rjshae

Interesting stuff. Love the extra-creepy Vithrack concept art! I would think that Ciphers, with their bent for soul invading and psyche scrunching powers, would have devised some type of defenses against those same powers. No doubt they have a higher than normal psyche defense rating, but perhaps something akin to active psychic defenses that can be raised during a Cipher to Cipher battle? Anyway, great update and I'm looking forward to trying the cipher character in the game. Thanks!

I just finished another reply of BGEE. An interesting element for me was to compare the behavior of the non-hostile NPCs in the game to those of more recent systems such as Oblivion, and see how the art has progressed. In other respects, the game has stood the test of time quite well, even if the AD&D class system kind of blows.

Here's the description from update #36: In terms of the defensive penalties and bonuses described, perhaps the type is determined by the familiar chosen? I.e. a cat could provide a Reflex bonus/penalty while an owl could modify Pysche. It's unfortunate that gamer biases get formed in this manner, when this is actually a completely different type of game. The lack of mounts for non-party members in the IE/NWN games was a misrepresentation of the medieval culture. I'm fine with party members not needing mounts, but they should definitely be available to road patrols and enemy forces.

Arch Soul: the Eternal Redemption

Am I crazy, or does JES misinterpret the question? It seems that they are asking about the length of time, on a fresh round, to cast / activate an ability. The answer seems to mingle durations (first sentence) and casting time (third sentence), and is not clear. No, I think he tried to answer the question. It's mildly confusing because he says 'ability use' rather than 'ability activation'. But the clue is in the E.g., where he compares 'ability use' to 'casting time'.

That's... determination.

What if it is an actual opera in space? Then nobody will hear the fat lady sing before she explodes like a potato in the microwave...

To me a reasonable course would be to have a deity that wreaks torturous vengeance upon wanton child slayers. Go ahead and let the children be slain in the game, then have an appropriate nastiness visited upon the player's PC at a later stage. As long as there is a clear connection between the two, then it can fit within the framework of the game and will make clear the abhorrent nature of the act inside the pantheon's morale structure.

Being able to assign a nickname to each of your companions. This nickname would then show up during interactive conversations whenever you are addressing the character, possibly with amusing effect.

Sure, something gritty and Lensman-series like, with space pirates, inertia-less hyperspace drives, psi corps, blasters, force fields, pleasure droids, anti-gravity systems, weird alien psycho-active drugs, progenitor relics, mind control devices, huge space battles, and galactic empires. If it was done well and had squad-level combat, I'd snap it up.

The scrolls in the IE games seemed a little too vanilla to me, so I would like to see a little more variety. As an example, I propose, having three grades for each type of magic scroll: Adept scroll -- this is the spell in its basic form, cast at the minimum possible level. Master scroll -- the scroll spell is cast at four class levels above the minimum needed, providing all the benefits thereof. Arch-mage scroll - the scroll spell is cast at eight class levels above the minimum needed. The scrolls are priced accordingly and the player must make a decision whether to consume a scroll to learn a spell or use one of the better versions during a key moment. Naturally, enemies will have the same option.

In a futuristic sci-fi setting, developers might be able to incorporate a damage system by means of cybernetic implants, such as Luke Skywalker's hand in the Star Wars series. If they were to incorporate a magitech equivalent and you were playing hard core mode, then getting a permanent injury fixed would be a question of cost and availability of the replacement part. For realism, the replacement could provide a minor skills adjustment, such as (for an artificial arm) a penalty to Dex-based skills but a bonus to melee damage. That might make it interesting to implement. Edit: oops, sorry, I missed the latest discussion.

Ketchikan -- Salmon Capitol of the World.

I'd be okay with a permanent injury if it was specifically written into the story. Otherwise no. If you want to play a crippled character, then just stick with the crummiest equipment you can find.

Tales of Terrene: Book One -- It's described as an ARPG inspired by Baldur's Gate 2 and Diablo, set on the fantasy world of Terrene. The Kickstarter is currently at $1,316 with a goal of $20,000 and 26 days to go. It's being run as an indie effort by a two man team.

I'm okay with just two ring slots: rings are way cool items, but having just two slots helps distribute the rare finds among the group. It'd be nice to have just one extra slot that accept any item from a list of oddball accessories--a nose ring, thumb piece, earring, undershirt, cod piece, garter, eye piece, wig, ankle bracelet, toe ring, or what have you. Such an accessory slot could perhaps also be used for a spare ring.

I'd be in favor of a tunable AoE system that is fairly easy to implement, such as an AoE that's click to place and click-drag to resize (for a circle) or turn (for a line). A more sophisticated system would take additional development resources, so it's a question of cost versus payoff: it might not be worth the extra effort for something that may not see much use.

Yes well I was presuming he confirmed that with Chris prior to publishing the interview. Otherwise what's the point of mentioning it? Beats me. As I remember it, Adam B said in some interview that it would release late summer 2014. Yep, that's the second quarter.

I've learned to embrace and extend the Ignore list. The forum is a much happier place for me with the reprobates in their place.

Yes well I was presuming he confirmed that with Chris prior to publishing the interview. Otherwise what's the point of mentioning it?

If this turns into a series, I'm hoping that at some point we'll see some mounted opponents. That may be easier to implement than mounts for the PCs--basically they can just be treated as a single creature with an extra set of limbs. Implementing mounts for PCs would require more work and may not make sense unless they have a sandbox setting.

Wow, that's... umm... wow. Remember how up in arms and doomsday people got with what happened with Broken Age (aka Double Fine Adventure)? And that was while people got all their physical rewards, and the game is still going to come out, and it's going to be significantly bigger than originally planned, it's just coming out MUCH later. I imagine people are/will be going nuclear over this. Some are, some aren't. To me it always seemed like a bit of a gamble. But if they really want some superstar game programmer to come along and rescue this, I think they'll need to Open Source the code.

Most importantly:

The CLANG has clunked.