Volourn

"They don't need a shooter engine for qa CRPG." Stop with the nonsense! It's not a shooter Engine!

True. But, that's just the writer being picky. <>

I think it's more the fact he is disspaointe din all the rnating about the ending; not that he actually hates the ending... <>

Crhis Avellone rules. He's the best amongst all 5 of those punks. His current fave games include NWN! Take that! Plus, I like what he'd do if someone told him that all RPG stories suck! LOL

A RPG either based on wrestling or The Stand would be awesome.

Infinity Engine is dead. Dead, dead, dead. I'm sure Obsidian realizes this and won't bother trying to purchase the rights to use it from BIo anytime soon.

But, you sure don't mind the oft repeated 'Obsidian r0xx0rs!" threads either. That's why one can be considered a fanboy! R00fles!

Yes, I agree, a good post indeed. Of course, that doens't mean I agree with everything. LOL So, here we go.. :D "So high in fact they had little chance of succeeding wth NWN1 on a critical acclaim level." Um.. NWN did succeed on a critical acclaim. It got high review scores including for the OC. Remember, just because the same 100 people bash OC doesn't mean that the OC is universally hated. "They had a. too much on their plate and b. didnt have the collective skill as of yet to pull such a massive project off 100%." I don't think it has to do with skill or lack of skill. It just illustrates the simple fact that it foten takes more than simple skill to accomplish things. Afterall, though I've criticized KOTOR2; that doens't mean I think Obsidian is lacking skill. It just that the skill they do have just need to be used a bit better - whcih i'm sure it will. "I am talking specifics, the OC. Generally speaking yes it is. I have said several times myself, as a WHOLE its a excellent game. But if you start talking about specific parts some are vastly better then others. That was what I was refering to." Of course, the OC as successful. Afterall, most NWN players are SP and theya re also the ones who went out and bought the expansions. The OC was popualr enough to warrant continued sales of the game. "Now your putting words in their mouth." Maybe. "So I have no issue giving them the benefit of the doubt if they are secure in the timeframe." They said the same thing with KOTOR2 which they got just over a year to work on. With NWN2 they have 2 years to work and in that time they need to make a good OC, update the graphics, make the 3.5 transition, and upgrade the toolset. That's a lot. Remember, they had just over a year to do KOTOR2 and that was a game where they didn't even really touch the graphics other than few additions like weather effects. With NWN2, they're completely redoing the graphics. Devs will always say they have enough time pre release. Troika did the same thing with eahc of their games yet in the end it was obvious they tried to do much with the time they had.

I always bring popcorn or some other snakc when surfing the net. D R A M A is always expected.

Evil? Holy moly people? We are discussing a game's development and people are talking about evil? Holy moly? Talk about upping the DRAMA. That's one thing the net gots for it - it is more soap operaish than soap operas are. R00fles! Neitehr Obsidian or LA owe us anything else (except maybe a patch for those who have lots of bugs since we all should have as working a game as possible). There is no need for overacting by you folks. D R A M A

Fallot comes close to that. Close, but no cigar... will, you can get through no fighting if you are a coward and don't mind blowing people up from a afar. (w00t)

"Roleplaying implies playing a role, though... if your GM sets a game where all the players were to play the roles of pacifists, then playing a pacifist and trying to solve problems without combat is roleplaying. If you break into combat during that session, you're not really playing your role very well" Meh. I consider that more in lines of acting; not role-playing. Subtle difference; but eixsting. "But as this is terribly irrelevant to the thread, lets discontinue this discussion." It's close enough. Obsidian will read this thread, and our opinion on these manners *may* help them determine what role (fi any) combat and choice will play in their next game.

"Hehe, I'm sorry but that's just not true. That would be implying that combat is what defines something as an RPG, which is almost the opposite of the truth." Yes, it is. Without at leats the choice to partake in combat then there is choice at all. If your character is a pacifist by default then, to me, he's not really a pacifist at all. I never said in order to be a RPG you had to have forced combat; but there has to be combat if the PC chooses that route.

