Gromnir

you think that drinking coffee is same as becoming a ravenous undead? really? we never accused you o' such, but that would explain your apparent obtuseness. well, another mystery solved. HA! Good Fun! aside: is very difficult to find self-professed witches. nobles accused o' sorcery/witchcraft seems rare, but folks admitting to witchcraft is non-existent. 'course the reason being that witchcraft were universal prohibited. confess to being a witch and you get christian burial and decapitation. burned at stake is other option. so, admittedly it is difficult to find a parallel for witches, but not for reasons you suggest.

sure, if is a stoopid one-in-game fire-breathing dodo-velociraptor that is behind a secret door, then it is gonna cheese us off if it is part o' crafting. if is a staple monster, or even a side-quest monster we is ok with it. heck, might even be a fun battle. opening a box or picking a plant dont have gameplay value in itself, unlike the critter... how is this not getting through? as for the mr. straw man routine, nobody is asking that the combats for resource gathering should be boring. lame combat is lame regardless o' how it is used in game. you serious deserve a digital smack in the face with a less than fresh trout for even bringing that into a thread. no joke on that. was terrible. bad cess and all that. there is no gameplay from the plant itself. so what can it possibly add to crafting that the critters options don't? ask 'bout other options? well, if is just random stuff laying in a glorified box, we would be against that too. books at least has some possible storytelling value, so am not gonna dismiss, but plants? why? you say why not and we keep telling you because it is inherent less than critter... is one less thing you can do with plant. so, why? if you make the plant difficult to find, it is gonna be annoying. make easy to find and what is the freaking point? for crafting you already needs the critter part, so what does plant add. am seriously beginning to worry 'bout you. HA! Good Fun! btw our complaint is that plants is bloat. you keep saying "why not," stead o' answering why. is possible you don't see a problem with bloat. have two skills or class or weapons that does functional the same thing is bloat. we see such as a waste of resources and potential dishonest depending on how such things is used. is not an additional feature. is just... bloat. if you don't mind such stuff, then we "get" your failure to understand. some folks actually like bloat.

am thinking witchcraft is a bit more significant than hair color, no? who the hell is gonna bother to record random hair colors n' such? thanks to torture, we suspect that there were folks who admitted witchcraft, but again, the numbers is gonna be staggeringly low... and not because such details is inconsequential. nobles admitting witchcraft is gonna be like seeing some random girl in a ny subway with blue and green hair? *snort* am not recalling where we claimed that nobles and rich people were smart. we said that it would be tough to explain nobles as being complete uniformed o' something as dramatic as link 'tween animancy and undead. we also conceded that nobles were just as likely to be stoopid and foolish... which is why all the horrific rumors that would be inevitable would be just as likely to impact nobles. we noted that conspiracy theorists tends to be folks who has been marginalized by governments. am not sure where you see us saying smarty rich v. dumb poor. those with the power is gonna be the targets o' conspiracies, can we get a "Duh!" should be obvious. should also be obvious that the folks least likely to be desperate is the folks who actually is having stuff. your tendency to selective characterize, generalize and seeming forget is cute, but is not genuine helping. and if you don't believe we explained what is wrong with coffee, multiple times, you is being more obtuse than we imagined. seriously? HA! Good Fun! ps almost forgot. we dated a girl named elizabeth ________ at university. she had blue and green hair.

we already established that critter parts is obvious. you is fighting critters anyway. the gameplay is inherent in any squad-based tactical game. as for why put in books or sarcophagi, we agree that such is stoopid if you is gonna make part o' a mind numbing scavenger hunt wherein the gameplay is to not accidentally pass over the book or sarcophagi. a book might have some additional value to be adding optional exposition. can't say that for a plant, but if you is making gameplay same as the critter part, but without the combat, then we agree that there isn't much point to hide stuff in such things. HA! Good Fun!

name 'em. name the people who actual admitted to being witches in spite o' fact that they believed that they were consigning their soul to eternal damnation. we will wait for you to compile your list. ... ... ... how many you come up with in the history of forever? am not talking druids or high priestess of ishtar or whatever. we is talking souls and witchcraft, so lets keep same. name us some bona fide witches serving the dark powers. oh, and make sure that your witches is rich and or nobles. impoverished peoples who has been treated unfair by society and their peers don't fit the criteria, do they? so, give us the list o' the rich and nobles who admitted to practices o' unholy witchcraft. ... oh, and if you not like how we treat stupid coffee analogy, don't make stupid coffee analogies. is not anywhere close to same, or even similar. telling us that lots o' people don't pay their parking tickets in a timely matter is similarly pointless. sure, it is a stupid people that many smart folks do, but is not even close to being the same. is pointless to bring up such stuff. conspiracy theorists? is lots o' conspiracy theorists that blame space aliens and government for every ill. rich nobles is the Least likely to fill that category... save the ones who already have mental health issues. conspiracy theorists is historically marginalized and develop a distrust o' authority. the nobles is the target o' conspiracy and not so much the breeding ground. and even then, how many conspiracy nuts is willing to risk their souls to prove their theories? how many rich and or noble conspiracy nuts is gonna be willing guinea pigs to prove or disprove a theory? rare. we keep saying rare. you folks is unwittingly making more obvious that with present info we have, rare is only plausible way we see undead. HA! Good Fun!

