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Obsidian’s 10th Extra Life Anniversary (Final Hours!)

Pipyui

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Everything posted by Pipyui

  1. Pipyui
    Oh no! Not another "flip the levers scattered around the room to turn off the machine" scenario! I kid, the scene looks fantastic, though the character lighting is of course a little disorienting. Very good with keeping to the concept art! Keep up the good work.
  2. Pipyui
    Yes, but I don't mind having cheat options available to me for playthroughs beyond my first. Sure, I played the bethesda games all traditional-like, but I also enjoyed toying around with help from the console. Sometimes it's fun to play for serious, and sometimes for not-so-serious. Having a little help when the game bugs out on me helps too. Yeah, I get ya.
  3. Pipyui
    We haven't had a good sound and music design update yet. I don't need much, I just want a taste of where it's going.
  4. Pipyui
    Interjecting the argument, personally I'm happy with any combination of items mentioned in the poll, to varying degrees, except persuasion, haggling, and an appraisal skill. As mcmanusaur mentioned earlier, I find all of these quasi-magical force power mechanics boring and otherwise detracting from the more interesting elements of a game. They are very limited in scope, and otherwise produce no fun challenges for the player to solve or overcome. Though I can understand the desire for more options and mechanics in an RPG, I feel that those such half-baked are undeserving and prove only to shallow a game's overall character. Sometimes there is elegance in simplicity and intential design (that being, elements designed to serve a narrative or otherwise fun purpose), and I would rather have my attentions focused towards polished and interesting game elements than a merchantile skill (optional or otherwise). Sorry, rant over, you may continue now.
  5. Pipyui
    Hold on, wait a minute. Forton isn't a monk? Have I had this misinterpretted the entire time? I coulda sworn he was a monk.
  6. Pipyui
    Yes, not all wolves, tigers, bears, should be hostile unless provoked (or otherwise desperate) - forgot to mention that one. And of course, the modders! How could I forget about them? Considering that being (if all goes well) modder-friendly was a solid factor driving my backing of this project. I don't need birds clouding my vision and rodents harrying my steps. In fact, if some elements are rare enough to surprise and dazzle me after many hours of playing, I'll be delighted. I was just hoping that with all of the emphasis that Obsidian is putting into turning the static environs of IE into more dynamic wonderlands in PE, that I'd see a few birds, insects, rodents, predators on the prowl (though not necessarily for human(-esque) meat).
  7. Pipyui
    Watching the Rezzed video and hearing talk of creatures that are meant to fit seamlessly within their environments got me to thinking - if the room exists for such polish, I would also like to see more wildlife scattered around, maybe even hints at ecosystems existing. Simple things like birds flying above/between trees, fish (maybe jumping upstream), the rare dive of a bird of prey to catch a fish in a river, or a fisherman leisurely casting a rod in the shade, skittish deer with faun, occasional trade caravans traveling or camping by the roads, bees and butterflies floating about, rodents scattering into bushes on your party's approach. These little things are not uncommon in RPGs, but I always appreciate the little extra touches thrown in to help immerse me in a world teeming with life and (in the case of traveling caravans) economy. While they may seem insignificant, I feel they can be important to creating a living, organic landscape, and would love to see such things taken the extra step in Project Eternity. Such are my thoughts anyway. What about the community's?
  8. Pipyui
    Well, what I think he meant was that making a quantified disposition bar visual to the player is kinda silly. If my companions like or don't like me, I should be observant enough to recognize this through my own interactions with them. It's not rocket science. And if I don't interact with them at any significant level, it would be fair to say that I don't understand them well. I don't need nor deserve a bar telling me how much somebody likes/respects me that I can watch like a hawk as I throw meaningless gifts at my party. He meant* that interpersonal relationships should be abstract, not discrete gauges visible to the player. *Far be it for me to say what other people mean.
  9. Pipyui
    Sorry, that was something of the impression that I was trying to impart, but got lost in the rambling. I don't want my companions to ignore me entirely, and I'd like the option to potentially converse or intervene in an issue should I choose, but I don't want to be the go-to guy for every single problem, especially if I'm not the right tool for it.
  10. Pipyui
    I actually agree with everying from the OP, but would reiterate: and To elaborate on this last point, I think it's important that NPCs and your companions can maybe interact and rely on one another rather than take every problem straight to you like a child trying to get help from their parent. I don't want every concern of every companion to come to me like: "Glorious Leader! I'm having trouble finding spirituality in this cold and merciless world! Please advise!" Now maybe this guy doesn't respect the monk as well as you, or finds him less charismatic, but if I have no reason to suspect this, wouldn't it be reasonable for some of this guy's questions to find direction towards the monk? Maybe I can go out of my way to influence him should I choose, but I don't think I should just be everyones' immediate go-to guy/gal. How about: "Hey, I'm going out with our assassin to kill my wicked step-mother. Cool with you?" and maybe you say "NO!", in which case she replies either "You're not my mother either!" and stomps out, or accepts your decision like a good trained slave dedicated companion. These people clearly have a relationship and some level of respect for each other that doesn't revolve entirely around your guidance or your approval, though they may seek and/or respect it in any case. tl;dr: I'm not the only consious being that can help solve your problems!
  11. Pipyui
    The only real concern I have with the clunky UI as shown is that on most laptop screens (1366x768), the bar is likely to monopolize what little vertical real estate there is. I've seen this before, and it looks dreadful. Age of Empires 3 UI took almost half my screen! So please remember those with crappy laptop screens. Also, I've been toying with the idea of having the UI react to the environment for immersion or somesuch. Thought it might be a neat idea, wanted to know what you guys think (sorry I'm such a bad artist): Tundra environments: Dungeons: Forests:
  12. Pipyui
    This vision is glorious. Success shouldn't always be measured in binary.
  13. Pipyui
    Others seem to have alluded to this argument as well, and while I think it holds merit, I don't feel that it is correct alone. I'm sure that somebody somewhere can roleplay Call of Duty, and you do play the role of a soldier, but I would never call it a RPG. No matter how attached you may feel to your PC and the companions around him, the mechanics simply don't support roleplaying at any meaningful level. The narrative is entirely linear, your PCs character, emotions, actions, interactions are defined for you, you can not interact with your setting in any way except killing characterless automatons. There is no roleplay in it to my mind - even if you are emotionally attached to the story and character - any more than there is roleplay in watching a TV drama. Oh gods, what have I done? In trying to enlighten this world with a glimpse into the machinations of my mind, I have done naught but drag it into horror and purest madness! But really, I am rather self-ashamed at this image I have provoked. I shall retire immediately to a quiet corner and reevaluate my own failings. (though dramatic, I am far from being sarcastic)
  14. Pipyui
    Good poll and good discusion. I suppose that if I have to define pure RPG myself, I have to agree with Mcmanusaur that simulation of an organic society and sandboxing are probably the most important factors in my mind. I imagine that a pure RPG isn't so much a game, as it is a society and setting, and an extensive set of rules the player can exploit to interact with it. I suppose that the more extensive the ruleset is, and the more options this opens to interacting with the player's environment, the more RPG-ish a game is. If I were to make a bad analogy about it, I'd describe it like a Gary's Mod (sandbox Valve Source game mod thingy), that excercises a society engine instead of a physics engine. Wherein the player is given all of the tools needed to carve themselves a niche in society, but there are no driving forces except those defined within the rules of the simulation (e.g. no food = die, no money = hobo & likely die without food, influence = wealth & power, and whatnot). Note that this is my imagination of something purely RPG, and I think there are more factors out there as to what makes an RPG. Though I've never played the ever-popular pokemon games, I imagine them to be RPGs, though they don't fit well within my definition (the only real interactions with the world are through combat).
