metadigital

The Drow is an assassin: I was labouring under the impression that assassins were evil. And as for the Dwarven flute-playing archetype, we have not been appraised of her character portfolio as yet ...

Not a dialogue, no; the character (the three you posted were al evil evil evil). Hmmm, much as the typing practice might do you good, I wouldn't think inflicting the resulting prose on us would be fair ...

Yeah, that's what I see, too. The "dialogue combat system" is a seperate entity, not capable of replacing the function of dialogue. The limitation to a free-form approach is that you cannot distil the plot through the dialogue (i.e. by providing dialogue options that give backstory or new narrative information), and also it is more than probable that some/most information will not be found in the course of normal conversations ... also I find the whole process of asking the same questions "name, job, grudge, fed-ex mission for me" to every NPC more tedious than navigating a dialogue tree. Perhaps having an extra option or two in the dialgue trees, for a standard riposte / question (if you were role playing a dectective, for instance), or even free text input for parsing? I'm not sure it would be an improvement, however. I gain a certain amount of satisfaction when a new dialogue option opens up on an NPC that previously had nothing to say. I would say that it is inevitable that we will have (pseudo-) natural language processing in RPGs and Adventure games eventually. After all, that was the pinacle of the text based adventures: Infocom replaced the standed "VERB NOUN" two word input of the existing adventure games with their own natural parser, and it was very successful. It will come at a cost, though: that little feeling of achievement when the pesky NPC gives you the extra dialogue option that you've been wating for.

Actually there is not immediate danger from procreation, either, to be completely accurate. It would take a few generations of incestuous relationships to create any real genetic problems ... social and psychological problems, on the other hand would certainly make this an untenable practice. It's all a bit narcisistic, too, but I can understand the motivation: the people who know you best of all in the world (at least initially) are your siblings, as they have witnessed first hand your emotional growth so there exists a real understanding. Underatanding doesn't equal amity, however. Just because I know my brother well doesn't mean I like him -- Obi-Wan and Anakin knew eack other pretty well and I doubt they want to sleep with each other (although, they did act like they had tried it in AotC. <_< ). I guess it is a salient reminder of why diversity is good; opposites can attract and viva la difference!

Is there a good NPC encounter?

But when the day comes that some sadistic producer casts him as something else, he's toast! " I heard Al Pacino succeeded in only playing 70% of himself in "the merchant of venice". <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Did that make you cry? :D When he's good he's brilliant, though: at the end of the Godfather, when he springs his trap, and his wife suddenly realises what it means to be married to the Godfather ...

Where's Baley?

Or Mr Hanky ... that was a watershed moment in tv history.

If I could live anywhere I would.

Like the Mandy and Mical threads ... "

Well, if anyone will be able to determine all the levels in the shortest period of time, it'll be you, Mr Baley.

Kreia was the first, the One True Prophet of Truth. She has lit the torch of veracity for us to follow: we must release the universe from the grip of the totalitarian Force: restore fredom of choice to the galaxy! Join us in the Anti-Force force as be do battle in the ultimate conflict: against the Force itself!

Yeah, they certainly telegraphed it. I found interesting that there was not more of an uproar about it. I guess no-one who played the game thought it was anything other than the joke it obviously was, and saw no need to make anything of it. I must admit I laughed when I saw it -- not sure when I first heard its (rather obvious, as you've pointed out) name: is it in the save game title?

Yes, her only redeeming grace is the fact she has none. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I like that, I'm going to pretend I made it up next time it would make me look witty in a casual conversation. :D

Meece coffee? Is that some sort of coffee that is made from beans regurgitated by Meeces? Like this Civit coffee? "

That's exactly the point, not only is it lazy, it is impolite. Fora are as formal or casual as we make them; I write formally to keep my writing skills sharp (laziness is not going to do me any favours) but I don't object if people use vernacular or worse modes of speech in their posts. I do object to people who make it difficult for the readership to grok their meaning, with unintentional ambiguity or deliberate insensitivity. Writing is a form of mental exercise for me, I use it like an athlete might incorporate shuttle runs and aerobic work in their training.

It comes from a very bad (and politically insesnitive) joke that has some person going to the doctor to find out why they have such charisma issues ... anyway, the GP sends the person to a specialist ... blah blah blah ... and the specialist says you have "Zackery disease". "Oh my," says the patient, "is it serious? What is it?" "Your face is zackery like your arse." says the man of asian descent.

Obviously you have never been out of your tree enough to ponder such imponderables. "

I am so pedicularly anal that I have to write in complete sentences and punctuate adequately and spell the constituent words correctly. I even write strict English in SMS text messages (which is a lot easier now I have a 'phone with a handwriting interface). I can't help it. I guess it's analogous to St Augustine's epithet on patience: "The reward of patience is patience."

Yeah, a real nut-sack! :cool:

Yeah, it's just another form of combat -- using verbal weapons. It doesn't fulfill the role currently taken by dialogue, though, as you point out. I like Plano's addtions to Yst's comments, too. I know there are more improvements to the dialogue methodology, but I haven't come up with any revolutionary solutions as yet.

I won't. :D Nothing at all, please go right ahead. "

Was it just me, or was that Gonarch very similar to an anatomical protuberance very familiar to about 3 billion people ...

Try the hangover test ...

Ironically enough, Morgan Freeman plays himself in every film...and he's an outstanding actor. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, I think he's been typecast rather than the other way around. Heck, Madonna can't even sing!