Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

Developer
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
460
Location
Moblin Villige
Really looking forward to some insight into KotOR 2 in particular. I do get the sense from your writing that after reading all of the EU you were less than impressed with Star Wars lore especially regarding the force. So my question is, If so did that colour your writing of the game. And moving on from that, if there was one plot point or trope of Star Wars you could exploit that you haven't already, what would it be?

I think the issue was that at some point, the Force became predestination, and I felt it robbed a lot of the drama from the series and made my RPG-heart frown. I still ignore most of what’s said or explained about the Force that isn’t in Yoda’s dialogue in The Empire Strikes Back, which I thought was simply put and it was beautiful for that simplicity.

I wish there was a trope that came to mind remaining in Star Wars but I found that Clone Wars (the 6-season TV show, although I liked the cartoon shorts before that) and Rebels, once you get past the pilot episodes for each series, go much deeper than I was expecting. Also, if that wasn’t enough, many of the ideas in the Dark Horse comics I thought were well done, especially the “Dark Times” series, where they examine what life as a Jedi would be like after they are betrayed – they dig pretty deep into what it must be like trying to survive in a universe where the Jedi are persecuted, and the very difficult moral choices that have to be made to survive. It's a great read (and well-drawn, too).

What'd u think of the last jedi

I didn’t care for it overall, but there were things I did like about it. It would require a lot of spoilers to say exactly why for the pros and cons. I did like Rogue One very much, mostly because of Cassian’s arc – it was really surprising and interesting to see what he was willing to do for the cause, but then they do it one better by making it a motivation for a suicide mission against the odds in a way that made sense to me at the end. I thought Rogue One was pretty solid (the bad guy kinda lacked punch was my only minor complaint).

If curious, a summary of my spoiler critique is below:

Pros: Kylo and Rey turning from the Sith and Jedi, the salt planet aesthetics and feel (the battle made it look like blood in the snow, which was great), Yoda’s lesson/theme on mentoring is great (even if I didn’t think it was 100% carried out). I like Rey as a character very much, and I didn’t hate BB8 as much as I thought I would – I think he’s okay.

Cons: Kylo Ren in about every respect, who the hell is Snoke, Luke is unfairly placed in a scapegoat role to try and give sympathy for Kylo, the use of Force powers in the movie is painful (illusions and Leia-in-space), the comedy was badly paced, the slow chase of the Rebels was boring and made more confusing by a sudden detour to Casablanca planet then salted with moral ambiguity that was so much better done in Rogue One, the technology revealed (especially the hyperdrive ramming speed) is franchise-breaking (why don’t you just make drone ships like that to shred the enemy?), no clue about the Rebel base until it’s too late to save the motivation, Finn’s one chance to do something actually helpful is prevented making you hate both characters even more, Rey goes into a black hole of incomprehension at the bottom of the island and then stands in front of a mirror and… and… I still couldn’t tell you what that was all about. I don’t think there would be a good answer.
 

2house2fly

Magister
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
1,877
In a setting where everyone uses lasers, they'd probably balk at the expense of building a ship with the sole purpose of destroying it. That reminds me though, ever watch Star Trek 2009 where they can teleport transportalponder onto a ship millions of miles away and wonder "why do we have ships at all then"
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,175
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The clone wars' rough first 2 to 3 season was pretty rough to get into, it feels like your usual cartoon with little developments or relatively low stakes.

The later 3rd season and especially 4 and 5 was damn excellent, even i feel the animatoon and fights scene is better too
 

Kyl Von Kull

The Night Tripper
Patron
Joined
Jun 15, 2017
Messages
3,152
Location
Jamrock District
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Chris Avellone, while you’re here, did The Myth of Sysiphus have any influence on PS:T, particularly the ending? We’ve been arguing about it in another thread.

You know that scene in Annie Hall where Woody Allen’s arguing about The Sorrow and the Pity with the guy in front of him in line, so he sort of magically pulls the director from the ether and the director smacks down the other dude? I’ve always wanted to do this—please make my dream come true!
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
3,212
Location
Vostroya
If we are already violating good manners and asking again why hasn't senpai noticed us - Chris, you've also seemed to miss my question too. :despair:
Chris Avellone Hey Chris, I know you're probably sick of it, but first I want to thank you for PST - the formative game of my youth, and for Fallout 2, the formative game for entire generation of Russian gamers. Oh, and also for KOTOR 2, and quite a few other games. I want to ask you a question, while you're generously answering us.

Have you played any Russian-made game that you've liked? If yes, then what was the game and what did you like about it?

Thanks in advance, much love and although I wish you would helm another project (really, I pledged to W2, TToN and PoE kickstarters only because of your, erm, involvement; imagine my surprise with how it all turned out :negative:), and I will throw as much of my meager resources on it as I'm able, without question – if you would rather rest and recharge – I still wish you all the best. :love:
 

sgm

Educated
Joined
Feb 17, 2013
Messages
79
Location
cá nada

I’m not sure if you would have any info on this but will we ever get more content for torment tides of numenara other than servant of the tides
I do not know, unfortunately - I did submit the graphic novel for Erritis a half-year ago (maybe more), it was approved and good to go, now I think they're just looking for an artist. On the game front, though, not sure. :(
Brian Fargo: You want me to spend money. On an artist. For supplementary material. For a game that lost money and hardly anyone cares about.

