Spider
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I just checked, is Winterwind dead? The site and forums are down.
Not dead, moved. At least I think so, don't remember wha tthe addy was when you were a member. But it's still up and running.
As for the Witcher, I am looking forward to it with mild anticipation. There's a good chance it's going to suck, but there is also the odd chance that it'll be really good. They will get the benefit of a doubt from me, but at the same time they've taken so long to get this game out that I thought it got cancelled until new info started resurfacing again.
Is there even a resemblance of a release date floating around?
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we expect that it would work more like star wars galaxies. didn't get to watch much of season 2, but ain't the humans on some sorta planet now, under cylon control?
Slight spoilers ahead for those that don't want to know what is planned for season 3.
They are indeed on a planet at the end of season two. All of the last half hour of the finale has them there (although 6 months have passed that we never see). However, the plan isn't to keep them on the planet for long. I haven't seen an exact number of episodes, but somewhere between 5-10 would probably be a decent guess. Ron D. Moore said in an interview that the fleet and the search for Earth is still central to the show.
So your idea could work, but the time frame would be limited. Unless some people get left behind when the fleet takes off again.
Besides, couldn't internet participation mean something like Living Greyhawk or Living Force? Where how players play the game affects how the story in the show plays out.
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As with any other thing, you can't judge an entire genre based on what a select sample is contributing to it. Not even when the sample is a majority of contributors.
I like the fantasy genre. It has so much potential and there are still lots of things in that genre that haven't been done yet. What they are I can't tell you because they haven't been done. There are a lot of great fantasy writers out there that challenge the borders of the genre with almost every sentence they write. One needs to look no further than Michael Moorcok (stupid language filter) to see an example of that.
I will admit that I not overly found of popular fantasy though. I agree that there are a lot of hacks writing in the genre and that a lot of it is just rehashing stories that've already been told in settings that have already been created. That lack of imagination is sad indeed, but it doesn't mean it's a hopeless genre. You just have to look a little harder to find stuff that interests you.
(and if you like the stories told in mainstream fantasy, then that's good for you)
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I actually find this worrying. The lead designer quitting (or being fired) this close to release can't possibly be a good sign, especially when no one is saying anything as to why he is leaving.
Are there other things we don't know about?
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Maybe I could add a disclaimer to all the threads that Jorian posts in, to warn off people on dial-up. :D
That is a great suggestion! :D
(of course, my connection has nothing to do with what I posted, I've got no problems in those regards)
Edit: Since we are drifting off-topic here, watch me try and steer things back on track.
The original poster asked for opinions on some other Sci-Fi shows as well, so I'll continue.
X-files is a pretty good show, at least as far as I've seen it. I've only watched the first 4 seasons completely and the odd episode elsewhere. I do intend to catch up on it one day, but it's not at the top of my list atm. The pacing in the show is really slow for the most part, which may mkae episodes feel slow, but it's very deliberate and it works for the show instead of against it for the most part. The style of the show varies greatly from the episodes that deal with random monsters (or similar) to the ones that focus on the overall plotline. The monster-episodes got a bit formulaic and unfortunately the characters are a bit stuck in their respective roles (Scully is always sceptic and Mulder is always right in his guesses). For me the show really shines in the story-episodes where they dig into the conspiracy theories, but from what I've been told these get weaker and weaker as the show progresses. I've heard this is true for the show overall though.
Supernatural is in a way very similar to the X-files, only instead of two FBI-agents you've got two hunky brothers. But where X-files had a scientific approach to it's myster solving that made it creepy in a way, Supernatural is taking the horror movie route. Every episode is pretty much a horror movie condensed into 45 minutes (which actually works in the shows favor, the episodes never feel like they're dragging). Arrive, find out about monster, find out how to kill monster, rescue girl (and there's always a girl). Just as with X-files there are a few episodes that deal with an overall plot although these for the most part follow the same formula as the other episodes, just with a few twists. Those episodes have become more and more frequent as the season has passed, so it definitely feels like the overall plot is moving along. In short though, if you like horror movies (not, not slasher movies) you're probably going to like this show.
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It's kinda hard not to look at them when they cover then entire screen (or I'm forced to scroll past 5 of them to get to the next post).
One picture every here and there is fine, but multiple pictures in several of your posts in a single thread is a bit much.
I don't care what the pictures are of, I think you're posting too many of them regardless of content.
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Enough with the picture-spamming already. Jorian, for real, multiple pictures in every thread I see you post in is starting to get quite annoying. Especially after people asked you to get back on topic once already.
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Babylon 5 is one of the best Sci Fi shows ever to air. If for no other reason that it did what no other show had done before. It had a 5 season story arc all plotted out from the beginning. The story of the show would run through 5 seasons, no more, no less. So if you want a strong story, B5 is fantastic. The special effects and make up can be a bit off-putting at times, if you care about those things, but it's worth overlooking.
Stargate SG1 is a very good show. There is a reason it's lasted as long as it has. Most of the episodes are one-offs, especially in the early seasons. The later ones (5 and onwards iirc) the overall story has become more and more important. The actors are good, the writing is ok (sometimes pretty bad, sometimes very good, but mostly ok). The first seasons, the sci fi elements are fairly scarce, but has also become more prominent as they've discovered more about the universe (nowadays, Earth has Spaceships of it's own).
