Tuesday - March 12, 2002
"Kiss my axe!" Sponsored by Marta W. |
Hi folks,
GothicDot is back after a long break due to massive restructuring in the background. Now control over the news has been restored, so expect to find a new pic of the day - every day. ;-) The only remaining problem is that subtitles are not displayed.
We´ll find out soon if articles also work again. A new feature is nearing completion, the biggest so far. I´m sure it will be most useful to many of you.
Have fun! |
The shipping announcement is just a little over an hour old but GameSpot has already reviewed Warlords Battlecry II, UbiSoft's/SSG's RTS/RPG hybrid. Seems like GameSpot enjoyed it a lot as they rated it 8.2 (="great") out of 10.
Here's a snip:
Warlords Battlecry II's many playable factions, persistent heroes, and dynamic campaign are innovative elements on top of a solid real-time strategy game. The original Warlords Battlecry was the one of the very first games to effectively use the concept of heroes in a multiplayer-focused real-time strategy game, before Shattered Galaxy or Blizzard's upcoming Warcraft III. If the multiplayer component ends up being popular on the Ubi.com matching service, it should be interesting to create a hero in the service's closed, server-side mode, which allows for competitive rankings. However, while the sequel makes a number of general improvements to the formula established by its predecessor, Warlords Battlecry II doesn't take a big leap forward. The game can be best recommended to players new to the series who are intrigued by the game's hero system.
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'Better late than never' (the game is almost gold) is what RPGvault must have thought when they now started out with the first part in what seems to become a series of developer Q&A's with the Dungeon Siege developers.
There's just a single question that is answered by 12 developers from Gas Powered Games, including Chris Taylor, the producer himself:
Jonric: Speaking from your personal preferences, what is your favorite way of developing your main character in Dungeon Siege, and why?
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The German WOP-DevTeam has updated the website of its soon-to-go-beta MMORPG World of Pirates with the first ever downloadable stuff at all. Once inside follow the download link and listen to three mp3's (one of them is the main theme). There's also some new artworks on display, and the FAQ holds some new additions as well.
Not enough WOP stuff yet? OK, then head on over to Swiss Gamesweb who have even managed to score a 7-minute video trailer of the game.
Since this is our first ever newsbit of World of Pirates, we highly recommend you click the game info link in this newsbit's header, and don't forget to visit our gallery for some WOP screenshots. Well, yes, the gfx may be a weak spot in this one but the gameplay features sure sound promising. | | Source: Gamesweb |
| Gone Gold reports of a little conversation they have had with Microsoft's PR folks, and when asked about the firmness of the officially announced April, 5 release date, the spokesperson said it's definitely going to hit that mark, and he or she obviously added "If not sooner". |
Again.... the latest from the IWD2 forums.Josh SawyerWhat was that odd looking ball on the IWD box
It's the heartstone gem.
It's supposed to be a visual reinforcement of the "heart" theme. Elisia pulled the blade of Aihonen from Icasaracht's heart, heart of winter, you get to the expansion through a house in Kuldahar (which once held the heartstone gem), blah, blah.
The negative red space under Icasaracht is also in the shape of a heart.
Remember the three standing stones in Kuldahar? At least one villager tells the party that the heartstone gem used to rest at the center of the three stones. The IWD logo shows the gem in exactly that spot: at the sloping base of the tree.
About the point buy system in the DMG
That system is nonsensical, and I have no apologies for violating your fascist regard for it. The DMG's scaling system tries to convince the reader that sometimes, +1 is equal to +1, but sometimes, it's actually equal to +2 or some other amount. That's what happens when you weight values that correspond to a linear progression of bonuses.
To go from 10 to 12 on the DMG scale, you spend 1 point to increase from 10 to 11, 1 point to increase from 11 to 12. The net effect is +1 on all values derived from that statistic. To go from 14 to 16, you spend 2 points to increase from 14 to 15, 2 points to increase from 15 to 16. The net effect is a +1 on all values derived from that statistic. So, in essence, +1 is equal to 2 points sometimes, 4 points other times. That makes absolutely no sense.
It's clear that for well-rounded characters, spending points to raise stats over 14 is wasteful. Why raise one stat to 18 if two stats have to sit at 8 or 10? I could give my fighter 14s in Strength, Dex, and Con and get a much greater net effect out of it. That's why we're not using the DMG's system; it makes no sense, and it excessively punishes people who want to give their characters one or two high stats.
