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rjshae

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Everything posted by rjshae

  1. rjshae
    The text panel at the center made dialogue feel very solid. It had infinite amount of scrolling space for text and replies, portraits felt natural, NPCs standing at the center of it felt natural, and you did't have to roll your eyes all over the screen to read text in little box there somewhere. It looked important and made game more about "reading". NWN2 had the worst readability ever. You mean you didn't move the text box to the center of the screen? Why not? The NWN2 text box can be resized and relocated. The view can be modified to your favorite perspective, including having the leader at the center of the display. The readability seemed fine.
  2. rjshae
    The one aspect of the IE interface I didn't much care for was the amount of real estate taken up in the vertical direction. The visible game area was much wider than it was tall, even with the isometric viewing angle. That forced a left-right exploration direction in order to see a decent distance ahead of the party. Expanding the text panel only made it worse. It was much better in NWN2 because the text panel could be located anywhere and resized. The icon strip in NWN2 was quite small, making most of the game area visible.
  3. rjshae
    Why would you ever want to sell your trusty broadsword? It's like a family memento.
  4. rjshae
    This morning it occurred to me... the new zombie romance film, Warm Bodies,... is a nec-Ro-meo and Juliet story. I guess you had to be there.
  5. rjshae
    Hmm, how about this: if you wield a decent weapon for long enough (say two consecutive level ups) and use it to kill some number of foes, it becomes a "named weapon". That is, you get to give it a custom name. Thereafter it becomes your weapon, and it begins to level up whenever you are wielding it. Any magical benefits are tied to your character's soul, so it turns into an ordinary weapon while somebody else is wielding it.
  6. rjshae
    So that's where it's been going. I always wondered why my sword felt so heavy after a good slaying. So it wasn't fatigue or moral guilt! You know, all and all, I could maybe find this acceptable. Yes, that's probably a decent approach, especially given the fact that XP may not be otherwise awarded for combat and that the armor system may encourage weapon swapping. But what happens if you swap your now enchanted personal weapon with another party member? Does it still accrue XP for kills? Do the powers go away?
  7. rjshae
    Okay, but there are some considerations with respect to the game length and balance. If a character sticks with a single weapon for decades and achieves some phenomenal accomplishments, I could see a strong character endowing the weapon with a certain aura. But how long do you need to keep using a weapon before you start to see it reflected in the capabilities? By the time that happens the character may have already had multiple opportunities to upgrade, so there must be some reason to stick with the older weapon. One way to reward that behavior is to punish weapon switching. But is that really fair to the player who wants to play with the best tools available? Further, if each weapon is to acquire powers merely by being wielded, what would be the benefit of switching to something else or of working to gain enchantments? The logical conclusion is that personal endowment of weapons either needs to trail other means of weaponry improvement, or improvement of that weapon should require some significant sacrifice on the part of the player.
  8. rjshae
    Interesting point, and it actually implies magic when weapons do get better that way. Once again, man yf those magical weapons of yore in medieval legends got to be magical because of its former wielder. If a highly esteemed chieftain or a king successful on the battlefield had used the weapon, it had somehow gotten charged with power and magic. Thus, this would be great for our heroes as well. A mundane weapon that they use for their great or dirty deeds turn magical over time and you get to level it up, etc. But mind you, this require magic to begin with, so wherever we turn, a weapon familiarity system of this sort will mean mundane weapons turning magical in a slow process that we as players get to steer a bit. The other stuff, where you get better using a particular weapon, it is a matter of weapon proficiencies and the like. Would you be willing to spend the equivalent of feats to bestow your favorite weapon with magic-like properties? Or should it just automatically happen?
  9. rjshae
    My understanding is that evil is not going to be a faction. Nor is good. It's up to the player whether they view a particular factions goals as good or evil; hence you decide for yourself which faction represents the "dark path".
  10. rjshae
    Why would a mastercrafted sword be a PoS weapon? Why would you even consider it such? Because it's not magical? My point being that gaining mastery in any weapon does not make it a better weapon. You can only carry compensating for a weapon's particular limitations so far.
  11. rjshae
    How is your preference for old-school class builds incompatible with a flexible character build model? If you want to just follow the old school model then do so. But that's no reason to foist your wish for tight restrictions on the rest of us. Have the self-discipline to stick with vanilla class builds.
  12. rjshae
    Wizard with a sword is replaceability, not flexibility. And if one will place fighters position in jeopardy (like how famous kensai/mages did in BG2), the whole class system goes down the toilet. Every class replacing other class because of tailored "build" is an MMO route. Bah. I'd rather just start with a career start package then build whatever kind of character I want. It's approach used in multiple role-playing game systems not called D&D, and it works very well. Classes are merely representations of character specializations, which make just as much sense to build in point-based systems. Giving a point-build character diverse abilities just means they won't be very good at any of them. (*COUGH*bard*COUGH*)
  13. rjshae

