The Black Hound FAQ

[Pop]

Any news...?

Josh is taking over for Avellone in creative stewardship of the Alien RPG, either in replacement of or addition to his design duties. Tentative prediction - no time for Black Hound until production of the Alien game wraps. So I'll wager it isn't happening.

[ramza]

:'( :sad:

[Tigranes]

Where's MCA going then?

[Xard]

He is "big boss" of writing team. I guess he works on all these projects. He did writing for MotB, he must've done at least some writing for Aliens already and'll propably do more (companion dialogues for characters created by Josh OR characters possibly already created by him. ) later and he also is likely working on Obz mysterious third project (on which Mitsoda is lead writer). Main difference he isn't anymore main responsible for storyline, that's work of Creative Lead and/or Lead Designer. Most of the time "basic story concept"/idea is done by Lead Designer. Creative Lead then actually "creates" the storyline.

 

On MotB it was different however, as storyline was "Ziet's baby" from beginning.

 

As CL/LD Sawyer is quite as close to the auteur of Aliens game as possible. Making bunch of the writing, creating basic plot concept (although this was propably done already when he was "just" lead designer) and actually fleshing it out/writing it in addition to being responsible to overaching gameplay decisions, system etc. ( e.g NWN2 OC's linearity was Ferret's decision when he was Lead Designer. )

 

A bit like MCA and PS:T, I guess. That depends how much of the work on storyline was already done.

Edited November 14, 2007 by Xard

[nicethugbert]

This sounds very interesting, particularly the weaponry. The AC/Damage reduction stuff, I'm not too sure of. Anyway, I was under the impression that it is not possible to add weapon focus/spec and the other weapon feats to custom weapons, inherited from NWN1. Am I misinformed yet again, particularly on this issue?

 

Very little progress. A fair amount of documentation written but not a lot of real in-toolset work done. MotB is out now, so I should be able to start focusing more time on it and taking advantage of all the new available assets.

 

One thing I can talk about is how I'm changing the standard weapon and armor options. I've long been in favor of armor as damage reduction. Each type of armor within a weight category (light, medium, heavy) grants good DR against one or two damage types (slashing, piercing, crushing) and weak DR against the remainder. All have an attendant penalty to "AC" (which won't actually be called AC, but it's basically your ability to dodge blows) that's based off of the category. Heavier armor makes you easier to hit but protects against increasing amounts of damage. And depending on the situation, some light armor is as good at protecting against their "strong" armor type as heavy armors are against a "weak" type, but with a lesser "AC" penalty. So I believe it will result in more interesting choices for armor. None of the base armor types are inherently superior in a given situation, though the heavier armor types are inherently superior across a broad spectrum of encounters. And that's by design. You earn feats that unlock heavier armors. Therefore, heavier armors should be broadly better than lighter armors. That's how I view it anyway.

 

Weapons are also recategorized. There are actually more categories now, but feats never focus on individual weapons, only categories. So you'd never take Weapon Focus: Longsword. Instead you'd take Weapon Focus: Advanced Slashing Weapons. The categories are Simple, Advanced Slashing, Advanced Piercing, Advanced Crushing, Advanced Ranged, and Advanced Unarmed. Damage type always directly correlates to a trade off between base damage, crit multiplier, and crit range. So slashing weapons always do the most damage and have the lowest (x2) multiplier. Piercing weapons do the least damage and have the highest (x4) multiplier. Crushing weapons are in the middle. And then within each category, the more base damage a weapon does, the lower its crit range is. So misericords do very low (1-3) damage, but they have an 18-20 crit range. There is a tendency toward this in D&D, but I am making the trade-offs very clear and distinct.

 

Advanced weapons always do higher damage than their "lesser" simple equivalents and they always have an additional special feature that's automatically built into the weapon. Flails have an inherent attack bonus. Sabres can cause bleeding wounds. Mauls have a large knockdown bonus. And as you might be able to tell, I'm adding in some weapons that aren't in core D&D: misericords, main-gauches, sabres, hurlbats, and a few others. In part because they're just cool weapons, but also because they can help fill niches in each of the categories.

[Morgoth]

I still say TBH deserves to be a full blown Obsidian project.

[Tale]

The Black Hound is too far off from D&D rules to be approved by WotC.

 

It'd be interesting if he got some extra help, though. Community, coworkers, whoever. If he had time to organize such a thing.

Edited November 20, 2007 by Tale

[Morgoth]

So, why not folding the essence of TBH into a new IP? Obsidian still can make a hardcore PC RPG without the D&D license tacked on it.

[Xard]

That would be much more pleasant option for me instead of some CIA RPG, pfft

[Tale]

So, why not folding the essence of TBH into a new IP? Obsidian still can make a hardcore PC RPG without the D&D license tacked on it.

Who's going to fund it?

[Morgoth]

So, why not folding the essence of TBH into a new IP? Obsidian still can make a hardcore PC RPG without the D&D license tacked on it.

Who's going to fund it?

