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For context, I offered to implement an RPG battle system (based on the Final Fantasy 6 ATB system) for Icey Games, so he could focus more on his core interest of making it look nice. This thread has been split from the discussion that followed.

Sure, why not. Send me what you got.

I haven't played the game, but I looked into the FF6 combat system. From my initial impressions, it has a few key features:

-It lets you fight multiple enemies in the same battle. Is this a feature you want?
-It lets you fight as a party, with multiple controllable characters. It allows you to move them to the front and back of the attack formation. Is this a feature you want?
-Some attacks affect more than one character. Is this a feature you want?
-Combat strength is stats- and equipment-based. What stats/skills were you planning on using?
-Its ATB combat system is semi-real time, not turn-based, using recharging time bars to control when any fighter can perform an action. Is this a feature you want?
-It has a "phantom beast"/"esper" feature, which lets you equip a helper with special capabilities to assist in battle. Is this essentially the same thing as your "Assist" feature?
-It has magic spells and various character effects (sleep, slow, berserk, poisoned, etc.). I haven't really figured out how magic works in the game, but is this a feature you want?
-Some characters have special, custom powers. Is this a feature you want?

Also, some questions about combat strategy, based on my current understanding:

-Combat ensues from random encounters and at particular scripted points in the game (e.g. boss battles). It provides challenge as you explore, is necessary to progress the story, and lets your character(s) level up. Should it play any other role in the game?
-From winning battles, you earn experience points, possibly magic points, money and possibly items. On the other hand, if you lose you die, and even if you win you deplete hit points, and potentially any one-use items (e.g. potions). Anything else (e.g. any wear on equipment)?
-Battle tactics, I'm guessing, revolve around various attack options which are more or less effective but also take more or less time (and which sometimes only have limited number of uses). Are there other limitations on powerful attacks? (For example, do powerful attacks have a risk, or a higher risk, of failing?)
-With more characters in your party, I would guess you also need to use your different characters (with different stats, etc.) effectively, for example by shielding your less powerful characters, maybe using them to heal the frontline fighters; that sort of thing. Will this be an element of your game?

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[Here lies Lester Moore Gored six times by a wild boar No Les, no Moore]

You know how in Sierra adventures (and some LucasArts ones), when you visit a cemetery there are lots of gravestones with funny/macabre epitaphs and rhymes?


      Here lies Lester Moore
      Gored six times by a wild boar
      No Les, no Moore


      Mikhail Mehd
      Bumped his head
      In another man's bed
      Now he's dead


      The debonair Archduke Von Drake
      Was always a bit of a rake
      He chased a maid through the grass
      But when he caught the lass
      She drop-kicked him into the lake


      Here lies an atheist
      All dressed up and nowhere to go


      Here lies the spirit of Barnie Blue
      To his lover was untrue
      So she knew just what to do
      Fixed herself a Barnie stew


Etc. So who reckons they can come up with some more gravestones? (Your own, if you dare!)

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[such behavior is unacceptable]

It has come to the moderators' attention that some forum members have created multiple accounts, and are posting from these aliases in order to bump their own threads and make it seem like people are more interested in them, "astroturf" the comments with praise for their own games, add apparent backup in forum discussions, or even vote multiple times in forum contests or in the games database. Others have used alternate accounts to troll and attack other members anonymously.

It should go without saying that such behavior is unacceptable.

This is not something we have paid much attention to previously, but we do have the tools to check it fairly easily. (There are ways to fool the system, of course, but you'd have to be quite careful and disciplined to make sure you don't leave any trace.) We will be keeping an eye out in the future, and we are already aware of several members who are guilty of this.

We haven't had an explicit rule against it in the past, and in some cases there may be legitimate reasons to keep multiple accounts. However, for the future, if you are going to be posting from different accounts, you will have to get permission from a moderator first, and in most cases you'll be required to publicly declare which accounts belong to you. (For convenience, the same goes if multiple people in the same household are posting to AGS: don't pretend on the forums that you don't know each other in real life.)

