Gromnir

I suggest you look for some r/w pen and paper groups or maybe even some play-over-internet games. Seriously. The original IE games were combat-heavy, bar PS:T. Well. PS:T was by far my favourite of the IE games. Followed by BG2 and BG. IWD I wasn't able to become interested in. While the BG games had quite a bit of combat, they had quite a bit of other stuff as well. Interaction, first and foremost. Good dialogue and lots of it. Non combat solutions. (More of those, please.) So, no, I don't have to find a PnP grpup outside of the one I have. I just have to hope for a game along the lines of what I like. somebody already is making the follow-up to ps:t. sooooo... *shrug* nevertheless, am thinking it would be a bit o' a stretch to suggest that bg had "good dialogue." let's be fair and not look back with the rose-hued spectacles. bg slammed you with combats and largely mindless fed-ex quests, with the fed-ex quests being thinly veiled excuses to give you more experience... and more combats. bg, iwd and iwd2 were squad-based tactical combat games though they did have rpg elements. iwd actual had superior writing to bg, but as it were a "linear" dungeon-crawl with no party member jibber-jabber, some folks like to be dismissive of that game... which is also kinda odd. bg2 had more interactions and dialogues than bg or the iwd games, but it also had more complex and varied combats. combat were, again, a very significant part o' the gameplay. all those stats you rolled or kept track of had virtual zero impact on dialogues, but they were significant to combat. this should not be surprising. d&d were, after all, developed from tabletop war-gaming rules... but squad-level 'stead of army. bg2, unlike bg1, did force us to vary our tactics. truth-to-tell, the main difference 'tween bg2 and the aforementioned games were simply the size o' the games. bg2 were much bigger, and the developers pretty much added everything they could think of into the game-- romances and party dialogues, and stronghold quests and component weapons and talking swords and... whatever. iwd were most focused 'cause interplay were needing to release it quick and also 'cause it were developed by a smallish team that included a few folks who had never developed a game previous to iwd. so, gotta ask self if poe development really reminds you o' iwd, and if the other ie games were actual as you recall. that being said, we suspect that as there is no publisher calling the shots, obsidian will make poe the way they thinks an infinity engine game ought to be made. some o' the current developers at obsidian has been open (via interviews, gdc presentations, board feedback, etc.) 'bought what they think is the... proper way to make a crpg. that kinda pretentious nonsense makes us wanna chuckle a bit, but we believe it is good that the developers has a vision. guess what, their vision ain't iwd. even a few minutes listening to chrisA speak of past games, or josh or even timmy, and you is gonna realize that iwd is not the goal. your concern is, we suspect, unfounded. on the other hand, mc should be concerned. "more tunnels" doesn't seem like a goal. sounds more like the bg3 dead project than anything else... albeit with original rules. HA! Good Fun!

... am suspecting james joyce ripped off kotor 2 as well when he penned Ulysses. makes as much sense as bioware stealing kotor2 to make da:o... especially seeing as how bioware made kotor and many o' the things you mention as kotor2 elements is actual from kotor. HA! Good Fun!

the thought o' playing a character that is "godlike" sets our teeth on edge. all others is possible. HA! Good Fun!

... am recalling that obsidian were kinda selling poe as a throw-back/retro game-- bg2 and infinity engine games were mentioned as inspirations. we expected better graphics and a more rational rule-set than d&d 2e, but as far as gameplay, we were expecting something along the lines of iwd2, but 'y'know, better. no d&d nonsense 1e, 2e or even frankenstein iwd2 3e. as such, if Gromnir weren't hearing combat and tactics, we would be as disappointed as you seem to be. that being said, the combat and tactics we hear about from obsidian does make us think of modern mmo more than old-skool rpg/crpg, so we is a bit apprehensive. even so, our concerns is near diametric opposite o' your concerns. curious, no? HA! Good Fun!

am not sure what is the fascination with anime/road warrior armours with shoulder pauldrons that would force a mountain gorilla to his knees. thankfully obsidian has avoided such silliness. HA! Good Fun!

possibly, but am hopeful that if undead is wide-spread and appear in any kinda numbers in poe, we gets a better explanation than desperate nobles. doesn't seem particular well conceived, but we admitted don't have details. as an aside, it is scary how many folks is killed by their doctors each year. wrong meds. wrong diagnosis. is something close to 1% of all patients admitted to a hospital end up having a pulmonary embolism. staph infections from hospital stays kill a ridiculous number o' people. etc. the thing is, the people going to the hospital is already sick or injured and so we is less surprised when folks die in hospitals. sick people tend to die. however, a rich noble who dies from a s'posed cure is a bit different than one who is transformed into an undead creature. sick people tend to die... they don't turn into flesh eating ghouls. can't use real-world situations as analogues. HA! Good Fun!