Racial minimums and maximums
A character's minimums and maximums are applied to the starting values in each statistic, and DO NOT subtract from the character's available point pool. For most races, this evens out perfectly; they have one +2 and one -2. Some other races, like dark elves, gain more bonuses than penalties. It is important to note that these bonuses are not taken from the point pool.
At character creation, a player may distribute points up to, or down to, 3 or 18, plus racial modifiers.
The point is that you can start an elf with a 20 Dex if you wish to do so. However, that elf has a maximum of 16 Con. If you think that this somehow "dilutes" your bonuses and penalties, think again. It's a mathematical balance. Whether you roll or allocate points, those characters are typically getting the exact same values of bonuses and penalties. How many of you have never done the following: you roll a 14 and a 16 for an elf character. You want a 14 Con and a 16 Dex, so you put the 16 in Con and the 14 in Dex. Big deal, it's just switching numbers. The bonuses are only really there to stretch racial mins and maxes. In the case of dark elves, they actually do gain +2 ability score points out of "the deal".
The bonus points you receive from leveling can exceed starting racial values.
Well, assume that you make an elven rogue and a human rogue. The elven rogue starts with a 20 Dexterity, the human starts with an 18 Dexterity (let's pretend). At 4th and 8th level, the human raises his Dex to 20. OOOOOoOOooh. At 4th and 8th level, the elf raises his Dex to 22, staying 2 points ahead of the human. Yay.
Are the benefits from the extra point per four levels retroactive?
Yes.
When doe negative modifiers come into place?
They kick in at the same rate, starting at 9.
8-9: -1
6-7: -2
4-5: -3
2-3: -4
1: -5
About the size of Chult
The areas aren't incredibly large in size. The main area of Chult can be approached through two methods: sneaky guiley and slaughter everyone. If you go through in the sneaky guiley way, it can be a very interesting sneaky/explorey/talky area that takes quite a bit of time. If you slaughter everyone -- well, it's pretty difficult, but it goes much faster.
About settlements
I believe that the settlements in the game are very fleshed out. In Targos, the opening town, there are often several ways to solve quests and very few generic characters. Character race, alignment, stats, and class often affects dialogue options and character reactions. Here's a sample of such affects:
- Another warrior come for healing from Ragni? The only people welcome in this house are those who give or take blood. Are you one of the brave, or are you just another talker?
- If Bard is my name, and I am here to inspire the fallen with songs to stir their hearts and calm th- Goto 3
- If Paladin By all that is holy and just in this world, I swear I will aid this town in its fight against evil. Goto 4
- If Cleric of Tempus I am a fellow Battleguard of Tempus. I am here to fight. Goto 5
- If Cleric of Bane Tempurans. You sit around and wait for war to come. If we from the church of Bane were in charge, this army would have been crushed long ago. Goto 6
- If Cleric of Selune I am here to spread Selune's light, and let her light help all find their chosen path through these dark times. Goto 4
- If Dwarf Axes, hammers, or blades. Whatever ye have, give 'em to the dwarves. We'll sort this mess out. Goto 7
- We came to help in the war effort, yes. Goto 2
These special reply nodes typically just put more flavor into conversations, and allow the NPC to give feedback based on what you say. For example, if you give the bard line, Ragni says:
- STILL YOUR WAGGING TONGUE! You waste breath while brave men gasp their last not a league from where we stand!
Ragni's associate, Denham, then steps in to calm the priest of Tempus down. If you give the paladin or Selunite responses, you get this:
- Hrnhh... feel free to do good as long as you do it well. What can I do for you?
And from the Banite:
- Hrmph. When clever words, sneering, and intimidation fail, you'd best be ready for war, Banite. What do you want?
However, there are also times where having a character of a particular class or race makes quests much easier; it has a very real effect on how you play the game. Another simple example, from Targos:
You are, at one point, asked to talk to a priest of Myrkul who is using his "talents" to speak with the corpses of goblins. When you arrive and ask the priest, Koluhm, what the goblins said, he tells you the following:
- Hmn... I fear to tell you what I have learned... which is to say, precious little, yes. The goblin tongue is not one familiar to me, and making sense of its words has been, hmm... difficult, yes.
