Gromnir

hypothetically speaking, if a modder wants to use obsidian assets then why not request formally... rather than trying to be a sneaky little punk 'bout it? write a letter and ask. build a game or some other media that uses obsidian resources in the hope that they won't come after you likes LA does is just plain gutless... you deserve to get your arse handed to you if you take the coward's approach... hypothetically speaking. HA! Good Fun!

since we were just a little Gromnir, we has always wanted to be an Inqusitor for the Catholic Church... smite heretics and expose witches n' such. unfortunately even though we had the SATs our latin weren't good 'nuff and we couldn't get no scholarship... tanked the interview too when we let slip that our great grandfather were a Oglala shaman... so we went to Berkeley instead. *sigh* so now we is one of our firm's brain surgeons. not too long ago we were the hired gun, but there ain't no sense dwelling in the past. HA! Good Fun!

I crush dreams. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> crushing dreams is what all peoples in managerial positions ends up doing. you is simply more cheerful 'bout doing so than is chrisA? Gromnir did forget 'bout how you bought art resources. am suprised you wasted time and effort on coming up with new icons if you paid for old ones you has been using since ps:t in some cases. *shrug* hope the nwn2 icons looks real purty 'cause time spent on such things probably coulda' been utilized on other more pressing and important aspects. HA! Good Fun!

keep iwd2 icons? probably not, as they is ip of interplay. am curious 'bout something. chrisA is a co-founder o' obsidian. as such he is one of the big bosses. nevertheless, josh is the lead designer on nwn2, and as such is at least s'posed to be the cracker standing behind chrisA and the other team members making sure that everybody does their work in the limited 'mount of time they has left to finish nwn2. Gromnir has once or twice been the lead on a project/case in which we were, for all intents and purposes, the boss over our boss. we has had some mixed luck with such situations and we wonders how josh handles chrisA... or if chrisA is such a model team member that he sacrifices ego for the greater good and he not really needs to be bossed. also, we assumes that chrisA is already leading on another project 'cause otherwise we not know why chrisA not simply took over leadership after the ferret departure. if Gromnir is wrong, which is very likely in this and other instances, then please discuss why it were that josh becomes lead when chrisA were already working on, and familiar with the nwn2 development and all the personel and problems attendent to that development. thank you in advance. HA! Good Fun!

history o' nd? well, as with most of America, there were indigenous peoples living in what is now known as nd. those peoples were killed or displaced picemeal or enmasse so as to make proper civilization possible in what were formerly barbaric and heathen lands. is not surprising that the barbaric peoples living in what is now known as nd did not particularly wanna be displaced or killed. hokahey well, after those pesky indigenous peoples were eliminated or confined, euro settlers were now free to enjoy the wonders of nd. since there weren't no such wonders very few euros made their way to nd until the northen pacific railroad gots completed... then fargo and bismark became railroad towns filled with lots o' germans and norski and irish. not much worth noting happened in nd until just before the great depression. while technically a republican dominated state, a bunch o' socialists controlled state politics. they advocated stuff like womens sufferage and state ownership of banks and grain elevators and a few had been very much opposed to the US entering ww1. the great depression and post ww1 nationalism helped destroy the socialist movement in ND... which had a momentary rebirth in the 30s. in any event, the political landscape were particularly compelling from 1900-1935 or so. is worth looking into. nd is dependent on agriculture in a big way. the history of the state, after the early genocide period, were probaly more influenced by occasional droughts or floods and by foreign grain prices than by the actual issues that were being discussed or debated in state congress. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

the kkk don't have much of a foothold in ND. is not like there ain't racism, but is not so overt. people in the dakotas and minnesota is usually very polite, and the kkk is too rude for most of the locals. *shrug* story? we worked for the US Attorney's office in ND for a short time after we graduated from law school. am a SD native and we wanted to be close to "home." anywho, the typical us attorney's office in anyplace other than ND is gonna be handling drug cases... lots and lots of drug cases. ain't so in ND. smuggling of endangered and protected animal species were our #1 priority... honest. at the time we were with the us attorney's office we were dealing with this big smuggling opperation going on that involved capture and transport of gyrfalcons from the dakotas 'cross the border into kanada. the birds, much prized by middle-eastern falconry afficianados, were then transported to saudi arabia. sadly, a goodly number of birds had died as the smugglers were more concerned with not getting caught than they were with the health and welfarte of the birds. good news is that the smugglers were brought to justice... but the saudi's who engineered the whole thing simply wrote a big check. we could seize their assets, but we couldn't bring 'em to the US to stand trial, and we had no way of getting the birds back neither. were ultimately pretty pointless. there you go, a real nd story. HA! Good Fun!

