LadyCrimson

Last time I played BL2, I think my BA ranks were something like 35k-40k with most things at 10% and some at 15%. At that point it's nice because you can forgo a skill point in certain skills, here and there, and put them somewhere else instead if you feel like it. And any new characters have it really easy at the start, since it applies to all chrs. at once. For a while you can get BA ranks fairly rapidly by making new chrs to lvl8 (get to Sant.) and then do nothing but gamble, but eventually that becomes less effective.

I would like a large feline, please. ...but a dwarf hamster that could ride around and peek out from the plumes of my fancy hat would be pretty awesome too.

I've only known one person (friend of my mother) who could sew serious dress-up clothes (for women too) and make them look off the rack. She sewed as a hobby, not career, but she was great at it. At the moment there are no skilled sewers in my life and I'm not paying a shop to alter my usually cheap clothing. I do think I should get a sewing machine again tho. I can do a lot by hand, but most of the time I'm too lazy to bother.

I don't personally care about bikini babes, but the bald guy in the 2nd video is pretty hot. They needed to show him more.

I'm looking forward to the day when I can reply "older than dirt" ... but that day is not quite here yet. 44.

lol! ... have fun spending all those BA points. After a while they do make a noticeable difference across the board. And yeah, agreed with the item generation in BL2 vs. 1, as well. ...went back to playing Planet Explorers again. I can't stop building forts, now. Tried to make a car, that didn't work out so well. More practice required. I wish it was time for the next alpha already. On their forum there's a casual contest to name one of the tiny creatures in the gameworld. It looks a bit like a hamster so I offered that it should be named a NomNom. Think they'll go for it? .....

Talking about gender recognition and clothing/outfits in games has me once again sidetracked into pondering why clothing manufacturer's always seem to assume that a very short woman must have the narrow shoulder width of a 10 year old child. So I either end up with a t-shirt that's way too long and tent-like, or one that fits well around the torso but is so tight in the shoulder that I can barely move my arms. *shakes fist at the fashion industry* Anyone still sew their own clothes? Perhaps I should start a new Kickstarter for clothing for wide-shouldered but small and short women. With cat appliques, of course.

@Sacred_Path ...I guess I find it fairly easy to remember and keep track of differences/cues even as I may change their gear a lot. So I wouldn't confuse mage in plate with tank in plate because likely they'd wouldn't be in identical plate, or they'd have something else to distinguish them. eg, mage in plate with a short sword and tank in plate with a mace/shield. For me it's not about recognizing what class they are by gear, it's remembering what class/party member has what gear. I suppose if one created a party of all same-race characters and one insisted in gearing them all exactly the same from head to toe, that could be a bit confusing at times. Or if one is more concerned with recognizing what classes enemies are, not your own characters, to try to get the jump on them. --------------------- @Elerond - yeah, I'm confident there will be enough stuff to distinguish characters, whether by color, gender, items, or however one wants to play with things on a personal level. And I don't have any actual objection to male/female armors actually looking a bit different. Gender recognition issue is just a psychology curiosity for me. I mean, I'm a gal who buys "male" t-shirts, because most female t-shirts are apparently made for people with very narrow shoulders so, y'know...I just find it kinda weird, all this clothing separation, when it comes to practical clothing vs. dress up clothing or something.

I never said anything about everyone looking like identical twins. Dwarves would obviously be of shorter stature, like in the video. And/or could have stocky and thin base-body types etc. like you mentioned. Others might have different skin tones that you'd notice in certain armors, others hair color/hairstyles, and so on. Special looted amor/items might have distinctive markings/colors vs. the base armor. Maybe you can buy dye from vendors to make all that leather armor or that plumed hat you want everyone to wear a few different colors. The point was, I think, if they are all wearing heavy plate/helms or other full-covering armor why is it still important to some to be able to distinguish party member gender at a glance...vs. just race traits, height/stature, and armor/gear? Knowing what gender they are isn't a combat-helpful aspect in a game, AFAIK. What is the rationale for feeling like gender has to be highly distinguishable at all times vs. just knowing which character with the combat potential you want to command right now is the one you want to click on? There's all kinds of ways to know the latter "at a glance" that have nothing to do with rapid gender recognition at all. If outside of combat you want to take all the character's armor off and put them in dresses and trousers and have a relaxing step dancing party at the tavern, great. But that's not what I'm referring to. And I'm not trying to pick on anyone specifically in this thread. It's just an attitude I've seen here and elsewhere, off and on and it's kinda curious. Bah.....6am...hope I'm making sense.

Good to know. It's still not eye color, however. But maybe we'll be able to zoom in close enough, then, where it might be feasible to actually notice eye color. Not of huge interest to me personally, but still, kinda cool/more than I'd be expecting.

