Mikka's Modding Project!

[Mikka]

Assassin's Creed is one of those games I suck at. Any game that involves jumping puzzles of some sort, going back to Mario, I'm horrible at. Platformers, really.

 

I've sort of given up on Icewind Dale for now. I can't get mods to install in Baldur's Gate II at the moment, either- looks like I'll need to reinstall it, which is a puzzle I don't feel like doing. I'm not going to play Tutu, because I'll probably be playing the Extended Edition soon enough. So looks like I need to go back to Icewind Dale II or Planescape: Torment if I want to get my Infinity Engine fix. I know, I should be working on the new students, but I have the day free! No project! No work! It's like, yay! Goof off time!

 

I don't mind paladins, not really, but I mean... I find Keldorn perfectly servicable if I need one. He's a good paladin and he has the paladin thing right down, and the paladin stronghold is boring. The only reason to play a paladin is the Holy Avenger, and by the time you hit ToB, you'll have other weapons that are just as good. So, as I said, I usually end up playing a thief because Nalia is worthless, Yoshimo is Yoshimo, Imoen just barely succeeds and occasionally trips up in ToB, and Jan I can only keep in my party for so long. He's amusing, but I only want him if my party is severely chaotic neutral.

 

Personally, if I had my way, I'd always play a half-elf cleric/ranger. All cleric spells. All druid spells. Overpowered to the max, and easily able to solo the game. But I like companions too much to do that often. I mostly just did it to say I could do it, really.

 

As for hell, well, you did stab a guy. That is pretty evil. I don't think the object is that great, so I don't fall for that one.

 

Yeah, I've done Iron Man playthroughs, too. That wolf is horrible. I hate using kiting in single player RPGs. I should not have to use MMO techniques to play a single player game. I actually had to use them in Dragon Age (not II, 1) when playing on the highest difficulty, though. That's basically how I had to defeat Loghain. A meleeist can just go up and bonk him, but thief or mage you generally have to run around in circles a bit to solo him (unless the thief can get a good backstab first thing, which I've done before). Dragon Age II, I never had to resort to such techniques, so hopefully Dragon Age III will be saner. I should win through strategy, and I do not think running in circles while people use bows/magic is strategy.

 

Cyrodill really, really disappointed me. It was supposed to be a jungle! Instead it was just generic fantasy world! Argh, it sucked. Skyrim didn't go too against my expectations, but I actually severely dislike Oblivion because it wasn't what I expected or wanted. Hmph. But Skryim.... I don't know. It's just a miserable land. I've played a loyal Nord and a loyal Altamar through the game, and I think at the end both of them were just sort of like "Screw this place, I'm going to some other Providence and take over that corner of the world". Skyrim is just full of miserable, whiny people who depend on the Dragonborn for everything. For all they talk about their grand AI, I feel like in Skyrim everyone is waiting for me to perform a fetch quest for them.

 

I don't play horror games. They scare me. >.> I tend to play strategy games when I'm not playing RPGs or simulations... I'm still addicted to Europea Universalis III. I play with the Death & Taxes mod, which makes it harder and more complicated while making it more interesting, and I enjoy it.

 

As for dating games, I was playing... what is it called. 'Heartstring Bugs'. In it, you are a fairly boring teenage girl who can somehow become the smartest, prettiest, athleticist, charming girl alive in the space of three years. You go around trying to date any one of five guys, all who have deep personality flaws and issues that means I wouldn't even give them a glance in real life (...er, if I was a high school girl. Obviously, I wouldn't give them a glance in real life, because that would be illegal.). You also have three girls who can be your best friend, one who is simply utterly neurotic and doormaty, with the other two being total bitches. You spend three years playing utterly repetitive gameplay- raise your stats, rest off stress, go to club, date guys on weekend- in order to get a picture with a guy at the end of the three years, basically. Woohoo.

 

Yet somehow, I find it strangely addicting. I don't get it, and I don't think it's aimed for someone like me, but I find it somehow fascinating. I mean, in Japan, these games are huge! What a different culture experience. I don't get it, but I play it.

 

...That said, I think I'll try installing Icewind Dale II.

 

...Or working on the new kids. They could use someone working on them. It's already the 12th, and I have very little to show for it.

[MadHatt]

Ha! I remember that part. I love Leonardo. This and Batman were the games where I imagined the NPCs must have shook their heads at me. "Hey, there's that guy that jumps off the roofs NON STOP" I think a week went by before I actually did the plot.

 

You can play a rogue, get the perk ...I forget what's properly called, but the one that lets you use everything and use the Holy Avenger. Problem solved.

 

Stabbing a guy but also freeing him! He was still alive afterwards! That's like..neutral right? I mean he was fine! Mostly fine...

 

I didn't have that issue against Loghain because I was a mage, arcane warrior and blood mage so I was ..the only thing usually left alive in the party after a hard fight. And had an Ogre bodyguard. I loved playing as a mage in that game...and an intimidating one at that. Not for the gameplay as much as some of the lines that immediately implied you'd turn people into toads. Er..don't get your hopes up on DA3...from what spoilers I could gather, it's not going to be pretty. I mean, it all lives and dies by the characters, in a Bio game, but so far it's a 'meh'. We do get a qunari, I heard. Or a Tal Vashoth mercenary. So that's that.

 

I think I only liked Morrowind...and the rest were just bought because "hey, it might end up being like Morrowind". Cyrodill was just ..dull. Even with things going on and daedra everywhere I was just "oh look, demon from hell" *swat with sword as if there's a spider at the end* and then moving on. I disliked having to assist Captain NPC do something cool. Skyrim...is a bit better at less traditional scenery. A bit. Still, you're right, they're just sad. And every guild needs YOU to fix everything. I wish they could have at least said "Yeah, you did win that and killed the last leader, but...how are your maths skills? Good with accounting? Yeah, that's what we need. But you can still have this staff!"

 

I would recommend Call of Cthulhu if you want to try a non-scary game. I mean, I laughed. I adore anything horror. Movies, books, games...anything I can get my hands on. Sadly that means most of my standards are shot. Nothing scares me any more, so I guess my suggestion is a bit dodgy, but the stealth scenes were better than regular ones. And then you get machine guns so ..the scare factor is definitely lost. One of the scenes I laughed in was when you see a raving lunatic shooting at police officers from a window and I was trying not to alert the guy and die so early in the game, then CUTSCENE and I watch with horror and the dude goes and introduces himself. What.

 

I think I lost my ability to get scared when I was a kid. I got lost from the tour guide and went down this tiny spiral staircase in Dracula's castle...well the one that's still standing. And nothing happened. Most disappointing moment of my life.

 

I'd play anything. Shooters, puzzles, strategy, simulations, stealth, hack and slash, RPG...I prefer RPGs actually, but I find that very few actually qualify. Most are old school.

 

Did you set a deadline for the new kids or did I miss it?

 

I think I'm up for an Arcanum playthrough myself. MCA is doing one and I can't watch without wanting to play it myself.

