wanderon

Everything's Better With Cat Hair On It : Eternally

Yosemite Sam, Tom Terrific, Boris & Natasha Badenov all come to mind...

Van Buren's Eternal Jefferson:Unplugged and Reloaded

I seem to recall almost the opposite - I think it was Josh that said at one point that levels may come a bit slower but that the amount of growth from one to the next would be significant. As for upstate NY - right back at ya - (But come on SPRING! )

I think one of the things that led to this more believeable atmosphere was the lower level characters - you were barely more competent than your average commoner to start and progressed rather slowly upwards not getting exceptionally more powerful until mid-game and even then it was entirely possible to stumble on an encounter that would eat you for lunch. By games end you were showing some true power but the length of the journey that took you there made that power more believable. In BG2 you started off at those powerful levels and went on to godlike ones - much less believeable - especially if you were not using a character you leveled yourself in BG1 and start off at level 8-9 right off the bat without the benefit of having grown to those levels - like being born a young adult with no basis for your knowledge or chartacter. It's one of the reasons I really prefer lower level campaigns - say level 1-mid teens if they are D&D type levels - which is why I am so excited about PE as thats the level of play they are talking about.

Oh look another poll... wanders off...

It'll teach you to press "Pause" and not sit around waiting for Health/Stamina or whatever to regain itself? Frankly I can't ever recall a time I didn't pause the game before walking away - it's not like a single keyboard stroke is going to keep me from whatever it is I'm off to do - as for a player choosing to wait until he's fit for battle before moving on why should that be an issue for anyone if the game gives him that option. I really don't see the whole devs punishing the gamer scenario to begin with - this game is not going to be the result of a situation comedy or god forbid a so called reality program filmed at a game developers studio - these guys have a lot of hard work in front of them for which a lot of people have donated a considerable sum and I certainly hope they aren't going to spend any of it implementing ideas as silly as this one. On the other hand if it was just introduced as a bit of humor - well I guess I wasn't amused...

You don't read enough of Osvir's threads. His other threads have absolutely nothing to do with what I think of this one - why would they? Why wouldn't they? You already established that you're comparing this to every other idea ever posted on the forum. As you quoted yourself saying. So you are saying there were other threads by Osvirs that you find sillier? That was not the case for me the concept of spending developer resources to "punish" a gamer for walking away and not bothering to pause his game pretty much takes the silly cake for me from no matter which angle I look at it.

You don't read enough of Osvir's threads. His other threads have absolutely nothing to do with what I think of this one - why would they?

Well when all is said and done there is always much more said than done...

Inspiration seems to be waning in the new year... Nominates this as the silliest idea yet proposed on the forums...

I definately agree that making these combat choices automatic is a bad idea and that any information the player is able to discern about monsters strengths or weaknesses would need to be manually implemented by the player at each encounter if he chose to do so. Access to monster "lore" through a skill set or special class perks (ranger/druid?) would be fine I think.

I could live without finishing moves at all - I only find them mildly entertaining the first time they occur and generally immersion breaking after that. I'm thinking there are probably other things the team could do with the time and resources they will require that may make for a better game.

(I swear I was just trying to mention the altitude-affected-blackness bit!) I understand what you are saying about the cliffs and such and how that can leave some black but in the IE games I was almost always able to find a way to get close enough to it from one direction or another to remove it from almost every map - perhaps becuase I like doing that sort of thing (walking around the mountain looking a for path that will clear a few square yards of black) even if it's pretty much a waste of time game wise - In any event my point is it just seems simpler to me to make enough pathways/walkable areas in every map so that leaving areas of black doesn't occur than developing some sort of "fix" to remove them.

At least with the circus genie there were multiple choice answers that allowed you a chance to simply guess correctly - which is often my style for solving annoying puzzles (and I find almost all of them annoying) - the bad thing about this is even when I guess correctly I am not usually able to recall what the answer was on the next playthrough -

What would seem to be a simple solution to needing a way to "unlock" maps to remove all black might be to simply design the maps in such a way that every bit of black can be uncovered simply by exploring it completely - I can't think of more than a map or two in BG1 that didn't work this way and IWD 1 & 2 also for the most part.

There is a difference between "can't buy any highest-level item at end-game" and "can't buy all highest-level items at end-game". I was arguing to prevent the second possibility to occur. Because if you can afford everything, everything becomes cheap (in the sense of "worthless"). But if you can't buy or otherwise accrue most of the things a typical party is going to want / need by games end then the whole process of loot becomes equally worthless doesn't it? And if the loot is there and the packrat player grabs every last bit set out for him shouldn't he be able to benefit at a higher level from it than the player that left the bulk of it on the ground?

I like the fog of war myself - shows me where I've been and where I haven't so I am less likely to miss out on stuff especially if I have to save/quit before completing a given map and it's a couple days before I can get back to it.

I'm not against some quests being limited by faction association I just think calling questing "grinding" is an inappropriate label for a non-MMO CRPG where the devs have already taken exp for kills off the table.

Don't run away when you should and get the moniker "vampire" becuase you keep getting raised from the dead...

And what would we call side quests you do becuase you are a completionist or perhaps just becuase they are offered and seem interesting to your character?

One could also ask, why in Narnia should those who unintentionally stay low level be forced to put up with a lack of challenge in all the story progression simply because of the way the game mechanics happen to work? Shouldn't the difficulty setting serve that purpose just fine, rather than a hole in the scaling mechanic (whose soul purpose is to preserve relative combat challenge throughout the game, to whatever degree)? It's one thing to allow people, who so choose to, to put in extra effort to level up beyond the "average level" for an encounter and therefore make it easier to take on, but it's another thing entirely to say "This boss will no longer present a challenge to you because you didn't complete enough optional content before getting to him." Not everyone who wants to try a speed run (or just doesn't want to partake in certain content) also wants to make the game less challenging. Therefore you have a mechanic with an unintentional effect, which is what would make that a design flaw, in that scenario. Really?? We are just looking out for all those poor souls that unintentionally stay lower unknowing the disaster that awaits when they discover (gasp) their game doesn't have the same challenge level as those who managed to level normally....Ohhhh the horror of it all please please don't let this happen to these good good people just becuase they are too clueless to figure out how to play normally like everyone else .... give me a break this is in fact just another one of the tangents that are popping up more and more regularly on these forums where people seem to be most concernmed about getting the devs to program the game so people have no choice but to play it RIGHT dammit! You know like WE do...you know who we are - we serve the GAME POLICE and you will bow to our will....

I'm sorry I just don't get this - why in the nine hells should the devs be worried about individual gamers intentionally staying low level to make their games easier or to facilitate speed runs or for whatever other reason they choose to play THEIR game in their own manner? Why should the devs intentionally force them to play otherwise? If those people are happy playing their games in that way let them do so - it has exactly zero effect on anyone elses game - in fact the only effect that might be considered mildy problematic is then they might decide to come on the forums and whine that the game is too easy or that it's the level scaling that has ruined this stupid game or that anyone who can't see how broken this is is a moron and the devs have already fixed that issue - they installed an ignore option here...

CS? Crazy Shi Stuff?

Whats the point in getting to the end of the game and NOT being able to buy the best items that are available for sale is perhaps just as good a question - or stated differently whats the point of having items for sale that can never be bought becuase you can't generate enough gold to get them. I'm a packrat - I pick up everything - even if it takes two trips and I stash & hoard good usuable items waiting for that time when I will really need them in spite of knowing it will probably never come. I typically finish the game with more items and gold than I can use but that doesn't bother me at all - getting to the end and not being able to afford that Uranium Laced Obsidian Necktie of Soulpower I'd like to wear for the final battle would really piss me off tho...