Gromnir

warning: sweary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy3I58i-f3k HA! Good Fun!

I think Dumas was paid by the word for that one. He could have cut out quite a bit without hurting the story. dumas were paid by the word for most o' his works. the dialog in musketeers is padded to ridiculous, but unpretentious degrees to exploit the word meter. why you don't say? yes i do say, and furthermore, with your permission, i will continue. well then, i hope you do in fact continue this very moment for i am beside myself with anticipation. then i shall at this moment do that very thing, and with your thanks. etc. additional, dumas rare wrote a story by his lonesome. dumas were a tireless workaholic, but he wrote most novels and stories the way edison invented-- he would actual have teams o' writers working on multiple projects at once to which his name would then be attached as the author. the fact that dumas died penniless were not a matter o' how poorly writers o' his time were paid, but rather is a testament to just how extravagantly the man lived. he sucked the marrow outta life and offered no apologies neither. HA! Good Fun!

so, is obsidian s'posed to be announcing anything at e3, or is they gonna wait for e3 hoopla to die down before sharing new info? HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

*chuckle* if we said that, we were joking. our secretary at the time were a matronly woman who never showed any sign o' having a sense o' humor, which made her genuine affection for Gromnir puzzling. the number o' times she saved our bacon were beyond counting, and that were in spite o' the fact that we called her "Penguin" when she were being particular humorless, stern or officious. she never understood the reference, even when we explained. inexplicably, she liked us anyways. is no way we woulda' ever suggested she monitor game message boards. can only imagine the kinda chastisement we woulda' suffered for such temerity. regardless, the Gromnir schtick were mostly a result o' our annoyance o' the interplay boards at the time. the die-hard regulars were, from our pov, mindlessly antagonistic towards critics o' bg and bioware. perhaps more curious to us were how frequent new folks with difficulty typing in english, or folks unfamiliar with crpg conventions were mocked and ridiculed, so Gromnir painted a big ol' target on our chest and then jumped into the fray. HA! Good Fun! ps, to explain the penguin bit, we submit the following clip. warning: sweary.

*sigh* this is long time ago kinda stuff, so you get extreme abbreviated version. 'bout contemporaneous with totsc release, Gromnir begins posting as Gromnir. first post in this manner were an observation that our bg character o' the same name were not benefiting from "mag. def. adj." for high wisdom as described in the bg manual. our character were a vanilla fighter that, thanks to the vagaries o' chance and poor judgement to not re-roll, were having high wisdom and low intelligence. other stats were utter forgettable. in any event, having recognized that the magic defence adjustment for high wisdom characters as displayed in both the bg and totsc manuals were not being applied to game characters, we post and kinda ham-up the low intelligence angle o' our cheated character, and add lurid and ridiculous threats o' the smash and bash type if bioware did not fix magical defence adjustment... worse, we would keep posting as Gromnir til they fixed mag. def. adj. half the board were mortified at the disrespectful manner o' our post. maybe 20% o' boardies laughed. no surprise at breakdown o' replies save that the biowarians were near complete in the 20% who saw the post as humorous. the bg boards back in those days were a bit clannish and outsiders who shared opinions contrary to accepted groupthink were tending to be treated... poorly. am admitting we were relieved to see that the developers were not part o' the problem. bio/black isle never did fix magical defence adjustment. HA! Good Fun!

finally saw lucy. ... wow. ... is ironic that while watching a movie about a woman who is able to increasing access her brain's potential, we felt as if we were losing iq points the longer we watched the film. most mind-numbing stoopid flick we has seen since the ice pirates, and not near as amusing. HA! Good Fun! ps the danish joe buck wannabee getting splaterized in the first few minutes o' the film were the high point o' the film for us.

again, for purposes o' developing theme, the answer you arrive at is unimportant. with manifest deities, the question o' God's existence is rendered moot, or ridiculous. the nature o' God? well gosh, when God can actual active participate in the debate, the question is something for a Far side Comic panel. *shrug* answers don't matter. obsidian makes the question possible in a world with manifest "gods." is clever. is arguable unnecessary and likely limiting to have multiple manifest deities, but even so, to be able to have the question and all those manifest deities in the same setting is an innovative approach. HA! Good Fun!

