Marriage, Owning A House, Maybe? [poll added]

[Azriel]

Why would anyone do this? What would marriage and owning a house be good for except decorating your characters like in Sims 2?

I don't THINK anybody is saying they want the sims, but there have been rpg games that had some micromangment (buying property) and romance/marriage before and it added to the gameplay. At least for me, it was optional and wasn't required, it took nothing away and added something besides the all mighty quests to do, which I enjoyed. I love going on quests, but sometimes you want to stop and smell the roses or do something else for a while. Nothing wrong with that.

OK , but if you have marriage, it should be more interesting than just some text, a wedding cut scene, and a useless locale. Implementing this sort of thing in a way that isn't farcically shallow would be very, very hard to do... And the choice to get married would only be the least bit meaningful in a game exciting enough where stopping to "smell the roses" would be a big deal. See the quote below:

And this is why something like a timer/deadline on the "main quest" is so important in a "non-linear" game that features a lot of side quests. You can have your rewards for doing side quests, but there must be some sacrifice or risk to go along with it. And so-called "risk" can't all be in the player's imagination, LOL.

No on timed events, can't stand them and don't want them. That isn't optional like relationships, that is a FORCED event that I can't stand. You can have interesting OPTIONAL relationships that don't need a forced timer in the background.

[MDF_MadDogFargo]

If you want to marry, own a house, make children, go play Sims... I don't understand what brings these kind of people to a site about post-apocalyptic tactical RPG that's based on combat...

"If you want a game that's based on combat, go play a war game! I don't understand what brings this kind of people to a site about an RPG!"

Seriously. Take some advice from Sid Meier:

"Don't try to do too many games in one package. ... When two units get together in Civilization and have a battle, why don't we drop out to a war game and spend ten minutes or so in duking out this battle? Well, the Covert Action Rule. Focus on what the game is."

"Focus on what the game is." Is Wasteland a combat-nerd fapfest? No! And Wasteland 2 should not be either! The combat, and everythng else, should be balanced. I don't need a virtual combat mini-game any more than I need a looting-a-corpse mini-game.

At a certain point too much "hardcore" tactics becomes a morbid exercise in gory micromanagement.

With the Wasteland model, you can plug any fight into the dice-roll model. With an improved interface, WL2 can simplify encounters into contextual stages and offer stragegic maneuver options that scale with the complexity of the battle. The contextual stages of battle approach can IMO keep things moving at a fast pace, no matter the number of your enemy. Your characters use their skills in that model, while the player has high level control of the battle.

Marriage, owning a house, etc? Sure, why not, as long as it fits into the story and it doesn't become a mini-game either. It could lead you down one legitimate path of the story.