LadyCrimson

Re:armor looks - imagine how I feel, when playing Fire Anjali. She never changes. Except if you zoom in close, sometimes you can see that the arm band she wore on one hand was different. Human Anjali, armor didn't change constantly, but I still think it changes a lot more than, say, Lucas. But some of the differences are very subtle. The overall armor look may not change, but if you zoom in tiny details might alter. I like Anjali's final armor, except for the helmet. I didn't buy one because ... well, I don't like helmets.

No and no. Not interested.

@hopfrog - yeah, I remember the chicken levels & stuff. And DS2 had that "developer level", I don't remember what they called it, where you fought boss simulacrums of your own chrs & then went into a developer npc area or something. Pillow fighting, the bucket helmet, heh. I was actually wondering if there might be a "chicken" level in this game too...or if they'd planned on one but never put it in. And yes, it would be awesome if there was, and someone finally found it.

It'd be easy to test. Look at a wall clock, write down a start time, fire up the game, start a new character and play through to Vera, perhaps. Save the game, note what time it is in real life and see if the save game time matches the real time. At any rate...I don't think anyone's trying to say they don't specifically believe your time. At least I'm not. Some people are very fast at finishing games even when they "do everything." But just because it took you only 10-12 hours, doesn't mean it's not true that others took 15-17 hrs, even if they aren't as extremely slow as someone like myself. Also, what difficulty were you playing? Hardcore can slow things down quite a bit for some, especially the first run/when you're unfamiliar, because you tend to die a lot at the bosses & can take multiple times to do each one.

If you're playing as one of the mages, you can teleport instead of block/dodge, which may be easier for some people to deal with (me). If you're playing melee...I've seen people in vids play the bosses as a button masher, so you can do it...especially on a lower difficulty, but you're going to take a lot of damage/will probably die a lot, so if you play that way, focus on a lot of stamina. In terms of grinding levels, yes you can. The key there is that once you finish a main-plot questline for a certain area, the enemies for an area disappear (or you can't go back). So if you want to grind, you need to do it before finishing certain aspects of the game. Like, in the first town (the one where there are npc's giving quests), you can save your game at the save point in town, leave town & go outside to kill the clusters of bandits out there, go back to town, save game, leave town again, etc. They respawn each time you leave (especially the uh...southern? gate). However, once you've finished a certain main quest/boss, the bandits go away. Health wise, the characters are built to have/use healing skills. It's not just about the orbs that fall. When you reach level 2, put your first point into the healing skill. It's a heal-over-time thing, but it works fine. By later game it works so well you may not even need the green orbs at all. Oh and also, normal enemies, if you run away far enough, they'll stop following you. That's how you divide & conquer if you're having some trouble w/a group (won't work on bosses, tho, of course).

@Tigranes - you are awesome. I really have to install xml on this PC. @C2B - There's actual chicken island level files? I know there are sound files with that title, but they are all very much lip test readings or something, with very distorted/cadenced vocalizations and the same 'testing 1-2-3' sort of line. I figured they were left over tests that were left in like they often are. I doubt they'd have anything to do with an actual game level. I've only looked at the sound files tho, not all the other types. There are .dds files too, which means it might (emphasis on might) be possible to mod armor textures & stuff. But not me unfortunately. Not my forte.

I've had that happen too, but only in the Causeway. And only about 1/3 of the time I go in there. It's strange. Dragging their feet and stuttering jerikly along.

Hehe. From reading around I have the sensation that maybe 15-16 hrs. might be a decent average number for normal people. Give or take a few hours either way I guess.

To be honest, I'm not always sure exactly where the time went/how it went myself. Sometimes it's because I'm trying to get video so I might re-do something. Or other times it's because I'm just having too much fun beating up on things w/a chr. or companion and stop caring about moving the game forward much. I doubt you missed much. I was pretty sure I hadn't missed anything - even one quest I thought I couldn't finish, when I went back much later I discovered I could - altho some of the voice files make me wonder if I did miss a little somewhere, but perhaps it's because I haven't played using the other chrs. as the "main" yet.

Oh, I'm notoriously slow when it comes to going thru any game the 1st time, sometimes even the 2nd time. It's just my nature. I don't mean to imply that the game can't be completed in 10-15 hrs or whatever, if you just go from point A to point B as the plot/quests dictate, using what you pick up. It most certainly can. I spend a fair bit of time testing things out when I level up, or get a new item I'm curious about, so I'll stay in one area and beat up on respawning monsters for a bit to check numbers/effects with various gear set-ups (for both me & the companion) before I continue following the plot. A lot of time spent in the gear menus, or the skill menus, thinking about those percentages etc. and what path I want to take with those. That sort of thing. I'm a number cruncher. Well, sort of. Used to be more of one, not so much these days. (edit for more clarity)

The save game timer (on PC anyway) doesn't seem to take into account all the times you're in your inventory/menu screens (paused). For me save game said 18hrs but I know I was "playing" for closer to 25 total. But if you don't spend lots of time staring at item menus etc. doesn't add too much I'd think. I agree with a lot of your general assessments, except I think the replay value is a bit higher. I'm playing Anjali a 2nd time and it's actually been more fun than the 1st. But that's subjective....also, for me, the original games didn't have tons of replay either (the campaigns that is, DS1 had a separate multiplayer world that I did play in a lot for a while). To me campaign-replay feels about the same for all three. I'll play it 2-3 times, maybe test a few things to the half-way point in the game a couple times, and that's about it until I have an urge to replay it a year from now, perhaps. Which doesn't mean I don't like them. I like all three very much.

