Update #22: Q&A with Tim, Cooking?, and Avellone Trolls You!

[Virodhi]

I realise this is partial heresy, but I'd love to see a bastard child of the Elder Scrolls in-game books, and the DA:O codex (that was sadly watered down for DAII). Snippets of lore and storytelling that you pick up as you explore the world, and can read at your leisure. I loved seeing the "codex updated" alert in DA:O and flipping through it to find the newest entry. Collecting the entries of Stalaga Negat enhanced the atmosphere of the Dead Trenches immensely. I'd love to see what a codex could bring to an already text-heavy game like PE.

[Ieo]

I hated the DA:O codex with such a burning passion. Half the time stuff would pop up in there during combat or something and then the worst part was a UI with a bunch of nondescript icons for "new" data, so bugger if you had unread items before that and had to actually fish for it. If there's an in-game lore library tied to the journal, it should be far more usable with organization visuals.

 

Besides, with the almanac, it's basically moot--the BG style was to have lore scattered in books around the lands, and it wasn't saved anywhere specific but your brain. I'd rather have that...

 

And the DA:O codex was what people used to say it had more word count than PS:T, the true heresy. PS:T's word count was in dialogue, which is far more important content, not hidden in some lore study.

[C2B]

Updated my journal

[Virodhi]

Pff. Getting blindsided by your UI at a critical moment is a rite of passage. ...or something.

 

What can I say? I'm a world building nerd. The more indications there are that life goes on and civilization exists even when it's not interacting with my character, the happier I am.

[Ieo]

Pff. Getting blindsided by your UI at a critical moment is a rite of passage. ...or something.

 

What can I say? I'm a world building nerd. The more indications there are that life goes on and civilization exists even when it's not interacting with my character, the happier I am.

 

Nah, lore is great. In-game lore is great. But I much prefer it to be kept in-game, not metagamed into a standoffish UI heavy on the "this is a computer game interface" factor like the DA:O codex. It could've been made far more visually pleasing, more like an old-school notebook with index and attached to the journal or something. PE fans much prefer the old school, old/worn stone kinda solid UI design than something slick and modern for this setting. Barring a truly good, usable in-game lore journal kind of thing, I'd rather leave the tidbits scattered in item descriptions and books a la BG. All or nothing...

 

Besides, almanac.

[dlux]

The best part of this update is Tim "teh AWESOMENESS" Cain's RPG Eats Cookbook. hehe

[Sugarjaye]

Is it just me the images aren't working for......

[Virodhi]

PE fans much prefer the old school, old/worn stone kinda solid UI design than something slick and modern for this setting. Barring a truly good, usable in-game lore journal kind of thing, I'd rather leave the tidbits scattered in item descriptions and books a la BG. All or nothing...

 

I've been playing IE games since day one (dating oneself ftw), and I gotta say, I think there's room for improvement in the interface. It's absolutely the style that should be used for PE, agreed, but where we left off in IWD2 it's still not...hrm...ergonomic? I can't quite put my finger on it.

 

I gotta say, though that your in-game journal thing was what I was getting at from the start. If they could put something like that in, and have it get updated as my character collects letters/makes charcoal rubbings/etc, I would be thrilled.

 

Besides, almanac.

 

Well, yes. And I am looking forward to it like you cannot imagine. But the saving grace there is that it'll be a pdf. Otherwise, you'd end up with something that, while still seventeen kinds of awesome, would have been finalised and printed before the final rewrites went into the game. See also: your average strategy guide.

[Ieo]

PE fans much prefer the old school, old/worn stone kinda solid UI design than something slick and modern for this setting. Barring a truly good, usable in-game lore journal kind of thing, I'd rather leave the tidbits scattered in item descriptions and books a la BG. All or nothing...

 

I've been playing IE games since day one (dating oneself ftw), and I gotta say, I think there's room for improvement in the interface. It's absolutely the style that should be used for PE, agreed, but where we left off in IWD2 it's still not...hrm...ergonomic? I can't quite put my finger on it.

