Gromnir

you can force a player to speak to a quest giver. PoE is gonna be a story-driven game, like it or not. there will be essential plot points and such quests can be given simultaneous with reaching one o' those initial plot points. regardless, in the event that the quest giver is missed, such quests can be added automatically to a quest log. these is not noteworthy hurdles. *shrug* if the only point is to prevent the developers from calling an award of xp a quest, then it strikes us as silly. if you can offer players multiple routes to achieve objectives in a crpg, how can that be a bad thing? therefore, if you expunge options just so folks feel better that they is getting combat or exploration specifically, well, that doesn't make any sense to us either. HA! Good Fun!

am agreeing that josh statements is consistent... save for trap/lock xp. even so, we can see a bestiary and exploration being handled far better via quests. if you got objective rewards that allow for multiple methods o' completion, then that kinda sounds like a quest, even if is only completed via a mechanical process. if you do not give multiple methods o' completion, then developers is cheating themselves o' increasing meaningful role-play and replay options. am not certain what would be the point o' having a quest with multiple options for completion and satisfaction, but necessarily having different nomenclature just to appease the folks who want different kinds o' xp from quest xp. seems rather... silly. HA! Good Fun!

honestly, we don't see an advantage of Not doing as a quest. in case it were missed, kgambit added ideas http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/68164-a-different-view-on-the-whole-xp-controversy/?p=1502756 is more you can do with quest structure. more should be better if we is talking of choice in a crpg, yes? HA! Good Fun!

am understanding that josh wants to throw folks a bone, but wouldn't it be better to use quests to achieve your goals? http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/68164-a-different-view-on-the-whole-xp-controversy/?p=1502749 whether it's exploration or a bestiary or even traps, we can see quests that would offer more options and ensure greater balance. *shrug* if the ultimate goal is to quiet the complainers, then we can see setting up various small objectives to give 'em a warm and fuzzy feeling, but you can accomplish the same thing with quests... but better. HA! Good Fun!

sadly/stoopidly, the equipment threshold is meaningful, particularly for front-line combatants. is ridiculous that a stat you might happily drop to 1 needs to be at 4 or 5 because of 1 piece of gear? HA! Good Fun!

were kinda surreal for a person who lives in nor cal and sees more raider and niners football than we might wish to observe the niners being the team that implodes in the second half as multiple opponent drives were extended due to costly personal foul calls. next game, harbaugh will direct his offense, without exception, to run on first and second down and then throw deep on 3rd. at that point we will be certain that an exorcist needs be called in to expel al davis' spectre from the niner's locker room. HA! Good Fun!

it's 4, I believe. 5 is for the other. poorer armor (the brown one) it was 4 in the beta. according to the boards, combat armor is now requiring 5 str. HA! Good Fun!

if we could actual hear? why would that be strange? we has been attracted to a few musicians After hearing them play. we woulda been unlikely to have thought singer X or guitar girl Y were hot, but after seeing them perform and hearing them, they became attractive to us. doesn't seem strange at all. probably a maturity thing. HA! Good Fun!

for any combat character, ranged or melee, you is gonna want at least 12 combat initiative. give your sniper at least 14 or 15 ci is likely a good idea. you cannot overvalue ci. am not kidding about ci. "high combat initiative is actual more valuable than it were in the beta, but is also harder to acquire high ci... folks new to wasteland 2 might not realize that ci doesn't simple determine order of attacks in a turn, but will also decide how many turns you effective get in a combat encounter-- high ci = more attack opportunities." strength is surprisingly less meaningful for melee characters than you would be likely to think based on previous similar games, but beyond awareness and coordination, speed is valuable. you still need str for crits damage, but you probably need prioritize ci and speed... you can get some ci value from speed, and you will be needing to move around the battlefield far more with a melee character and your heals than with a sniper. case in point: am a few hours in and am considering restarting. the stats for our joinable heals npc is fantastic, save for the fact that she has poor speed. with a 10 intelligence, we will be able to boost her med skills, computer science and maybe even give her an assault rifle, but her speed is just awful. if you need move around during fights, and heals and melee need to do much moving, you will want at least decent speed. maybe we get fifteen hours in before we decide poor speed is too big a hurdle? dunno. if we were to build a melee character, we might go with the min str to get combat armour, which is 5? 'course, we didn't build a melee for our initial 4 as there is a couple npc options that will suffice for that role, and we prefer guns. then again maybe there won't be a decent melee joinable npc-- much about the npcs has changed since beta. HA! Good Fun!

