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TheHarlequin

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Everything posted by TheHarlequin

  1. All of those depend on your mythos - hell, even Dracula only used one, maybe two of those and it's often cited as the base of most modern Vampire stories. You mean they might not have a weakness to garlic? Damn, I thought I was safe because I love me some garlic. Clearly you didn't read my blurb on vamp history. If you did you'd know garlic has been thought to be ward of vampires long before the victorian era. However the running water, sunlight, crosses and mirror adversion are more recent weaknesses. The traditonal ways to ward off or slay a vampire were garlic/salt, blessed oils/water, digging up the corpse the buring the body or/and cutting off its head or/and stake in the heart*. pre-victorian era these were the only known way to harm a vampire. *Orginially the stake wasn't to kill the vampire put was to 'pin' the body into the coffin to prevent it from rising at night. This is where the whole stake only paralizes vampires comes from. In dracula didn't they make a point that basically the vampire has to run around with the soil he was buried in in order to rest? The entire third act was the characters finding and eliminating Draculas hiding/resting places until the come across the last one (where he's resting)? If I recall correctly, that was a victorian invention as well. I do not recall anything like that in my readings of vampire mythos until about time the victorian writers starting in on it. May even be a bram creation or taking the concept of the existing lore one step further. ie If the vampire returns to his grave after he feeds makes sense to say he can ONLY return in the place he was orginially buried. If you wish I'll crack some of my books open and find the exaxt source of that lore if you are so inclined.
  2. This is why my PC runs like a charm. I don't install a ton of invasive software. I have read steam is very invasive on several tech forums.
  3. All of those depend on your mythos - hell, even Dracula only used one, maybe two of those and it's often cited as the base of most modern Vampire stories. You mean they might not have a weakness to garlic? Damn, I thought I was safe because I love me some garlic. Clearly you didn't read my blurb on vamp history. If you did you'd know garlic has been thought to be ward of vampires long before the victorian era. However the running water, sunlight, crosses and mirror adversion are more recent weaknesses. The traditonal ways to ward off or slay a vampire were garlic/salt, blessed oils/water, digging up the corpse the buring the body or/and cutting off its head or/and stake in the heart*. pre-victorian era these were the only known way to harm a vampire. *Orginially the stake wasn't to kill the vampire put was to 'pin' the body into the coffin to prevent it from rising at night. This is where the whole stake only paralizes vampires comes from.
  4. Just finished my first play though. Generally agree with the last few posts. Some thoughts in no specific order; - While I still take issue with the many poor enviromental textures the PC/NPC models and combat FX are VERY well done and look amazing. - The game world is ok. Not poor but nothing to write home about. They tried the same formula with the demihumans which made it feel 'more of the same'. Both races in massive decline in favor of men. Both have 'lost' most of their power, knowledge and skills over the past 1000 yrs. Seeing dwarves remind me of klingons (feigned honor, assination common to get up in the ranks, family houses at war with each other all the time, the houses make up the gov body, having to prove your warriorhood in combat/proving grounds, you race in decline but your more interested in political infighting, etc) and elves the equivlant of fodder. To me stripping the more common archtypes of elves and dwarfs didnt make it more interesting just makes it... odd. IMO at least and I wasn't impressed, as they tried TOO hard to make it different. It feels forced because it is. I did however like the various human nations and how they were interweaved historically. I found that very interesting. - The main story was good. As interesting or captivating as say MotB? No but for the most part solid and good none the less. I felt more I was playing though a slighty warped story version of LotR then a 'orginial' setting/story. But for what it is, it was good. - Some of the NPCs were REALLY well done and I did feel a kinship to some. Thats to there credit. Where they faultered on the game world, story writting they IMO made up for it in some of the great charactorzations and dialog with party members and NPCs you meet. - Once I installed the add 25 tactical slots to the party mod and the respec mod most of my issues with the combat want away. I could then macromanage the fighting and not micromange it. Much more enjoyable just controling this char and that char as I wanted to rather then touching every one every 5 sec. By default they should have made this game turn based, if they WANT you to by design to touch every char every 5 sec (as been told to me in other threads thats the point) then make the damn game turn based rather shoe horn real time into turn based mechanics. *shrugs* - Once you took away the combat I found the story, as a whole, short and the ending more or less rushed. Get these x amount of objects then go kill the bad guy aka go get these 3 ppl to agree to these alliacnes then we attack the demon. Typical bioware plot just more fluff this time around. Reminds me of the crappy nwn1 plot in fact as its core. But what they lack for being original they make up mostly in executition. As this time around the make this basic framework plot vastly more interesting then nwn1. With much better NPCs and while still in your face foreshadowing, at least as a whole more interesting and involving even if the basic endings to many of the subplots was predictable. - I will prob play it once more though and this time romance leh rather the morg. I have to admit one of the BEST parts of the game was the ending and how your actions effected the game world. That aspect of the game was well done and not only quite interesting to read but leaves a lot of room for a xp or sequal. As a whole a good CRPG, certainly has its faults, some more glaring then others, but a good solid CRPG that has its share of very well done aspects. Now I finished it I'd give a overall score of 7.5 which I think is respectable. A 8.0 if they would fix the massive poor texture issues.
