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rjshae

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Everything posted by rjshae

  1. 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.
  2. rjshae
    Mmm... lemon bars. Hope you all get well soon. (Glad I got my flu shot.)
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. rjshae
    Is the puny damage crisis averted now? Or did I "miss" something?
  11. 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.
  12. rjshae
    I vote for making high Dex/moderate Str characters be a half pixel skinnier.
  13. rjshae
    New, original characters is my preference.
  14. rjshae
    Something that would be nice to have is a mode that lets you 'jump' the party to a location on a map that you have already explored. If the game could do a path-finding check to make sure the party doesn't get intercepted during the walk, then there's no reason you couldn't just move the game view location then have the party instantly walk into the area from the screen edge. Perhaps accompanied by a graphical effect or a sound to indicate traversal of the intervening distance.
  15. rjshae
    I'm okay with the developers including AI options that we can turn on or off, per player preference. The DA2 game was decent in that respect, as was NWN2 for that matter. That way I can focus on the group tactics and the key elements of the battle, such as when the fighter should switch to power attack mode or whether the mage should toss one of his higher level spells. What I don't want to be doing is constantly pausing the game because one of the party members was doing something stupid, like breaking formation to go run after something.
  16. rjshae
    I didn't have an issue with the slow rate of wilderness exploration in BG. But there are probably a couple of things that amplified the slow marching rate: The first was the enemy reaction: if you progressed in small chunks, then you were more likely to encounter just the outlying members of a larger group. Low level characters die easily, so it felt more sensible to whittle down enemy forces a few at a time. But if the enemy AI had caused them to react as a group, then this behavior would have been pointless. The second was the disruption in formation caused by the party movement. Characters with lighter armor moved faster, so that meant the "weaker" party members usually got there in the van of your expedition. Moving larger distances only increased this discrepancy. If you weren't careful, you could end up facing tough opponents with your wizard and thief while the fighters raced to catch up. It'd have been nice if first contact with the enemy automatically kicked in a "reform party" action. Alternatively, the cross-country movement could maintain a cohesive marching order. I did notice that when I replayed it later, the wilderness exploration went much faster because I already knew what to expect.
  17. rjshae
    Adding in damage absorption in PE makes that +50% critical hit damage more effective. Suppose you have a base 2-8 damage, giving a 3-12 critical hit damage. A -4 damage absorption means the maximum normal damage is 4, whilst the critical hit damage is 8 and there is a greater chance of inflicting damage with a critical hit.
  18. rjshae
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  19. rjshae
    The JRPG Tales of Destiny revolved around the concept. There was also a "Sword Familiar" in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Nothing psychotic or evil going on in either case. Okay. I don't doubt but that you could make an entire CRPG centered around an intelligent weapon, perhaps with it serving as your Avatar. It might even get to be fun after a while being a talking symbiotic sword.
  20. rjshae
    I'm not going to claim I'd have been wholly happy or sad in regard to this. I see the good reasons for why they came up with it, and even agree with them to an extent. However . . . I'd also have missed it a bit for my own reasons - I like characters being punished for overstepping their bounds, not even being able to hit something as a result. I'm okay with this though. I do understand that low level miss miss miss fest concern, so, if they'd gone as described, at least I'd have understood the logic. As Napoleon said, Chance is the providence of adventurers. Personally, I don't mind it when certain encounters require a high degree of luck; if anything that usually just makes me optimize my odds with better tactics and the heavy use of potions and other expendables. But no matter; I'm sure I can live with whatever combat scheme they come up with. I just hope it doesn't feel too contrived.
  21. rjshae
    What, you've never gone wading waist deep in swamp water that is home to poisonous snakes, giant boas, and crocodiles? No, that's not scary at all.
  22. rjshae
    A grid/tiles with terrain effects isn't exactly new or innovative. You've just described pretty much every turn-based strategy game's map for the past 20+ years. Let me just jump into Civ V for a moment and... There, now I've got a Hoplite fortified on a hill, yes, the hill cut the Hoplite unit's movement rate by half, but it also gave it a significant combat bonus. That in itself doesn't really apply to random encounters, does it? You're really addressing the concept of terrain effects rather than the concept of random encounters. Why would terrain effects be limited to random encounters? And that's an awful lot of villages for a land with no food sources, farms, etc. Hmm... kind of a stupid argument, frankly. First, I never claimed a grid arrangement was new or innovative; only that it was a good approach. Second, you're saying we shouldn't use good ideas from an entirely different game genre? Nonsense. Thirdly, I never said we should apply every concept from turn-base strategy games. A grid allows you, the player, to access the entire map while implementing movement costs and allowing the player choice. It does not preclude the developers from implementing random encounters, but it does allow them to apply random encounters that are appropriate for the terrain type. It is also readily extensible by modders.
  23. rjshae
    "Are we there yet?" No. "Are we there yet?" No. "What about now?" ... Noober, the sword of heya.
  24. rjshae
    Yeah, the SoZ system was decent. But remember it did run on a 3D landscape; I'm not sure how plausible implementing that would be for PE. Besides, the Day/Night system on the overland map was completely wonky.
  25. rjshae
    I'm all for adding in terrain effects on movement and concealment. Flooded areas are nice for a little paranoia effect; you never quite know what's going to leap up and bite you.
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