Spider
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Speaking of bugfixes:
I find it a bit funny that a patch for the game has been released before the actual game.
http://www.gamershell.com/news/33495.html for those interested.
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I was under the impression that it already worked this way with XP. At least the cheaper licenses.
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Uhm.. Don't tell me you believe a blogpost on a.. cartoon site (or whatever it is)? Not exactly scientifically produced numbers
He's usually well informed. He also runs a gaming news/review site.
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According to a newspost on Ctrl-Alt-Del only 10% of the alloted machines have been pre-ordered yet, making this even more crazy. As the man says, at least those out to make a buck could have waited until the machine is actually sold out.
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Actually, the frame-rate for me is a bit on the low side in the toolkit. At least when having two preview-windows open. This with only having a sword open in each window (although there is some background there as well). Not quite as low as all that, but noticeable.
This on a P4 3.0 with a Radeon X1600XT and 1 GB of ram.
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The toolset definitely allows you to create your own weapons. And it is (in my opinion) quite possible to create a longsword that looks like a longsword.
But then again, I also think that there are several of the pre-made models that look fairly standard. The "Longsword" and "Cold Iron Longsword" models for example.
When making a sword (at least a longsword) of your own you get to chose the blade, the hilt and the cross-guard separately. There are seven models of each to chose from and while most lean towards the extravagant, there are at least a couple in each that aren't very fanciful.
It's a bit worse for the scimitars, there are only two versions of each model And the one most commonly used for the blade (and that is used in the basic model) definitely looks a bit weird. The other one is better though so modders can still do decent scimitars if they want. A more plain crossguard would help a bit though, but it's not a huge issue.
edit: flails are even worse off with only one version of each model. So all that can be played with there is the color tint.
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Never heard of the Fighting Fantasy books before, but I did grow up on the Lone Wolf series by Joe Dever.
These books can also be found online and they are truly classic.
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They licensed the rights from WotC when the latter decided to axe the setting. I'm guessing the license simply expired and that WW didn't want to renew if it sales were as bad as Darque lets on.
Or maybe WotC wanted to consolidate it's brands in case it (or at least certain divisions) is about to get sold.
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guh, it's times like this I wish my computer knew how to handle codecs. Even DivX is pleading ignorance on my machine.
Get VLC at videolan.org. It's a mediaplayer that has built-in support for all major codecs (and a lot of minor ones). That should play it without problem (unless it's a quicktime or real-file, then you need the corresponding player).
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All of you SS2 fans, have anyone tried playing with one of the rebirth mods or the shtup one? And f o, do they hold up and actually miprove the visuals of the game?
While I'm not a huge graphics snob, SS2 is a bit too old for me, but if thosemods are decent it could be worth giving it a try.
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I think they are just modders acting like professionals.
This is my impression as well. It says in the press release that their (12 person) team consists of "some of the most practiced designers and custom content generators in the community". They specifically mention two PW modders (although not by name) and that they have a combined NWN modding experience of 20 years.
So yeah, modders acting profesionally (and maybe hoping they'll become something like the next DLA if the mod is popular).
But it does sound interesting, I just hope they can live up to the high expectations they're creating. But how they're going to be able to graphically capture the experience of Sigil with a release date in december is beyond me. I do hope they pull it off though.
Edit: I checked around their site a little and found that most of the team has worked on either the Myth Drannor PW or the Gatecrashers PW (a lot of them have worked on both). Gatecrashers seems to be a Planescape PW, so if anyone has any experience with it, maybe that person can enlighten us to the quality of that one, since it should be a decent judge of their abilities.
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The interesting thing is that you dont use maths in the actual roll with d100. With d20 systems you use addition/subtraction in every roll you make.
Its DC 20 to make a chair.. ok Ive got carpentry 7 and I roll 9..thats 7+9 = 16..DC was 20.. nope, no chair there. Oh wait! I have a +2 bonus from my magic hammer then Im up to 18.. nah, still no chair.
The amount of math in the first system is entirely dependant on how often you vary the difficulties for the tasks. If most rolls come with a modifier then it's about the same. In either case, it's not exactly rocket science.
And in most d100 systems it is vital that you use a d100 because even if you only give bonuses and penalities in decimal increments, characters will still have skills and traits like 39, 62, 89 and so on.I'm aware of this. I even adressed it in my first post on the topic. I said having 91 instead of 90 is a bit pointless. The difference is neglible. But I guess it comes down to personal preference. I just don't like rolling a d100 during gameplay, nor do I like having my character's skill increasements be so small that they are mostly insignificant (1 of 100 is, while 1 of 20 isn't).
"Drakar & Demoner" used a d100 initially but switched to using a d20 and it worked fine. I prefer usig a d100 because percentile systems are extremely intuitive, 35% feels a lot more concrete than 6 out of 20.Of course, 35% is 7 of 20.
Peronsally though, I'm not a huge fan of the percentiles or derivatives thereof (ie systems that use the d100 or d20). To me, they're just boring. I much prefer systems like White Wolf's Storytelling system, the one in L5R (that system is absolutely brilliant by the way, to bad I didn't much care for the game's setting) or the old Star Wars from West End Games (although that one basically is a DC system, just with a different die roll).
In regards of "Drakar och Demoner", the most popular versions are Expert and the 91 edition (at least before the new release) both of which use the d20. So I guess I'm not the only one who has that preference.
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You have "Lockpicking 45%" you roll 58. Since 58 is more than you have, you fail to pick the lock. If the GM says its a difficult lock, he will give you perhaps -10% to your roll. Then your skill shrinks to 35% for this roll, the math is decimal and extremely quick
I never said the math isn't quick, but the same is true for a target based system. Although when using a base 100 system, it could be a tad more complex I guess. 47 + 34 is probably less intuitive than your example of subtractions.
