newc0253 Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 Well... nobody played IWD for the complex dialogue with companions. wait, you mean you didn't? i'm also a little suspicious of how they plan to give your party members personalities in SoZ,. i'm assuming it involves scripts of some kind, e.g. 'perky', 'grumpy', 'devious', etc, or background, e.g. parents killed by orcs, parents killed by gnolls, parents killed by ettins, etc. dumber than a bag of hammers
Kissamies Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 IWD was a funnier game to co-op because there wasn't a chosen one plot to get in the way of roleplaying. Actually just silly in-character"talk, but I call it roleplaying. SODOFF Steam group.
Monte Carlo Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 I don't play NWN2 and MotB for the combat, exploration,the rule set or MP. I play it for the story and characters, losing companions and replacing them with something lesser then NWN henchmen is a step backwards IMO. It's OK. I don't play NWN2 or MoTB explicitly for the story or characters: you and me are the Ying and Yang of the customer fanbase. It's just turned out that this XP is more geared to people like me than folks like you, but I suspect that there will still be enough characterisation and story to keep you happy. I think it will be interesting to see how this IWD / exploration / trading hybrid will work, for me it more than makes up for 'memorable' NPCs. I loved BG1 NPCs. I loved JA2 NPCs. Both had very limited dialogue and sometimes less is more. Cheers MC
Jeff Husges Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 i'm also a little suspicious of how they plan to give your party members personalities in SoZ,. i'm assuming it involves scripts of some kind, e.g. 'perky', 'grumpy', 'devious', etc, or background, e.g. parents killed by orcs, parents killed by gnolls, parents killed by ettins, etc. There is no such plan for player-created characters.
The.Donut Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 Will there be any additions to what we can do with the toolset?
Xard Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 (edited) yeah like, could we create **** monsters like in Spore? That would be supercool edit: heh, just kidding, that was valid question At least modders get all the new enviromental stuff Edited July 30, 2008 by Xard How can it be a no ob build. It has PROVEN effective. I dare you to show your builds and I will tear you apart in an arugment about how these builds will won them. - OverPowered Godzilla (OPG)
themadhatter114 Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 They don't need to create personalities for your characters, because you can use any one of them to interject in conversation. Conversations always have the nice/neutral/jerk options, plus all the skill-based stuff. It's more fun to role-play if one of the characters occasionally does get angry about something and gives a jerk response or tries to intimidate someone even if your favorite paladin liked to always play nice. So, essentially, you craft the personality of each character by having them interject in conversation whenever you want. I personally think it will be fun to have a paladin who is always nice to people and a rogue that frequently butts in ahead of the paladin to be snarky, and a ranger that doesn't care one way or the other, and a bard who simply charms everyone with his charming performances. It would be particularly nice if they handed out alignment points specifically to the speaker allowing you to further divide your characters in terms of alignment.
themadhatter114 Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 They don't need to create personalities for your characters, because you can use any one of them to interject in conversation. Conversations always have the nice/neutral/jerk options, plus all the skill-based stuff. It's more fun to role-play if one of the characters occasionally does get angry about something and gives a jerk response or tries to intimidate someone even if your favorite paladin liked to always play nice. So, essentially, you craft the personality of each character by having them interject in conversation whenever you want. I personally think it will be fun to have a paladin who is always nice to people and a rogue that frequently butts in ahead of the paladin to be snarky, and a ranger that doesn't care one way or the other, and a bard who simply charms everyone with his charming performances. It would be particularly nice if they handed out alignment points specifically to the speaker allowing you to further divide your characters in terms of alignment.
