Pop

I suddenly got the urge to start replaying Bloodlines, switching out some of the more subpar ambient tracks with some (ignore the video). It's so, so perfect. I didn't much like this game when it came out. The visuals were sloppy, the engine was totally underused, and there were some heinous bugs. But it ages better than any other game I've ever played. I really hope Obsidian would entertain the notion of a Vampire game.

Finesse your flames, people. I'm anxious to see the NWN2 mods that are likely to emerge soon.

Fundamental attribution error.

I'll have to give Lost credit for raising awareness of sad ninjas.

I ran out of potions because I didn't want to micromanage party potion consumption, the turn-based system being what it is. So I turned on the "use potions" AI, and watched the 5000 gp of cure serious wounds and heal potions I bought get burned in no more than 3 fights time. So I just decided to invest in some serious heal & mass heal (man, is that spell useful) spells and use them. I got through the game just fine having only bought healing potions in bulk 2 or 3 times in the entire game.

uh, hate to tell you but it's not "official." the AP is not the body that decides VA's outcome. it does seem likely, however. taks <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sure, but according to the Allen camp, assuming they're going to do what they said they'd do beforehand, Allen's going to have to concede. Barring any revelation or interference from the courts, it's in the bag.

I'm pretty sure there's no xp penalty incurred for parties, as when you gain 30 xp for killing a bugbear, all characters gain 30 xp, whether they're in combat or not. Fight balance might certainly take a hit, though.

You're no fun.

I'm gonna give the guy a medal. He doesn't even have a chin, for christ's sake. Gotta give him something

It's official, Dems have the Senate. That's the game, folks.

Maybe. Rumsfeld leaves, Republicans get to ship off their pariah, Democrats get to "work things out" with a new secretary of defense and preferrably, a new approach to policy. Everybody wins. But the ousting of Rumsfeld was bound to happen. The wheels were turning before the election. The Rovian approach to partisan politics took a big hit this election. Archconservatives as candidates by and large didn't do very well (although Marilyn Musgrave did win out up here) conservative bills took some important defeats, but I wouldn't say they got trounced like the conservative politicians did. Even the far-left wing of the Dems lost out with Lamont. So it looks like playing to the middle is now back in vogue.

I'm sorry, is something funny? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm entitled to a little bit of schadenfreude. We've got an understanding: He compares homosexuality to bestiality and still gets some measure of power in Washington for a time, and I laugh at his children, weeping as their City of God flies away. Besides, it's not like he's going far or losing much. From what I hear, K Street has already picked him up. Not that he's got the behind-the-scenes power of, say, your James Dobsons and Tom Delays, nor would he have the punditry skills of Newt Gingrich, but he'll be around in some capacity. He's certainly not going to the poorhouse. His daughter certainly isn't losing a damned thing.

u! I don't think that would go down too well with most people. Pigeonholing people into a PC-NPC relationship like that. Usually players like to have control over that thing, at least starting characters off as good friends and moving into intimate relationships. Or, as in the case of Viconia, having an antagonistic relationship that moves into intimacy. But if you start off with a romance, it's bad. Being with that character might be something completely against what the player is trying to RP, and that creates dissonance. It delegitimizes the entire Roleplaying experience. If you have to break off that romance right at the beginning, the obvious next question is, why was it like that in the first place? That having been said, there are some interesting concepts that can come out of this. For example, you could have that old RPG warhorse, amnesia! The PC starts off the game, and there's this other character that he loved before, who he doesn't remember or feels for now, who still loves him, or maybe she hates him because of something he did in his effective "past life". The PC is then put in an interesting dilemma, PS:T style. Then again, you also have romance as drama sponge. For example, Obsidian could very well have dragged out the prologue to NWN2, and made Amie the character's love interest, fleshed out the character more, and then BAM dead. Instant drama, instant forward force into the bulk of the game as the character sets out for revenge and answers, FF7 style. However, you're rolling the dice with that, as it could be the case that the significant other is an unliked character, in which case a player might not be willing to go through the game when the genesis of the story is the death of a character he didn't really care about all that much. In that case, you could institute a BG2 kind of dichotomy, where you can either go after Irenicus to save Imoen, or to unlock your own power, but the results would be the same. If you're looking at RPGs from a narrative standpoint, romance is completely acceptable and in some cases, completely necessary.

