Gromnir

saying that the graphics not bother you is not the same thing as Gromnir is talking 'bout. personally, graphics is one o' the less important factors for Gromnir, but that not change fact that we can see that aod graphics... suck. if bis or bio made a game and graphics looked like aod's, there would be a considerable 'mount o' criticism directed their way. likewise, we has seen bio, bis and troika promise similar stuff to what iron tower promises... so why the optimism for iron tower and the caution for bio, bis and troika? vinnie's lack of experience makes him more believable? 'course we gotta admit that some small segment o' fans genuine believe anything developers says during development, and even defend those developers post release when they fails to deliver on promises. am suspecting it gots something to do with emotional investment, but that is just a guess. Gromnir has noted previous that real innovation is gonna probable come from small/new indie developer with a gambler mentality. what is the motivation for an established developer to break formula when the formula would appear to be so successful. is folks like iron tower, folks who cannot compete with big developers in terms o' production values, who is gonna have to be innovative to set selves apart. nevertheless, what has iron tower done to set selves apart so far? posted fugly screenies, revealed some amateurish writing, and made promises. be as enthusiastic or optimistic as you wish to be, but be honest 'bout it at least. btw, obsidian is an indie developer... and so was bio up til recent. am not sure if people is using the term correct. HA! Good Fun!

"Is there some level of expectation we're meant to have for all commercial projects, or for indie projects, that I am 'cutting a break' from?" if such a standard does exist, it should be same for all developers... and we ain't seeing that. "moan" 'bout the art? *chuckle* "good enough" clear is different for aod than it is for other games... am not sure why. am even more concerned that people not seem to realize that they is applying a different standard. HA! Good Fun!

"Feel free to moan about the graphics again, but it looks good enough for me, technically speaking. Art direction is nothing to write home about, but (this might be completely wrong) nobody on the team strikes me as particularly artistically oriented, so it's hard to expect anything else. " fact that you not expect much of art is hardly a reason for the rest of us to give 'em a free pass neither. is this gonna be a commercial release? if so, then why they get some sorta reduced standard? has iron tower announced discounted pricing 'cause none o 'em is artistic inclined? because the art is fugly, they better do the other stuff better... and so far we ain't seen better from the writing neither. give 'em lower standard on writing too 'cause vinnie ain't a writer? am not seeing why folks is cutting aod a break. if bioware were releasing similar screenies and making exact same claims, you folks would be slaughtering 'em... but 'cause it is an indie project spawned by codex it is Totally Awesome. *snort* am gonna wait til we sees more than bad writing and some uninspired and outdated graphics before we get excited... 'cause otherwise all we got is same promises such as we has heard from a dozen different developers over the years... developers who had better resources. 1/2 the game with 2x the pretension? HA! not impressed... yet. maybe is the indie kewl factor, or maybe is codexian predisposition to believe vinnie, but so far the enthusiasm in this thread is hardly proportional to the released material we seen so far. on the positive side, is a relative small and homogenized group posting at iron tower forums... makes easier for developers to consider fan feedback. is one o' the few advantages o' being relative nobodies... ain't no flood o' diverse and conflicting requests with which to contend. have seen some developers make the mistake o' trying to honest cater to the fans... end up with mediocrity. make a game that satisfies everybody will necessarily be incapable o' genuinely impressing anybody. HA! Good Fun!

aod is schrodinger's cat. some small number o' people will spend next year or two in ardent debate over the philosophical implications o' aod impact... or non-impact. 'course, at the end o' the day, regardless o' the debate, you still end up with a dead cat in a box. no 'mount o' gaming pretension is gonna be able to breathe life into the grisly gato. 'course, given two years o' emotional investment, some folks is gonna look at vinnie's mummified feline cadaver, and declare it "Teh Best Kat Evar!" folks with no emotional ties to aod is probable never gonna hear of the indie release o' a dated looking game with terrible qa, or they will be baffled by the fanatics who chose to deify a dead cat... in a box. please, think of the cat. take multi-years and uncountable message board posts to kill a cat? nobody every shows no concern for the senseless killings of schrodinger's cat. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking that the fact that skills were unfathomable worked in bethesda's favor. first time we played through, Gromnir were able to boost virtual every skill to 100 without trying hard. the problem is that we couldn't see much improvement past some seemingly unrecognized point. was left with a vague impression that skills weren't working right, but it were difficult to tell how or why. ultimately we were able to enjoy game in part 'cause the busted mechanics were hidden from view. a tb game with hexes it is easier to see and compare how mechanics is playing out in-game. with fov 3 perspective Gromnir were left with impression that something were wrong with fo skills without being able to clear identify where and when the problems occurred. obsidian faces tougher task. now that busted mechanics is a Known, can the developers simply use same prestidigitation to fool people into thinking that dumping points into small guns past X% is meaningful and useful? skills were unfathomable, now they is ineffable? HA! Good Fun! HA! Good Fun!

