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From the Lionheart forum.Eric Dallaire (Cabal)AI in Lionheart (not)
*Cabal rolls a Sarcasm check*
Well, if you really must know, we're implementing a fantastic new technology, mental capture, that actually allows us to download the mind of a subject and translate their thoughts into game AI scripts for ultimate realism. Unfortunately, we spent all our money on this technology and couldn't afford prime subjects.
We used the following subjects for Lionheart:
1) That near-sighted guy - this will allow our NPCs to bump into walls for no reason on occassion.
2) Escaped lab chimps - this will accout for the needed erratic behavior seen in most games.
3) Escaped convict guy - this allows us to simulate those random anti-social events, where the npc sometimes shoots you in the back, or throws a fireball on your head. This is very hard to get right if you don't do proper mental capture.
As you can see, there is a lot great AI going into this game, but if we can't get this to work, the fallback is to rely on hand-programming the scripts, but I don't think it will come to that.
Sorry, just got into a goofy mood.
Pip-boy
We've been discussing this one for a bit and have come to agree with what several posters have mentioned, that the pipboy is a Fallout aesthetic and probably wouldn't be appropriate for Lionheart.
We are looking to develop a new convention, something more appropriate for the time period. All of your suggestions sounded excellent, thanks for the posts.
Endurance and mana
I believe Saint Proverbius also suggested the use of endurance as well, and it is something that is still possible to change. Charisma we will definitely be using in the equation. Endurance, Perception, and even a small amount of Luck have each been suggested as the other factor for mana.
Regardless of the final formula, we will definitely be giving Endurance a major bump so that it isn't a no-brainer to cannablize it for other stats.
A mind reading Perk
This is an excellent suggestion. I really do love it. Unfortunately, for this to be a viable ability, you would need to be able to use it often, and that means scripting the surface thoughts for all the characters in the game (or most characters, granted) which would be a lot of work. Unfortunely, this one will have to go onto the wish list as we are already preparing for a huuge script.
Bartering
Right now, barter is not implemented. We have been talking about how it could be used for Lionheart, and we agree that the time period of the game would make this a very useful and realistic skill. There have been some great suggestions in this thread about barter and I just wanted you to know we have read them. We will keep you posted on its progress.
Who is Skinflint?
promised, our lead designer on Lionheart is cautiously stepping into the forums. He's one of the busiest guys in showbiz, so I don't know how often he'll get to post, but know that he does check the boards and will probably reply here and there, from time to time.
Chris ParkerCritical Hits v Target Locations
Crits and targeting specific body locations are different things. A crit is a chance occurance on any attack. Targeting a body location just changes the attack location from the default (torso) to something else. This affects the characters % chance to hit (negatively), but successful hits to those locations can be much more devasting and they are generally associated with bad side effects.
On the interface for specific targets
I don't think that a small avatar showing the different locations will occlude the screen in a bad way or be too slow to use. And these things could be hotkey'd any way that makes sense. Numpad is probably a good idea
Diablo clicking
I think perhaps you misunderstood Eric's post on this matter. The last time I discussed the attack method's with Reflexive, you were not going to need to click for every swing. If you re-read Eric's post, I believe he was indicating that you would need to click on each creature you wished to select for attack. This is analogous to IE games.
Pausing
It's not impossible for us to implement this, but we currently haven't chosen to. If we find that not having it makes the game not fun, or if we find that it's unbalancing for some reason, we'll put it in. However, fun for one person isn't always fun for another - and for now we are going to see about getting the interface fluid and responsive enough for the player to not need it.
Vaultboy images
There won't be any Vaultboy images in Lionheart. We aren't making a Fallout game. We are making a completely original game that uses the SPECIAL system. Don't expect Fallout interfaces or Fallout flavor. Expect a great CRPG, but don't expect Fallout. There wasn't a whole lot of that 50's-"America-is-Great" thing going on back in 1588.
A mascot
I didn't say there would not be a mascot...
So we were actually discussing this last Friday, and we didn't decide against a mascot, we decided against Vault Boy. Not that there was really any discussion making to it - there was never any plan to use him in the first place. But this same question (in a different thread) brought up the conversation (along with a vast many other posts that we were talking about).
Anyhow, I wish I had something more concrete to say, like we decided we were going to make a magical-talking-triptych/PDA called PietyBoy, but I don't.
About the interface
This is off the top of my head, but it should be mostly accurate....
There is one armor slot and a variety of other inventory slots for other stuff. The character can equip stuff on their hands, feet, wrists, fingers (rings), waist, and back (cloak). There are a few slots for miscellaneous jewelry as well.
The primary avatar changes (after race and gender of course) are based on the armor slot. Other things that affect the avatar are the players selection of hair and skin color.
The last time I saw inventory it didn't even have an Avatar. Before you panic, I am just saying it's not done yet. When it is, that's the sort of thing we'll certainly post a screenshot of. Promise.
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Lionheart Forum Update
