IndiraLightfoot

Thank you for the update, Obsids, and Merry Christmas to you all!

The patch will indeed be released before Christmas, and with a new Elven subclass: Santa elf: Short as an Orlan, big ears like an Orlan, in essence, it may very well be a clean-shaven Orlan posing as an elf. Why? Don't even ask... If you pick a druid, you get to pick an extra shapeshift form: Reindeer. If you name him Blitzen, you'll get murder and blood on the dance floor in every tavern.

Pro-tip: There are a few unfortunate cases, where objects are supposed to be pick-upable or readable, and the UI icon for it is showing, but whne you click on it, nothing happens. I have solved all such cases I've come across (I'm on PC), by using the key F instead of a mouse click. And in a certain villa, there's a book that refuses to be read (it even have a double set of UI click icon near it - I managed to read that one too, by jumping up higher next to it, and then press "F" instead of a mouse click.

StarWars: I certainly agree that the respawning is over the top in many areas, especially the Hinterlands (and try touching the water in the Mire when in combat and watch a monster bonanza unfold! ). In order to remedy that I try to travel a lot via the camps, and luckily I have a Rogue as my main, and almost in constant stealth, so now I just run passed everything I don't feel like taking on. In short, if you have a rogue in your party, move around with it in stealth - it will improve stuff a lot. hollowcrown: I reckon the comparisons to Ass Creed open world + Skyrim and streamlined D3-like ARPG elements are all fair comparisons to what DA:I is system-wise. However, the story and some of the quests are pretty atmospheric, not to mention the fantastic music - and if you, like me, read everything, it's even more lore-meaty than BG1 vanilla, at least. I reckon there is some CRPG magic happening.

At least my playthrough has been nicely stingy in the magical weapon department as well. Tens of hours and like one or two blue upgrades for at least three of my four party members. My purple weapons all seem to be two-handed, as if they game knows I'm not using them. I do craft quite a bit, so that's where all of my weapons and armours come from, really. And I really mean it, when I say I like this. In Skyrim (which I still like a lot) and more proper CRPGs, there are always a steady flow of magic items, but in DA:I they seem to be very rare.

Well, Bioware is one of my favourite game devs, no doubt, since I have so much fun with several of their games. BG+BG2 is on my top three CRPG list , but still the one game they've made that had the biggest impact on me, and which in turn, turned me into an Obsidian fan, as it were, is the Neverwinter Nights series. Although none of them was very fantastic as far as SP games go - they came with an absolutely adorable toolset, and they allowed for persistent worlds to be made and visited on servers - and my many roleplaying experiences there have been unforgettable - perhaps that's the pinnacle of my computer gaming so far. DA:O also came with a toolset, but I was disappointed with it (I preferred Obsidian's NWN2 toolkit), and I didn't love that game, through and through - but it was very good, and then came DA2. *Sigh!* I've never played Mass Effect, so it has been a long wait until this DA:I happened to drop on us recently, and as many of you already know. I love it! It's definitely a top 10 candidate for all-time best CRPG. As for PC controls, I can't see the complaints - it is no console port - it's definitely made specifically for PC (and I have seen the graphics on PS4 - not very nice). Just get a gaming mouse, folks, and then practice using it in key-input-heavy games like COH2, then get back to DA:I and you'll find that DA:I is easier to play, with camera and all than NWN2. (Seriously, yes, the controls are a bit wonky, but think about how many games over the decades that have had worse, just saying.) It took me 70+ hours just to get to my first specialization on Nightmare, and 85 h in, and I haven't unlocked more than 40% of all areas, and those areas are at best half-uncovered. This game is absolutely vast, and where else do you get Pictish barbarian chieftains that throw living goats on your castle wall?

It shall be done! *Scurries off, hell-bent on sacrificing the precious remainder of my lifespan just to prove it*

"There's always room for one more Flanders!" And always room for more loving X-Mas greetings! Merry Christmas, all! Eat well (lots), put up your legs and play the bejeebers out of your favourite games!