"He didn't have a solution. To be fair, he simply said that they were trying a mod that made stimpacks heal over time rather than instantaneously. Kind of like pots in Diablo. To be even more fair, he came clean and said some folks really didn't like it." if bringing up were s'posed to show that Gromnir's resource argument were invalid, then am not seeing point. end up back to where we were when Gromnir suggested that a genuine fix would take resources. "Even without changing the fast travel system at all you can't travel during fights or from inside dungeons" see aristes' comments. is no solution. stockpile at a convenient location and carry max needed. only the casual gamer is affected, 'cause the guy who is exploiting has easy alternatives that has no cost save minor annoyance factor. HA! Good Fun!

so, what is limit in inventory that would solve problem? with insta-travel it is very easy to re-stock. spam use of stims, insta-travel back to your stash. restock. repeat. you is talking 'bout some kinda system that protects those who exploit the system... protect from selves? what makes you think they won't use insta-travel exploit to circumvent limited stock. hell, the first thing the exploiter can do when you get to new area is to take a few insta-travel trips to create a stims supply depo. no doubt is other ways 'round your inventory limit. is not a practical solution. is not a solution that genuine needs a solution, but even if it were, weight and inventory limits won't fix. somebody said they not like arbitrary rules... but impose an arbitrary weight or arbitrary inventory limit is ok? am not recalling the sawyer solution you mentioned earlier... perhaps is better than suggestions we is seeing. HA! Good Fun!

how can you tell Gromnir is worked up? 'cause we tel kel that he is being foolish? HA! kel uses sandpaper 'stead o' toilet paper, 'cause they both is paper. is funny... am enjoying the funny. HA! Good Fun!

1) am disagreeing that the mods exist, 'cause so far the solutions suggested... suck. the mods is no genuine improvement over status quo. add weight or some crude limit on stims is not genuine solutions. a real solution will take time and resources to implement and test. why waste on minutiae? 2) possibility for ammo and stim depleting encounters should exist via travel. random encounters that actual serve to boost 1007 and exp is no help neither. am not caring how implemented, but there has got to be some cost attached to travel, otherwise weight and carrying capacity is more of a joke than a serious balance method. HA! Good Fun!

is a matter of priorities. stimpacks is relative minor for Gromnir. am not a fan of fact that they fix crippled status, but other than that... *shrug* from the moment fo:nv were announced we has seen people asking obsidian 'bout the "stimpack problem." is no more obscure than vats and skills. that being said, am not seeing that obsidians addressing stims is a particular high priority. you can bring anything to the attention o' the obsidians, but always keep in mind that getting what you want is God's curse. fix stims necessarily means that developers ain't working on some other aspect. so, what is you willing to give up to get fixed stims... recognizing that we ain't seen no unanimous notion as to how to fix 'em in any event? btw, to fix stims we is willing to throw doctor + first aid (and any other fo1 fo2 skills resurrection requests) on the pyre. "You can say the weight stuff is a joke for weapons and armor as well, then." yes. is there a question? balance through weight, particularly when you got insta-travel, is nothing but a joke. add weight for flavor or "realism" or ambiance or immersion (HA!) but try to sell us on balance... HA! Good Fun!

The person who does barely anything should have a much harder time than the person who does it all. why? and even if it is, how much harder should it be? perhaps maybe you should look at in the reverse... game is only sooooo easy 'cause you chose to waste so much time on game. why complain 'bout ease? simply do less or don't use the stimpacks if you do not wish to use 'em. for folks who plays critical path there probably don't seem like an overabundance o' stims, and for folks like you and Gromnir, well, we can simply choose to show a little restraint. reasoning works equal as well if burden is placed on the hardcore fanatic as 'posed to the casual gamer. or, you could put in a mechanic that makes stims less useful as you use more of 'em... in any event, the weight stuff is a joke. HA! Good Fun! ps am in agreement with aristes that this is a relative non factor. adjust vats and work on skills progression... stims is minor in comparison.

