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Jotra

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  1. Jotra
    I personally think that BGEE is in great shape after the 1.2 patch. I wouldn't ever go back to playing vanilla BG now, but that option still exists for those who wish to do so. So it would be nice if people could behave themselfs. Anyway can't wait for BG2EE coming out this week. Time for another couple playthroughs.
  2. Jotra
    My sincerere answer is this; I don't really care if I end up with 100, or 100k gold in the end. Definitely not if means implementing a system like item degradation and forcing crafting on everyone. To give more elaborate answer though here are some things I'd see as fun money sinks: -Buyng and upgrading your stronghold. -Paying some mastercrafter for forging items from parts you have collected while adventuring. -Things I'd like to see on NPC shopkeerpers include basic weapons/armor, common spellscrolls and recipies, etc. -Quests, eg. bribes, fees, etc. -Gambling. -Travel. -Crafting recipies could require ingridients that you need that would be only(or almost only) available from NPC merchants. -Inn rooms/food. In the end though people will still end with varying amounts of cash, even with item degradation, and I think that is something you just need to accept as not being some huge issue.
  3. Jotra
    I really don't like the idea of item degradation, and don't really agree with your reasons for it. Firstly if as you say it's there to make crafting skill valuable for more than one crafter character to me that sounds like a big argument for separating crafting from rest of the skills. Basically still the only use you will get from having more than one crafter is that their items break more slowly. That just sounds like a really poorly designed skill from gameplay perspective as it is simply just extremely boring skill, and in my opinion adds no gameplay value. Secondly you say it's a money sink and while that's certainly true I really don't understand the need for money sinks in single player game. You control every money faucet and should be able to pretty accurately control how much money average player will accumulate during a playthrough. What you can't obviously control is if the player will spend it, so a player who just saves it all is going to end up with a lot more than a player who buys everything available. This seems like an really minor issue that you are planning to fix with a sledgehammer of using almost universally disliked mechanic. All in all I hope you can mostly ignore crafting even on higher difficulties. I hope you aren't balancing fights based on players crafting buff foods, potions and what not like some kind of MMO raid.
  4. Jotra
    Hope so. This may be simply because I'm a hotkey type but I personally dislike overdecorated GUI. However, at the same time, I don't like GUIs in NWN series, which constantly reminds me that I'm playing a game on PC, either. So, I like buttons and info to be integrated into an atmospheric GUI, which would combine practicality and artistic integration. Also, if I'm reading something such as combat logs, dialogues and narrations, I would like not to squint only to read it. The gamebook-like texts are welcomed since to which, some of dialogues and narrations would be assigned. (Yes, you get it. I mainly use hotkeys for controls so the main purpose of the GUI is for me, to gather information, the importance of which may not change even for those who command through GUI, though.) Just my opinion. That said, we are yet to know how the game plays out and I cannot but feel I'm trying a shot in the dark. And yet, thanks for the update as usual. I actually like the statues and what not. Mainly because the reason you gave disliking NWN UI, it was really a constant immersion breaker. It felt like an UI for Photoshop, Visual Studio, or the like, not a fantasy game UI at all. That being said I don't think that's definitely not true of every minimial UI, but the feel and how the UI blends with the game is something that shouldn't be forgotten.
  5. Jotra
    That's almost exactly how I would like to see it changed. Though the combat log is still taking way more space than it needs to.
  6. Jotra
    I really like the UI except for one thing. Most people are right-handed and keep the mouse cursor more time on the right side of the screen than left. IMO it would be better if the combat log and character portraits/spells/etc. switched side, ie. combat log on the left side and that other stuff on the right side.
  7. Jotra
    Didn't like the second latest update say that new website to handle this is coming soon(ish)? Check back in a month maybe!
  8. Jotra
    George answers this concern on Formspring: http://www.formspring.me/GZiets/q/434424012253185870 Level design? In the 5th update for Torment: ToN they specifically refer to him joining the writing team and that his writing will enable them to increase the depth of the game. Now I'm confused....is he drawing maps or writing? I hope they didn't have any misunderstandings or miscommunication that will cause problems for one or both games. AFAIK he is joining the Torment team kinda like Chris Avellone joined the Wasteland 2 team, ie. making a relatively small contribution, like eg. designing an area, basically something small that doesn't take too much of his time. He's still gonna be mainly working on P:E though.
  9. Jotra
    Their fundraising seems to be going extremely poorly so far based on the fact that giving them more than 50 bucks will still get on the top10(!) "hero" list(unless that list actually needs to manually updated by them or something). PE had almost 20k people who gave at least $50...
  10. Jotra
    We are. Wizards will have among the most and fighters among the fewest, not because they "should", but because that's how we're choosing to design them. Among fighter abilities, many are modal, like 3E/3.5 Power Attack, so their strong tendency will be toward lower maintenance overall, but there will still be a range. Similarly, while wizards can select Talents that are more on the passive side, all of their spells are active abilities. You effectively can't play a fully passive wizard, only various flavors of active. If you could aim somewhere between high level dnd and Dragon Age 1 where wizards had extremely limited(and unimaginative) spell selection it would be the sweet spot for me at least. Though having a system like memorizing limited amount of spells from a much larger selection kinda already limits the ability bloat and has nice side effect of being able to specialize your mages for a what is needed at the time. What really don't like about high level dnd(I should say that I'm only familiar with it through CRPGs) are the crazy buff sessions. I think it's fair to say that if people start making mods to make it easier, like with NWN2, something has gone wrong. So I'd suggest cutting the amount of spells from that direction first. BTW since someone mentioned pausing is combat going to divided into 6 second rounds like in IE games?
