Gromnir

the fact that vol likes it is a more scathing criticism o' the me2 resource acquisition scheme than any argument Gromnir could hope to devise. HA! Good Fun!

am always disappointed by folks who equate nihilism with dark; is a disturbingly myopic pov. HA! Good Fun! Are you saying that nihilism is not dark? there is nothing inherent dark about nihilism. death metal freaks and coffee shop goths has given nihilism a bad name... and of course the fact that nihilists and organized religions rare see eye-to-eye may exacerbate the issue a bit. lack o' objective meaning or morality does NOT = dark. Gromnir could very easy create a land o' fluffy bunnies frolicking in a nihilistic utopia w/o even a hint o' darkness in it. HA! Good Fun!

am always disappointed by folks who equate nihilism with dark; is a disturbingly myopic pov. HA! Good Fun!

as an aside, legion may be upgraded to use widow as well. HA! Good Fun!

You'd be surprised how many people on the bio forums find the mining enjoyable. They aren't the majority, but there is a significant number of them out there. am suspecting that there is some certain bio fans that will defend any dumb thing in a bio game. is a groupie phenomenon not limited to bio. can find similar behavior at nma/codex regarding tim cain/troika games. am having a hard time believing that more than the smallest fraction o' players find the resource acquisition scheme to be "strangely addictive." is NOT a mini-game in any meaningful sense... is mind-numbingly repetitive activity that requires no skill or strategy. if players were told that the only way to find 1007 or clues in a game were to be pixel-hunting, the vast majority of players would respond with anger or derision. nevertheless, bio has managed to sell glorified pixel hunts as a mini-game in me2? is even more ludicrous than their suggestion that the dialogue wheel were innovative. side note: we believe that casey hudson's tedious resource acquisition nonsense could be used quite effective as the basis for self-hypnosis experiments. while engaged in finding more platinum or iridium on some nameless planet in yet another otherwise empty and pointless galaxy map system, we discovered that our power animal were the woodchuck. go figure. HA! Good Fun!

This bio didn't want the da themes to be too dark. shoulda' seen some o' the feedback on the bio boards... would explain why the developers felt as if they could not push limits. also, keep in mind the biowarian pov... and that they were going for dark AND mature. sure, bg2 had rape and murdered children and a serial killer who watched silence o' the lambs far too many times for his own good, but there were almost always right v. wrong and good v. evil resolutions for the bg2 protagonist. with da, bioware were genuine attempting more moral ambiguity... but not too much moral ambiguity. _____, but not too _______ dark, but not too dark. mature, but not too mature. good, but not too good. *shrug* bio approach is very successful, but it will always leaves people at least marginal unsatisfied. if you attempts to please everybody, you cannot possibly hopes to complete satisfy anybody. after all, the Average Gamer doesn't actually exist. hardcore gamers? forget it, 'cause you is further away from the Average Gamer than is most bio fans. now don't get us wrong, we liked da very much and am looking forward to the sequels, but we has a hard time believing bio when they claims to be attempting innovation in gameplay or storytelling, 'cause innovation is far too risky for any developer so obviously dedicated to pleasing the Average Gamer. HA! Good Fun!

And what were those? I vaguely remember G.R.R.Martin's works mentioned early in the development cycle, and from what I've read of his works the "dark" stuff is everyone being bastards, the principal characters going through hell and there being a lot of violence (amongst humans) some of which DA implements albeit half heartedly. martin were mentioned often, though not for reasons you identify. lovecraft and howard got some love... and maybe moor****. so too were mentioned firefly and battlestar galactica tv... more bsg than firefly. some graphic novels got mention too, though to a lesser degree. violence is indeed part o' what the biowarians saw as dark & mature, but so is anti-heroes and no-win scenarios. "everyone is a bastard" is a rather childish description, but if it makes you feel better to identify martin characters as such, go for it. martin has some clear goodie/non-bastard characters, but he is willing to kill 'em off w/o much hesitation, and many characters that seems initial evil or bad is developed so that they is seen as flawed and corrupt more than Evil. "the principal characters going through hell," is more boo childishness, but is not complete inaccurate. dark typically has bad stuff happening to good people. being heroic does not guarantee happily-ever-after or a glorious and meaningful death. moral ambiguity in martin and bsg were often identified as part o' the Dark and Mature that the biowarians were aiming for in da. horror has ties to dark, and da did indeed include horror elements, but the crpg medium is more suited to "gotcha" than horror... at least that has been Gromnir's experience. some folks tells us that they found system shock 2 to be a scary game. we never got no sense of menace or dread from system shock 2... too many waves o' creepy crawlies. ss2 had gotcha moments when baddies leap out unexpected and attacked, but we never got no genuine menace or dread. other horror games fall similarly flat for Gromnir, but we understand the desire to combine horror elements with a crpg to achieve dark... menace and dread. is tough to gets serious menace and dread when you got repetitive mob combats and reload and such. in lovecraft stories you is relative certain that the protagonist is gonna get swallowed by darkness at some point. such fear never genuine exists in a crpg. is up to the individual to decide just how much dark and mature bio managed to instill into da. we didn't see as much as we hoped. after gaider's "dark, but not too dark," comment we were not expecting significant dark and mature, but we were a bit surprised by fact that da didn't seem to advance dark and mature beyond what we already saw in bg2. HA! Good Fun!

