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J.E. Sawyer

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Everything posted by J.E. Sawyer

  1. J.E. Sawyer
    I mentioned that earlier in the thread (and linked to a live version of Steve Goodman performing it), but thanks. Side note: City of New Orleans is one of the first songs I remember learning from my father. When I went into the studio to sit in on the recording of Chief Hanlon with Kris Kristofferson, I had no idea that, in addition to all of the other things he's done, Kris was one of the first industry people to "discover" Steve Goodman. He later introduced him to Paul Anka.
  2. J.E. Sawyer
    Gamers have wildly divergent behavior patterns when it comes to saving and resting, BTW. I mean, I know that's what you might get just from reading threads like this, but if you load up various Let's Play videos on YouTube and watch how people use (or don't use) save and rest features, it becomes very clear.
  3. J.E. Sawyer
    In AD&D (and especially 3E and 4E D&D), there's more to characters than their ability scores (e.g. character and class level and their derived benefits), but gear still does comprise a large element of characters' efficacy. I think this is especially true when the number of inputs to any given statistic is only limited by the number of slots from which you can draw stacking bonuses. In a campaign from about 10 years ago, I made a gimmick antagonist NPC who was a 16th level (combined) Cleric/Blackguard/Divine Disciple of Bane. It was pretty easy to equip him with gear that shot his Charisma to 30. Combined with his class abilities, it meant he could make almost any save against the party on a roll of 2 or higher. I think gear should feel meaningful, but I'd like to avoid the D&D-style ultra-stacking that comes from drawing bonuses from a bunch of different slots.
  4. J.E. Sawyer
    Different people have different thresholds for frustration, but satisfaction typically only comes about if the challenge required to reach a goal is sufficiently difficult. The bottom line for any feature we include is how people actually use (or don't use) it. When you sit down and watch people actually play the game, a lot of theoretical discussions go out of the window.
  5. J.E. Sawyer
    I'm not an IP expert, but if we establish PE as the foundation of a successful franchise, we will likely continue to use the setting we have created. But yeah, IP development is not only something that developers love doing, but it's extremely valuable for the company. As long as we can manage those IPs, I'm sure we'd want to develop more over time.
  6. J.E. Sawyer
    The difference between Joan of Arc and Hans Böhm is that almost no one remembers Hans Böhm. Joan of Arc is a "great woman" of history remembered for turning the tide of the Hundred Years War and leading Charles VII to his coronation; Hans Böhm's revolt failed and he was virtually forgotten. "Great" men/women are difficult to study (especially in the case of saints) for elements of their humanity because their legends loom so large.
  7. J.E. Sawyer
    It's the opening of the chorus of The City of New Orleans, though people probably aren't familiar with that song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ0JgqoF2W4#t=38s
  8. J.E. Sawyer
    We like impressive boss battles as well and think they made for some very memorable moments in the IE games.
  9. J.E. Sawyer
    Sorry to duck out, but I need to prep for our D&D game tonight. Objections to the proposed XP system are noted. We're not finalized on any of this stuff; quest-based XP is just an idea that Tim and I are interested in pursuing.
  10. J.E. Sawyer
    From my perspective, it's more like severing a Gordian Knot. In the places where I've seen it employed (e.g. the NWN module Witch's Wake), it worked very well. I attacked/fought with creatures I couldn't avoid or who had things I actually wanted (or if I just hated their guts), but when I came across creatures that had nothing worth taking/weren't worth the hassle, I just avoided them. It think it's weird to see people describe this approach as "elitist" when it's actually a response to extremely popular behavior I've seen player after player after player engage in. Complete quest via stealth, double back and kill everyone. Complete quest via conversation, double back and kill everyone. Complete quest via environment interaction/skill use, double back and kill everyone.
  11. J.E. Sawyer
    It's still the responsibility of designers to set up mechanics that don't screw with the player's desires. BTW, this sort of XP bias can work in ANY direction, not just combat. In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, you earned markedly less XP from mission to mission if you didn't stop to hack literally anything you came across -- even terminals for which you already had the password!
  12. J.E. Sawyer
    We'll see how it plays. Nothing's set in stone. I've just observed too much post-quest Black Ops slaughter to believe that players are going to behave differently when they can squeeze 1xp out of a peasant's head.
  13. J.E. Sawyer
    There's nothing wrong with defeating Firkraag being a quest or objective all in itself. That's what I meant before. There's nothing wrong with explicitly associating XP with defeating specific enemies or specific groups of monsters as part of a quest where it makes sense. If the quest is "clear the slums" and you're supposed to get rid of the kobolds, the goblins, and the orcs, you might be able to sneak/talk your way through that, but you're probably going to "get rid" of them with some magic missiles and axes to the face.
