FlintlockJazz

Well, there is one way to get a clearer answer: abduct him and interrogate him. With waterboarding or whatever. This is the second time I have suggested interrogating Obsidian employees against their will, twice in row in fact, maybe there is something wrong with me...

Ruh roh, they found me! Quick, grab her and interrogate her for information!

So whose won then? Or is this thing still being dragged out?

For some reason his facial expression in that pic made me think of Street Fighter, which then made me think that the two of them should have a fight, Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat style. I would pay to see that...

...oh my god that looks awesome...

As others have said there is no logical reason for that to occur, and if we were to go with consequences like that then the consequence of the PC killing the woodcutters should be them getting arrested and sentenced for murder (which actually would make sense and is a bit weird that you don't get arrested for that thinking about it). Who does Devil of Caroc kill besides the people who burned down her village and killed every man women and child that lived there? I'd blame Galvino for forcing her to acquire his test subjects. There is nothing in game that shows Devil killing anyone who does not have it coming. Harmke and his buddies had already won the war against Raedceres but they wanted more. They went out and burned down a village for the crime of not suicidally attacking an army. If someone thinks that sparing these murderers is a "good" action then we have really different definitions of what good is. Holding harmke and his mob accountable brings them to Justice, letting them get away with it is an injustice. Devil outright states that she burns down homes with people other than her intended target in them, including families and children who had nothing to do with it, and states she does not care about that. So actually she does kill innocents, she's actually no different from the people she is killing for burning down her village. As Lychnidos says, this is a poorly motivated quest, I am actually quite disappointed in it. I kinda expected that it would be expanded more with Part 2, but as far as I have seen there isn't anything more to her quest. I know that many of the companion quests are intended to be 'disappointing' but I like them, Devil's I kinda feel like its too rushed and over too quickly.

Good question! If before birth you'd think animancers would be able to detect whether the baby would be hollowborn or not before birth, and yet the Dwarf animancer in Gilded Vale never mentioned trying to determine this or even considering trying. Yet at the sometime it kinda implies that the soul is there beforehand, via Grieving Mother and the like, though less 'connected' maybe? Maybe it slowly connects to the body over the pregnancy, and animancers can't detect the soul until the connection gets stronger? Complete theorycraft, I have no idea.

You have to give her an answer one way or the other, as she won't let it go until she gets an answer, the option not to kill them though is phrased as "He is not responsible" as opposed to "He didn't do it" and isn't marked as a lie or deceptive. I'm guessing the logic is that while he may have physically thrown the torch that he is not accountable for it, that it was more the mob as a whole that shares the burden perhaps (if it wasn't him then it would have been someone else), that it was an act of passion or that he had no choice. Of course, you may still think him responsible and still choose not to kill him, in which case it should be marked as a lie and/or as deceptive, but it seems to presume that you are telling the truth to her regardless of which you go for.

Latest playthrough chose not to after a long and hard debate with myself. In the end, what swung it was that he had children, who may end up suffering without a father bringing in an income especially in a place like Stalwart. And this doesn't count the other woodcutters many of whom would also have children. Sure, they didn't show mercy to the children of Cold Morn, but that ain't the kids' fault and mass killings ain't gonna bring nobody back. Plus, as Lychnidos pointed out, it wasn't like Devil was paying me, I mean who does she think I am, a hippy paladin??! I gots expenses to think of, notching my sword on some hillbilly woodcutter can be costly! Bloody freeloading scroungers, expecting me to kill for free... *grumble grumble*

I totally got the wrong idea when I saw the thread title. Expected to find pictures of people polishing Barbarians and Rogues. I have to admit, I'm a bit... disappointed this wasn't the case.

This is by far the most ridiculous thing on this forum. I'm really starting to consider this true. I've been thinking, the problem is that there is levels at all: all systems that have classes and levels suffer this problem. I think the reason for this is because of the 'inflation' of character stats as you level, while all systems can have this occur those with levels inevitably go for increasing health and attack rolls with every level as 'base'. This inevitably means that the enemies also need to inflate their health and attack rolls to counteract this, which means that to keep it challenging the game needs to throw equivalent level monsters at you, making the inflation actually pointless as it's being counteracted by increasing the defenses of the enemy. I wonder if instead of increasing these base stats, the game just gave you the abilities and talents for your class? You could still increase things like accuracy by spending your talents on Weapon Focus and the like, but you wouldn't get the +3 accuracy every time you level up. This would make power growth 'flatter' at least, but as I am not a games designer I make no claim as to whether this would be a good idea or utterly the worst.

Both Skyrim and Oblivion have certainly been subject to much criticism as Elder Scrolls RPG titles, so I would better adjust my original statement as such: 2) The evolution of Elder Scrolls titles (Arena vs Morrowind) Surely, you would not dare taint the great name of Morowind?? I feel also compelled to point out that evolution does not necessarily mean 'improvement'. There is a misunderstanding that as something evolves that it gets 'better' and more 'complex', eg that humans will evolve to be brainier or into energy lifeforms, that each step is an improvement of the capabilities of what came before. This is not what natural evolution does, evolution is the adaptation of a species to better succeed in its current environment. This may sometimes lead to more capability, but it can also lead to actual lessening of capability or taking on of flaws that fit with its environment and make its survival and ability to reproduce more likely. Mother Nature is not only a bitch but also a complete idiot, she doesn't care what accomplishments Bob makes, its the fact that Bill has knocked up ten women that she cares about. Likewise, the evolution of game does not necessarily mean improvement, just whether or not it makes the owners more money.

With these guys. I actually found it more frustrating when they added the AI in, bloody characters doing things without my permission...

