Gromnir

please forgive if we is repeating what somebody else has said in this thread as we did not read beyond genesis post. ... is cyclical that entertainments become embracing grimdark. am s'posing you can go back to Sophocles v. Euripides if you is looking for origins in western entertainment. maybe not. *shrug* the thing is, we gets bored with the racism stuff as it appears in games and movies and tv. yeah, we get that magneto were meant to be Malcolm X and and xavier were Martin Luther King jr... though the naming always struck us as kinda backwards. and we never understood why superpowers resulting from freak accidents and alien experimentation were okie dokie, but birth super powers were bad in the marvel universe. regardless, with every xman movie we gets the racism is bad speeches. duh. games is also wanting to get in on the act. dragon age were s'posed "dark and gritty," so the developers had the traditional superior elf hierarchy turned upside down and made them victims o' racism. is not uncommon to do racism in games nowadays. ... racism is bad. even the south africans figured that out decades ago. in and of itself, overt racism just ain't all that interesting. is firmly on the dark side o' the simplistic and somewhat tired good v. evil spectrum. raise your hand if you thinks racism is ok. even if you does think it is ok, chances are you don't admit 'cause everybody else knows it is bad... 'cept at rpgcodex. yeah, there is subtitles to modern racism that makes it a compelling issue even today, but such subtleties don't translate particular well in a game. if obsidian ain't gonna do anything particularly innovative with racism in a fantasy setting, we got not problem with them largely ignoring... 'cause is boring. HA! Good Fun!

Was announced a long time ago, see Gamestop preorder bonus. Lolwut - So they really are pulling a Bethesda. Only if they will sell it with 5 dollars afterwards for those who didn't buy deluxe edition, but if you look prices for dlc gear in previous installments, then I would give it quite high probability that they will just do that. it would be interesting to learn how a publisher decides what dlc scheme, if any, is beyond the pale. horse barding, which in this context is unlikely to involve the beast being wrapped in bacon strips, is the kinda thing we do not mind at all insofar as dlc. from what we saw, da:i horsies is kinda like a glorified taxi system. stare at equine rear as it fast travels sounds ever so exciting. no doubt most compelling aspect will be inevitable stories 'bout how some pre-teen kid in hoboken had an epileptic seizure as he stared at mule butt for hours on end... pun intended. am doubtful that horse barding provides significant improved gameplay opportunities-- mostly cosmetic. day 1 shale dlc? yeah, is optional-- don't Need shale to finish the game. even so, that kinda dlc strikes us as a bit more shiesty. shale were arguably one o' the better joinable npcs in da:o. to make her dlc strikes us as questionable. what if were two, three, or even four o' the joinable npcs that were made dlc? and quests? optional side-quests-- how many or what % need be included in game? perhaps only critical path need be part o' the main game, and rest should be dlc like some kinda chinese menu? am not having a clear notion o' what is appropriate. at what point is dlc requiring us to buy to get a full game? we don't have answers. we do know that for Gromnir, horse barding as dlc is amusing but not particularly onerous. HA! Good Fun!

"Class could still be set, for characters whose personality/dialogue would be linked to it. That still leaves all kinds of things to tweak to your liking. For example in BGII, we had multiple thief/mage characters who I could've built much better from scratch even if I still had to work within the thief/mage classes." we will note that obsidian suggests that class will only be a small part o' character development. if a priest can fill many roles, then you is very much limiting the writers if all they can do is write within general scope of "priest." will be far more customization options than bg2. a healing priest might be written quite different than a high damage combat priest. as such, bg2 might not be a particularly valuable example. then again, you might be correct. regardless o' what josh claims, poe class might be as defining as it were in bg2. if class is the end-all, then we agree that roll-back should be implemented. "As for encouraging replays, I'm all for it. If this kind of non-auto-level feature makes a few play the game again, that's just icing on the cake in my book." am gonna extreme disagree with this. if the/a reason we wish to replay is 'cause lack of auto-level made otherwise intriguing companions a handicap to our party, then we see the replay value as extreme cheap and more a source o' frustration than anything else. replay to explore differing quest paths? sure. replay to take a differing approach with joinable npcs? yes, definitely. replay 'cause lack o' auto-level made the paladin too weak to include in the party past the first quarter o' the game? is cheap, particularly when there is many options to overcome lightfoot complaint 'bout it not making sense. other posters in this thread seem to suggest that poe developers has such a plan for having joinable npcs active while out of the party. so much the better. regardless, would seem to be many options for making auto-level reasonable. so if "making sense" is the concern, we not see a reason to abandon. "what?!?!?! dude take your head out of your ass! no one follows you across multiple threads, or cares about some silly guy with an internet persona, who seem to let his ego get in his way, come off as intentionally obnoxious." attempt to calm yourself... and please note the irony o' the observation above. and yes, you did simple parrot us here and in other threads. the fact that you parroted what we said in the post you quoted just makes you appear a bit silly. doesn't really matter if you did intentional or accidental, does it? so, beyond maturing a bit, try to find your own voice or at least read the posts you quote. is spam if all you is gonna do is repeat Gromnir. is sad if you is gonna have a little hizzy fit. either way, is bad. HA! Good Fun! ps we will note that our least favorite s'posed replay scheme is the random 1007 table. we understand that there were folks who replayed iwd multiple times to get different and more ideal 1007 drops, but such stuff strikes us as cheap as is the abandoning o' auto-level. even so, we does recognize that some folks actual find such reasons... sufficient.

