Video Games

[Surgo]

I have no idea about freezes. Config files for Bethesda games since Oblivion are in My Documents\My Games\Relevant Directory.

[PhoneLobster]

I believe said shit is buried deep within the Program Files. Is there anywhere in particular I should try moving it, or just anywhere?

Even just into "new folder" in the directory it is in, or the root of that, or on desktop, whatever, will usually work for this kind of thing, point is you are removing the file from where it can find it.

Most programs then go "hey no config? I'll make a new one!"

Some say "aaah no config I cannot run!" which is why you keep the files, somewhere.

So anyway in making a new config its a way of forcing a safe mode (which actually the game might already have if you look up command line stuff for it). Which gets you past say, having just one setting in your config that if set to that for some reason is causing a crash of some kind.

Also sometimes with some games, and I have vague memories that Bethusda may be guilty of this, the config files actually corrupt and the game is so bad at dealing with that it just plain will never work again if you don't manually clear them to force it to create new files.

Worse sometimes an uninstall will not actually hit the config files, leaving them in the same boat as saves and stuff, which there might not even be an option to remove during install, depending on the game.

Worse worse worse, SOME games are SO BAD that the save games corrupt, and are so badly structured that, yes, SOMEHOW that can even prevent the game from opening at all! (Probably something to do with "continue" options in game menus being done in some sort of incredibly badly preloaded way. Though I'm not entirely sure if Bethusda is guilty of that particularly heinous example.

So anyway. Yeah you'd be surprise how often a manual config purge can work with these sorts of things.

edit: and depending on what your set up is you might want to check out the details for this specific problem and fix

[Fuchs]

Only "freeze" problem I ever had when the fan of my Video Card failed. Word etc. worked smoothly, but whenever I tried to play Neverwinter (my game of the month at the time) the screen went black after a few minutes, tops, when the card overheated.

[icyshadowlord]

I wonder if that config mess is what made it so Baldur's Gate stopped working on my PC.

[Koumei]

So, putting special skills/spells into RPGMaker, I don't want to do the Final Fantasy thing where you have "Spell that does damage" (x3 strengths, x4 elements, call it a day). But to some extent, different skills and things do different damage types. Is there something that would work nicely that isn't a variant of "The Diablo Thing" (Physical/Fire/Cold/Zap/Poison)? Or do so many games use that because it's simple, a nice small number, and works? I don't want to go the full Pokemon route where there are "Rock" and "Ground" and "Metal" attacks that are all separate damage sources (and where getting punched in the face is Normal, unless it's a Kung Fu punch, totally unexpected, or wreathed in an element), but giving enemies scatterings of elemental weaknesses and resistances so people are encouraged to vary their ability usage would be nice.

Characters gain set powers as they go, in the style of Phantasy Star, rather than purchasing powers off some master list, having skill trees or gaining ranks in separate elements/power sources which then let them learn them. It's just "Oh, you're level 24? Great, because you're Mad Slicah the Rapping Surgeon/Serial Killer, you now learn Premature Autopsy".

[icyshadowlord]

I have no idea. I have some version of RPGMaker myself, but I haven't touched it.

Also, I'm kinda disappointed. My DotA 2 thread hasn't gotten any posts. Does nobody here play the game?

[Koumei]

Is DotA 2 just a War3 map or a game in and of itself? And is it still multiplayer-only and all that? I was sorted of tempted by the "lots of characters" aspect of LoL/DotA/whatever, but disappointed when I found out what it actually is.

[Chamomile]

Hm. Come to think of it, some kind of single-player DotA/LoL thing would be pretty cool. And also having more than three maps would be nice.

[icyshadowlord]

Is DotA 2 just a War3 map or a game in and of itself? And is it still multiplayer-only and all that? I was sorted of tempted by the "lots of characters" aspect of LoL/DotA/whatever, but disappointed when I found out what it actually is.

It was the Warcraft 3 map before, but now it's been made into an actual game.

You can play against bots now instead of being forced to deal with other people in the latter.

[Koumei]

But it's still just a series of random battles, right, not what you might actually call a campaign mode or anything like that?

[icyshadowlord]

There is some sort of mini story mode or something in the tutorial.

I didn't bother with it, because I play the game mainly to piss off Russians.