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levels o' difficulty such as Insane, Nightmare, or Superfrag is all kinda wacky. in d&d crpgs you sees developers give monsters ridiculous hp totals, superior thac0 and near automatic save rolls. "Insanity" is little more than relative simple data entry adjustments that does indeed increase difficulty-- a crude, but effective approach. da were similar. in point o' fact, as a player we had a hard time distinguishing 'tween da's hardcore and nightmare difficulty. me2? even on the ordinary difficulty, me2 enemies have perfect aim, so how does a developer make me2 more difficult? add layers o' protection. is a simple method for making game more difficult. crude, but effective. am not sure what people expect from increased difficulties. developers ain't gonna change enemy ai or complete redesign combat encounters to achieve greater difficulty. increased difficulties will almost invariably be the result o' some straightforward and blunt method for pumping up the abilities and defenses o' the enemies you is likely to encounter. now, something like the ascension mod for tob were... different. each tob boss encounter gots a nice tweak. made for a nifty bonus for serious fan who wished for a bit more challenge on subsequent plays of game. 'course tob's ascension were involving considerable volunteer work from gaider and others to complete. would be nice if all games did similar, but am not certain that it is fair to expect such developer efforts for all games. however, as we is increasingly witnessing dlc spam from publishers, am thinking we would much appreciate a tuned-up boss battles dlc package for many games such as da and me2. as opposed to warden's keep or return to ostegar, we would rather have an altered and optimized boss battles dlc option for purchase... similar to tob ascension stuff. HA! Good Fun!

instead o' dragon age: awakenings, they shoulda' done dragon age: redux. da:r would allow the player to redo landsmeet and all the crap that came afterwards. give bio a chance to do a complete rewrite of landsmeet and climax. 'stead of 2-3 hours o' crappola, create 15-20 hours o' gameplay that weren't tedious mob nonsense. resolve allistar in a way that ain't complete puerile. gaider wants morrigan to be more than simple cold b!tch offering you devil's deal? fine, let gaider fix. current final confrontation with the archdemon gots all the emotional impact of a postcard from geico offering us lower insurance rates on our car/boat/motorcycle/rv. fix. ok, maybe Gromnir wouldn't wanna pay serious money simply to play a fixed da:o... but if we had a $10 direct download option... HA! Good Fun!

Di, equipment makes a difference in me2. the basic assault rifle option in me2 is... crap. am gonna suggest that from this point forward you do not rely too much on joinable npcs that depend on an assault rifle, 'cause w/o the vindicator or collector assault rifle options, you is gonna be playing at a significant disadvantage. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

dire as synonymous with dismal? as a character, morrigan works well enough as an unrepentant and mercenary b!tch. sure, she may feels friendship or even love for the protagonist, but is no question that she is gonna do what is necessary to achieve her own goals. regrets? maybe. apologies? never. we were expecting morrigan treachery, so we were hardly surprised when she lived up to (down to) our expectations. trying to give morrigan a soul/heart after the fact actually weakens the character in our eyes. crying? bah. gaider is being an apologist for his character... and he not need to apologize. morrigan's character not require a post script to create some lacking pathos. what is so damned wrong with having a morrigan wedded to her plan/goal above and beyond personal bonds o' friendship and loyalty? am actual disappointed with the comic. cheapens the character as written in da:o. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking that a handful o' fallout fans got together and decided that alternate endings were some kinda brass ring o' game development... not sure why. alternate ends is the Easiest place for developers to bifurcate story, and as with fallout, the execution is invariably a bit sloppy. nothing significant comes after the game end, so have 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 ends not gonna result in no game-breaking. multiple ends for sake o' having multiple ends? *snort* bifurcate significant somewheres in middle o' game, or near start o' game. now That would be worth witnessing, but to have a downer ending "just because" is pandering to an element o' the gamer populace that not need more attention. da:o actually handled the denouement stuff very well... when it weren't bugged to hell. sure, you gotta confront and overcome the UBG, but the epilogues were satisfying. provide a bummer ending for me3? fine, give 2% o' the me3 gamers a chance to sees the galaxy go up in flames. if that makes game so much better for some folks, then include such an ending, but do not try and convince Gromnir that the addition o' such an ending is genuine meaningful. doing so at end o' game is the damned easiest place to bifurcate the story and it offers even less replay value than those origins from da:o. HA! Good Fun!