much like weightless gold and not needing to eat, sleep or empty bowels, we prefer and much appreciate auto-leveling of party npcs. as the aforementioned aspects we note, the practicality o' such a feature far outweighs the tedium o' the alternative. assume a nwn2 without auto-level and leave npc A at base for a long quest. 'pon completion o' quest, you and other party npcs has gained 'least two or three levels. levels in nwn2 were the most obvious measure o' npc power. therefore, npc A is now two-to-three levels weaker... relative speaking. with each level opportunity lost, npc A gets weaker and weaker. while we may be interested in exploring npc A's background and "character," doing so will only occur if we voluntarily reduce the efficacy o' our party. like it or not, most people don't play games a dozen times. create replay ability bloat through such stuff as non-leveling party npcs strikes us as a bit fraudulent. furthermore, no doubt one might see how from a developer pov, this could be less than ideal. seeing as how much effort goes into writing such joinable npcs, the developer is no doubt recognizing that the leveling treadmill lightfoot prefers will likely result in some number o' joinable npcs being functional useless late in the game. have some large battle late in the game wherein you need use six or more different companions becomes impossible if only three ever got level'd. you can imagine other such scenarios, yes? we see very little value in functional gimping party npcs. perhaps writers can throw lightfoot and others a bone by adding dialogue and options that reveal that party members not active in main character's group is also gaining xp through other missions. maybe you has some penalty rate for party npcs such that they gain xp slower when not with main character... but never so slow as they fall more than X levels behind. etc. is options we can envision to have auto-leveling "make sense" to lightfoot and others, but remove auto-level strikes us as a poor throwback to a more barbaric and less enlightened crpg time. "^He could have meant dual-class thieves as well. If so, BG2 only has one pure thief, and that character dies in a scripted event." yoshimo death, since you bring up, actual further highlights the ultimate usefulness o' the one multi-class thief in the game. for the first 1/2 to 2/3 of game, depending on how much of world map you clear before going to spellhold, your multi and dual-class thief options is nalia and jan. nalia, as a thief, sucks-- to be opening locks, detecting traps, dispelling illusions, etc. she requires a constant flow o' potions to be useful. so, back to jan. HA! Good Fun!

it is always curious that people from other places thinks a little plastic and foam padding makes american football safer than australian rules or rugby. it doesn't. statistically, american football is far more dangerous. is kinda stupid actually... sorta like the craig mctavish nonsense from the nhl. the nfl could make safer equipment, and change rules-- would have a trickle-down effect to college and youth. sadly, am thinking that machismo (idiocy) is interfering with good sense. scott harding played six years pro australian football and has agreed that american is tougher... and he plays wr... at hawaii. unfortunately, given the growing awareness and documentation o' dangers o' american football (especially brain trauma) there is serious and increasing pressure to halt youth football programs and even the college game is coming under increased scrutiny. http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1660879,00.html http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/opinion/nocera-the-cost-of-football-glory.html?_r=0 http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-11-20/news/bs-ed-youth-football-20131120_1_school-football-concussions-pop-warner-football http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/08/americas-most-dangerous-football-is-in-the-pee-wee-leagues-not-the-nfl/279229/ etc. truth to tell, american football in it's present incarnation is likely far too dangerous. we played d-1 football in college-- is how we paid for tuition. we also ended up playing rugby after we quit football. american football were the "tougher" sport as far as serious injuries and overall fitness level were concerned. the "pads" argument always amuses us. that being said, we is slowly coming 'round to the position where we agree that american football is too dangerous for kids. however, we will note that we were far more likely to get our junk grabbed or punched in rugby than in american football. so, if that is the demarcation line for sissy, we suspect you win. "Well I guess that's true if you ignore places it was popular before, say, 1980." am not sure what pre-1980 has to do with anything. the reggie bar were actual popular in the late 1970s but we bet most folks here has never even had one. heck, soccer were momentarily popular in the US in the 70s. as we said, soccer is a nice sport. HA! Good Fun!

