Of Reviewers and NWN...

[Deathy]

This is the comments thread for <A HREF="http://www.tycooncodex.com/gamedetails.php?id=21">Sims: Livin Large</A>

One of the many expansions to The Sims. This one adds new careers such as paranormal, hacker, and so on. It also adds new NPCs, new themed furniture, and user made content.

 

[Xerophyte]

NWN, expanded into the realms of situal discussion!

This is the comments thread for <A HREF="http://www.tycooncodex.com/gamedetails.php?id=22">Sims: House Party</A>

An expansion pack to The Sims that adds group activities, more NPCs, new dance steps, and other interactions for your virtual people to do. It also adds new furniture and a few other frilly things.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I replied with the basics here..

http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic ... 120#788827

Most of the fan boyish arguments are basically, "It's got editors! Woohoo!" or "You're a moron!" Really, they have little or nothing to support the argument of Pimpek that NWN is just plain faulty.

 

[Ibbz]

whoah, you posted on the Bioware forums SP?!?!
And i should really check these forums more often.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

You mean to say that BioWare released a game, then made it so that the users will finish it off for free? Damn that's a great idea. I wish BIS would release some "Fallout 3" editors, then we can get to work

Reading most of those modding replies, it's interesting. The scripting language is mostly C. Meaning dip shits can't handle it. I wonder how many real C people there'll be who are interested enough to make mods, instead of working on their own projects. Going from what I've seen with Arcanum modding, most people can't even handle a simple "insert action/condition" script editor and a bunch of text files!

 

[Jarinor]

C isn't exactly the hardest language to learn, but becoming adept at it does take time. I can understand C and all that sort of stuff, I just have a few problems writing it .

Also, yay for me and my first post here!

 

[Sheriff_Fatman]

Reading most of those modding replies, it's interesting. The scripting language is mostly C. Meaning dip shits can't handle it. I wonder how many real C people there'll be who are interested enough to make mods, instead of working on their own projects. Going from what I've seen with Arcanum modding, most people can't even handle a simple "insert action/condition" script editor and a bunch of text files!

Well, I don't know about real C programmers, but there are several people producing mods who are sufficiently capable to script game events and apparently care enough about RPG to do so. ShadeRaven and Stefan Gagne are two of the best examples.

NWN so far seems offer something not before available; it offers a decent toolset for mod making. Yes, it requires skill and commitment, but then I doubt anyone will ever create a set of tools that can turn a fuckwit into a quality games developer.

So far, the main drawback seems to be the difficulty circumventing the AD&D game system. Obviously, the thought of all CRPG's henceforth being AD&D is ... less than appealing. At least one guy seems to have had a bit of success on this. Altaris' Lone Wolf Mod is a pretty good port of the old solo adventure books by Joe Dever. Okay, he's worked within the AD&D system and his ruleset is pretty simplistic, but the overall effect has a distinctly different feel.

I'd like to contribute more to this thread, but the reference links I have followed - Deathy's and Saint_Proverbius's - have taken me to index pages from which I have been unable to identify the linked material.

Oh, and hello everyone. It's good to see the codex becoming a reality.

 

[Ibbz]

nwvault.ign.com Has alot of information on various modules, scripting etc

Theres also an AI competition being run, where people create AI's for NPC and watch them battle it out. It will be Interesting to see what people come up with.

 

[Deathy]

Interesting. I've never had much faith in these AI scripting competitions. Good AI, in my opinion, is one that acts in a realistic manner, not one that can win.
Anyone play Empire Earth? There was an example of AI that could quite easily beat your ass, and one that had troops and walls appear from out of nowhere, which could also see everything you are doing at any given time.
I'd really like to know who made that AI, so I could hunt them down and amputate their hands. People like that shouldn't be able to code.

 

[Sheriff_Fatman]

That kind of unfair access to information isn't what I would call artificial intelligence. It has been a problem elsewhere, though. I think there was a similar thing with Civ3, where the computer players knew where resources would appear before they should have done.

 

[wizard]

yep, in Civ3 AI knows resource locations which is bad!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Wizard,

Civ3's AI is one reason I didn't like it. It not only knows the resource locations, but it knows the whole map. They have an automatic AI for exploring the map in the game for the player, IIRC, so why not let the AI opponents use that and then have it so they can only see what their explorer units have uncovered?

 

[wizard]

well, you could be interesting adding to Civ3.
Personally, I just love Civ3!

 

[Vikjunk]

Excellent. I thought that might be you from the Spiderweb forum. We basically just openned the site and are still working on it, so don't let the mess scare you.

I don't think it will be the mess that will scare him off, it would more likely be the company that is in here... :twisted:

 

[wizard]

Even the company that is here can't scare me!

 

[Anonymous]

Even the company that is here can't scare me!

That's because we're not trying... Yet :twisted:

 

[Anonymous]

Even the company that is here can't scare me!

Then get into a debate with Saint about RT being better then TB and get ready for a shitstrom. Or Fallout should be made into a MMORPG will do nicely as well...

 

[Rosh]

It seems obvious to me that NWN isn't half of what the press have hyped it up to be.

'Buildware' games are often crap, or fall into obscurity in a comparatively short amount of time. It's an interesting cycle, really. There's a lot of crap games created with these buildware games, and some well-crafted ones. The crap ones die off fast, but the good ones then get all the idiots and they in turn are brought down.

Chances are, in the next year, not many will care that much about NWN. Just like DarkStone and a few others.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I still can't believe NWN took five years to make. About the only thing you can really say about NWN is that the character system was well implimented even though the game didn't make much use of it, and the fighting animations are nice. Of course, I'll admit I haven't played much of the game online, and certainly not under a DM, but the single player module is pure shit.

I still like the fact it saves the entire module with the changes your character as made by playing as a save game file. There's nothing like having 20MB save games. You can't alter the terrain geometry, so why the hell does it save it.. EVERY TIME?

Honestly, NWN feels very, very half assed.

 

[Deathy]

Playing through the NWN campaign, as well as it being hideous, also left me with 1.6GB of savegames.

 

[wizard]

Even the company that is here can't scare me!

Then get into a debate with Saint about RT being better then TB and get ready for a shitstrom. Or Fallout should be made into a MMORPG will do nicely as well...

TB is better than RT so cant debate on there.. and cant say about the other, havent played Fallout!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

You should try Fallout, it's a damned good game. I half way suspect that Fallout was the inspiration for Geneforge, at least in a few areas.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

Civ 3: That Saint, as well as the implementation of the navy. The last time I looked, it did not take a decade for troops to land on Normandy
NWN: Yeah, most of you will remember my "Why does everybody hate NWN/ All BioWare games". I, at least in terms of NWN, have gone through a bit of a conversion. Though, for the record, I still liked the game.

 

[Rosh]

The thing that gets me is that it took 5 years. For WHAT? The ability for the GM to do what most MUD Imms could do, but just graphically? In that case, slap a graphical interface onto a CircleMUD back-end and fly with it.

The save games are another sore point with people, since they go even larger than Deus Ex's. They save the terrain geometry but not the quest information? What kind of morons do they have working at BioWare? For a CRPG and worth in its game mechanics, you'd have it the reverse, for obvious reasons.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

I really wanted to like NWN more but i could not.

I simply hate the single player modules and the lame add ons that fans produced for it.

I am starting to think that we will only have good modules when ppl that make that fan content are rewarded financially.

:twisted:


Well that were my 2 cents on the matter.