Game News ToEE eye treats at GameBanshee

[Constipated Craprunner]

Actually, I liked all the ones I saw there, dispite the Halfling.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Alrighty then, we've won another 2 supporters for cartoon-style portraits. Compliments to your refined taste and your continious patronage of fine arts, gentlemen. :D

 

[huh]

okay, I'll admit the portraits are not that bad considering that there are probably a bunch of portraits we haven't seen. if you click on the portraits on the right of the main TOEE site, it goes through different portraits. I can already see the one I'll be using for my scheming human sorceror (looks sinister and mumbles a lot) and the wild looking dwarf fighter (arrogant and annoying)

still, there is something in the style that strikes me as out of place and I wish they were different style for perfection, but maybe translation from the D&D source material had to be so literal. to my taste a far darker palette would work better.

other than the portraits, the art (especially the backgrounds and characters), and the interface look awsome to me. and, I love the wizard that actually looks like a wizard with the flowing robe and the pointy hat. what a contrast to the NWN's goofy looking wizards in clownsuits.

 

[Jed]

and, I love the wizard that actually looks like a wizard with the flowing robe and the pointy hat. what a contrast to the NWN's goofy looking wizards in clownsuits.

The only thing worse than that was the bard's clown suit...

 

[Sol Invictus]

You might not want to take the grinning halfling but there are certainly a huge amount of other portraits to choose from, all of which look very nice. In any case, since when were halflings known for their seriousness? If anything, if I ever had a halfling in my party (and that's quite unlikely) it would have to be a cheery halfling bard with a sick perversion towards young boys, and he'd look like that.

 

[Rosh]

Yeah, kender were a direct conversion to have "something like a halfling...but different" for DragonLance. A good example of a halfling ranges from a hobbit in Tolkein to the more insane and unbelievable kender-like ones. They are all, however, carefree and cheerful, sometimes to a fault.

 

[Flarnet]

If anyone is counting, I don't like the portraits. And it's NOT because they are cartoonish, it's because they are sort of crappy.

I'm rather for vague, cartoonish, sketchy portraits. Think IWD taken one step closer to a quick crayon sketch. Sort of impressionistic to let the players mind fill in the blanks with his/her vision of their party members.

 

[Elwro]

I could do without any character portraits. I don't have any in ADOM and that's just fine. And in ToEE I will of course have the models visible on screen; so my imagination would fill all the details in. I guess I would like an option to switch (on the 'character record' screen or sth) from displaying image to displaying a detailed description of the character. But this option wouldn't perhaps be too popular with other gamers, so I doubt they had even remotely considered it.

 

[Whipporowill]

Flarnet, I don't agree at all. The IWD ones are stylistically sketchy but are very limiting in that they show armor, weaponry and class in many cases. I don't mind the style though.

All of the 15 portraits have been put up at EoT, if you people are to lazy to reload or just want to see them all at once...

 

[Vault Dweller]

The IWD ones are stylistically sketchy but are very limiting in that they show armor, weaponry and class in many cases.

They let you pick a name though

 

[Spazmo]

The portraits have a purpose in ToEE, though. Those of PCs and monsters are lined up at the top of the screen in combat to indicate the order in which creatures act in a round. Using portraits for this is a much better and efficient way of indicating who won initiative than listing the names or nothing at all.

 

[Rayt]

I really like how magic missile can strike different targets. It looks pretty nifty as well.

 

[Jed]

I really like how magic missile can strike different targets. It looks pretty nifty as well.

PoR2 did this as well; a nice feature, once again something that could never be effectively or efficiently implemented in a real-time game. (I know, I know: "U just n33d ta yoose t3h pausese butt0n!!!1 It r0x0rs t3h wurld d0000d!!!!11!!")

 

[Major_Blackhart]

You know, the halfling looks like he has one of those "shit eating" grins on his face, you know, one of those

 

[Whipporowill]

I really like how magic missile can strike different targets. It looks pretty nifty as well.

PoR2 did this as well; a nice feature, once again something that could never be effectively or efficiently implemented in a real-time game. (I know, I know: "U just n33d ta yoose t3h pausese butt0n!!!1 It r0x0rs t3h wurld d0000d!!!!11!!")

Are you sure? I sure as hell can't remember that... I wouldn't have been as awed by the announcement of it being included in ToEE if I'd already seen it.

EDIT: It might've allowed for different target as choose - fire missile , choose - fire missile et c. As if the wizard (sorcerer in "POOR" 's case) was actually casting several lvl 1 magic missiles. Not the same as shooting your load in one spray...

