IndiraLightfoot

Heh! I had almost forgotten those weird temples of Eep, Honk, Yak and Moo. That makes a dungeon of Meow quite fitting indeed. However, I'm still fara way from getting there, especially with two parties going right now. Interesting things are those items (always relics?) that level up. First, they seem like crap, and then they get better and better, but it's a gamble. I have no clue what they'll turn out like eventually. My first party's literally wading through knee-deep **** in order to get to Karthal right now, and it's dark, dank and miserable, just as it should be in this kind of classic dungeon... My second party keeps practising there spell-shooting skills, and now a boss was the target at the shooting gallery. First try, and that slithering bugger was a goner. My first party (then two levels higher) needed four tries.

Well, I've run around with my spell-slinger party now for two thirds of Act 1, and they are beasts! Sure, I have knowledge now about monsters, locations and all, but I'm literally having a blast, that is, I blast them critters into smithereens. It costs a lot of mana, but it's worth it. Also, I have two characters using the air magic Gust spell over and over, while the baddies get bombarded by entangle, fire bolts, water... It's like a shooting range, and speaking of which, this is what a part of ranged characters would have felt like if bows and x-bows were better. As for the difficulty. The game is like two or three times easier with casters, at least in Act 1. Another bug: With my other party; I was in dire straits, and needed a bit of fast cash, so I was trying to sell the fourth-tier healing potions, but it was impossible, but selling minor, medium and large works.

Finally got to play more M&M X over the weekend. My party is now level 15 and near the end of Act 2 (I'm guessing). It's still great fun, and my slow-going - hitting every tile and reading everything - pays dividends in atmosphere. I almost think this edition of the M&M series has a better story quality to it than them old ones (perhaps a heretic claim). Also, the party chatter is hilarious, albeit a bit repetitive. Some complaints: I missed a number of trainers early on because of that "more than portrait in a shop"-syndrome, so I've had to run around like a madman to get important ones, like sword and axe expert in Sorp, and even earth mag master. And I even missed an entire quarter in Seahaven because I misread the map - thinking something was blocked, when it was not (let's just say, there's where a dojo is). A suggestion would be some info/clickable - Trainers - for a certain shop/building. I also find the maps in certain places annoyingly mulicoloured and sometimes semi-dark, Even if I cast a light-spell, the map tiles in certain places appear to be "unwalked" on. P.S. My claim of a bug where my party couldn't pass because of a Sylvanna blessing needed was wrong. I read is that because of the context, instead it was just one of those Shalassa water-blessing things. P.P.S. I've just rolled a new party to keep as a parallel to my other (which I still love, mind you). My first is so combat-heavy, and I want to test the other classes out, so this time I've made almost the opposite: a caster-heavy party. I kept a freemage (I love that Dark Magic), but made him a man (and nice vo for that one, the heroic). Then I went for a shaman (I want to try out water magic all the way to grand master), runepriest (I want to max out Fire magic ) and then finally a Crusader (the only one with GM for a weapon and a mag school - light). It's also somewhat cool to do everything with the meta-gamey knowledge of a replay. Still, after I left Sorpigal, I found one tile I had missed with my thorough first party, and it... Overall, though, despite the very valid critique of some of the gameplay, like Humanoid's last post, I really must commend them for having re-created a very nice and engaging atmosphere, and this in a genre of CRPG, I've always treated as the slow food of ARPGs, almost. Kudos to Ubisoft for that! I can't wait for more content, or even M&M XI!

I agree 100%! Amazingly good, and that from a new IP! I love the atmosphere, the simple, but engaging systems, the dialogues, the story, VO actors from heaven, the lot!! Even the achievements were great. One of the best games that year and last year, for sure. The two dlcs together were just as good as the original campaign, and now your main pc spoke too. Btw, no playable females here! Still a great game. This shows that you and I are not after that kind of gender diversity per se. Just that we support it when we can. Still, there were great female portraits in the game, from the powerful to those struggling in the Dunwall society. For a sequel, I wish for a more open world, an even larger game, and perhaps a female as a playable character.

Nonek: As I'm playing M&M X right now, I'm thoroughly enjoying the simple, but effective assortment of utility spells, like dark vision, light orb and secret-revealing shadow spells. SP, a big thumbs up for that kind of utility spells.

Yes, yes, YES!! Give us more!!!

Only problem I see is that this kind of preparation in party-based CRPGs so easily become a beast of its own, a meta-gamey system that takes the edge of the urgency and anticipation of moving your party around. Btw, this can be achieved even in turn-based party CRPGs, which I have been reminded of just recently with M&M X Legacy.

Heh, that was aimed at my Defender, which is all about axes. And given her taunting role already that was a godsend.

I really hope you're right there. More M&M X is what I want right now. Well, soon I have those Uplay points that will get me some extra dungeon, and I was one of the Early Access supporters, reporting bugs and such, so we get the first DLC: Falcon something, for free. Let's hope it's a big one. I think there will be a big dungeon to those that bought the Deluxe version as well. Ouch! Nasty bug, that!

Heh, I've totally neglected Arcane Discipline too. It seems wise to invest some points into that. And yeah, using that cast WS and Light Or before rest seems like a neat little harmless trick. Interesting that your Hunter is such a defensive star. Thanks to Humanoid's tips, I've turned my Defender into a taunt tank. So, in order, Buff-Mage, Pain-Dealer, Pain-Dealer, Taunt Tank. And...

BruceVC: There was never o.n.e...s.i.n.g.l.e...p.a.t.c.h for the game. Just a hotfix early on IIRC. The whole thing was a scandal. Still it's more or less bug free.

