Kappawe stayed bright as lightningwe sang loud as thunderRegistered Userregular
So I'm in my third run of Veilguard now and I just finished off Hauntings, a relatively minor sidequest chain tied to the Necropolis. I was not expecting that last boss
Tis the season!
+3
CornerEagleMagic Man by HeartCopenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
Me: "I think we can bump 'Hair Quality' from Low to Medium."
Indiana Jones: "YOU FOOL! THERE IS NOT ENOUGH RAM IN THE WORLD FOR THIS TO HAPPEN!"
Chrome: *wiping away a small tear* "I'm just... so proud."
I like the indy game, but the melee weapon system is sooooo clunky. It's crazy to me that there's just not a "improvised weapon pocket" that you can slot something in.
It doesn't need to be multiple, just one! Literally let me unlock a door without dropping this wrench/guitar/rake.
It's also weird to me that every action that isn't "pick up money/health" has two parts to it that have different button presses. From a player perspective, it's needlessly clunky?????
I like the indy game, but the melee weapon system is sooooo clunky. It's crazy to me that there's just not a "improvised weapon pocket" that you can slot something in.
It doesn't need to be multiple, just one! Literally let me unlock a door without dropping this wrench/guitar/rake.
It's also weird to me that every action that isn't "pick up money/health" has two parts to it that have different button presses. From a player perspective, it's needlessly clunky?????
I can understand not liking this, but I kind of love it
for me it’s kind of similar to the red dead redemption v assassins creed styles of gameplay/animation tactile feedback design choices discourse. By which I mean for example in red dead you press a button and there’s often a long, elaborate animation. This can sometimes feel clunky or slow to some people. whereas in assassins creed you usually press a button and you kind of warp to the end goal of the button press, like teleport onto a horse. This can feel cheap or janky to some people.
There’s a sliding scale of in-between sweet spots in this kind of area that changes from person to person and it depends on what people want from the game, what the developer intends, whether it works overall etc
I feel like with Indy it’s a similar thing. They want you to kind of feel immersed by picking things up, they want to encourage picking up objects in the moment rather than carrying them with you, etc.
Whether that works will likely come down to personal preferences, tastes, whether players think the implementation isn’t subtle enough, etc
Lego Fortnite Brick Life, which launches on December 12, is an open-world social sim in which you and 31 of your closest friends can hang out in Brick Bay, a lively Lego City that's full of activities, jobs, and empty lots you can build on, and Brick Bay will be expanding all the time. For example, December 18 will mark the opening of the Rooftop Club, a fancy social space that provides stunning views of the city from above. The launch of Brick Life happens to coincide with the addition of text chat to every Fortnite experience, which will be key for a social sim like this one.
Said Minecraft-clone is getting renamed 'Lego Fortnite Odyssey' by the way, with an update being added around the same time as Brick Life to add a villain called the Storm King, with players having to go through 'Storm Dungeons' to stop random storms that'll start appearing on the map.
OFFLINE MODE We’ve talked before about an Offline mode coming to the game, and we’re pleased to make this option available as part of the Season 4 Episode 7 release on December 10. Offline mode will allow you to experience content released for the game, including the main story campaign and all seasonal story mission content, without an internet connection. To access Offline mode, you can either create a new profile by starting from the beginning of the game or create a copy of your existing Online profile, allowing you to jump in with all of your progress. All earned and purchased cosmetics will also be available in Offline mode. For more details, check out our Offline mode FAQ.
DEATHSTROKE
Though few who meet him live to talk about it, you might recognize the newest playable character: Deathstroke, available December 10 when Season 4 Episode 7 releases. Also known as Slade Wilson, Deathstroke is a cold-blooded mercenary and one the world’s deadliest assassins. As a tactical genius armed with unparalleled swordsmanship, and a few extra toys thanks to a deal with A.R.G.U.S., Deathstroke is a one-man-army with a single objective: put an end to Brainiac’s invasion once and for all.
FINAL SEASON
With Deathstroke joining the roster, the Suicide Squad’s crusade against Brainiac is drawing to an end. Season 4 will finish up with Episode 8, which is scheduled to release in January 2025, and that will serve as the last seasonal Episode for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. While Season 4 Episode 8 will mark the final battle against Brainiac, all online features will continue to be available, so you’ll still be able to enjoy co-op with friends, as well as all previous seasonal/episodic content. You’ll also have the option to play the game via the new Offline mode, which allows access to the main story campaign and all post-launch seasonal gameplay content without an internet connection. For more details, visit our Season 4 FAQ.
