majestic

The Game Design of Starcraft 2: Designing an E-Sport by Dustin Browder, lead designer/game director of Starcraft 2. Blizz was very clearly focused on making SC2 e-sports viable, which doesn't necessarily include LAN support - else Leage of Legends wouldn't be one of the highest paying games on record (which btw both Starcrafts also are, concurrently).

Not to mention the completely inane assumption that the person who worked on changing the limerick would have worked on fixing some other bug instead. Next on the list are any complaints about Obsidian already working on the expansion instead of "fixing them annoying bugs!!!11oneone fix you'Re gaem1111" as if those working on new content would be the same people currently working on the patch(es). Because, well, it's still 1990 and games are made by three people. Yeah. Sounds about right.

I often play multiplayer RPGs, they're awesome - once every two weeks with my p&p group. Multiplayer focus really tends to make games worse. ME3 had this inane galactic readiness system and DA:I has some multiplayer feature I haven't even bothered reading up on, let alone trying it, but that's not just a Bioware problem. Starcraft 2 ranks amongst my biggest disappointments in gaming. Blizz spent way too much time to build the entire game around e-sports and sort of forgot that there's a storyline to finish. Although considering how crappy the actual single player story was in Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm so far I'm not even sure I would have liked a longer singleplayer campaign. Bring on Emo-Raynor, the Redeemer of Kerrigan.

I'd say Dragon Age: Origins has "more" lore than Pillars of Eternity, in terms of raw quantity. Quality could be argued obviously. Actually the lore is pretty much the only reason I finished DA2 and DA:I. DA2 was actually the more fun game (I really don't want Skyrim and MMOish quests in my RPGs, thanks for the Hinterlands Bioware) but the copy/paste environments really started go grate on my nerves by Act 3. And that's with liking the idea of living in Hightown for a couple of years.

That's confusing. How do you snap the neck of a staff?

I have a trick question for you: Where's the *story* of Dragon Age: Origins? Now don't get me wrong, I loved DA:O when it came out and I replay it every now and then, but arguing in favor of story depth in DA:O is a bit weird. The game has as much plot as Mass Effect 2 had, and it's pretty much exactly the same one - it's just that one has LAZORS and the other has SWOARDS11!!111oneone.

Well, no... achievements are a somewhat logical evolution of high score tables and can be a fun way to add replayability and bragging rights for those who earned them. Can they be used to pad games lacking in "meaningful" content? Sure. Much like pretty graphics can, just look at all those Michael Bay Shooters these days, or every year's new iterations of sports games where the only extra content is often reduced to updated graphics and name changes due to some license. If there is one thing that bothers me with PoE's achievements is that they're not available on all sales platforms. I got mine from GOG and therefor have no achievements to complete, same as with Wasteland 2, and before someone mentions it, let me save you the time: Yes, I would like them for bragging rights. If I'm better than the majority and there is a way to I OF COURSE want to show off. The Steam DRM tradeoff isn't worth it for me tough. Yet. *sigh*

Yeah I know, you're just trolling and all that, but obvious fake cat video is fake. Unless you want to explain how someone not at home for six months managed to get a two camera setup at the exact location where the cat is. Does that parasite grant psychic powers? Because then I'd love to have some. Ah well, he probably has a spouse that, after six months of not seeing him, doesn't even bother to say hello. Probably because parasites. Heh.

So does NWN know you're cheating on it with DA2, out of all things? :D Dig deeper, look for details, clues. Sure, once I'm bored enough, but what's the point, these aren't the Bioware forums and nobody really cares that you think Cassy isn't "attractive" without editing.

From a roleplaying or "realistic" point of view back"stabbing" with a katana is quite the hilarious idea. You'd probably end up trashing your precious blade in the process. Angurvadal +4 is also accessible before the Staff of the Ram and it arguably makes for a better backstabbing weapon with the 22 STR for a turn active (yeah, yeah the strength bonus does not get multiplied but it's significant - a fighter's specialization bonus would get multiplied though, *hint hint*) and you can buy the Staff of Striking in Trademeet which will do 10-15 damage per hit making it much better for a backtab, as long as you remember to recharge it when necessary. Gold isn't really a problem in BG2 after all...

Oy, Volo, I have a movie suggestion for you, for the good old slow day (it's just a Wikipedia link). The video won't turn up with the information in the article. Use "5334 casting" if you want to find it. It's also pretty easy to find with the picture in the article while using Google's image search feature.

Is that the reason why you're fielding a Cassandra Pentaghast avatar?

Says he's a Baldur's Gate fan, calls rangers "hunters" and thinks six of the weakest class in the game would make up the only party with which it is possible to finish battles. Uhm, dude, you do realize that Dark Alliance had nothing in common with the cRPG Baldur's Gates?

I like how you make this comment, 'whatever high level abilities you can get' as if it's an afterthought. As I said, go and play the game, then you might have an actual point. If you dual class a fighter at level 13 (ideally kensai since UAI removes the armor restriction, if we're cheesing let's do it properly) to thief you miss out on having one single potential thief HLA in exchange for more attacks/round, more hitpoints, better THAC0, better saves and the ability to actually make use of those fine weapons you find. So yes, sorry, it is nothing but an afterthought. There's only one possible exception - and that is if you played SoA without ToB installed and were stuck with the level cap there, in which case it's impossible to reach ToB's level cap with the expansion alone, leaving you a bunch of traps short.

