Valmy

One of the weirdest and most non-sensical things every dreamed up by D&D. They are Bards not an elite ninja squad. Actually an elite ninja squad would be intimidated by the requirements. I mean by the time you became a 1st level bard you were already the greatest hero in the land.

One born every minute. Anyway there was a pent up demand for games like WL2, PoE, and Torment. There are first person dungeon crawlers being made so there was not this manic celebatory money explosion for Ultima Underworld. Besides...man that is an old game. Fallout and the IE games were much fresher in everybody's memory. The Bard's Tale is a really ancient relic so it will be interesting how they dress it up. It has aged particularly horribly, I loved those games as a kid but I have never felt much nostalgia for them. They were just an endless dungeon crawl with mechanics with all the weaknesses of First Edition AD&D (outside of level caps for demihumans)

Probably so. To a lot of us though the 'somebody owns the land and somebody else is socially obligated to work it' thing seems to be pretty widespread regardless of what you call it. Now granted that probably falls apart the more detailed you get.

I think he was saying that political systems involving agricultural economies in this era tended to have similar characteristics than a slur on any particular continents.

Still not fixed! Is there anybody specific I can alert about this?

In the Aedyr Empire I got the impression it was Emperor Erls Thayns The Grafens being semi-autonomous rulers of colonial possessions of the Empire. They are basically equivalent to Erls. Really big colonial rulers get to be Grafen Palatinate and control their own Erls. In the Dyrwood the Grafen Palatinate became a Duc but besides that it is basically the same. Don't know enough about Valia and the rest yet.

Yeah that is it Osvir, if they do not put in the http:// then it defaults to the Paradox site causing the problem.

Not sure where else to put this. If you click on the link to the game here: https://www.paradoxplaza.com/news/Pillars-of-Eternity-Has-Gone-Gold/ It takes you to a 404 Not Found page. The link seems to be trying to take you to a Paradox page that does not exist instead of to Obsidian's site. That is a bad first impression for anybody finding the game through that announcement.

They got better at making locations as production went on and supposedly went back and redid some of the earlier ones. Anyway it looks great to me. Cannot wait to play.

That a fact? It seemed like PoE was one of the biggest kickstarters ever at the time but now it is only the 10th largest. If the game is a success they might be able to do it again. Hopefully they will not need to.

Yep. It has been tough waiting over two years for this one. But the wait is almost over.

I actually kind of liked Miranda's character. I didn't expect to, when you first meet her she is kind of a jerk but then she completely changes and becomes cool once you get the new Normandy for some reason. But her outfit just made no sense for her character, even in a universe where everybody wears skin tight outfits. She was very intelligent and competent and commanded respect (hell it was even a game mechanic). So her 'femme fatale' outfit made no sense. She never even attempted to use sex to control anybody. And Bioware made it worse by having other characters lampshade their own silly pandering. Anyway at least we got an internet meme out of it.

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening is probably the worst example of an expansion I can think of, that I've ever played. It's self-contained, adds nothing to the main game, expands upon character development only at high levels (and again, only for Awakening itself). It's for all intents and purposes it's own module, completely separate from the main game. The level of disconnect is far worse than even any DLC gripes anyone could've had with FO:NV or even DE:HR. Oh god I hated it. That was pretty much it for me for the Dragon Age series. There was just so much wrong with it I hardly know where to being and I really liked DA:O. Now granted if people had said good things about DA2 I probably would have been won back over.

