Because Every Rose Has Its Video, Rosa's Vid Topic Options

[Acadian]

Wow, those are some colorful goblins!

Really looks like Persephone is calling down power from the heavens to smite those undead. Big book indeed! That demon is one big scary lookin’ dude! Whew, at least the lich is not giant like that book and demon.


And Molly in Skyrim! Heh, good use for that dragonstone. Much better than ratting out the dragons with it. Hmm, I did a little digging and I guess that Edoras is a Lord of the Rings city that bears some resemblance to Whiterun. Pointy-eared mutant! Spoken like a true round-ear.

[mALX]

mALX: Thankfully the game won't let you fall off the bridges and down into those bottomless pits. So they just look really cool.

How hilarious about the voice! It is called Female Seductress. It is the only voice out of the entire two dozen or so in the game that does not sound ridiculously over-acted. So it is the only one I use in NWN1.

I do use FRAPS. I tried out Bandicam as well, trying to figure out what was going on. Finally I figured it out. I was recording at 30 frames a second. When I tried an experiment at 60 fps it looked much better.


Acadian: I remember those squeaky rats from Baldur's Gate. Not to mention a squeaky space hamster! I remember the old trick of holding down a key to highlight interactive objects from way back in the first Diablo game.


Persephone battles goblins

Holding the bridge

Persephone smites the undead

That is one big book

Persephone meets a demon...

...then a lich


I also spent some time with Molly Hatchet
Molly found a hotplate for her camp

Molly discovers Edoras

Bargaining with a pointy-eared mutant

Oh, I do like the look of those goblins! I think a Player should be able to see them coming before they attack, which always makes me happy, lol.

Very much like the look of the lich too, is Persephone talking to him or is this about to turn into a fight?

The giant book is AWESOME! Love that screen!

The "Demon" one reminded me of a few enemy battles I saw last night watching the ESO vids - they have some big boss fights for each region kind of like some of the old Mario games had - and they are BIG bosses, like that Demon is. Really oversized compared to the player, and with a lot of hit points.

Kind of made me wonder if they were overpowered because they are supposed to have groups of 20 attacking at once (because in the vid they were very hard to kill even with many hits) or if they tone it down some for single player mode so it will be more like doing the Gatekeeper at Shivering Isles.


Yeah! Molly !!!!

Oh, I love her armor here! And actually, I have used soapstone when I'm camping to keep the food warm after you pull it from the fire so it doesn't get overcooked - it is great for keeping biscuits and breads hot at the table too; Molly must have high survival skills!

Molly's hatchet is HUGE !!! Wow!

Uh oh, that man looks like he is going to fight with Molly! She must have said that aloud, lol.


Awesome Shots; really loved seeing Molly again !!!

[SubRosa]

Acadian: I have been having a lot of old school fun with Neverwinter Nights 1. Yellow goblins and all!

So far Molly has put that dragonstone to better use than any of my other characters! If she ever got the jagged crown (it's a spiky helmet from the civil war questline), she'd probably stick weiners on the spikes and hold it out over the fire to heat them up!


mALX: Thankfully I didn't have to fight the lich, or the demon really. There were a ton of other critters in that dungeon that needed smiting though.

I was thinking of those old-fashioned iron stoves when I put the dragonstone over the fire. You know, the kind with the solid metal plate where we have the burner on a modern stove, and you put your pan or pot over the plate, which is heated up by the fire underneath it.

Of course it is huge. Molly will be the first to agree that size matters after all. When it comes to hatchets at least...

Dawn of the Dead

Persephone vs. Wererats

Persephone vs. a Bone Golem

Persephone vs. Iron Man

Persephone vs. Godzilla

[Acadian]

Goodness, it’s a zombie invasion!

I had such a laugh over the wererats – er, werecats.

Bone golems – ugh, I remember those from BG II.

Persephone found a dwemer centurian!

And a dragon!

I’m so glad that you and Persephone and Darryl are having fun in NWN I!

[mALX]

mALX: Thankfully I didn't have to fight the lich, or the demon really. There were a ton of other critters in that dungeon that needed smiting though.