no doubt wals will not be able to understand your pov and questions. *shrug* regardless, having "dated" many very attractive women, we learned that there really is no correlation 'tween initial eye-test attractiveness and performance in bed and/or more meaningful attractiveness. we dated a ballerina/dancer for awhile. she were not classically beautiful, but having seen her perform, we thought she were exquisite. we has dated many attractive women, so perhaps we is less impressed traditional notions o' beauty. perhaps it is 'cause Gromnir were an athlete and we know that to be a national or world class dancer or swimmer is far more rare and admirable than is having perfect teeth and a nice rack. maybe we is just more mature than wals. regardless, when we see a dancer, diver, swimmer, runner or other athlete perform, we can see the beauty o' their skill and be impressed far more with their command o' their craft than whether or not they got b00bs that double as flotation devices. thankfully, beauty is subjective. how dull it would be if only wals' notions were appropriate, yes? HA! Good Fun!

Any public incident involving the cops in the US is going to get futzed fifteen ways from sunday. I think this was a mistake, but wouldn't this be down to a dispatcher error, rather than the cops themselves? to answer question, no. and the cops weren't mistaken either. dispatcher gets multiple calls that a crime is being committed. not sending a patrol car would be appropriate response? cops show up and and investigate crime so is not a random stop and identify situation. woman acts alternatively nutty and is unresponsive. dispatcher got wrong? how? cops didn't get wrong either, least not this time. the folks who got wrong were the actress-who-acted-like-an-actress at the time the incident first occurred. after the fact it were her and her boyfriend who got it wrong when they used social media to stir up a poop storm for no reason other than the fact that no-name actress went loopy. all the local and national pundits who were crying foul without any supporting facts also got wrong, 'cause now it is fashionable to assume that cops did wrong before getting any facts. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/21/civil-rights-leaders-demand-django-unchained-actre/ am not certain where lingering confusion is. HA! Good Fun! ps is just another reason why Gromnir don't date actress anymore.

*sigh* well, reading skills aside, you is right that the women we mentioned in our last couple posts aren't considered physical attractive... which were kinda the point. duh. HA! Good Fun!

we noted earlier that we don't pay much attention to game journalists, or reviews... and use metacritic as a guideline is just silly. is possible you might be offended, but only an idiot would rely on metacritic to make a game purchase. the way most o' us use critics, if we do such a thing, is we find a critic who appears to have tastes similar to ourselves and then we rely on their judgement. is similar to how we use this board as a kinda game review source. we think mc is an okie dokie guy, but he likes fighting, in tunnels. if mc gives 5 stars or 9/10 to a game, that ain't gonna convince us that we would like such a game. if mc lauds a game 'cause it it is thankfully abstaining from tedious dialog and unnecessary story elements and instead is nothing but 40 hours of fighting in tunnels, am unlikely to be convinced that we will give the game a similar 9/10 rating. sure, we like fighting too, so his comments about combat will resonate, but we know enough to largely ignore his comments about story or writing. is not 'cause mc doesn't know what good is... because good is different for mc than it is for Gromnir. guess what, mc ain't any different than the typical professional game journalist. those clowns got identifiable preferences as well. you find a critic you is sympatico with, yes? you don't honestly use meatcritic to be making game purchases, do you? that is just... silly. the thing is, reviews from various sources helped convince Gromnir NOT to purchase me3 at release. there were so much negative feedback about that game that regardless o' metacritic, we were forewarned about me3 quite effective. da2? well, we don't understand the "convoluted" criticism, but the rest is fair. even so, we followed da2 enough to know far in advance that the game were being rushed and that the developers were making some shortcuts. between a few news drops and our own sources, Gromnir were knowing that da2 development were facing an uphill battle. that being said, it actual turned out better than we expected in spite of all its flaws and all the handicaps the developers were facing... but again, the point is that we were Not surprised or shocked. and let's be honest, if you actual believed that you got burned by metacritic for da2, then why did you continue reliance for future games? that is just... wacky. dunno. obviously Gromnir is the wrong example to be using if you wanna make a stand against the evils o' gaming journalism. am wondering how a person could follow game developments for more than a couple o' years and not share Gromnir's dismissive opinion o' gaming journalism. *gasp*, gaming journalists are biased and unreliable? welcome to 1994... no, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2012, 2014, etc. regardless, am understanding how somebody naive could get burned by metacritic... once, maybe. honestly. metacritic is a horrible measure for an INDIVIDUAL to use to make a game purchase. you wanna find a game that the mythical Average Gamer will enjoy? which one o' us is the Average Gamer? we use game criticism the same way we use movie and food critics. we find feedback from folks who seems to have similar tastes as does Gromnir. in the absence o' such a wonderful and enlightened personage being available, we looks for patterns amongst folks with known similar and dissimilar tastes to be making an educated decision, but we sure as heck don't rely on metacritic. and if ganrich didn't rely on metacritic but instead relied on previously trustworthy reviewers and still got screwed, then say so, but use metacritic to bolster is confusing us. HA! Good Fun!

