Luckmann

Is there really a reason to ever get a Steam version over the GOG version, if one has a choice? I never really got the brand loyalty. Steam allows you to add non-Steam games to your library anyway, right?

It's not that uncommon that there's two sets of patch notes, one with highlights and one with more in-depth information. That might be an idea. After all, if you start with detailed patch notes, all you need to do is cut out the very specific information, and suddenly you have two sets of pertinent information. That being said, although not being a tester, I can totally see why it's not happening. I mean, it'd be neat, I love detailed patch notes regardless of the game and it's state, but it simply might not be as simple to keep track of everything at the most detailed, day-to-day or hour-to-hour level of things.

ROFL A 5 year development cycle that results in a $1 BILLION payout is not, by any definition, a waste of development time. It is by many definitions. The only one you give is monetary. If you don't care about monetary payout and instead focus on making a good game, then yeah, I agree with BigBripa's comment on it being a tremendous waste of development time. I doubt there's a single developer that worked on Skyrim that couldn't have been better used doing something culturally significant.

They probably keep a running log of some kind, but even that can be pretty hard to keep track of, nevermind minute changes that may change several times in a day, and then the act of cleaning up that log for ever build release so only the relevant changes are listed. I don't know for a fact, but I have the feeling that it's not "someone" writing it down, but *everyone* to one degree or another. It's probably quite messy.

I wonder what they were thinking when they put in Lockpick XP since they don't seem to have XP for any other skill in the same manner, and specifically do not have experience for killing opponents. If they want to get away from the whole "grinding-XP", which it seems they want to, they really oughta can that again. What other changes has there been to the XP system?

Everything in the opening dialogue suggests you're a new addition, unless there's something other than that in the metagame content that I've missed. Either way, you never interacted with Ulfric, seeing as how he's bound and gagged. This being the "barbaric lands" of Skyrim doesn't mean that common sense doesn't apply. You don't have any kind of formal invitation with you whatsoever. The only "invitation" I know of is the Stormcloak in Helgen (if you ran with him after the opening scenes, instead of the Imperial) that tells you to go to Windhelm. And that's if you even stick with him and don't stab him in the back immediately and leave him dead by the wayside. Say whatnow? At that point, there is nothing suggesting you are Dovahkiin (depending on when you go there). Even so, that is a moot argument, seeing as how it isn't mentioned either, at that point. No, they don't. Like I said, the entire scene prevents you from interacting in any meaningful capacity, let alone reveal yourself as a mage. Which of course also invalidates your "argument" citing the dialogue. The whole point is that you're not involved. Otherwise they would've taken you too. The Cowled Wizards know nothing about Imoen's escape, or that you were involved in it. They have no idea who you or Imoen, or anyone even is - they don't even know who Irenicus is, save for the fact that he's an insane mage that just tore apart the Promenade. And again, the only reason they even bother with Imoen is because Irenicus insists that she be taken as well, even though she attempted to assist in the defeat of Irenicus with what comparatively speaking is a mere cantrip (low-end Magic Missiles, if I'm not mistaken). The scene may have it's flaws, but it does nothing to support your arguments.

It's not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of fact. As Quadrone said, PoE is feature complete. Any game that goes into beta (although the term has become increasingly misused) is formally feature complete. It's not being defeatist to be reasonable and have realistic expectations. Lol, no use arguing with him. Let him live in his fevered fantasy world where his dervish imaginings are reality. It's as productive as trying to convince a schizophrenic the pigeons outside his window are not trying to steal his thoughts. ...! O_O *pulls tinfoil hat down over the ears*

I have absolutely no idea how it plays in practice, but I must say that shared Health sounds odd as all hell. Not just thematically - because I can't see that happening without some major mumbo-jumbo and literal, magical blood-bonds - but also mechanically; doesn't it lead to the situation where, say, Bears and Foxes will have the same Health, but also making it preferable to have something that is really beefy so it can take more punches, because if it doesn't, you die twice as fast?

It's not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of fact. As Quadrone said, PoE is feature complete. Any game that goes into beta (although the term has become increasingly misused) is formally feature complete. It's not being defeatist to be reasonable and have realistic expectations. It's probably not the post you're talking about, but just the other day BMac said that they're pretty much just fixing bugs. At this point, I'd be surprised if we make it another month without them announcing the release, and seeing the release within 3 months. Preferably, I'd like to see the release as soon as possible (urge.. to play.. rising...) but I'm going to place my bets on February 26th.

