Poll: Do you like large dungeon crawling and grinding levels?

I’v spent so many hours in dungeons of Baldur’s Gates, Pillars of Eternity and other similiar games… so i can’t say, that i hate them. When i get to repetitive content (many floors of dungeons, 3 items on opossite sides of map to open gate to next level and so on), i want atleast a challenge, loot that will make my favorite character better, maybe some puzzles and interesting boss in the end. I think it has to do with fighting system and maybe party system. It’s more about controlling group and big group fights, overcoming an army of enemies, it’s fun.

Long, solo dungeons. Well, you can’t fight an army, u fight many smaller battles in many rooms… by yourself. It seems, just by logic, that you can’t have dungeons like that going for too long. We are talking about story driven games, not action RPGs. Diablo 3 is different and people will mindlessly run through levels and collect shiny items, while watching something on their other screen, which is cleraly not case of this game.
When i played Skyrim or Fallout 3/NW, i didn’t really care about levels, how many exps i get for certain activities. I just leveled what i wanted, went where i wanted and did what i wanted. In those worlds, i didn’t feel restricted to 1 location and need to finish it before moving on (like in Dragon age: Inquisition - i felt so forced to stay in those maps and do stuff and in the end, i overleveled and had grindy and boring experience in the next ones, even on highest diff). If i don’t feel forced to stay in location until finished, i probably won’t mid anything, because i can just move on.

If i like fighting system (doesn’t matter if party or solo), i’d probably play 4 hour dungeon with no problem. I’m not sure if it’s going to be the greatest thing that i did that day… If it’s tied to maybe some npc, companion npc i like or interesting quest and you give me something in the end and i feel satisfied, fine. The outside events after this “chore” might feel even better and more refreshing now.

For the poll - i voted for filler, waste of time, longer doesn’t mean better (also known as Dan Vavra’s Choice).
I’d probably add after the “longer doesnt always mean better”, that if im interested in the game and games gameplay or character/s - i will crawl through dungeon for 4 hours no problem.

For KCD, i’d rather have satisfied feeling of great game and be little sad that it’s over bit too soon (30h instead of 60h) than have the experience watered down by fillers.

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That 30 hours, I’d heard that number thrown around and had assumed that was purely the main story content.

Because 30 hours total game play including side quests and other activities is pretty limited IMO for contemporary open world style RPG’s.

I wonder if we can get some clarification on that here… :question:

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Yes, they told very early on that 30 h is for the whole thing.
Main story will be roughly around half of that.

Seems CDPR went for the RPG check list:
Dev 1: "Ok guys, we need an overlong, repetitive dungeon section with relentlessly spawning hordes of zombies undead."
Dev 2: "Check… Has already been taken care of."
Dev 1: “Oh, good to hear. Now the next step: let’s copy that so we can claim to have over 100 dungeons in our big open world.”
:slight_smile:

But seriously:
Please, no filler stuff (my vote).

Quests should be varied, so the gameplay keeps fresh and entertaining. Dragging things for eternity will only lead to boredom and/or annoyance.
It could be split up, this way it can be avoided to put in too much of the same stuff at once.
A little bit of it here and some time later a little bit of similar stuff there should work.
So the player has to do other things in between.
This should keep things interesting.
Definitely it shouldn’t become a chore just for the sake of increasing the overall play time.

€dit:
What Helena said.
I think puzzles would be an good idea.

That’s what I like in the tomb raider games.
Crawling through the catacombs and solving puzzles (unfortunately the last game had only a few and they were pretty simple).
There’s something atmospheric about it. :wink:

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I liked the Skyrim dungeon system, where it was like a Landmark, something that stood out, like the old tombs, with human enemies but when you go deeper you start to fight monsters, I know there will be no monsters, just saying. But at the same time I dont want to spend 2h in one dungeon, especially when its just hacking through hordes of enemies. Also making dungeons look the same makes the game soooo boring. There could be really good implementations especially with human enemies, where you looking for thieves or bandits, and their hideout is a Cave, or you have to go through sewage underneath the city so you can sabotage the castle from within.

If they mean the entire gameplay of act 1 is 30hours, then I think that is not enough. But if that is the main story that is 30h then thats fine. I just hope that with side missions, exploration, mini games(blacksmith, hunting, mining etc) it will be more then 30hours.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want a game that is copy-paste missions etc just to get 100++hours of gameplay. But always hope for something more/longer in open world RPG, and with that I mean not alot of similair long missions like alot of games do. But with mini games, exploration, side quests etc. Like we are Henry, a blacksmith, so maybe even have possibility to use alot of hours on blacksmith and make money on that, and also have something in the game to use the money on… And to use many hours on stuff like blacksmith I guess will be no problem in this game with there awesome mini games(like alchemy)

But if they continue like they have done so far, if its just as much to do in the rest of the world as the small village we have now. Then it will be no problem, I have 10hours in game right now(and I know alot of people have alot more then that) And that is just on the stuff we have in the alpha right now, the side quests, mini games etc. So if the rest of the world is just as rich with stuff to do as this village, then I think it will be way more then 30hours in this game for me…

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I think, what makes you keep playing is the greed for the loot.
I didn’t like Skyrim that much because it constisted too much of dungeons, but many people spend thousands of hours doing exactly what you described, which shows that tastes are different.
The best way to handle it would be the option to skip the dungeon by paying some NPC for entering it or the possibility to complete the quest in another way.
I am talking about longer dungeons, shorts ones are okay for me though.