[Mikka]

Oh, that's true. I had forgotten about the rogue's 'use anything' perk, and I usually play rogues. I'm an idiot. I really do want to play BGII again- a new version of Xan came out, and this one says there's actually a HAPPY ENDING rather then 'bittersweet tragedy' that the romance was, so it's sort of tempting. And I still want to play Angelo... who to flirt with, who to flirt with...

 

I just downloaded play Icewind Dale in the BGII engine. We'll see if that allows me to get past the expedition start, or if I'm just going to have to install Icewind Dale II and play that instead. I sort of wanted to do it in order...

 

Don't kill innocents in Hell. It leaves a bad impression.

 

I never play Arcane Warrior as a Mage. That's just *too* overpowered for me. That's another game soloing build, but again once I did it once, I lost interest in it. Instead I tend to play healz. This is probably because of too much MMO playing. I'm just used to playing the healer role. And I rarely take Wynne around and Morigan... just doesn't seem suited to picking up healing spells.

 

Hey, I liked the DAII characters, so I'm guessing I'll probably like the DAIII characters. Bioware hasn't disappointed me with their characters yet, not even in SWtOR. I'm more worried they're going to rush it to beat the Witcher to the gate and that means we're going to have to deal with five million caves that look the exact same again. That got annoying pretty quickly. But as long as they don't do the KOTORII unfinished route, I'll probably be happy with it. Bioware games are all about story and characters... I don't really play them for gameplay. Though I found DAII fun enough.

 

I think you're sort of right, and the same as me. I adored Morrowind. But Oblivion and Skyrim, not so much. Still, I keep playing them in hopes of getting that Morrowind feeling back. But it's just... not there. Morrowind was exotic and fascinating, and totally unique world. Oblivion and Skyrim feel more generic. And yeah, I really don't get them making you leader of everything. The Mages Collage makes the least amount of sense. You found a fancy trinket! Well done! Now you're head of the Collage, but don't worry, you'll never have to teach or do anything useful. You just keep adventuring, right-oh. The only one where I thought it made sense for them to name you leader was the Dark Brotherhood, because you pretty much did save it and hey, there isn't many choices left. The other guilds, meh. I don't know. I can get lost exploring dungeons and amusing myself in that game, but I'm not sure I really consider it a great game. It's just an amusing timewaster.

 

I can read horror books, but I just can't play horror games or watch horror movies. Especially psychological horror. I can deal with blood splats well enough (it just doesn't interest me), but psychological horror will give me nightmares. I guess I could try Call of Cthulhu, but I think the effects you get when your character goes insane would freak me the right out.

 

See, getting lost in Dracula's castle is one of those things that probably would traumatize me. I'd be in therapy right now, and be all like 'Twenty years ago, I got lost in Dracula's castle. AND I'M STILL SCARED OF SPIRAL STAIRCASES.' and the therapist would just be like '...sigh'.

 

I'm not very good at shooters. Actually, my problem is that first person perspective makes me dizzy. So I can play Mass Effect, because it's a third person shooter, but I can't play first persons for long before having to give up. I guess that's unfortunate, as there's a lot of good games in first person. I also tend to get bored in hack and slash. I know everyone has been raving about Diablo III, but I have an image of me never getting past the first level or whatever it is because I'd just lose interest. I like story! ...Yet I don't mind grinding. Hm.

 

Deadline, sometime early in April. Maybe the first week of April? I hope to finish them before then. The sooner I finish them, I have a feeling, the more likely there's a chance that they might make it as official content. So I want to work on them hard, but I'm at the boring part of making their tables rather then the fun part of writing their events and adventures.

 

Arcanum! That's another fun game I haven't played in like, forever. I hate how the evil path can completely cut around one sixth of the game off from you, though. That annoys me. ...I always play a magic user in that game. Magic is so completely overpowered when compared to tech.

[MadHatt]

Go with Angelo. A friend of mine played with him and adored him. I want second opinions but it's definitely not enough for me to get lost in the world of BG2 again. I'd never get out of the house.

 

In DA:O was in the state of mind of "My mage is from TEVINTER. MOAR POWER!". The rest of the party consisted of Oghren, Sten and either Shale or Dog. So magic was useful.

 

Yeah, you'll probably like the characters. So far, even I'm sold on the qunari one but that's probably because I like qunari. Still I have the slight feeling I'll be frothing at the mouth over that game, no joke. Hmm...didn't think about it competing with Witcher. Even if they rush it though, DA2 was a good learning experience for them. I'm sure they won't repeat too much of what went wrong.

 

I liked Skyrim at first...logged some hours, had fun and then...I ended the playing session and didn't really want to pick it up again. I can't put my finger on it other than to say that..it's a great world as long as you don't delve into it much. Everything is struggling to be realistic and there are simply no consequences worthy of real life. The first thing that comes to mind would be the Faendal/Sven/Camila trio in Riverwood. I can't even give her both letters. And they live like a minute away from each other. Will they never speak again even if there are only five guys in the whole village?

 

The Dark Brotherhood I get. Even the Thieves to some extent, seeing as you have to work on the sidequests for it. The College one is just silly. Companions...so so. I get that the former leader named me as successor and all but really? The PC shouldn't even be a proper leader, not if he's always running off for adventure and possibly never returning.

 

Psychological horror I like. I like all horror but it has to be actually scary. Or at least try to get me in the mood. Vampire Bloodlines haunted hotel had the mood and someone with Auspex could get creeped out. The Shalebridge Cradle from Thief? Nice. Call of Cthulhu is actually mild in the going insane department. I think it's because the main character simply lacks a brain. He does go insane in the first bit, but he just bumbles on. Personally, if I were to go into a city of fish men, I would not be so lax on safety...

 

It wasn't as much the spiral staircase as the tiny tiny space. It was fun because I was a kid and ADVENTURE! I really wanted something to happen though, in that castle. But like most medieval places, it lacks that certain something in modern times. It's mostly empty rooms with a bed or a table or a chair. I did visit a LOT of places that were supposed to be haunted and had less presence though. Ever visited a supposed haunted location? Pennsylvania has some really cool ghost stories originating there.

 

Only time I disliked first perspective was in Portal 2 coop, where I kept having to time everything and slipping or not jumping right and all the edges gave me fear of heights. I got the hang of it eventually but still. Diablo 3 wasn't that great for me. I'd replay 1 or 2 any day, though.

 

Arcanum is fun. I go the magic route for teleportation. Who needs a train? Still ...you are deprived of having of having interesting tech stuff. The Rule of Cool demands at least a couple of techie stuff just for ambiance. It is steampunk.

 

Good luck with the kids. I don't think I'd have the patience to do all those tables but at least that will be over soon and you'll get to the fun part. I'll take a look at the portraits again, later this week if I get less swamped by work.

