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rjshae

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Everything posted by rjshae

  1. rjshae
    Well hopefully they can produce a solid feel without grabbing up too much of the screen real estate. The BG frame worked okay at the time because the screen resolution was much lower and most of the frame was taken up by useful tiles. If they did something similar with modern displays, I can only imagine that a lot of the frame would be unoccupied.
  2. rjshae
    I don't think you need to go overboard to produce a fair amount of variation. From my experience with the NWN2 Toolset, I know that you can get quite a bit of variation just by having two or three sets of prominent gear, along with tinting capabilities. Thus two helms and a bare head, two or three types of armor or clothing, and multiple weapons. Shields in particular are readily visible and identify the creature with a particular tribe or unit, so having a multitude of shield skins is good.
  3. rjshae
    I've wondered whether it isn't possible to build a game with companions that do have a behavior pattern. You could, say, construct the character, then select from a set of pre-generated personalities and backgrounds. For example, choose the persona based upon a list of brief impressions: "boisterous adventurer", "studious naturalist", "itinerant evangelist", "debonair chevalier", "cunning opportunist", and so forth. That would take a lot more work to assemble, of course, but it seems like it would be feasible.
  4. rjshae
    The issue with approach like this (subdual of the party through drugs) is that it can seem like railroading. Hence it should be done sparingly and with care.
  5. rjshae
    Why have three different flavors of the Wizard class? Why have barbarians, paladins, and fighters? Because they provide a sufficiently distinct gaming experience that they are worth forming separate classes. Yes, druids are a type of priest, but they can certainly be quite different during play.
  6. rjshae
    Noober. Anything involving the humor of repetition.
  7. rjshae
    Anybody with a bit of physical ability can be stealthy, and there's no reason not to allow it. If I want my fighters to strip down to their skivies in order to sneak up to a camp and stage an ambush, then I want to be able to do so. So no, saying only Rogues should be stealthy is too constraining. Even a fighter in plate mail can be sneaky, if they are far enough away from the listener.
  8. rjshae
    I don't think there's something terribly wrong with players being able to accumulate a lot of wealth in a RPG; after all, going to war was a perfectly viable means of expanding your wealth during the pre-industrial period. Once you've got a stronghold, perhaps you'll be able to spend you wealth to accumulate political power or else start your own spy network? I'm sure the ruler will expect his cut of the loot as well.
  9. rjshae
    For individual combat options, I like distinctive maneuvers that either buy the party some time against a powerful foe or else provide a unique attack that works against special defenses. For the former, it could be something that locks blades or shields for a round, does a knockdown, pushes the defender back a square, or just puts them on the defensive for a round with a flurry of blows. A disarm attack against a weak foe would be useful if the aim is non-lethal combat.
  10. rjshae
    "We're pleased to announce the 7th major bug fix patch update. Our testers report that all known major crashing bugs on the critical path have now been fixed. You should finally be able to play the game from beginning to end." Seriously though, I'm looking forward to getting a screenie from the running game. Any art updates are greatly appreciated.
  11. rjshae
    Besides the normal skill progression, I like to think that at higher levels a fighter becomes increasingly proficient at fighting while surrounded. To push that further, perhaps a "Guard your back" ability that helps protects adjacent allies from backstabbing? Kind of like extending your shield in Star Trek.
  12. rjshae
    Yes, that's pretty much it. Planescrape Torment.
  13. rjshae
    Hmm... three levels plus an additional level for every 2500 backers. There were 73,986+5,698=79,684. Unless I am mistaken, that means 3+(79,684/2,500) = 34 levels. Holy crud, that can't be right. Oh yeah... it's from 50,000. In that case: 3+((79,684-50,000)/2,500 = 14 levels, which is one more than is shown in the illustration.
  14. rjshae
    Hmm... three levels plus an additional level for every 2500 backers. There were 73,986+5,698=79,684. Unless I am mistaken, that means 3+(79,684/2,500) = 34 levels. Holy crud, that can't be right.
  15. rjshae
    For the purpose of realism, I'd like to see fighters have some type of incremental learning process when facing an opponent. Skilled fighters should be able to recognize styles and methods of an opponent, thereby gaining an incremental advantage after several rounds. In effect, they are circling, probing and looking for weaknesses to exploit. Against roughly equal opponents, no advantage should be gained. But against a lesser opponent, the advantage should gradually swing in favor of the more experienced fighter. To model this, a combatant could gain a mastery advantage when they continue fighting the same foe, such as a +3% attack/+3% parry/+3% critical benefit. The rate at which this is acquired is a function of the skill of both fighters, adjusted by the appropriate stat.
  16. rjshae
    Mmm... lemon bars. Hope you all get well soon. (Glad I got my flu shot.)
  17. rjshae
    The only thing I didn't like about the BG wilderness areas was their boxy shape. It felt a bit like a mine sweeping mission to explore each area. However, I'm not sure how to improve upon that approach. NWN2 exterior areas include a two grid square border area that you couldn't enter, but which gave it more of an expansive feel. It's still a box though. Maybe have soft edge and hard edge borders? I.e. you can walk up to the hard edge, but when you leave the party alone they immediately start moving back to the soft edge.
  18. rjshae
    I'm not too concerned about memorable characters; just having two or three such would be sufficient. But it's interesting to take a look at the BG/BG2 walkthroughs and see why different companions are preferable. A good game design should make all of the companions roughly equal in their usefulness, yet give different gaming experiences.
  19. rjshae
    I'd like it if, over the course of the game, we could spend money to build up your baggage train/camp infrastructure. For example, hiring henchmen as guards, laborers to take care of the pack animals and gear, a cook, camp followers, and so forth; all giving minor rest and transport benefits. The hirelings may even be workers at your stronghold that travel with you. As the personnel improves, so to could the journey time back to camp be reduced. After all, those extra guards allow you to camp closer to your area of activity.
  20. rjshae
    Right, yet the party order can get greatly muddled up because of pathfinding issues. The result is that low armor characters can end up arriving well ahead of your tanks. It just doesn't favor rapid advances.
  21. rjshae
    Frankly, all of that extraneous stuff has never really done much for me. All I need is a manual and the install media. Everything else just clogs up the media storage drawers.
  22. rjshae
    The problem is that no character is totally original. I think that the purpose of this thread is to discuss what kind of villain we would like to see. I have no interest in seeing pale copies of characters from other games or from fictional stories. Any writer worth his salt can develop in-game personalities that feel right for a setting. Besides, I never used the word 'totally' and I do understand the purpose of this thread. I'm just saying that I don't need characters that satisfy a nerdy nostalgia trip.
  23. rjshae
    For wading in hip-deep water, a simple V-shaped wake effect and some splashing should be sufficient I would think. Possibly water swirls for underwater creatures. We likely won't be able to see more detail than that.
  24. rjshae
    Is the puny damage crisis averted now? Or did I "miss" something?
  25. rjshae
    Spirit creatures like those seen in the anime film Princess Mononoke may fit nicely in this setting. I could see certain wild creatures bearing a spirit-like nature that allows them to take on an intelligent aspect and even cooperate with selected individuals such as San. Such spirit creatures would be more like companions than animals, and may possess a special link with the spirit world. BTW, if you've never seen Princess Mononoke... well, all I can say is that you need to watch it.
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