- PC is a Half-Orc, Dwarf, Gnome, Elf, Drow, Wood Elf, Gold Dwarf, Gray Dwarf My race knows something of the goblin tongue. Speak what the goblin says, and I will see if I can translate.
- PC is a Half-Elf, Halfing My race knows a little of the goblin tongue. Speak what the goblin says, and I will see if I can translate.
- Player is Human, INT > 15 I picked up a little of the goblin tongue during my travels - speak what the goblin says, and I will see if I can translate.
- Player is Human, INT < 16 Hmm. Perhaps if you try to write down the words, you can send them to Shawford, and he can have someone translate them.
From there, your character translates the dead goblin's words with varying levels of accuracy. Not only does that allow you to wrap everything up right there, but you also gain some more knowledge about what's going on with the attacks on the town.
Overall, I think players will have a fun time exploring the few communities in the game, especially Targos.
The friendly settlements
There's Targos, the wandering village, Ahk Kyorl Kulg (the House Despana drow camp), the Black Raven Monastery, Kuldahar and... that's about it.
Attacks per round
There are animation limits in the engine that cause the number of attacks to max out at 5 (4 + 1 from dual-wield = 5). It least, I believe that's how it works.
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The official Star Wars: Galaxies website has been updated with an announcement regarding a chat with the developers on Thursday, March 14th at 12PM PST.
This chat is going to be the 4th one of its kind. It will be hosted by Sony's Station, and participating developers include Jake Rodgers, Joe Shoopack, and John Roy. |
| Publisher Fishtank has published a release list of its upcoming titles today. Arcane Studios' Arx Fatalis is now scheduled for release on May, 23 of this year. | | Source: GUN |
Gamepen has written yet another preview of Warcraft 3. Other gaes would be happy to sell as many copies as this one gets previews *g*. Now, here's a bit from that one:
Warcraft III features an impressive four playable races, including two brand new ones. The Humans and Orcs return from Warcraft II and are supplemented by the Undead and the Night Elves.
The Night Elves are what some might call “tree loving hippies” They worship trees and nature, and their buildings are all organic growths. There basic worker is a wisp, and they do not cut down trees to harvest lumber-the wisps simply circle the trees endlessly and supply lumber without damaging the ecosystem. The Night Elves seem to be a race intended to be used with speed and stealth. They have bonuses and upgrades that increase their effectiveness at night and the ability to hide in the shadow, which make them ideal for setting up ambushes and quick hit and run attacks. They are capable of dealing good damage but their units are somewhat weak and can’t take a great pounding.
The other new race is the Undead, and while this may sound like a boring choice, the Undead are perhaps the most complex of all the races. Much like the Zerg of Starcraft, the Undead spread a disgusting slime wherever they build. Their buildings are halls of death and destruction, and look the part. The Undead have two basic building units. The first are ghouls. The ghouls chop lumber and also can serve as basic infantry, something of a weaker footman or grunt. They can be pumped out quickly and are thus dangerous early on. The second is the acolyte, which gathers gold and constructs buildings. The Undead are an interesting race. They have some powerful melee and flying creatures later on, as well as a couple of truly unique units that are difficult to use but can be very effective in the right hands. |
Yesterday, we reported about Freedom Force having reached gold status - today, we can tell you the ship date for this title: March 26th. Here's the press release:
Electronic Arts and Crave Entertainment today announced that their upcoming PC game, Freedom Force, has officially GONE GOLD and will ship on Tuesday, March 26, 2002.
Fight for all things good and just! From a distant corner of the galaxy, the sinister plans of an alien race threaten Earth. Humankind's only hope lies within the world's most powerful superheroes -- the Freedom Force. Assume control over a squad of comic book heroes, each with unique powers, and duke it out with the forces of evil. Create your own superhero or battle your best friend/arch nemesis online as comic books come the life in this tactical RPG.
Freedom Force is an exciting new PC title that is being co-published by Electronic Arts and Crave Entertainment and developed by Irrational Games. For more information on this upcoming title, visit the official product website at www.myfreedomforce.com |
Jaz, one of our Forum members and Gothic fan, has crafted a great story in a Gothic setting. It's called "A Streak of Bad Luck" and here is a little something from it:My streak of bad luck started with this idiot shadow - bite me, but I can't remember his name for all it's worth. Telling from your looks you surely won't remember him; I guess he arrived in the barrier only recently, one of those eager youngsters with their honest faces who usually don't last longer than one or two days.
