EA developing System Shock 3

On Sat, 26 Aug 2006, Xocyll wrote:

> Except ammo was ALWAYS a concern in Bloodlines, since it got capped off.

I think the capping was not the problem but the cost. We just recently
noticed that .38 ammo was expensive out of proportion and changed that,
but I really liked for once not having full ammo for every weapon!

> The character sheet equipment screen generally ISN'T "inventory",

Maybe, but I would like to finally see a character only carry the weapons
that he would be able to, not all of them (FPS) or those that somehow fit
into some inventory grid that has no connection to reality (classic RPG).

> I don't know HOW you can claim that having an inventory limited by
> weight is "going in the FPS direction", since items having a weight is

I stated "only limited by weight" and "only" is important here. You didn't
have the usual RPG inventory grid anymore but more a FPS kind of listing.

> Having to decide what to take and what to leave IS a choice - one
> Bloodlines completely sidestepped by letting you carry _everything_ and
> not letting you get rid of some things at all.

You could not carry everything and you could drop any weapon you carried.
Maybe you could not sell ammo but that is a different thing. Also again I
liked to have the choices at hand which of course is more FPS like.

> Having to decide which weapons you were going to develop skills in is a
> choice and one that also interacts with the inventory limitations.

Yes, but it was limited to an amount that made you force to play the game
again with another character when you wanted to go into another direction.
That's a thing I rarely do, never ever did it with Bloodlines with all the
patching taking my time. Maybe this is the more pure RPG way, but e.g. in
Oblion you also got to be chief of every guild and brotherhood in one go,
which shows to me that the trend goes in that direction. We will see...

--
Werner Spahl (spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
"The meaning of my life is to make me crazy" Vorlonships

Werner Spahl <spahl.RemoveThis@cup.uni-muenchen.de> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

>On Sat, 26 Aug 2006, Xocyll wrote:
>
>> Except ammo was ALWAYS a concern in Bloodlines, since it got capped off.
>
>I think the capping was not the problem but the cost. We just recently
>noticed that .38 ammo was expensive out of proportion and changed that,
>but I really liked for once not having full ammo for every weapon!

No the capping is as well since it's completely artificially and
arbitrary cutoff to stop you having lots of ammo in the "good" weapons.

>> The character sheet equipment screen generally ISN'T "inventory",
>
>Maybe, but I would like to finally see a character only carry the weapons
>that he would be able to, not all of them (FPS) or those that somehow fit
>into some inventory grid that has no connection to reality (classic RPG).

You seem to have missed the fact that the classic grid is supposed to
represent the characters backpack. with it's size and the items sizes
mattering.

SS2 went one step further and scaled it by both size and weight - weaker
characters got a smaller "backpack".

>> I don't know HOW you can claim that having an inventory limited by
>> weight is "going in the FPS direction", since items having a weight is
>
>I stated "only limited by weight" and "only" is important here. You didn't
>have the usual RPG inventory grid anymore but more a FPS kind of listing.

FPS listing ignore weight completely as well as any considerations for
how the character is actually supposed to carry all those weapons - some
of which (like chainguns and rocket launchers) are quite large.
The RPG backpack grid at least takes the size and cumbersomeness of the
items into account.

>> Having to decide what to take and what to leave IS a choice - one
>> Bloodlines completely sidestepped by letting you carry _everything_ and
>> not letting you get rid of some things at all.
>
>You could not carry everything and you could drop any weapon you carried.
>Maybe you could not sell ammo but that is a different thing. Also again I
>liked to have the choices at hand which of course is more FPS like.

AND you couldn't drop some things at all - IE the weaker armors you'll
never wear again but are in your inventory forever.

>> Having to decide which weapons you were going to develop skills in is a
>> choice and one that also interacts with the inventory limitations.
>
>Yes, but it was limited to an amount that made you force to play the game
>again with another character when you wanted to go into another direction.
>That's a thing I rarely do, never ever did it with Bloodlines with all the
>patching taking my time. Maybe this is the more pure RPG way, but e.g. in
>Oblion you also got to be chief of every guild and brotherhood in one go,
>which shows to me that the trend goes in that direction. We will see...

Uh, I really can't see where you're going with this - limit replay - how
could it possibly limit replay when the very nature of having limited
choices means you CAN'T choose them all in ONE run through the game.
Just like the various bloodlines in VTM"Bloodlines - the play through is
quite different with another faction - or even the same one with
different attribute choices made.

Shooters don't do that, you get access to all the things and only get
limited in max ammo amounts for the higher weapons - no choices, nothing
new to gain from playing it through again.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr