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Grimoire Beta Begins But So Fucking What ( Game news )
posted by Sol Invictus on Tue 14 June 2005, 23:14:19
More info on Grimoire

Renowned racist/conspiracy theorist/failed game developer Cleve Blakemore has announced today at RPGDot that the development of his near-vaporware RPG Grimoire is nearing its final beta test, which begins this Friday. Several of RPGDot's staff members are ridiculously hyped by the notorious RPG that's been in development longer than Duke Nukem Forever and Team Fortress 2.

Cleve Blakemore announced today that the final beta testing for the long awaited Old School RPG Grimoire would begin on Friday of this week, with world wide release of the game scheduled for October of THIS YEAR!! Since several prominent members of the RPGDot community are involved with this beta, you can be assured of continuing coverage. Finally, the day many said would NEVER arrive is almost upon us. Grimoire is definitely coming!!

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SCOURGE v.1 hits the net ( Development info )
posted by Saint_Proverbius on Tue 14 June 2005, 17:03:58
More info on S.C.O.U.R.G.E.: Heroes of Lesser Renown

SCOURGE, the 3D roguelike with turn based combat and a sense of humor, has hit version v.10 for Windows and Linux. The new features and changes are:

• New game logo and windowless menu
  
• UI themes (default to dark theme)
  
• Character portraits
  
• Simplified/improved UI (eg.: cast healing spell on char. portrait, etc.)
  
• Quick spell/skill buttons (icons ant tooltip) (F1-F12 shortcuts)
  
• Linux binary distribution via autopackage
  
• Improved wall transparency that works with water levels.
  
• Cursed items that cannot be removed w/o uncursing them first
  
• General/Storyline npc-s at HQ.
  
• Conversation engine/UI w. npc portraits
  
• New dungeon themes from Wadfather
  
• Storyline playable to level 6: npc conversation, storyline missions, balanced battle, monsters casting more spells, etc.
  
• More new spells: Ring of harm, Malice storm, Unholy decimator, teleportation
  
• Decorative gargoyles take up less screen-space.
  
• Oval cut-out lighting optional.
  
• Items/spells now have a min. depth at which they appear.
  
• Magic item's damage multipler select a likely monster. (ie. a level 3 item does not select a level 15 monster.)
  
• Uzudil (npc) "reminds" players of mission objectives on level change
  
• Uzudil gives mission success message (carries storyline forward).
  
• XP bonus on mission success, display this with success message.
  
• Better mission management (bugs fixed, removes old missions, etc.)
  
• Party / Character creator wizard
  
• TB combat: double click to move, single click to show path
  
• Cursor to change to indicate attack over creature
  
• Item and spell graphics (items use RLTiles)

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Guild 1.0 released ( Development info )
posted by Saint_Proverbius on Mon 13 June 2005, 07:11:36
More info on Guild

Guild has been released for Windows. What is it? It's a rogue-like where you control a party rather than just one adventurator. Here's the post from rec.games.roguelike.announce:

The main gimmick in Guild is that, instead of playing a solo
adventurer, you control an entire group. At any given time you have
direct control of one of the characters; the rest will follow you and
make themselves useful (attack nearby monsters, heal wounded party
members...) You can give the other characters orders ("follow me!"
"shoot that goblin!" "run for your life!"), or you can switch to
directly controlling one of them.

I released a demo version of Guild last year, but this version is much
bigger and better. It's a complete playable game, featuring:

- 30 different kinds of monsters
- about 50 spells
- nearly 200 types of objects
- four quests (one easy, three hard)
- several randomised dungeons
- a town level where you can shop, recruit new characters, and talk to
NPCs
- a house level where you can store your stuff and 'hang out' :)
- character advancement as far as 5th level

You can get Windows binaries at guildgame.com. Source code and/or a
Linux version may follow in the next few weeks.

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Hellgate London Dev Diary at IGN ( Preview )
posted by Saint_Proverbius on Sat 11 June 2005, 21:41:47
More info on Hellgate: London

IGN has posted a dev diary featuring some artist guy working on Hellgate London. Here's a bit about third person and melee:

Getting the third-person character in the game was kind of an obsession for me since we started this project. Personally, I like to see the character I'm playing on the screen, and I also knew that melee combat would only really come together with a third-person view. I knew that to sell the idea, it had to be done right, and for this to happen, a lot of pieces had to come together at the same time. The showing at E3 represented a convenient milestone for this, and honestly, it was past due. The whole process of getting this first character up and running was over a year in the making!

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LoadedInc happy with Sacred Underworld ( Review )
posted by Spazmo on Sat 11 June 2005, 17:18:52
More info on Sacred Underworld - More info on Ascaron Entertainment

LoadedInc have a review of the expansion to Ascaron's action RPG, Sacred Underworld. They liked it well enough to rate it 8.5/10.

I must admit that I had high expectation for this expansion. The original game actually caught me off guard, as I had played so many clones of Diablo and Baldur’s Gate that I guessed I would see yet another imitator. Instead, I played a game that was familiar yet fresh in many ways. In terms of what the expansion offers, I would say it has 2 good new character types and a very good expanded single player experience. If you are a fan of the original Sacred, you should definitely spend some time with this.

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Bloodlines fan patch 1.5 released ( Game news )
posted by Spazmo on Sat 11 June 2005, 17:15:41
More info on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines - More info on Troika Games

Worthplaying is offering a download of version 1.5 of an unofficial fan patch for Troika's last game, Vampire: Bloodlines. Here's the newest fixes.

# Fixed Hitman quest bug that showed failure when making them friends.
# Awarded 1 xp for getting Imalia's magazine to compensate money loss.
# Lowered award for rescueing Ash from the Society of Leopold to 1 xp.
# Adjusted knockback ranges for McLusky, SWAT rifle and the shotguns.
# Corrected some errors in Hitman quest log, dialogues and doll texts.
# Fixed bugs in the dialogue files of Ash and Velvet for extra lines.
# Corrected a bug that kept the Santa Monica haven active for Tremere.
# Provided 1 humanity point for not telling Hannah that Paul is dead.
# Modified the dialogue files of Damsel and Isaac to fix bad options.

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Starfury goes retail ( Game news )
posted by Vault Dweller on Sat 11 June 2005, 03:57:49
More info on Space Empires: Starfury - More info on Shrapnel Games

i-Newswire reports that Starfury, a sci-fi action RPG aka tactical space trading CRPG, was shipped to retailers nationwide, courtesy of Strategy First.

"Master of your Own Destiny" has a whole new meaning in Star Fury! As a starship captain you'll be exploring the furthest reaches of space in search of fame, fortune and adventure. You might think upgrading your starship with high performance tech will be the advantage that keeps you alive - but that really isn't enough. In a galaxy filled with warp points, unfriendly aliens, asteroid belts and cosmic storms, teaming up with large fleet operations might be your only chance for survival. Will you be a respectable trader or a blood-thirsty pirate? Your actions decide your fate in a hostile universe!

Star Fury is a science-fiction action RPG where you assume the role of a starship captain. The risks you're willing to take as commander secures your legacy of eternal wealth and power or ultimately are responsible for your demise in the cold emptiness of space.

Star Fury will be available at all major retailers at a suggested retail price of $19.99. Rated Everyone by ESRB. For more information please visit www.malfador.com.

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Hammer & Sickle previews hit the net ( Preview )
posted by Vault Dweller on Sat 11 June 2005, 03:38:20
More info on Hammer & Sickle - More info on Nival Interactive

Both GameSpy and GameSpot have expressed some interest in the upcoming (I use this term loosely) Hammer & Sickle, a game that started as a Silent Storm's ambitious mod and ended up as a promising tactical RPG.

GameSpot:
And like in a role-playing game, you'll even encounter characters that will offer branching dialog trees when spoken to, along with cinematic sequences with full audio speech between missions. Even simple conversations, along with how you resolve your missions, will have far-reaching effects on gameplay, both in the areas you have visited and in others you haven't. For instance, if you happen to dispose of local law enforcement in one area, you may find that all other areas are swarming with cops later on. Unfortunately, since you'll play as a top-secret operative, even the Soviet government has disavowed any knowledge of your existence, so outside of your network of spies, not even your fellow soldiers from the motherland can be trusted. You can improve your chances of getting past the guards by disguising yourself in uniforms

GameSpy:
The best news, though, is that while the terrific strategy engine from Silent Storm is being enhanced a bit, it isn't really being changed in any significant way. That means that all the turn-based tactical glory from the original is coming back. The game's impressive physics engine that makes every object in the game destructible means that all the great strategic options (shooting through floorboards, destroying support structures to bring down houses) will be available, but the game's persistent universe makes tactical decisions much more significant. It's one thing to bring down a house on a bunch of Nazis in the middle of a war. Bring down the house of an English Ambassador, though, and it will remain destroyed for the rest of the game -- and the player's game will change dramatically as British characters react to the "crime."

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NMA Fallout developer profile - MCA, part II ( Interview )
posted by Vault Dweller on Sat 11 June 2005, 03:19:02
More info on Obsidian Entertainment - More info on Chris Avellone

NMA is still doing that Fallout developer profile thingy that brings you answers to important questions like "What’s your favorite Fallout memory?", "What was it like being part of the Fallout team?", and "If you were a post-apoc tree, what kinda tree would you be?". The latest victim is MCA, known for Planescape: Torment and, sadly, for KOTOR II.

What’s your favorite Fallout memory?

I don’t know. Long walks on the beach maybe? The first kiss? What kind of dumbass question is this? I didn’t have a romantic relationship with the game, for fuck’s sake.

I also have pleasant memories of Odin continually asking for confidential information on the game with the conditional �Oh, I won’t tell anyone� tacked on. For anyone reading this, if you ever ask me for confidential information, you’re wasting your time, and furthermore, you’re making me angry. Don’t make me angry. I am angry and bitter enough as it is.

What was it like being part of the Fallout team?

It was great! Wow! It was the best! Man, the times we had! The hookers! The blow! It was a non-stop orgy!

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Fate 1.19 patch released ( Development info )
posted by Saint_Proverbius on Fri 10 June 2005, 20:27:01
More info on Fate

The 1.19 patch for Fate is now available. Here's the huge list of changes:
Fixes :

• Holding the mouse and walking - when dragging mouse over inventory panel, massive slowdown ( was pathing to a remote location )
  
• Crash when transforming pet WHILE selling from pet's inventory
  
• Fishing holes could appear on 'land' when near stairwells
  
• % Damage Reduced capped to 75 internally
  
• Too many awesome Artifacts appearing when fishing in town, causing gold imbalance
  
• Fame had bad requirement values from 14 on - fixed ( this also fixes those fame upgrade cost issues )
  
• MODDERS: No crash if previous pet XForm removed from monster list...
  
• Crash when holding a merchant's item that will not fit back into their inventory - fixed
  
• Kill-The-Townsfolk exploit fixed ( crashed when killing questgivers )

• You can now see the real value of the next skill upgrade vs current skill (i.e. what percentages you will be upgraded to. )
  
• Pets will not sell quest items when sent back to town
  
• Spellcasting and Dual Wield skills rebalanced - They increased too quickly, and later points were not valuable enough
  
• Banish spell added for some monsters - they can banish your summoned creatures
  
• Bremen's Quest description now mentions monster type, to help you in planning
  
• MODDERS: Weapons/helmets/shields can now have particle spewers or glows attached to them
  
• Can now turn off custom cursors in the config file so that users experiencing slow cursor response can use the normal windows cursor.
  
• Bow/crossbow ranges extended
  
• Fish merchant now tells fish type. I give in!
  
• Max pet town-trip time is 2 minutes
  
• Scrolls can now be stacked into books ( max of 20 uses per book )
  
• pet base damage increased by level - level 13 timberwolf goes from 11-18 damage to 24-31 damage as an example of how this affects things
  
• "You didn't catch anything" message removed from fishing
  
• Shift-Click will move items to/from enchant/break/anvil screens
  
• Buying potions goes straight to quickslots first
  
• Monsters have only a 10% chance of targeting owners when they attack pets, as opposed to 30% before - this should make pets/summons better shields
  
• You can identify things in your stash
  
• MODDERS: You can now add music tracks, in the form of town50 dungeon20 etc. It will pick them up automatically and work with them. These may also now be mp3s instead of just oggs
  
• BIG magic change - Magic stat now affects damage dealt by spells ( for player only ) Additionally Damage Bonus effects now apply to magical damage as well. This should help make Attack Magic more viable, and Magic as a whole a more satisfying investment.
  
• MODDERS: wielded/worn items ( weapons, shields, helms ) can now be animated
  
• When 'View All Items' is toggled on, you can hold ALT to temporarily disable it and clear all that cluttery text from the screen
  
• Items have a better chance of enhancing existing effects when enchanting them, rather than always giving new ones.

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