76

(3 replies, posted in Sava's Garden)

[big][death]Poll closed.[/death][/big]

[death]Final results:[/death]

#1 - 58% (10) - seedthecommunity.org
#2 - 17% (3) - ScatteredSeeds.[whatever is available]
#3 - 11% (2)- savetheroleplay.org
#4 (shared) 5% (1) - roleplayonline.org
#4 (shared) 5% (1) - SeedsofRP.org or Seeds-of-RP.org

Not voted for:
0% (0) - SeedRPCommunity.org
0% (0) - Seedroleplayers.org
0% (0) - theseedring.org
0% (0) - seedthering.org
0% (0) - roleplayseeds.org



seedthecommunity.org is to be the new URL for our server.
I believe skanx is in charge of registering it.

Further discussion is referred to the original thread at: http://imperial-guard.dk/seed/viewtopic.php?id=59

77

(9 replies, posted in Floatbed Dreams)

Kryigerof wrote:

The best stories are those that are very carefully constucted and thought out, word by word, scene by scene. Changing something in a good story will likely make it worse. That's the challenge of interactive storytelling: how to give choices to the player/viewer so that whatever he or she chooses the end result will be a good story. To get a powerful Aristotelian story arc into a game you must always limit the freedom of the player in some way.

This is where I disagree, though I may not have made myself clear. I don't think a classic novel approach works in a game-world - at all. For that kind of narrative, the set format of a novel or a movie is optimal and would make an inferior game by default. (This also applies to PnP scenarios.) Also, the mechanics-only approach of most coding departments ignores the story-telling part of the play. The problem isn't in the talent of the creators, but in that they're biased towards a mode of expression that isn't very practical in creating a really good game.

Let me pull up an analogue that I've talked about before: game soundtracks. Game soundtracks are nearly always made as if they were records to be played, area by area, scene by scene. This is great if you want a soundtrack you can listen to like a CD, but it's a very handicapped and narrow-minded approach to a game. A good approach would be to make a dynamic system with several layers, where different parts of a soundscape come in depending on where you are and what you are doing. Of course, this requires a completely different mindset for the composer, and a deeper involvement with the game itself - which is exactly my point.

With every new medium of expression and communication, the first steps are always rather cautious and reactionary, because noone is really used to what you can actually make of it. This is to be expected - but computer games have been around for a long while now, and various games have shown that is entirely possible to do more than just put a few bits together, if you'll excuse the simplification.

It's not about the technical issues and it's not about the capacities of the game designers - it's about the attitude.

78

(6 replies, posted in Neverwinter Nights 2)

Since the question was raised, here's a poll about which game we should use.

The advantages of each game are as such (as far as I can see, and they're pretty obvious):

[death]Neverwinter Nights:[/death]
• Everyone can run the game.
• Enormous amount of custom content to choose from. (To the point that it actually gets hard to sort out the best stuff.)
• Linux server.
• Bugs and quirks well worked out and documented.
• Several people in the community already have experience with the Aurora toolset.

[death]Neverwinter Nights 2:[/death]
• A lot better looking.
• Higher new player attraction value.
• More intimate and therefore RP-inspiring environments.
• According to promises (hard to verify at this point) a better scripting system and more dynamic scene creation in the toolset.
• Some new features, such as a world-map with destination choices and more NPCs in your party. (Not necessarily applicable.)
• More custom content forthcoming, though it will most likely take quite a while (as in at the very least a year) for it to reach NWN levels.

Kryigerof wrote:

As for the world: whatever we make, we should start small, like Seed was except even smaller. The NWN part of our community isn't that big so making a huge world from the start would be not only wasteful but detrimental to the experience.

Again, I absolutely agree. The focus should be on the roleplaying. Exploring could be part of that, but that's best done with some GM-ing involved. Also, a PW has all possibilities of step-wise expansion. We'll add new areas when we need them. The logical focus area would be a city or town.

Oh, and I offer to act GM in this world of ours. We need a couple of those to make things interesting and I really don't mind doing it on an irregular basis.

80

(9 replies, posted in Floatbed Dreams)

Definitely a good article... and the comments are the same as they always are - very positive. I really hope Kroll gets his wish to do another MMORPG some day. If I hear about it - and staying in touch with this gang is likely to guarantee that, it will be a given, as I'm sure it is for nearly all of us here.
Role-playing will prevail.

I disagree about the game-play versus storyline bit, though. I don't think they have to be opposed. They're made such through the bare-bone crew tendency among developers (which undoubtedly has financial basis) and the trends of the way games are made today. If you look at PnP roleplaying and at some of the CRPGs that were universally hailed as truly great, you'll find an attitude towards storytelling which is highly compatible with strong game-play. I think it's a classic case of linear thinking in the case of both writers and game developers. The writers have a story that starts and develops according to their set premises, while the game devs have a system that develops according to their pre-planned premises.
Forgotten in all this are the players, whose choices while playing apparently don't count in the eyes of most game devs today.
Both parties need to sit down, together and separately and sketch out a threaded development scheme that not only allows the players to make choices, but builds on that freedom and detail through the inspiration it creates. ("What if...") That's where the advanced bits of the story and game-play come in, and that's where a game can develop from simply another genre-game to something unique and captivating.

