Gromnir

as we said, it's funny. the exploration xp would be handled much better via a quest that sent you to look for your "secret" areas. could than have alternate ways to complete as opposed to mechanical and mindless click on object or walk through door. *shrug* 'course same applies to bestiary. HA! Good Fun!

do we really wanna revisit the spamming issue? HA! Good Fun!

respec is more user friendly and can be tailored specific to avoid making story vital features modified. don't want culture or race or sex changeable for story reasons? fine. can de-level to 0 w/o messing with story elements. we would rather have obsidian in control o' what can be respec'd, but if console commands is the only alternative, we wouldn't object. a single respec also is an olive branch, o' sorts, for the folks who is worried about exploitation o' respec. set respec to maximum o' one opportunity with it being reset after every major patch? don't respec before patch 3? you still only get 1 respec opportunity. will some persons exploit console commands if they have available? is possible. we don't care, but for those who seem overly concerned, limit respec options to one makes possible exploitative uses o' respec a minimal concern, no? HA! Good Fun!

actually, it doesn't matter why he walked through the door. he got 50 xp whether it were accidental or intentional. he gets 50 xp for walking into any building in dyrwood. oh sure, you can no doubt come up with a wacky and/or convoluted rationalization as to why the player deserves xp for walking into tanners and armourers and inns, but that not change fact that you get 50 xp for doing so... 50 xp. is silly. and yeah, its the beta. ... am waiting for the point. we is talking 'bout the beta. we is talking about build 435. could developers do complete different in the final release? we sure hope so, 'cause as it is current implemented, the main purpose, as far as we can see, is to get woody outta ms. howe's office. the fact that woody leaves with a smile on his face is funny. HA! Good Fun!

we had made a suggestion for an exploration quest and other persons made even better suggestions 'bout how to improve such a quest. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/68164-a-different-view-on-the-whole-xp-controversy/?p=1502749 am not seeing any way in which exploration could be handled with a kinda reflexive mechanic pay-off of experience that would be more satisfying than a game-spanning exploration quest that would have milestone rewards o' xp and... whatever. we use "milestone" language for those peculiar semantics challenged people who can't seem to wrap their brain 'round the notion o' quest/objective. 50 xp for walking through a door makes woody happy, but it shouldn't make anybody else pleased. HA! Good Fun!

You could say the same thing about people who say they earned a purple heart but didn't. Or people who claim on their resumes to have worked for IBM, but didn't. No, the IBM one would improve your credentials. What I am saying is it does not improve his credibility to be on the helicopter that was hit, at least not enough to warrant the risk of lying. dunno. how much cred does one get from peers and public for being in the thick of it as a reporter or photographer? am honestly not sure about such. recall bernard shaw from cnn? when gulf war starts, he admitted on-air that he were going to go hide when some shelling started. he got accused of, we kid you not, "soiled diaper" reporting. there were three cnn guys... peter arnett, shaw and... damn our memory. anyway, there is three cnn guys doing reporting live and we couldn't help our self from initially thinking that bernard sounded a bit cowardly especially compared to his companions. sure, as soon as we had time to reflect we realized that it were stupid to label shaw a coward 'cause he didn't wanna get killed while reporting news, but we can't deny our initial impression. HA! Good Fun!

the untargetable beetles is... annoying. am suspecting that if the beetle suffers some kinda dot or duration affect that persists from time they first go under ground, they do not seem to come back up... as it were. HA! Good Fun!

exactly. unfortunately, the mod disagrees with you, so what can you do? Stop posting **** that have nothing to do with Beta 435... and that goes for both of you !! Gromnir is happy to continue to discuss xp awards for exploration, as we did in the post you selective quoted. the developers is having a little fun with the people who were against quest/objective xp. they is clear attempting to give a token just large enough to such folks w/o actual altering the quest/objective mechanic. aside, and we hesitate to mention this, but your post has 0 relevance to the 435 build. HA! Good Fun!

exactly. unfortunately, the mod disagrees with you, so what can you do? am guessing he can throw a widdle hizzie fit like this every time Gromnir responds to him or points out problems with current xp models. *shrug* it appears that exploration exp is the developers having a little fun with the advocates o' exploration xp. walk through a door and get 50 xp. *chuckle* is funny. HA! Good Fun!

