Jobby

I would struggle to do so in a succinct manner so instead I'll post a link full of lovely tables http://baldursgate.wikia.com/wiki/Character_Ability_Scores The "hit adj" column refers to your likelihood to hit with melee weapons for strength and the "Missile att adj" refers to your likelihood to hit with ranged weapons for dexterity. The "HP adj" column for Constitution refers to your additional HP gained per level, this is in addition to class related HP per level. The system gets quite convoluted when you take into account inherent class abilites/adjustments and then even more so if you contemplate muli/dual class characters so I don't intend to go there. I truly envy you playing through those games for the first time though, I have played many a game on many consoles and BG1/2 stand atop the pedestal for me so i hope you enjoy

^^ This is where it is for me, every attribute equally useful for every class? No. Every attribute having a viable use for every class? Yes. One of D&Ds biggest flaws' is dump stats, it has been stated many a time by many people. Whilst I can live with dump stats personally, they doesn't agree with Sawyers proposed tenets of character design (which i see great merit in) and by replacing superfluous things like "Wisdom = Holy caster stat" , "Intelligence = Arcane caster stat" etc. they are definitely doing us a favor and creating a more diverse range of builds. But making a "one attribute fits all system (stat)" is definitely not a throwback to the cRPGs I fell in love with, instead it reduces the significance of player input into character design and ultimately results in a game that isn't diverse and wonderful but instead bland and uniform. This is of course my opinion and as I have stated previously I do have faith in Obsidian I just hope this is something they will consider revising because as petty as it may seem, it really worries me.

I think he just literally meant that he didn't want to suffer sheerly from disagreeing. I don't think he was talking about somehow forcibly denying them their ability to go do as they please. I know, it was tongue and cheek but yeah the DA:O was painful in that regard, It would have been far more logical for Morrigan to question why you helped/were nice to that person to then be able to give an altruistic explanation (which may result in negative influence) or a tactful "because it was in our best interests". But i don't think we will have a problem in this regard as evil and good aren't defined by arbitrary "good deed/bad deed" mechanics (I think). Edit: I only played the game once, (good) and Sten despite being an "Evil" character always came across as a greetin faced ungrateful git, they tried to justify his Evilness by his background but it came across more as "those big guys that live on the islands? Yeah they're all nasty bastards".

As long as we don't devolve to Arcanums "Critical miss and a broken arm to boot" that was insta-reload rage for me lol.

I could almost live with that, but for me it really isn't a case of abstraction (which all stats are ultimately) but of simplification, that upsets me. I'm sure there will be plenty of deep mechanics but I was really thinking BG2 level which took me several playthroughs to fully understand. I mean a percentage modifier to anything feels a bit MMORPGish but I'd take anything over single stat damage, and yet another trample on the decaying horse, c'mon Lephys breath some life into him for me?

Given what Sawyer said about how difficult line of sight would be to implement I doubt that will be present, Don't get me wrong it would be awesome but it just seems unlikely, the circles are a decent compromise, don't like the idea of scaling to level tho? (don't know if that has been misinterpreted on my part) Surely the enemies perception should define the size of their circle and your stealth skill should define the size of yours, if they overlap "alert", and then another hidden circle also defined by their perception could define "caught in the act". Perhaps the scaling mechanic is just to maintain some kind of "circle consistency" throughout the game in which case I'm happy, someone else spoke about averaging "perception circle size" for all enemies on A level, this really confused me and sounds friggin awful, I hope that was a misunderstanding on their part (or my failure to read their post properly). Regarding light and dark I don't know how hard it would be to implement in Unity, they did mention tools they were using for dynamic lighting in a previous update. If said dynamic lighting is more than just cosmetic and actually provides a light value for each node I wouldn't image it would be all that difficult to scale the stealth skill to said light node value but I really don't know how the engine works and I certainly ain't no programmer lol. Even if it was easy to do so that may throw up problems with game balance, however the positives would certainly outweigh the negatives, in regards to tactics, gameplay choice, character viability etc... And yes distractions sound like fun, I can image throwing a rock near a powerful mage and him instantly casting "clarvoyance" then owning me for my silly tactics lol.

Na it's not the name for me, they could call it cabbages for all I care as long it's a bit more in depth than a percentage modifier to All damage types, (dead horse receives another kick)

I'm just delighted it's actually getting released and to think that Matt and Trey have had such involvement from an early stage really excites me. The fact that their haphazard style of writing/creating doesn't translate all that well into game making isn't their fault as such, its a shame for THQ but that's business at the end of the day and all involved should've known what they were getting into lol. I haven't followed these forums at all until now and I don't know how much has been revealed so feel free to shoot me down but I wonder if they have added in a few different endings, In a game like this where the narrative plays a strong part the ending couldn't simply be a (sum of all decisions = x ending scenario) perhaps they have branched the narrative to some degree? As I said I don't know the reasons but in regards to the Ubisoft delays for the sake of marketing I really don't see a massive overlap in target audiences for Assassins Creed and a South Park RPG, keeping in mind that this game will be utterly unlike anything we have ever played (I hope) :D

It would be interesting if google had a stat for how many of the celebrity searches are suffixed by "naked" lol

Why not? Surely there should be some consequences for denying your party members their right to go out and get pissed?

