Tigranes

Yeah, I don't really get this "I want to be able to identify with them" thing. Think about the life they've led and the life they will lead. Of course they're not going to be in touch with the masses, or at least, not in the way that can be represented by going to a gym or trying to eat a greasy hot dog. I hardly think what America really needs is a guy who is truly in touch with the masses. I still don't see Romney winning, though the first debate was a surprising defeat by Obama.

I have. So I'm one dude, you're one dude. I'm not sure what relevance that has. What's important is that it is now an accepted industry wisdom that players have come to expect and demand achievements, and these players have a high level of overlap with Steam enthusiasts. Me, I'd prefer no achievements and I won't touch Steam unless I have to, but that's how it's panning out these days.

No, because you're one dude and there's a lot of Steam users, who have proven time and again that they like achievements and will complain if they are not there.

I'd prefer to see monks that get away from "I'm a monk and I'm okay, I wear no shoes and only rags" thing. Why not monks that are urban not hermit, e.g. the precise control of bodies and movements lending them to tasks like infiltration and acrobatics? Why not monks that wear much more tight and well-made attire? There's a lot of possibilities and yet as far as visual style goes. Also, the name. Forton Thorton anyone? :D

I do like the Appleby path, because in the end, Bates is an opportunistic hack and a jerk to boot - though of course Appleby isn't any better.

So, Dishonoured came out,k and nobody told me? You bastards.

You can call it what you like, it isn't a problem with me. I'm aware of AARs at TWC and other places too, though that terminology is also genre/community-specific. I find video LPs boring so this is what I prefer, though obviously mine tend towards the more simplistic. So how is the evil wizard going? I always found it tough to be evil in Arcanum because when the time comes to make the big decision in the main plot, the idea of massacring an entire village for no real reason puts me off.

I agree, the Cloakwood Party is a major turning point in that respect. As the player gains access to various weapons, abilities and spells in the AD&D system, you could afford to have them take on an actual enemy party, which is always a far more interesting experience than fighting a single megamonster.

Downloaded demo days ago but still haven't tried, I simply never have a block of more than an hour for gaming these days. So I end up playing Dredmor or Pro Evo Soccer. I'm... I'm turning into an old, casual gamer! OH GOD

It's nice to have, but also changes the way you design art assets and the levels.

Drug is not alcohol.

Icewind Dale is highly recommended. Check out my LP (below on sig), or other LPs around the web if you want a feel for it, but hey, Arcanum's a surprisingly combat-heavy game and so you shouldn't have a big problem with IWD.

Thousands of pages cry out to me, saying, READ ME, READ ME. I hold wisdom, and knowledge, and all that you shall need, for your spiritual sustenance, for your next paper, for the next income bracket. Only by reading me shall ye be saved. But I know they lie, I will read them, and I will find they are mostly full of crap. Sorry, I meant I'm doing research. Would like to start a IWD/2 run, or actually, continue my BG LP, but no time, no time.

The thing about Kangaxx is that you needed to have an understanding of AD&D rules. You couldn't just keep on equipping better weapons and selecting whatever direct damage spell was the 'best'. You needed to understand rules about maze and imprisonment, the immunity to +x weapons, contingency spells, and most importantly, which types of breach spells dispel what kinds of protections and how all that changes with invisibility and other forms of ethereality. Or, you know, use Scrolls of Protection against Undead (and/or Magic, I think?), but even then the demilich incarnation was trouble.

This is not a bad idea, really. I tip my hat to you, sir! :Cant's hat tipping icon: That would be very, very, very nice.

It works a lot better in p&p because in cases, you don't know if it's an 'unwinnable' encounter or you simply screwed up, etc. Because you are facing a human DM you also feel that you might have been able to get a partial victory of some sort if you were creative enough. in CRPGs, you only have 2 solutions - a Game Over screen, or a scripted abduction/submission/etc scene, both of which have a very different effect. What I would not mind is, as you say, a legendary, oft-feared and warned enemy that is entirely optional and designed to be unbeatable to all but the most powerful parties. Latter FFs had a tradition of this (e.g. Ozma in FFIX, who was several degrees harder than the final boss), and you could argue that many a player would beat BG2 without ever learning enough of the game mechanics or assembling a powerful enough party for Kangaxx.

BG1/2 had an in-lore reason for protagonist permadeath; like Sarevok, your high concentration of bhaal essence means that your body literally disintegrates upon death, unable to store the essence any longer. Practically, I'm sure this facilitated a great many things like the problem of going into dialogue with your main guy dead. I wouldn't mind either BG or IWD way, if sufficiently explained. Certainly don't want the 'unconscious' thing where they all get up immediately after like they just got knocked out with coconuts. The only thing they need to fix is an easy way to re-equip the newly revived, which would take like 3 mjinutes in IE games.

Yes. I've been far too busy the last couple of weeks, but you're right, we should add it.

Argh, I love LPs but I hate video LPs. Can't read at my own pace. Hope you keep it up though in whatever format, and let us know on the posts. Recently had a techie character that made it nearly to the end before I petered out, I think I've worn out tech builds now after 3-4 times, but I've done the same with magic and melee / dumb / etc are too one-dimensional.

Well, the expansion add-on was, apparently, so now I'm on $160. Don't really care about t-shirts and the like, but ah well, what's important to me is box edition, map, beta and xpack.

We can leave the thread open, trusting for now that you haven't filled it with pornographic poetry or something. But yes, we'd appreciate the ensuing conversation to be in English, primarily so that we can all participate.

I have never played XCOM, though I've seen enough LPs to get a feel. I'll try the demo, maybe I'll be able to experience being That Guy who thinks Fallout 3 is great, etc.

Very similar to a decades-old Korean children's game, East/West/South/North: You can flex/fold it in various directions, obviously. Generally you write down a mix of rewards and punishments on the insides, the player calls out a set of directions (3 North, 1 East), you flex thus, and then the player does whatever the resulting panel demands. I remember it was mostly things like get hit in the forehead, or smell somebody's sock. Children's imagination, my arse.

BG2 Disintegrate always has a special place in my heart. The saves were balanced enough to never make it overpowered, but it just had such a satisfying projectile / animation combo. It packed a kind of 'punch' (of a giant green ball coming at your face). In terms of mechanics, Lightning Bolt, as just about the only IE engine spell to make active use of geometry (besides AOE), was nice - I remember fighting Greywolf (name?) for Prism's emeralds as Level 2 in BG1 and using the recently found Lightning Bolt wand trying to not hit my party members. Aganazzar's Scorcher was OK too, since you could position your own party to line the enemies up and then have the mage hit them all. Time Stop + Improved Alacrity + Multiple Disintegrates were also great, if only because you could finally replicate what you saw Irenicus doing at the start of BG2, after many hours of play (and waiting 6+ months for the expansion pack). Obviously, by that point in the game saves were so high you could only really do it to trivial opponents, but... Finally, an honourable mention to Finger of Death, because this one time, possibly with mods that might have screwed with the spell save tables, I opened a battle with a contingency spell of 3 Lower Resistance, another character casting Greater Malison, while the PC wearing Robes of Vecna fired off a FoD... and it worked. Firkraag dead in half a round.

That's how a debate works, and it'd be better to say even if we didn't make profits we'll still fund this. Oh, it's fine to raise a second objection, but you'd need to accept that your first objection was not sound, not argue that nobody has been able to refute your objections. Regarding your second objection, well, it's obviously nonsensical to say that they'll make an expansion even if they didn't turn a profit. Because that would imply they would either 'save' their KS $ for it, which is way more problematic, or that they will act in a financially reckless manner (by promising a product that wouldn't begin production until 2 years down the line). Should they not have promised an expansion pack at all, because it is a tricky thing? That is the one objection I would tentatively agree to. I want to see them fundraise as much as possible, but I don't want them to tie themselves down with too complicated promises. Free copy of W2? Fine. Expansion pack? Not sure - I don't see a huge problem given that an expansion pack could easily be produced for half a million or less (given the original P:E budget), though. Edit: Oh, and all the "u r troll" really doesn't help anyone, guys. Nobody's gonna say "You're right, I AM a troll! OH GOD" and expire in a puff of repentant smoke.