RPGs that have made a difference in my gaming history

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Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On Fri, 1 Jul 2005 13:40:40 +0000 (UTC), Ross Ridge wrote:

> Once you get a lot of stuff you'll find really it annoying
> having to move everything in your bags in order find some tiny bauble
> or key.

I like that design much better than the grid-system, though. But I did play
Ultma Online for six or so years, and it used the Ultima-typical inventory
too, so, I had plenty of time getting used to it.

M.

 

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Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Mean_Chlorine <mike_noren2002@NOSPAMyahoo.co.uk> once tried to test me
with:

> Not even an rpg? What is the official definition of rpgs these days?

You're not cleared for that information.

--

Knight37 - http://knightgames.blogspot.com

Once a Gamer, Always a Gamer.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Nostromo <nostromo@spamfree.net.au> once tried to test me with:

> M59 was my first dabbling with a mmog - whatever happened to it?

Last I heard, Meridian 59 was still up and operational. They've overhauled
the graphics engine at least a few times. Not sure what it's like nowadays,
though.

> I'm *very* close to splashing $70 to get the online Guildwars cd-key,
> but I guess you wouldn't call that a mmog either, ey K? ;-p

GW is MMORPG-lite. The Diet Coke of MMORPG. Not MMORPG enough!

Actually I guess the main difference between GW and something like WoW
(apart from the fees) is the fact that you can not encounter anyone else
you didn't plan on meeting just by going off adventuring. You can hook up
in town with people, and that's okay I guess, but you're not going to find
new potential allies (or rivals) while out adventuring. Not unlike WoW if
all there was for content were the instanced dungeons.

--

Knight37 - http://knightgames.blogspot.com

Once a Gamer, Always a Gamer.

 

[nostromo]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Thus spake rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca (Ross Ridge), Fri, 1 Jul 2005 13:40:40
+0000 (UTC), Anno Domini:

>Nostromo <nostromo@spamfree.net.au> wrote:
>>I'm trying again now...just roaming around the first town pinching
>>everyone's goodies...is there a point?
>
>There's a point to the overall game, dealing with the threat that the
>Guardian poses to the world.
>
>> Ok, I have to solve the murder to be let out of town (convenient
>>but overbaked plot hook).
>
>It's part of the game's story and not the only murder you'll encounter.
>
>> How many hours is this puppy anyway?
>
>It's pretty long.
>
>> The inventory/stat seem very simplistic by today's standards even if
>>I do get past the graphics. Hmmm...lucky I'm a gaming masochist!
>
>Yup, lucky you. The inventory system isn't just simplistic, it's badly
>designed. Once you get a lot of stuff you'll find really it annoying
>having to move everything in your bags in order find some tiny bauble
>or key.
>
> Ross Ridge

Tx Rossco - if the story continues to enthrall me I'll persevere, in spite
of the tech. But if the UI or tech breaks the immersion that's the point of
no return for me. At the moment I'm just trying very hard to see past the
early 90s look & feel...I spent a half hour last night trying to work out
how to use a lockpick, which didn't help. I dropped it on the chest,
double-clicked the chest, double-clicked the chest with it in my left/right
hand, etc, etc. Nowhere in the manual did it say 'double-click the lockpicks
to use & then target chest', at least not clearly. Probably just
tunnel-vision on my party, but at least that covers how to *use* items he
he. I'm playing just Black Gate at the moment - can I continue with the
chars to Serpent Isle by installing it later or does one start from scratch
again?

--
A killfile is a friend for life.

Replace 'spamfree' with the other word for 'maze' to reply via email.

 

[nostromo]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Thus spake Michael Vondung <mvondung@gmail.com>, Fri, 1 Jul 2005 20:19:45
+0200, Anno Domini:

>On Fri, 1 Jul 2005 13:40:40 +0000 (UTC), Ross Ridge wrote:
>
>> Once you get a lot of stuff you'll find really it annoying
>> having to move everything in your bags in order find some tiny bauble
>> or key.
>
>I like that design much better than the grid-system, though. But I did play
>Ultma Online for six or so years, and it used the Ultima-typical inventory
>too, so, I had plenty of time getting used to it.

