Game News Seven Dragon Saga Kickstarter is LIVE

[Dorateen]

I wish I did. That was back in the early pre-pre-hype days of August and September. Snooping around for information about "Seven Dragon Saga", came across that website by Dave Shelley. Now I suspect, he closed it to avoid any confusion between the pnp setting and the eventual cRPG project. Not everything will be adaptable, I'm sure. Also, they probably wanted to gradually roll out the details on their own terms rather than just make this knowledge immediately available.

I think among the different specialties, such as Tough and Deadly, they also had elemental descriptions such as Fire, Air, etc.

 

[Darkzone]

A knight is tough is no description of the knight class, it is a statement about the obvious.

You are missing the point here though, you choose a speciality for the class - it works like [race] [class] [speciality]. They have not given a lot of info about the available specialities yet - the only two I know of is 'Tough' and 'Rogue' (note thats not a class). What you call obvious would be an apparent tank build - say Tough Dwarven Knight. You don't have to chose the 'Tough' speciality though, as Dave has said in the update - you can make interesting builds (that may seem counter intuitive) by combining the three elements - say Rogue Knight or Tough Scout. The system seems to be designed to play around with these and come up with unique combinations.

Don't worry i did get it, how it works. That you have [race]x[class]x[speciality] possibilities and combinations for customisation.

To see how this actually plays out we would really need more information about what classes, races and specialities there actually are though.

^ That was more my intent. What is a Knight? How does it work out to play a Knight? Is the Knight, just a Knight, because he can wear heavy armor (making the 'tough' not tough as [speciality]) or does the Knight have restrictions due to a moral codex, like a Paladin?
The Tough Dwarven Knight would be example of a super tank, while a Strong Dwarven Knight would be something on the way to an all rounder, but still a tank. A Tough Dwarven Thief would be not a tank.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Tough or Deadly don't sound like an interesting specialization system. If above mentioned Fire, Air, etc specialization is there as well, it sounds like a Diablo-like pre-fix system, not something with an actual depth.

 

[Darkzone]

Tough or Deadly don't sound like an interesting specialization system. If above mentioned Fire, Air, etc specialization is there as well, it sounds like a Diablo-like pre-fix system, not something with an actual depth.

Fire, Air, Water and Earth (i know you know this) are the four elements, and the specialisation in elements is to differentiate between different mages. And you will find them often used together. D&D has used a different system by schools, but this has also resulted in very little differentiations in mages.I have very often played in AD&D P&P a necromancer with two black dogs, that has summoned undead. But there was very little difference between this necromancer and other mages.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Tough or Deadly don't sound like an interesting specialization system. If above mentioned Fire, Air, etc specialization is there as well, it sounds like a Diablo-like pre-fix system, not something with an actual depth.

Fire, Air, Water and Earth (i know you know this) are the four elements, and the specialisation in elements is to differentiate between different mages.

My point was that the best way to specialize in Fire (and yes I know that these are the four elements) is to select appropriate feats (they mentioned they have 80 abilities with ranks), IWD2 style, not to lock yourself into it right away.

Of course, it's impossible to say for sure since we don't know ANY details about it.

And you will find them often used together. D&D has used a different system by schools, but this has also resulted in very little differentiations in mages.I have very often played in AD&D P&P a necromancer with two black dogs, that has summoned undead. But there was very little difference between this necromancer and other mages.

IWD2 did a very good job there and feats that offered a bonus to element (Aegis of Rime, Spirit of Flame, etc) and spell penetration or spell focus with ranks made a huge difference.

 

[Zombra]

In an interview, they said the number of implemented Specialties will depend on funding, which makes sense as every combination should require more work. Tough means more than just +5 hit points. (I hope.)

I think the P&P system has eight Races, eight Classes, and fifteen Specialties.

Ah, here it is:

TwoDashStash: Now, let’s talk about Seven Dragon Saga. I know you guys are still in early development and a lot could change, so I’ll avoid asking you to nail down any specifics. That being said, do you already know the number of Race, Class, and Specializations options available in Seven Dragon Saga?

