I became disinterested in Shroud of the Avatar once I saw the card deck-based combat system.
Why? The base concept of picking a limited action set “hand” out of a large deck of available actions always seemed like a great idea to me. The combat isn’t hearthstone.
I mean, their implementation sucks. The game isn’t fun at all. It’s terrible. But the concept, I like.
I like to have more freedom over my actions in a roleplaying game. The randomized deck system was even more arbitrary than slapping cooldowns on everything.
Shrug, I think it could have worked.
And again, it didn’t work. SoTA is anti-fun, it will suck fun right out of your pee-hole in a burning stream blending a melange of tedium and agony.
I recall there being a vocal anti-deck lobby back when I followed the game, and I still see the sentiment when I look at current steam reviews. I don’t know how sizable they were compared to the amount of noise they made, though.
CIG should make ship-to-ship combat based on a card system.
Based on the constant, “We’re really going to make deadline x! We mean it this time!” bollox: has anyone ever seen Chris and Cleve together in a room??
Doesn’t Endless Space have a patent on that or something? :)
I didn’t back this but also backed Shroud of the Avatar.
¯\(ツ)/¯
Of all these “legendary designers” coming back with Kickstarters heavily based on nostalgia and all… has any single one delivered something worthy of their names/legends so far? Because Shroud of the Avatar, Godus, and Might no. 9 have been pretty much disasters, from what I hear.
I suppose a case could be made for David Braben and Elite: Dangerous, though I also suppose some people think Elite: Dangerous is a bit too shallow for their tastes… so it’s debatable. Anyone else?
Julian Gollop with Chaos Reborn
Oh, excellent! Yes, that is certainly a success in my book. I didn’t recall it had a kickstarter, but it did. Thanks! Anyone else?
There’s Pillars of Eternity with Josh Sawyer, Chris Avellone, Feargus Urquhart Tim Cain, etc. although that one is more debatable (despite the 89 on Metacritic).
Overload by the creators of the original Descent is looking good so far, but it’s not out yet.
Elite: Dangerous is a bona-fide success, I wouldn’t call that debatable at all.
Also Torment, Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, Double Fine Adventure, Massive Chalice, and Dreamfall Chapters.
Swen Vincke with Divinity: Original Sin
Ron Gilbert with Tumbleweed Park
Larian doesn’t have any remotely legendary developers.
Ron Gilbert certainly qualifies!
Do you think the majority of people who kickstarted D:OS did so because of Larian’s previous (A)RPG’s? Or was it a completely different situation to other popular kickstarted projects?
Sure! They were pulling hard on the Ultima7 nostalgia strings, and Divine Divinity was the best U7 followup by a mile. But nobody knew Swen’s name and while I loved the game, Divine Divinity wasn’t particularly noteworthy or significant. These are prerequisites for being classified a legendary developer.
Also Beyond Divinity barely qualified as mediocre, Divinity 2 was a goddamn tragedy, and the less we speak of the dragon flight game the better.
Yeah, you’re right about that.
Although, while D:OS might not meet @rhamorim’s specific criteria, I feel it still applies to the underlying question of whether a designer who produced good work a long time ago can still provide that same value today.
