Zoraptor

The fan novel may be your best bet for that rather than a faq, mainly because it presents most of the in game dialogue as actual dialogue rather than focussing on quest specific stuff.

... That's clearly talking about moving folders around on the same computer- hence they have the right registry entries and My Docs already set up- rather than moving from computer to computer. The second quote is explicit about that. You've also completely destroyed your own claims that the download via the client is an inherency and should not be considered DRM, to whit "install the game and launch it once (this step is important, because this finalises the installation)". So you don't have to just install it, you also have to launch the game at least once with your gatekeeper app running- according to your own source. This DRM thing keeps getting more flexible by the minute... But hey, continue whiteknighting steam- and SecuROM Launch Control- if you wish, maybe at some point you'll even get the definition of DRM changed to "something that manages digital rights and is bad, so it can't be steam because steam is good!!!!". But at the moment steam is inherent drm, and that is FACT! pure and simple no matter how much it causes panty bunching amongst a certain subset of steam devotees.

That would be levelling the playing field as in a player more focussed on diplomacy or other skills is not at an automatic disadvantage to someone focussed on Killing Stuff or vice/versa, I'd presume. That's pretty much irrelevant to power gaming per se, as if you allow alternative solutions you could make a powergamer diplomacy build, a powergamer monsta killa build, a powergaming stealth build or other types. I'd presume that what is being looked at is a way to encourage and reward efficient- but variable- character builds rather than specifically kill off powergaming except in its ludicrous extremes (18/18/18/3/3/3 stats with little to no negatives for the 3s, do quests then kill quest givers for extra XP, that sort of thing).

Seriously though, I really can't understand the "logic" behind DRM. I'm pretty sure that's because there simply isn't one. Companies (and especially publicly traded ones) are at least theoretically obligated to take steps to protect copyrighted works. DRM won't work for anyone with a bit of technical knowledge but does work for the casual "just cut a copy to CD" types and it's something that a company can point to to its shareholders as "fighting piracy". Companies in general also love to have maximum control over their customers and drm is one tool that can influence this. At least in theory Blizzard has near complete control over Diablo 3, for example, including a captive marketplace and the like. Note: I actually agree that drm is pointless and definitively so from a consumer's POV, but that is pretty much the rationale that would be used for it by companies. I rather doubt that most companies really want to eliminate piracy though, as once that is gone they have to explain why they aren't making money to shareholders without being able to point to x billion 'lost' dollars from pirates.

But then he says that he has the right to assassinate US citizens by presidential fiat as well. He isn't exactly consistent on such matters.

Unless they bung random but required stuff into My Documents or variation thereof, or require registry entries to work properly. For the vast majority of people either of those problems would mean effectively no functional back up.

Yeah, I'd tend to go for TW3 being the earlier release as well- set team, set engine, set game systems. So far as we know the Cyberpunk game has none of those yet. Even if using RED engine it will likely need more significant alteration than would be necessary for TW3.

i'd advise actually opening links that get posted before commenting on them . it's simply an overview of the AD&D 2E rules used in CRPG adaptations, including IE games. Heh, fair enough, it's a fair cop etc. OTOH of all the 2e games PST probably needs the least explanation since the combat is... inherently more forgiving than something like Baldur's Gate where if the protagonist dies you get an annoying ten second game over cinematic.

Nope, he's wrong, you're wrong. You have for example successfully 'proved' that SecROM's launch control ain't DRM- it's a "one time technical procedure" as well- and your evidence for your position is a forum thread with zero technical information, just a random joe writing a list of stuff you agree with. You do not need a client to install a game, it is not an inherent part of installation, it's extraneous and designed to check your permissions. And again, under the situation outlined by the OP any additional content or patching would absolutely require steam since there would not be a genuinely drm free alternative. You'd also have a lot of fun trying to transfer such 'drm free' programs seamlessly across computers unless they're very simple, or you know what you're doing. Potentially you'd have to backup all the stuff not found in program files, and the registry entries as well.

Lost? They managed to take something they had no real possibility of making and hence had no prospect of retaining the rights to and got Bethesda to pay them a seven figure sum to settle. Sure, Bethesda got to write a nice statement saying that they won a Glorious Victory but paying $$$ for something you should have got for free and would have done if you were half way competent is hardly winning.

I'd advise not reading a FAQ- too inherently spoilery. Spider's advise for a high Wis/ Int/ Cha build is probably sufficient; I'd just specify that you won't be able to be a wizard from the start in case you think you're missing something.

Patches, mostly. I believe they're referred to as free 'dlc' but to all practical purposes they're patches since they are free. Pretty good idea overall, don't fragment the playerbase and have more stuff to be bought by them via microtransactions.

There isn't really any way that a sequel could realistically end up being publisher funded- if it does well then Obsidian don't need the money to make a sequel, if it does poorly then publishers won't be interested anyway.

Like many others though I'm replaying NWN2 at the moment, though I expect to lose momentum around the orc caves and some of the other sloggy areas. Finished my ME3 replay a couple of days ago. Reactions pretty much the same as first time, found most of the bad parts a bit less bad because I expected them. End Game Slog was even worse playing on insanity though, mainly due to the combination of context sensitive controls that would seemingly randomly stick you to cover rather than sprint or jump an obstacle and bullet sponge insta-kill enemies with regenerating barriers.

Fanboys tend to bring an almost religious zeal to things and blur the differences between fact and opinion. It's rather difficult to tell if you're actually a fanboy yourself because if so you think your arguments make perfect sense. It's one of those things where thinking you may be a fanboy probably means you aren't really. Personally I always try to be critical- point out the stuff I like and the stuff I think can be improved. Going on interminably about how much I hate something or how much I love something I do try to avoid. The Revan novel was written by Drew Karpyshyn who was K1's main writer and a significant contributor to TOR itself. Given that Lucas infamously doesn't care about the EU I don't think he can really be blamed for that, though there certainly is plenty you can blame him for.

