Profile for Thuryl
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Thuryl |
| Member number | 869 |
| Title | ...b10010b... |
| Postcount | 9973 |
| Homepage | http://thuryl.desperance.net/blades.html |
| Registered | Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Realism in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Wednesday, April 14 2004 18:19
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To my mind, the main advantage of response-based dialogue is that it allows you to express your opinions to characters and have arguments with them, which keyword-based dialogue doesn't do well at all. In BoE, even when a conversational choice is something simple like accepting or refusing a mission, it often has to be done by dialog box instead of dialogue. In other words, if Jeff did want the player to be able to find out that the Hill Runners were getting help from the Vahnatai, it'd be much easier to implement in BoA than BoE. :P [ Wednesday, April 14, 2004 18:21: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| Experience in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Wednesday, April 14 2004 17:25
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Races and traits don't modify the amount of experience gained; they only modify the experience required to gain a level. Experience is, however, modified by your current experience level (the higher your level, the less you get). By the way, this means that, say, a 20% experience requirement penalty is effectively slightly less than that, because since you're gaining levels more slowly you'll get slightly more experience. [ Wednesday, April 14, 2004 17:28: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| Really Minor Bugs in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Wednesday, April 14 2004 17:13
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quote:The game does say you need a lockpick to pick a lock, but it's still possible to try to pick a lock without a lockpick. I'm not sure whether it's actually possible to succeed, though, as the one time I tried I failed. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| Windows release? in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Wednesday, April 14 2004 05:58
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Hopefully June, but you know how programmers are. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| Did Jeff know about this while creating Exile/Avernum series? in General | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Wednesday, April 14 2004 02:21
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quote:Possibly because "-ael", meaning "of God", is a very common ending for angelic names? Alo, is there something you're not telling us about yourself?  -------------------- I believe there are 15 747 724 136 275 002 577 105 653 961 181 555 468 044 717 914 527 116 709 366 231 425 076 185 631 031 296 protons in the universe, and the same number of electrons. -- Sir Arthur Eddington Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| Ranks in General | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Tuesday, April 13 2004 13:15
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Go far away from here, you cretinous oaf. -------------------- I believe there are 15 747 724 136 275 002 577 105 653 961 181 555 468 044 717 914 527 116 709 366 231 425 076 185 631 031 296 protons in the universe, and the same number of electrons. -- Sir Arthur Eddington Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| Decency Question in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Tuesday, April 13 2004 13:05
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The BoE scenario Trouble in Mendor contained a brothel and was rated PG, due to a generalised lack of adult content beyond a couple of non-explicit references in dialogue. No reason you can't do the same if you have a little self-control. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| mysterious party-split in auto-fight in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Tuesday, April 13 2004 11:58
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One of my PCs has occasionally become separated from the rest of my party by an impassable barrier (though not in autocombat situations). Walking around a little in non-combat mode generally reunites the lost PC with the party. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| General Editor Question in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Tuesday, April 13 2004 02:55
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BoE scenarios generally ignore the question of the PCs' race, since in BoE there's no way to check for it. Where it comes up, most tacitly assume an all-human party. BoA can check for race, but it would be very bad form to kick parties with non-humans out of your scenario. As for explaining their presence in the party, Nephilim, while rare, are found on the surface, and some Sliths came up with the exiles at the end of Avernum 3 and a few may have migrated around the world. A Nephil in an Empire city would be unusual but not unheard-of, and a Slith would be exceptional but not impossible. [ Tuesday, April 13, 2004 02:58: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| General Editor Question in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Tuesday, April 13 2004 02:55
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BoE scenarios generally ignore the question of the PCs' race, since in BoE there's no way to check for it. Where it comes up, most tacitly assume an all-human party. BoA can check for race, but it would be very bad form to kick parties with non-humans out of your scenario. As for explaining their presence in the party, Nephilim, while rare, are found on the surface, and some Sliths came up with the exiles at the end of Avernum 3 and a few may have migrated around the world. A Nephil in an Empire city would be unusual but not unheard-of, and a Slith would be exceptional but not impossible. [ Tuesday, April 13, 2004 02:58: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| The Quest for Clairvoyance of a kind in General | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Tuesday, April 13 2004 01:40
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The versions of the Exile series offered for download are the unregistered (demo) versions. If you don't have a credit card or don't want to use one online, you can pay by cheque or postal money order. And yeah, they're a little old, but letting players know that everything you're selling will be free in a few years is bad marketing policy. -------------------- I believe there are 15 747 724 136 275 002 577 105 653 961 181 555 468 044 717 914 527 116 709 366 231 425 076 185 631 031 296 protons in the universe, and the same number of electrons. -- Sir Arthur Eddington Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| 1 Character Party with 4 People In in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 22:35
