KoSh reviewed at IW!

[Domi]

Imrahil added Kvan to his reviews:

 

Name: Kivan 2.0

Characteristics: CG Male Elf Archer (Ranger)

Str: 18/21 Dex: 17 Con: 14 Int: 10 Wis: 16 Cha: 8

Equipment: Composite Long Bow, Studded Leather, Spear, 0 arrows

Personality: B-

Kivan has returned from BGI, searching for the PC. He's a bit more moody & melancholy than you might remember him from BGI, but he's hoping to re-unite with his lost love Deheriana (or perhaps romance a female PC). He doesn't comment on much, but has some nice banters with Aerie, Jan, & Cernd. If you're playing a male PC (or a female who's not interested in the romance), he has a decent little conversation with Demin that can result in the party meeting Deheriana.

Implementation: C

Kivan has no voicing & little to say to most NPC's. There's a few grammatical errors & he has no Hell dialogue. The responses for the PC are almost too generic, meaning an Elf PC has the opportunity to disparage Elves in general. He's a quiet, reserved character, but that's not really an excuse for him not talking much. The Deheriana-Demin encounter is not done well, IMO, lacking a good range of responses & being generally confusing if you don't take what I assume to be the author's preferred path.

Power: B

Archers are a fairly powerful class & Kivan is no exception. He'll devastate enemies from the back lines, especially if you keep him equipped with a supply of normal arrows to handle pesky mages. If you are over-matched, though, Kivan won't be able to bail the party out, & like all Archers is not much help in melee combat.

Ease: A-

Kivan approaches you in Waukeen's Promenade, generally in front of the Circus Tent (although he'll come find you if you go to one of the inns), so you can "reunite" with him shortly after Chateau Irenicus.

ToB: No

Overall: C+

Kivan is decent, but not exceptional. He needs voicing, a bunch of interjections, & more banters to make him truly interesting, but he's fairly enjoyable to have around & will help out most parties. If you intend to romance him, his dialogues are more worthwhile, but if not, he's sort of dull.

[the bigg]

Kivan has no voicing

err, last time I checked that was a good point about an NPC, not a bad one... It enables dial-uppers to play the mod without the frustration of "Meh, 17 Megs and I couldn't listen to them because my gender is wrong "

[Domi]

My comments:

 

Not sure how overall C got derived from two B's and 1 C... even if I discount the A- for my devious placement in the Walkeen's, but I am glad that Kivan ranked above other 1 day NPCs. We seems to be on the right track

 

I am sort of puzzled by the comment that Kivan has little to say to other NPCs. I do not beleive in adding banter for the sake of simply more screen time exposure, and I wanted banter topics to be variable. So instead of stamping out yet another: Why do you hate mages Valygar? or Anomen, you are arrogant bastard! for the sake of quantity I tried to go for more interesting ideas. And still, all NPCs got 3+ banters (appart from poor Yoshi). I will consider increasing banter load for ToB for approximately 6 banters per nPC, with the exception of Yoshimo, Imoen, Korgan, Edwin and Viconia. I simply do not see Kivan interacting more with the ebil three, and as for Imoen and Yoshimo - they are part-timers... and for Christ's sake Imoen has too much content added by different mods already.

 

The fact that I allow an Elven PC to diss Elves is intentional - PC was raised by humans, and being a demi-god, I think that the player can decide his attitudes towards other races without me looking over his shoulder and excluding his replies. On the other hand there are Elven PC specific replies that allow the palyer to show that he is an Elf. And of course, a female PC have a lot of additional options. There will be more of them in the talks to come

 

I do disagree that he is dull or have little personality, matter of taste imo

 

The rest I agree with - we definetly need ToB, interjections, and all the jazz. Demin encounter will be revised to add more options - we discussed it with Hendryk long ago.

[icelus]

Kivan has no voicing

err, last time I checked that was a good point about an NPC, not a bad one... It enables dial-uppers to play the mod without the frustration of "Meh, 17 Megs and I couldn't listen to them because my gender is wrong "

That's actually a very subjective statement.

 

While I don't think that *every* line of a mod NPC needs to be voiced, I do feel that many of them do, in order for the NPC to fit in with the game better.

