Elerond

#100 update seem to be saved for something special

I've seen similar remarks a few times and I don't understand it. Why not just wait until the second part is out? As far as I can tell, the only difference is that now you can play something a bit earlier if you want to. I think it has to, do with a) Obsidian promised a meaty expansion, with none of the modern DLC shenanigans, and then decided to split it up (which feels a bit like modern DLC shenanigans). To hammer the point home, Obsidian hasn't even confirmed if non-backers will have to buy each part of the expansion separately, or they will have to pay once to get the entire expansions (which the old nickel-and-dime DLC strategy). b) Sure, you can make yourself wait, but releasing the expansion in parts sends a signal that it should be played now. It's like exploits in computer games, yes you don't have to use them, but if using them is the optimal strategy, then you are more likely to use them, even if it diminishes the fun of the game. c) Since the expansion has been cut in 2 means that the story and the content of the second part must be cleanly split from the first part, instead of organicly integrated. This could very well not be a problem, but the possibility exists, and that diminished the expansion as a whole. We'll see when the expansion is released. a) For first it was PoE's backers that Obsidian promised meaty expansion, and as all backers that bought that expansion, soon 3 years ago, will get both parts one would need to count both parts when they judge if expansion is meaty enough. Obsidian/Paradox has not even yet started to take preorders for expansions from non-backers, meaning that there is no need yet announce how they can buy the expansion, but I would say it would be more customer friendly to give people ability to buy parts separately or together, but whatever they decide to do has nothing to do with their meaty expansion promise to the backers. b) Obsidian got great deal of complains because they didn't gave backers access to preview and even earlier builds of PoE, but instead made them to wait official release version. And now they get complains because they have planed their expansion so that they can offer people earlier access to some of its content, people are hard to please I see. c) PoE's story itself is divided to 4/5 parts (chapters), which would allow to split game in episodes that could be sold separately without causing any problems how player progress in the story.

Prides are very similar to other festivals, conventions, etc. where people that share something in common gather to spent time, have fun and share information about that thing that they have common. Which means that there are people that share that commonality but don't like said gatherings, at least any that they know and even some that hope that they would not exists because they think that other people will associate people's behaviors from those gatherings to them. Rights of sexual minorities are sky rocketed and large number of people, in many countries majority of people, not just tolerate but actually accept and support sexual minorities right to exists, and also common thinking about homosexuality has changed from unnatural-, abnormal- , vile-, dangerous-, indecent-, etc. behavior to that homosexuality is normal-, natural-, decent-, etc. behavior after prides have become common place and know things in those countries. Also how sexual minorities are portrayed in media has changed lot (it isn't stereotyped as much, it isn't shown as dangerous behavior that leads individuals doom, but instead it is become additional trait of characters that don't necessary define them and spectrum of sexual minority characters have become larger and more nuanced) and become more common. Meaning that it is quite easy to argue that at least prides haven't generally hurt sexual minorities rights or caused people see them in just one way.

If you think that argument bit more you find that it really don't hold any closer scrutiny. And even if we leave all sense, logic and decently behind us, how do you even begin to plan actual isolation of population group which members can born to any family in any social, economical, ethnic, religious, cultural, etc. group that there are and they don't have any visible marks or clear test that would reveal their sexual orientation. And in this your isolation system do bisexual had to decide between living with other people or living isolation or is it based on some random system? I don't think it's possible, but if they stopped advertising this rainbow low caliber clothing 'style of gay', and forcing down our throats with sad stories and aggressive feminine ( but from a male ) attitudes, making us all look like an abomination. I'd have no problem, not even patronizing homosexuality, if the majority of them stopped being this stupid. They can live happily without a lisp, they can live happily without feminine acting. It's not a thing that comes with gay, feminine acting and general sexual stupidity ( promoting it like porn in daylight - "I'm here in daylight because I have sex with men, and there's hundreds of us, you should join in" ). To be honest, all emotions aside for a second, it's unnecessary and making us look weak and abnormal, begging for combat. It's also provocative for a lot of people are homophobic and it's even broadcast now. They get so much attention, they've reached the peak now surely. I would HATE to see it carry on from this point, gay-pride, but sure be gay. So you say people should stop publicly liking, practicing or exercising anything they like because some other people don't necessary like how they behave, like for example people should not wear fan shirts, symbols, flags, bandanas, religious symbols etc., go concerts, conventions, exhibitions, religious events, sporting events, etc.. Gay prides are only events where people celebrate something in their lives and make public demonstration that they have people like them exist and they have right to exists. I also would point out that your premise that they promote one style of gay is absolute wrong, and that feminine acting don't have anything to do being gay and association of such trait to gays is actually product of media (movies and tv-series) that more often than not give such behavior for their gay characters when there is one in the movie/tv-series. So feminine acting is trait that our society demands from the gays so that they can be gays.