Yeah, horses for courses, but if the space is as limited as it looks to be
(1 backpack, 1 bag roughly) I'm gonna get annoyed shuffling inventory very
quickly. It may be realistic, but if realistic is annoying then it's a deal
breaker at some point I reckon. Hope it has bags of holding or
chests/stashes of some sort. Do the horses have saddlebags? I know one can
get carts from the manual...adventurers with horse & carts lol - what were
they thinking? :-/

--
A killfile is a friend for life.

Replace 'spamfree' with the other word for 'maze' to reply via email.

 

[nostromo]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Thus spake "wolfing" <wolfing1@yahoo.com>, 1 Jul 2005 06:50:32 -0700, Anno
Domini:

>Well we're just saying that 'massive' means # of people playing in the
>same world at the same time (or ability to do so). It still is a fussy
>concept, so far the difference has been clear. Either a game supports
>about a max of some 64 (like playing Quake online or Team fortress,
>Diablo 2, etc) or it supports 1000+. When a game comes that supports
>250 people online... is it massive? what about 125? When does
>'massive' start?

When there's more people than you can take in all at once? For me that's 271
- don't know about the rest of you ;-)

>On the guildwar thing. Isn't $70 too much? I'm sure you can find a
>game in a store for some $40 which includes of course the CD key (or
>are you talking about canadian dollars maybe?)

Aussie dollars, The NCSoft billing is in British Pounds online though.

--
A killfile is a friend for life.

Replace 'spamfree' with the other word for 'maze' to reply via email.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Ross Ridge wrote:
> Yup, lucky you. The inventory system isn't just simplistic, it's badly
> designed. Once you get a lot of stuff you'll find really it annoying
> having to move everything in your bags in order find some tiny bauble
> or key.

Markus Schäfer <markus.schaefer@ruhr-uni-bochum.de> wrote:
>It's quite realistic, though. Ever tried to dig to a full backpack to
>find a small key?

No, I keep my keys on a key chain in my pocket. While having to hunt
through backpacks may be realistic, implemented this way it doesn't
really add anything to the game. It's not a rewarding challenge, it
does little to add to the immersion, it's just annoying.

Ross Ridge

--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/u/rridge/
db //

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On that special day, Nostromo, (nostromo@spamfree.net.au) said...

> Anyone played Shadows Over Riva? Wasn't that the culmination of the SirTech
> franchise & quite good as well? I actually had the CD for many years, even
> loaded it up once but just didn't like the classes/stats - a bit hairy-fairy
> for my liking...I mean, you could play an actual fairy lol! Or some
> lizard/cat hybrids...

Uh oh, you messed things up a LOT. Shadows over Riva is the sequel-to-
sequel-to Blade of Destiny (with Star trail in between), and what *you*
are talking about, must be either one of the wizardries or Albion.

The personage of the DSA games consists of the common cast, humans,
dwarves, elves, the latter being divided into meadow, forest and ice
elves.


Gabriele Neukam

Gabriele.Spamfighter.Neukam@t-online.de


--
Ah, Information. A property, too valuable these days, to give it away,
just so, at no cost.

 

[nostromo]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Thus spake Gabriele Neukam <Gabriele.Spamfighter.Neukam@t-online.de>, Sat, 2
Jul 2005 17:45:14 +0200, Anno Domini:

>On that special day, Nostromo, (nostromo@spamfree.net.au) said...
>
>> Anyone played Shadows Over Riva? Wasn't that the culmination of the SirTech
>> franchise & quite good as well? I actually had the CD for many years, even
>> loaded it up once but just didn't like the classes/stats - a bit hairy-fairy
>> for my liking...I mean, you could play an actual fairy lol! Or some
>> lizard/cat hybrids...
>
>Uh oh, you messed things up a LOT. Shadows over Riva is the sequel-to-
>sequel-to Blade of Destiny (with Star trail in between), and what *you*
>are talking about, must be either one of the wizardries or Albion.
>
>The personage of the DSA games consists of the common cast, humans,
>dwarves, elves, the latter being divided into meadow, forest and ice
>elves.

