Revolver

This is pretty bad: http://www.paypalwarning.com/ Especially if they want to compete w/ paypal for credibility...

What happens when you run out of states?

Nice job Kitty... I'd just like to add that the Hindu RPG is tentatively titled Vaishvanara...

Yeah, that definitely was one of the key features that made HotU so much better than the original. And the best camera control has to be holding the mouse scrollwheel button, and scrolling to pan. (Also implemented in Soldiers of Anarchy which had the best camera control I've seen). In Silent Storm, one of the things that really bugged me was that you couldnt drop the camera to ground level, probably having to do w/ not intersecting walls and interiors. Maybe a solution would be to toggle between having everything between the camera and the player "disappear", and be visible.

Ok, I finally got the Silent Storm demo to work (at the lowest possible graphics setting) and have a couple observations. Yes, a lot of the features I suggested are in the game, but not completely- so I'll base it on my original post. And also, remember the topic is about RPGs rather than tactical games. Though this is the best squad based game I've played in a while. 1) I liked the camera control, but I didn't like how you couldn't pan down to ground level like in HotU and Soldiers of Anarchy. Also, I think that during the enemy turn the player needs even more to occupy their time than moving the camera around- like some sort of limited action pr being able to shout orders to teammates (if its a single character focused RPG.) 2) You could target body parts but not see the physical results of damage- not a big deal though, unless you want a really graphic game. 3) The destructable landscape was one of the best parts in the game. I'm not sure exactly if cover made a difference, but it seemed to work 4) As someone (Exitium?) mentioned, SS really needed a way to speed up the enemy moves 5) There was dialogue (though it wasnt great) during combat, but it would have been much more fun if we got Fallout-like descriptive text combat feedback- laced w/ a little dark humor. 6) it was a pretty good mix between simple and more advanced combat- though it maybe it should have defaulted on targetted shot instead of snap shot 7) combat initiation was handled excellently 8&9) These are things better left for RPGs so its understandable that SS didnt have them Overall, with a few added features and a few simplifications I think it'd be a great system to use with a pure RPG- either squad based or single character control. (more features would have to be added for single character control to make it more interesting though- eg giving vocal orders)

Ugh, that was the worst economics explanation I've ever heard. The most basic idea in economics is that the lower demand the LOWER the cost and vice versa. If less people were willing to buy cars, then car dealerships would have to lower their prices in order to sell the same volume. You contradict yourself with your next line because you then correctly say that decreasing costs will result more buyers. However, volume by itself has no bearing on the pricing decision. The decision to raise and lower prices to maximize revenue has to do the price elasticity of the product. If the product is readily substitutable and becomes more price elastic (market is more sensitive to changes in price), then the producer should generally lower the price in order to maximize revenue. If the product becomes less price elastic, then the producer should then raise the price. Now if you gave evidence for why you might feel those markets (car dealerships, RIAA, and game publishers) are all highly price elastic, your arguments might have made sense.

This is making me even more agitated for not being able to play Silent Storm. For someone who has the game, how plausible would it be for someone to license the engine and make a pure RP focused RPG out of it with some adjustements?

Now that the dollar's in a free-fall, I wonder if we will be seeing better game prices outside of the US. (It's probably not what the European developers want to hear though...)

Yup, I was just watching a Roger Moore bond movie the other day, and he was slapping around a scantily clad girl to get information out of her. They would never let Brosnan do anything close to that, unless the said girl was trying to kill him.

Well, you can do it in realtime, like Volourn mentioned in another thread, when you have several feedback windows for different types of feedback. However, it would still probably go too fast especially with multiple combatants (or even attacks), and it is evident it's not worth the effort as no developer I know of has tried it for a pure real-time game. (of course there could be). And pausing to read the feedback sorta ruins the whole effect. I'd also like to say that, if you don't have those messages, you're relying solely on graphics for the effect, and the graphics better be pretty damn good.

