"Honestly, hand-to-hand is, if anything, overpowered right now. I understand the skepticism, b/c I was skeptical about it, too. However, once you play an unarmed fighter, you'll see the benefits quickly. The ability to drain fatigue (as well as health) is huge, as you'll see when you play it."

"You can certainly do it. It'll involve tweaking (seriously tweaking) the greetings that are given for vampires. You could make it so only people of a certain race, class, faction, rank, or sex could know you're a vampire. You could make it so only certain individuals would know. You could do it based on your Sneak skill. You could do it based on Disposition. These are all non-trivial efforts, but all possible. You won't be "disguised" per se, but it'll have the semi-desired effect.
I'm actually kicking around some tweaks to reactions myself, based on everyone's input (and a little idea I had this morning). I'm not sure what, if anything, will come of it, but I'm bouncing ideas around. No promises, but we'll see what happens. I think that's the final word from me for now on vampires."

"Tell me about it... I have to update the site each Friday and even I get confused sometimes by the sites layout...

Hey, it's almost December, which means new screenshots are coming soon! We just need to finish up these movies first."

"There is no built-in limit on the number of creatures you can summon.
However -- if you have a specific spell in effect on you (and summonings are self-targeting spells), and you cast the same exact spell before the current one expires, the first spell is cancelled.

So suppose you have a spell called "Summon Scamp", that has one spell effect -- summoning a Scamp for 30 seconds. You cast the spell, there's your Scamp buddy. 10 seconds later, you cast "Summon Scamp" again. The first Summon Scamp spell is dispelled, and the Scamp is sent back to Oblivion, and the new spell summons a new Scamp for 30 more seconds.

Note that this goes by SPELL, not EFFECT. Each spell can have up to eight effects. So a single spell could summon eight Scamps, if you can afford to cast it.

This dispelling also does not go across magic types. For example, if you have an enchanted amulet that lets you summon a Scamp, and you have a scroll that lets you summon a Scamp, and you have that Summon Scamp spell we talked about earlier, you could invoke the amulet's enchantment, read the scroll, and cast the spell and have all three Scamps to do your bidding.

Remember -- there is no programmatic limit to the number of NPC's or creatures. A week or so ago, I was in a creature-heavy area of the game and made the mistake of trying to run past them all instead of engaging them individually, and they all ended up chasing me until I got into a dead end. I had to face 6 or 7 creatures all at once! I've also had multiple guards, a few townspeople and a creature or two attacking me all at once too (sometimes it's not a good idea to attack someone in the middle of a busy town with plenty of guards around, and then run out into the countryside into a pack of wild rats!)

Anyway, other than the spell cancelling feature (cast a spell, then cast the same spell again while the first is still in effect and the first one will be cancelled), the only real limit is your magicka if it's a spell, the charge on the enchanted item, or the number of summoning scrolls you have."

"you can summon what we've coded to be summoned. you can make a spell that will summon creatures A,B,C, and D at one time(up to 8) but you cant summon, say, a werewolf because we havent coded it. although in theory i would think if you created a character and named it "Scamp" replacing an existing summoned creature it would work. your thoughts, MSFD??
EDIT: disclaimer-> i am not a programmer, nor do i play one on tv"

"Not quite -- you can only summon undead & daedra from Oblivion, and for Morrowind there are 16 specific entities you can summon. Basically, they're hard-coded.

Now, you COULD swap out the models in the editor and summon whatever you want, but you'd still be limited to 16 different types."

"No, spell cancelling is TARGET based. If a spell is affecting a target and the same spell (spell, not spell effect) is cast against the same target, then the first spell will be cancelled. Note that spells with no duration aren't really affected by this, since they're over as soon as they hit.
Summoning spells are all self-targeted spells, and they always have a duration, so that's why if you cast the same spell twice before it runs out the first time, the first spell will be cancelled."

"Not if he creates 5 different spells. It goes by spell ID. So if you create "Summon Scamps 1" through "Summon Scamps 5" in the editor, and each has 8 Summon Scamp effects in it, then yes, you could cast all 5 spells concurrently."

"Ack! That is a completely different animal! This actually requires animation of the weapon itself via a BONE or MORPHER
system. Now, since this is a one handed weapon more or less, you would have to take the animation for those attacks, merge your flail or morningstar or whatever into that file and then animate it to match.
Quite difficult.
If you still want to continue down this path, I will relate more.
However, I am not sure if the actual animation file will be made available...

