IndiraLightfoot

Celebration all around! Happy birthday, Obsidan forums! Although I was part for a couple of years of the NWN2-forums, which were located over at Bioware's, the atmosphere there were distinctly Obsidian, so I have something like six years of Obsidian forum-partaking under my belt. "Get a life!" "But to me, this is part of life."

ShadySands: Just swap the barbarian for a bladesinger, and you have my first party, as it were. I reckon they were slow-starters, but as soon as you get some masteries in place, nad use the defender the way Humanoid taught me, you can make a beast of that party. See earlier posts here about party action order, all credit to Humanoid's posts.

Yay! I just saw Russia in the inaugural parade, and they wore santa coats. Kudos to them for that warm and fuzzy holiday feeling!

Oh, yes, please!! One of my main gripes right now. I'd love to have two NWN2 bars on each side that I can slide to my heart's content.

Yeah. My opinion of games have varied quite a bit, but for CRPGs (with deeper RPG elements in them), that list of mine above is pretty solid since a few years back now. I may change places of one or two, but it even when I revisit those games I see why I hold them in such high regard.

This is more or less what I've been doing. The results are quite different if you go magic-heavy. I can't say I prefer one over the other, they are just two nice experiences set apart. I'd say the magic-users fair better, at least in Act 1. However, around end Act 2 and early Act 3, a party of mostly fighters are dicing their way through the peninsula and beyond.

All done, sir!

In a game, a computer game, a computer roleplaying game, a computer roleplaying game with combat...

Thanks for the list, Zoraptor! I don't agree with the list in details, but in general, it sums up great games. Would I have to rank them and sort among CRPGs, I'd still leave out games that I don't really qualify as RPGs full on. I love the MIght & Magic series, and Ultima Underworld, and Dungeon Master, ToEE and even the IWDs, but are they true CRPGs? Only in part, I reckon, but they are still darn good at times. Here's my top 10-list, inspired by their top 71-list, and on the fly (I used the last list as their reference, under the spoiler tag - their place within brackets): # Game 1 Planescape: Torment (1) 2 Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer (12) 3 Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn (4) 4 Baldur's Gate (17) 5 Ultima VII: The Black Gate (33) 6 Neverwinter Nights 2 (61) 7 System Shock 2 (22) 8 Fallout: New Vegas ( 8 ) 9 Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (31) 10 Dragon Age: Origins (33)

Great ideas for improvement! As for stunned in 5 turns, though, isn't that the max value? My defender dwarf, with sky-high vitality and the one that has quaffed each and every barrel throughout the game, seems never to be stunned longer than 2-3 turns.

And if it didn't last for at least an hour, with a sense of legal suits battling it out lingering in the room among coke stains and chip crumbs, I feel sorry for you.

I agree. I first took out the dangerous cave Cyclops with a level 15 party, and it was pretty hard (for my party, at least). Then one or two levels later I met two in a certain warfare challenge, and they seemed much harder.

Indeed. It's an age of discovery. PE is a match made in heaven for this kind of epistemological clashes.

When I read this article I can see where your "flawed" ideas about medieval Bohemia came from. I don't mean it as insult or such just let me try to explain where problems are. 1) Castles - your vision of Bohemian castle obviously much differ from reality and its probably caused by language barrier. When most castles in France, Italy or Spain looked like you described, most Bohemian castle (including both in KC:D, where second was ruin) were more mere keeps with less then 50, 40 inhabitants. In 15th century there were less then 10 castles in whole including one in capital Prague with noblemen rich enough to have court or sponsor artisans. 2) Women - first problem with woman as main character start with main setting as blacksmith. Smithery was very lucrative business in this era and was bound by strict guild laws - and one of them was no women. Romantic idea about daughter helping h father and becoming smith is nowadays fantasy. In this era you need permission of guild to become apprentice, then study about 7 years and then again got permission for own smith shop. Try it different and live elsewhere then deep border woods and mountains and you would most probably end with broken hands and fingers because crippling injuries were popular solution of freelancer problems in guild sphere of influence. In fact there is only one case when woman can become blacksmith - when she was widow of blacksmith and it was temporally till next marriage, first adult son or acknowledging of apprentice of deceased smith. 3) Ethnicity in central Bohemia - except Jews and Gypsies there were none. Bohemia was only nation in central Europe spared of raiders invasion from Asia. Mongols in 13th century literally stopped at Bohemia doorstep after plundering Poland and Hungary because Genghis Khan died month before planned invasion and immediately Mongols returned to Central Asia to fight for khan title. All later Asians settlement were founded hundreds of kilometers further on east and southeast. And when people with dark skin were quite common in southern Europe, France and England, in central Bohemia were extremely rare and only as visitors. Reasons are simple - Bohemia region never was destination for African slaves, in fact it was major source of Slavic slaves till 12th century. - Bohemia had no access to sea so it didn't participate in colonialism. - Bohemia had no direct trade route to Middle East and Africa. Goods from these region arrived to southern Europe, then to France or Vienna and than, accompanied by French and German trader, to Bohemia. In fact first written evidence about man with black skin came from year 1467 (sixty years after KC:D). It was two Portuguese slaves, gift from Portuguese king to Czech emissary Lev z Rožmitálu. And in this journal was even written dialog between P. king and Lev about "Moors" in Bohemia because king was surprised by Lev request of such cheap present (hundreds of thousand slaves came through Portugal these days). And Lev said : "There are none and we rarely saw them." Ufff.... this a HUGE wall of text, I know, but I hope it help to understand how diffident was situation in central Bohemia against Southern Europe and France which are today often presented as model of ethnic diversity for whole Europe. First of all: I know zilch about Bohemia at that specific time, so I was just speaking from my broader knowledge of other countries, so it was indeed flawed and guesswork on my behalf. If what you write is built upon a profound knowledge on the subject of 15th cy Bohemia, I'm very happy that you took the time and wrote it all up. Most of my arguments is about KC:D being a RPG game with some ambition of being "historically accurate". I just wish to emphasize that it is a game and as such it's perfect for roleplaying, even roles that are tangent on the next-to-impossible, but still slightly plausible, as it were. At least it would make for an entertaining game, and I'd love to see the NPCs responses to my character.

This is true for cities on the whole where there were such minorities, but these were an extremely small part of the genetic make-up and made no impression on the gene pool on the whole, indeed some minorities would find themselves losing any distinctive racial profile as they interbred with the native population, yet keeping their culture. However in the countryside, among the largely agrarian poulation their occurence would be rare to non-existent and there you will find only the native population who regard the local market town as a exotic locale and have no intention of leaving their home. North African traders yes, the Mediterranean is the finest and safest road in that part of the world. Berber mercenaries seems like a bit of a stretch, you're more likely to see Dogs of War from Europe passing through for the acquisition of Byzantine gold. Turkish scholars i'm not so sure of, considering the recent Crusades in the Holy Lands and the antipathy to the unbelievers that this is bound to have caused. Jews obviously, they will probably be an old and established part of the big cities. Orthodox priests maybe but i'd say that you're more likely to see refugees from the Seljuk's assault on the Empire. Roma yes, they're still there. Travelling is dangerous and difficult at this time, thus my reference to the Mediterranean being the best of roads, and I hope this is brought to bear on the game. Edit: For clarification what i'd personally like to see is bustling lively cities that are colourful, dirty, dangerous and exotic while in the countryside i'd like to experience the culture that bore those cities and some form of national character. That's an ideal case for me personally. You're absolutely right! When I've been doing genealogy, for instance, and then pouring over late medieval and more recent church records, the number of distinct ethnic minorities in rural parishes can almost be counted on fingers in several European countries, and then usually it was remarked upon by the clergymen.

I so wish something like this would happen. To me, D&D will always have a very special place in my heart. I've been so loyal I basically bought any CRPG with "D&D" on the box. I like the world settings (I see it is a strength that I am familiar with its lore and history -that's why I think the 4th ed of FR was such a let down. They should have kept going where they were and progressed year by ear, and not skip some century and declare great catastrophes and upheavals. You don't run amok and kill gods like that.) It's all a materr of quality writing and great devs. The loyal fan base is out there. It's still strong in numbers and nowadays we tend to be pretty strong on the financial side as well, at least compared to some decades ago. So, please, make this happen, somehow, someday...

Warhorse Studios has just replied what their stance is on having multiple ethnicities in their game, and I really appreciate their response: Ahmad Khan: "I am a person of color and here's my take, if its logical and historically sensiable then do it, north-african traders,berber mercenaries,turkish schlors, jewish refugees escapping presecution, Slavic orthodox priests,the Roma people, are all logical and historically verified minorites. The rest of the world not as much." Warhorse: "Very well said. This is exactly how we see it." This is great news, I reckon!

Humanoid: Yet again my wonderful helping hand! Thanks a bunch! And wouldn't you know, I'm like ten tiles from there right now, so it all seems fair enough now.