[Mikka]

Alright, Angelo it is. First I'm going to try and see if I can get Icewind Dale working, though. Then I'll try reinstalling BGII and playing with Angelo. I'm thinking him, Haer'Dalis (because I heard he has some interaction with the Angelo romance), Yoshimo/Imoen (because Imoen has good interaction with Angelo I hear, and might as well take the boy who gets kicked at the same time as she arrives), Mazzy (as she has a friendship path out I've never played), Valygar (because his reactions with Mazzy are adorable), and then... I'm at a loss. Maybe Jaheria, replacing her with Sarevok? The main character almost has to be a cleric for that party to work in ToB, though.

 

I got the mod for DA:O that allows you to carry Dog around at all times without him costing a party slot. So I usually took Dog, Alistair and Morrigan (because they had by far the most comments on in game events), and then if I was romancing one of them, Zev or Lei. Or if I wasn't playing a thief, one of them. If I was a thief who was romancing Alistair or Morrigan, I generally rounded things out with Sten. I'd switch different party formations when running around in the cities, though, so I could see all the banters.

 

I heard 'rumors' that DAIII will be out before the end of this year because they want it out before the Witcher, but those are just rumors. Still, I could see it. Dragon Age and the Witcher get a lot of comparisons. I don't think they're using a new engine, though, so maybe they can finish it and polish it in time. I don't know. Qunari are good, anyway. I'll enjoy one in my party, though of course what I want to know is who the romance interests are and if they'll interest me or not. I'm so lame. Man, I remember all the screeching way back when we found out Alistair was romancable for DA:O. Fangirls can full a forum pretty easily.

 

Yeah, that trio in Riverwood always bothered me. It makes no sense that you can't give her both letters. Both guys are scum, and she should know it. And then for giving the girl a letter, they're then suddenly willing to follow me all around the world fighting dragons and everything else for no pay or treasure. The game really can't be inspected too closely; it falls apart. You really make no choices of any consequence in the game... it's not a very engaging world. I hope in time, quest mods and the like will come out that it'll make it a bit more rich. Right now, I'm just running it as a survival game- giving my character the need to eat, sleep, drink, count their calories, suffer from frostbite, and all that.

 

Thieves, I thought By... the guy who recruits you who means nothing to me and thus I can't remember his name... would have made a perfectly find guild leader. Companions, it feels like the smarter brother should have taken the positions. Collage, almost anyone surviving is more worthy then the PC. But apparently the PC has to be the head of everything, so you get the worthless positions that means nothing. And even as Harbringer, the guards will still ask you if you're running around fetching the mead. It's like, no! I'm the leader of a bunch of ex-werewolves, jackass. Rawr! ...Stupid guards.

 

Vampire Bloodlines haunted hotel was awesome. Though it did scare me. First time I did it and the elevator came crashing down- wow. Then the thumps in the basement and the voices... I thought that area was rather well done. Actually, I thought the majority of Bloodlines was well done, but then suddenly it pulled a KOTORII and the ending appears incredibly unfinished, and is all about the fighting even though vampires are supposed to be all about the social manipulation and the like. The different ending options were nice enough, though, I supposed.

 

I've visited a few haunted houses in the area, and some in San Fransisco. I've never really felt creeped out or like I was somewhere haunted, though. I've been to Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, though, and that was mildly scary. Knowing people had been tortured there and had been killed there was a bit unnerving. It felt like it would be so easy to get lost in there... it's a pretty dark prison.

 

Portal 2, I am really bad at. I find it a fun game, but I haven't beaten it yet. I get stuck on a level for days, take a break from it, then come back and like, complete it in two tries. Sigh. As for Diablo 3, I tried it on my ex-boyfriend's computer. I just felt like my character was twirling around in circles spitting out rays everywhere. Not that exciting.

 

I take a few techies with me that are easily bribed when I do a Magic character, just so I can have some people totting guns along. There's something awesome about having magic and guns in the same setting. Steampunk rules. I really will have to play that game again, some day.

 

Ugh, tables. The studies table is simple, and the personality table is fine, but the others are annoying. Particularly the goals... I wish I could just copy and paste Academic Success. Everyone has Academic Success (well, Louise doesn't, but she's going to flunk out horribly so we'll ignore that). WHy can't I just copy and paste it from one character to another? No, I have to fill it all in.

 

And I still for all my work am unsure of what the difference between Interests and Personality table is. I did it as Interests is the things they want to do, while Personality is the things they feel they need to (or are obliged) to do, but i have no idea if that is correct. I seriously just make things up. And why do students study so much how can I make them stop studying arghhh. At least Cat and Cuàn are relatively *normal*. I don't have to worry about stupid things like how to get Aaran to study mastery. That was annoying, and I'm still unsure if I quite succeeded.

 

I'd really appreciate if you looked at the portraits again, please, whenever you have the time. <3 Right now, sadly, it looks like Cuàn is some sort of vampire and I really don't want him to be a vampire. I think there's probably rules against vampires attending the Academagia. ...I tease. They're really good portraits, they just need a bit of work.

[MadHatt]

You could get Cernd? But yeah, probably cleric. Didn't play with clerics much.

 

I think it will be out by the end of this year because EA. They want games churned out fast so that they can use the hype from prior games. At least that's how it is for all of their other games. The Sims 3? Has two expansions coming out every year and stuff packs. Honestly, it's ridiculous, although it also must be incredibly lucrative. No one knows when the Witcher 3 will be released anyway. Pre-orders haven't started, they gave no trailer and most of the CD Projekt philosophy is "we'll ship it when it's good and ready, thanks". I honestly can't wait for it. EA also tends to release around autumn or spring, but mostly autumn, right before Christmas sales.

 

Aww there was screeching? I wasn't around the forums much then, so most of my friends and I were looking at the stats, getting ready to create the perfect war machine. Each of us got an origin and fit the class around that so would could compare later. I know that a lot of my friends romanced Alistair, though. Incredibly serious guys - especially around games - and completely detached from the world were "Aww, he gave me a rose and told me I was pretty". I wasn't too fond of the guy but he had his moments.

 

So you're not playing Skyrim...you're playing real life, with dragons? That could work...

Brynyolf, yes, he would have been suited as head of thieves...if he would have wanted the job. I don't think he did. And in the Companions Kodlak says that Vilkas is too ..passionate? to be leader. Could be. Honestly, I would have given that job to the smith, Eorland. Shame he wasn't in them. College, yes. No reason to give you the position, no matter how powerful. Oh, and there's a mod for the guards. Apparently, they will only acknowledge some things once (like being the leader of the Companions) but others..yeah. So let me guess, someone stole your sweet roll?

 

I liked the final battles in Bloodlines, because they emulated the insanity of a PC and the recklessness while still being crazy prepared. Going up to LaCroix's tower was amazingly fun. And the fact that you could improvise on the way was even better. I also liked the sewers after a while...I played that game for 20+ times.

 

I can imagine why it was creepy. San Francisco also has some cool stories attached to it. I think they kind of lose their appeal when you stuck about twenty people in there with someone speaking like it's nothing. The only time I ever felt uneasy in a place was due to modern conveniences actually. In the Tower of London, there's a room where you can see the scratches the prisoners made into the walls. And a camera interposes your image with one of a prisoner scratching there with his nails and walking around in a differently arranged room. That was...interesting. And somewhat unsettling.

