Leferd

EA? Nope. Not yet anyway. Bio doesn't become EA Canada Jr. or EA Texas until a couple months from now... at the earliest.

Spotted this on penny-arcade. I got an interesting mail this morning from Daniel Erickson the principal lead writer over at Bioware Austin. He says they have an opening in their writing staff and he's having a hard time filling it. Daniel wanted to know if he could put the word out here on Penny Arcade and I'm more than happy to help. So do you want to write for the new Bioware MMO? ---------------------------- Hey Guys, So here's the situation we're in. BioWare games require a great deal of writing. Storylines, world building, characters, journals - and about a bazillion lines of dialogue. What makes my job harder is not only does all of this writing have to be high quality - something not always demanded in our industry - it can only be done by writers who understand the complexities of interactive fiction. Take the average screenwriter who doesn't play RPGs, place him in front of the writing tool from Neverwinter Nights and you'll get a linear story with a complete lack of Player agency and no interesting decisions. Just trying to explain the concept behind writing without a protagonist to someone who has never even been a dungeon master can be like showing card tricks to a dog. Which brings me to the current problem. The BioWare MMO is the largest thing we've ever done by leaps and bounds. We're talking a double digit writing staff working for years (yes we've already been working for well over a year). Now I've realized I need even more writers and I've got no reliable way of predicting where they're going to come from. In the history of the company, we've had published fantasy authors, screenwriters and editors all wash out of BioWare's training program. On the flip side, we've had fantastic kids right of college, an ex CNN producer and a former gift wrapping clerk from Singapore all succeed in the BioWare writer family. Previous job of lead writer for Baldur's Gate 2, the highest rated PC RPG in history? Travelodge manager. So yes, we're shaking the usual trees and our HR folks are turning over all the rocks they can think of but I had to go through over three hundred qualified candidates to find the team I have now so a lot of those trees have done already been shook. With that level of challenge around finding writers, I want to throw out an open invitation for anyone out there that thinks might be the strange combination of RPG fiend and talented writer to grab a copy of Neverwinter Nights and start putting together a writing sample. I don't care if you can script, just put three guys in a field and attach conversations to them. Make the plot compelling, write the NPCs as real people who could exist in a believable world even if the PC wasn't there, give me an interesting choice or two and you're done -- easily something can be done over a weekend and there's a ton of great community support online if you're really tech deficient. Anyone out there want to write for the game company with three of the top five rated RPGs of all time on their biggest project ever? Head here: BioWare Jobs Cheers, Daniel Erickson Principal Lead Writer BioWare Austin ... So apparently they are serious about trying to make their mmo less grindtastic. It's a mystery. I gather that the former hotel manager is Dave Gaider, but I didn't know he was the lead writer on BG2.

I haven't been this hyped for a game since KoTOR 2.

Howard's Conan is great. Though I will freely admit that Arnie's portrayal is badass. I'd like to see him and John Milius get back together to do King Conan.

So who's the hero?

Those dodging skills of Conan can also be attributed as a "barbarian" skill. Though yes, Conan not only a "barbarian" but is/was a thief/pirate/mercenary/captain-general of mercenaries/king. But through and through, he is a barbarian. His thieving skills consist mostly of his taking advantage of his natural agility and litheness. Not so much on his ability to pick locks or pockets. It should be noted that though Conan is massively strong, he is equally agile and quick thinking. In DnD terms, he probably should roll 20's in all attributes. As far as his armor preferences, Conan (in the Robert E. Howard stories -can't speak for the comics) likes to wear light chainmail.

Conan is a level 1 rogue at most. He wasn't really much of a thief on The Tower of the Elephant. Plus, he can always use his cross-class skill abilities as a barbarian to touch up his thieving skills.

After the Sega Genesis became obsolete, I used to be pc only. Even when I had an xbox (to play KoTOR 2 and Jade Empire) I was pretty much gung ho with the pc. Now that I have a 360, I've started to be more and more pragmatic. Sometimes it's nice to just play a game with your feet up and relaxed on your couch. I voted both.

Always good for a laugh. The Bioshock review is classic.

You don't even to need to cancel your Xbox Live account. You start off with a complimentary Gold Account for thirty days, and if you choose not to re-up your Gold account, it'll automatically switch over to Silver.

I'll be shocked if it's not the Kotor MMORPG. Plus, I'd really like to see Obsidian develop K3.

I'm sure you have heard of the legend of the frog and the scorpion? Sometimes a company (or a person, or a scorpion) does things just because its what they do. Even if it is against their interests, it's just their nature. Assuming that EA is el Evil Empire, to get to that point, they have to be a rational actor. Afterall, irrationally going from one blunder to the next does not make a company worth multi-billions of dollars. They may not necessarily be interested in the art of video games, but they are interested in the $$ aspects of it. A scorpion -and correct me if I'm wrong- does not have the cognitive facilities to be interested in long-term survivability. They will not sacrifice something in the short term that will bear much fruit in the long term. They are only rational in the point that it cares for its own short term survival no matter the consequences. With Biodemic, they have two studios that are both critical and financial darlings. To EA, I'd imagine they'd see that as a commodity to value, rather than discard. The best thing for EA to do is for them to allow Bio and Pandemic do whatever the hell they have been doing and keep it up with as few memos as possible. From what I understand, that is John R.'s plan when EA bought them out. ...how long that lasts...well I suppose it depends on how long Bio keeps getting good reviews and millions in sales.

