Here is my post as to why that I left to my guild, with certain sections edited out:
Hey folks:
I have made the tough decision to stop playing WoW.
I don't know where to begin as there is a lot to say.
First, the guild has been uber awesome. The reason I have stayed for so long is the people, it really is.
But at the heart of the matter, I don't really enjoy WoW and as of late, have come to loathe it. I log in to see my friends, but it's rough for me to play at any length. Because I don't like the game.
I know that's a bit weird considering the time I have put in. I love the WoW universe, the lore, the pretty graphics, the getting on and owning noobs sometimes, but the gameplay itself is insulting to me, especially after playing games like EQ and EQ2. The repetitive nature of the game is a let down. The constant grinding, the easy instances, the lack of respect for me as a gamer.
And the icing on the cake is Blizzard's attitude toward its customer base. Their constant rebalancing and "you'll like it or else" attitude is crap.
But the ultimate reason is that I need more me time. I don't know how to say it otherwise. My life completely changed since playing WoW. To be in a group with good people you have to be on constantly or you get left behind for some reason or another.
And it has taken its toll on me. I have gained more than a hundred pounds of weight in the last four years (some due to the ending of a bad marriage, but not all). I have shut myself in night after night, for which friends became a diminishing circle in real life. And I need to find other things to do. Other passions and hobbies.
I'd hate for me life story to be written as "he was a good gamer."
Now there is one MMO that I'll still be in from time to time, but the whole reason is that MMO, Eve Online, is more of a hobby, not a time sink.
And I might play others here and there but never again this dedicated.
It is not likely that I will ever pick up WoW again. EQ II is a much better game. If I ever go back to something, it'll be EQ II.
Finally, I have put in funds to get the guild up and running on this Web site and on Ventrilo.
I want you to continue to use them. I'd hate to miss seeing my friends and talking to them, for which many of you are amongst that number.
[Section Edited out]
You guys are the greatest of my friends and the ones who had me logging in day after day.
[section edited out]
Keep in touch, and talk to me on Ventrilo.
I now take my leave of the guild, satisfied that I am exiting the game at the top. Of all the guilds I have seen, I am proud to have this one listed as my final one.
Good Guild
Thanks,
See you around
Beofox
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Fear the FEAR!
OK, so I make bad puns - at least I'm not a-feared of doing so! (doh!)
Well, I finished the base FEAR game. I haven't done the expansion but for a bit I'm not gonna either.
And with no further delay, here are my thoughts!
So where to begin...
I am about to make an important distinction here - this game's engine is pretty. But they drag it down by having a 90% lackluster environment.
The details:
First of all, they have depth of field, both in cinematics and when you are using a scope. In fact one scope has to "adjust" in and out as you move from o far to a near target or vise versa. And it looks nice.
Even better, the engine has real-time volumetric lighting effects!! For those who don't understand what a volumetric light is, it is when you actually see light streaming in from somewhere, usually due to dust. And just for further illustration, here is a screenshot:
You can see the light streaming in and they use this effect in plenty of places appropriately. It looks good with a side order of "not slowing things down too much" which is a must.
Speaking of lights, they are dynamic too. Sometimes the building you are in might tremble and the lights go swinging around and they cast their glow on the walls and floors. It's pretty awesome. Not only that, but your weapons get lit appropriately too:
Then, just when I thought I had seen it all, I come across water! And the light reflection off water... O.M.G. It would be hard to top it. It's animated and the animation told me immediately before I could ever see the actual water "there's water over there". A still picture can't really do it justice, but even the still look pretty, so feast your eyes!
For all the light's yummy goodness, it has some serious flaws too. There are two main issues with it. First, there is texture popping, both in physical textures and in lighting itself. First, physical textures:
In the first image, you can see some weird red texture just jutting out. It's not supposed to be there at all. That is a down-ramp in to a parking garage. In the second, if you look near the center, you see two white stripes for the edge of the ledge below but where they cross, the textures compete with each other for z-buffer, causing them to "animate" improperly and "pop" and just generally look bad. While this doesn't happen on large textures (thankfully) it does happen enough to be distracting in some areas. And once you start noticing it, it gets worse.
