Wistrik

I'm considering a system somewhat like Bokishi's rig, but with faster memory and a different cpu cooler. I don't bother with HD-movies, so it's all about gaming for my build decisions. With DA, HL2:EP2 and NWN2's XP on the way, I need all the power I can get. My current system is just too slow. I'm hoping the prices drop by the time I've got some money saved aside for this project. I'll probably buy it piece by piece and assemble it slowly, just so I can see progress being made. I can scavenge parts (dual SATA HDs, DVD R/W, 6800GT) from my current system to run until the less critical parts arrive, though WinXP's blasted hardware monitoring will probably drive me nuts.

I've been enjoying my new 24" flat-panel display. I can run HL2 at 1920x1200 resolution (30-280 fps depending on the map and what I'm viewing), but, no surprise, definitely not NWN2 (still stuck at 1280x960 with poor but mostly playable framerates, regardless of the map or what I'm looking at). The display has vibrant colors which make the games look even better than before. Late evening in HL2 looks awesome. I'd post pics, but they're only as good as the monitor used to view them, so you probably wouldn't see what I see. I was going to play NWN2 last night with a new character, but decided to hold off until patch 1.05 is finally released. I figured out how to disable the blasted ECL so all my characters level the same. ECL is just a new version of the funky multiclass limits of 2E and prior. One or two extra levels of growth doesn't break the game, and I don't have to wait until the end of the tutorial (or later) to finally gain a level.

I did some research and ended up getting one of those, in black. It arrived yesterday and I had some time to test it out. Why I like it over my older 21" Samsung (215TW): - 1920x1200 widescreen, or 1200x1920 when rotated 90

Hopefully we'll have more say over who's allowed into the party. My decision to purchase a copy of the expansion will be largely based on this issue.

This thread cracks me up. Good old days indeed. My good old days were before the internet went global. Back when you'd dial into a BBS to play games, download files, or whatever. We had one in town that featured several multiplayer games, and it was a blast to play because you actually knew the people you were playing/chatting with. We'd often meet for coffee or a movie or to hang out at so-and-so's place on a Saturday. Good times. Nowadays everyone's a white sheet, guys could be women and vice-versa, and you can't really trust anyone. Some still take chances with arranged meetings, but it's not something I'm into anymore. At least I still have the local folks to hang out with. The internet went global, but we didn't.

Bought a newer car. Kinda miss the old car what with eight years of history between us, but it was time to move on.

I don't mind cutscenes if they tell of events in some other part of the game world. For example, the cutscenes in BG2 showing Imoen's sentencing and imprisonment were nice asides to let me know what was going on with her and Jon. However, the first cutscene that showed our party escaping Jon's dungeon was seriously flawed: Imoen HAD to be there, and she ALWAYS cast Magic Missile. Always, no matter what. Things like that detract from the general feeling of "being there." NWN2's cutscenes involving Garius were informative, but the scenes involving a broken-looking keep (which had long been fixed up by the people working for me) were a big detraction. Replaceable NPCs are a good idea too. It's silly to attack someone only to find them invincible, or to get a message indicating that you must reload and try something different. Scripts like SHOUT in the BG series are responsible for ruining many an evil player's game (or any player having an accident with an AOE spell) because it makes all nearby NPCs (who are also running SHOUT) become target-able enemies, which is a one-way street. Even NPCs with high intelligence will cast reason aside in order to join the common denominator in hating you to the point of death. I don't mind some linearity in a CRPG because it takes a lot of time and energy to branch out into multiple plot threads, and the potential for bugs grows with each new thread. However, to have no alternate threads, or just two, doesn't seem like enough, especially in a game based on D&D rules, where at the very least each alignment, when role-played, could potentially produce a different outcome to the story. That doesn't mean every alignment would need to be supported clear to the end. For example, a CE character might meet a grisly death while attempting to storm a well-defended castle, but the LG character would be able to become its lord. Likewise there would be places a CE character would thrive in while an LG character wouldn't survive. Both would be uninterested in following a neutral course, which neutral characters would follow. To date, D&D-based games have either ignored alignment, or have biased the story toward good-aligned characters. Some of my favorite games put the story before me, as well as the ultimate goal, but then left me to my own devices in order to reach the destination. Among those games are Ultima IV and the Starflight series. I agree with the "less is more" idea at least as far as scripted events and things of that nature go. Create a living world, present the story and the goal, then let the player work out the solution. It's loads of fun in the few games that have pulled it off. Massive replayability. No need for a toolset. (Reposted due to forum database error.)