*sigh* speaking o' one more time. the person we reference in that thread other than you is karzak, a person who has not posted here for Years... and we has not referenced even longer. if you is suggesting that such infrequent referencing is stalking, then, uh... well, maybe you wanna try and suck it up a bit chum. you need a safe place? http://www.asafeplacedvs.org/ a some point in the distant future, when confronted by random spammers, we will likely mention you again. if somebody tenaciously hounds the developers over a single issue, we will likely mention karzak again... another 3 years from now. if yet another romance thread is spawned, chances are we will quip that bruce is likely gonna post in 3... 2... 1... etc. if this is a genuine problem, seeing Gromnir offhand mention you once every few months or years in a thread where you aint even posting as you linked above, then we thinks you got a problem... and if you do have a personal problem and don't wanna genuine discuss game issue, we believe the proper venue is pm. is embarrassing we gotta explain this stuff to a mod, but there it is. HA! Good Fun!

"So you don't know the total Exploration xp garnered? Too bad." repeating self as a response. how... predictable, and illustrative. *shrug* so, you don't know that the total exploration xp garnered will be better than what we has seen in the beta? too bad, 'cause all we have is developer comments and the beta. how many posts you wanna mindless repeat before you gotta end? think o' this as a teaching moment. btw, just today we also just mentioned val in reference to conspiracy theories... and in the post you single out, we mentioned karzak. gosh, mentioned karzak once in the past 3 years. am thinking we has singled-out bruce when we reference the people who is vocal advocates o' romance. dear lord. got anybody else we mentions in a post? perhaps those o' you poor quivering and abused posters can form a support group. over 5000 posts by Gromnir... sheesh. ... but again, you would rather discuss Gromnir. is bad form. we would refer you to board rules 'bout off-topic, but that would be silly. HA! Good Fun!

Eeeeeeeh... If a developer or mechanics errs, there should be patches, not respec so it's never to be used again. patches that frequently come months apart? sorry, but that is not a genuine solution. respec is not a solution either, but it is a reasonable bandage... is an arguably necessary bandage to deal with inevitable contravening o' player choice because o' inevitable technical error, counter-intuitive mechanics and the numerous talents, spells and other features that have in-game effects that do not necessarily match expectations o' a reasonable reader/player. btw, patches is also gonna invalidate the choices many folks make because they is playing the game as it actual works as 'posed to advertised. when game is "fixed" after a couple months via a patch, those folks is gonna necessarily have their choices invalidated. most recent and largest patch for wasteland 2 were released a couple days ago. that game is still being patched many months after release. how many more patches does da:i likely need? you think poe will be different? is not a hypothetical. more than a few players is gonna have their role-play choices subverted because o' problems with the game... problems not the fault o' the player. respec makes sense. only argument against a single respec that we has seen is that some folks got a philosophical aversion to the notion that people will be able to exploit a single respec. so what? why do you care? if game is as balanced as developers is aiming for, then there shouldn't be much opportunity to game the system, but we concede that such balance is a naive hope. reality is you is weighing your philosophical pretensions against the very real inevitability that many players will be stuck playing a broken character for many hours at which point, sans a respec option, they needs continue playing the broken character, or wait for a patch to Maybe fix. respec mitigates inevitable harm some players will suffer. respec is not a solution, but is better than nothing. wait for patch is nothing. HA! Good Fun! edit: we forgot the restart option in case o' broken character. so sans respec you get option to restart, continue playing broken or wait for patch.

