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There was some stuff in their user agreement that I found pretty unacceptable back when Linux builds of the DK1 SDK became available. Sadly, it seems like they've been on this trajectory since before Facebook got involved.

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Also good job on the show guys! Ill be back on the next episode! It will be a good time i have no doubt!

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Quoting: adolsonWill the podcast be on TuneIn or Stitcher at some point?

the podcast will eventually be on Stitcher. We have to have some stat information to give before we can get approved to get on.

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Quoting: LinasI have mixed feelings about Wine ports. On one hand it's nice to see these games on Linux, but then I think, you could already run them in Wine, so it's not like they have done anything I couldn't have done myself.

It depends. If the binary is just wrapped in a Wine environment, then yes.
However if they have access to the Windows source code of the game
the could take the Winelib approach which has certain advantages:

https://dl.winehq.org/wine/docs/en/winelib-guide.html

Not sure which route they went here.

@Liam

It would be great if that bit of information could be added in future articles about releases using Wine.

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Quoting: SuperTuxThis is it, they killed the game as it was advertised quite heavily that it was a streamlined action RPG (it was obvious to me this is what they were going to deliver). We're not likely to see another NWN style game with D&D rules for the foreseeable future, especially not on Linux.

I actually like it. And the reason may well be that it does NOT adhere strictly to D&D rules. Yes, they've patched them around the last few decades, but the core D&D is bad, incoherent, messy, ill-suited for _role_-playing games and ill-suited for computer games.

D&D is the Microsoft Windows of RPG rule-sets. (Before you think I don't know what I'm talking about: I know at least one set of RPG rules from 1978 which is everything that D&D is not. The Unix of RPG engines in other words ;)).

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Hmh, I bought the game, but didn't get around playing it too much. I liked what I saw so far. Ye, it could have been better - could have been a lot worse too. Though, never bringing it into connection with D&D it would probably have had a completely different reception.

It's sad seeing them closing the doors. I wish all of them good luck finding a new job.

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It's always sad to have a developer, and moreover a Linux developer, closing their doors. It's a fact that people never really understood their games quite well, and the public mostly considered them a mixed bag.

In fact n-space already met difficulties during Geist's development, and as a result it's been delayed so much that some parts of the game look like UT2004, while some others look like GoldenEye. Also it didn't meet expectations. The gameplay is creative and original, but it never really gets to fulfill its original purpose.

Also many people were looking forward to playing their RPG Heroes of Ruin, but it was met with the very same reception.

It is not entirely LSC's fault, and the studio has been releasing poorly received games for almost 10 years. On another hand I tend to consider they always created way too much hype around their titles and more often than not, people's expectations would grow bigger than it should be.

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Will the podcast be on TuneIn or Stitcher at some point?

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Quoting: Beamboom

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: seveni don't know anyone who uses steamOs, i honestly think not alot of people use it

Most everyone who buys a Steam Machine?

How many do you know who's done that?

... Exactly.

I bought an i3 Alienware Steam Machine and I run SteamOS 2.0 Brewmaster on it in full desktop mode with the main Debian repos added.

I actually like the machine quite a bit. Tiny, runs super quiet, hibernate/resume is fast and reliable. It's a nice little gaming+desktop Debian mini PC. It easily has enough horsepower to run just about all my games well, except for the larger more AAA graphics titles - which I still run on my main Ubuntu PC.

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Sucks to see them go because I really liked Geist when I played it on the Gamecube. However, SCL was a mediocre WRPG that was inferior to a game that came out a few months earlier (Pillars of Eternity).

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Quote. I played it at launch when that game had no companion AI, zero. So every battle became a micromanage fest where I paused the game every 2 seconds to issue commands to every party member.

This has long been fixed by the way. I found PoE very exciting then progressively dull (story-wise), but now I'm getting back into it via the White March, which is really quite good. All in all it's a really great game, but I'm starting to see the similarily in the main game vs the DLC that I saw in NWN and NWN2 - that the base game has a long and tedious story arc that you lose interest in and can't be bothered following, but the smaller stories and DLC are much more polished.

I was very much looking forward to SCL, but I hate diablo style click fests, they bore the hell out of me as there's rarely much strategy, and SCL seems to have fallen to this. NWN and Dragon Age: Origins had some fantastic realtime pausable 3D combat on the other hand. PoE has some very interesting and original Spells, the Priest and Druid classes in particular, that make combat really fun, but you need to play on a hard difficulty, otherwise you end up relying on the camping mechanic too much and it's far too easy.

