TheHarlequin

Please educate me, did bioware ever then RETRACT that statement? If I say to you my hair is black... and if 5 days go by or 5 years and I never say otherwise what color by default are you going to think of if I talk about my hair? If they however did make a new statement, retract that goal then so be it. My bad and I stand corrected. However... last I heard and even at least one recent review I read talked about it being a 'dark fantasy, low magic world'. So either I am not the only one who missed the memo or no memo was given. So you expect us to read minds on whats not valid anymore? Just 'expect' us to know I take it? Or is this the SOP of bioware now? Don't beleive anything we say when we talk about a new game in development. It may or may not change down the road (that part is fine) however we won't tell you what, if anything does. (You especially want to keep something 'small' like the setting ambigious and unclear when it changes. Because you know that makes a lot of sense and wont cause disappointment.) So tell me whats the cut off time. Anything said after x you should consider up for grabs if its still valid on bioware games? Whats x equal too just so I know? 6 months? 1 year? a day? Wow I can have such a field day with this... Sorry got ahead of myself... None the less considering the small amounts of magic this game has *I* consider it a low magic world still. *shrugs* It seems arguming its low magic or not is silly really. It is what it is and its certaily far less then most other D&D type CRPGs.

Enough said.

This is like volos 'I like pie' reply. About as much substance as such. Who said not to enjoy thanksgiving? I felt I implied clearly lets not also forget the backs of the people this holiday, indirectly, represent. You are taking what I said to the extreem and the fact is you know you are. Making implications I never said and putting words in my mouth. If you want to live in a candy coated bubble and never acknowledge anything but while light, love and bunnies then all the power to you. *shugs* Ignorance is bliss. I'm just surprised at how committed you are to riding the bitter train. It's also odd that in your Samhain celebration post, you failed to mention the prevalence of human and animal sacrifices in druidic and pagan religions. It's just the kind of hypocrisy that has forced me to change my opinion of you. Not bitter at all. Again you are confusing a negative emotion to a realistist/one who likes to understand where something comes from. The whys, hows, whos. Not just the ignorant surface knowledge some people are content with because it goes down easier. If you want to get into a discussion of the dark side of the modern pagan movement I'll be happy to discuss them. *shrugs* I have many times in face to face discussions with folks interested about wicca/paganism talked about the good, bad and ugly. In fact I even have said more then once considering how the pagans treated the xians for the first few centuries this may be karma biting us in the arse. The fact we are just now making a comeback in substantial numbers. Since we killed xians for sport for example. As for human sacrifice and samhain. I assume you are talking about the celtics or/and druids. Its not certain humans were sacrificed, as least nothing beyond circumstantial data has been uncovered thus far. At least last I read about the topic. Since the druids and celts didnt write much at all we only have 3rd party accounts of them and their culture. Mostly romans and their records of the celts have been considered suspect (biased, exagerated) by the modern historical community.

Does it matter? No. They are going to let age old grudges and selfish attitudes dictacte policy not rational, logical thinking. I am all for sitting back and letting them go at it. Kill each other until the red sea IS red then perhaps after the attrition on both sides they will get it out of their system and be reasonable. Neither REALLY want peace so its NEVER going to happen. And I am not speaking about joe or sally on the street I am refering to their govt leaders. I think if joe or sally had a real say this would have been over with a while ago (generally speaking as some joes and sallys are just as ignorant, short sighted and bigoted as their leaders are).

I am a tool? Pot meet kettle.. *chuckle* If only you could read half your posts removed from your own POV. As for your comment, your opinion of 'low magic' is just that. Your opinion not fact. I love how you are trying to walk a very thin line of being 'right' and yet not saying bioware is wrong since both are contrary to one another. As I said before you are entertaining in the text gymnastics you try to pull off. Fail at, but hey, A for effort fruity.

Then bioware lied as they said it was. *shrugs* So which is it?

For the love of the gods... you whine about this as if its the end of the world. Yet the alternatives would disrupt the flow of the setting. They did it that way to make it a low magic world. So you DON'T have to pop pots like water every 3 mins nor include a 'rest' feature as you (and others) would be complaining about that too. Its pretty clear they were trying to keep it as low magic as possible and thus way IMO they did some of the things they did. Otherwise it would be a 'dark, low magic world' in name only if the only way to heal was popping pots after every encounter. Really what choice did they have if they wanted to make it as low magic as possible? Its all fluff and symantics anyways if you think about it. heal pots, heal kits, rest/camp feature or auto heal. ALL do the same thing in the end. So whats the big deal?

At least in a Bethesda game, Shale would have been replaced by a huge yellow exclamation mark. How awesome would that be? From my understanding that only happened with the console versions of the DLC.

Seems A for effort at the very least. The FX makes my eyes bleed but if you can put that aside it seems to really try to be a good tactical game. The time period not my cup of tea but to each their own. Really seems a lot of indepth effort went into this title.