ever hear of bee sting therapy for folks with arthritis? is different theories as to why bee stings help with arthritis pain o' some sufferers. supposedly the neuro-toxin in the bee venom can ameliorate pain from arthritis, or perhaps the endorphin released when one is stung (a sharp pain) makes the arthritis ache fade into the background for a bit. is actually some support for the notion that the body's reaction to sharp and or violent pain will kinda numb those dull aches that otherwise seem unbearable. anywho, perhaps you can surprise your child with revelations regarding santa claus and the easter bunny. is almost guaranteed to make him forget the nightmarish spectacle of mommy and daddy "wrestling." no? oh well. am suspecting Gromnir will never replace dr. spock for parenting advice. HA! Good Fun!

we like soccer. is a nice little sport. am ranking it right above field hockey but below women's lacrosse on our list o' favorite sports. am understanding that soccer is very popular in countries where they don't have any sports for men... is also popular in england. odd. HA! Good Fun!

the appropriate term for horse armour is barding. this does make us wonder if barding is appropriate for describing lizard or unicorn armour. barding is also a cooking technique. wrap fat and or fatty meat 'round a second meat that has a tendency to dry-out during cooking. the most convenient option for state-side home chefs is to use bacon, but Gromnir loathes store purchased bacon as it is invariably water-cured-- real bacon has forever ruined us insofar as supermarket bacon is concerned. regardless, am personally finding that duck is our "fat" of choice when barding. HA! Good Fun!

"But why not combine the two to some degree? When I pick up an NPC character into my party I mainly want the personality, but may not like the class. Of course, some NPCs may fit only certain classes, but I'd be fine with basic limitations as long as I got freedom to mess with all the details." That would probably be available through modding or a save editor, that is tinkering with existing companion or create new ones. if we add, "simon says," to our posts, it might be possible to get mor to do handstands and cartwheels n' such... seeing as how he is already parroting us in multiple threads. how very odd. regardless, we does very much sympathize with odd. Gromnir has almost always been disappointed with the healer party npcs offered in ie games... or even obsidian's nwn2 offerings as they is more recent fantasy fare from the developer in question. we like playing the priest character, so we woulda' done so anyway, but one reason for us choosing priest for our party lead in ie games or nwn games is 'cause we genuine disliked the provided options. woulda' played as a priest in ps:t if that had been possible. we recognize that healing will work a bit different in poe, but chances are we will once again play as a priest, 'cause history says obsidian priests will disappoint us. however, on our first play-through of poe, we will use only the stock/canon party npcs regardless o' how much we agree with odd that frequently the builds o' provided party npcs strike us as, well, odd. HA! Good Fun! aside: "I didn't get stuck dragging along one of the messy multi-class thief characters..." we will note that there were only one multi-class thief character available in bg2: jan jansen. we will also observe that he were, along with keldorn, an almost guaranteed fixture in all our party configurations. is no way in hell we were gonna waste a party spot on a full thief such as yoshimo. nalia had a mere four levels o' thief and her thief skills were distributed poorly for our needs, so if she were in our party it were strictly as a mage. haer'dalis (sp?) were a freaking bard; nuff said. jan gave us a useful thief And he provided an effective secondary mage. until we got imoen back, jan were essential to us. *shrug* shows just how different folks is with party builds. heck, in our iwd parties we typical had a gnome thief/illusionist, so jan were kinda ideal for us.

congratulations. am hoping your relationship is a long and happy one. being a pet owner can be very rewarding. and you said something about getting married? congrats on that too. kinda anti-climactic after the dog rescue. HA! Good Fun!

"But why not combine the two to some degree? When I pick up an NPC character into my party I mainly want the personality, but may not like the class. Of course, some NPCs may fit only certain classes, but I'd be fine with basic limitations as long as I got freedom to mess with all the details." so, actually, no. odd were asking for the writing and the personality of bg2 with the bg/iwd build-your-own customization. HA! Good Fun! ps on the positive end o' the scale for odd, even if obsidian doesn't have built-in customization for canon party members, am suspecting that very quick after release players will learn how to manual mess with character levels and experience points. functional roll-back canon party members to level 1 and then rebuild them to suit taste will be easy... even if doing so messes with story aspects.