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Did they make any statement regarding removing their stupid activation garbage before someone switches off the lights over there? I bought the game a while ago, just didn't get to play it yet. But I still want to....

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Quoting: Mountain ManThat's why they added "Story Time" mode which is intended for players who want an adventure without being constantly beaten over the head with difficult combat.

It's not that the combat in Pillars was difficult, it's that there was so bloody much of it. The only battles in Pillars I had any trouble with (I played on hard difficulty) were against spirits, since you couldn't build a meat shield wall to protect your back line squishies since spirits would just teleport right through it and murder your casters. Also, the final boss battle, which was an insane difficulty spike compared to everything that came before it. I played it at launch when that game had no companion AI, zero. So every battle became a micromanage fest where I paused the game every 2 seconds to issue commands to every party member. That coupled with the sheer amount of combat got super tedious. It didn't help that I found the story boring. The writing style was great, but the actual story was dull as dishwater IMHO, so there was nothing driving me to keep going.

On the other hand, I found the companion AI in SCL to be quite capable, so I only had to pause to issue commands once every blue moon. It made the combat flow better and quicker and didn't wear me out like in Pillars, which is something I greatly appreciated. I guess I just don't have the patience to constantly micromanage any more.

Anyway, I'm actually going to play through the SCL campaign again at some point before Rage of Demons comes out.

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Quoting: whitewolfguyDoes SteamOs add a percentage to this data?

No, as far I know they are still not counted. So hopefully there are few millions SteamOS User which haven't been counted yet :)

Quoting: whitewolfguy

Quoting: Comandante oardoA lot of people is using Steam on Linux via WINe, How the statistics of the Steam Hardware Survey recognize those accounts?.. As Windows XP users? As Others?

Good question, I also have this doubt.

Wine counts as Windows. Which version depends on how you have configured Wine. You can see as which Window version it counts in the survey data which Steam shows you before you send the survey.

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Quoting: Guest

Quoting: seveni don't know anyone who uses steamOs, i honestly think not alot of people use it

Most everyone who buys a Steam Machine?

Wouldn't be so sure. I played around with it for almost two weeks before I replaced it with a regular Linux Distribution. Most people I know with Steam Machines have done the same, and replaced it as well after a few days. It has to many flaws.

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Quoting: scaine

Quoting: Keyrock

Quoting: SuperTuxOnly real way to succeed is perhaps via what Obisidian do and actually listen to what the PC playerbase wants and it wasn't a streamlined action RPG (I suspect a lot of those 50% who were happy would also be happy with a more traditional in depth RPG).

Ironically, I enjoyed my time with the Sword Coast Legends campaign while I grew to hate Pillars of Eternity, largely because of how incredibly tedious that game was. I know I'm very much in the minority, though.

Maybe, but I also don't understand the love for PoE - it was a save-fest. If you walked into certain fights without having using a campfire before hand (in order to have your full arsenal of spells/abilities available), it was pretty much game over. That made gameplay and general adventuring tedious since you could only buy campfires back at your base (that I knew of). So much potential wasted by a tedious mechanic.

That's why they added "Story Time" mode which is intended for players who want an adventure without being constantly beaten over the head with difficult combat.

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Quoting: slaapliedjeThat was quick... they did their money grab then disappeared. Probably because something they claimed would be basically Neverwinter Nights 3 became more like something that was made with Basic D&D rules. At least that was the impression I got from my short time with the game. I had high hopes for it, but then no one liked most of their decisions.

I don't think it was a cash-grab as much as it was that they made a game that wasn't deep enough to appeal to RPG fans and not action-y enough to appeal to Diablo fans. Basically, they made a game that nobody really wanted. That's the kind of thing that puts developers out of business.

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I remember liking Geist on GameCube.

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I've found print & play board games on itch, too. One example: Agent Decker.

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I started playing Pillars of Eternity, got to some underground temple and haven't played it since.... I have too many stinking games to play! Also, been playing Divine Divinity Original Sin with my brother, besides needing to start over for the enhanced edition sort of bumming us out, we are getting back into swing with it. Kind of hard playing multiple RPGs with thick story at the same time, since you start mixing up plot points... it's like reading Game of Thrones all over again...

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Quoting: Keyrock

Quoting: SuperTuxOnly real way to succeed is perhaps via what Obisidian do and actually listen to what the PC playerbase wants and it wasn't a streamlined action RPG (I suspect a lot of those 50% who were happy would also be happy with a more traditional in depth RPG).