WILL THE GAME BE AVAILABLE TO PLAY IN OFFLINE MODE IF ONLINE SERVER SUPPORT IS DISCONTINUED?
We do not have plans to end online server support for the game at this time. However, as long as players update to a version of the game with Offline mode, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is playable in Offline mode without an online connection to game servers.
Mechabellum continues to be extremely delightful. I'm starting to get into like considering different movement speeds so that my little crawler swarms hit the frontlines in time to aggro enemy snipers but also screen mine from single-target attackers. I like that there's a bit of reactive tactics stuff going on but it's almost like playing an RTS tech tree.
OFFLINE MODE We’ve talked before about an Offline mode coming to the game, and we’re pleased to make this option available as part of the Season 4 Episode 7 release on December 10. Offline mode will allow you to experience content released for the game, including the main story campaign and all seasonal story mission content, without an internet connection. To access Offline mode, you can either create a new profile by starting from the beginning of the game or create a copy of your existing Online profile, allowing you to jump in with all of your progress. All earned and purchased cosmetics will also be available in Offline mode. For more details, check out our Offline mode FAQ.
DEATHSTROKE
Though few who meet him live to talk about it, you might recognize the newest playable character: Deathstroke, available December 10 when Season 4 Episode 7 releases. Also known as Slade Wilson, Deathstroke is a cold-blooded mercenary and one the world’s deadliest assassins. As a tactical genius armed with unparalleled swordsmanship, and a few extra toys thanks to a deal with A.R.G.U.S., Deathstroke is a one-man-army with a single objective: put an end to Brainiac’s invasion once and for all.
FINAL SEASON
With Deathstroke joining the roster, the Suicide Squad’s crusade against Brainiac is drawing to an end. Season 4 will finish up with Episode 8, which is scheduled to release in January 2025, and that will serve as the last seasonal Episode for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. While Season 4 Episode 8 will mark the final battle against Brainiac, all online features will continue to be available, so you’ll still be able to enjoy co-op with friends, as well as all previous seasonal/episodic content. You’ll also have the option to play the game via the new Offline mode, which allows access to the main story campaign and all post-launch seasonal gameplay content without an internet connection. For more details, visit our Season 4 FAQ.
WILL THE GAME BE AVAILABLE TO PLAY IN OFFLINE MODE IF ONLINE SERVER SUPPORT IS DISCONTINUED?
We do not have plans to end online server support for the game at this time. However, as long as players update to a version of the game with Offline mode, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is playable in Offline mode without an online connection to game servers.
probably the best version of how this could go down
It had such an unsatisfying and rushed ending, commensurate with it all being about making an "endgame". But there was a lot to like about it, aside from the gaas bs and lack of enemy variety
It was cool seeing superman done in a modern video game (evil superman, but still, and aside from the injustice games)
Makes me wish there was a superman game on the horizon. Supposedly theres a wonderwoman one so thats cool
OFFLINE MODE We’ve talked before about an Offline mode coming to the game, and we’re pleased to make this option available as part of the Season 4 Episode 7 release on December 10. Offline mode will allow you to experience content released for the game, including the main story campaign and all seasonal story mission content, without an internet connection. To access Offline mode, you can either create a new profile by starting from the beginning of the game or create a copy of your existing Online profile, allowing you to jump in with all of your progress. All earned and purchased cosmetics will also be available in Offline mode. For more details, check out our Offline mode FAQ.
DEATHSTROKE
Though few who meet him live to talk about it, you might recognize the newest playable character: Deathstroke, available December 10 when Season 4 Episode 7 releases. Also known as Slade Wilson, Deathstroke is a cold-blooded mercenary and one the world’s deadliest assassins. As a tactical genius armed with unparalleled swordsmanship, and a few extra toys thanks to a deal with A.R.G.U.S., Deathstroke is a one-man-army with a single objective: put an end to Brainiac’s invasion once and for all.
FINAL SEASON
With Deathstroke joining the roster, the Suicide Squad’s crusade against Brainiac is drawing to an end. Season 4 will finish up with Episode 8, which is scheduled to release in January 2025, and that will serve as the last seasonal Episode for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. While Season 4 Episode 8 will mark the final battle against Brainiac, all online features will continue to be available, so you’ll still be able to enjoy co-op with friends, as well as all previous seasonal/episodic content. You’ll also have the option to play the game via the new Offline mode, which allows access to the main story campaign and all post-launch seasonal gameplay content without an internet connection. For more details, visit our Season 4 FAQ.