the suggestion that faith is necessarily diminished in a world where deities manifest and respond predictably to appeals from followers is not new to Gromnir, seeing as how we made such observation in our post above and in post going back to 1999. more recent examples: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71202-deity-centered-world/?p=1586250 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61829-religion/?p=1256716 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/54229-dragon-age-discussion/?p=1013710 but again, by calling into question the nature o' the gods, even true believers is gonna be confronted with the possibility that their understanding o' the gods needs an addendum or two. if the gods is man-made, then they ain't Alpha & Omega. does that make a difference? oh, and the nature o' poe gods is shaken by more than the overheard word o' dead missionaries. after all, the poe plot centers on a god's goto guy harvesting souls to power her up via a man-made contraption... a contraption s'posed built by the same folks that created the gods. no clear answer? Good! definitive proof? definitive proof would ruin the question. we got enough to give one pause, enough to make one question... faith. as one can see from our linked posts, Gromnir clear ain't a fan o' pantheons o' meddlesome deities that manifest in the world. that being said, what obsidian did were clever. they has a pantheon o' meddlesome deities, but they managed to make faith and Faith themes worthy o' exploring. am not fully satisfied with how obsidian handled faith/Faith in poe, but what they did were clever and deserving o' recognition. obsidian managed to make Faith relevant in a crpg even if they failed to complete develop their themes. HA! Good Fun!

is actual more fundamental than that. Faith (or faith) is core game theme... questioning faith. sagani sacrifices years o' her life to because she does what the traditions o' her people require. years of time with family and loved ones she loses 'cause o' a tradition she ain't fully convinced has value. is not faith in gods that she questions, but faith in the traditions o' her peoples. eder were not convinced that st. waiden (sp?) were eothas incarnate, but ultimately he had to make a choice 'tween following the god or the values he saw eothas as representing. all the companions got some kinda test o' faith. the actual nature o' the gods in poe is a distraction and a very useful distraction. faith is The theme o' poe. have gods that genuine manifest is robbing considerable meaning from questions o' religious faith. poe writers were clever and clumsy. it not matter what is the actual nature o' the poe gods. what matter is that the questions o' faith is possible. durance's plight is the most raw and obvious manifestation o' a poe believer's faith being challenged, but he ain't alone. bring into question the origin o' the current poe gods is kinda inspired. we can have a game with manifest deities and yet their fundamental reality can be debated. oh sure, the poe deities is real and powerful, but what are they? were they in fact created in some kinda ancient soul forge? does it matter if the gods were created through human design? many questions, but most important is that the nature o' the gods is subject to question. unfortunate, the poe writers were as clumsy as they were clever. far too often the exploration o' faith were alternative rushed or bogged down by exposition. perhaps the question were too big for a game o' poe's size. dunno. regardless, am thinking the nature o' the gods is not important. is the question that is vital to poe. the question makes Faith possible. HA! Good Fun!

That's gastronomic heresy !!! Gastronomic heresy...you need to drink Red Wine with bolognese ...the same good Red Wine you made the bolognese with By the way I make a killer bolognese, it takes about 3 hours if you make your bolognese with red wine, then you is likely actual making a ragu... and we scoff at 3 hours. dry white wine, beef stock and milk is your traditional cooking fluids for a genuine bolognese. simmer MINIMUM 4 hours... if you is rushed. 5-6 is our typical simmer time. we actual serve the following day as is one o' the foods that is best when given a chance to reabsorb flavors after a night. but again, we almost always go ragu instead. HA! Good Fun! ps depending on your meat choice, your stock might change, but how many home chefs have veal stock on hand? we got chicken, beef, and veggie stock... and for a few months after thanksgiving we have turkey stock in the freezer.

you may have a point. unlike the fan base, the developers may have gratifying rl encounters that make them unable to empathize with their fans. perhaps the developers see the typical rushed and juvenile crpg romance arc as a kinda creepy autoerotic endeavour. because o' their lives, the developers might have concluded that while they could sympathize with their keyboard fondling fans, they could not genuine empathize enough to makes a crpg romance that would be anything other than embarrassing. is more than a few movie and tv comedic moments wherein a character is caught pleasuring themselves. as a developer, creating a crpg romance would be a morbid embarrassing scenario we can hardly imagine as it would be more akin to being caught while awkwardly aiding literal thousand o' folks to pleasure themselves. ... gross. yes, one does wonder at what kinda developer would wanna create a crpg romance. *shudder* HA! Good Fun! i meant that the designers must be crazy cat ladies/men to add cats but not add a basic man and woman romance. Cant you see the meting? John says: would it not be cool to flesh out pallegina with a romance? She is sterile because her race and that could make a cool arc with marriage etc All the other designers: We know you have a woman John, can you talk about anything else beside sex? John: But i didnt even say.... All the other designers: Lets make a special slot to carry around your cat, kinda like we do here at the office! Awesome!! we got what you meant. given your response, am not certain that you understood us. HA! Good Fun!