I agree with you to a point, you're right in that additional money can be sought post-kickstarter and from a legal point of view the "vague strings attached" is very true. However at the end of the day people will lose confidence in the devs who produce sub-standard games for the money they receive, a few of us on this very topic have already voiced our concerns over Double Fine, this does have a knock on effect and unless they pull the metaphorical rabbit out the hat with Massive Chalice I think they'll struggle to kickstart another big project. On the other hand, in my line of work there is no such thing as being "overfunded" were such a thing to occur we could perhaps add bells and whistles with prettier outputs but it wouldn't result in a complete re-working of our proposal. I reckon this is where DF struggled with Broken Age and that is what I sympathise with, had they only slightly exceeded their target they would probably be in a better position right now, still there are no excuses for poor time/cost management in this day and age. You are probably right that smaller companies achieve greater success in that they have less expectations and probably less overheads and if the idea is good enough to reach a funding goal for 25k+ chances are it has been fairly well thought out by a small group of people. I wouldn't bash Inexile though, they're going through an extended alpha process in order to create more reactivity within their game-world by genuinely listening to testers comments on the forums. This is crowdfunding at its very best, with the fans contributing non-essential suggestions that are being implemented in realtime to add more flavor to the world. I would love to see Inexile and Obsidian (and Larian for that matter), create more kickstarters and gradually refine the fan input process, I genuinely enjoy posting my overly opinionated comments on these boards and occasionally getting a slap down from Sawyer

There aren't to be all that many NPCs in the game insofar as i can remember, although you can create more in the hall of adventurers they wont have any "character". This is due to the additional character development/content as opposed to games like BG1. I'm all for injuries/curses/diseases that require a bit more than a heal spell though, Arcanum had scarring that reduced your beauty stat and required a doctor to heal, Fable had something similar though it was purely cosmetic and couldn't be removed as i recall. I think quest related healing would have be a scripted encounter (vampirism in BG2) . To summarise I agree and it would be cool to march your limping staggering party back to town but severe permanent injuries might be a bit much given the limited number of NPCs, I'm not inherently opposed but I would like it to be an option if it was included.

Yeah, you just made your point in a more brutal manner than I but I do agree with you, to **** up 800% funding really is unforgivable. On top of that I image the Broken Age travesty discouraged people who'd been burnt from pledging to future projects which really hurts the Kickstarter model, which well implemented could give devs like Obsidian, Larian and Inexile a form of financial security in the meager AAA title times we live in. I reckon that the bad PR to come out of it could also discourage people who hadn't used Kickstarter yet, which again tars responsible developers with the same brush. Don't get me wrong I do have a bit of sympathy but at the end of the day the Kickstarter game development model isn't all that different to many walks of life, e.g. If I was to dramatically undercost a project in my job the work would have to be completed (for a loss) but I would be sacked, simple as. Release dates is another matter entirely, fortunately one that i couldn't give a **** about, as long as the game is good I'm happy. Edit: Regarding The Mandate I consider it a punt due to the devs lack of "formal" experience but the artwork, constant updates and lore they created was enough to give me the confidence to put my money down.

I don't dispute who is making the final call here and regardless of the attribute system I am sure we will get a fantastic game. I just feel simplified damage mechanics for the sake of easier combat balancing isn't a worthwhile trade-off. Of course I'm just a rabid fan, not a developer with a tight budget and a host of expectations to live up to so I do understand, I just really don't like Might lol. On a side note the other attributes they've described seem like interesting novel ways of creating a character outwith traditional D&D systems.

I have to admit I have very high hopes for this game, perhaps unreasonably so, i never backed Shadowruns as i got the feeling it may have came out a bit linear. Wasteland 2 however appears to be shaping up very nicely, as is Divinity:Original Sin (though that was almost in alpha when the KS started), I'm also not worried about Torment as Inexile seem to know what they're doing if Wasteland is anything to go by. The only punt I've really taken imo was with "The Mandate" but even that looks to be on target. Edit: also never back Massive Chalice despite the wonderful concept due to the developers track history, I hope it works out for them tho.

Shocked at all the Arcanum bashing going one here, sure it was: unbalanced buggy un-intuitive the list goes on.. But at the same time it had: A huge world map Highly detailed towns and cities Interesting quests and main plot Interesting npcs (Virgil primarily) Great humour The best stealing mechanic I've seen in an isometric cRPG to date The best crafting mechanic I've seen in any rpg to date (at least on a par with Star Ocean 2) - Edit Scratch that way better than SO2 And a fantastic world concept (tech meets magic) I could go on but after completing the Black Isle games i thought it was all over, only to discover this forgotten gem, I would honestly recommend those of you have gave up to try again with a walk-through if needed to get you through the beginning (and go tech, magic is too easy).

