I''ve been playing Nox recently, and one thing that struck me as odd is that I am a compulsive thief! I walk into everyones'' houses and open their treasure cheasts and steal their life savings. Even when the mayor gave me 500 gold for ridding the spiders from his study I still broke into his bedroom and stole an extra 50! What I''m getting at here, is why don''t the NPC''s complain? They are standing in the room with me and see me steal their booty but don''t care. I think that if the player wants to steal from the NPC''s then he should have to be a little more stealthy (ie. wait until no one''s around) or else the townsfolk will get angry towards him - (as in you go to buy something at the blacksmiths and he says something like "how do I know that money ain''t mine in the first place" and refuses to serve you) This isn''t a complaint against Nox in particular, but I remember playing Chronotrigger on the SNES and when you got taken to courst the game remembered all the actions you''d done and used them as evidence ("he stole the old man''s lunch", or "he immediately took the princesses bracelet") and they sentenced you accordingly. This has probably been discussed before in an NPC rights thread (numbering 100''s of posts, no doubt) that I haven''t had the time to read, but I thought that something should be done about this because it takes away a great deal of realism from an otherwise pretty good game. wise_guy

I agree, there should be more stealth and skill involved in stealing from NPCs. You should be able to sneak around out of view or get one party member to distact the NPC while another picks the lock of the nearby chest or sneaks up the stairs to the bed room. It should feel more like robery than a simply click and grab. And how come you can walk into their houses in the first place??? And they don''t seem to give a damn.

Baldurs Gate allowed you to pick locks to get into house then raid the chest but it didn''t feel real. There was no risk or skill invlove, just a simple click. You should have to sneak upto the house and break in under the cover of night, rather than just walk upto the door in broad day light and pick the lock. Such a system wouldn''t be that hard to code into a game and would definatley add to the feel of the game.

There is definately something lacking from most RPGs and that''s the ROLE PLAY. Most PC RPGs are nothing more than a hack and slash which is a real shame as the genre has so much more potential. CRPGs take there roots from traditional pen and paper ones but the only thing thats made the transitiion is the stats and dice rolls. The role play was sadly left behind

Yes it is sad but DarkScholar I agree with you... most RPG''s on PC are isometric slashers and on consoles they are semi-interactive storybooks.

Morfe - I haven''t played Angband, but then again I haven''t played many RPG''s.

Oh yeah, another thing i have been meaning to ask... what are CRPG''S and MMORPG''S?

wise_guy

in baldur''s Gate, if you tried to take people''s stuff while they were in the room then they would call for the Falming Fist and unless you were on a high-level then they will wipe the floor with your ass.


"Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
themGames Productions

Anyone remember Ultima VII? Most NPCs had (simple) schedules, like Pawn''s miller would work during the day, head for the tavern around dinnertime, then come back and sleep.

I thought that was a neat thing, and I don''t think it''d take too much time to program. Program a list of activities, and for each activity specify the starting and ending time, the location, the activity itself, and a few additional variables. No slacker NPCs hanging around in their homes all day.

There were a few glitches of course... you could slay the entire fellowship entourage in a town and the fellowship leader would still hold his speeches amidst the dead bodies.

There was also some sort of anti-stealing thing going on. Most NPCs would warn you a few times before calling the guards. Unless you ate their fruitcakes, though... that made them and everyone else explode with homicidal rage.

Damn, that was a fun game, and we probably won''t ever see anything like it again. Its immense cost of development and relatively low market appeal probably was what sent Origin on its suicide spiral...

quote: Original post by ncsu121978

in baldur''s Gate, if you tried to take people''s stuff while they were in the room then they would call for the Falming Fist and unless you were on a high-level then they will wipe the floor with your ass.

This still didn''t feel realistic as they always managed to catch you even when they were looking in the completly opposite direction. Plus although many NPCs objected to you being in their house if you spoke to them, if you didn''t speak to them they just stood around doing nothing!

It would have been better if you had to break in and sneak around to avoid detection and if they spotted you they would either attack you, call the local guards or surrender. It would also be good if you could sneak in through windows.

More attention should be payed to robbery seeing as it is present in most RPGs. At the moment it seems like nothing more than a thoughtless tagged on element. I thought RPGs were supposed to be known for detail and depth, it seems that both are lacking from most RPGs.

NPC conversations are another thing that need to be dramatically improved. At the moment they''re just bland and repetative.