Katarack21

Then do that. Achievements don't force you to do anything. That's all your choices, not the big bad achievement's bullying you into messing up your playing.

I'm sure at least a few of them have.

or you could just pre-install the game, get fast food, and sit on your chair rocking back and forth in anticipation for 30 minutes. That's basically just another Thursday at my place.

It's really pretty common for companions to have abilities, backgrounds, and even races that you can't yourself play. In BG I, you could not be a Drow, nor could you be a Beserker--but Viconia and Minsc are those things. You can't play an Avarial in BG II, but Aerie is a thing. You can't be a droid, nor a Wookie, in KOTOR, but your droid companion is awesome (TWO droid companions in KOTOR 2!)...and your Wookie companion exists. Etc, etc. It's less about a special snowflake and more about making your companions interesting and varied and representative of a wider world.

Just to make it clear, the whole "buying a license and not actually owning a game" thing is a direct result of the DMCA; it exists because of extensive work by major software companies as a way to control buying habits and force larger profit margins. The need to purchase two copies is a direct result of this corporate greed; it wasn't always like that.

I assume that the Godlike we get to play are the most common Godlikes that show up, but that there are one-off Godlikes who are thought to be "touched" by a specific god here or there. Again, just my assumption. Could be dead wrong.

I've already informed my fiance she might not see me for two days baring forays for tea. I doubt the forums will be higher in priority, with the possible exception of looking for help with a specific quest or something.

It's not that we can't stop, it's that we really, really don't care, and can fully understand that people are making a perfectly understandable and entirely forgiveable mistake without losing our **** over it. If you dont care, then stop assuming and go back to hunting penguins or what do you eat in Denmark. Now you see, everything I know about Denmark comes entirely from pastries and archaic plays. *That's* how you stereotype.

I can assure you, Russian is a Slavic language.

I, for one, welcome my new console overlords.

I guess the common stereotype is to assume all foreign language as Russian. Its actually Polish. Doesn't have anything to do with a stereotype. They're both Slavic languages; to somebody who doesn't speak them, they can sound very similar. That's all there is to that mistake. Not "oh sometimes someone could mix slavic languages". Everytime, every single it must be Russian! No excuses! Or they wont stop it. Rant off. Because Russian is the Slavic language most people have exposure to. It's literally just pattern recognition; if you don't speak a Slavic language, any Slavic language you hear is likely to resemble the one you've heard the most. For the same reason, people who hear real Old English spoken tend to assume it's German. People who don't speak Spanish and hear Portuguese often assume it's Spanish, for the same reason. This exact issue is common with languages of similar families when exposed to people who do not speak those languages. All I'm saying is you don't have to make the leap to people using stereotypes or being jerks or anything. This issue is perfectly normal and perfectly natural; it has nothing to do with anything.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do an LP at this stage - my focus will be on trying to help improve reception and the best way I can do that is to make a comprehensive beginner guide, so that when the game unlocks for everyone, there's something that people can watch to help them understand how things work / how to play. While I'm sure you will produce some useful or maybe even good/great content, I am very curious why you have this opportunity? If you have indeed signed a non-disclosure agreement and/or simply will not comment further, I will confess to being rather disgusted. You're disgusted? What have you done for this game? So you backed the game. You got the game for under half price. How does that entitle you to getting it early? I can't stand Sensuki most of the time, but he's done a lot for this game, you can see that for yourself if you look through these forums. I disagree with a lot--and I mean a LOT--of the things Sensuki has to say. That being said, he's done a hell of a lot for this game--almost enough to be an honorary dev with the sheer amount of bugs he's pointed out, if nothing else. Not to mention if he signed an NDA, he literally is not legally allowed to say anything. Being disgusted because he's refusing to break a contract is kind of dumb.

Not all of them. I've heard that John Carmack, person-to-person-like, is a ****. Doesn't mean he's not brilliant, he just has the same thing going on as Trent Reznor or Maynard Keenan in that he's good, he knows he's good, and he's a **** about it.

Well, what you say here and what I heard from Josh in the interview on twitch, reminded me of the following question I had - in the twitch stream I heard that dialogue with a temporary npc I will have in the beginning of the game is used to set up my character's biography prior to the beginning of the events in the game. Back when I watched the Jesse Cox stream, where this dialogue was shown, I thought that I would rather not be completely honest about my past with a stranger. Yesterday I learned that if I had roleplayed in this way, this would have set up a biography I actually don't want my character to have. I know this isn't an issue now that I know about it, and also that I should bear the need to be honest with an npc I will have only for a short time (a fact which an unprepared player would not know on his first playthrough), but it's still a conflict between roleplaying and game mechanics requirements. That's a good point. You have to be a super honest chap for the purpose of creating your biography? It would be kind of ironic if you wanted to roleplay a mysterious, shady thief type... But I guess when you straight out lie in these games, it usually literally says "lie" in brackets... everything else we must accept as the truth. I was thinking about playing a former slave who is running from their past--my idea was to refuse to discuss my slave past during the biography, answer the other questions honestly, and slowly reveal my past to my companions over time as I'm forced to confront various issues and concepts over the course of the game. Now that I saw the stream the other day, I'm not sure any more if this is a viable roleplaying path.

