Valsuelm

It takes a great deal of self-righteousness and/or hubris to call for sanctions on any nation over anything. 'Aid' from the west is generally really just bribes and funding of the west's agenda's and interests. Uganda would do well if it could to not accept any outside 'aid', just about any nation would. Of course leaders of such nations would likely find themselves facing opposition funded by the west if such opposition could be found, which it usually can. Africa fails to achieve it's true potential because outside interests keep it in the dark ages to further their own interests, in particular European interests, though Asia and the U.S. also have their hands dirty there. Hubris. Self-righteousness. Wow those are big words to describe something that is regularly implemented against countries when they make decisions that are unacceptable to many countries in the world. Uganda already gets aid, 20 % of its budget is outside aid, and Uganda as every country does is reliant on international investment in order to grow there economy. And when you say "because outside interests keep it in the dark ages to further their own interests" you sound like Robert Mugabe trying to justify why his economic polices have destroyed the Zimbabwean economy. You don't know much about how certain countries in Africa operate or how there governments manage there economies do you? Hardly big words. Regularly implemented yes. It's the norm for sure. It's one of the prime tools of the neo-colonialists of the last half+ century. That does not make it right or any less self righteous or audacious, or at the higher echelons of the decision making often downright evil. As far as Mugabe and Zimbabwe, while I certainly don't agree with Mugabe on many things, he's right if he's ever said something along the lines of what I did. His nation's economy is in shambles largely due to U.S., U.K., et al intervention in the form of sanctions and other punishments, which is downright disgusting at best. How dare Mugabe leave the Commonwealth! I know African geopolitics pretty well, and how the strings are pulled there and elsewhere subtly and overtly quite well as well. You certainly have no monopoly on knowledge of Africa just because you happen to live in South Africa, while most of the rest of us on this board do not. For better or worse Uganda should be left alone to make it's own laws. Rather than get bent out of shape about their violations of real or perceived rights, look in your own backyard. Many folks in many nations (including my own) would do better to do so than worry about internal laws of Uganda which are by and large benign on the world stage. There are worse and more oppressive laws of a variety of different types on the books in both the U.S., South Africa, and most if not all other 'western' nations than what folks are decrying currently in Uganda. And it's possibly the very efforts of some of the organizations that are leading the charge in decrying Uganda's policy that influenced it's implementing. There certainly has been some backlash in places other than Uganda to the global steamrolled agenda known as LGBT rights.

It takes a great deal of self-righteousness and/or hubris to call for sanctions on any nation over anything. 'Aid' from the west is generally really just bribes and funding of the west's agenda's and interests. Uganda would do well if it could to not accept any outside 'aid', just about any nation would. Of course leaders of such nations would likely find themselves facing opposition funded by the west if such opposition could be found, which it usually can. Africa fails to achieve it's true potential because outside interests keep it in the dark ages to further their own interests, in particular European interests, though Asia and the U.S. also have their hands dirty there.

Buy/build a desktop. Laptops are inferior to desktops for gaming in many ways, not the least of which is the inability to upgrade your graphics card. Really, unless you travel often and/or have a legitimate need to bring your computer places with you a desktop would serve you better. And if you have legitimate need and can afford it, a desktop and a laptop would serve you better than just a laptop. Desktops are superior to laptops in pretty much every way except portability.

I confess, this may be the first time I've seen "good graphics" and "Morrowind" used in the same sentence... At the time it was released it was considered to have very good graphics, and indeed for it's time it did.

Baldur's Gate 1 is better than Baldur's Gate 2 (2 is still great though) Bethesda games are horribly overrated and other than the good graphics frankly just bad, very bad (and good graphics are not a reason to play a game). I'm talking about Morrowwind, Oblivion, and especially Skyrim and Fallout 3. Monsters that scale with your level is one of the worst ideas to ever be realized in a RPG (see above) The 2nd edition AD&D ruleset as was realized in the infinity engine games is so far the pinnacle of in game combat design for a turn based RPG. Everything else has been a step down in quality and complexity in regards to gameplay. With a notable exception for 'tactics' type games which are really a different genre, ie: Final Fantasy Tactics. Bioware is no longer a good game studio, they sold out and gave into greed many years ago. Icewind Dale combat is often horribly overrated on these forums. It is no better in any way than either BG 1 or 2's combat.

You do realize that human eyes and the brain that processes the info from them isn't getting anything good out of frame rates as high as you're talking right?

