FlintlockJazz

Going to try to find a target for you Is the offer valid outside the US? I'm British so I'm already outside the US anyway. As long as you pay for the flight (first clas I ain't that cheap!) and hotel rooms I'll go anywhere...

But he is. The player may move the whole party, but characters you find in the game (i.e. not created by you in the adventures guild) have their own personalities and voices. Apart from the lines that don't fit the character you have the problem that companion x might be scripted to intervene into your conversation. If you put companion x as speaker, he would interrupt himself. Sure, even that can be handled, but it gets more and more complicated. This is just the wrong RPG for this type of system. And yet you usually have total control of your party members in every other facet of the game, enabling you to make that holier than thou paladin to kill innocent children. I see nothing wrong with getting party members to talk for you, it's like asking the party bard to go over and seduce someone for you.

But it doesn't matter which race is the baseline, if you plan to make the races balanced. You can make the elf race be the base line with no bonuses and then humans with +2 con and -2 dex and it's still going to be the same result as using the humans as base and giving elfs +2 dex and -2 con (just a simple example.) The reason humans are used as base line is because it's easier for new players to understand the world they are brought in, not because it's some arrogance thing. Unless you are suggesting that some races should have better bonuses than others, then that's a different story. While you are wrong with how changing the baseline would affect the races (it would at the very least alter which build uses which race) you seem to have missed the main point I was making. But then you seem to have only taken a part of my post and put it out of context to make it look like I'm arguing for something I'm not and then attacked that, so I really can't be bothered to argue it with you.

Three years to do it right with all the extra features in.

And yet here we both are, I guess we're just glutton for punishment. While they haven't changed the name on many of the classes, they have made a change to how the classes themselves work: they now all use powers achieved through their souls. Even Fighters get to use their souls to power attacks and such like, which means that they have been reworked to fit the setting. If anything, it seems like the monk has not been altered at all to fit the setting, despite his defining feature (spiritual enlightenment leading to combat abilities) being pretty much passed to all the other classes, which raises the question: what is the point of the monk's spiritual enlightenment if others can also achieve it? What is it about the monk that separates itself from a FIghter whose trained himself to fight with fists and has created a lifestyle around it? Samurai and Jedi are both quite popular, yet people don't expect them to be in every game. A lot of people, myself included, just don't want a class shoehorned in just to appease those who want to play a certain class regardless of the setting. I will go into this later in this post. I disagree that is what people are doing, some are just very passionate about this, however it is probably best we leave this topic alone to be honest. It's not intended to change the other aspects, it's merely a background change. Those who like the monk for the way it operates will still get the class they want, and many of the people complaining about the monk not fitting in will be satisfied that it now fits with the lore of the game. The only people who will be unhappy are those who insist on the monk to be exactly like he is in other games, and therein lies the problem people have with monks: they seem to be shoehorned into every game over the years whether they fit or not, usually with little to no adaptation to explain how they fit into the world or their impact upon it, and this is what people who dislike the monk are most worried about, that it is yet again being shoehorned in. People may want to play it, but then people often want to play Jedi in a MechWarrior game or a sword wielding samurai in a modern day realistic military game, if it doesn't fit then it either needs to be adapted or they need to understand that you don't always get what you want, and I see no reason why the monk should not be put under this same expectation. The standard Monks are fine in an Eastern setting with samurai and the like, and I would not expect to see the option to play as a Western Knight in such a setting except as a cop out by the developers and would mark it down for it. I know, we don't actually know much of the lore of the game yet, but as I mentioned earlier we know that it is a world in which all classes can access their souls to gain powers and that plate and guns are in while Forton looks like your stereotypical Oriental monk, which is setting off alarm bells in people's heads that there has been no attempt to modify the class to fit the setting. Anyway, I need to go start up X-Com so I can dissect some aliens...