I suppose they could just upload the script or ask for a volunteer. There might be some Avellone superfan willing to provide free art to bring his vision to life, though the quality might not be the greatest. Tides of Numenera: The Avellonian doodle comic.

Additionally, that Kobold is uh, something else.
My bible is fallout 1&2 and maybe torment tides of numenara. By the way I’m a guy

All of this is very :hmmm:


For a 50 page graphic novel it would probably cost them $25000 to get the art and lettering done at a professional level of quality. It would take a little under 3 months to produce.

Free art would take a lot longer. People need to work and if they're not getting paid to draw a comic, then they're doing it in their free time. That's 8 hours a day to draw if you ignore life (family/friends/prestigious crpgs). So, basically you'll work 16 hours a day (day job+comics drawing) for nearly 3 months (providing you want to finish things ASAP) or 12 hours a day for half a year. All the while you're still making only what your day job provides. Anyone still surprised why so many people don't succeed in making comics professionally, unless they work with a paying publisher? Even if the burnout doesn't kill the poor individual who takes this thing on (it might not, after all I've done it myself) the quality of work will still suffer from the long work hours. Chris's writing deserves better than that. Especially after how much money the campaign raised on Kickstarter having his name attached to it.

I would love to do it myself, as I've been drawing comics professionally for 10 years now and am a fan of MCA. Think I could do a good job of it too, but no way in hell would I do it for free when I could actually get work from a publisher paying me a comparable rate to what I quoted above.
 

santino27

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
2,679
My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
If curious, a summary of my spoiler critique is below:

Pros: Kylo and Rey turning from the Sith and Jedi, the salt planet aesthetics and feel (the battle made it look like blood in the snow, which was great), Yoda’s lesson/theme on mentoring is great (even if I didn’t think it was 100% carried out). I like Rey as a character very much, and I didn’t hate BB8 as much as I thought I would – I think he’s okay.

Cons: Kylo Ren in about every respect, who the hell is Snoke, Luke is unfairly placed in a scapegoat role to try and give sympathy for Kylo, the use of Force powers in the movie is painful (illusions and Leia-in-space), the comedy was badly paced, the slow chase of the Rebels was boring and made more confusing by a sudden detour to Casablanca planet then salted with moral ambiguity that was so much better done in Rogue One, the technology revealed (especially the hyperdrive ramming speed) is franchise-breaking (why don’t you just make drone ships like that to shred the enemy?), no clue about the Rebel base until it’s too late to save the motivation, Finn’s one chance to do something actually helpful is prevented making you hate both characters even more, Rey goes into a black hole of incomprehension at the bottom of the island and then stands in front of a mirror and… and… I still couldn’t tell you what that was all about. I don’t think there would be a good answer.

Agree on your critiques of TLJ, although I'll also toss in that Holdo was a purple-haired idiot whose plan sucked and who watched most of the rebels die before coming up with her 'heroic' sacrifice that could've been just as easily accomplished with a droid autopilot, Poe magically became a dumbass that nobody would ever actually want to follow, Rose's sole role was to inject social commentary and keep Finn from doing anything of value, and Luke's character was ruined just for a half-movie of 'wait, maybe kylo can be redeemed. jk. lolz.'

If the goal was to pare the alliance down to almost nothing and leave them in a situation of having their backs against the wall while also vaulting Kylo and Hux (lol) to control of the First Order, I think there were far better ways to accomplish it than that horrible movie.

Also, fwiw, I enjoyed Rogue One, but I think a lot of that was that its awesome 3rd act made up for the two weaker acts that preceded it.
 
Last edited:

Master

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 19, 2016
Messages
1,160
Hey Chris, what's your favorite non-rpg game? Give us your top ten list or at least top three(non-rpgs).
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,294
If curious, a summary of my spoiler critique is below:

Pros: Kylo and Rey turning from the Sith and Jedi, the salt planet aesthetics and feel (the battle made it look like blood in the snow, which was great), Yoda’s lesson/theme on mentoring is great (even if I didn’t think it was 100% carried out). I like Rey as a character very much, and I didn’t hate BB8 as much as I thought I would – I think he’s okay.

Cons: Kylo Ren in about every respect, who the hell is Snoke, Luke is unfairly placed in a scapegoat role to try and give sympathy for Kylo, the use of Force powers in the movie is painful (illusions and Leia-in-space), the comedy was badly paced, the slow chase of the Rebels was boring and made more confusing by a sudden detour to Casablanca planet then salted with moral ambiguity that was so much better done in Rogue One, the technology revealed (especially the hyperdrive ramming speed) is franchise-breaking (why don’t you just make drone ships like that to shred the enemy?), no clue about the Rebel base until it’s too late to save the motivation, Finn’s one chance to do something actually helpful is prevented making you hate both characters even more, Rey goes into a black hole of incomprehension at the bottom of the island and then stands in front of a mirror and… and… I still couldn’t tell you what that was all about. I don’t think there would be a good answer.

