Grimwulf
Arcane
Help me out, Codex. I'm looking for something very specific right now.
Do you know that feeling, when you just begin to make first steps in random fantasy rpg world, count yer coins, try to save healing potions for later, curse those unbelivable market prices? Then one hour later you turn into uber-rich wizard in full plate enchanted armor, overloaded with loot and ready to face anything. And then midgame begins.
Well, I'm pretty sick of that shit. Give me some starving experience for a change. I want to feel myself in need - that makes my brain work, and micromanagment becomes FUN, not just tedious. All those RPGs I play lately are faceroll sims. Maybe some examples would speak better for me:
1. Wasteland 2, until midgame (somewhere near Damonta the magic is lost). Ok, so this one needs to be played on max difficulty and without savescumming in order to Grab Dat Feel. But those "home rules" are so natural for me that I don't even consider them home rules. This game got it right in every aspect. You have to count your bullets, medicine, scrap (money) and explosives. It really made me feel like Mel fucking Gibson in "Mad Max", coz I never had enough. If I get lucky and find a shitton of resources, I burn them pretty fast on high-level mobs, like 500+ hp robots or just roll into more dangerous optional locations. If I try to grind, I will slowly lose my savings (either bullets or medkits), because usually loot from random encounters isn't worth the effort, making profitable grinding almost impossible (or at least hard to figure out). It becomes more or less easy, once you get the idea and dive into some metagaming, but first blind playthrough is something to remember.
2. Brytenwalda, mod for M&B: Warband (of course, you have to play in "no-saves" mode). This one is masterpiece in terms of harsh environment. You want a sword? A chainmail? A HORSE? Well, fuck you - those are extremely rare and expensive, and you can lose them any moment. If you lose a battle and find yourself imprisoned, say goodbye to some of yer equipment. Your horse can get crippled (=useless if not healed, which takes a lot of time) and/or die too. But the main thing is the army. I can't begin to describe the costs of upgrading your troops to elites, and arming them with swords, armor and horses. Not only it's expensive to equip them, but to maintain them too. Your troops need to be paid, to eat, to rest and to feast. Larger armies demand more of that stuff, and there is little time left for actual fighting and looting (besides, the larger your army, the lesser your personal share of loot). Constant balancing with quality/quantity and managing your money/food/time is hard as fuck, and it never gets easy. Every mistake is punishing. No faceroll for you.
3. Strife, until obtaining heavy weaponry. Good old FPS/RPG creates a very immersive rebel experience. You don't get nearly enough ammunition to go around gunz blazin', and have to make it careful and plan your shopping ahead. Besides, first weapons you get (knife, crossbow, gun) suck so bad, adding to "underpowered" feeling. Playing a game based on Doom engine, and acting careful/stealthy/avoiding stuff - that's just mindbreaking for me. Good old Strife.
Maybe I'll remember some more later on, but meanwhile some examples of not-exactly-bullseye.
1. Survival Horror games. I love early Resident Evil games (1, 2 and 3, to be exact), for you constantly feel like "God fucking DAMMIT, I've got 14 handgun bullets, 2 shotgun shells, and my last green herb mix. Besides, I'm wounded and limping. This way zombies, that way dogs, and there's gonna be boss encounter soon. I'm so fucked right now". There is somewhat similiar stuff in other games of the genre, like Silent Hill, Call of Chtulhu, Nocturne and whatnot. But I want a full-time RPG, with more or less freedom of actions, freedom of choices, etc.
2. Any Fallout game. I think that being inspired by "Mad Max", they actually wanted to make Fallout a "scarce resource" experience. But every time they failed miserably. Fallout 1, 2, 3, NV and even Fallout: Tactics - they all make you feel fucking ABUNDANT. You just don't know what to do with all that ammo and meds and explosives and moneh. The merchants don't help either. "Everything you desire for nearly-giveaway prices". I guess I can mod the fuck out of NV, but it won't make it interesting for me either way.
3. Roguelikes. Any roguelike is either WAY too generous (Project Zomboid, URW, Elona) or total random (DC: Stone Soup, ADOM, Nethack). Do not want.
4. S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Witcher, Borderlands, etc. These games make you spend a LOT of time in your inventory screen, be it scavenging in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., alchemy-thingie in Withcer or gunporn in Borderlands. You don't actually NEED anything - you always got plenty and even more, but you still have to spend lots of time browsing thorugh your stuff. Not what I'm looking for.
Well, that's basically it. I'm also looking for something that's hard in vanilla (or in vanilla+mods), without making a shittion of home rules. I'm tired of home rules. "Aha, my first dungeon! Giant sewers, how fucking original! Take that, bat! Take that, rat! What's this? Rat has dropped Adamantinum Halberd of Awor +4? Err, I err never saw that. Yeah. Skip it. "No +2 weapons and above in first dungeon" rule. So, I continiue on and see my first chest. Open! What? 831 full healing potions? Hmm, good thing I got "no more than 2 potions on me" rule. Gods. So hard not to faceroll".
I'm comfy with playing without savescumming, it's not a "home rule" in my book. But as for other - I'm too old for this shit.