Alright, I just can't find the quest that promotes my dwarven defender. I have grand master in Shield, but when I go to Sorli, he just says "you are not promoted". I can find the shield gm trainer too (Kilburn), but nothing triggers a quest that gets the whole thing going. What gives?

If the guys at Warhorse stand by their vision of KC:D as "historically accurate", "realistic", etc, they really ought to research the subject thoroughly, and I promise you that they will be surprised how varied and diverse Central Europe could be in those times: using several languages in the same areas, people with varied ethnic backgrounds, especially in and around courts (and there are indeed two castles in the KC:D map). The same goes for women, having two courts in the game, along with all artisans, merchants and guilds supporting them; and you'll get a plethora of interesting roles for women to occupy and flourish in. Interestingly, most people don't have this in mind when they thing of "realistic medieval times" - they seem to think of an all-male battle ground, where the strongest men got to rise to the top, build up a rule of power and oppression, and be surrounded by all other social roles as if they were insignificant slaves. That comes across as slightly fascist and very unpleasant indeed. I'm not saying that one or two medieval kingdoms in Europe could have been that bad, but I wonder how common it was, and for how long it lasted. Some researchers say about the Vikings that they were raider parties organized a bit like the mob on Sicily. However, they were never fully integrated into the agricultural life of the Viking Age, where women and other ethnicities had quite distinguished roles. They were woven into its fabrics, but rather loosely.

Heh, I meant of course "sisumetric", from the Finnish word "sisu", meaning fighting spirit.

-Too many have far too even pacing to them. Similar verses and short choruses (boss fights). There shouldn't be any rhythm or pace at all. It should have twists and turns and tonnes of small surprises (and no, I don't mean silly easter-eggs referring to some old computer game or a movie) -Boring talent trees and too few character development options. These issues should be killed with fire and desolved in the strongest acid available -Monsters and enemies don't fit their environment, they don't make sense, ecologically, socially or culturally. -The stories are on a backburner until the next cutscene. I love games where they manage to make the entire setting and everything you do part of making the story as you go along. -For CRPGs, it's the non-combat skills that usually get the short end of the stick, or no stick at all. -Mid-game often feels like filling towards some far-off ending. The ideal would be that every minute in the game feels meaningful. -Late game, and end game, is usually rushed and a let down.

I've passed Act II with my first party: freemage, two dualwielders and a defender taunt tank. For the U-points I got I merrily redeemed the Meow dungeon. What's not to like? I love new content, I love cats, I love rakshasas! Interestingly, my melee-based party is shaping up. I'm not sure they can match my magic-using party when they reach like level 20, but they are dishing out much more damage now that they are masters in the right skills and have one or two relics to play with. I really liked the mood in Lost City, and all the weird interconnections going on down there. Thanks to Humanoid's tip, I modded in that relic dagger that Jassad should have given the party. I just made it so that Indril in Seahaven gave it to me instead when I finished the Fallen Star-quest. And yet another thank you to Humanoid for warning us about the risk of missing shards in Lost City. Even if one really OCDs over them tiles, it so easy to miss one, especially in multi-coloured dungeons. Overall, I think M&M X Legacy is a pretty great slomo ARPG with a decent story and quite some size to it. I would rank this game higher than Kingdoms of Amalur, Diablo 3, Torchlight 2, and Wizardry 8, which are the ones I've played recently that in some weird way can be compared to it. Sure, I have many more hours invested in D3, but it has that feverish arcade game feel going for it, with the hope of finding some upgrade to an everlasting killing spree machine (your pc). I think that despite its shortcomings, it has atmosphere and nostalgia in spades, and the other games I mentioned can't match it there. I wish there were even more viable character builds and more classes, though, even skills. Sure, it's repetitive at times, and often predictable, but it's nice and cosy to play, with a solid barebones version of a CRPG. it also shows that the grid-, turn- and party-based CRPG is far from dead. I'd love to see more of Might & Magic in this shape and form, just improved overall.

Wow! This gives the term "sugar daddy" a whole new meaning. I predict that games are next on that list. We'd better watch out! Then they will ban fun altogether. Slowly degrading in front of a video screen, or taking a drink, or inhale a ****, are all minute increments of pleasurable suicide, just like la petite mort, i.e. sexual intercourse. My contention: It's not fun unless a little bit of you are dying while you are doing it. Come to think of it, that's the definition of life itself. Enter the government: Ban life!