Spider

Practiced spellcaster is definitely in the patch. I've seen it in the feats list myself. Don't know about Augment summons, but I'd guess no (ie I don't recall having seen it, but I haven't looked for it either). What is wrong with Manyshot? I thought it was Improved Rapid Shot that was busted? Manyshot is in the game, but I'm pretty sure it has been all along so that's apparently not the problem. I wouldn't know of course, since I don't care much for the feat. Edit: I am also in the crowd that can't understand why patch threads are delegated to Skeeters. If a mod could explain the reasoning it'd be much appreciated. (the technical difficulties thread I could kinda see, but this is much more a game discussion than a technical one)

Yes, the AI in F.E.A.R. was quite excellent. To the point that I have a hard timge getting into other FPS now. That game spoiled the FPS genre for me on so many levels.

In a league of their own: Battlestar Galactica 24 Veronica Mars The Shield The Wire (so good it's almost painful) Friday Night Lights Really good: Heroes Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip The Office (US) Boston Legal The OC Weeds Gilmore Girls at it's best (up to season 5) would have placed in the "league of their own" part, but as is it's not even really good.

Asked and answered, at least the first part:

Not to mention that 6 months of the entire team working on the game does not translate to Sawyer working 6 months on it. Besides, if such a thing was even feasible, it probably would have been mentioned long ago. I was under the impression that this project was only possible in the first place due to the arrival of NWN2.

Question: Is it mandatory to have read Moorc*ck's work in order to be hired at Obsidian? I know MCA has and I think JE has referenced to him as well in the past. I know an Elric game (RPG I think even) was in the works in the past. By some russians I think. But it got canned. Maybe if the movie becomes a reality, Chaosiums old rules would be of interest again.

If it has Lionheart-itis depends on exactly what that means. There are similarities, but not quite as bad. There are four hubs and the three first are fantastic. The fourth is very good, but somewhat combat intense compared to the rest. But still a lot of interesting roleplaying and characters and stuff. After the fourth hub, however, it's all about combat. (or sneaking past hostiles if you prefer the stealth approach). And it drags on a bit. So there is a rather distinct difference between the good parts and the rushed part. The game is still really good and I found the endgame was still entertaining enough to play through without it feeling like a chore (as did Lionheart). But had it followed in the same style as the rest of the game it would have been so much better. And Gorth, there is a difference between the sewers and the sewers. The first were really good and athmospheric while the second was really boring. Easily the worst part of the game imo.

While Grobnar was a little annoying, he doesn't even come close to the bard in ToEE (Zaxis?). When I ran across that character I almost uninstalled the game then and there and he was completely optional (only appearing in a random encounter I think and if declined there would never be seen again). I still have nightmares...

Indeed we have. Just thought I'd tell you that I am currently playing on max difficulty (you may not have noticed, but since you pointed out that not doing so removes the right to complain, I actually stopped complaining seeing as you were right). So far it's still very easy, and I haven't done any crafting. Although admittedly I haven't gotten extremely far (Old Owl Well completed), but still no reloading due to combat. But I'll keep quiet on the difficulty until I've gotten further. Edit: Oh, I forgot what I had written in this thread, thought Gromnir was replying to what I said in Sammael's thread. Grom, I wanted a tactics style mod because I like the variety it brings. And that it brings challenges not based solely on ramping up how much damage the enemy deals (the pre-buffing and spellcaster AI of it for example). That was not so much a complaint about NWN2 difficulty, more a wish for more extreme fights to make subsequent playthroughs more interesting (and crafting more or less mandatory).

You don't technically have to find recipes. It depends on on your stance on meta-gaming I suppose. You can just as easy check the bioboards for the recipes. Unless you don't want your character to act on something he/she doesn't have in-game knowledge of. But it's not like crafting is mandatory in order to beat the game or anything. True, you can make stuff that is better than the standard fare, but the game is fairly easy as is.

A fiarly classic example of playerskill affecting difficulty. I thought BG1 was very hard when I first played it, now it's fairly simple. Having access to a sorcerer certianly doesn't hurt though. But try playing with the Sword Coast Stratagems mod (completely tutu compatible), some of the fights are really tough after that. Especially the chess game and the one versus the demon cult. The demon cult fight in particular had me pulling my hair. It's not as bad as some of the BG2 Tactics fights though. But fun. Someone should make a tactics stule mod for NWN2.

NPCs can help out with conversation skills on occasion. It's kinda rare though.

I think the game uses the appraise of whatever character is selling the item in question. I noticed that if my main character carried an item, it would fetch a higher price than if another party member did (and buying stuff was cheaper as well). Could be the Merchant's Friend feat rather than appraise that made the difference.

