mkreku

Wow.. I had a completely different experience. I found a game that took the best bits of the first two games and evolved them into something better, all the wehile keeping (and improving on) the atmosphere that made the first two games famous. I also thought the quests were miles better in Clear Sky. ..and this is the point where I realize I am confusing Clear Sky with Call of Pripyat. Ignore me.

I'm still waiting on pics of your pole dancing friend, Bruce. Get on it! Meanwhile, I've just finished the second week at my new job as a project leader for a big Swedish company. They've already made me join a sect (my work phone is an iPhone) and removed me from my home (had to fly to a two day meeting). Yesterday I got my new work computer. It's an Ultrabook of some kind (Fujitsu) and it's so thin I could slice bread with it. I think I'm going to enjoy working here.

Awesome. I want to hear more about this. Where did you meet her? Where did you move? (Guessing Kiev, beautiful city) What do you think of Ukraine so far?

I'd like to level up my horse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RAhU9TmIMM

It was an example of what is (more easily) possible using 3D rendering, not an example of what I need for the perfect game. And I am already looking at the wrong game. This is not a game for me, I am fully aware of that. But I still cringe when I see ignorant people discussing things based on old notions and nostalgia.

You are asking the wrong question. Noone here is arguing for first- or third person view. What I am arguing for is that they will use 3D instead of 2D backgrounds. Still isometric! Still static camera! I don't even need a zoom function, although it would be nice. If you render a 3D world, you can do a lot more things than in a 2D painted world. For example, it is much easier to implement day-and-night cycles. It is much easier to implement physics (try making a 2D object tumble..). It is much easier to implement shadows, hills, running water, animated doors, destructible environments, etc. The list can be made a lot longer. But let's take an example: imagine firing off a fireball in the middle of a forest.. at night. Imagine seeing the orcs you hit ragdoll around, hitting trees and shrubbery as they tumble around from the force of the blast. Imagine seeing the trees closest to the impact center catch fire and light up the night. Imagine seeing the trees closest to ground zero actually fall outwards and break from the power of your magic. Imagine seeing the surviving orcs run screaming and burning between the trees, casting long shadows before they fall over and perish. Now imagine the same scene in 2D. Sure, none of the 3D scenario was in Planescape: Torment. None of it is needed for a better role-playing experience. But I still want it in my game.

Isometric and 3D are not mutually exclusive. I'm not sure they advocated static 2D backgrounds when they made the Kickstarter (unless I missed that bit of information). I would MUCH prefer 3D than 2D. 2D is like a painting, pretty but lifeless. 3D can (nowadays) be exactly as pretty as 2D, but with the gigantic advantage of having much more interaction potential. You know all those cool details you see in Planescape: Torment? Try picking something up in the bar. Try opening a door. Try kicking a barrel. It's lifeless and dead. With 3D they can add physics and interactivity to all these details.

You guys do know where that Proton Axe comes from, right? http://wasteland.wikia.com/wiki/Proton_ax

Very cool! Invite me! Btw.. how are the girls in Johannesburg?

Not really. It is easy to prove that the delays are gone though. Just go to IMDB and check out the release dates for older movies in the US and Europe and then compare it to newer movies. There never was any valid reason for this artificial delay. It was never difficult to make more movie rolls. It was never difficult to fly them over the ocean. It was never difficult to truck them out to all the cinemas in the world. If digital cinemas had made a breakthrough five or ten years ago, then there would be a less sinister logical explanation for the delays being gone. But they have not yet switched to digital in all movie theatres, so that is not the reason. They just can't abuse their power anymore because the power balance has shifted. People all over the world now has the means to 'strike back' and suddenly the problem is solved.

I can't vote, I like them all.

No magic. ..what?