WILL THE GAME BE AVAILABLE TO PLAY IN OFFLINE MODE IF ONLINE SERVER SUPPORT IS DISCONTINUED?
We do not have plans to end online server support for the game at this time. However, as long as players update to a version of the game with Offline mode, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is playable in Offline mode without an online connection to game servers.
probably the best version of how this could go down
It had such an unsatisfying and rushed ending, commensurate with it all being about making an "endgame". But there was a lot to like about it, aside from the gaas bs and lack of enemy variety
It was cool seeing superman done in a modern video game (evil superman, but still, and aside from the injustice games)
Makes me wish there was a superman game on the horizon. Supposedly theres a wonderwoman one so thats cool
It's hot bullshit that the Nemesis system was allowed to be copyrighted.
I can't even start to imagine all the incredible ways it could have been innovated and iterated upon since its inception, lest I get too heated to be able to go to bed.
I feel like while its a dick move and probably does have a dampening effect, theres nothing really stopping other companies from coming up with similar systems with enough changes. Plenty of game design elements are ostensibly copyrighted in theory but not in a way that really prevents other companies from doing similar things if they really want to. And plenty of companies do
I think the main barrier is that while its called a 'system', in order to actually make a nemesis system its fundamentally a lot of hand crafted custom work from an art and asset perspective. In reality what made it fun in the mordor series was all the custom and bespoke dialogue, abilities, traits and orc designs. Plenty of games have had similar systems, ie basically randomly generated bad guys with traits that hunt you down and gain traits after encountering you, xcom war of the chosen (admittedly before the copyright), assassins creed odysseys mercenary system, plenty of others, its basically just randomised enemies that change traits in response to player actions. Theres plenty of examples of games with basically the nemesis system in everything but name, they just arent as in depth or fleshed out as mordor was
like dont get me wrong its bullshit, and i can definitely imagine its could be something that certain companies are wary of, but honestly the reason we havent seen a tonne of nemesis system stuff in games is it requires a shitload of work and while the mordor series did ok, it didnt explode the market enough for companies to take notice
For instance while the rockstar euphoria physics engine is copyrighted/patented, theres no reason other companies shouldnt have also been implementing similar physics based animation systems to the same degree, given how insanely impressive it is and how much better it renders npc animations and physics than everything else on the market. But the reality is the euphoria physics engine requires an insane amount of money and time to get working right, because a big chunk of what makes it work is its custom animations, not just an automated system that you can turn on
Like the euphoria physics engine is an insanely superior engine to every other similar open world style game (like discounting personal taste, the way animations and physics interact in red dead 2 has no peer in terms of complexity and depth), and yet its not because rockstar owns it that we dont get similar systems being developed by other studios, its because other studios just dont have the money and time to invest in making a similar system work, when they can just stitch together existing physics simulations or customise one thats not as deep but good enough
definitely not saying the copyright isnt a part of it, but its a small part compared to the reality that some systems are just harder to copy than others, and as cool as the nemesis system is it didnt light the industry on fire enough for other developers to make comparable investments with their own games
Like behind the scenes the devs basically spent 90% of the mordor series development time on fleshing that system out. Its not as simple as like a spreadsheet plug and play, it requires actual bespoke effort on creating all those variants to a level of quality that would make it worth it, and most studios would just rather have 5 enemy types with a few variations than the thousands of pieces of custom art and dialogue mordor had. Basically for me the most impressive thing about the nemesis system wasnt the system itself, it was the enemy variation. And theres nothing stopping other developers from making the same amount of variation in their enemies, design wise, even if the system itself was untouchable, but they largely just dont, or if they do they make a level of asset variance in their enemies that the mordor series dwarfes
I feel like while its a dick move and probably does have a dampening effect, theres nothing really stopping other companies from coming up with similar systems with enough changes. Plenty of game design elements are ostensibly copyrighted in theory but not in a way that really prevents other companies from doing similar things if they really want to. And plenty of companies do
I think the main barrier is that while its called a 'system', in order to actually make a nemesis system its fundamentally a lot of hand crafted custom work from an art and asset perspective. In reality what made it fun in the mordor series was all the custom and bespoke dialogue, abilities, traits and orc designs. Plenty of games have had similar systems, ie basically randomly generated bad guys with traits that hunt you down and gain traits after encountering you, xcom war of the chosen (admittedly before the copyright), assassins creed odysseys mercenary system, plenty of others, its basically just randomised enemies that change traits in response to player actions. Theres plenty of examples of games with basically the nemesis system in everything but name, they just arent as in depth or fleshed out as mordor was