 

Portal 2 I'm great at! Completed the coop with a mate in a day, finished the single in a couple of hours...It's Magicka that was trouble. I was exploded off the maps too often to count.

 

I never made a student so I can't help. You could compare to the other kids...they hardly ever study.

 

Oh, no worries. Cuàn does look like a vampire. It's strange because in the large form (I draw the large face and shrink) he looked absolutely normal. Bit pale but normal. It's either Photoshop or some setting I misplaced. Like I said, I'm not very good at this. Anything else you'd like me to modify outside of what you wrote in the other thread?

[Mikka]

I could use Cernd instead of Jaheria, but I'd still run in to the problem of having no healz in TOB if I did that, because I want Sarevok as I've heard he and Angelo interact wonderfully. Or crazily. Somethingly. So the main character really has to be a cleric or druid, unless I think I can get by on Valygar's ranger heals, which... probably not. I use Ascension, so you battle the five at once at the end, and that's a pretty tough battle. I'd just have to decide which cleric to go for. Talos amuses me the most, but considering I'm dragging Mazzy around, I should probably go Lathander or Helm. Else she'll eventually flip.

 

Of course, right now, I can't find my Throne of Bhall CD. Found Fallout 2 and Arcanum, though, which I thought I had lost.

 

I used to be obsessed with the Sims, once upon a time. I got over it before the Sims 3 was released, but I still have the Sims 3 on my facebook for some reason. They just came out with University, it seems. They just keep going and going... somedays, I think about getting back in to it, but... all that money! There's so many expansion packs; I could never afford them all. I don't know. I think EA moves too fast. From what I understand from Sims 3, you need something called the awesome mod to make your game not a buggy mess because they just patch in more and more bugs rather then fixing old ones. I hope DAIII is a bit more polished.

 

Oh, there was a ton of screeching. I think Aimo sums it up best... . It was the same as when Zev was introduced - . Us fangirls are very interested in who our shipping possibilities are with. I wasn't part of the screeching crowd (I settle for doing an 'OMG! ROMANCE INTEREST!' on my LJ), but the boards were basically full of squee'ing. I think they kept having to lock threads to try to keep all the squee and screeching in one thread, but it wasn't working very well for them. ...I don't know. I prefer the other three in DA:O for romance, but I don't dislike Alistair. He's a goodguy, and hey, he's not a terrorist! (ANDERS.) And he's kind of... what do they say these days, adorkable? He's a dork, but he's adorable. I can definitely get the appeal. And if f!Cousland marries him, she gets to be Queen. I would totally marry him to become Queen, dang it.

 

Yes, exactly! Real life, with Dragons. It's sort of more fun then Skyrim, with Dragons. I swear.

There is a mod for the Collage, that gives um, Tolfdir the position as Arch-Mage. I usually use that one. He seems more fitting then my player character, who's off chasing dragons and vampires and who knows what else- she's too busy to teach classes. She can be the Collage's savior, but it doesn't make sense for her to be it's arch-mage.

 

I just didn't like about Bloodlines that you could basically get through the game with no fighting up to that point (by sneaking and using social skills all the time), but then suddenly, boom! Have to fight. Have to just fight. Fight tons and tons... blargh. My Tremere had better things to use her blood magic on. Humph. Then again, she was an arrogant bitch. (She got the ending she deserved- staked and thrown in the ocean. So much for trying to play a third side.)

 

Oh, that would be cool! If scary. I want to go to the Tower of London now. I've never been overseas- to Canada and Mexico, sure, and to some islands in to Atlantic (which may technically count as overseas, but I don't see them as such), but never over to Europe or Asia or Australia or Africa (...or South America). I want to travel more. My goal is to step on each continent before I die, though I have no idea how I'm going to get to Antarctica or what I'm going to do there.

 

Ooo, I got Magicka in a bundle set with Crusader Kings II, Victoria II, Warlock, Majesty II, and Majesty one. It's fun, but I'm horrible at it. I keep exploding off the screen, too.

 

Yeah, I'm just complaining about things to complain about it, I suppose. I'm going to try and do Cat's tables today, and Cuàn's tomorrow, as I finished enough of my work for today. Then I'll have actually made some progress. I don't know when my next project will be coming in, but once it comes it basically means no working on the students till I complete it because it keeps me so busy, so... I dunno. As for the other kids, some of them study too much, too. They just do it via the Get Ready For (Class) rather then going to the V Library and picking up some Research skills along the way, because they're dumb. I think they should prioritize picking up a skill along with studying, but they just don't.

 

...Speaking of that, I forgot to give Cat her AI skill. Need to go fix that!

 

It's sort of funny that he does look like a vampire, because did you see what I said about in the other thread about generally basing characters off of roleplaying characters I did? Cuàn is actually based off of a Gangrel vampire I played. Obviously, a lot of changes have went on, but that's where his core personality comes from.

 

I think it's just smalling the size that makes the portraits look strange. On my first version of Miya (not the one the artist made for me), in large, she had beautifully shaded hair. Shrunk it down to portrait size, though, and she seemed to just have a solid black box as her hair with no shading what-so-ever. It was very annoying. And nah, I think what I said in the other thread is all they need. Thank you. <3

[MadHatt]

Yeah, you need a cleric. Especially with Ascension. Granted, I'm a bad person to discuss this with. My favourite non-evil god is Oghma. Otherwise I'll just go with what sounds the coolest or what gods I like. Both Lathander and Helm are ...okay, but too 'good'. Not nice though. I doubt anyone would call Helm nice.

 

Huh...if there would have been anyone I liked enough to consider romancing...I'd go with Nathaniel from Awakening. Anders was alright in that, but my impression of him just went downhill. Nathaniel was stable, somewhat grounded and had decent issues to work through to provide drama without it having TOO MUCH drama. Alistair was a bit too nice, a little too ...non-Wardenesque? Does that make sense? I played a ruthless mage who basically would have invaded a country to get support and he bitched about "bad choices" in a tiny village. I always felt the Couslands were a bit dull compared to dwarf schemer or dwarf scavenger or mage that can rip you a new one by wiggling his fingers, so I never ended up Queen. Not that it would have mattered. I like Loghain too much to kill him.

 

You can sneak in the final levels. I think I did with a Nos. Except for Ming Xiao. I had a flamethrower though. My Tremere gave the finger to them all and probably skipped town. The Ventrue joined the Anarchs (weird, I know) and a Gangrel ended up in the ocean. I think my Brujah was the right hand man for Max. The great thing about being thrown into the ocean is that you don't die and in 200 years, boom! Vampire gets out and is stalking the city again. I liked playing a Malk simply to mention the Yama Kings and freak her out. Satisfying.

 

I love to travel and try to do it as often as possible. London is one of my favourite cities in the world. You have so much to visit there, both creepy and just for fun. I also want to visit New Orleans on Mardi Gras. I imagine it's similar to the Venetian festival but better. I didn't like Venice as much as I hoped I would. The problem is that visiting America is tricky with the Visas. I already know some people who just wanted to visit a friend and were denied for some reason. I also want to see the aurora borealis and see Moscow. Don't have too many goals for it, just want to see different moments in a city.

