a mistake all fantasy games make IMO is when the artists tries to make characters less symetrical but they always overdo it, I\'m so tired of the gigantic shoulder pad warrior have on there right shoulder (BGA, NWN etc.).
Nothing big I just irretate myself on it. maybe you have no idea what I\'m talking about but now that I\'ve said it you will find it on every game

Whats wrong with a large shoulder pad on one of the shoulders?

Historicaly speaking it was actualy rather common for suits of armor to have a more protected side of the upper body. Particulary armor used during jousts, Some of the pauldrons and colars where very far out in there design. From a practical stand point it would be usefull sicne more often than not you would be faceing one side of your body (the weapon hand) towards the enemy. youd want to protect that side the most, if not and you got wounded badly you wouldnt be able to defend your self.

The problem is the wait queues at the quest NSCs. In this system, the i.e. head boss would need to be killed by every player doing the quest. However, it is only there _once_, therefore the other players will have to wait until it has respawned after you killed it, and so on. Therefore, the quest experience is higly unrealistic in that it clearly displays the game mechanics, completely destroying the immersion once you think about it (and I inevitably do that, that\'s why I didn\'t even finish NWN  ).

 

Why would that stop you from finnishing the NWN single player campaign?

NWN is as close to D&D online as you can get, the hundreds of PW\'s people set up are a little stupid unless you find a good one (most are uber power servers or servers with overly tough hardcore rules coded in wih often rather lack luster areas).

But if you have a DM that has a good imagination and writeing as well as a bit of codeing skill, then a small private (ie traditional) D&D session in NWN is very enjoyable.  Expanding a campaign in such private games is very easy as well since the DM can add new areas over the days your not playing and the next session you can get right into it with out any need to download anything (sept for any community made content HAK\'s that the DM might decide to include).

Im an old 1st edition player from the mid-late 80\'s , sort of left the scene around 2nd editions introduction and came back recently when i got into NWN (primaryily for the neat CC aspect of the game). 3rd edition or should i say 3.5 edition is and can be kinda off putting to old school players but once you look at the system and play it a bit I assure you its atualy pretty good. You can still make it as flexable as the older editions, its just alot more structured rule wise as well as a little less rigid class wise compared to the others.

1) A mmorpg project is really too complex for a OS team.
2) I\'ve investigated on the morale of the team, and it seems that most of them is against a fantasy game, basically they are very bored of spells, swords, orcs, etc...

heh now the thing is, those 2 statements even though an april fool could easily happen. 1 is a very deffinate pitfall and number 2 does happen regulary. The mod team im working for ran into both a while back. Although we aint doing an mmorpg.

Ever heard of a game called NWN? It\'s a DnD based computer game which also has multiplayer capabilities.

Here\'s the problem that Drizzt caused: People read the books, and thought Drizzt was really cool (I did too). Some people decided to play online as Drizzt, the good Dark elf. But when other people saw them, they flamed them. So then they decided to play good dark elves.

 

The main problem there is people dont have much imagination. WotC and TSR before them, have steadily overdone the drows coverage since they first appeared, it tends to happen all the time with popular race or creatures in PnP. There involvement becomes so saturated they no longer have any of there old appeal. \"Oh look a drow!\"..\"yeah yeah seen one, you seen em all\". That also goes for mindflayers, beholders, dragons, and Devils/Demons also. \"oh its a Barbazu... again\" \"Demogorgon!... err didnt we kill it already?\".

These dark races have been brought out into the lime light so long and so often they just aint as scarey as the used to be. Drittz should have been a one off, unfortunately hes now and has been for a whle a envogue type character.

Now thats why i prefer the Planescape and Spelljammer settings. those out of the norm character types are just another poor superpowered berk among other more super superpowered berks that know alot more chant than the clueless primer Drittz\'s.

People only play half-dragons alot in NWN since its a class with some of the best perks, human beings are innate mini maxers. Me I play pure Wizards (no multi-classing of anykind) in NWN and am often called weird then I go on to demonstrate to them just what that means in terms of raw monster burning power.

A Diaboli cleric would use there healing powers to prolong the suffering of others they didnt like.... \"a full heal?... Nooooo a small heal to keep you on the brink of death\". Dont forget that Evil doesnt mean stupid , an Evil person tends to do what ever it takes for personal gain, if healing others so that they are around long enough to keep you alive means they can get out ahead, they will do it. Its just when you pose a threat to there gain or are no longer of any use you have to start worrying.