  5. I only use impulse. Its less invasive and easy to remove if I so choose. Plus the cool thing about impulse (and may be the case for steam don't know) is if I buy a DVD ver of a game and install it, and its for sale by impulse, impluse will flag it on my impulse account. So if I ever got to reinstall it again it will then show up on my 'purchased' list of games on impulse. Never have to install via the dvd again. This has happened for 3 games so far. Its a cool and useful feature.
  6. Why would you expect them to? Steam, Impulse, D2D, GOG, Greenhouse Games, Gamer's Gate, etc. are all distinct competing services, there's no reason why everything should be available on all. If I was a publisher I'd want my game to be on as many as possible. Basic retail 101 really.
  7. Am I in error, or do some games NOT come to impulse but only steam? If so... sadness...
  8. Perhaps if your country, you know, produced some entertainment themselves you could watch it rather then being at the mercy of the US networks. Oh wait, thats right have a sense of entitlement and lash out at the hand that feeds you. Standard MO.
  9. Good luck with your "my religion is more real than your religion" argument. Oh, and happy Thanksgiving. Not my argument at all. In fact not a argument period. Take away the emotional tone/personal opinion of my post and it's fact. *shrugs* - Most xian holidays are based on pagan holidays; fact - Most secular historians agree the mythos of jesus was a mix of other mythos that pre-dates the name called jesus. Such as osiris of ancient egypt; fact My distain for the xian religion is based on the reality its all about power, control and influence thus the concepts of helping your fellow man, being open minded and loving everyone has fallen by the way side. Now its all about stipulations... ill help you but only if you follow my specific religion (otherwise ill look the other way)... ill love you but only if you are not gay (otherwise ill scream at you in the street you are going to burn in 'hell')... ill forgive you but only if you follow the rules made by the church/man and not a higher power (because the pope is infallibale and talks to god however yet he says using magick is the devils work but the priest can transmute the host/wine into blood and the body of jesus but thats not 'magick' its a 'ritual'. Or a pagan wearing black for their ritual is the color of the 'devil' yet what color is the preist wearing when not in his robes? All priests must be working for the devil too apparently..) The hypocrisy and double standard in most xian religons is what bothers me. I am pretty sure if jesus did exist in the context of the bible he'd have already wiped these followers from the earth as they totally warped what he was trying to get across. Best bumper sticker ever 'Jesus please save me.. from your followers' In the end I do not think any religion is 'better' then the next. Follow whatever works for you (and of the xians understood and followed that most of my issues with them would be moot). However I still have a right to call foul and hypocrisy when I see it.
  10. The vampires of fiction are HIGHLY more entertaining then those of reality. Perhaps not as interesting however.
  11. It would be but OTOH I am not holding my breath. I am looking forward to the WoD MMORPG however.
  12. It's not really a religious holiday in any way. I wasn't implying that it was. I meant that we have a ton of weird old pagan holiday here that no one else has. Pagan holidays > then the xian ones IMO (that were stolen from the pagans to start with... xmas, easter, may day, all saints day all orginally pagan holidays) Other words be happy you have some pagan holidays still and not force fed the fictional xian garbage.
  13. Indeed. Wonderful holiday built upon the decimation and exploitation of the native american peoples... ermm wait..
  14. You sir win best quote of the week award! LOL
  15. No, not Gary. The dude in the night club. Heh. And yet, he is one of the few characters in the game that reflects the fact that vampirism is, you know, a curse. That Nosferatu girl being the other, but only incidentally. Everyone else is partying around in their new soulless, blood-drinking, god-forsaken state just fine. I mean, who wouldn't want to be a monster? For the first centruy or two wouldn't you? I'd think it would take a couple centuries for the 'fun' to wear off and realize under all the power and bells its a curse as you loose more then you gain as a whole. Some may come to that sooner then others but after the shock of getting turned and the immediate loss of family and friends dies down wouldn't you try to make the best of it and enjoy your new unlife? Until you realize many years later your a static being, going nowhere while the world passes you by. After a few centuries you've prob done all you wanted to in life what do you got to look forward too by then? read everything you wanted, studied all the topics you have interest in, seen the world, prob $ success after all that time as well... you need to start making artifical goals to make life worthwhile and thats when the tortured soul I think comes to the surface. Later in the vampire life not at the start.
  16. Agreed on all points. As I said we have the victorian writers to thank for our current view and vampire mythos. As they totally changed the perception of the legends. The beautiful, tortured soul, tactful vampire in a vampire clan has a lot more romance and story possibilities then the traditonal vampire a unfeeling, grotesque spirit who feeds in ones dreams/sleeping only.
  17. I think its fair to say, BOTH could be considered a 'glam' like effect. I suppose I am getting at I saw persuade as a vampire specific innate trait for all vamps, clan irrelivant. The more powerful one being dominate. But all vamps have the ability to memorize/charm someone with the persuade skill. Again it would fit with historical vampire lore if that was the case.
  18. Then have a flag for every area. chat=0 no possibility for random banter, chat=1 then a chance. this way you can set what areas are appropite for such and no talk about shoes in the deep roads for example.
  19. Once it comes to impulse im buying it!
  20. Was it ventrue who had dominate not torie? I suppose thats correct. As I said eariler I am pretty rusty on my v:tm knowledge. Either case yes I was reffering to the dominate clan ability vs persuade skill. I have no idea what the devs were thinking but if I was to make a guess as I said above I think they saw dominate as a very blunt way to command someone and persuade as a more subtle, tectful way to worm your way into a mortals mind. While the destination may be the same the journey, long term effects isn't. ie if I 'persuaded' the club girls I could keep going back to them and hook up without the need to use the charms anymore. Dominate once you did they more of less forget about you and had to dom them again. Seems they are 2 very different ways to get to the same point is what I am trying to get at.
  21. Not sure why they choose to make hot spots for inter-party dialog. A random timer would have been much better I think and make more sense.
  22. I was under the impression that vampires as sexy didn't really exist until the Victorian era. If the seduction skill was just symbolizing Glam, wouldn't that mean that it, intimidate, and persuasion should have just been consolidated into one? Exactly.. as I said "Then the victorian era hit and writers took the solitary, ugly, monster vampires and 'cleaned' them up in their stories. Made them sexual, beautiful preditors." I think since the historical ability to glam (for lack of a better term off the top of my head) is there and has been there in lore as far back as their have been vampires, seeing the persuade skill as such isn't a hard sell IMO. I think a mortal persuading and a vampire is almost apples and oranges. If you look at the torie ability to glam ingame its much more a hypnotize, mind control blunt ability unlike the subtle persuasion skill as the persuade dialog options come across. At least IMO. The persuasion is more covert, subtle 'suggestions' where as the clan disp is more direct, blunt and pretty subtle-less, at least how I saw it.
  23. *puts mage cap on* Here is trying to put several hundred pages of histroical vampire history/lore in a short internet post... heh Vampires have existed in one form or another in pretty much every culture in most every time period in written human history. Starting long before xiananity in fact. Traditionally they, generally (depending on culture can vary widely but trying to use the most commen elements for the sake of clarity, berevity) were seen as solitary, grostque looking spirits that visited you in your sleep/dreams. They drained your of energy, life. (what today we call psychic vampires) those 'attacked' could rarely resist and were at the vampires mercy (aka glamed). Then over time/cultures the body fluid/blood element seeped into the lore. And then some cultures started seeing the vampires as physical entites and no longer spirit form. Still solitary, ugly and visted at night however when the person slept. Then in europe and eventually the american colony the church influenced the lore to the effect they were rising from the dead from graves. Either those working with the xian devil, possessed in life or body after death, and other such related explanations. Then the victorian era hit and writers took the solitary, ugly, monster vampires and 'cleaned' them up int heir stories. Made them sexual, beautiful preditors. Some of the weakness we know about were taken from the ancient lore (eg silver/garlic) others just made up/exagerated during this time period (running water, sun light). Same with their strenghts, traditions (coming out at night, draining, galem powers, shape shifing). Then by the late 20th century they evolved further into vampires being part of clans, groups, vampire hiearchy, etc. Credit to WW for really putting that concept in the general lore of vampires during the early 90s. They also helped foster the idea of werewolves vs vampires also but did not orignate it however. So yes, the glam like ability has been with the lore of vampires for quite awhile across time periods and many cultures.
  24. Nah, he joins you when you find the anvil.I could've done the party banter at Lothering since the loading time was small there, but was lazy. Oghren+Wynne haha I remember reading some official modules and SWAT officers and their equals had 5 points in some skills, like firearms. Really? hhmm might just be stats not skills then (which does make sense)... but I am pretty sure there is some limit on dots for mortals vs vampires. Unless I am totally thinking of another PnP game system... lol
  25. a. Not what I said or implied (like normal putting imaginary words in my mouth) b. if you knew modern vampire lore as much as you think you do you'd know vampires having a 'glam' like ability has been around for about 1000+ yrs in vampire writings/lore in one form or another.
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