Elerond

I agree with you that minuses and pluses for attributes isn't best way to go. And I also think skill bonuses or exclusive skills is better way to differentiate races from each other. Although I think that you could make some attributes cheaper and some more expensive to obtain for different races, for example intelligence (or equivalent) could cost orcs more than it cost humans, but strength (or equivalent) is cheaper. And this is to reflect that fact there are more likely be strong orcs than intelligent ones, but you could still make intelligent orc if you want, but it could mean that you may need to let some of your attributes to be lower than what would be "typical" for orc build. This system of course works only if you buy attributes instead of throwing them.

You are right, ofcourse. We obviously loved different aspects of the IE games. I think Obsidian shouldn't have mentioned IE games at all in their campaign, or should have made it more clear what kind of changes they intend to make. For instance I have no issues with the new Torment. From the start it was clear what they wanted to accomplish, that they would change the setting, where they would follow the spirit of the original torment. Obsidian didn't make it as clear and that's why I think there are some disappointed people. In my opinion Obsidian did make it quite clear that they intend to make spiritual successor to IE engine games that takes high-level ideas that make those games feel as they feel, but they will not use any of the rule systems or setting that IE games used but instead they will make new rule system and setting from scratch. They metioned that setting will have familiar elements so that players can easily identify things, but that everything has new twist that make setting different from other fantasy settings. And for rule system they told what were their high-level goals what they want to achive with it and they even gave some examples of ideas that what they had in that time. But I would say that it is way too early to be disappointed to PE as we know very little details about how it's system will work as whole, so it is very difficult to judge what kind experience system will give to players.

Can you be Jewish, but not practice Judaism? Can you practice Judasim, but not be Jewish? When someone is described as "Danish" I expect them to be from Denmark. So I find the comparison to be pretty apt. When I hear someone described as Jewish, I expect them to be a practitioner of Judaism. Am I incorrect in this assumption? I have always had the term "Jewish" to Judaism as "Christian" is to Christianity. Those who practice Judaism are Jews, but also people that are born in Jewish families or have Jewish ancestors are considered to be Jews even if they don't practice Judaism. So you can be Jewish and not practice Judaism, but you can't practice Judaism and not be Jewish.

I have understood correctly it is illegal to use deadly force to protect you property in Lousiana, as such is only allowed if someone threatens your life our tries to invade your home. So defendant needs to make jury to belive that he really thought that his life was in danger, which is made even harder by fact that person that he shot was only 14 years old. But I would not parallel this with Martin-Zimmerman case as circumstances are very different.

Some times you learn the hard way that crime don't pay off.

XAML alone does not make anything scale better per se, it's just XML to describe a GUI, but there may be more options now with WPF than there were with Windows Forms. However, PE will most certainly not be based on any parts of the .net framework that are highly dependent on the OS, if any at all (via Mono). Windows 8 uses Windows Runtime XAML Framework, which is successor to WPF. It uses XAML to define vector graphic elements that it uses as GUI objects. XAML Framework is native code framework, where WPF is based on CLR (common language runtime), so it don't need .net or mono framework to run under it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Runtime_XAML_Framework Irrelevant. Why would Obsidian use the MetroWindows 8-UI-Framework for their game, restricting access to the game to, let's say, 5% of the user base? You said in your first post "moved to use XAML in all their new UI componets, those scale perfectly well to all resolutions and high ppis" - all I wanted to say was: 1. scaling capability is not an inherent benefit of using XAML to describe a UI. [edit]I don't mean to imply that you directly said this - I merely want to point that out. 2. Obsidian will very likely not use XAML to create P:E's UI because the available technologies to interpret this are too dependent on the OS. My orginal message was answer to question "Having that.. does win 8 already handle different resolutions with grace?" and had nothing to do with PE. Ans second message was to clarify to you what was the framework that I was refering in my first message and again I did not speak anything about PE. To speak about PE, if PE uses any GUI components it probably uses those that unity offers as it's the engine and development enviroment that PE uses, because there should not be need to outside libraries for GUI in unity.

You can't. You need to use that elf girl to hack door controls so you can escape.

I think that they said in one of the Q&As that they decided not to do loot able bodies in their campaing, except in some occasions to furher plot, but you can do loot able bodies with editor, so at least people can make them in their own campaings.

Obsidian promised us: new fantasy world, with familiar elemets that have some sort of new twist on them new rule set, that has classes, firearms and magic in it, nothing more nothing less Eight companions homage to IE games, meaning thatgame will use isometric view, real time with pause combat that is at least as tactical than that which you can find from IWD series has similar exploration feeling than BG series has companions that have similar or even deeper depth than those in PS:T there will be also dungeon crawling game will use prerendered backgrounds Game will be out in summer 2014 There will be expansion pack that is similar to expansion packs of old There will be Tim's cook book MCA will play Arcanum There will be additional stuff, like art book, novellas etc. Backer only item (that don't have any effect on game balance) Backer only achivement In-game pets and $50+ backers get exclusive pet Currently it seems to me that Obsidian is on track to deliver everything that they promised and more. Correct me if I forgot something that Obsidian did promise

You can create those hirelings by yourself and they probably don't have much of reactivity towards anything, in other words they are mute party members that do what you command, if I have understood correctly. I was referring to this: I read this as there being 16 Obsidian provided joinable NPC's and that the eight hirelings are not Adventurer Hall products. Have I misunderstood? That is bit confusing part in this update, I thought that it ment that player can only make 8 characters in adventure hall and reason (in my mind was) for that would be fact that npc can die on higher difficulty levels permanently and limit is to prevent player to hire new hirelings everytime when previous one dies. But of course this was only my interpretation of that segment.

