Amentep

I have no problem with firearms. In fact I'd like more non-standard weaponry if possible. But good balance in each weapons utility is best, so there's probably an upper limit to what could reasonably be included.

Watched the adaption of Lovecraft's THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS. Thought it worked really well through the stuff that forms the original story. The new finale I think didn't work all that great (both conceptually even though I see what they were tryign for, and exectution wise - I think they bit off more than they could chew). Still enjoyed it overall and its always fun to see a film that tries to some degree to be a throwback to the "classic horror" film style of the 30s.

I thought this was just a nostalgia thread - we all know you and a few others got us beat for longevity.

Yes this is interesting news and stops me from making too many assumptions at this point@

TNO didn't know his past either, so whatever sort of man he was had nothing to do with his past. But within those parameters, you could do whatever you wanted. The game didn't come back later and tell you about the girlfriend you'd left behind in the vault, and about how much you missed her. That would have been appalling. I suppose I'm hoping that the approach they used in KotOR2 was a one-off experiment. I don't necessarily disagree, but on the other hand if you wanted to, you couldn't create a back-story that had you leaving your girlfriend in the Vault, so again there are parameters you can't really address in game unless the game tells you. I think the issue is really that those kind of things seem to work better when they are set upfront (you are the courier) rather than later (I did what?) Mind you I saw the Exile reveal as an attempt to mirro the reveal from KotOR without resorting to telling the exact same story, too.

Fair point. It's not like a game like this--based off our memory and understanding of the old Infinity Engine games--is going to have zoomed-in 3D body/head creation (I do like LotRO's 'body type slider' that only allows large breasts on a body type that's already 'large'). But there could be more general templates covering both sexes that's obvious from the "distance" portrayed in 2D isometric-- buff average wiry heavyset small whatever For an 'elderly' character, white hair and perhaps wiry/small. We don't know just how much detail we can see in terms of game camera at this time. Obviously there are issues with animations and design of worn items because things would have to be tweaked across races as well. If they use Onyx Engine (is that right), I seem to recall Dungeon Siege 3 being able to zoom a good bit for vanity views.

I remember the Interplay threaded forums. Hated it because I hated threaded forums so never posted there. I did join BIS once they got proper boards though. Dunno when. It was, you know, sometime ago. And then there was that period where I was The Lady of Pain, but we don't talk much about that anymore. Edit: Hi Missy! Long time no see, hope things are going well.

You should play Dragon's Dogma then. >.> Any quest you do despite being male or female has the NPC falling in love with you. Now THAT is having no choice in the matter. XD I loved Dragon's Dogma despite the fact that no matter how much I tried to romance the lady knight I had the male knight who gave you the Duke's WyrmHunt quest as my romance option. (that was actually my third play through though, got the right ones the other times through). Of course Fable where you you could have pretty much the entire town fall for you was another thing entirely (stupid broadcast emotes).

I didn't know who Oghma was, despite growing up in Candlekeep in BGI. The point of PST was to find your past so arguably the whole story was getting to know the man I was controlling. FO1 and 2 I could only create a background as far as the parameters of the game (start in a vault, start in a tribe) would let me. A video game can't actually let everything you know in your mind exist at the end of character creation like PnP; therefore there will always be things that are filled in for the player (even games that allow for a more robust background like Arcanum).

Well you can accidentally romance someone by picking dialogue options trying to be nice to a traumatized party member without realizing you're starting a romance that will end up with an elven baby in your inventory. BUT, even assuming it was optional, including romances would take development time from other aspects of the game to make sure they work right, so including them could be a trade-off in terms of resources allocated for the game. So an argument from a game design point could be made that even optional romances might be too demanding for the purposes of the game. So its possible to argue against romances without actually disliking romances in games.

One thing I liked about BGI was how certain people wouldn't join or stay in your party without certain other people. Yes this led to metagaming with people stripping characters they like and sending them to fight an orc horde with their unarmored body, but that should have just resulted in the other character ditching the group. But it did make me feel like the characters existed outside of their relationship to my character. Eventually I think games will move to address relationships outside of the player (ie character A is a relationship option but if the relationship is not pursued and character D is in the group, A & D will start a relationship).

If they support the Mods, won't that just antagonize the Rockers? I kid, I kid. I think one concern would be whether it could affect the devlopment cycle of the game or not. Heh, maybe they can do a seperate kickstarter to fund mod tools after the game is done.

I suppose you could create, in character creation, a way to "build a backstory" and have the game address it, but that would probably require more time and effort to check dialogues against than its worth would be. I didn't mind KotOR 2 either, but maybe there's a way to address the problem by making sure if a generic entry background for the character is created, the dialogue reflects it?

Its relatively easy to get bogged down in micromanagement with making cash weigh what it really should weigh. I suppose its possible to create a system where it'll work, but it'd be easy to create a system where you're constantly trying to shift coins around the party to make their pockets weigh the right amount, which is really just a variation of Inventory Tetris, IMO.

There's a lot of interesting things that could develop a game world like appearance expectations (what is attractive, how do people get treated when they do and don't conform to norms) and treatment of individuals due to age (do they honor or disrespect age; what's important to the culture). This is the excitement of having a new setting because each of these things could be considered and addressed and become a part of the game world.

I think typically the complaint is that video game narratives aren't currently robust enough to build a truly nuanced romance and that too often romance is "right dialogue choices + timing = sexzor scene" in terms of gameplay. That said, I think most relationships in games are essentially the same sort of thing (with some exceptions), so personally I'm not necessarily against romances even understanding that at the moment gaming really can't handle them with much "realism".

I think too often using the Tolkein races either results in just a retread of those racial dynamics OR in trying to subvert those dynamics that the creators know the fans are familiar with. Going for something new might give more leeway to build from the ground up without having a need to address the traditional relationships, but on the other hand might take a lot more time to plan. I trust Obsidan's crew to come up with something I can live with though.

exactly. do it like in baldurs gate 2 and it will be perfect. Although maybe not the elf-baby inventory item.

As long as there is depth, I'm not too particular. That said, I've always thought it'd be cool to see a game that used "elemental magic" to be based off the 5 Phases of China (Wood/Tree, Fire, Earth, Water, Metal) or even something like the seven Chakras (Time/Space, Light/Dark, Ether/Sound, Air, Fire, Water, Earth) as opposed to the Helenic elements (Fire, Water, Earth, Air and later Aether)

My first D&D character ended up with a wild Psionic talent back in the day, so I'm always cool with psionics being in the game.

If it was toggleble like in FONV - sure. As a mandatory requirement...well nothing is as unfun to me, personally, in a game as having to carry a ton of water and food around to travel 10 feet. Mind you this could just be left over trauma from my wagon train always ending up dying of exhaustion or dysentary in OREGON TRAIL too...

I loved old school portraits that were painted and looked cool. I wasn't as crazy about the disconnect in look and color scheme between the portrait and the in world avatar (such as not being able to get hair close to what you want, or color schemes not matching and stuff). That's not something that crops up with the 3D portraits.

While I think it'd be neat to not have the traditional races, I'm not sure it'd ultimately "break" me if I saw Elves and Dwarves and Halflings women with beards because of a lack of resources (heheh IWD2, I

Got to say...I think I have no opinion on this. Most relationships in RPGs are perfunctory or forced upon you (I couldn't create a character with a family, for example, or a family is forced upon me). So in that sense I don't mind romances but don't really need them either.

I've seen Chess classified as a sport. I never would do so, again to me the dividing line is what is the competition about - Chess competition isn't about physical movement, ie the winner isn't decided by who made the most deft pawn advancement.