mage started leveling slowly. 2500 for level 2. 5000 for level 3. fighters start medium. 2000 for level 2. but need 32k for level 6, and jump to 64k for level 7, from there they level slower then mages/clerics/rogues. and paladins/rangers even slower still.
mages in2e are also 4hp/level. yikes. they are 6hp/level now. class hp/level also caps out. at 10 they start getting 1 or 2hp/level instead of hit die.

the attribute tables. also uneven.
like str. 8-15 has no effect on combat. str 16 gives +1 to damage, str 17 +1 to hit/+1 to damage.
con. +15 con=+1 hp. 16con=+2 hp for all classes. 17 or more con does not scale at all for classes, that aren't warriors. (fighter,ranger,paladin)

attacks per round mechanics are odd as well.

everyone talks about Thaco, and forgets about this stuff. Thief's leveling fast makes a ton of sense to me. the mage/fighter/cleric balance not as much. mages start out so so weak.

actual game. its extremely linear. not exactly dungeonsiege... but not too far.. 6 man party is nice. constantly resting, and returning to town to sell shit. (probably not worth it to sell shit like I do.) ranger burns through arrows like a madman. slings aren't as bad, as they don't have as high attacks/round.
if you do play, be sure to split it up. 1 bow user, 1 sling user. with mage/cleric,etc using slings. arrows get burned through quick. imho, only take 1 bow user. also in chapt 3 someone sells unlimited +2 bullets, and alot of +2 bullets of fire, but no arrows. slings in general, are quite good. my mage was doing decent work with a sling for a long time.

trap sense in this game sucks. this is something very very few crpgs get right. they usually go one of 3 ways. manual like this game. combined. like iirc neverwinternights, or 100% totally passive. like wrath of the right.
this game has you have to manually click your rogue, turn on trap finding. stand within 10ft of a trap, and wait 1-3seconds for it to detect it. its so tedious. you almost have to know the trap is there. and its not like theirs actual visual tells. also, trap finding breaks stealth. so you can't even stealth ahead, with trap finding on. Game loves to put traps right in the middle of enemies too. any action breaks find trap. looting, need to turn it back on. disarming trap, need to turn find trap back on.
that its fairly short range, and not instant is brutal as well. so you can't really turn it on and just party move. or, you need to put the rogue in the front line if you do, and then still 5ft. stop. 5ft stop. 5ft stop. etc.

games like divinity, nwn iirc are a bit better. happy medium. I think they have passive detect. but hitting stealth, turns on active search, with increases range, and effect. usually instant iirc too. so can be flickered on an off. that said, these games do tend to still just have you moving around in stealth slo-mo nonstop. ugh.. might be nice if games had a "time speed up" effect, when the party is stealthed, so its not physically slower for the player.

owlcats pathfinder games, iirc just make it passive entirely. spot checks are just completely passive. this of course just totally reduces it to a character sheet stat, of yes or no. no real gameplay to it at all. they do create gameplay from it I suppose, by having the mechanisms for disarming, be SEPERATE from the trap. so, you spot a trap, but then need to track the source, which might be in another room entirely, or past the trap, which means manually stepping around it, going forward and disarming it..

this is active with pause, and unit A.i. the A.I. kindof sucks. constantly fighting with it. standing around doing nothing. walking into melee. pathing getting stuck. move order, mage is first one into the room.. i just VASTLY prefer turn based. sometimes Ill give a ranged unit an attack/spell order and they will just like... teleport out of range.
alot of quickloading...

controls are a bit rough. I think your EE adds a bit here. Early days of mouse? programmers couldn't imagine a pc with 2 monitors?
camera move is edge border, or number arrow keys. not arrow keys, only NUMBER arrow keys. if you have a 2nd monitor, it doesn't recognize screen edge. so,every time I want to shift the view to the right, I need to either move my hand to the right of my key board, or take my hand off the mouse, and do it. or, open up the map, click and drag the screen over..
quick save is also Q, and quick load is L in another silly earlygame, ununified design..