Well, considering that Avellone has many times stated that crowd funding and the kickstarter model goes beneath the notice of the big publishers because it's outside their business model. EA, Activision, Take Two, are after big blockbusters and AAA development. They are not interested in niche games that may turn a small profit. It's not how they do business. Smaller publishers on the other hand, especially those in dire straits may see this as an opportunity, with little cost to themselves, especially if the pitch was similar to how Feargus presented it. Please explain my logical fallacy. Did you or did you not state that the big publishers would not 'stoop that level'? As they have done alot worse you are therefore wrong in that part of your assertation. As to your current assertation that those publishers would not bother because they are not interested in any less than AAA games again you are false, Take 2 for instance publishes Tropico, a franchise that is not a AAA game series, and more importantly you seem tohave missed the key point: the publisher was trying to acquire the rights to the game. The problem that publishers have is that new franchises are risky, and AAA development costly, so if they can acquire the rights to a KS developed game before it is released for free they can then see how well it does, if it does well they produce a AAA game (without the original developers) if not they lost nothing (as opposed to the developers and backers). Plus, what company will turn their nose up at free money?

Humans suck and must be purged. I mean, uh,nevermind. Humans shouldn't be assumed to be the baseline, we just assume we are because we don't have other sapient races to compare ourselves to. What if, for once the elves are the baseline race or none at all? Perhaps elves are considered more fragile not because they have low health but because humans have high health? As others have said humans are actually quite tough and resilient, we actually used to walk our prey to death... Another reason why I don't want humans as baseline because it tends to cause the other races to become 'klingons': one dimensional races that take on one aspect of humanity, such as the aforementioned klingons all being the honorable warrior personality type, all vulcans being logical, instead of developing unique personalities for each individual like you would with humans. Another thing, I don't want the lore presenting humans as some awesome race that dominates all and is in general fantastic. **** that **** right up. I don't want humanity to be the dominant race, make them share it for once the greedy bastards! I really like how each culture seems to be made up multiple races instead of a separate mono culture for each race, better explains how they all get along!

Aye, the OP's logic is fundamentally flawed as he presumes successful publishers wouldn't stoop so low. Doubt the birth of Fake Isle has anything to do with this.

I take it you didn't visit Skyrim General at Bethsoft forums in that dreadful time when 8 new threads about Malukah were created every day? What is Skyrim? Prison talk for a really good rimjob.

Let me sum up my feelings on the matter: I find oversexualisation insulting to ME. It implies that people buy games for the titties and only want to play goodlooking perfect people or steroid he-men, and that I'm not only stupid to go along with it but that I would also have no interest in an authentic experience (this includes how they have been making everything more anime too and over the top). I've even known women who have been pro sexualisation, saying "Well I want to look good too!" I usually respond with "Well if we ever fight I'll know to just stab you in the tit then." They never seem to answer my calls after that for some strange reason...

A bit more than BG would be fine for me (though not too much more, there is such a thing as too much) as they felt pretty close, definitely better than the capital of Ferelden in DAO that felt like a village and a dead one at that.

They must sparkles! *bang* Damn twilight fans get everywhere...

I thought this topic had died, hate to see it back. Umberlin, you argue that if we change the monk then why stop there well why stop at the chanter then? I explained the benefits of changing the name for the monk, getting away from the preconceptions of spiritualism imherent in the name monk (and which doesn't make sense when everyone is using spiritual power as they are planning to in PE). Saying that its up to Obsidisn, we are aware of that we are discussing whether its a good choice or not as is our right, don't like it don't bother discussing it then. As to calling them dancers and changing their clothes, it changes their role in society, making them performers instead, and removes the Eastern ascetic that some feel is out of place. Plus it would be so much more interesting!

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. This is it. Witcher 2 had to have DRM on the physical copies sold through retailers at launch despite CD Project being opposed to it because the publisher insisted on it to appease their shareholders. Shareholders (and most management) don't really understand the industry any more than Joe Bloggs they are just after money, and when they see people using their products all they know is "that guy has stolen from!!!111"

There's that preoccupation with memory, past events, and the burden of reincarnation. I think you're onto something there. We may be coming across the activities of our past lives and the consequences therein...

I hope they are not 'the agile ones' as it invariable ends up as 'all elves are rangers' due to their stat bonuses and the like. What happens if I want to play a clumsy elf? Tall and sort of alien This I like! Creepy alien elves for the win!

As long as they don't sparkle and stalk schoolgirls he can call them vampires as much as he wants!

I've never played NWN2. Were the portraits in NWN2 like those in PST (3D and animated)? If yes, then I'd definitely prefer 2D portraits like the ones in BG. They look better and if I don't find anything I like, I could easily switch to a custom portrait. I'm not really sure how custom portraits could work with 3D portraits. No, it was just a static screenshot of your character's ingame face with a rather bland and moronic expression on their face, and from an angle that really didn't do the character's looks any good.