like dont get me wrong its bullshit, and i can definitely imagine its could be something that certain companies are wary of, but honestly the reason we havent seen a tonne of nemesis system stuff in games is it requires a shitload of work and while the mordor series did ok, it didnt explode the market enough for companies to take notice
For instance while the rockstar euphoria physics engine is copyrighted, theres no reason other companies havent been implementing similar physics based animation systems to the same degree, given how insanely impressive it is and how much better it renders npc animations and physics than everything else on the market. But the reality is the euphoria physics engine requires an insane amount of money and time to get working right, because a big chunk of what makes it work is its custom animations, not just an automated system that you can turn on
Like the euphoria physics engine is an insanely superior engine to every other similar open world style game (like discounting personal taste, the way animations and physics interact in read dead 2 has no peer in terms of complexity and depth), and yet its not because rockstar owns it that we dont get similar systems being developed by other studios, its because other studios just dont have the money and time to invest in making a similar system work, when they can just stitch together existing physics simulations or customise one thats not as deep but good enough
definitely not saying the copyright isnt a part of it, but its a small part compared to the reality that some systems are just harder to copy than others, and as cool as the nemesis system is it didnt light the industry on fire enough for other developers to make comparable investments with their own games
Like behind the scenes the devs basically spent 90% of the mordor series development time on fleshing that system out. Its not as simple as like a spreadsheet plug and play, it requires actual bespoke effort on creating all those variants to a level of quality that would make it worth it, and most studios would just rather have 5 enemy types with a few variations than the thousands of pieces of custom art and dialogue mordor had. Basically for me the most impressive thing about the nemesis system wasnt the system itself, it was the enemy variation. And theres nothing stopping other developers from making the same amount of variation in their enemies, design wise, even if the system itself was untouchable, but they largely just dont, or if they do they make a level of asset variance in their enemies that the mordor series dwarfes
Yeah, there is a reason that the only information about Wonder Woman is that it has The Nemesis System, it's such a massive investment of resources you basically have to build your entire gameplay loop around it; We Have The Nemesis System is the entire game. Almost any lesser system (e.g. the Assassination targets in AC: Odyssey) probably isn't even remotely under the scope of the patent.
Wonder Woman is such a weird choice for that. She's not exactly known for her rogues gallery, outside of greek mythology.
Like a Batman game witht he nemesis system almost writes itself.
The Nemesis system isn't for specific predefined enemies, it's for making otherwise generic elites into unique enemies, that works fine for WW, and arguably her whole Lasso of Truth thing is better suited for the other aspects of the patent where you can use those enemies in the grander strategy aspects of the game and where there's a hierarchy of all the random elites that adjusts as you defeat or forcibly recruit them.
to be honest, i don't think people would care as much about the nemesis system if it weren't for the patent
It's reviewer bait that reminds me of the story about some space-themed 4X I can't recall the name of that generated a bunch of hype for its AI because on lower difficulties it would have the other civs send a message like "I see you amassing an army on our borders. Know that on a higher difficulty, we would prepare for your obvious warmongering" to fake good AI for reviewers; the only actual AI change was not sending the message (and cheating in resources)
Yeah at this point the Nemesis System just seems to me like an extremely successful ad campaign. And it's very visible in-game because it zooms in on the guy and yells his name. But like, when it's like "you killed this guy with arrows, now he's immune to arrows!" it's like, okay, I don't know what needs the Nemesis system for that. Like MGSV just a year later was having guards upgrade their kit if you left dudes laying around that made it clear how you fucked them up. I just don't think there's really any meat on the bone other than what we got in the two Mordor games - and the second one is already a game that people keep forgetting came out.
Now don't get me wrong though, I totally understand going "I don't care if the toy is innovated on or whatever, I just liked the toy." Goddamn a million games out there that are like "Look we know this is just simple comfort food, here's another serving of it." But like if we're talking about innovations in it, again, I suspect you've pretty much seen what it can do at this point. And also just, you know. In 2024, I have some wariness towards systems that position themselves as a source of potentially infinite generated Content
Wonder Woman is such a weird choice for that. She's not exactly known for her rogues gallery, outside of greek mythology.
Like a Batman game witht he nemesis system almost writes itself.
