JFSOCC

The only dev comments I've seen is in threads which concerned them directly. I think it is wise for the devs not to get bogged down in the discussion. As tempting as it may be, they might influence the discussion. And we punish them a little for doing it. In another thread Josh posited an example of lockpicks and we fell on that like a hungry pack of wolves. It's cool to get to discuss things with the devs, the highlight of my day if one of them responds to something I say. But that engagement seems pretty intense on their side, I think. All in all I think it's cool they respond when they do, but I can certainly understand the reasons for not doing so.

Good reply value means the content you get is significantly changed from another. to me that means getting different quests, not different choices and endings in quests. I'll still register the quest as "done before" So, a good amount of class-specific quests, or mutually exclusive questlines (such as going for one faction instead of another, and the quests are not the same narrative.) Otherwise I wouldn't rate it very high as "replayable"

good shortkey mapping is always very comfortable, especially if you're the type who doesn't pause during combat. (not me, but I certainly think many)

So the global warming is mostly a threat to animals, is that it? As is noted in my quote above, the Little Ice Age lasted 400 years, the Medieval Warm Period 300 years, not thousands of years. And if you look at the tree ring article I posted earlier, temperature was peaking in a matter of years, not thousands. In fact there was a peak just in the 30's, remember the Dust Bowl? So basically you're just making stuff up at this point. Look, you're asking some good questions, if you are actually interested in learning how it works. So for that Kudos.But you're presenting them as arguments with the idea there are no answers to them and that because of this, climate science stumbles and fails. That's just not the case. let's deal with them one by one. Mostly animals? well, no. It affects where our crops can be grown, whether we need to invest extra resources into maintaining farmland. (like irrigation during drought) and some food producing crops won't yield as much in poor conditions. further more, many of them are dependent on animals. For instance bees are responsible for most pollination of our fruit-crops, and they are currently dying out. (different reason, suffering from an unknown epidemic disease) so we've been needing to import bees, and needing to "breed" bees and them set them free on our fields. Imagine that this would be necessary for all our fruit from now on. Also heavy winds will every year destroy part of the harvest. Forest and brush fires will spread to farmland, soil-bacteria can die out in places and kill the fertility of farmland, that's the type of thing we'd be looking at. Second The little ice age lasted shortly, true, wasn't man-made, true and didn't kill all life on earth, true. That's not to say it wasn't terribly damaging (with starvation well recorded). And the medieval warm period is unproven but likely true, it was most likely a very localised change in climate, since there have been no signs of it other than in Europe. (And even there only coastal North-western Europe) One possible explanation for this is a possible shift in the Mexican Gulf Current. But you're comparing a fire to flames. What we're dealing with now if just of a completely different order.

So, let's brainstorm. I like the idea of having much loot be crap, broken down and worn pieces, which with a high enough craft skill, can be made useful. I enjoy the idea of upgrading, but not upgrading slots, or limitations. If you can upgrade a weapon with I dunno, +.05 ice damage, and +1 damage, why shouldn't you be able to add both? If the ingredients for upgrades are few and far enough between, and other weapons compete with what you have upgraded, I'm sure your upgraded weapon would never be the BFG9001. Unless perhaps you focussed all your efforts on it, in which case, why not? it'd be on par with other weapons... Mostly I like the items to be fairly unique in how they play, so if you could craft to adjust. (+x damge for -x combat speed, +x combat speed for -x against zombies) you could get a fairly personalised weapon. If you could craft single-use items, then they should be stackable in inventory. it might be a way of managing your inventory? Should you salvage items into component parts for that? That was one mechanic in Guild Wars that I liked, but then, that is a grind-tastic MMO. Better Crafting skill also allowed you to salvage more from items there. The problem with this is that you might very quickly be loaded with stuff, either useless, or swimming in money. Perhaps placing a few merchants and blacksmiths that will be happy to take your stack of iron ingots for a small reward might sound good in theory, but I fear a descent into grind. Then there is the special sword of awesomeness +9001 you might try the entire game of building, finding pieces. I wonder if you need a crafting skill for such a quest to exist though. I usually don't like these quests because they focus on a few weapon types which I might not want to use on my characters. And if it is so special, selling it seems a bit callous and foolish. If you work with ingredients, you should ALWAYS be able to use them for something useful, and not marginally so. Otherwise you'll end up like me carrying 94 deep mushrooms in your inventory after having played most of DA:O without needing them. I tended not to sell crafting ingredients because you might not being able to buy them back, or only buy them back expensively. But most of my crafting items I was unsure what I could do with them, or their use was incidental or marginal. Or you'd be searching for certain items to reach a high enough stack for most of the game because they were random drops. I enjoy the idea that you could craft forgeries, would be nice if in a quest you could steal something, and you'd be chased or there'd be an investigation, but if you forged a replacement, no alarms would be raised (provided it is good enough) If crafting is going to be added, it should not be incidental (like any skill really, if it exists, you should be using it in the game at more than a few points)

city of union!