I was thinking of those old-fashioned iron stoves when I put the dragonstone over the fire. You know, the kind with the solid metal plate where we have the burner on a modern stove, and you put your pan or pot over the plate, which is heated up by the fire underneath it.

Of course it is huge. Molly will be the first to agree that size matters after all. When it comes to hatchets at least...

Dawn of the Dead

Persephone vs. Wererats

Persephone vs. a Bone Golem

Persephone vs. Iron Man

Persephone vs. Godzilla

I have been laughing about Molly using that stone since I learned it was the Dragonstone, But I know the stove you are talking about; I've actually seen one in use in upstate New York in a small Lake Ontario waterfront town that time seemed to have stood still in. The man actually lit a small fire in the chamber beneath the metal plate to heat the stove, stoked it with wood and put a tea kettle on to warm. I was probably about 10 years old, and had only seen electric stoves till then - was fascinated by it.

I keep being surprised by the extreme detail in the textures of this world; they are amazing - but the characters don't seem as high resolution in comparison.

These monsters are huge! I guess you really need a group to fight them. I saw some similar oversized beasts in the vids of ESO and wondered if they will be too hard for a solo player to kill, or even just a party of three, lol.

Well, I have to say my favorite of these is Godzilla, dear gods is Persephone alone against him?

Awesome shots!

[SubRosa]

Acadian: Persephone is of course, quite at home during a zombie apocalypse!

The were-rats do have ridiculously large heads and hands don't they?

Now that you mention it, I do recall a bone golem or two from BGII. They were tough hombres there too.


mALX: I have seen those old-fashioned stoves somewhere around here too. Probably at Greenfield Village. Even way back thousands of years ago people had iron stoves. Armies used to cart around small ones to bake their bread. The Sassanid Persians had these heavily armored horsemen who the Eastern Romans (Byzantines) called Clibinarii, which is from the Greek word Klibanophoroi - meaning "camp oven bearer".

In noticed the same thing about the textures in NWN1. The world objects like furniture and walls and floors all looks outstanding, with a huge amount of detail. But then the characters look very simple and blocky in comparison.

Persephone did take on that dragon alone. But thankfully she was able to get an amulet with a really big resistance to cold beforehand, and the dragon's breath weapon was cold-based. So that made a huge difference in the fight.



I have been playing my old Amazon Total War mod for Rome Total War 1 almost non-stop lately. Here are a few pics from my Amazonia campaign.

Penthesilea the Conqueror recently took Rhodes from the Greeks, but they obviously want it back... (The red flags are Amazon units, the gold ones are Greeks. The amount the flag is darkened in shows how many soldiers are in each army, the dark, the more people).

Penthesilea marches out to fight one of the Greek armies

The Colossus of Rhodes looks on (all 7 Wonders of the World are in the game, plus I added a few with ATW).

Penthesilea leaves no survivors

Queen Penthesilea will have to march over two Greek armies to take Athens (in the distance). The second Greek army is behind the hill.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 6 2015, 06:56 PM

[Acadian]

Penthesilea is conquering some turf! Looks like you did a fabulous job modding RTW to suit your purpose.

As I said earlier, that game looks epic in scale!

Long ago, I did play some medieval flavored RTS games. Lords of the Realm II gobbled up some time. And I enjoyed Stronghold also - that one was like a castle sim / RTS.

[mALX]

mALX: I have seen those old-fashioned stoves somewhere around here too. Probably at Greenfield Village. Even way back thousands of years ago people had iron stoves. Armies used to cart around small ones to bake their bread. The Sassanid Persians had these heavily armored horsemen who the Eastern Romans (Byzantines) called Clibinarii, which is from the Greek word Klibanophoroi - meaning "camp oven bearer".

In noticed the same thing about the textures in NWN1. The world objects like furniture and walls and floors all looks outstanding, with a huge amount of detail. But then the characters look very simple and blocky in comparison.

Persephone did take on that dragon alone. But thankfully she was able to get an amulet with a really big resistance to cold beforehand, and the dragon's breath weapon was cold-based. So that made a huge difference in the fight.



