Gorth

It started out as a vague hope Stranger things have happened in the real world. Mighty men and woman have fallen, principles forgotten, oaths ignored etc. when people start thinking with their hormones and thought and reason starts dribbling out through a small hole in the bottom of peoples skulls

Having visited both rainforests and deserts, I *can* think of a few cultural reasons why barbarians might not want to wear too much body armour as a rule of thumb. Besides, it does indeed look more impressive when giving in to rage and you start tearing your flimsy deer skin toga apart Hulk Hogan style Besides, vikings were sort of archetypical barbarians. Wouldn't want too much armour pulling you down if you are a sea faring people. I didn't really meant anything like that, I wouldn't want to level armor either (unless it was intelligent armor ). A bit like the stealth suit in Old World Blues

Executing your predecessor and grab power for yourself, shelling a few villages in the process when they wont march to the new tune?

Sounds a bit like Class Bonus Feat (Barbarian): Armour Specialisation: Hide Armour - "Your warrior feels more at ease in dead animal skins and receive xyz bonus to protection"

The more satellites you have operational, the greater your monthly income. They also reduce panic levels, which is nice. I built a new power plant after discovering that power was a limiting factor, and I wish I had the resources for a satellite nexus thing, but for now I think I just have to settle for a simple two satellite hub. Damn network congestion Trying to plan a bit ahead too, so my facilities ends up next to each other for the added efficiency.

You need to shout a bit louder, I don't think GW can hear you over in Nottingham I'm probably an oddity, because I don't really like a lot of loot in my games. I would love just for once to play a game where finding enough funds to upgrade my rusty shortsword to a shiny new longsword (with a pommel gem!) felt like something worth celebrating at the local tavern. Same thing for armours. Rather than an overabundance of types and making it hard to chose what to wear (that sounded all wrong?), let me refine and customize what I wear. Nice chainmail. Maybe add a bit of padding, some pauldrons and a fire retardant paint job? It's still my favourite old chainmail which I named after taking it off some baddies dead body and adjusted the length.

At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, I would love the initial types to remain viable. Please, no silly +1 modifiers. I liked the 'Quality Longsword' etc. from IWD. Besides quality of craftmanship, make material a factor? I.e. if my barbarian starts out wearing elf-hide armour, he might later be able to upgrade/replace it with troll-hide armour which has some self-repairing qualities (or whatever, just making up silly examples). It's still visually and functionally a hide armour.

I love that Bayeux tapestry

My IWD2 game has lost momentum after reaching Kuldahar. Not looking forward to Dragons Eye again, so I might just call it quits for now. Splitting my time between DA2 and XCOM instead (the latter taking IWD2's "slot" in my schedule instead). Played through the first number of missions and lost a sergeant, a veteran of 8 missions to an obscenely sneaky group of floaters all jumping and gunning him at once on a terror mission. I still have no feel for how the game balance work, juggling panic levels, income, expenses, base power supply etc. Probably one of those games that gets better with replays and familiarity

They could pretend that Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back were the only two movies ever made and then build on that

I love it, but we could only pick 7 Otherwise stuff like Sopranos, Rome, Monty Python and a lot, lot more would make it to my list.

Only strange if you consider "Syrians" his own. I could perfectly well imagine that he consider the Alawites "his own" and the Sunnis and Christians a necessary evil. Not too different from Libya where the conflict was between clans and regions (followers of the Senussis versus whatever Gaddafi was). So yes, grey indeed. Not good vs. evil, just us vs. them power struggles, the rest of the world cheering from the sideline for their favourite horse in the race.

Yeah? That's what the Martians said too...

I probably should have added a bit of elaboration to the list, why I in particular like each series. Didn't think of that until afterwards. The downside to checking in on forums while at work

Heh, tough question. All Best of/Favourite lists are subject to change with 24 hours notice The ones I remember right now: Blakes 7 Star Trek The Avengers (the old tv series with Ian Hendry/Patrick Macnee/Diana Rigg/Honor Blackman etc.) Lexx M.A.S.H. Space 1999 Firefly Somewhat dominated by old sci-fi

I wouldn't mind becoming a perpetual student of whisky and micro breweries. Looks like we have veered into a different territory in general now, so I'm locking this (even though I loved the theme hospital version of the tropes). For those who hate DA2, there is an existing thread

