Gorth

I thought it was the most cruel and unusual punishment they could inflict on Breivik in the absence of a death penalty.

Depends on the number of arms available for the various races.

Bah, my gelatinous cube protagonist won't need armour, I'll just wobble and then cover you in corrosive acid. Yeah, I won't need swords either! Obviously I'm joking, but it could be interesting to see something other than biped characters. Heck, a banshee or an invisible friend would be a nice change.

What?

That is only until your '@' runs into a vicious 'C' with a venomous bite or a bunch of 'k's ganging up on you... I don't know what the system requirements could possibly be, but I suppose checking out other games/projects that have progressed further down the path of using the Unity engine may give some pointers. As for the money and what they get from it? Dunno. Maybe they had planned for a relatively basic game to introduce the settings and the mechanics and then anything extra would add content. No idea what reasoning or plans were behind the numbers. Edit: It's 1.9m now

I can understand your line of reasoning. Consider this though, they have to come up with some kind of personality, plot hooks, story etc. for companions. If it fits the story, they might as well include a bit of intimacy in the relationship. Not necessarily "Nice dress, let's have sex", but the kind you would find in say, PS:T where there is "something" between Grace and the player. Sometimes a hint or subtle tension can be a great substitute for the more ham-fisted attempts.

I remember playing the first one a long time ago... Once you got used to the Alien's perspective it became very fun to play. Sucked to be a marine though. Life expectancy was predictably short

Well, females and dudes with too much estrogen. No difference. I would suspect young males with too much testosterone, too little social skills, and a need for back patting and instant gratification to be the loudest group. But as said above, the only ones I know of that has systematically analysed behaviour is Bioware and they are unlikely to share their numbers.

Yeah, browsing through PS:T's data files with NearInfinity was almost educational. Both in how your own alignment changed (seriously, is teasing Morte really a chaotic act???), and how you had to break down your companions "barriers" (wasn't that variable called fortress_something?), to get them to improve their stats and abilities. By all means, get rid of the obvious messages and numbers, but some kind of feedback would be nice and not completely unrealistic. Depending on circumstance, feedback on whether people approve or disapprove of your actions can be non-existant, subtle, obvious or rather physical (from a punch to a kiss). Get rid of the numbers though, show - don't tell.

Depends. Perhaps not modern Bioware style, but from what I remember most of the people writing BGII romance mods were women. Well, they seemed like women. This is the internet after all. Of course, that probably can be ascribed to the general difference in preference for porn between men and women. It would be interesting to get one's hands on all the data that Bioware mined while people were playing. They probably have a decent idea of what their "target group" is, both gender and age-wise.

I would be very surprised if the female half of the population were the loudest proponents for "romances" in crpgs.

Hey, that was *my* cookie! Anyway, it looks like people have had a chance to let off a bit of steam. Nothing wrong with the subject itself though, but it's "usefulness" for PE seems to have run its course. Feel free to create a new thread in WoT though to discuss sexism/chauvinism/etc. if people still feel they have something to add to the subject.

Got a lot of my GoG games installed. Started a game of Icewind Dale. I really just wanted to try it out... then I made it to Kuldahar. Now i have to finish that game. Also got Startopia installed, so I can give that one a try.

Sorry to hear that Hurlshot. Uncertainty is never pleasant. Hoping for the best

You can easily have sex without romances being involved. You can also have romances without sex being involved. I think the latter is where most of Obsidian's past coverage of the subject has gone (with the possible exception of NWN2 with the tacky Elf stalker "romance", which felt completely out of place).

My *preferred* list of classes (we don't know if people can multi or dual class yet): Torturer - Somebody who specialises in inflicting pain, breaking or crippling souls. Specialises in techniques that disables opponents and renders them cooperative Highway man - Your basic thug, that clubs people over the head and takes their valuables. Mediocre in a fight, but damn the dropped loot is good Scholar - Somebody with almost supernatural prescience, able to analyse, evaluate and anticipate things because of a wast repository of knowledge. Somebody who can have a conversation with most people, commoners and nobles alike Hunter - Somebody who specialises in ranged combat and traps. He/she can subsist of the land and don't really need all the frilly bits you can get in cities. Pretty good at maintaining non-metal armor and weapons Smith/Artisan - Somebody who can make just about anything out of metals. The best equipped fighter (not necessarily the best fighter) around. Plate's got a dent? He'll fix it and embellish it with a protective rune to boot Missionary - A zealot that wants your soul for his/her deity. No trick too cheap, no method too brutal. Also pretty good at the soul healing stuff, as long as you are on his/her good side. Just some ideas, trying to explain my line of thinking. Some may be similar to archetypes, yet trying to adapt them to a new setting and free them a bit from moral values.

And gnomes. Don't forget to hate gnomes. I've had an unreasoning dislike of gnomes ever since Jan Jansen. Death to gnomes in all universes!!! I like the idea of centaurs. They are a classic, yet somewhat underutilised in various settings. Of course, the misogynist in my would rather see a female only dryads race, that abducts human males for procreation, even if all they leave behind is shriveled husks that serves as fertiliser for the forest (it's a "fantasy" setting, right?). Never mind their physical looks and attributes, but I like the idea of "hive minds", where ruling castes control the "drones" with pheromones and other subtle signals. Could look like squid for all I care. Maybe something along a similar vein of Cranium Rats from PS:T, the more there are, the smarter the group is?

I've yet to see a video game capture the personality of J.R. Ewing. Larry Hagman was awesome as the villain you loved to hate, hated to love, or something in between. The guy was oozing charisma while ripping off people (or cheating on them, or whatever).

I belong to the school of "when appropriate". A scroll of gnomicide doesn't mean an area stays devoid of gnomes forever (unfortunately), but respawn rates and common sense plays a big role. If I clear out a dead end tunnel, I get pissed off when jumped by critters, when simple logic dictates that they can only have come through a developer having decided to spawn them, not because the locale in any rational way could have caused them to be there. If I leave the tunnel and come back a month after, no problem with the logic if new critters have settled in.

Slaves? Just give me some serfs that I can sacrifice on the field of battle... and on the fields of crops when saving up for the next battle.

For those new to the community, we traditionally close threads at some semi-arbitrary point after the 500th post and create a successor thread. Not because there was necessarily something wrong with the current one. For those who wish to continue the discussion, more romance thread this way

Start of old thread End of old thread Share the love Oh, and try to keep it civil.

Talk about a blast from the past I saw somebody mention Temple of Apshai previously. Reminds me that I never got the second expansion (Curse of Ra?).

Yet it is hard not to think that at least the dream of putting up such an MMO with the popularity of the Kotor name and Lucas Arts backing it with the Star Wars name was one of the motivators for EA's bid on the company. If you look at how EA otherwise runs their business, something like Bioware fits like a foot in a glove. Long production times, niche target groups (compared to EA's other franchises), deliberately leaving out multiplayer of their research into NWN numbers etc. Suddenly they have to release games on a regular schedule and shoehorn in multiplayer, have to appeal to ever broader target groups etc. Personally, I still think it was the dream of creating a Star Wars MMO money machine that was at least a significant factor. Besides, I think Raithe might have been on to something with the 5 years thing. Not sure that EA actually let them go, but they might have had a clause that required them to stay with Bioware for at least 5 years after the take over to insure stability. Not uncommon in the corporate world.

I just downloaded the beta version of 'Conquistador' (which I backed with $100, Wasteland 2 got $265 for those who are curious). Looking forward to install and try out when getting home from work today. Yeah, I know, it was made available several days ago, but time *is* a premium commodity these days