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Varana

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Everything posted by Varana

  1. Varana
    I try at least with actual English names. That goodwill doesn't extend to horcruxes, though. ... ... ... P.S. Padding out the post just because I have the space, thanks to that badges stuff.
  2. Varana
    Language also carries certain connotations and associations borrowed from the real world. A vaguely Italian-sounding name will make you think differently of a character or place than an English, or Polynesian name - just by reading the name, nothing else. Also, as long as there's no voice-acting, a name is pronounced just the way the reader likes it. I'm not a native English-speaker, and I'm certain I pronounce many fantasy names differently than the author probably intended. (Like, no funny vowel glides and diphthongs, or those strange American R sounds...) And that's completely fine. --- Regarding the video: It's been shown already in the first glimpse of Neketaka during the campaign, but it bears repeating: Those views into lowers levels in the background provide a stunning sense of scale and look absolutely spectacular. Am I the only one who always cringes a bit when my party's running through the bath house in full combat gear?
  3. Varana
    But then, for some people the heighday of their tabletop gaming happened before the advent of smartphones and tablets. :D And even now, I know quite a few people who basically ban electronic devices from their PnP sessions because fiddling with them is way too distracting. --- I think Karkarov's observation also holds true for videogames. Keeping track of more than six characters at the same time drastically reduces efficiency while using them. You need to keep track of their abilities, and upwards of that 4 to 6 number, choosing what to do next becomes re-thinking the next move every time, instead of executing a plan.
  4. Varana
    And if you sent a message but think you didn't receive a confirmation mail, check the spam folder.
  5. Varana
    It's not either-or. You can add portraits, backgrounds and other aesthetic stuff to Stellaris by mods, for instance. They also sell portrait packs (or include them in bigger DLC). The developer, with full access to the code, will always be at an advantage over modders who're working at the surface, and can include features that aren't possible to do with modding (unless you dig really deep, but that's not the stuff of cosmetic mods any more). It's mainly a question of design philosophy - keep the game as closed as possible and have full control; make it wide open and encourage 3rd party content; or a bit of both. All of these work, as a business model.
  6. Varana
    Pointy hats are definitely _not_ cool. They're as cool as the flame of a candle - very much not so, and also quite unimpressive. To be fair, though, that list has quite a few bullet points that basically list some earlier occurrence - which was in no way the first or only occurrence of that trope. An Empire with some clichés based on the Roman one is really ubiquitous - in fact, it'd be probably not that easy to find a fictional Empire that doesn't have something Roman about it. If the setting features some addictive drug, it probably will be really similar to Svef or Fisstech because that is all these things are. And so on.
  7. Varana
    If I understood that right, this only means that the default state will be reversed. In PoE1, you had combat run at normal speed and could optionally have it slow down. In PoE2, it's the other way around, meaning you'll still be able to speed things up.
  8. Varana
    You could write your own AI scripts for the BGs. You "just" needed to know how to code in its scripting language. Although I don't think you could get away with something like that today and still call it "customising".
  9. Varana
    Yay!!! Congratulations all! --- Obsidian sword: As for realism: I seriously doubt that nice obsidian short sword would survive the first few fights, esp. when you're up against shields or metal armour. Obsidian has one advantage - it's effing sharp. So it's good enough for knives that are intended for hunting, or just general use. And as used in Aztec swords - as small blades on a wooden club - it was reasonably effective in a region that didn't have to care about metal. But breaking was a problem even for those small pieces on an Aztec sword when dealing with Spanish armour or chainmail, and the longer and thinner it gets, the easier it breaks. Such a sword blade completely made from obsidian would be really brittle and not a very good weapon in PoE's world. As for PoE: Whether "strengthened by magical means" is enough handwaving, probably depends on who you ask. :D Or just go with that macuahuitl sword - why invent things twice?
  10. Varana
    ... explaining why people don't do it anymore - if you write "has multiplayer" on your box ... on your Steam page (as boxes aren't a thing any more), and then deliver a MP like BG (everything is halted for all players while dialogue is in progress, dialogue shows for everyone regardless of whether they are in the vicinity, NPCs can only talk to each other if the same player controls them, you have to do manual port forwarding and set up a server when creating a game, there is very little tolerance for differring game versions, only rudimentary communication between players unless they use an external program, gold is shared among the party without any restrictions, or just generally not much in terms of failsaves, and things like that): your game will get voted down. Either you leave MP out, or you do it properly, and that's costly.
