Gromnir

israel is an ally in the middle east with a stable and democratic government. that alone is worth much. israel government will be here tomorrow, and the day after. we can't even say the same about egyypt. US can also use influence with israel as a bargaining chip with other middle-eastern nations. no doubt the US military benefits from sharing info with a nation that is in a constant state o' war... bloodless (for USA) lessons learned from israel experiences with iron dome, fighting in gaza (densely populated urban settings,) fighting terrorist cells, etc. and yeah, votes matter. the arab nations in the middle east has, more than once, attempted to exterminate the Israel. to turn backs on Israel now would be striking most Americans as unjust and disloyal. btw, we saw a bunch o' headlines last week saying that Israel admitted that hamas weren't to blame for the killing o' the three Israeli teens that sorta started this whole recent chain o' events. o'course, when we read such stories we learned that it were a "lone hamas cell" that were responsible for the murders. we saw literal a dozen headlines claiming israeli admission o' hamas innocence being refuted by their own stories. don't the clowns in the media know what a terrorist cell is? ability to act independent o' a central command structure is kinda what makes a terrorist cell a terrorist Cell. duh. is so much better that israel has to deal with such nonsense instead o' the US... as terrible as that sounds. HA! Good Fun!

so, from the guy who got his shorts in a twist over bioware adding pop culture references to bg and has complained more than once 'bout humor in crpgs, we get bobblehead mode? ... *shrug* the next time josh complains 'bout stoopid humor in a game, we is thinking he maybe needs his head examined, or perhaps deserves a swift kick to the head. am of two minds on this. on the one hand, this is an obsidian game and they can put into the game whatever idea pops into their head if they so desire. on the other, there is a clear disconnect between what josh says and what is going on in his noggin. in any event, am having a hard time wrapping our head around this... feature. on a more serious note, it does make it difficult to take serious anything josh says about game humor. big heads? really? HA! Good Fun!

the world against Israel is a near constant... but this conflict is actual different. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/31/world/middleeast/fighting-political-islam-arab-states-find-themselves-allied-with-israel.html?_r=1 is more than a few nations in the middle east that agree with israel that hamas is a threat: egypt, saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, etc. hamas were isolated and were getting weaker. if your organization is predicated on fighting israel and eliminating it from world maps, then you best do your fighting when you is at your strongest. hamas weren't gonna get stronger. from their pov, they had no choice but to fight now.... and they need keep fighting 'cause they cannot win in any conventional sense. the only measure o' success hamas can hope to achieve is through a advantageous cease-fire agreement. they needed a conflict before they could get a cease-fire-- is axiomatic. well, they got the conflict, but the only leverage they has for generating more favorable cease-fire terms is if the US and local arab nations put pressure on Israel to do so. given that hamas were at a nadir in popularity before this newest conflict erupted, the only way to gets US and neighboring arab nations to pressure Israel were through media and propaganda. civilian deaths is the only leverage hamas has. at the start o' the idf operation, we believed that israeli deaths would be a factor in bringing about a cease-fire. am thinking that is no longer a factor. israel is fully committed. this is looking more like the 2006 conflict in south lebanon. israel paid a heavy price when the invaded lebanon. the world media were appalled by civilian casualties back then too. the main difference were that other arab nations condemned Israel in 2006, and this time they is silent. all the bloodshed in 2006 shocked folks living in europe and south america and in the US and canada. *shrug* this same drama has played out multiple times and the main difference this time is that Israel has greater support from its arab neighbors. israel bloodied the hezbollah quite severely in 2006. at the cost o' world condemnation, near 2000 civilian casualties and a considerable amount o' Israeli deaths, israel bought eight years o' hezbollah impotence. hamas needs enough casualties to broker favorable cease-fire terms and there is no point in keeping resources in reserve when they has no chance o' being resupplied by non-existent friendly neighbors. hamas has nothing to lose by fighting til they get what they want. israel, likewise, has little to lose. the US is their only dependable ally and while the state department might condemn civilian casualties, a few thousand dead arabs in gaza won't permanently harm US-Israeli relations any more than has the last half-dozen times this same kinda conflict has arisen in the former british mandate. also, much o' the arab world is staying silent as israel squeezes hamas. so until the idf finds a majority o' tunnels and destroys/exhausts most hamas weapon stockpiles, israel will keep fighting. israel, like hamas, has nothing to lose by fighting til they get what they want. HA! Good Fun!

