Tale

Let's shy away from discussing other posters and keep to the topic presented.

1) Beamdog has their own distribution service that provides supplemental income beyond development. 2) Cleaning up the code base and adding a few new areas and characters is probably a smaller development project, thus requiring less investment, than a whole new game.

I have taken on gods, I have seen the end of civilizations, I have flown ships across the universe and back, I have done all this and more in games, I am tired of the great battle is your ending and then leave. No, I want a lot more closure than some stupid battle (DA2 anybody?!?!) taking on the big bad. I want to feel a little closure in my choices I made. That can come the setting, not the character. Closure only makes sense on things that actually close. If game 1 takes place in the east and game 2 takes place in the west, then the east can close. But the companions you bring east to west have yet to do so. Timmy goes on to mayor the town and die in his bed at 87. That's closure. Timmy goes to school next summer, and then... well, after that it's up in the air because he's appearing in game 2. That's not a closing. Lying to me and saying Timmy becomes the mayor and dies happily in his bed when in game 2 he ends up dying during the middle of the adventure, that's not tolerable. How is that distinct from riding into the sunset?

Guns. Piffle, the weapon of untrained thugs. Murder! Not like magic, that requires special training. Never go wrong with magic. That weapon of gentlemen and soldiers. Not trying to derail. It's a debate I can see coming up in a setting with both magic and guns.

The ending doesn't need to be the epilogue. You can have a personalized ending in how you approach the finale battle, or even more interestingly, in who you fight for the final battle. I don't need my character to retire to one of 15 choices just to make me feel like he accomplished something. And that's kind of what I see epilogues being for. What they do when you stop playing them, how they retire.

If they're wanting to build a franchise, epilogues need to be a little more subdued. You can't become the Emperor after one game, can you? Not when you'll be picking up in game 2. And saying they don't count like happened with Dragon Age bothers me. Too much detail might be too restricting for the following title. I'm entirely satisfied with "ran off into the sunset with his trusty Kobold sidekick, Knipchin." Just let me know everyone went off to further adventures. But if they're planning on doing different regions with each game? If something is left behind and not going to be part of the next game, yeah, give me closure on that.

I'd be interested to see Gaider on it. See what he pulls out with old-school objectives. He definitely aimed for mature themes in Dragon Age 1 and 2, it just got sidetracked. However, the logistics of it would be too troublesome for a serious interest.

I wasn't around in those days, but I have no shame about lying and saying that I was. Wait, I'm doing this wrong.

Can someone please translate? Avellone once responded to Visceris with "you don't care if people lose jobs over a game?" As evidence of how he could aggravate people.

Had it spoiled earlier, glad to see more official word. Yay.

I think 2 is what they've been stating. Sawyer and Avellone like to talk about getting feedback on ideas from the fans and build "for the fans." Though they've also talked about particular ideas that they are personally passionate about and would like to do.

I'm honestly here because of Neverwinter Nights 2. Literally speaking, my registration is less than 2 months after release. I was rather late to the Planescape: Torment and Fallout party and still haven't given Icewind Dale a complete playthrough, but it's the next game on my list, followed by Temple of Elemental Evil. I enjoyed Knights of the Old Republic 2 at its release enough to be very interested in Neverwinter Nights 2. And despite that game's flaws, it's what opened me up to being more fanboy than mere fan. But what interests me the most? I'd say Planescape. I'm with the majority on that. Trying out unusual ideas and using themes well is what I ask for most.

I've never heard of GOG.com distributing things not bought from GOG.com, with the exception of the Witcher. Them validating Kickstarter rewards would be a first. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I favor tying it to skill. I also favor making it a game of its own. A good conversation should be like a boss encounter, with tactical consideration in accordance with spec.

Back on topic, please.

Whack-a-mole. Sorry, crappy mod humor. Gave Black Mesa a whirl yesterday. I like it, but it's disconcerting the changes. I'm running around with pseudo-familiarity and it freaks me out. Like wandering around your house, but not really being sure that it's your house. Also gave Stranger's Wrath HD a whirl. Didn't get far.