the actual anomaly regarding raedric is that we can negotiate with and even work for him after having slaughtered dozens o' his loyal subjects in a day o' bloodshed that makes that tree in gilded vale look like it is decorated for christmas compared to the carnage we wrought. IF you side with raedric, there should necessarily be a cutscene at some point afterwards informing the player that readric were killed in his sleep by a chambermaid in his employ, the fiance o' raedric's deceased captain o' the guard. your massacre would continue to produce victims long after your departure from raedric's hold. HA! Good Fun!

now that takes us back... did a couple musicals in high school. . george banks from mary poppins and jud fry in oklahoma. ... am suspecting we only got our roles 'cause there were such a shortage o' folks that could be depended on to learn lines. guess we played to our strengths too. truth to tell, jud fry part didn't require much acting from us. george banks were... fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZXITCwBdJQ HA! Good Fun!

our plans to do bolognese almost invariably become ragu. no milk? we rare have milk in the fridge. well, we always got tomatoes, so... bolognese becomes ragu. HA! Good Fun! ps not to be a snob, but we will note that bolognese is typical served with white kool-aids as 'posed to reds. not wanna suffer a kool-aid faux pas.

the notion o' paying to increase post counts is absurd. on the other hand, we might consider paying to reduce our post count. is kinda a barometer o' shame, no? HA! Good Fun!

you may have a point. unlike the fan base, the developers may have gratifying rl encounters that make them unable to empathize with their fans. perhaps the developers see the typical rushed and juvenile crpg romance arc as a kinda creepy autoerotic endeavour. because o' their lives, the developers might have concluded that while they could sympathize with their keyboard fondling fans, they could not genuine empathize enough to makes a crpg romance that would be anything other than embarrassing. is more than a few movie and tv comedic moments wherein a character is caught pleasuring themselves. as a developer, creating a crpg romance would be a morbid embarrassing scenario we can hardly imagine as it would be more akin to being caught while awkwardly aiding literal thousand o' folks to pleasure themselves. ... gross. yes, one does wonder at what kinda developer would wanna create a crpg romance. *shudder* HA! Good Fun!

warning: if you do not like the taste of jolly rancher watermelon flavoured hard candy, you might as well skip the kool-aid, 'cause the kool-aid tastes pretty much like liquid jolly rancher watermelon candy. aside: what is that with accepted candy flavours not tasting anything like the the fruit they is named for? grape? green apple? watermelon? ain't never tasted a grape candy or gum that had even the most remote similarity to any real grape we had ever tasted. HA! Good Fun!

see above. the developers clear did not expect that players would hit level 10 before the end o' act 2. there is no level 10 content in act 2. if it were s'posed to take a die-hard completionist to reach level 12 in the final area o' the game, then level 10 at dyrford were not envisioned. the level 10 content is in the next act, by which point you will likely be level 11 or 12. and yeah, you can push further into the endless paths to find level appropriate challenges, which will provide a few more superb weapons/gear and give you even more xp... which will make act 3 easier. even so, if you do have freedom to choose which areas to uncover in a game, then w/o scaling (which the grognards vehemently refuse) you will have dyrford situations where you run into content that clear is more appropriate for a much lower level party. is unavoidable. as an aside, there is some limited scaling in poe. according to the developers, a few unique encounters will scale a bit to match player levels. however, we have only noticed one obvious case o' scaling in our multiple runs. HA! Good Fun! ps obsidian's misunderstanding 'bout xp progression is particular confusing in light of josh comments on a seeming tangential issue: kill xp. when josh announced that obsidian were looking into adding bestiary, lock, and so-called exploration xp, some folks balked 'cause o' the perceived waste o' developer man hours required to do all the work to add balanced xp gains from multiple new sources. josh gave multiple reasons why adding token bestiary xp were no big deal and one such reason were that the developers had detailed and clear knowledge o' all possible xp awards in each area o' the game. if X amount o' trap xp and exploration xp were gonna be made available in area Y, then it were a simple matter to adjust corresponding objective xp. because o' developers having such a complete and detailed picture o' xp awards in poe, making changes would be painless. so, regardless o' the community feelings regarding xp grants other than objective xp, obsidian developers thought they had a firm grasp on the kinda xp players could get from poe. they were wrong.