The movement was all I was talking about- and I meant before the shot. Of course I loved the combat feedback and taunts- all RPGs should have them... What? It's not practical in realtime? Thats just too bad

Hey, I had a thing for her too! (But that wasn't why I thought it was the best one...) Brosnan wouldn't be bad if they wrote the damn character right. Bond's all soft now- and the new movies are like BMW Films, except with more advertising and ridiculous plots... About Dalton? I don't know... He always seemed a little sinister looking to be Bond. When I saw him in the Rocketeer, I didn't think, hey that's Bond! Of course I probably was too busy looking at Jennifer Connelly...

Dammit, you took my game title idea! Anyway, I doubt BG3 would have had much to do with the first two. Or else it would have been kinda stupid.

Hey Chris, have you or any of the other developers at Obsidian done a NWN module that we could perhaps download?

Here's a couple more ideas- again, let me know if it's already in a game: When it's your turn in TB combat, have your character's weapon (lets say, gun) be aimed in the direction the targetting cursor is- so you see him pivoting and swinging the gun around. And when the cursor passes over an enemy, have them sorta try to duck ,wince, cover their face, or have a worried expression- which makes it all the more satisfying when you finally pull the trigger

Alright, since I can't get the Silent Storm demo to run on my current comp, can anyone tell me how close the combat is to this description I posted a couple months back on another forum? (back when I was an excitable youngster)

That almost makes it sound as if TB is old-fashioned. Yeah I've noticed I'm really bad at making titles I was thinking along the lines of theres only been 1 TB CRPG in recent times and that was TOEE. If you can think of other ones, by all means, point me towards them...

I would say that although I don't like them, MMORPG's are more RPGish than JA2 or Silent Storm though. (Then again I haven't played the full version of either game, so I don't know for sure)

Lazenby wasn't horrible... 'Her Majesty's Secret Service' was my favorite Bond movie. No one stands close to Connery as Bond though. Maybe if they generated him with a computer and had him do the voice, I'd watch another 007 movie...

I wish Silent Storm style combat would be implemented for a pure RPG- have there been any examples? Is it something that would take too much of the developer focus off roleplaying and story? Also do you guys think fog of war is a good thing or bad thing for a TB RPG? Usually the battles are up close and personal enough that it's not relevant though.

Then what were they going off of? System Reference Document?

Nice... /me goes off to find the Silent Storm demo Anyone have original ideas then?

Yeah, thats why I have the "existing features they like line" instead of saying, "all new ideas." What games is #1 in? I want to see... How does 9 = 8?

I tried to ask this on another thread, but it was buried in too many different discussions. I want to get people's ideas on how they would implement turn based combat in RPGs- both the existing features they like and new ones they would like (No "make it realtime" posts) Here are some random ones: 1) Take advantage of a 3d engine- unlock the camera and make it controllable, preferably by holding down the mouse wheel button and scrolling the mouse. This is an extra thing that can occupy the player when it's not their turn. They could look at things from different angles, and look for things to hide behind. And when it's their turn, you could find the best visual angle to view the attack and resulting gore. The only problem would be to get the graphics good enough for such a thing. Maybe it could be isometric until combat. 2) Body part targeting- of course. And visual results of the physical damage. Maybe make the weapons targetable too. 3) Make the landscape part of combat- Have most things be able to be destroyed or used as cover. Allow random rocks to be picked up and thrown. Allow people to shoot around cover at a penalty. (like spraying and praying around a corner) 4) Show special focus on improving combat AI. Make NPC combat speed adjustable. 5) Show text feedback and have dialogue during combat like in Fallout. Like: "Mordino's man is too busy feeling the rush of air on his brain to notice death approaching" or "My eye!" 6) Make it so you could still fight by simply pointing and clicking, but have the option to do more advanced complicated actions 7) Be able to initiate combat at any time Be able to use non-combat skills to resolve combat. Holding the gun to someone's head and using your speech or charisma to deliver a "Make my day" line to make them surrender. 9) Let the comp ai take over for quick combat resolutions- when people run away, you could have the game automatically calculate whether you can catch them or not, so you dont have to manually chase them all over the place.