You know what I have been wondering about: If the $4 million is before or after Kickstarter and Amazon have taken their cut. I mean, is the total on the Kickstarter all gone to Obsidian and if not did they remember to factor it in that they'll be having about 10% I believe taken off it?

Why did Tyler Durden enter my head as I read that? [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo-wkv8gW6k[/media]

I would kill for AP2. It was this game that brought me to these forums the first time, to find out if there were others who couldn't understand the hate for this game. Oh, and if anyone's wondering, that is a serious offer to kill someone if AP2 were offered as payment...

Baldur's Gate, and I do mean Baldur's Gate not the second one as the portraits in that one were just horrible: the pretentious added scars, fugly dreadlocks, and my god what did they do to Imoen's face...and Jaheira's, and Minsc's! BG1 just seemed to be more awesome while BG2 seemed cartooney and actually badly drawn (Jaheira's eyes seemed wonked out).

Samwise and Frodo at least... I kid, I kid... You kid? You mean it's not an epic saga of two men's love for one another transcending the world they live in and sailing off into the sunset together?

Aye, it's why I think I don't enjoy games where they have brought in a big Hollywood scriptwriter to write it, they may be great at writing films but they lack the experience of dealing with games. Same reason why I think developers trying to make their games into an 'cinematic experience' is bad, as they end up losing the 'game' in their attempt to make it more like a film. Personally, I don't think we'll get a RPG romance 'done right' until someone makes a game based around it so that they can figure out just how to make it work in a game environment. I don't mean one of those dating sims, I mean an actual quality game, with the romance refined into an actual game, at which point developers will have something to 'work' from. Until then, it's not going to be developed to the extent that it needs to rise above controversial minigame. Nothing wrong with that, but people will continue to argue about it. Actually you can't skip the dialog as you still need to make the choices whether you skipped what was being said or not. It would be like skipping the graphical animation of PC attacking while still making the attack, you still have to engage in the dialog 'combat', make a choice and have the stats needed to make it work if necessary, if people can pick randomly without caring what happens in the dialog then it is a problem with the dialog being meaningless which is the problem I've been refering to. I mentioned specifically RPGs because they are the games that I feel need all the bits to match up, so those games from other genres are not really applicable in this case. Total War only cares whether you win or lose the battle, not whether you used Blood magic or turned into the Slayer in front of people or tried to get the paladin in the group to murder children, and so it can be left up to the computer to automatically decide for you without any affect. This is why RPGs are so different and difficult to make compared to many other game types, and why the influence of other game types is a source of worry for some RPG fans. Those dungeon hacks you mention are what they are: dungeon hacks, crawls through dungeons. They are not really full RPGs, but more symbolic of the transitional stage tabletop RPGs went through on their way from being tabletop wargames to actual RPGs, and as others have said there were other games at the time more representative of RPGs. No one is arguing against having more talking and less combat, that is a bit of a strawman to be honest. There can be RPGs that have very little combat in or which allow the player to avoid combat (if they are not interested in combat then they should be looking at finding other ways and achieving their goal after all), the point is that an RPG is pretty much an attempt at simulating a world and it's reactions to your actions and choices and to tell a story in, and if you can just skip certain parts of it then what it is saying is that those parts are irrelevant, something a good RPG should not be doing in my mind.

The 'problem' I have with her comment is that it is indicative of the problem in general with Bioware games: the parts of the game seem to be unconnected with each other. RPGs really need to have each part of the game influence each other, the dialogue needs to influence the combat and both need to be influenced by the same stats for instance. Bioware games have increasingly segregated the dialogue and combat to the point that you can be using blood magic in front of an entire city and no one seems to mention it in conversation. The writers should be working with the designers and those implementing the combat mechanics to make sure everything works and makes sense in the world they are building, for instance TNO's ability to switch classes was written into Planescape's story as his using his 'forgetfulness' and even justified questlines and the like. If you are able to skip combat to get straight to the dialogue or vice versa with no impact then something is wrong with the RPG you're supposed to be making. That's my opinion anyway, take from it what you will.