A BSG total conversion for Freespace (I think it was) is in the works by fans. And has gotten pretty far as well. They had some videos on their website and it looks pretty good even if there is a lot still to be done. (and it will be a total standalone and free download, no need to own Freespace apparently) http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/main.html is the link.

The writer probably hasn't played either Arcanum or ToEE. He keeps saying what great reviews they got, although I don't exactly recall that either. Especially not ToEE. Not exactly an unbiased article. Man, did he even try and contact the different publishers to see if they would like to answer to the allegations the Troika guys made. I usually like The Escapist, but this article was pretty poorly written had had flamboyant fanboyism written all over it.

On the other hand, Troika didn't exactly have a history of learning from their mistakes. All three games were pretty buggy on release. But I agree that this guy shouldn't take the blame for it, after all the art was pretty good. Isn't this the guy that had an interview linked to a while back where he talked a bit about the game (or games iirc) and how much opportunity Steam had opened up for small developers? (looks at link) Yeah, it is. So it seems interesting enough, let's just hope it turns out that way as well.

The problem I have with this is that it uses different terminology for functionally identical characters. Ie Tycho and Ian in Fallout, from a mechanics perspective they are the same, but since one gets paid while the other doesn't, you're using different terms for them. Not terribly descriptive and as such fairly meaningless.

I just object to you differing between expert hirelings and henchmen, since for all intents and purposes expert hirelings are henchmen. The reason why someone joins you is fairly insignificant, how they act matters more. It becomes even more confusing when in some game some followers follow you because you pay them, others because they like you. Fallout is a good example. Ian wants to be paid, Dogmeat doesn't. Or the other guy you can get (Tycho?). So according to your definition, Ian would be an expert hireling, while Tycho would be a henchman. And still, they are functionally identical in the game, so there should be a term that includes both. As for my definitions, in my eyes they fit fairly well. I definitely don't recall having a degree of control over anyone in Fallout (Fallout 2, however, is another matter and to me those NPCs land somewhere inbetween). And I don't recall having much control over my henchmen in NWN either. But it's been a while so maybe it's more than I remember. Again, this is only about the OC, it's different in the expansions. I'll admit that the interaction part isa bit fuzzy though. And it can probably be taken out. Actually it probably should even, since I'm saying that game mechanics is what matters.

Why is D&D terminology used to describe a non-D&D game? The distinction Volo describes between henchmen and expert hirelings is one I have never seen outside of D&D. (or in D&D for that matter, but that's because I don't exactly read a lot of D&D rules minutae) Personally I make a distinction between Henchmen and NPC party members. Henchmen are mindless followers that you have no control over andthat you don't really interact with in any significant way. Why they're traveling with you (if you paid them or whatever) doesn't factor into it, just their behaviour. NWN has henchmen, as does Fallout. NPC party members is to a degree controlled by the player and, more importantly, have a personality and a higher level of interaction. NWN2 has NPC party members, as does KotOR and Baldur's Gate. So with that definition, G3 has henchmen and not NPC party members. The henchmen are basically tag-alongs that get in the way during combat (although they're not quite as hopeless as in Oblivion).

Oblivion doesn't require an extended amount of time to beat. It can be beat in about 10 hours or so. The critical path really isn't that long, and the scaling difficulty means you can just plow right through it if you really want to. Edit: As for calling it an RPG or not, the industry standard when it comes to defining RPGs seems to be character building. Or rather games in which character building is central to the gameplay. That's the definition used by the masses and as such it's natural for it to be the definition used by Gamespot when they do stuff like this. More eyebrows had been raised if Oblivion had been in the action category. This is not to say that I personally agree that Oblivion is a RPG, I am more with Sand when it comes to definition. But you can't really fault GS for going with the convention.

Axel is the head of the Shadow Thieves. You don't interact with him at all in the game if you go the path of the Watch. The armor given to you by Nasher (NWN9 Tunic) requires you to have levels in the NWN) PrC, not just accepting to join them.

One is in Fort Locke, the other in Highcliff. I'll be damned if I can remember which is which. I probably got it wring the first time.

And an additional quest if the main character is a monk. And the monk shop has some good items for a monk, although if you're not a monk yourself or have turned Khelgar into one, it's pretty useless. A high UMD could change that of course.

Except Axel was never in Blacklake. He's always been in Merchant's District. And that's still there. His hideout may not be marked on the map in Chapter III, but it's still there. The tower can be given to NWN9, a wizard or made into a gambling den (and the drow can be sent working there if that's the case). Not sure how you go about making it a gambling den, I've never had that offered to me. The difference between NWN9 and Wizard is neglible. You get different items in the store but that's it. Oh, and you can't train with the NWN9 guy (me and names today) so you lose out on a +1 BAB.