Woke up early. Did stuff. Did different stuff. Now it's time for a nap, and then I'll do yet more stuff. The Voice finale was pretty decent, too. Dia's solo and her duet with Blake was the awesome/adorable. Cee Lo & Vicci's duet was a cheesy 80's blast. Beverly is cool and because she's an older lady who American Idol would never even let audition, I almost wish she'd win...but my gut says Dia. And Dia would deserve it I think.

Because it's blue. Borderlands did this too and it drove me crazy. Seeing items with fair worse stats sell for more because of lvl requirement or rarity color. (Vulcan hat on) Highly illogical.

Dapper is as Dapper does. I wanted his outfit. Could someone explain to me the logic of why the sword on the left sells for more than the sword on the right? And this is the vid of the Drakomir fight, which I'm linking to here not because it's a shining example of interesting l33tness, but because at about the 1 minute mark is where you can see the Lucas flame sword being glitched onto my Anjali. I'm guessing that 3 points in Live by the Sword is where it starts to flame for Lucas...but me having it at the one spot is still a (very minor) glitch.

I think Crispin Freeman's going to be the voice of the male wizard in Diablo3, too. Awesome.

Judging from the slight, renewed snugness of my jeans I should stop eating pizza for a while again. Going to rustle up some warm grub (cold sandwich on rainy day just doesn't cut it...) and then watch The Voice. Then snuggle with my teddy bear.

I loved the causeway too....really cool when you first enter it.

LT=left trigger on gamepads I think. But on PC it's the spacebar. Also, Anjali (and I assume Reinhart? haven't played him so not 100% on that but I think so) can teleport via spacebar+movement (l-mouse button)

I know there's the general catch-all screenshot thread in the other forum but it's still early-ish & many DS3 screens would have visual spoilers. I'm not finding this game to lend itself to tons of screenshot/video opportunities (besides boss fights) so I don't expect this to be a busy thread....still, once in a while I like posting some random stuff. Hope it's ok to put this here. So share your fave DS3 combat/NPC moment/item/whatever screens, or even your YT vid of an epic boss fight if you're so inclined. Here's a few: Hardcore, where even grinding extra levels + high stamina may not save you if you miss your dodge/teleport/block. Knock 'em down, Lucas. One of my fave bit-lines in the game. I just find the detail of the armor's cloth "tails" sailing upwards in the down-elevator funny.

That would be sad. But probably likely, yes. I'll have to make do with what I can get from videos...

Rain and thunder. Sheesh. Global warming indeed.

On the wagon for a soundtrack download/release/whatever. There hasn't been a single piece of the soundtrack that I like as much as the original DS1 "theme", but I definitely like DS3's overall atmosphere that's generated by the sound. Like, when you reach the tree in Mournweald forest...that's a nice bit of sad music for that bit. Combat music too. I find it all to be nicely placed, not over-bearing or overwhelming, and good at creating a mood.

Yeah, that's the jist of what I meant. A large random phone poll would be a little better, because at least the sample wouldn't be culled from places where hordes of angry gamers specifically go to vent. I'm terrible at being concise and at getting my point across, seems like, most of the time.

Haven't done this myself but I know early on I certainly tested whether blocking/standing in the aura would work. It does work in the lower levels but I never wanted to invest enough in Block (and could never seem to get good Amor rating w/other stats I wanted) to find out how viable it remained against later bosses, and I wasn't convinced it would work when surrounded by an actual mob for a long time. I may have to try it more seriously now, tho. I agree about Pillar of Fire too...it sounds great in theory but most of the time enemies don't stand still/you don't stun or whatever and by the time you're done with that relatively long-arse animation & cast it, they're past it, wasting your time/focus. It has it's uses in certain conditions but for my style doesn't work well.

I do not use Ignite nor does Lucas (or Anjali) have any Empowered defensive ability at this time. I think I have 3 "points" in Live by the Sword, it's not maxed. I've been going for high clvl gains (grinding a bit) so we're lvl 14 during this fight and Lucas' Repose is getting close to Mastery - but it's not there yet. It did occur to me I might have accidentally pressed the ignite hotkey, but I'm not casting anything but the normal attack 'mini-fireball' and in the video you can see that when I gain the weird effect, I'm not in Defensive stance mode nor do I lose no focus or Power Orb until I cast Jackal not long after. It's definitely Lucas casting it since he does it other times during the fight, w/the sparklies around him etc. Watching the vid again, at another point in the fight I can see the blue glow/Repose has worn off (no blue glow), he casts it again/blue glow & flaming sword come back. So perhaps the glitch is that Repose is showing the full Live By The Sword effect + Empowered even tho neither are maxed yet.