Monkcrab

Same problem here as well, in the Valewood area. Earlier save from the ruins worked fine, though I don't want to backtrack that far. Is this an area specific thing, or is it an honest-to-god bug?

I'll admit that I wasn't thrilled with the mega dungeon idea at first, but with the lore they introduced it with and the ridiculously infectious enthusiasm shown for it, I'll have to say that it became one of my favourite stretch goals. Can't wait to see how they design a gigantic 13-14 level dungeon. It's going to be interesting! Hopefully each level is still reasonably big and filled with interesting content, though. I know it's a tall order, but still... Maybe they can have scattered pages from the corpses of Obsidian Order explorers littered in the dungeon to explain its lore/story! XD (I kid, but only halfway.)

- Blatant soapboxing of social issues, e.g. sexual politics, environmentalism, racism. Yes, discuss them. No, don't make them simple black and white. (DA, for example, turned into 'mages good templars bad, OPPRESSION IGNORANCE zomg' even though the setting should've made it more subtle.) I have stances for this IRL like everyone else and will argue them there endlessly if needed, but I'm tired of having soapboxes in my games. - Obligatory minigames. Optional ones are fine, but no required ones, please. - Minority opinion, but no obvious power builds. Everything should have pros and cons. - Fully voiced stuff. I read much faster, and it always feel like 'look at me, I'm trying to be movies!' - Minsc-styled characters. I'm sorry, but i can't laugh at disabled/mentally disadvantaged people being turned into jokes. More as I get off work and think of more.

Answered in veeeeeeery old thread, but. I'd like love stories. It adds to the world that some people actually loves and are not out just for greed/lust. Love stories are one of the few constants of humanity. Doesn't matter where it is, doesn't have to be in the party. NPC-NPC or PC-background NPC will also do just fine---and actually, that way might be a better use of resources. It'll be kind of like a recurring quest you drop by and develop sometimes, you can completely ignore it, and it'll probably waste far less resources than full romanceable companions. So basically, optional Deionarra-styled romances might be the best of both worlds. Only without a fixed, depressing ending. Or maybe it's more like NWN1?

You gain influence with Dak'kon by telling him that you're better at understanding the core religion of his life than him, basically. You gain influence with Ignus by......actually, not sure if I'd call that influence, but you can affect him somewhat by letting him permanently damage you. And there's, well, there's Kreia, who's basically impossible to suck up to unless you're following an FAQ or an a later playthrough. Basically, I think there's a lot of merit in the influence system. However, most games, including BG2, make it out so that you only gain anything by agreeing with every word the NPCs say, which makes you look schizophrenic. Taking DA:O as an example : I should be able to have ethical arguments with Morrigan and practicality arguments with Alistair without losing influence with them; piss them off, yes, but influence should be about making them *think*. That's actually their possible character arcs, Morrigan getting more decent (yes, it's in there, but you might have to dig for it) and Alistair hardening up. But is still requires that you suck up to them first, then selecting the *one* option that changes them when it comes up. That shouldn't be needed. That doesn't really make sense. Yeah, if you trust someone you might listen to them more, but if someone does that to me I might be inclined to think of them as hypocritical jerks. It should be interesting to see how you can influence your teammates without resorting to that, I believe, for isn't conflict the best teacher and cementer of relationships sometimes?

Annah's attraction to TNO has to be worked into a lot of her dialogues. It's not as sudden as you make it; yes, the dialogues where TNO gets her to confess it to him was basically 1-3 choices, but her hot-cold reception to him had been ongoing for a while and even if they could be interpreted as something else, it's obviously for the benefit of the romance. There's quite a bit of subtext, and subtext takes as much time to develop as text, if not more.

I don't disagree with the rest of your post, but um, a romance isn't exactly an extra bit of character interaction. We're looking at 3-4 months at least, and I honestly don't blame the naysayers when they say (specifically) that the resources might be better spent elsewhere. More power to Obsidian if they decide to do it, but honestly? Nothing against them if they don't. Resources are PRECIOUS.