This one's a giant SO WHAT. None of the IE games react to the character you created either - which means that in terms of RPG significance, it must not matter that much to the game's fun factor. More to the point: I rank NPCs walking up to you and saying "Hey! you're an elf!" or "Hey, you're a half orc cleric who's wearing leather armor! Get off my lawn!" just slightly more important than being able to customize the shape of your nose in the character creator. When it was relevant in the IE games, you were occasionally called out on race. The difference is that in the IE games, it was very rarely relevant in a way that you'd expect to be called out on it. Skyrim is a completely different deal. At the very least, I expected for most to make a distinction between Men and Mer. But not even the Stormcloaks, pointed out as "racist" by cultural marxists everywhere, seem to care. At all. With the established background, I was surprised to see that I as an Altmer could just walk straight up to Ulfric and stab him in the face without even being questioned what High Elf was doing there. The people who call the Stormcloaks racists often exaggerate the issue. It's not that they hate non-Nords; they just don't care about the needs of non-Nordic residents. [...] I realize that and agree, but it's still a perfectly reasonable thing to be expected. The Stormcloaks very much are Skyrim is for the Nords and there is very "real" racial tensions supposedly going on in Skyrim, and there was a major Tamriel-wide race war with Mer in general and Altmer in particular being the aggressors. The lack of reactivity in that is ridiculous in relation to the situation that Bethesda tried to paint out. Ulfric has seen you in passing once, for a brief time. You've never talked to him, and more likely than not, haven't done anything for him. For all he knows, you could just as easily be a plant. Nevermind that that is beside the point that there's at best 4 Stormcloaks total that even know that - you shouldn't even have gotten inside the door without being questioned. And even so, even Ulfric should still ask himself - and you - why you would work against your ethnic interests. The Stormcloaks are portrayed as being ethnically concious, but they act completely oblivious. 1) They have no idea you're a mage at that point; 2) You weren't involved in the disturbance at all. Even Imoen is only arrested because Irenicus insists on it. That particular scene always grinded my gears, by the way, simply because you can't get involved even if you wanted. So while that scene is one of the worse parts of Baldur's Gate II (while simultaneously being one of the best due to Irenicus absolutely demolishing the Cowled Wizards with suitable panache) it in no way supports your argument. I have no idea what you are talking about. The "everyone-knows-what-you-are" ridiculousness is exactly what we don't want at all. It's that line of thought that allows you to just stroll into Ulfric's castle, or be hailed as the Dragonborn everywhere, or suddenly be known to be part of the Thieve's Guilde. Seriously, it's one of the major complaints of the video in the opening post.

It was handled well in FO:NV, but I still think that it suffered from feeling forced in the whole "represent the whole spectrum of sexual orientations". In the wake of a nuclear holocaust, I can't see homosexuality as being something as handwaveable as it was portrayed - especially not by the two most technologically advanced factions that have charged themselves with the survival of humanity.

This one's a giant SO WHAT. None of the IE games react to the character you created either - which means that in terms of RPG significance, it must not matter that much to the game's fun factor. More to the point: I rank NPCs walking up to you and saying "Hey! you're an elf!" or "Hey, you're a half orc cleric who's wearing leather armor! Get off my lawn!" just slightly more important than being able to customize the shape of your nose in the character creator. When it was relevant in the IE games, you were occasionally called out on race. The difference is that in the IE games, it was very rarely relevant in a way that you'd expect to be called out on it. Skyrim is a completely different deal. At the very least, I expected for most to make a distinction between Men and Mer. But not even the Stormcloaks, pointed out as "racist" by cultural marxists everywhere, seem to care. At all. With the established background, I was surprised to see that I as an Altmer could just walk straight up to Ulfric and stab him in the face without even being questioned what High Elf was doing there.

I'm not going to be happy until we get voice sets performed by David Warner (Irenicus) and Jeff Bennet (Xan). :D Thinking about it, Baldur's Gate/2 had some really crazy good voice-acting. Edit: Come to think of it, I'd commit murder and sacrifice the carcass to the dark gods beyond the veil for a Xan-based voice-set. Xan is best character every year, all years.