[DragonChild]

But it's still just a series of random battles, right, not what you might actually call a campaign mode or anything like that?

It's a standalone game with no campaign or story mode. It's a strictly competitive multiplayer arena style game, although you can play with bots. If you're even slightly interested I have like half a dozen free copies that are going to waste and can show you some of the ropes, not that I really play it much myself.

[Avoraciopoctules]

So, putting special skills/spells into RPGMaker, I don't want to do the Final Fantasy thing where you have "Spell that does damage" (x3 strengths, x4 elements, call it a day). But to some extent, different skills and things do different damage types. Is there something that would work nicely that isn't a variant of "The Diablo Thing" (Physical/Fire/Cold/Zap/Poison)? Or do so many games use that because it's simple, a nice small number, and works? I don't want to go the full Pokemon route where there are "Rock" and "Ground" and "Metal" attacks that are all separate damage sources (and where getting punched in the face is Normal, unless it's a Kung Fu punch, totally unexpected, or wreathed in an element), but giving enemies scatterings of elemental weaknesses and resistances so people are encouraged to vary their ability usage would be nice.

Characters gain set powers as they go, in the style of Phantasy Star, rather than purchasing powers off some master list, having skill trees or gaining ranks in separate elements/power sources which then let them learn them. It's just "Oh, you're level 24? Great, because you're Mad Slicah the Rapping Surgeon/Serial Killer, you now learn Premature Autopsy".

You can code in your own elements. I've even seen people design RPGmaker games where every kind of elemental damage had a hardcoded chance to inflict a special status effect.

So maybe lightning has a chance to stun, acid has a chance to debuff defense, et cetera. You could have a triple-firebolt with an increased chance of burning someone so healing spells work less on them. Each attacks a random target, so you can see arguments for using it against groups and individuals.

How much combat is in your RPG. Large dungeons with random encounters? Roaming monsters you can avoid? Just scripted fights in the story? How much combat can be avoided, how much grinding will need to be done, how difficult are the fights planned to be?

[Koumei]

Nah, not interested in LoL/DotA. It really needs a proper single player storymode thing to get my interest.

As for RPGMaker: yeah, I put my own elements in: Physical, Fire, Cold, Shock, Banish*, Coup De Gras**, Mental. But I'm just curious about ideas for elements, because seriously, "Fire, Ice, Electricity" are like the triad of damage types in every game since Space Invaders (with Poison being introduced at some point). I've seen a few use the traditional four/five/six/seventy-three elements. But it'd be kind of cool to do something different.

Anyway, it's just a test game really, to be shared with a few people, and I'm using it as the opportunity to learn from mistakes, discover better ways of doing things etc.

So the main character gets a whole heap of status-inducing attacks (I'm trying to make status effects the new black, like D&D3E does, rather than "just spam Ultima"), and out of battle can actually charm animals to turn them into extra participants in combat. She also boosts the stats of allies and helps with evasiveness. Let's call her a druid. The animal mostly has direct-damage and can cover allies.

Allies include a martial artist with "makes loads of attacks" and "throw stat debuffs all over the enemies" (let's call this one a Monk), a caster who can throw big damage down after charging up, but can also handle the banishing and cancel the annoying effects of enemies (Cleric or Wizard here, really a bit of both), a weapon-wielder that can use polearms for defensive combat (gain counter attacks, cover allies, boost defences etc.), swords for normal combat (high-damage attacks that really cripple those already afflicted by stuff) or bows to rain status effects onto enemies (supernatural Fighter). And then another status-spammer who can Charm enemies so they attack each other.

There's also a fair amount of out-of-combat ability use: "let's not have random battles for a while", gaining the ability to talk to trees for advice, a spell that literally reminds you what you're supposed to do next, and so on. There are some big-ish areas with random battles, but there are enough side-quests related to talking to people or fetching things or fixing stuff that you don't have to do that.

*You can't really do a "super effective against _____" thing, so I made Banish abilities do 9999 Banish damage, and everything except Spirit/Demon foes gain "Banish: 0%" (so they'd just take 0 damage), and Spirits and Demons have "Banish: 200%" and die good and proper from it.

