Gromnir

nuts. we were always the strongest guy working on our crew, and we got far less strong as we worked. line up ten construction workers... guys who has worked in the industry for 10+ years. then line up 10 guys who is dentists or birthday clowns. compare strength. we thinks you will be real surprised at how little difference you see. construction beats you down far more than it builds up. is there some professions that helps builds strength? sure there is... but we never noticed that the guys in the construction industry were all that strong. heck, Gromnir were something of a jock... hard as that is to believe. you thinks football made us stronger? bull. weight training and genetics + proper rest and nutrition made us stronger, but football made us weaker. were hard as hell to keep weight on during the season. throw in the unavoidable small inuries that comes with football (and construction,) and it were even tougher to stay strong. "As for drugs or skin cancer, yes construction work is a tough way to live, but that really has nothing to do with physical strength." actually, it gots a lot to do with physical strength. *shrug* regardless, as we noted already, our friend, the olympic class swimmer, whose oblivion levels would be through the roof, would never try to fight Gromnir for the obvious reason that we is far stronger and far more experienced at fighting. oblivion realistic? never try to convince us that one of its advantages is realism. HA! Good Fun!

so, guys who work construction for 15 years should be really strong, right? sorry chum, but even if you thinks that the level mechanic is logical, do not try to convince us that it is realistic. besides which, imagines if getting better at framing and laying tile also meant that the muggers you met would be particluarly fearsome, and the telemarketing jerks would be so slick that they could actually convince you to buy 2000lbs of meat. Gromnir has a friend who went to the olympics in a swimming event... but it seems highly unlikely that she could kick our arse. btw, working construction never resulted in Gromnir getting strong... made us tired and sore... but at least it didn't make us a drug user or give us skin cancer as it did many other folks. our coaches hated that we worked construction, 'cause we lost weight and gots weaker... but we needed the money, so... again, maybe the mechanic makes sense to people, but do not try to convince us that there is anything realistic 'bout it. HA! Good Fun!

Sorry, I don't agree with your insistence that the problem is only caused by metagaming at all. There are a lot of us who are just playing the game as it comes naturally and for me it's obvious there are serious faults with the level scheme. Your suggestion that players "wait until you arrive at a good character build point" is, in fact, metagaming to me. There's nothing wrong with scaling. Applying it across the board with a poorly designed character development system causes all sorts of havoc - not necessarily for every character or play style but it does for many. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> agreed. as we keep saying, it is NOT scaling that is a problem. the way you level is a problem when you add in the rather blunt instrument that is bethesda scaling. btw, we got no problem with insta-travel. we woulda' complained if some sorta insta-travel weren't available. HA! Good Fun!

... it may be that your suggestion fixes problems (though it is not any thing clever or new as peo has been observing since game's release that in oblivion you is more powerful at level 1 than at level 20,) but such a suggestion is pretty much an admission that bethesda really screwed the pooch with their leveling scheme. if you, as a player, gotta do crazy stuff to keeps game balanced or fun then the developers failed. *shrug* again, we ain't saying that obsidian is terrible, but the level scheme is. scaling is fine, but the level scheme is horrible... which is probably a result of the unavoidably busted learn-by-doing approach. HA! Good Fun!

oh, and as for the dialogues... is not that they is universally terrible... but there is nothing good neither. if you gots some really nauseating dialogues punctuating loads and loads of mostly forgettable dialogues, chances are you is gonna most recall the terrible stuff. in any event, how many characters from oblivion is you thinking will likely show up on those ubiquitous Best NPC lists you see at various game magazine sites and nerdling message boards? sure, there is maybe some quests in oblivion that you really fancied, but how many characters did you encounter that you puts in the Best Evar category? think 'bout it. HA! Good Fun! as for the magic bias, we can see that. once you get the real powerful summons then the game is a breeze, but all you do is summon stuff and then try to stay out of harm's way. lame.

if you focus on magic casting it not seem possible to use arrows. use "c" to cast spells and numbers 1-8 to determine which spells is active. use right hand for mouse and you would have to be a concert pianist to pull off a functional non-wasd + magic casting character. in any event it seems more than a little screwy that this game punishes you for specializing in something other than weapons and armour. specialize in magic and you is gonna get crushed by melee warriors and critters. specialize in thiefy and diplomatic skills and you get murderlized by everything. *shrug* is not a terrible game even so, but we thinks we has reached the limit o' our patience with it. when does nwn2 get released? HA! Good Fun!