  14. J.E. Sawyer
    Gameplay degeneration occurs when a player engages in gameplay not because they enjoy that gameplay but because the game's mechanics put the player at a disadvantage for not taking advantage of it. Rest spamming is one example. Wholesale slaughter/genocide is another. Quests that involve a peaceful option to resolve that get turned around after completion when the player murders the saved parties is a familiar expression of this sort of degeneration. If XP is linked to quests and objectives within quests, the player has much more freedom to resolve those quests in whatever way he or she wants, whether that means talking through it, fighting, sneaking around, or using some mixture of skills/scripted environment objects to reach the goal.
  15. J.E. Sawyer
    You can heal Stamina pretty easily. Priests can do it for a lot of folks, but fighters can self-replenish and paladins can bark orders at you until you suck it up and Deal With It. Health can't be restored by magic; it requires you to rest to get it back. Tim and I would rather not give XP for general killin' because it leads to a lot of weird/degenerate scenarios, but I have no problem with having quests oriented specifically around killing and receiving XP for achieving sub-objectives/the main goal.
  16. J.E. Sawyer
    Why would you spend time dealing with a non-threat while there are other targets still threatening you? Even in standard D&D with unconsciousness/dying rules, it's tactically a bad idea to spend time finishing off a target that's out of the fight instead of moving on to other enemies.
  17. J.E. Sawyer
    I have to say I honestly did not expect this to be confusing to anyone. Here's an example. Bob the Fighter has 32 Stamina and 30 Health. He gets hit by a number of attacks that subtract 25 Stamina and 5 health (leaving him with 8 Stamina and 25 Health). He is a fighter, so he chooses to use one of his abilities to regenerate Stamina. He does this and quickly bounces from 8 Stamina to 15. Unfortunately, he gets smacked again for 20 Stamina and 4 Health. He is knocked out (effectively 0 Stamina) and at 21 Health. The guys who knocked him out move to other targets. Francine the priest casts restore stamina on Bob when combat is over. He recovers to full Stamina quickly, but is still at 21 Health. Depending on how the next few fights go, they will either have to retreat to rest or find a safe resting spot up ahead.
  18. J.E. Sawyer
    Then you're knocked out/out of the fight. It's not a whole lot different from being knocked out but not killed in D&D. When combat ends or when another character restores some of your Stamina, you're back up. I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that it's more work.
  19. J.E. Sawyer
    Human beings pretty consistently abuse people and animals that are physically smaller and weaker than them. It's not a matter of people hating orlans; it's a matter of a subset of people being able to get away with physically overpowering them and taking advantage of that. There are only two things in the update that have what would be considered uniquely "elven" names: Eír Glanfath and biamhac. Everything else is either Aedyran or Vailian.
  20. J.E. Sawyer
    Vailians are the biggest slave traffickers in this region, but they are by no means the biggest group of slavers. Vailians buy most of their slaves from coastal traders all over the southern hemisphere. Additionally, slavery is legal in Dyrwood and among the Aedyr in general. Finally, ethnic Vailian does not equal Vailian. The Vailian Republics are an ethnically mixed culture, though clearly dominated by ethnic Vailians (as the Dyrwood is dominated by ethnic Aedyr).
  21. J.E. Sawyer
    We're trying out various animation solutions for the waterfall, spray, and the pool/river. They will definitely be animated, but we want to leave our options open to support a wide range of hardware without making the area art files even larger. We are rendering the maps out at high resolution and we will be supporting some method of downscaling for lower end machines. It's an orthographic projection. The angle and height are something we are trying out, but we will continue to experiment on this map and others. Because our character models are 3D, what we use on exterior maps does not need to be the same view we use on interior maps.
  22. J.E. Sawyer
    For open exterior environments, we are experimenting (as in this image) with rendering scenes from an angle that is closer to Fallout and Fallout 2, about 15 degrees lower than the BG/IWD camera angles. There are a few reasons for this, the main one being that tall vertical objects can be seen in greater detail. Because the environments are open, the practical issues of overlapping walls and obstructions are not usually a problem. We will continue to experiment with this angle and the higher angle on interiors to see what mix works.
  23. J.E. Sawyer
    The Aedyr Empire trades with Dyrwood and citizens of the Aedyr often travel to (and through) Dyrwood. Sometimes the empire sends exploring agents/adventuring companies to the Dyrwood under false pretenses (or through false fronts). Magran's Dyrwood symbol can be seen on Cadegund's breastplate.
  24. J.E. Sawyer
    I'm italian and I have not a clue of what "Ancenze" should mean IT: Credo che si riferisca al fatto che la pronuncia sarebbe qualcosa tipo Firenze (la mia città *_*) EN: I think he refers to the fact that the pronunciation would be like Firenze\Florence (my city *_*) Correct.
  25. J.E. Sawyer
    We try to put pronunciation notes for every non-English word/name in our text notes. In some cases, we are trying to evoke a certain real-world correlation with spelling and pronunciation, z.B. the Vailian Republics are supposed to seem like Italian city-states, so when someone reads "Ancenze", the sound is important. Hast du eine Problem mit Elfen von Leipzig und bayerischen Paladine?
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