CRY LITTLE GIRL CRY YOU CAN'T BRING THE **** BACK BWAHAHHAHAHAHA No more rubber stamp legislature! We'll hear it soon enough, but all the same, Bush is going to try and rush him through confirmation before the new dems can consider him.

Imperative voting doesn't fit in with the American concept of rights. I'm not even sure I want people to vote if they're not going to make an effort to understand what it is they're voting for, and I'm not sure compelling them to will make much difference. Tight tight tight race. Dems have assuredly won the House of Representatives. The Senate stands at 49-48 favoring the Republicans, but 2 out of the last 3 states are leaning Democratic. If we get those 2, then it's going to be 50-50, but that's no win for the Dems, since **** Cheney is going to be the deciding voter. Feels good, though. Hopefully we can at least move towards turning this damnable country around

If you have trouble keeping up with this show, then Losticil may be right for you.

There are some tough boss fights through the rest of the game. I think part of my problem was that I never really bothered with spell casters all that much. I stuck with Casavir, Khelgar and Neeshka for most of the game. Spellcaster AI just ticked me off, so I just got rid of the spellcasters. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sand was pretty powerful for me, especially at later levels (he murdered a lot of the bosses, thanks to greater stoneskin, empowered cone of colds and plenty of meteor swarms) and from what I hear, Qara kicks the **** out of everything. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I noticed that Qara kicks the **** out of everything when she :'( <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hehehe,

There are some tough boss fights through the rest of the game. I think part of my problem was that I never really bothered with spell casters all that much. I stuck with Casavir, Khelgar and Neeshka for most of the game. Spellcaster AI just ticked me off, so I just got rid of the spellcasters. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sand was pretty powerful for me, especially at later levels (he murdered a lot of the bosses, thanks to greater stoneskin, empowered cone of colds and plenty of meteor swarms) and from what I hear, Qara kicks the **** out of everything.

Oh, it only gets better from there.

I'm all for romance if they can make it work over an extended period of time. Like somebody said here earlier, KOTOR and other Bioware games made them happen too quick. I liked BG2's romances (never played Anomen's, so I can't comment on that) in part because they weren't tied to the main story, for the most part. In KOTOR and JE, the romances came to fruition at the very end. In BG2, the romance mostly takes place towards the middle part of the game, and continues into the expansion. I really liked how they worked the Viconia romance, and the epilogue made the whole thing a tragedy, which I thought was pretty mature of them, at least in relation to the "happily ever after" plots of other games (notable exception of KOTOR). I too think third-party romances would be great. I'd love to see how they could actually work that into the game. Perhaps they could work better together in combat.

South Dakota abortion ban just died. Looks like these giants bleed Perry wins governorship of Texas over popular dark horse Kinky Friedman. I'm thinking maybe I should have made this thread about Britney Spears' divorce. Maybe then people would pay attention. *edit - scratch that, abortion ban not totally dead, but with a a quarter of the precincts reporting in it's 56 / 44 in favor of repeal. Let's hope it stays that good, eh?

I've no problem with CE characters per se. But you have to remember that not only was GOTO forced on the party, there was no good reason for him to even enter the party. At all. At least with Bishop . The two aren't comparable. Bishop might be an unlikable character, but that doesn't mean he's the kind of blunder that GOTO was.

Well, you know what they say. No vote at all is a vote for the incumbent party so functionally, you're a Republican. HOW DOES IT FEEL?

Nothing wrong with that. Some people prefer to vote on the merits of individual candidates' positions, but you have to remember that when you vote in a Republican or a Democrat, no matter what they say to the contrary, you are in fact promoting their party platform. That's how this works. Looks like both the Dems and Reps lost to Lieberman in Connecticut. It's darkly ironic. The Dems abandoned him in favor of a more pure idealogue and the floor was wiped with their ass.

Get out of the thread, cretin! Just to put things in perspective, many of the dems that are winning are conservative by dem standards. This is the way it must be if the Dems are to gain anything. We may be seeing a new paradigm. Gay marriage bans have a 21-0 record and I wouldn't be surprised if the state ballot initiatives voted on today bring the record to 29-0. The battle between dem Jim Webb and republican George "Macaca" Allen looks to be leaning towards Allen (Virginia is red all the way through) but it's tight. Looks like the dems got Rhode Island, too.