  15. Pipyui
    Ideally, a GOG option would be great. Barring that, I'd prefer my physical copy not be tethered to any particular distribution service. A tarball would be excellent, though I can understand concerns that installation may be too confusing for the layman on his Obscurolinux distro. I can hope that dependencies shouldn't be a big concern - Unity, maybe audio and video codecs (if not handled by unity). Desura can of course be made an option for DRM-free (I've never used it, myself), but I'd prefer at least one of the two aformentioned be made available as well, especially if a VM is necessary (in such a case, I would break down and get the Steam version). And thank you for giving us a voice on these concerns!
  16. Pipyui
    I admit, I was a little baffled when reading the monk description. I read about the Wounds resource and went: I see where this is going. Neat! But then I read further and got to being: this is a little different than I had expected. Huh. I had thought that Wounds would be a temporary resource that hold hitpoints, to be affected onto the player when they use special abilities. Thisto me felt the natural way to take it. In martial arts movies, monks always seem to be able to suppress pain with disipline. When the time comes to use super special awesome moves, it often takes a toll on their own bodies, especially if they had already been injured prior. This is cool, because the monk can turn his own pain into power. In game, this would mean that monks would suppress an amount of damage taken into Wounds, then receive this damage upon use of those Wounds to power abilities. You could only carry so many Wounds at once, and must be careful that you don't kill yourself with your own last desperate feats of power. So I'm a bit baffled that Wounds serve a different roll. Instead, special abilities mitigate damage from Wounds. Instead of the monk gaining power from his own injuries, it feels more like he heals himself with offense. I guess this represents that the monk is like a mirror that absorbs damage and reflects it back, which is kinda neat, but I can't help but imagine a dude like: "Ouch! That thrust got me pretty bad. I better quadrupple roundhouse kick somebody to stop the bleeding!"
  17. Pipyui
    Indeed. Though it wouldn't kill me to live without of course, I'd love to see shadows that moved with the sun. I mean, the only real advantage to fixed isometric camera is eyecandy, and I for one want my eyecandy, damnit! No but really, I just like how a scene can change with time of day. The forest behind my house looks cheery as any other during the day, but when the sun falls, the light turns golden, and the shadows stretch across everything, things get kinda somber and surreal. Of course, I also see the merit in static shadows. Details can be much more accurate and defined, and the forced perspective allows the artist to portray light and shadow exactly as they like. I prefer "dynamic" - whether or not they're generated real-time - shadows though, simply because it helps immerse me, where weird inconsistencies like "stuck" shadows warp my head a little. I like the subtle change of scenery that comes with it, and to imagine that I'm not walking on a time-stuck painting.
  18. Pipyui
    Well, to be fair, I think the OP tried to account for sun movement by using shadow elipses rather than circles, such that his example would be better represented as such (I'm sorry I don't have gimp on the machine I'm using, not that it would make my drawings much better): As said though, this does not account for shadowing other objects, or irregular shapes. Shelf shadowing, or at least an aproximation of it, seems to have already been handled with normal maps as shown in the demo video. My own implementation mentioned previously using dynamic lighting should "work" with irregular shapes, and other-shadowing has already been shown in the demo video and should work here, however this method only provides a very crude approximation of a 3D model shadow. Things would get weird as objects get more irregular (pretend the bases of the two planes are attached, I'm sorry I'm so very bad at this. If it comes to it, I'll use gimp next time): It's clear here that angled lighting would produce less accurate shadows. A 45 degree or so light would even create a two-protrusion shadow. And lighting from the top is still unaccounted for (I don't think I can just staple another plane on in the x-y plane to produce even remotely accurate shadows). Does this idea have any merit at all? Maybe a little? Probably not. It's all I've got though.
  19. Pipyui
    Interesting thought. I've considered this issue briefly myself, and though I have no graphical processing knowledge, and to say that I understand exactly what you wrote would be grossly inaccurate, I have my concerns. If I understand correctly, this shadow map would always be a solid oval rendered from the trigonometry of the sun and the edges of the object. Then, a 2D rendition of the object would represent the shadow and reveal the shadowmap underneath. As the 2D render would rotate, so would the shadow move. My concern is that this only seems to work for objects symetric along the axis perpendicular to the sun's movement (if that even made sense). Such that while this may be accurate: This would not be: So far the best idea I've managed to come up with (and by best, I mean really aweful) is to maybe create two 2D planes for each shadowed environment piece. The regular one would be parallel to the screen and be visible to the player, but this would be bisected by another, invisible 2D render of the object derived and placed at a normal to the first only used to generate shadows (and maybe hit boxes): Trouble is, I don't know just how to account for light sources from at or close to directly above.
