Volourn

The only mention of a volcano in thata rea in the book is Mount Hotenow (lol) which is actually located in Neverwinter Wood. Also, as perspective, the area the map shows inbcludes Icewind Dale (far, fqr north mountainous area) which is part of the Sword Coast North. I'd have to dig deep into more specifc books to find more info. Not gonna do it tonight. (w00t)

"Seriously Volourn...you've taken a positive thread and ruined it with your condescending remarks." hey, my first post was positive. All i did was point out someone was mistaken when they said 'modern games' didn't have any world maps and then someone took that personally. Afterall, my first post in this thread was the following: "Yes, it's the new overland map I believe. It looks nice. Sweet." Mkreku, not offhand, but I'm sure someone can open up the Realms book to find out.

"They should just go by what the story is trying o do. Does it make sense for this guy to have this item at this time so to speak." Absolutely agreed. 100% agreed. Sadly, no game that includes magical items does this 100%.

"pointed that out because that's what original poster tried to say: NWN1 had no world map, NWN2 will have it." "Long time since I played a modern game that had one of those" Thanks for playing; but you do realize NOT all posts in a thread are directed at the thread starter, right? Afterall, your last 2 posts were directed at me much as my comment that you commented on was NOT directed at the thread starter. You lose. Just admit it, and move on. Or we can continue spinning your embarassing heel. Thanks. P.S. The original poster didn't mention NWN1 AT ALL.

"NWN1 had no world map." Please share a quote of mine where I stated it did. I won't be holding my breath for it. R00fles!

"While magic is well known, accepted and not particularly mysterious in Faerun, it's also not shown (in the novels anyway, at least the ones I read back in the late 80s, early 90s) as being anywhere near as plentiful as it was in NWN. BG1 was closer to how it was depicted in the novels, BG2:SoA was pushing the limits, and BG2:ToB and NWN really went overboard." Eh. You shouldn't go by novels, relaly. And, no game, not even BG comes close to ph@t lewt levels. Afterall, in pnp it's strictly up to the DM. i've played FR campaigns where magic was rather rare and others where it grows on trees (almost literally!) I don't worry about video games' treasure level' because IMO their all over the top. All that matters to me is if the combat stays relatively balanced and fun. The biggest problem is that in pnp the Dm just needs enough variance in magic items to satisfy one party when CRPG dveeloeprs need enough to satisfy many, many players with different magic item desires.

"Anyhow, it's nice to see a world map again." Eh. It hasn't been that. JE had a world map. Didn't use it to its potential though. R00fles! Not to mention, Arcanum had one. So did the IE games. Point being, you don't have to all the way back to the GB era to find world maps in use. Silly goose. Karka, and Hades: Maybeeeee.....

I should point out the above post was perhaps the best, solid, logical, and fair criticism of some of the OC's weaknesses. Good stuff, Kasoroth. However, one point you made is mistaken: "I disagree, balance is not the only thing that matters. In fact, in my opinion, the combat balance is much less important than the atmosphere and tone of the gameworld." We were discussing combat balance and the like; not atmosphere and tone. P.S. The Realms has magic shops that sell very powerful items. Aurora's anyone?

Yes, it's the new overland map I believe. It looks nice. Sweet. :cool:

"Sounds like a Fallout rip off." Yeah, because FO rip-offs have magic.

"what you say is the case, one could easily suggest that Baldur

"but probably would have been handled if Obsidian had not been ordered to release the game early. " No. This is blatantly false. KOTOR2 was always scheduled for a Christmas release. Then it temporarily got mvoed to a February release and then back again (xbox version). Also, even if they were given more time, the game would still be easy, Kreia would still be overrated (though an ok character), and other flaws would still be there. KOTOR2's weaknesses come frompoor planning. Obsidian has even admitted to this and have committed to steps to make sure the chance sof this happening again is much less with the hiring of a QA team as well as (hopefully) making sure their plans aren't beyond their reach consideirng the amount of time they AGREE to. People should stop blaming publishers for errors made by the developer. Publishers are such an easy target to paint them as The Big Bad Evil Villain picking on the Poor Little Tool Developer tm.

"It'll be a long, long while if our fundamentalist friends keep holding the country's reins." Oh please. Both sidea ar ebad at this. Afterall, comments like: "He's so brave to admit he's gay!" ar ejust as bad and dehumanizing as "OMG! HE's gay! That guy is goin' to hell!" Anyways, I agree with lady Crimson. I don't care if someone is gay. Notr do I care if someone is heterosexual... unless it's a woman I'm attracted to. It would suck if she was a lesbian.. If she was a bi... that's evene better! Hahahahahaha!!!

