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Silent Winter

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Everything posted by Silent Winter

  1. Silent Winter
    With sparkles? and optional Grooming Stronghold/Stable Yes you could. If you wanted to. You are a games company, not the NSA. Shh, that's just what they want you to think --- Happy Anniversary
  2. Silent Winter
    Double clicking on the icon to launch the game - I bet I get goosebumps. Also Character Creation, also setting out on a new journey, also finishing the first quest, also purchasing my first weapon, also getting into the first combat, also .... ok, all of it. As above, I think just the idea of exploring a whole new world is the biggest point of anticipation
  3. Silent Winter
    Or can it at least be possible to show these in the engine so we can mod in our own portraits?
  4. Silent Winter
    That's going to be very small on the screen though in comparison to the amount of size the BG/IWD portrait took up in the character record screen I was thinking the same thing until I read: and realised that the 'in-game' portraits in BG were the 110x170 variety and the 'character creation' screen (and 'end-game') portraits were the 210x330 variety. So if the 210x330 are the in-game (character record screen) portraits then it'll look fine on my monitor
  5. Silent Winter
    and every once in a while, Farmer Joe should turn out to be a retired adventurer who blasts your party with fireballs if you attack him or his cows. I mean, if he survived long enough to retire but, having had all his gold stolen at the start of Pre-E 2 ( ), is not rich enough to buy a castle, then he's got to be pretty powerful, even in his old age. IOW: why must peasants always be helpless? (admitting that an epic-level peasant should be rare, just not non-existent). I mean, they always seem to have 'Strength 8' and 'Constitution 8' , even when working in the fields all day. Can't they swing a scythe?
  6. Silent Winter
    I agree with Osvir - a path-system, similar to BG kits but not necessarily chosen with all the bonuses at character creation, sounds more interesting than multi-classing. It might not make it into PE1 but maybe something to consider for PE2?
  7. Silent Winter
    Melisan, the Five and Draconis... i quess They were all men. In green robes. How do you know that, since they wore robes and all that? Only two of them spoke... They all had the same face of a white guy and were human-sized. There is precisely one human-sized white guy in the Five. And none of their voices matched any of the Five. And they were discussing 'the Bhaalspawn' as if the entire room wasn't already filled with Bhaalspawn. I dunno. I just find it a huge stretch to match those guys up with the enemies we face in ToB. If that's who they were intended to be, then it seems obvious the robed guys were the equivalent of a placeholder until Bioware figured out exactly who they wanted your opponents to be in ToB, which is still very sloppy. No arguement about that. I believe they had a vargue idea about ToB plot, but they didn't knew who exactly the villains would be, so the rolled with "mysterious cowled figures" as it's the laziest trope around and could in theory act as placeholder for almost anything. But then they had to make the Five to include giants and dragons among their number... I thought they were supposed to be the cowled wizards' council or something - just worrying what to do about the threat and scheming something, but the leader points out that the fate of the Bhaalspawn is already sealed ... or something. Agree that it would've been better to get it straight from the get-go and foreshadow with a meeting of the 5+M
  8. Silent Winter
    I wonder (honestly) if those arguing against killable kids NPCs have bothered to vote in the poll? I'm seeing 39 votes for and 4 votes against (combining the 'no-kids' and 'invulnerable kids' into one and then the other two into one) Not that a poll can replace in-depth discussion - Just wondering if the polls here (and in other threads) are representative of general opinion or representative of who like to vote in polls. Do some people dislike voting in polls?