Yet another tale from the crypt here! Well, some sort of tips, actually. When you cast spells like Light Orb or Shadow Reveal(?), these actually stick around after you've rested for 8 h like nothing has happened. That's generous! Don't underestimate the spells Dispel Magic (in Act 2 it's been a life safer. I even hoard those scrolls). The same goes for Shadow Cloak (novice Dark). When you meet a single powerful opponent, your mage cast this and let your taunt tank fighter take the brunt of that horrible hit. Then rinse and repeat. It was hilarious when I met a certain crystalline gargantuan, and I only needed two party members to finish him off with the combo of Shadow Cloak and Challenge going in a loop. Warning: the requirement is that you have a very good tank that can take those hits. And if your mage has prepped the party with Stone Skin and Celestial Armor, all the better. And yet a bug: I got a Shelanna's Blessing, but when I wanted to pass a certain bridge, it still said: You don't have Shelanna's Blessing.

Monte Carlo: It's definitely worth one playthrough. All I can say is that God of War-like combat comes with a QTE button masher and it is usually far too easy. I even played it at the hardest difficulty. Crafting is way too overpowered, and there are weird messages when you try to click on caves and trails sometimes saying that your not high enough level for this content. Grr! There are plenty of plain fetch quests spread out like miles and miles from one another. You also have that small inventory to boost up. Google online where those NPCs are that can enlarge it for you, coz the lewt in this game is aplenty. If you also pick up the dlcs, I'd say the one with the stone giants is far more entertaining than the one with the island, where you get a pirate stronghold.

I'm sorry too, and no hard feelings here either. Tigranes was at least right about my coming across as a bit disrespectful to you, I just wanted to stand up for the rights and game variety I believe in (sometimes too strongly, it seems).

No idea. What's wrong with your donkey? Lol! Btw, Hiro what happened to your "II", you're registered like just 3 posts now? Was it just to skip that ending of your avatar name, or are you an entirely different Hiro who just happens to have been just as generous at the PE KS?

We need more people like you on these forums, BruceVC! I really think this is a great candidate for the post of the year! This is exactly how I feel.

Speaking of Sochi and arse: http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/01/30/pkg-robertson-workers-claim-abuse.cnn.html Humans Rights Watch alerts us that the transformation of Sochi from a small resort town to international Olympic host has been made possible by more than 70,000 workers, including tens of thousands of migrant workers from outside of Russia. Many of these migrant workers face exploitation – with employers failing to pay their wages, confiscating workers’ passports, and forcing them to toil up to 12 hours a day with only one day off each month – all in violation of Russian law. It's a sad state of affairs. As much as I love watching the winter Olympics, it will be tough this time.

I know. I just suck it up. I do like it makes the party level up out of sync, and that a party member doing something great, like my dwarf in the example gets extra xp for it. This game has also made me realize how much I've missed a party of four in a CRPG. Six pcs in a party gets a bit rich, awkward and whimsical at times, but four is just right. So, how did those rations work if you buy from several places again? I didn't get it. Was it like Keyrock suggested: That there is a set max of rations for each vendor, and if you go to another, you'll get them all filled up to whatever that vendor's max number is?

This is what I meant with "fantasy", as in not real, as in a game. We are playing dolls here, folks! Heh, we're not time-traveling back to some real location in medieval times. Warhorse Studios is very clear about this. They'll avoid too much gore, too much life chores, etc, in order to make a fun and enjoyable game that avoids the Tolkienesque themes for their interpretation of a medieval context. This last bit is absolutely central. Spot on, and the implications of this is that realism will not be achieved, because there is none to be achieved. It's impossible. I'm sorry, it's a pipe dream. This is a great and well-informed post. Despite historical documents being something that those in power usually wrote, and history itself is heavy laden by the power structures that be, so it's basically biased from its conception, there's a wealth of evidence of women having all sorts of employment during medieval times. It of course varied from land to land, and from law to law. But just as there were no special social phase of childhood back then, the way we perceive the female gender (and the male gender as well) has little to do with how it worked and was expressed in those days. The role one had seem to have been very important, trumping other aspects. If women were working as guards and soldiers, they were typically dressed like that and adapted their language and behaviour as much as that social role required. So, indeed, it's not as far stretched as it may seem to simply have the game play the way it does, but with a protagonist in a woman's body, all the rest being the same, even the "he", "his" and "him". Modding is in. So this will probably be one of the early mods, to remesh the pc slightly, and then those that wish to try it out, do, Other don't have to (I always wonder why they care so much what others do in a game.)

Well, nobody said that either, that we want equality in that medieval game setting. We just want another RPG option. And while we're speaking of games: You wouldn't ban women characters from other CRPGs too, would you?

Nobody has ever said there were any equality back then, so what do want to say with that, really?

For example: This does come across as a tad aggressive and disrespectful (apart from the fact that is in fact wrong. Women were on occasion soldiers back then, as well as plotting leaders. Although rarely blacksmiths, actually. However, to us trying to argue against this folly, we get this:

... you really, really need to think before you post. You're coming off as not just a historical purist, but you're dangling on the edge of sexism. "Woman thing again?" Implying that you've had this argument before. Were you one of the people that wanted to pull their funding from Torment because you could choose genders at character creation? It's a game, and guess what? Women play games. Nobody is trying to "rewrite history" with a game. It's a game. Women play games. Heh, I know. Chilloutman, unlike his name, gets really carried away. What's he talking about here? History, when this thread is about an CRPG? I'm not entirely sure, but some of it is like staring into a bottomless pit, like that one in Moria. You don't want to get to close.

I agree. It's a huge and expensive undertaking, so like Nonek, I'd much prefer that they did it big and in an expansion instead of some short prequel.

PrimeJunta: Indeed, and like the Mist Devil said: please don't make it so that each and every quest can be made in one playthrough. I hated that about Skyrim, for instance.