I tried reading all the posts in detail, but eventually it all blurred in my head as arguments about who are right and who are not.
No offence to anyone who posted so far, that\'s just the way my mind works.
First of all, I am fairly new to roleplaying.
My first \'rpg\' I finished (4 times) was
Star Wars Knights Of the Old republic. Some of the die-hard roleplayers might stop reading right here, but bear with me. I had to start somewhere. (mind you I still like those kind of seek-and-destroy-rpg\'s)
I had a go at
Morrowind as well, but I ended up emptying every crate/barrel/empty room/whatever I could find. I needed the money to finance my trainings so I could fence off the next troublesome creature or assasin (I love black so my first assassin assassination got me a nice suit
). In my experience the game had a low momentum, slow pace if you will, due to the holdups caused by endless training/credit gaining.
My first mmorpg was Project-Entropia, not a good example of role-playing in my experience, but others may disagree.
U still with me so far?
Thanks. You do not know me (yet) and I need you to understand my frame of reference.
Ok here comes the good/bad part...
What really got me started on Planeshift is the way you talk to N
on P
layer C
haracters. In adventures a system of pre-defined questiom -> pre-defined answer is nice, you already have enough puzzles to work out, or laugter to surpress in the case of LucasArts adventures.
This system has alway been a big turn-off for me in rpg\'s. It\'s like reading a chapter, where you can select the sequence of the paragraphs.
The style in Planeshift differs in the fact, that you have no pre-defined questions. Yes of course you have rules. You cannot expect a game-developer inventing an ai with impeccable feeling for grammar (even faulty grammar like mine) as well as developing a playable mmorpg. (To appreciate the problems of how to get an ai to respond to you like a human being would, try to read up on grammar-check programs or translation programs. Mind you those programs don\'t have to cope with slang and leet/1337)
Having to think about the question you should pose to get more information out of the NPC you are talking to instantly gives you a more immersive \'feeling\'/experience. You really have to read what he says, so you can spot clues for further lines of inquiry.
Now it becomes more fun to walk up any NPC and start talking away. Hey, wait up there are also characters walking around with Green names, maybe they have something to say as well, or these characters are interrested in the same NPC as me (seeing as you spend more time talking to NPC\'s you meet more people who talk to the same NPC)
I don\'t know what the developers are capable of and/or what their plans are, but when a NPC reacts differently to various characteristics of P
layer C
haracter like they do in e.g. Morrowind (The more the are alligned with you or like you the more information they are willing to share *), you get an even better feel for your character.
I think the real roleplayers out there who need a nudge would benefit from talking to NPC\'s. It got me more into the game than any other feature/person in game so far. (I have to give credit to Elscha for being very kind in game. Not in a rpg way but as gamer to gamer or as I prefer to say, person to person)
* a small note on this : You can have several NPC\'s with similar quests and bonusses for different types of players. So an \'evil\' player takes on the quest from an \'evil\' NPC and a \'good\' player would get to do a similar one for a \'good\' side NPC. Receiving their respective bonusses, being a \'good\', \'bad\', or neutral bonus. Thus leaving a balance between good and evil.
Man, oh, man the ramblings I can churn out with 2 hours of sleep and a tough day at work... Let me know what you think people, pro\'s and con\'s, just don\'t flame me wildly... I can\'t get enough sleep as it is...
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