  9. Silent Winter
    For me it's a combination of internal consistency and a lack of 4th-wall breaking "you're playing a game" references. I don't mind the combat info (Gorn attacks Kirk: 40 damage) in the dialogue window but I wouldn't want numbers above the heads in the game window. The story needs to make sense in-world and shouldn't be too contrived to get you to go to a particular place and do a particular quest with a particular NPC in tow because "I'm coming with you so there" (I'm looking at you NWN2 OC). So no invisible walls - if we're not allowed to go there, then put up a real wall. I don't mind the +3 sword too much (I guess I'm used to it) but I do prefer the suggestion of 'decent' v. 'fine' v. 'awesome, razor-sharp sword of doom' Good, non-intrusive (background) music to set the mood is helpful if it's appropriate to the setting (it could become louder and more foreground in a tavern with actual musicians). Reasonable actions and responses from NPCs based in the world (again - internal consistency).
  10. Silent Winter
    My only problem with this is external error - e.g. computer crashes / power cut / my son pushes the little blue button on the front of the box - fun times. I believe, with a long game, it's permitted to sleep (and thus saving, powering down the PC). When your character dies, you start a new game. This is, I believe, the essece of Ironman - no reloads, just loading up again after a sleep and keep playing with any consequences until you die / finish the game.
  11. Silent Winter
    For me it's not about going on a killing spree, it's about needing to limit myself during village combat. I mentioned this in another thread about 'evil' paths but: In BG, I was fighting the cultists in Ulgoth's Beard. I was in trouble and let rip with a fireball. Unbeknownst to me, at the edge of the fog of war, one of the UB boys got hit by the fireball. Now, I defeated the cultists but felt pretty bad about the 'collateral damage'. Plus the rest of the village were hostile to me. I didn't reload though, just kept it as part of the tragedy. If there's a quest with combat inside a town, then the 'good' players (or those wishing support from Faction X) would need to limit themselves to targetted spells / melee to avoid hitting the townsfolk. On the other hand, the 'bad' players (or those who only care about Faction Y) would be able to let loose the fireballs. (this isn't specifically about kids though - any killable v. invulnerable NPCs). The argument about 'some things will always be impossible' is fine but this isn't about adding a new mechanic to add choices, it's about simply using a different model in game as an NPC and NOT flagging it as invulnerable. If there are no kids in game, that's fine. If there are only kids in non-combat zones (like in NWN), that's ok (I dislike 'non-combat zones' - though it does prevent you killing that important NPC). If there are kids (or any NPCs) in combat zones then they should be the same as everyone else.
  12. Silent Winter
    and also covers what you don't want ... so what do you want? I'm in favour of mods giving options at install (so I can install quest A without installing overpowered sword B). Whilst I personally wouldn't want to install overpowered items or class-kits, I can see some people enjoying them. So if someone wants to make a mod like that then meh, go ahead. It's hard to say, yet, what mods might be good as we haven't even played the vanilla game. But after checking out the different paths in that, it would be fun to have extra fan-made addons like quests, NPCs and balanced items. Sure, they won't all be great, but like with the IE mods, there'll be some gems.
  13. Silent Winter
    ...and then be magically/technologically brought back to life for 2 more seasons / the 4th movie (not to say I don't love Joss Whedon's stuff, which I do).
  14. Silent Winter
    For me, the biggest thing would be the ability to add NPCs and Quests and create/edit dialogue. This would include being able to add areas to the world map (or even extending the world map - but I think they'll want to keep the larger world under official control for PE2) I'd also enjoy playing around with the visuals - but I think they mentioned having a good selection of colours for your armour and wotnot already in-game. I've never used any of the mod-kits for BG2 but some of them do look interesting.
  15. Silent Winter
    Doh! .. that's what I get for not proofreading my posts Yep, meant AI. I didn't think about party AI though - if you've got your wizard on AI then yes, it would need to apply that. Maybe it could 'test' the limited number of shapes for maximum damage v. maximum enemies hit depending on settings. The cone could be set to test for 'avoids party members' and 'hits more enemies' depending on offensive v. defensive or something.
  16. Silent Winter
    Thinking about it more - I wouldn't mind something like this - injuries that take time to heal and cause penalties in the meantime (even full-on "can't use that broken arm" penalties) But then why would you leave it untreated? (other than for the extra challenge, as you said - that's what challenge modes are for after all - but from an in-game/rp perspective, I couldn't see it - [python]'It's just a flesh-wound' ... "Flesh-wound? I cut your arm off"[/python]) Or is it a case of 'you might be able to treat it in time IF you can make it to the rest spot' ?
