Gromnir

heya tale, better be careful on that slippery slope. you got some fuzzy gut-level method for dividing sci-fi from fanatsy, and we guarantees that Gromnir and others can points to many examples that would play havoc with your method. *shrug* again, is not as if the sci-fi v. fantasy definitions were result o' the scientific method, or even careful scholarly consideration... peddlers o' pulp magazines in post war era wanted simple advertising jargon to lets potential buyers know if their stories were 'bout futuristic space opera stuff, or if it were having swords and sorcery. bah. continue to argue the fine points o' some sloppy magazine seller's knee-jerk definitions is ridiculous. HA! Good Fun!

"Magic, practically by definition, leaves the room for more creativity than simply expanding upon theorized science. Because magic can do quite literally anything the author wants. To stay true to Sci-Fi, an author must stay within reasonable limits." stay "true" to sci-fi? am not sure what that is, but Creativity is why there is 0 functional difference 'tween sci-fi and fantasy. star trek, a show which actually had technical advisers to help with the science, has more magic than george r.r. martin's recent works... by a large margin. sci-fi explanations not have to be reasonable... simply have to get audience to embrace as plausible w/i context o' the setting (which is pretty much same standard for magic btw.) replicators, transporters and psychic powers and time travel, as applied in star trek universe, has very little reason involved. hell, the only reason you got star trek transporters in first place were 'cause shuttle shots were deemed too expensive for low-budget star trek. so creative persons come up with the notion o' The Transporter. *shrug* sci-fi is no different than magic. now, is there some hardcore sci-fi that works real hard to be reasonable? sure there is. kim stanley robinson is an example o' an author who tries to keep it real, but for anybody who is willing to place star wars in the sci-fi category, the notion that there is a genuine difference 'tween sci-fi and fantasy goes right out the window. HA! Good Fun!

je were not Gromnir's cup o' kool-aid... never finished. didn't like combat, and other than henpecked hou, the cast o' characters did not appeal to us. ... je were set in world based on quasi-chinese mythology game, plus some other assorted asian influences. kewl. sounds neato and different. sadly, the setting were too much and not enough. the kill bill flicks managed to combine camp and martial arts and some serious moments o' cinematic drama. seemed like je were trying to do something similar. were so cliche chinese martial arts as to be campy... but usually it felt as if it were taking self serious... and the serious and dramatic je moments just fell kinda flat. didn't like shallow JE rules set, and the action-rpg combat elements were too twitchy... and while we liked ME 'nuff to endure such stuff, we didn't manage to overcome those shortcomings in JE. but you know what? unlike with movies, sequels in games is usually superior to the original... 'least for Gromnir. is not always mechwarrior 1 v. mechwarrior 2 extreme, but sequels usually improve multiple flaws o' the original offering. if je2 were to improve on je as much as bio improved on bg with bg2.... well then, we would probably become as big a je fan as is vol... without his borderline autism. HA! Good Fun!

kb not like beans? fine. the problem is that you claims to likes frijoles. a nice cassoulet? sure. red beans and rice? probably not... 'cause actually got "beans" in the name. sci-fi v. fantasy. quibble over a difference in name that is largely w/o a point. HA! Good Fun!

is no functional difference 'tween sci-fi and fantasy. some settings even blend/meld the two 'posedly different genres. heck, take a step back and look at star wars as sci-fi v. fantasy. had an orphan protagonist who wants to be a knight. got a princess in peril. a rogue who ain't as heartless as he would have folks believe? yeah, got one of those. even got a black knight bad guy. magic swords? check. a kindly wizard who steps into the merlin role w/o a hitch is part o' the story too. throw in a titanic battle 'tween forces o' good and evil... heck, you even gots a dragon in the classic tolkien sense. the death star = smaug. as for the science o' star wars... assimov would shudder. is no science in star wars... is simply ray guns and space ships in a fantasy setting. in other words kb is off his nut. fantasy will always be 'round, in one guise or another. HA! Good Fun!

if you is only level 49 at end of game, then it seems very unlikely that you were having done every quest except dr. heart. almost guaranteed you missed a few more... whether you realize or not. contrast: Gromnir were level 50 Before ilos. HA! Good Fun!

tell us you had been beat up by girl scouts or brownies and we would not have been surprised neither. regardless, achievements and merit badges is obviously something that Gromnir not "get." HA! Good Fun!

