rjshae

IWD2 wasn't a bad game by any means, but it was more about combat than story. To me the strong points were the beautiful backgrounds, a fairly decent implementation of D&D v3, the diversity of unique and colorful items, and the glorious challenging combat. It was a fun game, but didn't replay well due to being relatively linear. And yes, there was some travel through the Underdark.

By Aggro, do you mean like the Threat system used in Dragon Age? That always felt very artificial to me. I'd rather have a good monster AI system.

There's a perception, probably a correct one, that properly implementing MP would both reduce the resources applied to the single-player experience, and compromise certain elements of the game. Hence, if you're a solitary player of a game, adding MP doesn't provide any benefit and it may do some harm. Those who provided funding with the understanding that it would be single player, would not be happy to see their funds spent on a mode they will never use. Personally I wouldn't mind if they retrofitted an MP capability after the game is polished up. But that may be difficult because it could take a lot of code changes and retesting.

Survival could be allowed to significantly improve your travel time between wilderness areas, reducing fatigue effects. Conceivably it could reduce interrupts from elemental powers and attacks, given that your character is more knowledgeable about the elements.

Welcome to the second level, grasshopper. Be sure to spend your skill points wisely.

A permaban can be illegal? I must be in the people's liberal socialist republic of nowhereistan, up the fergetaboutit river.

Well DA:O had more voice acting, I'll give you that. Whoopee. Both games have a decent amount of lore. What DA:O has in skills (limited though they are), PoE almost makes up for by having a broader range of ranks.

DA:O boiled down to skirmishing tactics, since you couldn't hold a front line. It was a rare battle where you could make an interesting tactical decision. That's not difficult to improve upon; even BG had it beat.

That's a lot of bull. Okay, yeah, I said it.

I think he feels safer on SomethingAwful. It's behind a paywall, he gets the kind of feedback he wants and doesn't have to deal with criticism or the drama of the real world. I bet it's cozy. This isn't the real world. It's a fabricated construct where the sociopathic gaming stasi attempt to control the discourse through obtuse criticism and disinformation memes.

'Cept for the whole pantheon thing, of course, which wasn't around in the Renaissance or the U.S. Or reincarnation.

It seems like I just blew through Act III. Guess I need to take a completionist run.

Yup. Another perspective would be to compare the perceived difference between the ancient religions such as Chrisitanity and a newly invented religion such as Scientology. The former has acquired its moral authority over centuries of cultural indoctrination; the latter was the recent creation of a science fiction writer. Which do you think holds a stronger sway among the people (Hollywood notwithstanding)?

I noticed this also actually. I didn't do a whole lot of experimenting with it, but it annoyed me when I noticed it and I did do a bit of double checking. There is certainly something they lock on to due to the nakedness there. I know in NWN2 the enemies are set to attack the lowest AC party member this also annoyed the **** out of me. "Appear at points the enemy must hasten to defend; march swiftly to places you are not expected." "So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak." Sun Tzu, Art of War.

As with others, I'd like to see more development of the Stronghold, such as: A means to integrate the resting bonuses. More ambient characters, including guards and a butler. Politics. Economics. A nearby community to protect. Have a dragon devastate the place in response to your behavior. A means to let your pets loose to wander about. I'd also like to see some packaged encounters for inter-area travel in response to your prior choices.

I like the Wasteland 2 approach of using a rolling quicksave; very nice feature that.

I quite enjoyed playing it, as much as anything I've played recently. To me, many of the complaints I've read are overblown. They just didn't match my experience. Could it be improved? Certainly. There are many little details that could be incrementally polished up or expanded upon. I'm hoping they work on enhancing the experience with the expansion set.

Before applying logic to magic, one must first ingest suitable mind-altering substances.

"good" is all about survival; helping some people survive, and not at the expense of others, is a good, positive outcome. As for whether believing in "false" gods is a bad thing... that's probably a question that will never be answered.

Guns don't break immersion; it's your fantasy gaming expectations that break the immersion. Take a look at the history: guns were available for use in Europe by the 13th century.

I'm hoping they make the Stronghold more relevant in the expansion. Maybe bump up the costs a bit so it takes longer to complete, add some guards that use the barracks, give the various storekeeps and the priest more of a back story, perhaps let it shelter some refugee/settlers, give it a nearby mine to protect and develop, &c.

So... will this mean they will have mod sales? I think it will work itself out just like the indie market. Only some of the modders will be really successful at it; others will give up and return to the free modding community.