So if you have used several accounts in order to seem like you are multiple people, to skirt forum rules (e.g. against double-posting), to keep certain posts from being associated with your forum identity, or for any other purpose that could be considered ethically questionable, turn yourself in! PM a moderator with a list of the accounts you control. We will decide how to deal with it on a case-by-case basis depending on the apparent intent. Do NOT now go back and delete or edit old posts on your own. We'll consider this destruction of evidence and proof of dishonest intent.

Members who fail to come clean will face more severe sanctions.

[An elderly parishioner has stunned Spanish cultural officials with an alarming and unauthorised attempt to restore a prized Jesus Christ fresco.]

The BBC reports:

Spanish fresco restoration botched by amateur


An elderly parishioner has stunned Spanish cultural officials with an alarming and unauthorised attempt to restore a prized Jesus Christ fresco.
...
BBC Europe correspondent Christian Fraser says the delicate brush strokes of Elias Garcia Martinez have been buried under a haphazard splattering of paint.

The once-dignified portrait now resembles a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic, he says.

I wonder if this elderly Spanish parishioner has ever considered remaking one of the old EGA adventure games? Maybe Conquests of Camelot?

As some of you may know, the moderators occasionally have to ban users who (deliberately or otherwise) cause disruption on the forums. Unless they're obvious spambots or aggressively abusive trolls, these bans usually only last for a while to let the poster cool off. However, if that doesn't work, we may eventually put them under a permanent ban. That is really only as a last resort, though, and only if we don't think there's any way for them to participate meaningfully in the forum.

A certain user whom we've had to deal with a number of times in the past was recently banned. However, he has assured us that he has learned his lesson and will post more sensibly in the future. We are therefore letting him back, on a trial basis. If he goes back to his old ways, the trial ends. But since we don't like to ban people permanently, that also means that we won't look kindly on anyone baiting him or otherwise trying to get him kicked. Actually, that's probably good advice in general. So don't.

In hope that we can all get along,
Snarky (wearing mod-hat)

If I want to spruce up an office or some other room with a few adventure game things, what nice adventure game-related decorations are there? (Posters, miniatures, props, papercraft, Lego models, dioramas, replicas, etc.) What would be really cool to have (even if it doesn't exist)?

The last of the golden age sci-fi greats to go. He made the genre stranger and more beautiful.

While the update is an improvement in almost every way, I have to agree that the current way to look through the games db is somewhat broken, usability-wise.

The A-Z list has a confusing name and is hidden away in the menus, it's non-obvious that you can sort by the different columns, you can only move to next/previous page in the list, not directly to a particular page, and you can't see any details about the games without going to a separate game details page. The advanced search functionality is called "browse" for some reason, has a completely different layout and features to the main games list, doesn't allow you to sort, and has each entry taking up a lot of space (much of it padding) so you can only see a few on screen at a time. Simple title search is separate from "browse", again for reasons I find unclear, and (as you'd expect, but somewhat annoyingly) only supports searching within the title.

I really think there should be one consistent design for games db listings, which should have the info and features (primarily sort) from the A-Z list, but also some of the info from the "browse" search results, like screenshot and maybe length/genre. An expand-in-place interaction might work to see more details. Things should be labeled more intuitively and accurately ("A-Z" might better be called "browse games" while "Browse" might be called "Advanced search"), and these should IMO be more prominent in the UI. That should also take care of having an easy way to see recent games.

Not that I'm demanding that this must be fixed right now or anything. It's just something I think should be considered as an arguable imperfection in the current site and noted for possible future improvement. Looking for games is a major use-case for the site, and I think rants like the first post in the thread follow from frustration with having difficulty achieving simple, common tasks.

The US has a black president, and might have a Mormon one by next year (though hopefully not). JFK became the first Catholic president more than sixty years ago. But how far does the country have to go before it's ready for a President who is...

-Latino?
-Jewish?
-a woman?
-openly gay?
-atheist?
-Muslim?
-transgendered?
-really fat?

What do you think?