 

I gotta say, though that your in-game journal thing was what I was getting at from the start. If they could put something like that in, and have it get updated as my character collects letters/makes charcoal rubbings/etc, I would be thrilled.

 

Oh, there's definitely room for improvement--for one, that base screen resolutions are much higher should help with that too. I just started a new game of IWD2 but have decided to shelve it for both work and school, but the UI, hm... I don't like it compared to BG, even despite the fact that people get attached to what they got used to first. I haven't played BG in a long time, so I don't think it's muscle memory getting in the way--the IWD2 interface doesn't seem very smooth, a bit cluttered and stuffed at the bottom of the screen. I rather liked the 3-bar wraparound UI of BG because different elements could be disabled.

 

For an in-game chronicle of discovered lore attached to the journal, I'm in favor of something that matches the style of the setting... The problem besides UI in the DA:O codex was that you had no option to simply read in-game information before storing it in the codex for later study--the UI pop was automatic. A combination of access in BG (e.g. reading a book in someone's library) with an in-game option to record the information (maybe a little quill icon) into the notes section of your stylish journal would be better, I think...

 

Besides, almanac.

 

Well, yes. And I am looking forward to it like you cannot imagine. But the saving grace there is that it'll be a pdf. Otherwise, you'd end up with something that, while still seventeen kinds of awesome, would have been finalised and printed before the final rewrites went into the game. See also: your average strategy guide.

 

I haven't used a strategy guide, so I don't know--I had to read this twice before understanding it. Alright, fair point.

[Ausir]

Well, all that information will eventually be in the wiki as well.

[dlux]

Is it just me the images aren't working for......

The images showed up before.... I dunno what happened.

[rjshae]

I've been playing IE games since day one (dating oneself ftw), and I gotta say, I think there's room for improvement in the interface. It's absolutely the style that should be used for PE, agreed, but where we left off in IWD2 it's still not...hrm...ergonomic? I can't quite put my finger on it.

 

Oh, there's definitely room for improvement--for one, that base screen resolutions are much higher should help with that too. I just started a new game of IWD2 but have decided to shelve it for both work and school, but the UI, hm... I don't like it compared to BG, even despite the fact that people get attached to what they got used to first. I haven't played BG in a long time, so I don't think it's muscle memory getting in the way--the IWD2 interface doesn't seem very smooth, a bit cluttered and stuffed at the bottom of the screen. I rather liked the 3-bar wraparound UI of BG because different elements could be disabled.

 

Yeah, darn those decade old interfaces that were written for much slower machines with smaller displays. Why aren't they as good as the modern games?

[Ieo]

I've been playing IE games since day one (dating oneself ftw), and I gotta say, I think there's room for improvement in the interface. It's absolutely the style that should be used for PE, agreed, but where we left off in IWD2 it's still not...hrm...ergonomic? I can't quite put my finger on it.

 

Oh, there's definitely room for improvement--for one, that base screen resolutions are much higher should help with that too. I just started a new game of IWD2 but have decided to shelve it for both work and school, but the UI, hm... I don't like it compared to BG, even despite the fact that people get attached to what they got used to first. I haven't played BG in a long time, so I don't think it's muscle memory getting in the way--the IWD2 interface doesn't seem very smooth, a bit cluttered and stuffed at the bottom of the screen. I rather liked the 3-bar wraparound UI of BG because different elements could be disabled.

 

Yeah, darn those decade old interfaces that were written for much slower machines with smaller displays. Why aren't they as good as the modern games?

 

Processing power has very little if nothing to do with usability design.

[rjshae]

Processing power has very little if nothing to do with usability design.

 

Remember, for their time period, the IE games were a huge step up from the old Gold Box games. Concepts in usability design also evolve.

[Ieo]

Processing power has very little if nothing to do with usability design.

