Gorth

Let them eat experience points... If you want to put a serious strain on your soul (which presumably powers "magic"), let it come at a cost that cripples magic wielders that are over reliant on their "gifts". I seem to remember some different approaches in one of the updates, like rituals and flesh mortification to wring out that extra energy of your soul. Wouldn't be surprise me if they came up with not one, but several alternatives to fuel such stuff coming with different downsides, depending on your chose flavour of magic.

My preferred option too. I like that "hoarding" ammo comes at a consequence (i.e. you have to give up something else in your inventory). It makes you pick your targets and you are not completely defenseless if you run out (assuming you keep at least some kind of melee weapon on you).

I lost plenty, but then I didn't have the familiarity with D&D that some seems to have Yeah, I worked out the spell immunity abjuration for myself, as I did using the ring of the ram (which Kangaxx for weird reasons was not immune to at all) and barbarian rage seems to negate the imprisonment as well (although Minsc for other strange reasons didn't seem to have the same kind of rage, him still getting imprisoned) and then just whack away with the few +5 weapons you've got in your arsenal. Easy enough when you know how, but for the uninitiated there is/was some trial and error involved

Interesting At least I could make basic assumptions about the respective enemies "deadliness".

F:NV used Level-Scaling Which brings us back to: We have no specifics on how exactly it's used and people are automatically assuming their worst nightmare here. Quoting this for the new page to let Gorth see it. It did? It sure fooled me. I found the deathclaws damn near invincible until I came back later. How was it implemented then (genuinely curious) as I felt it was more an "area" difficulty than meeting first whimpy deathclaws and then later deathclaws from hell in the same area.

Nah, just not omnipresent. We actually like to read and post a bit too in between. Existing thread on the subject here

As mentioned in a different thread, level scaling sucks. I took great pleasure in getting back at the deathclaws in FO:NV when I was finally strong enough to survive and explore Quarry Junction (let's forget that I then crawled up on top of the heavy machinery, fell down and killed myself in the fall).

Hey, sounds not too different from software projects I always suspected that it was a lifestyle choice...

Easy. Let's think about unusual forest dwarves. Men are fishermen and woodworkers, while women are hunters and warriors. It just historically happened to be so. And now your male character meets them for the first time. Dwarven women laugh you off, since a man carrying a sword is stupid and a farce to them, they are sure that a man simply isn't capable of warfare. And dwarven males outright disrespect you for "lowering yourself to brutish fighting", instead of being a true craftmaster and devoting yourself to creation like all men in their opinion should. Isn't that just the real world stereotype with gender roles reversed? Many cultures have had gender "typical" roles over the millennia, from Vestal Virgins to male cannon fodder on the fields of battle. Since there are only two genders (in most cases), it sorts of limits the choice of assignment to a binary choice unlike say, races where if you have 10 races and maybe 30 subclasses, you can much better assign various stereotypical biases and prejudices. Personally, I'm in favour of the "Celtic model" where gender mattered way less than individual prowess when it came to roles. But that is just my particular taste/opinion, doesn't make it right or wrong

I prefer the way it was handled in FO:NV. All I'm going to say about level scaling (because I hate it). It is interesting to see what gets people all riled up though, as you can sort of shortlist it on 5-6 subjects that brings out the worst (and most passionate) in people. Favourite contenders so far are romances, camera perspective, turnbased/rtwp, vancian/cooldown and level scaling.

A: How do you save a Gnome from drowning? B: I don't know... A: Good! Something like that? Or that elves steal babies and use them to fuel their sinister, evil rituals. Never ask a Dwarf to hold your wallet if it has any gold in it. Typical racial prejudices. Not sure anything similar could work well with genders though (not without just parroting real world issues and resorting to common stereotypes).

I tried to do the math with one of the popular threads (Romance tread #712 RIP) and arrived at the streamlined number 0.6% (backers participating in the poll). Assuming that this was the approx. max participation level of backers vs. active posters (being generous because it takes no commitment to vote in a poll), I found it encouraging that the 94.6% other backers had the sense to not hang out on video game forums.

Would make excellent material for a Warhammer Fantasy/40K game. Slaaneshi cultists are not above a bit of ritual virgin sacrifice, but so far we know next to nothing about PE's setting, cultures or "Darkness" levels.

Seems like people didn't get the hint and civil discussion is impossible.

Could also work the other way around in matriarchal society (think D&D drow). You better grovel good or your balls ends up on the dinner plate, then go back to work the fields for food production. Alternatively it could be completely irrelevant. For some interesting stuff, check up on Celtic history and culture. Both sexes were warriors, merchants, rulers etc. Interesting people the Celts.

With old school rpg's seems to come old school temper tantrums. I'm not sure it's much different from the old BIS/Interplay boards (I wasn't around on the old BIS boards, following stuff on UseNet instead)?

Time to lay off the personal insults or this thread joins the romance threads... just a friendly hint.

While I can't say they were bad games, they just weren't RE. It's like buying vanilla ice cream only to open it up and find it's chocolate.(And in this hypothetical example, I'm allergic to chocolate) http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stainlessgames/carmageddon-reincarnation I know. Didn't remember to check it before it expired. Good to see it got some funding. Still waiting for it to be finished though

Thread reached retirement age... more news here

Start of old thread End of old thread I'm fairly sure I bought one of those newer Resident Evil games (the action kind, not the survival horror kind) on Gamersgate once when it was on a dirt cheap sale. Maybe I should give it a try some day. Still waiting for a new Carmageddon

Most recent PC's are probably going to be overkill for the Infinity Engine games. Not so mention the huge pixels on a 42". I mean, I find IWD2 in 800x600 on my 30" monitor to be "large pixels" Good on you though, it's always nice to have something runs games and programs you like rather than being limited to run what your hardware allows you to run

Isn't it just a matter of the "scale"? If it is obvious "dark" or "light" (see above comment about selfish etc.) it's just a choice between more extreme endpoints than choosing something that is of less consequence to You (although the consequences of others affected by your choice may vary). If I'm a genocidal xenophobe, choosing to eradicating all gnomes might be the obvious "light" choice because it makes the world a better place. If the choice is to eradicate all gnomes OR eradicate all elves, it becomes muddled and a "grey" choice. Of course, if I'm partial to pointy eared tree huggers and obnoxious vertically challenged demi humans, I might find it a hard choice. Sort of hard to find a set of choices between alternatives that provides a "challenge" for all players. Chances are it's going to be hit and miss every now and then despite best intentions.

Good and evil is sort of a matter of perspective, isn't it? Like real life, it gets down to choices about being selfish or altruistic, empathic or sociopath, strong or despondent, brave or coward, proactive or apathetic etc. What you consider right according to your values is "good", what you consider wrong is "evil". Just my $0.25

Wrecked my game of Icewind Dale. I made it to Lonelywood (HoW expansion) and thought I would "swap out" two of my team members. Deleted two members, created two new ones and wanted to give them approximately the same exp. as the dismissed members. Couldn't get the console commands to work (yes, I know it's case sensitive) and thought hey, that's what Dalekeeper is for. Turned out to be a bad idea as it messed up my party completely. I now have three Gorth's which are 3 three different classes but with Gorth's (a paladin) stats and skills. No wonder my thief couldn't lockpick anything Of course my previous saves are now also overwritten, so I guess it's time to play Icewind Dale 2.

Sparkling stuff just doesn't belong in a vampire setting >_