rjshae

I was hoping they would make the portraits and backgrounds tintable so the game could dynamically adjust the appearance according to the environment.

Since they have the original renders for BGEE2, I wonder if the characters and creatures are now anti-aliased? I can't tell with those wide screen shots.

$25 is steep... if you're from North Korea and aren't allowed to use a PC. Otherwise I look at it as blip--a minor service charge for saving me the time of modding up my copy. Plus there's whatever content they added, of course.

1 clown, 2 caterers and a three-man band. With plenty of booze and snacks of course.

It was announced on RPG Watch that BGEE2 is available for purchase from Beamdog or Steam.

I thought there was already a built in limit of 8 NPCs you can recruit from the Hall.

Both portraits look fantabulous! Great work. I like the casual, non-traditional poses, yet they both follow the rule of thirds pretty well. Nice use of light and shadows.

The main concern I would have with this system is whether your reputation is local or global. If you move to a new locale that doesn't communicate with the prior region, then have a reputation for cruelty or kindness still apply may break my suspension of disbelief. But hopefully that won't be an issue.

hand coding HTML is fun but time consuming. Might be faster to use a tool.

Moderate pressure tends to increase rather than dampen creativity. This is true. I wish more people understood this. Definitely. Necessity is the mother of invention. Challenging circumstances can bring out new approaches and clever ideas, whereas comfort and surfeit leads to stagnation.

Because D&D alignment has two things, "law/chaos" and "good/evil." Both of which are very abstract and poorly presented. I mean, what are you talking about? The law of the land, a code of conduct, orderly behavior? Moral good, greater good? This one sounds to be more specific ("mercy") and with probably more than just two. Which, again, is just a different categorization. Not that I'm complaining; I just wondered if it was fundamentally different. I think the difference is that D&D's alignment system was meant to say "This is what you are. You are lawful neutral." whereas this is meant to say "This is what people see you as. They think you're a ****." Okay, so more of a dynamic system defined by your interactions rather than a fixed disadvantage system.

1979 Revolution: Black Friday Interesting concept for a game. Kind of an ambitious goal though: $395,000.

Based upon the description, it looks like a form of moral absolutism. Other than perhaps having a different categorization, how does this differ from the alignment system in D&D?

I don't follow how it becomes less time consuming. What every other IE game offered was the ability to perform those actions where you were (rest anywhere) vs. now having to schlep to specific locations to perform the same action. Can you clarify your stance? What about PE makes any of the new mechanics less tedious? I suppose my view is that "rest where you are" would be riskier and less beneficial than "rest at a comfortable camp with warm food and bedding". To my mind, the former would provide a brief respite, but it shouldn't serve to relieve things like wilderness exposure, fix a damaged tendon, reconnect to the magical weave, collect more spell components, sharpen your weapons on a grindstone, repair damage to your armor and shields, and so forth. Thus the camp provides an abstraction of those activities. But the resource management aspect of a role-playing game requires some cost for recovery. In this case the cost is a march to and from camp. I guess that also provides some of the role-playing feel of the PnP version.

It beats the alternative of having each recovery mechanic tied to a different, time-consuming behavior. A bit of an abstraction, I suppose, that makes the restoration aspect less tedious but not so easy that everybody does it all the time.

Interesting. Kind of dry stuff--a little too reminiscent of being at the office, but informative. Thank you for the update.

I hope we see a variety of racial-specific talents, particularly of the spell-casting variety. Seeing significant differences in how the races play the same class adds a sense of distinctiveness.

Bhwa?

I can't say the name is any sillier than Temple of Elemental Evil or Dungeon Siege or Legend of Grimlock or Planescape: Torment.

I definitely like the turn-based combat with the hex maps, and what I've read of the companions sounds pretty interesting. It's a game I'm looking forward to playing, once it reaches patch maturity.

Yeah, about 8 times faster. Firearms in that period had muzzle velocities of about 450-500 meters a second vs arrow speeds of about ~60 m/s. Mass of a bullet is ~5g; mass of an arrow is ~650g. Since KE = 1/2mv^2: 10 times the velocity equals 100 times the energy; 100 times the mass equals 100 times the energy. Thus it seems like they'd be roughly equivalent, energy-wise.

You mean I can have somebody steal your car, change the tires, and then it's okay to give it to me? Heh, sounds like a challenge...

I am so going to rob a bank tomorrow. When they catch me I'll them the reasonable thing would be to ask for the money back "ok, you caught me, here you go" . Jail time? Not gonna happen. Yes, copyright infringement is totally equal to actual robbing and stealing. Totally. Yes. Yes it is. Robbing and stealing is the unlawful act of taking something that doesn't belong to you. Copyright defines a certain form of ownership. Illegally taking something under copyright is robbing and stealing. It doesn't matter if you received it second-hand; you're merely complicit in the act. Deal with it.

The Chanter class seems somewhat Sorcerous/Bardic in nature, at least in terms of not requiring a spell book.