If you say, "Inspired by D&D 5th Edition" (which the developers did), then people expect something that uses D&D 5th Edition rules. And it didn't.metaquad4,Sep 15 2016 wrote: The main issue with Sword Coast Legends, was that it had a D&D tag (though, that really wasn't the issue. People's expectations were the issue). Hence, all the people who had differing expectations from the reality of the situation were disappointing. Had it been released with a different name, it would have been welcomed with open arms.
It was a pretty fun game, it just wasn't the D&D game people were expecting. From what I understand, a lot of people were expecting something akin to nwn2/nwn1/kotor (an RPG, not a dungeon crawler), or some such. It is a really fun dungeon crawler, people were just hyped up for something else. Expectation vs Reality issues.
People understand that game technology has moved past NWN1/2 or KOTOR. What they don't understand is saying it's a D&D product and then not using the rules. The way the developers implemented things for SCL didn't even try to follow the rules of 5E. NWN1/2 did try to follow 3E/3.5E rules, even if the devs didn't always implement things in the correct manner. Devs have to realize that we've had Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale 1 & 2, Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 -- all of which followed, to the best of the dev's abilities, the rules of their respective edition. You can't claim it's "D&D inspired" and then make your own rules. If you want your own rules, do what Pillars of Eternity did and make your own world.