Mistress Elysia

I haven't got a clue what it was called, but it was an old BBC adventure game that took about half an hour to load, and we never got past the third (?) stage because it was a black screen with 'holes' in it that you had to try to avoid (sudden death). Needless to say, it caused much irritated intrigue.

Other ones include Chucky Egg and Frogger on the BBC and NewZealand Story on the Commadore 64. We also had a couple of those old text-based RPGs on a battered old Atari machine - I loved them as a kid!

My first 'proper' D&D RPG was Warriors of the Eternal Sun on the Megadrive... gosh, I'd love to play that again

Earliest Playstation games were Kings Field and the original (and best) Tomb Raider.

First 'proper' PC games... probably the X-Com games and Doom; however the first game hubby and I bought for the first PC we bought together as a couple was, rather ironically, the first Baldur's Gate. We still own the discs, all in pristine condition and in the original packaging

Sillara!! So good to see you again! I'd heard you'd had another 2 babies since last we spoke: all girls, or have you had a boy? Hubby and I are definitely looking at having another one in the next year or so - being a mummy rules so much! It's hard work - I'm absolutely exhausted, and I don't think I've ever worried quite so much in my life, but it's also the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me; when Lucy smiles at me, nothing beats it

I tend to do a loy of one handed typing right now - I'm not a total pro, but I'm getting there (hehee, nursing right now - I feel like a real milky-moocow at the moment. Lucy wants feeding every 2-3 hours right now - curse this 4 month growth spurt!)

Thank you for continuing to support me - I really appreciate it And love to nethrin and the kids!! xx

Thanks, everyone!

I like the thir one best, and I think it blends better with BioWare than the default portrait. The second is nice, too, but the first one is a bit... well, she looks kind of like she's had enhancement surgery.

*nods* I know what you mean - unfortunately, none of these are dedicated portraits, and so they aren't perfect for the job. Eventually, I will probably digitally repaint this picture to be Fade (heh, I am better with traditional media over digital, so I bet I screw it up...), but I can't do that until my house renovation are finished (just the bathroom to go now!) and my PC is unpacked again - although I do have Gimp2 on this laptop (I have Photoshop on my PC), my lovely wacom tablet is - you guessed it! - packed away with my PC... bah!

If I get time, I'll probably repaint the third portrait again as well... I've got a bunch of things I want to do, so I might as well!

I totally agree with your assessment of Anomen's treatment - as a recent Anomen convert, I would love to see him treated with sensitivity rather than just playing the old 'he's an arrogant twat and must be ridiculed at every turn' card (something I admit in full to doing in the past - believe me, I am going to take steps to amend this!).

As for Keldorn, like Aeryn, I am rather fond of the old paladin. Rather than a romance per se, I envisioned an almost father/child relationship developing, where Keldorn partially fills that big, Gorion shaped hole in the PC's life. Keldorn is, after all, a father himself, and for that reason alone I could see him taking an interest in such a young person with such a huge responsibility upon their shoulders - he seems to have quite a strong paternal streak in him, and having him pass on his wisdom to a younger student figure would, I think, fit his personality. However, like all children (biologial or adopted...), how the PC takes this interest is another matter!

To bridge that gap between a full blown romance and a student/mentor thing, the PC could develop a bit of a crush on him; Lord knows, I know I quite easily could...

If it helps you choose between ideas you feel equally strongly about, yes. Otherwise, the only opinion you should consult about what to work on next should be your own.

Yeah, I know I'm saying yes and no at the same time.

Hehehee It's the attitude that counts!

Thanks again - you've thrown new light on the whole issue for me, which has definitely put it into perspective (which is what I needed).

Another take on sola can only be interesting and would be fun to play. I think the community as a whole is mature enough to appreciate another interpretation of the character for what it is, and not draw narrow comparisions on which is better or worse.

Hopefully this will be the case! Got to admit, I was expecting a largely negative response - to get this much of a positive one really does make me feel a hell of a lot more comfortable about thinking about this project

If we change the word "watch" to "own every single season and do a marathon every few months just for fun and still get upset over stuff that happened 10 years ago"...then yes.

Gah, I know - Janet's death is a particular one for me; each time I watch that blinking episode, I sob like a child. And then there's Sunday... argh, don't get me started on Sunday. Carson... NOOOO! JUST GO FISHING WITH HIM!! (As for Quarantine - still won't watch that episode. Bloody Keller - who does she think she is, makin' moves on my Ronon?! )

*cough* Umm, yeah, okay, this is a discussion for elsewhere, methinks...