EA Canada Jr.

Not trying to be a devil's advocate here, but three quarters of a billion dollars does seem like a ton of money to just buy a couple studios so they can run them to the ground. If anything, EA generally does make good business decisions. So there may be some hope.

One 8800 GTS 640 and even 320 is better than 8600 SLI.

Your sister's build looks very similar to my own. Substitute OCZ for Corsair and the 8600 for an 8800gts. I would also recommend a seasonic power supply. Its cord is definitely long enough for the Antec p180 series. I have an unorthodox way of building a rig. I start with the peripherals first. Keyboard: IBM Model M Mousepad: Ratzpad Mouse: Logitech G5 Speakers: Cambridge Soundworks -Soundworks 2.1 Monitor: Samsung 215tw 21.5" 1680x1050 I got those components and put them in storage months before my machine was assembled.

Yeah, "kingmaking" is difficult in M2TW. Unfortunately, you can't designate the faction heir like you could in Rome. Best thing to do to get rid of your "bad seeds" is to have him go out in a blaze of glory against some rebels somewhere. Hopefully the next successor to the throne is more Richard and less John. ... Playing as Jerusalem, I was awarded a Templar chapterhouse. This gives valor bonuses to knights recruited in the city. The problem is, I can't recruit knights there because it's a city! Plus they took out the ability to recruit the order's nights away from the chapterhouse. WTF??

You realize you can take control of each of your settlements if you wish right? I personally can't imagine playing Total War without micro-managing every last detail from tax policy, to unit recruitment, to kingmaking.

I agree with Monte. It sounds like what you need is a nice long war. If you are friendly with Portugal get them to help you attack Spain. Or vice versa. The only thing I disliked about playing England was when you sent a crusade it had a hell of a long way to go to get to palestine and tropps would desert every turn. The army that leave England is not the same one that arrives in Jerusalem. Do you take an overland or sea route? Going around the Iberian Peninsula and past the pillars of Heracles or taking Barbarossa's route through Byzantium are considered to be the non-direct path to the Holy Land and will make your crusaders impatient. What you want to do (after you cross the Channel) is cut across mainland Europe and head straight for Italy towards Naples. Then you want to hop on a boat (preferably fleet of boats to protect against Pirates) and make your way across the sea to the soon-to-be Outremer.

Yes, just had a couple of hours playing Kingdom of Jerusalem. I'd say that as a campaign it has (a) the most intriguing unit roster (specifically the levies and warrior orders of crusader knights, including Constable of Jerusalem heavy cavalry) and (B) probably the largest campaign map. Factions are; KoJ, Kingdom of Antioch, Turkey, Byzantium and Egypt. King Baldwin the Leper is I suppose my hero unit but he's basically a very good general (starts with two stars short of maximum). I'm a few turns off of Richard the Lionheart rocking up, which should happen by 1212 or thereabouts I suppose. The AI seems better, but then again it might be the sharper distinction in unit types, i.e. Franks v. heavy units and Muslim factions light skirmishers / mounted archers. Seems even more noticable than in the vanilla game. There are more trade options, spying is significantly tougher, you get jihads thrown at you from Turn 2. I'm playing Hard / Hard. The music is great, same as the original but I love the Muslim faction battle music. The lighting seems different in this campaign, almost a golden light filtering through the battle scenes. Dunno if it's tweaked but it looks nice. Like I said, this game does what vanilla MTW2 can't do which is focus in on historically specfic scenarios that might not pan out in the campaign game. It's apples and oranges as to which is better, but I'm enjoying myself so far. I just wish I had more time to play! Cheers MC I've been playing this particular campaign in hotseat mode as the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Principality of Antioch. I'm especially liking how they've also included historical figures like Gerard de Ridefort, Count Raymond of Tripoli, Guy de Lusignan, Reynault of Chatillon, Balian of Ibelin etc., The unit balancing has been much improved. They've made greater stratification between the roles of heavy cavalry and light cavalry units. The heavy cavalry charge is more devastating, but they are still vulnerable when they don't have room to maneuver. Shields seem to be more useful. Overall, I think there's greater variance in stats of all unit types - melee infantry, spearmen, skirmishers, horse archers, etc., That's part of the reason why I think the Retrofit mod is a definite must grab if you want to play the Grand Campaign again.

I'm loving it! Be sure to download this mod if you want to play the grand campaign with all the new goodies provided by the XP: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?p=2119551 Though it's an unofficial mod, it's created by the guy who made the Custom Campaign Mod for vanilla MTW2 -who is incidentally a Creative Assembly developer.

I've been getting CTD's left and right with this mod. It's a shame because I really liked what they did with it. Those crashes seem to occur when I'm in the strategic map and am checking out inventory of the mercs.

Slowpokes. 4:59.4 over 1600m.

Jolee Bindo - KOTOR Edwin - BG/BG2 HK-47 - KOTOR Atton Rand -TSL Kreia - TSL D'akkon - PST Morte - PST Minsc and Boo - BG/BG2 Bastila Shan - KOTOR Steroid Gontarski - JA2

Maybe this could help?