I'm curious how it all works. I know you can't say much around the NDA, I'm just wondering what impact the embargo has exactly. Can you install and play your press copy? Or will it not open up for the press to play until the 23rd, when the stream embargo is partially lifted?

I guess the common stereotype is to assume all foreign language as Russian. Its actually Polish. Doesn't have anything to do with a stereotype. They're both Slavic languages; to somebody who doesn't speak them, they can sound very similar. That's all there is to that mistake.

That's not the impression I've been getting, but I'll judge when I get to see it. I've been under the impression that it's designed around the picking up of tons of loot and the putting into the stash of most things; the idea is that you make potions, make scrolls, do enchantments, sell stuff, etc. at the stronghold, town, or camp. Like in a D&D game, where at the end of your play session the DM let's you go back to town to rest and offload. I'm glad I won't have to leave loot all over the ground because I don't have the perfect mix of character stats to get the right amount of weight capacity. Inventory management was never something I wanted to be doing anyway.

It's review copies. Review copies always go out ahead of release, so they can have big-name reviews on Day 1 to help boost sails. It's just marketing ploys, which will help to ensure the success of the game and thus the creation of expansions/sequels. Don't sweat it.

In Pillars of Eternity, you have an infinite stash that is accessible from everywhere The removing-from-stash-anywhere thing is toggable, isn't it?

I will read every single word of every single lore item I find, from beginning to end, before moving on from the container where they were found.

I did. I'll get back to you when you cut the douchebaggery down.

It may be an intelligent decision to explore that area; it may not be. If I'm not presented with any information about that area I can't know. Going on what your implying, I'd never leave the first screen after finding the gibberlings on the road, would I? No, you'd go to the Friendly Arm Inn, because that's where Gorion told you to go if you got separated. Then you get information about the Nashkel Mines, and you go there. At that point you should know that wherever you go, there are considerable dangers, and you should act accordingly. At no point does the game tell you that it's safe to roam the wilderness. If you act on the information you are given in the game, there is no reason why you should be up there until you are made aware of the risk you are taking. If you only go to the places that are mentioned specifically in the main plot, you will also miss out on roughly half the game experience. I'm not saying I need to be lead along by hand like a frightened child; I'm saying I want to be able to make choices about the dangers I face to some extent. When something comes up out of nowhere, with no context and no prior build up, and just slaughters my entire party because I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time it doesn't make me think "Oh, wow, how realistic!" it makes think "****, that son of a bitch! Where the hell did that bull**** come from! ****! **** this thing! That's half an hour down the drain!"

Same applies for the ankhegs. Not really.

It may be an intelligent decision to explore that area; it may not be. If I'm not presented with any information about that area I can't know. Going on what your implying, I'd never leave the first screen after finding the gibberlings on the road, would I? Look, this isn't very complicated. I just want enough information so that when something happens I can feel like it was a result of a choice I made, whether that's good or bad, and not just me getting ****ed by random chance or a snickering jerk of a DM. This isn't some grand complex of deep meaning and hidden insults; it's really very simple.

Remember though that some spells have cone-like area of effect or line ahead of the caster area of effect - so each time you'd like to cast those you'd have to reposition not to damage your companions in the process - so i'm thinking that either actively searching for good place ranged cipher or close range cipher flanking the enemy are way to go. What do you think about this? I'm not sure. Having not played the BB, I don't know for positive how the engagement system works; if I'm behind a melee tank, and the melee tank is fighting a spider while I poke over the tank with my pike at the spider, then am I still "engaged" with the spider though I'm not on the front line? If I move off to reposition myself for a specific spell, will the spider get a disengagement attack on me? There's also the fact of having multiple weapon sets to carry around; you get two, right? I'd carry a reach weapon and a ranged weapon, so I could alter depending on the layout and the enemies. Sometimes I might want to be in the mid-back, poking with my pike and casting buffs/single target attacks; other times I might want to be more mobile, using a ranged weapon and AoE spells to attack different targets from different angles and positions. Spell selection is always important; you want to make sure you have a decent mixture of AoE and single-target as you can get so have the options open for different situations. Sometimes you want to cone-blast groups; other times you want to single-target somebody who is surrounded by three of your melee party members. Of course this is all theory; in reality my first cipher is going to be up in peoples faces with a hatchet and a stiletto, because I want to play a specific role.