Phosphor

I rarely have a problem figuring out why symbols mean - often the game designers make the symbols fairly intuitive. Even NWN's symbols were reasonably easy to figure out. The three quickbars of NWN were extremely awkward to use - a better system could have been used. Ultimately it's radial wheels that are bothersome, both in TOEE and NWN. They take up too much room and require too much looking around in to find anything. A linear method is much better, as if you're going to have to look for things, at least it's in a manner that is easier on the eyes/brain.

It certainly seems to be - I have absolutely nothing against them, but Petor23 takes it so seriously it's kinda fun to play along in the little ACvsWW joke. For the most part, the two boards are pretty much the same.

You really do need to focus on the more important things in life, Petor. Like the fact that Winterwind has JE Sawyer and Puuk as registered members With the exception of Ms. Kitty, Majestic and Melodie are active members of WW as well, so I really do not see what your "point" is if there really is one. They're bloody message boards, Petor.. internet message boards, not a religion.

How is this any different from KOTOR? And if it's set 2000 years after KOTOR, how "Old Republic" is it, really?

Interesting, though I don't think $3 million is going to do much for them. Might be enough to cover debts but it's certainly not going to get them back on the road of being a viable company.

I would argue NWN's interface functionality. It spins off into too many sub-menus of sub-menus of sub-menus all in a outward radial fashion. It's not at all conducive to a steady game play, instead you spend all your time looking for things, particularly when combined with the three-level quick bar arrangement. All this in a real-time game is just horribly awkward. I think that the use of a scroll-through system like in KOTOR would work well, with a window for certain skills, abilities, feats etc. I find that quick and easy to navigate as it's essentially static, not spiralling off.

I understand your points, pants_happy. Though for your funeral analogy, I'm pretty sure I would be constantly replaying what I could have done and what I didn't do. But maybe that's just me..

Radial interface menus never sit right with me, even after a lengthy use. I never got used to NWNs and only barely accustomed to TOEE's. I like things laid out neatly in order, on a start-to-finish path, not a circular endless path. I agree with the three-layer analysis.

Likewise. The radial wheel in PS:T wasn't that bad, as it didn't need to be accessed a whole lot. Not like the wheel in NWN or TOEE. NWN's interface has got to be the worst. Even after playing through nearly the entire game before I got fed up with the tedium, I never got used to the radial wheel or flipping through numerous so-called quick bars. I don't like when developers try to do something different with an interface, as it always comes at the expense of functionality.

The thing is, it didn't have to be Interplay's time to go. They weren't in great shape for a long time, but the management certainly did nothing to encourage the company to maintain itself. Two of the potentially biggest PC RPGs were in development at Interplay, but both were cancelled due to some idiotic decisions from Caen. If it was Interplay's time to go, then it's just as much your time to go if someone puts a gun to your head. I'm sure the Interplay people won't have too hard a time finding jobs. Some non-design people might.

My concern with the Interplay situation is that it was a company with potential for both it's employees and the gaming public. Interplay was in trouble years ago, but it was far from being a lost cause. Unfortunately, bad management ruined something that could have been turned around, for the benefit of it's staff and for it's audience. With Black Isle, Interplay had some of the best designers in the industry (in my opinion), but that potential was wasted time and time again. So instead of furthering game evolution, Interplay tossed it aside in some shallow greed and ignorance. Sometimes a company closes and people lose jobs in an inevitable situation, and that sucks. The Interplay situation was not inevitable had it been run by someone who cared about running a game company. My concern is that idiocy and greed ruined something with potential. That personal greed and idiocy has put a huge burden on a number of people, and the person responsible will be the one to be the least hurt.

You can relax, I'm not completely mad. As for by which measure I consider the IE a good engine.. I thought character control was very well done, and party management excellent. The interface was always well set up, and when BIS modded the engine for IWD2, it was extremely good to use. As a player, I didn't find the engine that inflexible at the time. Gauged against some engines now, yes, it has some flexibility problems (at least in BG1, BG2 and IWD1) but at the time those games were current, it was perfectly user-friendly. I like the view the IE gives, and I by far prefer the static interface bar for each character rather than a radial wheel or some other "floating" interface.