You can create those hirelings by yourself and they probably don't have much of reactivity towards anything, in other words they are mute party members that do what you command, if I have understood correctly.

Very informative update and I love Chris' troll pictures.

XAML alone does not make anything scale better per se, it's just XML to describe a GUI, but there may be more options now with WPF than there were with Windows Forms. However, PE will most certainly not be based on any parts of the .net framework that are highly dependent on the OS, if any at all (via Mono). Windows 8 uses Windows Runtime XAML Framework, which is successor to WPF. It uses XAML to define vector graphic elements that it uses as GUI objects. XAML Framework is native code framework, where WPF is based on CLR (common language runtime), so it don't need .net or mono framework to run under it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Runtime_XAML_Framework

Chess has very simple set of rules, but that don't make it to be game that is easy to master, with great number of valid strategies and moves.

If I am understood correctly they are currently finalizing their production piplelines, which mean that they can do accurate estimate of PE's completion date after they have finalized those pipelines as then they know how long it take them to do everything that they have planed.

MS moved to use XAML in all their new UI componets, those scale perfectly well to all resolutions and high ppis. But there is tons of programs that use Win32 or older .net componets that don't scale so well to monitors with high ppi or even high resolutions.

Removing romantic interaction options is not any better alternative to overly emphasised romantic dialogue path, because they both remove roleplaying options from player. In my opinion it is important that you have broad number of options when you interact with characters in the game especially with companion characters. And writers should avoid direct conversation paths (where there is friendship, romance, rivarly, neutral, ridicule, hate and etc. options) instead options should be more natural choices that at the end will sum what kind relationship you had with characters. Because then player will most likely roleplay his/her character instead trying to min-max their relationship status with npcs. In my opinion in modern rpgs relationships with npc have changed to be more like minigames where you need to choose right conversation options to get gameplay bonus or reward cut scene that you want, which has caused actual roleplaying devolved to background. So in my opinion we need more natural interaction options with npc and remove conversation "reward" system, because that is what in my opinion has caused relationships in modern rpgs feel as forced thing and that there is dominating dialogue paths (meaning more rewarding) for npcs.

But if you look for example word "dextertity" from dictionary then you will find that you could use that term in both of those scenarios. So when you choose your attribute names you need to only find those that have enough ambiguouness in them to work for your needs.

If it was so, then why police didn't for example investigated Zimmerman's background before media involement albeit they did so for Martin? Or did majority of media outlets give false information about the case in this matter?

Although without media's meddling whole case wouldn't have gone in court at all, as police at first say that there is no need for investigation. Which was in my understanding the main reason why the case got so widely known and which also caused race and racism speculations.

It's intresting how simultaneousness was bad thing when we Obsidian presented durability system and demanded more "gamist" system. And now people demand more "simulationist" system, even though they use gamist terms like "tanking". To me attribute system that encourage to build more "roleplaying" roles for the characters (like charismatic leader barbarian, intelligent stealthy fighter, dumb headbashing rogue, strong warrior wizard, etc.) than "gamist" roles for the characters (like tank, damage dealer, healer, etc.) is better sounding system.

Damage + heal bonus from same attribute sounds like they plan to use wisdom or similar attribute in that. So attribute rises you characters knowledge to where to hit so that it does maximum damage. And because you know how to hurt people you have also gained knowledge where you should fix things and etc. And accuracy attribute also sound logical, as if your character has natural good aim s/he don't lose it if s/he decides to hit things instead of shooting or vise versa. Because attributes tell your characters natural ability to do things and not his or her skill to do things. This attribute style is in my opinion better than d&d system where you hit better and do more damage with large weapons if you have high strength and dextertity does same thing for finesse and missle weapons. Because it makes all attributes important to every character, which makes min-maxing harder thing to accomplish and therefore has potential ability give more room for roleplaying.

Hispanic or Latino are in offical vocabulary marked meaning ethinical groups that have their roots in Spain or ancient Hispania. Which means that hispanic people can be from any race. United States Census Bureau has five categories for race: White Black or African American Native American or Alaska Native Asian Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander And as you can see darker white skin that is typical in Mediterranean and Latin America is not marked as it own race.

RK 62 and 95 TP are my favorite assault rifles, but my opinion is absolutely biased because they are only assault rifles that I have used outside of shooting range and which I am most familiar with.