Malicious in my dictionary gives \'evil-disposed; evil minded; Spiteful; Rancorous\'

Which to me would mean they where evily inclined and not particualry happy people but not openly nasty, rather easy to anger and get on the bad side off, and usualy looking out for only number one. Considering there homeworld this wouldnt be surpriseing. On there harsh world the healing arts would be rather vital, more of a \"I need\" than a \"I need it for you\" thing. For Survival rather than Compassion.

I personaly would kill the person that made the Nordock module. Cant stand that pile of crap (I have a thing against the hardcore rules) its like some wild rabbit, every second damn PW is a nordock module running server!. Actualy all the NWN persistant world servers out there are crud, mainly since there made by people with little imagination and to much or maybe to little experiance with real mmorpgs, most dont use or implement quests or any real form of story and most try to emulate other mmorpgs.

As a mmorpg NWN actualy stands up rather well, even though its not actualy intended to be used in such a way. Does have alot of problems in some areas sicne it is aimed and designed for single player (which is why some of the rules and abilities are rather differant from the PnP rules, and can be out balanceing in PvP.) The main problem ive seen is alot of the PW\'s dont use the community made content, thats out there. There are some, since a couple have used my Savage Shields hak pak, and some use the odd head pak or cloak or weapon hak, but most use the OC centent and the result is they are all the same, just with altered stats on monsters and uber weapons and armor housed in boreingly stark environments (not the NWN engine, but the builder makeing the areas lack of detail) with little story, and ludicrus rules.

The GM situation in UO is almost non exsistant since Origin was closed and they fired all the volunteer counselors and seers. But UO has never realy had, hmm actualy alot of MMorpgs have poor GM service. Its a trend they all tend to share

Bah...NWN would never let me play multiplayer...loser

Was it a pirated copy?, and if not did you register it?... sicne you have to have your CD key registered with Bioware (*bows to the god of RPG\'s*) in order to access multiplayer with gamespy. Although I get a feeling you might have a pirated copy since you would be able to ask in the troubleshooting forumn for help, although you wouldnt be able to post there unless you registered your copy which brings us back to the begining

Its funny how the fan b0yz come out and slam posters the moment some one asks some valid and decent questions about the game in a concerned/inquireing/negative way.

i think ill back this guy up.

this will make it much better that commercial MMO\'s that make a game, host a server, and let it live untill they stop making much money of it

the good thing about PS unlike a commercial game is that we have a permanent Dev team... the game will be perpetually evolving... in other words if PS was to go downhill the devs, with guidance from the players, could bring it back up again

You actualy played a commercial mmorpg?... All have inhouse dedicated dev teams, Devs do more than just make it, set it up and stand back. people in here tout how it will have ever expanding, constant changes and fix\'s due to the non paided dedicated Devs running it. Well ummm ever heard of patchs?... and expansion packs?, granted you have to buy those (not patchs), but dedicated devs and evolveing content is not a PS exclusive, and considering the Paid devs for comercail companys have a real  financial insentive to continue to work on a product rather than just the love for it (often most paid devs have more love for there projects than financial interest, wouldnt you after years of working on it?, but an actual income is a big bonus, this is the real world after all, love will not feed ya family).

If a MMorpg of this type was to go downhill and falter, most likely it would be either to the lose of interest by the devs or due to money problems (server/bandwidth rental), and no fan or player guidance would revive it, unless they had the $$$ or the knowhow to take the wheel. Not to mention while the engine is opensource, the content is not... youd have to negotiate getting the rights to it all, Granted being a non profit team it would probably be not that hard to do so, although niggles might arise.

besides, the fact that PS is opensource means it will continue to evolve and improve over years, so if everything goes right, you should still be able to play PS in 10 years without getting bored or feel like you\'re playing an old game o_O

Now many seem to get something wrong here, while PS is opensource they forget this player base made content and outside developed content will very likely NOT appear in the \"offical\" PS world, unless you had it to the dev teams quality and likeing, and where willing to waver your rights to it once its in the game. What it means is some one can download the server/client apps and host there own PS world, useing there added content theyve developed since the code for the whole project is opensource and avaliable to the public. Result is fragmentation of the community and watering down. The PS dev team is unlikely to take every scriptchange or monster model people send in just because its \"opensource\" and people think this means its a community project. Im sure that if your contributions where that good theyd try to recruit you into the dev team.