    North Korea

    rjshae replied to Gorth's topic in Way Off-Topic

    I do have much respect for the resilience of the North Korean army. But the world isn't the same as it was in the 1950s and military technology has advanced considerably, as has South Korea. I agree that an attack by North Korea would be suicidal in the present era.
  14. rjshae
    Yes, this has been discussed before. You get used to the quirks of a weapon, and so it becomes slightly more effective. Another way to factor this is that mundane weapons come with a penalty at first, which fades away after you wield it for a while. I have some difficulty accepting this. A PoS weapon is still a PoS weapon, even if you've wielded it for a decade. Some weapons are simply going to be better than others. A masterwork weapon may remain perfectly viable against lesser foes for the entire game, but you should run into significant difficulties against the more potent enemies. Maybe you need to be a level or two higher to face the same foe with your trusty, but ordinary broadsword.
  15. rjshae

    North Korea

    rjshae replied to Gorth's topic in Way Off-Topic

    The main concern I have is that NK is so heavily invested in their nuclear program that they will expect some sort of economic compensation. They are, after all, a complete basket case otherwise. Financially that may inevitably translate into selling nukes on the world's black market. Once that starts to happen, all bets are off. I can think of several nation states that could decide NK can't be allowed to present such a threat to their major cities, so they will initiate a first strike. Goodbye North Korea.
  16. rjshae
    Truculent Onion Raiders This is an aggrieved faction of Orlan farmers who had their land holdings unfairly pilfered, ruined, and outright stolen by other races. They now engage in a form of guerrilla warfare by raiding the stocks of lands they still consider their own: destroying crops, stealing poultry, breaking eggs, burning barns, filling in wells, and crippling livestock. They make very effective use of converted farm implements as weapons, including flails, forks, and scythes. To conceal their intentions, the TOR employ a specialized farmer's cant/slang that involves frequent references to various vegetables and farming terms.
  17. rjshae
    I'd be satisfied if a competent Wizard swordsman can be made good enough to engage the less skilled fighters in the enemy ranks. That would leave the Fighter NPC free to take on the enemy's master swordsman.
  18. rjshae
    A poll may be useful because not everybody is going to be equally enamored with all of these ideas.
  19. rjshae
    Bravado points: these are points you gain for every significant act you perform--every creature you kill, door you unlock, creature you sneak past, trap you avoid, and so forth. Each time you return to camp for healing, your current bravado points are cut in half. When you are awarded a chunk of XP, you gain a percentage XP bonus (+0/5/10/20%) based upon your bravado points. Your bravado points are then reduced by the net XP award, to a minimum of zero. When you level up, your bravado points are reset to zero.
  20. rjshae
    Err... phishing expedition? Why wouldn't you just post the poll here?
  21. rjshae
    Dogs that come out and bark at you when you enter a town or village; birds that flock together; candle lights in windows that go out when the residents are asleep; ducks and ducklings swimming in a pool; waterwheel and a mill pond; moonlight reflecting off a still lake; a petty criminal locked up in the stocks; women in a house spinning wool; medieval titles like reeve, catchpole, and pursuivant; camp followers; medieval occupations like collier; fresco paintings; a herd of goats, &c.
  22. rjshae
    Mmm, I watched a few minutes then lost interest. Vicarious gaming just isn't my thing. I do have to say that Chris' voice isn't anything like as bad as he claims. But opinions vary.
  23. rjshae
    Wouldn't a feat/talent be sufficient to reflect that degree of training? Once you're proficient at moving in armor, is there any further benefit to be gained? You can only approach your ability to maneuver without armor; not exceed it.
  24. rjshae
    Something like a herbal palliative should be easier to concoct and obtain than a true cure. A druid can construct a balm that alleviates the symptoms sufficiently for a character to continue to struggle through until the party decides to return to camp. For magical cures, my feeling is that such a cure should be met by disease magic resistance. A cure disease spell may or may not be completely successful. It might only reduce the effects of the disease to the point where the character can recover on their own. So that would be my put: they can give the players various tools for alleviate the symptoms of poison or disease, but make a complete, rapid cure more difficult to obtain. In extreme cases, characters may have to pay for rest in a hospital for some period of time before they can fully recover.
  25. rjshae
    I think this is wrong. If you are to chose 5 companions out of 8 companions, without assigning importance to the order in which they are chosen, then I believe you should use a combination C58 = 8!/[(8-5)! * 5!] = 8!!/(3! * 5!) = 1*2*3*4*5*6*7*8/(1*2*3*1*2*3*4*5) = 4*5*6*7*8/(1*2*3*4*5) = 6*7*8/(1*2*3) = 56 This is quite different, but still, playing the game 56 times is quite a feat! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe this is how you're supposed to see the stats. So there would be 56 possible parties of 6 people including the player character. If you want to add possibilities of soloing or using less party members, then I'll redo the stats a little later. You may be correct. My probability skills are thirty years old and pretty rusty.
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