Oops! ;-)

But SoR definitely had those fairies & cats/lizards...or was that the
Wizardries only? :-/ Too many brain cells ago...

--
A killfile is a friend for life.

Replace 'spamfree' with the other word for 'maze' to reply via email.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On Sat, 02 Jul 2005 09:56:58 +1000, Nostromo wrote:

> Do the horses have saddlebags? I know one can
> get carts from the manual...adventurers with horse & carts lol - what were
> they thinking? :-/

If I start talking about my appreciation for horses in RPGs, that
grey-bearded villian (CB 😉) will come out of the woodworks and make fun of
me again!

M.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 09:12:34 -0400, chainbreaker wrote:

> and not finding anything that really catches you, because there's
> probably *not* anything to catch you at this point . . . or me either

I join you guys there. The worst part is that there isn't even a game to
really look forward to. Yeah, Gothic 3 and TSE:Oblivion are somewhere on
the foggy horizon, but I'm not chewing on my nails in anticipation. Only
thing that could do it is Diablo 3, and that's not even on said horizon
yet.

I truly wish I could get into roguelikes such as Nethack, ADOM, Crawl,
etcetera, but I have immense troubles with the ASCII "graphics". Even games
for my first computer, 21 or 22 years ago, offered real graphics (was an
Amstrad CPC, not a C64 -- I never had one of those toys). Perhaps my
imagination is not developed enough to see a dragon a blue "D", or to
discover my own character in a "@". But I'll keep trying ...

The extended version of "The Fall" looks decent, actually. It's not out in
the US yet, but I picked up the German version, and it's "okay". Am waiting
for the 1.9 patch to really start playing. It's not a game you play for
many months or years, though.

M.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On 2 Jul 2005 04:08:25 GMT, Knight37 wrote:

> You're not cleared for that information.

Pity that there hasn't ever been a CRPG based on "Paranoia".

M.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On Fri, 1 Jul 2005 00:44:38 -0400, Paul Fedorenko wrote:

> Well... It had a few other things in common... Wankers camping spawn zones
> in PVP areas to kill hapless players when they came back into a game...

Hum. You're either talking about another game or have never played Diablo
2. D2 didn't have any of that.

> mindless drive to find more and more monsters so as to get more and more
> loot so you could buy better equipment and kill bigger and nastier monsters
> and get better loot to buy better weapons to kill more monsters and get
> more...

And if that's well done, a game becomes a classic. There is only one game
that ever did that right, and that's Diablo 2. It's not quite as mindless
as it seems on the surface, though. Takes a lot of strategy and planning to
play it well.

M.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On Sat, 02 Jul 2005 00:10:02 +0200, Sarah Jaernecke wrote:

> A party member casts a
> fireball on a buncha kobolds and suddenly *I'm* better at picking locks?
> Right.

Very nice summary of what's wrong with the D&D based games. Plus, I really
don't like party-based CRPGs, even though I currently fiddle around with
The Fall. Needless to say, I liked Morrowind's openendedness, the "learning
by doing" skill system and the lore.

> I have picked up Fallout 2 but not started it yet, and the other two
> need not apply because they don't allow gender choice which is a must
> for me in CRPGs.

Gothic 1/2 were really good, though the requirement to play a pre-made
character bugged me, too. It certainly took out some of the fun for me.
Still, the games themselves were rich and atmospheric.

M.