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You make some good points, but I'd argue that allowing you to keep using your PC's old name only encourages you to keep identifying with the PC that you've always used, whereas a large part of the impact of these scenarios relies on taking you out of your comfort zone and making you see the events of the scenario through a completely different character. Of course, the fact that this is a character of the scenario designer's choosing is pretty much the essence of the problem you seem to have with scenarios of this type. Many designers and players do in fact see scenarios as stories with puzzles in them more than they see them as true RPGs (after all, there isn't any direct interaction between designer and player, and there are fairly restrictive practical limits to how well scenario-mediated interaction can be done, even with the best of intentions.) Others do share your opinion to an extent; many of the criticisms of Quintessence revolve around the scenario repeatedly telling the player how they're supposed to be feeling, and Emulations only avoids such criticism by providing an in-scenario justification (mind control) for the PC's actions. There are other scenarios which come with a suggested premade party, but they generally don't make such a big deal of who the PC is, and so you are less likely to find them objectionable. However, I still see premade-party scenarios as a legitimate subgenre, with plots that often can't be done (or can't be done as well) by any other means. [ Monday, April 12, 2004 22:36: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| 1 Character Party with 4 People In in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 22:35
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You make some good points, but I'd argue that allowing you to keep using your PC's old name only encourages you to keep identifying with the PC that you've always used, whereas a large part of the impact of these scenarios relies on taking you out of your comfort zone and making you see the events of the scenario through a completely different character. Of course, the fact that this is a character of the scenario designer's choosing is pretty much the essence of the problem you seem to have with scenarios of this type. Many designers and players do in fact see scenarios as stories with puzzles in them more than they see them as true RPGs (after all, there isn't any direct interaction between designer and player, and there are fairly restrictive practical limits to how well scenario-mediated interaction can be done, even with the best of intentions.) Others do share your opinion to an extent; many of the criticisms of Quintessence revolve around the scenario repeatedly telling the player how they're supposed to be feeling, and Emulations only avoids such criticism by providing an in-scenario justification (mind control) for the PC's actions. There are other scenarios which come with a suggested premade party, but they generally don't make such a big deal of who the PC is, and so you are less likely to find them objectionable. However, I still see premade-party scenarios as a legitimate subgenre, with plots that often can't be done (or can't be done as well) by any other means. [ Monday, April 12, 2004 22:36: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| 1 Character Party with 4 People In in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 21:27
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There are still things that can't be dealt with so easily as gender, such as the PC's social status, which may be essential to the plot of the scenario. Who's to say what any given player will consider indispensable to their image of their characters? Best not to bother second-guessing audiences at all. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| 1 Character Party with 4 People In in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 21:27
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There are still things that can't be dealt with so easily as gender, such as the PC's social status, which may be essential to the plot of the scenario. Who's to say what any given player will consider indispensable to their image of their characters? Best not to bother second-guessing audiences at all. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| 1 Character Party with 4 People In in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 21:10
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My apologies for my harsh words; they were born of frustration, as your post reflects an attitude ("don't tell me who my PCs are") which I believe would be harmful to the scenario design community if widespread among designers. Both of the scenarios I mentioned were made by respected designers. Both centre around the development of the player's character. Both are viewed highly by the BoE community in general; Emulations, in fact, won the most recent BoE scenario design contest. I'd argue that this is evidence enough that such scenarios are not alienating a large section of the community. Perhaps this is simply a reflection of the fact that unless forced to do so, most players do not really put much thought into their characters as people. Certainly there is a case for this outlook; questions asked on these boards about what choices to make in a scenario with a branching plotline inevitably seem to degenerate into debates about which side gives the better rewards. If you are the exception to this trend, and you have very fixed ideas about who your characters are and what they would do in a given situation, perhaps Quintessence and Emulations are not the sort of scenarios you would enjoy -- but keep in mind that many other people do enjoy these scenarios. Remember also that there are degrees of player control and degrees of designer control over the party in every scenario, and all scenarios force the party into decisions to some extent. Is telling the party that they are a group of soldiers who have spent the last few years at a remote Exile fort an unjustifiable intrusion on the player's freedom to use the characters they like? The party is in this situation at the start of Nephil's Gambit, a highly regarded BoE scenario. What about Redemption, regarded by many as the greatest BoE scenario of all time? In this scenario, the family of your party's leader plays a critical role in the plot, and in fact much of the text in the scenario sounds rather strange if played with anything other than a 1-PC party (even though the scenario was not designed for any particular party, and the scenario's author has in fact expressed a dislike for 1-PC parties). Should scenario designers not tell the player what relatives their PCs have? Be cautious when telling designers what they should do; for the most part, they know what their audience is, and they know what works. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| 1 Character Party with 4 People In in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 21:10