surprisingly, the interrupt "bug" hasn't broken combat, at least in our experience. is strange. enemies is not preventing our low resolve characters form successful discharging abilities. sure, some o' our front-liners might have a slight delay in use o' an ability or spell, but if we didn't have a combat log, am not even sure we would notice having been interrupted +80% of the time. conversely, we can have the bb rogue, armed with a bow, attack an enemy healer and complete fail at neutralizing the heals in spite of a relative high rate of hit success. enemies is still painting our party with a vast array o' debilitating effects and attacks regardless o' high rates o' interrupt. in 435, interrupt is a monster with smaller teeth and claws than is being suggested. the numbers is big, but the practical impact is negligible. side issue: even in 435, when interrupt is arguably overpowered, concentration does not appear to be particular useful. this is not a pvp game, so theoretical usefulness o' what a high interrupt character could do to your priest or fighter is pointless. enemies who got equal powerful interrupt as does our party, is not hampering us 'cause o' interrupt. however, counter-intuitive, playing on hard we take damage so fast that interrupt appears to be a complete negligible effect. we gotta disable the oncoming mob with slicken or confusion or some other spell or ability or we is dead... we gotta debilitate and kill so fast that interrupt is a tertiary concern at best. 2 hit deaths make interrupt a ridiculous small additional concern. resolve is useless to us when playing hard in 435. "fix" interrupt and you also reduce our need for resolve/concentration, which is already a serious candidate for dumping. there is bigger problems with interrupt and concentration than the fixes being suggested, but we got no suggestions for improvement. HA! Good Fun!

Don't confuse someone who knows what they are talking about with a know-it-all. [...] Of the things I do know about, I tend to know more than most as I generally spend a lot more time than most learning about whatever. *chuckle* HA! Good Fun!

and this is why the joke is on you. you see 50 exp for walking through a door and is happy. sensuki, whom Gromnir often disagrees with, recognizes the trivial nature o' the current exploration xp grant for likely same reasons as Gromnir. as to referencing you... http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70226-435-discussion/?p=1568108 you made an observation that led to the post we quoted. being a little narcissistic, eh? nevertheless, it is typical that the kids who don't like having their silliness exposed would rather discuss Gromnir than the topic in question. let's try and stay on-topic eh. is bad form for a mod. HA! Good Fun!

Reminds me of something. Local news channel broke into program touting they were "First on the scene" where a teen boy had been shot to death by his younger brother playing with a gun. And would break in with more details. Next update, the teen was playing with the gun and had accidently shot and killed himself. No brother, and no clue if the gun was his parents or not or where the parents were. Last update, a man in his mid-twenties committed suicide at his own home. yeah. it gets even more peculiar when the news outlets has panels o' experts weigh-in on what ends up being complete inaccurate... the cnn panel that spends two hours arguing about how irresponsible parents is to have handguns in home v. 2nd amendment rights. *shrug* "Or you could go the PBS Newshour way and bore ourselves to death with dry, non-sensationalistic, and civil deba---discussion. Zzzzzzz." our primary news sources is npr, pbs and wall street journal. they can be a bit... dry. HA! Good Fun!

journalists get angry when pundits suggest that entertainment is more important than the news in news, but am thinking that it is undeniable that news outlets feel great pressure to hold the attention o' their audience. john stewart were being funny, that were his excuse. he never claimed that he were trying to be a legit news journalist. associated press, washington post, new york times and others not have the luxury o' being able to overt claim that they is entertainers, but they has exact same desire to increase or maintain viewer/reader attention and sponsorship. but again, we is talking o' rather obvious motivations and not conspiracies or government subversion o' freedom o' press. what we see is businesses trying to stay in business, and employees o' the business trying to get ahead in their field. HA! Good Fun!