Well, you can activate "solo mode" and move alone, and activate it when you need the NPCs to back you up, but that's about the extent of AI control or "ambush" planning. For realistic improvements to the KOTOR engine, I'd like to see movement fixed. Don't allow the PC to get caught on little mounds of earth, small corners or tree branches. Some more detailed and varied NPC scripting would be good, or even a customisable script set-up if possible.

I meant the design styles, not an actual merging of those two engines.

There was no strategic combat at all in KOTOR. It was purely a rush-and-hit approach every time. Was the game more combat-focused it would have been unbearable, but fortunately combat wasn't the main focus.. If someone built a game with the KOTOR engine and required the player to use tactics to win encounters, that game would be unplayable.

So Volourn, what was your "Some people should get their priorties staightened up." comment meant to imply, then? I haven't actually seen any death wishes for Caen, at least spoken with any seriousness. Perhaps you should look at who's talking in extremes.

Following that logic, why talk about anything at all since there'll always be a bigger, greater or more important problem or issue than the one you're currently discussing? This is a gaming forum, and we're talking about a gaming company. It's perfectly relevant. Going on about other issues would be rather off-topic.

The IE was a great engine, I agree, particularly after the revamp for IWD2. What I'd like to see is a combination of the IE with the TOEE engine. Take the look of the latter and put in a static interface bar (like in the IE) rather than that awful radial wheel. The capablities of the TOEE engine in terms of the D&D combat rules is very nice, and the animations are great. But change the rather "futuristic" look of the interface graphics for the more fantasy-like IE ones. As for the KOTOR engine, I wouldn't say it blew kibble. For the perspective the game took, it worked quite well save for the movement problems and a mediocre combat model.

I have mixed feelings about the KOTOR engine. On the one hand, the game looked fantastic (though more face models would have been really nice), and the interface was quite functional. I liked the scroll windows for inventory, attack styles, force powers and whatnot. Movement was terrible. Getting stuck on the smallest of structures and having to make wide detour arcs around them was just bad. The combat set-up was far too automated, as well - there was no strategy involved and I could click a target and go off and do something else and when I returned the battle was over. I think with some finessing the engine could be nicely improved, but whether it's easier to make a new engine or fix a pre-existing one, I don't know. On the upside of movement, however, I did appreciate that the NPCs did not get in the way as much as they did in NWN. For the most part, you never see them and they rarely block your vision or get jumbled up with your character animation and/or the surrounding environment.

Caen will certainly have his coffers well stocked. A CEO never cuts his own income while depriving his employees of theirs. I don't know if there really is a lot of money flowing between Titus and Interplay, though. Caen certainly used Interplay to feed Titus, so in that I suspect there's something questionable going on - Caen seemed to have more interest in Titus than in Interplay and making games. I have the impression that the whole Interplay disaster is the fallout (heh) of a corrupt or at least unscrupulous corporate practice. With proper leadership, none of this need to have happened. Caen, like so many CEOs, fell victim to greed and in turn ran things into the ground. It was always clear to me that he had no sense of what was going on in terms of games - his mind seemed to be elsewhere.

And as I further commented to Kumquat, suddenly one is flung back the 19th century with a heavy lead diving suit. One might think that in a setting such as KOTOR's, an environmental suit might have some sort of propulsion system, either propellor-driven or some other sort of propulsion engine. After so much running around in the game from place to place to place, the last thing the player needed was a slow motion sequence.

My thoughts exactly.

I think a Planescape-style of game is possible, just not called Planescape. There's ample planar source material for 3E to put together a good game. And I suspect that once WOTC really gets going on the Eberron setting, that'll be heavily pushed. Setting doesn't really matter though as long as the game is good. Setting only becomes a big issue when the designers try and make the setting compensate for a thin story.

And chances are you don't need that kind of technology. Most computers bought now are far above and beyond what most users really need - often it's nothing more than the desire for bragging rights that causes the average user to buy a 3gHz machine, when all they really need is less than half that. The system that mkekru suggests would be perfectly suitable and would keep you going for a long time yet.

Goldeneye is one of my favourite Bond movies. Too bad the rest of the Brosnan ones were really bad.. A lot of promise initially... Ah well.