My guess is she’ll be able to use the lasso of truth to like free people from domination or control by some bad guy, or something. There’s a million ways it could be done based on the comics. My guess would be factions of mystical ancient Greeks like the amazonians or atlanteans fighting on behalf of one of the Greek pantheon villains
It’s not the perfect fit but I can easily imagine lots of ideas working. The perfect fit of course being an aliens vs predator game with 3 factions you can play as, predators level up through hunting, winning trophies, humans gain tech and experience specialisations, and aliens absorb dna and make variants based on what they can haul back to the nest
Out of licensed games, WW makes more sense with that system than Mordor. Mordor had to invent a bunch of new (stupid) lore to make any of it hang together, all that stuff pretty much exists from Wonder Woman already. You kill a guy? Well, maybe Hades wants to stick it to Wonder Woman, so he brings that guy back, and empowers him. You use the Lasso to force a guy to stand down? Okay, the bad guys conditioned him with Doctor Psycho, next time he'll be resistant to that, etc.
My idea for a nemesis system game would be after the robot uprising, you play an android intelligence dead set on toppling the network and deleting the fucker that blew up your city and made you a liar to all the people you promised mercy to
My idea for a nemesis system game would be after the robot uprising, you play an android intelligence dead set on toppling the network and deleting the fucker that blew up your city and made you a liar to all the people you promised mercy to
I’ve always liked the idea of like a Skynet apocalypse, but after the nukes hit the intelligence keeps learning exponentially and essentially has a second kind of “self aware” moment and there’s a schism as skynet turns into multiple competing intelligences with different ideas about what to do, some spanning entire networks, some stuck in single terminator-like units
it would be a very serious level of cosmic horror to have these armies stop at your doorstep and put the war on hold to have a debate
followed by a very immediate civil war
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
edited December 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQWudt4CSHk
Stave off waves of enemies that grow in strength and number as each night passes and defend the Tree of Life. Survive, harvest resources, craft armor and weapons, outfit helper NPCs, and build a base protected by auto-firing towers. Explore the island to find gear with the power of the Celtic Gods. 20241210 Morrigan's Isle (Early Access RPG Action Adventure 3D)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR0Q7MpyRB4
Crafted by a solo developer, VOIN is a first-person hack-and-slash. Cleave through hordes of enemies in fast-paced combat. Explore dark fantasy realms filled with secrets and dangers. Discover powerful gear and weapons, and face menacing bosses in your quest to cleanse a broken world. 20241210 VOIN (Early Access Action RPG Action Roguelike )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohG3bEmbyWg
In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, the team faces off against a robotic reincarnation of the Power Rangers' long-time nemesis. Robo Rita has conjured a portal to send herself back in time so she can finally vanquish the Power Rangers by forming an alliance with her younger self. 20241210 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind (Beat 'em up Action Arcade Pixel Graphics 2D )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ4CLsPA31g
BALLIONAIRE is a fast-paced, kinetic roguelike where strategy meets physics to create outrageous wealth! Find and exploit game-breaking synergies as you theorycraft your way to victory. Welcome to the autobonker genre! 20241210 Ballionaire (Casual Singleplayer Roguelike Turn-Based )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moF1eTpE6Lg
The next major game in the Planetary Annihilation universe, Industrial Annihilation combines the iconic real-time strategy of the beloved Annihilation games with deep factory-building to deliver a blend of genres unlike any you’ve experienced before. 20241210 Industrial Annihilation (Strategy RTS Wargame 3D Futuristic )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EioCEsGPHj8
Astrometica is a space exploration and base-building survival game. After a catastrophic event, explore vast space, gather resources, build bases, and uncover cosmic mysteries. Use advanced technology, craft tools, and discover new blueprints to survive and thrive in the unknown 20241210 Astrometica (Space Sim First-Person Adventure Open World )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpKy31RzDBA
Experience the epic conflict of Kain and Raziel in original form or with remastered graphics. 20241210 Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered (Action Adventure Dark Fantasy Third Person)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P79QlVL0fHg
It all started with a simple robbery. When that thread was pulled, a tapestry of mysteries was revealed. Solve cases and outsmart criminals in a detective story full of lies, confessions, and maybe even a murder or two. 20241209 Paper Perjury (Detective Visual Novel Female Protagonist 2D)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXIXIiJj050
Wild Woods is a couch co-op game full of action, teamwork and woodland critters. One to four players take on the role of brave little cats defending their wooden wagon on its way through a dangerous forest. Clever cooperation is key - their way is full of obstacles! 20241209 Wild Woods (Early Access Co-op Action Roguelike Casual )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTWlAbXn33A
Boot up your 486 and launch olcst.exe for this retro fps from an alternate 1990's. Descend into the madness of the Spanish Civil War fighting vicious fascist forces and supernatural monsters. Conquer three action packed episodes wielding machine guns, rifles, flamethrowers and explosives. 20241209 Only Lead Can Stop Them (FPS Action Shooter First-Person Retro)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPM1GM7DWts
Stars in the Trash brings the magic of animated movie classics into a narrative-driven platformer that combines action, exploration and puzzles. Tired of feeling trapped at home, Moka, a spoiled cat decides to run away and seek adventure. Explore, make friends, fight, and escape from the kennelman. 20241209 Stars In The Trash (Adventure Atmospheric Cute Hand-drawn 2D )
I decided to finally boot up that King Arthur strategy game and this is great! Basic strategy gameplay so far, moving your little knights and using abilities.