Ok the problem with big world games is that it needs to be filled with something.
Now the main story quests or quests revoling around that will be very interesting and engaging.
I myself am in the stage to go to Oxenfurt and visit the kid of the Baron and also have completed the quest line for Keira Metz which was brilliant as well.
But filling the whole wolrd would take years for the development team, so it is much easier to fill it in with more generic stuff.
Is it bad? No! Because if done sensibly it will encourage exploring of the unknown and the promise of a secret treasure found by “luck”.
Is it necessary in the main story? It should not in order to keep the people who primarily do want to be engaged in the main story engaged.
But as an option it is great! You don’t need to do it, but if you feel adventurous you can. And I think KC should not totally exclude the exploration part either.
I personally do love both exploring and the story. So Witcher becomes for me a huge waste of time as I try to do a bit of everything. And I really do get side tracked very easily, yet I do not mind at all.
Several hours of mindless monster slaying is not what I am after though. That is why i get tired of games like Diablo very quickly.

Disclaimer: My opinion might be saturated due to the fact that I got laid by Keira Metz.

The only part of dungeons I enjoy are the exploration aspect of them. Elder scrolls oblivion drove me nuts because all of the dungeons were exactly the same. Skyrim was a lot better because I could go into a dungeon and not expect the same thing from the last one (except for those dead norse crypts, they were a bit “cookie-cutter”). Many times I was exploring Skyrim dungeons and caves because I was simply curious. If they are too long then they become tedious and lose the thrill of exploring. I’m excited to explore the few dungeon’s in Kingdom Come. I bet they will be just right :smile:

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I never liked dungeons much, very the same what’s written in the 1st post :smile: It’s fine, when they’re (in limited amount) part of some building (like castle, mine) and they have role in the story (prisoner being held here) or it’s shortage between the two places on the map (under hill or so - preferably no dead endings - but in a fully open-world game as KC, this might be useless anyway).

I think dungeons have often been boring filler content. But once in a while, a dungeon can be done rather well, and tell a story about something deeper. There are examples of really bad dungeons and really good ones in Skyrim. Don’t remember which ones were bad… but the good dungeons would be places like the Dwarven one with the ancient machines, and deep history behind it.

Dungeons can be included only if they are done exceptionally well, but I don’t want too many of them

Unless it’s very special, I get bored. I too don’t have as much time these days to play games (2 kids!) and when I do, I want to be engaged. The Last of Us was criticised for being short, but it was so well done and fulfilling, I didn’t mind at all (I didn’t think it was short either).

i prefer meaningful content, but filler i have no problem with if you use it to round out the experience.

witcher 3 does filler content two ways. one is the roadside encounter with enemies. another is the loot in the water. barring certain types of encounters, the roadside enemies are usually different and varied, and situation sometimes changes so they don’t overstay their welcome. however the latter loot in water is utterly tedious and repetitive. go out in a boat, dive and loot, climb back onto boat. rinse repeat 80 times. i feel when they developed maybe 20 of those missions, it’s good enough, but 80 of those? i felt they wasted time on those which they could have used to just make the important quests better.

Frankly speaking it is difficult to answer on this question (even if I’ve choosen to vote for No dungeon crawling). I mean it realy depends on the game, in the content and complexity of a dungeon and most important the reason. Plain content filling for the sake of an increased gametime if it is not mandatory to achieve a badge or to complete a quest is acceptable. Forced mob grinding for quests or achievements is not only a brainfxxx trigger but also something for younger folks with a lot of time. To go for a cavehunt to kill a meneater brownbear is fun, also getting rid of a group of 2-3 bandits is realistic. So, I would be excited to see realistic dungeons (caves, mines, grotto etc.) and instead of monsters regular Thugs, thieves, robber baron/ robber knights, Brownbears, lynxes and other typical dangerous animals for the medieval european areas.

Voted “filler content” because grinding simply would not fit in with a game like this. It would feel totally out of place. I do, however, like dungeons very much and I believe they can be made worth visiting without resorting to turning them into grinding locations.

I wouldn’t mind dungeons but I think this game is trying a more realistic approach so I think personally you should be able to do side quests as a mercenary that can help for level grinding as well. Such as taking down bandits, outlaws, Or any other kind independent groups. Maybe even a couple working for bandit, outlaws ect. If they have the time, maybe even make it so that you can pick the side in the main story line so that you can do side quests to attack what side you want ect. And Maybe some stealth missions that or even spy missions ( with a system for disguises) so that you can infiltrate the enemy obtain special items.

Love Crawling dungeons, Check out physics based Exanima

Long live dungeons! I love it all!

None of the options really fit for me.

I do not like “Grinding” levels but I do quite enjoy a GOOD dungeon crawl, IF the dungeon is well designed and has strong narrative/story elements that carry you through it, rather then simply existing to get “ph4t l33t” and waste a few hours.

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None enough options in the poll. You need something like “I don’t like dungeon hack n slash, I prefer smaller dungeons with plot rich content.” The only other option there makes us want both, and I don’t want both, I want story and depth in a dungeon.