Maybe i am getting too philosofic but...

"He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword, our god (Taluntain) is marching on!"

kasio, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but what affects the way party and non-party NPCs regard you?

1. Alignment
2. History
3. Game time
4. Quests
5. Class

All right, how many alignments are there? Seven? That's seven nested if and loop structures for each NPC on the current map.

History and class...have you killed an innocent NPC on that map? Have you killed an innocent NPC on another map? Are you a fallen ranger? Paladin? How many classes are there? Twenty? How many accidental killings in which areas can you get away with? Who's in your party? Do you have a required item? That adds about another fifty if and loop structures.

Game time? What chapter are you in? Are you in chapter six and have yet to beat Firkraag? Have you beaten Spellhold or the Underdark? Okay, that adds one whole class for chapters and about eleven structures for quests (as some depend on class).

Not to mention random sound bites, animations, Hakim, time countdowns (like the ten day limit for Ankhegs in BG1), quest related scripts (did you kill or befriend Drizzt?), spell scriptings (have you paid the fee so you can cast spells?), event triggered speech. Script changes (few NPCs immediately attack you if they see you), and oh yeah...how high is your charisma?

This is why my 550 mhz, twenty ghz hard drive, 128 mb SDRAM, VooDoo3, twin cooling fan computer system is like a slide projector if I crank the resolution and AI changes up.

And what about area specific movement...

 

Brief Post
I'll let Tal and Sapyril do the real arguments, but as I mentioned in my second post, the one with entropy, I can't admit to being wrong. So time to defend my pitiful delusions. Oh, btw, keep threads of this sort up. To them I bring my ignorance, and armed with that ignorance, I cannot fail to learn
Oriental Stuff- fine, I agree with you now our positions are explained. If the designers want to introduce Oriental weapons and fighting styles they should bring the rest of the culture. I have learned a little from you, I have said nothing worth learning from.
Glass- Wizards can do everything, better than modern technology. I like modern technology, though, being a sad delusional who loves shiny things and engines. I will buy Fallout, it seems my kind of game. In Lord of the Rings there's a bit of an industrial revolution, if I remember correctly. Saruman's tower is full of stange machines and when he comes to the shire he replaces all the cottage industries with ugly red-brick buildings full of wheels and smoke that are supposedly more productive. Maybe Irenicus' dungeon is partly based on Saruman's tower (Orthanc or Isengard, one's the tower, one's the country, I think, or they could be different names for the same place)
AOE - I didn't claim that the mechanics accurately represented history, I'm too stupid to comment on stuff like that, not knowing any history and not getting that deeply into a game, and game mechanics are necessarily a simplification so that
A) games can get finished
B) poor people like me can run games
C) stupid people like me can play games
However, given that your first post seemed to be about style and background rather than mechanics, AOE does have the benefit of being set in real history, with historical notes behind all the races and weapons, and every unit consistent with the historical period explained in the notes.
Sure, more tightening up is good, always gives game developers something to work towards.

[This message has been edited by Ironbeard (edited May 11, 2001).]

 

Tal, did I hear the name Gygax. I'm old enough to remember 1E. But I won't tell if you don't.

I refuse to continue the NPC thread because it's clear that one side is not getting the point. Kasio if you want robots in your party just go play in multi-player and have done with it.

 

Kasio has explained his position very clearly to us. I would speak more, but too many cooks spoil the broth. Anyway the broth is already too salty.

Thus, this thread is now an exercise in "flexing" each others minds, an imposing of our own opinions upon others. Let's just all agree to disagree.

Or else I shall have to smack you all!

 

Enlighten me
What about Gygax and 1E?

 

No! Don't enlighten him! I foresee that it could be a thread by itself!

 

hehe first edition......I remmember the damn box set with five dice when EVERY character class controled alignment and there where only like 4 alignments heh

Anyway, if the idea of monks punching dragons bugs you, DON'T PLAY ONE. then there won't be any in your game. nuff said.

If you ever played one of gygax's silly damned modules...the left box is instant un-dectable death and the right hand box holds a vorpal sword.......oh, wait, no gygax discusions...sorry...oops