why? why do it with plants? everything you mention can be done via collection o' monster parts, so why add plants? what is different about plants? obvious answer is that with few exceptions, the plants don't fight back. nevertheless, put Godberry bush at the top of Mt. Trumpet is just likely just a silly scavenger hunt, 'cause they ain't gonna build an entire area around a craft resource. you is gonna be at Mt. Trumpet for other reasons. the plant don't fight, so if you gotta fight a guardian to get, what is purpose of the plant? sure, you can makes puzzles or other obstacles, but that would be exact same for critter parts. am not seeing the point other than bloat. HA! Good Fun!

you know, that is kinda our problem with the numenera rules that torment will use. gear actual becomes mostest important part o' character development, and as far as we can tell, it is intended to be that way. HA! Good Fun!

what, so we is ignoring inherent bonuses from abilities? naughty. the thing is, only some serious fallout apologists is thinking gifted ain't broken. am recalling josh has mentioned this a few times, so if you really wanna slog through with gifted, give it a shot with him. he is the developer of poe after all, and his opinion is gonna have more relevance to poe. and small frame... you is joking, right? assume you is building a sniper character, or virtual any character. how important is a decrease in carry weight compared to a stat increase you can functional use on anything? between your pack mules (sorry, companions) and the car and other options, carry weight is a minimal important aspect. is not just str that impacts FUNCTIONAL carry capacity of your party. fallout guys is the only ones who can't see how woeful unbalanced it is. weird. HA! Good Fun!

josh mentioned a Long time ago that feargus were personally responsible for the inclusion of some of the blatantly monty haul weapons in the game. example: http://www.gamebanshee.com/showshot.php?/icewinddale/equipment/images/statictwohandedswordplus4.jpg am thinking the obsidian developers has matured a bit since then. HA! Good Fun!

am not seeing anything absurd. d&d base thac0 for a 8th level fighter were 40% yes? a base 35% is not far off, is it? also, given that her stats is not dex focused, and as josh has been using silly mmo vernacular, we could assume that pellegrino, or whatever her name is, is a tank or maybe even a buffer or heals as 'posed to some kinda dps. this would explain focus on defense stats. additional, if the "R." for accuracy is for ranged, perhaps she currently has a weapon equipped that ain't ideal. dunno. however, am not all that shocked by 35% as it is actual kinda close to what one would expect from a baldur's gate character of same level. 35% sounds bad, but is single +1 on a d20 away from the base thac0 of a d&d fighter o' same level. HA! Good Fun!

sure, yes - and any analogy will break if stretched to its limits. The analogy was merely to establish that (some) people do stupid things even if they know the end result will be bad. How stupid and how bad are now up for debate if the analogy is so general, it loses meaning. people do stupid things, but analogizing to drinking coffee? really? as for hockey player, keep in mind that the undead lose control of appetites and have increasing cognitive problems. if the undead thing is all mysterious and lord is hoodwinked, he may not even know he is undead at first. some o' these transformed nobles is gonna screw up, and they is gonna screw up obvious... especially if they is anywhere near as common as some of you want them to be. doesn't take thousands o' public and obvious blunders to create a panic. takes a handful... or even just one. if nobles is the ones being turned into undead by animancers, they is the ones most likely to create a panic when one eventually goes nutters and eats his chamberlain, or whomever. bath salts can create panics with fictional accounts o' people going insane and cannibal. genuine and real accounts of nobles going insane, becoming immortal undead, and eating folks is gonna create more or less terror? c'mon guys. we get the devil's advocate thing. we also understand some folks wanting to give obsidian the benefit o' the doubt, but either this undead thing is missing some important details we ain't yet privy to, or it is gonna need be a very rare occurrence in the game to be reasonable and rational. HA! Good Fun!

I call your stomach bug and raise with my 2 week holiday (all i got this year) and sinusitis. When I had sinusitis it was just after a filling which became infected leading to a root canal, but not before the weekend when the dental surgery isn't open, all while I was on my first playthrough of Dragon Age 2. for there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently, however they have writ the style of gods, and made a push at chance and sufferance-- much ado about nothing, shakespeare always pops to mind when we hear of dental issues. HA! Good Fun! Oddly enough, my first thought when I hear the word "toothache" is often of that bit from early in Notes from Underground wherein the protagonist posits that there is pleasure in such suffering, because it gives one license to pass suffering on to others by wailing and keeping them up all night. I need to read some more cheerful literature, I think... well, it ain't literature, but this tooth related bit is more likely to make you chuckle... and not in a dark and humorless manner. HA! Good Fun!

