odjntrade

I somewhat agree, though I think you kind of over-powered wind in your descriptions. I believe sorcerers are the proper style choice for all magic users, pooled mana that all spells utilize. Other classes should instead focus on something more specialized like wizards holding less magical power but more spells at their disposal (more flexable but less powerful). One aspect I have always wanted to see is an in depth capability for enchanted single use items. Creating fire scrolls for non-magic characters or stocking up on them for when your mana runs low. I am wondering just how they plan to script out the soul stuff they have been talking about. My imagination is on fire with that ^_^

The horrific event you witness that gets everything started is your own discovery of your ability to make people consume their own scrotums. The act of which has created an army of scrotumless individuals to ban together and seek your doom. You must make your way away from them while trying to discover why you have such a power, and pondering why an army of scrotumless individuals still has the testosterone driven strength to hunt you so verociously... Anywho, I welcome weird as long as it is balanced. Game breaking weird is just too annoying.

I have always seen level scalling as being utilized improperly. Oblivion took it way too far. Fallout 3 never felt challenging until post level 20 (10 minutes of shooting one super mutant in the face in one encounter, though it still didn't feel challenging). I prefer the feel of never knowing exactly what I'll encounter. Predicting what enemies I'll come across becomes dull. I like the idea of enemy loading off of a chance generation. Certain areas would spawn specific enemies without fail but then have a variety of spots that may or may not load a completely random enemy. Single lost mid level soldier that has gone crazy, small band of low level bandits testing out new hunting grounds, a high level wizard testing out the effects of a new spell on anything he finds, or even a large orc battle detachment on the war march with mixed levels. I would expect to find goblins near a goblin tunnel filled with potentially hundreds lurking within but it is always nice to find things you never expected to find, like say a certain bridge in Fallout involving stat or skill requirements. Off the top of my head I can't remember how it went. I just... I don't know. *blows up*

I think they built a fully automated, cryptic sentence building program that spouts out plot points at a rate of 500 lines a minute and just needed a gimmick to show it off with. It's name would of course be Ourobouros! Named that because it writes lines, reads them over, and uses them as inspiration for the next thing it writes.

anything is possible, but this doesn't seem likely at all.

Ponnies! Gather to Godhammer citadel. No more pilgramages. No more waiting. We will remind them that we are to be feared.

He may be onto something but not cows. Do I smell a herd of burning moose?

Its just sad that Sega is taking so long to do anything for this game. I truly do hope that Obsidian doesn't work with Sega again any time soon. Sega is building a bad track record in my mind. They canceled Alien vs Predator, they almost canceled Alpha Protocol and they did so in the oddest ways. How unprofessional is it to wait until the shipping day to say the date has been pushed back half a year. I know this isn't the place for it but Sega really needs to start being more professional in the way they act with Obsidian. Really just the way they act in general lately. Hope the patch problem gets fixed soon.

There was a thread I read through that stated the license for AP is owned by Obsidian and not Sega. Sega technically misinformed the public when they stated there would be no sequel since it is not their call. Their press release should have stated something more like, "We will not be funding a sequel." Regardless, due to the bad publicity, etc., I don't see a sequel being very likely. I love the game but a spiritual successor would be just fine (similar concept but different characters, etc.). Besides, should AP be discovered, they'll just change their name and move to a different site. That in mind, It could have any name and be as sweet ^_^ Obsidian's only real flaw is within their glitchy gameplay. If they can nail down a solution for it then they would rise to be one of the best game companies. I already view them as one but they need more than just a die hard fan or two hanging around a near dead AP site to fund the overhauls needed to raise them up. Words of encouragement are the best we can offer for now.

I was sold on the game the moment I heard the premise over a year before the original release date. The concept just flew into my brain and started sparking off ideas and possibilities. I am well aware that I tend to let my imagination overindulge and push bounds beyond what is possible to create within a time limit and budget but the game delivered very well. Even after the half year push back of Sega sitting on the game till they felt like releasing it, even after it was trashed on near every review site I read, even after hearing people bash it as a glitchy flop that doesn't deserve a second look should you find it in a bin labeled free. There was so much negative publicity that most people don't even want to give it a chance. After I read my first bad review a week before release, I went out and paid off my preorder so that I couldn't back out. It seems strange but my gut told me that it was worth it and that I should ignore what others said. I was spot on. My girlfriend hates the game because I was paying more attention to it than her for the first month after release. It is an unpolished masterpiece. Like a dirt covered diamond that you need to tilt in just the right way to see its good qualities. Once you have caught a glimpse of its beautiful side you quickly lose sight of all the flaws that everyone was once pointing out. The stealth is unbalanced but it is still fun, the weapons are crap if you don't have skills paid into them but it forces you to be strategic in skill purchasing and polarize in gameplay (ie: being full stealth or full assault style), etc etc. It has a charm about it that calls back to classic rpg style. The game would be great with proper patches which Sega is dragging its feet on. From what I've read from the forum about its reception and subsequent issues, I'm avoiding it. Most problems seem editable with ini modifications. I would love a sequel but I do also love the idea of a small community of loyal fans that pull to the dream that they had when thinking about what the game could be. Either way, I want to see this game live on with a spiritual successor or an actual sequel, or worst case scenario with half baked user made content after fully hacking the files with no support.

Yes, in (A)D&D system, magic plays a great role. I don't know how it works in Dungeon Siege 1/2 and Dragon Age, though. However, I've gotten an impression that, in DSIII, the players don't need to shift among characters even if they are allowed to do so. If the AI is made like that, it is possible that the same AI is applied to PC and I cannot come up with any reason to go against that possible additional option since it seems to be a simple extension of the existing function (I'm not a programmer, so correct me if I'm wrong, though). Again, all of these are just hypothetical and we need the devs to decide about it. Personally, I don't mind either way especially since "all AI mode" would be optional. I'm a little confused about the direction of your statement. Magic plays a great role, I don't know how it works in these games, don't need to switch between party characters, if the AI is made like that. The first two parts made sense but that magic does play a great role and I would wager that you aren't lying about not knowing those systems. Switching between characters is technically not necessary for you to ever switch between characters unless we're talking about a game with no AI at all. I doubt Obsidian would do that to its players since it would create a pseudo turn based games and they are moving away from it (all manual controlled characters means increased pause times as you switch and it essentially becomes what most games originally were). AI controlled characters are practically required at this time. I imagine we'll be seeing something similar to Final Fantasy XII in the respect of party members. They have a default AI that can be modified (hopefully not the gambit system specifically) but it is very similar to DAO's system. Just that DAO had you do a lot more manually. So as for your last portion on programming, I'm assuming "like that" refers to what I just described on AI controlled characters with slightly modified combat patterns and, if the player can switch between characters, the player's character must be created with the same basic components as his team. So if they give you the option of not having manual control of a character then you have the ability to simply watch. I don't care for that gameplay myself but if it is already supported why not give it to the players. Dungeon Siege's magic (in part 2, never played 1) didn't give you a lot of control as to targeting. You simply cast the spell and it does damage to enemies in front or around you. I didn't care for it too much. I got the first artifact in the game and was heading for the second when I lost interest. The lock picking and trap minigames had a sharp difficulty scale so that if you weren't ready to pick it, you shouldn't really bother. Rarely was I able to pick a lock while being 3 levels too low for it (excessively rare). On the overall I didn't care for the game but I saw soooooo much potential within it. I do hope that Obsidian is able to bring out those elements that made me enjoy that glitchy unpolished **************************************************