Guard Dog

You mean like NWN2 or Dragon Age or even Oblivion? NWN2 doesn't even have a website. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> NWN2 has had less than a year and a half of Dev time. Since the graphics component has been totally redesigned a 2 yr cycle (which is what it will be in the Juneish release timeframe) is not that long for a game of this size and scope. If the release date needs to be rolled back, I hope they feel they can do so to give this game the due dilligence it deserves. God knows we do NOT want another KOTOR2. A bad sequel can end a franchise. Case in point: Master of Orion 3. With Dragon Age, Bioware has made no bones about this being a distant future project. With the creation of a new game engine it is a project in the second year of what will surely be a 3+ year cycle. I would imagine the bulk of their resources (the art and graphics design folks, DA has its own programming team) are dedicated to Mass Effect and the other secret project which everyone thinks is JE2.

When advancing a group phalanx I keep the formation staggared so an advancing unit can wheel around an engaged unit for a flanking attack. Also if one formation is flanked by cavalry they cannot keep charging into the next... and next... and next... lost Nicomedia to the Eqyptians that way. Plus I always keep peltasts behind the formation, even when they are out of javelins. If they do nothing else they can delay a rear attack while one or two phalanxed units reverses their direction of march. The worst part about playing the Greeks is not having an economy to fight Rome and Macedonia at once. The closest I ever came to winning I sold Syracuse to the Carthaginians and Theremon to the Macedonians in the first round. Used the armies there to capture Crete and Athens and built a power base in the Agean. The Romans attacked Theramon and the war consumed Macedon but I wound up in a all out war with Pontus for the cities in Asia minor and although I won, I left me too weak to fight the advancing Egyptians. Still have not been able to win playing the Greeks.

High praise indeed. " Currently bouncing off the wall in anticipation of all the games I want to buy that are coming in Feburary, right at the beginning of a new semester before the coursework starts piling up. :D <{POST_SNAPBACK}> When I was in college it was Lords of the Realm 2 and Heroes of Might and Magic 2 that kept me from doing what I should have been. Had it not been for those two games, a few "C" might have been "A". Bauldurs Gate nearly caused me to fail Circut Analysis 2. It's an addiction isn't it? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I know the feeling. Luckily for me when Lords of the Realm 2 was out I was still in Elementary school and could get A's while sleeping through classes. :D It's so much more difficult to do that in high school. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Wow, now I DO feel old.

High praise indeed. " Currently bouncing off the wall in anticipation of all the games I want to buy that are coming in Feburary, right at the beginning of a new semester before the coursework starts piling up. :D <{POST_SNAPBACK}> When I was in college it was Lords of the Realm 2 and Heroes of Might and Magic 2 that kept me from doing what I should have been. Had it not been for those two games, a few "C" might have been "A". Bauldurs Gate nearly caused me to fail Circut Analysis 2. It's an addiction isn't it?

When you get right down to it, there are two things you must do to win any TW battle. 1st and foremost is unit match up. Use spearmen against cavalry, support light infantry with ranged attack, heavy infanty against lighter infantry, etc. 2nd do all you can to break the morale of your enemy. Do all you can to kill the enemy general ( but not at the expense of your plan of attack or defense). You should attempt to flank the enemy, use light cavalry to attack an engaged enemy formation from the rear, use heavy weapons like ballistas, onagers, flaming arrows and scorpions as the enemy is at march. Once the enemy has broken, if there are no othere engaged formations, pursue, do not let him reform. If there are, use your free units to attack. If there are reenforcments, reform and do it again. That is all there is to it. Its like chess. Coordiante your movements. Don't attack unless you use all of your pieces.

