Magister Lajciak

Yup, nothing wrong with being at the top of the range if one can afford it. In fact, I think people who do this help to drive computing progress forward.

Yeah, ultimately you have to draw the line somewhere and buy, since new things will keep on appearing throughout the year.

Notebook Pentium M 2.0 GHz 2GB RAM 100GB HDD ATI Radeon Mobility X700 with 128MB VRAM I am just wondering, at what point is it generally advisable to upgrade (read replace) the computer from a technical point of view?

Region coding is not mandatory. The majority of releases don't even bother using it. They don't? They do for standard DVDs, but luckily it is easily surmountable. With Blu-ray, however, it is probably much more difficult to bypass, hence my apprehension. Region coding is an artificial market segmentation device and I am surprised it has not been attacked by U.S. and European regulators yet. I despise region coding, as I believe do most people who move between regions. I hope this format does not gain traction and a new generation standard comes out later that is region-free, but I know that is probably a vain hope, especially with the current victory of Blu-ray.

Nice Probably overkill, but amazing nonetheless! I believe 1TB is the max HDD size for curent 3.5" and is also a psychological benchmark - I wonder when we will see it surpassed?

You don't seem to be underspeced, but try turning off sound anyway. It helped me with KOTOR, when my computer was underspeced.

Both games were excellent, but overall the original KOTOR was better than KOTOR 2. Of course, then Obsidian/Bioware quality competition shifted gears and OE came up with NWN2, which was definitely better than the original NWN. And then came MotB and there was no more competition... Actually, the only two companies I would trust to make a worthy KOTOR 3 are Obsidian and Bioware.

I think we are in full-agreement - the MotB serves as a perfect model for the quality of the next expansion!

No, it wouldn't. Looking only at levels, it would make him a 12th-level character, since you cannot convert xp values directly between 2e and 3e, as they are too different. However, in your example that still leaves us with the problem of the character magically losing the ability to cast 4th, 5th, and 6th level spells in the transition. For a new "edition" of the "same game", that does not seem particularly elegant to me. I had a on-going campaign of several years at the time 2e went to 3e, and since the rules would not allow smooth conversion, there was no choice, even if I had liked 3e. So it was an easy choice. If the rules force the choice, then the rules lose. Period. Besides, none of the players asked for the change. Those of them who like and play 3e today still don't. i can only say 'gestalt' as an option for moving such chars to 3e and over Yep, that's what I said too, but it was ignored. Perhaps that was because the mechanics are non-core, coming from Unearthed Arcana.

I would prefer Chult to Kara-Tur and it would be nice to see the story of the Shard-Bearer continue.

Many successful franchises do not get further sequels. This is particularly the case when the developer no longer wishes to work on them...

I would only trust Bioware or Obsidian to develop KOTOR 3.

I think the 4-class limit in NWN 2 is just fine.

I don't think the devs can really say too much about the game at this point. After all, even though Atari's inadvertent statement does seem to confirm a second expansion pack for NWN2, it hasn't yet been announced officially. Regardless, I am looking forward to when more can be said about the game, though no spoilers please!

Fine. How do I convert an dwarven fighter/cleric level 11/11 from 2e to 3e? I would make the character a fighter/cleric gestalt at level 11.

Yes that does help - thanks!

See BioWare forums. I checked them out, but failed to find what is canon and what is not.

See BioWare forums. Thanks - I will check it out. (Note: Not the ending - but the official canon.)

I am interested in the canon. Anybody knows where I can find it (preferably on the net)?

I did not realize that Lucas Arts had canonized certain playthroughs. I suppose it is a must if they want to be able to do more in the relevant era. Is there any source where I can read more on what was canonized from the KOTOR games?

you mean, a continuation of the storyline of NWN2 and MOTB? maybe you could find that you're the inadvertant possessor of a <relic of the planes/dark cosmic curse/evil fluffy pet>. you gradually learn that your <relic/curse/pet> is of great interest to many powerful factions, some who seek to own it for themselves, others to destroy it. you also learn that, by possessing it, you pose great risk to <your companion/those you hold most dear/your other pets>. through the course of your adventures, you discover that the <relic/curse/pet> is actually tied to the fate of <a lost elven empire/countless lost souls across the many planes/a small pet store> and that the only way to prevent great evil is to return to the site of that ancient <battle/eternal plane war/kitten fight> and <destroy the shadow king/confront the soul eater/get fluffy fixed>. It's possible to trivialize all RPG storylines into several platitudonal formulae if one abstracts enough. That does not change the fact that MotB was an awesome game and I am hungry for more!

I still like 2E. It's just that I like 3.XE even more.

To add a bit of a substantive response of my own to this thread, I will share the following experience: Sound made a huge difference to me once in terms of gaming performance. In fact, it made the difference between being able to run KOTOR and not being able to run it. I was below the minimum specifications for the game and the game would freeze and jump between frames even at the minimal graphical options. Turning off the sound, however, enabled the game to run relatively normally. I did not have a soundcard, so apparently sound was siphoning off processing resources.

If it is due to be released in 2008/2009 fiscal year, than we can probably expect first real info to start arriving relatively soon.

And this post leaves me mystified, since it is the post that dug the topic out...