Daemongar said:
Virtual Vice said:
I just wonder if it wouldn't be possible to have deep and consequential interaction with NPC's on all levels, and all of that being proper roleplaying and character development, without relying on assigning points to skills or stats, but gaining and losing points on a system separate from the core stats.
Well, the alignment system in PS:T and to a lesser extent NWN1&2 is similar to your approach. The shift in alignment as you made decisions (granting all rights and priveledges/detriment) made each play somewhat unique. However, they still had stats and xps you accrued.
I suppose the closest to a pure system based on character interaction and player actions? Uh, Deus Ex?
I mean something a little more developed than an alignment system, although an alignment system could be part of it. I was thinking of a more complex system that tracked a large number of different factors, and it would be tied to some form of stats or values ( visible by the player for the most part, although not too transparent) separate from the character's combat stats or "trade" skills. And removing the need or justification for skills like persuasion/speech or charisma etc.
It would have factions of course.
Town specific reputations ( like the ones already present in the fallouts and other games), something like an alignment ( or karma like in fallout) but with more implications ( it could for example be something that only affected interaction with particular characters), you could have a reaction rating for each NPC depending on all those different sorts of factors being tracked by the game system, alongside its particular like, dislike for another NPC or NPC's, your past dealings with him/her etc etc.
You could have different kinds of reputation ( like fame, infamy, status tied to titles or achievemnts, poor examples I know), and have these act as multipliers to other kinds of reputation etc.
And all of this integrated.
These are just examples and of course none of this is new at all, and im not bashing FO1/FO2 ( FO2 and Arcanum are my favorite pc rpgs), what I meant is by integrating all these different factors ( some already present in certain games in separate) in a single game I believe you could have a great system in terms of general roleplaying and choices and consequences without relying on somewhatimes illogical abstractions like a persuasion skill ( or anything of the sort), or an attribute like charisma and stats/skills along those lines.
Especially considering these kinds of stats when highly developed provided a simple bypass to many situations which could be made more interesting with more focus on the dialog itself and interactions with NPC's, factions etc etc.
Just my opinion.
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