Gromnir

we gots hijacked by our players

seemingly moments ago you were complaining 'bout 20 hours and how you weren't gonna buy til bargain bin prices for nwn2 were making reasonable. personal opinion is that we am still gonna wait for bargain bin. HA! Good Fun!

listening to fergie we could not help but wonder if he were the nerd that ricky manning jr. recently beat up at a LA area denny's. http://www.suntimes.com/output/bears/cst-spt-bear24.html linky for you non-sports fans. HA! Good Fun!

I only get games if I can get the CD Pass. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> maybe you can burn the game onto a cd? am having dsl at home. one wonders just how long it would take to download that game. might consider if we coulds manage to use our office connection for the inevitable interminable download process. problem is we cannot let anybody from office know we is downloading games at work. download pr0n would be more acceptable than would be downloading games. HA! Good Fun!

nwn2 sucks. you know how we know? 'cause we saw a child in a screenshot. children will continue to be unkillable 'cause certain euro countries has some laws 'bout such things, and 'cause atari probably don't want a MA rating here in the States even if they could release such a game in europe. and as we all know from having followed the codexians, a game with unkillable children is NOT a real crpg. therefore, as is proved by means o' simple logic, nwn2 must suck. is a shame really, 'cause we actually prefer many of the nwn2 screenies to stuff we seen from oblivion. no nightmarish faces alone is a vast improvement over bethesda

... huh? "GB: If Jade Empire sells well for the Xbox, is there anything that would necessarily restrict you from porting the game to the PC? If there would ever be a PC version of the game, are there any particular features you'd like to tweak or enhance given the opportunity to take advantage of more powerful PCs? "Ray: We haven

then you should know better than to follow their lead. you ain't destined to save nobody. you ain't got no special power. you ain't no child of prophecy. you is some poor dumb bastard who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and now people wanna kill you. if you die, does world collapse? sure don't sound that way. again, is no different than the witness scenario we gave above, and nobody would call that a Chosen One story. am not saying that nwn2 cannot be turned into Chosen One with elements noted, but it ain't based on what is in that preview. HA! Good Fun!

the definition of Chosen One is getting a little strained. you ain't a child o' prophecy and we ain't sure if you got special powers and you ain't being called 'pon to save the world/galaxy from some kinda unstoppable dark force. you is some poor slob that is worth more to some people dead than alive... is not Chosen One. say that your character witnessed some crime at start of game, and now some folks is after your arse... want you dead, whether you plan on testifying or not. would that scenario make you the Chosen One? you spend game trying to either find some way to appease the bad guys or makes yourself too valuable to kill or some such other option. sound much different than nwn2? just 'cause the clowns at codex yells Chosen One with scorn not mean you gotta parrot their stoopidity. btw, we ain't saying we likes the nwn2 story hook, but is not really Chosen One from what we got. HA! Good Fun!

ok, let us get focus back a little. regardless of what levels you thinks is best, is there an appropriate rate of leveling in a d&d crpg, and does size of your party somehow alter that rate? HA! good Fun!

low and high levels is both extremes. we can talk 'bout how kewl it is to has lethal combat that has you on edge for every roll of dice, but who wants to be the guy who gets killed by the goblin with the pointy stick... and then have to sit out the rest of the gaming session. sure, such stuff can happens at any level, but it happens LOTS at low levels. at high levels... well, the opposite is the case. dice mean almost nothing. the results of combats is predestined. you got right equipment and correct spells for an encounter? yeah? then there ain't no mystery who is gonna prevail. 4-12... seems like the sweet spot for d&d rules. HA! Good Fun!

"I almost always feel as if the only point of the early game is to get the characters enough levels to be viable in the mid to late game." the first 3 levels of D&D is lethal. 'less you got some mechanic likes in ps:t wherein resurection and dying is somehow part of ordinary gameplay. you typically gotta cheat to keeps a low-level party alive. a single critical from a goblin with a bone knife will kills almost any 1st or 2nd level mage. and criticals is not all that uncommon. is ways to deal with low levels, but d&d, played straight and 'ccording to the book makes first 3 levels mighty tough on players... and the dms trying to keep 'em alive. HA! Good Fun!

I take it no one listened to your ideas at the DA forums about that? I was in favor of your idea, but don't remember if I ever posted about it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> seems that the no-win encounter were deemed unfit for gamer consumption by the powers that be at bio. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

does number of party members make a difference? level up 1 an hour 'posed to level 4 or 6? HA! Good Fun!

"Regarding the Gargantuan dragon, I don't know. It could be a cameo, or there could be a "trick" to lower its CR. " agreed. deus ex machina is hardly unknown in in crpgs (the orb in nwn to helps with klauth is a particularly useful example,) and one might prefer if the Dragon in a 20 hour game were simply an npc beyonds reach... is maybe the character who gives you THE quest or somesuch. that being said, if you gots a dragon in a game, some people is gonna wanna have a chance to fight/kill it, no? HA! Good Fun! ps we would love it if Dragon were in game and fightable... but only as an arse kicking lesson. would love for once there to be an encounter in game where the measure of succes were not how quickly or easily defeated, but simply how little hurt you took before escape. but back to the topic at hand...

