[A Look Into the Fig Physical Items]

Finally arrived. Better late than never.

[A Look Into the Fig Physical Items]

Still pending? I just remembered this and was worried I had missed something.

[Ship Crew Injured, Not Healing]

Well, it seems like it has resolved itself for me, fingers crossed. First I had one crewmember that healed and three that didn't. Then, after completely healing that one and visiting my new ship's deck, the remaining ones suddenly started healing. I did have healing issues before switching ships, but those might have been because my surgeon was injured. My bad for not documenting it so that I would remember better.

[Ship Crew Injured, Not Healing]

Same issue. I have my resting slots full and more sailors on shore than sailing because they don't heal.

[RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS]

I'm involved with this, so it's a bit advertise-y, but there's a Kickstarter of an action movie themed co-op shooter: Killing, My Friend. Its roots are in classic mods like Action Quake 2 and Action Half-Life. Some might remember those old mods or their later derivatives. Even Max Payne took some inspiration from Action, I think. I also remember some Alpha Protocol dev saying that he had worked on AQ2 when I invoked that mod while complaining about planned unlimited ammo or something like that.

 

Anyways, the link speaks for itself. I have loved Action series for far too long to be very objective about it.

[Backer Reward Shipment Poll]

I don't have a strong opinion about the matter, but I voted for all for same time with delay. I can wait and it will be simpler that way.

[Which class do you want to see covered in the next update?]

Chan-ters! Chan-ters! Chan-ters!

[Update #71: The Heavy Hitters: Rogues and Rangers]

Ah rangers. This has been discussed before so I can't say I didn't see it coming. In my mind, the range is primarily a scout/hunter/special forces guy who is good at surviving and being efficient with with minimal equipment. Tends to use light and practical armor and weapons that are easy to carry around and maintain. Can cover lots of ground even on difficult terrain. The ranged-oriented I can live with because I guess they are practical hunter's weapons, but I never liked the animal companion being the central class feature. I guess when the focus is in combat, it's easier to make the ranger unique that way, though.

 

Well, I can always play a rogue with lots of survival skill and call him the ranger if it bothers me too much.

[playing "evil"]

The way I see it, Obsidian has a pretty good track record for evil options. For example, I generally play the good guys and couldn't bring myself to do an evil playthrough of KotOR 1. Too much bullying and kicking dogs. In KotOR 2, however, I did an evil playthrough and enjoyed it. I would trust them on this.

[Obsidian's (rumoured) next kickstarter, what would you want to see?]

Hmm, non-space opera space sci-fi rpg maybe. Bit harder sci-fi, but still doen't have to be afwully hard, just little bit more about the science and slightly more man vs universe themes than usual. If there was space travel, it would be bigger deal than "click on the star map and there you are."  Maybe a colony on an alien planet could be an interesting setting.

[What are you playing now?]

Revisiting Ultima IV. As a kid I never got too far. My grasp of English wasn't good enough and I was afraid to go in the dungeons. Mostly wandered about in the countryside, killing things. I remeber getting a couple of the eighths, though. Probably through sheer preserverance and a gaming magazine hint article I had.

 

Well, I intend to finish it now. Leveled up much faster by finishing quests, at least. I don't remember minding all the combat as much as I do now. Gets a bit tedious.

All right. You can call me the Avatar now.

[The Heros you will roll]

Still planning to go Orlan Ranger first, or maybe Cipher. Probably will have my typical general polite good guy personality I tend to affect in first playthroughs. When I do play evil, I like to prefer "end justifies the means" guys when the game allows it.

[Avellone's Arcanum playthrough?]

Heh, first time I played Arcanum when it was new, I got overwhelmed when I got to Tarant and quit soon after. Combat and interface had a lot to do with it. Can't blame Chris Avellone if same thing happened to him. I only finished the game this year.

 

I also don't think he should keep making the videos if he's not enjoying it. Those videos probably wouldn't be very fun to watch.

[What are you playing now?]

Revisiting Ultima IV. As a kid I never got too far. My grasp of English wasn't good enough and I was afraid to go in the dungeons. Mostly wandered about in the countryside, killing things. I remeber getting a couple of the eighths, though. Probably through sheer preserverance and a gaming magazine hint article I had.

 

Well, I intend to finish it now. Leveled up much faster by finishing quests, at least. I don't remember minding all the combat as much as I do now. Gets a bit tedious.

[Kickstart Backer Badge]

I'm missing my K as well.

[Can't Complete Order]

Didn't work on FF on my computer, didn't work on FF on my laptop. Happened to have Comodo Dragon browser installed on my laptop and tried that. It worked!

