Fable III Catch-All

Sorax wrote:

But then there is honest to God slowdown from time to time while adventuring, NES style. No flicker however For me this isn't a big deal but these technical properties seem at odds. Just like Microsoft proper, I expect Lionhead to eventually reach perfection through iteration. Here's to Fable IV getting it all right(...if we're lucky)!

Never happen. Adding more features will always eclipse polishing the ones they already have in dev's minds. "Runs at a decent framerate and without all those horrible glitches you remember from the first three" just doesn't make for a very good bullet point on the back of the box, however much you or I might prefer it to "Revamped magic system that's not really any better than the last revamped magic system that really honestly wasn't any better than the first one!"

I've entered into the second... I don't know, stage of the game? I can see what some people meant about feeling pressure. But...

Spoiler:

When it says 365 days left, it doesn't really mean that. I watched a full day/night cycle once it gave me a little freedom to run along and do my own stuff and it didn't go down to 364. Since time doesn't actually pass by letting the clock run, that number is meaningless and your time is unlimited. If your time is unlimited, so is your money. Suddenly, those moral choices aren't so hard anymore because with enough patience you can pay for absolutely everything out of pocket.

That said, I've been a little disappointed with the options I've had so far. Let's take Logan's trial, for instance. My choices were to execute him or pardon him. Whether I want to spare his life or not, he did a LOT of horrible things. Why can't I lock his ass in the dungeon? Or at least make him say he's really really really sorry? Same with the taxes. I can raise them, lower them (apparently to ZERO?), or keep them the same. I can't lower them a little. Then moving on to Reaver, my choices are either to let him use children in his factory or turn the factory into a school. Why can't I let him keep his factory but only employ adults?

All told, I really admire how good Fable is getting at giving me difficult moral decisions. That said, they wouldn't be so difficult if my only options weren't completely rigid and absurdly extreme.

I'm going to have to replay the game after the next patch, I think. Jasper hasn't said a peep for a good ten hours. While I'm not such a giant John Cleese fan that I MUST hear every word he says, I was genuinely enjoying the writing for that character and imagine he might have had a thing or two to say about what's going on.

Also all my houses keep falling into disrepair because he's normally the one who tells you to go fix them.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Jasper hasn't said a peep for a good ten hours.

I'm experiencing the same issue. Jasper has gone mute. Searching the internet reveals we are not alone. I hope Lionhead patches it soon.

Edit: I just reported the bug to Lionhead. And over on the official forums it is clear lots of people are having the issue. It is a huge bummer for me. Last night I just stopped playing. Jasper added so much atmosphere.

It's hard to tell for sure, but Jasper's muteness may coincide with the first time I tried co op. I might start over with an unjoinable game. I really don't want to start over half way through my first playthrough.

There's a discussion on the official forum about the adapting weapons. It seems like it's a lot more dynamic than we had been thinking.

Is there any way for me to get Jasper to automatically repair my real estate? It's not that hard to do through the map interface, but in a role-playing sense, it feels like it adds more stress than it should. Worrying if I have a bunch of properties falling into decay, that is.

I can't get over how finely tuned the comedy is in this game.

In a black & white landscape of serious and light-hearted game design, it's rare to see a title that combines the two so deftly. It's like you normally get to choose between Gears of War or Kirby's Epic Adventure and there's not much out there in the middle.

Fable 3 manages to ground itself in a realistic environment and set you up with a serious quest. But when they dress you up in a chicken outfit for an early quest, the gloves come off and the game just revels in its quirky brand of British humor.

It's an amazing balance that gives the game a completely fresh and unique feel.

CptGlanton wrote:

There's a discussion on the official forum about the adapting weapons. It seems like it's a lot more dynamic than we had been thinking.

Yeah, the longer I play the more I see the variety of ways your character evolves. My hammer now is jet black, the gem in the hilt changes colors depending on what spells I use most frequently. My tattoos also now glow blue whenever I'm charging either a spell or weapon flourish.

