Raethen

ID is gdyoder. I'm available most weeknights after 630pst and all day on weekends. I'm not very good but hoping to get better.

I may be a bit late with this, but I noticed last night that silver swords seem to drop off of unique named monsters in contracts. I got two pretty good ones from the White Lady contract and then the one about fog in the swamp. I was at level 14 when I found both, but I think if you do a contract appropriate for your level you will likely find one that will suit your needs.

I guess I never felt that the Colossi were stuck to their small territory, but were there strictly for the game. They've been in this valley for thousands of years it would seem, so they eventually found their own space away from one another. As for the birds, there is plenty of places nesting, and there are food sources in the trees that bare fruit, and the lizards could be prey as well. I know I'm justifying barren landscape that is because of hardware limitations, but it made the world so much deeper for me, and I felt there was enough in this landscape to have it make sense.

I agree with the exception of the lock on for certain Colossi that get very close to The Wanderer. That camera can make some really crazy moves when you're locked on to something traveling by you really fast. As far as the barren environment, I feel that it makes far more sense than having a good amount of wildlife around. This land houses behemoths that can be extremely destructive. The smaller creatures like the lizards are able to hide and keep away from the colossi, and the bird can easily just fly away. The rest would more than likely get as far away from these areas as possible. This is what I appreciate most about the game, so much of what is happening is inferred from the environment, each player interpreting things differently, as opposed to being told exactly what is going on.

I think the camera does that in general when ever you stop for a bit. It tries to find the most scenic view and from what I recall, it does an excellent job.

To create new rooms in Space Base the area you are dragging out must overlap with your existing base. After playing each prototype for a couple of hours each, I'm really impressed with all of them. I really enjoyed exploring the worlds of Autonomous and Black Lake and seeing both of those expand would be great. I especially loved the look of the end of Black Lake. Space Base was everything I was hoping it would be. It works great to just chill, make a base, and listen to the awesome score. I still haven't beat Hack n Slash, I got stuck on the deteriorating note puzzle, and I think I may have gone the wrong direction after the library. Playing around with all of the different settings on the enemies was great, especially when solving the second room with all of the octoroks. There is so much potential there. White Birch was the only pitch of the 5 that I didn't vote for, but I ended up enjoying what was there quite a bit. The quality of animation astounded me, and in the full game, I hope it would be a focus. 3d platforming is probably one of the hardest thing to prototype in two weeks and have it feel right, so having it be heavily guided was a great choice to get across what they are shooting for. By far the best thing to come out of this whole thing is the live stream and documentaries. Watching the streams everyday was extremely inspiring, and being able to see people actually modeling, animating, and laying out level was great and I learned quite a bit.

ThunderPeel: Use the link from that first email and the Doc and the game downloads are on that page. Speedy: The word from DF is that they are just waiting on Valve to flip the switch.

I agree Ben, having a heavily invested fan base for something must be so stressful for the person/ people creating it. In the down time the fans come up with theories for certain events, or speculate what will happen next. After spending all of that time, that becomes their version, and nothing can live up to that. The story becomes the fan's vision, as opposed that of the person creating it, which is sad. Instead of worrying about telling the story they want to, the creators must have some kind of pressure to cater to the fans, or suffer huge backlash. I remember my reaction to Dawn, I was confused, but I knew it would play out, and in the next episode i got enough to figure out what was going on. At the same, time, in this thread there is an extremely convincing theory that I may be disappointed if it turns out to be false. But at the same time, that isn't the story that GRRM wants to tell, and the one that he has been so far has been exceptional. On the subject of A Song of Ice and Fire, I started the books near the end of the first season of the HBO series. I had a couple of friends that swore by the books, but the only fantasy book I had been able to get through prior was The Hobbit. Seeing a series where no one was safe, and even the so called "bad" character's had motivations that I could understand and mostly empathize with, I had to dig deeper. I read through the first four books in about as many months, and then held off on A Dance with Dragons for a bit. I never dug past the books though, and just in this thread I have lost 2 hours reading about theories of the parentage of some characters, and recounts of all of the brilliant foreshadowing that GRRM includes. I'm going to have to find the time to reread all of the books again.

Hey everyone, I am new to both the forums and the podcast. I have heard a lot of good things about Idle Thumbs, but only recently started listening. I love the thorough discussion of games from a design standpoint and I have been making my way through the back log. I joined the forums because with the hope that the podcast would garner a community with the same tone, which would be quite refreshing. I am a 3D generalist hoping to get into game industry, though living in Colorado I don't have much of a chance. Gaming has been a big part of my life for quite a while, and being able to escape into other worlds helped me get through some of the rough patches. I would love nothing more than to pass that on to another generation of gamers.