Tigranes

Oh god, don't start another forum drama about Hungarians. The point is that naiming it the Cafe of Broken Dreams would be a reference to the original fallout games, no matter the actual meaning of the name. So naming it something else wouldn't really work. Now let's move on.

Hell, Pop, I finish BG2 all the time. Many, many times. It's TOB that I rarely finish. Just finished my third playthrough of NWN2 as a paladin.. or rather, stopped just before the final dungeon and all, because I relaly don't like the combat there and I've already seen the dialogue/etc.

Short point: As sad and frustrating it is, the current situation regarding the complexity of computers is such that seemingly logical statements like "I could play that game, and this one has the same specs" or "I could play newer games than this one" do not work: each game is a different nut to crack and there can be problems in places you had never thought of before (i.e. shared memory). You could complain that there is no affordable and practical method to bring your system up to scratch in your current situation, but again, sadly, it's not within the capabilities of a game developer or the computer industry to rectify that. By the way: If you say that, then that means your computer as a whole does not meet the minimum requirements, right? Then it's only logical that your computer cannot run the game. 49% in a test is still a fail, even if it's only by 1%. If you do not meet the minimum requirements in all areas, then sometimes you can get lucky and play it anyway (i.e. you with the prequel), but that's just a lucky break.\ Don't think that we don't have sympathy for your plight - hell, we all have trouble with running games, even when they "should" - but I'm afraid there's not many places you can yell at to change the situation.

Meaning that regular potion will heal about 3% of your health. The funniest thing is though, I always kill that one by casting some Lower Resistance then Disintegrating it. Or was it Finger of Death? I swear it works every time.

Well I've thought about this line of RPGs for a while now, so I do have some comments. Risks/Pitfalls: As I said above, the presence of well-expressed consequences is make-or-break to this concept. The character is placed in a much more 'insulated' environment where, especially on a low-resource undertaking such as this, they are more often 'told' what is going on or has happened, rather than shown. It can devolve into a meaningless number-game if the consequences aren't very significant; also if the actions are too easily reversible (Fail? Try Again!); and if options are too set across any linear scale (Good/Evil, Smart/Stupid, etc). All this appears to make things too complex, of course, so my suggestion would be to prepare a series of small 'events' such as riots about a particular issue or whatnot (kinda NationStateslike, no?) then have the player act as a reactive force. Attractive Feature: It's obviously different from any RPG or Strategy game out there and promises a more sophisticated level of philosophical, political, social commentary. This can be seen as a detraction, but also an attraction. Design Cliche: Probably the nature of the agenda the ruler must come across. For example, if they were too staple - i.e. "A corrupt official is oppressing the people, but he brings money into our coffers!", is not likely to excite the players even if the concept is unique for a video game. Your hint of moral complexity promises different, but it is crucial I think to deliver. I think your situation - that of a King newly instated after a war - will ensure, however, that the situation is quite different. It will be very important to capitalise on this. You say you will use a lot of historically inspired examples; it will be great then to study them and implement not only the complexities of the situations, but a new point of view - not in the view of the historian or the reader of that history, but of a participant, subject to the thoughts and ideas of the time. In fact, I really want to stress the fact that so many games, so many pieces of any literature, seek to impose the epistemology of our own time on the past or in an alternate setting. Let's say we have a spy in the Kingdom, but we're not completely sure if he's a Spy. The two basic responses are kill him, or just imprison him. In our society, even if the former happens, it would be frowned upon; and in literature or games, the people who advocate the former will be given 'evil' or 'Machiavellian' imageries - cold, hard, and so forth. But perhaps in THIS world, people who advocate the latter are seen as too wishy-washy and are simply being childish, and the game does not attempt to put the 'killer' camp in a bad light. I am running away with this tangent and it is very ambitious in idea, but heh, there you go. Feel free to ignore this part. Custom Content: Firstly, the setting. Everything about it currently evokes Romanness: if so, the High Fantasy / Medieval look of NWN2 will need some modfiying, otherwise it will become a rather unflattering pastiche of the visual. I am personally curious as to what made you choose a non-medieval Kingdom setting when such a problem presents itself, but you will have your reasons, I am sure. As a casual player, with the kind of presentation you make (the logo and all), I would actually expect lots of Romanesque, or pseudo-Romanesque, elements in all visual parts - meaning a fair amount of custom content, especially in terms of music, fonts and interface as well (these things are too often left out in favour of new buildings or models). If not I would be rather struck by its amateurism. Roleplaying Content: A loaded question isn't it, coming here to ask? I envision there being a huge amoutn of roleplaying because of the dialogue / decision-driven nature of the game. If I may go on a tangent though, the impression I am getting at the moment is that the game will not be 100% King on a throne talking to people agian and again and again; I get the impression that the King can also take a gander down the streets, listen to the people, get attacked by assassins; personally lead squadrons in an attack or defence of the Kingdom; and if resource allows, even visit an outpost or nearby village personally. Hell, even get kidnapped at one point. meaning there woudl be a mix of more traditional RPG gameplay - combat, stealth, exploration, movement - as well as this decision-making stuff. This may not be what you mean at all, but that's how I understand it - perhaps because that's what I think would be good.

