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Endrosz

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  1. Endrosz
    I'm replaying TW1 right now, and Geralt's face and body shape are so much better IMO than what they're showing now for TW3. The old Geralt's face was distinct, memorable, weathered, his body lean and worn, this new Geralt is Generic CoolAss Action Hero #223 with bulging muscles and dumb Team America looks. I usually don't bother a whole lot with looks in games, but Geralt's looks became iconic for me.
  2. Endrosz
    Yeah, I was kind of expecting one such side-by-side comparison in this update. More food for the nitpicking crowd! The art direction and production values are amazing. In reflection, when I backed this project, I never expected it to look this amazing. Yeah, there's polish needed in whatever details, but still.
  3. Endrosz
    Oh boy. I so WISH that were true. Then Looking Glass Studios, who gave us the Ultima Underworlds, Thieves and System Shocks, all excellent games ahead of their time (especially the UUs), would still be in business. And if I cared to, I could sit down a bit and remember more sad counter-examples. In Hungarian, there is a saying "Jó bornak is kell cégér" -- "Even fine wine needs a sign". Yes it does. I fully agree with Sensuki: I want the game to succeed first and foremost, and if the path to success includes building press hype, then so be it.
  4. Endrosz
    Tru dat. If more time = better game were true in a strict mathematical sense, then Duke Nukem Forever and other games that stayed very long in development limbo would be the best games ever. There are a lot of games that needed another 3-6 months before release to become well-polished. But there are a lot of other games that: -- had a poor concept to begin with -- suffered from bad design decisions -- mismanaged in a hundred possible ways No amount of delays would save such games.
  5. Endrosz
    As promised, Charles Dance (of Tywin Lannister fame lately) does the Nilfgaardian emperor's VO. Yup, he's still shiveringly good.
  6. Endrosz
    REAL WATCH DOG HACKS! "Those guys are the best hiders I've neven seen!"
  7. Endrosz
    There is more than one type of 2D. FEZ springs immedietely to mind, with its unique 2D-3D world, to show that there many ways to go 2D. 2D flattened ("sidescroller") pixel art is very cheap to produce. Anyone with hand drawing skills can whip up some shapes and then animate them. Read about how Jordan Mechner produced Karateka's and Prince of Persia's fantastic character animation back in the '80s. To do something similar in 3D, you need motion capture (mocap) suits, a batch of specialized middleware, animation blending etc. etc. = lots of work hours and money. Isometric 2D is actually 3D with a fixed camera angle and distance and eliminated perspectivic shrinking (which is okay to human eyes if the distance between foreground and background objects is not too big). The backgrounds can still be created by 2D artists, instead of the 3D compositing: meshes, maps, shaders, etc. which takes a lot more work. Testing out 3D meshes for proper movement is a lot of QA time, so that you can't go anywhere you're not supposed to (falling through cracks, going through walls, etc.)* Since 2D movement happens on a single plane (purple shape in the video), it's a lot easier to test. About revival -- 2D RP games have never really went away, just got confined to the indie niche. There is Spidersoft's Avernum and GeneForge series. RPG Maker games were continously created, and some of those are enjoyable. There's Knights of the Chalice. And even though most people sneer at browser games, there are a few really good ones: Ge.Ne.Sis, TCT RPG, World's End series, Legend of the Void series, Mardek RPG series, Monsters' Den series. I've had more fun with the free Monsters' Den games than with Dragon Age: Origins (though that's not saying much). -- * Remember when Fallout 3 came out, you could skip a large part of the main questline by "squeezing" into a room in D.C. and getting an object without the key? Even with arduous QA testing, a few mesh holes tend to remain.
  8. Endrosz
    I was really, really, really, really worried that hiring cosplay actors at some convention for the intro video would result in an unbearably cheesy and horribly amateurishly acted POS, where my only Sanity-preserving option is to bury my face into my hands, weep a bit softly and pretend the video never existed. Maybe use some PK D i c k-style memory eraser, We Can Forget It For You Wholesale. Thankfully, it was mostly archive footage and slideshow-style very short scenes with little acting, and the only part with minor acting was all right. It also tied nicely into the first scene on the game, which is a big plus. The narrator is also rather good. He isn't on Ron Perlman's level of awesomeness (he narrated the Fallout intros), but really, who is? So, all in all, a big relief. EDIT: D i c k is his name, you retard filter!
  9. Endrosz
    There were several reports that the first Alpha milestone is very close. More Alpha polish, Early Access Beta, this is all very much doable until Winter '14.
  10. Endrosz
    Almost useless factual correction: Combination (6, 2, non-repetitive) = 15 (6! / (5! * 2!) = 6 * 5 / 2 = 15). Or intuitively, take the above list, and add 5 new entries with the Crafting skill + each of the existing skills, 10 + 5 = 15.