Rofl, fine with me! Hell, they can even rename it "Gfted1 xp" to really teach me a lesson. Aside, how many enterable areas are there per map and how map are in the game? Surely you have some precognition ability or inside information since you already know the total. we don't need to know # o' maps. we has seen proportions in the beta and we has read developer comments. so, enjoy your title, woody. if the token grant o' xp for combat, locks and exploration satisfies folks, so much the better, but it is a joke... is just a joke that all the woodies on the boards doesn't appear to be in on... which kinda makes more humorous. HA! Good Fun!

is a fuzzy line. if you report as fact that which you know you is actual ignorant, is that not deceitful? with the internet and 24 hour tv news sites, there is such incredible pressure to be first and to be dramatic. if you ain't dramatic enough, people will switch channels or click on a different site. if you ain't fast enough, people will switch channels or click to a different site. much o' the stuff that gets reported as news today would have been dismissed as idle rumor by major newspapers and tv stations even 15 years ago. that is ok. we accept that people want up-to-the-second updates when something dramatic is happening in the world. the thing is, people expect the same accuracy today that they did 15 years ago. is not easy for reporters and news agencies to balance the need to be relevant and the duty to be accurate. we accept that initial reports is gonna contain much conjecture and error that got nothing to do with dark cabals and the monsters lurking under val's bed. *chuckle* converse, if you don't report every minute, the conspiracy nutters then claim you is hiding the truth from the public. is no-win. nevertheless, we do believe that reporting as news or fact what one knows is little more than pure speculation and/or conjecture is at least bordering on deceitful. HA! Good Fun!

This is an relevant post Gromnir but I am concerned with your comment " we bet they lie all the time", do you really believe that or are you just being diplomatic? yeah, we bet they do lie all the time, but is largely petty and irrelevant stuff that they is most frequent gonna lie about. some journalist says he saw "bodies" floating in the water outside the hotel. lie? probably. he knows bodies is floating around all over new orleans. at night he happens to see something float by in the shallow flooding in the french quarter where his hotel is at. how does he know it is a body? did he check? he don't know for certain it is a body, but the detail make his story better, and it could possibly have been a body. is a lie, but a small one and one that ain't gonna get him in trouble. *shrug* is not the story that is gonna be fabricated, but stuff such as williams claims that he could personally see dead bodies from his hotel in new orleans? how many reporters is lax 'bout checking their sources? these guys is under great pressure to get news out First. so, they get a story that sounds dramatic and they do what checking they can in the time they got and they get story on internet or on tv asap. is a lie to present a story as factual when all you got is crappy eye-witness account from an admitted biased israeli soldier or hamas member? probable. all the time? yeah, but not in the way you is worried 'bout? HA! Good Fun!

Actually my favorite post-Katrina lies the media ran with was stories of cannibalisim. If I were a resident of NO I'd be morally offended at that. If they were eating eachother after just 4 days they had to have least considered it previously. I know that was not your point Grom, I just remembered that as being one of the more outragous instances of media sensationalisim. cannibalism in the bayou... is a juicy story. worst pun ever. we expect such nonsense from journalists. get a couple residents claiming they has seen neighbors going cannibal and some journalist looking to make a name for himself reports instead o' fact checking. heck, we has mentioned before about how news outlets reported that president bush were dead following his on-camera vomiting in japan. one wacky guy pretends to be bush's personal physician and CNN is literal in the middle o' announcing to the world that "the president is dead" before somebody shouts on set to "stop." 'course the need to be first with the most dramatic story is exact why we tends to get misreporting exact opposite o' how the conspiracy theorists claims. cannibals in new orleans is not the kinda thing The Man or The Government wants, but is dramatic. covering of events in ferguson or gaza or wherever is similar. whatever story is most dramatic is gonna get reported as long as the journalist can get even a couple sketchy sources to back up the tale. misreporting in the west is rarely some kinda sinister conspiracy theory fodder. reporters is trying to be first with the most salacious story and the thing that prevents them from doing crap such as they do on rt is the fact that they know there is dozens or hundreds o' other reporters who is gonna expose their attempts to get ahead o' the competition. is personal self-interest, not sinister. HA! good Fun!