Stargate Atlantis is more of the same, although a bit more hardcore Sci Fi, they live in an alien city as opposed to a military bunker and have access to more advanced tech. The characters are a bit uneven, but overall it's still an ok show.
Andromeda (now cancelled) was really good during the first two seasons, would probably appeal to a fan of TNG, although I'm not sure since I never was. After that, there was a steady decline in quality and the story-lines become confusing and hard to grasp. The fifth season was really crappy for the first half, but the second half was much improved.
Farscape is many's favorite and while it's not mine, it's ok. I hated how they used muppet-like dolls for some aliensabd felt the make up on others was very plastic and unrealistic. The first seasons pretended to have an overarching plot, but it might as well not have since nothing happened with it. It had a problem (for me) with pacing overall in the first two seasons and could at times be a tad dull. It picked up in the third and fourth season when the central plot started to take of for real (actually that started to happen in the second half of season 2 iirc). At the end of it, I finally started to see why people liked it so much. The characters in the show are very well written and have a certain depth to them. And the actors are all very good.
I assume BG means Battlestar Galactica (it's more commonly refered to as BSG) so I'll leave that and Firefly out for now.
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Well, I hated doing it (hyperspace) the one time I did, so I was quite happy it was the only time I had to. Unique artifacts be damned!
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I wouldn't have minded the text adventures so much if two things had happened:
The English would have been decent.
and
the text on every "page" would have been cut in half. There was so much pointless filler (and presented in the aforementioned bad English) that reading a single page felt like a chore.
Some of them were better than others.
Edit: Was the pinball part totally optional? I only ventured into a black hole once, but that time felt like something I had to do.
when you went in to take down the Dominator boss that lived in Hyper-Space
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It's pretty good. Not the bestest game ever, but worth playing.
(you should read the Codex review before reading my comments or part of them will not make sense)
It gets very repetetive in the end though, at least it did for me. Fight upon fight upong fight against the Dominator forces after I had the best equipment available for my ship and maxed out all the stats. Probably my own fault for wanting to have as good gear as possible before taking the fight to the enemy, before that I was mostly defending or assisting in liberation efforts.
The RTS segments were actually quite fun. I don't like RTS much, but there are a few of them I can stand and this was one of them. They were very easy though, I think only one caused me any real headaches.
The text-based quests were pretty bad though. Really bad even. Partly because the english translation wasn't all that, but mostly because they were dull. MCA talked in his Codex interview about not breaking up the action with too much text and these did exactly that. Some were ok, most were really dull (and yes, you could simply not do that type of quests, but the reward was generally pretty good and at times getting quests at all could be difficult).
The quests overall were very similar. There was basically 4 different types of quests, and then the text ones and the RTS ones. Which is another reason it felt kinda repetetive in the end.
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I just have to get my head around this concept...
Hades bought a MMORPG? HADES bought a MMORPG??
I never thought I'd see the day...
Maybe hell will freeze over one of these days.
With that out of the way, it was very informative. I have a couple of questions:
How does character creation work exactly? Do you get feats (at the beginning)? How do you distribute Attribute points?
Have you managed to reach a full level? If so, is multi-classing indeed in? How does multi-classing work with the tiered levels?
Since it's a game with a monthly fee, do you feel the fee is warranted? What is there to do in the game besides going on quests? If the game wants to have longevity, there needs to be stuff for people to do after they've completed all the quests there is and have reached max level.
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The boss at Sony, Ken Kutaragi, has announced that the PS3 will be released world-winde in November. Just in time for christmas, then.
Link:
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The digital download cost also includes the cost of a boxed version. If you later wanted a boxed copy, they would send it to you without any additional cost except shipping and handling.
I did say this was another discussion, but since you mentioned it, I will take it here anyway. Of course, this is a bit moot of they actually charge an additional $5 for media if you want the box, since that's basically my whole argument. But here is why:
I don't like physical stuff. If I can get a game and everything I need to play it though digital means only then I'm all happy. I don't want CD-boxes taking up space and I definitely don't want manuals. Not only do I think they waste space in my (tiny) apartment, I also think it's a waste of resources to put stuff on paper and plastic that I don't need. If I desperately want the game on a CD I can just burn it myself and personally think that any game that isn't playable without having to read the manual is designed poorly.
So if I was paying the same price for a digital game as I would for a boxed game, not only would I be paying for stuff I don't want, I'd actually be paying for stuff I think shouldn't be produced in the first place.
But as I said, this isn't the case here, since apparently they do charge your for the materials used. I never wanted a large discount, just an acknowledgement that the digital product is cheaper to produce.
Personally I don't like Starforce one bit, but I can definitely see why it's so popular.Is it really that popular? Most of the games I've seen use it are those with a European publisher, which mostly means eastern european developers (UFO, Silent Storm, etc). Most US games don't use it, I think.
UFO: Aftershock is the only SF game I've installed on my computer.
