Keyrock

I did my best with the poll, but I will admit that it is woefully incomplete. Heck, I didn't even list alien invasion.

We're now less than 2 weeks away from [ominous music] The Mayan Apocalypse![/ominous music] So what do you think will happen?

Just finished Neverwinterwinter Night 2. Now I'm pondering what to play next. I've narrowed it down to keeping going with NWN2 and jumping into Mask of the Betrayer, Knights of the Old Republic 2, or The Book of Unwritten Tales. I'm leaning toward The Book of Unwritten Tales because of all the good things I have heard, and to play something other than a RPG for a bit.

All I have to do is divine from what I know of you, are you the sort of man that would make a mistake? Now, a clever man would not make a mistake, for he would know that only a great fool would vote "mistake". I am not a fool, so clearly I cannot vote "mistake". But you must have known that I am not a fool, you would have counted on it, so I clearly cannot vote "nope". But you are a prestidigitator, who are used to not being trusted, as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not vote "mistake". You would have suspected that I would know the reputation of prestidigitators, so I can clearly not choose "nope". You made this thread so you could be relying on your own wit, so I can clearly not choose "mistake", but you've also posted in other threads, so you must have studied, and in studying you would have learned that man is easily manipulated, so you would have put the answer as far away from yourself as possible, so I can clearly not vote "nope". You've given everything away, I know what the answer is... What in the world can that be!? /points behind Malekith

I'm doing the final push in the Mere in NWN2. Man, the Crossroads Keep battles were fun. Easy, but fun. My favorite part was the last part in the courtyard with all the undead pouring through the gate. I just kept pounding the bottleneck at the gate with Sunbeams, Sunbursts, Hammers of the Gods, and turned anything that managed to make it through (it really helps being a cleric in this late push in the game). Serious levels of smiting going on. It was a slaughter, a glorious slaughter.

I meant that turning on Expert Mode will disable the indicators. In other words, what you wrote. Poor phrasing on my part.

I do understand that most people will meta-game the bejesus out of the game to explore all the different dialogue options and find the "best" one, I used to do that all the time. I am glad though that I'll be able to turn off the indicators in Expert Mode, though, as I've gotten more into just choosing an option and living with the consequences. This also ties into perma-death, as I've also gotten into letting fallen characters stay dead and dealing with the consequence rather than replaying the given encounter over and over until everyone survives. It took me years to get myself to the point that I'd allow myslef to do that, but I find it makes for more interesting gaming that way. As an aside, a way to discourage meta-gaming the dialogues is having unforeseen consequences down the line. What may look like the "best" choice at first may come back to haunt you 10 hours of game time later. That way what choice is "best" isn't immediately clear after the conversation. Obviously internet walkthroughs and strategy guides will circumvent that, but there is little that can be done about that.

With playtesting you'll be able to test that belief. I'm not a designer or developer so this at best a mildly educated guess, but it would seem that once implemented the Stamina/Health dual bar system would require a fairly significant overhaul of game mechanics if scrapped altogether, however it would be quite easy to tweak, adjust, and balance.

Being a professional means having to remain calm and respectful in the face of being constantly barraged with cookie cutter questions from uninformed interviewers. It comes with the territory.

Damn your flexibility, practicality, and logical approach, Josh. Rash speculation and overreactions are the bread and butter of internet forums. Now what will I have to rage about?

I like the Witcher approach of potions have side-effects. You can chug a bunch of potions but there is a price to be paid. It's like the warning disclaimers during drug advertisements: "Some side-effects may include chest pain, nausea, light-headedness, bleeding from the pores, explosive diarrhea, spontaneous combustion, and 7 generation family curse..."

The only problem with that is it immediately favors certain types of characters over others. Rogues, monks, and casters would excel in this situation because monks will essentially lose little or no combat effectiveness without their gear, likewise with casters, and rogues can sneak through the place and avoid combat altogether. Warrior types are immediately at a heavy disadvantage since they are so gear dependent. I'm still definitely in favor of this scenario, though.

I'm liking the sound of the Stamina/Health dual bar system more and more. I'm not sure whether the game will have any time sensitive quests or time triggered events, but this mechanic would seem to lend itself to that perfectly. Do you rest and lose precious time that may spell the difference between reaching a place in time or not, or do you press on with wounded party members making them more susceptible to getting maimed or (in Expert Mode) killed?

I'm still waiting for this game to come to PC. Good chance it will never happen.

I'm a realist.

I'm completely fine with having to flee for your life from time to time. In fact, items, skills, and spells can be built around the idea of being able to get the **** out of dodge. What's more is this mechanic could be used for creative use of items and spells. For example, throw a bunch of caltrops behind you as you flee, use a smoke bomb to create cover (useful both against archers and to help disappear), cast a wall of fire between you and our pursuers, cast a grease spell, etc.

I'll be disappointed. I'll take a deep breath. I'll go on the forums and provide constructive criticism. I'll move on and play something else. I'll hope that Obsidian addresses some of my criticisms and does better the next time.

Dogs, cats, birds, and other animals are better off as pets or Ranger/Druid "summoned" animal companions

So, with the Aumaua seemingly being the closest thing this game will have to Orcs, naturally, being the Orc lover I am, I will be inclined to play one.

Finished reforging the Sword of Gith in NWN2. *sigh* Why does it ALWAYS have to be a ****ing sword? Swapped my Fey Spear back in immediately after getting it. I wish I could just sell the damn sword. Anyway, the finish line is now in sight.

Awesome update! I really like the barbarian and the fat wizard, oh and Rob's wacky brand of humor. I've backed a lot of Kickstarter campaigns and I can say that Obsidian is doing BY FAR the best job of delivering meaty, insightful, interesting updates. Keep up the great work, folks.

I can't really nail down any one thing that I enjoy about RPGs above any other. I would say story/narrative/character depth since I really enjoy story driven games (story-driven RPGs, adventure games), but at the same time I've really enjoyed games with very little story that are mostly focused on gameplay and combat (loot em ups). I love exploration, but I've also enjoyed more linear games. I love some games with tons of dialogue, lore to read, cutscenes to watch, but I find it tedious in others. In the end the elements that determine whether I enjoy the whole package vary greatly. Take Venetica for example. That game has tons of flaws, subpar graphics, glitches, mediocre at best voice work, a so so story, repetative gameplay, limited weapon and armor options. Yet I loved every second of that game. Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and I'm not sure I can explain why.

Well, at least he gets to work with Brian Fargo and the team an InXile. InXile and Obsidian have already showed a willingness to work together (the bonds of Black Isle and Interplay are hard to break it seems), so working at InXile seems like the next best thing to having him at Obsidian.

I'd be much happier is this waited until Chris Avellone could be a part of it, but even if he's not, one way or another this needs to happen. The greatest RPG ever made needs a sequel. Kickstarter is already making many of my seemingly impossible dreams come true, this would be the ultimate dream come true (whether Kickstarted or not).

To me, and everyone has their own system, I'm not saying my system is better than anyone else's, choosing GotY, and rating games in general, is very easy. It all comes down to how much fun did I have playing the game. I can compare strength of story, characters, gameplay, graphics, audio, and so on. In the end, all that stuff doesn't matter in the least if I didn't have fun playing the game, or I got very frustrated during parts of it. For me picking Resident Evil: Revelations (My GotY) and Sleeping Dogs (My runner up) was easy, as those two games easily gave me more hours of fun than any other game while at no point making me frustrated or angry. More fun = better game, simple as.