Actually one of the best improvements introduced in Rome over Shogun and Medieval was the absence of the Risk style map. In Shogun/Med you marched an army into a territory and automaticly fought whatever army was there in a terrain fixed for that whole territory. If you won, the entire territory was yours. In Rome TW map borders are just lines on a map and you can march in armies to block trade by blocking roads, harbors, or prepare for a defensive fight by choosing your ground. The terrain on the campaign map is the same as the terrain on the battle map. Case in point. Playing as the Greeks I know that the Romans will attack Syracuse within the first game year (2 turns). To buy time to prepare I send 160 Hoplites and 81 Peltasts to take up station over the road to Messina on the slopes of Mt Etna. They were attacked the next turn. Holding the phalanx on high ground backed up by peltasts my 160 hoplites broke a Roman army of around 400 Hastati and killed Quintus Scipio in the bargain. I was able to take Messina 4 turns later because I goaded the Scipii into attacking me on ground of my choosing.

Play a short campaign. I wrapped up a Juli short campaign in just 3 nights. Granted 3 very long and sleepless nights.

Not to shift gears here too much, Volo and a few others mentioned the Witcher as a competitor to NWN2. Has CD Projekt floated a release date? I have not heard of one and their site makes no mention. NWN2 we already know about when we'll get it. If the Witcher comes out six months later it's not really a competitor (at least not for the OC, but an expansion pack... heres hoping). As for the Witcher, I'll buy it. What the heck I'm a man of few vices so what's another $40 US. If it sucks, it will not be the first bad game I ever tried. Thats why we have ebay.

I'm with you there. I even bought the Rome TW soundtrack. And I NEVER buy soundtracks. Definitely psyched about this title. The one thing about Rome TW, I could never win playing the Greek Cities. Always wind up fighting Rome and Macedon at once and that puts me in an unwinnable bind. Playing BI now, trying to revive the Western Empire. Excellent game.

Really? What would you call them? Gameplay on all 3 titles is similar. What title would you call an RTS. Age of Empires? Civ? Just curious.

(w00t) Creative Assembly has announced the upcoming release of it's latest Total War title. It's a remake of the original Medieval Total War in the new RTW engine. If you have played both the original Medieval/Shogun Total War games and the newer Rome Total War you cannot help but be excited. And if you haven't, and love RTS get off your tail and buy one of them. Estimated release date is Q4 2006. This should work out perfectly. With NWN2 released around June I should have plenty of time to finish my NWN2 module and jump into Medieval 2. Check put the details below: http://www.totalwar.com/community/medieval2.htm

As to the first part of Brian's comment, we had a similar situation at work. I work for a major US based cellular company as a RF engineer. We recently had to reject an applicant who had been with the company for many years simply because they did not qualify for the job. This individual had worked up from customer service to data translations and aspired to go even higher. He was a good guy, and a smart, and hard worker. But desire did not give him the knowledge level to do the job. That can only be had with an eduaction, and yes that usually means a degree. Bioware's little contest will certainly grab some attention. However, no matter how good their module might be, without some experience in writing, software design or both the winner might be drinking from a new Jade Empire coffee cup but they will not be doing it in Edmonton. As to Aes Sedai's post, the best way to get noticed by a developer is to mod their game. Rick Burton, Georg Zoeller, and Brian Chung all got noticed for their mod work but it was their eduacation as well as their ability that got them hired by Bioware. I would bet there are more than one or two on Obsidian's staff who were noticed by their first company because of modding. But only knowledge level gets the job

First of all let me preface by saying that while I do have some knowledge of CE, programming language, and software design, I am far from being an expert. Programming tends to be an overused and often misused generic term for software design and CE in general. The difference is usually one of semanitcs depending on who is using it. If he wants to take a shot at game design then I would suggest you get him a copy of Neverwinter Nights and let him learn to use the toolset to actually create game mods. It will familiarize him the the general design process and introduce him to a basic form of the C++ language. There are a wealth of tutorials and guides on Bioware's website on how to use the toolset. It is a lot of fun and if he has an interest that will certainly kindle it. As for learning a programming language I would let him wait a little while longer yet but these books you mention sound pretty good. Reading a book is never a bad thing. As for schools, any college of engineering that offers CE has a series of art and graphic design classes that are ususally required for the degree. The game design industry is a really small niche so graphic design knowledge would seem to me to be a real important thing to have to get in. But heck, he's only 12. I would not push him too hard yet. The moment you make something you profession or business, you will stop enjoying it as a hobby. Trust me on that one!

Most voice tracks were already in the game in the unused files.

