Guard Dog

There is no way around it. For a CRPG to be any good it MUST have a well written hook, good story, interesting characterization, and sharp dialogue. Game play mechanics are not enough to save a CRPG. If you think about the really good games, they follow the novel formula point by point. Introduction, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion. But as important as good writing is, it is so rare in games today. That is the reason why we still talk about Torment now almost ten years later. That is why we still play BG over an over. Good writing is what separates NWN2 from Dungeon Siege. It's why you remember and replay one, and remove the other and sell it on eBay. So what are some examples from games you have played where the writing was just exceptional? It can be a particular character that was well written, a particular dialogue string, subplot, character back story, or something else that impressed you. For me the one that made the biggest impression was the first conversation between TNO and Deionarra's ghost in the mortuary in Torment. Up to that point I was wondering what the heck that game was about, a why was I playing it. After reading that and hearing her fore telling, I was hooked. That has to be one of the best hooks in any game I've played.

I have created a number of NWN mods and I've been working on an NWN2 ever since I opened the game box. I think there are a few reasons. 1) When NWN came out that toolset was unique. No other CRPG gave you the flexibility to actually create your own "games". Most toolsets allowed you to modify the OC and add your own elements to the game as it was shipped. But with NWN, you never neven needed to play the OC. Now it seems the novelty has worn off a little. 2) NWN now has 5 years, two expansions, and a ton of community made tools. NWN2 has a handfull of user made tools, a very limited Monster selection, and no expansions. And has been out for less than a year. The first expansion will soon be out and may well add enough content to kick start the modding community. The NWN modding really did not hit it's stride until after SoU and the first CEP was released. So it is a little early to call it dead. Granted there were some really good pre-SoU mods, but the best came after. Another thing to note, by using Granny, Obsidian made it difficult to create custom content like new monsters and animations, tiles, etc. With NWN it was not easy, but with NWMax and a few tutorials anyone could do it. That is not a criticisim of Obsidian, I know and understand the why behind the decision. Some things cannot be helped. 3)The tileset system in NWN made it very easy for a rank amatuer to create a decent looking area in a short time. The trade off was, it did no look that great and became horribly repetitive. The NWN2 height mapping is... extremely detail intensive. It is not impossible to use by any means, but it takes a hell of a lot more effort than the NWN Tilesets. The results when done right are really, really impressive. And when done wrong, extremely discouraging to the modder. When it comes to placing objects, triggers, etc it is really not much different from NWN. Scripting of course is the same. But making a good looking playing area requires a lot of thought and effort. And it takes a lot longer. And the sad truth is, not that many modders are investing the time it takes to learn, or are becoming frustrated and giving up altogether. But it is still too early to give up. Wait until after MotB then see what happens.

Free Beer? Where and is there a limit, I will put em out of business. Take the brewery tour and they let you have free 8 oz samples. They say one per customer but there is a table for each kind (Bud, But Lite, Busch, Natural Lite etc) and nobody knows who's had what. Plus there are like 200 people in there at once. The beer boy making minimum wage does not care how many you get. I must go there next year And you can take the tour as many times as you like. They do one every 2 hours or so. no i must go for the free beer You have to do the tour to get the beer! They have a little taste testing session at the end.

Ok that was a little funny...

Free Beer? Where and is there a limit, I will put em out of business. Take the brewery tour and they let you have free 8 oz samples. They say one per customer but there is a table for each kind (Bud, But Lite, Busch, Natural Lite etc) and nobody knows who's had what. Plus there are like 200 people in there at once. The beer boy making minimum wage does not care how many you get. I must go there next year And you can take the tour as many times as you like. They do one every 2 hours or so.

No thats ok you can say some of the NWN story lines haven't been great. Because some of them were not.

Free Beer? Where and is there a limit, I will put em out of business. Take the brewery tour and they let you have free 8 oz samples. They say one per customer but there is a table for each kind (Bud, But Lite, Busch, Natural Lite etc) and nobody knows who's had what. Plus there are like 200 people in there at once. The beer boy making minimum wage does not care how many you get.

Your little boy is growing up Taks. Before you know he will be borrowing you car.

And so, we have heard the first steps taken towards world domination. A penguin controlled robot army with an evil genius behind it all.

And free beer, don't forget.

I always wondered. Do they start out knowing what they want to call it and just try to come up the the words for each letter?

Yup, that is true.