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I've heard good things about the Icemats:
http://www.dvdshoponline.co.uk/Mousemats.html
I don't have much personal experience with it, but I have a friend who swears by it (he's a hardcore gamer as well, so he's kinda picky).
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In fact, StarForce has been cracked in several games. And those that haven't been cracked have had bypasses. Also, not every download = a lost sale.
The question is, how many of those discouraged from downloading a game thanks to copy protection such as StarForce are actually buying the game? Is the number high enough to warrant the cost of using StarForce in the first place (which I'm sure doesn't come cheaply).
StarForce especially is actually a detriment for a lot of people to buy a game. I know of people that's had their systems messed up by StarForce, enough of them to make me hesitant to ever get a game with SF.
I actually like the way the GalCiv developers think and I'm very tempted to buy the game just for that. The fact that they are selling the game via direct download is another plus for me (although I don't like that the digital version costs the same as the boxed one, but that is another discussion).
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I don't think Tolkien is a genius for his writing. I think he's a genius for his world building. Strange figure, our Tolkien. ...But I agree, he did not create the genre. That's not even counterfactual. The genre was being born. He managed to be in on the very beginning and left his imprint. That's why I've never really contended that we wouldn't have the genre without Tolkien.
I agree with this statement 100%. An interesting observation here is that while I totally agree with Eldar here, our appreciation of the actual work is totally different.
But see what can happen in a discusion when we actually try to get along.
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Ginthaeriel, I'd just like to point out that not all dislike your way of handling yourself in this discussion.
I find your posts very interesting and your style of argumenting (with quotes and all) to be very helpful to the reader in order to keep things sorted.
Nor do I feel that you devaluate Tolkien, but I guess in this I could be a little biased since I am not a great fan of him myself, although that is because I don't like him as a writer. I do not deny his accomplishments when it came to defining the "High Fantasy" genre.
Anyway, I just wanted you to know that some people do appreciate your posts in this thread and find them entertaining and informative.
Edit: Also, props for quoting Michael Moorcok on occasion. Of him I am a fan.
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I'm far from an authority on the topic. I don't know enough of Tolkien's works or Irish folklore to say anything for sure.
But from what I do know, the Sidhe (or at least a part of the sidhe, there are variances) resemble Tolkien's elves a lot more than the norse elves do.
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SP, citing your source (wikipedia) is always a nice thing to do, epsecially when copying an entire article.
Anyway, a link to why I thought the Sidhe (at least in part) inspired the Tolikenesque version of elves:
http://celticsociety.freeservers.com/sidhe.html
Some quotes:
this race of beings is described as "gods and not gods", pointing to the fact that they are 'something in between'.It is interesting to note that many of the Irish refer to the sidhe as simply "the gentry", on account of their tall, noble appearance and silvery sweet speech.I don't know how reliable this site is as a source (I googled it), but this is what I've read in the past.
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Elves like the ones in Tolkien's fiction didn't exist before he invented them. Elves were some kind of tiny forest folk in english folklore. In fact, Tolkien made elves tall, beautiful and noble because he thought that, etymologically, the name "Elf" shouldn't belong to some foolish creatures prancing around in a forest. So "modern" elves are entirely his creation.
I thought Tolkien's elves were more modeled after the irish Sidhe?
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Funny, I thought this was a thread about D&D online. I guess I was wrong...
So no one here has tried it yet? This is the first MMORPG I even have any interest in trying, so it would be nice to hear if someone has any actual experience with it. The beta has been going on for a while now, even if it hasn't been released officially (although the servers have gone live).
There are two things about this game that make it stand out from normal MMORPGS in my eyes. And no, one of them is not that it's D&D.
1: Only ten levels. I don't know exactly how this is going to work since mmorpgs players in general are levelling addicts and I have read that they are splitting each level up in four "sublevels" (my word). But it's still intriguing.
2: (Mor importantly) Quest XP only. You can level up to max level without being forced to build a combat character. The game is about solving quests and if you can do so without fighting, then more power to you. I do expect that there will be a lot of combat, but it still creates more variety in the characters. Again, I don't know if it works, but it's a cool idea (and somethng I'd love to see all cRPGs embracing).
Also, being able to create a character with D&D 3.5 multiclassing rules in full effect makes for lots of varied characters.
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All I have to say is:
Where did the US end up in the hockey tournament? Kumquatq3?
Oh, and of course:
Go Sweden!
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The model played by Lucy Lawless is apparently number three.
Didn't we see two other models in the pilot, another one posing as a doctor when Starbuck was back on Caprica, and a fourth posing as journalist on the Galactica?
The journalist was the model played bu Lucy Lawless.
I only recall one additional model in the pilot (the one found on the abandoned space station) and he was in this episode as well. It's possible I've missed someone though, it's been a while.
D&D crpg levels
in Computer and Console
Posted
My instinct is to say something like 1 level/5 hours of play, with an exception in the early game where you need to level faster to get away from the pure randomness of it all.
However, the second part of Gromnir's question made me think. And I realized I've never played a single player game that levels that slowly. So obvioulsy that number is for a party based crpg. I do think it'd work for me in a single player game as well so I'll stick with it.
Of course, this is restricted to D&D, other systems will have different requirements.