Darth InSidious

And the Rimtip are always scared of the amazing enemies from beyond the edge of the world (to them) that have *gasp* steel blades! Yes, the horrifying races from the SPIRAL plane, known as the ZOMBOCOM and the OBMOZCOM. Originally they were a single race, farmed by the interdimensional empire of some humanoid-eating birds called the Stymphalides, until the brothers ZOMBO and OBMOZ rebelled and overthrew the Stymphalides with the terrifying power of knives. Then, at the Declaration of the Two Sites, ZOMBO and OBMOZ split, and so did their races. Now, the ZOMBOCOM inhabit the centre of the Spiral, in what is known as the Viral City, while the OBMOZ live on the outer spiral. Neither is able to attack the other, though, except on primary planes, because of the constant twirling, twirling, twirling.

Fixed.

How many prestige classes does that make now? I make seven. Perhaps there should be only a single base class - Useless Hobo - which has access to all of the low-level requirements for prestige classes, so you simply have to decide which of the eight-billion prestige classes to multiclass with. Also, a little more background on Rimtip: Also known as The Seasick City, Rimtip balalnces precariously on the edge of Nefer-Khetef or BOWL-WORLD as outsiders call it, about twenty miles from Sod It, I'll Settle Here. Ruled over by His Tired Emotionality, King Oliver LXVIIIth, the city's balance is maintained in two ways: first, by carefully planned weight distribution in the form of housing estates made of different materials. As a general rule, the wealthy live in the brick and stone middle, while the poor live (often rather briefly) in the paper shanties that make up the outer rim. The second method by which the city's precarious balance is maintained is by the constant civil war, which keeps the population in motion long enough to prevent any one part of the rim from being populated by more than any other. The city is entirely inhabited by pirates, and non-pirates are quickly robbed and/or slaughtered upon arrival, if male, and if female, slept with. The city's main rivals are the Warrior Maidens of Laaaa, who have assaulted the city six times in the last century, and each time have been defeated and returned forcefully pronouncing their chastity. They consider the pirate city an abomination against Yulie, which is partly why Yam Greatest and Best suggested its foundation to Black Toby One-Beard in the first place.

Nah, much simpler than that - for each action you take that isn't sickly and nice in the Bambi sense of the word, you gain a DAMNATION POINT. If you build up five DAMNATION POINTS you have to do a roll of 19d3 + your damnability saving throw vs. the power of the Dark Gods or suffer an ailment of some kind (depending on the output value of the sum). For each five damnation points you get, the power of the Dark Gods goes up, and if you're still alive at five-hundred DP, you are consumed by INFERNO for 8d5 rounds (subject to another save and transforming into a lich; otherwise your character is permanently dead).

Resurrecting to add to the setting's awfulness. While there are, as we know, eleven dark gods, most are long-forgotten and shrouded in mystery and have names that few know, Sh'lock'hu, and Wart Ermoth are amongs the oldest, darkest and foulest, and strike abject terror into all who hear their names... or their produce. For millennia they have worked to corrupt the souls of men as a single entity plotting from the dark layers Beyond The Fringe. They tempt the hearts of mortals with offers of talent, adoration, and fame... which they are granted for fifteen minutes before fading. Instead of going to the hells, though, these unfortunates are taken to the Dark Place and forced to listen to their own ghastly singles for all eternity, stripped of their self-delusions, the awfulness laid bare. They also grant to those insane enough to worship them the prestige class of Mad Bard of Rimtip (Rimtip being a city balanced very precariously on the edge of Bowl-world, and kept in place by the constant motion of its inhabitants and a lot of cogs.)

The first act of the game can feel interminable. It picks up a lot after that, though. Sure, it's still not the most brilliant thing ever, but it's solid and fairly fun... just achingly slow-starting. But it seems unfair. The magic resistance is what brings the +2 ECL, but the other races that has that ECL level really aren't as gifted as the Yuan Ti. The bizarre part is having the same level adjustment as the Drow, IMO, who get fewer special abilities and -2 Constitution (?!) on top of the stat bonuses a Yuan-Ti gets...

Feel you there. The internet has a surprisingly sparse population of us.

What a load of horse-Sith.

Warlocks do get Bluff and Intimidate as class skills, as well as Beguiling Influence as a 1st-Level power, which IIRC adds +6 to all Bluff, Intimidate, and Diplomay scores for 24 hours. Otherworldy Whispers (?) grants a similar bonus to, IIRC, Lore and Spellcraft; The Dark One's Own Luck adds your charisma modifier as a luck bonus to all saving throws, Leaps and Bounds gives a +4 bonus to Dexterity (although this doesn't stack with other DEX bonuses, IIRC). All in all, it can be worth getting two levels of Warlock to start with.

Perfectly calm here. Sorry if I came off differently.

It seems like someone is already being a bit feisty about it. (scroll down to Insidious post) I wonder what his "position" originally was I was asked to help with writing M4-78. Not that it's any business of yours.

I can just see the articles now: In an effort to protect the game from piracy, Bioware announces that Mass Effect 2 will not contain single-player or multiplayer support...