if you liked iwd then we suggest fallout:tactics. truthfully, iwd and fo:tactics play real similar: they is both squad-based tactical combat games with little to nil role-playing involved... linear progression o' combats. fo:t were actually better balanced than were the original fallout game (which is saying very little,) and as you got complete control of your party you won't have to worry 'bout the abject stoopiditiy of your party mates. you can play fo:t in rt or in turns, and in either case combats is not overly difficult, but if you liked the iwds, then there is much reason to suspect you will like the first 2/3 of fo:t. fo:t also can boast some of the best voice acting choices in a pc game since ps:t. say what you will 'bout interplay, but they gots quality voice actors... for the most part. warning: the last 1/3 of fo:t is simply terrible. is just no other way to put it. that being said, most of the game is actually kinda fun... if you ain't one of those people that actually memorizes the Fallout Bible chapter and verse. deathclaws with fur? omfg! jagged alliance 2 is also a fantastic little squad-based tactical combat game... but everybody mentions ja2. HA! Good Fun!

again, the dm client will not be difference 'tween smash it and failure... and is not like developers patch games for free. might obsidian do so if atari won't pay them? would atari let them? is speculation on your part that they would... but we is getting beyond any sorta o' reasonable conjecture and is simply guessing at this point. is pretty tough to be confident once we is in realm of complete speculation. HA! Good Fun!

the dm client will make them nothing. the number of folks that rely on the dm client is so small as to be almost pointless as far as totla sales is concerned. sure, Gromnir is one of those pointless people, but atari don't care 'bout + or - 1% sales. waste any resources on + - 1%? btw, how did atari react to toee patching? HA! Good Fun!

If Atari is out of the picture, then Obsidian could probably patch it in without having to worry about Atari's approval. If anything, I would think it would be easier to patch it in if Atari was gone. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> you is assuming a sudden and complete death of atari? it don't usually work like that. throws a fish onto the river bank and watch as it flails 'bout in the dust. not die immediate even if death is inevitable. atari is banking on nwn2. if nwn2 fails, then atari will almost assuredly die... but not in september or october and probably not even in november. HA! Good Fun!

The DM Client was never killed according to Obsidian. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> as far as Gromnir is aware, the dm client will not be included with the game you buys in the store. s'posedley there were plans to eventually release the dm client down the road, at some later date, when you wish 'pon a star. given atari's financial situation, if nwn2 don't sell well what is probability that dm client would ever have been released? regardless, the dm client were killed. fan outcry (outcry that were not present when we heard that the nwn2 oc would be no more than 20 hours for most people,) suddenly results in an announcement that the dm client would be released as a free download on same day as nwn2 release. hours o' gameplay announcements tends to bite the developers in the arse... but Gromnir ain't a developer. the obsidian developers were very aware that after HoW were so woefully short of announced hours and they subsequently suffered so much negative fan feedback that fergie felt compelled to throw us a bone: TotL. no doubt this is why nobody could gets a obsidian developer to directly confront the 20 hour rumors. go back and read some of josh's posts on the subject. he were very careful NOT to give no estimate. too bad. lucky for us it is that nathan didn't get the memo 'bout not giving time estimates. now we got an obsidian developer who said "30-40+ hours." now anybody who gets less hours can throw that back at 'em... and that is a good thing. as eldar notes, if only a small handful o' pepole is complaining that nwn2 is only 20 hours, then nathan's quote not matter.... but if there is LOTS o' people complaining... once you makes an hour estimate the fanbase treats such estimates as an entitlement. if game had been 25 hours for most people w/o no 30-40+ estimate there would still be complaints 'bout paltry hours, but there would not be the Liar and Cheat kinda stuff we saw following HoW. too bad for obsidian, but good for us... 'cause now obsidian gots more motivation (if only a little,) to make sure that the campaign matches nathan's estimates... and no 'mount of rearguard defensive posting on nathan's part will save obsidian from the terrible feedback that is to follow if the sp oc campaign is short. oh, and while it is nathan that is gonna get stuck looking like a yutz if game is short, the person at obsidian who should be taking the blame is fergie. nathan might have been a bit naive as he tried to fix fergie's error with his "30-40+" estimate, but nathan would never have found himself in the unfortunate postion o' feeling like he had to reassure the board community if it had not been for fergie's initial mistake o' giving a 20 hour estimate to a German rag. we felt a little guilty 'bout setting nathan up likes we did over at the bio boards. which is why we kinda let the subject drop. didn't think more needed to be said. unfortunate it is that we got nathan trying to fix his mistake. our original intent were to draw fergie or josh out to confront the 20 hour fergie estimate. josh were evasive. fergie simply didn't respond. we had to settle for nathan... but as much as we feels bad for nathan, we just can't lets him get up off tha canvas so easy. if he had just stayed down we would not need to continue posting on the subject. oh well. "30-40+" come september you is gonna see that quoted lots... but obsidian does gotta choice 'bout how painful that estimate needs be. the shorter and weaker the campaign is, the more they is gonna have to hear. HA! Good Fun!

My point exactly. But posting in such an unconvincing manner and about stuff that can't very well be verified even after the game goes out (but can easily be "proven" false) only gives more material to criticize, without actually providing any reliable information on the game. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> other obsidian developers were real careful not to make specific estimates 'bout time. however, fergie actually were the one who screwed up first by makings the 20 hour estimate. in any event, was a no-win situation once nathan made his 30-40+ estimate. what to do? stand solid on the 30-40+ bit? heck no. no doubt some other obsidians pointed out to nathan the foolishness of developers making hour estimates AFTER he blurted out "30-40+ hours." HoW shoulda' taught the obsidians just how dangerous such over estimations were... but nathan did point out that he weren't with bis during the HoW debacle. maybe the best thing to do after making an unfortunate and ill-advised hour estimate is to try a little damage control: point out that "30-40+" can mean so many different things to so many different people. whatever. when the dm client were killed the bio board population went nuts. how did obsidian respond? a couple days later we find out that the dm client is back in... sorta. now the dm client is gonna be released contemporeaneous with nwn2. should be a lesson to boardies. HA! Good Fun!

and why won't fergie/obsidian simply admit? that would be the honest thing to do. in any event, Gromnir is always surprised at how little it takes for a person with a developer tag to impress the masses. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

I just wanted to apologize if you felt I was accusing you of lying. I started to explain how my posts came about, but then I realized that it only came across as a vague attempt at justification. So I won't. Let's try again. If you felt I accused you of lying, I am truly sorry. That was never my intent and I am sure you're a very nice and honest guy. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> don't apologize. nathan has been trying to further qualify his "30-40+ hours of gameplay" estimate since he made it not long ago at the bio boards. *shrug* in any event, all those thumb's up icons is gonna dissapear and be forgotten if we not get "30-40+ hours of gameplay." am not impressed with developer honesty in any event. after all, in spite of the fact that we is all knowing who made the initial 20 hour estimate, no obsidian developer will address it save for in oblique fashion as nathan did above. am understanding that the developers cannot tell us some stuff... and that they doesn't even know other things, but they dances 'round other topics with 'bout as much grace as a leperous and morbidly obese fat man... who has maybe had too much to drink. the dm client? oops. we weren't gonna tell you 'bout that til... later. 30-40+ hours of gameplay? well, i think that we might possibly get 30-40+ hours, but that doesn't mean that some speed players can't get only 10-15... and the game isn't finished yet so i can't say for sure what is hours of gameplay and i am just the qa guy so... 20 hours quoted in a german rag? well, i am not syaing that fergie did or din't say 20, but even if he did he ain't really qulaified to do so. ... it is the nature of Gromnir's business that we gotta deal with bs all day and every day. we got a real talent for sniffing out such stuff, but honestly, we thinks nathan were telling truth when he said 30-40+ hours... but am losing some respect given the way he tries to qualify and hedge after the fact. we gaves him every opportunity to back away from making such a public estimate, but he did not do so. you made the estimate, and whether that were a mistake or not we expect you to sack up and take whatever good or ill comes of it. HA! Good Fun!