dunno, but Gromnir were saying much the same stuff ad nauseum in this thread and elsewhere and were coming up a brick wall. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66430-i-feel-like-im-missing-something-here-related-to-souls-and-the-game-mechanics-in-this-game/ also, your faith, while not necessarily shared by the average poster in this thread, should be more in line with the norm o' the people in the PoE world. you have faith; you believe. the folks in PoE believe too 'cause they don't need faith. souls is not abstract in PoE. your pov ain't near as different as you believe... on multiple levels. HA! Good Fun!

getting closer to bg should not be a goal. baldur's gate xp were broken which is one reason PoE ain't gonna use same horrible system. obsidian is taking the good from bg, and not the bad. basilisk map could get you almost a full level? silly. encourage folks to mow every map to squeeze out every last bit o' xp? moronic. and bg didn't offer quite the same range o' skills and abilities that PoE will, so you probable didn't even notice how skewed towards combat rewards it were. bg and the ie game approach were flawed. let that aspect o' bg stay buried. and debating does serve a purpose if somebody says something new. nothing new is being said. honestly, check the old threads. heck, when bg3 and fo3 were being developed by black isle, these same threads were très chic. the black isle folks who were a bit less diplomatic in those days, roughed up the ad hoc proponents for their ignorance. is many o' the same developers on PoE... and clearly if there is any ad hoc proponents on staff at obsidian, they were won over or overwhelmed by the quest/objective based xp proponents. bah. finished. give it a shot when the next game is being developed. HA! Good Fun!

having not read the thread, am simply gonna observe that we thinks if obsidian misses holiday shopping season, then there ain't much reason to get the thing out in january, and we suspect that obsidian will miss christmas 2014. the gameplay demo were needing to be extreme scripted 'cause it weren't actual ready for public consumption. no looting corpses. no magic. no clicky o' priest, wizard or many other classes. no races save halloween and human. current build would seem to be rough. am suspecting that beta will raise many concerns obsidian hadn't considered. conversely, unlike wasteland 2 beta, there will be no additional money resulting from the beta. perhaps obsidian cannot go much past november/december. choices. first day o' spring in 2015 is 20 March 2015, yes? tuesday before that is 17 march 2015. last possible winter 2015 tuesday is 17 march 2015. oh well, am gonna go cautious. what is first tuesday o' the 3rd fiscal quarter? april 5, 2015? hmmm. our sense o' whimsy notices the proximity o' april fool's day-- too tempting. so, our guess is 1 April 2015. HA! Good Fun!

in tdkr, the reason batman fights superman is 'cause superman is a tool. ... regardless o' how you use "tool," the aforementioned still works. HA! Good Fun! ps am not a huge dc fan, but from our perspective, there is only two things keeping superman power in check: clark and bruce. lex, at times, believes he is fighting to prevent the unstoppable alien from dominating, but his efforts is largely impotent. the only two dependable checks on the potential tyranny or disaster that is superman is clark and bruce. clark is a good guy regardless o' what superman can/could do. and bruce, well, bruce is batman.

am not thinking there is a problem. as a developer, if you wanna control money, and you believe that such control is important, you may place the player on rails and offer negligible side-questing. players will necessarily have enough money to enjoy the game if the play nothing but the critical path. taking the aforementioned as a given, the more side-quests is available, the more money players will potentially be able to acquire money beyond what is necessary. if you is concerned 'bout balance rather than money, then as a developer you do not make purchasable items unbalancing. problem solved. developers can create innumerable ways for players to use money that don't impact relative power, but if balance is a concern, you simply don't makes unbalancing items purchasable. from our pov, this is another one o' those "nothing to see here" issues. HA! Good Fun!

