Vaeliorin

Like Valmy pointed out, we have to see the issue from Obsidian's perspective as well but still, that sounds extremly hostile to me. Why would they want to revoke his rights to work on any RPG and how is that even possible?! Non-compete clauses are something pretty commonly attempted by companies. If you'll recall the creator of Ark got into trouble over this a couple years ago. Apparently they're not enforcable a lot of places, but it's still a way a company tries to protect itself from getting staff poached by direct competitors. Basically, what it boils down to is all companies, even the ones we want to like, are **** when it comes to self-preservation.

Played some of the backer build (the demo scenario.) First attempt was a total wipe (including accidentally sniping one of my assaults in the back of the head.,.,.) Second attempt was both one of the most awesome and most pathetic victories I've ever seen. My whole squad got destroyed except my heavy, and his machine gun got destroyed by the queen. So I'm running around, trying to find some weapons, and all I find is 3 grenades. While I'm running around, the queen is bleeding out. Eventually, she dies to bleed, and there are still enemies around. I'm exploring more, still looking for a weapon, and stumble across a crabman gunner on the roof. Grenade blows out the floor under him, he takes massive damage, and I hide around a corner while he bleeds out. Still enemies left, so I'm scouting around, still trying to find a weapon. I've got 2 grenades left (and tons of ammo and medkits...) Eventually I stumble upon one more crabman, who was wounded while I was fighting the queen. 1 more grenade toss, and bam, mission over, victory...with no weapons.

Well, my initial intention was to go dual daggers as a skald/shattered pillar (the character I'm importing is a hearth orlan chanter who dual-wielded Legendary March Steel Daggers) since monk was one of the classes that wouldn't be included among the NPCs I was going to use, but since the dagger modal doesn't stack, I figured I'd do dagger/something, Once I saw that chanter-specific sabre (I'm hoping I'll generate phrases faster than I can really use them) I was kind of thinking sabres. I thought about fighter, but the wiki isn't particularly helpful since it just lists the inspiration Disciplined Strikes gives, but the links to what those inspirations do doesn't go anywhere. Not particularly excited about fighters actual attacks, either. I guess I'll have to just wait until the 8th and see what power levels 6+ actually offer before I can really decide.

Has anyone tried a Harbinger? I was initially planning to play a Skald/Shattered Pillar, but after finding out Swift Flurry and Lightning Strikes are mutually exclusive, I'm not necessarily sold on that any longer, and all the full attacks of rogue plus the hit->crit conversion seem like they might be pretty appealing.

I'll definitely use them more. Whether I'll have as many in my party...maybe? My current PoE playthrough I've only got Aloth as a caster, so likely I'll have more in the party. Mostly, though, I won't likely rest (because of injuries/health) with 75% of my caster's spells uncast.

Are some ability upgrades mutually exclusive? For example, can I take Lightning Strikes and Swift Flurry and get the benefit of both at the same time? Some things I've seen lead me to believe that you can't, which would be disappointing.

Honestly, the systems of Arcanum were so awful I never managed to get that far in it. Theoretically it was cool, but I found actually playing it to be awful. Would love a spiritual successor with non-terrible mechanics, though.

Thanks, my backlog just got a wee bit bigger. You sir have the best of tastes. FF VI was my first ever RPG. Edit: if you're into old JRPGs (the best ones IMO) you can try: The Breath of Fire series Secret of Mana 2 and definitively 3 (best one) and Skies of Arcadia. Now get a bunch of emulators and get playing. ReEDit: I forgot, Radiata Stories. I bought a Gamecube almost entirely so I could play Skies of Arcadia (the Dreamcast was already defunct at that point.) Never finished it, though. That was around the time I kind of lost interest in JRPGs and anime, though I couldn't exactly tell you why (though fatigue and the extremely trope-y nature of most JRPGs/anime probably had a lot to do with it.)

I'd go either Chrono Trigger or Suikoden 3 of those you listed (though Suikoden may look terrible now, I haven't played it in forever.) Otherwise, Final Fantasy Tactics, Xenogears, Legend of Dragoon or Shadow Hearts 1 & 2 would be my picks, but I haven't played a JRPG since the PS2 (which was the last console I owned)...

It's Pre-Loading! 8.6 GB download.

That's really disappointing. My first character I want to import is a dual-dagger wielding chanter (will be skald/shattered pillar), and while I wasn't planning on relying on the modal, the fact that it works this way seems to make dual-wielding daggers a really bad idea.

I keep getting ads for it on Youtube, if that's any consolation...

So my father, 2 or 3 years from retirement, should have had to learn an entirely new skill set when his highly skilled position (what my father did was basically the manual version of Photoshop) was replaced by a computer program most high school dropouts could use? No, he didn't end up on welfare or anything, but expecting people to just learn a new skill set instantly without any assistance when theirs is entirely obsoleted is ridiculous, particularly for younger people who aren't likely to have much in the way of savings they can fall back on to support themselves while learning a new craft.

I'm still sad that avenging storm apparently got moved from level 7 to 8, so that multi-class druids can't get it. Here's hoping for DLC that raises the level cap.