There's a boyscout in all of us! Gromnir were kicked out of the boy scouts... true story. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

am clear on what the achievements do.... am simply not understanding why somebody would want. boost to some abilities After you has already played game through? okie dokie. HA! Good Fun!

seen this at bio... and am surprised we recall. the actual mechanics of ally achievement is more specific than "complete majority of the game with..." 45 assignments and 11 missions. ... the confusion comes with the assignments, many of which can be completed sans party. go back to normandy and talk to hackett to complete? well then, that assignment not count towards ally achievement. complete any of the goose chase assignment (minerals/writings/insignia/medallions/etc.) from galaxy map and again you gets 0 cred towards ally achieve. is 50+ total possible assignments.... something like 54. however, at least three or four is completed with a hackett dialogue on normandy. goose chase = 4 more. as you can see, if you has misfortune to complete all goose chase assignments via survey function of galaxy map, then your window o' opportunity shrinks dangerously... 'specially if you play good and skip the 3-4 shady assignments. ... am perplexed why anybody cares 'bout achievements, but there you go... mystery solved. HA! Good Fun!

technically? one. is only 1 refinery base. however, you also gots multiple tunnels and the 'bove ground portion of the final location also gots the refinery base feel. entire area outside first tunnel is probably toughest portion if, like Gromnir, you hate the mako... something like 4 armatures and a colossus, as well as a bunch o' rocket and shock troop geth. otherwise, after the refinery base, it is all easy til you get to final 'bove ground location. "shrug" much like bis did with how, bio hearkens back to donkey kong for inspiration. heck, the mako can actually jump so as to more fully complete the parallel. repetitive S-shaped maps? how very progressive. luckily most critical path planets ain't entirely donkey kong style, but virtual all gots some o' that nonsense... therum=most donkey kong. HA! Good Fun!

motb framerate were fine for Gromnir... and we is not high end. nwn2? yeah, that were horrible. motb made big improvements. 'course Gromnir simply accepts that shadows is evil. can set everything to max... 'cept shadows. HA! Good Fun!

sidenote: anybody who wishes to compare and contrast sci-fi and fantasy deserves to be kicked in the temple by a spastic footballer wearing steel cleats. don't do it. don't be that guy. sci-fi and fantasy genres were birthed by publishers o' pulp magazines some many decades ago as a simple way to tell folks whether they were getting conan and elves or robots and ray guns. is marketing nomenclature, not scientific definitions. give an elf a ray gun and you got sci-fantasy? don't be that guy. now, back on-topic... why is this good news or bad? HA! Good Fun!

smith & tinker? ... am too lazy to moby the named personages at smith & tinker, so can anybody tell us why it is a good/bad thing that these folks got mechwarrior and crimson skies? getting shadowrun? is a bit like being the coverboy for madden football. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking that drew (the me lead writer) watches far too much anime for his own good... 'cause while Gromnir is enjoying story and characters, there is far too many of those huh/wtf moments for us to be comfortable with. take bits and pieces from every other familiar sci-fi setting not bother us much, but if Gromnir has to work to rationalize various plot lines, then something is wrong. ... and keep in mind that Gromnir is pretty darn relaxed 'bout such plot stuff. kreia wanting to kill the force as explanation for her whole grand plan? had no problem with that. me, on the other hand, asks for us to ignore the clamoring protest o' our brain for hours at a time and simply enjoy the pretty pictures, character interactions and gameplay... and as the gameplay is a little too twitchy for our tastes... is still fun 'nuff to keep us involved, but too much huh/wtf. oh, and the stoopid me planet exploration crap should be a good reminder for all o' you clowns who claims to have enjoyed bg1 exploration... 'cause is same sorta nonsense. heck, me actually is slightly less annoying in this respect 'cause at least some 'o those tangential map side quests is more than fedex time wasters. HA! Good Fun!

2 weeks after Gromnir stopped playing nwn2, the patch finally gets released. ... is a good thing that the game were relative stable (though we had more than just a handful o' ctds, most were related to transitioning on world map with spell effects or active familiars... so were a problem with an easy 'nuff work 'round,) 'cause am not recalling a pc game for which it were taking so long to patch. hell, even toee got patched quicker and atari and troika were slappy fighting at the time which were making any sorta a patch seems less than guaranteed. maybe after Gromnir gives ME a try we will manage

just 'cause you didn't have (or didn't notice) problems, don't mean they weren't in game. various bonuses not stack right (though if you not know rules you probably not notice.) more than some spell durations is wrong. is more than a few game killing bugs experienced by more than a few people. warlock gets imbue item ability, but can't take item creation feats. favored soul dcs seems to be chr based 'stead of wisdom. warpriests can't gain divine casting levels? characters getting access to too many epic spells... or not 'nuff. ctds. etc. chances is you suffered many data entry kinda bugs and simply didn't realize. wrong babs and wrong saves and wrong dcs? you not know rules and you probably not even realize. HA! Good Fun!