Lex potentially worshiping the porcelain god doesn't exactly conjure up images of "super genius ultimate evil." ..it's going to take me a bit before I get bored of this Lex thing. ...I have my two wonderful cats, but the past couple days I've been feeling the urge to get myself another dwarf hamster. They are just too cute.

I think Caerdon actually raises a good point. In this sort of party based game I don't really see why some seem so concerned with being able to tell male apart from female during combat or walking through the woods....when from the detail we've seen in the recent video, their weapon, gear, etc. should be enough to tell you whether this one or that is your Monk, sword Fighter, Bow-slinger, Mage, etc. Pretty much. In a game, the two basic things are whether the armor protects your character to your satisfaction in game combat (armor rating) and how cool you think it looks. Since what looks cool varies from person to person, to me it's just important in an rpg to have a lot of different choices ... as many as artist budget will allow. Then everyone can be relatively happy instead of spending all this time trying to justify their preference. Btw, not to derail too much, but all this talk of cool armor makes me wish I could have a reason to use something like this in the game, because it would be kewl.

I don't think they've really made it clear how zoomed in we'll be able to go yet...it's just my assumption that (in-game) it'll be fairly similar to the way it was in the older games like BG1/BG2 etc. In their recent environment prototype video, it looked like two zoom levels ... one as the chr. was walking across the river rocks where you could see some detail in their armors and hairstyles, but not really their faces, and the other very zoomed out with the chr. very small in a corner. Whether that was a true representation of a "min/max" concept and/or if it'll change as they progress, I can't predict.

I've noticed that (particularly) lately, activity drastically slows down here (and forums in general) almost every Friday. I mean, it's like you all have lives and plans or something. *sighs, sits in her chair watching stupid cat videos....at least until hubby gets home*

LC, does this project get your full approval? I'm thinking about chipping in since they are rathe close to their goal. My full approval? Yes. It's not in the same kind of approval realm as me pledging to Project Eternity, but if you like this style of game (sandbox, open/vast, building, creating, exploration), I'd say it's at least worth the $15 to see a few of the alpha versions as they progress. I went up to $95. I've been reading/occasionally posting on their forums and I like what I've read over there/their response to input, too. I would fully stress that this is somewhat of a niche gameplay sort of game, but it's potential as such is high, especially if they improve the non-sandbox/item creation elements in story-mode, which they're planning on doing.

I doubt it. They're likely going to be too small for something like eye color to be noticeable in-game anyway, even in the closer view angles. The concept in these types of games are usually a focus on portraits, often as a sidebar ... where you can create/use custom portraits if you wish, to represent your character, but it's not going to be a Skyrim-y like character customization sort of thing at all. It will not be like Dragon Age, no. P.E. is in the older, traditional isometric style than a modern 3D top-down/3rd person style.

Listening to "The Mournweald" from Dungeon Siege 3. Still one of my fave pieces.

Haha! Planet Explorers will apparently have hovercraft. eg, we'll be able to build them and then fly around the world. Since there are flying creatures, maybe we can have aerial combat too. Even if we can't, flying sure beats "fast travel" for fun. What they show in the video is a crude physics test example, but yeah.... this could be good. $15+ backers will get to play around with it in Alpha 0.6. I really have to learn how to use the build editor better...

Take that back! Trudging through the glorious swamps is never passe! I love the stereotyped knights on armored horseback. It can be .. so majestic.

Yup. Who wants to wear all that armor outside of a more formalized battlefield? Wandering the forest swamp, hiking through the mountain passages, trying to sneak around in a dungeon. Probably can't climb a tree to get a bearing on your surroundings...not for me. ...but full plate does look cool/awesome, especially some of the crazier/wilder designs.

More like a small spoon.

I hear a Lex Luther cackle going on there.

I stand corrected. Altho I was more thinking about the actual size of those wasp waists. I can understand the physics of a design for blow absorption etc, but since I can't tell what the measurements of those armors are by looking at a photo/painting, they just seem....really really tiny, when compared to likely hip width (and I mean hips, based on leg-line position, not the flare-out point of the metal). But then, there were periods where a lot of women and possibly men corseted their ribcages upwards to form 17inch waists, IIRC.

Some people don't care much about those tech advances, outside of how it might be used eventually for something more practical/beneficial/interesting than smartphones/tablets. (and outside of must-for-work type stuff) Marketing is what's convinced the "masses" that they need certain things to stay connected with their loved ones/be in the loop, not an actual serious need. No different than children who think they have to have a certain toy because everyone else has it or "it's cool". Not that I care ... since that's true of most things we all buy and people can do what they want. They are interesting toys, to hear about what they're doing with the tech, with some occasional practical uses...just none for me. I think about buying one those things now and then, but I just have no need so I'd rather save/spend my cash on things that relate to my personal lifestyle more. Like that 90" home theater system. Screw small and portable. I prefer to go large.

Somehow I doubt functional (vs. decorative) female plate armor would have wasp waists, but what do I know.