TheHarlequin

5 ranks in Subterfuge/Appearance would be the maximum any human would be able to achieve (or did they "retcon" this reference point later?), so I'm not surprised that you get the girls so easily. Also, be cover your spoilers please. If I recall my V:tM rules correctly (I may be wrong been awhile) mortals could not get to 5 dots in a skill/stat only supernaturals could. Which if my memory serves correctly helps validate my point.

I didn't play that option but let me take a shot in the dark what happens... Side with How close am I?

I generally agree with your assessment but there were some really good designed aspects of the deep roads too in all fairness. Sadly they were not consistent thoughout is my issue. It did near the end seem artifical. Battles for the sake of battles. But as a whole I'd give the deep roads a solid B rating, some aspects a B+ or A-. I left orzzy for the last treaty quest and glad I did. Can't imagine some of the fights lower level... I didn't play though but pretty obvious what happens.

> I was thinking about that, but the seduction skill didn't really seem like it was a vampire power in particular. The Vampire seduction ability of common lore seemed more like it'd be a vampire specific power rather than something more general, like Intimidate and Persuasion. Having said that, it's because of the vampire lore that I was able to accept it. I would have been more inclined to accept it as a Toreador blood skill, except that's not the way the WoD rules worked from what I can tell. I can see all such skills persuasion, intimadate, etc all being amplified to your PC being a vampire. I don't know about you but even on my best day with my A game on max meeting a girl as a club, and 3 mins later sucking on her neck while a pretty good fantasy isn't going to happen. Only reasonible explanation for that, game setting wise, is your 'persuasion' is much more powerful (per se) then the mortals ability to do the same. > Did you not see it from a million miles away that the Prince was playing you? I thought EVERY vamp was out to get me. Prince included. > Was it not obvious that the Nines you saw outside Grout's wasn't Nines? Yes HOWEVER I didn't see what was going to happen or who/what 'he' was until the end. > How could you not see that the Malkavian/Ventrue sisters were the same person? Not during the first encounter though after the second my spider sense was going off. > Bloodlines had good writing, but it's just as in your face with the foreshadowing. Unless you're an idiot I suppose. See this is the difference. While I was able to pick up a scrap of 'yes the prince is untrust worthy' or 'WTF is going on with this fake nines' I had no idea where is was going to lead or where the story was going. DA OTOH is was clear not only what was going on with howe and logain but I saw exactly where is was going as well. What happened after you encountered both of them didnt surprise me as the writting was on the wall with both was very clear both long and short term. BL the subtly was MUCH more pervasive and kept me gussing until the story decided to fill me in not the foreshadowing. THATS the difference between the two. And yes if you couldn't tell howe was going to leave your family high and dry and you were going on the hunt for him nor logain turn on the king and abandon him at the battle field and that was going to set up you chasing after him then one must not be very well read on typical cliches or standard bioware plots. *shrugs* > Bloodlines and Dragon Age are both quite similar in their story writing as far as I'm concerned. You can be a **** and say "didn't see that one coming" if it makes you feel better, but I find it humorous that you seem to have taken it personally. *chuckle* not at all. I am simply pointing out what *I* find fault with story wise. You OTOH seem to take personal offense that I find BL better then DA on this level. Agree or don't I am not going to loose any sleep over it either way. But isn't that the point of a discussion to express ones view? You seem to be taking that and, in your head at least, adding some kind of context to my ills of biowares writing that does not exist (at least for me). Molehill into mountian much?

Too late to get in on the scoring system but just for kicks my picks... ^ indicates winner * ^Green Bay (6-4, 2 win) at Detroit (2-8, win) * Oakland (3-7, win) at ^Dallas (7-3, win) * ^NY Giants (6-4, win) at Denver (6-4, 4 loss) Sunday, November 29 early games * Tampa Bay (1-9, 2 loss) at ^Atlanta (5-5, 2 loss) * ^Miami (5-5, 2 win) at Buffalo (3-7, 3 loss) * Cleveland (1-9, 5 loss) at ^Cincinnati (7-3, loss) * Carolina (4-6, loss) at ^NY Jets (4-6, 3 loss) * Washington (3-7, loss) at ^Philadelphia (6-4, win) * ^Indianapolis (10-0) at Houston (5-5, 2 loss) * ^Seattle (3-7, 2 loss) at St. Louis (1-9, 2 loss) Sunday, November 29 late games * KC Chiefs (3-7, 2 win) at ^San Diego (7-3, 5 win) * Jacksonville at ^SF 49ers (4-6, loss) * ^Arizona (7-3, 3 win) at Tennessee (4-6, 4 win) * Chicago (4-6, 3 loss) at ^Minnesota (9-1, 3 win) * Pittsburgh (6-4, 2 loss) at ^Baltimore (5-5, loss) Monday, November 30 * ^New England (7-3, win) at New Orleans (10-0)

Ignorance, bigotry and sillyness... *shrugs*

> I think it's silly that every person you can seduce in the game is bisexual. Who says they are all bisexual? Modern interpolation of the vampire marks it as having ability to hypnotize (aka 'glam' in true blood speak). This view of the vampire has been around since Victorian times when the modern vampire more or less came to be. Perhaps the BL devs took that stance; even if you don't have the clan ability with high enough persuasion you can seduce mortals. That

The problem with Bloodlines is that virtually every character is a bisexual, as long as you had appropriate seduction skill. I just introduced a friend of mine to the game and played it again myself, and while the dialogue is well done, the seduction ones were probably the weakest of them. Though persuade, intimidate, malkavian, and domination options were all typically quite well done. I dont see that as a 'problem' but to each their own. In the proper context their could have been a few seduce dialog options at various points in the game that would not have felt forced. Desire demons (flip the tables on them for example) come right to mind. As a whole the bloodlines dialog > DA as BL it seemed to flow more natually. Not to say the DA dialog was bad. Quite the opposite, most of it was good. But the obvious in your face foreshadowing and some of the forced fed storyline reduced its quality IMO.

Then you want to be regulated to being the lacky for the entire game of a NPC who does all the cool activites? Pretty sure most game producers would say thats a death sentence trying to pitch or/and sell such a game.

we were thinking that it seemed odd that a high strength character would get the most dialogue options... 'cause with four levels o' coercion we got persuades and intimidates. we were hopeful that by raising cunning we would get some other kinda option... but seems to just be persuade and intimidate, and our 18 cunning warrior didn't seem to get less than our 11th level rogue with 28 cunning. am gonna continue pushing cunning for other reasons, but we were hopeful for more dialogue payoffs. am always wary 'bout using dialogue to avoid battles as bio (and other developers) seems to like to penalize players for doing so: reward less 1007 and less exp too. however, am pretty sure there were actual a couple dialogue detours that netted us additional exp, so that ain't so bad. HA! Good Fun! Seduce would have been a awsome option to have. Look to Bloodlines for IMO CRPG dialog done right.

Thats actually a very modern take on vampires (both your view of them and twilights). Pre-victorian era they were VERY differently seen by the various cultures then we view them today.

If you don't beleive in global warming your ignorant. EoD. I suppose you also beleive in all other right wing BS too.

Your entertaining. 95% of the time someone has a critisim of a bioware game you feel the need to defend bioware or/and shoot down the person expressing their opinion or observation. Look at yourself and your posting history. You retort folks with critism like clock work and then acts shocked ppl see you as a tool for bioware? People see you as the poster child for bioware because you ARE. You defend them to he bitter end with the excuse 'I made a negative comment on (insert minor complaint here) so I am not a fanboy...'. Its like everyone but you sees you for what you are. Sadly you are the only one oblivious (fact or feigned who knows) to what you are doing. When you are all alone vs. the world stating something as 'true' you might be the one wrong. *shrugs* Not that expect you to open your eyes with this post, you have made your 'im right and the world is wrong' stance quite clear. But its what everyone else is thinking already at this point. But it IS entertaining so please do continue.

Sounds more like heat issue then power issue. Either the cards or/and your CPU was over heating.

- Windows 7 without a doubt - for 2 PCs you dont need a domain server but a file server (to store shared files, backups, etc) would still be helpful to have - with 2 since you don't need a domain (unless you want to lock them down with group domain policy) use windows 7 home group function. Its basically the old workgroup feature but with more bells. - buy the $400. ones. You wont same much (perhaps 10% to at best 20%) building but you will save a lot in support and building time.

> I'd also suggest avoiding registry cleaners -- they don't necessarily help and can cause stability issues. If Windows ever gets to the point where it's crawling around on its belly it's much more than the registry that needs fixing. If you know what they are doing cleaning you reg every 6 months or so ALWAYS helps. Would you use the tools to do autobody work on your car if you have little to no training or experience? Reg cleaner is the SAME difference. If you don't know what you are doing you can end up causing more damage then you are trying to fix, just like the car example. At the risk of sounding like a geek elitist if you don't know what you are doing then you shouldn't be using a reg cleaner. While most try to find only invalid reg entires you still need to visually confirm them and make sure valid ones were not in error selected. And any good reg cleaner has a backup feature before you make changes. And even if you don't theres always windows restore as long as the PC boots to the desk top your fine. Again its not something you should do if you don't understand windows beyond 'I click twice to open this' or the principals and setup of how the registry works in the first place. Just becasue you know how to naviagte around the GUI of windows does not make one a PC tech of its under the hood operation. and if you are saying to yourself 'I dont really understand what this does but ill run this app that modifies it anyways' you are just asking for a world of hurt. PC operation or otherwise.

I was using the floodgate mess as a example. I do not think bioware is, activly, 'screwing' anyone to be honest. Sadly you are taking my comments in a wild direction that was never my intent. Forget I said anything, my appologizes.

Story wise clarify for me if you would... the big tenticle boobie boss.. from the whispers of the former capt insane dwarf you meet I though the elder dwarf I was looking for turned into that monster. That was what I thought all the hints were. Then after the monster I actually meet the elder dwarf. So... perhaps epic fail for me but I dont get the connection of the elder dwarf I was on the hunt for and boob boss...?

Seems thats biowares way of saving zots on AI, give bosses and some elities massive magic resistence to nullify casters for the most part in the fight and then give said NPC unrealistic stats to make the battle more 'epic'. Not saying such in a negative way just a simple, but accurate IMO, observation.

With his default low con AND dex hes simply has little to offer vs other more robust party members. I was somewhat having the same issue with the dwarf, I then installed the respec mod, did that to both leh and the dwarf. leh is a duel weapon specilist now (I find DW better then archers generally) and the dwarf a 1h/shield specilist. Both kick serious arse now. I also did that to sten but kept him 2h but evened his stats out. he now has about a 22 con and dex. MUCH more robust and versitile as a 2H specilist then his default setting which were mostly a death sentence for him. He hits slow but at least he hits now... heh

As vol said above my primary tank(s) alister, or/and shale cant draw everyone. and with him heavy armor hes going to aggro SOMETHING. With default 10 con you really think its shocking he does not survive? For every hit he does (with his low dex as well) he gets whacked 2 or 3 times... Is you solution to put sten in light armor with a 2H weapon? It's ok to admit 'yes, sten at default stats/tactics isn't the best thought out'. *shrugs* I encourge you to take him in a few battles with default stats, tactics and equipment on normal setting and tell me how much you have to baby sit him vs the others to keep him alive. I'd enjoy hearing your feedback on that.

Now its my turn to say 'very enlightening' comment. So since floodgate screwed bioware over in the SoU expansion pack its ok for bioware to screw someone over too with that logic? Or even more basic anology if I jump off a bridge you going to follow too because I did? Bottom line I don't think finger pointing with 'well they do it too!' is a very legit excuse which is in essence your retort. How is BioWare screwing anyone over if they don't confirm a yes or no on an expansion pack at this moment? You are taking my comment too literal and not as its intended, figurative. But anyways...

The lack of speed vs damage with 2H when you do hit ratio vs duel weilding hit dex is a no brainer. DW with dex 28+ and duel weild abilities will out do a strong 2H any day of the week. In the same time period (say 20 sec) I have no doubt leh does vastly more damage total and hits more then stan. Unless your 2H has high str, con AND dex they are not practicle nor very robust. Again stan falls down more then he is up. Of course your bioware folk pretty much put the nail in his coffin to begin with considering his starting stats. Poor con/HP, poor dex and 2H skills. So not only is he the slowest to strike but he also misses alot AND can't take much damage. Basically out of the box, per se, stan is useless in combat as-is. Whoever designed him stat wise did not take the game mechanics into account, and if they did they did not have a grasp of them. Why are you putting Con in any non-tank character? I put 0 con into my rogue, and 0 con into any mage that isn't a blood mage. If your archer is doing more damage than your 2-handed warrior, you're probably not doing something right. I haven't played with a 2-handed warrior aside from on the console, and they were effective there. I don't know if there are PC differences. I am sure you are replying to something, just not what I spoke of... I never talked about archers or pumping mage con up...?

Quote me please. I don't recall. Unless, as usual, you are taking what I said out of context and applying it to something different.