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NTJedi

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About NTJedi

  • Birthday 08/04/1973

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Curious Artila

Curious Artila (3/17)

  1. Yes, this is why I was hoping to see multiplayer added first into one of his releases since features such as modding and editors are rarely used for creating new game content by players who only do single player. The games where editors and modding have been most successful have been ones where multiplayer exists. If multiplayer, modding and editors are not options Jeff is willing to attempt than perhaps he will consider developing a random world generator. It would be easy to keep selling new versions of a random world generator simply by including new items, races, classes, terrain, monsters, events, quests, etc., etc., with each new version. I have grown tired of playing most games which have you follow a specific path OR games where bosses literally do nothing inside the game except wait for you to reach their location and kill them. There's no need for Jeff to host the servers since plenty of games have the gamers hosting the server whether it's Age of Wonders 2, Baldurs Gate 2, Demise and others. Even the original Diablo game would be hosted by one of the gamers. The biggest tough spot for bringing the multiplayer feature would be if the developers have technical skills. Multiplayer with an editor and with modding would bring new life to these forums plus lots more replay value. Currently the original NeverWinter Nights is my favorite since you not only have the multiplayer option and editor for creating your own world, but there's a Dungeon Master option so you can control the world as others are playing plus it can allow 64 players at the same time... and you can host the server yourself.
  2. Many games have done turn based multiplayer such as Age of Wonders 2, Battle for Wesnoth, Baldurs Gate 2, etc., etc., etc., etc., . With technology skyrocketing and evolving there's never a question regarding if this can be done correctly... only a question regarding if the developers are smart enough to implement the feature correctly. The age of wonders 2 was perfectly done allowing gamers to change the turn length each time they continue the session from a saved game allowing the beginning to move super fast and allowing major end game players time to manage all cities. Yes your movement might be paused during a turn based game, but there's plenty of multiplayer features which should still be available in the game when it's not your turn such as reading lore, organizing inventory which is not equipped, reviewing your skill tree, reviewing your spell books, game messages to other players and that's just off the top of my head. The main reason I have seen developers not include multiplayer is because it's beyond their technical skills. Further evidence is where you see plenty of single player games add the multiplayer feature in future sequels yet you rarely see the multiplayer feature removed from future sequels.
  3. Multiplayer helps games by more than just allowing multiple people to play together. Multiplayer greatly increases custom content made for the games. Games which have multiplayer also have forums which are more active and survive longer. These are benefits which single player gamers have for many games they love. The spiderweb games lack replay value, thus once you win the game... you know all the major events, bosses and puzzles. If he wanted his games to grow in popularity then he needs a game which randomly generates the map, the quests, the bosses, the items, the NPCs, and the events AND/OR provide the game with an editor. He did a small editor once a long time ago, but never evolved it. The randomly generated world which generates the map, the quests, the bosses, the items, the NPCs, and the events is probably too complex for the two developers, but the editor is definitely possible for us. *The end result:* Eventually Jeff Vogel will die from an illness or old age or disease where his gamers won't have anything new from him and will migrate to other games. While a few new gamers might enjoy his games they will become less and less popular over time since the number of game options keep growing. If Jeff Vogel wanted to keep his gamers playing his games and have his games literally evolve then he would be focused on providing an editor so the community could create new fun challenges. Based on the current age of Jeff Vogel and pattern of games being released we might see another 15 games, but without a game editor all the gamers here will move elsewhere and these forums will go silent.
  4. Originally Posted By: Dantius And moving back to my book analogy, Jeff has always, always fallen heavily on the "book" side of the divide, simply because plot- and character- driven RPG's don't lend themselves to random generation. Even back in the days of yore that was 1993 (1994?) when he released Exile, the game had way, way more talking and exploring towns and world maps than it was combat (or at least ti was for the first couple hours I played it, it might have changed later on). And when you fast forward to his Geneforge games, there were literally over 100,000+ words of text in them, which is more than a small novel! You can't randomly generate that and hope to have it work! I'm not saying to remove the original game itself and it's 100,000 words of text... I'm saying bring new features to the games. Features such as an editor, friendly modding, multiplayer and random generation would only increase the size of sales and the community. Obviously a task such as multiplayer is beyond the resources/ability of spiderweb yet the others are possible.
  5. Originally Posted By: Lilith This is an attitude that's never made sense to me. I like having that ground of common experience to discuss with others. I like being able to talk to other people and knowing that they've played the same game, so that I can go up to them and say "wow, how about that longsword+2 in the bandit fort, huh?" and they can understand what I'm talking about -- or if not, then they've learned something about the game. It's not about bragging, but about having a shared experience: the fact that it's old news is exactly what I like about it. If I'm just exploring some randomly generated world that's totally different from everybody else's randomly generated world, then I no longer have that sense of common ground with other players. Shared experience?? It's a singleplayer game... if you're looking to enjoy a better shared experience then multiplayer games deliver a thousands times better shared experience. And in regards to "sense of common ground" there's hundred of other related game features such as game spells, game skills, enchanting/forging items, types of monsters, type of shops, etc., etc., . It's not like you're playing one of us is playing Neverwinter and the other playing Elder Scrolls... geeez. Originally Posted By: Lilith (Incidentally, since you mentioned solving riddles, I'd love to hear how you possibly propose to include randomly-generated riddles in a game.) Quests, Riddles, Mysteries and Puzzles would be one of the most difficult challenges. Since computers lack the intelligence to create them these "variables" would have to be created by the developers and even more importantly the community via modding and/or editor. An optional percentage can then be placed into randomly generated games... ideally an optional game setting can mark which have been 'used' recently to prevent it from reappearing in the second, third or fourth game. As with all games the community can organize and compile the best Quests, Riddles, Mysteries and Puzzles. The key is having modding and/or editor which would allow the community to provide gamers with a constant flow of new content thus extending replay value even after spiderweb is absorbed or gone 20 years from now... otherwise if only the developer makes them the game will eventually run dry for this content. Quote: Learning where to find all of the important stuff is one of the things I like to do in games. What I want is to experience everything a game has to offer, and then move on to a different game and do the same thing. As a completionist player, the thing I like most in a game is to be able to say: "I've seen everything there is to see in this game and learned everything there is to know about it, and can now tell others exactly the optimal way to go through the game for best results". Games where I can't do that frustrate me, and I'm not likely to play them in the first place. However many customers Spiderweb might potentially gain by having randomly-generated worlds, it'd lose players like me. The difference is with games like Neverwinter Nights you have endless replay value... sure you can move to a different game if desired, but a new experience\world is always waiting as an option for the gamer to return. I prefer games on my shelf where I can return one day and enjoy a brand new map, NPCs, quests, puzzles, shops, and entire new different world. Games with fixed worlds, NPCs, quests, towns, etc., such as Nethergate are good for maybe two or three games, yet then become worthless. It's why I don't buy games such as Nethergate. I highly doubt you'd ditch Spiderweb if they released a download tool which provided the option to randomly generate weather, NPCs, monsters and items for a game you've already finished... and that's my point is these are new 'optional' features for increased replay value.
  6. Originally Posted By: Lilith It seems from your posts that you're mostly interested in randomly-generated content as a way of adding replay value. One thing to remember about this is that you're actually in a very small minority of gamers for whom replay value matters. Market research shows that the majority of gamers rarely finish games even once, let alone multiple times. One industry insider suggests that up to 80% of regular gamers have never finished a video game. The random generation has many important values beyond whether or not someone even finishes the game. The first is knowing you won't be finding the same item, NPC, town, or boss monster which has been found by everyone else playing the game. There's little glory finding a longsword+2 or solving a riddle knowing several of your friends and/or family have found or solved the exact same thing. Second you can't even brag in any online forums about some great town or quest because it's all old