Gorth

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

Very interesting reading... you should post that in a thread of it's own I've often taken the unpopular stance in discussions that we should not focus our efforts on fighting mortality rates, rather that we should be fighting birthrates. I.e. fight the cause and not the symptom.

I was beginning to think I was the only person in the world who remembered that game. Mike Singleton was a genius

Off the scale. Lords of Midnight

I have faith in their hatred of romances. Whatever it's going to be, I doubt it will be traditional or dull.

That, and how you got an abode that matched your class/status with the Camarilla (sp?). I played first as a Malkavian and a Toreadorian fop, getting the "nice", appartment. Then as a Tremere, getting something different and finally as a Nosferatu, not even getting a functional TV Mind you, the Nosferatu playthrough was my favourite of the bunch.

Ex-European.

No EXP for just killing, according to the video by Tim Cain. Even better

...or just a rat tail large enough to use as a rope I generally dislike the idea of slain opponents "dropping loot". Sure, they may have the odd scrap of metal or strip of leather that can be used after I'm done bashing them, spraying acid at them and then having my esteemed companions fry, freeze, puncture and petrify them. So yeah, I'm of the school that thinks enemies are more important for the experience and whatever they were blocking access to (and possible the odd recycle resource in rare instances).

You're welcome

Meh, I loved how it was done in VMBL. Of course, you didn't have companions to deal with, so send those squatters down to the inn and tell them to get a room.

My bad, I confused him with the Ithorian assistant, silly Star Wars names I seem to remember the trigger for that dialogue is the Czerka guy (the unhappy one) in the Cantina. If pressed on what he finds wrong with current management, you can steer the conversation towards how to find some dirt on Czerka.

It could also be that the choice heavily influenced the Linux support, as Unity seems to come with Linux support "out of the box", so the work of porting it is trivial (compared to some other optional expenses). Those who know may be able to figure out how mod friendly the engine is, which would if not provide an answer, at least give a pointer towards moddability. As somebody who has English as his third language, I couldn't care less about multilanguage, as I prefer my games in their original language anyway (yes, I played The Witcher with English subtitles, once I found out that it was an option).

There is a guy (who gets blackmailed by the exchange) in one of the rooms at the far end of one of the habitats, who sells droid parts. One of the steps involves getting droid "credentials" from him, so you can convince B4, that he has to follow you. I think it's mentioned in one of the conversations along the way. Have the Czerka mercenaries attacked the Ithorian compound yet?

I found my old FO:NV saves The sneaky bastards were hiding out in a different folder in Documents and Settings. Who would have thought to look in "My Games"??? Anyway, heading off to Lonesome Road soon.