It would be hilarious---and potentially full of quests---if there exists a Gossip Agency in the world which interpretes EVERY SINGLE ONE of your actions wrong. That said, I'd like some sort of reactivity. Maybe not a newspaper like in Arcanum, but people occasionally whispering factually dubious/reliable rumors about you would be a nice touch.

cRPG romances aren't that new. The *way* they're currently done is fairly recent, but we've had the option for a while now. Ultima 7 has that thing with the chick in Cove where you can kiss her and swear eternal love, from the top of my head. There's probably more. Also, optional marriages have existed since at least Sid Meier's Pirates (though that was more or less a numbers game than anything) and I didn't recall people being accused of cybering those. Granted, they were still pictures, but.... EDIT : I honestly think part of this debate is due to the dissonance between 'people who play (at least part of) themselves as the protagonist'/'people who play RPGs for stats management' and 'people who RP characters with complete detachment from their real selves as the protagonist'. Group A wanting romance is creepy. Group B wanting romance is no creepier than rooting for characters in a series to HOOK UP ALREADY. Group A finds Group B creepy and Group B find Group A to be party poopers, and there we go. Also, romances do not have to include sex. Really. And disclaimer : I will always be behind whatever Obsidian chooses for this, either way.

NG+, why not? Sometimes I get attached to a character and want to do another run with them, only doing things differently (for different character debelopment). Having NG+ makes the grinding more tolerable in that case.....and having it takes essentially nothing away from those times when I want to create someone new, so. Maybe having extra options ala AP would be nice, too, but I shan't wish for the moon.

Bantering : come on, haven't we all had that RPG conversation where one character insults another character and he/she replies back wittily, with great sarcasm and/or another insult? Didn't we all think it was cute and funny? And didn't we have that conversation where one character teastes the other who is not amused, and we think it's cute and funny? Yes, it's basically that. It's hard to do if the subject being bantered about is very important to Person B, but it gets obvious as of the 'slaps with gloves' comment that it's all a joke.

Let's see how long you keep laughing at scientists when we finally figure out how to make an army of clone zombies and come for your football teams!

I'd actually like it if there are ways to alternately deal with the villains....but with a consequence. It's one of those things that DA:O almost did well, by making Alistair quit the party if you let Loghain live. Note that I didn't say it actually did well, because the consequences of that sort of thing should've been far more serious. You let your emotions and/or honor/better side get the better of your common sense? Have fun trying to avoid a Ned Stark ending and/or trying to deal with the following civil war! It'd actually be great if you can ever, ever cause a Red Wedding situation, all out of your own stupid goodness....

You'll find I can tie lots of things together- representing a romance does necessitate some degree of understanding of interpersonal relationship mechanics. For example, two things I could tie together are your condescension and blanket assumptions about other people who live thousands of miles away from you based upon unfounded demographic stereotypes. Come, come. This is starting to be more about 'getting a reaction' than 'getting a discussion', let's not take the bait. It's the easily baited fish that ends up in the frying pan!

Yes, please, but hidden. I love interacting with and affecting party members, but whenever I see numbers I get this ridiculous urge to game the system. Having to fight your instincts to have proper RPing fun is a kind of agony by itself.

Unlike that team, though (I forgot which team), Obdisian are veteran devs. I'm pretty sure they know the costs and the channels better than indies. Since they've been working shoestring budgets for a while now, they're probably good at that, too!

It will never be translated into my language and in any case I'm more comfortable with English, but I'm very happy that it's getting translated. More revenue sources for Obsidian! RPGs usually have longer legs in Europe than in the US, so this is a good thing. The stretch goals which appeal to me directly happened a long time ago. Now, I'm simply wishing for stretch goals that will mean the best deal for Obsidian. I also like how normal Edair is looking....and updates from MCA YESH.

Funny choice of words since the majority of "romances" so far seems to have been targeting male gamers. It's no secret novelists, movie makers, game makers, well every form of entertainment categorizes both sexes. If the differences weren't true to some degree, they wouldn't persist like they have. I like my vampires white, pasty, and looking like the villain in the original Nosferatu. A whole hell of a lot of women like them as a sparkly twenty-something Brit. So...do I want to play a game designed with women in mind, romances or otherwise? To be honest, not really. Plenty of women hated Twilight. In fact, nearly everyone I've talked to above a certain age bracket hated it. Not saying that it negates the fact that a lot of other women also liked it, but 'women like Twilight' is not nearly as simple as it sounds. Yes, there are trends of what women like that are different from what men like, but the usage of Twilight is not a 1:1 correlation. It's like saying men likes bald marines with huge guns. True to an extent, but hardly the entire truth. David Gaider liked Twilight, though. p.s. can this not turn into another 'war of the sexes' thread?

