Hiro Protagonist II

You're suggesting that instead of paying Tom Cruise 20 millions dollars to do a movie, we should get in say Manu Bennett because he will do the movie for 1/2 a million dollars. And if the studios do that, then the rest of that 19.5 million will go to VFX and other parts of the production? No, doesn't work like that. Firstly, the general public (who hasn't watched the TV show spartacus) will be asking, who is Manu Bennett? So you're probably not going to pull in the audiences. Secondly, even if the studio were to get in a small time actor, they would STILL screw the VFX studios because they wan't to make more money, not spend more on production costs. No, regardless of VFX, a lot of crap makes money, that's why they release it. Why do you think Adam Sandler releases so many movies? Not because he's a film genius, it's because there's a market. If I was an investor, I'd put my money into Adam Sandler's company, due to the fact he makes money even though I can't stand 99% of his movies. Chances are he'll double my money. His rate of return on investment is pretty awesome.

Yeah, really enjoying Rogue Trader. Our GM is using parts of Dark Heresy and putting it in RT. Also, he said he created a couple of systems and we played that for a few weeks. It took him hours just to create one system and asked us if we wanted to create a new system. We just roleplayed it as if our ship entered the system and we went through each part of it (inner, middle and outer). It kind of made sense to do it and it halved the time in creating it while having fun. Some hilarious outcomes with some of the planets. But looking at it overall, it surprisingly made a lot of sense how the system turned out. We were playing D&D 4th ed for the last 3 years and started Rogue Trader about 6 weeks ago. We've never played it before and having a ball. Really enjoy the fact that you can die so easily so we're always hesitant to engage into battle. I've been fortunate enough to not be killed, have critical damage or burn any fate points, probably due to having a storm bolter with a 90m range. So I'm always at the back of the group. Been in melee a few times but have managed to dodge or parry with my power axe and destroy the opponents weapon. I play a tech-priest with high ballistics and INT. Basically a glass cannon and also the healer as no one has any medicae skills.

In our group, our GM decided to use us players to create a system of planets. Basically we went into this system and scanned to see what we found. Instead of the GM rolling dice, he would tell us how many dice to roll and us players would go in a circle rolling dice. It was a lot quicker to create a system that way than for him to spend hours creating it himself. Took us a couple of hours to create quite a few planets, a couple of asteroid belts, stc outpost station, etc. And we have one planet that's habitable by humans, pesky heretics! A lot of planets with resources, some archeotech sites, etc. We went back to our port to get mining and agriculture colonies to set all this up. It was quite fun as everything was so random with the four of us players rolling dice. Some funny outcomes and our GM was face palming quite a bit.

If it was me and I had very little wine in the house, I'd just use the wine I had and say something like, 'We've never tried this wine and thought we'd try it out'. Pour a few glasses, say cheers, Merry Chirstmas, etc and taste it. If it's average, I'd say. 'It's not too bad. Seems okay'. Make light of it and not take anything seriously. Probably say I'd go with something else next time but this isn't too bad. Something different to try. Hurlshot's dad might not mind the wine. He may not like it, but I think he would see the funny side of it if Hurlshot and his wife didn't take it seriously. That's how I would do it.

Also depends what type of day you've just had when you turn up for a family dinner. You might think, yep no problem, we'll go out and get some beer, wine, etc and it wouldn't bother them. On the other hand, if you've had an exhausting day being out and about and just want to relax, you may not feel like turning around and going out to do shopping. I've had days where I've been busy all day like mowing the lawn, hedge trimming, lawn edging, a bit sore and we've had to go out to someone's place that night for dinner. Been great to relax and sit back and setlle in. Wouldn't have liked it to get back up and go shopping for the next half hour or so because my brother and girlfriend forgot to buy wine. I'd dismiss it but it would be a little annoying. When I invite family over for a dinner, I don't expect any of them to go out and do shopping even if there's a screw up. Is there a nice way to say no? It'd probably look weird for Hurlshot's wife to go out alone to buy wine while everybody was at Hurlshot's place talking and relaxing. I don't think it would be appropriate to politely say no. We wouldn't go out to the shops after the guests arrived anyway. Even if there's a screw up, we'd just move on and say 'yeah sorry. We'll make sure we have it next time'. We'd just make do with something else.