 

[Leo]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Michael Vondung wrote:

>
> I truly wish I could get into roguelikes such as Nethack, ADOM, Crawl,
> etcetera, but I have immense troubles with the ASCII "graphics". Even games
> for my first computer, 21 or 22 years ago, offered real graphics (was an
> Amstrad CPC, not a C64 -- I never had one of those toys). Perhaps my
> imagination is not developed enough to see a dragon a blue "D", or to
> discover my own character in a "@". But I'll keep trying ...
>


Nethack, the windows version at least, now comes w/tiled graphics.
Just make sure you get the windows version as I don't know if the tiled
graphics are available in the other versions, and make sure you run the
correct executable.

http://www.nethack.org/

or more specifically - for the windows version:

http://www.nethack.org/v343/ports/download-win.html

It comes w/*two* executables, make sure you run "nethackw.exe" as
opposed to "nethack.exe" when you run it, in order to get the tiled
graphics.

Plus, there are alternative tilesets you can download that improve
those that come w/nethack to make them better (I'd suggest doing so if
for no reason other than to just to get larger tiles, because the
default ones are *tiny* on one of today's monitor's at high resolution).
Still, not greatest of graphics of course, but a far cry better than
ascii art. Your wizard looks like a wizard, for instance, not an @
symbol. If you can stand going back to play something like ultima IV,
then these tiled graphics shouldn't bother ya. If, on the other hand,
you not only need graphics, but at a modern day level, then it still
might not be enough for ya to get past.

Also, there's a varient of nethack that also comes w/tiled graphics,
called slash'em. Free, just like nethack. Comes w/multiple tilesets
included, though you need to do configuration file editing to change to
one of the alternative sets.

http://slashem.sourceforge.net/


***

There's even a slightly buggy frontend for nethack (also works
w/slash'em) you can use called noegnud that includes several of the
tilesets that are out there, and lets you easily switch between them,
but presents it all in a 3d rotatable environment (though they are still
2d tiles). Their main site has been down for a while, but I think you
can probably still get it from sourceforge.

http://www.happypenguin.org/images/noegnud.jpg


***

And there's yet another graphical frontend, which I haven't tried,
called gtkhack. Dunno how good it is. If anyone's tried it, lemme know.

http://www.gtkhack.org/


****


The people at rec.games.roguelike.nethack know a lot more than I do
about all the variants, tilesets, etc... though, so head there if ya
need even more links or info on more tilesets/variants.

=>

Leo

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Michael Vondung wrote:
> On Fri, 1 Jul 2005 00:44:38 -0400, Paul Fedorenko wrote:
>
>> Well... It had a few other things in common... Wankers camping
>> spawn zones in PVP areas to kill hapless players when they came back
>> into a game...
>
> Hum. You're either talking about another game or have never played
> Diablo
> 2. D2 didn't have any of that.
>
I assumed he was talking about pkers camping WPs and TPs. If not, then what
you said.
--
chainbreaker

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Michael Vondung wrote:
> On Sat, 02 Jul 2005 09:56:58 +1000, Nostromo wrote:
>
>> Do the horses have saddlebags? I know one can
>> get carts from the manual...adventurers with horse & carts lol -
>> what were they thinking? :-/
>
> If I start talking about my appreciation for horses in RPGs, that
> grey-bearded villian (CB 😉) will come out of the woodworks and make
> fun of me again!
>
> M.

Never!

Well, maybe . . . just a little bit. 🙂


--
chainbreaker

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Thusly Michael Vondung <mvondung@gmail.com> Spake Unto All:

>On 2 Jul 2005 04:08:25 GMT, Knight37 wrote:
>
>> You're not cleared for that information.
>
>Pity that there hasn't ever been a CRPG based on "Paranoia".

....that we've told you about, anyway.


--
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky.
But we never will.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On that special day, Nostromo, (nostromo@spamfree.net.au) said...

> >The personage of the DSA games consists of the common cast, humans,
> >dwarves, elves, the latter being divided into meadow, forest and ice
> >elves.
>
> Oops! ;-)
>
> But SoR definitely had those fairies & cats/lizards...or was that the
> Wizardries only? :-/ Too many brain cells ago...