Uncle Ferg!

[J.E. Sawyer]

This sounds very interesting, particularly the weaponry. The AC/Damage reduction stuff, I'm not too sure of. Anyway, I was under the impression that it is not possible to add weapon focus/spec and the other weapon feats to custom weapons, inherited from NWN1. Am I misinformed yet again, particularly on this issue?

It's easy if you hijack other weapons.

[Sand]

Well, the way I would do it is use the Unearthed Arcana Weapon group proficiency mixed with Arcana Evolved's handling of Exotic Weapons.

 

If you want to learn how to use and focus on the Katana you would have...

 

Weapon Group Proficiency (Blades)

Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Agile)

Weapon Group Focus (Blades)

Weapon Group Specialization (Blades)

 

Or something similar to that effect.

[Musopticon?]

Is a katana really that much different from, say, a longsword? Sure, to attain mastery is a very different thing, but I doubt someone who's trained in longswords has much of a difficulty slashing and chopping even if the blade is differently cut and without a cross-handguard.

[Sand]

Given that a katana has a slightly curving blade and is sharp only on one side it requires a greater finesse to use than the average long sword. At least to use it in one hand.

[Tale]

Is a katana really that much different from, say, a longsword? Sure, to attain mastery is a very different thing, but I doubt someone who's trained in longswords has much of a difficulty slashing and chopping even if the blade is differently cut and without a cross-handguard.

 

You do NOT handle a double edged blade the same as a single edged.

 

Further, European longswords are longer and heavier than your typical katana by a measure of 1/3 extra and have much more interest in striking and stabbing than the katana, which focuses more on slashing and chopping.

Edited November 20, 2007 by Tale

[Musopticon?]

It's still a long blade that is used to cut and chop off limbs for instance. I know the differences, believe me.

 

My point was that I don't think you would need a smathering of special training to be proficient with a katana if you are already proficient with a fundamentally similar melee weapon.

[Tale]

And my point is that something as simple as whether one is single or double edged changes fundamentally how they are handled. As well as the greater strength to swing a longsword, due to both its greater weight and it's typically duller edge.

Edited November 20, 2007 by Tale

[Poirot]

Further, European longswords are longer and heavier than your typical katana by a measure of 1/3 extra --

 

And my point is that something as simple as whether one is single or double edged changes fundamentally how they are handled. As well as the greater strength to swing a longsword, due to both its greater weight and it's typically duller edge.

 

Not to nitpick, but...

 

Contrary to popular misconception, the European-style two-handed longsword is on average no heavier than the katana, and requires no less finesse to handle effectively. Both generally weigh between 2 and 4 pounds.

 

The longsword actually is usually thinner in the blade than the katana and tapers heavily in thickness towards the point, while the katana is thicker throughout the whole blade. The longsword is generally longer, though, and the weight evens out there.

 

Many actual, historical longswords are very fine on the last third of the blade, towards the point - often the last third of the blade is a third of thickness of the blade at the crossguard. Modern and Victorian reproductions often miss this subtle detail, though, which I suppose is where the idea of the thick and clunky European sword comes from.

Edited November 23, 2007 by Poirot

[nicethugbert]

This sounds very interesting, particularly the weaponry. The AC/Damage reduction stuff, I'm not too sure of. Anyway, I was under the impression that it is not possible to add weapon focus/spec and the other weapon feats to custom weapons, inherited from NWN1. Am I misinformed yet again, particularly on this issue?

It's easy if you hijack other weapons.

 

You mean that poignard, for instance, would be just another dagger model? Or could this poignard actually be different from a dagger, 20/x3 for instance, and have it's own line in baseitems.2da? I'm not much of an NWN2 modder even though I can type baseitems.2da. I ask here because I've asked in the NWN2 forums, but, nobody is sure. Apparently no CCer has produced complete custom weapons for NWN2, only models.

[Dark_Raven]

Awesome.

[Big Bottom]

That's been there for ages.

[Humodour]

This sounds very interesting, particularly the weaponry. The AC/Damage reduction stuff, I'm not too sure of. Anyway, I was under the impression that it is not possible to add weapon focus/spec and the other weapon feats to custom weapons, inherited from NWN1. Am I misinformed yet again, particularly on this issue?

It's easy if you hijack other weapons.

 

You mean that poignard, for instance, would be just another dagger model? Or could this poignard actually be different from a dagger, 20/x3 for instance, and have it's own line in baseitems.2da? I'm not much of an NWN2 modder even though I can type baseitems.2da. I ask here because I've asked in the NWN2 forums, but, nobody is sure. Apparently no CCer has produced complete custom weapons for NWN2, only models.

 

Odd that Sawyer would hijack other weapons when he has access to all the tools used to create the game, not just mod tools?

[Magister Lajciak]

So is this being created as a NWN2 mod?

[Xard]

Yup, but it's propably on hold until Aliens game ship ( in 2009? ) as J.E is Lead Designer and Creative Lead on it, meaning his time is quite well consumed