Gromnir

quick update: not including the heroics, which can only be done weekly as of 4.0, we were able to get better than 3000 influence for kira while spending ~30 minutes doing the belsavis dailies. is hardly world shaking influence gain, but we will likely use the belsavis dailies IF we ever grind companions such as talos drellik or 4x into the 40 influence range. ilum dailies also provides influence bonuses through dialogues, but the numbers seem far less favorable than belsavis. am gonna experiment with different comps to see if there is a few that get particular good result from ilum... but not today. HA! Good Fun!

for what it is worth, the belsavis dailies do indeed provide dialogue influence rewards at the new 4.0 rates. that means that each daily is gonna give you an influence boost o' 'tween 260 and 780 with your summoned companion. unfortunately, a few o' the dailies is missing. am gonna need check to see what happened, but we weren't able to start conversations with a few o' the mission npcs. even so, there is still ~8 belsavis dailies. similar to black hole, the belsavis dailies is rewarding crystals at a better rate than most other dailies-- 5 per mission. HA! Good Fun!

our experiment o' starting a new character has had mixed result. am level 63 after less than a week o' moderate gameplay. those repeated esseles tactical fp runs is soul numbing but lucrative. our t7 is at influence 50, we got a bunch o' 208 purple gear, a large stack o' purple tier 5 gifts purchased with excess crystals( cultural artifacts and republic memorabilia at ~50 apiece), and am maxed at 1000 o' the common crystals. unfortunate, a few o' the companions dont get max pay-off from gifts til you romance, so kira is at 30 influence and doc is at 20ish. we only just finished voss, so sgt. grumpy-pants and scourge is not having benefited much from dialogues-- they is still in the 20 influence range as well. with all the saved crystals and purchased purple gifts, we should be able to get one o' the kotfe companions to influence 40 rather painlessly, but am not gonna have any starting comp other than t7 much beyond 30. see, the thing is that pre 4.0, the companions that joined your crew later in the game would benefit from larger individual dialogue rewards. that is no longer the case. if t-7 and lord scourge both like a dialogue response, they both get the same amount o' influence boosting points... and there is relative few dialogue opportunities for scourge simple 'cause there is only a couple planets remaining when he is recruited. ... y'know, it has been years since we ran the belsavis and ilum dailies, but those missions were unique in that they did provide dialogue rewards. rewards weren't enough to be worthwhile pre 4.0, but if am getting better than 200 influence per appreciative dialogue response, those dailies could have some minor value. the only belsavis or ilum missions we has run recent is the supply crate missions, and those is done sans npc interaction. am gonna need check what kinda influence payoff there is from doing dailies on belsavis. am unlikely to bother doing such missions more than once, but seeing as how dialogue rewards do not diminish as one gains influence, such dailies could be a useful way to top-off a couple o' original companions once you get 'em into the 40 influence range. 4x, yuun, scorpio, xalek, and doctor lokin is most obvious options. oh well. mixed results. HA! Good Fun!

am having difficulty coming up with a more desirable option than sawyerxcain for combat mechanics in a crpg. perhaps you are a fan o' vd's aod approach to combat mechanics? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puo1Enh9h5k betehesda? well, is kinda the opposite o' vd, no? combat, while occupying a majority o' gameplay hours, is point-and-click simple and mindless. *shrug* we do agree that obsidian should create their own... but if they wanna take an established setting and build, we vote for darklands... not that this is a voting scenario. HA! Good Fun!

There are many Fantasy writers, old and new, who wrote much more complex works with much more foreshadowing and still managed to have a decent if not yearly release schedule (Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson immediately come to mind). The thing is, Martin is a discovery writer and the issue with discovery writers is when they get writers block they are screwed, also they usually need many more revisions upon completion of the first draft. hmmm. jordan and sanderson? salinger took more than a decade to write catcher in the rye. is as easy to come up with examples o' authors who took their time to write as it is to note the guys who churn out bloated monstrosities with machine-like regularity. HA! Good Fun!

am feeling similar, but am not certain why we got lowered expectations. we liked original star trek. we liked next generation. we liked deep space nine, though perhaps there were too much warfare given rodenberry's original vision. voyager? hmmm. is not our favorite star trek, but there were more than a handful of excellent episodes... kinda inconsistent. scott bakula didn't strike us as a good choice for the captain's chair, and the rest o' the cast were meh, but we liked enterprise for the most part... right up until we got time-travel overload. am not a fan o' time-travel stories. some o' the star trek movies were gawd awful, but we cannot complain 'bout the tv shows with any vigor. nevertheless, we can't get hyped for the new star trek tv show. odd. HA! Good Fun!

http://www.si.com/college-football/2015/11/01/miami-duke-lateral-play-referees-suspended is difficult to feel bad for duke, but... HA! Good Fun!

