Gromnir

"i'd be willing to bet most hard sciences types such as i am would as well." ain't that the truth. HA! Good Fun!

logic, more often than not, is a blade w/o a handle. in any event, it feels strange being no more than an observer in one of these threads... almost surreal. HA! Good Fun!

"EA wouldn't have gotten exclusivity rights if they didn't think a huge number of people would either start buying EA's games instead of the competition's games or keep buying EA's games instead of switching to the competition's games." actually, the most obvious reason for doing so is 'cause if ea didn't do so, somebody else probably would have. to put in a way that the locals can better understand, just as d&d franchise gots more value when sold exclusive to game devlopers, so does NFL. is also a far more efficient and streamlined relationship from NFL pov. only gotta deal with a single developer. the ea deal with NFL is the norm rather than the exception. does such exclusivity waterdown the motivation for a developer to build a better mouse trap? yeah. hell yeah. nevertheless, the NFL is the folks who is selling their name and is upt to them to decide what is best for the NFL. is hardly as if ea can muscle the NFL around. btw, am not having any opinion on whether this deal will result in games better or worse than what Gromnir is currently seeing from bioware. our only contribution to thread thus far has been to note that ea's Reputation, insofar as employee satisfaction is concerned, is something less than stellar. not need happy employees to makes games, but... HA! Good Fun!

in no particular order, the following is jobs Gromnir would not wish 'pon our worstest enemy... if we had enemies. 1) picking cotton in mississippi in 1800s... assuming you is black 2) hospice caregiver... watching over dying people who gots 0 hope is soul numbing 3) sweatshop employee in se asia... making shoes for kathy lee gives you life span similar to second lieutenant in russian army on ww2 eastern front, w/o advantage of the possibility of taking down some krauts before you die. 4) grad student... 'cause it is the only kinda legalized slavery left in USA post civil war amendments 5) game development for ea... is similar to grad student, but sans perk of a degree waiting for all those andy dufresnes crawling through their personal 1/4 mile o' $%#*. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

any word on when new patch will be ready? is maybe hard to believe, but it seems that warlock imbue item we keeps asking 'bout is bugged... and sand were wrong. the crafting feats ain't available for warlocks. warlocks got imbue item, but they can't take the requisite crafting feats. sounds like game is relative stable, but is some bugs... and Gromnir has stopped reading the bio motb board as the damned thread titles is full o' spoilers and there ain't a separate spoiler section. HA! Good Fun!

... dunno, but this seems pretty typical. game ships today and is actually available at gamestops and ebs tomorrow. walmarts and best buys (not in so-cal or texas) often get a day later. this ain't a title likes halo 3... release ain't an event. so game trickles into retailers at whatever speed the retailer desires. got nothing to do with obsidian, and little to do with atari, and for pc crpgs this is typical. *shrug* 'course as Gromnir always waits for patch #1 to buy, this is all moot anyway. not gonna be a slave to the junkie mentality. HA! Good Fun!

noticed a mistake... were not a summoned boar that went hostile. what happens is a Dominated boar went hostile following the cut scene... and were invulnerable from that point. as for the familiar issue... Gromnir never would have noticed. first thing we did following 1.10 patching were to turn off npc special abilities. ... ok, 'pon reflection, Second thing we did were to turn off jnpc special abilities, 'cause the first thing we had to do is figure out why the default camera were wrong. took 'bout 15 minutes to get things back where we had 'em pre-patch. no biggie, but the new default seems counter-intuitive. HA! Good Fun!

as i recall, he has described himself as a short, stocky, american indian, if that adds to your visualization. taks an ambulatory fire hydrant... short, red and solid. but no, Gromnir does not "HA! Good Fun!" with clients or judges... and only rarely with other attorneys. am slightly embarrassed to admit that we occasionally does take advantage o' the physical intimidation factor we got going for us. most white collar folks not know how to react to scary minorities with big pipes and a bad attitude. as for responding to mk... *shrug* is it worth continuing at this point? more would be kinda like kicking a crippled dog.... but should we feel bad for having crippled the dog in the first place? nope. ... pop's initial query 'bout some source for all the new changes... 2 places we seen... http://nwvault.ign.com/faq/ and lurchman's site at: http://www.thieves-guild.net/ both gots pretty good faqs for most of new stuff. HA! Good Fun!

oh, and btw, is absence of crafting feats for warlocks post 1.10 an accident or intentional? HA! Good Fun!

following the 1.10 patch we had a problem shortly after first encounter with the druid tart. cut scene occurs in mere after discovery o' some dead wolves. cut scene ends and the druid tart's currently summoned dire boar went hostile... but now it were indestructable. game difficulty were set at hardcore. HA! Good Fun!