... this real world stuff people is trying to make analogous, ain't. bath salts is actual useful, 'cause the graphic bath salt stories is all bs. the difference here is that you get REAL freaking undead... undead who eat people. is not people with a caffeine-headache, dehydration or even a slightly weird trip. seriously, you gotta see a difference, no? the bath salt stories tend to be far more graphic and scary than the reality. so, what kinda scary stories is gonna attach to animancy if bath salts spawn ridiculous cannibalism nonsense? driving car is statistic very dangerous. drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, play hockey without a helmet... whatever. if ace bailey and other hockey players who didn't wear helmets sudden turned into flesh eating undead, how long would it have taken before helmets became mandatory? two weeks? a few days? ten minutes? ace doesn't just get knocked out, but he gets up off the ice as an unstoppable ghoul and charges into the stands, where he starts feasting on some idiot with the temerity to wear a canadians jersey to a leafs game. as we noted above, the snake oil stuff ain't analogous 'cause end result is death, and you were sadly expecting death anyways. it is admitted difficult to distinguish bad medicine from disease when eventuality o' both is death. but again, we is talking UNdeath and the more common you make undead, the more obvious you is gonna make a causal link 'tween undead and animancy. you not need ace bailey to jump into the stands if this kinda thing happens with frequency slight better than being struck by lightning. say nobles is hoodwinked is plausible only if they is extreme rare. extreme desperate don't help. even extreme stupid don't cut it. HA! Good Fun!

am recalling our boss from the short period o' time we were at us attorney office. guy comes into work with his right hand middle-finger heavily wrapped in gauze-- had a little tube sticking out o' the end o' the bandages. apparently the tube were to allow puss and other nastiness drain from his terrible infected digit. ick. turns out that he got finger lacerated when trying to clear grass from lawnmower. and o'course the mower were running when he tried to clear the grass. this is from almost twenty years ago, so please recognize that average lawnmower were a bit more primitive and dangerous at the time. our boss didn't seem like an idiot, but am guessing we all do extreme stupid stuff from time-to-time. HA! Good Fun!

I dunno... it doesn't have to require combat. Maybe if you go at night, instead of during the day, to the jabberwocky nest, you can simply collect some scales that it's shed in the area. Maybe you have to mask your scent to do so, because your scent will wake it up? Maybe you have to figure out how to even get TO the nest, etc. Just because games make such things a loot drop doesn't mean there can't be more to it. I think that'd be an improvement, from both allowing the player an actual non-combat means of achieving a goal that doesn't directly involve the death of something (jabberwocky SPLEEN would be another story, ), AND making the process more interesting than just "you kill things, and they drop stuff." Same with plants. Maybe they only grow in some precarious place. Maybe you have to get through some spiffy scripted interactions to actually get the plant you want, instead of simply running around enough, manually, in a game environment, then left-clicking on the plant when you finally get near it. Possibility often trumps precedent. I definitely agree that collection stuff should be more than just collection. you really aren't helping make plants sound better. steal scales from nest via stealth or whatever is additional gameplay options beyond combat that would be seen by Gromnir and many as a positive. on the other hand, making plant location More obscure is not helping diminish the scavenger hunt nonsense. if you already got the critter parts that one may use combat and/or steatlh and/or diplomacy and/or whatever, then why bother with plant scavenger hunts? HA! Good Fun!

compare drinking coffee to animancy? ... can't even have a serious conversation. HA! Good Fun!

the nwn2 system is sounding familiar to josh's teases 'bout enchanting weapons/armour. recipes called for a combination of essences and a gem. essences were, for all intents and purposes, critter parts. sadly for indira, the gems required for nwn2 crafting were not the kinda l007 that filled up gem bags. anything you would bother to craft were requiring the most valuable gems. the plant/herb stuff is new, and am not sure we see it as a good idea either. any kinda scavenger-hunt gameplay always feels like bloat to Gromnir. kill a dragon or jabberwocky to get scales is going to be involving combat. whether you like it or not, combat is gameplay. mindless uncover far corners of maps in search of special babba yagga witch hazel? *groan* am hoping there is more to the plant/herbs collection than... collection. HA! Good Fun!

I call your stomach bug and raise with my 2 week holiday (all i got this year) and sinusitis. When I had sinusitis it was just after a filling which became infected leading to a root canal, but not before the weekend when the dental surgery isn't open, all while I was on my first playthrough of Dragon Age 2. for there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently, however they have writ the style of gods, and made a push at chance and sufferance-- much ado about nothing, shakespeare always pops to mind when we hear of dental issues. HA! Good Fun!

