kanisatha

A danceable rendition of a Christmas carol

Possibly. It's simply a question of the thing (humans) I am extremely disillusioned with versus another thing (future AI) that is still an unknown.

Yes, of course. That's why I said "highly evolved AI systems." So, not current AI systems, which I agree are hugely limited (and biased) by their human creators and maintainers. I'm talking future AI systems that can truly think for themselves, and thereby overcome and reject the initial biases and bull**** their human creators input into them. But that's unfortunately a rather long way off, and very likely well after I'm dead and gone. Very sad.

Wish you all a wonderful holiday season!

On AI use, sorry but I am hardcore in the opposite direction from most of you. Given my strong negative views of (most) humans (nature, capability, behavior), I can't wait for highly evolved AI systems to replace humans. I especially can't wait for AI systems to replace humans as drivers given the basic inability of most humans to properly operate an automobile.

Hehe, yeah, very much a part of my own large set of points that make me hate DnD mechanics. But at least they finally did away with fortitude, reflex, will saving throws, yet another one of those old stupid systems.

More on Divinity .... In another recent interview, Swen makes it a point to say that in this game they're putting in a lot of work to build out the setting/universe, because they learned from making BG3 how important it is to have a strong, well-developed and detailed universe where everything fits together and makes sense, which he admits has never been the case with their setting in past Divinity games. This matters hugely for me, because the #1 criticism I've had of the D:OS games, by far, is how utterly pathetic and trite the setting is in those games. Swen even specifically says that "world building" was never Larian's thing in the past, and that is a courageous and welcome Larian mea culpa. For me, world building is the foundation for a good RPG. So, if this indeed happens with Divinity, and I have no reason to believe it won't happen, then that goes a very long way to making me excited for this game. TB combat systems always suck, but I can hold my nose and live with that. It's these other essentials for a good RPG that matter most to me. https://www.ign.com/articles/if-you-like-baldurs-gate-3-this-is-gonna-be-great-larian-boss-swen-vincke-reveals-what-to-expect-from-divinity-in-first-interview-since-the-game-awards-announcement And in another separate interview, Swen also says that the rules/mechanics they will use in Divinity will NOT be the same as in the D:OS games, and will be something new that they create from everything they've learned from their past games. That's another huge YAY from me.

Yup, I saw an interview with Swen where he confirms it will be TB, party of four, will use early access, and is using a new version of their engine with supposedly several new capabilities that were not present in the old engine. Some of what they say has me interested, but will it be enough to overcome my dislike for TB combat and very intense dislike of the Rivellon setting? We'll see.

Do any of you have any thoughts on whether this new "Divinity" game from Larian will be turn-based or action combat? That may end up being the deciding factor for whether I care about it.

If this is correct, good to know. I was going by what Googling the question brought up, which was that XP is distributed in a split way where some XP situations grant a set amount of XP to everyone, including characters not in the active party, while other XP situations divide the XP award among the active party members.

Heh, this was it for me too as I'm playing a paladin. My problem was that I first went inside the temple(?) structure and did away with the leaders, but didn't realize the goblins outside would then all become hostile. So when I exited the temple, I immediately ran into a horde of hostile goblins and an ogre. No opportunity then to do any of those other things (poison, war drums, etc.). I won the fight without any casualties on my side, but it was a painful slog.

Yeah, @Wormerine, this is my take on the term as well, so maybe we don't focus on the terminology but rarther the concept. I found clearing out the goblins in their camp and the gith (who were a bit more challenging to be sure) in their camp to be exactly this: a painful chore which, even if optional I felt compelled to do because of how evil they were, and also needeing the extra XPs because of how XP is distributed when you have a bigger party.

This is good to know. Thanks. As for burning churches and butchering peasants, I'll take a hard pass on that. I play RPGs specifically so I can be the good hero who punishes the bad guys. It is literally impossible for me to kill innocents, even though I know they're just 1's and 0's.

At first I just couldn't get past the 20+ years old look of the game, and especially how the UIs look and function, but then I learned that it uses 3.5e rules, so I've now added it to my Steam wishlist. For some reason I was certain it was a 2e game.

Sadly, there isn't much of anything for me in these latest reveals from the Game Awards. Oh, well. Another year waiting on a good game for me. At least Solasta II is looking good, and I'll eventually get around to trying Avowed.