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TRX850

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Everything posted by TRX850

  1. TRX850
    If the method of transmission was intuitive: Touch - Glancing blow, handshake, merchant transaction. Bloodstream - Struck/damaged with natural weapons, or while wounded/bloodied. Airborne - Inhaled spores or gas, conversation? Waterborne - Infected potions, watery environments/encounters. Over time, a shrewd player would get to know the signs before it became a problem.
  2. TRX850
    ^^ A bit like Ciphers specialising in certain "schools" of psionics? That could work. Telekinesis Psychobehavioural Psychometabolic Clairsentience etc.
  3. TRX850
    Frostburn [Psycho-Molecular Ability] - Target one enemy - Primary weapon becomes too hot (or too cold) to handle. - If a Will save is failed, the weapon is swapped out for a secondary weapon. - If no secondary weapon exists, the enemy may resort to unarmed combat, or spellcasting, or may flee, or some other tactic dependent on AI/scripting behaviour. - Enemies with Fire or Cold resistance will have the most appropriate opposing effect applied. Damage inflicted = 1d2 per Cipher level. - Frostburn will only apply if the damage exceeds the enemy's Fire/Cold resistance.
  4. TRX850
    I think this is/was true of earlier IE games and others like NWN1&2. And I kinda liked it that way in those games. But the cure always felt trivialised by sleeping it off, as if the disease itself was somehow pointless in the first place. In 2013, I'm wondering if the player base has evolved enough to deal with it differently, and view it as part of their own story? There are many other enemies in the game that the player is forced to overcome to progress the story. Can't disease be elevated into this threat category now? Maybe? Also, there should be a certain amount of sensible strategy too. If you're facing mummies or giant rats or beasts that feed on carrion, the player's first priority should be to avoid melee as much as possible. Ranged weapons, fire, acid, and small nuclear devices should be your first strike.
  5. TRX850
    I think the important thing is that the effects start out minor, but get worse if you ignore them. It's saying to the player, "Confront me!" Just like other tough enemies that can't be reasoned with or intimidated. In many ways, disease (bacteria) is the perfect organism. Apart from the face-hugger in Alien, maybe.
  6. TRX850
    One question that comes to mind is: What if there was no sign (no icon state or combat log) that you'd contracted a disease until a certain amount of time had elapsed? Long enough for you to have saved the game a few times so that you couldn't easily reload after contracting it. Then, without warning, during some other adventuring task, the first signs appeared. As diabolical as it sounds, I'm starting to think I'd prefer it that way, so I was forced to confront it. Like a new enemy, unseen and living inside me. It'd mean putting the current quest on hold while you sought out a cure, which all adds to the great storytelling device of compounding the conflict.
  7. TRX850
    War Trolls. Mercenary bands capable of sophisticated combat tactics.
  8. TRX850
    Reading through comments regarding Souls in other threads, I'm wondering more than ever now if they will play more of a role in punishing or rewarding a character for their actions. Maybe the soul can act like the player's very own mini-DM? Or a combination of your soul and your chosen deity?
  9. TRX850
    If the disease in question is a "natural", non-magical ailment, could druids and possibly clerics concoct a herbal remedy for it? (see link) I'm looking for specific reasons why those two classes could shine when it comes to disease control.
  10. TRX850
    Would a two-headed Cyclops mean it had normal depth perception?
  11. TRX850
    What if non-rogue classes had to take a lockpicking feat/talent before they could put skill points into it? It'd separate the men from the boys the serious hybrid-lockpick character from the casual opportunist.
  12. TRX850
    Translocate [Telekinetic Ability] - Target one enemy - On a failed Will save, the enemy and cipher swap physical locations on the battlefield. - Useful for transporting enemies into harms way (ground traps the party has set, raging barbarian, rogue backstab, wizard touch attack etc).
  13. TRX850
    ^^^^ Factoring it in dialogue would make sense. Imagine if your party diplomat was diseased and attempting to negotiate an important plot point. Surely the plot character would have some kind of negative reaction.