Any suggestions?
Do you know that feeling, when you just begin to make first steps in random fantasy rpg world, count yer coins, try to save healing potions for later, curse those unbelivable market prices? Then one hour later you turn into uber-rich wizard in full plate enchanted armor, overloaded with loot and ready to face anything. And then midgame begins.
Well, I'm pretty sick of that shit. Give me some starving experience for a change. I want to feel myself in need - that makes my brain work, and micromanagment becomes FUN, not just tedious. All those RPGs I play lately are faceroll sims. Maybe some examples would speak better for me:
1. Wasteland 2, until midgame (somewhere near Damonta the magic is lost). Ok, so this one needs to be played on max difficulty and without savescumming in order to Grab Dat Feel. But those "home rules" are so natural for me that I don't even consider them home rules. This game got it right in every aspect. You have to count your bullets, medicine, scrap (money) and explosives. It really made me feel like Mel fucking Gibson in "Mad Max", coz I never had enough. If I get lucky and find a shitton of resources, I burn them pretty fast on high-level mobs, like 500+ hp robots or just roll into more dangerous optional locations. If I try to grind, I will slowly lose my savings (either bullets or medkits), because usually loot from random encounters isn't worth the effort, making profitable grinding almost impossible (or at least hard to figure out). It becomes more or less easy, once you get the idea and dive into some metagaming, but first blind playthrough is something to remember.
2. Brytenwalda, mod for M&B: Warband (of course, you have to play in "no-saves" mode). This one is masterpiece in terms of harsh environment. You want a sword? A chainmail? A HORSE? Well, fuck you - those are extremely rare and expensive, and you can lose them any moment. If you lose a battle and find yourself imprisoned, say goodbye to some of yer equipment. Your horse can get crippled (=useless if not healed, which takes a lot of time) and/or die too. But the main thing is the army. I can't begin to describe the costs of upgrading your troops to elites, and arming them with swords, armor and horses. Not only it's expensive to equip them, but to maintain them too. Your troops need to be paid, to eat, to rest and to feast. Larger armies demand more of that stuff, and there is little time left for actual fighting and looting (besides, the larger your army, the lesser your personal share of loot). Constant balancing with quality/quantity and managing your money/food/time is hard as fuck, and it never gets easy. Every mistake is punishing. No faceroll for you.
3. Strife, until obtaining heavy weaponry. Good old FPS/RPG creates a very immersive rebel experience. You don't get nearly enough ammunition to go around gunz blazin', and have to make it careful and plan your shopping ahead. Besides, first weapons you get (knife, crossbow, gun) suck so bad, adding to "underpowered" feeling. Playing a game based on Doom engine, and acting careful/stealthy/avoiding stuff - that's just mindbreaking for me. Good old Strife.
Maybe I'll remember some more later on, but meanwhile some examples of not-exactly-bullseye.
1. Survival Horror games. I love early Resident Evil games (1, 2 and 3, to be exact), for you constantly feel like "God fucking DAMMIT, I've got 14 handgun bullets, 2 shotgun shells, and my last green herb mix. Besides, I'm wounded and limping. This way zombies, that way dogs, and there's gonna be boss encounter soon. I'm so fucked right now". There is somewhat similiar stuff in other games of the genre, like Silent Hill, Call of Chtulhu, Nocturne and whatnot. But I want a full-time RPG, with more or less freedom of actions, freedom of choices, etc.
2. Any Fallout game. I think that being inspired by "Mad Max", they actually wanted to make Fallout a "scarce resource" experience. But every time they failed miserably. Fallout 1, 2, 3, NV and even Fallout: Tactics - they all make you feel fucking ABUNDANT. You just don't know what to do with all that ammo and meds and explosives and moneh. The merchants don't help either. "Everything you desire for nearly-giveaway prices". I guess I can mod the fuck out of NV, but it won't make it interesting for me either way.
3. Roguelikes. Any roguelike is either WAY too generous (Project Zomboid, URW, Elona) or total random (DC: Stone Soup, ADOM, Nethack). Do not want.
4. S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Witcher, Borderlands, etc. These games make you spend a LOT of time in your inventory screen, be it scavenging in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., alchemy-thingie in Withcer or gunporn in Borderlands. You don't actually NEED anything - you always got plenty and even more, but you still have to spend lots of time browsing thorugh your stuff. Not what I'm looking for.
Well, that's basically it. I'm also looking for something that's hard in vanilla (or in vanilla+mods), without making a shittion of home rules. I'm tired of home rules. "Aha, my first dungeon! Giant sewers, how fucking original! Take that, bat! Take that, rat! What's this? Rat has dropped Adamantinum Halberd of Awor +4? Err, I err never saw that. Yeah. Skip it. "No +2 weapons and above in first dungeon" rule. So, I continiue on and see my first chest. Open! What? 831 full healing potions? Hmm, good thing I got "no more than 2 potions on me" rule. Gods. So hard not to faceroll".
I'm comfy with playing without savescumming, it's not a "home rule" in my book. But as for other - I'm too old for this shit.
Any suggestions?