What kind of comments do you want us to make, Kaftan? Because I assume you're not just looking for "hey, that sounds nice"? That might be all you get from such a short abstract. One of the interesting things is how you will prompt the player to do certain things if he/she is a ruler and not subject to any higher authority. For example, what happens to the traditional RPG economic model? Or does the emperor have to negotiate with the treasury to finance things, which then shows in the environment (i.e. better defences, new farms)? Will there be any combat at all (i.e. assassins)? Whatever the answers to those questisons it sounds as if the primary mode of gameplay is through dialogue, and in other words decision-making and people-persuading: it will be difficult to represent the complexity of effects, counter-effects, follow-up effects and so forth that come from your actions and words, but the basis is there to create that mechanism in the toolset. It would also be nice to see something that has more powerful consequences than in the OC's stronghold. Is there an overarching 'story' or 'situation' in which you are thrust? i.e. will the player be dealing with succession issues, or the legitimacy of his own ascension? An outside invasion, or an inside rebellion? A specific configuration of warring factions? New technologies , beliefs or disasters that threaten the social fabric? Or something different than the kind of things we get in 'standard' history? It does sound interesting though, I'd love to play it.

I never really saw what was so good about FO's music, but this stuff is pretty damn hollywoody. Lord-of-the-Ringsy. Jeremy-Soulesy. Have to say that it gets on my nerves just because it's so overused and mediocre - would get the same reaction from me even if this wasn't Fallout.

In that case, what are the benefits of being a fugitive?

Downloaded, will try.

Super Mario 64 was brilliant, you could see inside Mario's head whenever he stood next to a wall. Oddly, I liked NWN2 camera. Or rather, I had no problem with it. I'd just use top down view and keep it roughly isometric, then just use middle button to swerve around and scroll it to zoom in and out whenever i wanted to. Generally I'd make it more kotor-ish indoors, or just use it to dodge the trees and whatnot. I mean it's not perfect, but I have no idea why people dont' liek it. Hell, Free Camera can now be made to be exactly like IE games with the same keys.

The point is that in a battle situation, there are many outcomes that need not require you to defeat everything the game throws at you by force in order to accomplish your objective - or, indeed, survive. In 'optional' dungeons and so forth, let's say there is an 'undefeatable boss', and behind him is a pile of gold. Some games do give ways to outwit or sneak past this boss and avoid combat, but still get the gold - or just turn away. However, they at the same time give a way to defeat this boss, by just being damn good or by using tricks such as Yaga-Shura's heart. But what if you could not, say, kill Yaga-Shura? There was no convenient, ready-made, deus ex machina method to find the witch and the heart and render him vulnerable? There could be any number of ways to defeat him then - destroy his army while avoiding his invincible wrath? Incite dissent within the ranks? Use magic from afar to nip people off? Destroy his army's supply lines? Of course, sometimes we can do that already in games. But we never get to find that out ourselves. You'd get a cutscene of everyone sitting in the war room. "Yaga-Shura cannot be defeated." "Alright, we'll try and hit the supply lines." Thus you are yet again performing another linear role given to you. It would be more challenging and immersive if they simply said, "stop Yaga Shura somehow", and you could search for various ways to do it - and in the end, perhaps, Yaga Shura destroys Saradush ANYWAY. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you can't stop everything and you can't make everything happen. I think that's particularly the sense we lack in games. Then the actions you had taken before would decide how many lives you saved, and stuff like that.

