Spider

One-ofMany is mutually exclusive with Okku. If Okku lives, OoM doesn't appear. I also missed finding all three mask-fragments though. I found all but one piece (and I know where that piece is now) and I tried exploring every corner. Apparently I failed. And the wall is just a red herring.

At least for the former you need to have assembled the mask. Not sure about the latter.

You can if the target was killed by Disintegrate or some other means that prevent resurrection. But using D&D as your example of crappy fantasy is kinda where your arguments are falling apart. Because D&D is the epitome of crappy fantasy. I once read a book by Ed Greenwood (Spellfire, a friend made me read it, thinking I would like it). How I managed to finish that still puzzles me. It was easily the worst drivel I've ever read. It almost made me want to stop reading altogether. So using a setting (or settings) that is created to fit snugly around a rules system that is designed to first and foremost handle combat as an example just doesn't work. Not to show how crappy the genre as a whole is. I can easily do the same thing using the real rotten sci fi stuff that is out there. In fact, in my experience, resurrection the way it's handled in D&D (everyone and their grandmother can do it) is quite rare in other fantasy literature. Summoning the spirit of the deceased would be a more common solution. But if you want to write a murder mystery in a fantasy setting, just don't allow that kind of magic (or make the spirits talk in such a cryptic manner that no sense can be made out of it until more evidence is gathered). Or it's just that Tolkien wasn't a very good storyteller, not covering his bases so to speak. (which I agree is a problem with many fantasy writers, but again that's the writer's limits coming in to play, not the genre) Agreed, you can. And I do also agree that CRPGs could do without fantasy for a while. And when they do use fantasy, a bit more creativity would be appreciated (although that is true for other settings as well, more creativity is always welcome) Edit: Also, the charming TV show Pushing Daisies shows that with a little creativity not even resurrecting the murder victim will necessarily prove all that helpful. The whole premise of the show is that they're doing just that - waking up dead people to ask them who killed them (although they only get a minute). And yet, they manage to make a story of it each week.

Well, the non-heroic part is definitely a plus. It was the zealot part that had me worried, but if that is misleading it sounds much better. So I will definitely check it out. Are the books fairly standalone or do you need to read all three to get any sense of closure?

I haven't. Will consider it in the future when I work some more of my list off. (just checked the synopsis out on Wikipedia and it does seem interesting. I just have a feeeling I might be very turned off by the main character)

If I was allowed to point out fantasy writers that clearly fall outside of those boundaries, such as Michael Moorcok (stupid spelling filter) or Terry Pratchett, I would. But since they don't fall strictly within your definition, I can't. Although Pratchett is fairly close. Moorcok on the other hand hasn't had an elf in any of his books ever (although I suppose one could argue that the Melnibon

Sounds about right then.

I would say that JE's combat is pretty much to Ninja Gaiden as what Fallout's combat is to Jagged Alliance. Similar mechanics at a superficial glance, but one is extremely simple and somewhat poorly executed while the other is quite complex with many nuances. (or something like that. having not actually played Ninja Gaiden I could be completely off with the comparison, but substitute with Tekken and it works decently) This not to say JE's combat is necessarily bad. I actually thought it was rather fun. Simple and not exactly varied, but kinda fun. Most fights were on fairly easy (although there were a few that had reloading a lot). In fact, I'd even say the combat is the best part of the game. The writing on the other hand is pretty bland. When it comes to the companions that are thrown on you it's even downright awful. I don't remember the last time I played a cRPG where I wanted my companions to just shut the frak up so I could get back to the fighting. I did in JE. Uninteresting, overwritten and just simply boring. The rest of the dialogue in the game was decent enough, but not particularly exciting. Not offensive either, just mediocre. But the combat was kinda fun (and is what got me to actually finish the game).

Thanks for the additional information. I have a weird interest in legal matters. Weird because I'm not from the US and have no actual intention (or wish) to become a lawyer. I do like to understand the world around me however, so I guess there's that. Therefor any thread that is actually educational is a winner for me. (which is also why I skimmed through the entire document in the Bragg vs Linden case where the court discussed the arbitration. 46 pages of it. The term unconscionable was thrown around a lot)

Thanks for the info. Most interesting. Of particular interest here would be the Bragg vs Linden case, but I'm guessing that one is ongoing. At least the Philadelphia Court found the part in the TOS about arbitration to be unenforcable. It will be interesting to see the end result of that case though, but I suppose that could take a while.

Second link doesn't work. Anyway, it seems I was a bit misinformed then. Although we're not talking about exactly the same thing. When talking about EULAs I've been told not that the agreement isn't valid as such, but that they make you sign away rights you as a consumer basically can't sign away. But that's not to say this is correct either. I've got no source and only passing knowledge about US laws, so I could be misinformed about that as well.

