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salty

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Posts posted by salty

  1. I think winning as an evil character is to convince everyone to give me what I want, even if it kills them indirectly.

    That's not evil, that's just being selfish and apathetic.

    Evil would be crushing them under your boot, or plotting to send them to a gruesome fate all while you revel at their suffering.

     

    Maybe selfishness and apathy ARE evil to that poster. That's the primary problem with alignment systems: everyone's moral compass is different, even within the same culture. The D&D alignments are based on Western ideals. You're basically saying evil = sadism, only.

     

    Some cultures have eaten people and it wasn't evil to them, though it is to us. Some cultures eat dog, and there's plenty in Western culture who would find that evil. I'm a vegetarian. I think it's evil to eat veal or foie gras.

     

    Soldiers don't think it's evil when they kill someone in a war, but if you kill someone outside of war, deserved or no, it's suddenly evil. A religion might tell their followers that they alone are good and direct their followers to hunt down witches. Those followers think they are good and everyone else is evil.

     

    That's why the alignment system is silly. Do the drow think themselves evil? I'm excited from what I've heard so far about them trying to make distinct cultures with distinct beliefs.

  2. In RPG's you are guilty of mass slaughter whether you're "good" OR "evil." That's the most ridiculous thing of all. If I'm trying to play evil but not a psychotic idiot, why would I choose to fight a big group instead of manipulating them with my diplomatic skills? But if you try to talk them down, you get good points for it. I want to talk them down and THEN murder them in their sleep and steal all their belongings. It's much easier for me and I probably get double the reward out of it. I know I definitely played NWN1 that way, and it was a lot of fun.

  3. I feel like people only want it because that's how it used to be. Let them think up their own system.

    I think this could be said in half the threads on this board. I hope they don't limit their own good ideas by trying to stay too faithful to the old games. As good as they were, the old games all had flaws. The combination of the magic and rest systems was a pretty major one.

     

    Yeah, like I said I trust Obsidian to come up with something that's both fun and makes some kind of sense.

     

    Something I forgot to add is that I don't think casters should be physically weak. Casting spells would be physically demanding, imo. That's the one explanation I could understand with Vancian stuff - the wizard's been sitting around reading all their life and can't do more until they've gone on an ~adventure~ and are getting more in shape.

  4. Because a magic system is a mechanical set of rules that are necessary to allow for (hopefully) balanced gameplay and whether or not they are explained in fluff or plot is a bonus, not a necessity.

     

    Aside from that, let us assume that when you are able to shape the very physical nature of matter, time, space, and everything inbetween with words alone (or words and gestures) that maybe those words are of a different nature than common words and holding too many in mind will cause you to die, or something.

     

    I mean, really, what's more important that the game system be balanced, effective, and fun, or that there be a satisfying one paragraph explanation in a manual?

     

    I get that the explanation is something like that, from some book. It just doesn't make sense to *me*. I find Vancian casting really, really dull in low levels and really silly in high levels. I'll still play a mid-level wizard and enjoy it, but at the two extremes it's not remotely enjoyable.

     

    And how in the world does "holding" copies of the same spell in your mind and it takes up more than one spell slot make any sense? If you can memorize a certain number of spells based on your level, why can you only cast them once? What? Guess I'll hit the rest button after every battle.

     

    Basically, I would like them to craft their own magic system, but for me: Finding and crafting spells instead of just suddenly knowing them when you level is good. Having to prepare things for spells before you are ready to fight is good, because maybe there are ingredients that are used. Being able to cast more based on fatigue (not "mana") makes the most sense to me. And potions that restore fatigue (CAFFEINE) makes sense if it's a little dangerous to use without real rest for several days, like it definitely is irl. But basing your whole system off a book most people haven't even heard of, and are thus unable to wrap their heads around? Not good.

     

    I feel like people only want it because that's how it used to be. Let them think up their own system. For the record, I don't like the concept of mana and I don't like cooldown timers, either.

  5. Vancian magic doesn't make any more sense than mana pool magic. Why can a 180 IQ wizard who's been studying all their life only memorize 2 spells? How many do you think YOU could memorize. I understand that maybe you'd screw it up from lack of practice, but I remember things I was forced to memorize as a child without thinking about them for 5 years.

     

    Note that I never read the books it was based on.

  6. Arcanum was great in many ways. Only thing that I disliked, which was kind of core of the game was tech vs magic. Whn I bought game i had totally different expectations, I thought decline of magic was becouse of people prefered technology becouse it was more accessable, userfriendly so to speak etc. Not becouse magical energies interfered with working of machines. That was not so plausable for me. What was difference betwean magical lightning and usuall lightning, or fire or or, etc etc. Magical aura disturbs devices...nah, I never bought that..also I wanted to make technomage...i kinda hoped I would be able to make devices that would amplify my characters use of magic or something. Beyond that kind of magicvstech, I pretty much liked the world setting and its lore. Btw, I started once as a dwarf so i could see female dwarf but still i was killed if i remeber correctly. Whats up with female dwarfs?

     

    Chaos and Order are contradictory to each other. The lights can't be both on and off at the same time.

  7. If magic is merely the utilization of the power in your soul in PE, wouldn't that make everyone a wizard? Yes, some to a lesser degree than others, but even so...if you accept this as truth, does that not also make everyone a mage-hunter? :p

     

    So, although I do enjoy the way they are carefully and specifically weaving firearms into the world, I don't suspect a clear cut mage-hunter class on the horizons. :)

     

    It sounds like there will be a lot of cultural bias caused by the gods playing their worshipers against each other. If the soul is a way to tap into cosmic forces, maybe the gods would rather mortals didn't use the power they want for themselves, so they tell their followers that wizards are evil heretics. Or something.

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