 

Yes! Smalling them is weird. Cat has a very different face while large. Will work on them regardless. Maybe...shade Cuàn a bit more. Give him some colour. Honestly, he's a bit creepy even for me. But hey, I bet he does burn in the sunlight. And it's my pleasure. I get to practice.

[Mikka]

I tend to go Shaundakul for my cleric/rangers, the god of long-range traders, but they made him disappear in the transition to 4E (stupid 4E). In PNP, I often had characters follow him, Hoar, Finder, or one of the Elemental Dieties. But in BG, you really only have three choices if you want your stronghold. I think I'd have to do Lathander. I could deal with my character being a perfectionist goody-goody. I don't think I could deal with my character being a preachy 'NO FUN EVER' follower of Helm. Honestly, I'd rather follow Illmater (who is a nice god, if nothing else) or Oghma, both gods which are important to the BG saga and make sense characterwise. Why they chose Lathander as the good god to follow rather then Illmater, I don't know.

 

...I had this period of time (I was young!) where all I would do was play characters who followed Cyric and completely screw the party up through intrigue and backstabbing. For some reason, instead of kicking me out like they should have, my rpg group moved on to playing Vampire the Masquerade instead, where that was sort of expected.

 

I would go with Nathaniel, too. Still can't believe they never added him as an option. Hmph. And really, Anders was awesome in Awakening, in my opinion. He just became psychotic when they took away his cat (oh, and when he made the stupid decision to merge with Justice, but yeah, that's Anders for you). I don't know. I played good and evil Wardens, as I like seeing both stories- things are different if you side with one group over the others and the like. So Alistair fit with my good wardens, and if hardened, he worked with a 'ends to the means' sort of warden too. Zev generally worked for my pure evil wardens, though he balks a bit at slaughtering the Dalish. Otherwise, though, he doesn't care. Lei is the one who nags at you the most, I found. She and Wynne outright leave if you defile the urn. And Morigan is a bit... I don't know, I like her, but her hot and cold routine isn't as attractive as she thinks it is.

 

Then of course we have DAII, where Isabella betrays you for her own ends, Anders is a possessed terroristic nutbag, and Merill is practically trying to lose her soul, leaving the sanest love interest to be the guy who broods all the time in an empty house and throws temper-tantrums with expensive wine (a trait I cannot forgive- we could have drank that, dang it!) as well as breaks-up with you randomly. I once played a character that slept with all four of them, then brutally insulted them and immediately broke the romance in the morning after scene. Isabella takes it well, Fenris is trying to do the same thing, but wow, Anders and Merill get heartbroken. It's sort of mean. And they get all bitchy at each other, too. Anders starts whining about you dating either Fenris or Merill and how they're no good for you, with the implication that he is. It's like 'Dude, you are possessed! Not dating material!'

 

...Though one day I want to rivalmance him just so I can break him totally by forcing him to support the templars and slaughter the mages.

 

(Oh, I guess I forgot Sebastien. He's a sane enough love interest, I suppose. Bit pouty.)

 

Playing a Malk in Bloodlines makes it the funnest game ever. Arguing with the stop sign: awesome. People should really play it first once with one of the normal clans though before playing it with a Malk, because a Malk completely gives plot points away before they happen. I played a Malk first, so I immediately knew who the Cab Driver was, and what the deal with the 'sisters' were before those two facts were actually revealed. Which was kind of a downer, because the reveal with the 'sisters' is at least pretty cool.

 

I mostly just travel around the states. Which is fun enough, I suppose. The USA is a big enough country, so there's a lot to see... I want to take an Alaskan cruise and see everything up there. One of these days, I figure. With money the way it is, though, I doubt I'm going to make it up there anytime soon, though. Meh. I'll keep saving up. ...I've actually never been to New Orleans, though I have several friends from there. They love it, but most people love their homes, I guess, so that's not saying too much.

 

Working on Cat's Vendetta table now. Vendetta tables are annoying, as they basically have to stand in for every other table if the player pushes the character in to vendetta mode. But I just sort of find all tables annoying after a while of staring at them. They aren't that bad; it's just me being bored of tables.

 

Well, I appreciate you making them and looking them over all the same. Cuàn needing color is really the most pressing thing... if you don't feel like it, none of the other requests are necessary. They can get along fine as they are, as long as Cuàn doesn't need to be staked. As that's bad.

[starcrunch]

Mikka, know this was from ages ago but your problems with MS Word are probably due to end line encoding. This is a pretty common issue, but a sure way to fix it is as follows:

 

1. Type your text in Word.
   
2. Copy and paste it into Notepad++ (a free text editor)
   
3. Hit <Cntrl>+<H> (find and replace)
   
4. In the Search mode box at the bottom of the new window change normal to extended or regular expressions (the second has a more expansive search capacity, but beyond what you probably need here)
   
5. In the find what field enter "\r\n" without the quotes
   
6. In the replace with field enter "\n" without quotes
   
7. Hit "Replace All", this should replace all of the \r\n with \n encoding which is usually what causes these funny results you describe.
   
8. Copy and Paste the text in Notepad++ to the mod tool.
   

 

This should re-encode MS-Word's end-of-line character that includes a carriage return (\r\n) with the more universally acceptable end-of-line (\n). If anyone knows what text encoding the mod building tool is expecting (probably latin-1 or UTF-8), I can probably figure out what other issues you might run into using MS-Word as a text editor. May also be able to simply pass it through Notepad too, but haven't used that in ages and maybe mis-remembering.

[MadHatt]

4e ruined a lot of things, among them the gods. And the land. And races. And ..urgh, just a lot. In PnP I like to make one of the more odd characters...with a lot of flaws but some substantial skills. I like warlocks for example, which are quite lame in NWN, so-so in PnP due to the unlimited blasts. I like them because of the background. You have someone dealing with demons willingly, why? That's the only reason I like the 4e, because it deals with them in depth.

 

Our DM usually put an end to that behaviour swiftly and mercilessly. First time anyone tried, the whole party was wiped by an angry god. No one tried that again, although we all wanted to. We played WoD once, though, in a campaign in which, basically, everyone was whatever they wanted. We had a Sin-Eater (me), a vampire, two werewolves, a mage and a hunter in the same party working towards a common goal. I cannot tell you how many intrigues were spun around that time. I was the one exempt from it because I was dead and playing an Advocate, so I had my head in the clouds at all times. But the end game was glourious. There were about five wars going on and we made enemies of EVERYONE.

 

Awakening was too short for romances. Anders was cool there, but I cannot look at him in the same way. I couldn't harden Alistair...it just wasn't him. I felt like it just went around his character and so, evil or not, I told him to stay the way he was. I usually don't defile the urns, because I figure, if the Warden thing doesn't pan out, get to that thing, bottle it, sell it, PROFIT!

 

Morrigan was typical Bioware 'bitchy girl'. She was amusing to indulge in game, especially for my evil characters, but there were SO MANY GIFTS for her in the game that the entire reaction system was useless for her.