yeah, quackery kinda depends on the willing naivety o' the desperate. heck, there is those old ronald reagan commercials floating around the internet proclaiming the health Benefits o' cigarette smoking. tobacco companies avoided any kinda liability for decades 'cause is near impossible to prove what causes cancers. the thing is, such claims would be impossible if the cigarettes were observed to turn people into flesh-eating undead. naivety and gullibility can only take us so far. HA! Good Fun!

am suspecting those threads is still going... we has been avoiding. nevertheless, it is worth noting that even bioware has done away with b00b swell in their dragon age heavy armours. bioware? obsidian is less enlightened than bioware? on topic: an intuitive party ai toggle. actually, multiple presets would be superior. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking we is stretching things a bit to fit poe rather than being rational. desperate people will try just about anything, but am thinking that we need context to makes ghoulish undead work as resulting from quackery. exploiting the poor is dangerous enough for the traveling snake-oil salesman, but you turn Count Bob into a flesh-eating ghoul and we suspect the Count's family, or other nobles, is gonna wanna have a word with you. that "word" would be "pain." quackery is a sketchy enough business when it does nothing... count on placebo effect, actors, and the measurable and undeniable possibility that people will recover from cancers and diseases w/o the benefit o' any doctoring. now, assume a plague is ravaging some town and our quack is selling a cure that turns folks into ghouls three weeks after taking the cure. am suspecting you could create a rather significant number o' ghouls that way, but would be a (pardon the pun) short-lived scam. nevertheless, if such a scam happened in various places at approximate same similar time, and assuming limited long-distance communication, we bet you could introduce a rather large pool o' undead into your world via quackery. yeah, we can see that some research would continue regardless o' the danger. rather than testing on nobles we could foresee unscrupulous nobles providing human test subjects to a poe version o' dr. mengele, but the research would be necessarily kept quiet and hidden... the stuff of rumors. most failed test subjects would be destroyed, but no doubt some few would escape to spread terror, panic, and rumor. *shrug* need more info, but the current scenario strikes us as straining credulity unnecessarily. HA! Good Fun!

Why not both? The charcoal kettles are cheap. The big propane grill is for weekday stuff when I'm in a hurry, but I've got a small charcoal one for when I want to take some more time and get more of that lovely smokey flavor. sadly, having both means we hardly ever use our weber charcoal grill. owning a gas monster makes evident a flaw in our character: indolence. perhaps two or three times a year we gets our self worked up enough to use charcoal. is disappointing that we is so weak. HA! Good Fun! ps http://ranges.restaurantsupplysalenow.com/discount-viking-vgcc5484gqss-48-inch-freestanding-range.html gonna get one o' these in the near future... which will end our use o' the gas monster. *sigh*

for fantastic bass, there is one clear-cut favorite for Gromnir nobody ever brought da' funk like Jamerson. HA! Good Fun!

the pointy-ears is relevant 'cause in spite o' fact that tolkien didn't describe 'em as having pointy-ears, virtual everybody assumes such a detail into existence. most details 'bout tolkien elves is imagined into existence-- that is the point. do it like tolkien. is less helpful than one might s'pose in a visual game where you actual gotta show elves or sauron or whatever. HA! Good Fun!

aside: tolkien is far more respected 'mongst academics for his writings concerning beowulf and sir gawain and the green knight than he is for lotr. regardless, is little doubt that beowulf, in particular, had significant impact on tolkien. try and conscious describe grendel is ending in frustration for most. nevertheless, folks who read beowulf or listened to beowulf being told over the centuries were having vivid recollections o' the monster. no doubt tolkien realized that as he were creating a mythology, his readers already had a notion o' "elf" in their subconscious... were no need to describe, and were better not to. tolkien simply nudged away from folklore elves and towards his Superior elves. HA! Good Fun!

Most CRPGs don't position them as being as superior in every respect, just certain. Regarding whether Tolkien described them with pointy ears or not in explicit wording, does it matter? explicit wording is pretty darn important if you is using as a guide for description. if you is using tolkien's lotr as your guide for what is appearance of elves, one would hope that tolkien did describe elfy appearance in those books. as for superiority, YOU said you were preferring tolkien to d&d and wanted poe elves to be along the lines o' lotr elves. well, tolkien only ever really described elves as being superior without giving much detail, and as we said already, he didn't give useful details 'bout appearance, so, wanting lotr elves... well, is lots o' elf fans who don't know tolkien but want tolkien. is actual kinda curious. HA! Good Fun!

