Gromnir

normally waiting for the first patch is our plan before any game purchase... but not this time. caved. only recent did we get to the spirit meter. quick observation... doesn't anybody else use eternal rest? does not shift us more to lawful. gives us spirit essence. with halfway powerful undead available by plundering any offering urn in dead god's vault, or sleeping in vault, we get a huge boost to spirit meter... far better than supress. used supress a half dozen times to reduce craving. ... for us the annoyance o' the spirit meter is 'cause it is so easily overcome... is simply a pointless gameplay requirement that we must deal with before and after every long quest. step 1) go to dead god's vault (cause a bug in our game has ended respawn o' undead in shadow town... hope this don't break game later.) step 2) plunder an offering urn and gets a void wraith battle. step 3) use eternal rest on void wraith and get brilliant spirit essence and a big boost to spirit meter w/o a rise in craving... step 4) repeat steps 2 and 3 til reach 100% spirit meter. step 5) go questing. *shrug* is simply a diversion from actual gameplay. used supress a handful o' times to reduce craving or if no undead is available. no more need for supress. HA! Good Fun!

eta on the patch? HA! Good Fun!

Funny that you'd say that, because from where I'm standing, most anime seems to take after Akira, NGE, any of the cutesy series (Steel Angel Kurumi?), Ninja Scrolls, or an amalgamation of the 4, pretty closely. Elfin Lied, for example, which was all the rage not too long ago, contained huge bleeding chunks of the first 3. The series that I do like, Cowboy Bebop or Trigun, for example, aren't short on overwrought melodrama themselves but make up for it by not being totally stone-faced serious about the stupid bull**** they contain, ala Lied. But anyway, that's off-topic. Pinocchio and Godzilla. viewed broad, virtually all anime goes into these categories... akira was an anime version o' Godzilla with those aforementioned wacky Fantastic elements vd likes so much thrown into the mix. banish all anime that depends on pinocchio and godzilla, and gets rid of any anime with a Buffy character, and there would be very little anime. again, basic themes and characters is all familiar, but the writers of anime plots is all trying so damned hard to come up with some unique twist or spin. different. is akira little more than Godzilla? no, but technically the plot is different. 'course a whole 'nother category o' anime is the non-fantastic real life genre that got 0 fantastic elements... but watching those makes Gromnir's brain hurt. either the japanese are seriously f'd up, or we is missing something. regardless, there ain't nothing wrong with doing old stories and familiar plots. yeah, different done well is nice, but different, in and of itself, is hardly a positive. HA! Good Fun!

btw, Gromnir only got through the first couple paragraphs o' vd's review. his starting point were too alien. different has no intrinsic value. the reason why Star Wars were so succesful is precise because it followed the formula that vd seems to loathe. maybe vd is a big anime fan, 'cause goal o' anime seems to be making plot as Unique as possible. the thing is that the anime character interactions and plot devices is all formulaic, but the plot itself is almost always bizzare, no? motb is an expansion that starts off with epic characters in the FR setting... so obviously we ain't gonna get the typical fantasy origin. is that a good thing? *chuckle* no. no points from Gromnir simply 'cause motb chose to go with epic wackiness. maybe vd makes some good observations later in review, but given his starting point and the potential for spoilers, we simply could not bring self to read further. regardless, it is nice to see that vd likes motb... for whatever reasons. baby steps for vd. HA! Good Fun!

as for epic strangeness... yeah, d&d epic is tough to do. there is an established kinda power hierarchy in the fr setting, so once Gromnir's character hits epic, mundane interactions becomes almost comical. there is many aspects o' the planescape universe that Gromnir disliked, but the kinda environment that sigil made available were ideal for epic. that filthy bunch-backed bum in the alley who seems to be having a heated and decidedly one-sided conversation with a bent soup spoon, could very possibly be the physical repository of the spirits of the 12 Witches of Dis who came ever so close to dethroning Dispater... or some other such nonsense. that guy selling sticky buns out of a cart wouldn't last long if he went to pieces every time some Balor complained 'bout his prices. and heck, the guy who knows the Secret of the Planes might be a very ordinary shipwright who spends all his time working on a boat in spite of fact that sigil gots no bodies o' water. his neighbors thinks he is crazy, and maybe he is, but he got no special powers or magic abilities per se, but he is The Guy. everybody in sigil realizes that the next person they meet could be The Guy. ... and having the Lady o' Pain (as silly a construct as she is,) helps keeps excessive behaviors in check. poo would get mazed so fast his head would spin. epic is difficult to make... reasonable. try to shoehorn into the FR setting you makes even more unlikely that it will be reasonable. Gromnir will be curious to see just how well obsidian did at trying to make acceptable, but Gromnir realizes that allowances gotta be made given the setting and the levels. HA! Good Fun!

any word on when a patch might be forthcoming? sounds as if motb is pretty stable, but is more than a few o' those data entry bugs likes warlocks not able to choose item creation feats and issues with warpriests not getting correct caster level... and many more. not expect all such stuff to be fixed in a patch, but those things is irksome and Gromnir not wanna play til obsidian takes their first crack at fixing. as for codex... *shrug* obsidian reference ain't an homage as much as it is a joke, but Gromnir does enjoy codex in small doses. codex is fine as long as you realize that they is a joke site... kinda like the onion. 'course all the regulars and admins not seem to be in on the joke, which makes joke better. am suspecting that the obsidians get the joke. HA! Good Fun!

imbue item don't work... not at the moment. you need the appropriate item creation feats to make magic widgets with warlock imbue ability... but somehow the obsidian developers made item creation feats not selectable for warlocks... am blaming eldar. what were he doing during all that playtesting? HA! Good Fun!

scale issues didn't bother us too much. stopped playing oblivion when Gromnir realized that beyond leveling our character and gathering more 1007, there did not seem likes any real motivation to continue playing. compelling story? no. fun combat? nope. intriguing puzzles? nope. no doubt some other folks liked the oblivion story, combat and lock picking mini-game, but am embarrassed to admit that it took us 'bout 15 hours to finally figure out that it weren't Gromnir's cop o' kool-aid. HA! Good Fun!

"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!