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Tsuga C

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Everything posted by Tsuga C

  1. Tsuga C
    So long as we're able to go as far as we please in the opposite direction as a counter balance and the world isn't a uniformly dismal, wicked, and corrupt place, then I say let Obsidian do what they please to serve the needs of the plot and enrich the world. Let events and sapients plumb the depths and soar to the heights in a rich tapestry of dispositions, motivations, and actions that inspire many, many re-plays.
  2. Tsuga C
    A slice of Great Lakes reality.
  3. Tsuga C
    Evidently I failed to express myself clearly. I didn't mean to imply that powerful summoning was abusive; rather, I meant to say that it's a useful tool for less than combat-optimal parties. If a player with a well balanced party or a min-maxed, powergamed party wants to ruin their own gameplay experience by abusing powerful summons, then that's their business.
  4. Tsuga C
    I understood the point quite well, thank you.
  5. Tsuga C
    One word on behalf of summoners: this enables the player to create a non-optimal party (e.g.lots of d4, d6, d8 classes; party leans heavily towards stealth or non-combat skills) and still make it through the campaign on Normal or Hard settings without incurring a discouraging number of TPKs. I can't tell you the number of times that summoning has saved my bacon. If players wish to abuse summoning, then they're the ones detracting from the gameplay experience and have no one but themselves to blame. It need not be the ne plus ultra tactic for wizards, but it should be a potent and viable one.
  6. Tsuga C
    Not so much for the music as for the scenery, and .
  7. Tsuga C
    Now this is something that I would not necessarily be against, but only if it's between two companions of the same class (fighter/fighter) or similar classes (wizard/cipher, fighter/ranger/monk, cleric/druid, rogue/chanter). If your strategy calls for two fighters in the party, there's always the option of creating your own fighter in the Hall of Adventurers if the two companion fighters viscerally hate one another and come to blows. This will allow you to enjoy interacting with at least one fully fleshed-out fighter as envisioned by Obsidian. If there is only one rogue and one wizard companion available and they're at each other's throats, then you'll have to have an automaton from the Hall of Adventurers as a primary (Core Four: cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard) team member. That'd diminish the experience a bit as I greatly enjoy the interactions and intra-party banter and quips. Covering the Core Four and using the remaining slots for flavor/fine tuning the party is a strategically sound methodology and I'd like to avoid having to place an automaton in a key position if at all possible.
  8. Tsuga C
    Black Sabbath, The Mob Rules. Takes me back...
  9. Tsuga C
    This is the Internet. It's what we do here*. *particularly because our hopes for this game are so high.
  10. Tsuga C
    Likely the latter. *sigh* What the heck happened to "a modernized version of the old IE games"?
  11. Tsuga C
    Well said. At first blush it appears that Obsidian is attempting to accommodate the outermost tips of the character generation Bell Curve by decoupling character statistics from reality. I fully support the idea of making all the character statistics important in some manner, but this appears to be tossing verisimilitude right out the window as stronger fighters should do more damage in melee than an asthmatic wizard whose most physically demanding activity of a typical day is affixing his wax seal to a letter. One ring to rule them all worked for Tolkien, but one variable to govern the efficacy of flails and fireballs? Hmmm...
  12. Tsuga C
    I selected #3-6 on the backstory and #2 for the location question as I think that this combination will strike the best compromise bewteen a blank slate background and a completely pre-defined one. Much is defined by the player with this set of options, but Obsidian still has plenty of room in which to work to enrich the experience of the player.
  13. Tsuga C
    California is a consummate nannystate and makes it profoundly difficult to keep modern sporting rifles (what the ignorant label "semi-automatic assault rifles") and milsurps, as do a number of the other bluest of the Blue States (i.e. heavily Democrat). Here's an article on which are the most un/friendly states regarding firearms and the Second Amendment in the USA.
  14. Tsuga C
    The founding documents as penned by the Founding Fathers, including the Bill of Rights, were (and still are) considered merely an enumeration of our Natural Rights as bestowed by Nature or Nature's God. Human tyrants may have denied some or most of these rights to their subjects throughout recorded history, but that did not erase them from the human spirit. They have existed since the dawn of our sapience and are not considered as being dependent upon the founding documents. An understanding and appreciation of this helps define what it is to be an American.
