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Old 08-10-2001, 10:21 AM   #171
Neb
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It sounds like a good idea to allow the player to gain access to the other worlds by acquiring some ancient magic, but maybe finding just one single thing shouldn't allow access to all the worlds, but maybe requiring you to find more "keys" to gain access to more worlds, also, if raising an army to defeat the Upholder is going to be the way to do it, maybe the player should be given a choice between, for example, getting the key to the troll homeworld to get their aid, or the dwarven homeworld instead, might even add some more replayability to the game too by making the player want to play again too see what would have happened should he/she have chosen the other one.
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Old 08-10-2001, 11:38 AM   #172
Legolas the Elven Archer
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Actually, making large worlds is not really a problem for most gamers. In fact, that's just what they want!

I was wondering if any of you ever played Outcast. It's a game in which you have to save earth by saving a world in another dimension. This other world is divided in several totally different parts, and you can travel between them by means of portals. It is possible to buy a Twon-Ha, the equivalent of a horse, to travel faster, but there is also another means of transportation. The player can aquire three or four teleporters. These won't get you from one place to another if you normally need a portal, but otherwise have no maximum range.
The teleporters consist of two parts, one of which can be dropped on the ground to function as the base and should be placed on a spot which you'll need to return to later. The second half is always in your backpack, unless you take it out to use it. If you do, it will return you to the base and the device will become whole again.
Something like this would be a good way to prevent too much walking.

As for their history, there might be a craftsman in a certain village, or maybe these things are extremely old and form the reward (or object) of a quest. They could also be part of the totems in troll villages or something like that. Take them and feel their wrath, disrtact the trolls and send in a thief or infiltrate a camp filled with small firebreathing creatures threatening the trolls and slay their leaders so that the army will run and recieve the teleporters out of gratitude. (or discover that they were stolen while you were helping the trolls and embark on another quest to get the back).

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The last arrow of Legolas kindled in the air as it flew,
and plunged burning into the heart of a great wolf-chieftain.
All the others fled. -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
 
Old 08-10-2001, 07:10 PM   #173
Bleys
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Why not travel like normal folk, on horses, carts, boats, or just foot. The player does not have to walk every last step, just skip over the long distance travailing bits, just like when you play most RPGs you skip over eating, sleeping and all other bits the player is not interested in, the player gets on a boat, you say one week has passed and the player has arrived in a new area.

As for portals, it is alway intresting to ask why were they lost in the first place, you say you would need some kind of hidden ancient magic to acitivat them. What happened to the ones that created the protals, why was it hidden away, and if you reopen the portals what could come out of them. You could get many intresting quest from that.

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Old 08-11-2001, 10:14 PM   #174
Earthdog
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Still dont like they idea of guns, makes the game too cheesey. I DO like the idea of lots of scantily clad women though..... hmmmmmm will this be a G-rated game???? Or will it be adults only???

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THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!!!!!!!!!
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Old 08-13-2001, 04:58 AM   #175
Legolas the Elven Archer
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Just one question Link:
Are you still working on the quest list on page 6?

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The last arrow of Legolas kindled in the air as it flew,
and plunged burning into the heart of a great wolf-chieftain.
All the others fled. -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
 
Old 08-13-2001, 11:35 AM   #176
Link
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Join Date: May 15, 2001
Location: The Netherlands
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Hey guys! Yeah, I'm still alive. My mum's just a little pissed, cos i spend way to much time online (and that's gonna cost them a lot of money). This makes it very hard for me to keep coming online to check everything immediately. Just wanted to let you know.