  11. Jotra
    I'll eat my shoe if 4k monitors have even 1% market penetration by the time PE is out. Looking at Steam stats about 15% of users still have ancient resolutions like 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 1024 and 2/3rds have resolution of 1680x1050 or lower, with just over 1% using any resolution above 1920x1200.
  12. Jotra
    I'm really not sure if I like this stash idea. You say it reduces inventory micromanagement but at least on some level it seems to actually increase it. I mean if you want to loot quickly and not worry if the looters inventory can hold the items or loot them to the stash, but then at some point you need to go over what is in your stash and distribute those to the characters you want to use them on anyway. Isn't forcing you to do that right away with no middle steps the less micromanagy option? Also I see this adding some frustrations in a way that you really feel like you need to use that eg. bandage or whatever you just looted during combat, only to realize that it's actually still in the stash and you have no access to it. So you can pull those greatswords or crossbows from your pants, but suddenly the bolts are actually in this inaccessible thing.
  13. Jotra
    The game is funded, they don't need to recoup any costs, any copy sold is pure profit, so why abandon a still valid avenue of reaching customers? Games that are far more niche and expect to sell far more copies still sell retail. They're making the boxes anyway, it's always cheaper to make them in bulk. And I doubt it would be hard to find a publisher, given that it's the most funded game on KS, and therefore a fair amount of free publicity on it already exists. I wouldn't be so sure about this game ever reaching store shelves. First they would need find someone to distribute the game in physical format and even then they would need to find stores that actually want to stock a niche market product like this. Not saying it isn't possible, but it most definitely isn't anywhere near certain.
  14. Jotra
    I absolutely hated the high lvl combat in NWN2 and the main reason was the crazy amount of buffs. I hope Obsidian keeps the amount of buffs very low.
  15. Jotra
    On the other hand, it doesn't look very functional. I mean, what can you do with a handful of purple-glowing snakes? Throw them at your enemy? Use them as whips? Light your way in the darkness? I like dark/weird fantasy-inspired magic, but this just looks... dumb. I see what you mean but thats concept art, they could go anywhere with it. Eg. maybe spell casting animations in PE don't look "clean" like circles, starts, etc. in IE games but rather like something that is bursting to get out, or maybe whats pictured is momentary lapse of concentration where he is about lose control over the spell, etc. In the end though it's concept art and I really doubt whoever made that spent much thought on game mechanics. I have to say that I personally like probably the best out of all art we have seen so far. Kinda makes the magic of PE seem raw and dangerous. Overall I have to agree what the people have been saying in this thread. Those aumaua don't really live up to the standards of some other races like dwarfs eg. which seem awesome in the concept art, really like the native vibe they are going for. Edit: I should say though that I'm pretty much never a bif fan of animal(istic) races. They almost always just look silly to me so maybe I'm not in the target audience here.
  16. Jotra
    I want an ending where you find out that everything you did in the game was actually meaningless and then you are allowed to choose between three different colored beams. Or if you go totally crazy F:NV style ending where you start building it from the beginning, ie. what you do in the first village actually matters with the ending showing where the choices you made left that place. I've always liked that kinda of "slideshow" with narrator going over what happened, it also allows almost endless amount of different endings.
  17. Jotra
    What you say is true OP, but honestly I like it. I mean if you always know that every map will have something really rewarding on it kinda makes it not so interesting. It's basically issue of pacing.
  18. Jotra
    Just make the game only available on Steam. Works as DRM but also has many benefits for the user, a perfect solution!
  19. Jotra
    One-time on-line activation when you first install. That's enough DRM in my book to make me not want to bother. Or did they change that? Yes, that is still there but I hardly count something like that as DRM these days. Anyway I didn't buy it myself either but for other reasons.
  20. Jotra
    The fact you haven't seen it elsewhere doesn't really mean anything. In fact I could say the exact same about your definition ie. I haven't seen that definition anywhere else than in your post. PS. Could you try to act little less like an arrogant know-it-all. Thanks in advance!
  21. Jotra
    There's no drm.
  22. Jotra
    I wish I was more excited about BGEE, but I ain't. It doesn't really add anything that isn't already available through mods and the new area they've made isn't even implemented into the core game. I'm sure I'd love it on my iPod if I had one but I don't!
  23. Jotra
    How well memes work completely depends on the overall atmosphere. In games like Fallout(s) or Borderlands which are basically comedy you can throw in lots memes and they fit in fine. On the other hand in PS:Torment a Gangnam style dance off would have been pretty out of place(yes I know Gangnam style didn't even exist back then...)
  24. Jotra
    This is definitely a real danger.
  25. Jotra
    Yes, your points are so great, calling not being stuck there "ridiculous" and not agreeing with what you said a sign of that "the mega dungeon just isn't for you". How could anyone argue with logic like that!
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