I have been playing my old Amazon Total War mod for Rome Total War 1 almost non-stop lately. Here are a few pics from my Amazonia campaign.

Penthesilea the Conqueror recently took Rhodes from the Greeks, but they obviously want it back... (The red flags are Amazon units, the gold ones are Greeks. The amount the flag is darkened in shows how many soldiers are in each army, the dark, the more people).

Penthesilea marches out to fight one of the Greek armies

The Colossus of Rhodes looks on (all 7 Wonders of the World are in the game, plus I added a few with ATW).

Penthesilea leaves no survivors

Queen Penthesilea will have to march over two Greek armies to take Athens (in the distance). The second Greek army is behind the hill.

I used to play a board game like this, but this is so much more exciting! I really love that the flags on the map give an indication of the size of the troops; that way you can plan your strategy to maximize troops and don't get surprised by a battle much bigger than you are prepared for!

Is this game against the computer? (single player?)

I love the little journal entry showing the victory broken down into details, she only lost 3 men but killed 1178? Holy Cow, no wonder she is "The Conqueror!"

This game is very interesting, I think my son played something like this online called League of Legends (? Maybe it was Legion of Legends, I can't remember).

This game is very cool, thank you so much for sharing these!


OH! That Greenfield Village looks Awesome! I would love to go walk through there and see it all!






This post has been edited by mALX: May 8 2015, 06:49 PM

[ghastley]

OK, I need those stats explained. How did Penthesilia have 18 less troops at the end, but the enemy only killed 3? Friendly fire? Desertions? Mergers and Acquisitions?

[SubRosa]

Acadian: Penthesilea has been my best general. She started the game as the faction heir, and led the Amazonian army to conquer western Anatolia. Then she took the army against the hated Greeks, and conquered all of the Aegean and Greece. By then she was pushing 60 years though, and had become faction leader. So I let her retire in Pella, and left the conquering to younger women. She is almost 80 now, and is still alive and well. Usually once a general turns 60 in this game, they could die of old age at any moment.

I remember those game, though I never did try them. I was playing a lot of X:Com and Tie Fighter back then.


mALX: RTW also has spies you can use to look at enemy units and generals, and find out their exact stats, as well as infiltrate enemy cities to learn what is in them. That is very handy. They even have a chance to open the gates for your army if they are inside a city that you attack. There are also diplomats - and aside from diplomacy - they can be used to bribe enemy units to disband or join your side. Finally, there are assassins as well, that you can use to murder enemy spies and diplomats, as well as sabotage enemy cities.

RTW is mainly a single player game. You can play a number of historical battles, or take a faction in a campaign, which is the most fun. There is a multiplayer component too, but it is only playing single battles against other humans online.



ghastley: Those unattributed losses are from friendly fire. The downside to playing a faction with powerful archers is that you sometimes take more losses from your own side than from the enemy... OTOH, my archers will often account for a good 60-70% of the enemy killed.


Amazon catapults batter down Egyptian walls

Battle against the Seleucid Empire

The Seleucids have elephants!

But my archers have flaming arrows (which panics elephants)

Elephants running amok through the Seleucid's own mercenaries (in green)

The archers have cleared the way

[haute ecole rider]

I remember the fun I had taking RTW for a whirl on my Mac last year (or was it two years ago?).

Seeing these screenies makes me think I should get the PC version so I can hit you up for that mod!

[mALX]

mALX: RTW also has spies you can use to look at enemy units and generals, and find out their exact stats, as well as infiltrate enemy cities to learn what is in them. That is very handy. They even have a chance to open the gates for your army if they are inside a city that you attack. There are also diplomats - and aside from diplomacy - they can be used to bribe enemy units to disband or join your side. Finally, there are assassins as well, that you can use to murder enemy spies and diplomats, as well as sabotage enemy cities.

RTW is mainly a single player game. You can play a number of historical battles, or take a faction in a campaign, which is the most fun. There is a multiplayer component too, but it is only playing single battles against other humans online.



ghastley: Those unattributed losses are from friendly fire. The downside to playing a faction with powerful archers is that you sometimes take more losses from your own side than from the enemy... OTOH, my archers will often account for a good 60-70% of the enemy killed.


