First off, I love fable, I've been playing since day one of release in oakvale. It's truly one of the greatest RPGs out there, and many of it's innovations are found nowhere else on the market, even 5 years after the first game. But for every innovation, there's a near crippling design flaw that holds it back from being truly heroic. I have listed here some ideas I have that may help things out for the future, either in fable 4 ( or as I'm hoping) a patch at some point to fable 3. Here it goes.
1. Add difficulty. While not a crucial thing, difficulty adds a sense of achievement to whatever I'm doing. At the very least, a hard mode for veteran players who would like to test their mettle. Also, add more of a penalty to losing, I know friends who wouldn't bother with potions in fable 2, because dying just left a scar and took a trivial amount of experience away.
2. I was disappointed in fable 3 to find that once I was king, nobody valued their life anymore. While being evil and slaughtering towns used to be fun, the fact that the largest challenge now consists of chasing them, it makes weapons like Jacks Hammer seem pointless. Why do I need a damage bonus against guards, when they don't care what I do, and the trivial amount of health they have leaves them vulnerable to any crappy pistol I have, never mind the most devilishly powerful hammer in the game. At the very least, have the townsfolk fight back, we just threw a revolution against a king that taxed them too highly, I'm sure they'd be willing to shoot back against the one single-handedly massacring the entire town.
3. PLEASE flesh out this world more with dlc before moving on to fable 4. Aurora has hardly been touched on it's map, and considering the massive amount of middle-eastern lore you have to work with, it shouldn't be hard to fill up the western half of the map! I'm sure many people would be happy with a small island with a few new quests on it as dlc, but if you want to leave a legacy with fable 3, leave it after making a few full sized expansions. As of now, you have a ton of amazing legendary weapons for people to play with, but not enough content for them to get full use of, short of starting a new game. Please work on regions and quests for your dlc, and not just work on a few outfits and toys to keep us busy. It would be a shame to let the sanctuary shop that Jasper is always talking about go to waste.
4. Pace yourselves. I'll forgive you if it takes my character some time before he becomes king. Allow the main quest to flow through a general area, don't make it feel like you're rushing us to get somewhere. I enjoyed my time with the dwellers and brightwall, but I wish the troops in mourning wood would have asked for help with something more than just for my help in a single wave of hollowmen. Have us launch a counter attack, or defend supply lines or something. Help us realize the dire position Logan forces his troops to defend. While I put emphasis on this on point, there were other times in the story where that same advice would apply. *<Spoiler>* When you have a great villain like the Crawler, allow some suspense to build before the final confrontation. Let him take a few zones as his, let him get cocky about taking the capital before ending him. And when the fight starts, treat him like Jack of Blades, and make him a little more special than a standard fight. The ending was touching, but perhaps some conflict before the possession would make his defeat mean even more. And may I say the fight may not truly be over, if you play the story right *wink-wink*.
5. Limit us. While the idea of having a "super-hero",as you put it in your achievements, is awesome, it somewhat kills our customization options once we get really invested in our characters. It's much like how you fixed weapons. When everyones hero is perfect, why does it matter how I developed my character? Body-wise, he looks like everyone else at the end.
At the time, these are my biggest concerns for fable. If anyone else would like to comment with their suggestions, I'd be honored. As more people comment, I'm sure Lionhead would be all the more likely to address our concerns.
1. Add difficulty. While not a crucial thing, difficulty adds a sense of achievement to whatever I'm doing. At the very least, a hard mode for veteran players who would like to test their mettle. Also, add more of a penalty to losing, I know friends who wouldn't bother with potions in fable 2, because dying just left a scar and took a trivial amount of experience away.
2. I was disappointed in fable 3 to find that once I was king, nobody valued their life anymore. While being evil and slaughtering towns used to be fun, the fact that the largest challenge now consists of chasing them, it makes weapons like Jacks Hammer seem pointless. Why do I need a damage bonus against guards, when they don't care what I do, and the trivial amount of health they have leaves them vulnerable to any crappy pistol I have, never mind the most devilishly powerful hammer in the game. At the very least, have the townsfolk fight back, we just threw a revolution against a king that taxed them too highly, I'm sure they'd be willing to shoot back against the one single-handedly massacring the entire town.
3. PLEASE flesh out this world more with dlc before moving on to fable 4. Aurora has hardly been touched on it's map, and considering the massive amount of middle-eastern lore you have to work with, it shouldn't be hard to fill up the western half of the map! I'm sure many people would be happy with a small island with a few new quests on it as dlc, but if you want to leave a legacy with fable 3, leave it after making a few full sized expansions. As of now, you have a ton of amazing legendary weapons for people to play with, but not enough content for them to get full use of, short of starting a new game. Please work on regions and quests for your dlc, and not just work on a few outfits and toys to keep us busy. It would be a shame to let the sanctuary shop that Jasper is always talking about go to waste.
4. Pace yourselves. I'll forgive you if it takes my character some time before he becomes king. Allow the main quest to flow through a general area, don't make it feel like you're rushing us to get somewhere. I enjoyed my time with the dwellers and brightwall, but I wish the troops in mourning wood would have asked for help with something more than just for my help in a single wave of hollowmen. Have us launch a counter attack, or defend supply lines or something. Help us realize the dire position Logan forces his troops to defend. While I put emphasis on this on point, there were other times in the story where that same advice would apply. *<Spoiler>* When you have a great villain like the Crawler, allow some suspense to build before the final confrontation. Let him take a few zones as his, let him get cocky about taking the capital before ending him. And when the fight starts, treat him like Jack of Blades, and make him a little more special than a standard fight. The ending was touching, but perhaps some conflict before the possession would make his defeat mean even more. And may I say the fight may not truly be over, if you play the story right *wink-wink*.
5. Limit us. While the idea of having a "super-hero",as you put it in your achievements, is awesome, it somewhat kills our customization options once we get really invested in our characters. It's much like how you fixed weapons. When everyones hero is perfect, why does it matter how I developed my character? Body-wise, he looks like everyone else at the end.
At the time, these are my biggest concerns for fable. If anyone else would like to comment with their suggestions, I'd be honored. As more people comment, I'm sure Lionhead would be all the more likely to address our concerns.