show us a description of elves (not a specific elf) from tolkien's lotr novels. go ahead, we will wait. ... y'know, even the pointy-ear thing is inferred by readers as opposed to explicit mentioned by tolkien in lotr. from description o' a few elves, and given their place in his mythology as kinda the lowest tier o' angelic beings, we gets the "ethereal, beautiful" stuff... though having cate blanchett, who looks to us like she has been on the losing side o' more than a few boxing matches, play the role o' galadriel messes that up for Gromnir. legolas is part o' the fellowship, so probable gets most description, yes? well, from actual text we know legolas is tall, slender and tireless, with "bright elven eyes" and a "fair elven" face. that's it. no, lotr is not your best source material, and silmarillion *shudder* is only marginal better. anywho, crpg & rpg elves is having this weird schizophrenia wherein we gets equal parts of english folklore elves and tolkienesque... whatever. btw, we prefer english folklore as a starting point. tolkien elves is 'posed to be... better. elves is 'posed to be superior, and starting with superior is not a particular enlightened or practical point from which to develop any crpg playable race. now, as to silly god-like... HA! Good Fun!

hmmm. hate to do this, but seems necessary. your reasoning were used quite frequently as an excuse to prolong the disparate treatment o' blacks and asians and other minority groups in this country. You are supposing that my idea is prescriptive, when in fact I think it is descriptive. I'm not making a value judgement. I'm making an observation. so was aristotle and shockley. they would say that they weren't making value judgments. they were wrong, of course. Nonsense. The person making the judgement decides if it is a value judgement. You cannot simply graft that motive onto someone. You can accuse them of lying, but that's about it. sure you can... and yes you are. aristotle would look at a culture and observe that their innate qualities made them fit to be slaves. is decado and Gromnir who might make a value judgement, but aristotle were simply making observations. *snort* is same game that has been played for thousands o' years. HA! Good Fun! ps it should be easy to see how innate qualities invariably supports discrimination. the folks currently enjoying success in a given system is obviously gonna have those observable traits that makes them a success. duh. this also explains why those who don't have such traits is being discriminated against.

hmmm. hate to do this, but seems necessary. your reasoning were used quite frequently as an excuse to prolong the disparate treatment o' blacks and asians and other minority groups in this country. You are supposing that my idea is prescriptive, when in fact I think it is descriptive. I'm not making a value judgement. I'm making an observation. so was aristotle and shockley. they would say that they weren't making value judgments. they were wrong, of course. additionally, Gromnir is also simply making an observation. am thinking it would be silly to claim that there is no differences 'tween men and women. ursula believes there is significant innate differences. our observation is that the folks using observation o' society to then make conclusions 'bout innate qualities o' sexes or races or whatever, has frequent been wrong. we is observing the failure of reasoning when applied by folks who were the most brilliant minds o' their time... but perhaps decado knows something they didn't? HA! Good Fun!

am glad it weren't part of da2. is the reason we disliked the andraste's ashes stuff from da:o. bio starts with a religion that is relying on faith. doubting thomas, who gets a bad wrap btw, would be most unsatisfied with the religion bio presented at the start o' da:o. 'course then we gets bio's version o' the holy grail and you gets to actual interact with the ghosts of andrastes' less-than-12 apostles/disciples. ok, that ain't a good approach if you is trying to keep your world's deity remote. holy relics with actual magical powers? still, in a world with magic, you can chalk up the glowy, heal-anything urn as just another magic bauble... and perhaps interacting with the ghosts of andrastes' apostles is a hallucination resulting from the temple o' the ashes being at high altitude... got altitude sickness and some bad wine? dunno. andrastes' ashes is bad for keeping deity remote, but you can clumsily tap-dance 'round that questionable inclusion. but to include in the game the magisters who knocked on God's front door and brought doom 'pon humanity for their temerity is just so darn wrong if you is trying to keep deity remote and religion a matter o' faith. architect were an interesting enough character. why bio felt need to retroactive make him a major religious figure baffles us. guess they want EPIC finale to the dragon age series. end blights once and for all and get Maker's autograph on your collector's edition box of goodies? perhaps a final dlc wherein you gain andraste as a companion and can romance her... fight the Maker for her affections? bruce and chris might wet themselves over that. HA! Good Fun!