Amazon catapults batter down Egyptian walls

Battle against the Seleucid Empire

The Seleucids have elephants!
to
But my archers have flaming arrows (which panics elephants)

Elephants running amok through the Seleucid's own mercenaries (in green)

The archers have cleared the way

The elephants tossing people through the air - that never gets old, I have to love a game that thought enough to add that in!

Another thing I love is the little status reports on the troops (example: eager due to encouragement by their general, etc) - I love that!

The battle itself looks a bit scary, how do you tell all those troops what to do? The strategies involved in planning the war doesn't seem as daunting as conveying that to hundreds of troops, lol.

Oh, the idea of spies and subterfuge to infiltrate or bribing - that game sounds like a ton of fun!

Awesome screens, and of course the elephants tossing their own troops around is my favorite, you can't beat that!





This post has been edited by mALX: May 9 2015, 05:00 AM

[Acadian]

Once again, the grand sweeping scale of this game is very impressive. I loved how those fire arrows panicked the elephants. An elephant stampede in your own ranks could certainly turn the tide I should imagine. Wow, the archer damage over the walls was amazing. Yay for archers!

[SubRosa]

haute ecole rider: The PC version of RTW and BI cannot be too much. The two were only about $20 when I bought them bundled together about six years ago. Just be sure you get the Barbarian Invasion expansion as well as the original game. Amazon Total War uses the BI executable, which has some nice extras such as night attacks.


mALX: The people getting tossed in the air even sometimes happens during cavalry charges as well. Or whenever too many people are crammed into too small a space.

That morale status is very important. In this game you do not win battles by killing all your enemy soldiers straight out. You do it by making them panic and flee, just like in the real world. Some things help morale, like being well rested, have friendly troops to either flank, and having a good general nearby. Every general has 3 attributes: Command, Influence, and Management. Management is about managing cities. But Command adds its rating to the stats of all friendly troops in the area around the general. The range the general gives that bonus is based on their Influence attribute. So a good general makes troops even better.

Likewise, a general also reduces the morale of enemy troops by the same amount. So putting your general in the right place really counts. Also being tired reduces morale, so does being outnumbered, and having enemies behind or on the flanks. So getting your enemy tired out, flanking them, and focusing a powerful force into a small area of the enemy army has a very good chance of crushing that one section. From there on you can take them apart piecemeal. As Patton said: "I'm going to grab him by the nose, and kick him in the ass." It works.


Acadian: Archers can be very powerful in this game, so long as you take the time to use them properly. Making elephants and chariots panic and run amok is one of the most fun parts of the game. As you said, they do some really terrible things to their own army.


Well, because I talked about it in the last post, my faction leader Penthesilea died of old age. She has been succeeded by Iphinome the Conqueror

The first move against the final Egyptian stronghold of Palmyra. I make this a night attack, so I don't have to fight all three Egyptian armies at once

There is one Egyptian army in front of mine, and another on the left

Agema Archers light up the night

At the same time, another Amazonian army has hit the beaches of Sicily in order to chastise the Carthaginians (who had the gall to blockade one of my ports). I love these mad generals.

Proof of Bomilkar's madness, he just charged a line of spearwomen

Bomilkar is cast down into the dust

[haute ecole rider]

Proof of Bomilkar's madness, he just charged a line of spearwomen

Well, well, well! Every commander worth her salt knows you never charge horses into spears! And if said spears are backed up by PMS, well-- *

[Acadian]

A new Conqueress! All shall fall before her!

Love the shot night shots of the fire arrows.

Oh, that is a hilarious tidbit into the craziness of that other commander!

[SubRosa]

haute ecole rider: And I like that fact that charging spears with cavalry is suicide in this game. It has a lot of realistic touches like that.

Acadian: The world did fall before Iphinome. As of today she has completely destroyed the Egyptians and Seleucids, and forced the Parthians to bend their knees to Amazon superiority.