Cool, that's what I was hoping it would be like, but you can never be sure. The damage penalty presumably doesn't effect non-weapon skills, so my chanter could still use invocations and damaging chants without penalty while still getting the +20 deflection in "Oh S---!" moments.

I saw that the modal for daggers increases deflection and decreases damage, and I'm kind of curious what happens if you dual-wield them. Do you get double the deflection buff and double the damage penalty? If you're wielding a dagger and a non-dagger, does the damage penalty just apply to attacks with the dagger?

Yeah, I'd read about the keyword thing, but I didn't know if Lightning Strikes was keyworded (and the wiki isn't exactly reliable at this point ) That's actually good, because I didn't really want to do Monk/Druid (though a drugged out hippie Nalpazca/Lifegiver would be funny), but it would be a shame not to if they both benefited from Heart of the Storm. Kind of wish Flames of Devotion elements depended on Paladin order beyond Bleak Walkers. As far as I'm aware, none of the melee classes really benefit from/use lightning damage beyond Lightning Strikes, correct?

Does Lightning Strikes benefit from Heart of the Storm? I've been pondering a melee/Druid multi-class to make better use of Taste of the Hunt and the Storm spells (though if the ability list from the Codex is right Avenging Storm is a level 8 ability ) and didn't know if there was some synergy there or not.

Looking at their website, I've got to say, I'm not that hopeful. It's got a lot of the bad things about older games (seriously, racial class restrictions?) and it looks as though non-casters are relegated to simply attacking again. Graphically it looks pretty nice, though. Also, having a "Resistance to Arousal Effects" makes me think of FATAL. It's probably not what it sounds like (I hope it's not what it sounds like...) but they definitely could have chosen a better name for it. I'll probably take a look at the Kickstarter, but it doesn't strike me as something I'd back at the moment. Edit: Sigh...I got all interested in Tower of Time, and reading the forums mentioned it doesn't have a button to highlight interactable objects. That's a deal breaker for me. I hate pixel hunting.

Has anyone tried a Cantor (specifically Skald + Shattered Pillar)? I was thinking Swift Strikes/Swift Flurry would be a boost in terms of crits->phrases. I was wondering if damage from things like Come, Come Soft Winds, Dragon Thrashed, etc. would count towards wounds. Anyone know?

Exactly! Cake is better than pie. It takes some effort to say tastes are subjective, yada yada, when you know one side is obviously right, even if taste is subjective. Hmph. Pie. Lies. Cheesecake, despite the name, is technically pie and cheesecake >>> all.

does not compute. browns fan and michigan fan? is not what we would expect. regardless, am old enough such that we still hold fielding yost's bigotry 'gainst the school. the three things fielding yost, the son o' a confederate officer, hated most, in order, were losing, blacks and catholics. took decades for the michigan program to shake off the foulness o' yost, who is nevertheless regarded as a kinda patron saint o' michigan football. HA! Good Fun! To make it even more weird, I went to Ohio State. Wearing a Michigan sweatshirt during the Ohio State - Michigan game got me some dirty looks, but luckily I'm a big enough guy that nobody ever tried to start anything. I grew up in Ohio, but we were a lot closer to Ann Arbor than Columbus.

I'll admit, I'm pro-Patriots, but only because Brady went to Michigan. As a Browns fan, I've found it hard to care about the playoffs since the '80s, though...

I have a love/hate relationship with Kingdoms of Amalur. I think it's really fun (and the lore for the world was kind of interesting and different, but it's not stuff that's covered in the game as far as I'm aware, just what was on 38 Studios website) but I've never gotten much past the first of the 5 or 6 (admittedly huge) major areas. By the time I've finished all of that, I end up so over-leveled and overpowered that the difficulty becomes a joke, and I get bored. Have to admit, I've been intrigued by They Are Billions, but the price is more than I want to pay for something that I have a sneaking suspicion I'd end up hating (because I'm pretty sure I'd lose...a lot.) Lately I've been kind of obsessed with 7 Days To Die. I'd been debating buying it for a couple years, bought it about a week before Christmas, and have almost 300 hours played (all but about 15 of it modded.) It's got this lovely mixture of exploration, building and tower defense that I just adore. I play on relatively easy settings mostly because of the times I have to fight outside my base (I've spent probably less than 10 hours in my life playing modern FPS games...I'm terrible at them.) The games still under pretty heavy development (in fact, from what the developers have said, the next build of the game has some pretty massive core changes) so who knows what it will end up being, but I'd say I've more than gotten my $10 worth.

I generally don't talk to anyone (regardless of their sex) on the street unless I'm asking for help, or there is something to collectively comment on that is external to both participants. Like a dog holding up traffic or something. Seems to be pretty general social practice. I think day to day there isn't much reason to impose yourself out of the blue on a stranger. In my visits to the US I was surprised at how often this practice was broken/ignored. In DC at least, people seemed uncannily open to initiating conversation with any stranger on the street. Honestly, I can't recall ever talking to or being talked to by a random person on the street unless one of us needed directions. Well, if you discount screaming bums. But I'm pretty anti-social and tend to wear my "stay away from me" face whenever I'm in public.