y'know, that is one o' the real tragedies concerning shockley. the guy was freaking brilliant, and his initial research had value. african-american kids did indeed have iq scores that were averaging 15 points lower than caucasian counterparts. coulda' gone a dozen different directions form that start point. unfortunate, America called shockley a bigot, and shockley seemed to almost revel in being cast in the role of Villain. what a waste. HA! Good Fun! Thats an interesting research statistic, what was the main reason given for the difference in IQ scores? that were the problem. if you took the validity of the test itself as a given (a suspect starting point) then shockley believed that he had effective eliminated environmental factors from his statistical analysis by referencing numerous twins-separated-after-birth studies that showed relative marginal importance of environmental factors. so, if it weren't environmental, it must be genetic, yes? shockley, as we said were brilliant. he had used statistical analysis during ww2 to prove german bombers didn't have radar, and his number crunching also led to a 5x increase in effectiveness of US sub-hunting techniques. and keep in mind, he were a physicist who had probable only seen bombers and subs in picture books. the thing is, there were clearly more variables at work than he were accounting for in his studies... and of course, he opined solutions that were... *shrug* observing that the least successful elements of the population were the folks breeding the most, and that enforced reproduction limits were a viable solution were clear not gonna win him fans. is loads o' folks who has, after the fact, showed flaws in shockley methodology, but most reputable scientists at the time didn't want any part o' the circus that followed in the nobelauriate winner's wake. as soon as somebody started shouting, "bigot," most folks at that time chose a path o' wisdom and self-preservation-- ran like bunnies. HA! Good Fun!

y'know, that is one o' the real tragedies concerning shockley. the guy was freaking brilliant, and his initial research had value. african-american kids did indeed have iq scores that were averaging 15 points lower than caucasian counterparts. coulda' gone a dozen different directions form that start point. unfortunate, America called shockley a bigot, and shockley seemed to almost revel in being cast in the role of Villain. what a waste. HA! Good Fun!

hmmm. hate to do this, but seems necessary. your reasoning were used quite frequently as an excuse to prolong the disparate treatment o' blacks and asians and other minority groups in this country. one o' the most brilliant men o' the 20th century were a fella named william shockley. without him we wouldn't have computers and most modern electronic devices. he were a big believer in the innate qualities o' races, and he had loads o' data to back up his beliefs. gave up on physics during his later life and instead focused on eugenics. am really wishing he woulda' lived a bit longer-- maybe he woulda' admitted some errors. 'course he didn't have the advantage o' seeing how 21st century black immigrants from the caribbean and elsewhere who is voluntarily coming to the US in significant numbers, is testing similar to asians, and is usually beating the snot outta native whites. innate qualities were used for a long time to discriminate 'gainst women in fields such as law and medicine. we finally gots women attending law schools and med schools in numbers that approach their relative population percentages, so after the good old boys finally die off in 20 or 30 years, we will probable finally see women getting treated equal in those fields. nevertheless, is disappointing that today women lawyers and doctors is still typical paid less then men doing same jobs. the largely bs innate quality stuff actual works in favor o' women lawyers rather than against. we want a person with better communication skills. our testosterone levels is not something we has ever included on a resume, and truth-to-tell, the "I AM A FIERCE HUNTER, ARGH!" kinda thing is the last quality we want from an advocate. those innate quality studies frequent suggest that women not only have better communication skills, but also better negotiating ability. sooooo... yeah, every few years some clown tries to force equality where it don't belong. like it or not, the average woman doesn't have the same upper body strength as men. pretending otherwise is foolish. we recall reviewing tapes of prospective fireman candidates. it were frequent comical. is not sexist to want a fireman who can swing an ax properly or carry an adult male smoke inhalation victim outta a building without having to resort to dragging them by the ankles. has nothing to do with sexism. if a woman is capable o' doing the job o' a fireman, she shouldn't be discriminated 'gainst. but giving fireman jobs to women who simply cannot do the work is asinine. regardless, whenever we hear innate qualities being bandied about as a reason to explain disparate treatment o' women, we recall it has been used for a long time to validate other kinds o' discrimination... and that even the most brilliant o' men were stoopid enough to use such arguments. HA! Good Fun! ps am a big robert e. howard fan our self, but ursula k. le guin deserves her due as well. http://www.pacifict.com/ron/Mills.html

You meet one in one of the DLC, and meeting him clarifies that the Architect from Awakening was one too. well, that is actual kinda disappointing. oh well. HA! Good Fun!

... every decade or so, some "scientist" claims to have found proof that the soul exists. gots bizarre experiments and quirky formulas n' such. the scientists is very earnest and quite proud of their... proof. hidden's posts above reminds us of such. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna assume that meeting one of the original magisters were part of the dlc for da2, 'cause while our memory is thankful fuzzy regarding da2, we don't recall that encounter in da2 main game. HA! Good Fun!

I wouldn't mind a proper KOTOR3, even if it's been 10 years sadly, the old republic is what you get instead of kotor3, and bioware's handling of obsidian contribution to kotor were, at best, dismissive. HA! Good Fun!