[What you did today]

It's cool. Now I got something in common with Hades.

 

YAY!

[11xhooah]

Ahem... sure.

[What you did today]

Today, I got expelled from the Armed Service.

[11xhooah]

He was nice enough. With a head full of youthful idealism and all... good to know it didn't get him blown to bits in some God-forsaken village.

[Dutch Embassy bombed in Pakistan]

Muslim tolerance in Iberian peninsula is often vastly exaggarated however

I'd be very surprised if you were qualified to discuss that subject on equal terms with Pid and me.

[Dutch Embassy bombed in Pakistan]

My problem with Islam is that it doesn't seperate the state from the individuals relationship with their god. Also, it seems to have trouble with accepting other religions (paying a tribute and be more or less treated as second-class citizens) and the whole Jihad thing. Moreover, while the Qu'ran mentions that one thing can preceed another, there are writings of women are as good as pets or cattle, peace is when everyone is a muslim, and every non-believer is to be killed unless changing to Islam. This is also, like the bible, written differently in other parts, which makes it very confusing. And while were at it, and taking the Hadith's into consideration, the very prophet behaved very inhumane and was a barbarian at times. Not exactly someone who would transcend the ages. And ofcourse, the whole "while dying in battle for islam is great in the eyes of god" is mentioned a lot, which isn't exactly the religion of peace.

 

Ofcourse there are millions of muslims out there that consciously reject those ideas, or being happily ignorant to them. People who want to eat, work, sleep and spend time with their families, you know, good guys. But since the clerics claim (yeah right) that the Qu'ran hasn't been altered in any way and is God's holy creation, it puts the normal person into a corner, and between a rock and a hard place.

 

My take, as with every other religion, is that if your god grants the heavenly kingdoms for anyone fighting in his cause is not something of a divine plan. It sounds more like a s****y plan done by a mere mortal who wants to have a fun game with his toy-soldiers, which makes him an ass****. Humans are not ants for someones amusement, allowing them wage war against themselves and their peers in order to get into the heavenly gates just because the divinity "says so". It is a direct violation of any sense and reason. So, all in all, .case.fecking.closed.

Ah, yes. The Truth is oh ever so clear when one has had the benefit of an education that fostered critical thought...

 

Of course, it's always easier to blame bad stuff on the devilish possession caused by abstract totems, than to accept that it's just human beings merely less fortunate than oneself.

 

It takes a very specific set of factors to breed violence within a person, and Islam is not one of them. It's like blaming school massacres on GTA.

[PETITION: PLEASE CHANGE THE INFINITE AMMO DESIGN]

Somebody please put this thread out of its misery, already.

[STALKER mods]

Against the advice offered by some, I downloaded the last version of Oblivion Lost, and have started a new game.

 

I have to say, it's pretty neat so far. You can (must) rest every once in a while, there are many new skins, both for characters and equipment, and the total freedom mod is a nice touch. Also, you can actually get your equipment repaired now, albeit at a rather hefty fee.

 

There are a few new muties, and there's the whole full night cycle thing - it's fun to sneak around in pitch black, but it's easy to screw up. No timed missions anymore, which is one of the things I never liked in the vanilla game. Supposedly, there are drivable vehicles, but so far I haven't found any.

 

Weapons damage is apparently rebalanced, making the game more "realistic" (everything is deadlier), and the game is changed quite a bit for that. Now NPCs die much faster, which makes the game both easier and harder, if you are protecting someone. Obviously, the player can die much faster now as well, and at about 40% health, bad stuff starts to happen. The only thing that I'm hating so far is that now some NPCs use grenades (which is cool) but it's very unbalanced. They can put a grenade on your feet from 50m, and the worst is, if you don't see them throwing it, you won't know until you are flying around, because grenades make next to zero noise when they land. They really need to fix that.

 

And then there's the "blowout" mechanic, which is something that I'd think you should be given the option to turn off. I rather like it myself, what with random anomalies and all, but I can see how some people could hate it.

 

All in all, good fun.

[Baldur's Gate]

http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/index_portraits.php

 

You want the "Death Rabbit's Portrait Pack", I think that's the one I used. It doesn't have ALL NWN portraits, but it's a start.

[alternative plot style]

I see you were not lying when you said that drugs and booze are easy to come by in Portugal.

 

zing!

[PETITION: PLEASE CHANGE THE INFINITE AMMO DESIGN]

So far no developer has given a good reason, in terms of setting and story background, why there are skill points. If there is a solid story based reason behind it Obsidianites, then I am 100% behind it.