It is immediately after Arthur's fall and you play as Mordred, resurrected by the Lady of the Lake, and tasked to go find Arthur, who's body is missing.
Looks like you get to rebuild Camelot and customize your knights too. There's also a two axis morality system of benevolence versus tyrant and following the old gods or Christianity.
Everyone acting like it's just another day when they run into Mordred, who was dead two days ago, is great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpKy31RzDBA
Experience the epic conflict of Kain and Raziel in original form or with remastered graphics. 20241210 Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered (Action Adventure Dark Fantasy Third Person)
Huh, having her on the splash art makes me hopeful for more of her story
0
BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
to be honest, i don't think people would care as much about the nemesis system if it weren't for the patent
It's reviewer bait that reminds me of the story about some space-themed 4X I can't recall the name of that generated a bunch of hype for its AI because on lower difficulties it would have the other civs send a message like "I see you amassing an army on our borders. Know that on a higher difficulty, we would prepare for your obvious warmongering" to fake good AI for reviewers; the only actual AI change was not sending the message (and cheating in resources)
most perceptions of "advanced AI" in gaming is simply scripting in some communication where the computer tells the player what it's about to do
"Flank him!" suddenly it seems like the bots aren't running around randomly and spawning out of nowhere to jumpscare the player, they're strategizing and dynamically ambushing the player using tactics
Yeah at this point the Nemesis System just seems to me like an extremely successful ad campaign. And it's very visible in-game because it zooms in on the guy and yells his name. But like, when it's like "you killed this guy with arrows, now he's immune to arrows!" it's like, okay, I don't know what needs the Nemesis system for that. Like MGSV just a year later was having guards upgrade their kit if you left dudes laying around that made it clear how you fucked them up. I just don't think there's really any meat on the bone other than what we got in the two Mordor games - and the second one is already a game that people keep forgetting came out.
Now don't get me wrong though, I totally understand going "I don't care if the toy is innovated on or whatever, I just liked the toy." Goddamn a million games out there that are like "Look we know this is just simple comfort food, here's another serving of it." But like if we're talking about innovations in it, again, I suspect you've pretty much seen what it can do at this point. And also just, you know. In 2024, I have some wariness towards systems that position themselves as a source of potentially infinite generated Content
Yeah, that last bit is something I was also thinking about; the big pitch of the Nemesis system is having an incredibly broad base of content so that everybody could have a unique interaction tailored to their playthrough, and like Brolo just said, the game was really obvious about it to help give that dopamine hit of "the game recognized what I did, that's awesome!" But even with the game being fully designed around it, it still winds up being very shallow; the Nemesis subsystems all interact with each other in a very player-facing way to show things are happening, but none of that really matters for the rest of the game. It kind of created what a functional AI generated open-world game would look like by brute human force.
I decided to finally boot up that King Arthur strategy game and this is great! Basic strategy gameplay so far, moving your little knights and using abilities.
It is immediately after Arthur's fall and you play as Mordred, resurrected by the Lady of the Lake, and tasked to go find Arthur, who's body is missing.
Looks like you get to rebuild Camelot and customize your knights too. There's also a two axis morality system of benevolence versus tyrant and following the old gods or Christianity.
Everyone acting like it's just another day when they run into Mordred, who was dead two days ago, is great.
I decided to finally boot up that King Arthur strategy game and this is great! Basic strategy gameplay so far, moving your little knights and using abilities.
It is immediately after Arthur's fall and you play as Mordred, resurrected by the Lady of the Lake, and tasked to go find Arthur, who's body is missing.
Looks like you get to rebuild Camelot and customize your knights too. There's also a two axis morality system of benevolence versus tyrant and following the old gods or Christianity.
Everyone acting like it's just another day when they run into Mordred, who was dead two days ago, is great.
Posts
...
