Game News SS:: Sentiels chat log

[Spazmo]

Tags: Nival Interactive; Silent Storm: Sentinels

Earlier today, <a href=http://www.strategycore.co.uk>StrategyCore</a> held a dev chat about Silent Storm and its expansion. The <a href=http://www.strategycore.co.uk/chat211004.php>log</a> of this chat is now up for your reading pleasure. And hey, looks like our pals <B>Briosafreak</b> and <b>Whipporowhil</b> were in attendance.
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<blockquote>Placid: Have you started a new project yet? I know there are quite a few people out there that wish for you to use that fine S3 engine for a Fallout or X-Com like game...
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Nival: Well, Yes, actually, at the Russian market we have announced our new title - "NightWatch". This the TBS game and is based on the S2/S3 engine. The game is set in the modern fantasy world of the popular book by Lukyanenko - extremly popular Russian author.
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But, nevertheless, we're thinking about the next game in the world of Silent Storm.</blockquote>
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Sounds interesting. At least it's 'modern' fantasy.
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And here's a snippet from the chat the guys at <a href=http://www.rpgdot.com>RPGDot</a> spotted that's not quite Silent Storm but still interesting...
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<blockquote>Arach: Will Gothic II : Night of the Raven be published in the UK, US? Additonally, anything on Gothic 3?
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JoWooD: We are working on that =)
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Gothic 3 will come at end of 2005</blockquote>
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So rejoice, ye Gothic fans who've been jerked around by Atari!

 

[Greenskin13]

I hate Pillette.

Can't go wrong with Russian literature.

 

[dunduks]

Sounds interesting. At least it's 'modern' fantasy.

This is an excelent trilogy by Sergei Lukyanenko, in short it's about people who are different from normal humans becouse they can see and enter "twilight" (it is sort of extra dimension of our world) and that allows them to channel engergy using it - cast spells, transform and so on. At one time in the past evil and good sides signed Treaty (otherwise both sides would eventually would annihilate each other), thus good and evil deeds have to be monitored so for each good deed, evil guys get rigths to perform equaly evil deed and vice versa. So basically it's about political powerplay between Night watch (good) and Day watch (evil) (agencies that enforce the treaty).
There is also a Night Watch movie.

 

[Whipporowill]

I think the Gothic 3 statement is meant for the non-translated game unfortunatly. And as for the addon - I believe it when I see it. Fuck you Atari.

Also, I sure hope Nival will make a sequel to Evil Islands...

 

[geminito]

I have been playing Gothic 2 for at least 50 hours and I have only just started Chapter 2. I have owned the game for about 4 months now. My save game says I've only been playing 27 hours, but I think I have hit F9 (reload quick save) so many times that I'm surprised my F9 key still works! I still don't quite get how melee combat is supposed to work. I must be doing it wrong.

So JoWood can take their sweet time on Gothic 3. It might take me a couple years to get through Gothic 2.

 

[Whipporowill]

Gem, find a field and try out the different combinations of movment and mouseclicking. When you reach certain level of skill you'll be able to fluently move from one attack to the next - move in time with click and hold.

 

[geminito]

What about when I'm fighting an orc??

The orcs seem to be able to hold their swords in parry position. When I hold down the parry key/button (depending on which controls I try), that nameless moron holds his sword up for half a second and then drops it, and gets an orc axe in his face for his laziness. PARRY, YOU IDIOT! PARRY!

I am at 60% ("Master") with one-handed swords. Orcs slice him to bits pretty fast. It's impressive. Can I be an orc instead? At least they know how to parry.

I suspect that I need to master the art of strafing... hitting an orc in the side of the head might be better than hitting them in their ugly faces.

Anyway, what was this topic about?

 

[Transcendent One]

Ummm... why not just hit the orc while he's in the middle of an attack? Lol.

 

[dagamer667]

Unfortunately, the english add-on probably won't sell too well with everyone who's interested in it having already played the add-on with the English text mod.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Back to the subject of Night Watch: It's refreshing to know that turn-based strategy RPGs are still in development. After TOEE, I was somewhat worried that the industry would stop making them altogether. I haven't read the book nor have I seen the movie, but the premise sounds very good. Instead of 'good wins all the time', it's more along the lines of Classical good vs evil, with both sides balancing themselves out with equal good or evil acts in retaliation to each other, with a twist.