Now, two more images:
You will notice they are essentially the same image but I just move slightly left and right. And you will notice that there is light streaming on to the floor in one and not in the other.
Which brings me to my next point because I think it's the cause of when you see even these oddities.
Lights get off-screen-culled out of the picture. Off-screen-culling (sometimes "occluded" instead of "culled") is a mathematical process by which the game figures out that since you can't see something (because it's off screen) the game doesn't waste time drawing it (off-screen of course). But the problem with including light is that basically if you are looking in their direction, you see their glow and their shadows, but if you turn around, POOF they are gone, along with their lighting and their shadows. And for the record, I was running the game on "maximum" for the lighting effects which is listed as (draw all lights, all the time).
Bad game engine, bad! No doughnut.
Finally, to come full circle - most of the environment in this game is lack-luster. Each stage has a spot where the lighting is cool (wait till you see lighting through frosted glass!!) but they could have added more diversity and really gone to play with it!
But given everything I'd say game engine is uber.
Speaking of diversity, this is perhaps one of the game's two largest flaws. Most of the game takes place in three buildings. And when it doesn't, you are actually in a run down back-alley. I was so sick of one of the buildings that I actually almost stopped playing. I was SO glad when I got to leave. Come on Sierra, mix it up a little! You spend about 50% of the game (possibly more) in the same office building.
And it's an office building. Been there, done that, got a paycheck to prove it. Don't need that much office in my games.
OK so letting that go, the AI is the second greatest reason I kept going. (Story line, believe it or not was the first.) The AI is complex and impressive. Here is how impressive: I was being shot at, so I was ducked behind a pillar. A second mob (Internet lingo for a hostile) was on the other side of crates from me and "lost me" (my respect for the game includes the fact that mobs are NOT omniscient) and then called over the comm to the other "I lost him!". At which point the other replies back "He's behind those crates!" and the response of "Roger!" and a subsequent running around the crates to find me.
Wow. I don't want to look at the code that can pull off that level of sophistication in an FPS. Just wow.
Mobs will use team tactics, including flushing you out with grenades, attempting to flank you, using suppressing fire to let team mates move from cover to cover, running around to shoot you in the back. It feels like you are playing against an intelligent being.
And the icing on the cake - the game IS NOT CHEAP ABOUT MOBS! Even in the end of the game, where most designers lose focus on core values, the mobs are not cheap, the most obvious of which would be spawning mobs behind you as you cross a threshold or flip a switch. I am pretty sure it happens not even once the whole game (excluding nightmares, which I think is only fair to do).
Even the times that a mob crashes through a wall (rarely), they do it in front of you and they give you warning signs.
Well done and bravo!
While I am on this topic, I do have to point out the other major flaw though. You will fight the same foe (generic soldiers) for 80% of the game.
Variety is the spice of life. I could really use some. Which is ultimately why I'm not dying to play the expansion. I am not ready for more of the same.
Let's see, what else...
Bullet holes are displacement maps. I am of mixed opinion on this. In the middle of a featureless wall, they look great. But if any overlap, they have a tendency to texture pop, if there is a texture background or they are near an edge, you can see that they move around as you move around (they aren't fixed in location) and if one ends up at an edge of a wall, you can clearly see they are a displacement map, not a physical removal of geometry and it stands out. Yes it would be hard to actually remove geometry, but if they at least knocked out edges of walls, perhaps not even the middles, it would help. It got so bad I just stopped looking, intentionally.