 

I would much rather have an NPC with decent audio voiceclips than one that is noticeably silent.

 

Yes, it is a personal choice, not one that anyone can say what's right or wrong. There's no place to "check" for the answer.

 

And, yes, I have been on dialup before (on a horrible, HORRIBLE connection), but I made do. Get a good download manager and you're all set.

 

Sorry to hijack your thread, Domi.

[Domi]

No problem. I think voicing right now for this particular mod is a theoretical question rather than practical, so discuss away

[icelus]

No problem. I think voicing right now for this particular mod is a theoretical question rather than practical, so discuss away

I'm guessing it could be tricky, yes. Odds aren't good that you could track down the original voice actor. The one thing in your favor, however, is that Kivan has no voiced lines in BG2 vanilla. That gives you a bit of room, I'd say, to find someone who can voice it similarly, but not identically.

 

After all, didn't Jaheira and Viconia get different voice actresses in BG2 than what they had in BG1?

[Meira]

And still, all NPCs got 3+ banters (appart from poor Yoshi).

Huh? 3 banters for nearly all NPC is "little to say to most NPC's"?

[Domi]

Yes, I was wondering about it too... most of NPCs have more actually. But it maybe that he is not playing long enough, because some banters reflect happening in the game (Keldorn's Lady Maria, ressurection of Deheriana etc) or because his party is bias toward NPCs I have 3 rather than 3+ banters for (Imoen, Nalia, Minsc, Haer). Basically I need to be adding generic banters (occuring at any time) to remedy this situation.

[the bigg]

I would much rather have an NPC with decent audio voiceclips than one that is noticeably silent.

Well, I don't think silent is the way to; instead, I believe firmly in the theory of the double packet (a soundless, small download, plus the sound package, easily skippable if you don't have bandwith). It helps avoid frustration, sometimes.

 

And, yes, I have been on dialup before (on a horrible, HORRIBLE connection), but I made do.  Get a good download manager and you're all set.

I have a T1 right now , and it's freely provided by the Italian State . But I always keep in mind those who aren't as much lucky as me.

[SimDing0]

Kivan has no voicing

err, last time I checked that was a good point about an NPC, not a bad one... It enables dial-uppers to play the mod without the frustration of "Meh, 17 Megs and I couldn't listen to them because my gender is wrong "

I don't even think this is subjective. Accesibility says nothing of the quality of a mod. Is DLTC total rubbish because it's 70MB or whatever? RTW's pretty hefty too. If download size is more important than including media in a mod, then maybe you should convince Cuv to scrap all those areas he's made and have the party walk around on black backgrounds, because those compress down pretty nicely for modem users' benefit.

 

but I am glad that Kivan ranked above other 1 day NPCs.

Yes, when your NPC comes below Alassa, you know you're in trouble.

 

and for Christ's sake Imoen has too much content added by different mods already.

What mods are these though? My BIMOEN2's looking pretty empty.

[Domi]

What mods are these though? My BIMOEN2's looking pretty empty.

 

Uhm, is not there Banter packs, Imoen Romance, Imoen's Relationship, Chloe's romance with Imoen, Kelsey's romance with Imoen, Sewer's Golem's romance with Imoen etc?

[SimDing0]

I'd be most disappointed if the existance of the Imoen Romance prevented people from adding their own Imoen dialogue.

[Domi]

Well, I do agree on that, but there are still other n mods... She chatters with Kivan and if I can think on something interesting, I'd add it in, it's just... I am more interested in developping bigger sets for other NPCs. Most notably Solaufein.

[SimDing0]

Well yeh, if you've got good ideas for Solaufein then that's fair enough, but I'd personally assign priority to Bioware NPCs over every random mod out there.

 

In any case, are you planning to voice the mod?

[Domi]

Difficult to say. My priority once I restart working on it will be doing full development. That means accursed interjections, additional banter and ToB Quest. Voicing is a 'when I get my mind to it' issue.

 

I have a fantastic voice for Deheriana, thanks to Threadspinner There were a couple of adventerous males who tried for Kivan. So it is a defenite maybe unless perhaps only if it changes.