Regardless if it's family or not. I would find it odd to send my wife out to go shopping with a family friend after family friends had arrived. I wouldn't do it and my wife wouldn't either. It's pretty easy to organise a dinner. All you need is food and drink. When you go out shopping, you buy the food and drink at the same time. You're not going to have food straight away and will have some drinks to start off. When my wife and I go shopping, we know we have to buy drinks. If it's beer, wine, coke, orange juice, etc, we would buy it the same time as buying the food. It's pretty simple. No need to waste time going out a second time. And when it's getting close to people arriving, you should have things pretty much ready. Food and drink. If you've forgotten something that's required, that's the time to do a mad dash to the shops and get it before guests arrive. I've done this in the past where my wife has said, 'oh, I forgot to get this, quick go to the shops and buy it'. As you've said, family should be relaxed when they get there. To be able to relax, sit back, have a drink and talk. Not for them to step in the door only to have them turn around and go back out to do shopping with a host because they've forgot to buy drinks. I'd probably be a bit annoyed too if I stepped in the door only to turn around and go shopping because the hosts aren't organised. I want to relax, sit back, chill out, have a drink and talk to my family. Not spend the next half hour driving/shopping because my extended family couldn't organise to buy drinks when they had all day to do it. But then I usually arrive with at least a 6-pack of beer and Bottle of wine for the hosts (family or otherwise) in any event.

I'd have to agree with your father on the first two of his points. We've been to a lot of parties and also held a lot of parties and never been in a situation where we had to get wine after guests have arrived. It shows that you're not well organised and running things by the seat of your pants. If we arrived at a party and the host had to go out and get wine after guests arrived, We'd be thinking 'what have they been doing all day to be getting wine now?' Your father probably felt uncomfortable having to leave the gathering to get wine with your wife which probably annoyed him and felt obligated to say yes, especially since he doesn't get along with your wife. He can't say No because he's family, hence obligated to say yes. If I had to leave a gathering and get alcohol with a host because they didn't pick it up earlier in the day, I'd probably be thinking, 'what else have they forgotten for dinner?'. The third point about the winery being nothing special? Don't know the winery so can't comment. Although having been to a few wineries, they don't really mean much to me. So while it may be of no consequence to you about the wine, for others it can be a bad start to the night.

With statements like these, you come across such as the likes of Timothy McVeith. So what lethal force are you advocating to change the government's course of action? Bombing government buildings and using lethal force to convince the government? Crazy stuff.

This is the sort of mindset that won't see change. When it comes to owning a gun for self defence (aside from those in dangerous professions that is) then you are basically saying that you don't have faith in society to keep law and order. The last time I looked the US was a democracy and (conspiracies aside) the citizens have a choice to make. Do they want to live in a society where the system of laws, and those appointed to enforce them provide personal protection or not? If so, then over time powerful groups like the NRA will become less powerful to the point where serious restrictions regarding firearm ownership will start to happen. If not then the price they will continue to pay is a society where many people are armed to the teeth in order to protect themselves, which means that access to firearms is trivial. It really comes down to if the people in the US trust the system enough to give up the individual power (perceived or real) owning guns gives them.

So if you have a party of six, the number of monsters will now scale to your party. If you find the need to do a solo game, there will hardly be any monsters around. No more challenge for solo players. Some of these updates don't make sense.

Varscona is a longsword FFS. And you have to go through certain dialogue options and fight Greywolf FFS. Not having it out in the open just sitting there FFS. As I said, the modders like to have OP items in the game and the Scimitar +2 Rashad's Talon is just sitting there in the Cloackwood Forest, no monsters around, no challenge, just another OP item that you can get without any skill. FFS.