Another bad thing is inventory management, mainly with weapons. You can only carry three for starters. After playing, I can honestly say it should be at least four because of the value of the big guns, the need for a long range weapon, the need for a short range weapon and the fact they switch up what ammo is prevalent level by level. But worse, when you drop a weapon (because you have emptied it - more on why in a moment) - if that was the weapon in the middle of the list, YOU CAN NO LONGER SCROLL TO SWAP BETWEEN WEAPONS! - Luckily, dropping the third weapon too and then picking it back up puts it in slot 2 and fixes this, but eww.
When you find a new weapon - if you already have one equipped, you get half the ammo of if you didn't have it equipped. So for the weapons I like, I found myself unrealistically dropping my weapon each time I saw another so that I could grab it with 100% ammo (not 50%) and then picking up the one I dropped (which dropped weapons remember their ammo count when you drop them).
That's bad design.
Also, I wish that all guns started at a full clip, but as you killed your foes, any shots they fired were depleted from the weapon, that would make the immersion factor even more and the reward for quickly neutralizing foes even more rewarding. (Get more ammo.)
Regarding one of the characters in the game, the game pulls one of my classic "no no"s of plot design. Some day I'll make a list so I can link to it, but suffice to say that you get ripped off on a wholesome level with one of the antagonists.
Back to what's good. Slow motion not only looks super cool, it has well-placed story line value, it works really well with the sound and makes sniping more sensible.
Oh yeah, they have slow motion you can trigger pretty much whenever, it just has to recharge after. The slow motion I used throughout the game. And unlike another game I've played in the past, I don't find it to be annoying and cheap. In some places you just plain have to use it, especially if you are running on hard difficulty.
Did I mention it looks nice?
When you take damage, if it nearly kills you, but leaves you alive, your difficulty rating determines a minimum life level and you will slowly regen back to that level. This is a god send and even more fairness in my opinion. It makes receiving a clipping blow at near death an immediate risk without being a level-killer. I wish more FPS's did this.
The story line takes itself seriously. This is the number one reason I kept playing. It grips you right off, leaves questions that it answers in nibblets throughout, and plays up the "creepy" factor well. In fact, had it not been so gripping, I would have stopped due to the creepy factor cause I'm a wimp when it comes to creepy. I've avoided Silent Hill for that reason. But the way the story is told, in flashbacks, nightmare sequences, comm buzzes, phone messages - it gives the game a suspense/thriller aspect that when coupled with first person is GREAT!
The ending is also pretty cool. I'd say about 10% WTF, 10% rolling eyes sarcastically, and 80% awesome.
The story line has a few plot holes though. I'd rather not go in to it, because I don't like giving stuff away whenever I can avoid it, but there be plot holes, yo. Not major gaping ones, but there are.
Don't let that stop you though - the game really delivers. The story becomes more and more compelling as you play and that's a good thing. =)
There is no shortage of blood or language in this game. The intense amount of blood is appropriate for the environment. Here is one of the more tame versions in fact:
It gets much more gruesome than that. Much more. And it enhances the story and the environment.
This is a Mature 17+ game by the way. And they utilize it. (THANK YOU!)
I even like the fact that when you snipe an enemy team member, the other people in the squad run for cover and sometimes yell out "shit!" or "fuck!" or even as they throw grenades, the occasional "die mother fucker!"
Thanks for not being ashamed to treat me like an adult. I really appreciate it.
So what does all this add up to?
I highly recommend a play through.
And the following was completely unnecessary, but I'll forgive them.
(Note, as I reach the end of the article I just realized all the images I uploaded were BMPs. If you are on dial up I apologize for the excessive file sizes when you click in to images and will make sure not to repeat this blunder)
Well, I finished the base FEAR game. I haven't done the expansion but for a bit I'm not gonna either.
And with no further delay, here are my thoughts!
So where to begin...
I am about to make an important distinction here - this game's engine is pretty. But they drag it down by having a 90% lackluster environment.
The details:
First of all, they have depth of field, both in cinematics and when you are using a scope. In fact one scope has to "adjust" in and out as you move from o far to a near target or vise versa. And it looks nice.