Respectfully,
Mav"

"Well, a simpler solution is to take an already existing set of armor. Glass for instance, and just edit the textures for the armor. You just need a program like Photoshop to do this. You can make some very distinct looking armor without changing the 3-d models.

Just a thought for people that don't have access to 3ds Max."

"yep- this has been addressed numerous times, but since im here...
characters - around 3000 - plants are around 1-500 i think. weapons are around 3-500. "

"Erm... actually characters are in general, around 5,000 polys.
Respectfully,
Mav"

"The game is not being delayed because of the X-Box or WinXP. I just got a new, fast computer here which has XP, and Morrowind runs fine... Though Dark Age of Camelot had some issues with the latest "official" nVidia drivers and XP...
The delay is mainly for testing and bug fixes. I think the testing phase ended up being more work than anyone expected. I suspect this is true of any large game. For instance, I kept saying that my factions have *** quests total and it would take a long time to test them, but it never quite got through anyone's head that this was, indeed, alot of testing... Until it came time to do it."

"The game is meant to be played, not to make cutscenes with (sorry machinima fans). There are no camera tools that I know of. Our "cutscenes" are all in-game and meant to be viewed from the player's perspective. Only the various NPCs actions are scripted. You can even choose to stare at a wall or something while the cutscene is going on, if that's what you want."

"I'd like to point out here that the Argonian females don't have er.. mammalian physical features. Just before you go wild on that texture tweaking
Kahjiit, however, do but they are naked already hehe. Just covered with fur...
*Imagines with horror at all of the shaved kitties that will soon be walking the world*
Mav"

"All the weapons should be one object. It makes life much simpler. You can simply "attach" each object to the main object. If the materials are different, that's ok too, just tell that pesky dialogue box to not modify your materials. Eventually, you will get one multi-sub object material. Make sure you transform, scale the pivot point which should be located in the handle where you would want the character to grip the sword. You will also want to use the utility called xform.
Make sure that in the TOP view, the pointy end is facing the top of your monitor and the blade edge is on the right hand side. This orientation is most important, unless you want it to look like you enjoy cutting yourself!

Now, the only way that a weapon would have to be multiple objects, is if there are more than one alpha textured object involved. Say you have a blade with fancy feathers hanging off the hilt...now these feathers are actually a polygon with an alpha texture of a feather on it. If you include multiples of these into one object, in the game they will cancel each other out and you will not be able to see the other feather behind the one on top.
You must then make these feathers separate objects and LINK them to the main object.
You will then select the main object (call it W_FEATHERSWORD). EXPORT SELECTED. The link will then come across and you will see all the feathers from all angles. Little bit of manipulation there, but easy enough, once you know what to do

Let me know if I can help...er confuse you further
Respectfully,
Mav"

"Vampires in Tamriel are recognizeable.
Disguise is difficult to implement.
The above sentences are what are known as "understatements.""

"I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. I guess it all depends on your idea of "balance." Since it's a single-player game, I don't know that 100% true balance is as important as it would be in something like a MMORPG (i.e., you're not competing against anyone but yourself). Seems to me that we'll have class balance when, no matter what class you choose, you'll have fun and be able to complete the game in a reasonable manner.
As far as balancing certain skills, that gets tricky as well. Will speechcraft be as valuable as long blade skill? I suppose that depends on what type of character you like to roleplay. Your skill as an armorer isn't going to help you get into that locked chest or kill that daedra for you, but it might save your butt when you're in the middle of nowhere and your armor and weapon are about to fall apart. Anyone who has played an RPG can cite instances where they've had non-combat skills that turn out to be useless. We're certainly trying not to let that happen.

I would think the only way to really see if the class you're creating for your mod is viable is to test it, test it, test it. Play it a lot. Is the game too hard with your class? Do other classes level a lot faster than your class? Do you have skills that you're just not raising fast enough? Are you too powerful? Is playing your class fun?

This, of course, is only my opinion, so take it for what it's worth. Maybe it answered your question, though."

"Each spell can have up to 8 spell effects. Obviously, the more effects a spell has, the more "expensive" it is, in terms of the magicka required to cast it. So you can have a single spell that casts invisibility on you, fortifies your speed, and shoots off a fireball with an area affect that'll paralyze and blind everyone within range of the blast, for example.
Such a spell could also be an enchantment bound to an artifact, weapon, clothing or armor, or could be on a scroll, so the ability to cast such a spell would not be limited to magic users."