**Similar to the above. There are a few things which specifically CdG Sleeping/Paralyzed targets. They deal a fair chunk of CdG damage, and this does nothing to people who are not afflicted by the above. Sleep and Paralysis both grant "Coup de Gras: 200%", so you die instantly.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Sounds decent to me. I usually prefer to go with roaming encounters,

If I ever get serious about the mummy game, I'd use the following elements:
- BEEES. (or plagues of locusts, whatever. Protect yourself by wearing draping clothes)
- Miasma (Poison gas, plague breath, etc. Doesn't do much to undead, can weaken living targets and really fuck up scent hunters like dogs or hyenas)
- Curse (Dark magic that doesn't do very well against holy stuff or animals)
- Desiccation (sand blast, non-burning heat, side effect from channeling too much fire or sun power. Messes up humans like the bags of water they are.)
- Radiance (Power of the sun. Good against ghouls and other lurking underworld monsters, but not necessarily against undead.)

Plus physical and fire, maybe a few classic elements. If Sobek and Set show up, Water and Storm elements need to show up. But the protagonist will be fine with five different special attack elements. I could turn that into over 15 spells/techniques easily, and going past that would be unnecessary bloat.

[Ed]

I dig the status-effects-over-damage thing a lot. My JRPG is going in a similar direction. Combat is real-time, and so I have a lot of continuous variables to play with: HP regen, magic regen, action gauge regeneration, and so on. Like, all characters constantly, slowly regenerate HP--healing spells all heal a chunk of HP, plus increase regeneration for X seconds. Some attacks have damage-over-time and direct damage in various proportions, and some enemies have resistance to one half or the other--e.g., throwing an icicle at an ice-resistant enemy might take some direct damage but no damage over time.

I'm stealing the magic model from Zeboyd's Rain-Slick games, after a fashion. MP starts at zero and increases over time. It regenerates faster as your stagger gauge (FF13-style - you hit the top, your character goes into an AI state and gets real ineffectual for a bit; limit breaks are available as it gets higher, but they stop its decrease back to zero) increases. I don't want players using Ultima as a go-to and using a tent at a save point before the boss.


I'm not sure how I feel about the CdG idea. That feels like it could be overpowered, although I guess it depends on your incidence of sleep spells.

[Archmage Joda]

So, I got Chronicles of Mystara on steam recently, and tried playing through tower of doom (or whatever the first game of the two is called). Now I must wonder: do i suck just that much, or is that game stupid hard by yourself (I have no steam friends that have it to play with)? No less than 31 deaths as fighter going through, and 2-3 deaths against the displacer beast alone as elf.

[Maxus]

The game is brutal by yourself, and does indeed get easier the more people you have.

It's easier to play the cleric by yourself, for what it's worth. You get debuff spells, a decent attack spell, and can nuke ghouls and skeletons with Turn Undead.

Once you go long enough, you can unlock 'vampire mode', where damaging enemies restores health to you.

[hyzmarca]

Tower of doom was a 90s arcade game. It was designed to eat quarters.

[Archmage Joda]

Well, at least it's not just me being sucky. Still, I think I'm going to ignore Tower of Doom in favor of Shadow over Mystara anyway. Mostly because in the latter I can play a magic user and fling fire and ice and stuff at monsters and i like wizards.

[OgreBattle]

What are some of the most mechanically interesting RPGmaker games out there?

[Koumei]

Definitely Embric of Wulfhammer. Actually it's the best RPGmaker game on all counts.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Yeah, Embric is nice. Here's some more.

Exit Fate is a very good game with a fascinating custom battle system and suikoden-like wargame elements where you command armies of thousands.
http://site.scfworks.com/?page_id=10

Tales of the Drunken Paladin is a good game with some very interesting class designs and conversational scripting.
http://drunkenpaladin.com/

People have also used RPGmaker to make adventure games and platformers. Ogrebattle, are you interested in those?
Here's one: http://rpgmaker.net/games/4732/

[Ed]

Exit Fate got finished? The more you know.

[Avoraciopoctules]

And there's a decent LP of it archived.
Here: http://lparchive.org/Exit-Fate/

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http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=11190

Here's a random blog post I snagged off google.

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Here's a ridiculously artsy, originally-in-french game.

http://forum.starmen.net/forum/Fan/Game ... rtis-Ghost
http://lparchive.org/OFF/