Hopes for Soulstorm?

[Oziah]

I don't want it removed entirely! I'd just like a Classic Hard mode without it, for the players like me who like the original difficulty of AO that was stripped from NnT. Like I said it's always more difficult to not use something like that if it's right at your fingertips. So I'd just like a mode where they disabled it. It surely couldn't be difficult to implement in the slightest

[FrustratedAssassin]

They're teaming up with a studio specialized in CG animation, so the high quality cutscenes are back. The quicksave was there in the original AE though, and that game was pretty hard even with it IMO.

If the tone comes close to the ARG it's going to be great, I just hope they're going to be a bit more careful with the technical stuff. They're still going to be using Unity for whatever reason, but maybe the final product won't be as glitchy and unoptimized as NnT, hopefully.

[Oziah]

I found Exoddus much, much easier to get the good ending, even as a kid, definitely in part due to Quiksave protecting me as I went. It's just a personal thing I'd like to see implemented as an option, to make up for NnT's insane easiness haha.

Amazing news about the CG stuff. That'll make me very happy. To this day the original cutscenes look amazing to me.

[FrustratedAssassin]

I feel like in AO much of the difficulty was due to the scarceness of checkpoints. As in, it was more tedious than hard, having to redo 5 easy sequences just to get to the hard one. And as you get more and more angry at the game you start to fuck up the easy sequences and UGH

That's a thing I do and most people don't isn't it

[Oziah]

I think a lot of people feel the way you do Assassin! I believe I'm in the minority when I say I don't mind those long checkpoints, even if I have to redo an easy part a few times or what have you. But it's each to their own at the end of the day.

[Fraki]

To be honest I felt Oddysee was perfect without quicksaving. The checkpoints never bothered me too much. The introduction of quicksaving made NnT MUCH too easy for me; The puzzles were never originally designed with a quicksave in mind, meaning they're simpler/shorter to compensate for that. The quicksave in NnT made them feel even shorter than that (I mean cmon, I 100% that game on Hard in like 2 hours and 30 minutes, I could never do that on Oddysee).

Exoddus, however, has much more complex and lengthy puzzles which take advantage of the fact the player can quicksave to throw more and more traps and things which would have seemed BS in the original if you had to start at a checkpoint, but are perfectly okay in Exoddus where you can quicksave at convenient times.

... Or at least, that's how I always felt haha

[Connell]

There have been times when I've sat down to do a replay of Oddysee, and done the first or 4 or so secrets which take a while, and then died and because I hadn't triggered the next checkpoint yet (because I'd only traversed about the first 5 screens of the main game) it reset all the secrets and I'd just given up because I'd literally have to put another half hour into doing all the secrets again. That's the only time I had a gripe with the sparse checkpoints in AO.

[Shade667]

yeah, the checkpoints are the reason I neer finishing AO. I didnt enjoy my time with it, because it didnt have a quiksave, or more frequent checkpoints.

Quiksave isnt a difficulty erasing feature. Having to redo 5 minutes of the same thing over and over is not fun. ur not gonna quiksave after every jump. And quiksaving in the wrong place can make u restart the level if it puts u in a bad spot.


If they want to make a difficulty without quiksave go ahead. Im only going to play the game for about 2 thousand hours anyway, so I probably wont need it. Its a nice safeguard though.

[Nepsotic]

I didnt enjoy my time with it, because it didnt have a quiksave, or more frequent checkpoints.

Weird, because your sig says

Patience is a virtue

Lol

@Connel Having a hard mode without quiksave is a dumb idea, either have it or don't. Playing well and being rewarded with the loss of a feature is one of the worst ideas I've seen in this thread.

[Connell]

@Connel Having a hard mode without quiksave is a dumb idea, either have it or don't. Playing well and being rewarded with the loss of a feature is one of the worst ideas I've seen in this thread.

I can think of so many games that do things like that. Off the top of my head for example many of the Zelda games unlock a mode where you take twice the amount of damage and the AI are stronger on your second play though. It gives you incentive to play again with a twist for those that desire more challenge. Hardly a dumb idea.

It's sort of like "Yeah, you managed to do that? Well try THIS!". I feel like that's quite an Oddworld thing to do as well.

[ndvr]

As for me, I always imagined and wanted a hard mode for AO and AE as same old levels but with more sligs/mines/chant disruptors at places, where they weren't etc.
That would make absolutely different way to play old levels - like, normally, in this level, we possess slig, kill all other sligs and blow up ourself with this mine, while on hard mode, we would had to explode mine with rock, killing as much sligs as possible, just to get a slightest chance to run through them without being killed, get a bomb from far-away bomb dispenser and return back to kill every other slig or blow up chant disruptor.
Man, such hard mode would be awesome and really "new 'n' tasty" way to complete your old favorite game.

[Oziah]

Ultimately, however they go about it, they should incorporate a higher level of difficulty for those that want it. Be it by disabling Quiksave, lengthening checkpoints or, as ndvr said, mixing up enemy and hazard placements to throw off fans who know the game well. Just something, so that for players like myself who found NnT far too easy can have a more challenging experience akin to the original games.

[Nepsotic]

I can think of so many games that do things like that. Off the top of my head for example many of the Zelda games unlock a mode where you take twice the amount of damage and the AI are stronger on your second play though. It gives you incentive to play again with a twist for those that desire more challenge. Hardly a dumb idea.

It's sort of like "Yeah, you managed to do that? Well try THIS!". I feel like that's quite an Oddworld thing to do as well.

That's different, I love that sort of stuff. Resident Evil has had that shit since the beginning. It's just pointless to have a no quiksave mode considering you can choose to use it or not. It's like if Dark Souls had a no bonfire mode, pointless. People have done no bonfire runs, they don't need a mode for it.