RGD must have understood this in some sense, or Seed wouldn't have been the game it was.

81

(24 replies, posted in Games Discussion)

Best of luck, Sandling. smile

Tantavalist: Implementing another PnP RPG's world would be an option, given. The problem with choices like Shadowrun and Fading Suns (if I don't misremember) is that they would require as much modelling as a sci-fi world would.

As for the bit about how much can actually be done in NWN2, well, there were haks that introduced spell-book based magic to NWN.. just to point out how deep you can actually change things.

Sandling: I've been kind of thinking along those lines as well, actually. I'd be willing to do so, even though I'm loving NWN2 in style and graphics. Also, of course, using NWN would give us access to immense amounts of custom content.

What do the rest of you think about this? As Oluf said, it's probably possible to run NWN2 on a slower computer with all the settings pulled down, but it's likely to be fiddly.

Kryigerof wrote:

EDIT: Whichever we choose, I'd personally like to see something down-to-earth and rather gritty, not super-epic "everyone's a great here" kind of thing. As for magic, I'd like it to be mysterious, not just another branch of technology ("Hi, did you learn that new firebolt spell already?" "No, I prefer to maximize the efficiency of my healing magics - just need to find some herbs with the correct divinity levels.").

This is undoubtedly my kind of thinking, as well. If we do take that path, I've got... rather a lot of ideas to heap into the project. Magic and mystic knowledge should be obscure and dangerous. The occult is still interesting even after you realise what it's about because of the texture and detail of it. On no account should we let it deteriorate into mundane chatter about how best to use a fireball spell.


From what I can see, we've got some harsh anti-FR stances, which kind of makes FR a bad choice, since we'll want to have as many people along as possible. Alternative History is strong. As it looks now, that's what I'd expect would make the most sense.

84

(659 replies, posted in Steambaths)

Right you are! Best damned illustrated novel series out there. 224 regular editions and counting and it's still not boring and repetitive!

Your turn again, I presume. wink

Hm. I don't think the actual world creation (intellectually speaking) would be a problem. We've got enough acute and inspired minds to work that out. The issue is with how much customisation we have to do, and for an alternate medieval setting, that's not that horribly much, for example. smile

86

(0 replies, posted in DVI-Net)

I went ahead and created a forum for Neverwinter Nights 2, seeing as the persistent world project has some support. We'll see where it goes. I'm looking forward to it!

Persistent World Setting


Obviously, before we start building our own (staggeringly wonderful) persistent world in NWN2, we need to decide on what the hell we should build. I have taken it upon myself to sum up the basic settings and I'll list them as alternatives. If you have more, just add to the list! The idea here is to first decide on what kind of setting we want, so that we can unite on that before we discuss the details of that setting. I have ideas about most of these possibilties, but I'll keep them to myself until we've chosen one.

[death]• Conventional Forgotten Realms Setting.[/death]
The name says it all, really. The whole shebang that NWN2 is really set for. Easiest to do, but, in my not-too-humble opinion, boring and cliché.

[death]• Alternate History Medieval Setting[/death]
Alternate history is always fun, and not too horribly far from fantasy if we aim at a medieval scenario. Usually, alternate history involves some sort of magic and religion. A lot can be done here without losing touch with the gritty depth of reality. This would involve some pretty serious hacking into the NWN2 system and a lot of scripting; that is, besides the creation of the world itself, intellectually speaking.

[death]• Alternate World[/death]
Essentially, a different world, inhabited by humanoids. I have several ideas that could work here, and I'm sure you do as well. There is some challenge in making a world like this feel real, but it is undoubtedly possible. Fundamentally this requires the same as the previous alternative, though probably more of it.

[death]• Realistic Medieval Setting[/death]
There's really not much to say about this one. It speaks for itself. Medieval setting with peasants, feudal system, kings and so on. This could be created with fairly simple methods, and could be very interesting, but it would take a lot of research from everyone who wants to play.

[death]• Science Fiction[/death]
Obviously, while many of the Seedlings prefer sci-fi scenarios, it will be very difficult to create one in NWN2, since it will require a completely new set of models and tilesets. If someone is good enough at modelling and willing to spend inordinate amounts of time on this project, I would happily go with this choice, but unless we have one (or preferrably more) really talented modeller, I can't see it happening.


For myself, I'd probably go with the Alternate History setting. It's something that would be easy to build around and still evocative enough for inspiration.

What do you think? What else could we do? What would work best with the possibilities and desires we have?

Well, NWN2 is out and the custom content community over at NWVault have started their engines. It's looking like we're going to see an explosion of stuff rather soon, so this post is for good content we come across, as well as ideas for things we could use.

Here's a quote from a recently dawned project of making various models available:

This is to announce the formation of a group of modellers who will be dedicating their time and effort to building a vast database of new custom models. Currently there are over 200GIG's of models to get "prepared". The team will grow and include more modeller so as to build new request content. The database will consist of a considerably larger choice of "props", than the toolset currently offers. The range of categories will encompass ALL aspects from buildings to Skyrings, From weapons to NPC's(when animations are figured out they will be ready, but can be used for statues, cave carvings etc.) The models will cover all areas from Fantasy to WW2 tanks,Ships, Aircraft(for you really "Wild" modders haha) Cateloging, and texturing and porting over to in-game testing is being done now..