In regards to guns I really don't think they are going to be main weapons btw, I could be wrong but I'm sure an update ages ago defined them as utility weps for "piercing the arcane veil" due to their horrendously low rate of fire so i wouldn't worry massively about what stat affects them, this could have all changed though for all i know lol.

I'm all for all stats being useful for all characters but is there not a way to make traditional strength useful for mages and traditional intelligence useful for fighters? That is without merging them into some bizarre abstract attribute that might as well be called damage? I'm more than happy to see a departure from D&D systems but again this just feels like a bit too far for me, not a deal breaker but quite disappointing. To be honest I'd advocate no attribute directly governing damage over this system, with critical hits, speed and weapons ultimately defining your dps, just drop the might and I'd be happy enough. I don't suppose enough people feel strongly about this to justify a vote thread? I just don't really wanna be the guy who opens up the 5th attribute thread lol.

So i take it the whole magic/physical damage = one stat (Might/Power) is set in stone? That was my only gripe with the attribute system but if its over I'd rather not continue to beat a dead horse and perhaps contribute something productive.

It is an awesome map, I am happy to only get to play a portion of it especially if they bring in new wilderness areas, if they can get anywhere near the sense of exploration in BG1 I will be very happy indeed, that may be a bit outta the scope tho lol.

Surely the non-interests aren't going to care as much about the pronunciation? Therefore those who do care are going to get a lot more out of it than those who don't are going to "lose" (imo anyway). Besides its kinda cool the effort they've gone to and (imo again) shows their dedication to creating a fully fleshed interesting and unique gameworld packed with lore.

Wait till they announce stretchgoals! That's my plan anyway, although I'll prolly jump up to collecters edition even if they decide against it.

Ach if people will pay it and the money goes towards the games development I have no problem, personally I wouldn't pay $5 to get a shot of an unfinished game I have already purchased, but again each to their own.

I don't think working in a brothel would make the game darker, just a helluva lot sleazier lol, no problem with burnt bridges but i also agree that any arbitrary system where giving someone a compliment results in +5 points, over or under the hood, detracts from realism. Point being IRL you can foster a freindship over years of mutual selflessness (simplification I know but bear with me), alternatively some people just seem to click and can get on fantastically over a single pint. Regardless though, a few thoughtless words can change things irrevocably, I would like to see a snakes and ladders like influence system with shortcuts and pitfalls. I would also like to meet a contrary character for whom positive/negative influence is not gained/lost by simply picking the "nicest" option but rather by reading between the lines, perhaps listening to the tone of the VO and then deciding what the character/person really wants to/needs to hear. Perhaps going for the "needs to hear" results in the character falling out with you and then latterly reflecting on the conversation and deciding you truly do have their best interests at heart etc.. (I think there may have been something like this with Viconia in BG). Again I realise there is a realism/fun debate within here somewhere and people may not like my "snakes and ladders" proposition as it may feel unfair, but with a high standard of writing and perhaps a better implemented apology/gift system it could work really well. note: I personally felt that the DA:O gift system was horrendously tacky. edit: FO:NV did handle character interaction/influence in a fairly logical and enjoyable manner, but i will always propose for greater evolution/innovation :D

Fair enough, my apologies, it can be quite hard to read peoples intentions via text, i guess the dividing issue is really that many of us feel that magical damage and physical damage should be distinct. I do understand your point regarding intellect affecting the quality of an physical attack however I consider this more of a perception/dexterity/instinct/skill or experience thing and i feel having a separate stat that defines critical hits kind of covers the additional damage through cleverness. In addition to the above I would suggest that a lot of the intelligence defining physical damage in a tactical combat cRPG comes from the tactics themselves and therefore the player. Again without trying to be too semantic all stats are inherently arbitrary, now using a Sherlock metaphor for intelligence: 20/20 Perception = Incredible powers of deduction, ability to infer things using any of the 5 senses that others could not. 20/20 Wisdom/Memory = Photographic catalog like memory. 20/20 Intellect = Ability to join the dots, linking seemingly unrelated events/facts to produce a full picture. 01/20 Charasma = Sociopathic tendencies, unable to properly emphasize with other people or fully understand their motivations. Don't really know what point I'm making above anymore other than that Intelligence is already a pretty broad thing without throwing physical damage/strength in there aswel, that and the fact that Sherlock is awesome lol. Again sorry for accusing you of being argumentative, hopefully there can be more reasoned debate and some kind of middle ground can be found (not that it'll necessarily affect anything) but it is interesting to read the views of people in support of combined damage as i have to admit I really find it quite jarring.