ah yes, the game... still have one lingering question that for some reason we not see answered at bio or on this board: how does warlock imbue item work in motb? post 1.10 warlocks can't take item creation feats in nwn2... which makes a kinda sense. would be pointLESS to take item creation feats in nwn2 w/o available imbue item ability. even so, we ain't seen anybody give an accurate description o' how warlock imbue works in motb. at the nwn vault there were a description o' wizard crafting in motb that stated that caster level requirements had been removed from the motb casting equation. so how does that work for warlock? all you need is item creation feat (maybe) and a high enough umd? seems a tad bit broken, but am still curious. btw, in pnp warlock crafting works as follows: 1) gotta have warlock imbue item ability 2) gotta have the appropriate item creation feat... wannna make a sword, then you need craft arms 3) need requisite min caster level, where warlock level = caster level 4) need high enough umd skill level to mimic the spell(s) that would otherwise need be cast on the intended magical widget 5) time, materials, xp penalty, etc. HA! Good Fun!

... stalker is the game mk refers to in the quoted material. stalker is the game mk sees as grounded in reality... in spite of unrealistic mechanics and some completely fantastic elements. game is realistic and non-fantastic/magical 'cause it uses real world equipment, locations and events? lionheart did all those things. am not sure where we got you turned 'round. mk is all over the map, but Gromnir is pretty consistent... but again, getting way off-track. HA! Good Fun!

if Gromnir tells you it will result in your being a roll-player who metagames. now, armed with your knowledge o' da rulez, you will either avoid or embrace the sacred fist, your previously pristine mind tainted by games mechanics considerations... untimely robbed of the opportunity to makes choices based on pure and innocent whimsy. HA! those is the pnp prereqs we gave, but yeah, you does need at least 1 level o' cleric, paladin(4 levels?,) druid, spirit shaman, or favored soul to becomes a sacred fist in motb. http://nwvault.ign.com/faq/index.php?category=14#14_3_6 there you go... and welcome to the ranks. HA! Good Fun!

"Magic is the easy way out for a failed story." so there ain't no misconception, the above is actually how mk put it... coupled with comments stating a preference for "realism" and seeming "scorn" o' magic... is easy to see why eldar and others see mk as disliking fantasy. 'course mk has some odd notions 'bout what is and ain't fantasy and magic. "a game set in an alternate reality that's based on real life events, locations and equipment." bis had a game like that... called it Lionheart. and as noted in another thread, stalker clearly relied on elements that were not w/i realm of the possible... no less fantastic than magic. mk had an unsupportable pov from start... no wonder he wants to forget. even so, we IS getting pretty far off-track. HA! Good Fun!

"Thanks for proving my point!" you really is delusional. in the aforementioned thread you went on a tear 'bout how magic is a crutch for bad story and the s'posed superiority or more "real" games like stalker. the fact that stalker is an real game has relevance how? you were making general statements 'bout fantasy genre and used a specific game to illustrate. so what is your point? we brought up eldar 'cause he were a 3rd party... and he saw the same contempt for all fantasy that did Gromnir in your posts. "Where I disagree with him(mk), perhaps less vigorously than Gromnir, is in his scorn towards magic in games." ... so if you loves, or even likes fantasy, then you clearly were misleading more people than Gromnir. is that what you is doing here in this thread? you made a stoopid point that you don't real believe in and you gets carried away a bit... will forget all 'bout it a few weeks from now? no doubt we have to go through this all again as your selective memory issues is unlikely to be limited to one previous encounter. "You mean looking more foolish than someone claiming lots of rubbish without backing anything up? Naah, don't think so, liar." huh? look, at this point we suggest medications for mk as you ain't even trying to make points. Gromnir suggested that your interp of a bad wiki definition is flawed.... used a real living example to illustrate point. you not respond save to suggest that we should find better sources? this ain't a university paper where we debates differing string theories. is there some recognized expert o' source for geek and nerd definitions such as metagaming? wiki is it? do you even know how wiki definitions is created? for all you know, the author o' the metagaming entry at wiki could be sand or vol or even Gromnir. in any event, we applied your seeming interp of the wiki definition to a realistic scenario and ended up with a ridiculous result. is there a better way to show flaws of a bad definition? maybe, but as you not bother to respond, we probably won't know. and as we noted already, your definition o' liar seems 'bout as screwy and extreme as your interp o' metagaming def... but o'course you again drags us away from your initial and unsustainable point 'bout the silliness of motb builds. now all you wanna discuss is whether wiwki definitions is a better way to prove point than Gromnir approach? getting kinda far afield, no? sit back... takes a deep breath... look where you has gone and how wacky you ha gotten. is this really what you wanted to say? hope not. HA! Good Fun!

