Azdeus

I know what you mean, it's a dead horse that's been beaten back to life and then to death again. I have my own, quite strict yet simple definition of what makes an RPG what it is, but combat is'nt (necessarily) part of it. Yes, they do know their fanbase well seemingly. Many people love their games through rain, sleet and snow, and I don't begrudge them that. While Bioware certainly has resources, I think the main hindrance to them expanding their combat systems and exploring possibilities for non-combat alternatives are hampered by their own fanbase aswell. I've played most of their games, and I can't recall a single place where you could for instance avoid combat through dialogue. (Though the opposite I think is available). I thought that Fallout was hailed as the game resurrecting cRPG's, atleast by the critics, but my memories may fail me or might be too colored by nostalgia for the right memories to be set correctly. You're quite right about the grindy combat, but atleast I remember the combat in the BG games to be less... grindy as it was. Not saying that you are wrong now, since this is personal experience, but most people that I know that played Diablo hated the BG series. Edit; Yes, that is quite true, writing non-combat or building stealth areas are time and resource consuming - would'nt dare to say anything else. We're most likely talking ten times the amount of time and effort of doing this. The results would be a better game though, and if these sort of things were to nestle their way into the mainstream gaming... games, I would'nt mind paying more money for my products either. Cloning mobs and just designing a dungeon takes a long time, hence why Diablo and its successor used RNG to create the dungeons. J-NPC = joinable npc or..?

Hmm... does internal project mean it's an IP of their own, or could it just aswell be something someone hired them for? Say Bioware hiring them to make an DA: O expansion? (Wich really would'nt surprise me.)

^- *Salute* I'm using hyperbole here, but sometimes it felt that World of Warcraft had less combat than Biowares games. I don't know why they chose to have the amount of combat that they do and don't give any alternatives to it, and they're hailed as the best RPG makers the world has to offer? *Sigh*

Safe to assume that is not the "unannounced project"?

I do hope they get around to doing that aswell. I'm mostly bored of combat myself though(Get enough of that of the news), might be that I'm alone in it - but having alternatives is nice.

That would be a blessing, yes - while I enjoy the style of combat they employed it kind of dwarfed just about everything else in the game, and the combat itself was'nt that interesting. I do hope they let you get some alternatives to fighting in the sequel, but I don't have much trust in Bioware letting you do something as complex as that.

Cheers. Been a while since I last played it. There are various weapons and finite inventory space, so you need to diversify your squad to effectively deal with situations. With friendly fire also being on, it was definitely a challenge. For instance I used the shotgun which was super powerful at close range, and piercing, and I frequently would blow away my teammates if I wasn't careful Hahaha! Sounds like a hoot!

Yes, well - some games let you do it with a little more finesse than just... clicking on them madly. Dark Messiah for instance, that game was a hoot. Or Jagged Alliance 2. 'Specially 1.13. Love the Drassen counterattack. Thief games were brilliant aswell, want more of those.

But was there any tactics or similar involved or was it diablo style?

My parents took a crazy life insurance policy out for me that basically covered everything that could happen to me, while still getting an impressive rate on it. *Shrug* I know of one person that was killed in my hometown, actually murdered - and that was over 15 years ago. It's a safe place to live in, so I am not particularly worried about anything worse than some vandalism happening to me. (Has happened once.)

What was the point of it? Kill things? Unless you vehemently oppose Steam ofcourse.

My bank does'nt issue that kind of protection, pretty much screwed there. Then again, I'm not particularly worried about losing my cash, but in the even that I am robbed, my insurance is supposed to cover that. Unless I'm killed trying to kick the robbers ass, in wich case my family gets a massive amount of cash.

Yes, yes - very well aware of that. Does'nt make me dislike Steam any less though. Love the Empire AI - 750 yard range howitsers en masse shooting away at the enemy that's just standing there. Brilliant stuff.