"That is absolutely 100% untrue. The Spring '02 release date has absolutely nothing to do with the Xbox version of the game, which is being developed in parallel with the PC version."

"i am trying to prop my eyes open with toothpicks. after i drink 27 cups of coffee, i think ill start making the blood more realistic. of course, to get it just right i will need to inflict some wounds to Blue Dev with my Sword of Extreme Poking, Stabbing, and Slicing (tm). then i think i will go find some ToFurkey for my holiday dinner "

"Some races like the tattoos more than others. The Nords love their woad and the Dark Elves have more obscure permanent ones. The orcs also display their clan pride with a heavily tattooed face.
Most women, however, don't really care for this sort of thing, but some are not above ritual scarring...

Respectfully,
Mav"

"Wow, that means we shipped the game a few weeks ago. Hmm... I guess I can go home early today.

Seriously, though, go by Pete's announcement. It is the only official date we have put out."

"Assuming one can cure vampirism...

I don't think there's a problem if you want to go back to your house/guild. affamu would have to give a more definitive answer on this (he being the King of House and Faction), but I don't believe that it'll be an issue. If it is, feel free to blame him and throw rotten fruit in his general direction. "

"Okay, I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you asking if you can join and advance in rank in guilds if you once were a vampire and no longer are? Or are you asking if you can continue to raise in rank if you become a vampire while in a guild/house. For the answer to the former question, check here: http://www.elderscrolls.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/008009-5.html
As for the latter, it's not likely you'll be able to join/raise rank in guilds/houses if you are currently a vampire, although at least one faction has a more...enlightened view about vampires. Again, I'll have to check with affamu to be sure (all this house/faction crap makes my head spin )"

"Any NPC/creature can be flagged to respawn. But, we've only used that in limited instances. So, if you wipe out an entire town, you've got quite an empty town. I think it would be silly if the named NPCs respawned, but since guards are (in general)generic, it works out."

"i certainly hope so since some of our characters use them, not to mention they are being used for spells, fire etc. they are a bit tricky to use with netimmerse, however, so i would wait until you have the editor and exporter plugins first. they dont look the same in Max as they do in the game"

"I see where you're going with this idea, but it's a little more complicated. The head is hard-coded to switch when one specific vampire effect gets added to the player. I'd have to remove the head, but keep the effect, which basically would mean creating a second effect w/o the head, and then swapping the two. This means a completely new spell effect. Now, creating a new spell is as easy for me to do as it will be for you==it's just a combination of effects. Creating a new spell effect is different, as they are hard coded.

As for simply setting the PCVampire variable back to 0, it would work, up to a point. Again, the problems would come during dialogue if the disguise wore off, when the PC should react to your suddenly being a vampire. There would have to be odd branches at every step in every dialogue to handle this. Ack. There are a couple other minor logistical problems with simply setting the PCVampire back to 0 (like breaking about 15 other scripts I've written).

Good thinking, though. Keep the ideas flowing. "

"So far we've talked about the logistics of actually implementing the disguise ideas. I'd like to take a bit of a detour and talk about the conceptual problems...
While I understand you vamp fans wanting to play through the whole game as a vampire, it's not really believable within the storyline. The story of Morrowind isn't a story about vampires. It's a story that can involve vampires, but they're not the main focus. I want you all to have fun roleplaying a vampire, but understand that (at least out of the box) you have to work within the context of the gameworld and story that we've established.

I think the idea of disguise is a cool one, and I want playing a vampire to be really, really fun. However, I'm also obligated to be true to the spirit of the story of Morrowind, established by some big brains long before my arrival on the steps of Bethesda Softworks.

---------------------------------

To respond to a couple of the latest posts:

Magnus - The game engine could probably handle what you're talking about, but you'd be talking about major art, coding, scripting, and gameplay changes near the end of a development cycle. That's not a realistic possibility.

Kayman - There could be a script that checked whether you were in dialogue when a spell effect ended (I think). It would cause a lot of dialogue paths to become irrevocably broken, though. This could probably be worked around, but it would be incredibly tough to do. Also, this wouldn't solve the problems of having to duplicate all of the dialogue for disguised vampires. I know it's kinda hard for you guys to get a handle on this, b/c you haven't spent months working with the editor. When you do start, you'll see why this would be a tremendous (and I mean really tremendous) undertaking."