Shelley: Part of this depends on the results of our Kickstarter funding. We have designs in place for eight races, eight classes, and 15 specialties (eight non-magical and seven magical specializations). As the races and classes have the most impact on art budget and schedule, those may be reduced to allow us to create a final polished product. We would then look to opportunities to release additional races and classes after release. We believe our absolute minimum would be four classes and four races.

So far the variables we know of (from the pitch video) are:
Races: Shade Elf, Imperial, Dwarf, High Elf
Classes: Scout, Wraith Hunter, Knight, Wizard
Specialties: Rogue (should be 'Roguish'

), Priestly, Tough, Deadly

 

[Vault Dweller]

Well, let's hope that at some point they would actually present the system and properly explain it.

 

[Darkzone]

My point was that the best way to specialize in Fire (and yes I know that these are the four elements) is to select appropriate feats (they mentioned they have 80 abilities with ranks), IWD2 style, not to lock yourself into it right away.

But do you know the fifth element?

Of course, it's impossible to say for sure since we don't know ANY details about it.

And you will find them often used together. D&D has used a different system by schools, but this has also resulted in very little differentiations in mages.I have very often played in AD&D P&P a necromancer with two black dogs, that has summoned undead. But there was very little difference between this necromancer and other mages.

IWD2 did a very good job there and feats that offered a bonus to element (Aegis of Rime, Spirit of Flame, etc) and spell penetration or spell focus with ranks made a huge difference.

I never played Ice Wind Dale 2 (one of the vey few AD&D cRPGs that i never played), but i will try it out and will look into the system, and before that i can only take you word on this.

 

[tuluse]

But do you know the fifth element?


I never played Ice Wind Dale 2 (one of the vey few AD&D cRPGs that i never played), but i will try it out and will look into the system, and before that i can only take you word on this.

IWD2 isn't AD&D, it's 3E (thus the feats and stuff).

 

[Darkzone]

IWD2 isn't AD&D, it's 3E (thus the feats and stuff).

This is then a prove, that i never played it.

 

[Zombra]

Well, let's hope that at some point they would actually present the system and properly explain it.

Yeah. The problem is that they can't talk about a bunch of classes they won't be able to implement. It would be nice if they discussed the rock bottom minimum at least, though.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Well, first, they should present the bare minimum version they are offering if the KS hits its goal. That's not too much to ask, I hope. Second, presenting the entire system, including things they hope to include with extra funding, is about presenting their vision and might actually get people excited enough to pledge and spread the word.

 

[Dorateen]

The developers have been communicating a lot of info today. In regard to exploration:

We always enjoyed the wandering of the strat map in some of the Gold Box games. Making exploration as interesting and valuable as possible is one of our tenets. I should have a brief video of the strategic map soon, that will touch on just a few of the items we have planned for it. Discovering hidden locations should not only be interesting, but useful for the time committed. Probably add some text update with it as well going into more detail.

 

[Dorateen]

More information on the Specialties, one of the modifiers selected at character creation. Or as Shelley puts it, one of the containers for skills and abilities that will be accumulated later.

deadly, tactical, fast, priestly, defensive, tough, rogue, noble, and 7 for each magical element (Fire, Winter, Nature, Necromancy, Earth, Storm and Dabbler/General)

 

[Zombra]

From a PM from David Klein:

Don't worry, we won't be adding in-game exclusive items as tiers, and will be looking at what else we can provide Backers. We simply don't want the list of tiers to get too confusing.

 

[Dorateen]

1,500 backers and 73k in 5 days.

Lots more work to be done.

 

[DeepOcean]

Hmmm... I loved their discription of the raid on the village and the many options you had with consequences while dealing with a problem, much better than a "kid is drowning" supposed C&C Wasteland 2 has but they should have communicated that stuff on the pitch or on the main page not when there are only 20 or so days to finish their campaign. Man, it frustrates me when developers with the right mind set but fail for stupid things like not communicating well. It isn't this is 2012, there are two years of kickstarter at this point.