a joinable npc that were a blank slate would be kinda pointless. give'em gender and and portrait art, but leave rest up to player? how you gonna write dialogue for such characters? no class or abilities or skills or whatever? to write a compelling character for whom all such stuff is incidental is creating a near insurmountable task for the poe writers. as a main character such stuff is a pain in the arse and is explaining why the bhaalspawn and the shard-bearer and the courier is not particularly compelling characters. ask writers to do such multiple times in the same game is being ridiculous unreasonable. iwd approach were actual a bg method. the capacity to create a party of characters were a feature of bg. iwd developers simple used bg functionality. if the poe party npcs get as much development as did the bg party npcs, then we highly recommend having an option for us to create our own party as were available in bg, but such an outcome strikes us as unlikely. poe ain't being presented as a streamlined, quick-development, dungeon crawl such as were the icewind dale games. and am hoping the joinables gots a bit more depth than the original bg fare. maybe odd doesn't care 'bout the writing and dialogues related to the party npcs. is fair. some o' the worst writing the black isle/obsidian folks has done in the past has been related to party npcs. has all joinables be player created has value. 'course some o' the best writing black isle/obsidian has done has also been the result o' developing party npcs. we get that particularly on a first play-through, depending on what class and role odd chooses for his main character, the party npcs may be less than ideal. even so, try and consider how you would write dialogue and story for multiple characters wherein you could not specify skills or attributes or a class. is gonna end up... bad. HA! Good Fun!

is funny that we can't tell if this is a joke or is serious. HA! Good Fun!

hey now, only a couple posts up we gave recognition to a jazz artist. that being said, we typical only enjoy our jazz with a healthy side o' peanuts. HA! Good Fun!

elf toggle. toggle activated replaces all game elves with chris avellone stick figures. Gromnir would double his pledge if such were included. HA! Good Fun!

we do sympathize. as we noted, we were more than a little perturbed when our elite war hero gear were effective expunged. nevertheless, am expecting six months or less o' the current model before we see a complete revamp. so for now, we wouldn't be too concerned 'bout the gear grind. heck, we still have a couple dozen columi tokens we haven't yet redeemed. classic comm weapons actual sell back to vendors for decent credits, but am forgetting how many hours o' game time they gotta be in inventory before you may sell instead of refund. is annoying. server transfer worked very well for us the one time we has done so. we transferred a 55 merc from jedi covenant to harbinger 'bout a year ago. were flawless as far as we could tell. all our current rep levels also transferred, which were nice. having three assassins strikes us as a waste. with respec we need only keep different gears in inventory to effective play differing builds, but we ain't really one to criticize as on jedi covenant we currently have one 55 of every advanced class... plus one 5th level name holder. so, with seventeen toons, we can't speak o' waste without appearing a bit silly. HA! Good Fun!

They say that there is tactical view, but they also say that UI is optimized to work in every platform using its controllers strengths and they have only showed console version of the game, where tactical view seems to be pause where you can queue your movements and other actions and you see somewhat messy indicators where your characters are going. Hopefully PC UI is much better. kinda reminds us o' the da2 gameplay teasers in that we pretty much had to guess what pc gameplay might entail. am not understanding why bio/ea can't seem to throw us pc folks a bone and give us 30 seconds o' pc gameplay. is some pretty trivial stuff being addressed in these teasers. is the pc release that marginal? HA! Good Fun!

am sympathetic regarding gorth's complaints regarding gearing, but as we endured the transition from level 50 to 55, this seems tame by comparison. am recalling that particularly with our pvp gear, the level 55 change were making all our gear useless overnight, and that hurt. hutt cartel were just 'bout 1.5 years ago, and am assuming that based on patch numberings, 3.0 will probable be an expansion similar to hutt cartel. so, within the next six months all gorth's gear were gonna be useless anyways. am guessing that the odd choice to bolster for ops and the cheapened ultimate comms is a recognition that the current gear model is gonna be altered relative soon. the current ez-gear approach is likely intended to be significantly lowering the pain when 3.0 hits. as for 2.8 in general, we is ambivalent. our main complaint with 2.8 thus far is some bugginess and our complete disinterest in the gambling credit sink that is the focus of the new content. weren't the silly cartel market and the various packs a gambling credit sink? our dps assassin has been made viable again in pve, which is nice. dot-smash sentinels/marauders were eliminated as an option and watchman were improved. we got a sage and a sorc, but they is both heals, so changes wont make impact us. vanguard tank is a bit better. etc. most 2.8 character skills changes is incremental improvements. 2.8 don't mean much to Gromnir. am likely to keep subscription at least until we get info regarding 3.0. am s'posing we could play wildstar for a few months til da:i or wasteland 2 is released, but am thinking that carbine needs to work on wildstar another six months or so before they can charge folks to play what amounts to a continuing beta. wasteland 2 is august, yes? that is likely the next game we got any interest regarding, so we is likely to stick with swtor for a couple o' months o' infrequent play for no other reason than that we ain't got any better options for our gaming hours. HA! Good Fun!