Oh yes, I should point the intiial topic, nice interview. Afterall, that's why I intiitally clicked to read this topic. LOL

Try out the EOB series only if you can somehow find a patch. You *might* like it; but I doubt it since it is the epitome of hack n slash role-playing and silly puzzles. Here;s the set up - Something bad is gonna down in Undermountain that threatens Waterdeep and you gets ent down to solve it. Think HOTU except NO role-playing, NO thinking, just rnadom wandering in Undemrountain. R00fles! The one thing it does better than HOTU is that the dungeon is bigger than HOTU's version; but it is soooooooooooo borrrrrrrrring...

"Liesure Suite Larry series, the Sims, The Final Fantasy games, and the entire Might and Magic series." You gotta be kiddin'. I'm sujre there are better examples than this. I cna think of at least two, imo. The four you mentioned, two of which I perosnally don't like, are all quality titles in their own way. Tsk, tsk. "Like I said, I only play CRPGs and Space Combat Sims." Like I said, you need to play more games. heck, i can think of quite a few CRPGS that are eaisly worse than NWN. Haven't you played the EOB series? *puke* That series alone is enough to make one shake their heads at crappy games.

Nothing wrong with that. And, hey, I'd like the option to play as a non Jedi. And, Han is my fave characetr in the SW Universe as well. But, to me, the Force is the SW Universe.

"As far as the 5 yrs issue, I am well aware the OC wasnt in development in 5 yrs. But if you know anything about game development you know its not a linear progression. You dont all work on the FX engine, then all work on the sound system, then all work on the toolset then all work on the OC...\" It's real simple. BIO original vision of NWN was not to have no OC. At all. Zilch. Zero. Nadda. Theyw ere supposed to ahve just a couple of little mods as examples of the toolset. The only reason why an OC was even included was fans of the Bg series (including myself) bugged them about it. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. BIO's biggest mistake on NWN was listening to the whiners like me. So, instead of getting a perfect toolset, we got a great toolset that coula been better and an OC that while I and many others enjoyed was not as good as BIo can do as evidenced by their previous work and their work sense including HOTU. That's the reason why the OC gets so much flak. Not becuase it sucks outright. It's just that after the Bgs eries; people expected God's Gift To Single Player Games. Heck, even in this very thread, Hades finanly admitted it was (abysmally) average which is what I've been saying all along. As for experienced devs doing a better job. i just don't know. Afterall, when Troika was formed, they had some of the most experfienced game devlopers ever most notbaly Tim Cain whose been in the business for nearly 20 years and they still screwed up their company. "I beleive -now- if Bioware did nwn1, it would be x3 better then their initial attempt. As they now have the collective expereince and skill to IMO pull it off much more successfully." Of course they would. It be silly to think otherwise. Afterall, NWN has been out for nearly three years so BIO has lots of feedbakc on what NWN did both right and wrong. This is (obviously) why NWN2 should be better than NWN1 - Obsidian has all that info. Then again, I thought the same for KOTOR2 and I was wrong. <> But, i'm sure Obsidian learned from their mistakles with KOTOR2 and Feargu's comments about needing an internal QA illustrates that they have. That's a good thing. "The team is dymanic, different people work on different aspects of a game. The toolset guy does not take away from the story guy does not take away from the FX guy." All true. Of course, as Drakron mentions, BIO did have other games. Their story guys were also working on BG2, TOB, and even KOTOR. Remember, NWN was basiclaly being planned even as BIO was developing BG1. It wans't like their story guys were playing tiddlywinks; theyw ere likely working on BG2 and other games. "Thus yes, 5 years is more then enough time to get a quality game out the door." Ahh.. But, NWN is a quality game. Very few if non quality games get successful expansions otherwise. Nor would Obsidian be working on NWN2 if NWN1 wasn't a quality enough game to warrant a sequel. "The reason I am confidant in Obsidian is the fact of the massive amount of expereince of the team, the fact they dont have to re-invent every wheel and they have realistic goals IMO. Thus 2 yrs I feel is a fair amount of time." Realistic? I dunno. Afterall, accoridng to them their graphics will be the Best Ever tm, their Story will be the Best Ever tm. , the Toolset will be the Best ever tm. That doesn't sem to be relaistic in a 2 year span even with an alreayd made engine. That said, I figure NWN2 will be a greta game; but I doubt the OC will be as good as the best games in the business. The overall package will kick behinds though. Drakron, good post. "They don't have intimate knowledge of the game engine because they did not make it. " Yo, Hades, that's why they have BIO helping them with that. It's not like they exist in a vaccumm. "@ Volourn: It is one of the worse games I ever played. It is in my top ten list of worse games I ever played, but that doesn't change the fact that it is average. I did give it a 75%." You say it's an avergae game yet put it in your 'worst 10' games ever. You, sir, need to play more games if an 'average' game is in your worst 10. Afterall, average means average not worst or best. R00fles!