If you think that argument bit more you find that it really don't hold any closer scrutiny. And even if we leave all sense, logic and decently behind us, how do you even begin to plan actual isolation of population group which members can born to any family in any social, economical, ethnic, religious, cultural, etc. group that there are and they don't have any visible marks or clear test that would reveal their sexual orientation. And in this your isolation system do bisexual had to decide between living with other people or living isolation or is it based on some random system?

The Moscow Times is Moscow based publication that don't actually is issued in Finland. It is funded by Russian based (Sanoma) Independent Media, which is owned by Sanoma Oyj(Public Limited Liability Company), which primary owners are Finnish family Erkko's foundation and company's CEO Antti Herlin. They are one of the five biggest magazine publishers in Europe and own several TV stations. So they are bit like Finnish Murdochs, meaning that they own big part of news outlets. But as I haven't ever read even single issue of The Moscow Times, I can't say if or if not it is a propaganda magazine. But as Finnish people accuse Sanoma Oyj's magazines, like Helsingin Sanomat, that are published in Finland to spreading leftist, communistic and Russian propaganda (can't really judge if there are bases in reality for such accusations, as similar accusations are targeted against all the largest Finnish news outlets by certain Finns), I would guess that said magazines suffers from similar issues.

I don't know what story they are using for their exercise, but it's the most likely scenario. Also it's very probable that the support they are talking about is physical, ie. logistic, military, training, weapons, etc. I mean it's a war exercise, does it matter what story/pretext is used in it... One thing that is noteworthy in story story/pretext is that it was scenario in which Russia invades areas from another country/countries, meaning that it was not planned to be defensive exercise but aggressive one. I would also note that war exercises even though they are set in hypothetical scenarios always have purpose in greater military strategy of country and they are meant to make sure that country's military is ready to carry out that purpose if/when need to that comes.

This feature was already in the game, I am not sure which update and why it is removed, although I would guess that it may have been removed because lots of people have complained how over powerful tanks are, although in my opinion feature in question don't play very big part in how powerful tanks are. So maybe it is removed to make rogues and rangers more powerful against enemies.

They already are, if by "marry" you mean "make wedding vows before witnesses (and god if that's your thing), and live together accordingly". The question is, which of those marriages should receive state recognition along with tax benefits and bureaucratic/legal conveniences. That is problem when you make something legal institution, then it becomes civil right issue for every group of people that you don't permit to take part that institution. If state had never given marriage legal status, then there would not had been any fights to wider or limit groups of people that are permitted by law to participate in that institution.

Any naming method that you can think to use in fantasy setting you probably find out that it is actually method that is actually used in somewhere in real world to name places.

It seems to be post apocalypse batman/shadows of mordor type game, but instead upgrading your gadgets or sword/wraith power you upgrade your car. So not necessary bad game, but absolutely different kind game than what Fallout 4 aims to be.

Difference is, achievements is (!)steam(!) feature, not Obsidian's. And i paid for a game on steam. I thought i well explained this in op... Oh well, as i said, prolly wont answer anymore to ppl who won't read past 1st paragraph. I'll wait for good points\quiestions or answer from dev's regarding the issue(not likely, i know). Achievements actually is feature that is offered by developers of the games not Steam, Steamworks just offers universal API for achievements, that Steam also uses to portray achievements that you have got from games that you own. It is similar feature to multiplayer API's that Steamworks offer or copy protection systems that Steamworks offers. Meaning that developers have full right to decide themselves do they want to use them and how they want to use them. Valve don't offer any curate or limit how developers choose to use those APIs.

That's dumb. That is similar change (from 50 to 70) that lobbyists of media corporations drive through in EU, so that it would be same as in USA. It was also one of USA's requisites for Transatlantic Free Trade Area negotiations. Cynical part of me would guess that similar reason can be found behind Canada's change also.

You have right to want such thing, like you for example have right to want to get game free, or get expansion free like some backers, or get expansion and game with cheaper price like some backers and so on and so forth, but Obsidian as developer has right to not give you such options if they don't want to. If you want them to give you access to that achievement or some other things that they don't currently offer, then you need to explain them why it is so big deal and they may offer you such access.