Even better, the engine has real-time volumetric lighting effects!! For those who don't understand what a volumetric light is, it is when you actually see light streaming in from somewhere, usually due to dust. And just for further illustration, here is a screenshot:
You can see the light streaming in and they use this effect in plenty of places appropriately. It looks good with a side order of "not slowing things down too much" which is a must.
Speaking of lights, they are dynamic too. Sometimes the building you are in might tremble and the lights go swinging around and they cast their glow on the walls and floors. It's pretty awesome. Not only that, but your weapons get lit appropriately too:
Then, just when I thought I had seen it all, I come across water! And the light reflection off water... O.M.G. It would be hard to top it. It's animated and the animation told me immediately before I could ever see the actual water "there's water over there". A still picture can't really do it justice, but even the still look pretty, so feast your eyes!
For all the light's yummy goodness, it has some serious flaws too. There are two main issues with it. First, there is texture popping, both in physical textures and in lighting itself. First, physical textures:
In the first image, you can see some weird red texture just jutting out. It's not supposed to be there at all. That is a down-ramp in to a parking garage. In the second, if you look near the center, you see two white stripes for the edge of the ledge below but where they cross, the textures compete with each other for z-buffer, causing them to "animate" improperly and "pop" and just generally look bad. While this doesn't happen on large textures (thankfully) it does happen enough to be distracting in some areas. And once you start noticing it, it gets worse.
Now, two more images:
You will notice they are essentially the same image but I just move slightly left and right. And you will notice that there is light streaming on to the floor in one and not in the other.
Which brings me to my next point because I think it's the cause of when you see even these oddities.
Lights get off-screen-culled out of the picture. Off-screen-culling (sometimes "occluded" instead of "culled") is a mathematical process by which the game figures out that since you can't see something (because it's off screen) the game doesn't waste time drawing it (off-screen of course). But the problem with including light is that basically if you are looking in their direction, you see their glow and their shadows, but if you turn around, POOF they are gone, along with their lighting and their shadows. And for the record, I was running the game on "maximum" for the lighting effects which is listed as (draw all lights, all the time).
Bad game engine, bad! No doughnut.
Finally, to come full circle - most of the environment in this game is lack-luster. Each stage has a spot where the lighting is cool (wait till you see lighting through frosted glass!!) but they could have added more diversity and really gone to play with it!
But given everything I'd say game engine is uber.
Speaking of diversity, this is perhaps one of the game's two largest flaws. Most of the game takes place in three buildings. And when it doesn't, you are actually in a run down back-alley. I was so sick of one of the buildings that I actually almost stopped playing. I was SO glad when I got to leave. Come on Sierra, mix it up a little! You spend about 50% of the game (possibly more) in the same office building.
And it's an office building. Been there, done that, got a paycheck to prove it. Don't need that much office in my games.
OK so letting that go, the AI is the second greatest reason I kept going. (Story line, believe it or not was the first.) The AI is complex and impressive. Here is how impressive: I was being shot at, so I was ducked behind a pillar. A second mob (Internet lingo for a hostile) was on the other side of crates from me and "lost me" (my respect for the game includes the fact that mobs are NOT omniscient) and then called over the comm to the other "I lost him!". At which point the other replies back "He's behind those crates!" and the response of "Roger!" and a subsequent running around the crates to find me.
Wow. I don't want to look at the code that can pull off that level of sophistication in an FPS. Just wow.
Mobs will use team tactics, including flushing you out with grenades, attempting to flank you, using suppressing fire to let team mates move from cover to cover, running around to shoot you in the back. It feels like you are playing against an intelligent being.
And the icing on the cake - the game IS NOT CHEAP ABOUT MOBS! Even in the end of the game, where most designers lose focus on core values, the mobs are not cheap, the most obvious of which would be spawning mobs behind you as you cross a threshold or flip a switch. I am pretty sure it happens not even once the whole game (excluding nightmares, which I think is only fair to do).
