cronicler

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Thanks Raithe, I will give them a try (wonder which one will turn up first? I loves book hunting)

Need advice. I am craving for science fiction again. Something big / grand like space opera or a detective noir story of some kind if possible. (Then again I wouldn't say no to a well crafted fantasy either.) Just don't spam commissioned books like most warhammer vomits please. Can anyone recomend obscure / new authors if you know? Thanks in advance guys and gals.

Had a nice little WH40k game last friday. (Personal System, 3d6 control dice) The group consists of a Sororitas (translator order, not militiant branch) attached to an Inquisitor (Amberly Vail), a bodyguard (Ex- Adeptus Arbites Handler) and 2 (Ex) Naval Ratings (1 Pc, 1 Npc) that were acting as chauffeurs for her on an errand. I gave each player a detailed (and conflicting) background info about the little sector and why they were there at the moment. Every one was expecting a hunt the heretic or xeno scenario. (Classic Dark Heresy scenarios in other words). About 5 minutes after the game started, their dromon was smashed by an emerging space hulk The group managed to survive a few skirmishes with Orks and a mini-boss battle against an Eldar Wraith and a little time bubble puzzle. Then they met the Kommandos! The group is moving paralell to the hull of a ship. the ground and other wall is rock. the passage is about 3 or 4 meters wide with celing lost in darkness. The arbiter (Riot Shield & Combat Shotgun) is in the lead, then comes the Sororitas and the Naval Rating is bringing up the rear. At this point the Sororitas Sister is carrying real heavy as she donned the "Relics" she was carrying (She is trying to get a suit of an Artificer PowerArmor and a Masterwork Inferno Pistol to her superiors) and she also got her hands on an Imperial Plasma Pistol. She makes a critical success on her Auspex/Perception (4) and detects the 6 Ork Kommandos that are rappeling down onto them. She goes gunslinger on them and fires both her plasma pistol and inferno pistol. After some good rolls (6 and 7) she manages to cook 3 of them and the forth one rolls around with plasma burns. The remaining 2 drop onto the Arbites and Naval Rating. NR manages to blow his attacker away (4 barrelled sawed-off shotgun) while Arbiter gets a Maul to his head. Unfortunately He makes his dodge roll and avoids death On turn 2 Kommando Nob joins the fun by dropping onto the Sororitas (Who to my disgust makes her str and blance checks and manages to throw the Nob off her ) . After about 4 more turns where my Ork kommandos act like friggin Ninjas out of a Naruto episode (Dodging point blank shotgun blasts, smoke/pepper/flash bombs, Martial Art strikes, ) and beat the crap out of my poor players, they depart back up into the darkness leaving some presents behind. Fortunately the group had enough armor not to die from frags and the kommandos didn't have any Kraks with them It was extremely funny to watch them slaughter most of the encounter on the opening moment and get beaten stupid by the sole remaining Kommando. (Unfortunately Nob just stood there and acted like an attack magnet without doing any damage other than blayin who has the harder skull with Sororitas )

You need to configure the Ai to some basic command like attack strongest enemy / attack enemy: magical/ranged attacker and Aggrasive stance for a fire and forget scheme. I usually prefered; tank: attack closest, spam ability rogue: attack tank's target, use momentum ranged: attack tank's target, use suppressive fire healer: heal tank, attack tank's target mage: attack tank's target with basic spells. (I used my own micro to cast mass heal, aoe or scattershot as the Ai is really bad with them. either friendly fireing or drawing unnecessary aggro)

Boo: it's probably the hold position order. When you disable ai and hold position, the chars basically become idiot savants. no response to being attacked, no movement nothing. you either have to baby sit it or just configure its ai and leave it. Just being able to issue hold position to specific chars (ie, mages and archers) would have made the whole combat much more better.

Mirrors Mirrors everywhere...

How I love my feudal countrymen. You know what is scarier? The clanmothers are actually among the bloodthirsty ones that urge these idiocies. I am aware that this whole idiocy is actually a form of primitive (but effective) clan & birth control (Most people actually don't even care about the bloodline aspect, excepting the cases of long time feuds. Even then second cousins only rate cold non-talking attitute instead of bullets.) but in the last 5 or 10 years, the whole charade became a terror tool and nothing else. Turkiye, Fırmly being pushed to become like the good Islamic teocracies south of us.

Of course, they are impatient buggers. They also like blowing up from collisions bigger than rabid rabbit strikes on bumpers.

Amen brother. I'm not hopeful for dynamic foot positioning but that would be nice.

