@Usekh said:
He has something of a talent for writing unlikeable protagonists. If that can really be called a talent
Since it's intentional, I'll call it an amazing talent. There have been many books in this list that are at least somewhat challenging of preconceived notions. Heroes are easy to write. Villains are harder. Anti-heroes are the hardest of all.
Besides, I liked Perdito Street Station and Scar. If you want a book where not one person comes out likable, Scar is a fantastic read.
I read the Second Thomas Covenant series. It didn't change me, but I went, "Wow, that was pretty depressing." In a later discussion with a friend who apparently knew the author, said author wrote them because he was tired of writing what he normally did and wanted to try something different and because he could and that if people didn't like it then he didn't mind. He wrote them mainly for himself, in a fairly open way. For that kind of series, I thought it was decent. Not great, but decent.
Basically: It's absolutely not for everyone, and that's fine. It doesn't even have to be for anyone.
A little talking out loud here:
think places( whichplace, %L, %# )
#-1 NOT AT ANY PLACE
So, for the room's desc:
@desc here=udefault( placedesc.[places( whichplace, %!, %# )], placedesc.none )
&placedesc.none here=this is the default description for the room
&placedesc.1 here=this is how the room looks like from place 1
&placedesc.2 here=this is how the room looks like from place 2
Good luck.
Use the 'places()' function on the @desc. At game night, so I can't explain further.
I meant to post an update to Chime's code, but ran out of steam. Soon.
I am over 20 feet from you and in a busy cafe and I can hear you chew.
Stop.
Yes, I'm staring at you for a reason.
edit: Oh god, you're a grunter, too. Stand, grunt. Shift weight, grunt. Maybe I'm too Victorian, but all of that grosses me out.
Someone, once, showed me a simple input that captures multiple lines using %r but also some fringe conditions that would be handy for +view et al. (ANSI, I think the problem was.) I have since forgotten it and lost my notes on it, so, what is it?
Will pay for a solution.
Not with money.
A doctor's handwriting has always been the butt of many jokes, so the modern era isn't to blame there.
@HelloRaptor said:
Finishing out a more or less epic space opera with a multiple choice question whose answer took virtually nothing across three whole games into account was still kind of ass, though.
Following up an 80 hour rampage across half a continent with three disconnected nods to Chekhov's Gun was still kind of ass, too. I understand why some might think DA2 was a good game but in comparison to what came before it, it really wasn't.
(I don't give Apple this kind of pass either, tho I still like them. They have lost ground to cover simply because they're Apple. Neither iOS 7 and 8 should not have been released in their initial state. They can't act like Android because they're not.)
@Ganymede said:
And I fucking hated DA:O's Fade nonsense -- that shit could've been edited right the fuck out, seriously.
There's a plug-in for that. Finding Morrigan at the end almost made it worth it for me. Almost. (Not really.)
I really don't give two shits about my Inquisitor. She has no backstory.
It's the in media res that I was mildly complaining about. You create your character's backstory through dialog options, so it also has a little of that "show, don't tell" that I thought was lazy in DA2. I found it enough to propel me forward, but I get it that others didn't find the same place.
I completely agree, tho, that in DA:O you knew who your character was before you engaged the main story. Yhatzee makes this sound like a bad thing, but that's his job and I won't blame him for being wrong, either. Also, for presumably having sex.
Many nice little changes to the crafting system with the recent update. Header for "there is nothing to update this with". You can now also no longer (accidentally) sell research components.
The lack of a character voice also grates now that we're out of that era, but I also miss the six game-world intros that DA:O had. In Inquisition, it took me about half an hour to realize that the title screen and subsequent intro "explosion" was a part of the game; sometimes a slower pacing is the better choice.
I mostly rail against DA2 because BioWare phoned it in, albeit forced upon them via their new corporate overlords. They've mostly won me back with DA:I. For instance, DA:I's art direction adds to, does not ignore, DA2's art direction, tho DA2's pretty much ignored DA:O. That's cool.
I'm also one of the few people who thought the original endings for ME3 was the right ending. I destroyed all galactic society everywhere. No wussing out. No "oh, but we'll be fine soon" back-peddling. BOOM. Galactic civilization set back a thousand years; that's my legacy. It made that decision weigh so much heavier, and feel that much more tangible. I'm not a hater, I'm just particular.
@Bobotron said:
So what WOULD you consider a themed mortals venue?
I don't. I'm starting to lose the idea that even Vampire, Werewolf, and Changeling are "venues". They're not.
Changeling's venue is the Freehold. Vampire's venue is politics. Werewolf's venue is war.
Political sphere? Law sphere? Crime sphere? No: Politics, Law, Crime, High Society. There's nothing that makes these the purview of anyone except those who are good at it, and there is nothing that keeps "mortals" from being good at these things.
Subvert the game-line expectations and the notion of a "mortal venue" or any "sphere venue" is lost. There are just "venues".
I don't think Reach meant to illustrate this, but I think they've realized it.
@Ganymede said:
Frankly, with GMC, I'm beginning to like Mortals. I think I'll start my game with them.
Mortals in GMC are what we've been calling M+, as they have more notable access to other things. I likewise approve.
@lordbelh said:
It also requires putting in the time to codify how those spheres of influence look.
So? If I'm told that a game is getting a codified chair creation system, then you'd better prepare for people getting frustrated that they can't politically outmaneuver the system with stats that are there to do exactly that.
Reach's new crafting system mixed with GMC's "doors" setup is probably as deep as you need to go.
@HelloRaptor said:
In particular you should see if DA:O includes the Awakening expansion and Witch Hunt DLC, and whether DA2 has the ..uh.. I forget what it's called. There's two huge DLC for it. The family one.
Legacy. Without playing Legacy, much of DA:I will feel like being told-not-shown.
Also play Mark of the Assassin, even though Felicia Day is not the best voice actress. I find it to be the kind of writing and level development that I wish was in DA2.
I hate that you can play both DA2 DLCs entirely out of sync of the story. If you're five people living in a ramshackle hut in the slums, having two GIANT STATUES in the back room where you run off and pretend this is a "remember that one time?", or worse, "now that you're famous, you're getting invites"... my brain hurts.
And that is why I consider DA2 to be kind of crap. I am holding it up to the standards of a game developed over five years, because world immersion is why you buy a BioWare game.
I played briefly in HM's "mortal sphere". The quotes are for sarcasm, as most mortal spheres are about as cohesive as your general metropolis. There is no social glue that all other game lines have, and I wince any time someone appoints a "mortal staffer". These people can do little more than be the important brain behind approvals, and I wince any time a player complains to them that there's nothing going on.
I feel that the "mortal sphere" is something that needs to stop. All characters need to belong to an established theme and setting, or they might as well be just taking up disk space.
This got a rise out of enough people to share:
http://the-full-grohac.tumblr.com/post/109225505310/sneakyfeets-cattletyrants-xekstrin-i-feel
Evangelion lols.
The lesson here is: Do it if it makes you feel good. Being able to say you have a 4.0 is pretty liberating.
@Insomnia said:
That is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen. I don't mind playing with theme ("Ironically, Spiders"), but that's downright fan service. Guh.
Also, your hair is made of oil.