Name Merewen Herwing Race: Meadow Folk Culture: Aedyr Empire Class: Chanter Background: Aristocrat The 11th child of Thayne Raedgar of Irenclif in the Aedyr Empire, she was mostly raised by her older brother Eadgar. She immediately showed intellectual promise, consuming adult books and loudly announcing what she had learned to whomever would listen. Eadgar was a wizard and animancy researcher under the guidance of their Aunt Lefwen and brought the girl into their small family coven of animancy scholars along with Eadgar and Merewen's sister Ethelind. Merewen thrives under their guidance and, over time, recognizes her own talent and dreams of becoming a great advisor and courtier of the Emperor bringing glory to her family and herself. Her brother promises to help her once he becomes Thayne. Outgoing by nature and a skilled singer and entertainer she cultivated her social skills to help navigate the dangerous world of power politics in the Empire. Along the way she attracted many admirers including the young priest of Eothas named Eothric, son of a minor noble named Rothsig. Merewen was his first love and they had a brief love affair as teenagers but his insecurity and their immaturity led to it ending badly. After a couple years they reconnected and became fast friends having similar intellectual interests and a love for witty banter and parties. Eothric had a bit of a spiritual awakening and crisis about a year before the game begins and left for Readceras to find the truth about the supposed 'death' of his God, St. Waidwen, and the Saint's War. She misses him terribly and Eothric, for his part, never really got over her. But they both have things to do. About a half a year after Eothric left, Merewen was off doing her research and building connections near the Aedyran Capital. News reached her something was very wrong back home. Racing back to Irenclif she was greeted by her mother who, with a look of agony on her face, informed her that her father was dying and her brother Eadgar and sister Ethelind was to. She arrived at her dying brother's side and, full of emotion, swore to aid his adult son Segar in his claim to the title of Thayne in front of her brother's wife and children. Her father and sister were also soon dead of the same mysterious disease. Unfortunately for Merewen another of her brothers, Aethelric, also had substantial support for the succession and was supported by Merewen's teacher and Aunt Lefwen. The conflict that followed, forever known a the 'Witch's War' (the two Witches being Lefwen and Merewen) saw Segar's supporters soundly defeated. Segar was executed and Merewen taken prisoner. Even though Aethelric pardoned her after she swore to support him, it marked the end of her ambitions in the Empire. Merewen went to Readceras seeking her old flame Eothric, hoping to help him in his quest and possibly find new opportunities for her own success. She arrived and found he had already left, going west into the Palatinate of Dyrwood. So she signed up on a caravan headed to the Gilded Vale... Ever so soulful second character: Name: Eothric Hrothsing Race: Meadow Folk Culture: Aedyr Empire Class: Priest of Eothas Background: Clergyman Pic for Merewen: Pic for Eothric: Note: Story and names and everything else subject to change as I learn stuff

There are no subclasses? What about the Priests of the different Gods and the Paladins of the different orders? There seem to be some subclasses.

Oh right NWN2. Of course.

I would rather we continue with the same characters.

Come to think of it, has Obsidian ever done a MP game?

Yeah they wanted to have a build as close to release as possible to send to reviewers. Hopefully some really good reviews go up right before release day.

Man could you still swing that 14 years later? Anyway nothing about the expansions has been said thus far and the team is super busy right now since the game is about to be released. You might want to hold onto this question for a month or so and try again.

Back on topic: what 'soft skill' stats would you recommend for your MC? Perception and intelligence I guess?

there were actual a fair number in bg. mencar were not a contest winner, and there were a handful o' similar inclusions in the game, such as the vampire named del. the scimitar throwing fellow at the docks, and the githyanki wild mage in waukeen's promenade were the contest winners. diesel, the guy who submitted the wild mage, were insulted so frequent following the announcement that his character would be in bg2 that he either changed handles or simple left the boards. HA! Good Fun! Yeah no good deed goes unpunished. I could not believe the rage and fury at the contest winners. Totally bizarre. Pity I really enjoyed Lanfear's bizarre Coran obsession.

I think he's roleplaying character called Gromnir from BG2: ToB. LOL The irony.

We have probably need everything many times already. Actually come to think of it this was never a theme of the IE games. I guess the Elder Scrolls has this going a bit with the Dwemer but its kind of a sideshow. On the other hand it is going to be a major part of inXile's Torment game.

It could. I am prepared for that possibility but that would sure be tiresome.