"Pete will tell you what's in the Collector's Edition long before you'll be able to order it, have no fear.
And Rakesh, you can not only adjust the size of the grid, you can turn it on & off. As in no grid, complete freedom of positioning & rotation. But believe me, when you're joining together pieces of buildings and interior spaces, the grid will become your best friend."

"Well I use a 700mhz PC at work and only a wimpy Viper 770 video card and Morrowind runs pretty good at 800x600.

Granted things don't run as nice as they do on the systems that have GeForce 3's, but its definitely playable. "

"Microsoft has repeatedly said that the Xbox is targeted primarily at gamers 18 and over.
And make no mistake -- just because we are releasing Morrowind on the Xbox doesn't mean we are "aiming it at a console audience." Morrowind was in design and development for the PC for a very long time before the decision to release an Xbox version was made. We did NOT redesign the game or alter the content just because the game is also being released on Xbox."

"For the Nth time, we don't decide on features we're not going to include because they're "too hard" -- we decide what's going in and what's not based on how much time we have to do it.
Here's how ANY software development project works (not just games) - you have to balance features, budget, and time. You can't increase one without affecting the others. It's impossible. The only way we could put more features is to increase the amount of time (and therefore the amount of money the company has to spend).

As I have said before, the Morrowind team is incredibly talented -- we COULD add werewolves, climbing, horses, etc. But adding those things would greatly increase both the amount of time and the total cost to finish the game, and that is not something that we are going to do for this game. When we start the NEXT game, we'll decide how much we want to spend, how long we're going to take, and what features the game will have, and we'll build THAT game. Just like we did for Morrowind."

"Well, what you'd do is make a set of abilities in the editor that upped some of your stats -- strength, speed, etc. -- and then drop those on your character. You can also use Photoshop or another tool to modify the texture for the head you use, to make it more lycanthropic, if you will, and there you go. Instant were-beast mod.

Of course, there won't be any scripts, quests, or dialog around that unless you add it, and there won't be any transformation sequence, but if all you want is the attribute/skill enhancements, that's what the Editor is for "

"This is something we discussed briefly for a specific quest. Something simple could probably be done through scripting, but gambling just isn't something that's been designed into the game. I could probably be done, but I'm not sure it could be done well."

"1) All fans are fanatics. And fantastic. And several other words. Whether it affects game speed depends on what you're doing. Don't enable/disable something every frame (might rebuild the collision lists) Don't check Distance or LineOfSight every frame. Don't use a few other functions every frame.

2) NPCs only run while they are loaded. Scripts on NPCs only run while they are loaded. The TYPE of scheduling you can do is limited for this reason. If you send an NPC into a house, he will go to the house, but he will no longer be processed until the player enters the house.

3) StopScript

This can be self-referential, like:

Begin FasterLineOfSight

float timer

if ( timer == -1 )
StopScript FasterLineOfSight
;the script can stop itself
;works best on GLOBAL scripts
;but should also stop scripts on objects
Return
endif

Set timer to GetSecondsPassed

if ( timer < 3 )
Return
;check only every 3 seconds
endif

Set timer to 0

if ( GetLOS "Player" == 1 )
StartCombat "Player"
MessageBox "You're gonna die, swan!"
;actually, it loosk better to use ForceGreeting and StartCombat from within dialogue, but I digress...
Set timer to -1
endif

End

4) Yes. See above.

5) I have a copy of the Apple ][ diskkiller virus. Will that do?"

"The Daggerfall rating on our site is an error. It's being fixed. The Arena Deluxe Edition, which is the CD-ROM version that we still sell, is rated Teen.

We don't know what Morrowind will be rated by ESRB. We haven't submitted it yet. It'll be rated whatever it's rated. We're not modifying the game to try and "make" a certain rating. It might be Teen, it might be Mature."

"That's called "collision", not clipping. And no, corpses are not included in collision detection, so if you kill that big bad Ogrim in the doorway you'll be able to get past him "

"Anyway, I seriously doubt many people will be sitting there playing Morrowind for 100 hours or more, all the while thinking "gee I wish I was a werewolf". My point is that there's so much coolness in the game anyway that MOST (I'll give you that) people won't ever notice or care that there aren't werewolves in the game once they're actually PLAYING the game. And if you DO end up not liking the game because you couldn't become a werewolf, well, I'm sorry. You can't please everyone, and that's a shame. But I honestly believe that even the most die-hard lycanthrope fans will love the game anyway.

