Madae

Haven't played many of the classes, but.... I'm a big fan of my Fighters. Not very exciting, I suppose, but I always make an extra to supplement Eder. Reliable and hardy. My newest game I've made a Wizard, and I like her a lot too. I don't do damage spells and focus exclusively on CC. She is a beast and makes a lot of fights a lot easier than they would be without her. Confuse #1.

Actually had done that quest as well. But, I answered my own question anyway. I did Cat and Mouse and killed Nyfre, which let me in to the house. All I had to do was the merchant quest and was able to buy from her. Can't do the Doemenel main quest line, but that's not a big deal since I planned on joining the Knights anyway. Just wanted to pick up those Exceptional guns.

Trying to get in to House Doemenel to look at their merchants' inventory, but I may have ruined my introduction to that. I've done the thieves letter and turned it in to the wrong guy. I did Pallegina's quest, but I just walked out and left the guy to his fate. Any other "in's"?

I don't see a problem with this. Paradox is a great company and made some of my favorite games (most notably Crusader Kings 2). And yeah, they aren't involved in development, so who really cares? I can think of a worse partnership *coughEAcough*. Also, I'm still extremely peeved that I can no longer back PE for a collector's edition or something. Exclusivity on Kickstarter is really starting to piss me off - I don't care how cool the concept is.

PayPal was opened during the KS period, which don't show up on the KS page amounts, so yes, they reached 4million once the PayPal's were included. Ok then. I dunno....my impression is just that companies know people like to feel like they're in on a "collectors" thingie, which makes those people willing to spend more. If they become available all the time, the "limited" aspect - which is what makes them "collectable" is then gone, and what's the point. Whether this is a silly aspect of humanity (liking to collect things that are rare) is always up for debate. Game not being released yet is my argument against this. After the game is released, I wouldn't have any issue with this at all and would resort to Ebay**. This is a new concept - a concept I apparently did not grasp in time. No, I disagree. I wouldn't personally feel slighted, but if someone said that to get something I wanted, you must pay the money within a certain time frame, I'm basing my decision to spend money, right now, on that concept. So there may be people who could barely afford the tier they wanted, and may have gone without something else that month, to make sure they would get it. To then turn around and say "oh wait, you could've donated later and not been put in a financial pinch to get what you wanted" makes that possible sacrifice moot and I'd imagine could miff people off a bit. Well, we can agree to disagree then. ** Which, by the way, I'm almost positive most of this stuff will end up there anyway. You may ask "why do you care then?", and I would say "because I don't want to pay two or three times the original price".

Some of my discontent probably stems from the fact that my house flooded 2 years ago and I lost a lot of items that were near and dear to me. Having been unable to find said things again has left me rather disgruntled (losing them being bad enough).

That's something I don't necessarily like about Kickstarter, to be honest. My opinion, I know, and probably alone, but still. Plenty of those options can still be purchased because they never reached their limit. Plus, there's something like 20,000 that apparently needs to be raised to get the 4 million goal (I saw the Chris Avellone Arcanum video, though, so maybe they did?), so I don't understand why they can't just put it back up for people who come along and like the idea. They can leave the limits on the "special stuff" and no one is slighted, but a simple limited edition... that shouldn't bother anyone, because that's the way the system has worked up until Kickstarter. The game isn't even released yet - not for an entire year still. And even with the "old system", games were still limited and expensive over time (after release). CE's of World of Warcraft, unopened, are hard to find and expensive. Also, being "slighted" about having the options opened again is just as childish as, say, me whining about not having the chance to do it in the first place; that special "nerd badge of honor" that says "I have something you don't and I don't want to share". I'm not blaming them for anything (except maybe not at least saying something about it), I just don't see a good reason, from them, for why they have been closed, and why just regular CE's, digital and physical, can't be reopened (see above argument). Besides, what's the point of closing sales for items that people are willing to buy? Isn't that just more money they get? What's the problem with that exactly? That's all I really want. Not knowing whether or not it will happen is part of my problem.

Yes, I did catch that and attempted to edit it. And "it happens" is no excuse, because there still hasn't been a good excuse as to why they were taken down in the first place. Obviously you would like one, too, but apparently you're not bothered by not having it. Big deal - some people are.

Because everyone is just like you... I'm glad you're not bothered. Did you know they were going to take them down permanently? Was I supposed to be watching all of my favorite company websites constantly for notice of this stuff? As if I didn't have anything better to do? Kickstarter is a new thing, and how it works may not have crossed the mind of every able-minded gamer out there. What happens if someone likes these types of games, but doesn't follow them like us? Are they stupid because they maybe wanted something, but never have the chance to get it? I think you could have worded your argument any number of other ways, and yet you chose this one... Hmm...