  11. Endrosz
    My idea is faith-based variations of certain spells. There is a primary effect which is always the same, but the secondary effect depends on the followed god. This is much less work, since there is no need for additional UI elements or spell effects or full design work, only the spell description and the spell script (which is easy to write) changes. Example: Proclamation of Faith Primary effect: short stun on enemies in a small area Secondary effect in the same area: Eothas -- Stamina regen on allies; Magran -- burn effect on enemies; Berath -- hobbled effect on enemies This would differentiate priests without lots of additional design work.
  12. Endrosz
    Since Sawyer is fond of universal game mechanics, I think it's safe to assume to the same limitation will apply to everything. The latter question crossed my mind, too. Don't know the answer.
  13. Endrosz
    You're right, I missed that part. :shame: Yeah, the list is even better with PC only titles. I had mostly praise for it anyway.
  14. Endrosz
    Which reminds me... A friend of mine ran two separate DnD 3 campaigns set in the same world for long years. The crafty bastard he is, he carefully arranged that after a while the paths of the two parties crossed and they "happened" to have opposing agendas. After a lot of preparation, a high-level (15+) player character showdown ensued. Now THAT doesn't happen often, characters which were played IRL for years going against other players with similar characters. Anyone care to guess the class of the last man standing? Yep, it was a cleric.
  15. Endrosz
    First of all, I was really glad that many important, but less idolized/remembered RPGs made it to the list, like Betrayal at Krondor and Dark Heart of Uukrul. Just as GameFAQs overrates JRPGs, the Codex underrates them. If nothing else, Chrono Trigger with its time-travel setting, unique party mechanic and 10+ different endings belongs on a top 50+ list. Possibly a few others. There is one thing that I just don't understand, neither on this list or anywhere else: how on earth could Might and Magic 6 be regarded as a better game than MM 7? MM 7 improved upon everything that MM 6 offered: more and better balanced classes, expanded and much more interesting skill system, bigger world, plethora of memorable locations (as opposed to the blandness of MM 6), a few important branching decisions, more spells and items, an expanded crafting system, endgame towns as endgame dungeons, better dungeon and monster design, a fun minigame -- it's one of the best sequels of all time. The second half of MM 6 is basically one long Diablo-style ride with nothing to break the monotony -- it was mostly a tech demo of the new engine, nothing else. I replayed both a few years back, and really had to force myself to finish 6, while 7 was still fun.
  16. Endrosz
    Check out the character UI concept from Update 70 -- it was partly created in Photoshop, so it's not final but hints at the final version. There is a Suppressed notice on the first effect line. That is because effects that raise the same stat do not stack (asked, confirmed). Since there are two effects on the character which raise Resolve, only the higher one works, the other one is suppressed. If the buff that provides the higher one ends before the other, the suppression ends as well, and the character gets that lower bonus. This goes a looooooooooong way to prevent superstacked easy mode builds, BTW. The kits of ADnD and the prestige classes of DnD 3.5 are thematically fun, but otherwise futile attempts at fixing the rigidity of DnD's class system. If the designers of Eternity did their job well, and provided enough customization options for the classes, you won't feel the need for prestige classes. Just look at the design of the chanter -- there are so many combinations of the basic chants, the list in the update isn't even a complete list! On a related note... FASA's Earthdawn RPG came out in 1993, and its unified and versatile class/talent/skill system is still better than Pathfinder's as of 2014, which is supposed to be the "we got it down this time, for realz" fixed version of DnD 3.5, which is supposed to be the fixed version of ADnD. Pathfinder adds injury to insult by adding several hundred pages more to an RPG already drowning in rules and tables. The rules for Fallout's character options (SPECIAL/skills/perks) fit into 30-40 pages, and allow great customization. Eternity's character system, thankfully, is more close to Fallout than to DnD.
  17. Endrosz
    "Eora" Did I miss something -- is this the planet's/world's name where Eterntiy takes place? Or is it just a continent? Don't recall reading it before.
  18. Endrosz
    Unrest, a low-profile Kickstarted RPG from yesteryear, is now on Steam, and it has a release date: June 26 This is probaly the only really low budget, low manpower RPG that I'm interested in (nah, I also pledged to The Diviner, now that I think about it). It is mostly a PS:T style talking game, with some 1-on-1 arcadey combat á la Sid Meier's Pirates. The ancient India setting is refreshing. The chapter-based story offers different protagonists for each chapter, something like the POV's of the Song of Ice and Fire saga. The multi-protagonist story also means that you CAN die an early death, and the story will go on, with the later chapters and the ending slides recognizing the previous actions. It has a reputation system, something like Eternity has as well. It's definitely a risk-taker project, which I approve of. But otherwise the creators have a good grip on scope/features and they progressed well -- only a year after the KS campaign, the game will be out. Art and music is pretty good for a 2-man team. Don't expect a complicated party-based combat system or vast character customization options, but expect a lot of reactivity and story/characters that make sense.