God I wish people would go and play the game instead of making stuff up. The progression tables of BG2: ToB simply stop at level 20 except for adding a base amount of hit points according to AD&D rules (which they do starting at level 10, by the way) unless you patch them through some modification. Saving throws and THAC0 get frozen at 20. The difference between a level 20 and 40 character in terms of fighting power amounts to, at max, 60 hit points when being a fighter (obviously less for other classes) and whatever high level abilities you can get. The noticeable exception being spellcasters whose spells/day tables were designed to go beyond level 20. Sorry, what was your point again?

So I typed up this huge post regarding the ongoing discussion and decided to simply delete it and keep it short. Single class thieves in BG2 simply aren't worth it in the same manner as single classed clerics and druids aren't. Their short term benefits (and considering *when* you actually hit the SoA experience cap, that is REALLY short term, especially if you don't run around with a full party) they get amounts to less than a third of the game by gaining abilities the encounters there weren't even designed to handle - and it drops off once the appropriate multiclass reaches enough experience to enter HLA territory, which is also well before ToB that any fighter/thief ends up being much more powerful once it actually begins to matter. Which is about the only metric that really matters when discussing relative power of classes. It doesn't really matter if your HLA-powered single class thief can trap himself through the Sahuagin city and throw fireballs with a wand because that portion of the game is easy even on insane anyway. No single worthwhile encounter falls into the time delta between a single and mutli classed thief getting access to their HLAs. That's not to say that thieves aren't powerful in the context of the game, because really, like Stun said, every class can be powerful and those traps really rip enemies a new one, but with the way the 2nd Edition AD&D rules are set up in the IE games multiclassing thieves, clerics and druids is simply much better. It wouldn't be if you changed the XP distribution of the game or implemented the level caps for demihumans in the original rules, but it is what it is. Playing to level 40 with a ruleset designed to cap out on level 20 wasn't exactly the best idea. An argument could be crafted for the assassin kit, because its poison weapon ability can be used to break enemy AI scripts rendering powerful enemies blithering idiots that can't do anything for the duration of the ability, and unlike Blind (a 1st level mage spell) can't be resisted. In the end it still suffers from having a base THACO of 10, which is not really great, even if you pile enough gear on him. edit: Actually, I'd also argue that single class fighters aren't worth it as main character due to the immense boni you get from being mage or thief multi or dual classed. Hrm. Especially with ToB.

Yes, it does, in certain locations and for certain things, voice acting can prove to be a massive boon, especially druing cinematics, even if it is just two lines out of a larger dialogue: TTO and Annah in the Fortress of Regrets - two short lines having a great impact on how the whole scene is perceived, or do you honestly think reading "THEN... DIE..." would be anywhere near as awesome as having Tony Jay spit it out with all the contempt and loathing of TTO? In fact this entirely lives by his delivery, because "Then, die!" is pretty, well, lame on its own.

This thread is a health risk, reading it can result in an aneurysm. I'm off having a stroke.

DA:I's combat system has been greatly hamstrung by EA's decision to Frostbite EVERYTHING and by control consolization on a much larger scale than in the first two games.

Add as much voice acting as you like but please, please, pretty please do not sacrifice dialogue options and diversity on the altar of voiceovers. That's one thing I found noticably better in PoE than newer cRPGs, like Dragon Age: Inquisition, where dialogue variety was greatly reduced to minimize the amount that the voice acting costs while still being able to claim that it is fully voiced (curiously enough that didn't seem to be a concern when Bioware made Dragon Age: Origins, except for your player character never saying anything).

Sometimes I wonder if the stretch goal structure of the Kickstarter campaign is the reason that both the Stronghold and Twin Elms feel a little "tucked on" (to put it mildly). They were among the last few strech goals that didn't include world building or "improving the whole game" as it were and unlike the ever growing Endless Paths they were supposed to be a larger part of the world but kind of weren't. Not really, anyway.

Both the Skaen and Wael "bonus" endings have some trigger requirements that you won't necessarily reach, I know that Skaen's offer triggers from having a dissident background because that's how I got it, on the other hand I never got the offer from Wael which I assume is because I didn't bury the scroll as he asked (or failed some other trigger, not sure).

Sure, I know. Just like your constant failure to use the quote function on every message board you post on. That doesn't make NWN a good game though. The expansions were good but the OC was probably the worst thing Bioware ever made. It's like a 40h Mass Effect 3 ending that just doesn't stop. Even Aribeth's bouncy pixel boobs couldn't save it. :>

Oh, not again Volo. That one got old more than a decade ago. =) Aye, I remember him from the old NWN boards. I used to moderate them, actually. Good times. Oh, and kudos, Wanderon. I actually thought I was older than you, but you've got a decade and a half on me. NWN boards were pretty recent - first official CRPG boards that hooked me were the original BG boards (prior to ToTSC) followed by the rest of the IE boards arguing with Silverbow (and others)... Good fun indeed Feels like an Eternity ago, doesn't it? That pun is so bad I can't possibly claim that it wasn't intentional.

Try discussing religion and/or politics on a message board. The petty squabbles here will appear to be nothing but minutiae compared to that.