Apologies, I have no time to convert this to American times, will do so later. GMT+12 (New Zealand): Monday, ~10am - Midnight+ Friday, ~10am - 4pm Saturday, ~5pm - Midnight+ Sunday, ~5pm - Midnight+

All you need to do is give clear hints that there are other ways of getting through the battle, and for example an NPC saying "let's run" actually means let's run, not "let's run, but I know you wont because its' aa computer game!". And not stupidly blatant either, like the guy having 999999 health on your interface screen.

Halo's story is a Hollywood action flick story with a sci-fi background. I enjoy the game and it deserves the success, but pretending that the story has any level of depth or verisimilitude is erroneous. With enemy AI, Halo levels are often designed so that you are running along a linear, fairly narrow/small, set of corridors shooting at stuff. It's both the cause and result of a fairly standard, but unimaginative AI set; what would have made it something special is to have traps, and other 'special' things to run into. Instead all you get are glorified crates and turrets.

The thing is, very few new strategy games managed to break Starcraft's hold in Korea - Warcraft 3 to an extent, but it was more of a coexistence, never really challenging Starcraft's hold. More historical simulations such as Age of Empires series or Rise of Nations never really took off except for AoK, and I think Koreans do enjoy the small unit numbers, tactical based gameplay Starcraft offers. FOr something to break though it woudl first need to have sufficient prestige in Korea to get recognition (i.e. the name of Starcraft or Blizzard), then cater to that market while showing Starcraft to be outdated.

Koreans liked Diablo and Warcraft a lot too. The whole country pretty much feeds on Blizzard games and Korean MMOs. The main reason behind that is that many of those subscribers are not "full" or "hardcore" gamers. They wouldn't be playing games if it weren't for the MMOs and Starcraft; MMOs because they like to use it as a social function - just something they log into for 20-30 minutes a day, enjoy the pseudo-roleplayish stuff and the atmosphere, talk a bit, kill some things, go out, just like they check their email or their korean equivalent of facebook/myspace. (Cyworld) Lots of girls come into this category, in that they don't know gaming culture, or about other games, much. Then everyone knows/plays Starcraft cause it's like, well, football; its just the national pastime.

Yes, when the hell is the Witcher coming out? They had about 3 hype-runs and then went to sleep.

You're not including any console devs though.

You know, I always forget to give myself the Merch's Friend feat. Or to enable commentary.

What the frack happened to him anyway?

Oh no, effeminate men. That is clearly a horrible thing and no decent person should enjoy games with effeminate men. Please.

My farm... my farm... give back... my farm..

Fantastique. Seriously, someone make a de-Shandra mod. Is it really that hard?

The 'story' is far from complex. I enjoyed Halo actually, even on PC, mainly for the multiplayer. I still play Halo 1 every now and again.

I confirm that I will be playing as long as you don't start at like 4am my time. I tend to be flexible, though. 1) I have no idea, Cant, I should be online quite a bit in the next 48 hours, so bop me on xfire sometime and I guess we can try that out? i.e. see if I can go through area changes and progress in critical dialogue. 2 / 3) I am not averse to having a different module, but I rather suspect we can't find a good one. A poorly made, unbalanced module would be a horrible experience (though we might get some laughs). Hell, in nwvault's 5-10 players Multiplayer mod category there are THREE modules, and uh, "no level restriction and here is the mod so u can join my..." I think we're safer off with the campaign unless somebody else finds something good. We can handle the campaign. 4) DnD Hardcore Rules are third on the NWN2 slider, it just means all 'standard' rules - i.e. friendly fire, there is no artificial changes to mosnter damage or hit points or whatever, and so forth. Sounds fine to me.