  11. Varana
    Really, you take yourself way too seriously. You don't "give people threads to follow". You're just a random guy who writes stuff on the internet, as we all are.
  12. Varana
    rjshae: That's what I was trying to say, as well. Ninjamestari: If anything - what's the reverse of fanboyism? D&D and related (PF) stat systems should really be thrown out of the window, with a good kick in the rear. Anyway, your claim is as good as mine. I can certainly live with that.
  13. Varana
    Actually my dumbass wizard probably never studied a single book; he's a steroid-pumped gym-monster through and though, and is probably too stupid to even tell different letters apart, let alone read or write. I really don't see a problem with this. *shrug* Also, I seriously doubt that assertion that if Aloth is the main DPS character, the rest must suck, would hold up to actual scrutiny.
  14. Varana
    Somewhere in there, there lies hidden a nice pirate story. :D
  15. Varana
    If you can imagine Might only as physical strength, then your assumptions about a PoE wizard with high Might are simply wrong. He didn't just study books all the time; if your wizard has high Might, then obviously his training included a lot of physical exercise. If you can't imagine a wizard in the gym or in boot camp, then don't give them high Might.
  16. Varana
    In BG+IWD times, you could get away with much crappier multiplayer than today.
  17. Varana
    I think it would be wise to avoid speculation unless you really know. In other news, pirates plundered my Paypal purse, once again.
  18. Varana
    You just have to really careful that the magic solution doesn't take the spotlight away from more mundane characters that have that particular thing as their main focus. Spells that open locked doors are fine as long as the wizard sacrifices as much skill points, hit points, or whatnot to use them, as a rogue does. Using a wizard as as rogue is good; using him as rogue plus various other things that eclipse the role a rogue could play, is not. It's not impossible to do, it's just not easy to balance these utility spells plus combat abilities in order to make all classes useful.
  19. Varana
    Invalidating your choices in a sequel is a price you may have to pay if you want wildly different endings like Witcher 2. Sure, they might have included a few more cameos, but in the end, Nilfgaard conquering the North is the default, and neither side of W2 did avoid that. Except you go full Dragon Break and just say that every outcome of the previous game is true at the same time. (Done once, I find that really quite original.) Topic: I don't think importing actually useful gear from PoE1 would be a good idea. You could include some easter egg stuff that don't hurt anyone (like, pantaloons), but nothing more. Caed Nua's been destroyed; that's enough of an excuse to scatter your totally-not-a-dragon's-hoard of important high-level stuff into the wind. And it makes for a better game which is the most important thing, anyway.
  20. Varana
    We had a really, really long discussion about resting in its own thread, and that is not an easy topic. Resting is a thing that the game allows me to do. Doing it is no more "power gaming" than, hmm, buffing. And if the game doesn't allow resting for some time but I want to because some important battle is coming up, I'll make me some tea while the ingame hours run by. But as I said, that was talked about quite in-depth elsewhere.
  21. Varana
    Hehe. It also shows that Sanderson surely likes his skirts unsmoothed.
  22. Varana
    I rather assume we'd still have "only" four, regardless of what he had said.
  23. Varana
    I couldn't care less about the well-being of Pokemon. Have fun. These terms can simply be used as general character and plot descriptors. Saying one character is "tsundere" doesn't necessarily mean that there's any Anime stuff involved. (I'd have a hard time understanding these terms, but they're not restricted to particular genres, per se.) Living ships! Moya, here we come!
  24. Varana
    You're not required to boost strength on your Watcheresses. You can dump Might all you want if that floats your boat ... err, "enhances your immersion". Sure, that's disadvantageous for a mage in Pillars. But really, just generally, I wish people would sometimes get off those same old tropes. "Wizards have to frail 'cause reasons"*, "no gunpowder in my fantasy world!", "dwarves have to like beer and axes and hate horses and elves!", and all that stuff. For a genre that is named for fantasy, Fantasy's pretty devoid of fantasy. Knights in shining armour, *yawn*. (Or its modern incarnation, knights in dirty armour.) There's so much more than just "we pretend to be Western European Middle Ages" that is your typical fantasy stuff. * Granted, PoE is pretty inconsistent on that front. Edit: Ah, yeah, topic. I finished PoE, and people really should give White March a shot.
  25. Varana
    Yep, that one's actually beautiful. They should seriously redesign that Kickstarter K at one time.
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