am just glad we didn't use dorthea lange, toni morrison or flannery o'connor as examples o' females who did something beautiful without being particular attractive themsleves... poor wals mighta had a stroke. HA! Good Fun!

am wondering if wals is being purposeful obtuse. "oh sure, katie ledecky won't be winning any beauty contests anytime soon, but her swimming is a beautiful, and she is just a kid who is still just having fun." 1) we specific said, "katie ledecky won't be winning any beauty contests anytime soon." 2) we noted that her Swimming is beautiful 3) we observed she is still "just a kid"... though she is 17. "obtuse" is giving too much credit to wals. serious. HA! Good Fun!

oh sure, katie ledecky won't be winning any beauty contests anytime soon, but her swimming is a beautiful, and she is just a kid who is still just having fun. at 15, she sent rebecca adlington into retirement as it quickly became apparent that the field would be racing for silver or bronze in distance freestyle for the foreseeable future. ledecky has never won anything less than gold in international competition, and she has shaved FOURTEEN SECONDS off the world record for the 1,500 free since 2013. the absolute and unparalleled domination she gots on 400, 800, and 1500 freestyle events is beautiful. she swims 200m free too, but others actual has a possible, if unlikely, chance o' catching her. HA! Good Fun!

am noticing slower leveling, particularly the xp gains for successful... whatever. example: our safe cracker/locksmith leveld' much faster in the beta. additionally, survival (skill) points is more expensive, so you probable got fewer. am seeing folks planning on having each character fill out three skills and two weapons. that strikes us as an extreme optimistic plan. other newness: combat armor now requires min str o' 5, not 4. virtual all npcs has different skill packages from beta. high combat initiative is actual more valuable than it were in the beta, but is also harder to acquire high ci... folks new to wasteland 2 might not realize that ci doesn't simple determine order of attacks in a turn, but will also decide how many turns you effective get in a combat encounter-- high ci = more attack opportunities. HA! Good Fun!

we will check new character creation soon, but for combat-focused characters, intelligence were a bit o' a dump stat. you could get recruitables to fill out your skill list, but coordination and awareness were essential for ranged combat character. https://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7479 edit: intelligence is even wackier now than before. skill points increases happen only at 1, 4, 8, and 10. you do get ap boost from int however. we will note that the shotguns had a fanciful kinda aoe kinda thing going in the beta. all wasteland 2 shotguns, regardless o' pictures and descriptions, must be sawed-off extreme short. HA! Good Fun!

there is no rolling, but we know what you meant. we played the beta many moons ago, but things has changed since that time. for instance, awareness were the Ultimate ability. there were some assault rifle builds with high awareness and coordination that were silly powerful. however, it does look like abilities has been balanced, and we assume some o' the useless skills has been made more useful. even so, we plan on making one character with 10 intelligence and 10 charisma to be the face-man and to pick up a few extra skills. there were a med npc you you could recruit early if you wished... do a search if you wanna be spoiled. she actual sucked 'cause o' lowish int, but am believing inxile fixed that flaw, so you can probable avoid taking any med skills if you wanna wait a couple hours to get your first medic. spread out your weapon types 'cause ammo can be scarce. 1 sniper and 1 assault, and whatever else. assault rifles builds were win in the beta. sniper rifles were nice, but am thinking you need 'bout 7 ap to make your sniper useful... boost awareness. lockpick and safecracking were having ubiquitous opportunities for usage. med skills is also essential, but as we mentioned there is a joinable for those skills if you are a tad patient, and if her intelligence were improved as we read. demolitions were a limited but useful skill... our demolitions guy also had perception. were many perception checks, but am not sure if we would call it an essential skill. alarm disarm didn't work in beta, and computer science worked incorrect... am believing both is now useful, especially computer science. animal whisperer were also non functioning in the beta. leadership were not working right for us in beta, but am gonna give it a try with our face-man. we got considerable use from brute force and all the dialogue skills in the beta, but obviously you is gonna needs pass on a few useful skills... and intelligence is odd 'cause is useless at some tiers. is no reason to have a 4 int... 3 intelligence gets you 2 points per level and 5 int gets you 3 pts. is stoopid, but it is what it is. be careful. there is one joinable npc that is recruitable right at start, but don't depend on her skills when building your party. in general, we prioritize coordination and awareness for ranged combat characters. speed and str does get some use with melee characters. speed is also beneficial for your medic. we like to have many skills, so we never have less than a 3 int and usually go with 5, but intelligence and charisma were kinda dump stats for combat characters in the beta. the bad thing about wasteland 2 is you can build a bad party and get 15 hours into the game and feel like you should start over. HA! Good Fun!

