jezz555

Is every thread you start some sort of absurd parody of another thread, or have I missed something here?

That's a wrong post. First off, nobody in switzerland says this. Secondly, it's an ignorant statemnt. Third, this statement doesn't represent swiss lit at all. Dürrenmatt is a number 1 priority in teaching lit in switzerland. He was a big advocator of the worst possible ending. Von Zahnd is exactly such a villian. (Reason: Zeitgeist (explained at several points, especially in regards to the physicists), and other factors, including giving contrast with the absurdity and paradox) Also, such villians are no indicator of bad writing itself depending on how they were written or justified and work in regardes to the themes/narrative. In modern literature, yes. But that's the result of various other factors. I sort of see what he is saying though. I think because American fiction is probably influenced, at least to a point, by biblical morality, which encourages a very black-and-white view of things as opposed to Europe where things are more secular, moral ambiguity becomes more common, just look at warhammer 40k vs starcraft. I can't speak to switzerland specifically because I'm not all that familiar with swiss fiction, but in American vs. European fiction, I do think his point is pretty justified.

Those are sweet. I'd love to dual-wield those. I'd dual wield that, I'd dual wield the heck out of it.

I wouldn't mind encounters that were meant to be un-winnable, were the odds are totally stacked against you(don't overuse them though). But I think it should still be possible to win, incredibly unlikely? sure. Might result in you becoming a wanted man and being killed later by town guards? sure. Just don't make them impossible.

I liked Morrigan in DA:O, I wish they had done more with her character, but she was really the only party member I liked all that much in DA. so I wouldn't mind a similar archetype. I also liked a lot of the legendary party members in Arcanum (the bane of kree, gorgoth, Kraka-tur, ect.) that you got at the end, it really felt awesome to be fighting a long side people you had been hearing stories about the entire game. I also liked some of the secret ones like, Gar the worlds smartest orc, and Torian Kel. Mostly I would just like for party members to have a large part in the world and give you some reason to want to hire them, instead of them just being a bunch of goobers waiting by the side of the road for somebody to take them along on an adventure.

I would like to see fewer, but more utilitarian and powerful skills. In rpg's it seems like you typically either get a bunch of abilities, 80% of which do essentially the same thing or are functionally useless, or you only get a few but they are each very useful, and personally I prefer the latter category.

well...yeah. I mean isn't this kind of a given? I think you've got the right idea here, IMO what killed the bioware romance, and morality systems was the fact that they assigned bars to everything. It just made them feel like minigames and took away any emotional involvement. If you ask me romance and morality should just be handled through specific dialogue options, so it feels more like a hidden easter egg or I guess a puzzle, as opposed to a minigame.

False, if I see a big honking fiery bird, I'm going to want to kill and loot it. Phoenix feathers are worth good money around these parts.

And in DA2 where her Dragon form kills a bunch of hurlocks (or whatever) and save Hawke and crew. It leads to the "I want to be a Dragon" dialogue option that is so often posted here. Originally in the 1st movie Godzilla is a representation of the dangers of nuclear technology; the hero has to convince his friend to unleash an even more destructive force (the oxygen destroyer) to kill Godzilla. Lots of philosophical debates about the ethics of unleashing such a force on the world which is why the friend kills himself and Godzilla with his weapon, so that both terrors of science are eradicated because mankind will never be able to be trusted with such destructive force. Once you get into the later series (battling mechagodzilla, ghidorah) Godzilla is a completely different take on the creature and the purpose of the films are different (instead of being a philosophical horror film / cautionary tale, its become an all ages adventure series with hero Godzilla fighting giant monsters and humans battling aliens). I didn't get very far in DA:2 but I guess I was confused because she's in DA:O as well. I didn't know that about godzilla, I might look up the original if you recommend it, but I'm still not wholly convinced of its depth from what I know of it, and come on now you have to admit much of japanese fiction follows the line of goofy rubber suited monster spazzing out to a bunch of flashing lights, or anime which is typically almost worse. These are blanket statements of course, I like Battle Royale ect. but my perception of the game in question is that it's your typical JRPG which imo try to look deep, and fail miserably.

Honestly rogues typically end up underpowered in these games, so I don't think taking away one of their key abilities is the way to go necessarily and if I could make a case for backstabs being rogue specific, the way I always understood it is that a rogue/assassin has a better understanding of anatomy than your average joe-longsword and can thusly pinpoint the exact location were he could land a lethal blow. The fact that your hitting someone in the back, as opposed to the front doesn't really make a difference, unless your practiced eye knows exactly where to hit, or is using a garrote that requires that the enemy be unaware to be effective.

I support the ability to choose, but I never personally used non-lethal stuff in games. Furthermore the idea is pretty ridiculous from a realism standpoint, I mean batman beats the crap out of people on the daily and your going to tell me none of them ended up with severe brain damage or injuries that they later died from? On the matter of tranquilizer darts, irl they have to be specially formulated to the target your shooting at, too little and you just enrage the thing, too much and you might kill it, I know this is a video game, and that said I am in favor of the ability to deal non-lethal damage, but still.

You get your kidney's stolen by a bunch of goblins who leave you naked in a tub of ice with a note that says to see a doctor and a heart that burns for vengeance.

I don't know, they didn't do to much worth caring about in fallout but maybe obsidian could do something cool with them

oh my god, too much pink. I can feel the manliness hemorrhaging from me even as I type thi-...aaaaAHHHHH

I mean doesn't the whole dragon companion thing sort of take away some of the mysticism behind the dragon? As much as it sounds like a novel concept I would prefer if the dragon was evil...and yeh freakin' huge.