our links addressed your question. that being said, the question itself is moot: quest based xp rewards will be utilized in PoE. ... am not honest curious enough to debate this point seeing as how it has already been settled, but am admitting that we find the ad hoc xp award argument to be wholly without merit. am getting the ADD impulse wherein some folks says they Need instant gratification. am also recognizing the somewhat weak appeal of the mirroring the broken ad hoc system that were used in the ie games... 'cause if it is broken, why fix it, yes? regardless, we don't understand how otherwise reasonable and rational can weigh costs v. benefits and come away believing ad hoc is superior to what will be in PoE. read links if you want an answer to your question, but this issue is, thankfully, pointless. HA! Good Fun!

is gauche to quote our self, but this is such a tired issue. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60641-xp-only-for-questing-some-observations/?p=1207218 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60641-xp-only-for-questing-some-observations/?p=1207720 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60641-xp-only-for-questing-some-observations/?p=1209376 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60641-xp-only-for-questing-some-observations/?p=1211354 am realizing some folks don't care 'bout balance, but the obsidian developers do. they has stressed that they want no bad PoE builds. xp awards for individual actions is making far more difficult to balance level progression o' different character builds. and again, individual awards for every actions is stoopid. HA! Good Fun!

am suspecting we played a different d&d than did you. the following is gensai that josh mentioned. the original aasimar and tiefling were more subtle, but by 4th edition, the default tiefling were looking a bit like dragon age qunari heck, even 2nd edition tieflings were tending towards exotic so, am gonna need call foul on your claim. HA! Good Fun!

there is some truth to that, but since arafat gave ehud barak and bill clinton the proverbial middle finger in 2000 and then kicked off the second intifada with a wave o' suicide bombings, israel has been more than cautious about finding peaceful solutions. is possible that israel gave up on peace with the palestinians after 2000. the fact that hamas came to power is arguably (again, we says arguably) as much israeli fault as arab. by 2006, the palestinians in gaza were not only having learned the lessons that terroism works, but they also were convinced (and perhaps with some validity) that israel weren't looking for peace with arabs no more either. given such realities, the fact that hamas came to power is hardly surprising. "However, Barak’s decision to try and end the conflict with the Palestinians in one stroke at the Camp David conference in July 2000 was even more problematic. Barak offered Yasir Arafat an independent state in Gaza, almost all of the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem, terms that most Israelis thought too generous. When Arafat rejected the offer, Barak sweetened it the following January in Taba only to get the same response. By then, Arafat had answered what he and the Palestinians thought was Barak’s weakness by launching a terrorist war of attrition known as the second intifada. "Though 12 years later many American Jews and most of the Washington foreign policy establishment still haven’t absorbed the lessons of this debacle, the overwhelming majority of Israelis drew conclusions about the Palestinians from these events that continue to shape Israel’s political future. "Barak taught the Palestinians to think that terrorism will cause Israel to back down and retreat, leading them to think that more violence and intransigence rather than moderation and negotiation will get them what they want. At the same time, he taught Israelis that retreats like his Lebanon bug-out and the Gaza withdrawal it inspired, as well as the concessions that he made at Camp David, only lead to more sorrow for the country. Almost single-handedly (though it must be conceded that he couldn’t have done it without Arafat and his successor Mahmoud Abbas), Barak inculcated in the Israeli public the understanding that they have no partner for peace and that the intractable conflict can only be managed rather than solved." in any event, the quoted material above is an oft-repeated perspective 'pon the failed 2000 camp david peace negotiations. true or not don't matter anymore. folks believe. the israelis believe the arabs in the west bank and gaza don't genuine want peace, and the arabs believe that the best way to wring concessions from israel is through violence and dead bodies. as such, am not seeing any genuine solutions, at least not til there is a perspective sea change amongst both peoples living in the lands o' the former british mandate. HA! Good Fun!

