How are you all playing these insanely complex games?

Just some off the top of my head: Destiny, Deep Rock Galactic, Overwatch, and most recently Baldur’s Gate.

I received BG3 as a gift. I installed and loaded up the game and the first thing I was prompted to do is to create a character. There are like 12 different classes with 14 different abilities and 10 ability classes. The game does not explain any of this. I went to watch a tutorial online to try and wrap my head around all of this. The first tutorial just assumed you knew a bunch of stuff already. The second one I found was great but it was 1.5 hours long. There is no in-game tutorial I could find.

I just get very bored very quickly of analyzing character traits and I absolutely loathe inventory management (looking at you Borderlands). Often times my inventory fills up and then I end up just selling stuff that I have no idea what it does and later realizing it’s an incredibly valuable item/resource and now I have to find more.

So my question is this: Do you guys really spend hours of your day just researching on the internet how to play these games? Or do you just jump in and wing it? Or does each game just build on top of working knowledge of previous similar games?

E: General consensus seems to be all of the above. Good to know!

Mummelpuffin,
@Mummelpuffin@beehaw.org avatar

Sounds to me like you just don’t want to think that hard, which is fine, I usually don’t either. Half of the time I just play Doom .wads

BG3 specifically: It’s D&D 5e, so… yeah It’s gonna be complex.

Complex systems more generally:

The best way to learn about any complex system is to bite tiny chunks out of it and ignore the rest, even if you know stuff is interconnected. You’ll never learn everything at once, so don’t try. Eventually you get bored with the little bubble you’ve carved out for yourself so you move over and learn about some other bit. You don’t even need to care about whether you’ll understand everything eventually.

typoid,

If you’re really struggling to click with a game, I’ve found watching a “let’s play” on YouTube helps me out.

Koordinator_O,

Reading the title i thought about titles like mech engineer or the like where you almost have to read a 50 pages manual. Not Deep Rock Galactic 0.0

Don_alForno,

Or does each game just build on top of working knowledge of previous similar Games?

This. There is a sort of gaming DNA that you just internalize over time. I’ve been gaming for 30 years, I just know how that one breakable wall looks, that you need to come back to once you get bombs or whatever it is. I know the difference between a caster, a fighter and a rogue when I see them without knowing the exact details of their ability mechanics in this particular game. My intuition as to how a given ability is most likely going to work is also usually pretty close. Because they are often very similar across different games.

Also if you don’t know and don’t have to have the absolute optimal combination from square one, just pick what looks cool and try it. If it doesn’t work out, try something else. Most games allow respecs nowadays. We learn through failure and repitition.

Skipper_the_Eyechild,

Baldurs Gate allows “respeccing” too, which I presume is respecialistion?

It puts you back to level one, let’s you change class entirely even, but you keep your experience so you can level all the way up again straight away, making different choices.

hornedfiend,

Have a look at Dwarf Fortress too. It could melt your brain.

wintrparkgrl,
@wintrparkgrl@beehaw.org avatar

I read the title thinking about DF or crusader kings. Nope, deep rock galactic. Wut?

Aslo rock and stone

raccoona_nongrata, (edited )
@raccoona_nongrata@beehaw.org avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    loboaureo,

    This!

    The fun of this games are learning what are good or bad combination of traits.

    Its true that if you already have playe Dungeon and dragóns or are used to play this short of games need less tries until you found something that works

    BirdyBoogleBop,

    Isn’t Baldur’s Gate 3 just DnD, so thats easy as I already have that knowledge. All the others don’t seem that complex.

    Deep Rock is Shoot Stuff, mine, don’t die

    Overwatch is only complex when you get past the early learning and pissing around and start learning characters and trying to counter pick. Which you don’t need to do to have fun.

    Destiny I don’t remember much of. I guess it had some more complex movement and stats so that one might be more complex.

    helenslunch,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    Isn’t Baldur’s Gate 3 just DnD

    I guess so? Never played DnD in my life and didn’t realize that.

    Overwatch is only complex when you get past the early learning and pissing around and start learning characters and trying to counter pick. Which you don’t need to do to have fun.

    Just feel like I’m gonna get my ass kicked by all the people who understand all the mechanics instead of just fucking around in-game. Would just be nice if they included the necessary info in the game instead of making you search it up online.

    Vodulas,

    BG3 uses D&D fifth edition rules, and the game is set in the Forgotten Realms, which is the official setting for D&D right now. That being said, that can be a lot to get into, and the BG3 tutorial is trash. For character creation you might just want to pick one of the origin characters. Creating a custom character can take a good long while, even if you know the rules already. The origin characters have most of the basic classes covered and will give you a feel for the game. If you want to change it up, there is a way to change your class and stats partway through act 1. That will at least get you in the game and playing, where there are tooltips that pop up.

    helenslunch,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    BG3 uses D&D fifth edition rules, and the game is set in the Forgotten Realms, which is the official setting for D&D right now.

    I don’t know what any of these words mean, but thank you.

    bermuda, (edited )

    D&D fifth edition rules

    This is the fifth version of D&D, released a few years ago I believe. Each version of D&D is called an “edition” and each one contains changes & new rules, characters, settings, stories, etc. Think of it like an update to a video game. Some people prefer old editions, some like new editions. The rules in BG3 are mostly from 5th edition (abbreviated as 5e). Like with video games, the publishers of D&D are called “Wizards of the Coast” so when people refer to editions, they refer to updates released by that particular company. Other companies make other versions, modifications, and campaigns within and like D&D, but only WotC makes D&D editions.

