LadyCrimson

The main game when uncompressed/installed is actually more like 13GB. Download size is not installed-size. The patches may not be as compressed as the initial game download, although that's just conjecture on my part. How big they are depends a lot on how the game is coded re: what is being patched, specifically, and how the info of the patches are applied/integrated (it's not always the same process for all games) as well as any Steam quirks. Example: in order to patch something, you may have to download a new version/s of an entire file/s, vs. a tiny add-on of some sort, if that makes sense. Just depends.

Perception has zero to do with finding secrets.

He has at least a few points where he suddenly starts spouting stuff to you, with a dialogue choice option to pick. iirc, where he reveals he's Leaden Key/he asks if he can stay with you (right after Defiance Bay/Act2 ends), before or after you enter the Twin Elms "god prayer" room (sorry, can't remember specifically), and the end game (just before you enter the big bads chamber and maybe some of what comes after). The end-game may be the most important one to the ending slide however (eg, have to take him into the "point of no return") - for any companion you have with you at the time, really, not just Aloth. ...basically, imo, if you want to be able to affect the ending slide of a companion, it's best if they're with you almost the entire time. Their single quest choices creates one ending, but that isn't the end of the potential.

Pretty much this. I personally like the chanters as a 6th member in a full party (haste, buff, summons), but their actual "metagame" utility in a full party is somewhat sparse.

Only thing I could think of is if Aloth isn't in your party, maybe he has some connection to Maerwald or the dialogue options you chose with Maerwald re: triggering Aloth's later quest, but since Eder is the one with the actual Maerworld bit, iirc, I doubt that's really it. Could be a glitch? If you have a save before you kill Maerwald, reload and see if it still happens?

Yup. Good theory. I've gone through there with Mechanics 5 I think, but nothing higher.

Woke up with blood all over my pillow/shirt. Bloody nose time! I remember when this used to happen to me a lot as a kid. My mother sorta freaked out. Hehee. Going to my cousin's for a birthday party this afternoon. Mmm, cake.

I've tried going back to previous saves re: Gordy too but there is no obvious option during his quest (or after it completes, as one of the various rewards) re: getting a dog. So dunno... The spider - I wonder if you're supposed to find it with a high Mechanic skill in pre-restored areas, but most don't have high Mechanics then...and when they do, the Stronghold areas have been restored already. Anyone try cheating a max Mechanics 1st time you get there to look around the broken down rooms? Maybe some of them they decided to hold back for the expansion.

*looks around at various threads* ...this place (and the 'net in general) gets a little weirder every year.

There was another thread like this recently. The strategy guide is/can be out of date in some things, as they so often are (printing dates vs. last minute game changes are not uncommon). General consensus is the spider is either missing/glitched or never made it into the final game. Sporeling seems to be the same. Terrier and lab have both been found by others (I have the lab myself, never bothered looking for the terrier).

Always possible. But a middle-ground chr. by definition can't be be both a great tank or great dps in one chr, whether all the time or just "most of the time," nor should they be. That's why they're middle-of-the-road. What is "overall" supposed to mean, outside of "they can tank fairly well and at least do enough dmg. to eventually bring something down?" Middle ground PoE already can do this. All I was saying is that personal preferences doesn't mean there's an actual imbalance.

Hard to say just by looking, but I'd guess no. If you have a patient/calm cat I don't see it being that difficult to cut a cat's coat like that...although in some "crazy cat-cuts" you'd have to use styling gel products to get the hair to do what they photos claim to be doing. That one above has more pictures around, like this the one below, leading me to think it's not just a photoshop. And then there's stegosaurus cat. Which looks basically like just a lion cut with some squares of back hair left+hair gel'd up.

The whole over-filtered thing in films/TV is getting somewhat annoying, whether it's desaturation or oversaturation or sepia or grey or blue or yellow filters. Sometimes of course it's a nice effect for a scene or to set a tone, but yeah...sometimes it's nice when they just let things have more natural coloring. Nothing wrong with the world (colors) looking like a world we would see with our actual eyes.

So I've been watching the "hallway fight" from Daredevil over and over, and I began wondering who the stuntman for Daredevil was, because he's actually quite good at not just the fight moves, but the silent physical acting in that scene. They do a good job with the stuntman changeups, btw, but I can still tell when it's not Cox (eg, most of the time it's not Cox...). Anyway, apparently it's the same stuntman who was one of the doubles for Capt. America, among other things. He's a busy guy apparently. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2423528/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr97 All those awesome fight scenes where we're admiring someone's moves...I always want to know more about them, not the actor who's mostly pretending. Also, I need to go to some more martial arts exhibitions again. Fun to watch.

Yup. ...maybe some of you need better speakers/sound cards.

Didn't say it was a *reason*. Although if you want to go that direction, saying "I personally want to be able to create an awesome tank who can also do awesome damage, because I don't like middle-ground, and this game doesn't let me do what I want" isn't a reason, either.

So more car oriented then? Ah well. Maybe I'll still try it on sale one day.

Not funny, but there's no "dance video thread" so ... Never too old to have fun dancing.

What style(s) do you do? I have two basic styles of dancing. --Ballroom (partner). --The basic 80's dork arm-swing dance that's on fine display in that Terminator bar scene. https://youtu.be/LTs8YnKfSsU?t=36s

Y'know, that trailer makes that Mad Max game look kind of fun. But I can't really figure out what kind of game it's supposed to be. More action-y? RPG-lite ala Borderlands? The wiki entry mentions it as "post-apocalyptic vehicular combat", so does that mean a whole lot of car fighting (less interesting to me)? And are those kewl melee moves he's doing using key combo presses where I'd have to have nimble/flexible fingers to accomplish?

This ^^^ Eh. I couldn't replay BG2 until about three months after I beat the first time. Time will tell how PoE compares to the replay value of BG2 to me in about two months. Though it's not really a fair contest as PoE's expansion hasn't come out yet. We don't know how much better the expansion will make PoE. I never even finished BG2. I loved BG1, and expected to love BG2 but it just didn't quite do it for me, back then. Maybe I was just tired of that style of rpg at the time (I love 'em but it's not a genre I play almost exclusively, if that makes sense). Pillars is a fun RPG with a few large flaws. But overall I liked it and had a good time and will replay it a bit.

If one is trying for solo, I can see it being a little irritating at times, but the game is "optimized" for a party, so talking about balance for solo is a bit skewed, imo. Party wise, you can have a somewhat tanky type that can hold the front line but who can still do some helpful damage, even if it's not "omg awesome" dmg, and that seems balanced enough to me. But then, I'm not obsessed with math and formulas...

Pretty sure that would not be a bug - you auto-resolved a battle, and during the "battle" enemies damaged your Stronghold. Intended consequence. P.S. consequences during auto-resolving battles seems random. Most of the time at least one of your buildings or defense structures are knocked out (and you'd have to rebuild). Occasionally you get lucky and it doesn't happen.

Some people don't care if they're "suboptimal." eg, you can still win even if you're not. And to some, that's even more fun.

For the player voices, I'm guessing: Steam\steamapps\common\Pillars of Eternity\PillarsOfEternity_Data\assetbundles\vo ...they're not individual .wav/mp3/ogg files, apparently. You'd have to unpack them somehow, of which I know nothing of how to do.