Dragon Lines

[wcc]

Does anybody else feel that these lines are spoilers since they tell you where an encounter is about to take place?
Gives away some tension. :(

[Terra]

I mean if you want to get to the source of this, you can blame Gears of War for this since any time you see waist-high cover you know there's about to be a firefight.

[wcc]

True, but there no reason that these line are shown while in normal exploration mode.

[Incunabulum]

Originally posted by wcc:

True, but there no reason that these line are shown while in normal exploration mode.

Not really - they appear in all sorts of places in addition to where encounters will happen.

Unforntunately, they're almost always placed in *useless* positions where you have to be standign in the open, in full sight of everyone to use them - and then get gunned down the next turn.

[wcc]

Originally posted by Incunabulum:

Not really - they appear in all sorts of places in addition to where encounters will happen.

And that's the tell. I'd prefer if they would stay invisible until the fight takes place.

Unforntunately, they're almost always placed in *useless* positions where you have to be standign in the open, in full sight of everyone to use them - and then get gunned down the next turn.

It's supposed to be a trade-off, so it's okay for me.

[HoroSaga]

I think the reason they allow you to see dragon lines when you're out of combat is so you can position yourself near them before combat starts, thus allowing you to immediately benefit from them. Unfortunately, yes, it does give you an idea of when there might be combat encounters nearby.

[wcc]

Well, I see the point, but how big is this advantage really? There's no way to position your group until the encounter starts.

[kelborn_x]

Originally posted by wcc:

Well, I see the point, but how big is this advantage really? There's no way to position your group until the encounter starts.

Honestly, I don't find any advantage to using them.

The Ley Lines in SR:R/DF were nice. These Dragon Lines just cause my spells to hit my allies. I've only made use of them on very large open areas against lots of enemies. Any smaller areas or vs 1-3 enemies, and all they do is set you up for friendly fire.

[baardvaark]

Just map design in general usually gives away where fights will be, but not always. I think they and make various areas look like there could be a fight there so it's not super obvious. They're probably have to do stuff like make a room look all open, send you to some other scene, and then come back and there's like, some trucks and people have unloaded boxes, and you get ambushed there. That'd be kind of a neat way to make an ambush more surprising.

Not what they could do about dragon lines. I wouldn't really mind if you couldn't see them until combat started, but it's also kind of convenient that you can see them.

Dragon Lines definitely are more of a mixed bag than ley lines in terms of usefulness, especially if you have melee members of your team. They can be ultra devastating if you use them right and get a triple hit with a flamethrower or the like. Also can be used with buffs. If you use wild aim (which is already bouncing) while on a dragon line, you can buff your whole team's aim, which is pretty significant.

[wcc]

Well, it might work if you also would put dragon lines in areas where no encounters are about to take place.
But agreed, more than one time I've stepped back from a dragon line to cast a flamethrower spell. Being exposed AND causing friendly fire is to much of a drawback in my opinion. Especially friendly fire renders them useless way to often.

[Lujo]

You're looking at it the wrong way around. If you use melee you can get friendly fire from high level bouncing dmg spells? Why the hell are you using melee anyway?

Also, I think that if your shaman is standing on a dragon line it gives effects to spirits. This might be what's making gobbets elemental crazily OP.

The lines are too good, you just have to stop using fluff logic and start using pure emotionless robot logic. If you play combat for pure efficiency, you stop doing all the things which get in the way of broken stuff and then the lines work VERY well even if they're out in the open. You do have to assume the vast majority of stuff in the game is there for no good reason and not even bother with it, though.

[Sky]

Three issues with Dragon lines:

1. The bounces hit allies.
2. They make medkits obsolete, as Dragon lines can heal a caster to full health if you enter combat mode and keep cast a lvl 1 spell every turn.
3. Ley lines was a better name. Dragon lines sound cheesy, as several new rpg's are about dragons :/

[Syrris]

Originally posted by wcc:

Does anybody else feel that these lines are spoilers since they tell you where an encounter is about to take place?
Gives away some tension. :(

You only see them if your character is sensitive to their presence. I think it's rank 1 spellcasting (of either type) to see them in LoS and rank 3 spellcasting to see them in unexplored areas. Being supernaturally aware is a peripheral benefit of being a (relatively squishy) spellcaster, much like the Astral Perception options in dialogue.

[wcc]

Sure. Still, I'd prefer them to stay hidden until the encounter starts.

[Seswatha]

Dragon lines are more powerful than ley lines for the most part.

Friendly fire is usually irrelevant if you actually think about your positioning.

Being out of cover is easily solved by picking martial defence I with minor investment in chi casting. Costs you a spell slot, but well worth it usually. Makes you immune to crits as a side effect.

3x damage or mindwipe 3 targets in 1 cast = great.

As for being spoilerish: I'd rather put dragon lines everywhere, even in places where no combat occurs to keep you guessing. They're an element of the environment after all. Alternatively consider this an awesome magic precognition power.

[benjamincarylewis]

I can't see any reason in game universe why the lines should NOT be visible outside of combat mode. So in terms of spoilers, I think the only reasonable solution is to place additional dragon lines in non-combat areas.

(just noticed maddemiurg said the same thing more eloquently right above...)

I've played through twice so far, and at no point did I find them to be significantly spoilery. You can also guess that combat is possible when you see rooms with explosive barrels, or lots of obvious cover items.

But, just because in some rooms you CAN engage in combat, doesn't necessarily mean it's inevitable, depending on which dialogue options you pick etc... so to me, a "spoiler" that there "may possibly be combat to follow in this room" is pretty insignificant.