Night fights are one of the interesting things about the Barbarian Invasion expansion. Only generals with the Night Fighter trait can initiate night battles. That is a handy way to attack multiple armies that are clustered closely together. Normally they would all come into the fight, and might overwhelm you with 3 or 4 to 1 odds. But if you attack at night, only opposing armies led by a Night Fighter can come to reinforce the first army you attack. Most times that means you can fight one army at a time.

I love the crazy generals. Rome Total War was made with playing a Roman in mind (kind of obvious from the title no?). So the Roman generals have a lot of material for their pre-battle speeches. If they have the crazy traits, their speeches are hilarious. "The Moon People are angry because I stole their honey!" one will say. "But we have hats, such lovely hats, that will shield us from their fearsome gaze!"


Clearing the Carthaginians from the walls during an assault upon a city

My Agema Axewomen slug it out with them in the street

Barbarians run like dogs! Oh wait, those are dogs!

Parthia becomes my protectorate (I get their treasury, and their territories count as mine)

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 14 2015, 03:33 AM

[Acadian]

It must be such a change to go from playing one character to playing one with thousands of followers! I'm so pleased to see you having such fun with this grand game!

Oh, and I simply love the banner / symbol of the bow on the red background that your armies use.

[mALX]

mALX: The people getting tossed in the air even sometimes happens during cavalry charges as well. Or whenever too many people are crammed into too small a space.

That morale status is very important. In this game you do not win battles by killing all your enemy soldiers straight out. You do it by making them panic and flee, just like in the real world. Some things help morale, like being well rested, have friendly troops to either flank, and having a good general nearby. Every general has 3 attributes: Command, Influence, and Management. Management is about managing cities. But Command adds its rating to the stats of all friendly troops in the area around the general. The range the general gives that bonus is based on their Influence attribute. So a good general makes troops even better.

Likewise, a general also reduces the morale of enemy troops by the same amount. So putting your general in the right place really counts. Also being tired reduces morale, so does being outnumbered, and having enemies behind or on the flanks. So getting your enemy tired out, flanking them, and focusing a powerful force into a small area of the enemy army has a very good chance of crushing that one section. From there on you can take them apart piecemeal. As Patton said: "I'm going to grab him by the nose, and kick him in the ass." It works.

Well, because I talked about it in the last post, my faction leader Penthesilea died of old age. She has been succeeded by Iphinome the Conqueror

The first move against the final Egyptian stronghold of Palmyra. I make this a night attack, so I don't have to fight all three Egyptian armies at once

There is one Egyptian army in front of mine, and another on the left

Agema Archers light up the night

At the same time, another Amazonian army has hit the beaches of Sicily in order to chastise the Carthaginians (who had the gall to blockade one of my ports). I love these mad generals.

Proof of Bomilkar's madness, he just charged a line of spearwomen

Bomilkar is cast down into the dust

I have no idea how I missed this post, I am so sorry!

This game sounds fascinating and exciting! The more you tell me about it, the more I want to hear!

Gaaaah! She did die of old age? I think you said she was 80. Does the game just suddenly message you that your general is dead?

Oh, and I love the list of traits, do you choose those or does the game add them based on your decisions?

OMG, Bomiker the Mad painting his bottom purple and wearing goat bladders! SPEW !!!


Gaaaah! Hey, when he died I didn't see those things!

I am loving getting to see this game, and really loving getting to learn more about it! This game sounds Awesome!

[mALX]

Clearing the Carthaginians from the walls during an assault upon a city

My Agema Axewomen slug it out with them in the street

Barbarians run like dogs! Oh wait, those are dogs!

Parthia becomes my protectorate (I get their treasury, and their territories count as mine)

The melee looks frightening, it must be hard to see how your troops are doing!

I think my favorite thing about this game so far is the writing on these journals - the little info on the mad general before, and now this one where the allies "must accept this insulting proposal." These are hilarious, I'd have to play just to read them all, lol.

Oh, I am so loving this game, I can absolutely see why you are drawn to playing it!

@ "Running like dogs" = BWAAHAA!!!!
don'


* Please, if you have a post up and I haven't come in a day or so, if it is no trouble, can you PM me? Sometimes I miss seeing the new posts. Acadian usually gives me a nudge too, but that last post somehow got by me.