Nope

But the Beta testers said that's how it was meant to be!!! It's a feature, not a bug. Seriously, I think the beta testers who are also modders are more likely to be biased in playing BG1 with mods with OP items and everything else that's wrong with mods that they've forgotten what the original BG1 played like. Oh look, a treasure pile with a Scimitar +2 that's been duplicated from the same scimitar from Durlag's Tower, left in the open in the Cloakwood Forest totally unguarded and no monsters around. What was the point in putting this in and so early in the game? +2 weapons are supposed to be rare, not sitting out in the open. Or at least having to fight monsters to get it.

Found out on the BG forums that the reason why places like the Gnoll Stronghold, Xvart Village, Firewine Ruins and generally all monsters you come across in open areas have been dramatically reduced because it seems the modders knew about this and wanted it that way. Gnoll Stronghold is pretty much abandoned and you only see Gnolls where the open pits are when rescuing Dynaheir. Run into Four Black Talon Elite guards in Peldvale? No, you only get to fight against one now. Because the game has less monsters, you absolutely breeze through it. It feels like there's no challenge because you had to fight your way through so many monsters in the original. Now, you can just walk all the way through places like the Gnoll Stronghold and there's no one around. Also, less monsters = less xp which has made me do all the side quests to get my xp up. Thread and Quote from one of the modders below: http://forum.baldurs...d-for-review/p1

Interesting that you can Alt-Tab out of a Fullscreen game and see apps. Some people on the BG forums are experiencing similar problems with me. The apps for me are always behind the game. I never have scripts enabled. Never needed to use them in the original. Dynaheir only did it once so maybe it was a one off thing. That's most of the problems I've encountered off the top of my head and I'm not even up to the Bandit Camp as I've been doing all the side quests. Also, not really a problem and don't know if it's a bug but Dynaheir can lean Flame Arrow now. In the original game, she couldn't. Maybe they changed the spell in BG2 and because the game is accessing the BG2 engine, it's why Dynaheir can now learn Flame Arrow? I don't know. As I said, not really a problem and another spell she can learn now. EDIT: Okay, now I know why I can't Alt-Tab out. I'm using dual monitors.. It's a bug that's been reported on the BG forums.

There was no stability issues when I installed BGEE. It ran perfectly. The same with the original BG1 when I bought it in 1998. I've been fortunate that every game I've bought has always worked out of the box. The concerns and disappointment I have is things like the original cut content being taken out and not replaced. And it's not just the cutscenes. It's also the voice overs in the game itself by different characters that you meet. There's also little things like not being able to ALT-TAB and minimise the game to the Windows Taskbar. The game just sits there while your Windows Taskbar appears. When you open an app, like a browser, it's 'behind the game' and you can't see that app. You can play in Windowed Mode but I prefer Fullscreen. The zoom reset is annoying and the Beta testers on the BG forums said this is a 'feature' and not a bug and working as intended which I find unbelievable. A zoom lock has been requested and no answer if this will be done any time soon. Group Formation isn't saving at times and will change your group formation to a triangle. The spelling errors such as the Help button labelled as Rest. When you tab across things like the Party A.I. on the bottom right of the screen, the scroll doesn't disappear when you move your mouse away and leaves a bit of the scroll showing, and have to hit U to get rid of it. Ranged characters will sometimes charge into battle when they have their longbow equipped. I had Dynaheir charge into battle even though I was having her cast Magic Missile. The spawns of the monsters is bugged and places like the Gnoll Fortress was nearly abandoned. New content added that is bugged eg. Elven Chain mail not dropping during the Dorn encounter at Nashkel. etc To address all the bugs, add new cinematics for all the old ones like they promised and everything else that needs to be fixed, I can't see this being done in the short term. For people like me with the game working, our concerns with bugs will just go to the bottom of the pile while more serious bugs are addressed which is completely understandable. Overall I have mixed feelings with BGEE. There's some good stuff that's been done, but my playing experience has been overshadowed by the obvious small and minor bugs and original cut content in the game.