Even the times that a mob crashes through a wall (rarely), they do it in front of you and they give you warning signs.
Well done and bravo!
While I am on this topic, I do have to point out the other major flaw though. You will fight the same foe (generic soldiers) for 80% of the game.
Variety is the spice of life. I could really use some. Which is ultimately why I'm not dying to play the expansion. I am not ready for more of the same.
Let's see, what else...
Bullet holes are displacement maps. I am of mixed opinion on this. In the middle of a featureless wall, they look great. But if any overlap, they have a tendency to texture pop, if there is a texture background or they are near an edge, you can see that they move around as you move around (they aren't fixed in location) and if one ends up at an edge of a wall, you can clearly see they are a displacement map, not a physical removal of geometry and it stands out. Yes it would be hard to actually remove geometry, but if they at least knocked out edges of walls, perhaps not even the middles, it would help. It got so bad I just stopped looking, intentionally.
Another bad thing is inventory management, mainly with weapons. You can only carry three for starters. After playing, I can honestly say it should be at least four because of the value of the big guns, the need for a long range weapon, the need for a short range weapon and the fact they switch up what ammo is prevalent level by level. But worse, when you drop a weapon (because you have emptied it - more on why in a moment) - if that was the weapon in the middle of the list, YOU CAN NO LONGER SCROLL TO SWAP BETWEEN WEAPONS! - Luckily, dropping the third weapon too and then picking it back up puts it in slot 2 and fixes this, but eww.
When you find a new weapon - if you already have one equipped, you get half the ammo of if you didn't have it equipped. So for the weapons I like, I found myself unrealistically dropping my weapon each time I saw another so that I could grab it with 100% ammo (not 50%) and then picking up the one I dropped (which dropped weapons remember their ammo count when you drop them).
That's bad design.
Also, I wish that all guns started at a full clip, but as you killed your foes, any shots they fired were depleted from the weapon, that would make the immersion factor even more and the reward for quickly neutralizing foes even more rewarding. (Get more ammo.)
Regarding one of the characters in the game, the game pulls one of my classic "no no"s of plot design. Some day I'll make a list so I can link to it, but suffice to say that you get ripped off on a wholesome level with one of the antagonists.
Back to what's good. Slow motion not only looks super cool, it has well-placed story line value, it works really well with the sound and makes sniping more sensible.
Oh yeah, they have slow motion you can trigger pretty much whenever, it just has to recharge after. The slow motion I used throughout the game. And unlike another game I've played in the past, I don't find it to be annoying and cheap. In some places you just plain have to use it, especially if you are running on hard difficulty.
Did I mention it looks nice?
When you take damage, if it nearly kills you, but leaves you alive, your difficulty rating determines a minimum life level and you will slowly regen back to that level. This is a god send and even more fairness in my opinion. It makes receiving a clipping blow at near death an immediate risk without being a level-killer. I wish more FPS's did this.
The story line takes itself seriously. This is the number one reason I kept playing. It grips you right off, leaves questions that it answers in nibblets throughout, and plays up the "creepy" factor well. In fact, had it not been so gripping, I would have stopped due to the creepy factor cause I'm a wimp when it comes to creepy. I've avoided Silent Hill for that reason. But the way the story is told, in flashbacks, nightmare sequences, comm buzzes, phone messages - it gives the game a suspense/thriller aspect that when coupled with first person is GREAT!
The ending is also pretty cool. I'd say about 10% WTF, 10% rolling eyes sarcastically, and 80% awesome.
The story line has a few plot holes though. I'd rather not go in to it, because I don't like giving stuff away whenever I can avoid it, but there be plot holes, yo. Not major gaping ones, but there are.
Don't let that stop you though - the game really delivers. The story becomes more and more compelling as you play and that's a good thing. =)
There is no shortage of blood or language in this game. The intense amount of blood is appropriate for the environment. Here is one of the more tame versions in fact:
It gets much more gruesome than that. Much more. And it enhances the story and the environment.