No that actually happens. The first one that got everyones attention was a thief breaking into a house via a skylight. He fell through and broke his leg. The owner caught him trying to drag himself out the front door. The thief was arrested then he sued the homeowner for the accident and actually won. Once again proving Shakespere was a wise man "First kill all of the lawyers". Sorry Gromnir and Enoch. But I digress for topic here. I agree with GDM completely. As sad as the pics of human brutality are I am much more moved by pictures of human accomplishments and the natural world. That is just me. I will agree with Arkan, the Hubble Deep Field is one of my favorites. But below is one I have always found pretty moving. Its a pic of the Shuttle Atlantis launching as seen from the ISS. shuttle.bmp

I'm pretty sure Shamu was here in Texas. Been to both a few times, I much prefer Six Flags. The rides, the arcades. I beat Killer Instinct 2 so many times at Six Flags. All of them with the Werewolf guy on just one credit. They are all called Shamu. Sea World for me! It's just a two hour drive form me.

Wow. I actually agree with Yushaa on something. He's right Mes. The thing about free speech is it does work two ways. The newspaper was perfectly within it's rights to print whatever it wanted about Muhammed. And any offended muslim would be perfectly right to be angry and express such in the form of boycotts or protests. However, the moment they resorted to violence or even threats of violence they flushed the moral high ground right down the toilet. Nobody deserves to die or risk bodily harm over words or pictures. That is a lesson the more violent practioners of Islam has not yet learned. As I posted earlier, God/Allah/Jesus/Muhammed (henceforth referred to collectively as God) is not some helpless figure that requires us mere mortals to stand up for His honor. If someone issues an insult to God, that is between them and God. It is not for us to mete out justice for an offence aginst the divine. Killing a human we are able to adjudicate because we are humans. Besides, I somehow doubt God would be offended.

We are going OT a little here.... but, what do you mean there? Clicky!!! Ok one last OT post. This article you linked was an opinion piece that, irritatingly, did not cite the cases it was complaining about. But a quick Lexis Nexus search as solved that. So after a lot of reading (you've given me a real homework assignment here Teeth ) I think I've got a pretty good grip on the subject. And I think it's worthy of it's own thread, which I'll put up when I get back tonight. But this is an pretty interesting topic, thanks for bringing it up. For the record, after reading 4 of the opinions, I find I'm in agreement with Kennedy for a change.

I would never do a thing like that... Believe it or not you were not the one I was worried about.

We are going OT a little here.... but, what do you mean there?

Two points you should consider Gorgon. The original target on Aug 6 was Yokohama, much less populated. The target there was the Misubishi factories where the Zeros and Bettys were made. Hiroshima was chosen for it's fuel dumps. The other thing to consider is the USCINCPAC did everything to let the Japanese know Nagasaki was next. They announced it on Radio Saipan and even dropped leaflets telling the citizens to evacuate. Most did not because the Japanese high command would not let them. Plus, as I understand it, they did a good job of suppressing the news of the full extent of damage to Hiroshima. On top of that, Truman gave a "surrender or else" ultimatum on Aug 3, another on Aug 7, and of course the above mentioned radio/leaflet messages. As for casualties resulting from an invasion of the Japanese home islands. Come on. You are not dumb and it does not become you to play the part. I will agree with Stew, this was not a highpoint in American history. But I will point out that unlike Germany, the Japanese military was largely intact in 1945. Most of it was on the the home islands. Their naval losses took them out of the fight by 1943 but they still had consideble power. And I would point out that it was also considered by George Marshall that rather than invade they could blockade and try to force the Japanese to capitulate by starving them off. That was rejected the moment it was discovered the Japanese were also working on an atomic weapon. One last thing. if the British had atomic weapons when the Battle of Britan was going on, do you think Churchill would have hesitated to use it? Would Stalin, Tojo, or Hitler?

Just bought Galactic Civilizations II w/expansion. I've been a little leery of Space 4X games since its been so long since there was a good one. MOO2 was the last one I liked. I've heard good things about this one though.

The first indication we had that the NWN modding group CODI had gone belly up was their website disappearing. I'd have been worried too.

My personal opinion is...... let them live and do what they like. If they want to get married, let them get married. It does not effect my life at all. Freedom is all about doing whatever you please so long as it does not bring harm to or endanger the same for anyone else. As for Gay adoption, they can be screened like anyone else. Very Libertarian, yes?

Gorgon wins this thread! I'll have that image in my head all day today. I can see a couple of teenagers running away with that thing under their arms. Or worse, the soldier comes to get it and finds it on blocks, gun, treads, and cameras missing. Too funny.

Yushaa, you my friend are a one-trick-pony.

Link: Armed Robots Patrol Iraq Be sure to check out the video. This thing is like Asimov's worst nightmare come to life. From an engineering standpoint I am fascinated. I'd be curious to know what the lag time on command execution is. What it's current usage is while running full out, firing and panning it's cameras simultaneously? Do the treads have separate drive trains? But that of course is proprietary. We have all heard that eventually wars will be fought using robot proxies. But I would bet, like me, no one believed it. Until now. I have one request. Can we please limit this discussion to the technology and leave out the politics of the Iraq war itself. Everyone knows how everyone feels already. But the morality of the use of weapons like this is certainly fair game. Now all those years of playing Doom will pay off.