And sorry to have generalized. YMMV."

""Werewolves ripped out of Tamriel, disconituity, etc."

We're not removing werewolves from Tamriel, only this particular game. They really do not fit in Vvardenfell. Daggerfall was a good game, despite many "discontiniuties" with TES 1: Arena.

"Blood, gibs, and veins in my teeth."

Daggerfall didn't have them either. Daggerfall has blood splats and so do we.

For MODers: You could make a "pool of blood" object and script NPCs to "drop" the object when they die. But you'd have to put this script on EVERY NPC. And that would be bad.

"Morrowind is short and simple."

Morrowind is simple in some respects, but not short. Nort short at all. Arena was very simple, too. Daggerfall tried to be super-complicated and never quite worked right. Simple is better.

"Nudity again."

As graphics get better, this becomes harder to do tastefully."

"when you open the editor, you will load the morrowind master file. this has the everything in it- creatures, objects, scripts etc. you then would save as your own plugin. you can copy and paste scripts to be customized or make new ones from scratch"

"Not really. I've related a number of times on these forums having several guards, civilians and creatures all attacking me at once. There is no intentional limit placed on the number of NPC's, creatures, or other art assets in any given area. If you want to create an arena with 100 creatures in it, be my guest -- but you'd better have a killer rig to support it.
Corpses don't take up much in the way of resources anyway, just some polygons. They're not active, so there's none of the overhead that a "live" NPC or creature has."

"If the NPC (or summoned creature) is following you (a specific AI state), then yes, they will follow you as you enter & leave buildings & other interior spaces. They may follow you until you reach a certain location, or until you reach a certain condition (i.e. you complete a quest), or if you attack them or they die, or some scripted action occurs, etc."

"Well, ENEMIES may not follow you into or out of interior spaces. But if you have someone you're escorting or who is accompanying you, who has a "follow AI package" to use our terminology, then they will definitely follow you (unless they've already reached their destination or a script deliberately prevents them from doing so)."

"We won't lose any audience, except for maybe four or five of you. Morrowind is going to be an incredible game with a huge, hand-crafted game world, hundreds of NPC's to interact with, dungeons to explore, guilds to join, and quests to complete. You will NOT miss lycanthropy -- you'll be too busy having a blast with everything else that IS in the game.
And if you want spooky atmospherics, don't worry -- there will be PLENTY of that. Werewolves don't hold the monopoly on scary.

And one other point -- we're not making an updated version of Daggerfall. This is a new game. While it is a sequel, we're not going to fall into the trap of simply re-hashing all the old ideas that were in previous games, prettying them up with nicer graphics. We have not revealed much about the game, despite what you see on this and other websites and forums. There will be plenty of surprises. And yes, fans of Daggerfall will be VERY happy with the game.

What are we trying to do to our fans? Give them the best game they have EVER played, INCLUDING Daggerfall."

"There are blood splats when you make hits while in combat. But there aren't pools of blood, dismemberment, or gibs."

"Oh really? Then why did they have me make vampire versions for EVERY race? Either someone is fibbing, doesn't know, or they told me wrong "

"you cant damage the terrain."

"1. Scripts run every frame. All the time. They are not "activated." Except some global scripts. Sort of. You can tell if the player picks something up or clicks on it. You can also tell if it is currently equipped. You can also trigger something once as soon as it is equipped. Sort of. Is that clear?
2. The spellbook is not actually a book that you carry in your inventory. Tamriel magic is not AD&D magic. Our manly wizards need no books.
3. You can put scripts on books, but it is more complicated than other items. Books are not equipped in exactly the same way as other items. "Equipping" a book *reads* the book. It cannot be "worn."
4. You can only make unique items disapppear. You cannot make all items in 100' disappear. You can tell ANY item to disppear, but if it not uniquely named, the function will just select the *first* object with that ID... And that is not likely to be the object you want. There is no way to select non-unique items in the script language"

"I havent even seen the boards in about 5 days. Speaking probably for most of the devs here, I think that we answer what we feel comfortable with. Such as the werewolves and vampires. I never knew much about them, regardless of whether they were in or not, so I didnt respond. Just because we dont respond does not mean we do not hear you. I usually only respond to what I know about and what I am sure I can communicate about with the fans. Not only that, but sometimes, I am simply so swamped with work that I ONLY have time to browse a few posts. Many times, without the time to respond to even the ones I CAN talk about. Dont let silence from devs get you down. There are many devs here that I see looking at the forums who never post. Forums simply arent everyone's bag. Sometimes, we hope that even the knowlege based fans on the board can aid one another instead of us having to try to answer all. Things seems to work in most cases (thanks to you all!).

