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Everything posted by AGX-17
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No, Americans (as well as many other people around the world, don't feel all superior, Europeans, I heard about how a bunch of looneys in France thought UFOs would save them if they went to some hill in some tiny village on the 21st,) are stupid and gullible and easily fall for History Channel tinfoil hat BS. The Mayans never predicted the end of the world. This is literally the end of a calendar cycle in the Mayan calendar. A new one starts when the old one ends. And once again, the Mayan civilization died out 1000 years ago.
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Probably because he has bills to pay and doesn't have the confidence/recklessness/investors/team to strike out on his own venture. Not everybody is well-equipped to thrive in the winner-take-all, (financial) might-makes-right world of capitalism, after all.
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A common-sense approach that one would hope conservatives would accept (they wouldn't,) would be to treat guns the same way we treat and regulate cars. (the key difference being that guns are meant to kill people, that's why they were invented, and cars are not.) But with mental health screenings mandatory every time you want your gun license renewed. 50 years ago nobody cared that the mentally ill had no rights and could be imprisoned and "treated" against their will indefinitely, and it certainly didn't help when Ronald Reagan made massive cuts to mental health care spending. Conservatives would rather see the mentally ill go untreated until they commit a crime as a result of their illness and then call them bad people who should be put in prison or executed on account of their being fundamentally evil. If responsible gun owners don't want their rights threatened, they shouldn't support far-right groups like the NRA. They should do that thing conservatives hate most.
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Combat animation?
AGX-17 replied to rjshae's topic in Pillars of Eternity: Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
Not particularly, most of the combat taking place in any given RPG is unrealistic. Nobody's ever fought a lich or a warg or a dragon in real life, so what are they going to reference? But if you want it to be realistic, use motion capture. And motion capture isn't much use or economically viable for an isometric game where the characters are low-detail models or pixelated sprites. Besides, referencing a bunch of reenactors isn't primary source knowledge of how a given military's people fought in any given time or place, it's almost entirely guesswork based on very few manuscripts and awkwardly drawn medieval illustrations. There's a greater wealth of knowledge when it comes to the far East, but that's not this game's scope so far as I can tell. -
I've never understood the appeal of sitting around watching NPCs fight each other. Or the idea that some demon hellspawn will fight to the death for some lumpy guy in a robe because he read a book once. There are contexts where it makes sense, but not a lot of them.
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Illusion Magic & Mog Dance
AGX-17 replied to Osvir's topic in Pillars of Eternity: Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
I really wish there was an "ROFL" emoticon on this board. Setting aside the fact that you're referring to a comical mascot character whose ability was "Dance," an ability whose results were random and unrelated to illusion magic... Illusion magic has been done before, albeit not sensibly. Ultimately all it theoretically could do is confuse an enemy. Pretty much everything that has been associated with illusion magic in other games seems to fall solidly under the Cipher's intended role. -
Flora, Fauna, Fungi and Fertilizer
AGX-17 replied to rjshae's topic in Pillars of Eternity: Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
So... do you have a point beyond pointing out that most fantasy worlds are wildly unrealistic? -
Tell your wife to be less obnoxious.