[Update #69: Pillars of Eternity]

An error occurred processing your order. Please try again later. If the problem persists, please contact us.

 

Same here. Let's see if it sorts itself out.

[New stretch goals for companions and wilderness areas?]

I will put down a shed-load of cash if they include a chainmail bikini.

AND make it as effective as a full suit of chainmail.

 

Hmm, more wilderness could be an excuse for me to get that Obsidian T-shirt.

[Space Fans: X Rebirth has a Release Date!]

Heh, this popped up in my Steam a while ago. It looked like something I might like, but not knowing anything about it I decided to check Steam Community forums. Saw all the rage and decided to wait 6 months or so before checking again.

[A Dream of Mine - A PE without Cookie Cutter Builds]

 

 

Or, not even straying out of pure-combat skills... you take a weapon proficiency, and there are only 3 of that weapon in the entire game available to you. Versus some other weapon proficiency, of which weapon there are 30 different variants. Less viable.

This is a REALLLY good point.  I bought the just out Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition from Beamdog and wanted my main character (fighter) to go a different route than normal.  I thought, hey I bet bastard sword and off hand short sword or shield might be cool?  I am not dumb though and did my due diligence.  Come to find out there are hardly any bastard swords in the game and the best bastard sword is a joke compared to even the second or third best long sword or top two great swords.  If I went that route I literally gimped myself simply because the game did not have a great end game bastard sword... period.

 

this is one of the reasons why I wanted crafting so badly. If you can make your own damn Bastard sword, you don't have to worry about what the game provides, you can provide it yourself.

 

Yes, my past experiences with these kinds of problems is one of the main reasons why I think there should always be a some sort of crafting system. More elegant than littering the game with magic weapons so that every type is always covered.

[InExile is plotting to ruin Torment by making it turn-based]

I generally prefer TB, but RTwP sometimes has its merits. It's a better system when there is lots of trash mobs to fight (turns would make that even more tedious) and there are not too many allies to control or you can trust AI to control them. TB is better especially if you must have detailed control of everything. In this case I think TB is definitely the way to go and voted for it. Being RTwP wouldn't ruin in, though.

[World Map Travel]

As Pipyui put it. The overland map style is much better at giving an illusion of a larger world. With BG style, I feel like I'm teleporting from setpiece to setpiece and it's making it a little harder for me to imagine a world around them. It doesn't matter if the actual number of "zoom-in" locations is the same or less. It's the illusion that counts. I also have always liked looking at the maps so maybe the overland map style just really works for me. I think it especially works well when the theme is exploration.

[Save scumming]

 

shadowrun was a bit on the easy side if anything..it would have been way too easy if you could save anywhere

 

This was true for the Dead Man's Switch and it was paced so that the limited saving usually didn't get too annoying. However, it can be wildly different with the UGC. I remember playing some early version of an adventure which had a big sandbox type area at the beginning. Talked with some interesting characters, did some mini-quests, fought some guys. Suddenly ran into some much tougher enemies and they killed me. No save, would have had to do the whole thing again...

[tools to change compagnions AI Behavior]

Yeah, poor party member AI would be extremely tedious. As Jarmo said, having an option to micromanage (especially when AI is being stupid) is good, but being forced to do it all the time is terrible. If I have to babysit the casters all the time it won't be very fun. NWN2 before Tony_K's AI is a good example of this. Had to lobotomize the casters and play them manually all the time.

 

I too loved those little AI script functions in BG, but I also have always liked those games where you "program" a bunch of robots, tanks, spaceships or whatever and then watch them fight so it's no wonder. Even the simplified version of it that DA:O used was OK. Had fun setting "if enemy starts casting, knock him down" and such behaviors with that. Less pausing, less micro and more focusing on the party member I want to play instead of the one I have to because of poor AI.

[The bad things about Project Eternity...]

 

 

Here's a scenario. You're "adventuring" and you come across 2 piles. The 1st one has a bunch of plain old non-magical equipment, while the 2nd one has a bunch of unique-looking magical equipment. 99 out of 100 gamers will walk right past pile 1 to get to pile 2.

Getting what you want is not always good. After equiping all the armor and weapons in pile 2 you encounter 10 more piles, all with stuff weaker than pile2. Instead of being happy at finding stuff you just feel bored.

 

So... you're saying we should pick pile 1? Will that cure our unhappiness and boredom?

 

We can't resist the lure of pile 2 even if it's no good for us. Personally I find the unique magical items cooler and memorable if I have to go through many piles of ordinary equipment to find just one. If it's just everywhere, the coolness suffers a huge inflation. Doesn't matter if it gets progressively more powerful as the game progresses or not. "+13 sword? I just upgraded all my gear to +12 two rooms back."