But what if they have a quest where you have to talk to a guy, exchange information with him, then go to another guy. Well, if he rushes in and kills them, then the guy can't tell him what he needs to know, he can't tell him who to talk to. So what, he's going to have a note on him? And that's going to be the situation for all quests that import non-item updates? Everyone has completely on-topic notes in their pockets. They would have to implement a unique quest solution for this one playstyle whose real objective is to just break the game. Or never let quests have information be the objective. It's either limiting on the quest design, or its lots of extra quest design. Arcanum you can kill anybody and advance. It doesn't brea kthe game at all. It's fun playing an aristocrat who just shoots someone instead of going through a fetch quest to get information. That's fair, Tim and Josh have done it for previous games, they probably know how to do it without much compromise. I'll withdraw my objection in light of evidence.

But what if they have a quest where you have to talk to a guy, exchange information with him, then go to another guy. Well, if he rushes in and kills them, then the guy can't tell him what he needs to know, he can't tell him who to talk to. So what, he's going to have a note on him? And that's going to be the situation for all quests that import non-item updates? Everyone has completely on-topic notes in their pockets. They would have to implement a unique quest solution for this one playstyle whose real objective is to just break the game. Or never let quests have information be the objective. It's either limiting on the quest design, or its lots of extra quest design.

I voted that I dislike the traditional races. But that's untrue. I just think that fantasy needs to explore new (or at least newish) race ideas.

Why is it not valuable? In a roleplaying perspective, the more options you have, the better. I think forcing morals on someone playing an RPG is precisely the wrong thing to do. Homicidal maniacs have a notoriously disruptive playstyle. They derail campaigns completely and sometimes require totally unique paths to quest completion to make up for it. It's not about forcing morals, it's about the fact that it's a lot of work for a niche playstyle. The purpose of such playstyles is typically less about morality and more about breaking the game. I say let it be broken and leave it at that.

To me, a sociopath would be someone that sees people as tools; someone who's not afraid to use them in whichever way is most profitable to himself. That type of playthrough, I am interested in. There's many selfish people out there like this to some extent. Having said that though, a sociopath wouldn't see the point in needlessly killing someone off and wouldn't be randomly killing people unless it was somehow profitable to him, so even this has it's limits. Fair enough. I'll be corrected on that. The homicidal maniac is what I meant.

The pointlessly destructive PC is not an option I think is valuable. And I think even classic games tended to shy away from including a murder option to every piece of dialogue or let total sociopaths have a fair chance at completion. That said, in the spirit of maturity and complexity, giving the PC challenges that can be overcome with underhandedness is something I see as valuable.

It's rare to find a feature people are against. But I guess multiplayer being mandatory has left a bad taste in people's mouths. Anyway, I thought it was cool in Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale/Neverwinter Nights. I never actually used it in those first two games. So that should tell you how committed I am to supporting it. The idea of having Obsidian.net game nights to party up is a cool idea, but there are definitely better things to have if it's too much effort to implement.

I always got the impression that Tieflings were much less than that. That they're humans whose family has spent so long in a particular part of the realms that the realm started sticking to them. Like a family has had a vacation home in Baator for 4 generations, then the children just start popping out with horns with no non-human indiscretions required. But good luck convincing the father of that. Devil/Demon blood's just a shortcut to it. The Devil/Demon has been diluted out by a line of impure descendents, but the planes, they never let go. No. Neeshka's grandfather or father (I think it was grandfather) was a powerful devil. Grandfather. But given that grandfather is sometimes used in place of "Great-Grandfather" it's possible she's even further removed.

I always got the impression that Tieflings were much less than that. That they're humans whose family has spent so long in a particular part of the realms that the realm started sticking to them. Like a family has had a vacation home in Baator for 4 generations, then the children just start popping out with horns with no non-human indiscretions required. But good luck convincing the father of that. Devil/Demon blood's just a shortcut to it. The Devil/Demon has been diluted out by a line of impure descendents, but the planes, they never let go. To try to bring that back around to races for this game, that's a way I like for creating new races. People spent so long in a place that the place just started sticking to them. Gives fantasy a sort of Lamarckian flavor.