gamer definitions is... fluid. is likes getting 10 of us to agree 'bout what is immersion or what is even a crpg. we prefers when people simply describe what it is they wants using features from existing games as examples,

nwn allowed players to reach 'round level 18 or so in 50+ hours. too many? many of you were thinking so. one reason given for fast levels in nwn were fact that you got only 1 character to improve... as 'posed to 6 in the ie games. reasoning goes that it is taking no more time from game to level 1 character 18 times in nwn than it is to level 6 characters 10 or 12 times in BG2. number of level opportunities for a player in nwn is probably actually less in nwn than bg2... maybe even in bg1. does that make a difference? the majority of posters on the bg2 boards did complain that levels were too slow in BG1. alternatively, perhaps there is a leveling speed that is simply too quick for you to be able to maintain illusion that your character is a D&D character? the 1 character v. 4 or 6 character explanation not mean much to you? nwn2 will allow you to reach level... well, we don't know what level you will be able to reach. however, we has been told that a Gargantuan red dragon is gonna be part of game... something to show off capabilities of obsidian's engine tinkering. is it possible that after 20 hours o' gameplay our party o' four mights be able to battle such a beastie? assume for a second that such a confrontation is indeed possible in nwn2. is level 20 in 20 hours too many? so, how many is too many... levels that is. take some gameplay time period at random... say, oh, 20? yeah, 20 is a nice complete arbitrary choice. how many levels should a d&d crpg character be able to gets in 20 hours, and does size of you party make a difference? HA! Good Fun!

am working on puting together a list of useful email addys for game magazine writers/editors. is tougher to track these guys down than we first thought. HA! Good Fun!

well, first thing tomorrow Gromnir is gonna send off emails to every internet gaming magazine we can gets an email addy for... asks them if they know the truth behind the rumors that the nwn2 oc will only be 20 hours long... reference the german gaming magazine article. emails is wasteful to get developers or publishers to do something, but perhaps we can puts the people at gamespot and ign to good use for a change. please join Gromnir in his reasonable efforts to shed a teeny-weeny bit o' light on this issue. HA! Good Fun!

based on what evidence? Gromnir likes some josh ideas, but the fates conspire to put him in a position other than where we could ever see what he does with those ideas... *shrug* 'course it not matter to josh what Gromnir thinks of him. if j.e. peers and potential future employers thinks highly of him he gots no reason to be concerned 'bout what Gromnir and other fans thinks of his skills... am just saying that we gots very little material we thinks we can use to honestly judge his skills as being anything other than adequate... am not even sure that he would argue that. HA! Good Fun!

you know, Gromnir has never been able to decide if josh is any good at the craft of making games. circumstances has surely conspired 'gainst him, but is still hard to say much 'bout his design skills so far. his portions o' iwd were ok, but not our favorites... but that were his first game. HoW? we gave him some serious heat over HoW, but sounds like fergie hamstrung HoW development from day 1. iwd2? never finished, but again, what fergie wanted from iwd2 were simply to get a product out the door... am recalling that josh had a single day to come up with basic story. BG3? FO3? josh may have some good managerial skills... we assume so if fergie brings him in to try and gets nwn2 out by september, but is a shame we never has ever gotten a chance to see what josh could do with actual game design... and circumstances that not seem stacked 'gainst him. HA! Good Fun!

Sucks to be you then Play time is play time. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> well, we think that it is worth noting that replays is rarely as fulfilling as first plays... is not simply that play time is play time. first time we encountered ravel and her triumverate of guises, we were honestly moved... were shocked that such a fantastic character could get worked into a crpg. second time were still okie dokie, and so were third, but never is it like #1. see, that is the problem with the notion o' replay value. is not likes you honestly is playing a whole different or new game when you replay most games. is not that the second 20 hours is gonna be near as good as the first 20... and that is assuming that the first 20 is good... which given the substantial cuts that has had to be made recently sounds kinda iffy. HA! Good Fun!

that is the only rational thing you has said so far in this thread. congrats. HA! GoodFun!

As a potential customer I can say one thing, 20 hour game isn't worth $50. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> you and vol has accounted for probably a third of all the posts we can recall that we simply discount as too ridiculous to have been constructed by sane people. in that regard we must thanks the both of you, as you has helped convince Gromnir to stay away from recreational drugs. that being said, vol is temporary inching ahead of vis on the Gromnir WACKOMETER 2006 scale. the suggestion that asking fergie for clarification 'bout gameplay hours constitutes arrogance on our part is something we finds... baffling. am not thinking that we could gets vol to name another product or service for which Gromnir questioning the makers/providers 'bout qualitative or quantities aspects would constitute proof of arrogance... or even evidence of unreasonableness. ... am taking that back. is some cults and fringe religions that gets real twitchy when you ask'em where the money is going

Well if you are going to do some chopping it's best done in the middle where it's less noticable. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> with kotor2 we knows that lucas moved up the release date by a full fiscal quarter. nwn2, on the other hand... am having far less sympathy for obsidian this time 'round. sounds like there were some bad planning involved and now they gotta scramble and scrape to try and reworks things so they not end up with a troika kinda product come september. no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy... and the enemy for obsidian is time. am getting that no 'mount of planning coulda' saved them from having to make adjustments... but this is sounding like substantial adjustments... right after ferret leaves. HA! Good Fun!

true... and we thinks deg is coming in with some missing info. now the theoretical game that would have been 40 hours but were reduced to 20 to give 2x as much gameplay value is an interesting theoretical question (though he is wrong,) but the game and situation that inspires this and other recent threads is not theoretical... is nwn2. the reality is that nwn2 had X number of areas and Y content planned for release.... but josh informs us that X and Y values both had to be REDUCED so that quality of game could be maintained while still being able to reach target release date. were no magic distillation process... were some unpleasant butchers work, trimming away what they coulds to maintain integrity of game. josh ain't sure that game is as ittle as 20 hours... but we ain't talking 'bout girth as 'posed to length type arguments. is simply less nwn2 than there were but a short time ago. HA! Good Fun!