What art thou playing milord? Ye Olde Thread 3.0

[Slick Mongoose]

How am I supposed to get my heir all the way down to Jerusalem?! I've no ships or shipyards yet!!! Make the long march overland? It says I'll be excommunicated if I don't do this. Will my heir have to fight when he gets there? Does he need an army with him? Maybe I can have him move by himself over all that neutral territory, thus taking advantage of his horseback speed, then recruit mercenaries when he gets there.

You need your heir + 7 other units in a stack outside a settlement. Click on the stack and you'll see a "join crusade" button. Once you've joined the crusade, your heir will be able to move twice as far in a turn and hire cheap, high-quality mercenaries.

Then march down to the south coast of France and hire a ship. You'll be in Jerusalem in around 5 turns.

[Jon AS]

A few turns in, I was given a mission to make contact with Venice. But somehow, my only diplomat dissapeared (spy killed her I guess) while she was on her way there. Then, I got two missions from the Holy See. One to make peace with England (I'd just taken Normandy) and the second to join the Crusade in Jerusalem. But I cannot make peace with England, because I've no diplomat and no means to make another (hadn't teched up far enough yet).

How am I supposed to get my heir all the way down to Jerusalem?! I've no ships or shipyards yet!!! Make the long march overland? It says I'll be excommunicated if I don't do this. Will my heir have to fight when he gets there? Does he need an army with him? Maybe I can have him move by himself over all that neutral territory, thus taking advantage of his horseback speed, then recruit mercenaries when he gets there.

It's been ages since I've played vanilla Medieval 2, but are you sure the mission is to get to Jerusalem in 7 turns, not to join the crusade to Jerusalem within 7 turns? And that you're supposed to negotiate peace with England, not just not attack them?

[Slurktan]

So I decided to give Medieval 2 another go. I played as France.

A few turns in, I was given a mission to make contact with Venice. But somehow, my only diplomat dissapeared (spy killed her I guess) while she was on her way there. Then, I got two missions from the Holy See. One to make peace with England (I'd just taken Normandy) and the second to join the Crusade in Jerusalem. But I cannot make peace with England, because I've no diplomat and no means to make another (hadn't teched up far enough yet).

How am I supposed to get my heir all the way down to Jerusalem?! I've no ships or shipyards yet!!! Make the long march overland? It says I'll be excommunicated if I don't do this. Will my heir have to fight when he gets there? Does he need an army with him? Maybe I can have him move by himself over all that neutral territory, thus taking advantage of his horseback speed, then recruit mercenaries when he gets there.

/FRUSRATION /RESTART Maybe my diplomat won't dissapear on me next time. Thankfully I was only a few turns in.

Given you said your diplomat was a she that means she was a royal daughter. She disappeared because you married her off. There are no assassins at that early point in the game. You need to pay attention to the messages that pop up.

[Alcibiades]

You need your heir + 7 other units in a stack outside a settlement. Click on the stack and you'll see a "join crusade" button. Once you've joined the crusade, your heir will be able to move twice as far in a turn and hire cheap, high-quality mercenaries.

Then march down to the south coast of France and hire a ship. You'll be in Jerusalem in around 5 turns.

Oh damn, thanks. I had no idea about this. Maybe it's my own fault for skipping the tutorial, thinking myself Pro after Rome Total War.

And that you're supposed to negotiate peace with England, not just not attack them?

Yeah. It's to make peace. I'd just started a war when I got the mission, by taking Normandy. Left to my own devices, I was intending to go after the large army England still had on the continent, thus removing them as an immediate threat. I suppose making peace would do just as well, but I'm sure that'd be hard to do having just taken Normandy from them. England does have a diplomat on the continent, so I could talk to them, if only my diplomat hadn't died.

[Alcibiades]

Given you said your diplomat was a she that means she was a royal daughter. She disappeared because you married her off. There are no assassins at that early point in the game. You need to pay attention to the messages that pop up.

That musta been it. Thanks. I was in the habit of just clicking yes to all the familial things from RTW.

You guys have been very helpful, thank you so much. I'll give it another go tonight. :)

[Jon AS]

Yeah. It's to make peace.

Wow, that sucks, given that diplomacy is absolutely ridiculous in this game. I don't think missions that require anything more difficult to achieve than trade rights are used in the Stainless Steel mod.

Just one more reason not to play an unmodded game.

[Slick Mongoose]

Yeah. It's to make peace.

You should be able to train more diplomats at any city with a town hall, IIRC.

It's a good idea to always have two or three diplomats. One to go straight down to Rome to bribe the pope into liking you, the others to go around getting trade rights.

[Humble Asskicker]

I went back and played Final Fantasy VII recently. The amount of text in that game is staggering. But if it ended up like the affront to humanity that was FFX's voice acting then I never would have loved it. Since FFX JRPGs have come a long way in improving voice acting. Most notably on this generation of consoles. It's gotten much better. Too bad Oblivion is nearly as bad as Two World's. Bethesda fucked that one up royally.