About that series I posted pic of. I was simply saying there

what is it we don't know about? anime? is lots of anime that don't use silly giant weapons. as to the FR and D&D, you will notice that most of the item descriptions for weapons is okie dokie. swords is approx. right for historical sizes and weights... is simply the artists who screw things. is nothing wrong with the rules themselves. as for star wars... we don't like star wars with the uber jedi. however, even the most wacky display o' jedi lightsabre nonsesne has never shown a jedi cut a spaceship in half with a lightsabre... 'least not in the movies. ain't never read the books or comics. jedi also do not wield 200lb weapons like they were willow fronds. jedi suck, but ain't nothing like final fantasy or berserk or samurai 7 nonsense... 'least as far as weapons is concerned. HA! Good Fun!

learn by doing has always been subject to balance problems... but oblivion is worse than most such attempts we has seen. you can seemingly level by advancing enough in 1 or 2 skills... but encounter toughness increases across the board. see the problem? 'specially for the folks who levels too quickly in non-combat skills? *shrug* scaling is fine... is the leveling that is screwed. HA! Good Fun!

as far as we can tell, there ain't no way to makes a blanced character w/o doing some crazy gymnastics to do so. if one skill starts getting high, you better spend the next few hours using your weak skills exclusively to brings 'em up... which is difficult 'cause then you levels and the critters gets even tougher... making it more difficult for you to win battles with your weaker combat skills. is nutty. oh, and again, if you spend time in city with lots of speech & security encounters you is gonna be screwed even worse... 'cause once you walk out of city and get attacked by 12th level timber wolfs you is likewise screwed. HA! Good Fun!

again, it depends on which skill you rely on initially, 'cause you will be ever increasingly stuck relying on it. if you play sword wielder from start w/o relying on magic then of course you is gonna get better at sword... and the better you get at sword, the more you level, and the more your opponents level... and the less likely you will be to be able to use other skills effectively. HA! Good Fun!

again, it ain't that you is stronger, is that you is much more balanced. skills increase at oddly unbalanced rates. so even if you use sword often and conjure whenever in battle, your conjure goes up faster and so you level faster, and you become more reliant on conjure 'cause your blade skill lags ever further behind. w/o doing some crazy gameplay gymnastics there just not seem to be a way to keeps all your most useful skills to be increasing at a similar rate. at 1st level the gap 'tween your best and non-used skills will be slight. a first level goblin is not that much better of a combatant than your spell casting character... but at 10+ levels, a goblin is a pretty nasty combat critter, and your magic wielder is probably pretty hopeless by this point. *shrug* it ain't the scale system that bothers us so much as is the leveling of your own character. HA! Good Fun!

A level 1 character with a rusty dagger has more chances of than a level 20 character. Go figure. Levels, being an expression of character power, seem to be almost contradicting in the game. Funny that the same level 1 character can also finish the central story arc but <{POST_SNAPBACK}> the level/scale system is... odd. the more we get into the game, the more we is wondering what bethesda were thinking. Gromnir went through the starting tutorial with a couple different characters... just to see how/if they had actual gameplay differences. quickly we abandonded the marksman+light armour+magic build. marksman sans sneak were a waste... and with sneak we were giving up too many of the magic schools we wanted. next we went with a bruiser character. blunt+heavy armour+armourer+restoration & the death sentence that is athletics+speechcraft.+security. walked 'round the imperial city for an hour or two and then decided to head out into the woods. *groan* too much levels w/too weak combat skills. finally we goes with blade+light armour+magic. is a workable build but we notices that conjuration, in particular, is advancing far faster than is our other skills... and our strategies seems limited to summoning some powerful critter and then running away from the baddies who is trying to chop us into little bits. at lower levels we were able to join in combats with our little iron sword, but now we simply gets mutilated... so we summons and heals and cast some sorta alteration school protection spell... then run 'round in circles. every once in a while we is able to get off a firebolt or similar destruction school magic spell, but not 'nuff to gets much better with destruction skill. now admittedly Gromnir incompetence is part of the problem. the interface is far too demanding for us. am a 1 or 2 button mouse guy, but this game requires us to move with wasd and at same time we gotta cast spells with "c"... but we change spells with number keys 1-8. maybe if we were more accostomed to fps games we would not mind this interface, but we feels too clumsy to accomplish the simultaneous tasks of moving properly while changing and casting spells at the same time... add in sword swinging and we is doomed. so... we runs in circles and summons and heals and maybe gets off a firebolt once in a while. is getting very tedious and we notice that our reliance on such a pathetic tactic is not decreasing as we advance in levels and grow more comfortable with the interface. in point of fact, 'cause of way critters scale, we is increasingly reliant on summons & run tactics. oh, and the dialogues is bad. am not needing shakespeare or even chekhov... heck, even star trek's chekov (walter koeing?) would be an improvement. is just kinda... lame. actually felt pitty for patrick stewart. HA! Good Fun!

some of you jokers needs to learn how to tell time. HA! Good Fun!