As for the game. I am thinking very hard about possible solutions (and about the quests on page 6 as well, Legolas, thanks for reminding). As I said: big worlds can be a problem. I could give you a stupid, but good example. Take the Pokemon games: in the beginning you have to walk an awful lot (this is practically nothing compared to the world i created). Later on, you get the bicycle, and things start to turn out better. Eventually you'll be able to fly from town to town, and travel like that. The example might be stupid, but it's more or less what i've got in mind for my game. In the beginning, you'll have to walk a lot, but when you get further in the game, you can get yourself a transport. This transport can be, as mentioned, a boat (for example with the spell: Summon Boat), or a horse (although this reminds me to Zelda, where Link gets Epona to travel faster). Of course it's not my idea to make you travel the entire world: boring parts (like a boat trip) will be skipped, not to mention eating, drinking etc.
The portal device will be the ultimate form of travelling. You can travel hundreds of miles within a second or so. The portal device was made by druids, who have been forgotten centuries ago. It is said that they were very powerful, but eventually underestamated their enemies. Their stronghold was destroyed and they were never seen again. That's the story so far.
Following to that, you'll need to explain the fact that no one has been able to activate the portals ever since. I've figured out the following: the druids were not the druids as we know today. The magic they used was an ancient, an different form of magic we use today. It was far more complex, and involved years of studying. The main character should find this old stronghold, and reveal a hidden door, where the ancient texts can be found, although: that could be a solution, and in my opinion it's a pretty good one as well. It allows you to access a better, and stronger form of magic, with which you can become a better mage.

That brings me to the next point. I'm thinking about the character options. I don't want it to be like Baldur's Gate 2, where you can chose alignment, etc. etc. I think I'll allow each player to become a race, but not a certain type of "profession"( mage, thief, warrior etc.). This will be more realistic (think about it: why can't a mage use two handed swords?? Plain bullshit if you ask me). It would allow you to visit both the warrior acadamy (for instance) and the School of Magic. You can gain different kinds of experience points (if you kill a creature by means of magic, you'll get magic experience) and gain levels with this. I definitely need you opinion on all of this. Please ask me if things are not clear at all, cos I really get the feeling that i typed it really quick, and in a hurry, and therefore it is not really understandable, unless you know everything about it already.

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In the foul darkness one figure will emerge to save the world from evil and despair.... Light flashes as his sword comes down, and thunder rolls through the sky when he points his sword up to heaven to signal his victory....People whisper his name as he walks by, evil tries to hide as they sense his presence nearby.... His name? Link......
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Old 08-13-2001, 04:55 PM   #177
Legolas the Elven Archer
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Everything seems clear to me
The system you're describing is a bit like in the Lands of Lore games. If you use your weapon a lot, you get better with it. If you cast spells, you learn to master them better all the time. In Lands of Lore 3 there were also four guilds to join (fighter, mage, thief and cleric) which also sold items you couldn't get anywhere else. If you were a member of the magician's guild, you had access to a library. Not that that was the only place to find spells, but there was a wider selection. The fighter's guild on the other hand offered lots of powerful weapons.
The system used in Lands of Lore was quite good, but the major drawback was that it was not very extensive with only four classes to advance in, and only two noticable effects (mana and hitpoint amounts).
If you want to use this system (which is a great idea which should have been in Baldur's Gate 1 where you only just started as a lvl 1 character, meaning your career could take you anywere at that point) make sure there are a LOT of options (offensive magic, magic missiles, summoning spells, swordplay, fighting with a mace and a warhammer and so on) with oppertunities to start specializing in weapons and spells right from the start (not like in Baldur's Gate where there are practically no useful bastard swords until you have ToB, meaning it's not worth specializing in at first), even if the best spells and weapons come later on.

Speaking of which, wouldn't it be nice if one of your mages knew a very powerful spell very soon, only to mess it up until he was experienced enough? You can do lots of funny things with uncontrolled magic... If he isn't the PC, you can make him do his spell every once in a while (for example, each time he thinks he sees a spider) so that players won't NOT use the spell until the mage is capable of casting it correctly

As for the old magic part, if it is that hard to learn, how come the PC doesn't have any problems learning it? Does it have anything to do with being the chosen one (no, not BTVS) or is there another reason?

And, while on the subject of magic, I am trying to write a fantasy book which I know will never finish (always the optimist) and I have a bit lying around concerning a theory about how magic works (altough it doesn't include the spells themselves nor any runic or pattern magic (which is basically the same)).
If you're interested I'll see if I can translate* it and post it here.