wow. call us a liar? gosh. tell you what. go back and look at your comments 'bout stalker. heck, even eldar joined in and agreed that your realism pov were irrational. "Why do you guys always want supernatural things? And magic? And psionic powers? And divine beings and ****? "I would love a game where everything is based on reality, like Wasteland was. There's a certain charm to actually recognising the weapons you're using instead of just getting that next longsword +3. Bring me kevlar vests, AK-47's and RPG's and I'm happy!" etc. went downhill from there as you dug a hole trying to explains how stalker game were more real. HA! and we gotta love it when people use wiki based sources... tends to end up looking foolish. need an illustration to enlighten your misconceptions? prerequisite for the sacred fist prestige class: bab +4 knowledge (religion) +8 feats: combat casting, combat reflexes, improved unarmed strike, stunning fist ability to cast 1st level divine spells so, what is the acceptable level o' knowledge o' the rules such that a player who wishes to play a sacred fist can use w/o it being metagaming in mk's estimation? if a basic working knowledge of da rulez is metagaming in your book, then we suggest that you throw away the book. to simply understand the prerequisites o' the class a person ahs to have pretty comprehensive knowledge o' the rules. gott know skills and bab, and when monks get stunning fist and you gotta have some notions 'bout multiclassing, etc. to simple choose to play a stunning fist is metagamy? riiiiiigggghhhhhtt. and yeah... the deep end is exactly where you went. you has tried to pull the thread off on some tangent, but your original complaint were 'bout folks wasteful spending efforts on builds for motb rather than simply choosing through whim. when that nutty tactic not hold up you made some general criticisms o' d&d... as if such criticisms were having any real tendency to bolster your original point... 'cause again, even if d&d is as busted as you seem to suggest, then there is all the more reason for folks to try and limit the damage resulting from a bad system. ... am happy to continue this if you wish. as for the notion that we is brown nosing... well, no doubt josh finds that as amusing as does Gromnir.... but if it makes you feel better to somehow simply dismiss our observation, then more power to you. nevertheless, josh is a developer o' crpgs. gots more experience with crpgs than does Gromnir, and we suspect he gots more than mk. heck, we can pretty much guarantee that josh got more experience if mk not even know differences 'tween and twixt ad&d and current d&d given that the d&d brand is the most popular such game 'round. kinda likes a person claiming to be an english lit expert w/o any useful knowledge Shakespeare. in any event, josh is one o' those terrible metagamers that obviously spent some efforts on a character build. no doubt that means that he is simply a roll player, right? keep digging yourself in deeper. HA! Good Fun!

*chuckle* you like gothic? great! makes your previous criticisms of fantasy and lack o' realism all that much more wacky. as for the second part o' your response... huh? understand the rules is metagaming now? wow. am supposing that the only way NOT to be metagaming in mk's book is to somehow suffer selective amnesia. is there some way you can makes Gromnir forget that fighters has better bab progression than wizards? then maybe we can be a REAL role-player. HA! oh well. you went off the deep end a good while ago in this thread... if you can't create a character through whimsy then mechanics is busted and you is metagaming to boot... and real role-players only choose through whimsy. anybody gots a link to that screenie of josh's sorcerer/fighter/ek/neverwinter nine character? bet it makes mk blood boil to see such metagamy stuff being advocated by developers. HA! Good Fun!

"What you don't seem to realize is that I don't like the rules used in NWN2 at all." huh? why you assume that? we know that you don't like any game that don't let you use real modern weapons... even if those weapons is complete unreal in the crpg in question. *shrug* you gots your weird biases. regardless, your earlier criticisms 'bout people spending effort on builds were clearly misdirected and voiced from a position o' ignorance. whimsy choices not work so well... not so good for posting responses neither. HA! Good Fun!

"He on the other hand, had to install NWN2 first, and updated it to 1.10, THEN he installed MotB, and now all the MotB content that has text associated with it doesn't show up. For example, he can pick the Favoured Soul class, but it's nameless and doesn't have any information. New spells don't have names or descriptions either." Gromnir not have game, but there is repeated references to a hotfix(?) available at the bioboards that addresses missing text. ... found it. http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewt...8&forum=121 HA! Good Fun!