shady's question got us thinking... as silly as it sounds, doing solo esseles tactical flashpoints might be the ideal level option for a knight or consular-- nothing but esseles. cant do any gathering worth mentioning, so you would need boost crafting through companion missions. as such you likely wanna have at least 3-4 total companions, but level all the way to 50 or even 60 doing little save esseles might be worth the effort. solo tactical fp esseles grants better than 1 level per run til you hit 47-48. that is not sooper-fast leveling as even a quick run o' esseles takes Gromnir maybe 30 to 40 minutes... not certain. you also garner big influence with your starting comp. you should be staying geared okie dokie 'cause all the boss 1007 drops is gonna be class appropriate, which is nice. dunno. on a couple characters we has spent a boat load o' credits and more than a few crystal/comms to boost influence o' a single companion to 50. to be able to start kotfe with a companion at ~50 influence w/o having spent credits beyond the initial level 20 influence booster vial tier 1 gifts is an option worthy o' consideration. on the negative side, other than the boss drops, credit and 1007 in tactical esseles is appropriate for a level 10 mission. you are not gonna earn many creds by completing esseles. is a few other drawbacks, but am serious considering esseles leveling. HA! Good Fun!

am not certain that "excited" is how we would describe. am ambivalent 'bout the interview... were he genuine drunk or is he simple getting old? gotta give him credit for getting into the silly costume for halloween, though if he wanted to dress as a "dog," woulda' been funnier if he dressed as triumph. y'know, given that he were on kimmel. HA! Good Fun!

yes. get ~7000 influence per run. HA! Good Fun!

we got 10 characters at +60, but only 3 is through chap 9 of kotfe. with the savage skies "bug," am much wishing we had all our high levels able to access the supply crate heroics. am looking at potential 10 extra supply crates a day, but only so long as the savage skies mission is bugged. unfortunately, given our ocd, we have difficulty getting through kotfe intro material with the proper tempo. as soon as we get a new story companion, we make certain to boost affection to level 20 through tier 1 gifts. takes 20-30 minutes to do the traveling to fleet and buying of gifts and giving of gifts. by making effective use o' early gift give, am adding an extra couple hours o' mind numbing gameplay to kotfe. am doubting we have more than 5 or 6 characters through kotfe by tuesday, at which time we expect the bug will be addressed. HA! Good Fun! ps am also leveling an additional guardian to be seeing if we can get all companions to ~40 influence.

... we deserve to be slapped 'cross the face with a mouldering trout. we were wondering why kevin bacon were relevant to star wars so we needed to google "sebastian shaw" to be realizing that mr. shaw were the face o' vader. well, we learned something new. am gonna go take a nap now as, given our advancing decrepitude, learning anything is quite taxing. HA! Good Fun!

dunno if this has happened to anybody else, but for Gromnir, the heroic on makeb, savage skies, is repeatable Daily from the alliance terminal for supply crates.... which is nice seeing as how we cannot solo for the record. is a couple heroics (counterstrike on makeb) that am gonna stop doing as they take far too much time. being able to do daily savage skies would be a nice salve for our burning ocd. am also gonna note, for those who is farming basic comms/crystals, the gsi heroics still provide 4 comms apiece, but the alderaan gsi heroic provides 8 comms. all is repeatable daily. the gsi weekly is... meh. 20 crystals and no elite or ultimate? anywho, at the very least, is worth hitting the gsi heroics while on a planet for the supply crate missions... and we will likely do alderaan daily. also, while most o' the post 50 daily missions has had their rewards reduced, the black hole dailies is continuing to provide 4 crystals/comms per mission. HA! Good Fun!

we did all the heroics via the terminal and it still were not quite enough to get the alliance recruiters to level 10 influence. were close to 10 on all 4 as we evened out the influence, but not quite. is gonna be a mighty long haul to exhaust influence with the 4 main base npcs. we also got our ithorian to 46 influence, but decided not to break our back attempting to hit 50. got til januaryish before chapter 10, yes? just for funsies, we spent some time leveling a sentinel. went from 26 to 35 relative quick. more impressive is how fast the influence meter increases with all the gift-giving and dialogue perks chosen... and even w/o 12x xp, you level fast in 4.0. is easy to solo most heroics, so to level we were doing planet heroics (to keep us geared and save those now valuable basic comms) and the purple missions... and nothing else. am not doing tactical fps at all. and the thing is, if we wanted to genuine maximize influence, we would do every planetary mission, but we dont have the patience for such grinding... and am suspecting that we would hit 65 before we finished aderann if we did everything. level adjustment means we cant over-level on a planet. so, our sentinel, a character we have little genuine interest in playing as sentinels still seem sucktastic, will have at least a handful o' companions near 40 influence by the time we hit 65, and we wont have needed to resort to costly gift giving antics to do so. will still immediate boost to 20 influence via the cheap level 1 & 2 gifts, but at that point the massive and frequent dialogue opportunities becomes the major influence booster. kira and t-7, in particular, is gonna be uber by time we hit 65. ... as ridiculous as it sounds, am tempted to make our main a new character. with all the legacy gear available, as well as observing the benefits o' universal mastery stat, am figuring it takes us a couple o' weeks to get a new character to 65 and through kotfe, as long as we play 90 minutes a day at least 5 days a week. cant manage much more than 1 hour o' game time these days. so, am slight more than 2 weeks behind our bestest characters, and starting from scratch means all those juicy dialogue boosts wont be wasted. hmmm. might be worthy o' experiment. got two extra character slots after all. HA! Good Fun!