Ironically, I enjoyed my time with the Sword Coast Legends campaign while I grew to hate Pillars of Eternity, largely because of how incredibly tedious that game was. I know I'm very much in the minority, though.

Maybe, but I also don't understand the love for PoE - it was a save-fest. If you walked into certain fights without having using a campfire before hand (in order to have your full arsenal of spells/abilities available), it was pretty much game over. That made gameplay and general adventuring tedious since you could only buy campfires back at your base (that I knew of). So much potential wasted by a tedious mechanic.

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Quoting: SuperTuxOnly real way to succeed is perhaps via what Obisidian do and actually listen to what the PC playerbase wants and it wasn't a streamlined action RPG (I suspect a lot of those 50% who were happy would also be happy with a more traditional in depth RPG).

Ironically, I enjoyed my time with the Sword Coast Legends campaign while I grew to hate Pillars of Eternity, largely because of how incredibly tedious that game was. I know I'm very much in the minority, though.

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Also added MP3 feed: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/podcast_rss_mp3.php

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I really think what killed it was the "Oh my god, NWN 3!!" and then it was more of a mix. I only had time to play a bit of the random dungeon generator before the campaign was released, and everything I'd read said the campaign was pretty poor, but then when no one started making modules for it, it's when I couldn't hop on board. I was real close to buying copies for my friends to play too, but didn't.

Wait, they did Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2? Why oh why did they never release that for the PC? The first one was awesome. Most of the games I see listed there are console ports done by other teams?

Anyhow, I always find it rather sad when a D&D licensed game bombs, remember how successful some of the others were, even going back as far as the original SSI Gold Box ones?

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Thanks, fixed that issue (used the LinuxVoice podcast rss as a basis :)).

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Quoting: SuperTuxOnly real way to succeed is perhaps via what Obisidian do and actually listen to what the PC playerbase wants and it wasn't a streamlined action RPG (I suspect a lot of those 50% who were happy would also be happy with a more traditional in depth RPG).

You are probably right. For my part, I was surprised the reverse of that didn't hold true. Which is me, I totally love the more detailed and in-depth RPGs too. But I was OK with a streamlined version - mainly because it was well done, it had a good flow to the combat and had a real inventory system/item economy. (I don't like it when they streamline inventory completely out - that's too much streamlining.)

I especially thought SCL made a good fit in this current games market, with a resurgence in "old-school" RPGs making a come-back in a big big way, there was room for it. It's not like we're starving for modern takes on "old school" RPGs anymore, Internet crowd funding has revived that genre 110%.

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Awwwrr :( I wish the best of luck to everyone there

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Quoting: Halifax

Quoting: slaapliedjebut then no one liked most of their decisions.

Pretty sad.

Closer to the truth was it was about a 50/50 mix, about half of their player base was fine with the streamlined action RPG gameplay mechanics. But the jeremiads from the 50% that didn't like it were intense and amply posted, for sure.

This is it, they killed the game as it was advertised quite heavily that it was a streamlined action RPG (it was obvious to me this is what they were going to deliver). We're not likely to see another NWN style game with D&D rules for the foreseeable future, especially not on Linux. Rage of Demons for PC is also looking doubtful.

Only real way to succeed is perhaps via what Obisidian do and actually listen to what the PC playerbase wants and it wasn't a streamlined action RPG (I suspect a lot of those 50% who were happy would also be happy with a more traditional in depth RPG). Interestingly enough the publisher has confirmed Rage of Demons and Sword Coast will release on consoles. I wonder how much of the mechanics were indeed affected by consoles?

Only thing left is that abysmal themepark grindfest on Windows made by Cryptic it seems, unless you want to buy the old enhanced versions of Baldurs Gate etc.

I do hope the employees at N-Space find work soon!

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Quoting: slaapliedjeThat was quick... they did their money grab then disappeared. Probably because something they claimed would be basically Neverwinter Nights 3 became more like something that was made with Basic D&D rules. At least that was the impression I got from my short time with the game. I had high hopes for it, but then no one liked most of their decisions.

Pretty sad.

Edit: read the post, I'd never heard of n-Space until this game, 21 years? what else did they make?

They have a long list of games, more then what some known studios have, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Space#History

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Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: z3ntuI need a Podcast XML for Pocket Casts! :D

I have now finished a feed: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/podcast_rss_ogg.php

Thanks! Will you also make a feed for mp3? And the links <link> and <atom:link href= are wrong :)

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