were it intentional that in character creation at both ign and g-bomb that the same cc options were getting the invisible hand of click? seems odd that there were no clicking on ciphers, priests, chanters, etc... no dwarf or orlan? am getting that the whole thing were rehearsed, but why only paladin, barbarian, and fighter in both gameplay videos? why only halloween and human for race options? almost by accident one would likely click cipher when josh mentioned them. that didn't happen. based on what we saw and considering some feedback comments, am guessing that character creation ain't complete. and did we hear why no talents or skills? *shrug* extreme basic mechanics looked nice although lack o' any magic were painful obvious. the video were very scripted and limited, but looked encouraging. complete side-note: aesthetics o' the effect/ability/whatever icons were reminding us o' ps:t versions. HA! Good Fun!

Lol, and again I am highly amused. (nonsensical tangent) soooo, is no longer that Gromnir were inconsistent on the issue but rather that the whole damn issue is irrelevant and the baltic states got screwed... somehow. and armenia. or is it that russia got screwed? *shrug* is relevant as is imaginary quotes. ... am not even gonna respond to nonsense about the entire negev desert belonging to the relative handful o' bedouins. is a nice new tangent, but considering Gromnir has been the only one lamenting their plight under unscop til now, we is amused. and again, for at least the 6th time, there never were any partition. is mind blowing that you kids don't seem to get that point. you sure you don't need a time out, 'cause this is getting kind sad? HA! Good Fun!

The precise appearance of anthropomorphised embodiments of the concept of Death seems to me to be a culturally determined thing. I don't know if you can say much about what it "should" or "shouldn't" look like without a pretty strong background in the surrounding culture. is even more varied. am a big fan o' neil gaiman, but his death from sandman were looking like a perky goth girl. he were using largely judeo-christian mythology to arrive at this? most folks liked it, so what do we know? HA! Good Fun! ps thanks to josh for the reply on stat minimums

hey, we has tuned in to watch law and order, if only 'cause virtual all the assistant da looked like models... which is Far different from reality. HA! Good Fun!

Programming is currently hooking up all of the description displays in CC. good to know. is there an obsidian rationale regarding stat minimums? we won't ask josh personal pov as we has already heard regarding various games and developments and we promise not to bludgeon you with past comments. if you explain, we will take explanation graciously and forgo a response. assuming abilities is balanced, we is always perplexed by minimums, but am genuine curious 'bout the PoE reasoning. HA! Good Fun!

character creation were odd. perhaps we need watch again, but all we saw were lists w/o explanations. choose race. okie dokie, but what advantages does human have? choose class. fine, but what are attributes o' a barbarian or fighter? choose ability point spread. nice, but what exactly is perception and how does one point in perception benefit our character? choose... whatever. also, as already noted by other folks, there were no skills or talents. based on character creation we saw, the functional gameplay customization through character creation were incredible sparse. finally, why have ability minimums? yeah, having such does result in less extreme character builds, but if all abilities is equal useful, then am not seeing a need to provided minimums, particularly if every point is equal useful as well. we will watch again, but character creation were underwhelming or incomplete. HA! Good Fun!

video that so complete sold us on octopedes. jolly good show. HA! Good Fun!

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118828/israel-palestine-war-army-knew-beforehand-gaza-was-crisis is another worthwhile read. HA! Good Fun!