You bet, he did!

Making a film about a dictator in full swing is complicated move for a movie company and the actors and all others involved. A little historical comparison (taken from War Is Boring, P. Jacobs): In 1938, Charlie Chaplin decided to take on the role of Adolf Hitler. When The Great Dictator came out two years later, it was the first time Chaplin spoke on film. In the The Great Dictator, Chaplin played his trademark Tramp character, re-imagined as a Jewish barber in the fictional country Tomania. Chaplin also played Tomania’s autocrat Adenoid Hynkel, a parody of Hitler. In 1939 and 1940, Nazi Germany captured much of Europe and began bombing Great Britain. But America was not formally at war. And many Hollywood executives were reluctant to criticize Hitler. Some Jewish film producers in the U.S. feared a parody film might anger the Nazis and expose Jews in Europe to even harsher treatment. Others were sympathetic to the Nazis. In the 1930s, MGM’s Louis B. Meyer had consulted with German authorities and had given them veto over some films’ contents in order to ensure easy access to the German film market. The 51-year-old Chaplin, then one of the world’s greatest celebrities, decided to produce The Great Dictator with his own money. He wrote, directed and starred in the film. But Chaplin himself almost nixed The Great Dictator as the extent of German atrocities in Europe became clearer. The film star feared there was simply nothing funny about Nazis. He also worried that many countries might simply ban the flick. President Franklin Roosevelt heard of Chaplin’s intention to scrap the film. The president sent an aide to deliver a message to Chaplin. “Make this film,” the president advised. Roosevelt promised he would use his influence to ensure none of America’s allies banned the movie. Filming began in 1939 and lasted more than a year. Chaplin released the movie in October 1940. Hitler demanded a copy—and screened it in his private theater twice. Hitler once had extolled Chaplin as one of the greatest performers of all time. There were rumours that Hitler was heartbroken to see Chaplin’s impersonation of him. In one key scene, Chaplin’s Hynkel character bursts into tears after his balloon globe pops. But according to a member of Hitler’s circle named Reinhard Spitzy, the real-life Nazi leader found the film amusing. Spitzy even suggested that Chaplin had inspired Hitler’s toothbrush mustache. The other explanation for the Führer’s ’stache is that Hitler shaved it that way when he was a soldier in World War I in order to get a good seal on his gas mask. Hitler screened Chaplin’s films even though Germany had banned the actor’s works owing to his alleged Jewishness. The propaganda book "The Jews Are Watching You" had labelled Chaplin a “disgusting Jew acrobat.” The Great Dictator was a commercial success. Later, Chaplin regretted it being so funny. He insisted that had he known about the Nazi’s industrialized murder of the Jews, he “wouldn’t have made the film.” “I should like to help everyone if possible—Jew, Gentile, black man, white,” Chaplain said as the Tramp. “We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another.” “Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate and has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed,” he continued. “We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind.” “We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.” After the war, someone asked Chaplin if he was in fact Jewish. “I'm afraid I don't have that honour," Chaplin said.

I for one am very happy about the removal of DT, and just keeping DR (the name fits what DT did better too).

archangel979: Precisely, that's my point.

True. One thing is for sure, Obsidian seem to have removed their vocal incantations for PoE, which makes me a sad panda, if it's true. I was very much looking forward to these haughty spell utterings.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ayaED8GlQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_qeT0xNOEA

Very nice ideas, Osvir! I reckon, encounter design is one aspect of the IE games, which really could improve. As much as people are legitimately asking for combat being built on RTS template inspiration, the huge chunk of frozen baddies, convo-first, then dogpile them unawares make those wishes slightly bizarre. You would never ever see such combat scenarios or encounters in a RTS game, that's for sure. IWD2 had a few cool encounter designs, ToEE as well, also the NWN2 games had a few rare places where it got interesting. Now, imagine a CRPG where every encounter is like that - varied, interesting, challenging, surprising. *Drool*

Perhaps we should call the language behind these incantations Ancient Geek?