SoR featured among others a vampire, various undead in a cemetery and a
kind of supernatural anthill with a spider queen inside, but I can't
remember catlike beings.


Gabriele Neukam

Gabriele.Spamfighter.Neukam@t-online.de


--
Ah, Information. A property, too valuable these days, to give it away,
just so, at no cost.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On that special day, Michael Vondung, (mvondung@gmail.com) said...

> I truly wish I could get into roguelikes such as Nethack, ADOM, Crawl,
> etcetera, but I have immense troubles with the ASCII "graphics".

Nethack offers an iconese interface, and there is a remake in
development of the Falcon Eye variant, called Vulture something. It is
some kind of pseudo 3d, or rather made of isometric tiles, which
replace the ASCII interface (and need a lot more screen space). Read
the rgrn (rec.games.roguelike.nethack) group for more information.

But be warned: no other game is so hard to beat, and insidious as
Nethack.


Gabriele Neukam

Gabriele.Spamfighter.Neukam@t-online.de


--
Ah, Information. A property, too valuable these days, to give it away,
just so, at no cost.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On 30 Jun 2005 23:54:45 GMT, Knight37 wrote:

> I would rate Meridian 59 the first MMORPG, or maybe Ultima Online if
> Meridian isn't "massive" enough.

Legends of Kesmai was there before M59. The Realm, too, I think, though it
might have come out at the same time as M59. If we also count text-based
games, Gemstone and various others predate the graphical MP-games by quite
some time. But yes, UO was the first truly "massive" MMORPG.

M.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 16:32:04 +0200, Michael Vondung <mvondung@gmail.com>
wrote:

>On 2 Jul 2005 04:08:25 GMT, Knight37 wrote:
>
>> You're not cleared for that information.
>
>Pity that there hasn't ever been a CRPG based on "Paranoia".
>

That game system won't work in a CRPG thateasily. The cambat system may
work, but the setting itself won't.

It has already been attempted in an old text based UNIX game, where the
player is given several options - the result was that a player could
explore the entire game without too much problem.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

Knight37 wrote:
> burnsdavidj@yahoo.com once tried to test me with:
>
> > I believe there is an open-source remake that is alot more Pentium
> > IV/Athlon 64 generation friendly, but based on the same plot and
> > interface. IIRC its called "Exodus" and is basically Ultima VII parts 1
> > & 2.
>
> Exult I think is what you're referring to.

My bad... Exodus was Ultima IV I think....Exult is the open-source
goodness.

..5 seconds in google results in this link:
http://exult.sourceforge.net/

Now if someone could just rewrite X-Com damnit! There were a few
rewrites underway but they all stalled I think. 🙁

 

[Toby]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

On 2005-07-01, Sarah Jaernecke <nightfire.udic@web.de> wrote:
>> And no mention of Fallout/Torment/Gothic kind of doesn't help...
>
> I have picked up Fallout 2 but not started it yet, and the other two
> need not apply because they don't allow gender choice which is a must
> for me in CRPGs.

That's funny, because if I have the option, I'll nearly always choose a
female avatar in a game: They're nicer to look at!

I played Fallout 2 last year (having skipped 1) and it was brilliant,
nearly as good as Planescape, and left me hungry for it's prequel. Don't
miss these games out for the sake of the skin your avatar has. Hell,
just hack the sprites if needs be!

--
Toby.
Add the word afiduluminag to the subject
field to circumvent my email filters.
Ignore any mail delivery error.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg (More info?)

"Michael Vondung" <mvondung@gmail.com> kirjoitti
viestissä:1n9i2u28vq7ed.wer1g9zvyy70.dlg@40tude.net...
> On 2 Jul 2005 04:08:25 GMT, Knight37 wrote:
>
>> You're not cleared for that information.
>
> Pity that there hasn't ever been a CRPG based on "Paranoia".

Oh yes, there has. Not very good one, though.
http://hol.abime.net/4786

- MJH