<*clears throat*>
There once was a whip in the Holy See
The man with the whip was called Indy
The guitar rose up
the goon went down
Blow my Indy boy, blow
Soon will the Archeologist come
The relics belong in a museum
One day when the Nazis are done
We'll take our hat and go
I don't know 31 people I could stand to spend an hour with.
I can't imagine anyone actually being serious when they say that. Nobody in the history of ever had 31 close friends.
Even Jesus only had 13, and one of them was a dick.
Tis the season!
Indiana Jones: "YOU FOOL! THERE IS NOT ENOUGH RAM IN THE WORLD FOR THIS TO HAPPEN!"
Chrome: *wiping away a small tear* "I'm just... so proud."
It doesn't need to be multiple, just one! Literally let me unlock a door without dropping this wrench/guitar/rake.
It's also weird to me that every action that isn't "pick up money/health" has two parts to it that have different button presses. From a player perspective, it's needlessly clunky?????
I can understand not liking this, but I kind of love it
for me it’s kind of similar to the red dead redemption v assassins creed styles of gameplay/animation tactile feedback design choices discourse. By which I mean for example in red dead you press a button and there’s often a long, elaborate animation. This can sometimes feel clunky or slow to some people. whereas in assassins creed you usually press a button and you kind of warp to the end goal of the button press, like teleport onto a horse. This can feel cheap or janky to some people.
There’s a sliding scale of in-between sweet spots in this kind of area that changes from person to person and it depends on what people want from the game, what the developer intends, whether it works overall etc
I feel like with Indy it’s a similar thing. They want you to kind of feel immersed by picking things up, they want to encourage picking up objects in the moment rather than carrying them with you, etc.
Whether that works will likely come down to personal preferences, tastes, whether players think the implementation isn’t subtle enough, etc
In fairness, I do have every single video on YouTube opened up in a tab.
"You put this RAM in me and I'm going to use it, goddammit."
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
heh neat, the Storm King was the main villain of Save The World, the old PvE tower defense part of Fortnite
https://www.suicidesquadgame.com/en-us/community/season-4-deep-dive
probably the best version of how this could go down
It had such an unsatisfying and rushed ending, commensurate with it all being about making an "endgame". But there was a lot to like about it, aside from the gaas bs and lack of enemy variety
It was cool seeing superman done in a modern video game (evil superman, but still, and aside from the injustice games)
Makes me wish there was a superman game on the horizon. Supposedly theres a wonderwoman one so thats cool
All we really know about it is that it's being made by Monolith (the team behind the Middle-earth games) and it will have the Nemesis system
I can't even start to imagine all the incredible ways it could have been innovated and iterated upon since its inception, lest I get too heated to be able to go to bed.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I think the main barrier is that while its called a 'system', in order to actually make a nemesis system its fundamentally a lot of hand crafted custom work from an art and asset perspective. In reality what made it fun in the mordor series was all the custom and bespoke dialogue, abilities, traits and orc designs. Plenty of games have had similar systems, ie basically randomly generated bad guys with traits that hunt you down and gain traits after encountering you, xcom war of the chosen (admittedly before the copyright), assassins creed odysseys mercenary system, plenty of others, its basically just randomised enemies that change traits in response to player actions. Theres plenty of examples of games with basically the nemesis system in everything but name, they just arent as in depth or fleshed out as mordor was
like dont get me wrong its bullshit, and i can definitely imagine its could be something that certain companies are wary of, but honestly the reason we havent seen a tonne of nemesis system stuff in games is it requires a shitload of work and while the mordor series did ok, it didnt explode the market enough for companies to take notice
For instance while the rockstar euphoria physics engine is copyrighted/patented, theres no reason other companies shouldnt have also been implementing similar physics based animation systems to the same degree, given how insanely impressive it is and how much better it renders npc animations and physics than everything else on the market. But the reality is the euphoria physics engine requires an insane amount of money and time to get working right, because a big chunk of what makes it work is its custom animations, not just an automated system that you can turn on
Like the euphoria physics engine is an insanely superior engine to every other similar open world style game (like discounting personal taste, the way animations and physics interact in red dead 2 has no peer in terms of complexity and depth), and yet its not because rockstar owns it that we dont get similar systems being developed by other studios, its because other studios just dont have the money and time to invest in making a similar system work, when they can just stitch together existing physics simulations or customise one thats not as deep but good enough
definitely not saying the copyright isnt a part of it, but its a small part compared to the reality that some systems are just harder to copy than others, and as cool as the nemesis system is it didnt light the industry on fire enough for other developers to make comparable investments with their own games
Like behind the scenes the devs basically spent 90% of the mordor series development time on fleshing that system out. Its not as simple as like a spreadsheet plug and play, it requires actual bespoke effort on creating all those variants to a level of quality that would make it worth it, and most studios would just rather have 5 enemy types with a few variations than the thousands of pieces of custom art and dialogue mordor had. Basically for me the most impressive thing about the nemesis system wasnt the system itself, it was the enemy variation. And theres nothing stopping other developers from making the same amount of variation in their enemies, design wise, even if the system itself was untouchable, but they largely just dont, or if they do they make a level of asset variance in their enemies that the mordor series dwarfes
It's still BS that such a system (or any gameplay element) could be patented until twenty-fucking-thirtysix.