  14. TRX850
    I'd say the disease duration would be a mix of points (2) and (4) for the same reasons you gave. I remember a few years ago when bird flu was in danger of becoming a pandemic. They interviewed a "contagion specialist" who said in a worst case scenario where vaccines were in limited supply, there was a list of professions who would receive it, and in what order. Any idea who was at the top of that list? It wasn't military personnel. It wasn't government officials, or politicians. I wasn't even medical staff. At the top of the list was....undertakers. Because only the living can bury the dead. How scary is that?
  15. TRX850
    What about twin melee weapons that "snap-lock" together to make a two-handed exotic type weapon? So you could dual-wield them for normal damage plus the extra attack, or snap-lock them together for an exotic two-handed weapon that deals extra damage. - Swords become a two-bladed sword. - Maces become a dire mace. - Axes become a double-axe. - Flails become a dire flail.
  16. TRX850
    I liked the Craft Alchemy skill in NWN2. It was complex without being complicated, so it felt like something only a skilled professional could do well. And any time you recovered alchemical components from vanquished foes (ghoul claws, bat tooth, troll blood etc) it gave the skill a sense of worth, which was something never fully utilized in say, IWD2 for example.
  17. TRX850
    What about steel or reinforced doors that are barred from the other side? Pretty sure a rogue couldn't use lockpicking skills to bypass it. That's when a barbarian with 19 strength would come in handy.
  18. TRX850
    Maybe certain areas could have a "Combat XP Happy Hour!"
  19. TRX850
    Mageripper Swarm. Tiny tentacled creatures that hunt down wizards and feed on their magic.
  20. TRX850
    Would anyone use an in-game calendar? Maybe it could represent the order-by-date journal entries? Colour code the squares, and just click on them to expand-and-view the quests you've accepted or completed. And if there were future deadlines for certain key quests, you could visually appreciate just how many days you have left. So it's still using the data it has stored for the journal entries, it's just displaying it in a calendar format.
  21. TRX850
    It's still going on because many people are discussing XP as if it's in a vacuum. Check out the Cause and Effect thread. Allow XP for whatever, then adjudicate the behaviour. If it affects certain factions, then there's your trade-off. If you kill forest animals, you may well antagonize a druidic faction. If you kill innocents, you will most certainly antagonize local factions. If you know there are consequences for unlawful behaviour, it may result in a little more self control from players. There's no need to punish chaotic or evil play styles by denying them XP just because their party are "in character".
  22. TRX850
    The eyes, cheekbones, and forehead go a long way to preserving the female likeness.
  23. TRX850
    Well yes, like a spiked club or morning star for example. Various polearms throughout history also acted as armour "can openers". The point (no pun intended) is that there is usually more mass focused at the point of contact with a blunt weapon, and therefore more energy transfer. So if you struck plate mail with a longsword using STR x and SPEED y, then struck the same plate mail with a maul using STR x and SPEED y, the maul would do more damage because more of the weapon's weight and mass is at the contact point than the longsword. Has anyone ever tried hammering in nails with the flat of a sword? There's a reason it would be ineffective. Assuming a warhammer and longsword were the same overall weight, the warhammer is effective because more of its weight and mass is at the contact point that drives the nail in.
  24. TRX850
    There's no reason a full length beard couldn't react the same way as an apron. i.e. like a cape on back to front. It could be fitted to the character like a permanent "face apron".
  25. TRX850
    My earlier point was along the lines of your example here. When a bludgeoning weapon like a warhammer or maul strikes plate armour, the weapon surface area and contact mass tend to be higher than say, the edge of a sword blade or spear tip. So whilst all weapon types can potentially cause great injury, either from blunt force energy or slashing/piercing damage, there's a definite advantage to wielding a blunt weapon against plate armour. Also, plate armour tends to have "deflection ribs" that deflect thrust attacks away from the center of mass. Therefore: Thrusting = Good. Slashing = Better. Blunt = Best.
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