on the off-chance you is genuine interested, in the sacramento area, the only major store that reliably carries watermelon kool-aid is walmart. no safeway. no bel-air/raleys. no savemart. no anybody other than walmart. HA! Good Fun!

revert perception back to its early beta incarnation would be a terrible error... though kinda amusing. before accuracy were removed from perception, the beta backers, near universal, observed that perception were disproportionate important in the attribute scheme. 'course when perception got nerfed, there were a curious howl o' anguish that the developers had gone ahead and exorcised accuracy from the attributes. people is weird. am not against some kinda alteration to perception. hell, we wouldn't even mind a reintroduction o' accuracy to perception, but it would needs be reduced and am not sure how to do that. 1 point o' accuracy for every two levels... or even three? threshold values for attributes goes against the design philosophy o' poe, so am not seeing an easy way to reintroduce accuracy at a reduced rate. oh well. if accuracy is reintroduced in the next patch, it will be funny to see pervasive hypocrisy regarding respec with the introduction o' 1.07. might be worth it. HA! Good Fun!

s'posedley, one o' the pets were bugged and were resulting in an accuracy boost for the player. am believing that the bug were fixed. alternatively, the bug never existed. *shrug* as noted elsewhere, pets is not intended to have any gameplay significance, though am believing eder has a couple banter dialogues that is pet related. nevertheless, we always "equip" the black hound as we still feel the loss o' bg3. HA! Good Fun!

am not a huge fan o' eder, but we like his resolution. with some o' the other companions we need to actual check our journal to convince us that the companion quest is indeed finished. eder has a clear resolution, but it ain't some kinda ridiculous epiphany reached after a half-dozen dialogue encounters with the protagonist. eder doesn't get his questions answered. on the negative side, am not a fan o' how eder, and most o' the companions, is utilized as info-dumps for setting details. our least favorite companion is aloth. the mpd stuff is actual kinda fun/funny, but his big reveal regarding his initial allegiances is handled with a clumsy brevity that makes us hope that material were cut. otherwise it is near criminal for us have so little opportunity respond to aloth's reveal. 1) the mage blurts out his reveal 2) the mage shares a brief explanation as to his motivations 3) the protagonist is given a choice to hug-it-out or part ways with the mage 4) the end ... ... Gromnir checks journal to see if we missed something. nope. perhaps a reload? maybe we missed some important dialogue option? nope. terrible. HA! Good Fun!

It's always funny when people get introduced to Gromnir and don't get it . *shrug* am admitted perplexed by folks. oh sure. when stymied they retreat to taking a stab at the posting style, but meto and the genesis poster is as difficult to understand. they claim they comprehend the premise o' a force that robs the galaxy o' meaningful choice, but act as if their ls choices being nullified is some kinda personal vendetta 'gainst their ls choices. oh, and newsflash: a galaxy wide sith threat to the galaxy, which in the kotor/star wars universe is gonna be the threat, necessarily requires a fracturing o' the New Hope style ls ending o' the first kotor. duh. and yes, we used meto quote 'cause the genesis poster used it in a response to us to explain his pov. could just as easily have used the following: "The writers took Revan's victory over Malak and the Star Forge, took the Republic and Jedi's victory over the Sith... and made it all irrelevant. The writers created three new Sith, retroactively, to cancel out any sense of accomplishment from having played a LS Revan in the previous game." is previous to a number response in this thread and shows the same ridiculous lack o' awareness. *shrug* is 2015. kotor 2 were 2004. Gromnir were posting this way as far back as 1999. meto not get the irony. his/her complaint 'bout our posting style mirrors the misapprehension about kotor 2 as it highlights a fundamental lack o' comprehension that has tediously been repeated ad nauseum for over a decade. HA! Good Fun!

dyrford can be relative early in chapter 2, and it typical is for Gromnir. in fact, after cad nua, we head to dyrford, though admittedly on initial runs we were racing to acquire companions at the earliest possible opportunity. the companion level-up feature added to the game makes such metagame nonsense unnecessary, but in any event, that is one o' the dangers o' a game that ain't on rails, yes? is very easy to do areas in a less than ideal order. dyrford were the lion's share o' the beta, and we were level 4-8 in beta-- hit level 5 within a half hour o' gameplay. do dyrford at level 10? am not surprised that you would be dismayed by the ease. next time do it at level 5... or go crazy and do it at level 6. HA! Good Fun!