The setting is like this: Looooong ago, all the creatures of fantasy lived on the earth, side by side with humans (mostly). There was a lot of mana in the air and practically every race (save the dwarfs, ofcourse) had spellcasters. Then, the humans began to take more and more land, waging war on the others and winning it. The greatest magi gathered and opened a portal to another world (filled with dinosaurs, which came through forcing the magi to close the portal and open another) and left. The other world had practically no mana and so a lot of it was sucked away from earth, meaning no more easy magic. Only when millenia later
the fantasy creatures returned did the magic return as well (the other world was very fertile, and not just the soil, so the other races, as well as the mana, multiplied and were present in abundence when the portal reopened. Magic was newly discovered by humans and theories abound of what mana was. One of them sees mana as living, intelligent, omnipresent creatures (which is the one I wrote the bit about)

*One of the problems with writing the book is the language. I think English is a much better language for writing than Dutch, but writing in Dutch is easier for me. So, I have bits lying around in both English and Dutch. (The other main problem is that you can't just start writing but have to create a world first, complete with history, people (also with history), laws, societies and so on.)


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The last arrow of Legolas kindled in the air as it flew,
and plunged burning into the heart of a great wolf-chieftain.
All the others fled. -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

[This message has been edited by Legolas the Elven Archer (edited 08-13-2001).]
 
Old 08-14-2001, 10:41 AM   #178
Earthdog
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i think joining the guilds is a very good idea. But i have a suggestion about it. Make it so that IF the PC joins a guild in one area of the game (where each guild is avaliable to join) he chooses his MAJOR class. So if he elects to join the fighters guild his main class is a fighter.

BUT he can only join one guild per area (city). In order for him to join another guild and learn, Say magic or theivery, he must complete all his quests and training for that guild before he can move on to the next area. Although i think that one quest will be SENDING him to the next city to, lets say, Deliver a messege to that Areas leader, or rescue the beautiful virgin whos about to be sacrificed. I think you get my point. Once he completes that quest he will be given the opportunity to join another guild and undertake more training.

How does that sound??

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THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!!!!!!!!!
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Old 08-14-2001, 11:40 AM   #179
Legolas the Elven Archer
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The joining only one guild sounds good. By joining several guilds you will eventually have problems with loyalty issues and the like, as well as way too many unimportant little sidequests (even if you only join a guild in every other town or something like that). It would be far better to have only one or two guilds and concentrate on them. That way, picking a guild will have more of an impact on who your main character becomes (partymembers can ofcourse join a guild themselves). If each guild offers one ore two major (and distinct) bonusses to the character you can really tailor your character to your own playing style.
I think it would also be good to have some (or all) guilds with stations in more than one city, so you don't have to walk (or teleport) back to one city over and over.

I also have been thinking about the inventory system to be used. In my opinion, it might be a good idea to divide it into three or four parts: The stuff the character wears, a regular inventory for items which you need and one for carrying items which you find during your quests (if there's one thing I find annoying it is doing a quest and discovering good items, only to find out I can't carry anything else) and maybe a second set of back-up armour and weapons. Switching between two equipment modes could be quite a lot of fun.

Naturally, people will constantly put things in the emergency slots, so you might want to think on that (maybe build in a system which allows only items found in the last hour or so to be placed in there).

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The last arrow of Legolas kindled in the air as it flew,
and plunged burning into the heart of a great wolf-chieftain.
All the others fled. -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
 
Old 08-14-2001, 06:38 PM   #180
Bleys
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Join Date: March 14, 2001
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A way you could do it is to use a skill system. Were the player starts with most the skills, and as they use them, practice them they get better, and you leave levels and experience points out of it. That way you can get a mage that can use a two handed sword ect. You could restrict the more powerful skills until the PC has found someone willing to teach them. Also some skills can only be used when you follow certan ways. EG if you go around in full plate your cances of moving silently is nill, and so you cannot learn the skill until you go around in lighter armour.

Also if you have a guilds put ranks in them. More the PC works for the guild, gains favour of the guild masters ect the high there rank, and the greater you rank the more you can access. For example if you are in the mages guild you can only access the most powerful spells if you are in the highest ranks. Maybe have a lot specialised guilds. As well as having a main mages guild have a Necromancers guild which players can only join if they follow there ways, if the player would gain access to there more powerful arts, but make enemies, for example the local Paladins.
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