"Id like an RPG where combat was nonexistant. I mean, Ive done it PnP a hundred times, why couldnt it work in digital?" It's not a RPG if combat is nonexistent. Period. Ghost: Good points; but elt's face it. A RPG in the SW universe without the Force would be boring comapritvely speaking. Afterall, the 'Force' is a big reason why its speicial.

"only 5 characters, arguably, had any Force sensitivity at all; Luke, Obi-wan, Yoda, Vader and Palpatine. Leia (at the time of the movies) did not." You sure about that? Remember, Jedi and Sith arne't the only beings in the SW universe that have access to the Force. I'm sure there were quite a few Force Users at the time.

"For instance (sorry about re-using Star Wars in my examples all the time), I'd like to play a Star Wars game where, obviously, the Force exists, but my character and perhaps even my entire party had no access to it (ie. playing as a Han Solo type rather than a Luke Skywalker type), and the enemies didn't necessarily use it (ie. much like the OT, where the vast majority of bad guys don't have access to the Force, only Vader and Palpatine did). " That be dumb. Unlike the psionics in FO; the Force is SW is pretty common. In a SW game, the player should have an option to be a Force User (but shouldn't be forced ala KOTOR1&2).

"Well in BioWare defence Visc they did not really had the time ... the only diference is that OE had no problem in comming clean after KotOR II was released over time issues as BioWare only said that NwN OC had problems when they were trying to sell HotU." Not true. This wa sinformation shared with us right after the OC was released before any epxansions wer eannounced. Other than that, Drakron, is right on. Anyone whot hinks BIO spent fives years working on the NWN OC is just plain ignorant. The game took 5 years. That includes all the steps. That also doens't include all the effort put into BG2, TOB, AND KOTOR whichw ere all ebing made at the same time as NWN. It's also easy to ignore the fact that BIO had tod eal with a complete publisher change and a court case. Not to emntion that the OC was overworked. The big mistake that BIo can be held solely resposnible for is the lack of henchmen in the OC. They shoulda listened to me. I warned them! "Then again, as I have declared before, my six year old nephew could." Proof? You are making up balony. Send me a opy of his story though I know you are blowing smoke again. "more or less agree. Bioware had FIVE years on nwn1. How much more time did they need?" Read up on the history. until then, in all due disrespect ( ) you shouldn't be accusing Drakron of ignornace. He seems to have a better grasp of the facts when it comes to NWN1's development than you do. Hey, Hades, you called NWN OC (dismisally) average. LOL That's different than "one of the worst games ever". LOL

FO had psionics though, of course, the player got cheated and wasn't allowed to use it. BOOOO!!

Woopity do dah. They thoguht someone else deserved the award. Not the end of the world.

Good stuff.