There are so many frustrating things in Skyrim that I find myself asking the question, out loud, "What idiot wrote this? Did he or she even attend school past middle?" That's really sad, sad I am talking about a game designer in a highly competitive industry who is apparently so inept that I'm asking whether or not this person, finished highschool. I'll bet even the greenest of the greenhorn designers here at Obsidian could have done that quest line better. Based on what I've seen in their various products. I honestly think that a lot of the developers that are subjected to the "Oh god what the hell were they thinking?" line of thought are actually decent, decently intelligent persons that are just stuck in the situation(s) where they just have to go like "...well I guess it's the best that I get to do this time around.. *sigh*" or have just flat-out given up trying. There's no end of people that get their soul crushed in industry (no matter the industry) and just ends up wondering who the hell eats the **** you end up creaming out to earn a living.

Ideally, I'd like to see two different characters with two radically different statsets, trying out two-handed weapons, dual-wielding, and dueling, and then a general judgement of their offensive and defensive capabilities. Because like you say, dueling (that is, one one-handed weapon) seems underpowered, but the fighter you mention also has crazy stats. But at the same time, the optimal stats should be slightly different from each, depending on build. It's possibly a hairy thing to try. I can't help but to think that a duelist should be getting some defensive bonuses in addition to the increase in Accuracy, due to his increased mobility and "ponderous" combat style, but nothing comparable to, say, sword-and-board fighter. Unless you specialize for it, at least.

And to be fair, most turn-based games are still more auto-attack-y than PoE appears to be. "Oh, it's his turn again? Uhm, yup, shoot." Maybe the ones you played. Fallout 1 and 2, ToEE, KotC, Blackguards and some others I played were for sure not stand in one spot and just attack. At worst you needed to change positions each round to maximize offense while reducing number of enemies that could attack you. Not counting strategic, only tactical/RP ones, Fallout 1/2, ToEE, Wasteland 2, Jagged Alliance 1/2, Space Hulk, Halfway, The entire X-Com series, all of them come to mind. Let's just be clear here though - I haven't actually played Pillars of Eternity yet, which is why I say appears. But there's no end to turn-based games where a regular shot tends to be the best option. I get what you mean and I think that it's a good thing that PoE is designed with the intent that you use the special abilities handed to you, so on and so forth, but there's not that many turn-based games where you need to use that many abilities on the average encounter.

Should probably report that as a bug, if you haven't already. Could just be an oversight.

And to be fair, most turn-based games are still more auto-attack-y than PoE appears to be. "Oh, it's his turn again? Uhm, yup, shoot."

In defense of the beta, though, it's a beta. It's not meant to be played for joy.

Or something similar to Alt functionality, perhaps Ctrl or Shift.

I'll never understand why people make threads on company forums about "my friend who pirates" or even flat our piracy in general. At a con a few years ago, some kid went up my friends booth and started talking about how he hated DRM and would pirate whenever he could. He got so upset when my friend started yelling at him, as if it was my friends fault for giving a **** that they cared about him taking this guys $60 game for free. There's people that actually do that? Yes, there are. I have an Online friend who hates DRM. He buys a copy of a game and then pirates the game so he does not have to register it with Steam or whoever. Oh, I know there's a lot of people that does that. I meant the part where people make threads on company forums about "my friend who pirates" and... oooh, I see what you did there. Seriously though, people that walk up to convention booths and start talking about how they pirated the software? I.. I want to find that hard to believe. I'm split between saying "I'll take 'Things that didn't happen for 500, Alex'" and going "Yup, people are that terrible." Now, if someone buys the product and then pirates it just to avoid the DRM, if someone else gets their panties in a twist over something so inconsequential and cries "Thief!", I don't know what to say.

I'll never understand why people make threads on company forums about "my friend who pirates" or even flat our piracy in general. At a con a few years ago, some kid went up my friends booth and started talking about how he hated DRM and would pirate whenever he could. He got so upset when my friend started yelling at him, as if it was my friends fault for giving a **** that they cared about him taking this guys $60 game for free. There's people that actually do that?

The combat in Oblivion was complete crap. Thanks to the super low damage system most player could easily heal faster than even a group of enemies could hurt them. Trivial fights would drag on forever, and the bow was nearly useless. Not to mention by mid level the player had to choose from two impossible choices: 1: Keep the difficulty the same and die of boredom since you are an immortal God who can heal much much faster than anyone can hurt you. 2: Increase the difficulty and die of boredom since even the most trivial of fights will drag on forever since the damage is so freakin' low. It's also more limited than Skyrim's combat too so enjoy doing the same thing over-and-over. The combat in Skyrim while no prize is MUCH better than Oblivion's. Just as Skyrim is much better than Oblivion. Generally, I agree with you, especially since I never managed to finish Oblivion simply because it ended up dragging on forever until you just don't have it in you anymore, but as for bows sucking, I must ask you.. what? Bows were insane, when combined with high Stealth, and in Oblivion, there is no excuse for not having high.. well.. everything. Most enemies wouldn't even get close to you, and you could simply stay out of range and kill them in just a few shots. Most would be lucky if they even discovered you. The same is true for Skyrim.

