@mlnevese I know right? But alas, it's a pain in the nucleus to equip anything steampunky as an ooze. Last time, the damn cellular plasma clogged up all the gears on a cosplay conversion... >_>
My fave D&D settings of all time are probably Eberron, Planescape and Dark Sun, in that order, but I've always had a soft spot for Spelljammer because my first D&D DM for 2nd ed loved Planescape and Spelljammer, and always tried to sprinkle Spelljammer elements into our Planescape games, and the second Planescape game he ran for us turned into a Spelljammer game when we went to a Prime plane (Krynn) and had to visit the deities of magic IN PERSON, and then got sent on a quest through the phlogiston that eventually landed us at another Prime (Abeir-Toril) before the game then turned back into a Planescape game.
Which is all to say, if they did a Spelljammer game, I feel like they'd almost inevitably rob it of the kind of freedom I enjoyed about it over the course of the arc we spent in that setting. If a Spelljammer game didn't let me explore every crystal sphere there is, and basically combine every published setting in a single game, I'd probably feel disappointed. Battling mind flayers in space less a void than an infinity of multi-coloured psychedelic lava lamp fluids is cool enough, but without the ability to land and adventure on different settings, it loses a key component! And that'd be a huge undertaking to make a game like that, easily longer than a decade of development cycle since you'd be making dozens of games to interface with the core game to do it right.
You know? There is a idea. Why doesn't beamdog make a MMO on the side? I always wanted to see Toril, Eberron or Kynn.
Given..Beamdog is not exactly in the right spot to do that, but it would help with their funds down the road, but the other issue is building a fan base, I don't think today's generation cares too much for DnD, they basically fun of it (what a throwback to the 70s).
You know? There is a idea. Why doesn't beamdog make a MMO on the side? I always wanted to see Toril, Eberron or Kynn.
Given..Beamdog is not exactly in the right spot to do that, but it would help with their funds down the road, but the other issue is building a fan base, I don't think today's generation cares too much for DnD, they basically fun of it (what a throwback to the get 70s).
MMOs are expensive and have a terrible meta-game. They'd save money by just making an expansive series of maps and areas to cover all the documented regions.
You know? There is a idea. Why doesn't beamdog make a MMO on the side? I always wanted to see Toril, Eberron or Kynn.
Given..Beamdog is not exactly in the right spot to do that, but it would help with their funds down the road, but the other issue is building a fan base, I don't think today's generation cares too much for DnD, they basically fun of it (what a throwback to the 70s).
I don't like the idea of D&D MMOs. You want to play a D&D MMO, go play Neverwinter Online. It doesn't work too well, as you'll see playing NWO. And I think it's less that today's generation cares for D&D and more that there needs to be good marketing for it.
Meh... if I want to play an D&D MMO, then I'd start up one of my characters in Dungeons & Dragons Online. Not too terrible a game, all things considered. As well as the only real Eberron RPG video game out there (well, there's also Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard, but it's more an RTS than RPG).
Personally I think the NwN franchise was on the right track. Singleplayer game with optional multiplayer, persistent worlds, fan modules and a powerful toolset on top. As long as the devs make various kinds of tilesets available, the community can take over the creation of innumerable custom campaigns.
Yeah, MOBAs are better for PVP. Massive grinding/the exact competitive build is still needed in MMO pvp. I took great joy in using champions "wrong" and destroying the enemy back when I played League of Legends.
I didn't like Neverwinter Online, it was alright at first, but then I noticed the greedy hand of Perfect World (which I experienced before from Perfect World The Game), and I've read a lot of bad stuff about that company.
I never liked Neverwinter Online, it was alright at first, but then I noticed the greedy hand of Perfect World (which I experienced before from Perfect World The Game), and I've read a lot of bad stuff about that company.
Yeah, well... that's really the business model now, unless you're the owner of a) World of Warcraft OR b) Final Fantasy 14. As a consumer, it's not a model I enjoy, to be frank.
I'm waiting for WikiLeaks to hack into Beamdog's server and expose what the Hell they're working on so secretly. Come on Russians, give us some info that really matters!
Maybe the CIA can hack into JuliusBorisov's TV...
Hey, I don't have any TV at home. I can assure you - at least one Russian won't leak anything
The only thing leaking out of @JuliusBorisov is untold arcane might, and it keeps accidentally polymorphing me into a mantis shrimp when I post too close to one of his posts, which sucks because then I just flop around aimlessly, without fingers to type things witrnaweili;o nnd/ aa f;ln/f..a/ ..
