yeah, but in those players' defense that is the norm in video games. Most people hate timed quests!

IIRC in Mass Effect 2 after your crew gets abducted going and doing some side stuff before doing the rescue mission did actually result in some crew member(s?) dying

And also not doing enough side quests and upgrades before you got the abduction also meant the outcome of the rescue mission changed.

Yeah, I’ve never liked timed anything in video games. I’m playing video games to escape, not stress about missing something that could be important. I’m supportive of adding a toggle that gives the player the option on if they want timed quests or not.

As long as the game is upfront about being a game of choice and consequence, it's fine. Sometimes it's fun when your decisions actually matter.

"The hero died before he could defeat the Dark Lord by being killed whilst on an errand to deliver 10 wolf pets to a random villager."

True. Kingmaker, if I recall, had a lot of weird "aha! You didn't return to this particular forest on this particular day, so now you don't ever get to meet this key character! No, there wasn't any foreshadowing!"

That was kind of annoying.

Foreshadowing helps a lot.

I was loosely following a guide and I misunderstood that I needed to wait to rescue them to I did a few side missions and half my crew died 🥲

I did a few side missions and half my crew died

That reminds me of how I got dishonorably discharged from the navy.

In my defense, nobody told me that a nuclear submarine can't handle the depths of the Mariana trench and I figured that it would be an obvious place for the developers to stash rare loot!

Well I just paid $3 for it so I won't be able to complain too much

This is why I have no words when I see people complain about the pacing of a main quest, but specifically mean the dialogue kinda telling you that time is of the essence. Like, dude. I've been gaming so long that unless a timer specifically pops up on the screen, it is assumed that there isn't actually a time limit (there are exceptions. Fallout 1 and 2 both have hidden timers in them where bad things happen if they run out; but at least those gives you months of in game time to beat the clock). Most of the time these dialogues are literally being snarky because they assume the player isn't new to video games.

I highly recommend using a guide if you're not extremely chill about missing stuff.

I also realized partway through I really dislike pathfinder 1e, so i just started cheating, and then lost interest.

For what it's worth, Wrath of the Righteous is much better than Kingmaker in basically all regards.

If you just hate Pathfinder 1e then there's not really any saving that, but if your main gripe with Kingmaker was the story and quest design, WOTR significantly raised the bar there in my opinion.

https://youtu.be/ZZumZYg3ad8

Hey! Skyrim was legitimately easier when dragons and vampires weren't killing off all your townspeople. It made sense not to trigger the dragons, and wipe the floor with the vampires as soon as possible. Jarl Balgruf will be there when the Archmage/ Nightingale/ Speaker is ready. It takes me a few weeks to take over those organizations.

What can I say? I'm wacky like that 🤷

I still play Skyrim and Fallout 4. The games are legitimately better if you exhaust your side quests first. I was just clearing Vault 88 last night.

I don't spend times on games that need a guide. Put clues in your games if that's what you're doing. I work way too much to learn every consequence of in game decisions that aren't at least hinted at. Reading a guide is just spoiling. Make good fucking games. If you give me a 20 hour gotcha I'll never play it again and tell others not to bother.

Cyberpunk 2077: Here's a really important and urgent thing. We can't stress enough how little time you have. Also, we just unlocked the rest of the city and a million side quests. Have fun!

i am inclined to agree. the final fantasy 7 remake was surprisingly gentle about not having stupid missables. You could miss stuff, but it was recoverable without starting the whole thing over.

i had a whole argument with someone on here a while ago where they insisted i just had "fomo" because i didn't like this sort of surprise consequences. Foreshadowing is cool. Unpredictable is, to me, unsatisfying.