Maybe grow some balls as a designer and say "You can't beat this game if you refuse to level up and talk to anybody" Lower the rate of stimpacks in randomized loot to a more reasonable level, handplace the majority of found stimpacks in the world, and have a steady (yet expensive) supply of them come into shops in case the player does run out. Balance the gameplay so that the player doesn't NEED them if they're playing carefully. Adding weight to them DOES add something. It means the player can't hoarde a million healing items and become invincible. It means that players that choose to have extra strength get an added benefit. But yeah, god forbid someone who gimps their character in a specific way gets annoyed by the consequences of their decision. what bs. add weight does nothing. 'stead of hording in pack, you horde in mailbox or locker or wherever. hoarding ain't prevented. occasionally have to trek back to location X via insta travel? big deal. is a dumb solution that solves nothing... should be obvious to anybody by now. am fine with reducing number of stimpacks available, but again, is a balance issue trying to figure out number necessary for those who wish to do critical path only. what of person who does critical path and only a couple side-quests? what of person who does all? again, like money, is very difficult to find an appropriate number or rate o' availability. our suggestion avoids weight nonsense or availability and instead focuses on use. HA! Good Fun!

so... what is problem with fallout 3 stimpacks? too numerous? ... stimpack problem is similar to money problem... though solutions is may be different. gotta make money or stimpacks plentiful enough for folks who does critical path. problem occurs with a big open world likes fo3... makes real easy for folks to accumulate ridiculous quantities of stimpacks and 1007. so how does developers balance? reduce availability o' stimpacks and does you still have 'nuff for critical path players? add weight to stimpacks is simply a retarded notion and folks should feel embarrassed to suggest as it not solve anything and potentially only adds a small annoyance factor to some players' game experience. haven't read the last +10 pages, so maybe has already been suggested, but as much as Gromnir loathes the spectre of reality in games, you can use to limit stimpack abuse. Many drugs loose efficacy as you takes more. the thing is, the more you take, the more you need... is not addiction so much as it has something to do with liver metabolizing the stuff. make stimpacks similar? more you take, the increasingly less effective they become. take more than 1 stimpack during some chosen length o' time, and you reduce their efficacy overall. the more stimpacks you use, the less they work. has probably already been suggested, and no doubt there is obstacles. seems to make sense to Gromnir HA! Good Fun!

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level. am recalling that for our cleric/monk/sacred fist we enchanted ordinary clothes. makes some +5 clothes with multiple elemental resistances that not got no dex penalty. Gromnir chose clothes to protect monk abilities, but it also makes sense for characters with ridiculous high dex. there is no max dex for clothes. HA! Good Fun! Mainly purchased it for the "free" weapon finesse feat since I plan to use many, many two-handed feats or you could take the weapon finesse feat through level-up and skip the ultimately less useful armour. just a thought. HA! Good Fun! I was under the impression I should get all of my feats ASAP, before they become useless, underpowered, too late in the campaign to be useful, and now you bring armor into it???? actually, you brought armour into the equation. Gromnir would ever build his character based on feats received through magic items... particularly if we is planning to use character in motb. if you is building a high dex character who you wish to be combat effective, it makes sense to get weapon finesse... but depend on armour to get it? *snort* HA! Good Fun! Why not seems like a good idea to me, why waste a feat that is needed if you can get it through other means? I can rely on buff for protection anyway, don't plan to do much toe to toe combat. Hit n run seems to go well with this particular character build no? stuck with crappy armour 'cause it provides a necessary feat to make your character work. what is likelihood of finding better armour or being able to make better armour? high? near 100%. nevertheless, you stick with crap armour 'cause you need feat. gonna keep armour if you play motb? sure, you can make armour enchanted up to +8, but you is gonna stick with armour 'cause you need weapon finesse. what level is you when you take prestige class, has 'nuff money, and can access deekin's inventory anyways? you waiting for 7 or 8 levels to finally get weapons finesse for your dex based combatant? okie dokie. is silly on multiple levels... might as well tell us that your character concept relies on wielding the sword o' gith. 21337's falchion issue for motb makes sense. is patent ridiculous that some character concepts is only workable with certain equipment. you got a character that is based on doing damage through crits... but virtual every opponent in motb is immune to crits. if you not take falchion, you gotta accept playing gimped... but the weapon finesse ain't same thing. is not that kel can't get weapon finesse. is instead that he thinks he is getting for free. 'course, truth is that he is still paying. you get 7 or 8 feats in oc. 'stead o' using 1 feat to pay for weapon finesse you is willing to keeps relative crap armour that probable won't be available to you til end of first 1/3 of game anyways. not make much sense to us... multiple levels. HA! Good Fun!

