Tigranes

To be honest, some of that is true already. Terra *is* a whiny mumbler for the first half, Setzer does look like a woman, etc. It's for the best that there was no voice acting, so you could at least imagine the lines differently from how they'd probably produce them. But yeah, there's nothing to be improved by remaking them, it would be nice if they took FF5 and made it a proper turn-based tactical combat FF, though, and add in pseudo-strategy mechanics like strongholds. No real fears about ruining the story or characters, since FF5 didn't have any to begin with.

I don't really care that much about inter-game C&C - it's a ridiculously difficult thing to do and really, how much does it add, compared to good intra-game C&C? You can do intra-game C&C so much better, and in the end there is not that much lost. It's only a bad thing when you make your series dependent on inter-game C&C. Apparently ME did that, I wouldn't know - but I don't think TW really did.

Loot has always played a hugely important role in Diablo - in D2 you could more than double your stats or weapon skills with loot. But you could do that as well as, you know, choose where to put your stats & skills. Admittedly, it was often clear how you should distribute your stats, but instead of making the choice more varied, they got rid of choice altogether, which is rather silly. D2 had strict class restrictions on weapons, shields and certain set items, but everything else was fair game. I thought that worked well, given each class had different needs anyway.

A project from someone who has actual game development experience in games that were halfway good, modding experiences in mods that were halfway good, or at least, have real gameplay videos to show for the work they've already done so far. What kind of game it is, is then secondary, and I'd be open to a variety of things, especially unusual ones.

Not really, it's caused a lot of problems for, say, mods that want a different story or something. You want to give that flexibility.. though I'm sure modders would rather have had that 10 years ago.

Downloading... guess it's time for another playthrough.

That actually does change your impressions quite a bit, I would think, if you've never played D2, since D2 is the game that every other hack and slash RPG is judged by. Still, glad you're having fun Gfted and let us know if you come across anything else.

Wonder what the budget would be for an Onyx game. A '2D' Onyx game, like SP.

It has a lot to do with whether you play for more than one playthroughs - for me the first time DAO was kind of challenging but not really on Hard, then on second, Insane was actually easier, though still had a few decent fights. However, I do have to say that there are some good things from difficulties that just up HP/etc. For many such complex mathematical systems there are points where quantitative change brings qualitative change. Easy-to-imagine examples: disabling and buff/debuff abilities become more and more important as enemy HP goes up, as you can't just hit them with direct damage and hope to get it over with. Fireball + haste is the greatest cheese in, say, Normal or even Core difficulty BG1/2, but on Hard upwards, that gets you killed. Higher HP enemies means it's more about finding an 'equilibrium' where you can maintain your own HP/buffs while dealing decent damage - this is pretty much how all boss battles in FF6-9 work, and the better boss encounters in those games always make sure that you can never reach 'perfect' equilibrium where you can just repeat the same pattern of moves over and over. (e.g. Ruby Weapon in FF7 can blow party members out of the battle; Ozma in FF9 can inflict so many status effects at once you can never guard against all of them.) There are new tactical challenges and ways of playing that come from higher HP or enemy damage. Again, that is not to say doubling everything's HP works all the time without problems, or that everyone should play on hard. But sometimes, I think the 'default' difficulty actually does disservice to the combat gameplay, by encouraging players to just stick to a few abilities that get the job done, and never discover half the tactical options the system might have provided.

You're right about the logistics, but I would also enjoy the copresence, virtual as it is - especially since I have little experience with P&P and would feel more comfortable going with the flow in real time. Whatever happens, though, is good!

Yeah, Obsidian don't get big windfalls after release, they get paid to work on games in progress. Ironic, really - they make games to be able to afford to make games, and if they're not making games they can't afford to make games. No such thing as a safety net.

Yeah, I'm pretty comfortable in my $75, though that's like 80% of the cash in my card at the moment.

I actually can't remember what Archer was, but I'll be a sourpuss and say make their own settings, there's nothing so super-wonderful out there unless it's something like D&D where you by and large make your own stories and settings for the game. Not to mention, I don't mind anime and cartoon styles, but they'd be pretty silly to look at in games.

This isn't intended as a comprehensive critique, but: as you put it, charisma isn't a "positive quality" here that turns out to screw Obama over; it's a quality that has its own pluses and minuses. Specifically, Obama doesn't have 'charisma', he has a particular type of charisma, and the irony is that, to an extent, even if Obama was actually ruthless and aggressive behind the scenes in a particular political tug-of-war, we wouldn't know about it or see it that way because of this charismatic identity. To what extent is it Obama's own belief in his charisma that stops him from actually acting in ways that get stuff done, and to what extent is it other politicians and the public's perception of Obama's charisma that stops Obama's actions from getting stuff done? I'm sure there's a way to put this clearer, but I can't do it. Instead, let me ask a question that's sort of similar but a bit different: do we really think Hilary Clinton would have not just said, but done things significantly differently in pushing through healthcare and the like? That's what the Obama supporters around me think, and I do too, but it's interesting where that thought comes from. I also do believe that in his second term he will do better in this, one way or the other.

NWN2 definitely sold over a million.

I actually enjoyed the loot free-for-all. It made the pace of the game even more frantic, and you'd get fun things like people trying to kill the boss before the rest of the party arrives (and getting themselves killed, then frantically trying to get back to pick up some of the loot). D2 also had the scaling depending on number of players, which is why you had all those 8-player mob runs.

There's plenty of stuff. They never got to really go beyond Sigil due to budget constraints; while I think the combat was fun in its own way, it was pretty poor; and obviously the story wouldn't be a continuation of TNO (can we talk about BG3/T2/etc WITHOUT someone asking for the millionth time BUT THE STORY IS OVER?). I'd like to see Planescape's quirky races, items, belief-is-power, etc. play a bigger role in creating some unique abilities and gameplay options; stuff like Morte's Litany of Curses is really only a cosmetic sheen.

We know Obsidian is very interested in a spiritual successor to AP; that they have occasionally toyed with the idea of IWD3; and that Avellone personally is thinking of a spiritual successor to Planescape. So, all things are possible. I don't know what an AP2 would look like on a Kickstarter budget, though.

Given the kind of budget Arcanum was on, a sequel is easily within kickstarter's remit. Other than that and an Avellone/Obsidian project, well...

Do it, Wals! We can have short weekly sessions or something.

I'm *this* close to buckling, as work is going nowhere at the moment.

That's less skills than D2, no stat adjustment, but the runes I always thought were a great idea and hopefully spice it up. Hmph. I still remain confused about how this will turn out. No MP in the beta, I assume?

Thanks Gifted. 1. How is the general difficulty, map size/openness/linearity and pace of play feel compared to D2 (if you haven't played D2, Torchlight)? 2. How much were you able to customize your character, equipment and skills by the end of the beta - that is, are there a lot of different ways in which you could build your character with very different gameplay results? I don't expect too much of this in early levels, though.

Tell us! Tell us the unwashed masses about your exclusive experience!

Sadly, I must now do the disapproving paternal jig: Let's get back on track and not get into mud-slinging, etc, etc. Continued handbagging will be frowned upon.