newc0253 Posted July 31, 2008 Posted July 31, 2008 They don't need to create personalities for your characters, because you can use any one of them to interject in conversation. Conversations always have the nice/neutral/jerk options, plus all the skill-based stuff. It's more fun to role-play if one of the characters occasionally does get angry about something and gives a jerk response or tries to intimidate someone even if your favorite paladin liked to always play nice. great except how do they manage the complexity of keeping track of the different responses given by different characters? the mayor of the town asks your party to retrieve the jade monkey stolen by the orc chieftain: the paladin wants to take the quest for the good of the town, the cleric has doubts, the wizard only cares about investigating the local ruins, and the rogue wants to take the quest, but only so he can sell the amulet at the next city? does the mayor remember that the paladin was keen, the cleric diffident, the wizard rude and the rogue a liar? could one of the characters do a Yoshimo and betray the others? would it be possible for the different characters to end up in different factions? enemies even? obviously no CRPG could handle that kind of complexity, and it's doubtful that a single player could sensibly roleplay all four characters effectively at once (i've seen PnP sessions with people running two or three characters at once but nobody pretends those sessions were all about the roleplaying...) but if all it means is that you'll be able to swap out different characters for different conversations, so that your dwarven cleric takes the lead when dealing with the dwarves, but your elven druid takes the lead with the elves, etc, then how would that be different from, say, IWD2? don't get me wrong: i like the idea of moving away from the IWD1 approach of a party of 6 player-created characters but with no opportunity to express their differences. i'm just questioning how far it would or even could work in practice. dumber than a bag of hammers
jaguars4ever Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 (edited) Cohorts, huh? I'm not sure I like the sound of that. So do these dudes & dudettes operate like henchies or party poopers? 'Cause even though every one likes the "SURPIRSE at my oppressive stupidity and momentary genius" factor of henchmen (FO, NWN), their tendency to become a liability gets old. Real fast. Party members on the other hand (ala BG, KotOR) can have scripts (!!) - albeit barely competant ones - or can be taken over by the player, and are on the whole much cooler, less annoying NPCs to be around with in general (unless they're female elven druids - what the hell is up with these b****es? Seriously, it's like they're in a permanent state of PMS...). Edited August 1, 2008 by jaguars4ever
Starwars Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 jaguars4ever, I think Cohorts is basically just a new name to indicate how they fit into the story (they don't seem to be vital to the story, instead feeling more like mercenaries for hire sort of). Combatwise, I assume it will work like it's worked before in NWN2, meaning you can let the AI take care of your partymembers or have the Puppet mode where you control every action yourself. I have no idea why they came up with a new name for them though, the mysteries of the gaming industry I guess. Listen to my home-made recordings (some original songs, some not): http://www.youtube.c...low=grid&view=0
Lare Kikkeli Posted August 1, 2008 Posted August 1, 2008 jaguars4ever, I think Cohorts is basically just a new name to indicate how they fit into the story (they don't seem to be vital to the story, instead feeling more like mercenaries for hire sort of). Combatwise, I assume it will work like it's worked before in NWN2, meaning you can let the AI take care of your partymembers or have the Puppet mode where you control every action yourself. I have no idea why they came up with a new name for them though, the mysteries of the gaming industry I guess. As far as I know you have the 4 party members you create yourself, and cohorts are like henchmen in NWN1, in that you can't control them directly. Muscle for hire basically.
Magister Lajciak Posted August 3, 2008 Posted August 3, 2008 jaguars4ever, I think Cohorts is basically just a new name to indicate how they fit into the story (they don't seem to be vital to the story, instead feeling more like mercenaries for hire sort of). Combatwise, I assume it will work like it's worked before in NWN2, meaning you can let the AI take care of your partymembers or have the Puppet mode where you control every action yourself. I have no idea why they came up with a new name for them though, the mysteries of the gaming industry I guess. As far as I know you have the 4 party members you create yourself, and cohorts are like henchmen in NWN1, in that you can't control them directly. Muscle for hire basically. I have not heard anything about the specifics of the cohort system implementation, but that is how I too imagine it would work.
Atreides Posted August 9, 2008 Posted August 9, 2008 I hope we'll have dialogue like this People who persist in a money-losing occupation are free to do so Spreading beauty with my katana.
Zoma Posted August 10, 2008 Posted August 10, 2008 Live OCHESTRA soundtrack for Storm of Zehir according to the blog! About time!
Llyranor Posted August 10, 2008 Posted August 10, 2008 Awesome! (Approved by Fio, so feel free to use it)
Volourn Posted August 10, 2008 Posted August 10, 2008 "Party members on the other hand (ala BG, KotOR) can have scripts (!!)" L0L but, no. BG series joinables are HENCHMEN. NWN OC joinables are EXPERT HIRINGS. NWN SOU/HOTU joinables are a mix of HENCHMEN and PARTY MEMBERS. Don't let BIO, and OBSIDIAN trick you with their delusional changing of actual D&D terminology. DWARVES IN PROJECT ETERNITY = VOLOURN HAS PLEDGED $250.
