rjshae

It's a matter of personal taste, I suppose. Those are nice maps, but they wouldn't work at all well for showing dynamic features... which is the point of 3D overland maps.

Besides this being a ridiculous post, we're all using the word innovation wrong. Like it's some feature that is somehow mutually exclusive from the mechanics of the game. And yes, good stories do innovate. You missed my point, and you're being a bit of a ****. Books don't need to innovate their physical form in order to communicate their story.

The overhead map for the Legends of Eisenwald looked like it would make a pretty decent overland map.

Innovation in gaming is overrated. Books don't need to be innovative in order to tell a good story.

I pictured the stash as piles of loot stored in already cleared areas that you pass back through on your way to the camp. Maybe it's hidden in empty crates... or hidden in holes... or hung from tress in sacks. Just anywhere that you can access through repetitive travel, yet be reasonably concealed.

The speed will probably be limited by what looks realistic for the animation. But I don't know why they couldn't have a speedy travel mode: move the view to where you want to go, click the location button, and, if there are no enemies nearby or along the path, the party instantly enters the side of the view (with the entry point determined by a path-finding algorithm).

They should have put in a "Name & Design a Merchant" at the $250 level. That would have generated a bunch of oddball entries.

I've been playing the BGEE/BG2EE series through from beginning to end--the third or fourth time now that I've played each, although the last time was many years ago with the original releases. I've got to say... it's getting kind of boring. This will probably be my last go through. I just wanted to play a single character all the way through from beginning to end, which I've never done. But, with the perspective of history now, I feel like my character lacks any, well... character. There's no sense of identity. It's the other members of the party that have a personality. I guess I've been spoiled by more recent CRPG releases.

I agree; this type of statement keeps getting repeated, even though it makes absolutely no business sense. Suppose they spent $1 million of their own money to fund an additional 3 months of development. Would they recoup that in additional sales? No. It would be better to say: cut the lower priority stuff in order to bring the remainder up to a higher quality.

Wow, these guys finished up their Kickstarter with $2.1 million in contributions from just 3,950 backers. That averages out to $532 per!

A shopkeep you have traded with on several occasions suddenly says his stock is severely depleted due to some recent robberies. You get a much smaller selection as a result, and his pool of gold is lower. You can offer to investigate. A few village stores could offer special one-time deals due to a recent shipment. You get to shop a broader assortment for a few days. After some time, a peddler of useful potions and trinkets moves on and is no longer available. A merchant is looking to wed off his daughter, but needs to increase her dowry. For a limited time he offers to sell his goods at rock bottom prices, including some items that he was holding on to and had been previously unwilling to sell. Once he has sold enough, the prices and stock return to normal.

Being from Seattle, I know that there are actually six different types of rain. What you typically get in games is just normal rain and thunderstorms.

When you are walking faster, your detection radii should shrink and your sneakiness should decrease.

Orphan Black, season 2: Apr. 19 on BBC America. Can't wait... Trailer But why isn't season one up for some Saturn awards?

That level of implementation detail is what turn-based games are for...

It will be troubling times for the Kingdom, I'm sure. Whiners will whine; moaners will moan, then they will back it anyway. Point is, demonstrating that you can fulfill your Kickstarter pledges should indicate that you are a horse worth backing.

That could be messy. The game would need to communicate wind direction and the tactical effects of shooting at different angles. A range modifier would be easier to implement: strong wind => increased penalty for range.

Scientists discover a novel way to make ethanol without corn or other plants They used copper nanocrystals and electricity with water and CO to attain 57% conversion efficiency. Pretty impressive. They're working on a way to improve yields of higher energy-density propanol as well. Could this be the future of vehicle fuel generation?

Yes, in terms of game economy, the lack of combat experience may balance out the possibility of excess loot collection. To get the loot you have to spend time culling the owners, at a cost to you in time and resources spent.

To be fair, a primary motivation for adventuring (and banditry, and warfare) during the medieval era was money. So looting is a meaningful exercise. The game doesn't need to 'guide' us in that manner--if a player wants to collect and sell 100 soiled and damaged pieces of goblin armor worth a few coppers, then let them. It's their gaming time.

Rain was in BG, so that seems likely. Perhaps they are going to use that water level altering technology for heavy rain? Fog might be more of a challenge because of its varying volumetric properties. That would probably be the most interesting from a game-play perspective, since it should impact your detection radius. Possibly they could do wind by varying the plant/tree animations and altering smoke effects? That could be visually interesting for a gusty environment like a mountain pass or a coastal area. A variable snow covering might be implemented by blending in a sequence of graphical overlays, but that would require extra artwork. Perhaps just for a mountainous area? It might not be worth the cost.

For the PC, yes, stats rolling is a time waster. However, randomly generated stats might be useful for the Training Hall recruits. Especially if it was combined with a limited pool of candidates that slowly varied over time.

Well hopefully most times we won't need to. But surely you've had game combat where you needed every advantage and ended up optimizing your weapon usage? To me it's just equivalent to an aircraft loadout. Yes it will make the game easier. So do cheat codes. Some people just like to play that way... but it's their nickel.