WotC Reveal Exodus, a New Video Game from the Decelopers of Mass Effect and Neverwinter Nights

[trappedslider]

Like, literally, the natural assumption is that a significant period of time has passed after the intro, because you got re-frozen. It's unnatural to assume you were only out for minutes or weeks. But the game hard-forces your character to be a dumbass who can't even ask they questions they'd need to to determine how long they were out, and continually assumes it was like, weeks, and is forced to be aghast when it's decades. It's so senseless and it's such an audience-ignoring kind of writing, that really doesn't work at all well for a game like the Fallout series.

Actually, you get told 200 years by Codsworth and and you're reaction is "200 years?!" sand he response with with something along the lines of "actually a little over 200 something"

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't think it was inevitable. Both declines were a result of a lot of different factors, some predictable, some unpredictable, some questionable.

Everything wanes in popularity. That is inevitable, and therefore predictable. The only uncertainty is when the decile will happen. The only sensible move is to always have a backup plan.

 

[MarkB]

Man Fallout 4 blew that so badly. Awful.

Like, literally, the natural assumption is that a significant period of time has passed after the intro, because you got re-frozen. It's unnatural to assume you were only out for minutes or weeks. But the game hard-forces your character to be a dumbass who can't even ask they questions they'd need to to determine how long they were out, and continually assumes it was like, weeks, and is forced to be aghast when it's decades. It's so senseless and it's such an audience-ignoring kind of writing, that really doesn't work at all well for a game like the Fallout series.

Yeah, the most forced part of that was making the one guy who could reasonably be a reference point for the passage of time also just happen to be the one guy who is functionally immortal.

Actually, you get told 200 years by Codsworth and and you're reaction is "200 years?!" sand he response with with something along the lines of "actually a little over 200 something"

It's not the amount of time since the apocalypse that your character is a dumbass about, it's the amount of time between your kid being taken and your second wake-up.

 

[trappedslider]

It's not the amount of time since the apocalypse that your character is a dumbass about, it's the amount of time between your kid being taken and your second wake-up.

I mean you have no sense of time, you were a frozen popsicle who was stuck in a vault.
What questions would you ask and who would you ask?

 

[MarkB]

I mean you have no sense of time, you were a frozen popsicle who was stuck in a vault.
What questions would you ask and who would you ask?

It's not that there's no easy answer and your character is therefore forced to wonder in vain. It's that your character doesn't wonder in vain, and assumes they already know the answer.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Actually, you get told 200 years by Codsworth and and you're reaction is "200 years?!" sand he response with with something along the lines of "actually a little over 200 something"

No, you're confusing a couple of things here.

You got frozen 200 years ago. That's when the war was. You woke up the first time was much more recent - about 60 years ago - and the game doesn't let you ask this of anyone, or do anything to work it out, and even though it seems obvious from various context cues that it's at least "decades", the character is forced to be a dumbass and to assume it was merely days or weeks ago. It's not very well written because subtlety is not a strong point for BGS writers (any of them), so NPCs keep dropping hints, and the writers clearly think they're really clever, but you just don't have the dialogue options (even if you have stuff like high science and INT) to work it out.

Re: shipbuilding, I'm not sure how you'd cite that, but the reality is most people are flying generic ships with small modifications. This is very easy to see if you watch Let's Plays or Twitch or YouTube. People think it's cool when someone builds a ship that looks like a giant dick or famous spaceship or whatever, but almost all of that is done by the same few people, if you look at the reddit or the like.

Yeah, the most forced part of that was making the one guy who could reasonably be a reference point for the passage of time also just happen to be the one guy who is functionally immortal.

Yeah they literally had to do that as a red herring, or the whole thing would have immediately broken down.

Everything wanes in popularity. That is inevitable, and therefore predictable. The only uncertainty is when the decile will happen. The only sensible move is to always have a backup plan.

Can you explain to me what the backup plan actually looks like, then?

It's much easier to reasonably say "D&D-style fantasy will probably still be popular in 10-20 years", than to figure out what genre/subgenre of SF or particularly space SF is going to be and remain popular in 10 years even.

The best plan I can see, if you assume fantasy will take a dive at some point, would be to make a space TT RPG focusing absolutely on it being fun to play, and fun to think about the universe of, and to carefully avoid the massive temptation of cross-marketing with D&D, as perverse as that sounds, so that if D&D "goes down" for some reason, it doesn't take this game with it. You'd want a whole different set of mechanics and gameplay, for example. Is that the plan you see?

The trouble I see is again, as I said, I don't think WotC has people who have the mindset to pull that off, and I think that if they tried doing an entirely new ruleset, they'd get pulled into an ultra-monetized design (i.e. using "funky dice", a card-based system, or the like), and ultra-monetized designs don't have any long-term legs, especially as it's impossible for them survive lean periods.

But again, what are YOU proposing, that's what I want to hear!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's not that there's no easy answer and your character is therefore forced to wonder in vain. It's that your character doesn't wonder in vain, and assumes they already know the answer.

This is exactly it. Your character could be struggling to find out - totally fair - and interested in finding out how long, contacting scientists and so on. Or trying to do science themselves if they have the stats. Examining your cryopod - which is fully intact - would be the start.

But instead the character is literally forced to assume it's days to months, and just blithely wanders around assuming this, even though nothing seems to support that. It's bizarre writing, that might fit a linear action-adventure game like TLOU or something, but is terrible for a sandbox-y open-world RPG.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Paizo's Starfinder is in its second edition, and it has published a lot of titles. Then it hasn't worked so bad. Is Fading Suns "space fantasy"?

WotC could publish its space-fantasy RPG, something like a retro-vintage version of Star Frontiers but add some mystical elements, something style 80's Saturday morning cartoon.


Sci-fi has worked very well in the videogame industry, specially shooter subgenre.

Other point is if a WotC's sci-fi game will be with a leveling-up as Star Wars d20, or more like spending XPs to unlock slots in a talent tree. WotC would rather with a leveling-up to avoid the designd of new ideas by players and 3PPs was too easy.

I hope be not off-topic but we should remember the potential influence of the UFO and conspirancy-theories "mythology". Somes of these theories could be used by players for their homebred settings (and this doesn't mean those believed to be true).

* Do you know it? This is a Spanish TTRPG of Ricky and Morty, no kidding, but it is Spanish languange. The publisher also releasies Time Adventure RPG some years ago.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Can you explain to me what the backup plan actually looks like, then?

Doesn't matter, so long as you have one. But if you are good, it's possible to influence what the next thing will be, rather than just chase the trends and always be one step behind.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Doesn't matter, so long as you have one. But if you are good, it's possible to influence what the next thing will be, rather than just chase the trends and always be one step behind.

That's exactly what I was suggesting lol dude come on.

And you were suggesting they needed an SF RPG, which y'know seemed to indicate something more specific than "just any plan at all".