ShadowPaladin V1.0

Bioware are notorious for those sort of cheesey partially interactive cutscenes. Like on the Leviathon I killed Malek outright I mean reduced his HPs to 0 but he still managed to go about his business. That was much worse in my opinion than the temple scene. The Darkside is like a controlling force although previously the only redeemed Jedi (Anakin) was dead.But you could see a very stark difference in personality there too. I dont think the temple had a great deal of effect perhaps because I was playing the type of character the story was written for. I would have gone after Bastila , scripted event or not. Nothing would have turned me to the darkside again having regained my "humanity" with the second chance she gave me. No way would I have turned on companions that had supported me on my journey. So my temple scene was Jolee, Juhari and I preparing to storm the star forge and either turn Bastila back , or kill her before her battle meditation finished off the fleet.... I can see how if you approached it with a different character concept it would seem forced .But for my particular character it could have been written for them. The end battle was another one of those "cheese" moments. I didnt have anything that could destroy the tanks so It was a case of go stand around a corner. Hit Malek till he ran off and recharged. Repeat 5 or 6 times. It just didnt have the feeling of an epic Jedi/Sith battle. The battle with Bandon had a much more StarWars feel to it.

Final Fantasy:Crystal Chronicles.. First off a little background. The world is covered in miasma which is fatal to people. The only protection is from crystals around which various settlements have developed. The only problem is that each as it keeps the misama at bay the power of the crystal wanes. The crystal needs to be recharged once every year by collecting myrrh from trees. These trees grow in thick concentrations of miasma (which also happens to be where the biggest monsters hang out). This is where the character comes in. It's your job to become part of a caravan and collect 3 drops of myrrh for your villiage. This is where it gets interesting. Each time you collect a drop of myrrh the tree you collected it from becomes dorment. After 2 years the tree then reawakens. But the monsters that repopulate the dungeon also evolve (as do the items you can get from them) in some cases the dungeon evolves too, paths that were closed open up to reveal new areas. However the basic dungeon structure remains constant. It's a concept that anyone who played PnP games set around "local" dungeons will be familar with. Each time you return (with your myrrh) the gameclock also advances a year. Which leads to changes in the enviroment as a whole which can open up , or close off some parts of the map. Each year also brings you closer to finding the source of the miasma. But your only defined goal is to collect those 3 drops of myrrh from whichever dungeon you choose. There are other reasons to visit the dungeons of course. Items are created from a recipe + ingredients and a lot of these can only be found on monsters. Dungeons which are on a higher cycle (and thus tougher) yield more interesting items for you to craft. So in concept. You have a plot which gives a purpose to all that exploring. IE your not just exploring for the sake of it. As you collect from the trees closer to home you have no choice but to go further afield in order to find a new source of myrrh. If you just stick to the closer dungeons then they will outevolve your current equipment and make for a very tough game. You have the raw materials from each dungeon which allow for item crafting. Again another important reason to actually visit somewhere aside from it just being there. You have an evolution of the areas so that you are not just visiting the same area over and over and seeing the same things (each area has 3 levels of evolution).

Reminds me of the cursed sword quest in Final Fantasy VI. You got this basically useless sword which would become the ultimate weapon if you did something like 125 encounters. The basic difference is that with the FF games the reward actually tends to be worth the effort. Like the celestial weapons in FFX. Huge bother to get but well worth it once you got them. Morrowind on the other hand didnt really have that. I was collecting Daedric gear at level 4 which you really shouldnt be able to do if the game was in the least bit balanced. Possibly the worse aspect of Morrowind being that by straying off the plot path (why else have such a huge world ?) you ended up with a really easy game. One I never completed because it bored me silly.Not much point having a non linear game if taking things out of sequence makes it that easy. Another thing about the FF games. Is that the consequences of your actions are not imediately apparent. Take FFX-2, if you fail a certain quest in chapter II that has consequences in chapter V. Likewise if you dont complete the areas in chapter IV then chapter V will play out differently. Perhaps the most start example is Garik Ronso. If you dont defeat him, then the Guado are massacred. In order to change that outcome you would be talking about reloading around 10 hours of game. So the consequence means a lot more than making the wrong choice and hitting quickload 5 minutes later.

That was spot on. It's not called the darkside for nothing. Just look how Anakin is compared to the robot like figure he is in EP IV.

Well, as the first of a new "kind" of RPG, you'd expect it to be rough When people say they want a BG-like rpg, I'm thinking they're wanting the good parts, not just a carbon copy of all aspects. It's basically down to who you ask. Some people liked the more open exploration in BG. Others just got annoyed by having to traverse those wide open areas. Just as some people like the wide open areas in MW and it bored other people to tears. In this case there is no right answer.