All of these make combat seem like a punishment that only comes up when you've failed at the "right" way of doing things. As a general rule, do you enjoy doing things that are associated with just having failed? I don't know anyone who objectively enjoys cleaning up a dropped and broken glass, for example, even if life forces them into that situation. To some extent combat should be a punishment for failing, if you're not primarily set up for a stand up fight, at least. It's a kill or be killed situation and it is eminently sensible to either avoid it, or stack the odds in your own favour- pen is mightier than the sword/ don't give a sucker an even break. And of course, should you happen to fail in your attempts then you're in a more sticky situation and actually get 'punished' for not using a straight fight tactic. It's also not applicable to all encounters- trying your diplomatic skills on a shambling zombie is unlikely to get you much reward and you're likely to have to use more traditional solutions on them. The examples were to show that you could get negatives from alternative methods as well. If you want to fight because that is how your party is set up or simply because it's fun it remains an option, it's just that there are alternatives with similar rewards so that combat is not automatically the 'best' solution 90% of the time. Indeed, most of the options I outlined still involve fighting, they just involve using some imagination and making sure that that imagination gets rewarded. And yes, I actually do rather enjoy failing at games because I find constant unrestrained success boring. Personally I would like a challenging game that rewards success and punishes failure and allows and rewards a variety of different approaches, so long as the distinction between success and failure is not arbitrary I won't complain.

There's no need for combat to have risk and non-combat not to have risk (or have lesser risk) though. Consider a situation where you find a bunch of bandits, you might have the options; attack them, ambush them, talk to them or avoid them, with XP given for the objective "remove the bandit threat". So trying to ambush might use the "survivalist" or "stealth" or "tracking" skill, fail your check and they notice you and it turns into a standard attack with your characters in poorer positions or worse, they ambush you. Talk to them and you may be able to get them to leave without a fight or even something elegant like employ them for your stronghold. Or maybe they decide they really want to stick lots of arrows into you instead since you've conveniently come out into the open and talked to them. You might even have more elegant solutions- steal some stuff off one group of bandits and frame another group to get them to fight, of course if your thief gets caught in the act... It's all a question of implementation really. There should be no requirement for absolute balance, as noted combat will usually result in loot that you wouldn't get for a more pacific approach for example but there ought to be situations in which the peaceful or elegant solutions do result in greater rewards. In the above situation you might get marginally more experience for successful skill use- or just an easier fight- or a different type of reward along with the base experience (more guards for the stronghold). Then again, ex bandits probably don't make the most reliable guards either, so who knows what problems might arise in the future.

You hear quite a few arguments that he should be tortured and executed from people in the US. There's also the treatment of Manning where the "protective" measures are obviously designed to cause personal discomfit and sleep deprivation rather than be for his benefit. Assange is simply a whole different kettle of fish compared to McKinnon.

Should have gone for 2072. Then the last mission could be hacking a corporate AI for a corrupt executive with your reward being an R-grade cyber rig.

"Chances are slim and none, and slim just left town."

I didn't specify under Obama's presidency- as you simply specified "since 9/11". GWB/ **** Cheney's the asterisks are tradition now) types were very big on justifying torture and there is a plethora of information on their exploits. While Obama has been far better in that regard he hasn't actually prosecuted anyone for using torture, so he's ended up- practically- condoning the previous actions. In any case, I don't think anyone is seriously suggesting McKinnon would be waterboarded.

Waterboarding wasn't condemned, it was reclassified as an "enhanced interrogation technique", officially sanctioned and publicly condoned when it was revealed. And that was for a technique that the US executed japanese soldiers for using in WW2.

I'm not particularly invested in the debate at all since I don't mind either per kill or objective based, or a mix of both, but I really don't see how this particular objection works. Nothing inherent to objective based rewards stops you playing any way you want- there's nothing specific to it which says that you cannot receive a quest reward then go back and kill everyone involved, should you want to. You just wouldn't be habitually rewarded for that approach. That is not restricting how you play nor penalising for playing a certain way, it's just making sure you do something because you like it or want to rather than because you feel compelled to in order to maximise benefits/xp.

Or you could try to not reduce everything in the game to a cost/benefit analysis and just play the game. In any well designed system there will be bad consequences for failing in non-combat situations as well as failing in combat ones. Hitting the trap that takes out half your party, walking up to a group of people and finding that actually you've failed to convince them to leave and now your talky man is standing right next to Thog the Impaler, that sort of thing. Again, you just won't necessarily get a special reward for- effectively- playing as a sociopath and slaughtering every virtual being that crosses your path. I have no doubt that will still be a valid approach and that there will be a fair bit of compulsory bloodshed, but if you like the combat would you really avoid it solely because you aren't getting a (small) thumbs up at every death? And yeah, it really should be 'best' to avoid unnecessary combat because it is 'best' to avoid unnecessary combat.

Skill improvement is somebody's theory, so far as I am aware, but given how certain perks and the like worked in previous Obsidian games (eg Alpha Protocol, FONV) it seems likely there will be some system of its like. Doesn't have to be a TES style system, something like TWitcher 2 had you improve against enemies by fighting them- if you didn't just go and buy the books to get the info straight off the bat. I really can't see where the people who think they're going to be forced to play a certain style/ that combat is going to be deprecated are coming from though. Wandering around slaughtering stuff will still be a viable approach, presumably- you just won't be specially rewarded for that approach. Just because you could avoid (most) combat in Fallout doesn't mean that you had to, and there's no real reason why someone who wandered the wasteland killing literally everything that moves should be 'better' than someone who achieved exactly the same goals but left nearly everyone alive.