  17. Silent Winter
    I think that this would lead to reloads for most people so it would need to be a difficulty level option. Losing an arm - you'd need to relearn your weapons and balance - and then if you lost the other one later? Same for losing an eye - you'd lose depth-perception (hence the accuracy penalty) but then you could lose the other one later... It'd have to be pretty unlikely (such that losing 2 in one game virtually never happens) or go with the short-term treatable approach. It's not something I'd like to play with myself but it would probably suit the ironman/no-reloads crowd.
  18. Silent Winter
    Not sure a free-paint system would be worth implementing (considering how much I'd use something other than a rough approximation of a geometric shape anyway). But I do like the idea of choosing shapes for certain spells (lines, circles, rings, squares) and/or resizing/shaping the cone for width v. length. Being able to surround the party or the enemy with a flame-wall sounds cool. Then again, an intelligent UI would then have the enemy shift to ranged-weapons and suddenly I'm trapped in a circle of fire getting arrowed to death
  19. Silent Winter
    LOL awesome '3' hasn't been voted for :? (I can see 2 votes for '2', 1 for '4' and 1 for '8) --- I like the idea of interfering rings (did I just say that out loud?) - as Lephys suggested - I guess it depends on how PE rings work as to how much bother it would be to code that in. If we're going to go for more than 2, then I can't see a logical reason for stopping short of 8 (if we discount thumbs).
  20. Silent Winter
    But then, if we're going for more realism, what if the rings don't fit? A ring sized for my thumb would fall off my little finger and a ring sized for my ring-finger could fall off someone else's thumb (no, really). I think the 'one ring on each hand' approach could be explained by channeling magic to the body via the veins or some Jialong (sp?) channels - only one ring can 'work' on each hand. Having 10 lower-powered rings would probably make for exhausting ring-management to achieve the same effects as 2 'normal' rings. Having said that - I don't really mind.
  21. Silent Winter
    I agree with Osvir - making it possible in the code but not actually doing all the portraits themselves is a good idea. I'll be making my own portraits for my PC anyway but I'd also be up for doing variations on the NPCs. I'm sure there are plenty of hobbyist artists who'd put out packs for these.
  22. Silent Winter
    Poor lil hatchlings They're just looking to take a little bite... --- Thanks for the update - I like the artwork shown (and that little sneak-peek of the WIP inventory). Good to know you're a BG fan too
  23. Silent Winter
    ----- Quote system being odd - my reply may end up in your quote (ok, I edited and it's now above your quote :? ) but: As to the former - I disagree - the ability of my character in NWN2 to choose 'help Mossfeld' or 'slit his throat' doesn't break that I'm playing a 'good' character - I simply choose the good option. (though more ambiguous options is always nice). As to the latter - I agree, and that's where it might shine. (always funny in Arcanum to look at your dialogue options for a low-intelligence half-ogre bruiser v. a highly intelligent diplomat).
  24. Silent Winter
    Things I like about it: - the inclusion of the NPC portraits staying on the 'log' - The slightly transparent background looks nice. Things I don't like about it: - the location (though I like that you include an option to dock it where you want it) - The fact that it's detached from the style suggested in the official update - call me crazy but I like the wood finish.
  25. Silent Winter
    With something like this though, it could simply be left down to the player - I could make my own decision that I want to play that way and simply say 'yes' every time. It doesn't need to take up dev time to implement. The other example (about flirtatious dialogue) would need dev input to be included in the game (your dialogue choices and a reaction from the other person). I'm all for 'traits' but not 'absolute restrictions' - even if it's only a few times in a game - UNLESS it makes perfect sense within the game (like 'Uncle Bob won't lend you the money because you chose the 'unreliable' background feat
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