I am proud to announce that I am OCD enough to finish Odium with minimum (Read none except story moments) damage taken. I'm not sure who is more OCD, me for unrevealing every puzzle (combat) step by step or the devs for creating those puzzles in the first place.

I think that is better. Black and White is good for sensationalim but at the end it just makes it a flick or a cheap paperback or whatever. Things that have more than 2 dimensions, even if it's not a complete 3rd dimension is good for the mind. Chewy but tasty in a way

Gamebryo is a dead engine. It is like what, 4+ years old as it was used in FO:3? You can only do so much with limited time and budget so it is understandable that they skimpled on improving the visuals even if it is not desirable. There is 1 serious confusion about the press release however, The alternate lines of dialogue thing got sacrificed to vaugness of English I think. How does it happen? You have an option that says "I'll start with ambush" but if you have high skill it reads a meaningfull sentence and if you have low skill it reads an idiotic version OR can you chose to use the idiotic version even if you have the good version? (Total Replacement or Additional alternative Lines) And shouldn't some lines have penalties like karma, rep, reward (amount) changes? I mean a smooth talker would impress people more. I guess....

Pop: We all know that (Capitalism and all), we need some info for our endless apetite for the game.

Mr Sawyer. Please answer this; Will you be ever allowed to speak on your own forums (away from Beth's very intelligent, very caring and just moderators)? And could you get the special into somewhat better use?

Wasn't sure scans were ok. And yes... That one... Look I know this game is based on Gamebryo and there is only so much that can be done and lighting (ingame vs screenshot) might mess it up but... That thing is UGLY... and couldn't it have its own model at least? or something?

Oh god.... Please tell me that the picture on this page is not real... Please?... How could you do this Josh!

Not sure. At this point I am really trying to be pessimistic. The core game (Oblivion) had lots of potential but it needed a LOT of work to hammer into a decent gaiming experience. The only question I have is, is 18 months (give or thake) enough to take that toolbox and shape it into a good game, the whole edible story, decent gameplay, the (nobody knows where it really stems from) fun feeling. And will Beth let Obsidian do it?... Dammit I don't need another ray of hope that might turn into a frog or worse again.....

Anyway, back on topic, I would really want some opinion from Aussies, How does the current dance between US and China look like from there (Taiwan, Korea, The Growth of Chinese Factory zone and so on)

Sorry guys all Muslim researchers and forward thinking men and scientists seem to be locked into pre 1500-1600 period. Boo: No one (rational that is) can dispute the basic underlying fact in your thoughts about Islamics. Every Region, faction, party, whatever has its different parts. Unfortunately in the Cristian parts of the world, you had 2000 years to grow some autocontrol, selfcontrol. Over on here, we have kleptomaniacs at best and outright sociopaths at worst. No reasion not to call a spade, a spade. If you were blindly attacking, sure we would have a nice one but you explained your position and I explained mine. (Although I would probably be stoned in some counties for my own beliefs too). The Others are always evil because its easier to dump the guilt on them. Basic Humanity 101

Unfortunately, he is right to some extent. Islam has a very big problem about division of powers. Muhammed was a really good wise-man and statesman (being the de-facto head of a trading family before and so on) but after Islam became tied to royality, the whole wiseman to ask guidance part got perverted to hell. I personally don't believe there is an external force actively trying to turn men to evil but wheter it does or doesn't I'm sure satan is rolling with glee wherever it is. Normal Islamics don't declare war on you or attack you, however being a normal islamic means you don't have much political clout or financial backing by third parties. There may be 9 good imams tending to their own flocks but 1 sellout with enough banknotes and support is enough to get the ball rolling and you know how "stable" and "easy" mob mentality is. Us and them mentality is always there (and lets not forget that Balkans has been the meeting point of everyone, Huns from Steppes to escaped slaves from Africa.) and third party meddling for short term gain (whatever faction) always creates more wounds for the people actually living there.

Similar story for me. (Old books forgotten in a corner, in a bookshop that shouldn't exist as it was somewhere in a out of the way "small" village, out on the road with family to a summer place...) It just took me a wee bit longer to understand that his style wasn't good, being able to understand what was written was a shock enough, let alone liking the sci-fi. (Man, I had a weird education, our teachers in middleschool made us listen to some Metallica songs as they were both intresting (for us), real American and understandable... )

Sorry, I wasn't saying you attacked, I just went on a rant about the usual misconceptions and the usual idiots. I get stuck on like a broken grammophone on hating those idiots and explaining I'm not a blind hater and so and so... We really do live in a very imperfect world... (Again sorry for any misconception, implication or any other thing about you. It was about me and my frusturations)

Sigh... Reminds you anything?