[Fraki]

It's hard to think of how they could tweak Exoddus to be harder than it is. Like, the obvious things like making enemies do more damage is moot in a game where they kill you all in one shot hahaha

Mixing up the levels sounds most logical. Kinda like a Oddworld Master Quest

[Varrok]

Sligs don't actually always kill you with their first shot in AE.

[Connell]

That's different, I love that sort of stuff. Resident Evil has had that shit since the beginning. It's just pointless to have a no quiksave mode considering you can choose to use it or not. It's like if Dark Souls had a no bonfire mode, pointless. People have done no bonfire runs, they don't need a mode for it.

I do see your point. I was more envisioning it as one part of a whole mode, E.G with more difficult enemies or whatever, and the quicksave being disabled as part of it. But of course, people simply have the choice.

[Nepsotic]

Sligs don't actually always kill you with their first shot in AE.

All Sligs miss twice before killing you, even if they're right in front of you. It's weird.
It's probably more accurate to say that you'll get two free hits, because if there's tones of Sligs on screen they're pretty much going to kill you instantly if they all start firing at the same time.

[Shade667]

Weird, because your sig says


Lol

I dont think running face first into a wall for 20 minutes has anything to do with patience.

Perserverance would be a better word.


But Perserverance is a virtue doesnt have the same ring to it.

[Vlam]

Anyway, Lanning will never disable Quiksave:

Was there anything you feel was lacking in Abe's Oddysee? Anything that if you had more time you would have liked to have seen put in?

Lorne Lanning: When Abe's Oddysee was released we watched all the chat groups and forums on the net very closely. When we saw that some people were having difficulty and were getting frustrated it devastated us. I personally couldn't sleep at night. We really poured our hearts into this game and we wanted everyone to love it. Some people weren't bothered but others were. We found that the biggest problem was our save feature and another was that they had to die often to learn the solutions to puzzles. We knew that you needed to die to learn solutions, that’s why we gave you infinite lives and actually encouraged dying. But when hundred of thousands of people start playing your game it's weaknesses get revealed to you very quickly. If we knew earlier we would have fixed it and it would have resulted in less frustration. As it stands we have fixed both problems in Abe’s Exoddus and it will be even more enjoyable than the first game.

http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.9/feat/

[Fraki]

Anyway, Lanning will never disable Quiksave:



http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.9/feat/

Huh that's quite an interesting insight!

Okay, for a hard mode then, if they won't disable hard mode, what if; if a mudokon dies, Abe also dies/it goes back to the last quick save

(I actually already do this because I don't let my mudokons die, but hey ho :'D)

Maybe partnered up with alternate locations for mudokons to spawn to mix it up

[FennecFyre]

Maybe partnered up with alternate locations for mudokons to spawn to mix it up

If they could do that without borking the puzzles, it would be really interesting. You'd have to search for them a bit more actively.

[Connell]

Who'd play an Oddworld game with a limited number of lives? That is: once you're out, we delete the save slot...

— Oddworld (@OddworldInc) July 23, 2016

Looks like the gang are experimenting with different avenues for difficulty.

[Fraki]

Who'd play an Oddworld game with a limited number of lives? That is: once you're out, we delete the save slot...

— Oddworld (@OddworldInc) July 23, 2016

Looks like the gang are experimenting with different avenues for difficulty.

Oh fuck me that is cruel

...

*votes yes*

[Varrok]

What's the point of limited lives when you can just quickload after any little mistake like a total noob?

[Oziah]

I'd assume they'd either remove that, or Quikloading would use a life. I am 100% for a mode like that haha, that's exactly what I'm after!

[Nate]

They're not asking about a mode, though. I interpretted that tweet as saying the game would be like that always, like an arcade game or oldschool Nintendo.

[Connell]

They're not asking about a mode, though. I interpretted that tweet as saying the game would be like that always, like an arcade game or oldschool Nintendo.

They put a second tweet on a few minutes after the first one confirming they meant a mode, and then another one later on to make sure people realised:

@OddworldInc to confirm - this'd be a (hypothetical) extra difficulty setting, not the main mode...!

— Oddworld (@OddworldInc) July 23, 2016

Interesting response so far! Note this is entirely hypothetical and certainly wouldn't be the 'main' mode of a game. https://t.co/5Qz6M7du0r

— Oddworld (@OddworldInc) July 23, 2016

[Nepsotic]

That would be awesome and they should definitely do it.

[racx_00]

Who'd play an Oddworld game with a limited number of lives? That is: once you're out, we delete the save slot...

— Oddworld (@OddworldInc) July 23, 2016

Looks like the gang are experimenting with different avenues for difficulty.

I would definitely enjoy that mode, hopefully they do go with something like that.

Personally, I enjoyed the difficulty of AO. The check points were a pain but that's just how the game was. AE had Quiksave and I couldn't imagine it without Quiksave. The levels were a lot bigger in AE and it needed something.

An AO remake shouldn't have Quiksave. However NnT, again in my opinion, benefitted from Quiksave because the timing of mines and meat grinders was messed up in NnT. However, in saying that, the only part of NnT I found slightly challenging was the Alf DLC.

[Vexen]

I absolutely hated repeating segments in AO just because someone like a cousin thought it was hilarious to get Abe shot while I was away from my computer.

I noticed some of you don't like quicksaves, so why remove it? Just because a select minority of players want the feature removed, many noobs will not want to abide by these experienced player's rules. If OWI wants to expand their audience it would be stupid to take out something like quicksave, they need to make it friendly for new players. You know, the best way to play the game is to only save at checkpoints, which you can do manually in AE and NNT.