Ya know... Having played all of the above games, IWD really didn't have better or more challenging combat than BG/BG2. At no point in IWD did I find myself up against an encounter that wiped me and I had to reload more than once or twice, and reloading at all was rare. There were points in both BG and BG2 I had to do this. (I always play on 'hardcore AD&D rules difficulty setting). IWD lacked the story and depth of BG and PST, and retroactively it's said that it focused on combat. I do not think having played them all, that IWD had the best combat by any means. In fact IWD2 had the worst combat AI out of all of them in my opinion. Baldur's Gate 1 beats Baldur's Gate 2 hands down in the exploration department. No good RPG game before or since has done exploration as well as BG did it in my opinion. That was one of the few things BG2 did the opposite of improve upon over BG1. PST of course has the best story I've ever come across in a video game of any genre. I'd compare it to some of the best books I've read. It's really in a video game class by itself insofar as story goes. That said, the one thing BG1&2 did that I liked that PST didn't do insofar as story didn't do, is that BG2 was a true sequel, picking up where BG1 left off and continuing the story. PST of course never had a sequel (nor should it have one, that story ended (and ended well)), but PoE is supposed to have a sequel someday, and when it does, I want a true sequel in the same manner as BG2 was a true sequel. So my opinion has been let's take all the best aspects from BG/BG2/PST, and that's about it. The IWD franchise, while better than many other franchises out there, were by far the weaker of the infinity engine games, and really are not in the same class as BG 1/2 and PST. But on topic. Let the storytellers tell their story. Romance isn't in every story, it need not be in this one.

Definitely good news in my opinion. To those who want their in game romance I'll say this: Keep in mind that Baldur's Gate didn't have romances, and Baldur's Gate 2 did. PoE will likely have a sequel. Perhaps romances might work better there. That said. One of the few things I didn't like about BG2 was the romances. The only game that comes to mind where I didn't mind or actually liked the romance was Final Fantasy VII. In Dragon Age, Witcher, and others, romances were yuck. If it adds to the main story like it did in FFVII, great, if it doesn't, keep it out of my RPG please.

Indeed. The backer portal was originally promised to us around holiday time last year. It's no small mistake on the part of Obsidian that it was not done back then I think. Largely due to the additional funding a good backer site could have garnered this last year.

Where? The linked interview certainly doesn't confirm it.

While I can see this happening to a new player to the genre or to AD&D, it's possible to go a long way before dying in BG1 if you play it well and safe.... past level 3 even. Party formation and how you move them around has a lot to do with it in that game. Granted, most games are easy mode compared to BG1, so most would not expect the unforgivable aspects of the combat. Save scumming certainly was not an issue, excepting for the most difficult of battles. But that's the norm in any good game. Mechanics that avoid save scumming likely are dumbing down the experience.

Heya!! Hi, I'm Noober. Nice place, huh? So, killed any monsters yet? Ever been to Baldur's Gate? I've been to Baldur's Gate. Ugh, I think i stepped in something. Everyone in town used to throw rocks at me and tell me I was annoying. What time is it? I haven't had a conversation this long, well...ever! What's that big weapon for? Those colours look pretty stoopid on you... I once knew this guy called Dilby. He threw rocks at me too. Are you gonna throw rocks at me? What about now? What about now? What about now? What about now? What about now? ... BZZZT!! ... ... What about now? What about now? What about now? What about now? What about now? Gee, you sure are patient. I've run out of things to say.

Newer isn't always better... Insulation improvements aside, your average house built in 1801 is typically going to be standing a lot longer than the average house built in 2013 and will be more structurally sound in almost every way, even though the 2013 house will hold it's heat better and be more easily rewired for electricity than it's 1801 counterpart. With most things as time goes on there are improvements available. Not often enough these days however are those improvements incorporated without sacrificing something else, and often needlessly (housing construction is a good example of this, though skyrocketing costs of the better materials in relation to your average person's income and the currency (inflation is bad, very bad) has a bit to do with this.). Improvements or not though, all too often some folks are trying to reinvent the wheel. With all improvements considered, as far as houses go, I'd generally rather have a house built towards the end of the 19th century or beginning of the 20th as you'd get the most bang for your buck in materials with such a house and houses built then were still built to last, yet upgrading windows and insulation to modern standards is generally no biggie. And as far as CRPG games go, and all 'improvements' considered, I'd rather have a game from the 90s. There are many more games from that decade that stand the test of time than games of the last decade. Too many of the 'improvements' of modern RPGs (both PnP and CRPG) consist of shallow balance acts at the cost of substance done by folks lacking from imagination. A good game stands the test of time. And with all of the modern improvements to video gaming available there are very very few things I'd alter in many of the great games of the past such as Baldur's Gate or Planescape Torment (or Chrono Trigger, Link to the Past, Starflight 1/2, nethack, FF6, et al) and they'd mostly if not entirely have to do with improving graphics and UI (namely just higher resolution art (what would have been nice in BG:EE) and better inventory management (something I still have yet to see be done very well in any CRPG excepting WoW (where an addon called 'arkinventory' does the job)). Dragon Age is a good example of a game that, while good on it's own, falls far short of the spiritual successor to the IE games, and is not something I'll be playing again, where I very likely will be playing BG 1/2 and PST at some point again in the future. And his analogy does work...

I was referring to AD&D 2nd edition (that which was used for all but one of the IE games), though 1st edition would also work, as there is very little difference between the two editions (2nd edition was mostly the same as 1st minus boobies and demons (due to so much bad publicity about these things being in 1st edition during the 80s)). 3rd edition wasn't really called AD&D anymore but just D&D, and it wasn't until 3rd edition that some basic things were overhauled in a manner that was more often not for the better in my opinion. I also definitely very much prefer the 2E IE games way of rolling stats.