yeah, we got a chuckle when we saw 'em. ... am hesitant to mention this, particularly on this board, but we thought the show kinda bludgeoned us with "girl power." the bad guys (and good guys) were misogynists who refused to take the protagonist serious just 'cause she were a girl... and we had to have characters specific mention that fact 'cause the writers were 'bout as subtle as a hammer blow to the head. that being said, am admitting that we never much liked supergirl as a character. the karen starr power girl were kinda fun for a short period o' time. am thinking we most liked power girl when she weren't doing superhero stuff as the day-to-day difficulties o' trying to keep starrware industries afloat kinda humanized her. karen starr were quirky. y'know, the only supergirl we did like were the paul dini & bruce timm version from justice league and justice league unlimited. regardless, am doubting we watch another episode. HA! Good Fun! ps am sure Gromnir were the only one, but it bothered us a great deal that supergirl, after depositing a plane in a river, at night, fled the scene... 'cause is not as if dozens or hundreds o' people could possibly drown in such a situation.

I'm really not trying to be obtuse, nor do I argue your point, I'm just really baffled by your specific example based on my own experience, because I can't remember a better two-handed sword than Lilarcor before the end of the Underdark, and that, for me, is past the mid-point of the game. well, as you can see from the link, there are such weapons.... which is largely irrelevant. the point is that the uniqueness o' the talking sword does not make it your weapon o' choice once other superior weapons is available. you aint arguing with us that the unique nature o' the talking sword made you use it longer than other more traditional magical weapons? no? then... *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

That sounds unfair. Firkraag's dungeon and Firkraag himself weren't the De'Arnise castle or Umar Hills. It was one huge, difficult dungeon! I'm confused, why would any non-paladin give up on Lilalcor before coming back from the Underdark (and even then, the only best choice only has a +4 alteration bonus with no special ability)? The +3 alteration bonus made it work against 95% of enemies and it provided a few immunities to status effects. What two-handed sword was better than that? not unfair at all. yes, it were a difficult dungeon, though not considerably moreso than de'arnise or umar... be honest. regardless, any paladin is gonna do it before leaving for spellhold, and potential very early. http://www.gamebanshee.com/baldursgateii/equipment/twohandedswords.php#null any +3 weapon or better with an additional effect is better than the talking sword... of which there is a few available before return from underdark. regardless, you miss point-- intentional or not. in spite o' uniqueness, most folks is gonna give up the +3 talking sword as soon as they find a more effective sword. am sensing intentional obtuse, but perhaps am wrong. HA! Good Fun!

people is not honest. tell us that uniqueness is what made carsomyr kewl is bunk. if carsomyr were a +2 weapon that dispelled on a hit, nobody would speak o' it. there were a talking sword in bg2, but by mid-point o' game, nobody used it. people tell us that unique is what they want. bah. unique is only neato if the unique ability is powerful. so again, you make a weapon with a unique AND powerful ability that is usable only by the folks who had foreknowledge or dumb luck on their side? is just one o' the things bg2 did wrong. HA! Good Fun! ps am all in favor o' a few genuine unique abilities attached to weapons, but the goal should be to balance such... and ere on the side o' weak for unique.

sure, is just a magical two-handed sword... that is +5/+6 and has all those additional enhancements you mentioned... as well as the often overlooked dispel-on-hit, which seems frequent forgotten. HA! Good Fun!