^That is a cool question! Although I love the IE games and the NWN/2-games, the NPC baddies standing there in certain convo first-then fight-situs are pretty bad and hugely unfair. DA:I have done away with a lot of that, actually, and it becomes much more challenging even with pausing and tactical view. Obviously Medreth and his gang are nuts. They just stand there, frozen in place, allowing our party to surround them, even breathe down their necks, until a certain sentence triggers them to react. In short, they start off with a huge disadvantage, especially in a town near resting facilities and shops. Instead, Medreth could stand there, seemingly alone, and do all of the talking, and as soon as the trigger sentence flies off, he throws a smoke bomb and then immediately attacks and retreat, all the while his goons begin shooting the party from all angles with arrows and bullets. Later, if the party seem hurt enough - they'll approach with weapons drawn and release the boar on them. Good luck, adventure party!

As a huge NWN2 fan, with thousands of hours on the game, I can tell you that they are a mix of gibberish with streaks of ancient Greek in it - even dollops of dog Latin too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg8238Rv1MM Knowing a bit of Greek, I'd say NWN2 went more that route as opposed to BG/IWD's emphasis on Latin inspiration: 1) Illusion: "Veritas, Credo, Oculos" = "The truth, I believe, with my eyes" 2) Alteration: "Praeses, Alia, Fero" = "Protecting, another, I bring this forth" 3) Necromancy: "Vita, Mortis, Careo" = "Life, and death, I am without" 4) Divination: "Scio, Didici, Pecto" = "I know, for I have studied, with my mind" 5) Abjuration: "Manus, Potentis, Paro" = "A hand, powerful, I prepare" 6) Evocation: "Incertus, Pulcher, Imperio" = "Uncertain, beautiful things, I command" 7) Conjuration: "Facio, Voco, Ferre" = "This I do, I call, to bring you forth" Enchantment: "Cupio, Virtus, Licet" = "I want, excellence, allowed to me"

Today's the day when we'll get lucky. I can feel it! Twelve hours from now, you just wait and see. Obsanta won't let us down.

I don't know if this is global, but even the most obscure games over here have 60-100 bids on queue, presumably reasonably high as well at times. Moreover, you have to snipe it at auction, which takes time too.

Good folk, don't bid! The auction prices are climbing as I type this, and they are way passed ridiculous sums of gems. I browsed through auctions I could afford, and there were nearly no good games left (that I don't have or have played). The good news is that if you do like I did, and turn your gems into sacks (1,000 gems = 1 sack), you get a lot of money from junk. I hade like five pages of stuff that I never used: emoticons and most backgrounds (all of which were worth nothing on the market) - and a few minutes ago, I sold six sacks of gems for over three Euros. With them I can buy a game that I want to have, whenever I'd like to get it (during the upcoming Winter Sales that start Dec 26 IIRC).

I agree, pour more love over PoE instead, pretty please!

I really do hope mindless monsters are indeed immune to Cipher spells.

March 2015 has been bandied around a bit, coz of a few PoE release dates announced on other sites. As for the videos, a word of warning - many of them are about faultfinding in the BB. If you want a relaxed playthrough, watch Shevek's as of late: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69644-bb-v364-playthrough/

Before the 20th. X-Mas logic.

Uh what? My adventuring day is like twice or triple as long in any of the Infinity Engine games than it is in Pillars of Eternity. Same here, Sensuki. And I have also recently played both PoE BB and BG1+IWD2. I can play much longer before stopping for a breather or any inn rest than in the IE games. This has been true for me since August. If I'd hazard a guess, since Shevek and I play rather similarly, is that you use lots of more skills and also more characters. I've watched most of your vids with great pleasure, although I play rather differently - it often gets a bit resource-intensive compared to the more economical combat style of Shevek's and mine.