  20. Pipyui
    The fact is though that dogs have long been used as effective hunting companions. Big cats, not so much. This is an unfair comparison, but the analogy that comes to mind is that of disregarding a sword because it's too overused in fantasy in favor of using a lance unmounted (that is to say, rejecting a hammer because pliers can put in nails too - perhaps they can, but between the two, why not the hammer? Don't look too far into these please, they're truely bad analogies). Don't get me wrong, I have 2 (3) cats and I love them all to death, but can't manage to picture them following me around and fighting for me so readily as I can for a dog, even if they were bigger. I sympathize with the need to go against the worn grain a little, but also feel I need a practical reason or insight to oppose it. All in all, dog, cat, or (hopefully) detached hawk, I don't care with any particular passion.
  21. Pipyui
    I like this idea, really, but fear it might produce too much micromanagement to be a regular mechanic. Terrain modifiers and the like would be cool because they add tactical complexity, but are simple to grasp and static. Lighting can dynamically change the combat environment anywhere that's otherwise dark though, and I suspect this might add a bit too much complexity to chew down properly. As I said, I otherwise do like the idea though. Between having to deal with a dark screen and shorter perception range, the choice immediately seems obvious, but then maybe you can't fight so well in the dark. A torch would improve your melee prowess, but what about rangers? You limit the sight of your own, and provide easier targets to enemies. Provided these enemy archers are smart enough, perhaps they take advantage of your relative blindness and stay out of your path as they fire on you, who can't manage to find those damned buggers with your torch equipped. There's a lot of potential here, but the real real trick is to employ such with elegence and mechanics simple enough to not overload the player, I think.
  22. Pipyui
    What about a pet hawk? With every map change it could just fly in and perch somewhere, only occasionally moving to stike at a sneaking rogue or something. More low-profile and out of the way than your standard pet fare. I've already got a party of (up to) six - any more is just a mob hogging my screen real estate and making an ugly mess of pathing. No thanks. Maybe a flying scorpion? Part spider, part wasp, part bottom-dwelling sea creature with claws, 100% nightmare.
  23. Pipyui
    I don't know, while I usually prefer my game nights darker, I think the night is almost right in this demo (maybe just a little darker). Moonlit nights can get pretty darn bright, and the scenery here looks beautiful under moonlight. Also: This. The perfect light-circle always kinda bugged me in a weird frustrating way ("I have a torch, but I can't see a sheer wall 15 feet in front of my face."). Depending on how their rendering engine works for dynamic lighting on 2D surfaces, this may be entirely possible, and I'd love to see it implemented. On a completely unrelated note, a stealth system modified more by light contrast rather than light magnitude would be great. A dude with a torch should be noticible by anybody at night. I wouldn't even argue against enemies fading into view when they approach or are noticed. Like an invisible fog of war.
  24. Pipyui
    Quoting myself here. Relevant, though not perfectly: I think this puts it in the realm of somewhere between >6 months and perpetually.
  25. Pipyui
    Probably not, no. Graphics cards have enough vram I should think now to keep loaded other characters off screen so the party can travel without loading seams though. Hopefully then I could play out epic battles that flesh out more distictly than the brief one-card-tricks I usually end up seeing (e.g. "We're breaking the siege of the fortress today! We'll need you to pull the lever on the gate to let our forces in through the front door. Don't forget the second lever on the other side now! Alright! You did it! We win, battle over!"). I wanna see my battle play out and evolve, even if along a prewritten script. More combatants on screen at once might make this feel cooler, but I think this could be accomplished even without, so long as there's enough action going on onsceen to make me feel the combat around me.
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