Messier-31

Messy review, get it? 'Cause I am Messier-31, get it? No? *cough* Could've just written "out of this world review", 'cause Messier-31 is the Andromeda Galaxy... So, anyway! I finished the Crägholdt Bluffs recently and decided to share some loose thoughts with you gals and guys. As you probably know by now, once your main character get his/hers very own stronghold there will be a new quest given to you by the Stewart. It seems there is some ruckus going on near Caed Nua, so it would be wise to investigate, since there is no telling if the Torn Bannermen responsible for this mayhem wont come knocking to your door once they are finished in Crägholdt Bluffs. "True dat", said The Watcher and thus the new adventrure started... Hey there, neighbour. You wouldn't have a cup o' sugar to spare, would you? The location you are supposed to investigate is right next door to your hold. Talking about convenience. Wait, does it mean the world famous super wizard Concelhaut is living next to me? Don't get me wrong, I wanted to fill that blank space of the map since the realease of the game, but putting another small wilderness area between would be nice. I mean, there's the Château Raedric a few blocks away, why them locations are so thoroughly packed next to each other? And talking about today's neighbours, what a bunch of stiff people... Moving on, once you get to the place there is a can of whoop-ass to be opened, as the entire location is filled with the soldiers of the Torn Bannermen. They are mercenaries hired by someone to get the magical phylactery out of Concelhaut's hands. And yes, they got orders to kill on sight anyone who appraches tchem - luckily it means you too, so you get a level of the game that is probably an excuse to throw some more challenging fights at you. These fellas been so overwhelmed with the siege that they just stand still in place doing nothing, simply waiting for interrupting adventurers to come by. I respect that people like and want to have tough fights and all. But there is literally no other way than to kill everyone. No diplomacy, no bribing, no threatening... and even if there are some conversation options that try give the feeling that there are in fact options - nope - it ends in a fight. But you know, I understand. This is a war zone, so there might not be time to talk and shake hands. Sadly though, when I asked the leader of the Torn Bannermen if we could help eachother, he simply said that not now, since I slaughtered his soldiers while entering the area. If only I could do otherwise, sir. Now hand over this armor of yours, I fancy it. So we have a war zone with kill first, ask questions later policy. But why there is no fighting going on, other than my party? Do you remember Defiance Bay in chaos after the assasination took place in ducal palace? There was a lot of fighting going on between everbody there. But this fearsome siege seems like a phony war in 1939, when the English and the French declared war on Nazi Germany and, well, did the exact same thing as the Torn Bannermen - nothing. Do they even lift, bro? Where do you buy these glowing rune floor tiles? They're fantabulous! Once you get inside the complex you may rest a little, because characters inhabiting it are a little more chatty then the furious mercenaries outside. Great thing about it is that finally you don't have to kill everybody. Interacting with Concelhauts apprentices is a nice thing for a change. After talking and/or stabbing them it is time to get that autograph from Concelhaut. Remember? Famous for spells he invented. There is a riddle to solve in order to get further but to be honest this is just a "click-it-for-so-long-until-it-opens" because giving the wrong anserws simply starts the whole quizshow from the start. Concelhauts himself is a bitching boss, that didn't even care about some noobs laying siege outside. He was only interested in you, so he could have a soul of the Watcher for himself. Talking about predictable. All this fuss, and all you get for defeating him is a lousy pet, reminiscing Morte from Planescape: Torment. Oh, well, Eder likes pets, so maybe this one will have his attention too. Maybe, maybe not... I mean it is not so fluffly after all. But at least the Torn Bannermen do not threaten the Caed Nua any longer, m'right? Wrong. There was never such a threat in the first place Concelhaut didn't give two sh*ts about their army. The siege could take as long as they would want, and sooner or later these guys would have forfeit and scatter. But what really bugs me is that our batallion of 6 (six!) people was better in infiltrating the wizards fortress, killing everyone in the besieging army, killing everyone (or almost everyone) inside that wizard tower, and survived to tell the tale. Sure, you are the hero, but some lousy mercenaries and archwizards are these days, huh? + the golden armor + tough fights - nothing more than fights - end boss' agenda could be handled better My personal overall rating: 6/10

"WEAK" in English is translated to "DEBIL" in Spanish, which means something alongside "RETARDED" or "IDIOT" in Polish. What an idiotic retarded pistol you got there.