 

[Slaughter]

Regarding NightWatch, there is some ramblings and a trailer here. Haven't studied the trailer closely yet, but it looks...interesting. There is also some more information in this thread at the Nival forum.

Personally I had the same fears as you Exitium. So few TB games the last few years had me thinking it was getting close to extinction. And then Nival comes along with a engine that others can only dream of making. It's ten steps ahead of everyone else, and they are intent on using it in the years to come. That gives me hope, even if it is faint. I don't know how much S2/S3 have sold, but I fear it's far from enough.

Anyway, I'll get back to promoting S2/S3 wherever I can, and launch another strike at Atari regarding the X-Com license

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I'm not sure why there wouldn't be more games like ToEE. ToEE made a very nice profit. Short development time and it was their third grossing PC title. I can see why Atari might not want to make another ToEE, because Atari seems to like to go for games which automatically sell millions of copies based on well-purchased hype(like Driv3r), but other publishers should be considering the game made a fairly nice profit.

 

[Slaughter]

Problem is to find the publishers that do not think like Atari I guess. JoWooD is one that gives "risky" games a chance, but they have some issues with their distribution and advertising that needs to be sorted out. The Russian publisher 1C is another that I think may be interested in taking on some "risky" games. At least they did publish S2/S3 in Russia. What others?

 

[dunduks]

The Russian publisher 1C is another that I think may be interested in taking on some "risky" games. At least they did publish S2/S3 in Russia. What others?

As weird it may sound, but in Russia TB games aren't risky, a lot of people buy them, SS2/3 were very well recieved games by critics and gamers both. The same goes for Etherlords.

 

[Slaughter]

As weird it may sound, but in Russia TB games aren't risky, a lot of people buy them, SS2/3 were very well recieved games by critics and gamers both. The same goes for Etherlords.

Well, nothing is better than that . Let's just hope this spills over to Europe and the US in the time to come. Any idea how many units they sold over there? And I guess it's still a problem that stores sell pirated copies...?

 

[Transcendent One]

People in Russia buy games? As in real official games?

 

[Whipporowill]

Since Nival has 120 employees and 4 games in Production - I'm pretty sure they do.

 

[dunduks]

People in Russia buy games? As in real official games?

Yes they do buy games especially the local ones, becouse the cost of those games is about 10-20% more then pirated (about 5$-10$) + you get all the nifty stuff and support. Now on the other hand imported games are way too overpriced - that's why there is so much piracy.
Unfortunatelly I don't have any info on numbers.

 

[Transcendent One]

Hmmm... all I can remember about games in Russia is that you had to buy CD's separately, each CD costing some, coming in its own case that would say, for example BG2 CD5, with a really slutty pic of Ellesime and a label "Fargus" saying that it's a quality non-pirated translation made by professionals.

 

[voodoo1man]

in short it's about people who are different from normal humans becouse they can see and enter "twilight" (it is sort of extra dimension of our world) and that allows them to channel engergy using it - cast spells, transform and so on.

Don't forget the vampires!

Regarding controls in Gothic II, I suggest playing Gothic (despite people's complaints, the controls in Gothic are actually easier to learn than those in Gothic II and are a big help in "getting" the latter) and using Emacs (it helps to promote computer keyboard dexterity).

 

[Volourn]

Gothic 2's controls are absolutely horrid. I just bought the game, and I want to enjoy it; but I'm this close to quitting it. Aargh..

End death rant. :twisted:

 

[Transcendent One]

No.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Why do you lie?

 

[Volourn]

In order to ignore the two trolls whoa re spamming, I'll just have to say, this game advertised in this "news" thread is unimportant. Next.

 

[Sol Invictus]

What the hell?

We're supposed to talk about Silent Storm Engine/Night Watch, as this is the Night Watch thread. Stop bickering about Gothic.