Llyranor

Which is why you want the AI to adapt improved behavior rather than just pumping up its skill numbers. If the AI baddies cooperate with one keeping you pinned down while the other maneuvers to flank you, you can *still* just go rambo and destroy them if you chose a lower difficulty level. That doesn't make it 'bad AI'.

COPS: Power of Law and ALFA both sucked the big one. Any JA made by Mistland is a doomed project. Like I said, though, JA3 apparently *isn't* made by them anymore. We'll see. I'm not going to hold my breath. I just want Sid Meier to make the next Xcom.

"on the surface, it's your standard fantasy fare. But I guess because of our game style, we're able to present this depth to the world that you just don't get to experience in other games. Like what kinds of flowers grow, what people's literature and customs are like, how races react to each other. I think a lot of games have great worlds and amazing back-stories that you don't necessarily get to experience, and because of the first-person giant-freeform style of our stuff, you can." Wait, what?

I guess we could try Friday. Any thoughts on that?

I look forward to gutting this Jorian fellow.

Well, my threshold for crap has gone down. With 300+ mods, I'm less willing to give subpar ones a chance. My criteria for dismissal is pretty much 'Would I really want this author to potentially work at Bioware?' If I can answer within 30 secs, then the next mod gets loaded up. Bioware003: Nice title. Deekin? No. NO. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Oh, right, and writing failed to captivate me. Nice try. Score: 5. A Forgotten Temple: The writing failed to captivate me. Sorry. Score: 5. A Scurvy Death: Erm, the main quest wasn

So, what are we supposed to do, since Deraldin just pulled the big crapper on us?

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/t/theelder...ginoblivion.htm "Howard: I wish they weren't so smart, actually. We spent forever making them really smart, and probably the last few months making them dumber" "If we focus on anything most though, it is the "dungeon hack" experience. That's the meat of the game. I mean, if you look at Arena, the first Elder Scrolls game, it's basically a giant dungeon hack, and it's awesome. So that was our first goal

More reviews: Poor Sod

..............

- 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.