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Two weapon style (dual wield)
AGX-17 replied to nerevar's topic in Pillars of Eternity: Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
Not just France, Japan too. One badass mother****er going by the name of Miyamoto Musashi. http://en.wikipedia...._Niten_Ichi-ryƫ He wasn't just an undefeated duelist, he was a veteran of several battles of the Sengoku/Warring States period, so he was no feeble rogue-like. Note that Musashi was also an accomplished artist, calligrapher, writer, philosopher, zen buddhist and military strategist, among other things. Here's one of his paintings. So anyone who had objections to separating combat and non combat skills and giving them their own independent point pools (a subject of somewhat vigorous debate in several other threads,) can take a look at Musashi, and have fun tasting their feet. No, a cowering-plate is not a weapon. -
Two weapon style (dual wield)
AGX-17 replied to nerevar's topic in Pillars of Eternity: Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
When Failion started talking about JRPG waifs brandishing 10x their body weight as being examples of "strong women" in gaming (in the sexism in video game communities sense,) and accusing of sexism anyone of calling out the fallacious physics of that as BS. These are games where they don't even bother to try to justify these things by saying "it's a magic axe, light as a feather," or "a wizard did it." Suspension of disbelief can only go so far. When you have a Japanese schoolgirl running around with a sword bigger than a car, you've overdone it. And it's not even uncommon, either. -
Beasts of Burden and "Stash" Inventory
AGX-17 replied to Hormalakh's topic in Pillars of Eternity: Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
So when was the last time you saw a business in the US or Europe using mules to transport their goods instead of trucks, trains and cargo ships? I REST MY CASE, YOUR HONOR JUSTICE OF THE PEACE: "Case dismissed." It's only in the developing world that people use these animals for the purposes of transport, and only because they can't afford motor vehicles or the fuel to power them. Trucks, trains, planes and automobiles are economically vastly more efficient for any operation larger than a subsistance farm. You can buy a passable used car for less than the cost of an average mule in the first world. A good horse will set you back much more than that. And mules aren't used for much more than transporting people on rough terrain where no motor vehicle can proceed (like into the Grand Canyon.) And the farmers who can't afford a combine harvester or what have you still relies on trucks to ship crops to market before they spoil. I have a nagging suspicion you don't actually know anything about farming in the developed world. So what's reasonable, 10 times what a normal person can carry? 100 times? 1000? At what point do our hammerspace bags fill up and we begin having to use the mule? Besides the whole "must pick up everything to sell!" mentality kind of goes away on its own since in most of these games the "basic" items become worthless really quickly compared to the price of **** you need to buy. On top of that money as a whole usually becomes meaningless by the end when you're able to afford everything easily anyway. As I hear it, a mule can carry about 20% of its body weight, tops. They're used for endurance, not strength. If you wanted to carry a huge amount you'd need a wagon and a team of oxen (easy to steal, both.) A horse can carry more (30%,) but doesn't have the stamina/endurance of a mule. The concept that makes the most sense to me is to have companions not in your party guard your oxcart and escort it between locations, and have you some kind of safe storage area in some towns like a vault in the stronghold. -
It has been informal public knowledge for the past 4+ years that PV13 was a Fallout MMORPG, but after Interplay lost the court battle with Bethesda they had to start over from scratch without license to produce a Fallout MMO, if I remember my facts straight. Herve Caen is French, not American. He brought his terrible French ideas with him when he bought Interplay and ran it into ruin. Yes, it is the French who thought Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel and other console games of the like were the future and a still solvent, income generating Black Isle was dead weight. French backers of P:E, reflect on this and seek penance. Wear hair shirts under your normal clothing, engage in self-flagellation, and continue to eat disgusting things like frogs and snails. Wait, scratch the last bit, I forgot French people enjoy that. Eat German food as a part of your penance.