Bah.
Anyhow, this idiot shadow walked over to me after having exchanged a few words with Snipes - right, the idiot digger, you might know him.
"Ian wants to talk to you," the youngster said, but he couldn't tell me what Ian wanted of me.
My boss is Asghan, but Ian is the mine's administrator - or most probably, was, Beliar have mercy on his soul-, and he's quite agreeable as far as shadows go. That he wanted to talk to me completely out of order didn't sound good; on the other hand, it didn't sound like impending doom, either, and even though I'm not your average good-goody reason told me it was better to humor him. So I left Snipes and the youngster to their own devices and marched down the ramp to meet Mr. Old Mine himself, the grand and haughty Ian.
Those ramps were broad enough to have two guys walk across side by side; despite that I always had this silly fear of looking down, just in case I might feel the irresistible urge to jump, if you know what I'm talking about. In the light of recent happenings it might have been better not to resist this urge… I'm sure you want to read more so click this link right now.
The story is part of the fan-fiction section for Gothic and can always be reached by checking out the game info. |
| Bluesnews has word that Grandia 2 is now shipping to stores... | | Source: BluesNews |
Today Ilya Rogozin sound engineer at Larian Studios tells us a bit about how the sounds are created for Divine Divinity. Now and then, together with Stefaan, we arm ourselves with a microphone and have a joyous recording session. We record sounds produced by banging/dropping/sliding different objects or we get people to produce all kind of sounds for monsters and npc's. This is pure fun! Check the full story out here. |
There is a Darkan 2 interview at the Armchair Empire, conducted with Alan Patmore, President of Surreal Software, about the game and its development process. Here's someting on what they will improve in Drakan 2, compared to the original game:
What have you done with Drakan: The Ancients' Gates that makes it better than the original?
A ton of stuff! The control system was completely redesigned to take advantage of the PS2. There is a light role-playing game element that allows you to customize Rynn. We added an economy, which allows you to buy/sell and repair weapons, armor and spells. Overall, the game is much more robust than the original. BTW, I always enjoyed the first Drakan on PC - t'was a fun game, imho. |
Just Adventure presents us a review of Anachronox. Seems they fell in love with the game, since it received a rating of A+. This is their summary:
Eidos, Ion's Storm's parent company, did an even worse job of promoting Anachronox than UbiSoft's unforgivable fumble with Myst III: Exile. Despite the fact that it's been winning all sorts of awards (including Best Story - from any genre - from GameSpot), it didn't sell well at all. Which means you can probably pick it up cheap, sports fans. So what are you still reading this for? Get thee to a software store. Trust me, you'll thank me. Play this game. Right now. |
eqrpg.com has more info
Created under the Open Game License, the EverQuest Roleplaying Game is both complete unto itself as well as 100% compatible with the 3rd-edition rules of the world's most popular fantasy tabletop roleplaying system. Available in July 2002, the EverQuest Roleplaying Game: Player's Handbook contains everything you need to create characters and begin experiencing EverQuest in an entirely new way. All the character classes from bard to shadow knight to wizard. All the races from dark elf to the lizardmen iksar to the catmen Vah Shir. Hundreds of spells, skills, feats, equipment and more are packed into this hardcover volume. | | Source: Allakhazams |
You didn't expect us to let this day go without a Warcraft 3 newsbit, did you? *g* - thus we tell you that there is an interview with Bill Roper at Computer & Video Games today, him talking about Warcraft 3. Check this out:
What was the one thing you saw and personally thought: 'Hey that actually looks really cool, I love it'?
Bill: The first time we got the terrain working right. There was still a while there where the game felt very flat and we really needed to use the 3D engine to make the terrain look more realistic. The art team and the level design team took a couple of weeks and worked on one map which had nice rolling hills, plateaus and peaks. It went suddenly from being a gameboard to being this lush landscape. It was becoming a real little world. |
Electric Playgrund continues theri daily Dungeon Sigee Journal (story with part three (well, as you can see, it's not daily, but nearly so *g*). Here's an excert from the latest one:
I'm not sure how much exploration is mandatory to complete the game, but it seems to me that some parts might be easy to miss. I wonder if the idea is to have gamers on the Net giving each other directions to hidden places and goodies.
