rjshae

Very nice! It sounds like you are making excellent progress. Thank you for the update. I'd be interested in hearing what you have planned in terms of scheduling behavior with the AI. Will it be mostly static? Do you plan to introduce time-of-day activites, or do you have something more intricate in mind? If you could talk about the non-combat AI once you reach that stage of development, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

What should a female breast... [clicking] ...plate. Damn! Breast teaser lead-in ever...

My guess is that it will be zoomed in just enough to see some of the details on the equipment. I think they did mention that it would be a low poly count of around 2,000, but they would start at a much higher poly count (for the bump map and texture). They should be able to get a decently attractive puppet model that way. Hopefully, it'll be tintable as well.

It was a weak attempt at humor...

I want a munchkin for a pet...

You don't get a really good rest lying on the cold ground under a tree, especially if you're used to a bed. Just finding a room to hide in sounds viable in theory, but in reality it should start to wear on you. Likewise, so does walking around in armor and carrying a big load of gear. You get tired, your alertness level drops, and you become more vulnerable to mishaps and surprises. In particular, once you're wounded, simple survival becomes problematic. Eventually you'll need to pull back to a camp site, get some warm grub in you and rest in a warm blanket on some leaves. It might be possible to model this through some type of "deep fatigue" status that reflects how long you've gone without a proper rest in a safe, comfortable environment. This fatigue factor should steadily lower your health recovery rate and reduce your initiative in combat. You can then rest up all you want in a damp, uncomfortable cave, but you'll still be burdened by that deeper fatigue.

I'm not quite sure how to feel about that. Colonialism has a lot of strongly negative connotations in the modern world, so the theme may not necessarily resonate well. Plus you lose the early architectural (and part of the cultural) history of the dominant power. I guess we'll see how it works out...

Perhaps the pet should just stay back at the camp, or the stronghold, to avoid getting squished by all the nasty critters? It could do guard duty (dog) and keep the pests out of the supplies (cat).

There's plenty of dumb people everywhere. It's just that in the US they have access to social media, Fox news, high proof alcohol, wheeled vehicles, and automatic weapons. Czech Republic's ambassador 'concerned' by Americans confusing his country with Chechnya.

Reminds me of taking cooking class. Ah, the memories...

This emotive scene of Hayden Panettierre cracked me up:

I suspect that reach weapons will probably have the slowest attack speed. Hence you may be able to get in the first blow, but once the opponent closes you could be at a distinct disadvantage (much like the Roman gladius vs. the Greek sarissa).

An interesting and creative concept for a game. Just playing as a powerless two-year-old would have a potent psychological impact. I hope it succeeds.

Creativity and artistry don't function well in a mass-production environment run by corporate bean counters speaking pure manglish. The primary interest of the Harvard MBAs is in reducing costs and commoditizing output, which tends to relentlessly stamp out individuality and imagination. Ref.: music industry, movie industry, video game industry, fiction book business.

Watching the news yesterday was a bit like seeing fog of war in action. They couldn't wait to contradict their own announcements from five minutes previously. It's just sad to watch them mindlessly at work.

Having shopkeepers standing in the middle of the street in the Athkatla bridge district at midnight was one of the real oddities of Baldur's Gate II. So yes, scheduled overall city behavior would be good. But I don't think it should be necessary to implement that at the level of individual detail in, say, Oblivion; that would probably take much more work than is necessary for a useful simulation.

Assuming that the party members would communicate with each other, my thinking was that you'd display a union of all the FoW from each of the party members (but perhaps not some companions). Thus the FoW wouldn't be a circle, but a cloud-shaped region formed of the overlapping individual FoW. Modern PCs should be readily able to handle the necessary computation in real time as the party moves. It would shift shape based on lighting effects and party member positions.

Me too. A nice look, but a tad uninviting plus a wonky interface. I could never tell if my postings were successful there.

I've never had any problems with figuring out the meaning of the more elaborate spell icons and prefer them over the simplified ones. Then again, I'm a strongly visual person. I'd agree with you, except I didn't find the spell icons in the IE games much better. Spells I use all the time are easy to remember and I rarely have to change them. On the infrequent occasion that I needed to fine-tune a list, I always, always end up doing mouse-overs to figure out the spells. Then there was the inevitable delay before the tool-tip appeared. It's not the greatest approach.

Message redacted.

This part interests me: the fact that human ethnicities are being based upon the same parameter types as the other races. It feels more consistent that way, and I hope that more diverse human archetypes are presented than are currently "permitted" in our PC-sensitive culture. (After all, it is a different world with unique evolutionary pressures... or possible 'divine intervention'.) I'm not sure what is meant by the human 'Ocean' ethnicity though. Do you agree that suggestive of a merman/mermaid ethnicity? Or does it just cover coasts and islands?

Demon Raptor--Formulated by a mad wizard (some even speculate by Od Nua) this flying creature combines the physical traits of an imp-like demon with a predatory bird, while assuming the social traits of a pack animal. When not scavenging they usually hunt in groups, chasing down larger prey by constant diving attacks that rip off small pieces of flesh. In the process the prey is steadily worn down and exhausted, leaving them vulnerable to a final, swarming, coup de grace. In some barren lands the Demon Raptor have been domesticated, which has allowed their physical traits to be modified to various degrees and their nasty personality ameliorated. Domesticated Demon Raptors have acquired the temperament of a loyal guard dog, and they can be relentless, cunning, and swift in the attack.

I like this idea, really, but fear it might produce too much micromanagement to be a regular mechanic. Terrain modifiers and the like would be cool because they add tactical complexity, but are simple to grasp and static. Lighting can dynamically change the combat environment anywhere that's otherwise dark though, and I suspect this might add a bit too much complexity to chew down properly. As I said, I otherwise do like the idea though. Between having to deal with a dark screen and shorter perception range, the choice immediately seems obvious, but then maybe you can't fight so well in the dark. A torch would improve your melee prowess, but what about rangers? You limit the sight of your own, and provide easier targets to enemies. Provided these enemy archers are smart enough, perhaps they take advantage of your relative blindness and stay out of your path as they fire on you, who can't manage to find those damned buggers with your torch equipped. There's a lot of potential here, but the real real trick is to employ such with elegence and mechanics simple enough to not overload the player, I think I agree with most of what you're saying, and I hadn't really thought about it in terms of micromanagement: the change in FoW radius would be handled by the game so, for the player, it's more a matter of tactical planning based upon the lighting. Once a battle is joined, the Priest or Wizard may have a spell that can light up the battlefield for the duration of the conflict. The Ranger can roll off into the bushes, quickly adapt to the darker lighting, then pick off those archers hiding in the dark. The non-humans with improved vision would be at an advantage in the dark, so they too may move outside of the party's torch radius. Maybe the Chanter has a spell that allows her to detect enemies based upon sound rather than sight. &c.

Has anybody been watching Orphan Black on BBC America? It's not bad at all; the drama has a nice flow and the suspense level is good. In some respects the premise reminds me a little of Hanna (2011), albeit without the genetic enhancements. I'm curious to see where they take it.

Again, I'm not pledging money I can't live without. If the company is upfront about the delays - why, how long, etc. - I'm okay with that. If the project dies and I lose my money I won't be happy - but I accepted that risk when I pledged. Yep, that be one of my rules to live by -- never lend (or give) out something you're unwilling to lose.