Why would they? As far as I can see there was crime, but justice seem to be serve according to how people would except it to be served. Rioting happens usually when people feel that there has been some sort injustice or major sport event. I would guess that if there will be riots they will be in Columbia if people feel that removal of that the flag that now gets lots of attention is injustice and against their will.

More firearms in the hands of law abiding citizens makes for a more massacre-resistant society. Definitely http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2014

What I find most interesting about the Devil so far is that it sounds like some really advanced soul technology, the kind that only Engwythian are supposed to have mastered, but that lady has been in a metal construct for fifteen years, top. Knight of the Crucible are/were in their way to mass product bit less self aware versions of such constructs, meaning that there has to be at least some people around that have studied such thing and who have gotten some results out of their studies.

Currently unique items (not all, but most) have unique properties/enchantments that you can't get through enchanting, although those properties/enchantments take enchanting slots from the items, although that matters only with some items that have multiple such properties/enchantments.

It is not because crafting is more restricted in Arcanum or NWN2 than in PoE that their crafting systems feel more interesting, but that they feel more rewarding. In PoE there crafting adds only little bonuses for the items or short temporal boost for characters and you can actually mostly ignore it. In NWN2 had more complex crafting system, but that rewarded you if you invested in it and in Arcanum crafting was life blood for tech play through, sadly it is actually much less interesting and rewarding than magic side, both games' crafting systems suffer from similar issues than PoE meaning that crafting is just optional side content, it isn't needed and addition to get most benefits from it you need heavily invest in it (which you don't need to do in PoE), but where they are better is in complexity and effort, which probably them feel more rewarding than PoE's system at least for some.

That makes me wonder : Wouldnt it be illegal to sell an unfinished product since each part is not the full product? It is not, you only need to tell in box that product is supplement product that needs some other products to work.

Oh, Strawnir, as usual, no-one has made that argument. Actually there has been some that have made that argument in some threads concerning topic of respec in PoE, which was bit strange to me.

We are not currently planning on releasing physical copies of the expansion. This may change in the future, but we haven't discussed it. If you discuss it, please be nice and bring up idea of extra stuff box, similar to collector edition box, that don't necessary don't need to have game disc only steam/gog/origin code but main part is the extra stuff like map, t-shirt, printed novelette / short story collection, etc.. Because I just like to have big boxes on my shelves, but I don't anymore really use physical discs to install games.

I think Obsidian is in bit difficult place with enchanting system, because there are group of people that think that it destroys uniqueness of loot and therefore it should be more restricted or even removed from the game. And then there is other group of people that think it is too restricted and it should be more open. Originally their plans was to make it so that player can put any enchantment to any weapon (originally crafting was such that it could be only done in certain places, similarly to resting, but both of those features were removed before beta started), so that their favorite looking weapons don't become useless in end of the game. But during beta they decided to go with more restricted version of crafting. I am personally OK with any of the three options mentioned (more restricted, more open, current), because for me it is important that I can min-max my equipment, not how I can acquire said equipment.

Yeah - it's definitely weaker than Might for pure damage, but that's actually fine IMO. Might should be the best attribute for damage. Accuracy enables more crits, and there are a few effects that proc on crit (not to mention increased crit damage features) - so I can see the benefit to that. Perception becomes a somewhat secondary damage attribute, but has slightly more far-reaching effects than Might. S'better than Perception being a must-max for "tanks" and a dump stat for everyone1 else, that's for sure. Although that was before overhaul of interrupt system, at that time one were able to make interrupt builds that actually stopped enemy to do anything and adding accuracy bonus in the mix would had make things just worst. Although problem was in math behind interrupting not in accuracy bonus itself, but in hindsight Obsidian did quite lot attribute balancing during time when game mechanics tied to them worked differently then they do now. In other note, I hope that expansion patch finally will make high stealth feel worth while investment.

Using clichés don't prevent writers making interesting and and entertaining characters or stories. For example David and Leigh Eddings specialized on intentionally picking common fantasy clichés, tropes and archetypes and writing stories based on them. They had quite successful career on doing that. When writer decides to use common cliché, trope or archetype in their story it gives instant familiarity for reader/watcher/listener and then writer can keep their audience on their toes by just breaking that cliché, trope or archetype or building that said cliché, trope or archetype even more, because such tricks make audience realize that their stereotyping was wrong and when writer succeed in doing that they have succeed in making character interesting and if they can keep doing such tricks through the story they can keep their audience interested.