TrashMan

Dude, those people do that because they must. They don't wear armor because they can't afford it (in the case of a tribal with a balstpipe) or because it's just not practical for fishing (swiming in armor?) Firthermore, hunting smaller animals is not the same as martial combat agaisnt well trained human opponent. And that tribal - if he gets caught by a larger predator he is in big trouble. It's silly to ask "why doesn't X wear full plate if it's so good?" Those things dont' roll off an assemly line. You might as well ask why doesn't every person in the world own a 100' plasma TV. Subjective.

Who sez it isn't broken? Isn't that entirely subjective? What happened to exploring simply because you want to see whats out there? When XP and loot become the only motivation, something has gone VERY wrong.

You're closer to your goal..how is that nothing? I really don't get why so many people are like insecure childrenthat feel the need to be patted on the head and rewarded for EVERYTHING they do. Obsessed with better LOOT, higher levels and stuff like that, instead of just roleplaying and enjoying the story. What makes you think that you HAVE to be rewarded for everything you do? Does a FPS reward you every time you snipe a guy off some hill? Does Splinter Cell reward you every time you pass trough a room? Why is it that people ignroe the journey and only think abotu what they can get?

It's not the case of him thinking "rape isn't evil", but more like "she lies, my fater would never do that" At least I hope it is...otherwise the son is frakked up.

I also want items breaking because it adds to strategic considerations - just like provisions. My sword broke! Do I have a spare? No? Bob do you have a spare? Can I borrow yours? Do we go back to town? Do we push forward? We're half way to the ancient temple and have already spent half of our provisions. Do we backtrack to the village we passed a day ago or push foward? Should we conserve rations or just endure a day or two without food? But what if we get jumped on the way back, weakened by hunger? All valid strategic considerations. I dont' wnat hand-holding, I want to SUFFER for bad and stupid decisions. And before someone sez "do you want to simulate taking a piss"? - nope. It's not a strategic consideration as you can do it in every bush or room corner if necessary.

Can be easily implemented. Let's say you have 5 different stages of damage to the weapon. The first two stages are auto-fixable by your party when they come back to town. You don't spend money, it's done automaticly. Wether or not these two stages should affect weapon performance is questionable...probably not The second two need a blacksmith to restore full functionality. The last one is weapon broke and it has to be re-forged. Now, how it could work - off he top of my head - is ... let's say that with every hit of a weapon there is a 1/500 chance the weapon will be damaged by 1 stage. If your weapon is already damaged, the chance doubles. If the enemy uses a lot heavier weapon or posses monstrous strength, then blocking/parrying also increases the damage chance (dodging does not) and also makes it possible to do more than 1 stage of damage So you won't have to run to town every 5 seconds and the weapons won't be loosing effectiveness every 5 seconds. So you can easily go trough the game without ever breaking a weapon. OR it can break 5 times during the game. Of course, by playing smart you can reduce the chances of that happening dramaticly, but the Random Number God is fickle, just like in real life.

HMmmm...I really don't like too much methapysical of philospohical mumbo-jumbo. While I like D&D's take on it in some ways, I prefer the DA approach - it really looks like there is a god, but no one has actual concrete proof. And I really wouldn't like a character like Revan/TNO...spending the entire game learning who you where...no thanks. I'm far more interested in shaping my character now rather than to listen about a past I had no influence or hand in. Simply put, the characters past that happened before the game started doesn't itnerest me at all.

Is it irony that my favorite class to play is a Paladin, yet my favorite kind of setting is something similar to Witcher or DA:O (more realistic portraly of a fantasy world, with gods, distant or unproven, and people acting like people)..in other words, a setting where a paladin would be a pain in the ass to implement?

You can think of aligment meter as how others generally percieve you, not how you actually are. That way, motivation inconcistencies make sense. After all, people don't know your motives, they know your actions. And naturally if you kill Sith and save pesants, people will think that your'e not that bad. Or you can think of aligment as what you strive to be. Your goal. You can fail at it time and time again, but as long as you try to be Lawfull Good, you really can't be considered evil, now can you? This is actually something I ran across often when playing PnP - if you are a Lafwull Good character and you do something that isn't reall that lawfull or good (for whatever reason) often times the GM will smack you with a punishment hammer for "not palying your aligment". God help you if you are a paladin. In relaity aligmetn should be more of a guidleine, and not a strict "you must do this 10000% of the time" rule.

The question isn't Humor: yes or no.. But rather - what type and how much. Easter eggs? Refferences? Puns? Double-meanings? I hereby request Monty Ptyhon and WH40K easter eggs.

While this is true, you also have to remember that they got stomped.

Then why is he even playing the game if he's only in it for the combat. There's other ames for that. Heck, let him paly super Mario or whatever. If I want action I won't be tuning on my adventure games, I'll start a FPS or hack and slash. If I want strategy and tactics I won't be turning on my FPS, I'll turn on my 4X or RTS. This redicolous notion that a game should support playstyles that fall outside of the genre is redicolous. You know the old saying - trying to satisfy everyone will satisfy no one.

So? That one way is infinitely more flexible and allowing for different playstyles than the common "kill XP" method used by 99,9% of CRPG?s. There is this weird nothing that game must carter ot EVERY whim and preffernce - no matter how redicolous. the only one who really looses are pwoergamers - those who don't think in terms of story and character, but in spredsheats, items and level "dings". I don't feel sorry for their loss at all. Quite the opposite in fact. Practicly every game out there carters to them already. Well DUH! If you want to finish the game you have to play. I have to actually fight the end boss to finish the game? Dammit developers, stop FORCING ME to play the game the way you want!!