Thats true ,well except for Manon.... But getting lost is overated anyway. I would disagree there. You have quite a few avenues open to you. Of course they will all ultimately lead to the same conclusion, but you dont know that at the time. Although it didnt feel that "StarWarsy" except for Tatooine. Probably because its really the only one with a movie reference... Well cutscenes are there to advance the story. I find it amusing that people who dont like cutscenes are usually the same ones that didnt mind readin mini encyclopedia's in PST. Although it has to be said Bioware have a long way to go to make cutscenes that are are as dynamic as Squenix. I enjoyed it a lot too. Although I didnt find much urge to replay it because of the very strict "guidelines" you have to operate under. Having to be a Jedi seriously cuts down on the replay. As does the overall low level of difficulty. There really isnt a lot of meat there for a second course. But as one off game I found it very worthy.

LOL thats a good one. I remember being at ground zero for the Kingdom Hearts battle. At the end of the day they are going to make whatever they like and do whatever they want to do. Very little reason to change when you are on the sort of winning streak Bioware and Squenix are on.

I dont see how anyone could say that KOTOR failed. Things could be improved but thats true of any game and hardly constitutes failure. Biowares great strength seems to be that it can appeal to your average buyer while at the same time not alienating all but the most radical fans of the genre. In which case Bioware has little to gain and much to lose by listening to such radicals. As a business model its hard to fault the one Bioware has adopted.

They do. But they still flop the same as any other title on occasion. The Rebel Assault series on the GC does rather well. Thats true the lack of good titles on the RPG/Strategy front on the Xbox can only help. Well considering the PS2 has more units in Japan than Xbox has worldwide. Do you really find that a suprising turn of events? PST was a game between two worlds. It tried to be a JRPG(more specifically FFVII)but at the same time allow the perceived freedom that you get from a traditional CRPG. One of the worst games I've had the displeasure of playing. I should have called it quits at the oblivion ending since I had had actually "won" at that point. Being an 18 rated game is in most cases an instant sales killer. Regardless of what your external packaging looks like.

KOTOR does work. Its about how the revelation that you are Darth Revan reflects on the character you have been "pretending" to be upto that point. In some ways its very clever because it snatches your identity away and throws up all sorts of questions at the same time. The weakness is that the full impact dosnt come across unless your playing a good guy.

IWD dosnt rely on having a special character to drive the story along. The party the player creates is the catalyst for the events that follow. However everything about the party is upto the player to determine as long as they play along with whatever dialogue choices are presented in the game. With IWD you get out what you put in. Spend hours writing backgrounds and coming up with your parties motivations and IWD is a rich roleplaying experience. Spend an hour rolling up stats and hacking your way to the end without worrying about characters and its a very good combat game. Its pretty obvious that the more the designers take control of the character the easier it is to tie that character into the plot. The difference is that stuff like KOTOR, PST and to a lesser extent BG would completely fall appart if you allowed the player to come up with their own characters.

Not really sure what you mean here. You can tell people you are Revan once you find out yourself. You can be as evil as you like at any point in the game and accumulate darkside points. I never broke character enough to notice the significance of the temple. So can someone fill me on what it is ?

I played Gladius (assume you mean the Lucas Arts one and not the arcade one). What did you think of the skill meter system they employed with the game ? I thought it made stats a bit pointless. After all if you can crit 100% of the time having a 5% hit chance on a heavy gladiator dosnt really make for much of a handicap.

That explains why the registered member counts almost halved overnight.

No I'm not your the one who came up with the title not me. You dont really have an arguement thats why. You want a TB game - yep thats fine. You want Obsidian to make one - yep fine to You think it wont hurt then finanically - You have nothing at all to support that. The majority of RTWP games have succeeded Not one TTB game in the same time period has succeeded. None of the TTB games from other developers have sold in a way that would indicate TTB are either a large or a growth market. So I suppose the ultimate question is "Why would you make a TTB game" ? Perhaps you can answer that one ?

That reminds me of Daggerfall. Stand in the shop till the shopkeeper disapeared then rob him blind. You would obviously have to eject the character prior to closing unless they were employing some sort of stealth. Even then such things are HUGELY determental to game balance.

Of course the fact that I can draw on games with strong sales might be an indication of the state of the market. However you cant draw on a single one can you ? Unless its either old and or completely unrelated to the type of game you are championing. So your basically saying take a gamble and cross your fingers because thats really the best you can do. If thats the case then thats fine. But please dont try to fob us off with some TB games are a really great business move. I asked for one TTB RPG that was successful you couldnt provide one. That really should tell you a lot dont you think ?

As long as it dosnt entail having to search for someone every time you re enter town. That gets old really , really fast. I tend to just imagine them doing other things when im not around. And its just a happy coinciedence that they always seem to be there when I need them.

Good cure for empty nest syndrome. If your children are away at college/university (or have left for good) and your husband is at work all day it must leave you with a lot of free time. When I used to oversee Meridian people were always meeting up and getting married as a result of playing the game. Its also a nice safe way to meet people. Even if you dont know who you are getting. I wouldnt be that suprised if the unemployed play a lot of online games too.