This is a Mature 17+ game by the way. And they utilize it. (THANK YOU!)
I even like the fact that when you snipe an enemy team member, the other people in the squad run for cover and sometimes yell out "shit!" or "fuck!" or even as they throw grenades, the occasional "die mother fucker!"
Thanks for not being ashamed to treat me like an adult. I really appreciate it.
So what does all this add up to?
I highly recommend a play through.
And the following was completely unnecessary, but I'll forgive them.
(Note, as I reach the end of the article I just realized all the images I uploaded were BMPs. If you are on dial up I apologize for the excessive file sizes when you click in to images and will make sure not to repeat this blunder)
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Next up: FEAR
So, I saw FEAR Gold Edition on the shelf for 20$.
It's one of those games that never attracted me (bad marketing IMO) but that I would periodically hear people say "I should go play FEAR again."
The latest person to say that was a coworker of mine who's opinion on video games I hold in higher regard than most.
So I grabbed it.
And last night I fired it up.
And I should have done this game a lot sooner.
Once I finish it (by the end of the weekend, tops) I'll have a review.
But so far, I've been pleasantly surprised.
It's one of those games that never attracted me (bad marketing IMO) but that I would periodically hear people say "I should go play FEAR again."
The latest person to say that was a coworker of mine who's opinion on video games I hold in higher regard than most.
So I grabbed it.
And last night I fired it up.
And I should have done this game a lot sooner.
Once I finish it (by the end of the weekend, tops) I'll have a review.
But so far, I've been pleasantly surprised.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
StarCraft: I Love The Smell Of Napalm In The Morning
Aside from the fact that some of the quotes are obvious ripoffs of pop culture references (even if they DO work for the characters) StarCraft has to be one of the most immersive and enjoyable games ever.
As far as RTS's go, it's probably my #1 favorite.
So that's why, when I saw the StarCraft Battle Chest on the shelf for ten dollars I bought two!!
My reasoning of course: I want to be able to play it multiplayer if any of my gaming friends come over.
And then, one of my friends came over!
==WE HAD A BLAST!==
As far as RTS's go, this game has one of the best storylines ever and even as far as the whole game genre as a whole goes, it's still damned good! And it's fun and generally unobtrusive.
What's more, the three playable races, as you play each, you start feeling like you are a part of that race hell-be-damned to the other races. Down with them all! (But leave Jim Raynor alone!)
The game is pretty good at balancing too. I don't feel underhanded playing any of the races, they just all take a different play style to manage effectively. (Meaning if you aren't familiar, you'll get your ass handed to you.)
It's a pretty old game by gaming standards these days, and some of the major upgrades in RTS's and how they handle are certainly missed. Sometimes, the pathing is extremely dumb, and some stuff should be more intuitive. Also, I really like being able to assign one of me worker units to patrol and "auto repair".
There are times, the computer opponent feels like it is cheating because of how fast it responds to things. Attack something with a cloaked unit, it immediately uses an ability directly at their location to expose that unit.
You get an army mobilized - the computer attacks it, and your base, and your forward position - ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!
But then, the computer is genuinely stupid at times too. If I take out a missile turret, it will usually never rebuild it - leaving me with a perfect opening now to just go in and begin decimation.
Things like that.
But hey, what the computer might lack in good sportsmanship, the game makes up for in game play. It's fun.
And I'm glad I tried it again. I am having a ball.
En Taro Adun, reader!
Monday, June 11, 2007
NWN2 drivel
Over the weekend I had the extreme pleasure and pain of dusting off NeverWinter Nights 2.
For the most part, it is highly enjoyable but there are some aspects that significantly detract from what could make it an extremely fun game.
For the good parts:
First, the story line. It's detailed, well-thought and interesting. If anything, the story is the one reason I keep coming back.
Item crafting is cool too! I like making my own weapons. And by leveraging the leveling on my comrades I can usually get my magical armors, etc.