Victim of reading the inane drivel newspaper columnists write.

Rand wasn't a moron; she was wrong, however.

Be sure to

I somehow knew you would be our biggest critic, That might be because I'm most KotOR modders' "biggest" critic. Perhaps. But you've got this done a little too quickly IMO; as you and I know, there are no shortcuts. Indeed I have - trust you to take me up on it.

A proportion out of 62 people are anti-MMO; nevertheless around 70% of those polled were enthusiastic about the new MMO. If you have an actual argument, formulate and post.

Have you looked at the comments left below? Some of those people there were quite anti-mmo, as would I be if I were to respond to that. The thing that might make me happy and probably a lot more people happy is let BioWare do their best to make an MMO of good quality, then let Obsidian make an RPG KotOR IV so that way you make more people happy, rather than just a lot of people, which was the reason I started this. There are 62 comments, and over 2000 votes. Your point...?

Actually, Planescape has a few quests nothing like that, and MotB is full of more abstract quest-ing. More seriously, though, you're right up to a point. But then, you can reduce all fiction down to about 7 basic stories. That still wasn't the point. The point, rather, was that (successful) MMOs avoid innovation and variation in quest designs, and maintain minimal plot and story, if any. We aren't talking about the issue of reduction. We're talking about the issue of the MMO genre lacking almost anything but the bare bones, and the players encourage that. Me? I like cutscenes, dialogue, and quests that aren't entirely about huuuuuuge stretches of combat (the caveat being unless the combat is very fun and/or the dialogue is not at all good). I require a little more than a glorified XP system to be entertained.

Already noted. They've cut corners somewhere, IMO. The question is as to where.

Well, if BioWare hopes to come close to their claims for content, it wouldn't be a little bit of content, it'd be a fair bit (remains to be seen for how much content is in game though. Ah, but what sort of content? The MMO and SPRPG playerbases want different things: Those that are playing SPRPGs are generally looking for story, characters, etc etc; by contrast, it seems that a hell of a lot of the people on an MMO are interested in grinding to the next level, not dialogue or interesting quests. I've been dong some reading up on quest design recently since avoiding the spike-traps of fedex and killquest are rather proving difficult. Two things came out of this: 1. That no-one seems to write about this much, except in relation to MMOs (if they do write about SPRPGs, it's usually so nebulous you could lose Khan in there); 2. That the MMO playerbase actively discourage innovation in design. (Link for what seems to be a fairly typical example.) What does this mean? This means that the content for TOR is not going to be, say, a stunningly diverting and brilliant culmination of amazing story, genius characterisation and brilliant dialogue, with heaps of choice, consequence and novelty. Rather, if this is to succeed, it will be grind, grind and fedex-quests. And no amount of lightsabers, Force Lightning and pretty-but-telling-for-all-the-wrong-reasons CGI trailers will change that. Yeah, but I'm not particularly keen on playing with total strangers either way. Tried MP with strangers on various games, and it never works out well. If it were possible with a set of friends, and to lock out all other players/set up a private server, that would be a more interesting proposition. I'm guessing that's not going to be the case, though, since LA and Bioware want to turn big profits on this.

Am I the only person willing to sacrifice a little content and non-linearity for not having to play the game with darthrevan243 and the eight million other carbuncular, pubescent, snot-nosed, ALLCAPSing, 1337-5p34k1ng "chosen ones" (and this is a Bioware game - you can rest assured that you will be "chosen" for some reason) that will inevitably decide to play as either Jedi or Sith? Am I the only one who doesn't want to share a game-world with the only people less conducive to immersion than Mass Effect's voice actors? This is, admittedly, the view of a fanboy and anti-Biowhorian, but still.

Transformers 2, at the IMAX, which has the largest screen in the UK. The film was pretty but awful when it came to story and plot - and I do mean dire. Popcorn-chomping crap for when you want to switch off; don't imagine it'll shock you to the core or that you'll be crying at the end or anything, though.

On yon contrary, my liege, I would arguest, forsooth, 'twas much harder to get through ye NWN1 OC; thou needest an level of tolerance for crap verily most abnormal. On yon contrary, my liege, I would arguest, forsooth, 'twas much harder to get through ye NWN1 OC; thou needest an level of tolerance for crap verily most abnormal. On yon contrary, my liege, I would arguest, forsooth, 'twas much harder to get through ye NWN1 OC; thou needest an level of tolerance for crap verily most abnormal. On yon contrary, my liege, I would arguest, forsooth, 'twas much harder to get through ye NWN1 OC; thou needest an level of tolerance for crap verily most abnormal. etc. ad nauseam Fixed to more accurately reflect the sheer stab-your-own-eyes-out-with-a-blunted-spoon dreariness... *shrug* I bumbled through with a high-wis, low-charisma favoured soul. Or just make sure to use Qara's powers as much as possible, and make sure she's got some AOE stuff. Usually I went with Qara and Casavir/Khelgar for muscle.

Mass Effect makes your tax returns seem fast-paced and exciting.