I was very hyped when retrieving the fabric and restoring the mill in devil’s crossing visually changed it. And how restoring the cannons for Homestead actually added them to the settlement.
I thought it weird that… this was it. As a lifelong gamer some of my fondest memories was from games like NWN2 and Pillars of Eternity where you could not only build your base, but upgrading it had actual gameplay implementations in form of base defense events.
What I’m wondering is if this was actually planned but cut content. Because it would have been amazing if you for example - could choose what factions or settlements to send various resources. With the consequence that some settlements or factions could actually be wiped out.
For example if you 100% neglected to help Homestead in normal, the settlement is a ruin in elite because they couldn’t defend themselves. But to compensate - maybe add unique rewards for that factions being wiped out by unique item drops by mobs in the ruins of homestead. Or a faction that don’t like homestead being super happy with you. Or minor stuff like no-one dying at the start of Malmouth if you sent the cannons to Devil’s crossing instead.
Overall… I feel the mechanics of upgrading and sending resources, combined with the factions, shows a severe wasted opportunity in both gameplay and storytelling. So being a small studio I’m just guessing maybe this was cut?
So if there is a GD2, and seeing how Crate is making a city builder. This is just wishful thinking and a dream of mine… but imagine many of the mechanics of city builders like that merged with a game like grim dawn. Like aetherials and chtonics attacking settlements - and you building and improving them. I just feel there is so much potential there.
Then there is bridge building and detonation sites and the Steelcap District hub. But I wish you could advance The Conclave of the Three in a similar fashion and would not start with a fully developed camp.
There is this one quest in Fort Ikon, which can also be turned in elsewhere, but that option is easily missed. Also you have a choice with Kasparov… But none of these result in visual changes of the settlements. Oh, your choices decide, if some NPCs show up later in the story.
Pretty sure that Crate never intended to let your story choices have an impact on the situation on higher difficulties. With all the permutations that would increase the scope and risk of story blockers tremendously.
Initially not even your reputation was meant to be carried over:
I assume this was never in scope, but I agree with your sentiment and would have loved if there were one or two forks in the developement of each quest hub. Including negative events, like Cronley’s gang successfully attacking Devils Crossing or the Amalgamation advancing towards Homestead.
Regarding distributing resources, Crate had an idea for components, which would have allowed for different kinds of bounties:
But they did not pursue it because:
If you are confused now, Crate changed components only afterwards when it was too late for the bounty system… nine months after the above poll: Component Completion Bonuses: RIP
then it wouldn’t be GD tho, nor as much mainly an ARPG
it’s often when you try to mix such elements, purely out of satiating a handful of people’s desire rather than your own design, that parts or game entire feels “off”, like “that’s not why we are here”
Pillars of Eternity is not an ARPG for instance, so the mechanic and interaction emphasis is different
i also think, iirc, that it’s not the first time you’ve made the nwn comparison, forgetting that GD ain’t nwn nor a sequel/successor to it
and if you start to shove too many mmorpg features into an “old school arpg”(that’s what’s GD is called a lot) “because other games did them”, then you’d probably water down what it was that made it that type of “old school arpg” in the first place.
it’s possibly because you attribute more to them than what they are, and why you also don’t see the type of “consequence mechanic” you mentioned at all anywhere else in GD either
they are breadcrumbs, gatekeeper, or flavour, easy to manage world building player stat boosting events
I just wish there were more of these. I know you probably disagree with me, but personally… after ultimate difficulty completion or after lvl100. IMO it would be fun if aetherials and bloodsworn attacked the various settlements. And the aftermath was dictated by your actions in regards to upgrading their settlements, sending resources etc. Doesn’t need to be something insanely drastic.
It is just that I felt it was tremendously satisfying retrieving the fabric, and seeing the direct result of me helping them. I was so happy for them having it better in devil’s crossing. Which is why I hoped for more of this stuff, and possibly consequenses for ignoring it completely.
It’s just my opinion and I’m aware I’m probably the 1% minority on this. But some sort of diverging endgame world based on what factions survived, around upgrading and arming the human survivors of the Grim Dawn… is a concept that makes me foam in the mouth
I understand your points though! It was just a… is pipe dream the correct English expression? Anyway, back to playing.
i think there has been more than once a request to add additional "upgrade"quests to ex Devil’s Crossing
tho having a quest where you merely improve the aesthetics of ex DC vs the type of world event like you mention is ofc an entirely diff thing
also not super sure such world event would even fit in, since we’ve basically defeated and halted the aetherials/ch’thonians/enemies in the region(s) we’re in, so might clash with the story/what we supposedly already have achieved
for me personally i’d be totally game for more “upgrade” quests, specially for DC,
but as far as world event/“counter attack” invasions + settlement consequence, that feels a tad too WoW’ish to me
Personally I think its for the best that “base defense events” aren’t present in modern ARPGs. That stuff has always felt like chores - the idea that every now and then a threat to your overall game progress may set you back some unless you drop what you’re doing and go save some helpless NPCs. I moreso appreciate the presence of “one-off” world-changes like the Rover child west of Homestead or the “RNG” quest in Malmouth.
This. For large-scale world events like base defense or assaults, I always prefer when they are player prompted rather than random and sporadic even if this can break a game’s immersion rather than develop it further.
As a player, it really does suck when you start playing a game with a defined objective in mind and get pulled away from it because of something arbitrary, then afterwards have to stop and think to yourself “what was I going to do again…?”.
i wish gd2 would have some sort of bestiary log at the very least, if you can’t make/upgrade your own base/home.
as for gd1, the closest feature to bestiary and trophy room was the illusionist. yeah they only offer fashion illusion, but at least they gave some more significance to the moments where you meet and defeat interesting enemies and take their trophies to decorate your inventory
even tho it’s often completely glossed over by players/potentially wasting the amount of effort put into it, i do love ingame bestiaries ex with like “sketch” art work accompanying the entries,
ex Witcher 3 bestiary i’ve probably spent more than a few minutes going through the entries
Totally agree! I like how this was implemented in Angband (this feature was called “monster memory”): the more you kill this kinda of monster, the more information you “collect” about it, like average HP, damage, resistances, XP gained, etc. Would love to see something like that in GD2. It would also decrease the necessity of usage of 3rd party sites with that info.