Absolutely no offense intended, but just to be clear here, I've been a member more than two years longer than you, and the vast majority of my posts have been (was) in the Project Eternity section. The only reason I (speaking of me personally) couldn't contribute to the Kickstarter was a matter of wealth (or rather, lack thereof). I'm not exactly someone that "... now comes in when everything looks fine". And I maintained from the beginning that unique in-game items that create a clique of the privilieged was a bad idea. I fully confess to the "some sort of OCD", though. Generally speaking, calling people mentally ill is frowned upon and I have no doubt it was intended as an insult, but ultimately, I realize that the vast majority - especially those that it doesn't affect in any way - of the player base couldn't care less about aspects like this, but to me and many others it's incredibly grating. Now you're just being straight-up belligerent. I realize that you somehow see it as you being entitled to completely disregard what others are saying and attack strawmen that you build up all around them, but you can't expect people to take you seriously when you do. You may ignore earlier posts, but to do so and then claim malice on part of another is completely ridiculous. You're flat-out accusing someone else of a crime, attacking their character and insulting them, despite said someone (me) making their stance clear on the matter. I'm not taking anything from anyone, no matter what kind of nonsense windmill you concoct. I think it's been made abundantly clear that to some people, understanding an issue equates to condoning, supporting and attempting to justify it. I've been wondering the same myself, actually. I got the suspicion that the Pre-Order Items and the Kickstarter Item being the same due to the ring, actually, since backers "pledged". Second thought was that it could be a reference to the Ring of Gaxx in Baldur's Gate 2, but I honestly have no idea where that thought came from, because it's flimsy as all hell. Third - and this is a long shot - is that Gaun, as the present participle of gae, a Scot word for "go", and assuming gaelic influences over the in-universe Aedyr, essentially brings us to something tentatively linguistically associated with "pledge to go" or "pledge to going"; Kickstarter, or Pre-Order, as in pledging to the beginning, or to start, to go. But.. uh.. yeah, that doesn't sound very plausible, does it? For reference, here's the description of it: "This item gives the ability to shield yourself from the perils that roam the world of Eora. A mystical ring with interlocking sickles that brings life where death looms. Gaun's favored implement, symbolic of the cycle of the harvest he oversees. Like its namesake, it is known to provide powerful support to those in need of defense." Based on that, Gaun might simply be a diety in the world, and the ring itself is simply a reference to Kickstarter and the backers supporting the game; brings life where death blooms, the interlocking sickles representing the backers that now reap the fields, i.e. the finished game. The backers embodied with the diety of Gaun (assuming it's a diety), providing powerful support to those in need of defense - Obsidian and Pillars of Eternity itself. Just some thoughts.

Oh god, it's almost like that's exactly what I said there could be a good argument for to do if possible, two hours before your condescending reply! It's almost as if you almost but not really at all read the posts in the thread to understand someone's position before firing at the legion of strawmens and charged the windmills. What a time to be alive. What a time. 1. It was a response to your first post. For reasons stated below, I didn't care to read further before voicing my own opinion. And, as this is a discussion forum, I am entitled to do so. 2. I was being condescending, and deliberately so. If a starving man steals a loaf of bread, I am inclined to not look so harshly on it. When a person of means starts spouting justifications for stealing non-necessities, I personally find it deplorable. We are talking about a non-existent conceptual good, hardly a necessity. 3. The world frustrates me too. Especially so when I see someone calling my arguments "straw men" in the face of their own ridiculous justifications for thievery. We're talking about a single player game with a pet platypus or something. "This is a discussion forum, so it is my right ignore the discussion, and be condescending. One of my favourite passtimes is to start needless flamewars based on baseless preconception. I believe I am entitled to do so." Fair enough. Also, being called "a person of means" is heart-warming. I do believe you are projecting, though. I tried so hard. I swear I tried so hard. Q_Q