Well, the game wasn't that bad, the PSP was just to wrong place for it. On a large screen, with the option to zoom in and out and preferably a mouse to control it, the game would have been decent
D&D 4E Is there any D&D 4th computer game?
- Thread starter kolpo
- Start date
DracoSuave
First Post
No screen size could cure the issues of terrible and unintuitive menus, terrible character models (everyone uses the same basic model except for headswaps, none of which match the portraits in the game, only difference is size of the model), and no documentation worth speaking of--especially when you have no idea if that feat you need to make a character build viable is in the game. Guide-Dang-It is not acceptable for character creation, especially when knowing the game system its based on doesn't tell you if what you want is in there.
I never found myself cursing the lack of mouse on it, I found myself cursing the lack of polish on what could very well have been a decent niche product. The game simulated the system well enough, then seemed to actively make the system as inaccessible as possible. I cannot find myself defending a game that seems to be purposefully designed to punish players for buying it.
Then the game you want is Temple of Elemental Evil for PC (atari) crica 2003 ish. You need the Co8 (Circle of Eight) fan pack mod to fix it. It was released ina buggy mess, this caused people not to be able to see what a clever game it was.
Crafting, Dimension Door, 3.5 Teleport, Sanctuary, Delay turns, Flanking, Cover, etc. Tacticians dream. In fact a lot of people hated is *because* it implemented the 3.5 rules so closely.
For example, bad guys could get something like +5 cover, +5 Ac fire into melee etc. Unless you take precise shot, and point blank shot, you wont hit anything. Hint later you can cast Gilterdust on enemies to blind them, this makes them flat footed setting them up for sneak attacks. There are so many possibilities, I've had many runs through the temple testing out builds.
Don't let people tell you it's rubbish, people wont not still be playing it 7 years later, and spending time making mods if it was rubbish.
As for the PSP game, it was total garbage in comparison, traded it in within a week.
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Ironically, despite 4e's obvious structure, it is a very poor candidate for a CRPG. The highly interrupt driven nature of combat is difficult and tedious to reproduce in a usable form on the computer. You could make a turn-based game, but I think it would seem ponderous, and most of the interesting stuff in 4e happens outside the realm of powers anyway. It seems to me a difficult game at best to capture the flavor of as well as being hard to implement.
I somewhat disagree
While I agree that tabletop RPG's in general, at least the ones like D&D, make for good turn-based games. I disagree that they are poor candidates for CRPG's. Yes, they are tedious but for us gamers end up being the only ones we usually like. Even though table-topping will ALWAYS be my number 1, Games like DDO, LoTRo, Runes of Magic, World of Warcraft, Heroes of Neverwinter (RIP) made for some EXCELLENT substitutes for when I couldn't get a gaming group. For years I've been trying to develop something PBeM style on facebook but never able to draw up enough attention.
I would like to further add that the newer the D&D edition is the simpler it's mechanics are and therefore would be less tedious to implement into a CRPG.
While I agree that tabletop RPG's in general, at least the ones like D&D, make for good turn-based games. I disagree that they are poor candidates for CRPG's. Yes, they are tedious but for us gamers end up being the only ones we usually like. Even though table-topping will ALWAYS be my number 1, Games like DDO, LoTRo, Runes of Magic, World of Warcraft, Heroes of Neverwinter (RIP) made for some EXCELLENT substitutes for when I couldn't get a gaming group. For years I've been trying to develop something PBeM style on facebook but never able to draw up enough attention.
I would like to further add that the newer the D&D edition is the simpler it's mechanics are and therefore would be less tedious to implement into a CRPG.
