triCritical

:D (Sorry) Nice plans have a habit of falling apart when deadlines approach... We have deadlines here, they are called fire drills. I have a really k3wl supervisor and even though I now work for a company with over 125,000 employees, we still have a small business atmosphere. That is why I said this in another post.

I guess the concept of burnout has never entered your mind. I am not a believer in higher productivity equals a better game. Look how many bugs ToEE had, and you had a guy that worked four straight months with no breaks. 40 hours a week is plenty of time, and leads to a healthy lifestyle.

uh.. you are making an adventure game. Well at least you are making a sequal to an adventure game, with a lot of crumby combat. Hopefully you guys will make it more like an CRPG. And before you call me a one trick pony, BG was an RTS game, with just a smaller scope.

Why can't you guys like to make isometric tactical games. Not RTS, they are normally oxymorons. But I would love to play a tactical isometric game, like Silent Storm and JA2.

Indisputable proof that living in Southern California warps your perception of reality. One-ninth of your weekday waking hours (assuming 6-7 hrs sleep) spent driving to and from work doesn't count as a commute!?? Well there are some people that drive over a 100 miles to work. I drive 38. And when I used to live 6.5 miles to work it took me about 20 minutes. So I gained 40 extra minutes each way and a house. BTW, I bought a house in BFE, so to speak, and the median sale price is 444,000. The national average is about 179,000. The house similat to the one I was renting, 3 bedrooms, 1600 square feet on a 6000 square foot lot is going for 800,000 dollars, and it sold in day! Needless to say many people find SoCal commutes worth the price of admission, however, I was born hear and I ain't going to let all the East Coast and midwest immigrants with money kick me out.

For my commute at least, there is no car pool. Sometimes I take the 91 toll road, like on fridays. But the only car poll lane for me is on the 55 and if I get on it I will most likely miss the 22 connector, which does not have a car pool lane. I would not call 45-55 minute mornings a commute. And it takes generally about an hour in the evening, its not so bad. I have a small car so I am not doing too much damage to the environment, about 29-31 mpg's.

The datapads are widespread tech in Star Wars tech. They don't use paper etc to store info. My only gripe is that all the datapads in KOTOR's interface looked the same or took lots of time to identify which was relevant. That is kind of funny considering I have never really seen anything digital in a Star Wars movie.

I was driving from Corona to HB, but I need to take a freeway which hooks up with the 5 going to LA. And that made my Thursday and Friday commute take twice as long going to work. Yeah I am technically a programmer, but I don't work in the video game industry. I work for a company that contracts with the government. I have thought about private sector work, but I have it pretty sweet right now, and I don't work nearly as many hours as those people in Obsidian. I would like to go to E3, but thats because it would remind me of that feeling I got when in Jr High going to the arcade, and it just sounds like a righteous party. Hugh Hefner was there!!! Anyhow, I don't really like to bill myself as a programmer, considering they are all being sent to India right now. I can still do other things like math, science and some signal processing, not to mention a plethora of other computational algorithms and control system filters.

E3 CREATED A TRAFFIC NIGHTMARE FOR ME!!!!! :angry:

Here's an idea, move away from the PDA's and do something a lot more StarWarsish like holography. I am not terribly certain how to implement it, but It sure would be cool. Something very interesting about Star Wars technology is almost more Analog then digitial????? Could be a sign of the times but I think it gives the universe character.

I think this is true is some respects but may not always be the case. I think there are certain general areas in which programming languages do not change very much, but each category is radically different from each other, and while they may be easier for a programmer to master, sometimes they may not be a walk in the park. Some general categories: X Windows and Xtoolkit intrinsics, a socketless network oriented cross platform window display library. Driven by resources, function calls and environmental variables. Very low level, with a hard core ability to shoot yourself in the foot. Also has a 7 layer hierarchy, which is just not common at all in programming languages. Interperter languages, which I guess is a language you use in a interpreter, such as a bash console, or perl. These are in general radically different then anything in C. Even though you can do interpreter commands with functions like system(). Still everything like Bash, Csh are very different, while others like Perl and Python are a lot more similar to the common programming languages. Database languages, too are very different. I know a little SQL, and while its not very hard, I choose not to know it, and just look crap up when I need to. Assembler, OK this is just about as different as you can get from the common languages. No variables, or libraries to work with. Just registers, addresses, and very basic operations like pushing and moving to do rather trivial stuff. Markup languages. These high level languages IMO are also very different from the core languages. They also represent a fundamentally different aspect of task then what you would use the common languages for. XML for instance, I use for data transperancy and mobility, Not something I would ever use C for, hell I don't even know how I would try too. Stack languages. These languages such as PostScript and Forth use reverse polish. And finally the common languages which are pretty much all high level such as C, C++, Java, Fortran, Pascal all pretty much I would agree with you in that if you know one you can potentially know them all. Not to mention that peripheal languages which just basically comprise of using libraries. They may use the same syntax, but just because you know C that does not mean you know OpenGL, or Sockets. OpenGL syntax wise is identical to C, but depending on what you do you have to learn a lot of stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with C. Such as state variables, drawing vertices, creating bitmaps, rendering colors, texture mapping, lighting all stuff which is not that trivial. The same is true for sockets, except you have to learn about networking, IP adress, and unlike OpenGL, sockets is system specific. :angry: It should be noted that I am a physicist and have never taken a CS class in my life. I just did my graduate work on computational problems and consequently got a job where I program for a living and write different algorithms. So I can be missing something.

