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Holy... I remembered my password!


Smoo

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So I was thinking about BoA the other day (as a part of my larger thought process concerning my creative writing). I thought about all the unfinished stuff I have gathering e-dust on my hard drive and why I never DID finish them.

 

Well, simply put, I think I overreached myself. I chose for my next project something way, way too ambitious (over 80 large towns, with the maximum amount of quests, a complexish morality system, several joinable NPCs who you could talk with like Adrian in Magus of Cattalon etc.) and I simply could not put the time and effort into a fun project of that scale while simultaneously working and studying. On the other hand, I think the shriveling interest in BoA, and the lack of feedback stemming from this, also contributed to my waning interest in designing. Perhaps I would have been more motivated if my later scenarios had gotten more comments, a fact I am not too proud to even admit.

 

Reasons for quitting (if writing a couple of dialogue nodes every year is quitting. It is.) notwithstanding, I decided to come back and reread the comments I had gotten for Quarhag Pass if only for the reason that I was quite proud of it even though I remembered the reaction to it being along the lines of: "Yeah, it's alright." Having now reread the reviews, I did notice something that confused me somewhat (and I realize that I cannot make any definite assumptions with only four reviews, but still...). Mainly, people thought the conditions that triggered the good/bad endings were arbitrary and hidden.

 

Granted, it has been some time since I designed or played QP (or any BoA scenario for that matter), but I seem to recall quite clearly that I wrote in this sequence:

After you leave the Ogre Fort (assuming you did not just attack the ogres outright) the narrator tells you that the ogres, being riled up by Angerfist, would not have simply calmed down and, in their bloodlust, have likely gone to attack Passton. Although now that I think about it, I might have been vague about it and said that the ogres need a release for their pent up aggression or something, not overtly stating that they had gone to Passton. Anyway, this is what triggers the destruction of Passton. If the player goes straight for the Ogre settlement the ogres assaulting Passton manage to overpower its defenders and sack the town. In order to get the good ending, the player must rush back to Passton and attack the ogres from behind. This, and agreeing to help Wise Graybeard, results in the best ending in my humble opinion. But what do I know :p

 

That said, this is not a "I'm back" post, nor is it a goodbye post, the latter which I never made when I silently drifted away from the community as I felt I was never an active member at any rate (apart from being, to my shock, one of the more prolific designers for BoA). This is not me announcing my return to BoA because I don't think I will ever rekindle my passion for BoA, the reason being that I haven't even played BoA in over a year, nor have I had much interest in doing so. This means I haven't had the chance to try out some promising looking scenarios, and I used to play (and review) them all. I used to write dialogue and scripts every day too.

 

Not sure if I'm just wallowing in nostalgia, but I kinda miss who I was back then. I like myself more now, but it was nice when you could just at your computer and CREATE something for hours on end. Here's hoping those times come back.

 

Smoo

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My first reaction was "Holy... Smoo!" Even if you don't stick around, and even if you don't get back into Blades (and honestly, I think pretty much everybody who was around back then feels more or less the same as you do about it), it's good to see an old face/PDN. Well met, good sir, and, selfishly, I personally do hope you come by more frequently.

 

*tips hat*

 

 

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Agreed. For many months I've felt the same same way. A desire to design, almost strong enough to actually do it. I've thought of things I'd love to put in a new BoA scenario, as well as picking up the shreds of ideas I had before my old hard drive gave up on life. Although the thought of starting the latter over, essentially from scratch, is more than a little disheartening. That, coupled with my RL friends having little and less interest in this archaic indie game, makes it somewhat hard to cultivate any BoAmbitions (ha). I just don't have the enthusiasm anymore. I only hope that changes, because I, too, miss how it was during the "Golden Age" of BoA, even if I like myself better now (debatable).

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