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level. am recalling that for our cleric/monk/sacred fist we enchanted ordinary clothes. makes some +5 clothes with multiple elemental resistances that not got no dex penalty. Gromnir chose clothes to protect monk abilities, but it also makes sense for characters with ridiculous high dex. there is no max dex for clothes. HA! Good Fun! Mainly purchased it for the "free" weapon finesse feat since I plan to use many, many two-handed feats or you could take the weapon finesse feat through level-up and skip the ultimately less useful armour. just a thought. HA! Good Fun! I was under the impression I should get all of my feats ASAP, before they become useless, underpowered, too late in the campaign to be useful, and now you bring armor into it???? actually, you brought armour into the equation. Gromnir would ever build his character based on feats received through magic items... particularly if we is planning to use character in motb. if you is building a high dex character who you wish to be combat effective, it makes sense to get weapon finesse... but depend on armour to get it? *snort* HA! Good Fun!

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level. am recalling that for our cleric/monk/sacred fist we enchanted ordinary clothes. makes some +5 clothes with multiple elemental resistances that not got no dex penalty. Gromnir chose clothes to protect monk abilities, but it also makes sense for characters with ridiculous high dex. there is no max dex for clothes. HA! Good Fun! Mainly purchased it for the "free" weapon finesse feat since I plan to use many, many two-handed feats or you could take the weapon finesse feat through level-up and skip the ultimately less useful armour. just a thought. HA! Good Fun!

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level. am recalling that for our cleric/monk/sacred fist we enchanted ordinary clothes. makes some +5 clothes with multiple elemental resistances that not got no dex penalty. Gromnir chose clothes to protect monk abilities, but it also makes sense for characters with ridiculous high dex. there is no max dex for clothes. "As far as character builds, Someone should show off a good Arcane Scholar build. Not really a power build, but tons of fun." is something strange 'bout the arcane scholar. is seemingly ideal to pair up with a sorcerer as 'posed to wizard, and that seems counter intuitive to Gromnir. sorcerer not get all those bonus feats that does the wizard, so the free metamagic feats is real nifty for sorcerer. 10/10 sorcerer/arcane scholar is swell. am imagining that if you is playing human and add 1-2 level o' rogue + able learner you could probable have a nice spread o' skills too. the second character we took all the way from oc through motb were a 4/6/10/10 rogue/wizard/ek/arcane scholar. were effective in combat, had ridiculous skills, and with practiced spell caster and the safiya (sp?) devotion/love feats we were extreme effective as a spellcaster. am pretty sure we started out 2/5 rogue/wizard, then added 10 ek levels. finished oc with 3 level o' arcane scholar for improved empower. HA! Good Fun!

soz... http://www.thieves-guild.net/index.php?pid=462 still need the right metal. getting appropriate exotic metal until last 1/3 of game were tough. have metal in inventory and appropriate recipe... gotta be near a blacksmith table. no need mold, but good luck finding enough mithril or adamantine 'til late in game. also, is no alchemical silver... not the unmolded metal. you want a magical silver short sword? you gotta buy the silver sword from one o' the few vendors that carrie... cannot craft your own sword. is sources o' every other metal, but not silver. enchanting item requires you to have recipe... which may not be available til late in game. is also some bs 'bout how you not need spells for soz enchanting. HA! for instance, still need eagles splendor to make a nymph cloak... and chances are you need some exotic critter body part too. soz ain't near as easy and streamlined as is often suggested. our recollection is that soz is actually more o' a pain than motb 'cause you need to have multiple characters take creation feats as is very difficult to get a single character to has all necessary spells. HA! Good Fun!

"Yeah, that's what I understood as well, I just wasn't sure for the crafting that is not enchantment." still need mold and metal. never ran into a problem with molds, but if you wanna complete outfit your party with mithtril chain shirts and breastplates you is gonna be sol... as there simply weren't enough mithril being sold by merchants. and as far as we know, the character with the feat needs the spell... but there is a good number o' recipes that need no spell at all. your main character is gonna have mold/malleate spirit feats and he/she will be able to add some qualities to weapons using spirit essences. typical you got character with the creation feat and spell enchant an item using your Magical Murder Bag, or whatever they calls it. of course, they make so the red wizard npc already has the feats and she has access to every spell needed to make any item; you ain't gonna have to give multiple party members the craft magical arms and armour feat simply to crank out the weapon you wish. with your magic bag in inventory you not gotta go to a magicians workbench for enchanting. however, for crafting you still need blacksmith area... which ain't hard to find as your motb base o' operations has all the crafting tables. http://www.thieves-guild.net/index.php?pid=294 is a very thorough site related to motb crafting. HA! Good Fun!