This. A thousand times this. No super-powers. No super-special skills. Just sweat, blood and wits. Better is subjective. Better in what way? A more skilled swordsman? Smarter? More tactical? There is a difference between being just a normal human being, but very skilled (like Batman) and being Superman and being superior to everyone by default. In the first example pople think you're awesome because you worked your ass off to get to there despite your limitations. In the second your awesomness was handed to you on the silver platter. Making the player a Super Sayan and thus powerfull and awesome and superior to normal humans is IMHO nothing more than ego stroking. As to whay the others don't do it - for the same reason that in the real world things don't always get done. Millions of reasons. Not enought time, not enough resources, cowardly, not skilled enough, tried and failed, doesn't want to get his hands dirty, etc... Mercenaries exist in real life. Obviously they get jobs. When an army launches 5 assaults on the hill but only the 5th suceed - why was it?

Grey choices and moral dillemas do not automaticly exclude good and evil. For example, good and evil can exist as clear constants set by the main diety. You can disagree with them naturally, but that doesn't mean the rest of the populace will agree with you. In the end people in the world will have some notions of good and evil. Now wethter good and evil dieties exist and give power is another matter. Weather your "morality" can be detected is also another. I enjoyed both BG and DA:O and Witcher...so either way is fine with me.

Well, I would agree with you that it's becoming somewhat redicolous. Some people want to turn the game into a romance simulator. As I said - personally I like a well done romance, but it's a nice EXTRA, not something I think an RPG must have. You can compeltely remove them and just have party NPC be friends, and I'd still be just as happy.

Because you're in the right place and the right time? Because you have luck and skill and suceed? Most of the heros aren't the only one who can slay a specific beast or solve a specific problem. they are the one who do it. Can someoen else do it? Probably? Would they have done it? Maybe? note that there is difference between you beign the only one who cna solve a problem because of other constraints (like time. the bomb will blow, there's no time to get someone else.... Or, that asasin will strike now, you have ot move NOW. Or maybe there simply ins't anyone else capable enough in the vicinty). BUT when you are the ONLY one who can do it AT ALL (like only YOU have this super-special power that can hurt the bad guy), then it's the Marty Sue/ Chosen One syndrome.

It's more like this: Oh man, someone has been looking at me sleeping for the past 20 years, unseen. Kill him now before he makes a funny hat out of my scalp. That is called "projecting your fears" and nto paying attention, thus condeming a character beforehand. First of all she (Elaniee or something like that, wasn't it?) had a job to watch over you. She was your guardian. So keepign an eye on you was her job. And doing it from the shadows to not cause problems is purely logical. Secondly, just because she looked at the PC while he was sleeping occasionaly doesn't make it creepy. You have some strange mental image of her spending hours just staring at you like a cannibal. Newsflash for you - people do it all the time. And they do it out out of love or because someone/something is eandearing. Mothers look at their childern when they sleep. Lovers often take a minute just looking at their significant other sleeping and feeling glad they are there. Heck, people can even watch a puppy sleep and go "aaaaaaw...so cute". It ain't creepy. It's only creepy because you choose to see it as that. The problem is you.

I prefer fantasy firmly grounded in reality. And having a romance with a half-ghost-zombie-dragon lady is something that is totally unappealing...Actually more like retarded. Some on BSN wanted to romance Justice...the corpse.... I'm happy with my human-centric flavor nad relative normality. Humanes. Elves. Maaaaybe dwarves.. everything else is just too damn weird. To date BG2 still had hte best party relationships. Romance and otherwise.

But didn't that whoel problem revolve specificly around the Namless One? IIRC, wasn't he the only one beign able to solve it? Being a Chosen One isn't only about some diving being or prophecy. It's about being the only one who can do it.

Can't tell is this is sarcasm or not. That's the problem with interent. In case this is sarcasm - good going . In case it is not - I hate you and everything you stand for. If there is anything I hate it's people who insist everything must serve the sole purpose of stroking their ego.

I want enchantment and abiltiies to be well-crafted. Not just a flat + bonus. That can work on some items. Make an ability that works like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB7i5ZIoy-4 (11:15 onward) and then we can talk

Just looked at the True 20 system. It is ... interesting. Don't want to make judgment on it jsut from skimming trough tough.

Gotta agree with my fellow countryman here. Only if you think of Diablo durabiltiy system. Which DOES suck. But talking about durabiltiy wihout having ANY idea what kind of a system we are talkign bout, and dismising it off-hand is just .... STUPID. "I don't like the magic system in game A. therefore I will vote agaisnt every magic system because CLEARLY every magic system is the same". Use your imagination. Remeber BG1 and the "iron rot"? How about every weapons has a %chance to break. It's a tiny, tiny chace, and it's likely that you wont' break a single weapon in 3 hours of gameplay. However, you can affect that chace - fighign agaisnt monstrous creature,s or trying to block far bigger wepons puts a bigger strain on your own. Having mantainance items decreases it. Does it have to go for 0 to broken in one go? No. You can have states. So after three hours in game your sword went from perfect condition to worn. No problem. Still perfectly usable but now the chance to go to hte next state is increased. After another two hours it is chipped. And so on. A bit of randomness to it, like it real life. Imperfection in the blade, material fatuige, impurities in the metal...

I was expecting her to kill the PC if he rejected her. If anyone told me they watched me sleep from outside my window..... Both of you are weird. Oh man, someone looked at you. KILL HIM!! KILL HIM NOW!!!