Main screen with NEW GAME, LOAD GAME, etc. in the bottom-left corner. Bottom-right corner tells you which parts of the game are installed (Base, WM-1, WM-2).

Good question - unfortunately there is little info on that matter... _____________________________________________________________ Source: http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=9733

Chris did write Durance in a different manner from what you see in game. For some reason devs decided to cut a lot of his ideas...

Seriously, Bethesda should give their rights to Fallout franchise away to Obsidian and apologize for what they did with the series.

Was thinking the exact same thing with The Master Below.

Ugh. That IWD2 pic always bothered me. Look REALLY close at the hand on the staff. It's wrong. How? It's a right hand, not a left hand. But her right arm is in her LAP, so how can the right hand be at shoulder height? Love that portrait too, always used it in IwD. Also she shouldn't be sitting on a rock like that, she might catch a cold. I totally agree with the OP. More hair colours would be nice. There are dyes in Eora, so there might be a huge variety of hair colours for the characters. I also thought about more skin tones, but I guess this may be lore-restricted to their ethnicities.

So true. Plus, I always figured that this companion should've been Cadegund.

Patch 3.01 has like 12 MB. Galaxy is downloading like 7 GB. What gives?

This ain't no option to toggle but I wonder... Why there are no characters sitting inside inns? Lord Raedrics sits on his throne since 1.0, so does The Watcher sit in Caed Nua since 3.0 so why nobody is sitting in them inns - they just stand there, like it would be the best thing to do while drinking ale. Some characters were sitting in Baldur's Gate, so maybe in Pillars of Eternity this could happen too. I mean, there are already two characters doing that, but could be more. The latest medical studies prove that sitting is not best position for your spine, I know. It is important to understand that back pain is a symptom of a medical condition, not a diagnosis itself and there should be more standing, lying down. But I think people in Eora don't know that yet. TL;DR Sitting characters, anyone?

I have a different problem. I'm somehwere in the middle of Act 3, and in my entire playthrough I had literally 2 characters that I could throw into my dungeon. One from the base game, one from the WM part 1. Where is the rest?

And I thought that the limit in Story Time is 99. Which brings me to this question: what will happen if I have the max quantity of camping supplies and then change my difficulty level to higher? Surplus simply vanishes?

Forsooth, methinks this ain't no ordinary chicken.

Yeah, so I just gave up and got myself GOG Galaxy to do the patching by itself. Didn't want to do it, but saves me the nerves.

In my opinion "Ondra's Gift" is the best one while "Caed Nua" is the worst. Justin Bell, you ring the bell (popular idiom gone wrong)

It seems that I will try out Story Time at some point - its getting harder and harder to find time for playing these days. Thanks, Obids

The end.

Question: I'm pretty far in the story - in Twin Elms. Will I get a chance to see the new stronghold content without starting a new game?

I don't want to rail, but this seems to be less and less possible since CA's departure...

Yeah, no, I'm somewhat waiting for this to end the game for my very first time. Got the I part of White March behind me, level cap reached, so the Craghold and the last few things to do in Twin Elms are post-poned for part II of the expansion. The wait is almost over... and it feels like 2012 Kickstarter campaing was merely a few weeks ago. Them feels.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vancian What?

The best way to improve dramatically the stronghold is to remove it in its entirety. More working hours could've been spent on other aspects of the game. A player house aka hideout would be good enough.

Spoiler free workaround: Stuff happens to that person from the place with the things. No need to thank me.