I had my first, ah, "extended" play session today and I'm very happy with how things are progressing. I like how there are areas open that don't serve any purpose in the main quest (yet?). They remind me of quest hubs from an MMO. The occasional slowdown is a bit of a bummer but nothing that makes me want to put the game down.

Couple tips:

There's a 10-key chest in Bowerstone, and another in Brightwall. 10 Silver Keys is not a lot, and each chest nets 50,000 gold. That's plenty to start buying larger businesses and amassing your fortune.

Ice Storm woven with Shock Bolt is a pretty dominant spell combo, especially at level 3 or above. The fully charged AoE is ridiculous.

Aaron D. wrote:

I can't get over how finely tuned the comedy is in this game.

Amen. Whoever mentioned "The Game" quest earlier was dead-on: I haven't laughed that hard at a game in quite some time.

Don't read this spoiler unless you've finished the quest:

Spoiler:

The line at the very end, where the guy calls the game rubbish for having a boss fight that ends in one hit, was absolutely priceless to me in particular. My roommate says his Fable 2 experience was nearly ruined by the anti-climax of killing Lord Lucien.

Also,

Sorax wrote:

It's hard to tell for sure, but Jasper's muteness may coincide with the first time I tried co op. I might start over with an unjoinable game. I really don't want to start over half way through my first playthrough.

My Jasper has gone silent as well, and I haven't had anyone join my game. I did see someone else's little bubble thing, but no co-op.

I'm actually kinda glad for it -- I was quite sick of him telling me to go buy the lame-o dog costume for two dollars anyway.

Jasper's weird in my game. He's almost totally silent, but he still talks every now and then. He's definitely not notified me that any house needs to be repaired, ever. But he'll still manage to spit out a few words every now and then.

So, last night Lobster was in my game, and we just ended up powering through the entire last Act in one sitting--from my taking the throne until the credits rolled. Overall, I really enjoyed the game and, although there are a lot of little complaints I'd make, I think Fable 2 and 3 both do a great job of creating a realized fantasy world for you to muck around in. Some time soon, I'll play through again knowing the ins and outs a lot better, and when you should be focusing on what. I won't go into details, but I think that the timing is messed up during that final Act.

Spoiler:

You have a year to prepare the kingdom for something bad, but that year doesn't pass evenly at all. Also, the final fight is pretty lame.

Does anyone know, if I start a new game, will the unique weapons I get from other worlds (during my present game, I mean) be available to me?

As far as the sex of the deceased hero, it seems like it's random. I played a lady in Fable II, and I'm playing a lady in Fable III, and the hero was my father.

Also, I played some co-op last night, and Jasper is still chatting away this morning, so that's probably not the cause of the bug. I wonder if the slowdown can be helped by clearing the cache. That helped with New Vegas.

How far do you let your property degrade before repairing?

I'm thinking 75% is ideal as it's just about when I start hearing complaints from tenants.

Aaron D. wrote:

How far do you let your property degrade before repairing?

I'm thinking 75% is ideal as it's just about when I start hearing complaints from tenants.

I've stopped bothering with houses because of that continuous cost. Shops don't need it.

I'll probably have to get back into real estate to get 10 million, though.

TheCounselor wrote:

As far as the sex of the deceased hero, it seems like it's random. I played a lady in Fable II, and I'm playing a lady in Fable III, and the hero was my father.

Would it have really been so hard to just scan for a Fable II save? Not asking for Dragon Age or Mass Effect level of plot integration, but sheesh... a simple M or F trigger? How difficult could that have been to throw in? Seems kind of silly since they go out of their way to say this is the SON/DAUGHTER of your previous character.

Question about the second act of the game.

Spoiler:

So how does the timing work? How does it determine when a day goes by? Is it only when I do a quest? Or fast travel? Or is it random? Do I theoretically have all the time in the world if I just sit there and bake pies until I have enough money? If it truly is random or unpredictable then I think I may start a new game. Seems like something as crucial as how much time you have left shouldn't be up to chance.

Montalban wrote:

Question about the second act of the game.