Excuse me if I misinterpreted your post. I skimmed it quickly and tried to respond before I was caught on the forums, haha."

"Just this evening, I was testing some spells in a dungeon, and I was in a room with 2 bonelords and 2 skeletons, all attacking me at once. And I've made the mistake of angering the guards in the town of Caldera, and had 5 guards and 3 civilians all attacking me at once.
There's no built-in limit on how many creatures or NPC's can be attacking you at once."

"Sorry Dalinn, you're incorrect -- the Dremora is a creature. You can't get armor or clothing off creatures. It's kinda part of them. (note that this does NOT apply for NPC's -- you can take everything from NPC's.)
However, there IS true Daedric armor exactly as pictured in the game. It's extremely rare and extremely valuable. And if you slay a Dremora or other creature who has a weapon, you can take the weapon."

"You equip your weapon in the inventory screen. Once it's equipped, you draw it and put it away using a key press (it's F on the PC, not sure which button it is on the Xbox -- of course you can configure it, too).
You have to ready your weapon (i.e. press F on the PC) in order to do combat. If you don't have any weapon equipped, your fists'll come up and you'll be in hand-to-hand combat."

"That's because there are really two series of videos that are being released consecutively. The Video Tour series of which parts 1, 2 and 3 have been shown. And the TES Construction Set Tutorials (of which the editor video is a part). Since there are seven videos in all, you still get three more weeks of video goodness! "

"While there is no facility for choosing a plug-in icon or typing a text description of the plug-in, there is a "Details" button you can press from the data files window. Select a plug-in, press Details, and you'll get a list of all the objects that have been created or modified within the plug-in. Not really the best way to describe the plug-in, though -- instead of "The Cyrodil Plug-In" you'd have a list of NPC's, locations, scripts, etc.
I'll run the idea by our main editor dude, and see what it would take to put a description field in. It's a good idea."

"That pan around the figure occurs automatically when you don't move for an extended period of time. Let's you see all of your cool armor and weapons and stuff.

Actually there are probably other ways to pan around the character like that. That's the only one I've experience with the game though. But, I'm a newbie at Bethesda. "

"No rats? *goes and quickly removes them from the game*
There will be plenty of stuff with which you'll train yourself."

"Eldar had a question about writing a quest that involved putting an item in an NPC's inventory (through pickpocketing). The item would explode, he would die, and the guards would fight you. He had associated questions.

My answer was that there is a function in the game called GetItemCount, which I have only used to check the PC's inventory. I don't know if it can be used to check an NPC's inventory, but I suspect it can. As for putting something in his inventory through lockpicking, I don't believe that's possible. However, it could likely be handled through a script that would call a messagebox pop-up asking if you wish to place the selected item in his inventory. It would then be put in inventory in the script.

Then, you would script it so that after a set period of time, and you leaving the cell, the item would "explode" (reduce his health to zero), killing him. You'd want to check the PC to be out of cell b/c it would look odd for the guy to all of the sudden just drop dead. There might be a way to tie a spell effect to it (so you could stay in the cell), but again it's nothing I've tried to do. (I suppose you could just script a fire based spell to go off when it's supposed to explode.)

Finally, on his death you'll set a journal entry, which could alert the guards that they should hate you and want to kill you. Or, you could just mod their disposition and fight settings in the same script that kills the NPC, thus making them attack you on sight. Simple, no?

Wow...this is not my kind of question. Where's affa when I need him??? Anyway, sorry your post got nuked. Hope this helps."

"Well, you could have a ROBE that did that for you."

"It's all skills based. If someone with very high unarmed combat-related skills goes up against an untrained warrior (low armor, dodge, weapon skills), then the unarmed dude could beat the warrior. And you CAN kill someone in hand-to-hand combat. Wanna be good at hand-to-hand? Choose or create a character class specializing in the relevant skills, and use those skills a lot. As you level up, you'll become mighty indeed. "

"Summoning spells have a duration. Once the duration ends, or the summoned creature is killed, the spell ends and they disappear."

"nope"