 

And you know my opinion on DA2. I sorta imagined my Tevinter Warden popping in, shaking her head and moving on. And Fenris completely pissed me off with that wine. At least drink it, man!

 

Sebastian...I forget about. He looks like a poet I read about(Link) which distracted me endlessly. I kept waiting for him to rhyme.

 

After all of this discussion of Cuàn getting staked, there has to be event that mentions it, at least.

[Mikka]

Starcrunch, thanks for the suggestions. I'll definitely try them when it's time to put the adventures and events in the game. I never thought about just running things through notepad before... that may work. Huh! Thanks so much!

 

Yeah, 4E Forgotten Realms is a mess. I hate it. Not sure what they're going to do in the next D&D edition, but I hope they go back to the old Forgotten Realms of third edition rather then keeping the horror fourth edition was. Bah. I like Warlocks, too, though I generally made ones that were bound to the outer chaos because I like playing crazy people.

 

My ST/GM/DM/whatever you want to call him is used to us characters turning on each other, and doesn't mind. We've played full games where the object was basically to be the last character standing with mind fully intact. A lot of our games end up with some inner-party conflict, but that's sort of the nature of White Wolf's games. Exalted limit breaks always end up with someone fighting someone, it seems, especially if one person's limit break sets off another person's limit break in a little cycle and then everyone is going crazy at each other. It's lovely, for some definitions of lovely.

 

'Everyone plays whatever' WoD campagins can be a lot of fun! I ran one for my friends not that long ago- took place in Tokyo. Then ended up taking over Shibuya with an army of young folks from all factions, and basically doing a 'nah nah, whatcha gonna do about it?' to all sorts of elders.

 

I have no problem hardening Ali and Lei, probably because I am a horrible person. Also, hardening Alistair is the only way to continue his romance if you make him King and aren't a Cousland, which I rarely was (dwarf princess for the win). As for the Urn... well, sometimes I play evil characters, and sometimes that urn is looking pretty dumb, so sometimes I totally screw it over.

 

Yeah, each character could be bribed completely with gifts- especially if you installed that holiday day DLC- that it was almost pointless. Honestly, I often ended up carrying left over gifts in to Awakenings to hand over to that crew. Too many bribes makes the whole influence system worthless. I liked how it was set up in DAII better- there were very few gifts, so your actions really mattered.

 

Yeah, seriously. Fenris breaking that wine was just a "YOU BASTARD! NO ROMANCE!" moment. That wine could have been drunk! I know he offers to go get another bottle, but there are only so many bottles of that! Argh, Fenris, you suck.

 

Huh, he does kind of look like that poet. I don't know. He's pretty sane, honestly. I don't have much of an opinion on Sebastian. He's just that guy who's personal problems aren't gigantic gaping holes that I need to babysit, so he's alright with me. He can join Aveline and Varric on the 'sane side' of the group.

 

Heck, after all this about Cuàn, I'm tempted to make the opening scene of his adventure his fellows in Mordivus discussing whether he's a vampire or a werewolf, because he just doesn't talk and acts so mysterious all the time while he's listening all ;;. I'm just not sure how that would fit in to anything.

 

I still need to finish Cat's tables, because I got lazy yesterday, but I have a new project and I have to work on that. Projects are rough. I'll see if I can squish in time to do Cat's tables anyway- I'm halfway done, so it shouldn't take long. Also, I just bought Cinders and it is distracting me by calling me to play it again. Cinders is a really awesome game.

[MadHatt]

4E was only kind to warlocks. And maybe eladrin...who had existed before, if I can recall properly. I know that celadrins were since the second edition..? Something like that. Celadrins were eladrin mixed with another race, usually humans. Otherwise it was a mess. A sad mess especially since the Spellplague. I keep wondering if Nasher survived. I hated Nasher. Don't recall a mention of him. My favourite cities in Faerun were Luskan and Calimshan, so I kept an eye on those.

 

WoD campaigns of mixed parties are always a lot more interesting than the rest. You can invent interesting characters and they usually have a compelling plot to make ones so different get together. I can imagine laughing in the face of the elders is amusing. And a vampire with a werewolf buddy, or a demon or a Sin-Eater or mage has all kinds of advantages. I think the Changelings were a bit left out. Playing it properly could make them powerful but in terms of adding them to an epic campaign, they didn't have much to add.

 

I also didn't play much of the Couslands. They were human and dull. In a game where I can play as anything other than human, why would I go with that? It's why DA2 was, in part, not as good as the first, I think. Its gimmick was gone. And it sort of moved away from the BG successor.

 

Sebastian was dull and against magic. I had enough of those guys. Honestly, there isn't much to like about magic in DA2. Everyone is a blood mage. Everyone. In DA:O you had to struggle for it and these fellow skin a knee and poof! blood mage. If the leader of the templars wasn't a wacko, I would have definitely picked them. As such, he was mainly kept away from me at all times.

 

Ha! Yes, Cuàn's gonna be interesting all around. You haven't decided on familiars yet?

 

I know Cinders. I get recommendations on VNs but I mostly just research the art without the plots. Cinders has pretty art. The environments are particularly pretty.

[Mikka]

4E gave some other classes, like warlords and stuff, some love. But really didn't do much else for me, setting-wise. I don't mind the system, but I hated what they did to 4E Forgotten Realms. Eberron and Dark Sun they didn't destroy, at least. I was mad they never made Planescape or Ravenloft in to 4E, but I guess them doing Dark Sun at all was something to be happy about. I miss all the old AD&D settings that have mostly been forgotten by time. ...I'm a huge fan of Calimshan. That's where almost all my Forgotten Realms characters are from. Then again, I play a lot of gensai...

 

Nasher probably died, in the amount of years it was since 3.5. Probably of old age a nice death of la de daing, though, despite what he did to Aribeth. I didn't like her, but did he have to sentence her to death when she had likely (and I think canonly) returned to good alignment by that point? Whatta jerk. ...Then again, I really didn't Aribeth.

 

I don't know, I've had a lot of fun with WoD single splat games (and it's really hard to play Promethons or however they're spelled in a mixed group as they'll drive the group crazy). I think it's easier to make it an actual horror game when all the characters are say, vampires, then it is when you have a vampire, a werewolf, a changeling, and so on. You can focus more on how horrible it is to be a vampire and less on what gonzo plot is going on next. But I do liked mixed splat games as a break. We sort of use them as games to play in-between heavier WoD games that are all about existential crises and the like. I like Changelings, though, full horror-wise. The Fae are coming to bring you back. Not much scarier then that.

 

I played a Cousland to become Queen. That's all I needed from them. Gosh, though, the most worthless origin was the Dalish. You don't even get to meet your own tribe later in the game! Being a Dalish had like, zero impact on the plot what-so-ever, while the dwarves and mages got to go home. It turned out, though, that only around 5% of players played an elf, and around 3% played dwarves. So it made sense for them to just make humans for DAII... it was basically wasted resources, as fun as the origins were. The majority of gamers don't replay games, apparently. And I know in MMOs, humans are usually the most played race.

