Triple - A Foxy Lad

I believe comparing jedi to rl religion not wholly salient. In SW, light side and dark side observable cosmic forces that have been measured and endured over many centuries. So jedi code has more in common with a professional bodys ethical framework that has been developed from combination of ideals and evidence. Its the result of millions of studies saying 'if u do this, u cause harm'. To use example from own field, force user operating outside of jedi code is less comparable to apostate monk - and more comparable to british psychotherapist operating outside of BACP. Like, ye, maybe u disagree with BACP in good faith but theres evidence that if u disregard their framework, u likely cause a huge amount of harm. And if u continue to apply their framework - or a similar variant - after getting kicked out for sleeping with an auditors spouse, well, its like above: ur basically a light side force user acting outside order, not a grey jedi. And ye, we have professional bodies that compete and disagree and stuff - i know - but however accurate our measurements might get, we dont yet have advantage of manifesting diametrically opposed cosmic forces. SW universe does.

ye and horizon zero dawn was by new vegas' very own john gonzalez. aint played it myself yet bcs no ps4. oh well.

Eh what u on bruv? U saying diablo 3 is a sequel to deadfire? Like what.I'm saying you can't comment on the entire story if you haven't finished it. Pretty simple and basic premise. But what if the story itself isnt finished and readers cant finish it... What if the story is *never* finished? Does that mean no one is ever allowed to comment? Do we just have to walk around it pretending it doesnt exist or get pulled into the breach like the folk in that china mieville novel.

Eh dont see why it has to necessitate lazy anything. Constructing compelling situations where peeps with regular moral compass struggle to uphold light side values would require skill and graft. Like think many of us have faced sitautions where weve had to choose between our ethics and humanity. Light side/dark side binary just raises that conflict to operatic levels, and star wars space opera at end of day.

Meh, i always thought grey jedi were a silly concept. Like 'u must adhere to light side or fall to dark side' is a fine foundation to me. Keep that as ur bedrock and u can spin plenty of fun stories about how easy it is to go dark and how hard it is to stay light. Being force-sensitive should be profound life-changing event that ropes u into that battle whether u like it or not. No escape, no respite. Endless momentum. Idea of grey jedi undermines threat of going dark and questions necessity of striving to be light. Which seems counterproductive when ur ip's defining trait is that central conflict. Like, if star wars wants to trade in more grounded characters, fine, but surely there are non-jedi to use that wont dilute ur main blend. Eh... then again, i was never convinced by star wars. The poor mule's back has long been broken by expectations it was never meant to bear. Fwiw, i stan kotor2, but that wasnt really star wars, it was MCA on his usual crack with lightsabres.

Eh what u on bruv? U saying diablo 3 is a sequel to deadfire? Like what.

I don't know how you can comment on a story you haven't finished yet peeps comment on soap operas all the time and those things have gone for decades without finishing. kinda like most blizzard ips, i guess. diablo story wont finish until blizzard think they wont make any more money out of it. until then, itll be person kills diablo, diablo comes back, person kills diablo, diablo comes back, person kills diablo, diablo comes back, person kills diablo, diablo comes... you get the idea. what happens in between of no real importance. deckard cains hammy narration suggests players enjoy themselves. tyrael says words. maybe there some point to be made about futility and cyclical nature of history, but blizzard not interested in such and prob never will be. their writing mainly vehicle for merchandising opportunities and new hots characters, not story. that fair, i suppose. so long as u have big monsters with funny voices, changing backgrounds and vague sense of doom, what more does one want from diablo game? seems odd to comment on - or even care about - details beyond that.

can we have a lich subclass. liches are objectively the best things in rpgs. i want to be a crazy floating skeleton cackling like a loon and talking bs about death. when u hit lv 20 u ascend into a demilich and become an angry floating skull that absorbs peoples souls into teeth made of jewels

ooh, i didnt think about that. this not only compliment regarding engwith, but eothas too. he clever boy who grasps an opportunity when he finds it. using that big statue shows initiative. god of redemption may be the god of collateral damage but hes got some nous.