IIRC, it finally expired, but we all have SSD's now so it's kind of too little, too late.
Yeah, there is a reason that the only information about Wonder Woman is that it has The Nemesis System, it's such a massive investment of resources you basically have to build your entire gameplay loop around it; We Have The Nemesis System is the entire game. Almost any lesser system (e.g. the Assassination targets in AC: Odyssey) probably isn't even remotely under the scope of the patent.
Like a Batman game witht he nemesis system almost writes itself.
The Nemesis system isn't for specific predefined enemies, it's for making otherwise generic elites into unique enemies, that works fine for WW, and arguably her whole Lasso of Truth thing is better suited for the other aspects of the patent where you can use those enemies in the grander strategy aspects of the game and where there's a hierarchy of all the random elites that adjusts as you defeat or forcibly recruit them.
It's reviewer bait that reminds me of the story about some space-themed 4X I can't recall the name of that generated a bunch of hype for its AI because on lower difficulties it would have the other civs send a message like "I see you amassing an army on our borders. Know that on a higher difficulty, we would prepare for your obvious warmongering" to fake good AI for reviewers; the only actual AI change was not sending the message (and cheating in resources)
Now don't get me wrong though, I totally understand going "I don't care if the toy is innovated on or whatever, I just liked the toy." Goddamn a million games out there that are like "Look we know this is just simple comfort food, here's another serving of it." But like if we're talking about innovations in it, again, I suspect you've pretty much seen what it can do at this point. And also just, you know. In 2024, I have some wariness towards systems that position themselves as a source of potentially infinite generated Content
My guess is she’ll be able to use the lasso of truth to like free people from domination or control by some bad guy, or something. There’s a million ways it could be done based on the comics. My guess would be factions of mystical ancient Greeks like the amazonians or atlanteans fighting on behalf of one of the Greek pantheon villains
It’s not the perfect fit but I can easily imagine lots of ideas working. The perfect fit of course being an aliens vs predator game with 3 factions you can play as, predators level up through hunting, winning trophies, humans gain tech and experience specialisations, and aliens absorb dna and make variants based on what they can haul back to the nest
I’ve always liked the idea of like a Skynet apocalypse, but after the nukes hit the intelligence keeps learning exponentially and essentially has a second kind of “self aware” moment and there’s a schism as skynet turns into multiple competing intelligences with different ideas about what to do, some spanning entire networks, some stuck in single terminator-like units
followed by a very immediate civil war
It is immediately after Arthur's fall and you play as Mordred, resurrected by the Lady of the Lake, and tasked to go find Arthur, who's body is missing.
Looks like you get to rebuild Camelot and customize your knights too. There's also a two axis morality system of benevolence versus tyrant and following the old gods or Christianity.
Everyone acting like it's just another day when they run into Mordred, who was dead two days ago, is great.
Huh, having her on the splash art makes me hopeful for more of her story
most perceptions of "advanced AI" in gaming is simply scripting in some communication where the computer tells the player what it's about to do
"Flank him!" suddenly it seems like the bots aren't running around randomly and spawning out of nowhere to jumpscare the player, they're strategizing and dynamically ambushing the player using tactics
Yeah, that last bit is something I was also thinking about; the big pitch of the Nemesis system is having an incredibly broad base of content so that everybody could have a unique interaction tailored to their playthrough, and like Brolo just said, the game was really obvious about it to help give that dopamine hit of "the game recognized what I did, that's awesome!" But even with the game being fully designed around it, it still winds up being very shallow; the Nemesis subsystems all interact with each other in a very player-facing way to show things are happening, but none of that really matters for the rest of the game. It kind of created what a functional AI generated open-world game would look like by brute human force.
What's this one called?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1157390/King_Arthur_Knights_Tale/
There's a sequel of sorts
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2739830/King_Arthur_Legion_IX/