Looks like good stuff.

89

(659 replies, posted in Steambaths)

http://ahnion.centralen.net/temp/whoisthis.jpg

Should be fairly easy. I want the name of the character and the illustrated novel series.

Also, for bonus points, name the series from which the main character originated, the creature whose blood he shares, what happens to most of his friends and who he gives the finger by principle each time they meet.

90

(659 replies, posted in Steambaths)

Reverend Jesse Custer, a.k.a. Preacher, and his ex-girlfriend Tulip O'Hare. Preacher was written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Steve Dillon.

91

(78 replies, posted in Steambaths)

Ahnung.

92

(24 replies, posted in Games Discussion)

Yes, NWN demands 6.5GB on it's own, and rumour has it the patch demands another 5GB... it's strange though. I heard about this from a friend, so I had a looked at the available space while the patch was running, and I never saw the space -used- over 500MB. I did have 7GB available though.

93

(24 replies, posted in Games Discussion)

Oluf wrote:

taking a semi-break (ie restarting the game becuase i changed some options) so figured i would write a bit more about what i think of it so far smile

I havent gotten very far in the game yet, i am the type of person who likes to turn over every little rock there is! The good things i have noticed so far:
1) The storyline seems decent, might be a bit easy to figure out where its heading...but it might take an unexpected turn later on!

It's likely. It seems fairly well thought-out, from what I've seen. Very different from NWN1 in that respect.

Oluf wrote:

2) lots of classes and races

Yep. The lot from NWN, plus various subraces. Drow, tiefling, aasimar, wild elves - you name it! I'm running an aasimar, myself. Always loved that race. Interesting classes as well. They seem to have gone more or less all-out D&D 3.5 except for some minor changes, this time. Quite nice.

Oluf wrote:

3) the grapichs are really good...if your comp can handle it!! (mine cant...)

Mine can... almost. I'm running it with fairly high settings, and it occasionally gets choppy, but man... it's nice!

Oluf wrote:

4) voice acting in many places! In some ways and places this reminds me of KOTOR...which is good!

I'm very picky about voice acting, and some of it is kind of wooden, at least in the beginning. Most is very good, though. That Ironfist dwarf is great!

Oluf wrote:

bad things i have noticed so far:
1) the camera is very very strange - after around 4-5 hours of gameplay i still havent gotten usede to it...

The camera works like in NWN, but the game is kind of different, so you play it differently. I use driving cam, because I like being close to the action. Have a look at the options in your settings and figure out which of the four camera types you like best.

Oluf wrote:

2) When i tried to patch the game to 1.01 the update failed...i guess this will most likely soon be resolved.

It worked for me, though the patching takes a loooong time.


All in all, I really like the atmosphere and the feel of the game. It seems a lot more adventuresome (not as in adventure game) and intimate than the first game. NWN1 had entirely too much of Dungeon Siege in it for my tastes really, though SoU and HotU were better. Mainly, the custom content was what made that game worth its mettle. NWN2 seems a lot better on its own - so far!

My own gripes are that the controls feel more clunky than in NWN and that I think the game may falter in terms of replayability. Then again, who knows?

Further reports as we delve deeper!

I don't know if there's anyone else around here who plays CoH or CoV, but since I intend to keep doing so (on an erratic basis) and since Broken and I decided to start a semi-IC (as much IC as is practical in the game, which is to say mainly just for fun) "supergroup" on Union (English EU server), I'll toss up a notice here.

The "group" is actually a bounty hunter company named Troubleshooters, Inc. The concept, obviously, is to take a step away from the do-gooder hero cliché and do something a bit different. So - if you feel like making a "hero" character that fits into the concept of a semi-Westernish bounty hunter and doing some offhand RP while playing, don't hesitate to contact me (global chat handle: Ahnion - characters in the group: Blademark and Ursine) or Broken (global chat handle: Broken Haiku - characters in the group: Old Otaktay) and we'll pull you in.

Cheers.

95

(24 replies, posted in Games Discussion)

Woo! wink
Good to hear we have a positive effect on your judgement there, Oluf.
I received my copy today and I'm installing it as we speak. I'm going to try not to get too caught up in it though. Have to keep my wordcount up. wink

Hope the game doesn't disappoint you... or me. wink

I noticed there are several new features that would work great in a persistent world; things like enhanced crafting and dynamic housing.

96

(3 replies, posted in Sava's Garden)

If someone has something to add, please do it now. I plan to close this poll tomorrow so that we can get a decision. smile

97

(78 replies, posted in Steambaths)

Defiance.

98

(4 replies, posted in Floatbed Dreams)

I didn't think to grab those images. Sorry. They didn't correspond to reality anyway. You'd do better using the maps from Luusworld if you're using them as a basis for a design.

99

(78 replies, posted in Steambaths)

Collar.

100

(78 replies, posted in Steambaths)

Oxyacetylene!