    Forgotten realms

    This is just the setting for D&D. It’s rather high fantasy, and if you’re playing a bog standard D&D game in real life, this is probably where your story is going to be set. Most of the settings within the Forgotten Realms are set within the large continent of Faerun. FWIW, “Baldur’s Gate” Is the name of a canonical city in Faerun. It’s a very wealthy and prosperous merchant city state. There are other campaigns and stories from other continents in the Forgotten Realms (and from beyond the forgotten realms), but Faerun is by far the most fleshed out.

    TL;DR: 5e is the “fifth edition,” which is the most current “official” ruleset for the game. The Forgotten Realms are the official setting for the game. Faerun is the main continent, and Baldur’s Gate is a city on that continent.

    my_hat_stinks,

    This is the fifth version of D&D, released a few years ago I believe

    Nearly a decade now, 5e core rulebooks were all released in 2014.

    Doxatek,

    Overwatch makes new players do tutorials on each of the heroes now as well as describing all the abilities at any time in the selection screen. I think if you were to explore it again and play for a while you would learn it all really quickly. The characters aren’t really that complex once you learn what is going on haha. Definitely at first it’s just chaos and dunno why you’re dying

    helenslunch,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    I just went and checked it out and it’s free-to-play and the reviews are “overwhelmingly negative”, both of which typically keep me far far away haha

    Also all of the “most helpful” reviews are just memes and not even reviews at all. WTF is that about?

    Doxatek,

    Lmao gotcha. I mostly played when it first came out. I imagine the reason it was overwhelmingly negative was the review bombing of the “overwatch 2” which is the exact same as overwatch one except they forced everyone to switch to this one where the only difference is the addition of a store. everything that used to be free cosmetic wise is now payable content.

    helenslunch,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    everything that used to be free cosmetic wise is now payable content.

    And they badger you every 5 minutes about buying it. Pretty much what I figured.

    Tavarin, (edited )
    @Tavarin@lemmy.ca avatar

    I just pick a character class that looks interesting, make them look like me, and get going.

    Figure it out as I play, and just have fun. I pretty much never watch videos or read anything about games unless I get really stuck, or have already finished the game and am curious about other playstyles.

    Xero, (edited )
    @Xero@infosec.pub avatar

    I’m playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with Wyll as my mage, and two custom hirelings that I brought in to replace Shadowheart the cleric, and the vampire thief guy who I was really liking up until he tried to bite me. So I killed him. Also thinking about letting Gale starve to death because I’d rather sell surplus magic items. The heroic characters talked too fucking much, and I didn’t appreciate all their drama. Hirelings are quiet and they kill who I want them to kill without complaing about it.

    I’m playing a half-drow elemental monk who somehow learned to play the lute and lyre. He’s black because I’m black, which is also why I wanted Wyll. I found a cowboy hat somewhere. Cowboy monk

    Necronomicommunist,

    The best playstyle is to do whatever the fuck you want, and this is it.

    shapis,
    @shapis@lemmy.ml avatar

    Destiny

    When I first played I had a wiki open on my second monitor for about the first month I was playing.

    Love the game. One of my favorites. And the artwork and music are second to none.

    It definitely has the worst onboarding experience ever though.

    BG3

    It does have deep systems. But you can just pick what feels right to you and the game will accommodate you.

    It’s a masterpiece.

    Megasthenes,

    Destiny 2 was pretty accessible when it started, but IT got worse over time and hit rock bottom when it became f2p. I left it because i became tired of the grind.

    potterman28wxcv,

    For a first time don’t try to get the strongest character possible. It’s a time sink to do that. Usually the main campaign of games are beatable even if you screw up something. The worst that can happen is you backtracking a bit and spending time to level up before doing the next quest.

    When you played the game once and got used to the mechanics you can make a 2nd char and plan it more deeply ahead if you wish. You know what mechanics you like so the prospect of finding what to invest in what is worth etc… becomes more streamlined. But you don’t have to. You can just be happy to have finished the game and call it a day.

    That’s what I did for Diablo 4. After the main campaign I did not feel like venturing more into the game or making another character so I started playing another game. If you really want to 100% a game it does require a ton of time and planning but you don’t have to

    ursakhiin,

    This. For bg3 I started by looking up a simple question around class complexity. Landed on fighter for my first class and then only looked up specific questions I had about how something works if I wanted to consider it.

    That was only to verify I understood what it was saying it did correctly.

    limeaide,

    I recently started playing Divinity Original Sin 2, and I went through this problem as well until I changed the way I approached the game.

    I just let go of trying to make the most optimized decisions and instead just make the decision I, or my character would make (if I’m role playing).

    I just realized that no matter what decision I make, it will still lead me to finish the game. If I really want to, later I can go back and play it again to see more of the game. Only if I like my first play-through though.

    helenslunch,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    Good stuff, thanks!

    jumbodumbo,

    Use your thinkbox

    helenslunch,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    Thanks dumbo

    Pxtl,
    @Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

    Deep Rock is good at letting you ignore what you don’t care about. I’ve never needed a wiki for it. It’s just fun and silly co op action, with massive complexity mostly about trivial things.

    Quexotic,

    I have been playing with another person and we were both confused. just guessed my way through it.

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