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

PoR2 used the colors assigned to the partymembers in a little bar at the top to show the combat sequence. If they didn't want to go that route, they could have used little icons with the player/monster models in them instead of portraits as well.

 

[Jed]

Are you sure? I sure as hell can't remember that... I wouldn't have been as awed by the announcement of it being included in ToEE if I'd already seen it.

Positive. I was just playing it up until about a week or two ago.

EDIT: It might've allowed for different target as choose - fire missile , choose - fire missile et c. As if the wizard (sorcerer in "POOR" 's case) was actually casting several lvl 1 magic missiles. Not the same as shooting your load in one spray...

Not sure exactly what you mean here, but the method was choose target and fire one missle at a time, or choose a target, fire a missle, choose another target fire a missle, so on. I can't imagine it would be very strategic to have to choose all intended targets at once; I would rather try to take out one enemy for sure, and if there's missles left, soften up another nearby, rather than choose three targets and hope for the best, but that's just my own preferrence.

PoR2 used the colors assigned to the partymembers in a little bar at the top to show the combat sequence. If they didn't want to go that route, they could have used little icons with the player/monster models in them instead of portraits as well.

Which actually worked really well, but as it happens, I really like the look of ToEE's portraits, and I think they look really well done and appropriate. Just enough of a character to give the player a hook to hang their imagination on without trying to be a full body portrait in action pose with all gear shown and at the ready.

 

[Whipporowill]

Not sure exactly what you mean here, but the method was choose target and fire one missle at a time, or choose a target, fire a missle, choose another target fire a missle, so on. I can't imagine it would be very strategic to have to choose all intended targets at once; I would rather try to take out one enemy for sure, and if there's missles left, soften up another nearby, rather than choose three targets and hope for the best, but that's just my own preferrence.

I meant it exactly like you got it. And while I have no problem with it, it's a bit unrealistic... since when does a wiz have time to wait and see while the first missile hits until choosing when to hit next? For a tactical reason it would be better to do it as PoR2 - like you said. Oh, and you are aware that you can target more than one missile at a target - just to make sure they fall...

 

[Jed]

I meant it exactly like you got it. And while I have no problem with it, it's a bit unrealistic... since when does a wiz have time to wait and see while the first missile hits until choosing when to hit next?

Ah, but now you are making the "realism" argument often employed by the proponents of Real Time combat. Why wouldn't a wizard have time to wait? I would imagine it would be akin to a higher level character getting two ranged attacks in a single round; how "unrealistic" would it be to expect the character to shoot an arrow, observe the effect, and make a decision about whether to target the same enemy again or to choose another? At any rate, the PHB only says about the topic, "You must designate targets before you roll for SR or roll damage."

Either way, can't wait for this game...

Jed

 

[Elwro]

. Those [portraits] of PCs and monsters are lined up at the top of the screen in combat to indicate the order in which creatures act in a round. Using portraits for this is a much better and efficient way of indicating who won initiative than listing the names or nothing at all.

I know the purpose of lining the pictures up at the top. But if you have a big combat, and I expect that ToEE will be combat-heavy, such 'lines' could take up much space on the screen. Name list would be IMHO more suitable. Same information, less space.

 

[Spazmo]

Not really, Elwro. It's a matter of how 3rd. Edition D&D works. If the module/game is well designed (and let's forget which company we're talking about here), fights shouldn't have too many monsters. The whole game system is geared towards less enemies that are more powerful. I'd bet ToEE will have very few encounters with very many creatures. At most, I'd guess a big fight might have ten enemy creatures.

 

[Elwro]

OK, I guess you are right. I don't know much about 3rd Ed., so thanks for clearing this up. I also forgot that not all party members and enemies will be fighters with 3 attacks per round.
BTW, I seriously consider creating my first party from halflings only. A halfling barbarian talking about cooking with a mage of his kin would be just great.

 

[Spazmo]

Three attacks per round? Doubtful. You need a fairly high level for that. Since ToEE characters are (apparently) likely to top out around level 10, you'll get two attacks tops, excluding special circumstances with magic items, spells, feats or other abilities.

 

[triCritical]

Three attacks per round? Doubtful. You need a fairly high level for that. Since ToEE characters are (apparently) likely to top out around level 10, you'll get two attacks tops, excluding special circumstances with magic items, spells, feats or other abilities.

I believe the monk gets 3 attacks per round at level 10, but I think the monk is the only character to have more then two at level 10.

 

[Spazmo]

Ah, yes, the monk. But only with unarmed attacks, although that's probably what most monks will exclusively use.