 

Remember, for their time period, the IE games were a huge step up from the old Gold Box games. Concepts in usability design also evolve.

 

I missed your "smaller displays" up there. I'm not even sure if software usability was standardized yet in csci/hud/design/techcomm/etc. back then... Usability evolves with the technology in terms of the interface displays, true, but are generally independent of underlying hardware power.

 

I think the only thing PE has to worry about going forward is increased screen resolution and sizes (besides compatibility with Windows 17); however, I also believe there must be a cap somewhere. You could have a 50" LCD in the future, but that would probably cause a lot of neck strain and stuff would be illegible in the corners. I just don't see it happening.

[rjshae]

I think the only thing PE has to worry about going forward is increased screen resolution and sizes (besides compatibility with Windows 17); however, I also believe there must be a cap somewhere. You could have a 50" LCD in the future, but that would probably cause a lot of neck strain and stuff would be illegible in the corners. I just don't see it happening.

 

50" 3D LCD? Hmm, maybe that's when the modders will finally add the horse mounts patch?

[Krios]

First off is congrats to Rjshae for having his question picked to be answered, second is I wonder who is getting this new troll portrait?

[ion.sh]

I'm strangely happy about moving background. Is that weird?

[Shaewaros]

I'm so excited that the graphics in this game are going to be an awesome painted 2D with animations - it is going to look magnificent. I think that the low-intelligence chracter dialogue would have been an excellent stretch goal in kickstarter, but I'm glad that it's going to be included in the game nonetheless.

[Gecimen]

Is it just me the images aren't working for......

The images showed up before.... I dunno what happened.

 

not working for me either. maybe it's a us/eu thing?

[Watchcrow]

I know it's a lot of work to add more unique dialogue but I kind of hope that there are plenty of high intelligence options too. If my wizard is really smart then I'd like it to show in what he says to others. It would also be nice to have the other stats come into play sometimes. Still, it's nice to know I can make a low intelligence character afterwards and get some fun new conversations.

[Krios]

I'm strangely happy about moving background. Is that weird?

 

Saves us from using mods to have realistic weather and water

[Piccolo]

I know it's a lot of work to add more unique dialogue but I kind of hope that there are plenty of high intelligence options too. If my wizard is really smart then I'd like it to show in what he says to others. It would also be nice to have the other stats come into play sometimes. Still, it's nice to know I can make a low intelligence character afterwards and get some fun new conversations.

I would imagine lot of the standard dialogue options will be fairly intelligent sounding anyway, so there's probably not much need for them to go to the trouble to make special options, as is the case with low intelligence. Unless of course you wish to roleplay a pretentious character who deliberately uses as many big words as possible in a sentence to seem intelligent.

[rjshae]

First off is congrats to Rjshae for having his question picked to be answered, second is I wonder who is getting this new troll portrait?

 

Umm, thanks. I wish I'd checked my grammar a little more carefully.

[Ieo]

I know it's a lot of work to add more unique dialogue but I kind of hope that there are plenty of high intelligence options too. If my wizard is really smart then I'd like it to show in what he says to others. It would also be nice to have the other stats come into play sometimes. Still, it's nice to know I can make a low intelligence character afterwards and get some fun new conversations.

I would imagine lot of the standard dialogue options will be fairly intelligent sounding anyway, so there's probably not much need for them to go to the trouble to make special options, as is the case with low intelligence. Unless of course you wish to roleplay a pretentious character who deliberately uses as many big words as possible in a sentence to seem intelligent.

 

PS:T really shined in this. Low-med-high INT/CHA (I think WIS was xp, not sure) had varying degrees of dialogic content. The difference was not necessarily wording, which is what Obs seems to be going with the low INT option in PE, but rather the actual number of dialogue options shown. However, PS:T's implementation did run into that "these stats are always best for a full run no matter what class" problem, so keeping the dialogic content available by default would be fairest. (Alas )