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
I will just say that as a programmer IMHO 4e would be far far harder to implement than earlier editions. it has vastly more rules that are relevant to and have precise definitions that must be implemented exactly as they are in the RPG. 1e was very easy to implement in software, the rules were so mushy you could do basically anything and get away with it. If the classes, items, and spells basically did something resembling what they did in the PnP game, then it was OK. 4e would be 10x or 100x more work to implement. For the game development companies it is just not worth being able to slap the name 'D&D' on it, a name that has lost a lot of its currency outside a small group of active players and is in any case unlikely to be better recognized today than the bigger computer game franchises. It may be true (and I only grant this for the sake of argument) that some segment of D&Ders will only like D&D-based CRPGs, but those people make up a tiny fragment of the computer gaming community, and many D&D players are in reality perfectly happy to play games that don't happen to be D&D clones. I wouldn't MIND a D&D clone CRPG, but I think a 4e one at least is HIGHLY unlikely.
All things aside
Aside from the fact that I have an MBA, MCL in Computer Sciences (programming), and about 22 years of experience in the field as a both R&D in tabletop and R&D GM in MMO's, I beg to differ. The simplicity of the 4e rule-set by many has been rightfully touted as basically turning D&D into WoW. The fact that older D&D rules had more rules made the programmers job easier NOT harder. If you have a printed rule you have a clear "if-then". Basic programming 101. I remember when I first entered programming it was BASIC on the C=64 and man was I happy to have a copy of the Rules Cyclopedia sitting next to me. I was even more ecstatic when Players Options came out for 2nd Edition. Made my job SOOO much easier. Once you mentally parse the rules into if-then's, viola, you can code it. With that said I guess I just contradicted myself a bit and should clarify. I guess in the long run it would be easier to code 4th edition because there are less rules, but the difference is so minuscule as to almost render itself moot.
As for the whole branding issue, well, I'm a Kopimist so the whole capitalist drive behind it is junk as far as I'm concerned and largely what will lead to the death of the franchise in the short term. Who wants to keep reworking the code to stick to the flavor of the "current" edition. I sure the hell wouldn't. I'd jut drop it like a rock and recommend people go out and buy an older, tested system, some dice and forget CPRG'ing. Play by yourself if you have to.
Aside from the fact that I have an MBA, MCL in Computer Sciences (programming), and about 22 years of experience in the field as a both R&D in tabletop and R&D GM in MMO's, I beg to differ. The simplicity of the 4e rule-set by many has been rightfully touted as basically turning D&D into WoW. The fact that older D&D rules had more rules made the programmers job easier NOT harder. If you have a printed rule you have a clear "if-then". Basic programming 101. I remember when I first entered programming it was BASIC on the C=64 and man was I happy to have a copy of the Rules Cyclopedia sitting next to me. I was even more ecstatic when Players Options came out for 2nd Edition. Made my job SOOO much easier. Once you mentally parse the rules into if-then's, viola, you can code it. With that said I guess I just contradicted myself a bit and should clarify. I guess in the long run it would be easier to code 4th edition because there are less rules, but the difference is so minuscule as to almost render itself moot.
As for the whole branding issue, well, I'm a Kopimist so the whole capitalist drive behind it is junk as far as I'm concerned and largely what will lead to the death of the franchise in the short term. Who wants to keep reworking the code to stick to the flavor of the "current" edition. I sure the hell wouldn't. I'd jut drop it like a rock and recommend people go out and buy an older, tested system, some dice and forget CPRG'ing. Play by yourself if you have to.
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The reason that there is no big 4E video game is not because of the rules, video games don't follow the rules of tabletop games most of the time anyway, but that publishers have no interest in D&D 4E.
The D&D brand is not worth that much any more after 4E splintered the fanbase and many bigger publishers have their own fantasy RPG brands and don't wnt to create in house competition. And the smaller ones likely don't have the money required for whatever Hasbro wants for the D&D license or don't want to be as shackled as Hasbro demands. Hasbro itself sucks at video games and won't make one by itself.
The D&D brand is not worth that much any more after 4E splintered the fanbase and many bigger publishers have their own fantasy RPG brands and don't wnt to create in house competition. And the smaller ones likely don't have the money required for whatever Hasbro wants for the D&D license or don't want to be as shackled as Hasbro demands. Hasbro itself sucks at video games and won't make one by itself.