..................Yes, and all the Talimancers asking for more cuteness are lesbians pretending to be dudes. The guys arguing about who's better between Ashley and Liara are all either talking about the size of their boobs or doing it for the sake of argument. Seriously, there are guys who like romance. It's okay for guys to like romance. It's okay for guys to accept that other guys can like romance. Similarly, there are girls who go 'ick' at romances, and would prefer more camaraderie/banter instead of smooches. It's okay for girls not to like romance. It's okay for girls to accept that other girls can dislike romances. Humans, in general, have a tendency to like love stories. Whether we want it in medium X or not is another issue. Perhaps the ratio of male to female romance-liking RPG gamers are not equal (it's likely not), but to say that all the romance requesters are girls and the guys are all begrudgingly going with it is.....well, not reasonable.

There's a saying here, "only when someone has laughed with you, will that someone cry with you". IDK if there's an English equivalent, but yes for humor. Would Morte have been such a tragic character if he wasn't so effing funny? A mature tone doesn't automatically exclude humor! I certainly don't think mature people are all dour, unsmiling folks who only see the world in grimdark grey and realistic brown! Quite the contrary, in fact....

I was readying my pitchforks, and then I saw the post. Let us have all the ale in town and commiserate on the sadness of the novella not being written yet, friend.

Because think of the children.

If it's a series of deaths, I'd rather investigate a Hannibal Lecter-styled serial killer who's intelligently evil and can charm and outwit you, with the killer potentially killing off important NPCs if you don't piece together the clues in time.

I would say the Alien there wasn't the real villain in that story, though. The alien was just an "elemental" force, providing a background for the conflict with the true villain - the "company" acting through the android character (forogt his name). Villains (in my mind) cannot be inhuman - otherwise they become just another force of nature, like hurricanes or disease. Elemental forces can make for very effective 'things that work against you', though. Say what you will about FFX, but Sin was fascinating and terrifying when it was just an unexplainable force of nature, lashing out and destroying everything with no reason, pity nor mercy, rich and poor alike. The real villains in that game were silly and lackluster, but Sin, Sin. Sin was wonderful, and I'm sure many people bought the game because of its powerful imagery. At least until they reveal what it actually is.

Of which on this topic, this element. I think both sides should be ignored. Those promoting sexist agenda and those with their own political and social agendas. I would also ask you to back up your claim this thread was created in rebuttle of so called "insisting that the sexist attitudes affected the game" rather than this thread was created and started such sexist attitudes being expressed. In which the reality would shift from created to combat such to created to incite such. The thread wasn't created in rebuttal of anyone insisting that sexist attitudes should affect the game. It was started by a misguided person/troll suggesting that Obsidian should ask for the opinion of a random, confrontational and plain misinformed youtube phenomenon because god forbid Obsidian try to write women, they're men! Which was silly---Obsidian is pro at this, thanks very much---and I blithely ignored it up until a point. Can't say the same for others. The sexist attitudes were posts coming out in response to the original post. Many were civil. Some, however, suggested that it's Quite All Right to be sexist because this is male fantasy! Or that NOTHING but medieval-styled subjugation of women should even be considered, because history! Even though OE never said that this is going to be medieval! <----this is what the 'rebuttals' are for, where perceived sexist comments are trying to influence the game setting. I should note, however, that I mind the second argument far less than the first. Others may YMMV. And then the argument started. And then the argument got rolling. And then it's about argument for argument's sake, on both sides. The rest, as they say, is history. Personally I'd lock this thread ever since Anek posted that incredibly informed comment about gender roles like back in page 8, but the mods didn't, and that's their call, not mine. And if it's their call to keep it, anyone is still free to post their opinion in response to people's opinion and argue like 8-year-olds if they want to. Unfortunately, it's human nature to respond to opinion which affect one's own, and by this thread I suppose neither you nor me are exceptions.