Falkon Swiftblade

I think there are ground rules that the developer has to create in his world if everything is based upon our physical world, yet a guy can jump over a building just because, would certainly cause a red flag, but if the same guy did it with technology then it's not contradictory. If in a magical sense a lot of the world is based upon a predisposition that green crystals give you healing ability, but for this stranger who's not part of our world actually kills him, that's still a viable way to tell a story because the dev has established the rules of the world. Also sometimes it's perception of reality. Often times females in fantasy are portrayed as this skinny 80 pound girl with DD boobies and carrying an 18 pound greatsword on her back that she swing's around as if it were a drumstick and people are ok with it because they've seen it already 100 times. When it's not something you see everyday then the cognitive dissonance occurs and you expect a different result. If you grew up and your parents told you don't smoke because it kills you, and you go your whole life no one in the family smokes, and one day you come home and you see your parent with two cigarettes, one in their mouth and another in their hand, you're going to question what they're trying to do.

Madscientist, you are certainly entitled to your opinion! Although, they would never have made those thing's sensored had it not been for the research that has shown over the past few decades the games kid's and the troubled people who were playing were directly related to the mass shootings and massacre's involved. Not everyone playing a game will go on a shooting spree or hack their family up with an axe because they saw it in a movie or a game, but as a content creator there is a level of integrity involved because you're planting seeds into peoples minds. It get's taken a step further when the mechanic in the game is forced vs being an option. Further it's worse when it's something you are forced to practice at to be more effective. I'm not opposed for adult themes and situation in a game or story, but everything should have context and serve a purpose.

Bester, that sounds like a really great progress you've made. Would it be much work to create a double circle with negative space in between so you might have like a .1 to .5 distance in between the circles? I feel like that negative space would help give context in the word with a stronger contrast vs using a very thin or very thick circle under the target.

you sir have actually found an animated gif that scares me. I don't want to look at the googly faced guys, they creep me out! But josh seems like a interesting guy so it has a weird synergy going. It's almost like staring into fire... Also to the OP: ohhh I was slow understanding what you meant by order's based upon the thread title... I was thinking like, "Transformer's, Roll out! or Squad 7 Attack!"

i think these are promising, the only thing is with the one with the combat log going into the screen that would obviously be counter productive for fighting because you can't click on the playable area, so maybe it only goes up to max 30% of the screen real estate? I think it would be OK if it didn't take up the whole width of the screen, it could be either right or left side normal sized.

and I appreciate where ya are coming from, but the kid's aren't mine. They're guests in the house. And out of respect for the household I would have to play it after hours, but it's the common area in the home, and it's a lil weird to have to play in the dark with headphones on at midnight so the light doesn't wake anyone up. I don't know how well that will work out. The game seems pretty mouse and keyboard intensive.

geese, I get the feeling the box should have a warning sticker: all in the first act! Rated M for MOAR!

hey, if can make up our own dialog without breaking thing's that would be a fun adon. i'd replace characters and portraits and maybe that could be a fun mod.

normally i just do ctrl/cmnd f but since i don't know which words are in it's a lil tedious thx though!

the link above goes to char portraits compression.

And in ToEE it was even worse, since some spells and items were complex and they had extra branches of clickable choices in the radial menu. For example, sometimes you found yourself in a situation like this: ^Look at that. This was supposed to be a solution to 'screen hogging' panel-themed UIs that were the standard RPG fare back in the day. Yet it could (and often did) take up the whole screen during tense combat. And for an otherwise stunningly beautiful game like ToEE? Good God. I think the only problem with that way was too much text, it would be way quicker to keep the icons and go from bigger icon to the smaller one to select it and whammo! Actually maybe more similar to how a mac's toolbar is when you hover over it, and you can actually make it bigger or smaller too. Also I'd dim them out when not highlighted, similar to the background of the text.

thanks for the tip, but that's kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack. On their end it's a simple as about 3-10 lines of code. you did give me an idea though. I would like to experiment with the text files if I have access to the dialog with sound filters and a speech program for grins.

Thanks for the feedback and input guys. I already have seen there is a filter to turn off the gib's in game, so I don't need to worry about the excessive gruesomeness displayed, and without actually playing the game, I won't know what's going to be too much without playing it first. Thanks for the tip about steam, that may sway my version of the game I get. Since we're in a home with people age 3-64 it's a mixed bag for who's going to be there and we have to respect everyone in the home to the lowest common denominator. I can't control what happens outside of the home, and I want to support the game, but it's counter productive to buy something I can only play for 30 minutes a day when the kid's are in bed. I can't really play with headphones on and be a responsible adult with a toddler in the house. I understand it's a big game, and it's adult themed, but it's not like we know when x shocker moment is going to happen on screen. A suggestion like I requested is actually super easy to implement. It would take a few minutes to do, and I don't know what access we have to the text files outside of the game for modding purposes, but it's only a few lines of code to put in. The main issue with the language is not only is it unnecessary to communicate what's happening, it's a lazy way to write. The F word is used nonsensical as a filler word. Not only that, but it's a fantasy world never created before with creatures and worlds never seen. I just don't see how it belong's.