  19. Endrosz
    The obsidion is generated by stripping outer shell electrons from the obsid element, right?
  20. Endrosz
    Yes, you explained this really well. The statement is: reducing the deviation is worth it, it improves the player experience among the whole distribution. You think that this change is not a real change. I think it's a real change. There is a challenge level provided by the game. If you lessen the gap between bad and good, it's more likely that the player's power will fall close to that level. You brought up statistics -- this is exactly what reducing the spread does, the majority gets closer to the average. And the average is where the developers TRY to put the challenge level. Both too little and too much challenge leave a bad taste in the player's mouth.
  21. Endrosz
    I have great news for you and everyone else who's concerned that "overbalancing" will somehow make the game unfun: no matter what they do, you will still be able to build "good decks" and "back decks" within the game. Their task is impossible, so you'll get what you want. During the first few weeks of beta, player reports will feature a large number of exploits, and some of those will not be fixed by launch, or later, or ever (maybe in a player-made mod), because they would require a redesign of features, and the producer's cost analysis shows that it's just not worth it. The goal is to lessen the gap between the absolute best decks and the absolute worst decks. "Viable". A more level playing field, not a flattened playing field. I've watched Guild Wars, loosely based on Magic: the Gathering, being balanced for 6 years, and after many efforts at bringing ****ty skills into play and cutting back on overpowered ones, including a total class redesign with the Dervish, the game's balance still had some pretty big holes. But! BUT! Build diversity definitely improved with balancing. The efforts were not wasted.
  22. Endrosz
    Thanks for the read. Although I've read similar ones in the past, it was still educational. But I don't follow your logic. The article you linked never mentions Johnnies being opposed to the concept of balance. I consider myself belonging to that category too, and I love balancing (did it for years on an RTS mod). You can always self-gimp yourself, no matter how balanced or unbalanced the game is. In a cRPG, play without mages (Keyrock's all might MM X party does this right now). Don't use multi-class or dual class characters. Only use melee weapons. The list is endless, you're not limited by game balance. -- Now that I'm writing about this, I recall that I played DA:O on Nightmare with the self-imposed challenge of never allowing characters to be downed. I had to win all battles with all party members standing. That was a fun one.
  23. Endrosz
    This whole discussion deserves its own topic, it seems, and I apologize for taking part in derailing the OT. *sigh* I need to try a different approach. You're constantly sidestepping the issue of audience. The books don't have mature labels on them, because these subjects are woven in to the fabric, so to speak, not obvious, and read my millions of teenage girls. If your own 12 year old daughter wanted to read the Twilight Saga, would you give the OK to that? That's an actual question from a mothers' forum, I just googled around to get an idea how young the readers of these books are. --- Also, to give you a perspective on responsibility related to young readers/viewers, here's the after-story of a Stephen King book, Rage. There goes your free exploration of dangerous subjects. That's for adults (with a sane mind, I might add), not confused teens.
  24. Endrosz
    Semantics. The catharsis of the character becomes the catharsis of the reader/viewer, that's the whole deal with narrative mediums.
  25. Endrosz
    To be cathartic, you need character development and catharsis. Somebody, usually the protagonist, needs to change profoundly. At the end of Crime and Punishment, the protagonist serves up his prison sentence for his previous bad deed, while the "good" girl is waiting for him, and they get together after he's released. He's not the same man that we came to know at the start of the novel, abandoned his old ways, so the ending gives catharsis, release, promise, hope. In the Twilight books the heroine never really improves upon her submissive, "all is doomed, I is doomed" stance. She's endlessly pining after a guy who wants, at the same time, consume her and "protect" her. And then she becomes a vampire to be forever with him, even relocating to a new town, shedding everything that mattered to her before. It that romantic? Sure. Is that cathartic? Nope, there's ZERO character development, so there's no release, no insight, no learning, no brighter future. Their relationship works with the same underpinnings as in the first novel. A cathartic ending to Twilight would look something like this: -- Whoa, I'm growing up to be a woman, my horizon broadens [all good YA novels have this angle], and that includes my view of men and relationships. Why do I still run after this creepy dude? As much as it pains me, since you can't just command emotions to stop, this relationship must end, or otherwise it'll destroy me from inside out. Bye-bye Edward! Later on, I'll find a dude who's not so possessive, obsessive, etc. I'm happy to be finally free!
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