Tigranes

Clearly, Feargus is not intimidating enough these days.

Hahahaha Carth was well developed, but in the sense that he was pure crap finely developed into a statue of crap. He screamed "generic friendly supportive companion guy who gets along with you" from the get-go, what with his bland voice, bland family-friendly dialogue and even his stats. Then he kept popping up with more inane, forgettable dialogue trying to add some kind of depth. It was like watching someone make a companion equipped only with fantasy books for 12-year olds and RPG Maker. edit: To clarify... basically, Carth's entire concept was boring. Loyal soldier blah blah blah, hate this guy for killing my family blah blah blah. It wasn't implausible or inappropriate, but there was nothing interesting in there. And it was delivered, to the hilt... sort of like Casavir or Ajantis. (For bland stereotypes delivered in an interesting/entertaining manner, see: Korgan, HK, etc.) And I obviously say that with no comparisons to this 'Kaiden', not having played mucch of ME. Seriously? How is that even possible? KOTOR1 had a tight, decent Biowarian story, meaning a Chosen One story that makes enough sense to work for the duration of the game (if not that much more), provides some fun situations, and allows for discussions of straight-up good/evil morality. It had archetypical companions that were polished to a hilt, which isn't quite so different from BG2, and worked well for archetypes that had something to deliver (HK, Canderous, etc), not so much for those whose archetypes were crap to begin with (Carth). It had abominable combat, mainly because it was too easy and the AI kept not listening to you, but it didn't kill the game or anything. And of course, the main quest and a few side quests were fine, but you did have relatively empty worlds and NPCs you could neither kill nor steal from. I wouldn't know how any of that squares up to ME, but KOTOR1 was neither a particularly deep nor complex game in terms of story, characters or world. I don't think it was trying to be, either. What it did well was provide a relatively tight-knit experience with a classic Gaiderian motley crew.

I'm not a subscriber to the postmodern crusade, so sure, it is possible to say that a game is simply bad, no 'opinion' about it. But uh, in those cases you don't follow that up with comments like "Wrex's stories are real boring but Canderous' stories are real good". It's like you're doing your very best to make all your evidence sound like subjective opinion. Are there logical inconsistencies or jumps in ME? Concrete examples of poor implementation, contradiction or so forth? Errors, signs of lack of polish? Although, Uncharted Worlds... yeah, I don't see how anybody can like them. From only what Calax has mentioned in this thread, ME seems at least as thought out as KOTOR. Or is that not the case in-game?

The stutter is not present on higher-end computers (and with my old comp, everything lagged anyway). I think in MOTB the spawns are there because otherwise, you can see them frmo a mile off, and when you have access to Meteor swarm, storm of vengeance, bombardment and so forth, there's not much of a challenge. As it is you can be surprised by a couple of huge earth elementals falling on top of Safiya. I don't know if it's because of performance problems. Looking at mods like H&C and MOTB I see a lot of trees and grass and creatures and they're all handled pretty well; usually it's an abundance of spell effects. I suppose it really depends on just how many creatures... the orc caves for instance (which just proves that the orc caves weren't a good idea to begin with).

I'm playing it right now without any of those things. I just wander around as I want to, suppress sometimes, devour sometimes. No satiate, no eternal gorge, no specials. And I still don't suffer. Granted, as it's my 3rd time I know my way around better, but the only way you can really suffer from it is if you (a) rest after every battle, or (b) have to trek back and forth between areas because you forgot something or whatnot. It *did* add role-playing options in interesting ways - the 'evil' path, for once, was a lot more profitable in MOTB because of all the special essences you could get through devouring (as well as the full meter); it also dealt with the quesiton of telthor spirits and managed to balance it right so that you're not just treating spirits as "oh look, Meter oil" but you were made to recognise the harm you are doing to these things. And yes, if you go evil and devour a lot it will crank up your craving, but that's perfectly fine. That doesn't stop you from playing evil, that is proper C&C. There are still ways to survive and even thrive after abusing your hunger, but it really starts to take hold of what you do and hwo you plan your journey, which is exactly what it should be. The spirit meter was part of a system that was well integrated into the game and made you own up to the choices you made, and that's great RP for me. The alignment change does not make sense, and if it was any tougher it would have been excessive, but as it is, I think if you accept the Spirit Meter as part of the game and a part of your role-play (which is easy to do given how well integrated it is), then it really performs well. If you don't like it from the get go and just want to circumvent it at every opportunity, well, you're better off turning it off a la Taks.

lol someone forgot school started haha

Don't fight, children, it makes mommy cry. I'd like to remember my own experiences with KOTOR1 and jump in, but sadly, my blinding hatred of Carth drowned out the rest. NO SHUT UP CARTH GO BACK TO YOUR NURSERY YOU VEGETABLE

Fair enough MC. I'd be happy with a BG2 lite, though. Can't be as diluted as KOTOR/JE.

Grommy, you sort of 'gamed' the meter... not blaming you, but the vast majority of people would have had a more difficult time. Especially with all the back-and-forth you have to do in the Ashenwood areas. I never understood the hate against it, it was very appropriate and well-integrated into the game and story, and provided interesting role-playing options. You were so buffed up with spells and everything as epic level characters, you didn't need to rest that often anyway (I mean, all those vampiric feasts, mass heals, Okku the bulldozer, etc).

Replayng MOTB and noticing just how broad Obs people have painted their areas. They pick a consistent theme (mix of X and Y textures, whatever) and provide huge areas full of it. i.e. the Red Tree clearing, Ashenwood, Skein, area outside Mulsantir. But they are all very consistent. One of the things I really get annoyed with in mods are tiny intricate areas and corridors that look nice, but you can't see anything because its just fighting with the camera. Camera to blame, maybe, but no camera could deal with providing the range of viewpoints NWN2 does while keeping up with one-tile corridors that turn in knots. Also noticed how badly "spawn monsters" trick works in NWN2 because they don't pop into life, they fade.

Just podcast your tabletop D&D sessions. :D

Seems pretty silly to me that you can't double-cross. The skein is nowhere near as horrifying now that I can actually run all that water at more than 2fps. So took my time for once, got through all the bloated corpses, etc. Another thing I noticed is how you're never sure just how many levers you're going to end up finding, so if you use all 3 for the essences & the draining, you automatically choose not to do Fentomy's quest. Ah well. I don't mind the fact that there isn't hand-helding, necessarily. Up to the Coven now and from what I remember, that conversation is quite good, too, after the hag (cheated in Gann for the full version). Mmm.

Where do we keep coming up with these nonsensical Crusade theories, anyway? Calax: Yeah, there's a lot of interesting backstory stuff in there. I guess they were excited, and also wanted to make sure they ahve some good ground in place for a trilogy.

It all really depends on what kind of spells / abilities there are, and stuff like that, for me. Classes are an excellent system for any party based RPG and there's nothing wrong with that. And their setting isn't weird enough to have completely different classes rather than Rogue, Fighter, etc. What really matters is whether they just regurgitate the tired old Healing Potions and Fireballs and Whirlwind Attacks, IMO. Edit: Hell, I'd be happy with that if they just had challenging AI.

Sounds like your typical (thus decent) sci fi, though the bit about the easiest option is clever. Did ME1 elaborate on why

Replaying it, and it seems that there is no option to help the hathran Dalenka at the Lake of Tears Garrison? You tell her about Nadaj's plans and she just goes "Oh okay, keep up the good work soldier". I assume this is so that you get the Nadaj confrontation regardless, but I didn't feel good having to convince the barbarians when I didn't believe it myself.

One day, Gromnir, 4too and Metadigital will join the same forum, and the world will never be the same again. Jokes aside, let's perhaps return to our regularly scheduled programming (ME2). That applies to us all. There's nothing released about the possible stories of ME2/3 right? I have an impression that ME1 basically involved thwarting the rise of some (possibly ancient) evil race/civilisation/whatnot, which would probably mean (a) that evil was just the tip of the iceberg and there's more, or (b) there is another but related type of threat. In these kind of trilogies you'd normally have a relatively self-contained story in the first iteration, then a more linked one in the second and third... someone who's played the game tell me, though.

Yawn. Does anyone really think AP will be just like NOLF or Deus Ex? IMO what we know at the moment suggests a "the world is screwed up but you might as well have a glass of wine and some pizazz on the way" approach. Would suit me just fine.

Has SOZ already sold so much that the Atari will mouth off about the xpack? Sounds hasty too me. If Obsidian does it, excellent - if they outsource it, well. Gothic.

How are you making it then? I assume not (or not yet) with a proper printing press if you've just made four. It's hard to explain, but the font's aesthetic style just doesn't work with the picture. Sort of like a flowing Victorian script in a WWII background, or Arial on a Wedding invitation. Certainly better than the generic placeholder before, but I strongly suggest taking more time with it. Things like that can make your cover look very amateur.

Sounds like someone trying to sell me a washing machine. Eddo, I must protest at the text, I thought they were merely placeholders for now. The new font just screams "I'm not supposed to be here". Will the back cover have the same background continued?

I think he means the cover, Eddo. And I agree, it has a very strong splinter cell feel. I like the background, though. I think you'd get the best feedback if you perhaps gave us a very short summary of what the book is about and what is your aim, intended audience, etc. Without that info, combining your latest cover and back-cover summary, I get an impression of your run-of-the-mill contemporary conspiracy / thriller / investigation book, which, if done well, can hold up for a nice short read. Whether that is good, disappointing or off is up to your expectations of course.

That's true taks, but buying laptops in NZ doesn't give you a whole lot of choice, unfortunately. Possibly due an upgrade later.

Great to hear GD, nice to jump straight into it.

Old news, but yes, there's potential there.