Ok. So why is it such a stretch to believe that people might follow a trend which is far more likely to make those sorts of figures. Than one which will just keep them going ? Your basically asking someone to do someting you yourself wouldnt do. Obsidian have the quality to play with the big boys. Why shouldnt they do it ?

I'm perfectly fine with that. I like them too, well some of them. It's not about like or dislike here its about whether it makes sense for Obsidian to actually make one. I see no evidence at all that it would be the case. No one has been able to come up with a single postive and that strikes me as very strange.

Maybe but you still didnt answer the question. The problem is its not faulty logic. The TB games that have been made have not caused an impact. Now on the other hand you cant say Bioware didnt take a risk because prior to BG RTWP was fairly unknown. There is nothing new about TTB games its not a step forward into something new its a step back into something old. It's very easy for you to sit there and say why are you not making this. Because your not the one putting your own money and livelyhood on the line. Which is why I think you need to provide evidence that it would in fact be a good thing to do for THEM not just for you YOU. Thats the way it is. Are the creators of Prince of Qin and Gorusal fringe developers? It's not my fault that there are no TTB games that you can call upon for support. Thats just the way it is. My business stance would be to monitor the offerings from Europe and see where it goes from there. If the TTB market from Europe grows into worthwhile numbers then No I dont like being tied to other peoples property. However I have no qualms about using to establish a reputation. But if it came down to that better KOTOR X than Bankrupt X. But just because you follow a certain style. Like Squares ATB system dosnt mean that the games need to be carbon copies or sequels. Every FF game is different even though all but 1 use ATB. likewise is nothing that ties the RTWP system to any setting. Lionheart was a subcontract job. So "these developers" is wrong. I agree this has been beaten to death. And you dont seem to get that you have nothing to base a TTB game on but personal desire. Which is not a reason for a business to do anything.

Really enjoyed KOTOR. It's the only non JRPG which Yuki will play. Though some of the concepts she wasnt comfortable with at first. Like making a character. Trying to explain that was difficult(you dont make characters in JRPGs you evolve them statistically). As was the idea that you would be in the driving seat rather than the character being an entity to themselves and you just playing the game sections.Because she wasnt familiar with characters. She had no idea how to approach making the choices for that character. Something I really hadnt considered because after so long RPGing its second nature. But that it even caught her attention is quite an achievement. At first I wasnt too happy with the mini games (I even made a few posts on the Bioware boards) but in actual play they were so non intrusive (re easy) that they didnt make any difference. I didnt really enjoy Parzak as much as I enjoyed the FVIII and FF IX card games, it just seemed to similiar to pontoon and once you got some decent cards very routine. Swoop racing wasnt bad but being able to customise the swoop (and the Ebon Hawk for that matter) would have helped make things more personal. I enjoyed the combat. I found not being bogged down with details to be very refreshing and it added to the very cinematic feel of the whole thing. I didnt even look at the combat statistics the whole game. I would like to see more active abilities in the future though because outside of the force powers there wasnt a great deal. I'd also like to see more emphasis on ranged weapons and less on Jedi. Towards the end of the game there were so many Dark Jedi around lasers were a liability. Likewise you could stand in the middle of a room and reflect everything back. Finally I'd like to play my character to the end of the game. While the suprise did add to the game. The character who was a paragon of virtue slowly realising who he really was (I twigged before the Leviathon) and the reaction of the companions following the event was a sort of CRPG highlight. But even so having your character snatched away like that is something that can really only be done once. If KOTOR 2 has an amnesiac character then I'm just going to ignore it on principle.

1) Ah so it's not a promise at all then. Oki doki. Actually you would have to show that it makes sense to make one for a company like Obsidian. If I offered you $100,000 and $1 million which would you choose ? 2) Yes but are you refering to FO's initial sales ? Or the sales accumulated over 5 years of budget and jewel pack releases ? Not to mention being pre the RTWP revolution. It's a little like saying that horse drawn carriages sold realy well before the motor car became popular. Do you have a more recent example ? Yes,there is no guarentee that an RT game wont fail. However if you discount things made by fringe developers. Can we both agree that Obsidian isnt a fringe developer ? Then only IWDII has "failed" from the RTWP game style. More importantly recent games like KOTOR and NWN , or more recently the NWN expansions are selling like gangbusters. Which is a pretty good track record. 3) An example I would be willing to except would be one that is no more than 2 years old and one that is of a similiar game style to the sort of game you are lobbying for. Like it or not making games is a business. Personally I dont want Obsidian to be the next Interplay or Looking Glass. I'd much rather see them get a slice of the Bioware pie because I think they deserve it.Why is it so hard to believe that if you spend 2 1/2 years making something you might want to actually make some money off it ? Do you set out in business not to be succesful ?