Before piracy: countries were ranked according to some weird 'worthy' list by movie publishers, where the USA was No. 1 every time. Then a month or so later came Great Britain. Then, several months to years (!) later came the rest of the world. The worse your country ranked on this scale, the later the movie premiered. Finland used to get movies a few months after Sweden, for example, even though being next-door neighbours geographically. TV-series were even worse, where most series took years to air everywhere. The excuse? Logistic problems. After piracy: movies release within the same week (or month) all over the world. TV-series are being aired in the same day all over the world. No more rankings, all countries have equal worth. Suddenly the logistics seems to be working just fine.

This is something that has irked me for years. One of my favourite RPG's is called Gothic. In it, you play a nameless criminal that's thrown into a very special prison at the beginning of the game. You never learn what he has done to be thrown in there, you never learn his name and the only thing you learn is that you're nothing special (by getting a beatdown the first thing that happens in the game). Of course, the character becomes special because of what we, as players, decide to do with this character. But I loved playing a nobody that noone expected anything of. It was practically unheard of when Gothic was released in 2001. Enough with the chosen ones.

I prefer a learn-by-doing system, as was seen in Wasteland (much better implemented than in The Elder Scrolls). Wasteland was released in 1988, so the actual system isn't a Bethesda invention, like some people here seem to suggest. And I love that you call it grinding.. You know how a basketball player becomes good at hitting a three-pointer? He keeps throwing them during practice. Over and over and over. It's called practising.

The first time I played Pool of Radiance (old Gold Box D&D game), I had never been in contact with D&D before and I had not much experience with RPG's in general. So I played through that game, from the beginning to Tyranithraxus*, without ever realizing what the spell "detect magic" did. In practice, this means I only picked up magic items that were already identified. A few years later I replayed the game and by now I had understood the whole concept of identifying magic items and the meaning of the detect magic spell. Imagine my surprise when I found out that even the first map after New Phlan (starting city) had a bunch of magic items! By the time I reached Tyranthraxus, my team of heroes were clad from top to toe in super powerful magic items. The funny thing is though.. I've never had more fun than that first time playing through the game, scraping by with my 2-3 magic items (in a group of 6) and being genuinely happy whenever I found a new magic item. I voted rare. (*Tyranithraxus was a fake boss in the room before Tyranthraxus. I got stuck there for maybe 10 years before I realized the real end boss was in a hidden room behind that guy!)

And Sundin!

It would be sooo cool if Sweden could bag one of the big name stars.. Where is Crosby playing this season? Does he know that we have very safe airlines and very pretty girls?!

I don't like roll-playing or meta-gaming, so the more abstracted the rules and rolls are for me, the better. I do realize that I am in the minority with this opinion though. For some reason D&D fans seem to love reading about rules and dice rolls outside the game.

Ultima 4 had the best pirates in any game so far. You battled them on their (or your) boat, and if you won, you got their ship. After playing the game for a while, there were ships everywhere, and I used them to build bridges between the mainland and some islands (long rows of ships parked next to each other). It was great. I would love more pirates.

If you think that is annoying you should try playing Fallout, when you're in a rat infested place and every two seconds you get stuck in a new encounter that takes 2 minutes to complete (because of the turn based combat), despite the rats being no threat to you and dies from one hit. The bastards always manages to stand behind something or make themselves impossible to hit somehow..

That's Kai Rosenkranz, of Piranha Bytes fame. He is a freelancer now, but I think he would be too expensive. He's very talented. Same with Jesper Kyd, who is my favourite. Probably wayyy over the budget for this project.

You had me at rape.. But seriously, I would want them to not back down from any subject, no matter how offensive. You're free now, guys, use this freedom! But realism does not a good game make. It still has to be fun, so for example one-hit-one-kill firearms may be realistic, but not so much fun in a game.

For a fun-funded and fan-driven project, I must say they are being quite tight-lipped about the whole thing. There's no NDA now, guys! Or is it just me being impatient?

"Hello. I am a self proclaimed expert in this field, therefore I will call Wikipedia **** without offering any explanation why and then condescend everyone else who posts about this"