It's D&D! And it's the second-best implementation of the core rules I've seen. (ToEE was better, but that game has a slew of issues all it's own).
Ultimately these things keep drawing me back.
But, I get disgruntled easily and here is why:
Camera controls - you have to hold the middle mouse wheel down to pan the camera - and there is no option to change it to the right mouse. Even to simply swap the buttons.
Keyboard: While actually playing the game (but thankfully not in the login screen for multi-player and not in the character creation) - the game remaps my keyboard back to QWERTY - even though QWERTY is not even installed on my computer. It refuses to use my Dvorak key layout for the in-game shortcuts. As a result, I have to press "p" to rest, and "J" for my character screen, etc. It's bad. And it's frustrating.
And when I go to remap the keyboard, the remap screen swaps BACK to Dvorak, so then I go to press "R" where "R" is on my keyboard, but then it inserts "O". I gave up and am relearning the keys by position instead of letter - "Rest" is top row, fourth key.
And then, we arrive to the worst of it all.
In order to do anything significant while in town, you have to interact with the NPCs, but every time someone does (like to talk, or to open a buy window, or anything really) all the other players freeze while they get to watch what the first one chose. This causes so much dialog related down time it is insane and again, frustrating.
So, since I am playing with friends, I am going to finish doing so, but the game will be going back on my shelf when I am done.
And really, that's a shame. Because the story and possible interactivity cries out to keep going.
The frustration factor keeps it in check.
For the most part, it is highly enjoyable but there are some aspects that significantly detract from what could make it an extremely fun game.
For the good parts:
First, the story line. It's detailed, well-thought and interesting. If anything, the story is the one reason I keep coming back.
Item crafting is cool too! I like making my own weapons. And by leveraging the leveling on my comrades I can usually get my magical armors, etc.
It's D&D! And it's the second-best implementation of the core rules I've seen. (ToEE was better, but that game has a slew of issues all it's own).
Ultimately these things keep drawing me back.
But, I get disgruntled easily and here is why:
Camera controls - you have to hold the middle mouse wheel down to pan the camera - and there is no option to change it to the right mouse. Even to simply swap the buttons.
Keyboard: While actually playing the game (but thankfully not in the login screen for multi-player and not in the character creation) - the game remaps my keyboard back to QWERTY - even though QWERTY is not even installed on my computer. It refuses to use my Dvorak key layout for the in-game shortcuts. As a result, I have to press "p" to rest, and "J" for my character screen, etc. It's bad. And it's frustrating.
And when I go to remap the keyboard, the remap screen swaps BACK to Dvorak, so then I go to press "R" where "R" is on my keyboard, but then it inserts "O". I gave up and am relearning the keys by position instead of letter - "Rest" is top row, fourth key.
And then, we arrive to the worst of it all.
In order to do anything significant while in town, you have to interact with the NPCs, but every time someone does (like to talk, or to open a buy window, or anything really) all the other players freeze while they get to watch what the first one chose. This causes so much dialog related down time it is insane and again, frustrating.
So, since I am playing with friends, I am going to finish doing so, but the game will be going back on my shelf when I am done.
And really, that's a shame. Because the story and possible interactivity cries out to keep going.
The frustration factor keeps it in check.
Monday, June 4, 2007
3D Renders
Well, for my "table-top" D&D games, I use a "virtual" table top, called MapTool.
It allows me to create maps, position figures, roll dice, etc - with my players. VERY handy indeed.
And as my players are about to approach a cut-over I set for them, we are about to implement the full facing rules (from Unearthed Arcana).
Well, there's a horrid lack of top-down figures, even when googling for them.
Recently, however, I was turned on to a progam called "Poser" and then found out a free consumer level competitor was out there, "DAZ|Studio".
And wow. I had a BUNCH of fun making figures and renders in it this weekend. As a result, here are a few examples:
Even though I am using the free program, I have been so impressed I am seriously considering just using the "real" program. (It has more features)
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