yeah... not really what we is talking 'bout. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna assume a minor spelling error... or not. maybe get george r.r. marten to does a similar comic... or perhaps neal gaiman. comic woulda' been a good idea if released Before origins as it would have introduced fans to some aspects o' the da universe. coulda' been a lower-budget web-comic or somesuch. maybe coulda cut out some o' the tedious game exposition if fans were already familiar with the da universe. HA! Good Fun! ps we loathe d&d alignment. as boo notes, is nothing wrong with philosophical considerations o' the nature o' evil, but the silly d&d x-y axis crap has reduced moral dilemmas to a mechanical process guided by gygax notions. whether you folks realize or not, you is using d&d vernacular to explore notions o' good v. evil... and don't even get us started on law v. chaos. *shudder* 'course, as the folks developing these games has also been perverted by gygax, tsr and wotc, is only natural that fans would be similarly robbed o' free will when discussing morality and ethics o' people(s) in fantasy crpgs.

am reminded of reeses peanut butter cups. bio insists on recreating a digital peanut butter cup... "two great tastes that taste great together." jade empire were a fusion o' fighting game and rpg elements. the fighting game aspects o' je were not particularly challenging, and the rpg elements were lite, but some folks enjoyed well enough. too much fighter-game for Gromnir... and we didn't like the characters or story much. je did have an intriguing setting, but if you not like fighter games aspect... me 1 were combining supposed shooter and rpg, but am thinking that few rpg folks were daunted by me 1 combat; the shootery stuff was made visual appealing but non-lethal. Gromnir, who has limited use of his left hand (nerve damage) did not require many reloads due to inability to aim or find cover. we could die in me 1 if we chose particularly stoopid tactics, but lack o' mad shooterz skillz never resulted in me 1 death for us. me 2, on the other hand... is no way in hell Gromnir could play me 2 on the pc. sure, the game looks superior and has better interface on pc, but me 2 wasd w/o auto-cover makes pc version me 2 functional impossible for our gimpy self. me 2 has far more shooter elements than did me 1, and the rpg elements o' me 2 character generation and development is proportional reduced. we enjoyed me 2, but in terms o' character generation, development and combat, it is only barely a rpg. HA! Good Fun!

rrod worked in our favor. had a clunky xbox 360 elite that were as noisy as a twin-engine cesna taxing down a runway. built date were late 2006. a month ago we get rrod and had to send console to mesquite, texas for repair. no repair o' our console... we got either a new or refurbished console (from somewheres in tennessee) that purrs like a kitten and were built in late 2009... only drawback were the 2.5 weeks we were without our xbox console. nextgen consoles will be coming out in 2011 or 2012 and now we got a newer/better machine with which to endure the wait. am having a hard time finding genuine cause to complain. does microsoft seems like a bunch o' dolts for screwing up so many o' their consoles? sure they do, but they is spending big money to fix the situation. no doubt other folks got nightmare stories to tell, but Gromnir is reasonably satisfied with the customer care we has received... and heck, at least there is games we actually want to play on the xbox360. HA! Good Fun!

tig is gonna be cheesed that you bring up once again. Gromnir's first two posts regarding da rogues http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?s=&am...st&p=990840 http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?s=&am...st&p=990931 so, put up or... HA! Good Fun!

makes much more sense than what occurred in the game. am not minding a misunderstood villain... but we have little patience for a stoopid villain. HA! Good Fun!

even if loghain had reason to believe that cailin were nuttier than a squirrel's nest in october, loghain's actions would still be perplexing. loghain gets firsthand knowledge that the blight is real, but he goes ahead and creates the conditions for a civil war regardless. have cailin murdered in his sleep by a wh0re from orlais? perhaps. heck, cailin, being an idiot, joins in the fighting firsthand. is pretty darn easy to "accidental" get killed on a battlefield. have not played rto, but even if loghain discovered that cailin wished to make fereldan a vassal state of orlais, we still cannot understand loghain's perplexing strategy at ostegar. rumors travel faster than a wildfire, and is no way that loghain could keeps it quiet that he abandoned cailin in the face of a blight. why makes cailin a victim, a martyr even? set up conditions for a civil war, and makes self looks like a villain in the process? what kinda bass ackwards strategy is that? ... maric's achievements is even more impressive in light of the fact that loghain were clearly a moron of epic proportions. HA! Good Fun!