yes, but we thinks the developers is having a little laugh at the expense o' folks like gifted. the total amount o' xp garnered for mindlessly exploring every building on a map is extreme small compared to the objective or quest offerings. bestiary is similar but not quite as bad as exploration. to appease the folks demanding _________ xp, the developers throws in what amounts to joke xp, but some folks don't seem to realize that they is being laughed at. pop open a chest and get 150xp. complete an objective and get 12,000 xp. the objective xp in the beta is incredible inflated. so, perhaps if xp for opening locks and walking through a doorway remains unchanged in the release, then such awards will be proportional more significant in the actual game, but at the moment, what we got is the developers having a laugh at the expense o' some folks. developers throw in insignificant token rewards and that satisfies the loudest advocates o' ________ xp? am suspecting that some obsidian is chuckling about exploration xp. woody. HA! Good Fun!

some folks is playing a shell game. this ain't an example o' the evils western news propaganda or the public being mislead about issues. a journalist took credit for that which he did not do. well gosh, what a surprise? take the journalist outta the events reported and do we have substantial different reporting o' events? flooding post katrina were bad. many news outlets misreported information post katrina because the official government info drops were understandably incorrect immediate following the hurricane. private pyle reports flooding in districts 1,2,7, 9, 12. unfortunately, private pyle never made it to district 1. it were a long day and he were ordered to report in at 0500 after having already been on duty for 36 hours. he never made it to district 1, but based on flooding in district 2, he were certain that district 1 must be flooded. is five other privates reporting to sgt. hartman regarding which districts is flooded and the extent o' the flooding. sgt. reports to lieutenant or captain and captain reports to colonel or general. ever play telephone? initial info drops is often erroneous for reasons that is not the least bit sinister. the williams helicopter stuff is similar but different. were helicopters being fired 'pon in area X or Y? have williams on the helicopter to make himself seem more heroic is wrong if he weren't actual there, but act as if this is some kinda example o' state-sponsored propaganda is nonsense. what we got is the kinda crap that happens every day in every industry: a guy took credit for something he didn't personally do. is banal. is not sinister or illustrative o' some deep and dark evil. is petty. and the reason why williams gets away with his lies for so many years is precisely 'cause the fabrications were small from perspective that he weren't changing the news, but rather were simple injecting himself into the stories to advance his own career. in the west, is difficult to get away with any kinda major fabrication 'cause a dozen other guys is all reporting the same stuff and if you make a clear erroneous claim, you got twelve other reporters calling you a liar. is different with rt and al-jazerra and other state-sponsored news outlets, but some folks will refuse to see difference. does western journalists lie? sure. we bet they lie all the time, but they lie to benefit themselves and they lie in ways they is convinced they won't get caught. propaganda? *snort* is lies to get promotions or corner offices and not to advance the agenda o' the military-industrial complex... or whatever conspiracy theories some o' you jokers is fixated 'pon today. HA! Good Fun!

Bears reiterating. Emphasis mine. agreed. which is exactly why respec is needed. when developer error, obtuse mechanics, or ambiguities in descriptions o' talents or spells or whatever (examples o' some ambiguity: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69864-on-abilitiestalentsitems-description/) result in the subversion o' player choices, there should be a way to correct the resulting inequitable consequences. now, that being said, depending on just how reactive the poe story is to your initial character generation choices, Gromnir is recognizing that complete respec would nether be practical or desirable. change sex, race, culture and background results in breaking story? we can see that potential problem. if developers were to disallow allow changes o' such stuff even if race or background bonuses is being applied incorrect in game, we would understand their reasoning for doing so. but yes, it does bear repeating that the PLAYER's choices should have consequences, which is exactly why respec is needed. thanks for reiterating. HA! Good Fun!

am suspecting that more than anything, the choice to go with the current poe paper doll were a matter o' a largely uncontested cost v. benefit analysis. it would have taken effort and art resources to make an appealing 2d paper doll. why go through that effort when you already got the 3d game avatar? is there options that would look better than what we got? sure, but current paper doll is functional... and, truth-to-tell, considerably superior to the old bg and iwd paper dolls. is good enough and, from a development perspective, relative painless compared to other options. HA! Good Fun!