Spoiler:

So how does the timing work? How does it determine when a day goes by? Is it only when I do a quest? Or fast travel? Or is it random? Do I theoretically have all the time in the world if I just sit there and bake pies until I have enough money? If it truly is random or unpredictable then I think I may start a new game. Seems like something as crucial as how much time you have left shouldn't be up to chance.

Spoiler:

It's purely based on when you do the items on the "day's schedule". Once you complete all of them, time jumps forward. Not all jumps are of equal length.

I just finished, and I have to say that single-save plus not-well-identified point-of-no-return made me go absolutely apesh*t. I suppose it means I saw an ending I otherwise might not have, but it also means that the ending I was aiming for will require a complete new play-through, and I'd put a lot of work into getting where I was trying to be. I'll have to make pretty much all of the same choices to get back there, so I don't even get to see anything new, except maybe different weapons.

For those who wish to know, the magic number in the second act is

Spoiler:

one hundred something days. Your chamberlain will comment on how few days you have left (or at least he will if your treasury is low), and more significantly there will only be two items on the day's agenda. If you do not have enough money in the treasury after completing the day's agenda, you're SOL--you don't get to do anything except rule on the cases before you after entering the throne room.

I was going for a "goody two-shoes" ending but still saving everyone by paying off the full amount in the treasury at the last possible moment. All of my cash was in my personal vault, and the treasury was well in the red. But I was making tons of money by owning absolutely every possible building on the map, and I'm pretty sure I could have paid off the entire debt *and* filled the treasury to the target amount if I'd sold off all of my real estate and then transferred my cash to the treasury.

Of course, buying up and tending all of the buildings was a bit of work. So I'm more than a little pissed off. *sigh*

And the real hell of it is I do have a secondary storage device, so I *think* I could have saved to it to have a second save if I'd thought to do so. Which I didn't. Meh.

I can understand wanting to do "single-save" in a game that's supposed to make you think what you're doing. But that only works if your choices are actually informed choices. They really fell down on the job there.

Hypatian wrote:

I can understand wanting to do "single-save" in a game that's supposed to make you think what you're doing. But that only works if your choices are actually informed choices. They really fell down on the job there.

I couldn't disagree more. That's how life is sometimes, especially when making such large choices. Blind, grey decisions with critical ramifications.

That said, I haven't played that part of the game yet. Maybe I'll feel differently about it when I see it. Just from reading your post though, it sounds like you're asking them to neuter the weight behind the decisions you make.

SommerMatt wrote:
TheCounselor wrote:

As far as the sex of the deceased hero, it seems like it's random. I played a lady in Fable II, and I'm playing a lady in Fable III, and the hero was my father.

Would it have really been so hard to just scan for a Fable II save? Not asking for Dragon Age or Mass Effect level of plot integration, but sheesh... a simple M or F trigger? How difficult could that have been to throw in? Seems kind of silly since they go out of their way to say this is the SON/DAUGHTER of your previous character.

Alternate way of looking at this: they don't use the info for anything important to the narrative or gameplay. The hassle (I'm sure it's a hassle or more games would do it) of importing saves probably is not worth the completely irrelevant designation.

Not to mention my Fable 2 character was both sexes on multiple occasions.

No, I am fine with the decisions having weight. What I'm not fine with is a perfectly sane and rational strategy (by both game logic and real-world logic) which involves a lot of hard work to be negated because the game is being vague and hand-wavy about the passage of time, and doesn't bother to let you know the point at which it becomes important.

Spoiler:

Okay, I'll admit that owning everything and skimming off the top instead of having high taxes is a little weird... However, I was already well invested in the real estate market before the second act even started, so it seemed like a very logical way to do things. Having the money in my own personal fortune meant I could invest it effectively and turn it into *more* money to put into the treasury later. I was carefully doing some exploration and other stuff between each "day's agenda" to give time for my fortune to increase, and I was watching the time left to try to decide when it was time to stop moving forward. Considering that the first jump, anyway, was about a *month*, I don't think it's unreasonable to feel that the last jump wouldn't be in excess of *three months* (in which I was somehow unable to dump the piles of gold from my personal treasure room into the castle's treasure room, even though I could have done it the previous month.)