... is obsidian gonna patch this freaking game 'fore Christmas? for chrissakes, how long we gotta wait for some basic fixes? oh, and while we know that it gots 0 chance o' ever becoming reality ('least not til josh gets a chance to work on bg3,) given that obsidian is taking a months kinda approach to fixing motb, maybe they could add fixed domain spell lists and functionality for clerics. is embarrassing that iwd2 did a far better job with 3e domains than does motb. josh mentioned that this were something that might (unlikely) be addressed in a patch, and as wait for patch has become a task fit for Job, am figuring that maybe obsidian throws in a bone to make seem likes more than simple bug fixing. opportunity to improve rather than simply fix. HA! Good Fun!

which motb jnpcs would Conan accept? ... only difference 'tween red wizard and the other jnpcs is that Conan might try to get sexed up with the bald chick previous to killing her. HA! Good Fun!

skillz is extra important in Gromnir d&d campaigns... not too many players voluntarily play low int fighters or clerics in our game sessions. all you got is concentration or climb? too bad, 'cause Gromnir warned you 'least a half dozen times that such a route were gonna lead to frustration. bards is buffers and skillz monkeys that if built right can also be very effective in a combat support role. personally, the concept o' the bard offends Gromnir sensibilities. the "minstrels" we has known is typically hygienically challenged dreamers who stink o' failure and mj, so we got 0 urge to rp such a character save as some sorta comedic bit o' buffonery. nevertheless, the d&d bard is often the most useful member of gaming sessions in which Gomnir is dm... which is kinda ironic given our overt loathing for the bard. HA! Good Fun!

"I know it is probably not fair to compare NWN2 with the Temple of Elemental Evil and Infinity Engine, where the maps are 2D but I feel I am experiencing the demerit of 3D engine rather than enjoying it at the current state of implementation (BTW, oddly, I liked the 3 dimensionally visualized giant frogs, gelatin cubes and magic missile effects in ToEE, for example)." *chuckle* the funny thing is that now that Gromnir has played so much nwn2 and motb, every time we tries to play bg2 or ps:t (would rather have tiny glass shards rubbed into our eyeball than try to play toee again,) we find ourself trying to zoom in and out with the wheel mouse. the fixed overhead perspective, while functional, is far more limiting and limited than nwn2 strat view. you happen to get a battle in a doorway in bg2 or toee (a frequent occurrence as Gromnir typically used doorways as extra immovable and unassailable defenders,) or there just happens to be a large wall or structure in way, and you pretty much gotta simply endure seeing half of battle. yeah, in nwn2 we sometimes get a bad pov and we gotta adjust, but with ie and toee there were some situations in which you need to realize the limitations o' the 2d pov if you is gonna be able to enjoy the game. fixed 2d left Gromnir with far more situations in which we had less than an optimal view o' the battlefield... 'least compared to nwn2 and it's expansion. oh, and we gots another annoying bug. built ourself a favored soul/rogue/storm lord. the favored soul spell casting primary attribute (from Gromnir pov) is wisdom as wisdom determines dc o' spells cast. however, fs charisma determines max spell level the character can cast as well as bonus spells. gave our fs a 14 charisma and planned to use stat boosting items to get us to 19 by time we reaches point where we could cast 9th level spells... character level 22 or so. one small problem with our plan: reloads wipe out known spells 'bove level 4. as long as Gromnir not have to exit game, everything is fine. our +6 nymph cloak allows Gromnir to use level 9 spells, but if ever we gotta reload game, all spells 'bove level 4 is blacked out til we rest... and this game purposefully makes rest more o' a challenge in some specific areas. not a big problem... is simply more sand in our shoe. HA! Good Fun!

am beginning to get the picture that the camera problem is pretty much a character-mode issue... and as Gromnir never uses character mode we gots 0 frame o' reference. d&d is, at its core, a squad-based tactical combat game... looks down at graph paper or dry-erase maps and move your pawns 'bout from your godlike pov. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

austin is a fantastic town. has the advantage of being a very big college town w/o being a genuine big city. ut is one o' the biggest universities in the nation, and it is actually a pretty darn good university too... and like all good universities ut is a magnet for big brains and big talent and nifty cultural opportunities. throws in great music and great food and only real drawback is fact that you gotta deal with texas weather and texans. austin? Gromnir can deal with austin... and as cost of living is so much less than in cali... we would still have to take a big pay cut. *shrug* major obstacle is gonna remain Gromnir's lack o' talent. HA! Good Fun!

... dunno. there is almost no times where/when Gromnir can't simply rotate camera slightly to gets a good view. area transitions? ok, take 2 seconds to pull back and rotate left or right with camera. THAT is the big camera stink? okie dokie. HA! Good Fun!

am not much of a writer ourself, but all those secondary skills is what Gromnir would find daunting... coupled with a big pay cut and a move to kanada. HA! Good Fun!