Kaftan Barlast

Well, for one the dialogue system is not made for you to have any meaningful talks with NPCs. From what Ive seen(without looking at the actual code) There is no room for big, branching dialogue trees. You can have at most a "yes" or "no" choice. You cant tie dialogue options to anything but an NPCs disposition (you cant lie or come up with addditional dialogue choices based on your Int for example) You cant do a simple thing like insert a variable(the PCs name) into a dialogue. And so on

And thats precisely why I dont like MMO's

Until they make a MMO that isnt about Grinding, Looting and Levelling Im not interested.

The main mother of all problems is ALWAYS the money, you need to provide a team of atleast a dozen people(for a small game) with salaries and equipment for YEARS before youve actually got a game you can sell and profit from. We already have a working system of State and EU financing for the film industry and theres no real reason why the same thing could not work for game development. We just need money. Also, in our system the State is forbidden form exercising any type of control over the film production, once theyve cleared that theyre going to back a film the only rule is that the producers mustnt put the money in their own pocket. Its much less restrictive than a publisher who demands not only control of every aspect of game development but also complete ownership of the IP and 95% of the profits. And regarding distribution, if you take on one hand the enormous cost and sheer hassle of going through distributors("theres no market for an X game, we're not going to touch this") and retailers("Wal-mart does not sell games with X in it") to get your game out there.. and one one hand if Hades is going to have to be without a shiny box to cuddle, Im going to have to say that Im sorry but boxes are out. Its not worth it.

Indie game developer = a developer that is not owned by, or under contract to a publisher. It has been an exhausting 2 days(its lunchbreak now, going to continue this afternoon) so Im just going to write down some quick points on what we came up with during the debate and lectures. http://www.thedebates.org We must find other ways to finance games than signing with an established publisher. This is the trickiest point and noone really has the magic answer but in Scandinavia we're looking into independant private or corporate investors, ordinary bank investment loans and subsidizing or funding by the state or EU (the same model that is used for film production) We must eliminate as many middle men as possible in the chain, ideally, the developer should be able to sell their games directly to the public. This would lead to more money for the developers aswellas as much cheaper games for the public. Today we have a huge money-eating chain of "Developer>Publisher>Distributor>Retailer>You" and its usually much more complex than that. We have to build more well known"big name" services like Steam that allow for direct purchase and download of games, but without them being actual companies looking to make a profit. Ideally it would be a joint venture run by an organisation of game developers that did take more from the sales then it needed to keep running. It shouldnt impose as much on your system as Steam does either, it shouldnt be stranger than a website. We should develop more open source, free software development tools and engines for people to use in making indie games so that we can build up a real underground of developers. Ideally, all you should need to make a good game is a computer and the will to do it. And most importantly, we should stop talking and start acting. Got any other idea on what we could do to promote independant game development?

I dont get it why people dont like the horses, I think theyre fine except a bit expensive for what you use them for. And regarding the animations, did you expect them to take a horse to a Mo-Cap studio?

I think theyre completely pointless. And I cant pronouce them or separate from the other ones who are called... Githyanko? Githomayik? Githigoths?

A Swede noticing a box standing somewhre on the street: "Oh, a box. I wonder if its filled with that bubbly plastic that goes 'plop' when you pop it?" a citizen of the US: "A box? Oh my god its a bomb, we're all gonna die!!! Aaaaargh! Run for your lives!! WMD's WMD's!!"

Theyre definently on the right track there Often the PC will just be this blank slate that has no connections whatsoever with the game world, he just passes by and solve peoples problems for them and then disapears again and in the end he kills the bad guy. The PC is as distanced from the gaming world as we are watching it from our screens.

I like it when enemies completely ignore you to instead charge right by you and onto your poor horse. Especially bandits. "Theres that bloody Cheydinal Black horse again, thinking hes better than us. Ill show him a thing or two! Raaargh!!"

Nice idea, Kaftan, you big doofus. The things probably did look suspicious. It's really funny until someone actually puts a bomb in the damned things. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You know what Im going to do the day Al-Qaeda puts a bomb in a homemade Supermario Bros. powerup box? Im going to eat my shoe... now wait, Im going to eat ALL my shoes.

If they should press charges against anyone, it would be the idiot who called them in as suspicious packages

Ive never bought one and I never will. Gamefaqs.com is all I need.

Theres a big differance between addons and content that should have been in the game when it was released but is taken out and then sold separately to the customer as a "special bonus thingie" of some sort.

I think its beyond a bad idea to hold back on content from the commercial release of a game and then gradually release it to milk more cash from users who have already paid for a full game. IMO, its an outright scam. Sure, horse armour is completely and utterly trivial but who knows where it will end? Maybe itll run full circle and go "You want to play the end of the game? Well, then youve got to pay up, biatch!" I told you all that consoles were evil, but did you listen? Nooo....

si teh 1337 sp34k, y'all

Bah, anyone whos ever dragged a dead body or two knows that the best way is to get your arms under his arms and hold him by the chest as you drag backwards. " Why do I have a shovel, cable ties, black plastic garbage bags, a hacksaw and some lime in my trunk, Officer? Im a.. a..home decorator.. its my hobby. Yes, thats why.

press and hold "z" while having the reticule over the object you want to move. It doesnt work that well though.

Speaking of items, am I the only one who is suffering from a major cash shortage? Im on lvl10 and I have only scraped together about 3000 gold through various random questing. The magic weapons and armour being offered to me in stores is ranged 5-15000gold, by the time I have that kind of money those weapons will be too weak to use anyway. And buying a horse?! Or a house??!! Then its just crazy sums of gold. Where am I supposed to get enough money to buy wickid weapons and still have enough to buy a 5000g horse and a 25000g house? Not to mention the scale of things is a bit odd, a crappy shack in the slum costs more than any of the denizens would be able to pay if they so saved for a hundred years. Its a little like the pricing in Warhammer Fantasy RPG where a farmer who breeds horses would have to save all he makes for 20years to be able to afford one of his own horses

I need help, I bought the haunted house in Anvil.

It seems the bioclock is slow to accept it. Ive been sleeping very late since the savings kicked in. I still go to bed at the usual time but my body just goes "Oh, great. early bedtime, lets sleep some more then"

When I grow up Im going to make a CRPG that dispenses with sidequests altogether. Whichever way you put it, it doesnt make any sense whatsoever to waste precious time helping a wine affecianado gather 12 bottles of vintage for 50gold.. when the whole world is just waiting to go down the toilet at any minute!!!!!!!! It could be alright unless it was as its now that sidequests make up 70% of the game and that you more or less have to do a good part of the in order to level and have all the gear you need to finish the actual story. I had the same problem and I just set the difficulty down to 25% itsmuch more fun to be able to drop your enemies with a single good whack! with a two-hander :D

I remeber back in 1996 when everyone bitched to me about making a homepage that wasnt readable with LYNX. Those were the days. "

I just heard that Warren Ellis is going to be one of/the writer for the new Star Wars TV-series. Was that a late April fools joke?

I have a major friggin issue here folks... Dwarven armour makes my character look fat and the colour of the trousers doesnt match that of the skirt-thing (seriously, I think there should be a mandatory course for all artists called "How to design armour that actually looks good" )