melkathi

But don't in reality a lot of gamers belong into that category? The first reaction of nearly any gamer who has the slightest belief that they have even the tiniest understanding of the industry is to say "The publisher forced the devs". It's nearly a pavlovian reaction - you say the word "bug" and gamers will shout "Damn publishers, beancounters who don't understand gaming forced an early release!" Of course publishers make it easy for people to use them as scape goats. EA has given people no reason not to blame them. But just because a publisher is evil incarnate, that does not mean that, for example, a writer hasn't produced drivel by himself, right

That's a good point, Spider.

He's in the Ancient Temple.

Perhaps 'filler' was too strong -- the "4,000,000" concept was a substitution for the idea that any amount over 3,500,000 would contribute to polishing the features already added. It could have ended at 4,300,000 and the result would have been comparable to 3,800,000. There was no critical need to get to 4,000,000 exactly. For example, we "probably" could have gotten the fortress for 2.85 million, but not for 2.75 million, as it would have strained the limits of development to be too generous. Enhancement we could have gotten for any amount over 3.5 million. While I agree with you, the Endless Dungeon undermines that argument a bit. A huge dungeon irrelevant of budget just based on popularity. It suggests that the extent of Obsidian's commitment to the project was not set... But there are more important things right now: What character will Mr. Avellone play in Arcanum for his first playthrough? Has he started yet? If not, why not?

"Selfish" is the wrong word. "Overconfident" would be the right word But I agree with you. If you do not believe in your own work, why should anybody else. Do you remember some years ago when Bioware was hiring writers (I guess it ended up being for SWTOR)? They asked people to do a small mod with their Neverwinter Nights mod tool and make a quest or something which would include their writing sample. So I guess it can't hurt to make story mods for any game you play that is easily moddable.

He better. Or I intend to start a class action law-suit

Not in the gaming industry myself. But adding two cents anyway. The good thing is that grades only are of interest once. If you do university, then school grades become irrelevant once you started studying. If you get a job after uni, then university grades pretty much become irrelevant. Your english grades sound like my grades in greek. One of my language teachers in 8th grade said that a kid like me should never have made it past 6th grade... *shrug* When I published my first children's book my publisher and I had a good chuckle about that. I think the most important thing is the willingness to work hard and to work well in a team. And that includes being humble enough to learn from others.

Is there a "What I didn't do today" thread? I just realized I forgot to buy toothpaste...

Same here. I wanted a cannon engineer but somehow I ended up sword and shield. Though I enjoyed two-handed melee as well.

Overcame my vertigo to clamber up a rickety ladder. While swaying on the ladder remembered to call the office that I'd be late. Managed to grab hold of the distressed kitten and get it off the roof it was too scared to come down from by itself. Pondered how to get the blood stains out from where it clawed into my arm. Decided that next time I may just listen to the people who say "If it got up there by itself, it can get down by itself as well."

Backed Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun Online. It hink I havea 3rd ed rulebook somewhere. Got GURPS Discworld... Also have the rulebook for Furry Pirates Thinking of starting a Changeling campaign around christmas.

If I could get a group that palys Birthright I'd love to play some AD&D.

New Reno, Klamath, Vault City... The Mechanon Cube The Siege Tower The alley of Dangerous Angles The rest of Sigil... That cave with the giant spider in BG 1 that had Minsc, Imhoen and myself webbed for the whole fight until Dynaheir said "Sod this" and threw a fireball in the middle of the cave burning everyone and everything.

If the castle is the end of the journey, wouldn't that mean it symbolizes release?

That actuallty fits your avatar's expression.

I don't know what is in this castle. I know what isn't though: the princess; she is in another castle.

Now all I need is to get Obsidian to get Terry Pratchett to let them do a Discworld RPG. Then Death could really be Death. Unless he's the Death of Rats. Or on vacation... then Death would be Susan, I guess.

Finishing the Legend of Dead Kel DLC for Kingdoms of Amalur. I really like this DLC even though the undead pirate thing got boring after the first Pirates of the Carribean movie. In many ways the DLC is what Warden's Keep for Dragon Age should have been.

The character builder tool is just to plan your character.

Torian Kel is probably the only npc who's decision made sense to me in any game with companion betrayal. Ok, Ignus is a psycho and keeps teling you that he'll kill you. But most of the time, there is no logic behind companions siding with the enemy. Some games reactions seem to be: "Hi, I don't like you very much. Actually, I hate you so much that if the choice is between saving the world and living or killing you and then dying as the world gets destroyed, I'll kill you before I die. See that wave of lava comming towards us? I wont run; I'll handcuff myself to you and then chain myself down so the lava gets us both!" You wonder why people were in your party in the first place. I guess that is the problem with an affection/loyalty system. So it was nice to see Arcanum base companion choices on their motivation and character and not on some arbitrary number. Even just abandoning the party can be unreasonable (see the Alistair controversy). Torian Kel was refreshing... and quite possibly tragic. It made him one of my alltime favourid npc companions of all time.

Max followers is 5 at charisma 20. So it seems to be Charisma / 4 Try out the character builder at Terra arcanum: http://www.terra-arcanum.com/arcanum/old/characterbank/WEB_ACP.html

Going to reply in spolier

Virgil always leaves you after a while I think. There is a quest line to get him back and at the end, depending on your path he'll have a respective alignment. Evil Virgil is rather different than Good Virgil. Though I felt guilty about turning him evil. Geoffrey in Ashbury is a nice necromancer for an evil party though some people have found his AI annoying. I had no such problem. Torian Kel is a "hidden" npc you have to do a quest for. It's well worth having Geoffrey in your party when you get him. My party was Virgil, Geoffrey, Torian Kel and Z’an Al’urin. Though Z'an isn't really evil. Volinger made for some great irony in that party. Tech affinity though made him and Tollo Underhill hard to use. Both Geoffrey and Z'an are people who have some sort of comment about any location you go. The former of the snarky kind, the later more prophetic. I got a few giggles out of asking them what they know about the places we were.

Playing Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition. But I think they changed one of the lines the commentators do. I think it was "What a wimp!" and it now is "What a sissy!" And I hadn't thought it would bother me, but it really turned out to do.

trying to remember where I have heard 12 from... I know I should know but can't remember :/