In MMO's people spending money will rule in PvP, otherwise you need a group of 10-15 people that always rolls together to be relevant at all, especially at siege battles. Or you can always go PvE, get that max level, farm best craft materials, and get paid much gold by tryhards who 'rules' in PvP but get one shoted by my fella Boss on 280lvl right here.
100lvl characters in a DnD game? I'm not sure how that's going to work. Not even the gods get to that level. It'll likely "dilute" the experience too, with it being more focused on grinding and such.
If you work at Beamdog, you can have the cubicle next to me! It's full of candy wrappers, though. I'm so sorry.
Job Type: Full-time permanent
Beamdog, the game developers behind Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, and the Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear expansion pack are looking for a Lead Artist to join their creative team. Responsibilities
The Lead Artist is responsible for leading and managing a team of up to 10 artists, which includes the assigning and tracking of tasks, the providing of feedback and direction, and the encouragement of skill development. They are also responsible for establishing, refining, and communicating the artistic vision of their projects, in collaboration with the rest of the development team, and ensuring a high level of artistic quality and consistency from their artists all the way from initial project conception through to release and beyond.
- Clearly communicate that artistic vision to the rest of the project team - Manage all documentation for the art team, in particular the style guides - Review work produced by the art team and be aware of their day-to- day schedule as determined by the Art Coordinator - Review art produced by outsourced partners, to keep quality consistent with the rest of the project - Understand the technical art requirements of Beamdog’s projects, and ensure thoserequirements are being met - Work closely with 3D modeling teams to ensure artistic vision translates into in-game content
Qualifications
- Strong leadership and communication skills - The ability to personally participate in the creation of quality art content, as the candidate will not only be leading fellow artists on the project, they will also be producing it - Knowledge of game development art processes, from pre-production to post-release, with preference given to a candidate credited on at least one released title - A preference is given to candidates familiar with Unreal Engine 4 and Adobe Creative Suite. - Familiarity with ConceptShare and JIRA is a definite bonus - You must be authorized to legally work in Canada, and willing to work locally in Edmonton, Alberta (relocating, if necessary) - A related University or College degree is also preferred but not required
How to Apply
Email a portfolio of artwork showcasing your ability (3D content is preferable), your c.v., and cover letter to todd@beamdog.com
100lvl characters in a DnD game? I'm not sure how that's going to work. Not even the gods get to that level. It'll likely "dilute" the experience too, with it being more focused on grinding and such.
Let's just extrapolate from the way D&D normally handles levels:
At level 1, you can kill a squirrel (with a Burning Hands spell)
At level 5, you can blow up a house (with a Fireball spell).
At level 20 or so, you can blow up a city (with some silly metamagic spell, or Karsus' spell that destroyed Netheril).
At level 30, you can level a country (I guess you bought a nuclear arsenal or something).
At level 40, you can destroy a continent (by plagiarizing whatever idiot came up with the Spellplague).
At level 50, you can blow up a planet (I guess you built the Death Star).
At level 60, you can destroy a solar system (maybe you created a black hole).
At level 70, you can destroy a galaxy (maybe you're like that cosmic turtle from Stephen King's It, and you can eat galaxies).
At level 80, you can blow up a star cluster (I assume you just went full-blown Clone Wars and created an army of a bajillion Goku clones).
At level 90, you can destroy the universe (because the Dungeon Master is bored with this campaign anyway).
In MMO's people spending money will rule in PvP, otherwise you need a group of 10-15 people that always rolls together to be relevant at all, especially at siege battles.
It's almost like you think all PvP in every MMO works the same...
In MMO's people spending money will rule in PvP, otherwise you need a group of 10-15 people that always rolls together to be relevant at all, especially at siege battles.
Those mmos u mention are rubbish f2p models which all suck one way or another. The whole point of mmos is party forming for group content or for premade battlegrounds
Chara Dreemurr, the little understood, gender-ambiguous child from Undertale who is only seen at the end of a Genocide run, and one of the most enigmatic characters I know of. If you complete a Genocide run,
Chara will wipe out the entire universe with a single blow, and
literally take over your save game (which itself is a huge plot point in Undertale) and keep you from playing the game ever again unless you agree to sell your soul to them, which will
permanently corrupt all future Pacifist runs, and Chara apparently murders all of your friends in the game after the ending, just because
they wanted you to understand that your actions had consequences.