But actually I think you're description is pretty close to how I picture him as well. I think he'd be jumpy and nervous at first, and really nervous in surface cities/crowded places, especially during the day when it's harder for him to see. (In a lot of ways, he's pretty defenseless in those situations, and he'd have to trust the PC to back him up if things go badly.) I think he'd be paranoid, even of the PC. Especially of the PC if she's female. Life as a drow male and all that. If the PC shows trust and vulnerability with him, I can see that staunch loyalty really kicking in. It's obvious from the way he tries to "protect" Phaere even when she tells him off that he's the protective type. I can't see him romancing an evil (at least not a prototypical "evil") person. I think he would have had enough of that from his past...but I guess it would depend more on how an evil PC treats him and the people/things he values than his/her actual alignment? And I think the Eilistraee thing should be something similar to the way Aerie occasionally mentions her beliefs in an offhand sort of way. It's important to him, but it's personal to him. If that makes sense...I think I'm babbling.

Have you been peeking into my mind? Because That's basically how I envisioned him, too! At first, he'd be incredibly reserved to the point of almost being withdrawn (think Ronon when he first speaks to Weir in 'Duet' - all that suspicious reservation), so to begin with, it would be a case of helping him aclimatise to the surface (again, like Ronon has to aclimatise to civilisation after being on the run for 7 years). For a male PC, there could be a real Sheppard / Ronon dynamic, and with a female PC (although I am not a Spanky shipper at all) a Ronon/Teyla dynamic... Lol, can you guess that I have also thought about making a mod based on Ronon's character at all?! (In fact, it was this that made me think about doing a new Sola mod in the first place - there are a lot of similarities between the two characters at the end of the day!)

In case I didn't say it outright, I do like the Sola idea though I'm still in the cheering section for Xen'shai.

Hehee - 'Shai is definitely an interesting NPC to play around with, but he would be 'one of the long haul', rather like Fade...

Having as many dialog options as possible is always good, we're playing RPG after all. However... Having 3-4 different - and I mean really different, not just various formulations of the same subject - options is quite enough. Anything more will most likely result in diminishing return. Furthermore, having to read through 6-8 lines every time one is about to reply quickly gets tedious and boring. Same thing about having long (over 20 words) replies. In fact, the dialog system employed in IE can't really support more than 5-6 options, just as it can't work with replies that are more than 10-15 words long. Not for technical reasons, but exactly due to the need to read through all of them before selecting one.

Exactly - this is why I was getting so bogged down with something that was in the end ultimately futile. Having choice is fun, but having too much choice is actually counter productive - when it comes to this, I really, really, REALLY need to gain my perspective.

Speaking of railroading, sometimes that's needed more (and much so) than diversity. Heavy story and sandbox are incompatible by their nature. Problem is, not everyone knows (judging by many RPGs released) how to conceal those rails well enough. That's it, unless you meant exactly the concealing.

As Sillara once said to me, 'it's all about giving the player the illusion of choice, whilst at the4 same time getting them to do what you want them to do'. I used to be able to do it... but then it all kind of went a little bit to pot!

Agreed with the modern RPG thing as well - it's something I've noticed in near enough all games (don't even get me started on the new Tomb Raider games... totally and utterly ruined, they are. Crystal Dynamics should be shot for Legend, simple as that!)

That's surely none of my business to meddle in, but if they do think like that, aren't those their own problems?

Yes, it is their problem... but that's the kind of thing I worry about anyway. I like to create, but not necessarily rock the boat, y'know what I mean? And I have a feeling creating a new Sola might rock the boat just a little bit!

I *thought* that was what her name was. I still remember her picture(I suppose I could've looked that up first. ) if that makes you feel better.

Yep - that was her! I would have to re-paint that portrait before using it - *shudders* so many anatomical errors...

Hmm, on DeviantArt and RPGDungeon I go by Xenshail(And you even drew me a sketch, which was fabulous), but I never based it on another character that I recall... Course that was back before Fade was even released, iirc. So that's quite a time ago.

LOL! This is why it should be against the law for people to change their online names - because old hags like me get confused at to who used to go by what name! I was sitting there, wracking my brains, thinking 'I know Xenshail became someone else, but who the buggery was it??' - now I know

Both of your first two ideas look very intriguing. I'm sure you'd write Sola well, also, but he just never interested me.

I'd really be open to whichever you want, but you know I've got a little bit of bias for Ghost of course. And that crazy little psuedo, Jek.

Thanks! I'll see how it goes... got to get my head around finishing Fade too (although sometimes working on something else actually paves the way for more inspiration...). As I said before, if I was going to tackle one first, it would probably be Ghost, since she would be in the game for a set time, rather than spanning the entire thing, so she's not *quite* as daunting as taking on Xen'shai.