Not many. I'm saying our Mike McCoy could do it. He has a face that looks like it wins a lot of staring contests. am suspecting tomlin could have a couple years ago, but am not so sure if he could today. singletary were actual kinda old, but he were in ridiculous good shape. if you mean "coaches" and not head coaches, we believe many could survive the basic physical test. is more than a few position coaches who is former players or just super-jocks who has kept themselves in good shape. however, once you become a head coach, there is typical insufficient time to sleep, eat and shower much less workout. HA! Good Fun!

how 'bout halfling tossing? if you need a racist trait, then might as well go complete gauche. your halfling projectile could be armoured in bladed or spiked armour, then either self-propelled or hurled by player at enemies. range would be something ridiculously plausible like 2 metres. is possible that Gromnir is not taking the ranged animal companion attacks suggestion serious. HA! Good Fun!

"I'm sure you consider yourself an masterful debater and that your arguments are solid and that it's always the other guy that makes all those fallacies and mistakes. Well, you're wrong. You are doing every single thing you accuse me of." you realize that simply saying that doesn't make it true, yes? "False equalency. That is not the reason Hamas was elected." have no idea what false equalency is 'posed to mean, but we already posted links to hamas creation and their charter and such. "Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors." (please, no beavis & butthead responses to "erect") "The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine." "Article Thirteen: Peaceful Solutions, [Peace] Initiatives and International Conferences [Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad: “Allah is the all-powerful, but most people are not aware.” From time to time a clamoring is voiced, to hold an International Conference in search for a solution to the problem. Some accept the idea, others reject it, for one reason or another, demanding the implementation of this or that condition, as a prerequisite for agreeing to convene the Conference or for participating in it. But the Islamic Resistance Movement, which is aware of the [prospective] parties to this conference, and of their past and present positions towards the problems of the Muslims, does not believe that those conferences are capable of responding to demands, or of restoring rights or doing justice to the oppressed. Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the nonbelievers as arbitrators in the lands of Islam." this is all from hamas charter. regardless, you is confused on the point. we observed that the cartoon offers a completely implausible solution, a solution that were as untenable back in 1947 as it is today. neither jew nor arab should be trusted to protect the human rights and civil liberties o' the other group. respond with "false equalency" is meaningless and ignores the fact that hamas is even more overt about their desire to exterminate israel/jews than were the arabs back when unscop were crafting a partition plan. duh. "Pray tell, when did I ever say the other side was blemeless?" *chuckle* you started with the nonsense about disproportionate casualties giving the arab in gaza the moral high ground and your cartoon clear show the palestinians as the victims in this scenario. you is one o' the myopic folks who helps fuel this entire cycle o' nonsense. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66123-israel-vs-palestine/?p=1466327 that post by you is our favorite as it seems to ignore that the israelis has now been in israel for more than a couple generations, which according to your own busted logic would give them the right to israel. and the majority o' the "other people' land" that the jews were given were British lands... y'know, as it were the british mandate. most o' the rest o' the land they got were land that they bought from brits and arabs. 'Which is why they don't.' so? that is not any kinda a rationale. hamas started a fight they cannot win and they choose to fight it in the streets of gaza. we has noted earlier in this thread that from a tactical perspective, fighting in gaza makes sense for hamas, but what is the point of starting a fight you cannot win, a fight that necessarily will result in many civilian casualties? again, even if you look at the tactics and find them reasonable (fighting in the most densely populated place on earth,) strategically it is a wacky battle to choose... and the fact remains that the battleground were chosen by hamas. civilian casualties is as much the responsibility o' hamas as they chose the fight and its location. the only two purposes we can see for hamas starting a no-win fight with the idf is as follows: 1) urban warfare is extremely unfavorable to an attacker. hamas is weak. they has no support from syria or egypt or even the fatah. their supply from iran is largely gone and their support in gaza had waned. hamas were weak and getting weaker. if they wanted to hurt israel, they had to do sooner rather than later, 'cause they were slowly bleeding out as an organization. 2) they were hoping to win the cease-fire, if not the battle. hamas can't win a battle with the idf, and there is nothing particularly noble about starting a bloody conflict that will get your own people killed if you has no chance o' success. nevertheless, hamas were aware that as civilian body count increased, the pressure on israel to agree to a cease-fire would also increase. the Only leverage hamas has in a possible cease-fire scenario is civilian body count, so they start a fight that will produce many sympathetic bodies. they tell gazans not to evacuate and they fire missiles from homes, and holy places and schools and they ride around in ambulances n' such. international sympathy would eventually bring about a cease-fire, and civilian body count would give hamas clout it has been sorely lacking. perhaps a cease-fire could strengthen hamas. but again, they need a cease-fire. to get a cease-fire, hamas needed a conflict. to get leverage in the cease-fire they needed bodies... lots o' bodies. well-played? or perhaps hamas simply didn't care about civilians and they is simply acting according to their charter. in any event, the larger palestinain issues is actual somewhat irrelevant in the present conflict. this is not israel v. palestinian arabs. it sure as hell ain't israel v. the arab world as has so often been the case. hamas is almost entirely alone. that is a point worth considering. HA! Good Fun!