news unless you're one of the hardcore gamers who can play 8+hours. Third once you've won the game you know where to find all the important stuff... sure you can make an alternate decision for a different ending, but the key items, NPCs, places all remain same. It would be like having only hotdogs for the rest of your life... sure you can make an alternate decision of toppings for a different ending taste, but key component remains the same. Originally Posted By: Lilith Personally, I'd prefer to have a game with lovingly handmade and tested content, even if it only holds up to one playthrough, rather than have to deal with whatever content a computer algorithm decides to spit out at me. I'd recommend that you try out Daggerfall, precisely because it's a pretty instructive example of the ways in which random content generation can go horribly wrong. Just because one game does random content generation wrong, doesn't mean future games will also have random content generation wrong. It's merely getting the formula written correctly and working towards improving the formula. Originally Posted By: Lilith As far as editors go, remember that Blades of Avernum nearly sent Spiderweb out of business. And as for multiplayer, Spiderweb's market niche is turn-based RPGs, and multiplayer turn-based RPGs seem like they'd be pretty unavoidably clunky. (I guess some browser games like Kingdom of Loathing could very loosely be said to count as multiplayer turn-based RPGs, but the world doesn't really need more browser games.) Blades of Avernum was released at a point which was in competition with the other spiderweb games, so naturally they were attacking each other sales. There's many RPGs with editors which have been successful, the best example is Neverwinter Nights and all its expansions. An editor is a game feature which if done correctly would only bring more customers... as with any major game feature. On the same note multiplayer is also a major game feature and if done correctly would only bring more customers as well. Based on what I've read from other developers I don't think spiderweb has the knowledge and/or resources for multiplayer, but I do believe it has the knowledge for an editor or random game generation.
  7. Originally Posted By: Gerry Quinn Daggerfall didn't exactly have a random map, but it had thousands of more or less randomly-generated dungeons, of which you'd expect to see only a fraction. And it had randomly-generated quests in these. I think it's a free download from Bethesda these days. Thanks I'm still searching for other RPGs... recently found GuildWars which has high reviews. I'm still crossing my fingers one day spiderweb will create one of its games with a new feature such as: 1) Multiplayer 2) Random Game Generator 3) Game Editor Each of these would not only increase replay value, but also more sales.
  8. Torchlight was good, but Din's Curse and it's expansion are better in my opinion. These are more hack n slash which are fine, but I haven't found any RPGs which provide randomly generated maps unless you count Nethack or Moria. I've enjoyed the Baulders Gate and Wizardy RPG's... I guess I'm searching for one of these which can also provide randomly generated games.
  9. Thanks for all the responses... I still check back every so often... praying a new editor or multiplayer feature arrives. I guess our family with stick with Neverwinter Nights (the original) for RPGs and AgeofWonders: Shadow Magic for the TBS games. I have bought good games in the past with fixed maps and no editors, yet after the 3rd time 95% of the game is predictable. You know where and how to finish all the major bosses, quests, puzzles, forging, etc., etc., for the game which kills replay value. Game editors allow endless replay value. Multiplayer allows families to play together... single player games is nothing a family would vote for doing on a weekend. The other interest is if one of these RPG games could provide a constant living and changing world... new random bosses actively threatening and changing the world towards evil while the player battles them at keeping the world towards good. This could also provide longterm replay value. Let me know if you guys have any good recommendations for the above type of games. Thanks!
  10. Any news on if Spiderweb software plans to provide a random game generation for an upcoming game? By random game generation I mean the town locations are random, the quests are random, the monsters(&bosses) are random, the NPCs are random, the events are random, the terrain is random, etc., etc., . Any news on if Spiderweb software plans to provide an updated game editor for an upcoming game? I know there's blades of avernum however it's so old and not receiving any updates. An updated and more friendly game editor would be terrific. Thanks.
  11. Any news or rumors whether plans exist for a sequel to Blades of Avernum ? Games with game editors have always provided longer replay value for me. I would also be interested in a game such as Avernum 5 or Avernum 6 if it included a random game generator. This way once it's finished I could play a new unique game where the quests, NPCs, terrain, shops, monsters, mazes, and items would be different.
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