JFSOCC

today I caught up with two weeks lagging behind on the Project Eternity forums. That's a lot of posts to catch up with. I admit, there is one thread I skimmed. Usually I read everything, but some arguments are boring and stale.

Welcome Iraya to the OOoE

What I'm going to say will sound snobbish, but hear me out. No, I do not want novels. Not by fans and not by authorized authors. I've gotten my start in literature via fantasy fiction, and I have read my share of crap. I got started with Magic the gathering novels, but I've come in contact with Star Wars expanded universe, dragonlance, forgotten realms, and other licensed works. These books are mostly utter crap. As entertaining as you might find them, they read like fan fiction. They are plot driven, the characters have no arc and are one-dimensional. Each character reads like a cliché or worse a Mary-sue cliché. I couldn't read Game of Thrones past chapter 2 when it was given to me in 2006 by a friend. It was such drivel. I was groaning all the way through chapter one and chapter two. I enjoy the tv series as a guilty pleasure, but it does keep confirming how plot driven and obvious it is. I'm not saying that there is no good literary quality fantasy fiction. There most certainly is. But these are all original works and worlds created by the author itself, not licenses. Novels based on the Project Eternity universe are going to provide exposition and lore we haven't asked for, deal with issues aren't the point of PoE, tell stories within the strict knowledge of the game, or alternatively ignore world rules and retcon. Man I hate retcons. They are going to be written by Fanboys and literary amateurs. They're going to be constrained by the authors understanding of the game and world lore, which is always going to be less than those who created the world and game. More importantly, these books, of questionable quality will be canon. Fanboys will come and use the books as arguments of why something needs to be in the next game a certain way. That thought alone should give you shivers. Please, no novels in the PoE universe. Edit:

I wouldn't mind if teleportation was possible... At a very small amount of places in the world. (places of power, activated circle stones, etc) Places of power might have one, like to the start of the old paths, the end of the old paths (still needs to be activated) at the stronghold, and near some glanfanthan ruins. So that there are a few teleportation hubs in the world. Not many, but enough to speed you up if you're in a hurry.

This old thread again? Quest staggering can have some very useful implementations. It can be used to repopulate areas with new level adjusted quests after you've gone through any of the story bottlenecks. It rewards exploring and going back to places you've cleared of quests before, and prevents you from feeling like a place is now "completed and empty" after you've run through all the quests there. Quest staggering based on pre-requisites like, story progression, level advancement, faction advancement, gear, areas uncovered, or specific triggers, can help make the world feel more alive and reactive. Suddenly that party you didn't get an invite to when you were still a mercenary scrub is much more welcoming now that you are the lord of a stronghold with prestige level x. Anything that gives you a reason to come back to a place you've already visited, imo, enriches the world. You can still have a great quest density with quest staggering

I made a point in F:NV not to do drugs, because it's so easy to get addicted. Once I learned how easy it was to kick the habit for a few bottlecaps, I used buffout whenever my carrying capacity was lowered. I'd like the idea of beneficial effects decreasing with increased use (for potions and the like) as you develop a dependency you also develop a tolerance.

I still have the same question I've had from the start: If one guard is alerted, does that mean the entire base is alerted?

How long will I have, how quickly can I travel? Am I the stronghold's bitch or can I finish what I was doing?

I think I read somewhere there will be no fast travel. (pity, but ok)

I heard about that only recently. I was actually at a book store and saw enders game with a new cover ( clearly a film cover ) Its not out Down our way yet, but from the trailer i am VERY dubious of it. I am a huge fan of the book, and i very much doubt the film could live up wo what i imagined Enders game to be. For those that have not read Enders game i highly suggest it. Its a great piece of written work. better than expected doesn't mean good, but it wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be.

This influx of new members has livened up this forum and there is again a lot of very interesting (and some less interesting) discussion going on. It's a shame its so late because it's an inspiration for ideas which will never make it in now that development is well under way. Reading this thread got me started thinking about spellcrafting... developing your own spells with a set of possible attributes. You could create, provided you have the right pre-reqs, a spell with x effect y power z shape. The resulting spell would have a stamina cost/casting time affected by the power. Which you could tweak one way or the other. So for example. I want to make a spell which (x) Causes confusion (y) beats will save caster will +5 (z) spreads outwards from the caster like a cone. My cone of confusion spell would cost a lot because confusion is a powerful ability, +5 will is a lot of bonus power, and the cone shape makes it easier to avoid hitting your party. So it would have a cost of 20% stamina (getting that number out of my ass) and a cooldown of once per rest. If I wanted to make it once per encounter, it would have to cost 60% stamina, and further increase would be too powerful. Now sorry for derailing the thread, move along...

If you have a large databse of animations, you can use them for all kinds of story telling purposes. I hope that if it's not in Pillars of Eternity, at least it will be easy to mod-implement them.

I wonder if it is possible to script certain parts of the map, so that when you walk on them, it reveals parts of the map which couldn't otherwise be revealed. (like the roofs of big buildings which you'd always keep partly blacked out)

Your stealth circle allows you to enter his perception circle. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64268-stealth-or-guerilla-warfare/ http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63102-commandos-a-stealth-perspective/?p=1298295

How about Swooshbuckler?

While I don't want to over-ask, I agree with Trashman that I wouldn't complain if vision cones or light elements affected stealth were also added. That said though, the system as is sounds challenging enough, especially if you put guards near choke points like in front of doors, or let them patrol narrow hallways. In that sense, the gamist beats out the simulationist in me and I'll say "good enough" if it truly is challenging enough.

I watched enders game, I liked it better than I expected I would. I thought the main actor was pretty good, especially for his age.

I thought it was going to have spellbook based casting...

when minsc broke out of his cage the first time, it wasn't because I was trying to find a smart way to release him, let's leave it at that.

Reading this makes me very happy on so many levels. This is very close to what was discussed in this forum, and I can hardly complain seeing something I argued for (or similar) make it in.

Obsidian has a history of production problems they have been carefully trying to avoid on P:E. They've learned from their mistakes, have a strict production schedule, so far have been on, or ahead of schedule. I think unlike the other studious with kick-started projects, Obsidian is planning their time carefully and efficiently.

err, pulling a bowstring further back means you store more power in the shot, it does cause a more powerful shot.

I was very disappointed with season 3 of sherlock, it wasn't nearly as good as the first two seasons.

I hope there will be a large database of character animations, barring that, however, I think cooldowns are ok, especially if there is a reason behind them. "Disabling shot" with my Guild Wars Ranger did less damage but put the ability being cast at that moment on cooldown. Very useful for an interrupter like my ranger was. I'm not saying cooldowns for "normal" resolve-fail interrupts, but rather for specific interrupt abilities.

I hope there will be interrupt abilities which put spells on an additional cooldown.