I'm not a fan of being labeled good or evil in my games, and prefer to have choices that have direct consequences. Good or evil, to me, is just boring, and maybe what I find good or evil is different than what someone else thinks is good or evil. A good example was a scene in Mass Effect 2 (maybe not the best example, since Paragon/Renegade wasn't really a blanket good/evil... maybe Paragon did, though) was where Shepard gets stopped by a reporter (that you know from ME1) who asks a lot of impertinent questions. Actually, that whole scene played out just how I imagined it should; 1. Counter logically and calmly, or 2. Punch that idiot in the face... I chose 2, because he/she was being an intrusive dork (in my mind). That was, obviously, the Renegade action, but I didn't really feel such a thing was "evil"; tabloid journalists have a knack for being annoying and, sometimes, I feel they deserve a little more than a simple verbal beating... I suppose this is, more or less, an argument against freedom of speech and what you should be allowed to get away with. Some things/people, to me, just deserve a nice smack in the kisser for saying/doing certain things (ie. Westboro). The underlying point of all this is that making a game that is truly choice based requires that much more work on the developer side to keep me from feeling unsatisfied from my choice and the consequence. It's a lot of work to create all those varying situations and results. However, that's what makes that particular system so interesting to me. If a game starts out from the beginning saying "you're that special hero", ex. Neverwinter Nights 2, then I play the game the way it was "meant to be played" and feel rather constrained to do so because that's what the game expects me to be according to the story. There are good and evil choices, sure, but, most of the time, they just don't "fit". Certain games are an exception to that, though; I love going through Knights of the Old Republic 1 as a goodly Jedi and then falling to temptation at the end all for the sake of a good story. Fallout 1/2 I would actually argue against. From a story perspective, you're meant to save your tribe/vault, and being an evil douche throughout the whole game just doesn't work, especially considering canon - the rules I feel I need to adhere too because I'm a certain type of nerd - says I did it the good way (if I do decide to be evil, I usually don't finish the game, do whatever I want to do, or finish the evil stuff, and then I'm done). Regardless if I have choice, the story will always be the same for me in a game that doesn't do choice well. Some games can pull it off, but it's a rare thing, in my experience, to see it done really well. Torment and Icewind Dale 2 also had really good choice gameplay. In Torment, you just don't know who you are, so you don't feel like you need to play a certain way. Same with Icewind Dale; you're just a mercenary group with a story and ambitions you can make up on your own. Being "good" or "evil" is just up to you. Even though you ultimately end up saving everyone, your reasons for doing it can be whatever you want, so it works.

I get progressively more irritated the longer I look at the tiers and realize that I missed my chance to donate for something, and now all I get is this slightly degrading backer option that doesn't give me anything but a digital download that I can easily wait for until the game launches. And I only bring it up again (since I was complaining about it last time I was here) because I just noticed inXile started their funding for Torment not to long ago. At least I can get in on that... only bad part is that a lot of the tiers are limited and I still need to gather funds, so I could easily miss my chance on that as well. This whole situation with Kickstarter really just makes me wish we could go back to the "old style" of Collector's Editions, where anyone can freely pick up what they want. OP's request just adds fuel to the fire, because there is -zero- reason why they can't open it back up for at least the digital options.

Sure, if I felt generous... but why would I do that? Forgive me for being greedy and such, but I fail to see a good reason why I would just give money for nothing. Why not just put up the original backing options? What's the point of taking them down? I can understand removing the higher tiers to develop characters and weapons and all that (since they have to be put in the game in a timely fashion), but boxed versions of the game? That makes no sense to me.

I never did get around to backing the project - my mind kept wandering... and it looks like I missed my chance. Oh well, guess I'll just have to hope for some ebay collector's editions. And I don't think they should not make any more just because some people really want them to be limited. They should make them based on the demand for them. It would be neat if they did something like having a set price on their site, maybe like $200-300, and then would make each order by hand. I mean, this isn't really a time to be stingy about limited copies - what with the economy and all. If people really want to buy them, then they should keep making and selling them. Who doesn't want the money? Is it more important to get paid, or more important to make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside about being early to the party? Actually, I don't even know if I backed it or not. I can't even remember if I did. Maybe I did and I just forgot... And honestly, I don't even know why they took that donation thing down. It's just more money for them, and the game isn't even coming out for another year. Do you really have to get the orders straight a year in advance?