In the recent game play video's I noticed some adult language used throughout, and even spoken by some of the NPC's that is voiced. I realize the game was intended for adults, but these days it's surprisingly difficult to childproof your home for your kids and keep common areas like the computer room and family room family friendly. For many adults that may mean they have to enjoy watching certain movies or playing certain games after the kids have gone to bed. The main issue is for a good portion of home's I suspect they're like mine where the family room or living room also has the computer and there's very limited range of protection I can do to hide the gore and language from the ears of innocent ones. I would like to ask that Obsidian please include an adult language filter in the final release to remove the curse words and maybe include a bleep or substitute word for the cursing. I doubt the whole game is littered throughout with such thing's, but one can't be too mindful of our surroundings. I understand I could use headphones, but that's not to stop the kids from playing the game when I'm not there, and I doubt they seriously would go back in the options to turn off the filter to hear the language, especially how challenging the game is supposed to be to begin with. I think this should be an easy thing to put in even this late into the game. You can either swap out a friendlier word like 'friggen' or make up some fantasy word, or just take it out completely. It doesn't make the game better just because there's cursing in it even though I understand it is intended for adults and mature themes are on the box. Even cable TV shows certain thing's after hours and I'm just asking for an ability to protect the kids in the house. I appreciate it very much!

yeah I like this version the best so far from what I've seen. Just some minor thing's to tweak on Obsidians end, and I think it's pretty solid (no pun intended!)

I forgot the name of the game that came out a few yrs ago, but it had a pink monster in the pirated version that the dev's put out and it had like a million HP and was way OP killing everyone. I think you should do something like that, so the folks who steal it get their bums handed to them. So maybe everything is ultra ironman mode or something.

that almanac is actually way cooler than I anticipated, and I'm glad I'm getting it. I love the idea of it being like a journal kinda thing. So, how is the strategy guide being handled, since it seems like changes are being made on a daily bases, when will the strategy guide folks get a copy of the real game to know what they're writing about? I would be fine if there's a delay with that. It's a pet peeve of mine when you get a guide book that's got inconsistencies and old data in it.

I was taking a look at the bug report thread, and I'm glad to see the types of thing's being reported to make this a great release! I tip my hat to everyone working so hard to assist the dev's and make issues known that will ensure we get the best game in the time they have to release it in. I'd like to see how it all comes together

Because it's neither as quickly accessible nor does it feel natural and comfortable. Also, it doesn't address the screen view problem that many people tend to complain about (right click on an enemy....and suddenly a giant radial menu pops up blocking your view of the world....right in the middle, even!) I can't stand Wheel HUDs. In both ToEE and Planescape Torment I found myself constantly wrestling with them. I think it would be instantaneous for accessibility. You can code the timing of a hover state, or delay it with CSS or Javascript fairly easily. When you're not using something it's not in sight, when you need it just hover and right click. It's no extra steps, and the icon's are case sensitive so you only need to see what you need. I think ToEE was a little too big and clunky, but I'm imagining everything you need to be a spherical shape of not more than one of the green and yellow circles I've seen that cover maybe 3 characters. I haven't played planscape, but I can imagine they both were probably more text based. I'm thinking of something more like 2-3 separate circles of circles, when one is not being used it disappears so you never have more than one row of circles and you'd only see one circle on either side at one time. Not unlike your tool bar at the top of the browser, except it's graphics instead of text, smaller, and case sensitive for what's being highlighted. The main skill will be seen, but everything else would be hidden, and you would be able to adjust how fast the scrolling was in between via options. I know it's a bit different than what you're used to, but I feel like it would work. It's ok if you disagree

nah, when it goes gold it's shipped to production. I think they just are printing the boxes as of last week. Usually from what I've seen when it's gold it's like a few weeks before release, though sometimes it could be up to a month prior. I think they have enough bugs to fix they'll be busy for a while.

I've heard it on some youtube video's, but It's not playing every battle.

pretty nice! I've not played the beta yet so I don't know this, but when you have a ranger and a pet, how is the pet shown in the group? Does this take into account a pet? Also, I think the money in bottom should be with the inventory area. What would be in the bottom right side if there wasn't any magic users or spells selected? Is that combat box the actual size, or did you shrink it to fit the space? It feels a lil small to me to read from, but if it's just combat #'s then it's fine. As far as the select and formation buttons go, I feel like those should be more central of the hud area because you're more than likely going to be fighting in the center of the screen, and you'll want to be as close to the action as possible without selecting all over the screen with stuff going on. Granted you can pause and select over there, but it seems like it should be closer to the party side since you'll be clicking on portraits anyways. I think it's pretty good overall, I def like the portraits on that side, but it would be nice if the user could choose right or left side if they wanted.

that's good, I want to be a powerful monk with 100 hand slap attack I'm sure they suck against ranged attacks and magic though right?

Just out of curiosity do any of the front line members have any skills to pull or push back enemies as you attack for ranged members to be more effective? I've only heard mention of knockdown listed so far, or spells like web or tangle for example. I think it would be beneficial if they could some how bring aggro to them, or pull them closer to the party without having to rush, or have the capability to push them back a few yards and hold them for a stun so you could turn your attention to another threat briefly. Is there anything in the game like that?

you know initially I kinda thought like the OP that they should open it to backers at say silver level or more for testing, but then I thought how hard it would be to track so many thousands of bugs, and it would be insane to keep up, and the game would be delayed for another year. I think they have enough folks internally, and externally testing it now. The main bug I see keep cropping up is somehow related to save and loading in various ways which is causing a lot of issues. If that hadn't come up I think they'd be much further along in balancing and polish. However it sound's like they're moving along pretty decently at this rate. I expect them to be at gold in about 4-5 weeks.