 

I don't think Sebastian was against magic, exactly. He's certainly kind enough to Bethany and a player mage. He's just against crazy mages, and every mage in Kirkwall is insane. The why of it is actually explained in game- the Tevintar corrupted the city in a way that the veil is incredibly thin so possession is easy. Really, you and your sister seem to be the only ones immune. Oh, and maybe the dream-walker half-elf kid.

 

Cat has a ferret, mainly because Catherine had a ferret and I decided that because they have names the same, they both should have the familiar. In reality, I wanted Cat to just have something small, cute, and mostly useless- a ferret, a hedgehog, a hamster, whatever. The important part is it isn't a noble steed, a war dog, a fierce bird of pray- anything that would be by her side in combat. Because of that, she resents her familiar, just a little, while the poor thing just tries to be the fiercest ferret whoever fierced. Cuàn, I'm going back and forth with. A wolf would suit him, and it would be a factor to make him interesting, but I'm unsure if I could get away with it (then again, I got away with a fox). Probably the opposite of Cat, though- he definitely has a predator animal of some sort. Maybe a falcon? His would be better behaved then Louise's hawk, though, definitely.

 

Cinders is really pretty. The backgrounds are gorgeous. The game itself is fun. I poisoned my stepmother, impressed my stepmother, ran away from home, and got in a loveless marriage with the prince. Nice, I guess?

[MadHatt]

I hope Nasher died. It's not just Aribeth, It's Fentick (and then naming him Neverwinter's Greatest Traitor ...seriously?). It's acting like a jerk to you, it's acting like an arse to you in the NWN2 OC, it's how he treated Aarin, Aribeth and Sand...He's just a jerk playing noble and when he got hurt in NWN2 OC, I cheered.

 

I meant Changeling: The Dreaming, not the Lost. The Lost are way powerful. The ones in the Dreaming? Besides Redcaps and Sluagh, they're mostly useless in a mixed game. Prometheans is downright impossible with the rest and you can bet that the werewolves would be pissed. I like Geist...a lot. My favourite series from White Wolf. I liked Masquerade more than Requiem, for vampires. I like this Hunter more than the other. Werewolves sort of stayed the same. Changeling is much more dark but way less depressing. Somehow.

 

I wish there was a way you could let Loghain live without making him a Warden. I mean, he was a good general (in game...outside of it, I think his tactic was rubbish especially if fighting in a swamp) and if he could kill three darkspawn before dying in glorious battle, that's three darkspawn the PC wouldn't worry about. AND you'd get the admiration of the ones who sided with him and of the Queen. It's not like he can do anything against you from that. And the king was a moron. Good riddance.

 

And those statistics trouble me. The Cousland origin was probably the weakest. If the Dalish was bad in terms of consequences and such, Cousland was just dull. Outside of the murder of Howl and then Nathaniel chats, there's just no fun in it. As a mage or a dwarf though you get really into their sections. And you get two different points of view depending on the type you play: duster or noble. A lot of the people I played with played ALL the origins. It doesn't matter if they continued with them, they played all of them. That was the gimmick, the name giver, the thing that attracted me to the world in the first place.

 

Tevinter corrupted the city. I get that. But from the trials you went through in 1 to the absolute HORDES of mages...it's just a stretch. It was a huge number of them. I didn't know there were so many around. I thought magic powers were special. There weren't even that many people in the Circle.

 

I had a ferret. Cheeky thing. Stole all my socks. Stole everything basically. If you give Cuàn a wolf, I'll befriend him. Yes, I will.

 

I played Cinders once, but it didn't let me do what I wanted, which was: marry Gloria to Tobias, marry Sophia to the prince, become spymaster and crush all who oppose me and start dating the Captain. And I'm sure the stepmother would appreciate it so she's happy too.

[Mikka]

Well, as I said, I'm sure he did die. Just, probably of old age and happy and went to the good aligned heaven after all the horrible things he did. He is not a character I liked, either. And poor Fentick- I had forgotten about that part. Yeah, Nasher was a jerk. Not a good ruler.

 

Ah, I didn't really play mixed groups in the OWoD. Lasombra, Shadow Lords, and Unseelie fae all looking to blot out the sun was the only one I did, because that was one of the few groups that was aligned with each other. For the most part, all the oWoD factions wanted to kill each other, which made it very hard to do a mixed game and still keep to the spirit of things. NWoD, it's a lot easier. And while I have a lot of fond memories of Masquerade, I think Requiem is a far better horror game. Much more serious questions, a lot less 'I'm a tremere, and I throw fireballs, losers'. I think my favorite game might be Changeling the Lost, but I'm not sure. I like all of them, even Awakening (though I slightly prefer Ascension).

 

Loghain was an interesting case. I always felt fine killing him, though the best choice is probably having a hardened Alistair and Anora marry, making Loghain a Warden, having him die in the final battle, and having your Warden go on life happily knowing they put a decent couple on the throne, didn't piss off Anora, and survived.

 

People are people I guess. My personal favorite origin was the dwarf noble- Dwarven Princesses ftw- while my least favorite was the Dalish, which had no connection to the rest of the game. I wasn't really found of the Couslands, but considering they're so many people's favorites, I suppose there is a point to them. If so many people liked them, then Bioware did the right thing.

 

Eh, Mages from all over the Free Marches get sent to Kirkwall, so the amount of mages there made sense to me. As did the fact that so many were blood mages or possessed. I just wish there were slightly more examples of sane mages, but David Gaider admitted that was something they wanted but didn't have time for. They didn't want Orsino to turn in to a harvester, either, but other departments demanded a boss fight there so they didn't have much choice. I suppose if he hadn't turned in to a harvester, though, the Mage side would have been the obvious side to take...

 

Heh, ferrets. They're kind of cute. And, well, okay. Just for you, Cuàn will have a wolf. We'll see if I can get away with it.

 

That would be a nice ending for Cinders, but honestly, I don't think Sophia would have any interest in ruling. She wouldn't want to be Queen, so I wouldn't want to make her.

[MadHatt]

I preferred the pirates of Luskan or the brotherhood to Nasher.

 

That's exactly why it was cool. OWoD had all these rival factions so bringing them together was a major success for a DM, we could plot away and at the end, if our characters managed to get along, we got massive amounts of XP and bragging rights along with really cool friends. One of the finest moments in one of the campaigns was a Tremere, a Nos and a Malk meeting some Hunters in the sewer. And then the DM threw this massive monster at us (gross too) who attacked without prejudice. There was a moment of stunned silence before we all just started running for the hills and working together against the obstacles.

 

My favourite origin ...either the Dwarf Duster...because you're just better than the others by your own strength. Second favourite, probably mage, because mage and you could solve your problems without the Duncan. You're in no danger and playing as an arrogant sod is easy.

Least favourite has to be Cousland. The Dalish were amusing for a certain type of character. And the elf is pretty badass, fighting past a lot just because. And everything would have been fine if that friend out ours (forgot his name) hadn't put his grubby paws over the OBVIOUSLY MAGICAL artefact that somehow was in the middle of great evil. I mean, really. You'd think there were legends about that.