Hey, hey, hey. The English version! The English version is bad. Let me show you what I'm talking about.

Here are sample clips of FFX, the first in English and the second in Japanese (with translations). This is one of the lamer scenes, which I find best to demonstrate how either one holds up. The English cast is okay so long as they don't have to put emotion into their words, but at that point it's like the developing adolescent boy whose voice cracks at the higher pitch. And you can discern the unnatural pauses in their sentences to keep in sync with the lips. Nothing can change the awful, awful script.

Although some of that awfulness - such as the hideous "you hit your head" line - is due to the translation. And the hilarious "I felt him, inside. And when I did, I knew it was true." (actual wording: "But I felt it. My father is inside Sin.")

The only time the English cast does it better is with a brief line from Kimari.

English

Japanese

I'll try to get to the rest of your post later. I just cannot stand the good name of FFX being sullied.

[Gigei]

I am playing FFVII (PC Version). I'm loving it!

I went back and played Final Fantasy VII recently. The amount of text in that game is staggering.

I am only on disk 1 but some of the text is really laughable/incomprehensible.

I want to meet ...you. (He is right there, dummy!)

I assume this was "the real you" or something similar.

Why do the Japanese not have good translators?

[Alcibiades]

I am playing FFVII (PC Version). I'm loving it!

I am only on disk 1 but some of the text is really laughable/incomprehensible.

I want to meet ...you. (He is right there, dummy!)

I assume this was "the real you" or something similar.

Why do the Japanese not have good translators?

It IS awfully strange, for a game like that. To give the translation such short shrift. They do get better in later final fantasies, but I stopped at 9 so I cannot speak about the newer ones.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

I am playing FFVII (PC Version). I'm loving it!

I am only on disk 1 but some of the text is really laughable/incomprehensible.

I want to meet ...you. (He is right there, dummy!)

I assume this was "the real you" or something similar.

Why do the Japanese not have good translators?

I always liked that part.

Notable problems to me (and I'm playing it again on my PSP right now so it's all fresh) are the classics:

"Off Course!" or "No, Way!"

[Mackaxx]

Point lookout is actually a pretty sweet update, I'm enjoying it much more than any of the other fallout add ons. I think its the relatively new environment mostly, the shenanigans in the mansion were great fun as well. Really though it's just cool explore some new places.

Banjos are pretty sweet too.

[Dornish]

Thief 2 again. speaking of which I have a bank to rob.

[Poobah]

Oblivion's voice acting is good... for the first few minutes, and then Patrick Stuart is gone forever and the game can only go downhill from there.

-Poobs

[Alcibiades]

Thief 2 again. speaking of which I have a bank to rob.

I'm quite sure their going to botch Thief 4. It'll be just like Thief 3.

[kungtotte]

Don't jinx it :(

[Gunnlaugr ormstunga]

Since I'm a poor skint student, I haven't been able to afford a nice shiny PC for years now so I haven't played anything new in a while. I downloaded Total Realism mod for Rome: Total War a couple of months ago which is frankly bloody excellent - just started out a campaign as Gaul (it's always more fun playing as the barbarian nations).

I've also just ordered a copy of Morrowind and all its expansions which I'm quite exited about, I played it when it first came out but never got round to completing it. I'd appreciate if anyone could recommend any decent mods worth downloading for it.

[Daeric]

Being playing Star Ocean The last hope recently and I think I'm slowly but surely being able to mentally block out the overusage of 'kay. Its either that or be driven insane.

[Darzin]

I've always had a soft spot for Civilization III which is what i'm playing right now I know Civ IV has more options and stuff but I've just never been able to get into it as much. I am currently playing the Napoleonic Europe senario and having alot of fun. I'm playing as France and have conquered naples Spain and Amsterdam me and the ottomans have divided austria between us and I conquered prussia and gave all the city's to my allies the danes so they can actually have some real power. my only two remaining enemies are Russia and England. I am currently massing my troops at Warsaw to invade Russia hoplefully it will work better then the real thing.

oh by the way can anyone recomend any good mods for Civ III

[BlueRose]

Being playing Star Ocean The last hope recently and I think I'm slowly but surely being able to mentally block out the overusage of 'kay. Its either that or be driven insane.

This has quite unfortunately crept into me and my boyfriend's dialog at home.

I'm trying to approach Last Remnant with an open mind, but the fact that the lord's name is David makes me want to throw things at the screen. His name isnt dave-id, mind you, like we'd say normally, but Da-VIDE. Also, it's the same voice actor that did Faize in Star Ocean and Capell in Infinite Undiscovery, and I dont like him much. Does Square/Tri-Ace only have 10 voice actors? It's about half the same cast doing Infinite Undiscovery as did Star Ocean.