I've played all previous IE games as well as other D&D franchise games on what's usually called the 'D&D Hardcore rules' difficulty. Since PE is obviously not going to use these rules I do hope that there's a recommendation by Obsidian on which difficulty to select that most represents an equivalent to the "'D&D Hardcore rules"" difficulty found in the IE games as well as NWN2, and I very much hope that equivalent exists in PE.

I wouldn't even say it was cool then. It really didn't feel right in the game imo. But it was much more tolerable and much much less annoying than the inyourface implementations in some other games (ie: Dragon Age or The oh yea my character is a male sloot Witcher). That some have come to expect 'romance' and want them so much in their CRPG that there's as many threads in this forum about this subject.... well, to them I say go out and get a "Romance, Marriage, Pregnancy and having Children." in the real world, and perhaps you might not be clamoring so much for such things in this or any other game. There are games such as The Sims that are much better suited for folks who wish to pursue eromances and efamilies than a CRPG game, especially one that is aiming to be a really good one.

It's a fairly disrespectful way to refer to folks who support you or you would like to support you methinks.

The extent of crafting I'd like to see in this game is the extent of crafting we saw in the original IE games. While it was somewhat novel and interesting some years ago when we first started seeing crafting in just about every RPG type game that was made, I find crafting ala you see in MMOs, NWN2, D3, Witcher, etc to be tedious and largely a waste of time. Crafting was actually one of the final nails in the coffin of my MMO gaming career, and it's by far my least favorite feature in NWN2. I'm beyond burnt out on crafting, and I know many other folks (two of which backed this game but don't ever go to the forums) who also are. Give us alchemists or blacksmiths, or the like to go visit with really rare things to craft something special, sure. Don't give us tons of weeds, ore, plans, etc to pick, mine, or make.

How plentiful currency is should depend almost entirely on the game environment. What I do not want to see no matter how scarce it is in inflation of this currency such as we see in Blizzard games.

Of all the game systems I've seen out there (and I've seen most of them), IE games did intelligence (and overall the other stats as well) the best. Reason being, because of all the PnP game systems I've seen out there AD&D did intelligence the best. Up to a point, I do like the manner in which Palladium has both ME (mental endurance) and IQ (intelligence quotient), however that system scales very badly after a point (though house rules can nip all the issues in the butt).

The original expectations set was something like the end of December beginning of January. We're now almost in July with the last official update on this in March, which at the time lead me to believe that the fulfillment site would be up soon. I'd generally be totally cool with the fulfillment site not being up for quite some time yet, however expectations were set, have not been met, and silence is all that I've seen on it, and that's kinda not cool. An official update in regards to this would be nice, and I'm ok if for some reason the fulfillment site has been pushed back, just please let us know and try to avoid setting expectations that won't be met in the future.

Here. Here. And Here. Would also note that EVERY libertarian I have met has at least a small obsession with her, but I really don't have a way to showcase that evidence(other than go around interviewing every libertarian I have meant and putting that interview up on Youtube, but I'm a bit too lazy for that.). I know more than person that self describes themselves as a libertarian that does not think highly of Rand at all.....

So you're saying that crime and corruption in Venezuela are actually to his credit? I think it's more an argument he's so incompetent that having an authoritarian dictatorship didn't even deliver one of its usual benefits, but to be fair you really need to move on to the totalitarian dictatorship to get a handle on crime. Whether you like Chavez or not, he was anything but incompetent. He was one of the only leaders of a nation on the planet that wasn't incompetent and had the best interests of his nation in mind. Though you somehow have it in your head that he was an authoritarian dictator.... Stop yum yum yumming up the propaganda fed you about leader X being evil to justify your nation's imperialism and do a little homework. He was not, and you'll find that some others aren't either. I'd say the current and last President of the U.S. is closer to that role than Chavez was.

You can compare anyone to anyone, or anything to anything. While there are similarities between the three, as there are between those three and a great many other leaders throughout history, Chavez didn't go on about what Stalin is most infamous for: that being staging an organized mass scale murder of citizens of his nation, and Hitler and Stalin may be similar in that they are both fruits, but they were as different as lemons and cherries. Anyone who thinks Chavez is akin to Hitler, Stalin, or Mao is incredibly mistaken, naive, ignorant, and thoroughly brainwashed.

She sounds just like 90%+ of the other total incompetents on Capital Hill.... This 'sequester' stuff is utter BS. That some people aren't getting paid and the White House is closed is ridiculous on levels beyond epic when we're still sending hundreds of billions overseas, buying tanks to use against US Citizens, subsiding all sorts of private industry we shouldn't, various corps are paying little to no taxes, and the list goes on to the point if someone made a comprehensive one it'd probably reach the post cap on this forum before it was complete. The whole thing is PR and propaganda, and anyone not calling that out that works on Capital Hill is part of the problem.