Spare parts equals patches you have to pay for. A patch is issued to correct flaws in the design, spare parts are sold due to normal wear and tear. So while a patch is a 100% loss from a production stand point (goodwill doesn't count here), spare parts certainly aren't. I'd say patches are more similar to the warranty issued with a new car, which is also a complete loss for the manufacturer, but needed for the goodwill it brings (and because I don't think anyone would buy something like a car without one). In the end, it doesn't matter if the analogy holds up or not (and it wasn't really meant as an analogy in the first place, just an example), the point still stands. If the gaming industry needs to increase their profit margins, they need alternate reveneue streams, not to go after the gaming infrastructure. Car recalls equals patches, but I'm nitpicking. A patch does correct designflaws, but sometimes also prevents crashing. ;P Spare parts would mostly resemble getting a new CD/DVD for your game. And I still think DLC's are optional extras. Did anyone here play the original mod?

Our Inquisitor naturally found out, and I was suddenly 15000 thrones short of money. Ofcourse the Inquisitor took over my operation, and all that time the GM was laughing his arse off in my face. XD After that it was back to earning the standard 50+(5*Rank) thrones a mission. Considering a lasgun chargepack costs 15 thrones, I was poor. That character is now Ascended by the way. Rank 9, rawr. What games do you normaly play?

Empire TW is quite fun, but you should possibly look at Napoleon instead. Some people swear it's more refined.

Oh, boy did the GM take advantage of us, my poo-hole would'nt close up for days. My best memory was when he set an Arbitrator on my Noble Guardsman (Pre-Inquisitors handbook though) ass. "I'll have you know that my family are the leaders of the Castelle Alliance! Cease and desist!"... I lost my characters arm. ;_; Since the GM is really strict on income and whatnot he really encourages us to find our own ways of making money. Guardsman. With access to the Armory. Hilarity ensued 3 meetings later when we were investigating an cultist uprising in the sector that apparently got ahold of some serious firepower. *Coughs* I swear I'm innocent. >_>

That sounds somewhat eerily familiar. >_>' Last time I GM'd was nearly 10 years ago, and all the other players had their most seasoned characters - and I wanted to give them some decent opposition - and managed to kill of 4 out of 5 players. :D They did like the premise of the adventure though, just not... the combat parts. I knew next to nothing about Warhammer when we started playing either. I read through a copy of the Imperial Infantrymans Uplifting Primer (Yes, my friends bought one. ) as prep for my Guardsman, and listened to some brief explanations about the world before we set off. Out of 6 players, only 2(3, one none regular) had any real knowledge/insight into the world of WH:40K before playing, we learned as we played through the game. I do understand your GM not wanting to lead a game that the players know more about than him, but I will say that I'm sorry for you.

Well, my googleskillz are lacking, but the main jist of it was along the lines of; Wich means that Valve/Steam are allowed to use your "game selections" to tailor their marketing towards you. I'm not as eloquent or as educated as the person that analyzed this before me though. Edit; GAaaaaah, I hate those postblockingthingies so that I can't quickly edit in a quote the lazy way! I did'nt say it was anything newsworthy, I pointed out that it is food for thought and that I don't like it and think it's an violation on my privacy. I don't use creditcards myself, I - guess what? :D - prefer handling cash!

Computer hardware survey, yes I know that - but they track your purchases aswell. My link to that report is dead I'm afraid, going to have to go google it if you want it. I suppose it's to much to ask you to believe me on that part?

No group or timeconstraints? Or ogryns. Some of my favourite quotes are ogryn based. "Blessed is the mind too small for doubt." And "Let's see how these degenerate sophisticates handle a dose of pure unreasoning violence." Bah, the english language sounds so damn much cooler, and quoteworthy than anything in Swedish.

Not much, considering that Steam tracks your activities and purchases to better market products towards you - I'd say that a footnote/comment about global surveillance is'nt that much OT.

Indeed, and I don't have a hard time believing that that is the case - electronic surveillance is'nt as time consuming or difficult as the more oldschool methods of tracking someone. The new legislations that are going through are starting to scare the living daylights out of me to be honest.

I've played quite a few different RPG's to this day, and most of them I've liked, but Dark Heresy is so far my all-time favourite, the only thing that bugged me was the fact that I played as a guardsman, and the rest of the group played high payed careers, wich became annoying in the long run since by the time I got an armorupgrade from my standard issue flak armor the rest of the group had moved on to power armor. Great game though, and the world is highly intoxicating - I can't help but love it. Recently finished the Harlock trilogy, and while it was good generally speaking, the end-part of it was a bit of a... okay, a big letdown in my eyes. Did anyone else here play it through?

Is it tied in at all with the main story?