Grr.

Anyway, the key point is: Anything that makes someone feel like they just wasted the last eight hours they were playing the game is bad, no matter what. It's not exactly a short game when you're completing lots of stuff and not just trying to run through as fast as you can.

Edit to add:

Spoiler:

One thing I was concerned about: At no point was my treasury positive. I wasn't sure if that had an impact on the number of people who would survive. I thought that maybe if I put all of the money in at the very end it would have still killed an awful lot of people because the resources weren't there early enough. If I'd only had, say, 10% survive because I put the money in too late, I would have felt justly punished for not having given the kingdom the resources it needed *when* it needed them. I wouldn't have been outraged at all.

But having the resources to save everyone and being denied the opportunity to give those resources to the kingdom at all (resulting in a maximum amount of death in the populace)? That was completely beyond the pale.

Spoiler:

I was being a jerk and putting money in the treasury all along through taxes and denying projects, although I too got screwed on the three month leap and could have saved more. But I doubt that Fable is sophisticated enough to take into account the amount of time it takes to train an army and expand the military infrastructure.

Regarding timing.

Spoiler:

I could even see those three months being "Oh, if we don't have the money now, we can't train everyone and deal with logistics in time". But something needs to actually be said out loud at some point, because otherwise you don't know that three months is what's going to happen when you step into that throne room. Grr.

Ohh, well.

One possible lesson to take away would be "don't start major TACO collections on your first play-through of a game". But... other games don't have that problem. They also don't always require that you collect all of the TACOs in a single play-through (including after-the-game-is-over time.)

I guess it's nice that Fable's worlds have big enough things happen in them to result in an after-game world you actually *don't* want to continue playing in. But...

I'm really enjoying the game so far. It's more Fable, and really that's what I wanted. I might not agree with every little change they made to the game, but overall I'm just glad to be back in the world of Albion, with all it's peculiar character and atmosphere intact.

Blind_Evil wrote:
SommerMatt wrote:
TheCounselor wrote:

As far as the sex of the deceased hero, it seems like it's random. I played a lady in Fable II, and I'm playing a lady in Fable III, and the hero was my father.

Would it have really been so hard to just scan for a Fable II save? Not asking for Dragon Age or Mass Effect level of plot integration, but sheesh... a simple M or F trigger? How difficult could that have been to throw in? Seems kind of silly since they go out of their way to say this is the SON/DAUGHTER of your previous character.

Alternate way of looking at this: they don't use the info for anything important to the narrative or gameplay. The hassle (I'm sure it's a hassle or more games would do it) of importing saves probably is not worth the completely irrelevant designation.

Not to mention my Fable 2 character was both sexes on multiple occasions.

If they're going to make a big deal about your character in FIII being the son/daughter of the character from FII, it seems pretty sloppy to just trust to random chance. If a simple save check is too complicated, it seems like they could just ask you during character creation or something. Either that, or just don't bother to tie the two games together.

Not any kind of big deal, but it's something that serves as a minor annoyance.

Blind_Evil wrote:

For comparison, the problem in the Dragon Age: Awakening continuity was a much bigger deal (though still not one to me). They did make a big deal about you ..

I hope that wasn't a big spoiler. I haven't finished it yet and I certainly didn't expect stuff about Dragon Age to be revealed in the Fable III thread.

SommerMatt wrote:

If they're going to make a big deal about your character in FIII being the son/daughter of the character from FII, it seems pretty sloppy to just trust to random chance. If a simple save check is too complicated, it seems like they could just ask you during character creation or something. Either that, or just don't bother to tie the two games together.

Not any kind of big deal, but it's something that serves as a minor annoyance.

That's my point. They didn't make it a big deal, other than a few offhand references and the stuff they left behind. Sex isn't a factor, really. Also, when I said it was a hassle I meant to point out that I've heard MS is pretty weird about letting data from one game access that of another.