An examination of the game's story elements might reveal what is and is not vital to game completion. Fortunately, I've found some more of Siege's storytelling at work, and that will be the subject of tomorrow's entry. |
I find it quite interesting that Anarchy Online has had little coverage on the net lately. I hope this isn't an indication for the well being of the game or Funcom - but who could tell? Anyhow, over at HomeLan Fed, you can find an interview with Henning Solberg and Ragnar Tørnquist about their futuristic MMORPG. And even in it, one could, with a little bad will, find an answer that indicates that AO is far from being successful for the company. Or how would you interpret this non-info?
HomeLAN - Currently, about how many people are on Anarchy Online's servers at any one time?
Henning Solberg - We have decided not to give out the numbers. This might change at some point in the future, but for now we do not give them out. Each server though can handle about 20,000 players at any one time. Your thoughts? |
The First review of Warlords Battlecry 2 has been posted today, and you can find it at Gamespy. It is a very detailed one, and their final rating of 85/100 tells you that they enjoyed plaing the game. Here's their summary:
In the end, Warlords Battlecry II is an accessible real-time game that showers you with things to do and discover. It's part turn-based strategy, part role-playing, and part action-oriented real-time strategy wrapped up inside a highly playable design. And best of all -- it's a lot of fun to play, and in the end that's about all you can ask from any game. This is pretty consistent with my impressions from the demo. Warlords Battlecry 2 has some nice ideas that set it apart from the rest of the gang, and at least the demo missions were fun to play... |
A new review of Etherlords was posted at PC Games Central. Their overall rating of 83% fits well with the opinions we have seen on the net so far, and this is what they offer us as their conclusion:
In closing, Etherlords is one of those few rare gems to get the whole translation of trading card games into a computer game correctly. In spite of the poorly executed strategic mode, the trading card combat is where Etherlords' gem shines. With its multitude of spells and creatures to use, very unpredictable online game, and rewarding proper performed strategies, Nival Interactive created such a rarity in the angry sea of strategy games in the market |
PC Paradox has poste a second interview with David Allen (the first one was early February (story) about himself, his work and his advice to aspiring developers:
PC Paradox: What would your main advice be to follow your footsteps? Do you think it is importance for a game designer to be a master at one particular aspect of game development or many?
David Allen: My first set of advice is don’t follow in my footsteps – make your own – and if something that myself or others have done is impressive to you, learn all you can about it, and apply it to your goals. NEVER let anyone tell you that you aren’t capable of doing something that you know you can do and have done. Always be true to yourself, and don’t bullshit with people. It’s better for people to say “he’s a prick, but you know what, he never lies and I can always trust and count on him” rather than “he’s pretty cool, but I just can’t count on him and I don’t trust him all the time”.
I think the true game designers are experienced in many areas – development, programming, design, conceptualization – you name it. If you look at most of the successful game developers out there, they aren’t just ‘designers’ – they are true developers as well.
Never forget who you are and what you can do, and if somebody tries to make you forget, toss them away like deadwood – the way they should be, for that is all they are worth. |
An interview with a game character is today's Glimpse Inside at the official site for Earth & Beyond, Westwood's upcoming space MMORPG. Here's a bit:
What qualities and criteria do you consider to be important for a leader?
The most important quality for any leader is imagination. As the one air entered the world and became itself according to what it met, the one self must enter the air and become itself according to what exists. Without this even the greatest cultures will wither and choke. Its people stop inventing and move in circles, bored out of their minds. A race that does not explore is a race that is dying.
How have you met those?
I have pursued the outer world through my investigation of the gates and the inner world along the Path of the Sha'ha'dem.
What are your thoughts about the current political climate of the galaxy?
The Progen must share what was taken from Andaren's Tomb.
How do you feel about the other two races and their politics?
The politics of the races reveal their worlds. The Progen are suspicious, make too much of our differences, and would rule by force. The Terran are aggressive, falsely claim we are all alike, and intend to persuade us until we submit. Two different claims and methods yet, on both sides, domination is the goal. Before either can rule with the Jenquai, they must turn inward and examine their own wisdom. | |