Thanks for the helpful feedback everyone. I'll be thinking about it between now and the weekend; been itching to go game shopping and Saturday's are my best days for it.

I was considering WoW last night while visiting Blizzard's website and reading up on the game, but then I had recollections of my time on Battle.net playing D1 and then D2 for almost seven years straight. The following thoughts came to mind: 1. I'm an older gamer who'll be 40 this autumn, which puts me at "old geezer" level among most of the WoW players I'm likely to encounter, so it's not likely I'll get along that well with them and will probably end up being a lone wanderer most of the time. 2. I play at a rather slow pace, especially when I'm learning, and younger people tend to play much faster, so again I'll probably end up questing alone. I did find the occasional groups to play with in D2, but they were always in such a big hurry. When I try to hurry, I die a lot, and that's no fun. 3. Even with a cable modem, I've had nothing but lag issues with Blizzard's servers, and I'm guessing WoW's servers, even those with "low" populations, will be somewhat the same. Games with real-time combat are almost pointless with lag interfering. 4. With the above three points, I can't justify the monthly fee, and feel I'm better off playing singleplayer games. Has anyone been in a similiar situation, or perhaps can you debunk my assumptions about WoW? I figured if I got the game, I'd probably join a "Normal" realm, because I hate PvP, and I'm lousy at roleplaying in a group. It's one thing to play a role by selecting dialog responses and completing quests a certain way, but quite another to chat "in character" in real-time with other players. All in all, I'm thinking I should avoid the game and look elsewhere. I've not had very many positive experiences in multiplayer games in times past.

Hmm, lots of reading. This is a game my brother would probably enjoy, but I can see some red flags for myself: - Difficulty; I hate games that rely on the save-and-reload mechanism. I also lack twitch reflexes, or just good coordination in general, so I'll probably need to stick to HL2 and its episodes (on easy difficulty). - Infinite Spawns: I'm with Maria on this. In very few games I've seen a decent implementation, and the spawns were not infinite. I've seen my brother play sniper games; he'll clear a lookout post and move on to the next building, only to get shot in the back by a freshly spawned soldier in the once-cleared lookout post. Unrealistic. No thanks. Maybe I'll check this game out, maybe not. It certainly looks nice, but looks aren't going to matter if I'm pulling my hair out in frustration.

I voted slightly, though my feelings run toward developers in general. The almighty <monetary unit> ultimately determines what is in games these days. There also seems to be a gradual 'dumbing down' of game content, and too much adaptation of console mechanics. (When I want console mechanics, I'll buy a console system. ) That's my early morning, post-insomniac rant.

SOAD - Toxicity I'm not a big music person, in terms of loyally following one band or artist, so my collection is usually full of singles from all sorts of artists.

I'm having fun with Java and OOP. I found the Head First books to be great for someone trying to break into a new programming concept. I have Head First Java, OOP, and Design Patterns. They use many illustrations (both in word and picture) examples, puzzles, and exercises to help the reader understand the subject. I also have a complete Java Reference book for the latest J2SE edition, and of course Sun's JDK, docs, and NetBeans IDE. I have Near Infinity's source code (thanks to Jon Olav following the GPL), and the more I learn, the more I can see where I can improve his code. NI was his learning experience; he's now writing Java apps commercially. Now NI is my learning experience. I'm editing it because I still use it regularly, and it has some serious limitations. Plus I want to add visual (wysiwyg) editors, and that'll be all new code.

True, I'll have to write it myself in order to play it. That'd be more fun anyway.

