Main character option

[Sotnik]

It would be nice to have an option to start with a main character/alter ego, who never deserts and does not require wages, but whose death means the game is over. That would greatly help with immersion and contribute to the gameplay.

[Khalunka]

your solution is called Roleplay.

[Sotnik]

Originally posted by MaruWeave:

your solution is called Roleplay.

Lol, and why do people make games if we can just imagine playing them?

[Khalunka]

Originally posted by Sotnik:

Originally posted by MaruWeave:

your solution is called Roleplay.

Lol, and why do people make games if we can just imagine playing them?

Sigh...

Originally posted by Sotnik:

start with a main character/alter ego, who never deserts, but whose death means the game is over.

Choose a start, select one of them to be your main character. Customize it. Name It. create a story and personality. If he dies, game over. Done, you have accomplished what you wanted.

Why developers need to create all the conditions for you, if you can just have a minimum of self-control and creativity, to pull this off?

Come on...

[morph113]

Originally posted by MaruWeave:

Originally posted by Sotnik:

Lol, and why do people make games if we can just imagine playing them?

Sigh...

Originally posted by Sotnik:

start with a main character/alter ego, who never deserts, but whose death means the game is over.

Choose a start, select one of them to be your main character. Customize it. Name It. create a story and personality. If he dies, game over. Done, you have accomplished what you wanted.

Why developers need to create all the conditions for you, if you can just have a minimum of self-control and creativity, to pull this off?

Come on...

I agree with him, it's called game design. May as well present you with an empty word file and go like "this is your game, just write down whatever story you want to experience. Why be limited by game mechanics when you can just write everything down?". I don't care about having a main character in this game, but this "just imagine etc." is just not the same as having the actual option. Like when a game doesn't have ironman mode, some players have a solution and say "well, then just don't reload the game if you die". But that's not the same thing. If you just have to imagine all the conditions and game mechanics it's not the same.

[Sotnik]

Originally posted by MaruWeave:

Why developers need to create all the conditions for you, if you can just have a minimum of self-control and creativity, to pull this off?

Come on...

People often play games to be entertained. Not to impose self-control and experience other unpleasant things.

[Khalunka]

I disagree. Roleplaying feels quite natural to me. I have a good self-control over my feelings and actions. If I set rules, I will follow them. If I set a condition, I will follow that condition. People should get used to create the best from what they have, instead of asking for minors things just because they dont have the creativity for it. That said, Wartales never meant to have a ''main character''. The idea was, to show this band of mercenaries, how fragile they are in this world which you bet your life for coins. Sadly, the game because too easy since Its EA versions, the quite early ones, and that 'vision' was lost.

[Olleus]

I actually like the lack of main character. I think of myself as the manager of the band, who walks along with them, tells them what to do during a fight and assigns duties during camp. Having a player avatar be one of the mercs would break that immersion for me, and invariably lead to me having one guy who gets all the best loot and the like. Having narrative equality between all the mercs makes more sense for me. Games that are similar in terms of battles (like XCom) or in wandering the wilderness as a party (like Vagrus) make this explicit in fact - you are not one of the fighters.

Now I guess there's no direct harm in adding an option that does that. But it does divert developer attention, time, testing, etc... to something that I don't consider worth it, even if it isn't be extremely time consuming to add.

On the whole "imagine it" debate, there's a whole lot of slippery slope fallacy here. Adding additional victory and defeat conditions for yourself is not at all the same as imagining whole new mechanics. I mean, this is a game without explicit victory conditions to begin with, so setting you're own goals is very much the spirit of the game. Setting your own disasters to avoid is hardly a big step away from that. There's something to be said for keeping some of the motivation of the game intrinsic, rather than externalising every last thing as a mechanic.

[Khalunka]

I think most of these problems which comes from: "I wish the game was like this instead of that". Will solve itself when workshop tool are, if they will be, open for people to use.
Mods are a great way to shape the game in your own vision. And It does keep the game to be more playable in its longivity.

I would have never reached almost 4000 hours in Warband without its beautiful mods.

[Necrosaro]

Do a honorable playthrough where you pick the main character and if he dies you delete the save

[Roaming Zombie]

Originally posted by MaruWeave:

Originally posted by Sotnik:

Lol, and why do people make games if we can just imagine playing them?

Sigh...

Originally posted by Sotnik:

start with a main character/alter ego, who never deserts, but whose death means the game is over.

Choose a start, select one of them to be your main character. Customize it. Name It. create a story and personality. If he dies, game over. Done, you have accomplished what you wanted.

Why developers need to create all the conditions for you, if you can just have a minimum of self-control and creativity, to pull this off?

Come on...

This ^ 100%

That is what I always do if there are no 'main' characters but the game allows you to edit the excisting one. I just add my self into it and I am the hero of my own story.

[Ninth Hour]

I kind of like the idea of having a "main" in the sense of a special character who does not need wages or just a fixed wage. There is precedent for this mechanic too.

HBS Battletech has a commander who does not take wages and who can be deployed into combat like the rest of the mercenary team (although he/she cannot be killed, just severely wounded and out of action for months).

Jagged Alliance 2 allows you to create a custom IMP merc, in addition to hiring the usual AIM (and later MERC) members. The IMP merc only needs a one-time fee, if I recall correctly and will always stay loyal to your cause. But he/she can be killed.

Having said this, it is not essential, I can take it or leave it.

From he standpoint of immersion, it is unrealistic that there is one unit that would be willing to take a major wage cut yet engage in the same risks as the standard merc.