"How is Hordes of the Underdark?" It's good. It also has quite a few different endings. Ok story (nothing original though). If you hate monty haul than you likely won't hate it as HOTU is the Supreme Commander of Ph@t Lewt!

Still NWN. Can someone please make a better game? There's no competition for this awesome game!

No; but how you treat them does. How does he treat his son? Horrible? Good? Indifferent? That is the key. Either way, the overreaction - which is typical for peonic groups like GLAAD - to the article is hilarious. Everytime someone says something they dislike it's,"OMG! He's homophole!" With other groups it's "OMG! He's racist!", "OMG! He hates the poor!", or "OMG! He hates women!", or "OMG! He hates men!" LMAOATWTLVUYADYTATWA!!!

The article is full of crap. Period. And, I'll beat up anyone who disagrees with me after playing Fallout and blowing a way one of the kids! Hahahahahahaha!!!

NO ONE is better than Chuck Norris.

GLAAD is full of bigotry anyways. They're scum, and they spit on gays. If I were gay, I wouldn't want those scumbags representing me. Same with most organziations who supposedly represent minorities. They're just as bad as the bigots they tend to to attack.

"You mean like your masturbation object numero uno for the last months, Jade Empire..?" I wans't making fun of them. I don't mind action RPGs as long as the combat is fun (like JE; unlike BL) and if the role-playing is good (like JE and espicially BL). I'm just pointing out that Obsidian's goals aren't neccesrily about making the best pure RPG; but about making fun games. "Who the hell is Vault Dweller Inc.?" I am shocked, mI am real shocked. A new company dedicated to making an independent role-playing game that sounds like it has nice potential. Check the Codex for details!

Bioware, and Squaresoft (though a different kind of role-playing game). Vault Dweller Inc. as well. Plus, Troika sure loves to attempt to make quality role-playing games as evidenced by trouting out an anceint dunegon crawl like TOEE, or mass combat game like BL. Not to mention Obsidian as much as I enjoyed KOTOR2 have no problem doing BIO retreads like KOTOR2 and NWN2 so it seems silly to say theya re trying to make good RPGs but BIO isn't when Obsidian is making sequels to BIO RPGs. Not to emntion their next game is supposedly an action rpg on console. R00fles! "There is also Bethesda." And, I quote a famous villain: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"The thing with Troika is that they and Obsidian are/were the ONLY developers with the ability and will to create really good CRPG's." No.

"Rarely a person there will deny these problems with Troika's games. They actually have more complaints than those." Yeah; but those complaints are usually directed at the publisher or the 'dumb fans' who supposedly aren't 'smart enough' to know 'truely finely crafted games'. R00fles!

"I died once when entered 1st time (I didn't realize I must destroy that pillar first)." I never understood this. You died onc eyet call it easy. As far as I'm concerned, if you died or even came close to it; the fight was *not* easy. I didn't know 'balance' meant 'dying 10 times' before finding the 'perfect tatic to win'. Try that in pnp, and you'd be embarassed having to make new characters every battle. "It was the first dungeon to complete in this chapter." Cool. You did well. "I used 2 heal potions and made Nathyrra to buff my character." 2 healing potions. Haha. And, you call that being easy? Heal potions = bonus life. I didn't even use heal potions... I used heal spell. :D "I'm being honest." Cool, and I know. You admitted to dying, and to using heal potions. That's how I know you are being honest. Sounds, to me, you should redefine what 'without a problem' means.

A. Define 'without a problem'. Often times on the ent someone says that but they leave out the fact that they died several times or they drank half a dozen healing potions or they made great use of some sneaky tatic. Just ask Hades. He says JE was easy yet he also mentions he died quite a bit in the game. R00fles! B. What was easy easy for you; was very likely hard for someone else. Just read the Spoilers section. C. It took me twice to beat it because I wans't properly prepared when I walked into his lair the first time. Second time, he was releatively easy as I was prepared. The difference between the two situations is immense. D. When did you fight him? Was his lair the first major quest in ch2 you did, or had you done other ones like the island or the beholders or the illithids first/ Thsi could play a major role as well sicne the differences than is a combination of levels and even more ph@t lewt. E. I bet you died more than once in HOTU; but won't admit it out of fear. Game over.