I wouldn't compare Bioware's and Obsidian's reputation systems. If you look at something like Dragon Age the whole reputation system is a cheap gimmick where you can just buy your companions with gifts where as in Obsidian's games it's mostly your actions and what you say that decide how your companions feel about you. Not sure if you played Alpha Protocol but that game did the whole reputation system pretty much perfectly. Everything you say and do in the game will matter when it comes to how others perceive you. If they can get Tyranny's reputation system close to what it was in Alpha Protocol or even in PoE it should be a lot better than the ones I've seen in Bioware's games (haven't played DA3). This. In Alpha Protocol even the ways in which you accomplished missions (whether by stealth or mass murder) was added into how people viewed you, even those who weren't there to view it firsthand. Bioware, on the other hand, pretty much had zero impact from the way you played, you could tell someone that you too love kittens to gain Love Points while wiping your blade clean of the blood from that litter of kittens you just been butchering (or, to use one of the more famous examples from their actual games, cast Blood Magic right in front of Templars and never even get called out on it).

Pale elf with beards - total portraits: 0 This is a big issue for me. The major point of playing Pale Elves is that they are Elves With Beards, yet none of their portraits have one and due to the unique and specific characteristics of Pale Elves that make them differ such from normal Elves make it really hard to find Appropriate Portraits for them. I refuse to Elf without Beard!

I would be interested in this style of game, so I will give the idea of Sawyer doing this my Jazz Seal of Approval. Well I would if I had one.

I need two hands to handle my wand, though I tend to prefer referring to it as a staff... I'll get my coat.

Just to throw a spanner in there, she could be a Fighter. I mean, she doesn't like lead a unit or anything after all, and Fighters can be Knights too.

They were there before, I was using them on my first ever playthrough (was playing a wizard but didn't want to move him from first position in party due to OCD reasons, so custom created a formation that put him in the middle and put all the tough guys in front).

What you are describing is not a psycho, it is a sociopath. A sociopath is a person who simply has no moral values or conscious. They can walk up to a guy selling hot dogs on the street with no money, ask for a hot dog, then pull a knife and kill the hot dog vendor when they refuse to sell them one, or just wait tell he isn't looking and steal one more likely. Either way they won't feel bad, they didn't have money sure, but they wanted a hot dog anyway. Durance is very much a sociopath, you ask him why he killed tons of women, children, etc etc just because he "thought" they were Eothasians he will spew some might makes right, the ends justify the means, Eothas caused the stillborn (he knows this is highly unlikely) BS. Sociopaths need to justify their actions, Durance repeatedly tries to justify his. He isn't a Wicht, he knows exactly what he is doing. Also I would scale back the liberal agenda CEO nonsense. Or do you think Obama is a sociopath because he has ordered actions that has caused the deaths of hundreds yet can still sleep at night? Also for all the smelling like roses comments high powered corporate america executives on the grass roots level are hated and distrusted by most people so yeah. Just don't confuse "I made a cost benefit analysis that cost 5 thousand people their jobs but improved company productivity and long term viability/health" with "I knifed a guy in an alley because I wanted to make a play for his girlfriend" They REALLY aren't the same thing. I would scale back the strawmanning mate, I made no political stance there just stated a fact that many people in power are quantifiably sociopaths (or psychopaths as they are called over here, terms used are different depending on country). This is a fact, it does not make a statement about liberal agendas or suchlike, so please don't bring politics into this. I'm getting a bit bored of the strawmanning and false dichotomy so I'm ducking out of this debate about computer games that is turning towards something else. Have fun everybody.

Makes me think it was a change in the narrative of the main plotline. That the sisters would reveal it instead of Iovara maybe or talking with the gods in Teir Evron would somehow make it clear. If that's the case I'm intrigued as to what the original plotline would have been like and why they changed it.

There's quite a few things at the end there that kinda come out of left field. Durance's conclusion to his questline after Teir Evron and talking with the gods assumes some huge leaps of logic in my opinion.

There will be further patching to fix bugs and balance tweaks, but 3.0 is the last big overhaul from my impression, and they will be moving onto the next game now.

You assume that everyone is doing what they believe in. Do people work jobs because they believe in the company? Or because they need the money? Do people only rob others because they need to? Or do some just not care about their victims? If someone is doing something because they genuinely believe it needs to be done then that's one thing, if they are doing it because they got paid to do it then that's another. People do things every day that they know is wrong, yet they do it anyway. Regarding sociopaths (or psychopaths, I always get those two mixed up, think it depends on the country you are in as to which is which), they are capable of coherent thought unless they have other compulsions or issues (which is the case with most serial killers, they are usually sociopaths with compulsions that drive them to kill over their own deeply ingrained sense of self-preservation), they just don't care about anyone other than themselves. They are the closest thing to evil in real life, because they can sit there, know what they are doing is wrong and still do it anyway (and cover up after themselves) or not depending solely on a cost-benefit analysis. There is a reason why so many CEOs and politicians are sociopaths, and there is a reason why you should be afraid of them. And unfortunately, most of them are good at covering it up, passing the blame onto others, and come out smelling of roses. If Durance was a sociopath, you wouldn't know it, you'd think he was The Best Guy Around, he'd be like Eder (they are good at pretending to be what they are not because they don't care about lying to and manipulating people), and everyone would consider him a bro right up until he slit your thought in your sleep because he decided your continued existence was a burden.

Right, got control back. The keep, or donjon as it was actually called during the time period, was a fortification. While many castles had the lord's residence in the donjon in England after 1066, this was mainly due to it essentially being an occupied country. Most castles of the time elsewhere had another building that was the lord's home, looked after by the wife often, with the donjon being mainly used for barracks and fortifications. I mean, think about it: living in a fortification means not having any windows more than an arrow slit, rooms built more for defense than comfort, etc. You're a lord, you demand to live in comfort dagnammit! No fountains or stained glass windows for you if you live in the donjon.