Im possibly soon (its almost a yes from the publisher according to my boss) going to actualy do 3d work and textureing for a commercial game project along with the rest of my mod team for a rather well known games publisher. Now i had love for the medium before hand, but to me 10 years of doing content work with out any form of pay in my spare time is frightening, and a rather stupid situation. I had motivation and get go before, but with the prospect of makeing an actual liveing from this, my motivation is alot more higher. Basicly im saying that a free project like this which is takeing an eon to complete, with a strictly unpaid volunteer dev team doing this work in there spare time around there day jobs, the life span after completeion (if it gets completed) of PS will not be 10 years (then again its been in the makeing that long so far ). I could be wrong and there have been examples of success stories, but there exceptions to the rule.

but the fact that since you don\'t have to pay, you can enjoy the game more and take your time, because you can play it forever, or even drop it for some time and come back to it later.

To me Paytoplay means a certain level of quality and commitment by the developers, you give them the money and they are therefore bound to give you a good experiance after all you pay there wages. And as far as I know from experiance you can drop paying mmorpgs and take a break and return later, heck ive done it enough in EQ myself. once you pay your months fee your not eternaly bound to there bank book and game for life.

Now here is my question to you, why *don\'t* you think this game will be different from other MMORPG\'s? in fact, what 2 MMORPG\'s are really the same?

Actualy besides one or two games with interesting side systems (Horizons city rebuilding, dragon flight, DaoC\'s Realm Wars, EQ\'s AA and tribute/augment systems etc) ALL morpgs are the same, and besides the setting, ive seen little to say PS will be any differant in these respects, even WoW will be your typical MMorpg, albeit a very high quality one (im mostly interested in it due to its Visual Quality and style).  MMorpgs work because they follow a core set of gameplay, the same as every other genre of entertainment. the onyl way to make a differant game is to break the mold entirely and create a MMorpg so differant from the competition its unrecognisable. The problem with that is it then no longer IS an mmorpg and cant be classed as one. The Mmorpg is now a real genre of gameing and its bounds set. Many games from all genres have tried to break from there bounds, and some have done so, or so they think, but when you get to the nitty gritty they are still there parents child no matter how hard they try not to be. All MMorpgs are the same... sad but unavoidable.

Case 1:
I log on, see a couple of my friends venturing in [the dangerous dungeon], and I tell them asking whether they need my help. They invite me to join their group, and I enter the dungeon in hope of meeting them there.
What if I entered a different instance? - I couldn\'t meet my friends then, which would be more than annoying. Can I choose which instance I enter? - this would really take away a lot of the \"world\" feeling a MMORPG offers (\"Which dungeon do you want to enter? - the [overcrowded], [nicely filled] or [almost empty] ?\" ).

 

the middle earth online game sierra was developing was going to utilise a password system where if some one wished to join your dungeon group you could give them teh password you where given on entry to teh dungeon and that allowed them to access the instance you where in. EQ doesnt allow you to join in an adventure thats already underway, however if your regular group is off else where, just group up with some one new and make a few more friends, or enemies.

Case 2:
I am crazy enough to try and sneak into [the dangerous dungeon]. I\'m skilled enough to venture deep into the dungeon, dodging patrols and bosses on the way. Down below I meet a group of heroes which fought their way into the dungeon, and I group with them to continue my search of the dungeon.
Would this be possible with Zone Instancing? It has happened to me quite often, and I loved it (even if it consisted only of waving and exchanging nice phrases).

 

Now in solo exploreing a dungeon i have no real problem with meeting others further in. its when your exploreing as a group or have a specific target in mind  that finding that some ones beat you to the punch or laid claim to stuff further on that it becomes a pain in the butt. its a right atmosphere killer, the worst of alls are the high level characters that run past you mid fight and clear out the dungeon further along while you and party have pushed through mid-way.

now what if your \"skills\" failed you and you caused a train of mobs in your exploration and wiped out that party you exchanged greetings with further back in teh dungeon?, there experiance would be ruined all becuase of an exploreing player new to the dungeon... ive seen this happen so much and had it happen to me as well, and it aint a very good comunity builder , and few nice phrases come out of it.