Tale

I liked that it was attempted, but it fell flat because the personal part didn't go anywhere. It was basically three stories, two of which weren't personal at all, that only connect because they had to. I think the passive issue mainly arises from the intense railroading so that all three of the stories end the same way. The player doesn't feel he mattered, he just was along for the ride. Anyway, finished the "scenario" campaign for Fallen Enchantress. I have no idea why that campaign exists.

I could use more detail to make sure you're not misunderstanding anything somewhere. Unequip all equipment from the character. What's the character's armor rating? Now equip the armor. What armor is it and what's the new rating?

Fallen Enchantress campaign. I like the production quality of their cutscenes, but it's a tedious jaunt otherwise. Think I should finish Unfinished Swan first, actually.

This is the official forums, not very active: http://social.biowar...egory/172/index The Steam forum for the game is not very active, but you can check it for similar problems: http://forums.steamp...play.php?f=1060 Or you could just tell us what the problem is. I've played it pretty recently so I might have an idea.

Of Orcs and Men? Just how good it is? It's on my wishlist and I'm debating whether to wait for a sale or just grab it.

That'll be enough of that.

I just can't trust a game that's been in amateur development for 8 years. At some point, they should have narrowed it down to something shippable, instead of keeping the objective as being an "AAA" game. Even if they got their money, I'm not sure they'd still finish it.

I did some editing of the thread, far more than I should have to. Keep the discussion civil and on-topic.

They shouldn't. The idea of souls influencing characters should be left for NPCs. Maybe if they want to get meta, the player can be a stand-in for the character's soul. If the soul is influencing character decisions, you either remove player agency by declaring it for the player. Or you're making a silly distinction of letting the player choose between soul and self which is needless complication that doesn't actually explore the theme. It's just letting the player pretend he's exploring a theme he probably doesn't even understand. You're missing it. The player has a choice as to how and why do something. For example, save that pregnant woman or the king? You can save the woman because you save two lives and the king has more people caring after him, or you can do it because you hate the guy, and other possibilities that can be presented in the dialogue and the narrative. Some time later you learn that something similar has happened in the soul's past. At that point, we see whether the pc made the choice influenced by the past, and in which way, or not if he didn't get influenced. I'm missing it because that doesn't make any sense to me. The player already knows why the PC made the choice. In fact, you just asked him why. Turning around and saying "it's because of the past life" or "because of no reason, lol" based on a comparison against the writer's arbitrary script isn't something that sounds even remotely beneficial.

I'm mostly stuck trying to figure out how to make the first chapter interesting. You have to get your hook out there, otherwise both publishers and readers won't bother with the rest. I feel I may have backloaded mine a bit. And I'm wary about using in media res. I'm thinking a lot about how other novels do it. Pratchett hooks people with the humor that just pervades the entire thing. So he can pretty much start anywhere. As could Douglas Adams. George R. R. Martin starts Game of Thrones off by basically lying to the reader, introducing the "Others" who aren't anywhere else in the bleeding 1st book. I don't think I want to do that. I guess I should summarize what my overall tone and hook are going to be and build something that represents that. Ooh, maybe as an impetus for the more boring intro I was avoiding. Don't avoid it, just push that to Chapter 2 and make Chapter 1 something interesting that would cause it.

Trying to figure out how and where to start my novel. This attempt has been my most fulfilling one, except for the complete lack of a place to actually start the story.

Is this the classic hit points = blood argument? Hit points didn't translate directly to damage in D&D, either. Getting stabbed in the chest doesn't make you closer to dying, it makes you actually dead or so close you won't be fighting back. If the HP mechanic was meant to represent how many stabs you can take before dying, most characters would have 1-2 HP. Since its inception, it's meant a combination of things such as fatigue and luck. Don't believe me? AD&D DMG page 82.

Closed by OP request.

They shouldn't. The idea of souls influencing characters should be left for NPCs. Maybe if they want to get meta, the player can be a stand-in for the character's soul. If the soul is influencing character decisions, you either remove player agency by declaring it for the player. Or you're making a silly distinction of letting the player choose between soul and self which is needless complication that doesn't actually explore the theme. It's just letting the player pretend he's exploring a theme he probably doesn't even understand.

Simple negativity bias. And as people take more note of unfavorable outcomes, the mind tends to assume a pattern. The human mind developed to be pattern seeking, but it takes a lot of shortcuts to get there. It's fairly pervasive. It could be a contributing factor to many overblown phenomena. Edit: Moving sentences causes pronouns to get funky.

How? Motivation has no external force. It can't affect the world to cause a reaction. If I save the baby from the fire because I love babies or if I save the baby because I hate the smell of burnt baby, the world will react to it the same way. With one baby that isn't burned. If someone asks why I saved the baby, what I tell them isn't my motivation either. It's what I want them to believe.

Seconded. Was trying to decide if I'd just push through with Warlock or get Fallen Enchantress. I'll probably grab FE this weekend.

No, but maybe. I voted no, but I wouldn't mind seeing it on a limited basis. Maybe a scripted sequence. I wouldn't appreciate it as a general rule simply because of low influence scores.

I don't know if you guys are following it, but there's a minor brouhaha going around concerning games journalism. Robert Florence, a writer for Eurogamer, wrote an article questioning journalistic practices, centrally concerning the GMAs. You can find that article here. In the process, he name dropped a couple of people as examples. That was yesterday. Today, Eurogamer edited the article to remove the specific mentions of names, that's the version you see up in the link. And Robert Florence left Eurogamer as well. Though he has shown no ill-will towards Eurogamer. His twitter account. John Walker, a writer for Rock, Paper, Shotgun, wrote what I thought was a very good piece on his blog that echoed some of the concerns of the Eurogamer piece. You can find that on his personal blog here. This was also yesterday. Today, he's also reacting to the editing of the article by Eurogamer. Here. The PA Report is chiming in.

Is it time again? Break dancing chihuahas on a trampoline, I swear the last one just ended. I'll be participating this year.

Other monolith games like Blood and Shogo are up, so... it's not so unlikely... And maybe we bring it up because we just want it NOLF was published by Sierra, which means Activision must own its IP. And that, of course, suggests NOLF will never show up on GOG. http://www.gog.com/e...arch=Activision FOX interactive might own some part of the rights, though.

Nothing. I forgot the water. This is the problem. And by "problem," I mean "fire hazard."

Trying to make tea without using water is just as bad an idea as it sounds.

This thread was first, but it sadly has much less activity and fewer poll respondents. Let's shift discussion over to here. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61928-low-content-density-vs-greater-density-of-content/

I'm currently on either Equal Rites, A Clash of Kings, Gauntlgrym, or Slaughterhouse-Five. I'm actually pretty fickle with books at the moment. Though Pratchett always holds my attention better than the rest.