I think the possible can of worms from a storytelling standpoint is too messy if you go importing saves. As I said, gender was a pretty weird thing in Fable 2. Also, you can actually have kids in these games. I did not in Fable 2, so how the hell am I in 3? Maybe they assume I have kids after the game? Eh..If I were the type to worry about this sort of thing, that'd bother me even more than a few lines of dialogue misrepresenting my former self.

It's just not worth worrying about.

For comparison, the problem in the Dragon Age: Awakening continuity was a much bigger deal (though still not one to me).

Spoiler:

They did make a big deal about you sacrificing yourself, whereas in this case it is not a focus at all.

Sorry if it was to you. It's nothing that doesn't become obvious 4-5 hours before the end.

I think a year out it's pretty safe to talk about stuff freely, but I edited anyway.

And what are you doing? Go play DA, it's way more important than Fable <,<

I... assisted Glanton during his entire reign. He was kind of a bastard.

Spoiler:

He took all the evil choices (except he saved Bowerstone Lake, the hippie) and had his people booing and hissing at him in the streets. Even so, he ended up with only 3 million in the treasury and Theresa commended him on his ability to resist the urge to be a tyrant. He raised the taxes and sent the children back to the factory while clear-cutting the Dweller Peak and mining Aurora! Power has made you CRUEL, Glanton! I don't care what the Seer says!

So much of a bastard that I noticed him starting to change. The runes on his weapons shifted from blue to white, presumably on their way to red.

In my own campaign, I'm now taking in 65,000 gold per tick. I accomplished this by buying every single shop in the entire game, and all the houses in Millfields (they're worth a ton, there aren't many and they're tightly clustered so it's easy to maintain them even without Jasper reminding me, as he is not, because we are apparently no longer on speaking terms due to a bug and my inability to remember what he likes when I do the coffee run). It's enough that I can run along and do a quest or something and when I'm done I have another half-million gold on hand. I'm well on my way to funding the entire kingdom out of pocket.

Now on another note, in Fable II it was kind of cute that every game had its own doll and there was an achievement for collecting all seven so those interested could get together and pass around a collection. It seems that in Fable III, they've extended that mechanic to goddamned everything. Don't like the selection of hair styles? Too bad, that's all you're getting. If you want another, better find another player to join and hope for the best. Good marksman who's getting nothing but evil weapons and hammers? Better get used to your Hero Rifle or get a little extroverted... even if that might glitch your Jasper. Right now I'm using the Swift Irregular rifle, which kicks ass and is awesome and I had to buy from someone else's shop because my game decided I didn't really need it.

So yes, collecting dolls as a community is a nice idea, especially because I could decide to not do it.

In a game that has so many great ideas that fall short by lack of polish, the randomly populated shops do not make it feel like my land is unique and distinct and my own. They make it feel like my customization options are severely reduced from Fable II. On the one hand, it encourages me to play with other people online. On the other, it arbitrarily limits how much of my game I can access without playing it the way they want me to.

For reference, over on GameFAQs I saw people offering to trade two legendary weapons for a single hair style. There's something wrong here.

I just finished the quest titled "The Game". Very awesome.

stauf7 wrote:

I just finished the quest titled "The Game". Very awesome.

Especially the dig at fable 2's ending at the end of the quest.

You know, the more I play of Fable III, the more it becomes kind of a bummer to me. It seems like the things that they've "fixed" from Fable II weren't really broken, and the things that really were broken, they haven't fixed.

Granted, I haven't gotten to the point where you become king yet, so maybe that's where it all turns around, but as it stands, getting to that point is feeling more and more like a chore.

I'm really enjoying it. Obviously they've played with a lot of the things we've expected from the Fable series. Sometimes there's a hit and sometimes there's a miss. All in all I'm still getting what I wanted out of the game and the overall series.

I've gotten used to having the Sanctuary instead of standard menus. I don't necessarily prefer it over a conventional menu, but it's gotten more appealing and it's pretty quick to zip in and out of.

I would love a better health meter though. I'd prefer not to gauge how close I am to death by the red hue surrounding the edges of my screen.

I miss the gasp of joy you made every time you dug something up.

I love that they kept the dog.