Archmage Silver

The fulfilment site will be online well before the game & goods ship, so you'll be able to change your details in time.

The Guns of Shadow Valley has 13 hours left to go and still needs 4.1k to hit a stretch goal.

Beta Backer sounds more like Beta Blocker.

They would, it wasn't uncommon for traveling mercenaries to be illiterate for example. A good point, and though I think most mercenary bands would have a fair number of literate individuals, it would be interesting to have an illiterate protagonist. Especially if he's equally intelligent and learned as the more traditionally taught members of the band, perhaps his memory is far superior because he's had to use mnemonics to absorb information rather than relying on the written word. This raises an interesting point, with the printing press not yet having been invented one assumes that books and writings are still massively expensive, and treated as treasures in their own right. Aristotle's comedies from the Name of the Rose automatically springs to mind, painstakingly hand written with elaborate illustrations in gold leaf, bound in finest calf skin with bronze fittings. A true relic. Edit: Is there a lingua franca in the Dyrwood region? I suppose it could be possible for some classes, e.g. barbarian, but there's no way (that I can see) to have something like that with learned characters like wizards, monks and priests et al., which makes it an impractical feature to implement IMHO. It would certainly present some interesting dialog options though! Comic Relief Character Class Conclusions, a Silver Short Story Merchant: We have an agreement. Now please sign this contract to protect my caravan and we're ready to go. Protagonist: I'll be right back, I'll just have to negotiate with my companions. Merchant: Very well, I'll wait here. ... Protagonist: Ok, you know I can't read, what does the contract say, is the merchant pulling a fast one on us? Barbarian: Can't read. Could shake him up to make sure he doesn't get any ideas? Protagonist: No, it's fine. You then? Ranger: Do you think I read books in the woods? It's enough trying to avoid all the beasts in there! Protagonist: Who can read this contract then? ... Can any one of you read at all? Fighter: Uhh... Rogue: Err... Barbarian: No. Ranger: That wizard fellow could... if only we hadn't left him in the last town passed out on too much ale. Barbarian: His pipe tobacco stank. Fighter: And his demands for compensation for helping with those trolls were outrageous! Rogue: We practically had to leave him there and make a hasty departure that night. Protagonist: Marvelous. What in the hells are we supposed to do now?! Barbarian: Just take the money off the merchant and make him eat this... paper. Rogue: All in favor? Ranger: Aye. Fighter: We'd have to skip town... let's go eat first. Protagonist: *sigh* Fine. But next time I'm just paying the wizard.

They would, it wasn't uncommon for traveling mercenaries to be illiterate for example.

The game needs some Golden Pantaloons.

RE: Random vs. static loot. Icewind Dale used both static loot and loot lists, I think it's the best system myself. Note that all the items on the loot lists were handmade. Dream: Obsidian completes the game on schedule Obsidian carries out their vision for the game Dread: jRPG influenced equipment Bad voice acting Obsidian hires Tim Schafer as a financial consultant

OT: You can install a YouTube auto replay add-on for your browser.

Realistic combat would be incredibly boring to me. A big, slow human fighter would get crushed by an ogre nine times out of ten.

You must gather your party before venturing forth.

Uhm... what? Some of us actually enjoy the tactical challenge, it has never been about proving anything for me. Just sayin'.

And slacker backer is still better than tardy patron and sloth pledger.

Heh, yeah, when I first got the card myself, all I could think of was "I have mail from China?". This does mean that the NSA will be keeping a closer eye on you from now on... Hardly matters to me here in Finland.

There are overclockable ones. I have a QNIX QX2710 PLS panel that overclocks to 1440p 120Hz, unfortunately it's damaged so I'm getting a warranty replacement. The screens are a bit hit and miss though (with backlight bleed and such). The Catleap 2B extreme ones are a safer buy but they are expensive. I'll probably end up waiting until I can get a GPU with decent 4K gaming performance, but without the Titan price tag. You'll be fine with HDMI 1.4b and high speed HDMI cable, that's the HDMI standard introduced for 4k and it should start showing up on motherboards soon enough! It's the equivalent of the DP1.2 controller. If you're satisfied with a 24Hz or max. 30Hz refresh rate, then yes. That's the highest you'll get from HDMI 1.4a/b though. HDMI 2.0 support is what you'd want from an HDMI-based 4K monitor. Looks like you're right, if I understand this table correctly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Version_comparison I was convinced 1.4b (the double link, high bandwidth version) controllers was *the* 4k HDMI standard, but that it simply hadn't made it to market yet (afaik, they haven't been included in any consumer products so far). Yep. Same deal for the 4K TV sets out now, 1.4b support only.

Heh, yeah, when I first got the card myself, all I could think of was "I have mail from China?".

You'll be fine with HDMI 1.4b and high speed HDMI cable, that's the HDMI standard introduced for 4k and it should start showing up on motherboards soon enough! It's the equivalent of the DP1.2 controller. If you're satisfied with a 24Hz or max. 30Hz refresh rate, then yes. That's the highest you'll get from HDMI 1.4a/b though. HDMI 2.0 support is what you'd want from an HDMI-based 4K monitor.

If they come up with an IPS-equivalent 120Hz panel, I'm game.

Obviously you'd also want to skip HDMI-based displays until you can get one with HDMI 2.0. You could also get a monitor that uses two dual-link DVI cables right now - I'd wait for DisplayPort 1.2 though.

I'll take the Path of the Damned without Expert Mode or Trial of Iron. I'll have a look into any additional settings beyond those as well.

Looking at two-handed swords, hopefully we'll get some simple and elegant designs for them. I'm always afraid of jRPG influenced swords making an appearance somewhere. In fact, the less crap the better, parade swords aren't meant for combat. And you probably can't see that many details in-game anyway.

Good update. Nice to see that professionals actually get to use professional-grade equipment at Obsidian as well, that Wacom's a very nice piece of kit.

You're correct about daggers not being able to directly pierce proper plate armor, even when we're talking about punch daggers like the katar. The most you could hope for is to find gaps between parts of the armor. On the other hand, ore impurities and shoddy workmanship could lead to a breaking armor plate if hit by a sufficiently strong opponent using a punch dagger, allowing for a dagger to get through, although this could hardly be considered piercing the armor.

Katars also work against ringmail and even some types of plate armor:

...and possibly developed a sleep disorder in the process.

Which edition are we talking about? AD&D 2E, D&D 3E? I was fine with Baldur's Gate's approach to it (2E), but it was alright by me in Icewind Dale II as well (3E). I preferred the 2E way of rolling stats though.