No wonder American productivity sits as the worlds highest. Knowing IPLY, you probably did not get paid a dime over the forty hours you were actually suppose to work. Had you worked as a government contractor, the business could lose their money for doing that sort of crap. I have not bought DA2, but I tend to boycott games where I hear about this outrageous stuff. Honestly, is it that fun making games, because it seems if you don't have to work all those hours you could probably dedicate 30-40 hours a week doing fun stuff?

I heard a report on NPR that stated that the average cost of a game is nearing over 20 dollars. And that it takes at about a million sales for the big budget games to break even. This just looks like a field that is waiting to be exported to a country that does not have human right laws. Especially hearing that they don't really follow human right laws for video game programmers in the states.

You mean a fight in which two people with the exact same characters fight in a glorious stalemate clicking their mouse button once every six seconds, watching SINEMATICS!!!!

Don't roll you're eyes at me you punk ass. insta-kill means insta-kill no matter what. The point I was trying to make is that insta-kill exist in BG no matter what level you are playing. And if you can kill a guard with one... dare I say swipe, and he dies immediately, how is that not a instant kill? How is that mechanically different then killing an opponent with one swipe and then having them die instantly?

If you kill Gorion, how the heck would ever start Ch. 1?

Great post!

I am not sure really, but I am sure you won't be able to leave the tutorial.

If I am not mistaken only one character in Morrowind is plot critical. And that is the first guy you talk to belonging to the blades. Even then, that is kind of weak, because they could have done something better. Actually what I am talking about is what Arcanum did. Basically, if you kill someone plot critical, there is someone else that can help you, or if you kill him too, there might be a note in his locker leading you in the right direction. If you play Arcanum, and kill Gilbert Bates, which is the most plot critical character in the beginning of the game. Believe it, or not there will be a way to continue. BTW, its not easy to kill to G.B. This is the way I would prefer. I do not think a story should drive a characters action, instead the other way around. FO's shallow story, is really just a plot outline. Instead it is you're character which creates the story. Case and point, the story of Fallout 1 in the FO2 manual, couldn't have been more different then my first experience going through FO. I think its hard to pull off a good CRPG, any other way. I think PS:T, is the exception. Also, I do not think CRPG's should be about story. Instead I think that exploration and interaction is paramount. The ability for characters to solve problems different way is much more important then some linear script unfolding before you're eyes. Again while PS:T was like this, what it did right, was making you believe that it was not doing that. Me too. I am like the third party in politics, I just present wild and crazy ideas that have no chance of being implemented, but perhaps in a way weird way I can bias a developers ideas so that future games will be more fun for me to play.

The first one outside the tutorial, which was optional. You mister I stand for nothing and just say sh!t to argue. No look at the damage an ogre does, or the damage that a 5th level magic missile does and you find that it wipes out most first level characters quite easily. As for insta-kill being part of DnD, don't you think light sabers that behave like light sabers should be a part of star wars. Hell that is about the only thing that sets Star Wars apart from the rest of the corny space fantasy crap out there. 1) The movies have very good, and long light saber fights. Perhaps they could have tried using a different combat model. Perhaps spent less time lip syncing and more time with combat aspects. Maybe added dismemberment (sp?). Who knows, but they could have made it better then glorified swords +3. 2) Most guns that didn't completely suck in FO, were insta kill. Not to mention that getting hit with a SMG on burst at close range pretty meant you enemy was going to be dead two times over. Unless you're wearing power armor toward the end of the game, guns kill with every hit, at most two! 3) Don't start the character out with light sabers. Don't make the combat ubiquitous. Don't make combat the only use for light sabers.

That is not my point. If you can kill everyone then you can selectively choose who you want to kill to get through the game, in the role that best suits you're character. This is different then actually killing everyone. In other words, while I may not kill everyone I may want to do away with certain key players, that are hindering my style. The only way to insure that the game does not break, is to allow for the character to kill everyone. Yeah you're probably right. What I meant to say is that the the only one character that I ever killed that gave me a message saying GAME OVER, is Ravel. The irony is that about 3.4 minutes later (depends on reading time), I would be forced to try kill her anyway.

Bioware did not have a problem putting all the insta-kill crap in their DnD games. Hell even BG my character can be insta-killed by the first ogre it gets hit by on its way to friendly arms, and the first bounty hunter that can cast level 5 magic missile on a 1rst level character. Do the math and get off you're emotional roller coaster.

Its not so much playing a crazy. Its more like I don't want to have to go to the sewer to meet someone, save a wookie, break into a base to steal something so I can make a speeder, so I can race. Sometimes, like in Arcanum, you threaten them, and if they still don't give, you kill'em. And that is all about roleplaying. Because while it may make the game easier, it helps define you're character and truly make different playing experience. No way man. They just turn invincible, or go way hostile on you making the game unbeatable. Just try killing Gorian in the beginning and try finishing the game from that point. A good character centric story will not force you into situations, but rather give you a rich story and allow you to create you own situations. I think in PS:T, the only character you couldn't kill was Ravel, could be wrong.

The answer is simple. Since every character MUST BE A JEDI then balancing is not an issue is it? Just don't make the game too easy, I guess. But for crissakes the lightsaber should be far superior to that POS we got in KotOR, which was nothing more then a flaming sword from DnD. However, the problem is not so much with the lightsaber, as it is with the limited interaction we have with this engine.

The inability to kill whomever you want has always been one Biowares weakness. Arcanum was absolutely revolutionary in the fact that you could kill even the most plot essential characters in the game and still find a way to advance. It wasn't easy, but you could. Hell, to Bioware fans thats a knock. O TIS TWO HARDE!!11!!11