This is like volos 'I like pie' reply. About as much substance as such. Who said not to enjoy thanksgiving? I felt I implied clearly lets not also forget the backs of the people this holiday, indirectly, represent. You are taking what I said to the extreem and the fact is you know you are. Making implications I never said and putting words in my mouth. If you want to live in a candy coated bubble and never acknowledge anything but while light, love and bunnies then all the power to you. *shugs* Ignorance is bliss.

The good: > - Partymembers. Fantasy is a pretty juvenile setting in itself, but the characters do not behave like they are written by a 14-year old. There's actually some mature behaviour going on. Me likey. Agreed. > - The silly british accents that only exist in Dickens novels. ehh.. can take it or leave it. > - The colorpalette. It is like it is run through a brown filter. Funny I heard the EXACT same gripes with AoC. problem is they were trying to go for low fantasy... where bright colors were restricted to nobles and the like. And most commoners wore blacks, tans and browns. As they were all natural. How do you represent a early medieval low fantasy setting with everyone in eye popping colors? Again they were saying the same thing about AoC and 'not enough colors for clothing'. Well do you want a realistic representation or not? I think they hit the nail on the head art design wise for this game. Just as they did with AoC. And if they did go crazy with the colors you'd same someone else here posting how 'unrealistic the color pallette is'. *shrugs* its really a no win situation for them. > Even at the highest setting, it seems like all the textures are still blurry. I do not know if it is the game itself or a driver issue with my graphics-card. Not you. Epic fail on whoever did the textures. They are low res, blurry. > The Blood. Argh! It seems like it was put there in a rush. It is not the amount of blood that i am talking about, rather it being badly designed and esthetically very displeasing. I turned it off. Its silly and takes away from the game IMO.

I disagree. We may have differing expectations of what it means to be "effective" but my 2H warrior build that I am playing through has largely been me sticking to my 2H warrior the entire time. That doesn't excuse they way they implemented it though. I guarantee this is not the case. I've done it. We will disagree then. I HAVE enountered more abilities then slots. Its not a fantasy situation. Why didnt you just make it so all party members have 25 slots like the mod does? Why hand out slots like a prize? Its a poor way to do it. At least we agree on that. Well you must have found a magic vendor I never found that has unlimited heal pots. I found unlimited CRAFTING supplies, not pre-made pots. And the way the party goes though them you need A LOT over the course of the game if you are not going to craft your own.

Indeed. Wonderful holiday built upon the decimation and exploitation of the native american peoples... ermm wait.. Thanks for ruining a thread where folks were expressing their thanks for one another. What a ray of sunshine! So you rather we forget and just sweep under the rug what we did the native americans. Because histroy shows forgetting/covering over your past (mistakes or otherwise) always works out when moving forward... Just because you wish to look the other way does not make the facts any less. Sorry to be the stick in the mud, but I call it like I see it. Appologizes if they shatters your little bubble of this holiday nothing more then singing songs holding hands. Perhaps if you were like me and worked with a tribe and see the ills first hand you'd have a better appreciation then your tunnel vision, sweep under the rug attitude. You didn't call it like you see it, because Thanksgiving is not at all built upon the decimation and exploitation of American peoples. Your commentary is irrelevant with respect to Thanksgiving, which is literally just giving thanks to God for bountiful harvests. Even if you include the "first thanksgiving," it most definitely wasn't built upon the exploitation and decimation of native american peoples. Your commentary was to start ****, but based purely on grasping at straws. a-hem Please don't make thanksgiving a religious event. Has nothing to do at its core with your xian god. Thats a more recent coat of paint because xians just have to toss their god into everything it seems *shrugs*. 'Giving thanks' can have many meanings does not mean it has to involve any higher power. One can be a atheist for example and be thankful for what they have. So by your view if you are not a xian you can't celebrate/enjoy that holiday? That said, while no the holiday does not have anything, directly, to do with what the colonists/country did to the natives it was however a slap in their face none the less. The natives pulled the colonists arse out of the fire so they wouldn't starve in the winter and what did they get in return for THEIR 'thanks'? Their lands confiscated, plague infected blankets and bring pushed to the brink of obliteration and loosing their culture. So yes you are technically correct. However indirectly it is assoicated, the natives in hindsight should have let them starve. *shrugs* Sadly they really got the meaning of no good deed goes unpunished...

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I am not 'Relabelling' anything. Its the standard abbr thats been used since at least the 1600s by xians themselves. Foot.. meet mouth..

Indeed. Wonderful holiday built upon the decimation and exploitation of the native american peoples... ermm wait.. Thanks for ruining a thread where folks were expressing their thanks for one another. What a ray of sunshine! So you rather we forget and just sweep under the rug what we did the native americans. Because histroy shows forgetting/covering over your past (mistakes or otherwise) always works out when moving forward... Just because you wish to look the other way does not make the facts any less. Sorry to be the stick in the mud, but I call it like I see it. Appologizes if they shatters your little bubble of this holiday nothing more then singing songs holding hands. Perhaps if you were like me and worked with a tribe and see the ills first hand you'd have a better appreciation then your tunnel vision, sweep under the rug attitude.

Agreed. Should have taken a page from nwn2. If my str is high enough I can bash the lock open but risk breaking anything fragile inside (pots, gifts, etc)

Correct you can.

Made lel a DW in med armor and she kicks serious arse while my warrior pc and alistar took the brunt of the attacks. shes backstabbing left and right while the monsters are focused on the heavly armored peeps.

I agree with this. Anyone that wants to play the game only controlling their main character pretty much has to take party tactics. It existed before I got there and since it was already in the game, I knew they weren't going to bother taking it out with the PC version finished. Having said that, outside of combat training for rogues/warriors, I think most skills are not particularly necessary. I had 3 or 4 points of herbalism on one character, but never bothered to really learn any higher level potions, nor bothered to collect materials for making them. Poisons I started out getting, but ultimately didn't care for them either. By the end of the game I was dumping points into survival simply because it at least gave me some persistent benefits. Abilities like crafting and poisons may be more necessary on higher difficulty levels, but it's pretty easy to beat the game without them on normal difficulty. As someone who enjoys macromanaging a battle I can say the amount of tactic slots you get are not nearly enough even with the skill maxed. I am using the add 25 slots to every PC in your party mod and 75% though the game with morg I used up EVERY slot. lel with all her abilities came close as well. To just control your pc and EFFECTIVLY have the other PCs manage themselves without a lot fo hand holding you need more then 6 slots by the time your 1/3 though the game as your abilities outnumber your tactic slots. What they should have done is start everyone with 8 slots, 1 adds per lvl and every skill point in tactics add another 3. THAT would have been much more worth while and giving the player enough slots to manage the chars. As it is now by the time you burn slots telling them when to heal themsevles, drink pots for mana and spcial abilities you hardly have any slots left over for anything else. They it seems, on purpose, crippled the tactics so you are forced to micromanage fights. And there is NO way to beat the game on normal without one PC having herbal skill to make pots. There just are NOT enough pre-made ones for sale.

Thats the attitude I deal with all the time as someone in IT. 'Well I got a pretty decent box so what if I got 9 apps running at start up?' and then in the next breath 'why does my app keep crashing?'. Wish I charged by the amount of start up apps I disabled when working on a clients machine not hourly. I'd be rich. The more non-required apps you have running in the back ground the larger odds you will run into some kind of conflict. Plus why give those resouces to apps that have nothing to do with the game you are playing and are not using? Also most games still take advantage of only one core so all those background apps are taking away from your game.

Well some other people said that Impulse causes cancer, I'm staying away from that. They are different, but "invasiveness" is not really one of the differences. As said above your post I dont need to start impulse to play a game. Right there impulse wins IMO. Its a very light client, lighter then steam.

Why the elves first? Going to the elves first doesn't give you anything other than experience. Why not go to the mages first? The circle gets you a healer and all the upgrades in the fade. I find wynn moot (I kill her in fact). With the respec mod I turned morg into a nice balance between healing and combat. As for the mages tower you got a point. However I found the elves quest much more managable and as a whole combat easier. (NOT including optional fights) My party on normal chewed though the werewolves like a hot knife though butter. Not sure if it was my party comp (pc human DW warrior, alister 1h/shield, morg and leh) or simply luck. But went though it twice 2 far and both times found it a bit easier AND quicker then the mage tower. Plus those extra levels helps you by the time you do get to the mages tower and red cliff which in turn make those encounters easier to manage. A very nice domino effect I found. Clearly the 'scaling' for DA is broken as grom implied.

As stated above redcliff NOT the first place to go to. Epic fail on devs for, as said above, having the npcs tell the player to go there asap. here is a good order to address the treaties that worked for me; elfs mages redcliff and assoicated quests ozzy From the easiest to most difficult I'd say. And anyone who tells you 'all the encounters scale equally you can do them in any order' is full of bunk. Period.

In the first paragraph it basically states de-regulation good, regulation bad. Thats what got us in this mess in the first place, de-regulation. Plus out of all the states, texas is far from a role model. Worst obesity problem in the entire country, run by bible thumping wing nuts who don't understand this is a secular country not a xian one and one who walks all over seperation of church/state every chance they get. One of the last large rep. strongholds in the country and the reps certainly don't use fair tactics to keep it that way. Sure if you de-regulate, let business do what that want and 'police' themsevles, care little for the enviroment and make it all about making a $ over every other concern then of course you are going to spur economic growth. But you'll pay for that down the road. Short term gain usually means long term pain in this context.