Leave it to the French. We got French fries, French toast, and rapey. I am beginning to see a correlation. it is easy to blame the french, but sadly, the english deserve a swift kick to the temple with a steel-toed boot too. http://techland.time.com/2011/03/25/the-oxford-english-dictionary-adds-3-and-lol-as-words/ sammich were also added at the same time. sammich is a real word. ... perhaps we needs switch to latin. being a dead language would appear to have advantages. HA! Good Fun!

have been avoiding this thread 'cause of the title. game journalism? in all the years we has been playing games, we has never genuine considered the coverage of the industry in print and digital sources to rise to the level of journalism. when we hear people making a fuss over lack o' integrity in gaming journalism, we is reminded o' the movie quiz show. the movie were competent directed and the acting were beyond reproach, but the basic premise were just so darn stupid. back in the 1950s there were this popular tv show wherein the producers were secretly giving answers to specific contestants to fix the results o' the show's competition to be achieving better ratings. this seeming banal little bit o' flimflammery were presented as the defining and/or symbolic moment at which the US public lost its faith in tv, and s'posedly we were to accept notion that losing faith in tv were like being told santa claus weren't real. losing faith in tv took some o' the magic outta our world. whether you realized it or not, we were all diminished by the scandal surrounding events depicted in quiz show. the metaphor. The Metaphor! *groan* we can't bring our self to care about drama related to journalists covering the gaming industry. we never assumed there were such a thing as gaming journalists in the first place. we don't give reviews or stories written by s'posed game journalist more weight than we does to any number o' random posters we know from various game message boards. sure, the reviews and coverage from professional sources tends to be more complete and have better screenshots included than a fan review from amentep or yourself, but while the feedback we get from the professionals has more o' the old razzle-dazzle, it don't have any more gravitas with Gromnir. is impossible for Gromnir to see scandal in gaming journalism for two reasons: 1) we don't see journalists covering the gaming industry 2) for there to be scandal there must needs be shock, and we ain't naive enough or concerned enough about the media coverage of games to be shocked by the behaviors o' those involved. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esZ15n6_5JY from the much maligned presence album. plant were in a car accident immediate before they started recording, so bonham and page had to carry the band. bonham were at his best and page managed to compliment the drummer... or at least stay the heck outta his way. is probable our favorite lz album. HA! Good Fun!

last one is for oby. is kids beating a gay rights activist in russia... 'cause that is what kids in russia do for fun? HA! Good Fun!

so, scotland still gets all those wonderful parting gifts cameron promised just 'cause they played the Secession Game, yes? HA! Good Fun!

there is limits. the limits is understandable, but... the monte cook version o' the 3e ranger incident is illustrative. josh were forthright 'bout advocating the monte cook version o' the ranger for iwd2. he were forthright about how wotc responded to the bis request to use the monte cook ranger. ... some folks know rest of the story. others don't. am not gonna add anything beyond fact that josh forthrightness were understandably limited by the situation. making games is a business. these boards is useful advertising space... generate hype and anticipation. a useful side benefit of the boards is that obsidian, and josh in particular, uses the boards to interact with the fans. even so, am thinking folks who post frequent get a fanciful notion 'bout their contributions and impact. is only a very small number o' regular posters compared to total potential purchasers and obsidian cannot be making a game just for boardies. if/when josh forthrightness and interactions become something other than beneficial to the business, somebody else will step in to give him advice. no doubt josh is mature enough to take good advice even when he don't like it. making games is a business. being forthright can be bad for business. HA! Good Fun!