I was looking for a place to ask this question, but I couldn't really find one that I thought would give me a quick response considering the game in question is pretty old now, and this seems like a good place to ask considering the history of Obsidian (Black Isle). Anyway, I was wondering about favored classes for a race. I wanted to make a Tiefling Rogue and then maybe multiclass it to a fighter to grab weapon specialization (I want to make them a good bow-user). Since the Tiefling has a favored class of a Rogue, would I get an exp penalty if I multiclassed from Rogue to Fighter? or if I was going to make a Rogue/Fighter, should I start with Fighter at level 1? Considering the favored class is Rogue, it makes sense that it wouldn't matter... but it's kind of confusing. I guess this actually concerns another class I want, too. I was going to make a Half-Orc Fighter/Barbarian, but the favored class for a Half-Orc is Barbarian. And actually, I think I may have found something that answers my question, though it's still slightly beyond me. One place is saying that a favored class for a race is ignored completely when determining exp penalties. So for a Tiefling and Half-Orc, since their primary classes would be Rogue and Barbarian, respectively, does it matter that Fighter would be level 4 for either of them? And does it still matter what order they're in, or does it really just matter if the multiclass (in this case, Fighter) is higher than their primary class? My head is spinning... I think I'm making this more difficult than it really is.

I like "villains" like House or Ozymandias from Watchmen, because they're not as clear cut and dry as NCR (good) vs. Legion (evil). New Vegas was great because it covers a broad spectrum of choices; good, evil, neutral, or yourself... though I wouldn't really consider House "neutral", but he's definitely more grey than the other choices. The "grey villains" are always the best villains in my mind, because you're given choices about whether or not you agree with their methods, regardless if they're truly good or truly evil - the goal is always what is more important, not the path you take to get there. Also adds a lot of replay value I think. It should also come as no surprise that I like Isair and Madae, too. I thought they were great villains, and they were really only villains to the people that persecuted them. You feel a degree of pity for them because you realize that they just wanted to be accepted and couldn't find it anywhere, so they set out to create a world for themselves and those like them. It's a noble intention, they just went about it the wrong way. Ultimately, simple villains are boring (rawr, I'm evil, I want to conquer the world, rawr). Villains with a complicated personality and intentions are the way to go, and it makes them memorable.

I was thinking of posting something like this last night. I tried searching the forums, but I couldn't find anything about it (weird?). Glad I decided to wait. Anyway, romance is important to me in a RPG, but not the kind of romance that we see in pretty much every RPG nowadays. I think one of my favorite romance stories was Aribeth in Neverwinter Nights. Not necessarily for the story itself, though, it's a combination of many things; it took the whole game to cultivate it, you got a small window of opportunity to tell her and see reciprocation, it didn't involve sex, and it was left ambiguous - you don't know how it turned out for them except for a small bit of the ending narrative that, I think, said she was pardoned and they had their typically "happily ever after" theme. It was more about the emotion of the moment, building up over the entirety of the game and then finally exploding at the end. And I thought it was touching too, because it wasn't me pushing all the buttons and trying to "persuade" her, it was mostly her coming to once she had saw you kept the ring. And I may be in the minority, but I didn't really like the romances in Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Liara and Leliana were just spilling "let's have sex" all over the screen. They come on very strong and don't let up, and even take certain "friendly banter" as initiative to get personal, when I really just wanted to be nice. The only two stories I liked from all of them were Zurvan and Jack; Zurvan, because he was actually a good character with an interesting betrayal story, and then Jack, because she was just so damaged that you spent more time redeeming her than anything else. The others were just not very interesting to me and not worth bringing up (though a minor shoutout for Tali, who I genuinely liked, I just thought your interactions were weak and limited). So, what I'd like to see in the game; 1. Dialogue choices; I think what made ME and DA suffer was that your choices were very limited in dialogue, and when it came to romance, it felt like some responses were just shoehorned in there to keep it "interesting". I think romance is more than just flirting all game and throwing sexual innuendos back and forth. 2. It shouldn't be quick. The game is more than a dating sim, and there's obviously something more pressing out there that's taking everyone's attention. I think there's a time and place to be all touchy feely, and then a time to be serious about whats going on in the world. Since it's a fantasy RPG (and not a fantasy sex RPG), I would half expect it to be aimed more towards the latter. 3. Sex... it has a place sometimes, but not all the time. I expect to see things like brothels and whatever, and the occasional romp if need be, but when I genuinely like someone - and maybe this is weird - sex is not really on my mind. I mean, we're talking about "romance" here, not "one night flings" where you work half the game to get them into the sack and it's over... as if the entire point of the romance was to get them to bed so you can collect your trophy. So, except for Aribeth, I guess another story worth looking at is Aeris from FF7. For one, she dies... that was pretty tragic for me since I genuinely cared about her and didn't see it coming. That type of thing is powerful for story... maybe not the most well-liked (non-happy ending and all), but if you're looking for generating some kind of emotion, that's a good place to start... though, I'm not saying that every love interest should die. I like that type of thing, with choices that have consequences and such, but the Kaiden/Ashley thing from ME1 was irritating. There's better ways. Hmm, so I guess I'll leave it at this for now. Maybe I can think of more later, but I got some stuff to do.

Ah! I didn't see that. Thank you.

Is there a way to donate to this still? Or will another way be opened up in the future, like through this website? I didn't see this until now, and I'm kinda bummed that I couldn't give anything for it.