I like this archetype, but If the dragon is hoarding treasure I don't see why anyone would consider him a holy guardian. Unless there's some sort of dragon cult, which could be cool too. I also wouldn't mind some sort of unique item in the dragons hoard.

Mmm no. At the age of 60, your life expectancy would be more than nine years. not in the present day...obviously. In the time period in which the game is set e.g. renaissance period, furthermore its not my data to begin with, It was Hormalakh who said people of that time period lived until about 69, thus less than a decade. Nope, that's not it. Assume the expected life span is 69 given that you made it to 20. Once you reach the age of 60, your expected life span is more than 9 years. That's because the probability distribution is different for age of death given that you are age 60 compared to the distribution for your age of death when you are, say, age 20. Ah I see what your saying now, But he didn't give the life expectancy for someone who had survived to sixty, so there really isn't much more I can go on given that I'm too lazy to look up my own data. Regardless my point is unchanged, life expectancy was, I'm sure you'll concede, shorter than it is today and medicine/sanitation ect. was far worse, therefore elderly people would not only be rarer but most likely in poorer health than elderly people of today and therefore less effective in combat, particular after a lifetime of adventuring.

Mmm no. At the age of 60, your life expectancy would be more than nine years. not in the present day...obviously. In the time period in which the game is set e.g. renaissance period, furthermore its not my data to begin with, It was Hormalakh who said people of that time period lived until about 69, thus less than a decade.

No, wanting deep dragons with some deep personality and not just some "Deep Dungeon Boss #43". I'm sorry but the japanese wouldn't know deep if it walked up and bit them in the...well you get the idea Predatory dragons are pretty common in fiction actually, at least in video games and movies(reign of fire, sucker punch, avatar, dark souls, lair, to name a few). My first and most iconic image of a dragon comes from reading the hobbit as a kid, and I wouldn't mind seeing a dragon like smaug, who is intelligent, but also a greedy jerk with an utter contempt for humanity. It wouldn't have to have magic, but I wouldn't mind if it could talk to you, ask you riddles and toy with you before you fought it, Two things. A, Godzilla B, China = Dragons, unsure about Japan C, The dragons in Odin Sphere are Smaug times 3 (because they are 3 intelligent seemingly Smaug inspired dragons). EDIT: Okay maybe times 2. Dragons are very iconic, and I think it is difficult to beat unless you create a vast back story for this "new ancient beast". Although Leviathan for Mass Effect 3 (I watched a Let's Play of it) manages to create a "Mythical" atmosphere akin to Dragons (I felt a "Lions" vibe from them too). I did not like the Archdemon in "Dragon Age: Origins" at all, but I love Flemeth in Dragon Age 2. Hint: One of them handles Dragons correctly and intellectually the other is a drooling demon from hell. Flemeth was in DA:O...furthermore, how is Godzilla deep? Did I miss the extended directors cut where he waxes philosophical about the existential meaning behind the destruction of Tokyo and the battling of mecha king-ghidorah? Also yes there are dragons in japanese mythology, and correct me if I'm wrong but this Odin Sphere is a Japanese game, no? Hence why I said Japan not China.

YOU MONSTER!

No, wanting deep dragons with some deep personality and not just some "Deep Dungeon Boss #43". I'm sorry but the japanese wouldn't know deep if it walked up and bit them in the...well you get the idea Predatory dragons are pretty common in fiction actually, at least in video games and movies(reign of fire, sucker punch, avatar, dark souls, lair, to name a few). My first and most iconic image of a dragon comes from reading the hobbit as a kid, and I wouldn't mind seeing a dragon like smaug, who is intelligent, but also a greedy jerk with an utter contempt for humanity. It wouldn't have to have magic, but I wouldn't mind if it could talk to you, ask you riddles and toy with you before you fought it,

No offense, but I'm not sure I quite trust this community to write well written blurbs/books ect. Obsidian claims to read these forums, so if they saw something they like, I'm sure they'd use it, but it seems like a bad idea to just get any old person to write text for the game, I imagine you'd just end up with a lot of ancient magical scrolls with cryptic phrases written in them like "Lolboobs" and "I'ma chargin ma lazor"

But nobody ever does something because "hey, its the evil thing to do." Evil is not a motivating factor. For example many of us would consider Hitler evil, but I doubt Hitler considered himself evil, I doubt many of his people considered him evil. Apply that to a fantasy context, humans decide that orcs are evil and they must be exterminated, so they kill all the orcs...isn't that genocide? Isn't genocide evil, or was it necessary, who decides? Some actions are good or evil, no doubt. But their is nothing absolute about these concepts in the real world, what is evil to you might not be evil to me and vice versa. Its only in fiction, that evil and good are absolute concepts, and this gives rise to ridiculous cartoonish villain's who just do things to be jerks without even attempting to justify their actions. If somebody does something evil in a story, they have to justify it to themselves at least, or else why would they do it? If someone is going around "kicking and murdering babies and puppies" It should be because they think its the right thing to do, and that these babies and puppies have somehow earned their fate. In real life, everybody considers themselves the good guy in their own story, unless they are psychotic in which case they have an excuse. That's what I'd like to see in PE.

christ, tell us how you really feel

Well the game will most likely be a fairly long journey as I assume it goes from lvls 1-20, so I can't imagine the issue of the relationship developing to quickly to be present, unless its poorly written. But sometimes relationships do happen quickly, I would think especially so in a medieval context(or renaissance w/e).