The mods/fixes are all good, but they can't be installed in the GOG OS X version (even with my excellent Weidu launcher utility )
Why not?
I managed to install all the mods suggested in the GOG modding guide, on my GOG version of PS:T on Linux (using Wine).
The game did have issues, of course: A handful of crashes; A few "please insert CD" freezes on area transitions potentially related to fullscreen/windowed mode; And at some point my savegame got borked and I had to ask a friend to give me his savegame from that area so I could continue playing. And yeah, I too hated the radial menu.
These days, building an engine from scratch is - imho - nonsensical. There's so many excellent engines. Look at Torment: Tides of Numenara, which just came out. It uses the Unity Engine (which is purchasable or available for free if you don't publish your game). Pics:
It has that classic isometric RPG look, but with a new, better, more robust engine than any of those old game engines (including the EE Engine, I would posit).
The EE games are performant (e.g. loading and saving is near-instant, and even the SoD battles involving whole armies don't cause lag/stuttering) precisely because Beamdog's programmers optimized them at the engine level.
Maybe it's theoretically possible to take a generic game engine like Unity that wasn't specifically designed for isometric party-based RPGs, and sucessfully build an isometric party-based RPG on top of it that performs as efficiently as the EE games. But I haven't seen an example of that yet. And even if it is possible, it is clearly not what happens when developers follow the path of least resistance with those engines, as evidenced by Pillars, Torment, Shadowrun, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if achieving EE-like performance with such Unity-based RPGs, would require forfeiting a lot of the automation and convenience that the Unity editor provides, in favor of re-implementing a bunch of stuff manually.
Actually, Unity Engine is moddable - IF the developer provides the tools for it. And that's the same for any engine, modern or not. If the developer doesn't provide the tools, then we have to have users code it.
So why haven't modders managed to produce their own WeiDU/DLTCP/NearInfinity like modding tools for Unity games like Pillars of Eternity?
From what I've seen, Unity's data files (at least in the case of Pillars) contain plenty of binary dumps of C# data structures, and item/creature scripts are even compiled into the main executable (with the respective item/creature files containing a pointer into the EXE). That kind of thing would be extremely complex to parse and modify programmatically, especially since the exact layout of the binary dumps might radically change with every patch to the game or engine.
The Infinity Engine uses comparatively simple binary formats, where each type of file has a rigid specialized structure with data fields at well-defined byte offsets and/or in a well-defined order. And it provides the override folder mechanism to replace or add individual assets easily. This made third-party modding tools feasible.
Claiming that concerns about Unity moddability are invalid because it "would" be moddable if someone "would" provide modding tools, is a non sequitur.
Comments
Which is all to say, if they did a Spelljammer game, I feel like they'd almost inevitably rob it of the kind of freedom I enjoyed about it over the course of the arc we spent in that setting. If a Spelljammer game didn't let me explore every crystal sphere there is, and basically combine every published setting in a single game, I'd probably feel disappointed. Battling mind flayers in space less a void than an infinity of multi-coloured psychedelic lava lamp fluids is cool enough, but without the ability to land and adventure on different settings, it loses a key component! And that'd be a huge undertaking to make a game like that, easily longer than a decade of development cycle since you'd be making dozens of games to interface with the core game to do it right.
Given..Beamdog is not exactly in the right spot to do that, but it would help with their funds down the road, but the other issue is building a fan base, I don't think today's generation cares too much for DnD, they basically fun of it (what a throwback to the 70s).
Personally I think the NwN franchise was on the right track. Singleplayer game with optional multiplayer, persistent worlds, fan modules and a powerful toolset on top. As long as the devs make various kinds of tilesets available, the community can take over the creation of innumerable custom campaigns.
Or you can always go PvE, get that max level, farm best craft materials, and get paid much gold by tryhards who 'rules' in PvP but get one shoted by my fella Boss on 280lvl right here.
BG3 should have 100lvl cap at least plx beamgod
If you work at Beamdog, you can have the cubicle next to me! It's full of candy wrappers, though. I'm so sorry.
Job Type: Full-time permanent
Beamdog, the game developers behind Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, and the Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear expansion pack are looking for a Lead Artist to join their creative team.
Responsibilities
The Lead Artist is responsible for leading and managing a team of up to 10 artists, which includes the assigning and tracking of tasks, the providing of feedback and direction, and the encouragement of skill development. They are also responsible for establishing, refining, and communicating the artistic vision of their projects, in collaboration with the rest of the development team, and ensuring a high level of artistic quality and consistency from their artists all the way from initial project conception through to release and beyond.
