Aristes

From a design point of view, I think using resources to put something in the game compels you to make use of it, but I don't think that the Children of the Atom are any worse than, say, Falls From Grace's diary. Something there to pique your interest but does nothing? Where I do agree is that if their only purpose is cosmetic, maybe the design team should let the player know. I also thought that Bethesda actually did give the player enough to do. I think the quests and plot could use some tightening, but we've been saying that since before this thread. On the other hand, I've always had the distinct impression that Obsidian designers are pretty much in agreement with most of you guys rather than me when it comes to these things. That's good, because most of you folks seem irritated with the current design whereas I'll probably be cool with most of what they decide to change. Hell, make the game more like Fallout 2. A huge map with enough time to roam and enjoy exploring, several settlements for quests, and a car? What's not to like? I even prefer Fallout 2's combat. Yeah, before the old ol' skoolers come out, I played Fallout 1 when it first came out and I still think Fallout 2 is the best game of the series, chess playing radscorpion and all.

I have to come out for quest xp also. I've long thought that we should not have xp for killing monsters and that we should get just as much xp for using stealth, charm, or intelligence to make it past encounters as we do for killing through them. That doesn't mean you can't force the players to face combat if that's part of the design, especially if that's the emphasis, but it does mean that players don't feel compelled to be a killing machine. I had never thought of it as "freeing up" the way I play, but that's spot on, Spidey.

See, I think Walsh is insane and he scares me. So I guess I would have to worship him also for fear of his retribution.

Keep the random roaming. I want to see a good portion of Las Vegas, but I also want to see the greater basin as well. In fact, the thing that made FO3 for me was the exploration. That's probably the biggest reason that I'm such a big fan. I would probably not have finished it if I couldn't enjoy the wandering. Now, I can see having the threads tied up better. Nevertheless, maybe a small cult is just that... a small cult. Maybe, just as real life, every single character or organization need not have larger ramifications. On the other hand, I Bethesda could probably have made their relative insignificance more obvious to the player. Whatever you do, don't reduce the area for wandering. Hell, in a lot of ways, FO3 was the smallest of the three. The Fallout franchise is built on wandering the wastes for crying out loud.

Actually, I agree that we're forced to make assumptions. We're also forced to make arbitrary decisions. Is the perfect speed limit 55? 35? How much of a risk is an acceptible risk? We can narrow things down, but folks make arbitrary decisions every single day. Do I want a sandwich right now or a bite of the Numbered One's steak? On the other hand, for a case like this, I'd like to have as accurate of information as possible. Of course, this is a message board, so we don't have to make the decision, thank God. BTW: Has my license to make up random **** been renewed? hehehe Oh my goodness, you guys are great.

Wha-- You have a worgen? The expansion's not even out you wretch! Meh. Do we have to change races to switch horde to Alliance? See, I think it would be great to have the races all mixed up. That would be awesome. Confuse the hell out of folks. Strangely, W:AR did not have nearly as many griefers. I think WoW is kind of in the middle of the pack. W:AR, where it's understood that the focus of the game is PvP, didn't have as many griefers when I played. Also, CoH was less griefer prone. It was actually difficult to grief folks in CoH, so you'd get some idiot complaining about someone "stealing" their kill. What? You mean they couldn't come into the area and kill all the quest givers and the flight master? Boy, you don't know what griefing is until you play a game where they can loot your body. I think griefers suck, but I also think that they're part of the online gaming world. If you don't like them, you can turn off trade and general chat and basically solo or just play with friends. Folks out in the playing areas really can't grief you all that much. Sure, someone can come into the area and kill all the quest givers and whatnot, but I've never seen someone cover every single area and I've rarely seen anyone grief an area too terribly long.

What? In the backstorty, not in items or character stats.

I would have to balk at giving up on two children 10-12. There would have to be more information, but that's my gut reaction. The premeditated nature of the crimes, combined with the fact that they did cause bodily harm to their victims, means that they must be punished, but life in sentence for a 10 year old child is a long time. It's quite doubtful he'd receive such a sentence for a single murder. This is one of those times I'm just glad someone else has to make the decision, because it would be terrible. I could sentence a child to life in 'prison' if and only if there were sufficient evidence that he was beyond any hope of rehabilitation and that he was a danger to him or the community. Otherwise a lesser sentence would be warranted. What I'd really like to know is what happened in their past.

I think a historical setting in... well... really any time period could be cool and needn't have any magic or have magic that is in no way related to the gameplay. However, a game without any fantasy elements probably wouldn't count as fantasy. That's a fertile ground for discussion also.

With another human being?

I think there's a lot the design team can do with any setting. High fantasy or low fantasy or modern or whatever, the design team can differentiate their game.

Yes, that's it! Great game done in by bad bugs. I was really looking forward to the other areas they were going to do. Greater Germany was the first game and they had plans for France and England I think. I loved the way they did everything using the real world map. It was very low magic also. I'm looking forward to Dragon Age, but it's definitely high fantasy. I'd heard at one point that it was going to be a low magic setting, but that doesn't seem to be the case now.

Scary? I got married. haha No, seriously, I do have something that happened to me, although it's more weird than scary. In September of 2001, I was putting together a technology conference for the diocese of San Bernardino. I was stressed as hell because the committee on which I served to throw the thing together had been virtually absent. None of the other members were responding to my calls and I had been forced to arrange virtually everything on my own. I had decided to serve my parish for a year after I earned my BA, and the year was up, so I was working gratis. Anyhow, during that month I started having nightmares. Not related to the conference, though. I had terrible nightmares that woke me up and I had them every night for about a week. I couldn't even sleep. It looked like the conference was shaping up at least, and all of my long hours were going to pay off. Then, two or three days before the conference, I was trying to sleep on the couch, so as not to keep my wife awake since I had such a hard time, the phone rings in the morning. My wife comes out of the bedroom and tells me to turn on the television. "Terrorists have attacked the Pentagon," she says. Okay, September 11 completely scrapped the entire conference. My out of town speakers couldn't fly in. The diocese cancelled everything for that month. Mayhem and horror etc. So, here's the weird thing that happened to me. I was taking out the trash later in the month for trash pickup. I have the can out at the curb and I looked up and I saw some sort of strange flying thing in the sky. It looked like a disk in the heavens. I looked at it and tried to figure out what it was, and it just looked like a lighted disk floating there. I distinctly remember thinking to myself, in a very calm way, "well, looks like we don't need to worry about terrorists." With all the surreal crap that had been going down, I just accepted that aliens were coming. Still, I didn't want to leave it at that, so I walked around trying to get a better look. Turned out that it was a blimp that I couldn't see properly. I laughed at myself and told the wife. I can't forget that feeling though. I was sure, with all the weird stuff that had happened, that it was an alien ship. End of the world type stuff, ya know?

Now, that actually made me laugh out loud this morning.

That's like saying you'd take special forces vs regular infantry. Well, in a way, although I'd never thought of it quite like that. Clever though, in the good sense. The English fielded longbowmen in their armies and I think they integrated their men at arms with mounted knights and longbowmen very well. They also managed to manipulate the French into some questionable tactical and strategic decisions, and I mean both when I say both. Contrary to some accounts, it seems pretty clear that the French did field Genoese crossbowmen, but they didn't deploy them well. The crossbowmen failed to sustain a rate of fire anywhere near the longbowmen. It's probably not quite a special forces v regular infantry thing, but it is an apt comparison and there's some truth to that. I don't want to derail the thread, but I do find it interesting to talk about how PC use the weapons in these games. I remember... Borderlands? Badlands? It was a game where you played mostly in Germany. There was quite a variety of weaponry from which to choose, but it all made sense in the setting. The game was so buggy that it got a bad rep, so the series ended at the first one and Microprose(I think) ended folding anyhow. In that game there were firearms, I think of the black powder variety. There were also bows and crossbows and I think the designers managed to catch the quirks of the weapons really well. I've fired a few crossbows before in real life. One rather large sumbitch and a hand crossbow that I'm sure would probably only serve to piss off someone chasing me. A good shot with it might have done the trick, though, and even if it wounded the other guy that would be a huge advantage. The thing about crossbows, and someone else said this already, is that you don't have to pull the bowstring for the initial shot. I don't know how long you could keep the crossbow pulled, but I imagine it would be longer than feasible for someone to walk around with a drawn boy. *shrug* Someone could correct me if I'm wrong. In a situation where you get an initial volley, literally having the draw on your opponent could come in handy, although I think the rapid rate of fire for a bow would be a great boon if you knew you were going to fight and could draw when needed. I've never fired a black powder firearm before, so I have no idea how that would work. Smoky, maybe? I'm sure that DA won't have black powder weapons, but I think they could be used in such a setting very well. Probably the biggest problem is folks getting nervous that it's going to end up steampunk instead of straight sword and sorcery. All this aside, I'm playing a mage, which I hope translates to ranged death for the bad guys. I like bows and all, but the point of playing a fantasy game is to weild magic. Now, if the setting were low magic, I'd be fine with it. The irony is, I'd probably play a sword and boarder.

I like 'Ace.' I'm jealous. I wish I had thought of it.

Good point. "Oh, I'm sorry good elf, didst I inadvertantly hack off thine arm whilst turning?" "Oh no, goodly knight, it was merely a clipping issue. No blood, no foul." With a dwarf, it'd be their head, but you get the picture. A little bit of clipping won't bother me personally, but a lot will and clipping could combine with other things to diminish my opinion of the game. Clipping and Zfighting and whatnot should be something good ol' alan could answer. heh heh Not that I'm fishing for info or anything.

For a small fee, I'll get over all of you.

It's not like the English and even some of the Scots aren't pissed off. *shrug* I've never been angry about this in the first place, but I can grit my teeth and try to turn green. RAAAWWWWWHHHHHHRRRRRR

Just had a flash flood warning. Seems as if my area, specifically my town and the surrounding towns, are under a flash flood watch. ...And I was just noticing the first leaves of autumn starting to fall during our 90+ degree weather. :shrug:

I used to own a bow, but it's gone now. I've shot several bows, my favorites being the beat up old bows at the Ren Faire and the bright red child's toy bow we had at a ren fairesque party. Ahem, sorry to go off topic. I'm sure they'll have bows and crossbows aplenty in Dragon Age. Maybe just one or the other, but probably both.

"and protestants." hahahahaha

I'd take an army of English Longbowmen or an army of Mongol horsebowmen over an army of crossbowmen any day. Crossbows have their advantages, but let's not forget the instances where the two armies met and the longbow clearly outdid the crossbow. That English runt, sharpening his bodkin head arrow on the steps of the local church was a fearsome person to face on the battlefield. That little bastard was strong and the vast majority of us here on this message board would have little chance of drawing his bow. Many of us would undoubtedly injure ourselves trying. *shrug* Let's have a good natured fight over bow vs crossbow. It's been a while.

lol You know, recently I mailed the administration and several congresspeople. I actually do write to my legislators when I'm angry. Sadly, not so much when I'm pleased. I firmly agree with the idea that citizens need to keep an eye on the government. I trust democratic institutions precisely because the citizens oversee these institutions, and you're right on in my thinking. In fact, that's what I take for granted is happening in Scottland. I take it for granted that the citizens of Scottland are providing oversight to the process. The courts can't be too hinkey because the people will undoubtedly see it. I also don't believe that democratic institutions are infallible. I just think they're the best choice we have. As far as the case against Megrahi goes... it's hard for me to find strong feelings in myself over it. Not because I don't believe it would be terrible that an innocent man be convicted. That is clearly terrible. Hell, I'm not even for a guilty man to be convicted by misuse of the process. That's the thing. If we can't trust the process, then we're screwed. I think the reason I'm so detached from the case is simply because so much of it is out of my hands and the main event occured while I was serving overseas and had a lot on my plate. In an intellectual sense, I'm more invested in this discussion than I am in the case itself. I heard that folks were outraged that he was being set free. Now I'm hearing folks outraged that he was convicted. I can't sort it out and I sure as hell hope the Scots are doing their job. Now, if any of the members here are from Scottland, I'd be interested to hear what they have to say. ...But, and this is the clincher for me, I'm always willing to step back from a position. I just need to see where I'm wrong and be genuinely convinced.

Aw, now you've called me an establishment guy. Them's fightin' words! lol No, seriously, I get you. I get both you and DI. It's just that... I don't have any real outrage over this. I've read a few articles and I guess I'm willing to hope for the best in Scottland. Maybe the real problem is, I'm not an angry American. This seems like an internal Scottish matter. We agreed to let them proscecute the offenders and we don't really have any hold over Megrahi. I honestly do think it sucks if the guy were wrongfully convicted. I guess the point is, someone has to sift through the facts and I'm just as happy to let the Scottish government do it for me. From day one, I always figured that this was out of our hands as Americans and out of my hands as an individual. I still believe that successfully exonerating Megrahi would validate the system. Yes, there might have been a grave injustice, but the system could correct itself. Even so, if I offended your intelligence, sahib, then I will gladly beg forgiveness. You know, if I were to be intellectually honest, I guess I would say that I'm probably more of an establishment guy than not. I don't like that fact, but it's true. I joined the military at 17. There are a large number of cops in my family. I have had a large number of cop friends. I'm thinking about applying to law school. Actually, I already have my recommendations, so I guess I'm more than thinking about it. I believe in democratic institutions. The point is, I'm an establishment guy. That doesn't mean I'm not willing to take on the establishment, but I'd rather take it on here for things relating to me personally than take it on in Scottland. As an aside, I once served on a jury and the judge, upon hearing that I have so many police officers in my family, asked if that would prevent me from being fair. I responded that even though I was related or friends with so many cops that I wouldn't let it bias me against the prosecution.