D3s story werent... offensive as such, it was just another serving of blizzard copypasta. Theyve been doing the same thing with diminishing returns since about WC3. I legit dont know whats going on with that weird 'dark side transforming woman as major plot device' theyre so keen on. Kerrigan, Sylvanas, Leah. Theres deffo some personal issue there being worked thru in public. Maybe someone has ex-girlfriend or rebellious teenage daughter. Also seems blizzard games in competition to create dullest heroic male figure for which we're supposed to care. At minute is 3 way tie between Tyrael, Atarnis and Malfurion. Honestly, these tendencies were legit fascinating for a while, but blizz then elect to gnaw same bone for my whole adult life, and now is a bit sad and embarrassing Sort of like 40 yr old colleague who listen to nothing but paradise lost for over 25 years. Ive nothing against that band but u get the idea.

lol "butthurt". are peeps still using that cringey adolescent sex-negative homophobic term in 2018? i love it.

and DEX. every single class in BG was obliged to max DEX - esp frontliners - theres a reason bioware just thought 'fk it' and gave, like, half of their NPCs 17+ DEX in BG2. CON just had to be good enough. ur hp pools not hugely relevant with low enough AC and the right defensive spells + gear. edit: true you could just dump INT and WIS with no consequences, so ur point holds. I used to max CHA as lot just so i could buy **** without mucking about with the ring of human influence. incidentally, 3.5e/pathfinder suffers a bit from this, but with opposite classes. wizards can ignore everything except INT and do their job just fine. martial classes potentially need 13 INT for combat expertise, 13 DEX for dodge, CHA for divine grace etc.

i think that roguelike dungeon thing might be an amusing car-crash. dont feel d&d/pathfinder are good systems with which to implement it. emphasis on packing right counter spells for each encounter may turn each level into ro-sham-bo. certain builds will be far more viable than others - this already problem with core rules but roguelike implementation will only sharpen it. lack of options will hurt replayability which is key draw of roguelikes. owlcat already have form upsetting people with encounter design. strap urselves in lads. i think this is gonna be good.

oh man, crazy archmages, big dungeon, cosmic horror nonsense, theres something to be said for simple pleasures. im hyped for this. if ur gonna do epic level content, feel this is the way. just get a 34,405 year old mage, make them nuts and put them in a towering/underground psychedelic deathtrap.

bloody hell, thats some impressive digging. thank you. i shouldve guessed his footprint was larger than i knew.

eh, i remember this section. u can chat to alvari. u find out shes from a poorer background from the other officials, has pulled herself up by her bootstraps etc etc and is more of a realist than the ambitious castol. the opportunities there for u to feel her out - shes the quest giver for one of the VTC missions. this might be just a case of skipping that step by wandering into poko kohara ahead of being given the quest.

do you think theres any practical way of incorporating attrition inside a dungeon but outside of combat? like im pulling ideas out of the air here, but d'you think thered be any mileage in something similar to darkest dungeons stress mechanic? a measure of how long ur character can keep spelunking and fighting before theyre forced to find an inn and get drunk? but something mostly separate from how ur character performs in combat, so u could safely balance encounters around a predictable level of resources. i wouldnt have it like it is in the darkest dungeon where its an in-combat thing that monsters can target, i was thinking more of straight up linear progression. u fight x battles, u gain x stress or something. then like maybe ur partys stress hits a certain point and theyre debilitated in some way that forces u to back off. i guess many people would be put off by its existence, but if ur not balancing actual encounters around it - only dungeon length - u could shove in a toggle switch and let people ignore it or stick it on if they want 'the immersions'.

stupid sexy flanders lol

DOS1 was pretty good, just suffered imo from larians inability to take themselves seriously - which doesnt have to be a bad thing. at the time i told one of my friends that larian had a lot of their ducks lined up. they were just one good scenario designer away from greatness. thought DOS2 would have been their proving but, hey-ho. guess it was in a way bcs it made them a ton of cash. i remain eager to see what they do with it.

good news, bruv, u can scroll up and check out gomnirs advice on constructing an intimdate based frontliner - is more inquisitor than fighter but u could prob eke a fair bit of relevant info. most melee damage classes should prob be abusing a level of rogue + vivisectionist for the quick 2d6 sneak attack damage + 4 STR from mutagen unless u have rp reasons for not doing so. rogue also has a subclass called 'thug' which provides an intimidate related ability at lv1. u can also take 2 levels in thug for evasion. u can also chuck some barb levels in there - enough to get amsuing stuff like reckless stance, biting people like some nutter, and improved uncanny dodge. its a minor thing, but u should cap out one of the stats u plan to increase at an odd number. ull get 5 ability point increases between now and lv 20. like if you start at STR 20, youll finish with STR 25, which is no better than starting at STR 19 and finishing at STR 24. gromnir himself remarked that he not put huge stock in ability scores. i can understand why. the bonuses u get from them become less meaningful as the game progresses. i think u could happily cap ur STR at 15+the racial bonus to give u 17, then that leaves u with loads more points to spend elsewhere. but 17+the racials fine if u really want to be all roar smash etc.

Id just replay ME2 tbh - or one of the KOTORs. Maybe even nier automata? Or however u spell that game. Horizon zero dawn possibly? no romances? Cant approve of a big flashy space opera with no necking. But thats me. Dont have any great objection to what u detail but u could prob find comparable out there. Also am unsure if obs are the best candidates to make such. Theres prob some jrpg out there like u describe but im behind the times there bruv.

All that permanent ability drain etc got chucked out the ark a while back with a boatload of unfashionable d&d mischief. Until kingmaker brought it back for reasons. Wouldnt call it a general trait. At least it aint been for best part of 20 years. Undead in most rpgs are trash mobs then at the end u fight a vampire or a necromancer or lich or something. Also feel ur conflating 'experimenting' with 'innovating'. This may be crux of disagreement.

Lol i did say the meaning was only there if the addressee wants to pick it up and run with it. Also worth pointing out ive spent most of my working life wearing a security uniform and/or doormans badge so 'ooooh are u gonna frisk me' etc is occasional response. Anyhoo we're brits, we can turn anything into a double-entendre. Matron etc. Theres no such a thing as an innocent phrase here.

For me, DOS2 was a lot of fun... and a series of endless gimmicks in search of an actual game/plot/world/whatevs. Also its loot progression is possibly the single worst implementation ive seen in a crpg. Everything is obsolete 5 minutes later. What is this, an mmo. It did well bcs of the multiplayer aspect and bcs many of its features and characters sound great reduced to soundbites and gifs. Also larians enthusiasm and goofiness kind of endearing i must admit. U want to like them. Think is fairly well established what kind of beasts larian are. Ill deffo keep playing their games - they have heart and they seem determined to improve on their own terms - but i wouldnt expect anything more than 'larian' rpgs for the forseeable. What else was even out this year apart from kingmaker? I cant remember.

It attempts a hella lot tbf theres that relationship system, the ship stuff, it dug up storm of zehirs map, it reworked the combat systems again, it included multi-classing, it introduced romance options to poe, it expanded options for the final battle - which might be a first for an infinity style game. it massively expanded the faction system. hand on heart, i think its obs most complete and successful application of that. Ye im including new vegas. Have all these things been done before? ye but thats not the point. Its less like bon jovi and more like a pop composer releasing an album where they have a crack at every variation of their genre. Perhaps theyre not directly innovating but theyre pushing their own limits in a way which is usually characterised as an 'experimental phase'. At the v least its definitely 'the sprawl'. Perhaps is worth comparing it to something like 'london calling' or 'revolver' rather than 'metal machine music'? Experimental but formal in its experiments. Attempting, not inventing. McCartney in particular was one to find every possible variation of his chamber pop without necessarily stepping out of it. All my rambling aside, ye i think its fair to say obs pushed things v hard with deadfire.