Lethality in RPG's, which one do you prefer?

[typical user]

Obviously higher lethality system would come on top for the vote, with a bit of variation depending on the game and each personal approach on difficulty.

Which had me thinking, was there ever a game with low or very low lethality that was not ass ?

Looter shooters but they are not RPGs. The Division comes to mind as you get to decide how spongy enemies are through mission difficulty screen.

Every game that I think would have tough as rock enemies has some OP builds to one shot them (Witcher 3, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Fable 1 - weak RPGs I know).

 

[Sweeper]

Playing Stalker on novice = everyone's a bullet sponge.
Playing on master = kill quick or be killed quickly.
High lethality means higher stakes, less room for error. It's engaging and immersive. But in RPGs it's less about lethality itself and more about the vast and varied tools the game gives you to deal with it, be it through abilities, consumables, gear, crafting etc.
Finding the right tools to make your PC or party nigh unkillable can be just as fun as figuring out effective glass cannon builds. But the enemies have to be lethal otherwise it doesn't matter.

And I know Stalker isn't an RPG, I was just using it as a perfect example of why low lethality sucks dicks.

 

[Momock]

How much lethality is AoD for OP? High? Very high?

 

[Stavrophore]

Depends if its solo or team based. In solo gameplay, a player must have a time to react to enemies, even if he found himself in precarious situation. Otherwise the game would be a total quick/load save if just one hit could kill you. In team based, you have more room for error, hence the lethality can be upped, unless you lose a party member that is vital. So to circumvent the need for quick/load you would then spec team as hybrid characters, but depending on the game this could be a very bad idea.
In the end i think lethality should be on the higher side, but not at OHK level. Game should be still punishing, but not unenjoyable quick/load fest. It might appeal to the ultimate autists masochists, but otherwise it will get very tedious to play.

 

[Momock]

Depends if its solo or team based. In solo gameplay, a player must have a time to react to enemies, even if he found himself in precarious situation. Otherwise the game would be a total quick/load save if just one hit could kill you. In team based, you have more room for error, hence the lethality can be upped, unless you lose a party member that is vital. So to circumvent the need for quick/load you would then spec team as hybrid characters, but depending on the game this could be a very bad idea.
In the end i think lethality should be on the higher side, but not at OHK level. Game should be still punishing, but not unenjoyable quick/load fest. It might appeal to the ultimate autists masochists, but otherwise it will get very tedious to play.

Nah, it's more about randomness and the tools at your disposal to curb it in your favor (or to avoid being hit altogether). Personaly I'm even fine with one hit/one kill if everything is telegraphed and you can do something about it (and it's all deterministic, of course).

 

[Stavrophore]

Lilura why are you butthurt?

 

[octavius]

Lilura why are you butthurt?

Occupational hazard for a scat girl, I guess.

 

[gurugeorge]

Fights that are over too quickly are boring. Fights that take too long are boring. What you want is a happy medium, but of course "too long/too short" is in some part subjective too (though "one shot, one kill" sets one extreme and "redonkulous bullet sponge" sets the other).

I think the only way of getting around it is by having "phased" levels and types of damage (e.g. force shields/mage shields, armor, high or low constitution body), but that's a huge subject.

I think part of the reason why phased damage hasn't been used more is because it would require the audio/visual effects to be developed in tandem with the mechanics (because it's as much about how one feels, the psychological impact of a parrticular phase of one's defenses being attacked, or having been broken through, as about the numbers), and if there are more important things to worry about - like whether they have enough LGBTQ representation in the game - minor details like whether or not the gameplay actuall works tend to get left by the wayside.

 

[Lilura]

Lilura why are you butthurt?

Occupational hazard for a scat girl, I guess.

Another cheapshot from the fag that played Oblivion -- multiple times -- before playing Fallout, Fallout 2, Arcanum, Jagged Alliance 2 and ToEE?

lmao

 

[buffalo bill]

Lilura have you played any roguelikes? My favorite games were Fallout, JA2 etc. before I started getting into them

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Lilura why are you butthurt?

Occupational hazard for a scat girl, I guess.

 

[Lilura]

Lilura have you played any roguelikes? My favorite games were Fallout, JA2 etc. before I started getting into them

Nice agenda you've got there. Yes, I've played roguelikes. Jagged Alliance 2 is better than any of them.

 

[buffalo bill]

Lilura have you played any roguelikes? My favorite games were Fallout, JA2 etc. before I started getting into them

Nice agenda you've got there. Yes, I've played roguelikes. Jagged Alliance 2 is better than any of them.

Sure, JA2 is a great game. I have no agenda and am not trying to start a fight with you. Which roguelikes have you played?

 

[Chippy]

Prefer high or close to RL as long as it makes sense. If it doesn't make sense, my piss boils quickly. Fallout crits are a good example. Also a game like X3 where it's very clear that you have 5 megajules of shielding on your ship, and you just got 1-shot because you were hit from a random shot from a capital ship doing 2000mj of damage.

Red skull enemies, or Oblivion/Skyrim vanilla level scaling on the other hand, can just fuck off.