Agree on your critiques of TLJ, although I'll also toss in that Holdo was a purple-haired idiot whose plan sucked and who watched most of the rebels die before coming up with her 'heroic' sacrifice that could've been just as easily accomplished with a droid autopilot, Poe magically became a dumbass that nobody would ever actually want to follow, Rose's sole role was to inject social commentary and keep Finn from doing anything of value, and Luke's character was ruined just for a half-movie of 'wait, maybe kylo can be redeemed. jk. lolz.'

If the goal was to pare the alliance down to almost nothing and leave them in a situation of having their backs against the wall while also vaulting Kylo and Hux (lol) to control of the First Order, I think there were far better ways to accomplish it than that horrible movie.

Also, fwiw, I enjoyed Rogue One, but I think a lot of that was that its awesome 3rd act made up for the two weaker acts that preceded it.
HOW DARE YOU!

TLJ is NOT for you misogynistic fanbois! It is for strongk wymmyn! It is the Gamergate of Star Wars. How DARE you talk down to wymmyn!
- according to this review

On a more serious note: When "but, but, but, but wymmyn!" is the best you can come up with for a movie review, it is time to stop defending that piece of shit and give it a 0/5.
 

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
Patron
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
11,760
You know that scene in Annie Hall where Woody Allen’s arguing about The Sorrow and the Pity with the guy in front of him in line, so he sort of magically pulls the director from the ether and the director smacks down the other dude?
Not a director, but rather Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian media theorist famous for his book The Medium Is the Message.


Alvy Singer: [the man behind him in line is talking loudly] What I wouldn't give for a large sock with horse manure in it!

Alvy Singer: [to audience] Whaddya do when you get stuck in a movie line with a guy like this behind you?

Man in Theatre Line: Wait a minute, why can't I give my opinion? It's a free country!

Alvy Singer: He can give it...do you have to give it so loud? I mean, aren't you ashamed to pontificate like that? And the funny part of it is, Marshall McLuhan, you don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan!

Man in Theatre Line: Oh, really? Well, I happen to teach a class at Columbia called "TV, Media and Culture." So I think my insights into Mr. McLuhan, well, have a great deal of validity!

Alvy Singer: Oh, do ya? Well, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here, so, so, yeah, just let me...

[pulls McLuhan out from behind a nearby poster]

Alvy Singer: come over here for a second...tell him!

Marshall McLuhan: I heard what you were saying! You know nothing of my work! You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing!

Alvy Singer: Boy, if life were only like this!
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
3,212
Location
Vostroya
If we are already violating good manners and asking again why hasn't senpai noticed us - Chris, you've also seemed to miss my question too. :despair:
Chris Avellone Hey Chris, I know you're probably sick of it, but first I want to thank you for PST - the formative game of my youth, and for Fallout 2, the formative game for entire generation of Russian gamers. Oh, and also for KOTOR 2, and quite a few other games. I want to ask you a question, while you're generously answering us.

Have you played any Russian-made game that you've liked? If yes, then what was the game and what did you like about it?

Thanks in advance, much love and although I wish you would helm another project (really, I pledged to W2, TToN and PoE kickstarters only because of your, erm, involvement; imagine my surprise with how it all turned out :negative:), and I will throw as much of my meager resources on it as I'm able, without question – if you would rather rest and recharge – I still wish you all the best. :love:
Asking Avellone whether he wasted his time on Russian jank, such gall on you
K5SJeQa.jpg
 

Fowyr

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
7,671
Zhurek-eating potato bros stole our first place! (post stamp-sized Guyana doesn't count)
 

kintake

Savant
Joined
Jul 14, 2017
Messages
239
Location
Norway
I thought Rogue One was pretty solid
Oh hey, there's two of us now.
Everyone's raving about 'The Force Awakens' and 'The Last Jedi' and it seems no one cared for 'Rogue One', but I found it to be the most enjoyable of all the new ones. Only part I hated was the cameos, I don't need my nostalgia pandered to, it's like getting a handjob from a homeless guy when you've scrimped up enough to buy a house. Other than that it felt like the most complete Star Wars movie to me, in spite of some of it's flaws (The ending felt rushed to me)
I have no hopes for the 'Solo' movie, but hell I had no hope for Rogue after TFA, so I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised.
 

ColonelTeacup

Liturgist
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Messages
1,433
No it doesn't. In Bethesda game you can have those long hours by doing the main quest, several questlines, doing odd jobs along the way and investigating interesting places you see along the way. Even if you don't like that gameplay it still means new places and stories all the time. It won't be as forced as, say, Dragon Age Origins where you get that amount gameplay by doing everything you can - as in this game you're mostly defined by the way you finish specific quests as opposed to more natural question of where you character goes and what tasks he takes on.

Of course if you approach Bethesda games wiht that completionist approach that works with more traditional RPGs then it looks like a filler.
Another settlement needs your help, i'll mark it on your map.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom