why

I'd rather not see a poll, although one regarding which region to use next wouldn't be horrible I guess. The thing is, you'd have to think that they've had a vision for what they're going to do with Pillars 2 for a long time. I want them to follow their own vision. So far, it's resulted in a game that I enjoy greatly. I know you weren't suggesting that they design by poll, juanval, just that they make a poll about this one thing, but I'd rather the story come entirely from their creative minds. For example, I say I want them to do something new and turn the storyline on its head, but what I really want is for them to have already come up with a great story and be working on it right now. Whether they flesh out old ideas or present radical new ones, I want to explore their creative ideas. As far as game mechanics and the like, those seem more apt for community input and I think community involvement really helped with the design, especially fine tuning spells and abilities. However, I would vote to stick with Vancian because he's the one what brought us to the dance and damn can he dance! That would be a major overhaul to a system and I already know I enjoy. On the other hand, I'm not much of a rabble rouser, so if they changed it, the worst they'd get from me is low level sniping and a few random complaints.

I think they should make it that the entire game universe is the imaginings of the a group of crazy creator-souls and the PC realizes this and is trying to influence the creator-souls to his own ends. hehehehe I just think it would be funny to have the PC as literally the figment of an imagination attempt to take over the story. Not a serious idea, of course, but I think it's something that could include humor with a bit more felicity than the storyline in Pillars. I liked the story quite a bit, but it was grim through and through. The humor was entirely incidental, such as Eder's love of petting cats, dogs, foxes, wild Stelgar, and his kith companions. That was funny stuff, but the next game needs to give the Ederesque character a break and have more humor that can be applied to the story itself rather than shouldered by a sympathetic NPC. I don't want the game to be a comedy, and I know some folks don't like campy, but certain storylines lend themselves more naturally to levity at certain points. All that said, I enjoy the Pillars story and pacing quite a bit and I would be okay seeing the same thing. I still hope they push the envelope, but I'm too easygoing to get riled over it.

Third run went with a female pale elf Paladin. I'd created a pale elf male, but then I decided to use one of the user generated portraits and there weren't any male pale elves I liked, so there you have it.

I don't play anything any more. I have had a couple of groups over the past few years, but scheduling is always a pain. And that's for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. However, the Pathfinder card game might work out well for me. I don't know if I'll have time to go to the game store, but I might. Davis said something about a live streaming event and I'm hoping that Obsidz gets that going. If not, then it just depends on time. However, if get hooked on the electronic game, then my wife and I were going to start a DnD game with a friend anyway, so I'll probably just invest in the cardboard game. The base set on Amazon is less than fifty bucks and I would probably want to plumb the depths on that one as best I could to get the hang of the game. The add-on decks don't seem prohibitively expensive, although I imagine I wouldn't get them all at the same time.

Dude, I just went to your sig and saw the epitaphs. See, now that's the way to play Iron Man! Respect!

Yep, like our slug fearing friend says, the PotD and the Tower of Iron folks are just not representative. A while back, I decided on a whim to get every badge in Portal. Pain in the rear, but I thought it was cool. The thing is, there were some I had to find out how to do on the internet. Kind of hard to brag about that. It doesn't take away the fun of doing the run, but if I'd done it just to brag about it, I think I wouldn't have the right. In Civilization V, I beat the game on the hardest level, whichever that one is. Deity? God? Whatever, I can't remember. I did that by playing on the smallest map against a single opponent and I built up the best units I could quickly, waited until his capitol was at it's weakest, and took it. If someone looked, they'd think I had been masterful, but I have to come clean to my gamer homies, I basically cheesed and cheated my checkmate. I don't begrudge anyone having fun with the game in whatever way makes 'em happy. I guess, using that logic, if your fun is come and insult the way other folks play the game, I guess that's not so bad. Whatever floats your boat.

Look, we got an answer... the Engwithans were wrong. Apparently, the gods do exist. Not that I'll have access to the novella, but it's cool to see some movement for the people who pledged for it.

We haven't been on topic for a while anyway, so what the hell? I liked Bioshock quite a bit, and that was supposed to be kind of a spiritual likening (can't say spiritual successor anymore since it's become a contentious word), but there's plenty of spirit left to create another game, whether they call it System Shock or not. I recently bought the Ultima pack, and it hasn't held up as well as the SSI Dungeons and Dragons games for me. I finished Eye of the Beholder and I started on 2, but I haven't had time to play for the past few days. I guess, to throw a bone at the topic, the thing to keep in mind regarding these things, and I'll keep this in mind if I ever have enough money to back a project, that you aren't assured of anything. You should reasonably expect to get what's offered at the pledge level, but I think the structure of the tier system, as I understand it, is that you're taking a gamble when you throw in your money.

Even more, I'd like to see them turn some of those secrets on their heads in the sequel.

I couldn't find any pale elf males I liked and of course I couldn't find any pale elf females with dark hair (since pale elves don't have dark hair). I was going to play a guy and take Dreamwayfarer's advice about a custom party, but since I only had one option for the portrait, I decided to go the female route. Thanks, Sylph, for the custom portrait. Looks sweet!

Yeah, it certainly went out of its way to be exotic, for sure. I kind of get the feeling that Mr. Avellone really much prefers anti-heroes to heroes and lust to love. I greatly enjoyed the game but, even back then, I knew it wouldn't be everyone's cup o' tea. I think, if I played it now, I would have far more criticisms of the writing, but I played it then. Even understanding the flaws now, and seeing some of them then, I can't and don't want to change the great experience I had with the game. It's like something I saw someone post here about a different game some time ago. I wish I could go back and unplay the game so I could play it again for the first time. Anyhow, all of this is off-topic, which is fine by me since I think talking about Tides and PS:T is far more worthy than griping about how monks in Pillars aren't the same as the monks in BG2.

At some point there is an actual game though right? Like you actually have combat sometimes? Can you actually buy a sword from a guy yelling about selling swords? Or is it just an e novel with graphics on top of it where any choice not charisma based is a fail state like the game it is based on? On the other hand, if you didn't like the game on which it is based, why bother with it? Planescape: Torment is still probably my favorite game and, having not only played it several times, edited my stats to get all the nooks and crannies and then played it more times, and finally gotten the dialogue editor and hunted down stuff I missed on my previous plays (as well as getting the 'evil' dialogue since I never played that way), I can tell you for sure that you could buy weapons from folks hawking their wares. Contrary to popular silliness, there was a ton of combat in PS:T. To my mind, more than it needed, but it was all good. Yeah, Charisma, Intellect, and Wisdom were the big dialogue options, but there were calls in there for strength and dexterity if I remember it right. Such as quickly reaching out and snapping some poor bastard's neck. Don't get me wrong, Karkarov, I'm not typing out an angry retort here. I'm just saying that as someone who greatly admired and enjoyed the game on which Tides is based, I hope they stick to the good parts. Although I think the writing could have used a little tightening. It was excellent, but I do think there were times when they could have chopped off a few lines here and there.

I don't think it's sad to end after the second expansion. I would much rather they make a sequel. Moreover, I hope they take chances. Do something crazy with the Watcher. Maybe even not have the Watcher in the sequel. Maybe have the 'true' gods come back and set things straight or have it turn out that not only are the gods unreal but that souls themselves are actually not really 'souls' per se, or even that souls are the only things that exist and all of the world is the imaginings of the souls, maybe even a few souls. I'm not putting these out as suggestions so much as just the sorts of crazy ideas that couldn't be adequately addressed in a mere expansion. Broaden out the world in a story worthy of a sequel and sequel that justifies the story.

I truly appreciate the fact that you guys are helping to convey some of the info you've learned from the AMA and, just as importantly, distill it into something an initiate like me can understand. Obsidian gets a lot of cred from me for New Vegas, and because that I picked up Pillars, which I've greatly enjoyed also, but it's been tough trying to wrap my head around the idea of the Pathfinder game. Reading your posts certainly helps me do that.

I saw a video of the very beginning and one combat in Tides. I'm looking forward to the game with excruciating anticipation. It's worse than the Carly Simon song.

That's not such a bad idea. Put it in story time mode and breeze through it. Even better, if you have kids, pay one of 'em ten bucks to play your PC in Story Time until you get the cue for White March. Just don't be dispirited if he ends up refusing to let you take over the game. Really, you get the cue for the White March fairly early if I recall, and you don't have to be a completenik either. Just do critical path quests and you're there lickity split.

I don't have the money to back games, being one of the po' folk, but if I did, I would accept that pledging for a game is like settling down at the blackjack tables in New Vegas. You throw in your money and hope it leads to an entertaining evening. (and free drinks, if you're lucky) As far as complaints about the game, I tried it when it first came out and there were certain things that confused, confounded, or even caused me choler, but none that created a conniption. Not that I begrudge anyone a good rant. Like sp3cw4r says, different strokes for different folks. I'm starting my third run this morning and I think this game may just have some more runs after that. I'm also looking forward to Tides. I've seen vids of the beta and whatnot, but I'm avoiding spoilers so I can enjoy the finished product.

I don't have a lot of money, but I'd be willing to make the purchase at 30 bucks. I don't like throwing my money around pell mell, and I'm a lot cheaper (and poorer) than you'd think by this post, but I'm ultimately being supportive of a friend. I'm waiting on buying the old school version of the game until I can assess if the wife would enjoy it. Speaking of which, if it will work on the kindle, I could eventually pick it up for her. I don't need to know about hardware requirements for that, though, since we'll try it on my S2 before we even need to worry about her kindle. Plus, she's due for an upgrade to a newer kindle and I can't imagine the newest one couldn't handle the game. So my plan for now is to play the release game, which I guess is more or less the tutorial from what you folks are telling me, and then I'll probably, unless I truly detest it, just buy whatever the max pack will be or whatnot. Then, if my friends and I like that then I'll buy the physical copy of the card game too.

Thanks Borissimo! I really appreciate the recap. In all honesty, the lack of forum love here is weird. Not really angry about it so much as confused. Maybe a Paizo thing, in which case they'll never explain it and shouldn't.

Bastards! Now that I've seen this thread, I've got it in my head to restart my game (I only created the character and saved after the opening scene) using one of these portraits. I just have two ideas rattling around in my bone box: Being a horribly sexist Neanderthal, I'm tempted to choose a pretty female pic because I know I'll be looking at the portrait the whole game but Being an old RPG player, I'm tempted to pic a ruggedly handsome male and pretending that it's me and that I'm ruggedly handsome. Decisions decisions decisions!

I get what you're saying, Tennis, in that you can't claim bragging rights for playing PotD if you used infinite reloads to replay the tough battles. I'm kind of mixed. I don't mind any of this personally, but sometimes folks complaining about how easy the game is when clearly they just want to scratch out some street cred is irritating. I guess that doesn't tend to get under my skin too much either. I just don't want to fall into the trap where folks say if you don't play it on 'x' difficulty and with 'x' options selected, you aren't a real gamer or some such. Folks enjoying it a certain way or with any particular toggles doesn't bother me at all.

Usual Karkarov helpful stuff. I don't want to start any bromance or man crush things here, but that was just what of my younger friends would always call 'cool guy.' Anyhow, I'm so impressed with some of the portraits I've seen. I tend to try not to get too terribly excited or bothered by an aggregate of pixels, but that Halfwise portrait of the Nature Godlike would be downright sexy if I did. lol I just started a new game and I'm thinking of looking at the portraits in this thread and starting yet one more time after I choose the portrait I like best. Alas, won't be the 'sexy' nature godlike since I plan on probably playing an elf this time around, but we'll see. I'm leaving it up to the talent of the portrait modders.

Anything noteworthy happen? I'm hoping that the people on the other ​forum got a little more love that we get in these parts. Did one of you guys go and come out with a few extraordinary tidbits to share?

Story Time mode didn't get a lot of love in this particular forum? What a surprise. (Note well the period at the end of the preceding sentence.) I didn't vote for any because I haven't finished the game on PotD. My latest start also included expert as a slight vanity setting. Of course, having finished the game on normal and hard, I would have to say that there isn't much by way of bragging rights for playing expert when I already pretty much know the dialogue options and the lay of the land as well as I do. I also tend to like to try different a bunch of different tactics and whatnot, even if ithe battle went well. I'll still reload from a successful battle and switch things up so, unless I get board and feel like being able to lay claim to the triple crown thing, I doubt I do ToI. Plus, some people are so fervent about it that they go gonzo. I guess I might mean you, Tennisgolfboll, but I don't mean any harm. It's just that the depth of feeling about folks playing a certain difficulty or with a certain toggle seems odd to me. Shrug. Some people get so into invested in PotD, Expert, and ToI that I wonder if their perfect game isn't one with absolutely no saves. If you leave your game long enough, your people starve or wet their pants. Where, upon dying in the game, it deletes itself forever, the hard drive becomes inoperable, your house sets on fire, and a hand with a pistol pops out of the case and shoots you dead in real life.

I didn't have time to play, but I built my character and did the first cutscene to start my PotD run.