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My apologies for my harsh words; they were born of frustration, as your post reflects an attitude ("don't tell me who my PCs are") which I believe would be harmful to the scenario design community if widespread among designers. Both of the scenarios I mentioned were made by respected designers. Both centre around the development of the player's character. Both are viewed highly by the BoE community in general; Emulations, in fact, won the most recent BoE scenario design contest. I'd argue that this is evidence enough that such scenarios are not alienating a large section of the community. Perhaps this is simply a reflection of the fact that unless forced to do so, most players do not really put much thought into their characters as people. Certainly there is a case for this outlook; questions asked on these boards about what choices to make in a scenario with a branching plotline inevitably seem to degenerate into debates about which side gives the better rewards. If you are the exception to this trend, and you have very fixed ideas about who your characters are and what they would do in a given situation, perhaps Quintessence and Emulations are not the sort of scenarios you would enjoy -- but keep in mind that many other people do enjoy these scenarios. Remember also that there are degrees of player control and degrees of designer control over the party in every scenario, and all scenarios force the party into decisions to some extent. Is telling the party that they are a group of soldiers who have spent the last few years at a remote Exile fort an unjustifiable intrusion on the player's freedom to use the characters they like? The party is in this situation at the start of Nephil's Gambit, a highly regarded BoE scenario. What about Redemption, regarded by many as the greatest BoE scenario of all time? In this scenario, the family of your party's leader plays a critical role in the plot, and in fact much of the text in the scenario sounds rather strange if played with anything other than a 1-PC party (even though the scenario was not designed for any particular party, and the scenario's author has in fact expressed a dislike for 1-PC parties). Should scenario designers not tell the player what relatives their PCs have? Be cautious when telling designers what they should do; for the most part, they know what their audience is, and they know what works. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| 1 Character Party with 4 People In in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 19:50
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spyderbytes, if what you want to say is that it's morally wrong for scenarios to make the assumption that a player is using a certain party which has been provided and/or specified by the designer, and that SW shouldn't support scenarios which do this, stop beating around the bush and say it. If you're simply saying that you'd prefer not to play such scenarios, then don't play them. Many of the BoE scenarios that assume a premade party simply could not be the sort of scenarios they are without doing so: look at Quintessence or Emulations, for example. The stories these scenarios are trying to tell rely on the PC being a specific type of character. If you think that such stories shouldn't be told at all in the Blades medium, then you're free to hold that opinion, and I'm free to hold the opinion that restricting the pool of ideas available to designers is much worse than restricting the kind of party the player is expected to have in some scenarios (scenarios which often could not have been made at all if their designers followed your advice). [ Monday, April 12, 2004 19:55: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| 1 Character Party with 4 People In in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 19:50
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spyderbytes, if what you want to say is that it's morally wrong for scenarios to make the assumption that a player is using a certain party which has been provided and/or specified by the designer, and that SW shouldn't support scenarios which do this, stop beating around the bush and say it. If you're simply saying that you'd prefer not to play such scenarios, then don't play them. Many of the BoE scenarios that assume a premade party simply could not be the sort of scenarios they are without doing so: look at Quintessence or Emulations, for example. The stories these scenarios are trying to tell rely on the PC being a specific type of character. If you think that such stories shouldn't be told at all in the Blades medium, then you're free to hold that opinion, and I'm free to hold the opinion that restricting the pool of ideas available to designers is much worse than restricting the kind of party the player is expected to have in some scenarios (scenarios which often could not have been made at all if their designers followed your advice). [ Monday, April 12, 2004 19:55: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| 1 Character Party with 4 People In in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 18:14
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If you include a premade party, it's reasonable to assume the player is using it more or less as is; that's what it's there for. If they choose not to, it's their loss. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| 1 Character Party with 4 People In in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 18:14
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If you include a premade party, it's reasonable to assume the player is using it more or less as is; that's what it's there for. If they choose not to, it's their loss. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| destroy_char_item only destroys equipped items? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 17:30
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Ah, of course. The first pack slot is #13, right? So all the script has to do is destroy all equipped items, then repeatedly check if there's an item in slot 13 and destroy it. [ Monday, April 12, 2004 17:31: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| destroy_char_item only destroys equipped items? in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 17:30
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Ah, of course. The first pack slot is #13, right? So all the script has to do is destroy all equipped items, then repeatedly check if there's an item in slot 13 and destroy it. [ Monday, April 12, 2004 17:31: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| Living in the past? in General | |
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...b10010b...
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written Monday, April 12 2004 17:04
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Picking up a book on etiquette from the 19th century, or even from the 1950s, will pretty quickly disillusion you of the idea that life was ever simple. At least now most of the complexity in life is useful rather than pointless. -------------------- I believe there are 15 747 724 136 275 002 577 105 653 961 181 555 468 044 717 914 527 116 709 366 231 425 076 185 631 031 296 protons in the universe, and the same number of electrons. -- Sir Arthur Eddington Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
| Really Minor Bugs in Blades of Avernum | |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Monday, April 12 2004 16:56
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quote:Read the bug report more carefully. The point is that it can say that your "lockpick" breaks even when you are picking a lock WITHOUT a lockpick. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |