J.E. Sawyer

Here are a couple of examples: * Very few effects are tagged with a bonus "type" in line with 3E/3.5 conventions. E.g.: enhancement bonuses vs. morale bonuses vs. size bonuses. There's also no central stacking logic in place to handle that stuff even if the data were present and marked properly. This is why stacking seems so confusing and/or broken at times in the engine. Identical bonuses usually won't stack with each other, but that's sometimes handled in script as opposed to code. E.g.: bull's strength won't stack with another bull's strength, but bull's strength would stack with a belt of giant strength (used to, anyway). Revising and centralizing the stacking logic and associating all effects with bonus types would allow for finer control over general balance. * The primary method for defining basic spell data is done in spells.2da. This is an extraordinarily large array of data covering all spells for all classes/special abilities that aren't hard-coded. There are a number of columns in spells.2da that define what level the spell is for a certain class: bard, cleric, druid, paladin, ranger, sorcerer/wizard, and (I think) warlock. These columns are all accounted for in code as well, meaning that you can't simply create new spell lists for new base or prestige classes. This is why, for instance, blackguards and assassins don't have their own spell lists. One could revise this data structure so spell lists were external .2das referenced by classes.2da, bypassing the definitions in spells.2da entirely. The code would reference whatever classes.2da gave to it for a spell list .2da, allowing for virtually infinite custom spell lists on a per-class basis. The only loss would be the ability to see, at a glance, all of the classes that had access to a given spell. But really, when you can open multiple .2das at once in Excel and search between them, that's not a significant negative. It's Joanna Newsom tuning her harp before a show.

I actually do think the game is fun and I really do think the game does have some problems that will need to be addressed in a patch/some patches. There's also stuff in the game that I wouldn't have done, but that I don't find too objectionable (like forcing certain CNPCs into your party in some areas). At a very low level, there's engine "stuff" I don't like that goes way, way back to Bio's original engine that runs from game logic through data formats. The only way to really address those would be to thoroughly gut all of those subsystems and re-write them. That was one of the big foci of IWD2. It wasn't really the focus of NWN2. Then again, I think a lot of people will probably enjoy NWN2 a lot more than IWD2 because most people don't care that much details of rule implementation and data limitations. My grandfather loved making Hungarian goulash. Probably because he was Donauschwaben.

It's true that the crafting system allows you to make very powerful items, but managing all of your ingredients, recipes, skills, and feats takes a lot of planning and effort.

I would be very interested in hearing why. There seems to be this bizarre assumption that because some developers share a fan's opinions on something -- rules, characters, etc. -- that they don't play PnP. I've been playing and running PnP games since I was in fifth grade. Ferret also played and ran a D&D game at Obsidian, which included some of these characters. Hell, Avellone worked for Hero Games before he came to Interplay/BIS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyvFNA9W5E8

Someone from Atari might know what's happening.

I'm not saying she was a bad actress; she just wasn't what we wanted for Neeshka.

I'm watching the video now and I'd say it's probably one of our Beta candidates. I'm basing that on the lack of the arrow quiver on the back of the arcane archer in character creation. Also, there's no VO on Daeghun and there's still a long pause after each node of dialogue in the cinematics. Yep, no weapon trails/hit sparks, hit sounds, or combat fidgets in that video. I'm not saying that you're going to be bowled over with amazement when those things are there, but they are in the build now.

That's five PCs/CNPCs and five opponents in a mid-level game, which isn't that rare. You can efficiently move and direct the actions of your characters when you know where they are on their timers. The best time to move or re-direct them is usually immediately after they've taken an attack because they can launch directly into something else. Also, with dummy attacks, it isn't clear if your character is attacking and missing or just making a dummy attack (without watching the log like a hawk). If animations are divided into ones that are distinctly "real" attacks with weapon trails/hit sparks and combat fidgets that break up the dead space, it's easier to know what's going on by looking at the events rather than the combat log. Actually, yes. A different actress was cast and all of her lines were re-recorded.

There were a lot of text/VO mismatches in older builds. We've been gradually catching and fixing them all. Also, a lot of the VO was re-recorded for mis-matches and general quality control.

Do you find it easy to track events in the feedback window when there are ten 8th-12th level combatants going at it? I don't. I also have no idea how old this video is because I have no idea what build it is. I know that a while ago Atari sent out a bunch of Beta candidate copies for European reviews, but it will be another half hour before the video is done downloading.

No, it (BG) didn't have faux combat animations, unless you mean regular attack animations when you weren't actually attacking. Personally, I always thought that was pretty lame because without surgically wiring the combat log into my brain, it wasn't clear when my character was actually making attacks and when the character was just killing time. NWN2 characters do not block, but they do dodge/duck and play weapon fidgets. I did write up a bug a while ago about how combat fidgets are not pronounced enough and not playing often enough for all weapon sets. Some weapon sets have good fidgets, but others are too subtle.

Is it really incomprehensible that a gnome could be a bard or an elf could be a paladin? It is his nickname.

Nope, I'm going on to a different project.

You might as well remove every fifth metal beam used in a skyscraper. The entire story structure depends on the presence of particular CNPCs at various points. I suppose you could spend six months removing them and re-writing the story, but you'd probably be better off writing a new story that simply didn't depend on the presence of any character other than the PC.

Changing the integration of NPCs into almost every stage of the story after a year and a half of development? No.

Don't ask me; I just work here.

Personally, I don't find Grobnar annoying. He is a nutty gnome, but he's usually pretty amusing. Also, he is awesome, Buff Master of the Fifth Dimension.

You missed the point. Graphics didn't make Fallout when it came out, so why would it break Fallout now? Animal Crossing: Wild World is a pretty graphically primitive game. So are the Wario Ware games. So is Zelda: Minish Cap. That has virtually nothing to do with why the games are successful. Especially considering that RPGs are often behind the graphics curve, sneering at the graphic capabilities of handhelds as a reason for why RPGs on handhelds would suck --it just doesn't follow. Dismissing an entire development platform as "not real" without any given justification does not merit extensive response until some is given.

Does Fallout become a bad game because its graphics have become outdated? Most people play handhelds with headphones, which means the sound is as good as the developer chose to make it. In the PSP and DS (and GBA) games I've seen/played, it's ranged from mediocre to great. Handhelds often have excellent controls and control schemes in general. The Advance Wars games and Animal Crossing: Wild World were very good. DS games that allow stylus use (like Metroid Prime: Hunters) effectively offer a mouse replacement. Of course, there are games that could have better controls (like Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow), but there are lots of PC and console games that could also have better controls. This forum continues to amaze me with the amount of unfounded bias thrown against any given platform.

My eyes just rolled back so far in my head that my optic nerves snapped and now I can't spellcheck this post.

Boy I hope they don't have too much trouble converting all of the work they've done on the PS3 version to the Xbox 360.

I'm sorry if you're so unaware of the development process that you think a feature is bug-free the day it's implemented, but that's not how it works. Avellone took a stable build with him to Leipzig. Frank implemented combat fidgets in a build made after that one. The fidgets play erratically and sometimes not at all. That's why we're still working on the game: because it's buggy.

Either that or the build was specifically chosen for stability rather than having every last feature in the game but full of bugs.

No you wouldn't, not even close. My machine is above the recommended spec for NWN2 and it cost less than $1,000, not counting the monitors.