Although the subtractions are only really simpler when you use 5% increments (or preferrably 10%) which again makes the use of a d100 feel unneeded to me. You're basically already using a d20, you're just pretending that you don't.
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Since we can spam (or discuss anyway) now...
As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, I think asking which system is more logical to be a very flawed question. Both systems have their base in fairly simple math and thus both are equally logical. It's all addition and/or subtraction.
I'm guessing you wanted to know what people felt was more intuitive (and that's what I answered), which is not the same thing. And to me addition is more intuitive than subtraction. Doing the math is simply quicker. We're talking fractions of a second here (at least on the scale mentioned) so it is fairly insignificant, but it's still there.
Of course, I'm not a huge fan of using a d100 to make skill rolls in the first place. I fail to see the point of using a d100 over a d20. True, with a d20 you're stuck with 5% increments, but having 91 in a skill rather than 90 (or 18 if we translate) feels a bit pointless.
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It's really hard to answer what is more logical. It all comes to own to what you're used to I guess. I personally think that the second one is slightly more intuitive only because it's somewhat easier to add than subtract (but the difference is really marginal).
My first roleplaying experience was with Drakar och Demoner (black box) so I'm no stranger to the first alternative. Although I have played plenty of games that use either version.
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There is no way any company can actually sit around on a game, it's just not possible, activision wouldn't allow it, and nobody in the industry would be happy to do such a thing.
There exists many scenarios where a developer may be more or less forced to sit on a game. The one most likely to apply here (not saying it does, but it could) is that the publisher no longer wanted to fund further development of the game, but couldn't release it before Half-Life 2 due to using the source engine. Sure, Troika would probably have been allowed to work on the game if they wanted to, but would have done so without pay and in that case it makes more sense (for a struggling company) to try and land a new contract.
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Okay, I think this is where I got the numbers from. I got them a bit off.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6155650.html
The association found that the most expensive system to develop for is Sony's PlayStation 2, at 139 million yen ($1.2 million) a game. That's more than double the cost of a typical title on Sony's PSP handheld, at 63 million yen ($541,000) a game. On the other end of the spectrum, developing a Nintendo DS game costs a relatively modest 39.8 million yen ($342,000).It deserves mention that those are costs for Japanese developers though. Costs for American developers need not be the same (especially since I've seen the numbers $5-10 thrown aorund more than once as the approximate cost to develop a AAA game in the US).
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The problem with the fanpatches is that they don't only fix bugs, the also change things gameplay-wise. Stuff that doesn't need changing just because the patchmakers feel things should be different. I wish they'd stick to just fixing bugs, then I'd use them in a heartbeat.
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I'm not sure, I haven't looked at it since v6 myself. I know they released a free add-on on their webpage with rules for a levelless version of the game. Or maybe in a Player's Guide style book if such has ever been released, not 100% sure. Given how frequently such a system was requested, I'd guess it's have made it into the core rules now one way or another.
And the classes have always existed in Drakar och Demoner, they were just a tad more customizable.
In an attempt to not stray too far off topic: For all of those complaining that WotC are releasing new versions of the game too rapidly, v6 of Drakar and Demoner was released at roughly the same time as D&D and has apparently released two full editions since then. Releasing new editions a few years or so apart is fairly common practice and besides that good business.
edit: according to wikipedia, the current version is v9, but the first from Paradox was v7 so everything else still stands.
edit again: Riotminds (the publisher of Drakar and Demoner who leased the liscence from Paradox and then bought it) did release a Player's Guide type supplement, Drakar och Demoner: Expert and I think that's where the levelless rules where. That was merged into the next (v8) edition, although v9 is a huge reworking of the rules so I have no idea how they look like now.
final edit: After some more checking around I found that Riotminds on their webpage has a short description on how the rules work. It appears that the system is now indeed levelles and that the classes are more customizable. However, they have incorporated a few big changes. The biggest being the removal of Grundegenskaper (abilities I think in D&D) in favor of focusin only on skills.
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Drakar och Demoner is still in print though. And the most recent version isn't bad. It's just different enough from the older version that old school people wrinkle their nose. And it's got much better layouts and nie hardcover books.
So it could be worth checking out if all you want is a Swedish RPG system.
@Kaftan:
I'm note sure you're right on that copyright thing. If a RPG reaches verksh
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I'm fairly sure it was patched with the last patch to be released.
It seems like it was only my memory failing a bit, it wasn't an issue introduced by a patch rather one that was there from the start. So why you aren't affected by it I have no idea.
Unless you switched your crew around a lot. I did some checking and apparently the people that didn't go with you on missions but were left at the base auto-leveled (staying two levels behind you) and their skills increased quite rapidly.
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Someone who can afford to spend $80000 on a TV I guess.
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Titan Quest is now up to version 1.15. A better link to the TQ patch would be this:
http://www.ironlore.com/patches.html
(ironlores page rather than THQ's, the latter of which is a mess to find things on)
Then a nit-pick. UFO: Aftershock is listed in the UFO franchise as turn-based strategy, when in fact it's not. It's real time with pause. I don't know what is more important, keeping franchises together or to have games correctly labeled.
And finally a few suggestions for more stuff to add:
Since it's apparently ok to list BitTorrent clients (Azureus is there) I'd like to recommend
Vista gaming will be 10 to 15% slower than XP
in Skeeter's Junkyard
Posted
From what I understand, the XP implementation of this got a lot stricter when the windows validation tool came around (or a while after). Remember that this is for the cheapest licenses that are supposed to be tied to one computer (hence why they are so cheap).
I could be wrong though, it's possible I read about how it was going to be in Vista and my memory is playing tricks on me. It's been a while since I read about it (2 months at least).