am not sure that this poll answers any real question o' value. the problem with the way death works in most d&d pc centric games is that the game is over when the pc dies.... which makes sense. imagine playing a game where you carries 'round the corpse of the pc, but the npcs continue leaderless up to and including the final and inevitable battle with the UBG (ultimate bad guy.) kinda wacky. makes even more sense in a game likes kotor2 or nwn2 where all dialogues is channeled through the pc... use pc's diplomacy or other skill or attribute to determine outcomes of dialogues. kotor 2 allowed pcs to generate hps at a phenomenal rate, so were less problematic, but d&d not seems to work that way. take focus off of a pc and death becomes less problematic... regardless of rules used. party members, being interchangable, can be allowed to die or be resurected after some considerable 'mount of time... but not works so well with with a specific pc that is focus of story. now personally we like Gromnir rules re d&d death. we uses the d&d bleeding rules, but we also makes so that characters becomes less effective as they lose hps. characters that is suffering massive damage becomes less effective in combat til they has been attended to by healing or heal spells. there is a feat line that also allows characters to stay useful in combat longer... a feat line which rogues gets for free btw. however, even if one uses Gromnir's superior system, one still must confront the problems o' a pc centric sp crpg. when the pc character dies, how does you deal? toee did an okie dokie job with implementation of d&d wounding and dying rules... and we is just fine with 'em. would be tougher to pull off with real time, but we likes d&d just fine. the problem remains that you gotta deal with what does happen when the pc "dies." is death permanent? can game continue once the pc has died? if so, how long can such a game continue and how does you handle gameplay mechanics w/o a pc? etc. the kotor method works well enough... after combat is over your fallen party mates bounce up with 1 hp, or some such similar result. healing is still mighty useful in such a game, but raise dead and resurrection becomes useless. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

"This is my new wallpaper " am not sure how josh feels, but Gromnir am mildly disturbed. HA! Good Fun!

DOY! Everyone knows Exar Kun had a large wardrobe which included multiple pairs of boots! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> actually, as we underrstand it, exar kun were actually a closeted fashion designer... kinda like a star wars universe calvin klein wannabee. anywho, all the kotor items with his name attached to 'em is simply items bearing his label. simple mistake. HA! Good Fun!

well, to be fair, vol is excited 'bout horses that can't be ridden. is a bit like getting excited 'bout bg cows. wow. HA! Good Fun!

ah. am forgetting that we is 'posed to throw 'em some cream puffs. what is your favorite snack food while working on nwn2? what music do you guys listen to while at work? if nwn2 was a color, what color would it be, and why? HA! Good Fun!

if a person with mpd threatens to commit suicide is it considered a hostage situation? d&d is as much a squad-based tactical combat games as it is a rpg. nevertheless, while we has seen d&d crpgs and rts games, and fighting games and adventure games, developers and publishers seems reluctant to create a dedicated squad-based tactical combat computer game... a D&D tactics as it were. we has seen some mention of a psp d&d tactics game, but does the obsidian developers gots any ideas 'bout why a PC game dedicated to squad-based tactical combat ain't been attempted yet? some of the bis/obsidian developers seemed pretty unsympathetic about troika's situation during the later stages of toee development. now that obsidian is standing in troika's shoes does you feels different, particularly given the fact that you now gots numerous troika refugees on the obsidian team? HA! Good Fun!

alignment is evil HA! Good Fun!

as a guy who plays mostly crpgs with tactical pause or tb, or strategy games , be they rt or tb, we has seen 0 reason to gets a raptor. hardcore geeks swears by 'em, but fot the kind games we play we woulds much rather have 2x or 3x the storage capacity we can gets from other comparably priced quality hds. HA! Good Fun!

Gromnir has found that a $1000-$1300 computer obsolesces, even with upgrades after a couple of years. a $2000 computer becomes obsolete 3 months later. now monitors... monitors can be with you a good long time. we try not to go cheap on the monitors... but we is still frugal. however, with the rig you is buying, why go cheap on the mobo? asus ali: asus A8N32-SLI deluxe asus crossfire: asus A8R32-MVP deluxe if you suddenly decides that you is an oc freakboy, then go with one of the dfi lanparty boards have never once regretted going with a better mobo for more money. in the long run our computers last lots longer with a better mobo... can only upgrade so much with a deficient mobo holding you back... but Gromnir is pretty simple as far as computer building goes... no oc stuff and no crazy configs. HA! Good Fun!

the great thing 'bout boards like this is that it don't matter what age you is... or race, or gender, or occupation. you is all equal here... 'least til you start posting, and even then you is judged solely based on contents of posts. if somebody finds out age or occupation it is 'cause you had to tell somebody... though keeps in mind that just 'cause you share something in pm not mean that you has kept private... we found that out the hard way with the lawyer crap and shadowspawn. regardless, if you don't wanna be dismissed 'cause of age, don't tell anybody that you is 12. if you has good ideas it not matter if you is still unable to get into pg-13 movies w/o mom. HA! Good Fun!

if you end up having complaints 'bout nwn2, please keep in mind that you has rendered self impotent by pre-ordering. pre-orders determines how much inventory the major retailers will request from atari. in any event, Gromnir has done as much as we can. woulda' prefered if we could have gotten fergie or josh to say "30-40+," but natahn will do. HA! Good Fun!