difference is we show where your reasoning is flawed. you are even more obtuse than zor. put "uncivilized, dirty arabs" in quotes and act like we said such stuff makes you look childish in addition to your previous problems making a coherent argument. we never claimed that israel were an egalitarian state where arabs and jews were getting equal protection. that ain't the case and we ain't pretending it is. your cartoon ignores the reality that the arabs is not gonna treat the jews any more more fair if they has a majority. the UN partition plan were not authored by idiots-- they recognized throwing the jews and arabs together were not a feasible solution back in 1947-48. cartoon suggests letting arabs back into occupied territories so that jews in israel is outnumbered and outflanked by a hostile population that when given the opportunity has elected organizations such as hamas. brilliant freaking plan. the israelis haven't be serious 'bout peace since 2001. they ain't blameless, but nobody in this sad drama is blameless. everybody has blood on their hands. pretending like arabs or jews is just victims is not helpful. to be fair to you, is not as if you is alone in your myopic view o' israel. the issue of arabs, jews and the british mandate territories is so polarizing that few folks can discuss rationally. and the media don't help neither. tv journalists love to do Drama. photographers will focus on a blood soaked shirt on a dusty road and make it symbolic o' the whole jewish/arab conflict. *groan* reporters does the same but with the story o' a mother separated from her children in gaza, or showing a jewish victims o' suicide bombers or whatever. if one story needs a little objectivity and perspective, this is it, but objectivity ain't what gets folks to tune in to cnn or read al jazeera. bah. am repeating self and we do not honestly believe you is willing to listen. "It's not like they can invade Israel and fight on their territory." actually, they could. they would lose, but they could do so. they will lose anyway, so am not sure what the point is. oh, and your hamas demands list is amusing. kinda cute actually. HA! Good Fun!

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66123-israel-vs-palestine/?p=1466145 that were arguable our first post on the subject. we were responding to ros and observed 'bout the 33% population... which were true. afterwards is when he and you brought up other bs about how much arabs owned v. jews at time of the partition plan... which we then further clarified. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66123-israel-vs-palestine/?p=1466161 this post were in response to gorgon. it mentions that jews were a majority in some areas... which they were. again, you ain't getting that uninhabitable lands were not arab lands. the partitions, as outlined by unscop, resulted in territories that were either having a jewish majority or were useless desert. " so the UN takes a look at a map o' the british mandate and recognizes that the jews there is already a majority in many areas and there is a lot o' useless desert area to dump new refugees into." hardly seems inconsistent. looks like you is the one misreading or outright fibbing... again. we did leave out a link to one other post, simply 'cause we didn't see it when reviewing. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66123-israel-vs-palestine/?p=1466287 in that post we again stress that much o' the land given to the jews were wasteland and that stoopid maps ignore non-arab owners and state-owned lands. is actual a flaw in Gromnir's character that we can be dogged consistent. soooo... you keep chasing your tail on this one. either you didn't read before or you ain't reading now, but either way you reaffirm our contention 'bout you being obtuse willful or accidental. thanks. HA! Good Fun!