Llyranor

More reviews: Poor Sod

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- A Weapon of Legend: A humoristic mod. Tried to be funny. Failed. Again, making the player just be a passive reader is not a good idea. It's not dialogue if there's just one person talking. Score: 5. - Auster: The Infiltration of the South: Not bad writing per say, but I can

Five more mods played through. - Aspects: An interesting concept. At first I wasn't too happy with how the conversation flowed: the PC usually had few or no dialogue options to choose from. I would have preferred a more dynamic and interactive session. However, as I played through more and finished the mod, I can definitely say that this quite surprised me. Despite my previous complaint, I found the writing to be very good. The quest design was nice as well - it felt quite natural and intuitive. Given the constraints of the contest, it's understandable and appreciated why the focus was on this instead. The final decision was a hard one, and I was left there thinking about it for a while before making up my mind. Seal of approval earned indeed. Score: 9.25 - Bandits of Sorrow: I didn't really have fun playing the mod. It was too bent on uninspiring gameplay rather than good conversations. I see and understand why the author would want to focus on such 'puzzles', but that resulted in me never getting captivated by the story. Unfortunate. Score: 6. - Blackheart Dagger: The first conversation was enough to seal the deal. This mod is crap. It not adhering to contest rules by having more than one area didn't help. Score: 1. - Bridge to Netherworld: Wanting to go to the Netherworld to gather gold to pay for a ransom? Er, okay. I wouldn't say the writing is bad - some of it was even quite inspiring (especially one specific choice you had, hehe). However, I wasn't hooked into the story, really. Ultimately, the mod was perhaps a bit too simplistic in its implementation. Not that that's bad in and of itself, but it wasn't saved by particularly good storytelling, either. Good effort, though. Score: 8. - Bridled by the Past: The writing itself isn't bad per say, but the author completely missed the point of the gaming medium as an opportunity for interactive storytelling. The NPCs' longwinded speeches and the PC's single possible responses weren't particularly inspiring. I as a player do not enjoy being just a passive reader; I need to be an active participant in conversations - make them dynamic and interactive! I can certainly appreciate the effort put into the mod, though. Score: 7. I realize I'm being pretty generous in terms of scores. I've been giving plenty of points for potential and effort so far.

I initially planned on making a mod built on amnesia and saving the world

Nick speaks truth. Like I said, though, the scores are relative. They'll go down soon enough once some better mods pop up.

Mistland = Jagged Alliance 3D will be crap. It's a good thing JA3 itself isn't being made by them anymore. No announcement about who would be the new devs has been made yet.

I considered signing up too, then I realized that I don't actually want or care to be hired by Bioware. Downloaded the first page so far. 25 mods. Playing through them in alphabetical order. Got through 6 so far. The scores are relative to each other, so they'll change as more mods get reviewed. - A Complete Story in the Form of a Tradition Bioware Sidequest: An interesting quest in theory - get married or die trying. To be fair, the writing or design wasn't actually bad, it just didn't feel very inspiring. This mod felt sterile. I appreciate the effort, though. Score: 6.5. - A Crime of Necessity: First, the bad: some typos in the journal entry. This was essentially a murder investigation, a very serious mod. The mood set by the writing was quite good. Good quest design as well. I spent at least a couple of minutes thinking about what my final decision would be. Given the contest's limitations, I am rather impressed. Score: 9.5. - A Morbid Tale: You've been captured by mindflayers, oh no! The conversation flow was not impressive, with the PC being basically a passive reader for the most part. The NPCs just kept talking to each other, making the mod feel somewhat focused on flaunting the writer's skills, to the detriment of the player. As the player, I did not appreciate this. I wouldn't say the writing is bad, but this is not how interactive game writing should be like. Score: 6. - A Question of Loyalty: Guard duty for some prisoners. Interesting concept and design, but it didn't feel like there was enough substance to it. As part of a larger story, this would have some potential. I didn't really like how the PC's family was involved in the story, but I can appreciate how others might enjoy it. It worked well enough within the mod, anyway. Good effort. Score: 8. - A Treasoner and a Brigand: What the crap is with the title? Treasoner? Also, this mod is crap. The author didn't even bother double-checking the mod before submitting it. All you get is an empty room with a locked door blocking the exit. You can't do anything about it. This is unacceptable. I'm not even going to bother opening it with the toolset to read the dialogue, this is completely unprofessional. Score: 1. - An Accidental Detour: An amusing mod. I like how the author made an otherwise trivial concept interesting. I certainly enjoyed the writing (bar some typos), some of it quite witty. The design of the 'quest' was rather simplistic, but that wasn't really the point here. Conversation flow was good enough. Hopefully, as the author gains more experience, it will become more dynamic and interactive. Definitely some good potential here. Score: 8.5.

By 'playing all of them', I mean dismissing all the crappy ones within 30 secs if they show no remote sign of intelligent writing.

As some of you may know, Bioware has recently had a contest for would-be writers who are hoping for an opportunity to get recruited. Format: Neverwinter Nights - 3500 words, one 4x4 area, 3 NPCs. Here are all the submissions - all 302 of them. http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modul...ry_select_id=28 I intend to play through each and every one of them, and review them all. That will come later, of course.

Yep. Got me some more doritos.

Might be MCA, actually. He does similar stickdude drawings on his blog, though I don't remember the link.

Hmm, how about we just randomize everything? In order of decreasing intelligence: 1) Llyranor 2) deraldin 3) alanschu 4) Jumjalum 5)nick_i_am

Just emptied half a bag of Doritos. The rest is for tomorrow.

Drat Interesting. In any case, I definitely support NWN2 making digital distribution mods. BURN THE HERETIC <3 <3 Lucasarts Huzzah! Well, a good compromise, I guess.

Yeah, Hades is brave. Jerks.

Okay. Raging barbarians. Epic game speed. Random leaders. Era: Ancient. World: Balanced? Climate: Temperate or tropical? Size: depends on # players Sea level: I don't care. All victories will be enables, unless there are objections.

You know that's impossible for Hades.

Don't ever play them. Ever.

I like long game times too, hence why I like epic. Like I said, marathon feels *artificially* lengthened, though. But that's just me. We could easily go marathon if people want it. We can also remove raging barbs if you guys want. Not too much of a bother, just an extra challenge to building up your civ. Instead of just being a nuisance, they're actually threatening. I've lost cities or almost lost games because of trying to improve too fast without sufficient defense.

Hmm, I don't like Marathon that much. It feels artificially lengthened. Given that it wasn't planned in the original game, I'm not too surprised. I'm quite impartial to Epic mode myself. Thoughts? Raging barbarians are pretty fun, though. It also means the early game is very dangerous. You'll have swordsmen attacking you in no time, so a good defense is mandatory.

This would use simultaneous turns. No time limit, but I trust you guys wouldn't just go waste everyone else's time, or I will murder you. Raging barbarians! Gamesize and world type isn't really that important. Everyone will adapt anyway. It'll depend on the number of players as well. As for the leaders, I had suggested you guys pick them. It would be first-come first-serve, though. Random leaders sounds like a good idea, though. Any thoughts?

Heh, I can't recommend any NWN mods save maybe 1-2. DMing is what the money is, BABY :ph34r:

Bioware also, AFAIK, does not host servers to play the games on. Though they do host NWVault. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Erm, isn't that IGN?

You don't get anywhere close to the same game. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah, only NWN is my kind of game and DDO isn't remotely close.