so, no tactical view for da:i, or are they inexplicably keeping it hidden in all these gameplay videos and trailers? HA! Good Fun!

it's only a trailer. no way will Gromnir's expectations be significant increased or decreased by a freaking trailer. when the first dragon age were announced, there were, we kid you not, multi-page threads at rpgcodex filled with folks complaining that the title were proof of bioware incompetence. same kinda thing happened here, if to a lesser degree. the title? seriously? for more than a few, "dragon age" name were enough to damn bioware's efforts in utero. it's a trailer. HA! Good Fun!

it's a trailer. trailers typical tell us nothing useful 'bout the game. we liked the planescape trailer, but other than that it were using the ie engine, we could glean almost zero that were useful. we also liked the music, but the composer for the trailer was different than for most of the game, and some o' those cut-scenes is o' stuff we never saw in the game. it's a trailer. HA! Good Fun!

urban population density is, we s'pose, nice. am just not too worked up 'bout it. anytime we looks at a feature, we considers that poe has limited development resources. so what is we willing to give up to get ________ ? things such as random name generators and more urban density is the stuff we want in game after all the things we think is important is included and optimized. as between adding a couple extra npcs that is meaningful and having attached quest lines Vs taking same resources to make sure a city is populated with many moving bodies am not sure what is an equivalent development cost for urban population density, but am suspecting there is more than a few things we would rather have in the game than a few dozen chatable Wendy the Baker npcs who will ask us 'bout how keen it is to be an adventurer and how terrible the situation is in Hazbleakastan... or whatever. HA! Good Fun!

am not sure if we can express just how much we disagree. the more complex the game system, the more helpful is a respec. have absolutely no idea why you would think that adding character story elements decreases the benefit (and possibly the need) for respec. when bioware made dragon age they didn't skimp on story elements compared to most story-driven rpgs. unfortunately/fortunately dragon age did not arrive with a set o' three hardbound books o' a few hundred pages that would explain the actual way in which the rules worked. even after our first play through o' dragon age, we still had only the most limited notion o' the manner in which the character development choices translated into actual game efficacy. dragon age were a new system with relative complex rules mechanics and neverwiner nights 2 were also having complex character development options. combinations of abilities, feats, classes, and skills were making for a great deal of complexity. bg/bg2 were almost childish simple compared to nwn2 and motb. the thing is, for the serious rules junkie who weren't satisfied with choosing fighter or wizard and then just hoping for the best at level-up, there were literal dozens o' rules books that explained d&d. you didn't mistake your way into a viable fighter/bard/rdd/wm build. by the same token, you could mistake yourself into complete and utter uselessness by choosing feats and classes that looked like fun, but had poor synergy. nevertheless, for the folks that wanted to metagame the rules, there were all those d&d resources available to 'em. oh, and all the story in the world wouldn't makes a broken character more fun to play in nwn2. frustrating is Not fun. so, is poe gonna be more like bg/bg2 or closer to da or nwn2 insofar as complexity is concerned? am gonna bet it is closer to da. unlike nwn2 or even fo:nv, many/most players is gonna be coming to poe without any useful knowledge 'bout the rules or game mechanics. the more complex the rules is, the more likely it will be to makes possible the broken or useless character. similarly, the more complex the rules is, the more likely it will be to find specialty builds. respec is a natural and reasonable option for a game with complex rules and extreme limited meta-knowledge o' those rules. gots absolute nothing to do with story. HA! Good Fun!

the original funky drummer, clyde stubblefield were one o' those often unheralded studio musicians who knew how to play with the song. as an aside, we noted a few pages ago that we ain't a big jazz fan, but without Tony Williams, modern rock drumming wouldn't be the same. so, for enoch... HA! Good Fun!

for Gromnir, carl palmer is one o' those enigma drummers-- we know he is fantastic, but we rare like his music. what we mean is that there is some elp stuff we think is great, but most o' the asia catalog interests not at all. keep in mind that our first genuine exposure to palmer were late 70s and early 80s, and that were when there were some significant negative backlash lingering from elp's Love Beach release. regardless, palmer is what made the good elp stuff memorable for us. aside: our favorite drummer is a cliché choice HA! Good Fun!