 

I really wanted to like DA2...and reading things like that, that they wanted to but couldn't, just makes it even worse. And Orsino..urgh. He seemed so bloody normal. A boss fight doesn't even make sense. I really hope they had more time for DA3...there just aren't as many RPGs made today and any hit and miss is a sad thing to see.

 

Ferrets are cute and incredibly mischievous. Don't trust the buggers. They will be cute at you to death. And yay! wolf. I'm befriending this guy and Aaran and getting them in the clique. Now all I need is to make myself a portrait of an albino and we will never meet sunlight again.

 

Sophia wouldn't be interested in ruling, but I think she'd be nice for the Prince, so that he can rule. Gloria would be much too stressed for the position, but Sophia would actually step down and just council from time to time. Seeing as no one listened to her before, I think it would be a nice change. And they do hit it off well.

[Mikka]

So. The battle has finely been lost, and my hardrive is failing to boot. This is not a good thing.

 

I'm currently using my mother's laptop, and will try and negotiate access to it for the week. If I can, that means project and new students are still workable. I'll have to start from scratch and work solely in word (as this computer wouldn't run the mod tools), but those aren't huge problems. They can be surmounted.

 

If I can't negotiate access to it, though, I'm basically screwed for however long it takes to order a new hardrive and a new copy of windows and get it to myself. Which, knowing how things work, might take some time.

 

So. Um. I guess I'll update on Monday what's going on. Until then, let it be noted that I really hate my computer right now. Stupid thing is not even a year old piece of crap mutter mutter.

[Adrian]

Holy hells in a handbasket! Sorry to hear

[MadHatt]

I think you could recuperate what you had on the drive, but it depends on the reason of the HD failure. Good luck with it. Don't worry about the kids. You'll get there eventually.

 

I hope everything will be fine. What was the reason for the problem? Normal issues or bad fragments?

[Mikka]

It apparently is not the hardrive itself, but a bad installation of windows (I sort of knew this was coming, but I really thought it was the hardrive... but no, the hardrive is fine, it's just Windows being crazy). So I'll be without serious computer access till Thursday or Friday, which is when I should receive my heavily discounted copy. :3 This is... bad, but not insurmountable. I managed to recover both the project I'm working on and the kids, so it's not a huge issue. It'll put me out of schedule for a week, but a week is not a horrible amount of time. I'm just going to be super bored. You never realize how much time you spend on a computer until you lose it... thankful, those I work for are understanding about the issue and let me have this week free.

 

I'm going to try just writing up events for the kids the good old fashioned pen and paper way, and then when I get access to my computer again I should be able to slip them right in to the game (or at least in to word) no problem.

 

Not much else to say about it for the moment. This laptop's period key is broken, meaning I have to cut and paste every full stop. Somewhat irritating.

 

Madhatt, the portait of Cuàn in the other thread looks fine, thank you so much. <3

[Mikka]

So like, I'm back with a freshly Windowed computer. I no longer have access to Word and have to work through dreaded wordpad, but, well, I'm back! Yay and all that, right?

 

I admit I got nothing done during this week off. No project, no new students, none of my own writing, either. If you want the truth, I mostly ate, drank, cooked, and... played Pokemon. I got pretty far in the game, too, but my need to train up every pokemon I catch works against me.

 

So, yeah. A useless week, and next week will be a Project Week- I'm completely devoting it to project until I finish this step, because I lost the bit of work I did on it so far. Hopefully I'll still have some time to work on the new kids at the end of the week.

 

I haven't come up with names for their familiars. I take naming very seriously... all the kids were named according to their personalities (apparently, their parents all had name meaning books and astrology readings on their child's future personality done when they named them) (except Aaran, who is just special, apparently) and each of them has familiars named according to what I think they would name an animal (except the Hochmeister, who named herself, thank you very much). So I'm at a loss at what to call Cat and Cuàn's familiars (in my bio drafts, they're known as 'Wolfie' and 'Ferretface', which is charming, I'm sure). I should have named the wolf Cuàn and the boy something else, but I wasn't sure I was going to go with a wolfen familiar... ah well. I'll come up with stuff eventually.

 

My cat has been annoying me recently (she comes in to my room and screeches her head off in the middle of the night), which makes me want to write events for Antonio where his cat torments him. I should not be alone in my suffering!

[MadHatt]

How did the event writing go?

 

As for the familiars, give us an idea of the personality of the familiars and we'll toss some suggestions. Honestly, the way I name pets depends on how it sticks.

 

I have a cat named Ophelia (Hamlet's Ophelia) because of her usual personality. A dog named Boogie. Short for Bogart (due to the Casablanca quote “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” seeing as she jumped into my mother's car and we adopted her even if we had another dog and a couple of other cats), a cat named Marshmallow, white, fluffy and two different coloured eyes. A friend has the biggest dog I have ever seen (looks like a horse) with long black coat and reddish eyes. Named him Lucifer Amadeus Shakespeare. We call him Lucy, but shouting all of his names makes him suddenly stop and look embarrassed.

 

There are a lot of names you could pick and then explain in an event or in the background writing. Maybe they read a book and liked the name, maybe they came with their names, maybe they just stated different names and the familiars agreed on what they liked best.

 

Glad you like it.

 

There's a freeware type of Word around. I forgot its name. OpenOffice? It might be better than wordpad.

[Mikka]

I wrote an event where Cuàn is stuck in attention and is horribly overwrought (for him, anyway: it's just minorly upset for most people is majorly overwrought for him) about it. Then I wrote an event for Cat where she's torturing Aaran, mostly because I could. Er. She's not doing it on purpose exactly, she's just not thinking. She likes Aaran well enough. The feeling is just not mutual. I also started on Cuàn's adventure. I'm not sure really where I'm going with it, but I know where I'm not: it will not be about flowers, animals, the outdoors, or pranks/bullying. He will be a very individual Mordivus or something. Maybe it will all take place inside. Gasp!

 

Those are written on notepaper, though, and need to be transcribed in to the computer. Which, as transcribing is my job, is not hard, but because it's my job, it's sort of like 'blahhhhh I don't want toooo'.

 

Downloading OpenOffice. I think it has spellcheck that doesn't suck, which makes it better then wordpad. Almost anything is better then wordpad, though.

 

As for familiars, I appreciate the offer, but I'll come up with something. The names would almost have to be Gaelic and Italian... or whatever Gaelic is actually called in game and Elumian, I guess. Neither Cat or Cuàn really had the background as children (when they got their familiars) to choose a name that wasn't from their native languages.

 

Have to work on project today, but project is frustrating me. I'm not sure where I want to go with it, so I might take a small break for now as I've just been hitting my head against the wall for about an hour. Maybe I'll do some new student writing.

[Leoshi]

Taking a break from school to see you, by which I mean your project Mikka!

 

Is that attention or detention for Cuàn? And how is Cat torturing Aaran? How? HOW?