I earned a BSEE at Florida State, and the BSCE program (and the entire college of Engineering) there is first rate in my opinion. I had a friend there, CE grad who is now working on a PS2 game for Creative Assembly in London.

I think you are right on the money. I do not own or want an Xbox or any console for that matter. I'm thinking that while there are at least 500,000 CPRG fans who do, Bioware really missed their core audience by not making this for PC as well. I'd buy it if it were.

It will be released as an installer so that it 1) Doesn't conflict with your other mods and 2) There are so many files and so many places to put them that it would be alot easier on both the downloader and creators to just make an installer. So, yeah. Probably like a patch. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It might still conflict with other mods; we're not even thinking about that can of worms yet. What the installer does is give people a way to cleanly uninstall the mod (which, while we like to think it won't, we know will happen). We're planning on distributing the auto-updater with both the manual and auto-installs. Just to reiterate what is already there because we know someone is gonna ask without reading: Team Gizka is not doing M4-78. This is a separate group of our forum members who wanted to try it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> When the project is done, I'm going to do a clean install of KOTOR2 just for that. I uninstalled the game after being disappointed by the chopped ending the first time through. At this point no other mod means a damn thing except Team Gizkas WIP

C'mon Eddo, I know you are trying to be funny, but you have to raise the bar a little bit here. You can't expect great sophistication on a SW forum but you have to do better than this. Come to that your last one was not funny either.

As a graphic designer, I can understand why you feel this way. However, these people are putting time into making the game fun, and they don't need to use spell check. If they were a professional company, then I would say you have a point. However, they are only gammers fixing another individual's mistakes. You bought a game where someone made code (spelling) mistakes, but you won't give these guys a chance!? Now that is screwed up! "However ive lost alot of faith in your 'team' as there are countless spelling mistakes over your website, even on the main page =/"<----They may have spelling mistakes, but you have a worse problem. Grammar Mistakes! Here is how you should have wrote your statement: "However, I have lost alot of faith in your 'Team'. Since there are countless spelling mistakes, at your website, I am reluctant to download your game fixes." Within your statement, you made a dependant thought, and you didn't finish your statement with a independant clause. I lost faith in your post! Here is another grammer mistake: "Im sure your doing great work."<-----A big mistake! Here is how it should be: I am sure you are doing a great job. I am sure you're doing a great job. Your - means ownership. If you use the word your in a scentence, know how to express a clear thought. Next time you make a statement, make sure you don't make mistakes! -------Overall this is how your statement should have looked like: I am sure you are doing a good job; however, I have lost faith in your team. Since there are countless spelling mistakes, at your website, I am reluctant to download anything from you. Even on the front page you have mistakes. Sorry, but that is how I judge the quality of your work! ------- Now, since your statement is flawed, I believe that the 'Restoration Program' kicks ass! Keep up the good work! K.M.A. (w00t) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> LOL! Best post on this board in a long time!

This thread needs to be locked. Nur Ab Sal, Flyboi, Los Whackos please go to www.democratunderground.com. You will find plenty of people there who agree with you. Everyone else will be welcomed at www.freerepublic.com. Can we not have one discussion board that does not get infected with poitics?

Nope, that says it all. Good luck and kick some ...

Yes go fight for american oil rights. I am sure Bush will commend you. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> For the love of... can we please keep politics off this board. This guy is doing a brave and patriotic thing and he does not need to hear you denigrating him because you do not like the current administration. If you want to talk politics go to freerepublic.com or democratunderground.com. People come here to get away from that crap. 11XHooah, thank you, good luck, and godspeed. BTW, I was in the Marines, 1989-94. It paid for my BSEE. It's a tremendous opportunity and a good thing to do for your fellow citizens, even ungrateful ones like Flyboi.

Been pretty quiet lately. Any word from Aurora or her team?

thanks for the link <{POST_SNAPBACK}> FYI... you will need to remove TuTu to use BG2.

Problem with MOO3, the engine was so flawed, even modded it was just unenjoyable. What Aurora and team are attempting to do will do so much more for KOTOR2 than any MOO mod ever did for it's game.