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Beasts of Burden and "Stash" Inventory
AGX-17 replied to Hormalakh's topic in Pillars of Eternity: Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
A car has power and security compared to a beast of burden, a pack animal like a donkey or ox is slow and stupid and prone to wandering off or getting stolen (you can't lock a mule or the burlap sacks it has slung over its back.) There's a reason most farmers in the first world now use tractors and combine harvesters rather than oxen. The car getting stolen in Fallout 2 is a one-off that occurs in one of the most populated cities in the game, and it's stolen by people who have the knowledge and skill to bypass the security of your car as well as operate it. In the medieval world, all you had to do to steal an animal was untie its reins and then lead it away from where it was tied. For people who live in conditions where animals are no longer a utilitarian necessity, people for whom seeing a horse is a novelty tourist experience (you would have to search far and wide to find an ox if you live in the developed world,) animals don't come across as the best solution when they've already played games with more efficient alternatives (magic bags, teleportation spells, etc.) Generally, I don't like the idea of a defenseless beast of burden taking up a party slot arbitrarily (all other companions except the first 4 will refuse to travel in the presence of a donkey? How do you justify this in the game world?) much less the idea of this beast being subject to death or theft. What's the point of carrying all this stuff if the ass gets killed at the bottom of a dungeon and now you've got 3 dungeons' worth of loot lying at the bottom of a dungeon? -
Two weapon style (dual wield)
AGX-17 replied to nerevar's topic in Pillars of Eternity: Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
A katana is not a hefty weapon to begin with. At any rate, real world dual-weapon fighting styles pretty much exclusively paired a light sword/saber with a dagger or equivalent. Although it was not unheard of for norse raiders to brandish two hand axes at a time in battle, this was still small hand axes, not big battleaxes. A scrawny pedobait 12 year old girl brandishing a monstrous battleaxe larger than any of her compatriots is stupid JRPG fluff, not a depiction of "strong women." Also I like the way you run into this tangent ad hominem attack on Americans (when railing against a poster who isn't American.) Ancient humans were not superhuman in strength, they were no different from people today who perform the same sort of labor. People going hungry in Africa are not rippling with strength enough to tear a feeble "American" in half, they're no stronger than their environment and economic station allows them to be. A starving child with flies in his eyes and a distended belly is hardly the mightiest strongman in the world. Any powerlifter in the olympics today can certifiably lift more than any ancient man (and face facts: men are biologically bigger and stronger than women, my feminist cousin with a degree in womens' studies will tell you that much,) could ever hope to. An entire life devoted to strength training, coupled with nutritional/protein supplements and testosterone and other hormone injections is so far beyond the scarce and fragile nature of food for humans in the ancient world. Unless you were royalty or nobility you could never hope to see the amount and variety of food even a middle-class family sees on its plates in the modern world. These were people living hardscrabble on hard bread and what little other crops or livestock they had to subsist on, not mighty adonises living in a golden age of plenty. Humans are not animals built for strength, anyway. Humans are animals built for stamina. The first humans on the savannas of west africa 100,000+/- years ago hunted on those open plains by outlasting their prey, not by outrunning them. -
Priests and undead?
AGX-17 replied to rjshae's topic in Pillars of Eternity: Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
Why would they "command undead"? Priests aren't necromancers, they're the opposite. They're the antithesis of necromancers. Priests should be consecrating the defiled corpses perverted by necromancy, or attempting to save the souls enslaved by necromancers if that's how necromancy works in a given context. It doesn't seem to be apparent that they're going to have an individualized Priest class for every race, culture and religion. If there's a religion where necromancers are the priests and the community is full of rotting loved ones shambling around infusing the town with a rank malodor for the comfort of their survivors, that's probably not going to be represented by the Priest class. -
Relationship/Romance Thread IV
AGX-17 replied to Tigranes's topic in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
Infinite possiblity? Unexplored area? It's been done in Bioware games. Recent Bioware games. ME2-3 and DA2. -
I heard about it in the context of news that it looked like a blatant ripoff of the ARMAII mod Day Z. Also this is unprecedented, Steam has never allowed refunds for anything before, that I'm aware of. Refunds certainly aren't offered in its TOS.
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That stupid little gibbon starchild kid running around in circles with misproportioned arms and legs was "kick ass"? Really?
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...Cool tangent. Patent troll lawsuits for copyright infringement have what to do with piracy, exactly?
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Last I heard in the updates they were discussing a 12 level cap. Not a thrilling prospect, to me. It's family-friendly. Forum Guidlines Still the most hilarious irony considering I haven't seen an Obsidian title that was "family-friendly." I'm sure that'll change when The Stick of Truth comes out.
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A serrated knife isn't outlandish. And if a trident and net are good enough for Meera Reed, they're good enough for me. The existing weapon and armor discussion has revolved almost entirely around the fact that people don't want WoW-style weapons and armor (which is what I thought as soon as I saw your thread title.) At any rate, the game's setting is likened to the transition from the high middle ages to the renaissance. So there's not really room for outdated ideas like Roman gladiators (who were not soldiers and they were equipped and trained for fights meant to entertain, not to win wars. If you put Roman soldiers up against gladiators the gladiators would be el-****ed.)