1881

Press 1 for fireball, press 2 for ice mine, etc… Keybinds are a nice start. Action bars aren’t bad either.

I do not consider pausing the came, selecting left, then scrolling through a list of every spell and item in the game that you posses (that can be held in your left hand) an efficient system.

Did we see the player inventory? I am not sure we did. Is it a giant LIST? If so, that is BAD. If its a grid of slots, perhaps with tab pages, that is good.

Pretty much if any part of the UI is a list I need to scroll through, then that is a bad UI design for a PC.

1882

Thanks. Should I grab the 4th, the or just wait till Skyrim?

1883

Unfortunately, you just missed the sale on it. That said, it’s a terrific game on its own and fully worth the $20.

1884

I hope one day the idea of building a World returns to CRPG with full force, people get tired of Theme Parks, and ask for games where you can know the daughter of the jeweller verndor, fall in love, and marry him. But not as a pre-programed script, but just something that just happend.

1885

Have you tried Europa 1400 (a.k.a. The Guild) yet? Or, in its present form, The Guild 2?

It’s a little clunky, but it’s an interesting hybrid between RPG, world-builder, economics sim, and The Sims.

1886

I think that actually covers most western RPGs. My brother and I would often go over our different outcomes on Interplay and Obisdian products.

1887

This might be old news (found this while browsing the forum in general), but Emil Pagliarulo confirmed around Fallout 3’s release that The Commonwealth does, indeed, refer to Massachusetts. No need for the “widely believed” part anymore!

1888

This is that new Mojang game, right?

1889

Keybinds were in the last game I see no reason why they would kill that. Some things you missed though:
-As he was scrolling through spells for example he would quickly bind the spells to the key he wanted, or in his case the buttons. He talked about that a bit at the 11:40 mark, calling them “favorites.” Allowing him at least on the 360 to bind them to D keys, which is where quick actions were on that interface for Oblivion.
-There were two parts, the quick selection done as he played the game, minimizing the UI itself and speeding the selections. And the actual UI that showed stats, accessed through the diamond selection area at the beginning with Magic, Skills, Items, Map, seen at about the 10 Minute mark.
-The full view AI included nested categories, speeding selection to find say, a weapon, whereas in Oblivion that was pretty clunky. It was similar to the Oblivion UI in that the game was fully paused at that point.
-At about the 11:50 mark he talks about, and shows, the most beautiful skill tree display I think I’ve seen in the game. He drilled into skills to show the selection of perks within that tree as you gained skill rank.
-The map (around 12:32) allowed not only x/y movement across it for selection but z axis as well as he went up and down to select less or more detail in the map. Beautiful.
-The mana, life and stamina display were very minimal, taking up a single line on each side for the display, with life in the middle. They also auto hid once he was full for each one individually, quickly letting the player know what was important, less life, while hiding that whis was not, full mana.
-The compass up top also appeared minimal but there was a large box in the way, I’m unsure what that was.
-Based on the way he looted chests and bodies (first one at 19:50) my guess is no on the grid-square technique of inventory or container management. But by separating them into categories it would still allow a drill down fairly quickly. One major item, as he scrolled through a chest, each and everything was visible complete, giving a pretty nice visual presentation.
-In some of the fights around the spider and afterward he switches abilities, spells, and shouts pretty frequently. Many times he changed the active use of both hands, all within about 4-5 seconds.

So no, no grid based inventory (Oblivion didn’t have that either as I recall.) If you need that, perhaps this game isn’t for you, but if you’re ready to shake off 25 or so years of the same shit, this looks pretty damned spiffy. In no sense at all does this appear as a pen and paper grognard-like D&D game of yore with spreadsheet displays.

1890

I’m pretty sure the boxy shadows were stage speakers or lighting boxes hung above the stage, being it was shot with a camcorder.

1891

So when is the HD version coming? They promised!

1892

“By the end of the summer” they had said.

1893

I just started playing Fallout 3. Unfortunately, it freezes up without warning roughly every 20 minutes.

Oblivion did the exact same thing, on a different computer.

I’m now worried that Skyrim will do the same. I’m frankly sick of buying Bethesda games that I pragmatically cannot play due to this bug.

1894

Hmm. I have the “same” problem with Fallout3 Vegas. It freezes, although not every 20 minutes - can sometimes play for hours… W7 64bit, ATI Mobile, 4GB.

Afaik Oblivion/fallout use same engine, whereas Skyrim will be TESv5(?) so hopefully it should not have the same engine difficulties that TESv4(Oblivion/FO3) have.

1895

That’s some serious drama right there.

1896

Who is the “him” in that sentence, anyway" The jeweler?

1897

So it would seem.

1898

I’d be all for a game pushing some daughter on my character and then picking up on the vendor instead. That’s choice!

1899

Sleep with the daughter anyway, after which you can convince her to murder her father, then run away with you and the newly gained inheritance!

1900

To RedHerb,
You sleep rather soundly for a cold-blooded killer. That’s good. You’ll need a clear conscience for what I’d like to propose. For there is much I can offer you. The taking of a life has its own pleasures, of course, but the taking of a life for the Dark Brotherhood is an act worthy of immeasurable reward.
If you’re intrigued, and I suspect you are, come visit me at the ruins of Fort Farragut. If you survive the descent down to the bottom level where I reside, I’ll know you’re capable of all the Dark Brotherhood has to offer.
L.L.