I'd like a CRPG based on D&D's world of Toril (when it doubt, Faerun, but any location could be made interesting) that would have the following elements: - Fully 3D world with physics. - Giant world map that is loaded in sections as you travel (like in Ultima 9 but bigger) rather than tiny maps and loading screens. - All the object interaction of Ultima VII and Ultima Online. - NPC schedules like in Ultima V and VII. In bed at night, up and around during the day, etc. - If 3D combat proves tricky to implement (with more than one monster), consider handling it the way Anachronox did (or better). - Player's choice of camera angles: first person, third person (drive, chase, overhead), and floating (as with Infinity Engine games). - Realistic (within reason) weather effects: wind blows things, rain creates puddles, snow accumulates, etc. - Multiple modes of travel: walk, swim, fly, levitate. - Characters are able to jump, climb, grab at things while falling/sliding, etc. - No more "player controlled camera" crap where you don't see your character's arms/hands and legs/feet. That's just a start. Basically I'd like to combine my favorite elements from the games I've played into one monster CRPG that I could get lost in for hours each day. I haven't felt "sucked" into a game world since the single-player Ultimas, though HL2 is pretty good.

If they went out of business (I hope not), the team would try, try, try again. It's better than before the internet, when the only news one had about their favorite developer was in a magazine, and feedback was limited to phone calls or snail mail, and later on dial-up bulletin boards. I used to get sound drivers from Creative's old BBS, until the Internet finally went public.

I've been teaching myself Java and OOP (a huge change after nearly 30 years of procedural thinking) and it's a lot of fun. I use NetBeans and Sun's JDK, and I'm practicing on Near Infinity.

Edit: meant to edit but quoted myself instead.

Agreed, the NPC elves, dwarves, and so on, look great. And one or two of the player character faces look good too.

I could accept the D&D 3.5 ugly/so-so model argument if there wasn't such a gulf in beauty/handsomeness between what the player can select for faces and what most of the NPCs come with. The player character faces tend to look more hideous than plain, based on what I can see at the local supermarket. I look terrible when waking up with a migraine, but that's nothing compared to what I see in NWN's character generation screen. I won't be playing NWN2 for a long while, but I won't get rid of it either, because there is one human female face and one human male face I like, so I can still play the game. I just pretend my character is traveling back in time to try to improve on how he/she did things the previous time. I'm hoping DA's player character faces are much better. Ugliness looks better on monsters.

Hmm, that's not nearly as complete as I remember (might have been another site). Rachel isn't there, nor Mikar ("If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much."), nor several others I can't remember the names of right now. Many of the BG/BG2 forum members hang around at modding sites, or have moved on, usually with different aliases.

Taking a break from system hog games to play some older stuff, namely Icewind Dale (+ both official add-ons). It looks great at 1024x768, and even though the combat gets old if I play too long per sitting, the atmosphere and locations are fun to experience. There were occasional bugs, such as not being able to place certain items (armor, large shields, generic items) into a bag of holding, and more than a few broken dialog triggers, but I fixed thom with Near Infinity. I modded the bag of holding into Pomin's bedroom so I don't have to play 80% of the game before getting one.

White Dragon Though on a bad day, I could easily be Black. I'm sort of bipolar that way.

I like the Longest Journey and Darkfall games because they mix fantasy genres, much as my own stories do. Even when you do arrive in Arcadia, the more magical realm, you don't see dwarves and elves, but you do see some interesting creatures that don't exist in the more scientific Stark. Great games, both of them, and I look forward to more in the future.

I like the IE overall, just not the performance loss with the floating text in IWD2, as was my original point. The BG and IWD series otherwise run great on my computer. Finally got around to installing EasyTutu last night. I also installed the BG1 GUI mod, the water degreenifier, and Tutufix v17. There were a few glitches in the EasyTutu install*, but once I fixed those the rest was painless. I fired up the game and created a character, and boom, Candlekeep at 1024x768 with BG1's dark gray stonework GUI skins. Awesome. They tweaked the EXE to play the intro movie with Sarevok, but there is still the static TSR logo (I prefer BG1's animated dragon logo), and Bioware's logo is replaced with BG2's WOTC logo (yuck). I can fix that with a hex editor. *The EasyTutu installer failed hard if AUTOPLAY.INI and BGATE2.MPI were not present in the main BG2 folder (it's a bad idea to make assumptions...). I'd removed several files that were nonessential for configuration and singleplayer gaming, but thankfully I had snapshots of the original main and override folders so I was able to restore the required files and get the install to continue.