Conversely, is everything perfect with the game? There was nothing that could have been done better then and nothing that could be done better now? If we're enslaved to BG2 (which I also quite enjoyed), then what do we do? Have a game with a sword identical to Carsomyr in every way except for name? Designers *must* push the envelope. They have the right and obligation to pursue their own vision. Otherwise, we're going to have nothing but increasingly cheap and unfulfilling counterfeits of a dwindling number of original games. I actually respect that you don't like what you consider bad balancing in the game. Moreover, I can sympathize with you to a certain degree. However, I don't agree with the idea that BG2 was a great game solely, primarily, or perhaps at all because there was a sword so manifestly superior any rational player with prior knowledge to its existence would automatically plan gameplay around accessing it early. You can love BG2. I can love BG2. It's a really great game, but I don't believe for a moment it was good because the devs put in such a specific weapon. Having a weapon that truly has a special feel and for which you have struggled long and hard, one that will serve for a good amount of time from the point of acquisition (certainly not one that renders all other choices foolish from early in the game forward), and has some special history and lore? That's all good. I think PoE could have done better in giving that feeling to me, I suppose. I've seen some games that feature such a weapon that grants the player choices upon acquisition in order to make sure it's in a usable form by the party. That makes some sense to me. you took the fun out it. we woulda' been much harsher while reaching same place. *sigh* bg2 (and d&d) is a wonderful game that is also deeply flawed. heck, am recalling how funny some o' the bg2 purists were during poe development. no doubt cant witnessed more than a few folks who railed against proposed features for no reason save that obsidian were planning on doing different than bg2. were doubly amusing 'cause some o' those same bg2 purists appeared to loathe d&d, and they frequent became defensive and confused when confronted with a feature that were having origins in ad&d. am not recalling how many predictions o' doom we heard from the purists. ... you do realize the kinda restraint am showing not to go full medival-mode, yes? HA! Good Fun!

pre kotfe, we level'd a bunch o' new characters on harbinger. because o' 12x xp, we managed to get 10 characters to 60 in just over a month o' swtor play. heck, given how fast we level'd, it took less time to get to level 50 then it did to go from 50 to 60. however, with all the new influence demands, am kinda burned out. gotta a large number o' npcs that we gotta ply with gifts and goods. the sheer number o' companions and alliance npcs we gotta influence is daunting, and the gameplay required to increase influence involves us doing little more than constant running gift missions as shady is doing, and then feeding stacks o' gifts to... whomever. and jawa scrap methods for quicker influence depend on cartel market, which we has religious avoided. we refuse to pay real money beyond the subscription costs to improve our characters. am thinking we happen to have a total o' 3 jawa junk on one character at jedi covenant. regardless, am likely to do similar to shady has done to this point and am gonna get companions to 20 influence and then just kinda stop. we will max influence on one companion to take advantage o' the sooper-dooper crafting crits, but... we simple don't have the ambition to do this nonsense on many different characters. HA! Good Fun!

Bingo bingo... in the sense that this is exact what we would want the developers to avoid. carsomyr were a ridiculous overpowered weapon that you could gets early in the game. get your ultimate weapon and armour early in the game and then... well, that's it for equipment improvements for burt the paladin, eh? oh, and if you didn't follow the old soa boards and you were not aware that carsomyr were a greatsword, then the joke is on you burt. you chose long sword and so you end up with carsomyr envy for the next 50 to 150 hours o' gaming. sucker. etc. carsomyr is a great example o' what were freaking wrong with bg2 weapons. yeah, it's a game, so folks understandably wanna win, and better equipment means a stronger character. unfortunately, the presence o' powerful equipment, particularly if that equipment is only available to a particular build, is a bad idea. so yeah, "bingo." carsomyr were exact what obsidian should be attempting to avoid, regardless o' the fact that similarly powerful weapons is an attractive nuisance. HA! Good Fun!

am not genuine concerned 'bout the level cap, but to each his own. the thing is, we tend to be disappointed with expansions. HoW, for iwd, were blasted by fans because the level design were poor/rushed AND because it were short. am recalling how irate were Gromnir with HoW. am not expecting white march to be a HoW inspired collection o' "S" shaped maps wherein we fight a half dozen mobs o' mooks, but part 1 will necessarily be shorter than part 1 & 2 together. waiting will result in us getting more content... and one expects that the content we do get will be more polished from having additional fan feedback and development time. we can wait. alternative is for us to play and judge white march part 1 whilst attempting to keep in mind that it is only 1/2 o' the complete expansion. am self aware enough that we know we would be overly harsh with criticism if we played part 1 while needing wait for part 2. HA! Good Fun!

warhammer were always our fave o' the heavier mechs. with light armour relative to its tonnage, and mediocre speed, the warhammer didn't necessarily fit with our basic combat philosophy. nevertheless, the warhammer could serve up the pain with an impressive arsenal o' weaponry that made it lethal at distance and when fighting in a phonebooth. 'course, in all honesty, am thinking we mostly liked the warhammer for the aesthetics. http://punakettu.deviantart.com/art/Warhammer-low-poly-52346440 yes, giant and bipedal weapon platforms is silly, but sometimes it ain't 'bout the practical. HA! Good Fun! ps our favorite clan era mech were actual the linebacker-- a mech o' similar size that corrected most o' our problems with the warhammer. http://punakettu.deviantart.com/art/Linebacker-low-poly-48191603

so much for early access-- harbinger is down. HA! Good Fun!