rjshae

In level design, there's an art to light placement that is a consideration. The purple (and barely visible pink) sets it apart from the surroundings in a way that red, yellow, or blue probably wouldn't. It successfully communicates something about the activities there, so for me it works. No offense intended here, but should they change things in order to satisfy somebody who evidently has played entirely too many games and has become bored with certain common motifs? For every such player who is bored, there are probably two others that are new to the genre and would enjoy it.

When you post this, it would be very nice if you could accompany the image with a few designer notes to explain the benefits of the new layout. Thank you!

If this were a real world energy generator that is outputting as a black body radiator, I might agree with you. But apparently it's not. Ergo, purple is fine and there's no reason they need to follow real world physics.

Ooo... an evil underground lair for a mad natural philosopher. Looks very nice. Thank you for the update.

Guess I'm easily amused...

Well all I can add in reply is that the modder community has been doing a fine job of enhancing the capabilities of the NWN2 toolset. Many well-crafted tilesets, placeables, icons, creatures, equipment, and character skins have been made available on the NWN2 Vault, and this is continuing to expand with the recent addition of models and placeables from the Witcher. Other enhancements include improvements in the AI and the implementation of fog of war. The work on the BGR has been remarkable for the amount of sheer time and labor involved by just a handful of people. For another example of such work, see here: http://dragonlancenights.com/ Just sayin'.

Yeah, limiting the Wizard spells available at level up would be a nice start. Perhaps choose three spell themes studied during your apprenticeship, then that determines your level-up selection. Anything else you need to find in old tomes and study (I.e. carry the book around for a level).

Looks like it does do near infrared, so that'll be useful.

Baldur's Gate Reloaded is about to go live... http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/167/index/3120312/51#16801107

A 0.2m aperture? Err... whoopie.

I like it. Definitely one of the more polished-looking mocks so far. That said, the button locations will lead to mouse chasing. Move them around a bit to make it more usable and it'll be much improved. If the sidebar extra space bothers, one thing you could do is increase portrait sizes. The lighter bar along the bottom does less to draw the eye downward, so that's a plus. Also purple and gold go together well. However, too much of the interface is effectively wasted space when all you're doing is exploring. The message window in particular bites a big gouge out of the view and is a complete mismatch to the remainder of the motif.

I think we got that. But wouldn't it need to be four casters choosing the same spell and the same target? I.e. an unlikely event and hence not one that coding for would have a worthwhile payoff... unless there is some unique benefit to the casters doing so. Imagine a group of low-level enemy Wizards performing a ritual to cast a spell, but at a much higher level than any of them could do individually. That could prove a challenge to even a potent group of adventurers.

In the IE games it was possible to expand the dialogue window so that you can read lengthy messages without needing to scroll repeatedly. It's not clear that you can do that here. Otherwise though it appears fine.

Yeah, if you want to allow characters to do all the same things, you may as well use a point-based system. A class-based system is centered around the concept of making distinctly different characters. Sure, some overlap is okay--just not to a significant degree.

It successfully communicated the intent, so it worked. There's no reason to be disappointed with normal non-verbal communication methods. You'd prefer purple with pink polka dotted light effects on the ground? Just trying to make sure I understand.

I'm picturing ciphers as being very conscious of what others think of them, so they go for stylish attire, good grooming, and polished speech patterns. They may be disdainful of violence and thuggish behavior, so they tend to do battle from a distance and favor armor that provides decent protection against missile file but is light enough to stay out of the reach of heavy fighters. In terms of effects, I think you want them to be distinctive from elemental effects such as fire, electricity, acid, or frost, so perhaps violet-tinted hues with subtle sounds and less violent and/or aural-type visual patterns.

Unless I'm mistaken, we're short a few Nana's...

It can probably all be boiled down to one word: choice. The more freedom you have to choose your character and decide how he makes his way through the game world, the closer it is to being a role-playing game. Character progression, interaction, story, reactivity, and game play mechanics are all just the means to implement player choices.

Explosive flatulence; particularly nasty stuff. That must have been quite the bean sandwich for lunch.

Thanks for the clarification. That seems like a reasonable approach. Rather than unleashing the spell four times, would the mages be able to work together to cast a more powerful version of the spell? I.e. as a group ritual casting.

It's funny though, the more I look at the original layout, the more I appreciate the design. I guess it's often a matter of what you're used to.

I like it; the interface is functional and stylish. The favorites option is a particularly nice touch.

A patient player can do this in any IE game as well (barring areas you can't return to). I don't think our economy should be balanced around the expectation that players are impatient. It might be interesting if the weight of your stash effected your overland movement rate, which in turn modified the likelihood of an encounter with bandits, robbers, or hungry beasts. Large loads might also attract the interest of tax collectors, who would want a cut of the loot, or the toll gates of lords who are looking to equip their own militia. Hold up. Unlimited inventory sprang forth to stomp out the scourge of degeneratively walking back and forth to collect loot. Now we have to add more penalties to the mechanic because people will be carrying everything not nailed down? The difference is that in the first instance you were traveling back and forth through already cleared terrain. Ergo, the activity was pointless. Traveling overland is not the same thing, and the increased risk factor would be a counterbalance to an unlimited carrying capacity. But this risk could be tempered by spending part of your money on improved portage: a bigger wagon, a team of horses, a flying vehicle, a teleporter pad, use of a merchant service, &c. That provides another economic element.

Since the layout would be different, this is a false statement.

For this type of layout I'd suggest trying the "Rule of Odds" and placing something near the top center: perhaps a version of the central controls from the original layout. Hopefully it would then look less unbalanced.