"want spellcaster and skills? probable go with a rogue/wizard/ek/arcane scholar build." mc and others were asking for specific stuff unrelated to acrane casting, but the wizard/ek stuff can be real powerful and provide bunches o' skills with high intelligence. have seen some builds that add in 3 levels o' swashy.. between 3 levels of swash and combat insight you can be doing more damage bonus that the wackiest rdd + frenzied berserker builds. sadly, the swash stuff only is useful 'gainst stuff subject to critical hits, and probable 50% of motb enemies is crit immune. HA! Good Fun!

don't put any points into wis if you don't wish to. ranger spellcasting is almost complete pointless, and chances are you got something to boost you to 14 if you Really want to cast all your spells. keep at 10... or even 8. with 10 you can take devout background and get a +1 for will saves... dunno. fighter more than makes up for ranger feats... but to get dw feats you need dex of 18 for improved 2-weapon fighting, 19 for greater 2-weapon fighting, and 25 for perfect 2-weapon fighting. the wood elf build we suggest gets you to 27 str by level 20 and 34 by level 30... and you not gotta add a single point to dex to get all your dual wielding feats. no matter what build you use to get dw you gotta spend points in dex... 'less you go ranger route. HA! Good Fun!

2 level rangers = combat style... in this case mc wants dual wield. the build probable don't have enough skills to be the party thief, but you can max diplomacy, spot, lore, tumble spellcraft and enough umd. is not an ultimate power build, but for somebody who wants a dual-wielding character that takes rdd levels and has good skills... HA! Good Fun!

seems bass ackwards... you want skills, dual wield, and rdd... which boosts str. 1 level rogue 1 level bard (3 points in perform) 1 level rogue 2 level ranger... 'cause you get dw for free and good skills 4 levels o' rdd (only makes sense to take 4 or 10 levels, and rdd skills is suckage, so if skills is genuine important...) finish out with ranger.... and go with a str build instead of dex. no trying to boost dex and str with a dw ranger.... makes payoff from rdd str that much more meaningful. play as human for more skills... but wood elf is able to start with 18 str and 16 dex... put all points into str. end up with a dual wielding character that can does some serious damage. by level 20 you got 4 attacks, a str of 27, greater 2-weapon fighting, 3 favored enemies, and very good spread o' skills... am actually kinda surprised by how efficacious this build is. "Why no Weapon Master or Frenzied Berserker levels?" can't be done. you get 4 classes, and he wants rdd. HA! Good Fun!

ok. monks ain't our favorite, but the sacred fist builds is powerful from start to finish. only two races Gromnir would consider is grey orc and human. otherwise you gotta do some silly alternating 'tween cleric and monk levels. take 1 level o' cleric... make sure 1 domain is war and that god gots unarmed for weapon o' choice. 11 levels o' monk. 10 levels o' sacred fist. 8 more levels o' cleric. with greater flurry you end up with 9 attacks per round. buffed out with the cleric spells like divine power and battletide, you is getting bab equal to any fighter and your ac is nothing to sneeze at if you focus on wisdom. focus on str and you does serious damage. forget the grey orc and put some points into charisma and you can eventually add divine combat feats like divine might... but that not seem worthwile as you gotta wait til late in game. monks get 4 skills points per level, and class skills include diplomacy, spot, tumble and lore. take able learner if you want to pump up spellcraft, but most o' your spell casting is gonna be for buffing rather than actual spell combat. Gromnir played human, but am betting that grey orc would be impressive if you go strength route rather than wisdom. power versions involve alternating monk and cleric levels early... but a monk/cleric multi is kinda lame. such builds only real shine at epic levels. am not a monk fan, but you is a killer in combat, have best saves in game, and your skills choices and points ain't bad. HA! Good Fun!

have never tried the ranged stormlord. monkey grip your spear and add a shield for serious cleric or druid combat cheese. is not our cup o' joe, but our stormlord weren't no back row party member neither. HA! Good Fun!