Xard Posted August 10, 2008 Posted August 10, 2008 Live OCHESTRA soundtrack for Storm of Zehir according to the blog! About time! meh, boring How can it be a no ob build. It has PROVEN effective. I dare you to show your builds and I will tear you apart in an arugment about how these builds will won them. - OverPowered Godzilla (OPG)
Rob McGinnis Posted August 10, 2008 Posted August 10, 2008 We implemented a hundred or so spell fixes, done by RPGPlayer1, into 1.12, I believe. As for TonyK's AI....
Xard Posted August 10, 2008 Posted August 10, 2008 Live OCHESTRA soundtrack for Storm of Zehir according to the blog! About time! meh, boring What I ment with this I don't see anything cool with the goddamn heroic bravado and sad violin arrangements that are so prevalent in film and game world. They're so calculated and predictable it is depressing. (I'M LOOKING AT YOU JEREMY SOULE!) If EPIC GRAWWR is wanted I'd go and license Verdi's Dies Irae or something. 100xbetter than thousands of its movie world imitators with stupid chants etc. More MotB and PS:T approach, maybe something Morriconesque. K2 soundtrack was also great, Jedi Enclave theme was first time in a long while when brass hornz + violin actually sounded very heartfelt and deeply sad. We implemented a hundred or so spell fixes, done by RPGPlayer1, into 1.12, I believe. As for TonyK's AI.... You must include TonyK's AI How can it be a no ob build. It has PROVEN effective. I dare you to show your builds and I will tear you apart in an arugment about how these builds will won them. - OverPowered Godzilla (OPG)
Jaesun Posted August 11, 2008 Posted August 11, 2008 As for TonyK's AI.... Please please please please for the love of all that is holy... PLEASE add Tony K's AI to the Official NWN2 NPC behavior. Some of my Youtube Classic Roland MT-32 Video Game Music videos | My Music | My Photography
Zoma Posted August 11, 2008 Posted August 11, 2008 Live OCHESTRA soundtrack for Storm of Zehir according to the blog! About time! meh, boring What I ment with this I don't see anything cool with the goddamn heroic bravado and sad violin arrangements that are so prevalent in film and game world. They're so calculated and predictable it is depressing. (I'M LOOKING AT YOU JEREMY SOULE!) If EPIC GRAWWR is wanted I'd go and license Verdi's Dies Irae or something. 100xbetter than thousands of its movie world imitators with stupid chants etc. More MotB and PS:T approach, maybe something Morriconesque. K2 soundtrack was also great, Jedi Enclave theme was first time in a long while when brass hornz + violin actually sounded very heartfelt and deeply sad. We implemented a hundred or so spell fixes, done by RPGPlayer1, into 1.12, I believe. As for TonyK's AI.... You must include TonyK's AI It doesn't have to be Jeremy's style you know. I'm personally curious of what Alexander could do with an ochestra since I'm not aware of his any previous works involving with one at all. In addition, do remember that SoZ is returning back to old adventuring roots. Thus we are certainly heading back to the days in comparison to BG's soundtrack in similarity at least. So as much as it sounds cliche, I don't think music style like 'Morriconesque' would fit a typical story for a typical adventuring party for a typical setting. It has to be a cliche, a well done and executed cliche and an ochestra would help much in bringing back the good old adventuring vibes.
Jaesun Posted August 11, 2008 Posted August 11, 2008 Live OCHESTRA soundtrack for Storm of Zehir according to the blog! About time! While I think the music in MotB was excellent (More Ambient, and Dark <3), It would be cool to hear some more Orchestral stuff to add to the NWN2 music. Personally, I am curious if the new Music Guy at Obsidian (Who did the excellent MotB Music?), what he would do from a more Orchestral point. I don't know if he is, but if so, I am most interested. Some of my Youtube Classic Roland MT-32 Video Game Music videos | My Music | My Photography
Zoma Posted August 11, 2008 Posted August 11, 2008 The new guy's Alexander Brandon. His role in Obsidian is Audio director. Apparently he is also tasked in overseeing the VA in MotB as well. Alexander Brandon is quite well-known for his Unreal Tournament and Deus Ex soundtracks apparently.
Rostere Posted August 11, 2008 Posted August 11, 2008 Live OCHESTRA soundtrack for Storm of Zehir according to the blog! About time! Sounds neat "Well, overkill is my middle name. And my last name. And all of my other names as well!"
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