I agree I want my rogue to be more than DPS, but I do like the backstab bonus.

The problem with climate change is not that it never occurred and is new, nor that it is occurring now. the problem is the speed with which it is occurring. Such changes should happen over thousands of years, not a couple of decades. Animal species do not have time to adapt to the new reality, they cannot move to where the climate would be more favourable for them because they'd have to cross large areas that are not their natural habitat, (and their habitat itself isn't fast enough in adapting either) and doing so requires crossing many obstacles, such as human settlements, roads, rivers, and seas. And while I'm sure some species can cope, vast numbers of them simply don't have the time to adapt.

Only if the wizard later comments on some of the more mundane features with pride. "I designed the fountain myself!" (while discussing a level where the fountain, while pretty, was the least of your worries.)-- Well, I'm not a big fan of clichés but I'm ok with some mentioned here. Personally, I like having travelling entertainers who tell stories well, juggle and dance and make music in all the (better) inns in town. Traps in dungeons that withstood the ages and are still in perfect working order- No problem with those. because, magic, right? And I do actually like the "kick-ass" girls. Frail looking things that somehow manage to be powerful.

**** you G0-T0, I was onto you from day one. but I couldn't prevent myself from accepting you on my ship.

I don't really care. If a monster was memorable, I don't need to have it written in my journal "strongest enemy killed "Elder Dragon"." If a game has to tell me it was memorable, it wasn't. I guess as a combat log it would be fine.

I'd agree with you if so much in the Expanded Universe wasn't so incredibly awful. We have people turning into trees to prevent evil sith lords from getting their lightsabers. who wrote that crap?

Smart and unwise, too. Yes, this can be a lot of fun. I also get a laugh out of Damien Sandow of WWE fame, he's such a delightfully over-the-top caricature of an intellectual snob. Sand from NwN2 was great, too. while those are great to have around as npcs, that's not what I meant at all.I meant, actually smart. intelligent, sociable, wise. well rounded.

According to that it's considered a "great financial failure", like how video games that might a slight profit are and not huge are deemed such and then fired afterwards. Sadly, that's the idiotic reality of today. I blame the stock market and shareholders. MacDonalds only made 1.45 billion profit, last year 1.5 billion in that time. Massive crises! Stocks are plumeting over the bad results. Hello? 1.45 billion PROFIT isn't profit anymore? What the hell? Anyway, back to the story at hand... it's absolutely ambiguish yet wheter this is an improvement or not. And screw EU. Please let VII overwrite and obsolete all of it, right where it belongs. Adhering to it religiously will only hurt Star Wars as franchise at this point. the idea is that in a competitive world, if others are growing and you are not (enough), you're controlling less % of the total than you did before. Yeah, I agree, it's dumb.

Could be nice, could also have negative consequences (which I'm not against) I'm reminded of this quote http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448134/quotes?qt=qt0386961

Yes, I haven't seen much in the ways of new arguments for a few pages now.

I have a real problem with the "All rumours are true" trope. Then why are they called rumours? In a game, when someone says "only a few believe this" it's still a safe bet that it is worth checking out.

I'd been hoping for an excuse to discuss it. I would like to be able to import my own images into the portrait gallery.

One way to deal with balancing wealth is by adding upkeep, and investments. (of course, the upkeep should be for something that causes benefit, not "just 'cause".)

I tend to enjoy the more intelligent characters. Unfortunately, many writers try and fail to have intelligent characters. And we're left with having to accept that they're smart by others telling us so, rather than seeing it. This is why I like the protagonists in the Brent Weeks and Patrick Rothfuss books, they know how to do it properly.

There is no way in hell those italian scientists are not going to have their case revisited, there is worldwide outrage at their treatment. But you're right. Even in the world of science there are problems based on human weaknesses. But the vast majority of scientists are on the same side of the issue, despite them still getting quite a bit of flak for holding that position.

If you are unsure how you want to play the game, this can be an interesting way to let the game help you decide. For more experienced RPG players I reckon they want to decide for themselves what character they roll.

I wan't a floating castle, one that I can move across the map, anchor where I want to go. People'd be commenting "Ooh, look at that scary looking tower floating over the outskirts of our city, rather ominous, don't you think? I wonder...." and I could pick the best location to "settle" or move and make my summer palace and my winter palace the same, depending on where I decide to go.

then why is COD3 in there?

I'll make a shameful admittance. I never played BG2 after I went into the underdark. I liked the lot before it, but after a while it just felt like it was combat all the way, and like you mentioned I felt urged onwards. And after a while I just noticed that I hadn't decided to play for a few days, for a week, for two weeks...