Just to continue my thought experiment from a previous post in this thread, if you turn all dialogues into encounters, you could do away with the skills and make it attribute based. Sometimes people don't interpret what you are saying things the way you meant them. Even if you try the polite version of "Your offer is not acceptable", a weak individual may perceive it as intimidating or think you are bluffing (to use some D&D skill examples). If you are big and strong, most of your lines are probably going to come across as something backed by force. If you are the smart or wise type, most of your lines may be suave etc. It may end up as too simplified for some peoples taste and I haven't bothered to take some old IE games conversations and tried to "convert" them, but the idea is basically to use a few of your primary stats versus the other guys primary stats. You may look like Conan the Barbarian and may generally succeed in the bullying of npcs until you meet somebody bigger and badder than yourself. A lot of people may not respond well at all to intimidating behaviour and just withdraw without giving you any information. You would never have a [skillcheck] tag though, as it is part of your "nature" and how other critters respond to said nature. Not sure if I follow... if it has no consequence should the game care if you are truthful or not?

Existing Thread Interest disappeared a bit after the kickstarter.

You jest, right? Oh, I'm so funny... Never played the jester, but I did complete chapter 2 (didn't quite finish the game) as a bard. Mostly to play through the "Stronghold" bits which were worth it. I didn't bother with armour, but relied on defensive spells to see me through. Think of him as a fighter-mage or rather a fighter-sorcerer. If you can cast stoneskin, blur, fire shields and globes of invulnerability etc. you can survive a lot of hostility.

Oh, I think I did (if you mean the personal combat/duel thing). Never underestimate the power of Assassinate and Twin Fangs. Besides, he wanted to run away with Isabella. Wasn't quite willing to let her go yet, I enjoy her company too much So far, the two major detractors for the game (for me) is the dissing of the old combat/skill system and the asset recycling. On the other hand, I like the plot and story better in DA2 compared to DA:O, but then I was never the save the kingdom/universe kind of guy. Personal survival and climbing the social ladder is stuff I can relate to. Now, if I could just have the best of both worlds... The only thing I would wish for companion wise would be some more "manly" men besides Varric. Not because I share peoples fascination with his chest hair, but between the emo wizard, the goth elf and the whimpy priest running away from the responsibility of leadership, they are in a bit of short supply. Ah well, I suppose that's what 'Gorth' is there for I had one of those WTF moments previously when I was suddenly playing as Varric and the mansion where Bertram was hiding was full of thugs, just lining up to get killed in droves... until I realised I was part of the story

If we count the Deep Roads expedition and the Qunari trying to burn down the city as main plot parts, I would say I'm in the third part. Meredith has finally shown herself and asked me to pay her a visit. Been postponing that for a bit while dealing with the more esoteric stuff. Edit to add: Last activity was a very large dragon putting an end to the Gorth & Hubert Mining Co.

Well, that's the thing, unlike DA:O where I found Sten and Zevran had most of the interesting lines between them, the DA2 ones are pretty well balanced. I find myself constantly swapping party members because most of them has something amusing/interesting to say regardless how you pair them

Yeah, Kegs and Keg corpses. Probably the best we can hope for. That and alternative backgrounds for major changes (like the d'Arnise keep in BG2 if you get it as a restored stronghold). The only few games I've seen with proper destructible environments have been "tile based", where individual tiles on the map were easy to replace with their ruined counterparts. No large, pretty backgrounds, it was all about the mechanics.

Ah, thanks. I've never played Minecraft, heard a lot about it though.

[Charisma]"Vote Gorth for President!" I'm a bit in two minds about the issue. I don't like the obvious [tag] thing, but finding better solutions to what I would like to accomplish might not be feasible either. I liked that bit of Alpha Protocol where you added the inflection to your dialogue, but you can't really use what works in a quasi action game to an old school type crpg. You could then write up all combinations of dialogue choices, but if I had to chose between 15-20 options for a "Nice weather today, isn't it?" type dialogue it will make PS:T look like stenography by comparison. Maybe if every conversation was considered an "encounter" and every choice had a skill check? Walk up to a peasant and initiate dialoge: "Hello friend, nice weather today?" Since you are not trying to lie or threaten him, it would check your general speech skill and if failed, the peasant would respond with "No it isn't". If you rolled a critical fail behind the scenes, he would also punch you on your nose for suggesting such an outrageous thing. A contrived example and a peasant might not want to punch you if you are 3 meter tall and wearing dragon scale armour and wielding a claymore, but just an example of turning every dialogue and every choice into a skill test. No need for tags then, because you know every choice will be held up against your stat sheet. You are only going to have useful conversations if you can substantiate your POV with either skills or companions that can pitch in for you if they are better at something. Might not be a viable approach and too much work, but a fun thought experiment anyway