- Clearly communicate that artistic vision to the rest of the project team
- Manage all documentation for the art team, in particular the style guides
- Review work produced by the art team and be aware of their day-to- day schedule as determined by the Art Coordinator
- Review art produced by outsourced partners, to keep quality consistent with the rest of the project
- Understand the technical art requirements of Beamdog’s projects, and ensure thoserequirements are being met
- Work closely with 3D modeling teams to ensure artistic vision translates into in-game content
Qualifications
- Strong leadership and communication skills
- The ability to personally participate in the creation of quality art content, as the candidate will not only be leading fellow artists on the project, they will also be producing it
- Knowledge of game development art processes, from pre-production to post-release, with preference given to a candidate credited on at least one released title
- A preference is given to candidates familiar with Unreal Engine 4 and Adobe Creative Suite.
- Familiarity with ConceptShare and JIRA is a definite bonus
- You must be authorized to legally work in Canada, and willing to work locally in Edmonton, Alberta (relocating, if necessary)
- A related University or College degree is also preferred but not required
How to Apply
Email a portfolio of artwork showcasing your ability (3D content is preferable), your c.v., and cover letter to todd@beamdog.com
At level 1, you can kill a squirrel (with a Burning Hands spell)
At level 5, you can blow up a house (with a Fireball spell).
At level 20 or so, you can blow up a city (with some silly metamagic spell, or Karsus' spell that destroyed Netheril).
At level 30, you can level a country (I guess you bought a nuclear arsenal or something).
At level 40, you can destroy a continent (by plagiarizing whatever idiot came up with the Spellplague).
At level 50, you can blow up a planet (I guess you built the Death Star).
At level 60, you can destroy a solar system (maybe you created a black hole).
At level 70, you can destroy a galaxy (maybe you're like that cosmic turtle from Stephen King's It, and you can eat galaxies).
At level 80, you can blow up a star cluster (I assume you just went full-blown Clone Wars and created an army of a bajillion Goku clones).
At level 90, you can destroy the universe (because the Dungeon Master is bored with this campaign anyway).
At level 100, you can beat Chara.
Art direction is so important, like damn.
If you complete a Genocide run,
I managed to install all the mods suggested in the GOG modding guide, on my GOG version of PS:T on Linux (using Wine).
The game did have issues, of course: A handful of crashes; A few "please insert CD" freezes on area transitions potentially related to fullscreen/windowed mode; And at some point my savegame got borked and I had to ask a friend to give me his savegame from that area so I could continue playing. And yeah, I too hated the radial menu.
But I did manage to finish the game...
The EE games are performant (e.g. loading and saving is near-instant, and even the SoD battles involving whole armies don't cause lag/stuttering) precisely because Beamdog's programmers optimized them at the engine level.
Maybe it's theoretically possible to take a generic game engine like Unity that wasn't specifically designed for isometric party-based RPGs, and sucessfully build an isometric party-based RPG on top of it that performs as efficiently as the EE games. But I haven't seen an example of that yet. And even if it is possible, it is clearly not what happens when developers follow the path of least resistance with those engines, as evidenced by Pillars, Torment, Shadowrun, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if achieving EE-like performance with such Unity-based RPGs, would require forfeiting a lot of the automation and convenience that the Unity editor provides, in favor of re-implementing a bunch of stuff manually. So why haven't modders managed to produce their own WeiDU/DLTCP/NearInfinity like modding tools for Unity games like Pillars of Eternity?
From what I've seen, Unity's data files (at least in the case of Pillars) contain plenty of binary dumps of C# data structures, and item/creature scripts are even compiled into the main executable (with the respective item/creature files containing a pointer into the EXE). That kind of thing would be extremely complex to parse and modify programmatically, especially since the exact layout of the binary dumps might radically change with every patch to the game or engine.
The Infinity Engine uses comparatively simple binary formats, where each type of file has a rigid specialized structure with data fields at well-defined byte offsets and/or in a well-defined order. And it provides the override folder mechanism to replace or add individual assets easily. This made third-party modding tools feasible.
Claiming that concerns about Unity moddability are invalid because it "would" be moddable if someone "would" provide modding tools, is a non sequitur.
Is that related to any of the current projects?
They aren't posting it for giggles.
But probably not the next game released/announced as that is in Beta and yoy'd hope that all the art direction is done by now.