Gromnir

wouldn't be sunderland. for nma, codex and other sinks o' True fallout fandom it would be more akin to fans who would see their own coaches and players as purposeful betraying them. be that as it may, am perfectly happy with the soccer hooligan analogy. yes, the typical soccer hooligan is mostly hot air and can only attack when protected by the anonymity o' the faceless mob, so the chances that they would ever carry out their espoused threats o' violence is unlikely. on the other hand, bottle throwing jackarses mindlessly burning dumpsters is a perfectly analogous. HA! Good Fun!

is also kind o' a head-scratcher. why would scaling ruin combats for level 12 parties? scaling is introduced to deal with the unbalanced combats the genesis poster identified as problematic in the core game. *shrug* as to codexians, the grognards has always been irrational about a variety o' gaming issues. that being said, poe difficulty for late game, even when one accepts the impossibility o' getting uniform satisfying difficulty, particularly in a game wherein the player has choice regarding the order in which they access maps and content, were suspect. optional scaling for the expansion material makes sense. along similar lines, add an option to the core game so that pivotal battles could be scaled more appropriate would be a fix worthy o' consideration. such an option would not require the obsidians to go back and re-tool every encounter, but major encounters could have the difficulty bootstrapped as it were. HA! Good Fun!

unexpected apt description. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3DS7NdJces HA! Good Fun!

milf lover? *sigh* a beavis and butthead reference might be too 1990s, eh? HA! Good Fun!

am kinda conflicted. every application for school, scholarships and jobs we ever completed til we were in our 30s we identified our self as white. our maternal grandmother were mostly white, but to say we identified as white were stretching the definitions. so, when you get right down to it, we did similar stuff as rachel doleval. our motivations mighta' been different, but fact o' the matter is that checking the "white" box on literal dozens o' applications were... peculiar. *shrug* affirmative action angered us. is not that we thought affirmative action were bad (though we did think it were counter-productive until a few years ago) but rather that we were offended by the presumption that we needed affirmative action. even worse, we were able to observe that folks assumed that we had benefited from affirmative action. coulda' had our sat scores tattooed on our forehead and most o' our fellow students at Cal woulda' nevertheless assumed that we gained admittance to university either 'cause o' sports or our native american heritage. 'cause o' affirmative action, the starting presumption were that we got help from a program that handicapped whites and asians. sure, we could eventual prove to folks that we had earned our place through hard work and/or talent, but the assumption were hard to overcome. and if we ever did check the native american box on an application, how would we know for certain that we didn't get help? am not certain o' the psychology behind rachel whatsherface's choices. don't care. the thing is, did she actual gain some kinda advantage from her mischaracterization? when she applied for a scholarship to howard, there were no place on the form to identify her race. she submitted test scores, recommendations and samples o' her work. w/o knowing that rachel were white, she received a full-ride scholarship. she kept getting hired and promoted, and as far as we can tell, all o' her lies were related to her parentage and race. is no suggestion that she lied about accomplishments, achievements or experience, yes? am conflicted. we wanna dismiss her as a loon. our kneejerk reaction is to be offended by her false portrayal o' her race. even so, condemning her would be personal hypocritical and am also having difficulty identifying a specific harm she perpetrated. she lied? sure, but lies were all 'bout her race. is something wrong with the whole scenario but am not sure if rachel is what we think is the genuine wrong. HA! Good Fun!

prreeeetty sure in this instance 'silly' is synonym for 'singularly genius' yes, no doubt it will one day join the pantheon o' other great fantasy card games... like yu-gi-oh. ... HA! Good Fun!

as long as Gromnir need pay no more than we has always paid for our use o' these boards, we would gladly subscribe. consider us a subscriber. hell, we will order two subscriptions at the current rate. so, how many s&h green stamps is awarded per subscription? HA! Good Fun!

there were one durgan (sp?) steel weapon in the core game, and it had the speed mod in addition to being exceptional. would be kinda funny if the speed mod were inherent to durgan steel, but still bugged so as to be impotent. well, maybe not funny. ogre cannoners trigger our sense o' whimsy. as an aside, the devil of caroc and zahua is having individual cards in the silly poe card game. the devil is a rogue and zahua is a monk. devil looks like an artificial being. possible jnpcs? edit: am seeing that in the kickstarter update, devil and zahua is specific identified as companions from the upcoming white march expansion, and devil is indeed a construct. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2081578473/pillars-of-eternity-lords-of-the-eastern-reach-car/posts/1266758 HA! Good Fun!

the companions, none o' them, is required to advance the main Plot. in terms o' Story, all the companions contribute to the core theme(s) o' the game. kana rua, sagani and pallegina all got insular side-quests, just as does the rest o' the companions, but the real key for Gromnir is what those companions contribute to the Story as 'posed to simple the setting or plot. *shrug* sagani were a bit heavy on the info-drop exposition, but we were satisfied with her thematic contributions. the traditions o' her people required sagani to sacrifice years o' her life for a goal she were ambivalent 'bout. why? why did she sacrifice? were there value in such sacrifice? kana were exploring a different kinda faith. what happens when the intellectual makes a discovery such as the one kana made during his trip through the endless paths? am not saying sagani or kana were great companions, but they most certainly had quests that contributed to the Story o' poe. HA! Good Fun!

No dev in their right mind would ever work for the Codex. For one, it's just an internet forum. For two, they hate everything. Not true. They like Fallout 1, MCA and Tim Cain. I think you mean "They hate Fallout 1, MCA and Tim Cain less than they hate other stuff." Likes a pretty strong word. I keed, I keed...RPG Codex likes a lot of stuff (and individual members have wide variety of tastes); there's just not a lot of games that meet the irrational and capricious standards they set for "good game" status. fixed. wouldn't mind consistent high standards, but certain titles and developers are subjected to a different level o' review by the codexian mob. HA! Good Fun!

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.