The Deep Roads were too grindy. But to me, the grind was rewarded by the area also featuring the most entertaining boss fights of the game (gangster lady, spider queen, broodmother, the fight at the anvil). Can't say the same about the tedium at the endgame... I also enjoyed the Broken Circle. A nice blend of combat and puzzles with kewl art design and such. The stat bonuses were a mistake, though. They're essentially the way that the PC gets to be better than the JNPCs-- a signicant hunk of bonuses available only to he PC. Nothing wrong with that, generally-- the PC should feel special and giving him/her stat bonuses that the other JNPCs don't get is a reasonable way to do that. But the better way to include them is to add them at character creation, or to give the PC more bonuses at level-up than the NPCs get. By putting them in the tower quest, the game unnecessarily rewards players who do that quest early (and punishes those who don't). the stat boosts may have a second use other than just making the pc SUPERIOR. play sten or the french tart and see how long it takes before they becomes genuine contributing members o' your party. without stat boosts your pc would be in a similar situation. looking at the actual improvements, rogues benefits the most, no? there is some rogue builds that can be built pumping nothing but dex, but no doubt the play testers realized that the typical rogue player wanted to actual be able to disarm traps too. rogues is the hardest characters to build in da, and they is the ones that benefit most from the stat boosts. likewise, we thinks that warriors got useful boosts from the broken circle, particularly those builds that couldn't rely on total stat dump into one or two attributes. on the other hand, mages does not have to genuine worry 'bout boost anything save magic... and maybe some willpower. anybody notice that mages benefit least from mage tower boosting? is maybe a little ironic that mage tower is where the developers found a way to help out the more challenging classes and builds given that mages benefit least from such boosts. am thinking that mage tower attribute boosts exist in part to correct some o' the imbalances in the classes. is a wacky and bass ackwards approach, but it is a practical solution to the radical different burdens some classes/builds has as far as stat distribution is concerned. HA! Good Fun!

Do you know how long it took me to figure out that all you needed was the "Spell immunity: Abjuration" spell to deal with the latter form? Even then I had to pelt it with darts+5 and all sorts of other tricks. Tough bastard. http://www.baldurdash.org/kangaxx.html LOL, when DA gets poetry we can start talking whose better. is all kinda tricks. scrolls o' protection from undead gets you ignored. a berserker who is berserk can shrug off the imprisonment effect... give him/her the mace o' disruption and kangaxx is put back in the dead book right quick. am seeming to recollect that protection from magic scrolls were also effective-- a paladin with carsomyr would make short work of kangaxx if protected by scroll. there is a ring of the ram and traps strategy. regardless, ring of ram did good damage. am recalling a slayer strategy, but we always killed pre-slayer. *chuckle* got silly... after we played bg2 a couple times we developed a kinda system whereby we could kill kangaxx ridiculous fast, and then we would complete twisted rune immediate afterward so that we would still have some o' the protection scroll effects in place and active. two birds and one stone... so to speak. HA! Good Fun! ps tomb o' horrors were a stoopid d&d module and demi-lichs were a ridiculous end-boss. the tombs traps were typically lethal, and it weren't as if you were offered clues to puzzle out solutions. likewise, figuring out that an astral or ethereal mage casting power word kill on a demi lich were insta-win were a matter of well reasoned conjecture on the part o' the player... not. shatter, holy word and +5 weapons all did good damage, and there were a couple spells that would make skull descend without howling or sucking a soul. 'course, even with only approx. 50 hps, the original demi-lich were probable gonna waste your unprepared party. conversely, a party that knew it were facing a demi-lich could have correct spells, weapons and scrolls on hand to get through a demi-lich encounter without a scratch. silly. bg2 got demi-lich right... 'cause kangaxx were just as silly as the original.

then prove it. so far we hears claims, but no proofs. shows us your components solutions... though is kinda a wacky claim if you also believe there is no balance... would make the components aspect unnecessary. *shrug* whatever. am not concerned with decipher o' vol logic, but if you is gonna claim some superior knowledge o' how to makes spell components work in a crpg, in spite of fact that the vast majority o' developers has forgone or ignored such nonsense, then be our guest and expound. show us how is different than limited/rare ammo. HA! Good Fun!

Yeah, though he forgot to mention how powerful it was. Still even without it once you reach a certain level and have a lot of elemental magic at your disposal much of the combat becomes easy. I was killing enemies with earthquake+blizzard+lighting storm pretty successfully with a little work. Now even that little is gone being able to "see" your foes 'round corners and even beyond some closed doors significant increases the damage potential o' those area effect spells. is cheese, but am curious as to why the developers made such a nasty exploit possible. 'course, am recalling that in bg2 the folk who solo'd didn't see nothing wrong with triggering a mages defense spells... then run away beyond map transition. come back in 2 minutes and repeat as necessary until all of the mages defense spells is gone. bg1 were even worse with cheese tactics exploits... am suspecting that all games suffer from cheese. nevertheless, something were particular offensive 'bout being able to clear da areas simply by being 'round a corner and casting multiple area effect spells. is boring and slow, but is painless and... wrong. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!