Everything posted by JFSOCC
- Update #52: Monk!
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Josh Sawyer on Quest Staggering and why BG2 might have had it right
I want to disagree about this idea; you would still have to remember which NPCs were going to offer you quests, and morevoer, you would have to go back to get those quests when you were done with your current ones. It would be an artificial and frustrating restriction, as well as requiring mind reading from the NPCs to work in character. I disagree for the same reasons centurion brought up. Artificial limitations like those are extremely frustrating. A well structured/designed quest log is a far more appealing option. I tend to play the IE games quite methodically, I will talk to everyone, picking up every quest I can, and work my way through them one by one. I'm convinced, you have a much better alternative. I also believe that having an immense amount of content (IE: Quests) allows you to have a ton of optional content and mutually exclusive content.(faction quests for opposing factions) You'll get a complete experience regardless of missing quests, which vastly increases replayability, because you will always have other paths to take, other content yet to explore. On a side note; I hope to see factions which overlap on other factions interests, while not being directly opposed. This means that you can choose different ways to play, while still staying true to your ethos. (no good or evil dichotomy giving you basically 2 playthroughs)
- Update #52: Monk!
- It's an even better conspiracy if they show you the fake
- Josh Sawyer on Quest Staggering and why BG2 might have had it right
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Expanded Journal Content: Bestiaries, Biographies and Big ol' Encyclopedias
If learning lore feels like work I won't enjoy it. With this I mean, don't dump a book on me. Instead let me explore an ancient ruins, let the ruins themselves show insights into the society which ones called it home. With the shape and purpose of the buildings, the machinery and what it was used for. Require me to use them to beat a puzzle unrelated to the lore, and if I pay attention it will give me some insight into who lived there first. If I find drawings of bears on the wall, in all sorts of poses, and I come across a throne room, throne has bear skulls underneath it, the walls have rotting bear rugs on them. There's a bear-skull helmet I can find. A mural shows a figure in a powerpose with a bear fighting on his side, enemies failing before him, then I'm pretty sure I'll get a good idea about the people I'm dealing with. If I enter an ancient castle ruins and I see torture devices everywhere, and secret rooms and corridors with spy holes, a dungeon filled with emaciated corpses, but beautiful (now wild) gardens at ground level and at elevation, you'll be pretty sure it was a powerful elite which ruled in a place where there was competition with other noble elites. If I find a clearing in the forest with a stream running through it, and 5 black and 5 white stones crossing it, some of the trees have black bark and some have white bark, I'll know this was a cultivated and ceremonial spot for those who felt the need to be close to nature. You can show a lot of lore without saying a single word. tl;dr: Involve me and show me, don't just tell me.
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Josh Sawyer on Quest Staggering and why BG2 might have had it right
Well, I disagree with Josh here. However, I think what might be helpful, is if you can only have a set amount of quests active at any time, and only able to get others once it drops below 5. So you'd come across someone who has quest dialogue for you and you have 5 quests active, he'll reply "You look like you have a lot on your mind, why don't you come back later?" or some variation of that. Because I don;t think the problem was the amount of content, I think it was that you got quests dumped on you up to the point that you weren't sure what quest you were working on.
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Exploration and Random Encounters
I'm reminded of an idea I had when I wasn't on these forums for so long, and still had fresh creative bouts http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/62261-a-wilderness-idea/
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Movies You've Seen Recently
I watched Carnage by Roman Polanski. Delightful.
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Military debate - winning wars, winning battles
I wonder what you guys think about the long-term consequences of war, even when it's finished. Also there is this lovely book named "All the countries we've invaded" which shows that the British Empire has invaded every country but about 30.
- Update #52: Monk!
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EA Granted Star Wars License
This is just a travesty of one bad decision after another. Mark my words, no good will come of this.
- Drunk girl rambles
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What Is the Most Important Factor for Making a Great RPG?
Well, you can change the cover photo of an album, you can use different recording equipment, you can have different publishing strategies. But ultimately what makes an album great is the music. So... yes.
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Eternity Artists: Dragons should not (all) be Dragons any more!
It seems to me that's established lore. It's like saying "I love popes, but they're usually just a little too religious for me"
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Would you like to see an Double-Arc in Eternity?
I'd like to see character development, and as far as I am concerned, every questline could be a narrative arc.
- Update #51: Prototype 2 Update
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The Internet and How it Ruins Us
Internet pros are the same as its cons. So far it's worked out for us.
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Small suggestions. Easily implemented ideas, quickfire thoughts.
You've left me an opening! down you go!
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Please say that you dont try to model a *whole* city.
I think we can all agree that while we may differ on how we'd do it, if it's in the game, it better had content worth exploring.
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Food and resting.
I suppose I could be OK with an abstraction like "You have food for X days and Y hours" based on the nutritional value of trail rations and other food in your inventory, but TBH, no, I don't need to have food in my game.
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Anyone else having P:E Kickstarter Campaign withdrawal?
I'm still high on this site
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Military debate - winning wars, winning battles
Wars are won with resources. Those who have more generally win. The best you can do with having less than your opponent is go guerilla and protract was as long as you can. While annoying, it won't actually win you the war. (Before anyone says Vietnam, I'd like to point out that the casualties on the Vietcong side far outweighed the American casualties) Besides, outcomes defy predictions only when we were lacking the information to make the correct prediction. Battles are won before they start.
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Limiting rest areas
I agree I think it's better to make a decision one way or the other than to make something optional. The exception is when it pertains to difficulty, but then I would like to have my difficulty settings to be well defined.
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Summoning
specialisation is I think something you can encourage by offering greater rewards at greater specialisation. IE: yes, you could stay a generalist summoner, you can summon more, but weaker creatures. Or, you could be specialised, in which case you can summon the Mist Elemental which cannot be damage except by acid, and lasts until slain or dispelled by caster.