What makes you think we will only have three or four companions at any given time? ... not know what you will do, but Gromnir will only have three or four. HA! Good Fun!

is this the same thing as giving self a handicap? for example, many fallout traits had a bonus and a handicap. the thing is, the handicaps could frequent be nullified or ignored. sure, gifted gave you a penalty to skill points, which were easily overcome by putting some o' those extra ability points into intelligence. small frame would result in a decreased carrying capacity, but would boost agility by 1... and that additional agility point could actually be spent on any ability. giving self handicaps so as to be getting a "better" character is typical in pnp rpgs, but it always stuck us as a bit silly. HA! Good Fun!

TToN's developers also disagree: tb purists will frequent note that rtwp can potential be slower than tb, and that is true. bob is playing a rtwp crpg with a bazillion combat choices and he gots near crippling ocd. with his party o' six or eight, he can spend hours agonizing over minor combats. converse, freddie is playing a tb game where enemies takes their "turn" simultaneous (or near simultaneous) and at increased speed. freddie either is playing so that he gots a party or 1, or his companions is controlled via ai scripts and their actions is sped up much as is enemies. with enough qualifiers, you can make almost any statement true... but what is the point o' doing so? HA! Good Fun!

for years we would hear a studio release from the dead and wonder what all those drugged-out hippies were smoking to make'em believe the dead were good, much less great. nevertheless, we happened to see 'em during the period bruce hornsby were touring with the dead, and we were kinda shocked by how much better they were in concert than on the radio. is still not a favorite band for Gromnir, but after we saw 'em, we kinda get it. HA! Good Fun!

iwd games had no joinables. am not gonna bother counting storm o' zehir "companions." ps:t had seven companions, yes? nwn2 had fourteen or fifteen companions... our memory seems to be missing one. mask of the betrayer, whose companions Gromnir found disappointing save for ammon jerro, had six. maybe add kotor2... 11 or 12? regardless, nwn 2 appears to a bit o' an aberration for obsidian black isle. having fewer companions won't make the companions better, but am thinking it is safe to say that the more companions a developer adds, the less they can be developed. am thinking that obsidian has received most of their positive feedback from companions of ps:t and motb, so perhaps they is skewing more towards increased development. is unlikely that we will have a party of more than three or four companions at any given time, so eight companions is likely to take us a couple playthroughs-- that or some frequent party juggling. one quibble: "Dwarf Rangers were not possible in 2E AD&D and almost never seen in 3E/3.5E, so it's a breath of fresh air." in our experience, dwarf rangers in 3.0 and 3.5 were increasingly common. the pathfinder iconic ranger is a dwarf, for example, and pathfinder were officially ogl 3.5 at its start. with the seemingly endless race variations, you can play a 3.0/3.5 dwarf with no dex penalty. also, perhaps sadly, 3.0 ranger were initially only worth taking a handful o' levels, and dwarf had fighter as favored class-- made for ideal min/max. as such, in our experience, dwarf rangers were hardly rare in 3.0 and 3.5. HA! Good Fun!

Meh, not playing white saviour to all those poor oppressed women in third world countries while the first world is also far from being problem-free is pretty much the best thing one can do in his situation, methinks. we think white savior is kinda amusing, but bruce has championed as white knight for women on message boards and seems very concerned with race issues in parts of world other than south africa. bjp taking over in india is gonna affect far more lives than possible eu changes. given bruce's other posts he obviously can't deride the white savior with any genuine vigor. so, as bruce aint eu himself, why the concern for eu when india changes is potential more significant? am also gonna suggest that the first/second/third world distinctions is inherent flawed. is a cold war holdover that has increasingly suspect value, particular as we move towards increasing globalization. heck, utilizing some o' the bizarre new methodologies for dividing nations into 1st, second and third world, we has seen south africa gets 3rd world label more than once. HA! Good Fun!

"Its pretty basic, everyone with a working brain knows what destroys you ''down the road''. " well, actually, no, they don't. even orthopedic surgeons disagree with each other, but most do agree that regardless o' your form, intense weight training is one o' the potentially more dangerous forms o' exercise. oh, and guess what, nobody has perfect form all the time. serious. is why they call things "accidents." have an accident while suspending hundreds o' kilos/pounds o' weight? is different than a mistake while swimming. hell, janet evans had f'd up form and won loads o' medals at the olympics and world championships. most of rest is rather myopic nonsense. "unfortunately self discipline is what most people sorely lack nowadays," is the nonsense you started with and it got funnier with each post. you like working out? great. Gromnir also enjoys working out. but if you cannot see the funny of an unmarried 20-something telling folks 'bout their lack o' discipline, then you is kinda hopeless. in our 20s we were in law school and working at a juvenile detention facility as a "counselor." we had all kinda arrogance issues at the time, just not the kinda issues you gots. HA! Good Fun!