It depends. The courts will enforce EULAs when the user ticks that little "I agree" checkbox on the dialog box of installation wizards, but they won't enforce agreements when clicked through URL links. Are you sure? From my understanding, they haven't actually been tested. But I've read that they force you to agree to give away rights that you really can't give away making them kinda pointless. They basically say you can't sue the company if anything goes wrong, but if you install a game and it wipes out your harddrive (PoR2) I'm pretty sure you can sue no matter what you agreed to, at least if the contents of your harddrive was valuable enough. The biggest concern is with online games, such as WoW. Since the EULAs basically say an account can be terminated at any time for any reason. Since those accounts can be quite valuable in the second market, that is something that can cause a bit of a stir.

Those EULAs have still to hold up in any court. From what I've read, the general idea is that they are a nice try, but if anyone pushed the issue they EULAs will probably not hold up.

That's just because you don't have it installed. My XP is plenty pretty.

Given the Stalker devs track record, I'm guessing somewhere in 2012 would be more likely... But here's hoping. Isn't Dragon Age coming out in 2008 supposedly as well?

Why those particular stats? Is being a high level magic user the best way to play the game? Cheers. Because they have the highest impact on dialogue and thus allows you to take in more of the plot.

Tactics is not a bad game. But it's not a RPG and it goes against a lot of what is considered canon among fans. I personally think Tactics is fun (at least the first 2/3 or something). If you get it in a bundle it's definitely worth trying, especially if you like squad based tactical games (ie Jagged Alliance 2, Silent Storm).

No he doesn't. He calls vehicle combat weak. On-foot combat gets nothing but praise (well, mostly praise anyway).

The souls you need are in the library. Can't remember the # for them right now, but iirc one is the green one (183 or somesuch? Or I could just be making that number up)

I know exactly where Gromnir is coming from. I am currently replaying Fallout Tactics and I keep wishing I could turn that damn camera. Virtually all the time. I've been handling the camera in NWN2 in exactly the same way since the game came out (which would now be called free strategy mode) and haven't had any issues with it. Of course, being used to the Silen Storm camera that is basically identical could have helped getting over the initial hurdle. But even in SS it only took me a few hours before I learned to love the camera.

The Bear certainly helps, but the two divine casters should be able to hold their own as tanks for the most part. But some fights will probably be more challenging without Okku, yes. But not impossible.

Or you could turn to the open source market: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_...s#Video_editing Of those listed I've only heard about VirtualDub and Avisynth myself. But VirtualDub is supposedly ok (have no personal experience with either, I use Premiere Pro at school). But at least they're free to try (and use if they suit you), so only time is lost if they suck. Edit: Of course, looking a bit closer, you probably don't want VirtualDub or Avisynth. Not sure about VirtualDub, but the page claims it's mostly designed for capturing video. There are some editing capabilities, but I'm not sure how advanced ones you need. Could be worth having a look at still. As with many open source programs, there are add-ons available that can add a lot of functionality, if one has the time. Avisynth uses scripting only and has no gui, so I doubt that is very useful. AviDemux can be worth having a look at (although it's described as being similar to VirtualDub, it seems different enough to maybe suit you in case VirtualDub doesn't). At last, Jahshaka seems to be the best bet. Supposedly it will compare to Pinnacle feature-wise when it's done. The operative part of that sentence being when it's done. It's currently in it's alpha stages. I have no idea how far they've gotten and what their issues are. But trying it is free and it seems to have the potential to be what you're looking for. The rest are either Linux-based or not video-editors.

Except you missed the part where I said it hardly affected my game play experience at all (my craving went up once where it wouldn't have otherwise). Oh and also the part where I never complained about it. So even if did I add self-imposed difficulty (which I don't really think I did) to the game, that really has nothing to do with anything. (Hell, it most likelyeven made me like the game more, since my major complaint has been that it was too easy, something Cantousent can attest to )

I know you'd try something like that. *shrugs* I missed out on using Eternal Rest a few times. It didn't really affect my game experience in the slightest since I used Devour Spirit instead. Or supress. And I still managed to keep the hunger under control without resorting to tedious action like resting on the spot over and over again. But whatever. You are certainly free to play the game any way you like. I was merely offering up the opinion that the mechanic is only broken if you actively try to break it.

I hate to be the one to say this, but Gromnir you do know that if you just play the game instead of trying to find loopholes and cheats, the spirit meter actually works. If you want to spend time doing something so tedious as resting on the spot over and over again, all the power to you. But I found that managing the spirit meter in a more un-tedious fashion made it add a lot to the game play. Hell, from the sound of it I probably rested fewer times through the entire game than you did in one sitting (world map travels not included).