Gromnir

xp itself is indeed pointless, and it has never been a way to "keep score" from our perspective. what an odd notion. in any event, developers realize that single-player role-play games don't have the social or story-building aspects that does pnp rpgs, but they still got leveling. players like to have their characters become... better. xp is a simple way for players to see how long they got til they level and have the next opportunity to improve their character and/or party. along with improving equipment, leveling is a key motivation for many players. there is also story, but unlike a pnp rpg wherein the story-building is collaborative, the player is only a witness to the developers crpg story, though the illusion o' player power is important even so. regardless, lack o' incremental and constant xp awards (which can be done with quests as easy as they can be done with mechanical and non reactive awards) seeming ruined the sense o' progress some folks needed as leveling were their goal, or at least a significant goal. players want to level, but they want to feel like they is earning it. is a sp crpg, so games is meant to be beatable by any yutz with a couple o' firing neurons, but even so, sense o' making progress as the result o' the player's work or cleverness is key. players want to believe that their efforts earned them their leveling reward. get a level automatic for every 3 hours played? is perhaps ironic that such a mindless mechanic would be unsatisfactory to the average player. has a complicated system o' xp awards that is designed to have players level approximately every 3 hours on average is embraced while the mechanical grant o' levels would be spurned. xp works because folks seeming need to feel like they is being rewarded for their efforts. other solutions has been attempted and has value, but xp is, at the very least, familiar. HA! Good Fun! ps we caught the sarcasm even w/o an emoticon, but sometimes is best to treat absurdest or sarcastic arguments as serious.

our favorite rifle were our first: a winchester model 69 bolt-action .22. we loved that weapon more than we loved our pony, which admitted ain't saying much 'cause our rifle didn't p00p nearly as much as did the equine. btw, nice to see you posting. HA! Good Fun!

zor doesn't seem to get that sugar is an example. is a good example 'cause it is something russians use every freaking day. he also don't recall the information we posted earlier in this thread about how much more russians spend on food than does westerners. russians spend 1/3 of income on food, on average. westerners, on average, spend 10% or less. want us to go through list of staples that has increased since russia imposed sanctions? is pretty much everything imported, 'cause ruble has been devalued. wheat? up to 30% increase. those tough russians can do without that too, yes? russians is so tough that they can eat shoe leather soup and smile about it. 'course, given the value o' the ruble, we expect that shoe leather has increased in price even more than sugar, chicken, wheat and everything else. and yeah, oil prices is the chief reason russia is hurting, but it ain't the chief cause. russian stoopidity is, 'cause this were all predictable and fixable, particularly given that a smaller version o' this crisis occurred in 2008. the economic geniuses posting in this thread (HA!) saw this coming a mile away, but russians didn't? of course they did, but they figured they could weather the storm as they did in 2008, but oil has dropped more this time and it is likely gonna stay lower than $80 per barrel for a considerable amount o' time... or at least that is what world bank guesses. the current scenario, albeit less bleak, is exactly what Gromnir and others predicted LAST year when we were all posting those lovely export/economy graphics that showed just how dependent Russia is on oil. it is an extreme fragile economy. you didn't pay attention then, and now you act as if the oil situation were unpredictable. oh, and a similar situation happened in 2008, but oil prices don't appear to be turning around as they did back then. as many journalists is predicting end o' this year as they is predicting year 18 months... is not exact science. "With so many moving parts, coming to a view as to how long reserves might last for is almost impossible," wrote Neil Shearing, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics. even so, "Last year, for example, the Central Bank of Russia said it had shelled out more than $80 billion to shore up the value of the ruble on currency markets. “If oil prices stay low, under $70 per barrel, they are going to run out of money sooner rather than later,” Mr. Rogoff (a former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, not a journalist) said. wsj is guessing 6 months to a year if oil prices stay sub $70 per barrel, which seems likely at the moment. as many is guessing less time as opposed to more. russian Business owe $600 billion to western banks and because of sanctions they can't re-fi. the ruble is worth increasingly little, so beyond the russian government's other problems, they is soon gonna have to need to decide which russian business is needed to be saved. new heightened interest rates which were a myopic attempt to prop the rubble, will result in likely recession even After oil prices increase. oh, and russian reserves were over $550 billion in mid 2013. even before the drop in oil, russia were heading for a recessions... which were also something Gromnir and others pointed out in this thread. go back and look at thread and your most amusing responses. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66281-ongoing-discussion-of-ukraine/?p=1476761 silliness. russian fail is good for nobody, but it were predictable, and it is coming... "sooner rather than later." HA! Good Fun!

at current rate of spending, and given that the russian economy were tuned to 100 dollar per barrel oil prices, that $376 billion lasts anywhere from 6 months to a year. which complete ignores actual problems o' the crisis, but nice try. talk 'bout unclear on the concept, but this nonsense is from guy who were trying to convince us that russian food sanctions were gonna hurt west more than russia, so we ain't surprised. brazil and china is preventing that 40% increase in sugar prices? on amusing side, folks in the kremlin were public complaining that porridge in the cafeteria had increased from 20 rubles last year at this time to 53. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

do you need a subscription to read those? apologies, we were unaware. we will look around, but am suspecting that type the following into google would suffice: russia financial crisis 2015. probable get an avalanche o' material with that search. HA! Good Fun!

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-cease-fire-hopes-exceed-expectations-1423777453 http://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-car-sales-skid-lower-amid-economic-gloom-1423488610 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/world/europe/russia-details-plans-to-bolster-its-economy-but-experts-scoff.html?_r=0 ceasefire, even if it holds, is likely too little and too late to slow the growing economic crisis in russia. if were only russians that would suffer from economic woes, we wouldn't mind. oh well. HA! Good Fun!

Why do you insist on shoehorning a quest into every possible source of xp, as if adding the quest contributes to the mechanic in any way? If it does; I would sure like to hear it. EDIT: Dang it! I was supposed to stop talking about this! Bad me! BAD! is because you have it reversed. make xp rewards mindless and mechanical robs developers and players o' potential depth. kill 30 trolls. get 1000 xp. is mechanical and... dull. make a quest to get rid o' various beasties allows far more flexibility o' potential resolutions and rewards. perhaps convince a band o' mercenaries to kill off ten o' the trolls by helping them with _______ or paying them or intimidating them. etc. you is looking at it reversed. is mechanical and reflexive xp rewards that robs us o' the potential options developers could inject into the game. HA! Good Fun!

hell no! though, by making some kinda crafting quest, am certain you could make it a more compelling idea. manage to create some particular craftable items and gather rare ingredients would eventual lead to awarding o' ___________. doesn't matter what is in the blank as it can be changed or have multiple options. perhaps you get minions to do crafting or you actual use other small quests with random world craftsman npcs to help you with your crafting quest? HA! Good Fun!

" it would be quest experience we already have that" yes? what is wrong with that? identify that we already got quest xp is not an indication that all those things you seem to want from exploration xp would be achieved better through a mechanical grant o' xp as opposed to a potentially more reactive quest. "by exploring the game world - finding new maps - opening doors to new areas - some are simple some are not - all require exploring the world presented to you whether it means entering a building you have never been in before or discovering a hidden passage deep in a cave." all such stuff can be made milestones as part o' a large quest, with the advantage that there would necessarily be far more flexibility in rewards and solutions via a quest than a mechanical xp grant, and you would still get incremental xp awards for completion o' milestones for those who need such stuff. sooooooo... is something about the word "quest" that annoys people? otherwise, am still failing to see a point. HA! Good Fun!

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!