Overall, I would probably say icewind dale is not required to play for a modern gamer. it doesn't really stand out as bringing anything super new, or anything. it really is mostly just a combat focused expansion pack for baldur's gate imho.

"Combat focused expansion pack for Baldur's Gate" is good for me, 'cause I liked the combat and wanted some more dungeon crawling out of it.

It being linear is also good for me, can't get lost if the game is all linear.

Got a couple days to kill and decided this morning to fire up a CRPG, only to run into the same damn choice paralysis I did a year ago between NWN, IWD, Planescape, and Fallout 2. Hell you could probably add Warcraft 3 to that now as well. Leaning IWD at the moment, especially if IWD is the simplest and most linear of the group (i.e. requires the least brain usage to progress)

Really, your list could just keep ballooning out. haha. theres just SO many good, or massively influential rpgs out there.

Yeah, that's definitely something I want to avoid, given that I already have too much on there. Doing a pretty bad job with this CRPG Blog too considering I haven't played a new one in a year...

Edit: So how does IWD work? Just go around talking to people and getting quests and doing them? All I did so far was take out a bunch of rats in the cellar of the tavern. Is there a "main story" to follow or is it all just doing quests and leveling up, like an MMO?
 
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Caliane

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i do enjoy icewind dale (2000) more then temple of elemental evil. (2003)
toee was 3.5e interestingly. set in Greyhawk, not Faerun.

there is a main story in icewind dale. very few sidequests. what side quests there are, are basically all in line with the main.
starter town is a tutorial. then you travel in a caravan to the second town, which is the hub for the rest of the game more or less.
you'll get sent to new locations as they open up. and only one location, with a specific purpose. (Although you can go back to older locations, with little reason to)
very straightforward.

did you follow any guides or pop open the manuals to look at the str/dex/int/etc tables when creating your characters? I made mine more along the lines of 3.5-5e attributes. so have some wasted stats.
 
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Kharzette

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You still playing IWD?

Another really good long-form video worth adding here that mostly focuses on CRPGs but also gets into the contribution of JRPGs a bit, or at least the late 80's early 90's ones that branched off of the CRPG genre. This video single-handedly got me pumped to do more CRPGs:



After this video, adding Disco Elysium, Wasteland 2, and Wasteland 3 to the list in the first post. Want to keep the list limited (considering how long it takes me to get to things) but I think those 3 are musts. How feasible is it to play Wasteland 1 at this point? Is there even a reason to play Wasteland 1? Some kind of remake would be great.

The JRPG section was interesting. I've tried to get into them over the years and found them quite unplayable. It makes sense now that their main influences are previous games where western games are mostly influenced by D&D. Its kind of like AI's training off AI generated junk so eventually you end up with garbage.

I think I missed everything after Skyrim in that video except BG3.
 
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Kharzette

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I got about 50% through Might and magic 9.
9 was 2002. much like ultima 9, it killed the series for the most part. released buggy, and unfinished.
it wasn't the most awful thing, but that buggy/unfinished elements just kill it. the opening is one of the most absurd tacked on tutorials I've ever seen. Eventually I quit due to a soft lock on a quest. and I just didn't want to go back 3 days worth of gameplay to restart it.
I had a strange experience with might and magic 9. I had played 6 and I think I skipped 7 and played a little of 8, but 9 I bought and played all the way through and had a great time. I remember it having really good pacing. I didn't even know that it was badly rated.

A few years later I ended up working with the guys that made it. They came mostly intact to ncsoft austin, so it was like Ultima and Might & Magic all together. We'd often play paintball or go kart racing on saturdays (JVC the might & magic guy was AMAZING at kart racing).

I remember telling them what a great time I had with 9 and they were kind of surprised I liked it. :emoji_laughing: I must have hit some perfect golden path in the game.

They all had a special hatred for the C64 and I was a commodore kid growing up so I hadn't played many of the early M&Ms. Apparently one of their early offices in the might & magic days had a locked bathroom so you had to have a key to use it, and they attached a C64 to the bathroom key :emoji_laughing: