Monte Carlo

I dunno, but from the trailer I saw I think the returning NPC is Alistair. Who will spend the game in camp, in his shorts, completely ignored until he's forced on me by the designers.

Well Bg2 / ToB is obviously the one I've played most and enjoyed, I also rate NWN2 / MotB / SoZ. Warriors of the Eternal Sun was touched with the Wand of Awesomeness, IIRC it was the first D&D computer game I'd ever played. ToEE wins the Most-Promise-But-Fatally-Flawed award. Dragon Shard, that RTS thingie set on Eberron wins suckiest game for me personally.

^ You can't discuss the Ottoman Empire, WW1 and beyond without Attaturk. Secular nationalism was unleashed by WW1, but by that point 'The Sick Man of Europe' was already on it's knees. Were it not for Attaturk it is entirely possible that the region might have been subsequently gobbled up by Hitler or Stalin had it remained as it was. As it stood, modern Turkey was rescued by it's geography and by it's army.

Are there tunnels in this expansion?

^ Obviously, there are different interpretations. Furthermore, 'The Caliphate' was hardly homogenous --- although classical Islam views politics and religion as indivisible it was inevitable that medieval (Almohad)Egypt might be run very differently from Mesopotamia. The Muslim cultures around the Mediterranean flourished for hundreds of years but the factors I describe had a terrible impact... * Crusading Christian armies attacking, frequently, from a number of directions. The Christian nations of the Outremer in the Holy Land were hardly a recipe for stability in the Muslim lands. * The Mongols destroyed, razed, ransacked everything in their path. Scholars such as Lewis genuinely believed that the impact of those events left a terrible legacy in the development of the Middle East in the Medieval period --- it was as if the Muslim kingdoms were hurtled back to the stone age by the level of destruction. By the high medieval era the Christian nations were overtaking the nations of the Caliphate not only by dint of skill and the renaissance, but because of the destruction wrought by the Horde. * Others suggest that the precursors for post-feudal economic models were hindered by a theocratic society --- I'm far from an expert on this but I've heard the theory. Early Christianity "rendered unto God what was God's and unto Caesar what was Caesar's" a distinction unrecognised in Islam. This separation of the temporal and spiritual, it is argued, led to more economically productive and impactive models of governance in Christian Europe. I think if you want to look at the decline of the Ottoman Empire you can better see this argument in action, although in the 16th Century the Ottomans were a regional superpower who easily threatened Europe on numerous occasions. That's just a starter for ten, like I say I'm far from an expert but am very interested in classical Islam and the Caliphate --- not least because it is so misunderstood. Cheers MC

By the early 12th Century Muslim metallurgy, mathematics, medicine and philosophy were equal to, and in some cases superior, of that of China. There is a sort of consensus that a number of factors stymied further progress, namely the increasing military power of the Christian Franks, the nature of the Caliphate (theocracies tend to reach a certain point of glory then fizzle out) and last but not least the Mongol horde that by the 13th Century razed almost every centre of Muslim civilization and learning. If you need to be reminded of the potency of medieval Islam go visit southern Spain and marvel at the architecture and agricultural bounty they left behind. In Europe. I ate my paella made from rice irrigated by fields established in the 12th century. One of the ideological drivers for Islamist (as opposed to Islamic) bitterness with the West (etc) is the lost promise of the Caliphate. Check out some Bernard Lewis for more. Cheers MC

I have to disagree, the Romans were the antithesis of ancient China: outward-looking, mercantile, flexible and curious. Rome, played out differently, seems a plausible candidate to climb the tech tree rapidly. you need capitalism for the rapid technological progress that launches you from fireworks, ornate sailing ships and metallurgy to engines, internal combustion and electricity. And, in the early Medieval era the Muslim kingdoms of the Caliphate were the most technologically advanced. Cheers MC

^ FWIW, my view is that because DA has such a strong, linear narrative it makes convincing bite-sized DLC (story-wise) an issue. Where does it all fit in? Not a problem for an XP. DLC for a more open-ended game? sure, no problem, you could visit Durlag's Tower and it had no impact on anything else you did. I don't get the feeling that this is Bio's vision for DA:O. A shame, a big just-for-the-sake-of-it dungeon in the middle of Ferelden, four hours game-play, five bucks? Why not? Alternatively, you could download my mod, which is heavily tunnel-based. Cheers MC

Yeah. I read a quite well-reasoned theory once that, had the Roman Empire not imploded when it did, and it's technological progress continued apace then the Space Legions would be storming Alpha Centauri by the 1700's. Of course, this is predicated on a Roman industrial revolution and a thousand of years of world peace. Hmmm.

Yes indeed. Mwuahahahahaaaa!!!

On the Bio social site thing. I'm not surprised you haven't found it, the place is a mess.

My Meh! Gland is working overtime at the fact that you have to be a Grey Warden. Again. And I think it's hilarious that they let you re-specc your original character, I suppose it is the most popular DA mod! Mine will presumably be a lich re-animated from his casket at the Weisshaupt Fortress. Bio needs to get a grip of it's web operation. The lack of info and confusion over the release of Return to Ostagar is pretty shabby, and the new networking site is a nightmare to read and navigate. DA:O's web presence never got over the Marilyn Manson makeover experience.

I'm trying to work out the math --- it's allegedly 15 hours + 5 new NPCs (+1 oldie which has to be Morrigan). It's just over half the price of the original (in UK

^ In which case I'm confused... I took a look at the DA website: With reference to Darkspawn Duncan --- as long as he's romance-able and you can down-load his hairstyle the Bio drones will be more than happy.

Could somebody please dig up the counter-factual history thread from 2009? Current favourite* --- counter-factuals concerning the weather. May 1944. The RAF meterological department fails to predict a horrible stormfront brewing in the Atlantic. The D-Day Armada is seriously compromised: only 50% of the fleet makes the beaches, the other half is either sunk, turns back to England or is blown towards the Pas De Calais where it is carved up by E-Boats and the Luftwaffe. On the beaches the Allies are torn to pieces and a disaster that makes Dunkirk look like a minor fender-bender ensues. At Camp 'X' in SW London, Eisenhower resigns and WW2 looks to stretch into 1946 or even 1947. The already fractious military relations between the British and US starts to break down. A feeble attempt to switch the second front to Italy meets with disaster on the Gothic Line as dozens of Panzer divisions are switched from France to the Appennines. The Russian summer offensive is blunted after Kursk. They are looking at renewing the offensive in the Spring of 1945: The well-equipped divisions that would have been wasted in the Ardennes in December 1944 are instead re-fitted, rested and sent east. The Luftwaffe manages to scrape together enough resources to blunt the Allied bombing offensives, and V2 rockets rain down on London from bases in Holland. Meanwhile, Stalin fumes. Rumours of a negotiated peace with Hitler circulate. The USA manifestly refuses to accept anything else than complete victory. There is no Tehran conference. Then, in the late summer of 1945 Winston Churchill, during a briefing on The Manhattan Project asks for Berlin to be the subject of an atomic bombing raid in tandem with Japan. He finally manages to convince the USA that Stalin is a threat and that such a move kills two birds with one stone... Enigma intercepts suggest that the Germans are working towards completing their atomic weaponry project with advanced rocket technology as are the Soviets. Three atomic weapons are dropped on Berlin. Hitler and the vast majority of the Nazi and OKW high command die in the scorching ashes of the capital. When a new government promises resistance another four are dropped on key strategic German population and industrial centres. It is a tragedy of epic proportions... Germany surrenders, the Soviet army takes Silesia and what was Prussia but is unable to advance on the post-apocalyptic wasteland to the West. That's scary, and it's not an outrageous counter-factual by any stretch of the imagination and it was all down to the weather guy! Cheers MC * Shamelessly ripped in part from What If? 2

Sorry about the lack of proactive tunnel-mastering but I have spent the holiday period reading up on matters tunnel-related, as well as updating my (awesome) Tunnel Blog as well as managing the bargain, twenty minute "Return to the Tunnels" add-on pack to FiT. Ahem. And many thanks to Gromnir, who presumably has a spy in the FiT development team office. --- THE TUNNELS of CHAOS --- You have chosen to visit the Tunnels of Chaos. As a party you must choose a reason... (a) To fight in tunnels (b) To perform a number of Fedex quests © To curry favour with Hot Traitorous Chick (HTT), a joinable NPC woh will become annoyingly compulsory later in the adventure or (d) Something else entirely. Outside the tunnels is Gronk, a dwarf who is (hilariously) drunk. He is a merchant and has a selection of interesting tunnel-realted artefacts. Please post away...

Happy New Year, Tunnel Warriors. Anybody got Return to Ostagar yet? Or has the 'We Won't Pay For Half-an-Hour of DLC' movement gathered momentum. Have been too busy playing Company of Heroes to pay as much attention as perhaps I should. Toodle pip, MC

I just pulled a massive Company of Heroes online session today... 65% of it was awesome (even when I was losing), the rest was all about how awful online gaming can be if you pick up the wrong gamers on your side.

I take Pops' point about a new iteration of D&D pumping the brand, but let it be put on the record that the first 3E D&D 'puter game (cue fanfare) was.... Pool of Radiance 2. Ooops.

^ I find your lack of faith... disturbing. Clearly, FiT is a splatbook / DLC / supplement to Bowl World. Doh. The Warrior Maidens of Laaaa! will be making an appearance shortly.

^ Yes, the only mod I've loaded is re-specc v 1.05. Nothing else is going on there until the whole modding thing is better established. The fact that the toolset behaved like Ebola as soon as it was released didn't help much.

Keith Flint is so utterly awesome that he can have what the hell he likes, for free, from Tunnel Mart. Keith comes equipped with The Haircut of Entropy, The Baggy Jumper of Awesomeness and The Twisted Fire Starter +5. I award him the prestige class --- Twisted Tunnel Bard. Yes, I like Keith and the Prodigy. A lot. Cheers MC

No, it's only worth 8 TTs. And a rucksack costs 650.

Let's take a pragmatic approach --- people posting are 'there.' The others, Dragon Age style, are sitting around in the camp eating, sleeping and wondering WTF that guy is doing with an exclamation mark hovering over his head. The Tunnels of Chaos were built by an insane mage who collected exotic, tunnel dwelling creatures. He put mind-altering substances in their food and they all went mad, eating the mage and creating a new alignment called Chaotic Crazy. You might need an extra 100 TTs (Tunnel Tokens) to go and spend in the General Store, called, imaginatively, Tunnel Mart.

It's free --- I'm just the writer I don't code. There is some fighting in tunnels, it's a mod set after the events of DA, in the aftermath of the war. So you start a new level one character and have old-skool adventures in a village with little sub-quests branching off it. It's a small-ish mod - 3 joinable NPCs and a critical path which invariably involves EnSLAviNG NatioNS wiTH NecrOManCy but still a lot of work and a lot of writing. I'm trying to make the Dalish Elf clan in the mod a bit less pathetic, luckily the guys I'm modding with are an agreeable bunch. So it's Lawful Evil elves all the way. Cheers MC