A lot of people including myself pre-ordered not actually seeing the end result until it was released. And also thinking we were getting a more poilished modded version of BG without having to install mods (yes, I'm lazy) since Beamdog has been working with those modders. Basically the definitive modded version of the game with new extra content. How wrong we were. It's not the definitive version, it's just different. I'm still playing it through.

I've decided to view BGEE as an expansion (Black pits, 3 NPC's + side quests) and the main game is still in Beta. Maybe they should have sold it as: Nov 2012 – $18 pre-order Early Bird Special with access to The Black Pits and early Beta access to main game. Mar 2013 – $20 When game is released. I think this may have been better as Beamdog would be able to fix the issues earlier, know all the problems people are facing and given more time to release the game properly. And everyone would've known this game is still in Beta.

After 14 years, I never noticed this before but the original death cinematic has similar type of 'essense' that floats away as the original ending cinematic with Sarevok's essense. Yours has an orange glow to it while Sarevok is yellow. It's those little things that I like and re-discover after years of playing. Original Death cinematic (Skip to 11 sec mark)

The rest cinematic look quite good. Oh and here's the Death cinematic. Death http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7ywSbgacR8

Here are two new ones. Apparently they did do Nashkel. Nashkel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OToyNepKgyA Rest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx9LJTiXkjQ&list=UL

Apparently the cinematic at the end has been pulled from the game and replaced with nothing. So it goes Defeat Sarevok > Instant Main Menu. Just for those that want to see the original end cinematic

I wouldn't say they slammed it. They mentioned the good and bad of BGEE. It's a fair, balanced and honest review which is a rare ocurrence these days from game reviewers. I completely agree with the review. A poster on the BG forums has accused the review of bias and alleges that it's someone from RPGCodex that has written the review. Quote from the guy at BG Forums http://forum.baldurs...#Comment_165842 I've been playing it over the weekend and it's interesting to note that: 1. the new NPC (Dorn) encounter when you meet him before the Nashkel Mines. When you defeat the ambush, one of the enemy is wearing an Elven Chain armour but doesn't drop it. So there's a new Eleven Chain armour in the game but the encounter is bugged and doesn't drop the armour. 2. According to the BG forums, huge problems with Rasaad's dialogue when you have him in your party after 10 days. I've only encountered the Dorn encounter and the armour didn't drop for me. I've stayed clear of Rasaad because of all the problems that have been reported at the BG forums. Disappointing that the new content they added is also bugged. Some things they enhanced for the game: The two Rings of Wizardry don't stack. So no more ~20 magic missiles for your mage. The Ankheg Armor stacks with Rings of protection.

I agree. The Original BG has rock solid stability and works on my second computer (Win 7/Vista rolled back to XP) with 19" monitor to play old games without any problems. And it still looks great. All Beamdog had to do is take a stable game and make it compatible with Win 7, enhance it with new resolutions and make it similar with the current mods that change the original to the BG2 engine. They've managed to do some of this to great effect, but other things don't seem to work properly. Zoom reset being one of them. The cinematics are not what a lot of people expected with cut dialogue and I wouldn't even call the Friendly Arm Inn a cinematic. It's just a picture with music. They had an opportunity to really make this game shine but it seems they've created something else which has divided the community. I would say this is still in beta with more work to be done on it. It's a shame because it's a missed opportunity for them.

I reloaded a previous save and figured our the Firebead and Tethoril quest. After I reloaded, I ran into the Inn and clicked on Firebead, then ran outside and searched for Tethoril and ran into him, already running away near the Inn I just came out of. He wasn't at his starting position around the side of the Candlekeep library. I have a second computer with the original BG and did the same quest and Tethoril is standing where he should be and didn't move until I was in sight of him. Not sure what to think about this. Feel sorry for other people who haven't been able to play this due to the game crashing. I've been fortunate that everything is running perfectly, although the game seems to have a mind of its own with the quests.