 

The big issue that I personally have with skill points is setting and tone. The whole spy thing, with all the JBs, Bauer, Bond & Borne brings up images of spies/agents using their wits and skills to win, but such characters never become significantly more skilled over the course of the story.

Wow. Do you make a point of thinking up new fallacies to post, or does it come naturally?

[Alpha Protocol]

The Halo Generation strikes again!

[Baldur's Gate]

I used the IWD1 portraits and soundsets. Waaay better. I have a script that converts your IWD1 soundsets to BG2 compatible ones if you want it.

 

As for Khalid - just kill him when he's in your party, then drop him once he is dead. Alternatively, send him to a Basilisk if you think you might want him later. His script only loads if he can talk.

YEAH! IWD soundsets are totally WIN. I was so happy when I found that script you mention. Portraits, not quite so much, seeing how they are a bit blurrier (is that a word?) and less cartoonish than BG's. They ARE better, but I don't like it when stuff looks out of place.

 

And regarding your Khalid "solution"... um... that'd be too evil, even for my CE, Gate-in-town-casting Wild Mage.

 

 

I always preferred BG1 portraits to BG2 and NWN1 portraits, as well.

Lol fatty Imoen.

[PETITION: PLEASE CHANGE THE INFINITE AMMO DESIGN]

If it's a choice between a proper ammo system and an overall finished game, I think they may have learned something from K2...

[Afghanistan and Iraq]

Take that, Soviet Russia!

[PETITION: PLEASE CHANGE THE INFINITE AMMO DESIGN]

Meh. I reserve the right to change my opinion when more info is released, but just "it's really cool" and "we base a lot of our mechanics on that", isn't convincing at all.

 

That's OK, I'm not testing my orbital mind control rays, I'm just telling you that we made the decision for a good reason and we're happy with it.

So you say, but I wear my tin foil hat 24/7 just in case, mister.

 

I'm not saying this decision can't benefit the game. It's just that I don't see how it can. But perhaps that's why I'm not designing games. I just hope this doesn't turn out to be another balance-breaking decision. I'll have to wait and see.

 

EDIT: It's cool that you show up and stand by your work, though. I hope it's not the last we'll hear from ya. Kudos.

 

Hmm. Are you also proponents of the "every player should get to the end" school of design? And Valve's "there's no point in designing stuff that are outside the scope of the average player (thus removing all incentive to go exploring because you always know that exactly everything Valve put into the game is lying on the main path)"?

Hopefully not. It sure doesn't look that way, from the way side-missions are handled...

[Baldur's Gate]

-> I was getting a bit tired of Liches at that point, so I actually got the Vongoethe quest, then left Amkethran - tow hich irenicus commented, 'good, we have better things to spend our time on anyway'. I suppose that didn't do so much good. Your talk of reviving Chapter 6 dream and stuff utterly confuses me though, that never happened at all. Hrm.

You probably went too fast. In one of those rest-triggered sequences, you should have that dream about Ellesime and the Tree of Life again, and Irenicus will freak out. A crucial conversation comes after that.

 

 

One thing that is currently bugging the crap out of me with regards to Baldur's Gate I and II is the abysmal selection of portraits. And the even worse ones people have on various sites around the internet. The male human mages that ship are either fruity (I'm looking at you, guy with purple outfit and his hands in the air) or Edwin. The ones online are cropped fantasy art or celebrity faces shopped onto the included portraits.

I always use NWN portraits. Not much better than the ones shipped with BG2, but they add variety and the art is similar, which helps not to break the feel...

 

As for Jaheira in BG1, that meant Khalid. So she loses by default...

[PETITION: PLEASE CHANGE THE INFINITE AMMO DESIGN]

And Chain Shot special ability makes a heck of a lot "sense", right?

Yeah, it does actually. It's a "superspy" setting after all, where that kind of stuff has a place. The ability to continuously create bullets out of thin air, I think, is putting a bit too much strain on suspension of disbelief.

 

I remember characters in The Matrix running out of ammo quite often, even with all their reality-bending powers. *shrug*

 

 

I'm for unlimited ammo, since shooting will hardly be essential in this game, if first looks and dev comments are of any indication. And anyways, if you ever come upon a situation where actually need more than a clip of ammo, you are one lousy spy. I don't think ammo management has a place here. The whole scavenging aspect is easy argue for in a game like Deus Ex and SS2, because they are shooters. Their primary gameplay(and please, I've played both, I know they are winnable with just the wrench/nightstick) mechanic was first person ranged combat, which was the most safe method of winning over the enemy.

 

Alpha just doesn't seem like a game where you could rely simply or even generally on your guns, so I think it's fair that the ammo management in streamlined away and the focus placed elsewhere.

Then why have stuff like combat shotguns, assault rifles, and skills that allow you to place three bullets in three heads in a split-second? Are you implying that all of that is "just for show"?

 

Meh. I reserve the right to change my opinion when more info is released, but just "it's really cool" and "we base a lot of our mechanics on that", isn't convincing at all.

[Baldur's Gate]

Ah, so it's not just me! I can deal with a lot of lag (like, uh, playing all of NWN2 at 5OC), but the game hanging for 10-20 seconds every time an enemy spawns, every time a contingency fires or at random spots during the battles - well, not exactly my thing.

10-20 seconds lag?

 

That's insane. I suffer about 2-3 seconds lag tops at the start of combat when triggers/contingencies are going off. I bow before your superior lag tolerance.

 

 

He wanted Abazigal's, and I had to guarantee him Balthazar's to ensure that he didn't do it then and there. When that dialogue ended, Irenicus did say he reserved the right to be persuaded to leave all souls until the end, and implied that I would have a chance to give one last shot at it. I did not, and that's where I thought there might have been some skipped talks.

There are three things that, as far as I know, are involved in swaying him. One is the deva quest, which apparently you solved successfully (for this purpose at least, keeping the essence for yourself has its own benefits). The second is the business with Vongoethe, the lich at Amkethran. If you fail to save Marlowe and/or the girl, Irenicus will be impressed, in the wrong way. The last thing is listening to his psycho ramblings. There is one conversation involving Ellesime and Suldanessellar that you must complete in order to have him reflect on his ways. I believe this comes after you revive the dream from Chapter 6.

 

I am not sure if being of evil alignment could interfere with the process, however. When I played evil characters, I never tried redeeming him.

 

 

I won't pretend that I am a D&D guru of any sort, but I found that due to the shortness of weapons, she was never dealing that much damage or able to soak up a lot. Shapechanging becomes not as effective in higher levels, and she was quickly relegated to a back-line spellcaster - for which Viconia, etc. are superior.

Viconia is a great backup caster, but she's not quite as good at the offensive. Ironskin, Conjure Animals, Blade Barrier, Righteous Magic, Heal(!), etc make Jaheira pretty formidable in CQ. Throw in Fighter HLAs and one of those giant strength girdles, and she's a monster. The problem is, again, finding a suitable weapon, and the amount of micromanagement she needs in a fight compared to "fire and forget" regular tanks. I think her versatility is her strong point.

[Baldur's Gate]

I read that in the descriptions, but never really noticed it happening. I'll have to try that again if I go back to my game.

It's a distinct component, so it's possible you didn't install it.

 

 

The real problem with SCSII has been that it's made BG2 lag. My machine is pretty crap but it used to be able to handle BG2 fine - with SCS2, I think it's the scripts, every time some monsters / NPCs spawn in an area the game hangs for a few seconds. I may have to give up on the mod, though I enjoy what it does.

Yep, it lags for me too, and I can run Crysis... I don't think the engine was designed to deal with that kind of scripting. But to me it's definitely worth the trade-off.

 

 

Certainly. The mod is written very well in general, I thought, because while there *are* 'Paladin Good' options (smite evil!), the dialogue is generally complex and not always obvious as to how irenicus will respond. I probably had Irenicus insisting on the Bhaalspawn souls because I was hesitating between wanting to see him stick it out to the end, and my Lawful Evil protagonist personality - and in the end I suppose he decided that I didn't do enough to convince him. I was just thinking that there was a sort of gap between two 'Talks' that made me think, was this just the writing, or did I miss something? After all, BG2 companion talks are notorious for skipping, stopping, being stuck in the same talk, etc (Jaheira Lovetalk for instance).

 

It's a good mod and I think I'll try it later on with a Good character. The only gripe I have is that the personality of the writer(s) slips through sometimes. I understand the primary contributor is Dorotea, whose Bitter Grey Ashes I have read some of - and you sometimes get her kind of 'pastoral' tone in the PC's options which I didn't always appreciate, and Irenicus sometimes tends to talk like a snarky internet forum personality (sort of like a badly written Edwin). Heh. But the quality is overall very nice.

Honestly, I could never get into fanfic (of an kind), but I have a feeling I wouldn't like it, based on the mod. While I liked how Irenicus' personality was treated, I didn't like the dialogues much.

 

The mod is great for one thing, though. Depending on player actions, there are some 4-5 different endings for Irenicus, some of them pretty grim (and not necessarily for Irenicus!). Also, his reactions are heavily affected by how the player deals with some in-game events whose relation to Irenicus isn't apparent. If he chose to take Balth's soul, it's possible you missed out (or botched) one of these. Notably, if you did Watcher's Keep during SoA, swaying Irenicus' ways is unfortunately no longer possible. But taking a soul is a perfectly acceptable solution for an evil party, I think. In my opinion the mod aced that aspect, in that he seems much more alive and free than any other vanilla NPC, despite his circumstances. His long-winded tirades and the dialogue music they chose however, were a bit grating on my nerves.

 

 

Never liked Jaheira much. Gameplay-wise Fighter/Druid is not something I appreciate (esp. since if she is your only priest character, she loses some of the heal/buff spells), and character-wise she just nags a lot. But yeah, with Minsc going berserk I was wondering how the likes of her and Keldorn might have reacted.

I agree with Tale. I used to think like you, until I got the fixes to her romance and took her all the way to ToB. She's a fairly competent offensive caster, and as a character, she's more credible and less silly than most others... Finding good weapons for her in the endgame is difficult, though.

[Dutch Embassy bombed in Pakistan]

Hmm. I need to visit Portugal.

[Baldur's Gate]

You can't target an improved invisible creature, so you can't remove their immunity, I believe that's the problem? True Sight?

With SCSII, that's not the case anymore, as Spellstrike (and possibly Ruby Ray, etc as well) is now area-based instead of target-based.

 

No more win button for the AI.

 

 

The Longer Road mod decided that the Evil Irenicus will take the soul of Balthazar and fashion himself alive again, and Minsc didn't like it, going hostile and letting rip on my party. Not too pleased because I dont' think I really got a fair shot at persuading him to wait until the end for another solution (I think one or two talks were left out due to bugginess). Wondering now whether to fiddle around with global variables and try and reverse it, go without Minsc or just abandon it altogether - I never really enjoyed the Melissan battle, anyway.

Chances are the mod didn't "decide" anything, you did. I don't know if you were aiming for Irenicus' "good" ending, but it's 100% dependant on player choices how he acts regarding his bargain with the PC.

 

And with Jaheira it's even worse - she can *smell* whether Irenicus will give up on being an evil SOB or not, even before he actually gets to do anything!

[PETITION: PLEASE CHANGE THE INFINITE AMMO DESIGN]

And if you get shot you can't just walk it off or pick up a medkit to instantly bring yourself back up to full health. When you get hurt, you lose your ability to fight well, rather than remaining perfectly capable until the last slimmer of hit points go down. In spy movies, there is no HUD or pause menu (except for whatever you're watching it on).

Nope. Not in any of the examples I used, anyway. In those, heroes and villains are constantly receiving insane amounts of physical punishment, and walking out of it, no problem. And any attacks that would kill or seriously cripple them are resolved as "close calls", unless there's a plot reason to inflict a serious injury on a major character.

 

It's not too much of a stretch to assume that the game mechanic that represents "hit points (or whatever)" is not a simplification of all the variables on which health is dependant, but merely a representation of how close the character is to receiving a fatal injury. I thought this was pretty obvious.

 

Again, it's not realism. It's in-universe consistency.

 

 

I don't indiscriminately use my resources, thank you very much.

Then I don't see how finite ammo could be a problem. Survival horror games and metal slug don't really support your points. This is a completely different kind of game, and design features that defined ammunition availability factors in those games are not the same here.

 

 

Just out of curiosity, are you looking at Alpha Protocol as a PC game that is being adapted to consoles? Because I'm definitely looking at it the other way around, a game designed primarily for consoles, that is also happening to get a simultaneous PC port.

 

So if infinite ammo is something that appeals to the console gamers mindset, then they definitely should include it.

Ouch. You might have hit the nail on the head there.

[Dutch Embassy bombed in Pakistan]

Any graphic depiction of Muhammad is strictly in the Muslim religion. It's like the equivalent of forcing a Jew to eat pork.

No. It's like the equivalent of some dude eating pork, then some insane Jew passes by, and decides that said dude is a hideous infidel and must be blown to bits for it.

 

Fun, eh?

[Baldur's Gate]

SCS2's Improved Invisibility/Shadow Door + Immunity: Abjuration/Divination combo is really ticking me off, since there's no way at all to actually attack or dispel the mage for a good 10 rounds while he/she is free to dish out Horrid Wiltings and whatever.

Doesn't the SCSII modded Spellstrike tear down Spell Immunity?

 

 

Every time I play ToB it gets me how barren the game is, it really would have been nice to have it as a proper part of the trilogy - expanding Amkethran and Saradush to even half the size of Athkatla, or even adding in a big Tethyrian city. As it is all the dungeoning does get a bit repetitive.

Yes, half-assed comes to mind. But it *is* just an expansion after all...