  15. Tsuga C
    There's absolutely nothing idiotic about citizens retaining their God given, Constitutionally enumerated Second Amendment right to defend themselves outside of their home. If I'm legally allowed to be in location x on public property, then there's no legitimate reason that I should have to tuck tail and run away when criminal lowlifes threaten myself or my companions. Time for you to re-read "A Nation of Cowards" by Jeffrey Snyder. Michigan has had a Castle Doctrine law since 2006 and we haven't had a rash of questionable shootings and neither have the other states that have enacted similar laws. Under this law, you have no obligation to retreat in your home or on the street if offered violence so long as you are not the one committing a crime. Lend your ears to Michigan state Senator Rick Jones as he and Frank Beckmann discuss Eric Holder's nannystate ramblings and our own Castle Doctrine law. Self-defense is the first law of nature, period. I have a CPL and wouldn't hesitate to defend myself as I consider it a moral obligation to do so. I'm a Citizen, not a Subject. Flee or cower as you see fit, Enoch, but don't you dare presume to infringe upon my rights.
  16. Tsuga C
    That sword was decidedly too puerile. I'd hope that if there were souls trapped in weapons or grimoires that they'd be written into the game as a serious NPC-like entity. Maybe that's the bonus companion...
  17. Tsuga C
    Damh the Bard, Ceridwen and Taliesin. He'd make a heck of Chanter NPC in P:E!
  18. Tsuga C
    Sounds interesting on paper, but in practice such ideas would result in a very harsh system that sends players scurrying to cast "Reload Last Save" to dodge the frequent maimings and deaths dealt them by their opponents. I'm in favor of more realism in the vein of weapon adjustments vs. armor type considerations, but largely "realistic" combat is Hobbesian: nasty, brutish, and short. I'll pass. Quick 'n' dirty might work in a story or in a codified assassination technique a la the AD&D assassin, but cRPGs generally need to allow the player time to extricate the party or change tactics as needed if the excrement hits the fan. When my best melee and best arcane party members swiftly fall to fluke-but-realistic hits, I'll damn well be re-loading pronto, my friend. This goes double as companion deaths will be permanent (no instamatic Resurrection spells in P:E, nor do fallen party members pop back up after the fight as they did in NWN2). Realistic simply doesn't always translate to enjoyable.
  19. Tsuga C
    When you put a number of young, fit men and women together what happens is a whole lot of he-ing and she-ing goes on and there are undeniable consequences, even in the modern era. I wouldn't mind romance in the game, but it'd need to be written by someone who actually cares to do the job right instead of like the assignment was fingernails on the chalkboard of his soul. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, C. Avellone!
  20. Tsuga C
    Where's the donation jar on that desk for those who want their likeness used as the basis for an NPC? Yes, yes, I know that the mega-buck Backers received some such consideration, but maybe we can wrangle a deal with Polina directly...
  21. Tsuga C
    Until the eco-freaks start screaming about an endangered wort living above the gas deposit and use the courts to render access to said deposit fiscally marginal because of all of the safeguards and regulatory excrement, Walsingham. Don't doubt me on this. Some people just seem to hate prosperity.
  22. Tsuga C
    J. Sawyer did mention having doubts about the proposed system. Whether those doubts centered on implementation or user acceptance I do not recall.
  23. Tsuga C
    I certainly hope by "dungeon-heavy" you mean no more than 70% sapient-created environments (e.g. castles, dungeons, cities, etc.}. I'd like to have a substantial portion of the world comprised of wildernesses of various ecotypes. Where else might druids and rangers truly shine?
  24. Tsuga C
    1st Q: relatively smooth. Unless the locality is a boom town for mining or some such activity, medium and large towns are seldom found out in the wilderness because they're rarely self-sufficient. They need trade to be viable, so a more seamless and less abrupt urban-rural transition should be the norm. Exceptions are fine when there are logical reasons for them to exist. 2nd Q: relatively steep. Within sight of the walls of a medium-sized town you should generally be quite safe during daylight hours and the same applies to the patrolled primary roads. Chances of an encounter at night and/or on secondary or tertiary roads and their associated areas should rise dramatically--bandits, hostile demi-humans, crossroads devils, lycanthropes, fey seeking help or looking to cause mischief, etc. Let the adventuring begin!
  25. Tsuga C
    And Wasted Years, too.
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