"Actually, I thought THIS was called AD&D. I don't even know what the hell I am playing!" really? well then, you has actually learned something new today. golly. "That's indicative of a broken system." very possibly, but that not change the fact that it is what it is. you wanna screw your eyes shut and pretend that any choice is worthwhile or even viable? be our guest. regardless, your delusions and protests not change fact that whimsical picking of feats, skills and classes is not a good way to approach motb character creation. why does people spend some time on builds? 'cause your whimsy approach is stoopid given the realities o' the system and fact that this is a CRPG. dm can't tailor the game to your choices. "No, but I'm sure sitting for hours before a game calculating which class brings what feats and skills and learning thick nerd books about rules that have no relevance in real life is a much more rewarding experience." a pnp ROLE-play character will offer potentially hundereds of hours o' gameplay. a weekly session o' rp once a week or even once a month... a character can last a good long time. but six months ago you spent 15 minutes rolling some lame numbers and got stuck playing a generic ad&d vanilla fighter... and for as long as that character survives the only thing you can possibly do to change character is to change his equipment. wow. talk about a deep role-play experience. "As I said: roll-play." yeah, 15 minutes o' rolling determines... everything. fantastic. Gromnir will takes 3e and its many faults compared to the ludicrous scenario offered by ad&d. roll stats and choose kit. *shrug* is there too much crap in d&d nowadays? sure. is axiomatic that the more options you add to a rule system, the more difficult it is to balance the system. there is too much crap. nevertheless, ad&d is hardly an attractive alternative for various practical and mechanical reasons AND given a choice 'tween too many choices and a handful o' worthless choices we thinks that most would choose the plethora o' options. and the bit 'bout it taking hours of reading and calculating to come up with a d&d character is so much hyperbole. takes minutes to come up with a viable character. for those that wanna optimize it can take hours, but to jump in and play takes no more than it did with ad&d. regardless, your initial point were silly and myopic... ignores reality of crpgs and system in question. HA! Good Fun!

hmmm for motb don't evokers and transmuters both have conjuration as their opposition school? specialization not requires that you take your extra spell from your specialized school. is a few feats that depend on your school o' specialization, but not many. for all practical purposes, there is very little difference 'tween an evoker and a transmuter. keep in mind that if you is into crafting, by having no caster with conjuration spells there is gonna be some certain items you cannot create. is no big deal... but something to consider. HA! Good Fun!

huh? if we is talking 'bout motb and other sp crpgs, then the dm is a crpg developer... is no mysterious elephants. if we is talking 'bout pnp (which Gromnir weren't,) then you still runs into the problem where Mr. Perfect monopolizes the action. if rest of party is not Mr. Perfects, they tends to get bored sitting back while dm drops elephants on mr. perfect... but again, this is a complete different issue than the one Gromnir were talking 'bout. HA! Good Fun!

side note: what Gromnir don't get, as far as character builds is concerned, is the folks who try to find the Perfect Warrior (or mage or whatever) to play through motb. maybe combat is tougher in motb than it were in nwn2, but these games is never gonna be made so as to cause undue frustration. a relative newcomer to d&d is still gonna be able to get through motb combats with his crappy build, so what advantage is there in building the perfect warrior? there is all kinds o' ultimate pvp builds we seen posted... and we just don't get the point of using such stuff in motb. such folks is only cheating selves. ... the hilarious part o' the scenario is when mr perfect warrior comes to board and then complains that motb were ssssssooooooo easy. well duh. you makes a build that exploits every d&d loophole so as to render unto utter desolation all enemies who stood in your way.... and then complain that game were too easy. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

ad&d were bass ackwards and retarded. kits were as bad as prcs and the rulez were a convoluted and counter-intuitive mass o' contradictions. if stoopidity = rp, then ad&d were indeed the system for real rp gamers... 'cause having all important character development choices happen only at level 1 enhanced rp. HA! as for just taking whatever feat or skill peaks your fancy... sure, you can do that, but such intentional wackiness don't result in a better rp experience. sadly d&d, (especially a crpg d&d game in which there is no genuine rp being done anyway,) is a game where the numbers matter. can you play a half-orc paladin/monk if you wish? sure. unfortunately, such a character is probably not gonna be particularly fun to play when you can't hit nothing in combat, and can't make any skills checks. combat and dialogues... both is highly dependent on numbers. wanna play 30 levels o' fighter is fine and dandy. take whatever feats and skills you want and you will still be good in combat... but 'cause of lousy skill selection chances are you won't be getting near as much from dialogues as some o' the people who worry over builds. what if you wanna Role-Play a character that can do more than simply cast spells or swing a sword? better consider the numbers, eh? heck, since the only thing that might be remotely considered rp in a single-player crpg is coming from dialogues, the genuine role-players is probably the ones who is gonna most worry over builds, 'cause w/o some forethought you may miss out on a great number and variety o' dialogues. is not like pnp where Gromnir's lack o' social skills is hardly a handicap. real live fellow players and a human dm means that we get as much out of an rp session as we put into it. sp crpg is not rp. you get put only so much as the developer allows... and 'cause o' balance and rulez issues, what you can potentially get out o' game is based 'pon a cold and hard numbers evaluation. welcome to the world o' sp crpgs. but then again, if willful stoopidity = role-play, then sure enough ad&d were supreme, and choose feats and skills and levels w/o forethought or considerations must result in a more genuine rp experience. HA! Good Fun!

(damn double posts) HA! Good Fun!