Future tense-ions

Dropped in on the Academy of Modding Excellence NWN2 winners chat over the weekend - check out the log here. I wouldn't focus too much on my small contribution to proceedings but it's definitely worth checking out what the guys at Robinson Workshop have got going on - myconids and gelatinous cubes!! Oozes are sadly lacking the the toolset and what's a dungeon without a black pudding latrine, or gelatinous cube hiding at the bottom of a pit trap?



Still on a bit of a downer with NWN2 at the moment (not as enthused by it - either playing or building) so not much toolset time the past week, but did make some good progress on the Halloween project. I've finished the cellar part, and am working on an investigation in the upper reaches of the house - which is hopefully good practice for the quests i'll be working on for Dark Avenegr 3. Jclef has put together my exterior building which looks pretty cool. It'll be interesting to see the ideas other have - and how many themes recur across them.



Something that cropped up at the end of the AME chat was a discussion about the future of NWN2, which I couldn't hang around for much of. But I was interested that the overwhelming consensus was that NWN2 would die with the advent of Dragon Age - especially with some big names in the community agreeing with this. There's still an adventure pack, and expansion and many big-time modules from forum/blog celebs to come for NWN2, so I thought there's life in the old dog yet, but maybe things are slowing down? WHat do you guys think? We're quite insular and insulated in the blogging community, but do you sense thigns quietening and the end in sight with Dragon Age?

What's so great about real-time...?

I never really understood the fuss when suddenly the focus on strategy games went to making them real-time. Maybe I need slower action so my dinosaur-like brain impulses can keep up, but I'm a big fan of turn-based games. This is prompted by me replaying The Temple of Elemental Evil at the moment, which is as close to a D&D 3e similation as you can imagine. And I'm really enjoying it, after the arcade-ified action of NWN2. It's great to be able to move the party with proper strategy, place those fireballs where you want, split your magic missiles amongst enemies - and my personal favourite - give a DEX based warrior a spiked chain and the combat reflexes feat, and let the enemy run into their own death. Some of my favorite games have been turn-based - XCOM, Fallout series... It's FUN to actually use tactics, something many of the real-time games make it harder for me to enjoy (although admittedly, I did like the Dawn of War series). Keen to see how Fallout 3 handles things with the VATS combat, and got my copy on pre-order already.

As you might have guessed, I'm playing more than building at the moment. The toolset doesn't always leave much time for playing, and I'm enjoying the break. Still working on what is now dubbed my HalloWyreen area for the BouncyRock Globetrotter All-Stars, but I'll keep most of that under wraps for now...


.. other than to say "Hail to the King, baby"