the folks at bethesda simply got lazy. you coulda' easily capped some of the randomn encounters at 10th level or so and most of the siliness woulda' been less obvious. cap the randomn bandit encounters and wilderness critters 'n such, but allows the vampire den type stuff scale normal. do the same, but reversed, for things like the arena. has the arena scale, but start the scale at maybe 10th level. just seemed lazy not to do things as Gromnir suggests... that or the bethesda guys honestly thought that their way is better... which is kinda scary. regardless, we honestly not mind that the way oblivion scales. yeah, it has some wacky in-game results, but we not see it as a huge reason to complain. the bethesda folks did scale so that game would be challenging all the way through... which they coulda' done if they were a little more discriminating 'bout how and where they scaled encounters, but ultimately their solution acheived their aim. 'course we thinks that the way the character levels does result in some issues. acrobatics and athletics may have combat applications, but if your character is leveling up at light speeds 'cause he gots acrobatics and athletics and speechcraft and security as major skills, the poor dumb bastard is gonna be in for a world of hurt when he encounters that 12th level imp or timber wolf when all he gots is lame blade or conjuring skills. tell us that athletics and acrobatics is combat skills is ignoring the reality that they has but very minor combat applications compared to the more obvious combat focused skills. scale encounters is fine... bethesda were just kinda ham-fisted about application of it... sorta likes their dialogues. HA! Good Fun!

if Gromnir was sure that space rangers 2 copy protection would not kill our dvd drive we would probably have already stopped playing oblivion. morrowind 1.2 is ok, just nothing special... surely not greatest-game-in-5-years special. as to the influence minigame... am playing a character with an okie dokie personality and we ain't not yet noticed any difference 'tween dialogues received with or w/o doing the persuade game. we typically save 'fore convos with key personages. *shrug* black & white got some of the wtf kinda reviews... but am trying to think of another game where the weight of critical support is so heavily and inexplicably (as far as Gromnir is concerned) in favors of a game. is just wacky. btw, do they even give half stars at gamespy? if not then we ain't impressed with their restraint... and their review had some odd criticisms. not mind seeing a game marked down for flaws, but some of their "immersion" complaints bugged the heck out of Gromnir. ask 5 different people what is important for "immersion" and you will get 5 different answers. reviewers should never EVER complain 'bout immersion. complain 'bout specific instances of stoopid ai or counter intuitive physics or such, but "immersion" is an absolutely meaningless term. any reviewer who uses such a term looses 10 cred points with Gromnir. bah. HA! Good Fun!

unfortunately it doesn't matter, as starforce is the worst copy protection device we has ever had the displeasure of encountering. space rangers 2 is kinda a genre blending sci-fi trade and combat model with rpg elements and lots o' player freedom. but, as it will never be loaded on Gromnir's rig... *sigh* were really looking forward to this one too. HA! Good Fun!

"took me a while to get it but I can eek out about a 10 point improvement each "round." " to what end? is not like you get more dialogue options or quest choices. am understanding that you can make everybody love you, but why should Gromnir care? HA! Good Fun!

... gotta say that we do not understand the reviews. we can see how people could like oblivion, but the lovefest is kinda... strange. is just too many busted things in oblivion to be giving it a score o' 9+ on a 10 scale... not that we likes numeric scores in reviews anyways. what is Gromnir talking 'bout? example 1: generally we not mind the oblivion scaling scheme, but you can unwittingly really screw yourself with a gimped character. marksmanship w/o sneak seems to be worthless... 'specially once you level up a ways. level up too fast in the diplomatic & thieving skills can also gimp you as you end up confronting super buffed imps and other such nonsense when you not gots requisite combat skills. (side note: at least the FO fans should be happy. seeing such an unbalanced skills offering should be reminding folks of FO in a big way... no doubt bodes well for FO3, eh?) combat sophistication is pretty limited. chances are you is gonna find one scheme and you is gonna use that for almost every encounter in game... gets kinda dull. does the persuasion minigame actually do anything... other than level up your speech skill real fast? the dialogues is really terrible for the most part. started off bad with patrick stewart and has not improved since. the plotting isn't as bad as morrowind, but the writing as just terrible. etc. now don't get Gromnir wrong. is not that this game is complete crap by any means. quests seem much more involved than the fedex overkill of morrowind... bethesda has made great strides in this aspect of game development, and if we were seeing reviews o' oblivion based solely on how much better it is than were morrowind the 9+ scores would be deserved. ... am simply wondering what in the heck we is missing? does other folks playing honestly see this as a game that is head and shoulders better than any crpg released in the last five years... 'cause many of the reviews is giving this game better numbers ratings than any other crpg we has seen in a long time. will do a complete review in a couple of days, but am just trying to understand if we is missing something... something that so many others see in oblivion that Gromnir does not. HA! Good Fun!

"Any of these can change." maybe. we ain't never hade a true global language. latin weren't. english during pax britania weren't. none of the various defacto trade languages during height of mercantilism and empire building came close to being genuinely global. merchants and bureaucrats 'cross the globe not makes a language global, does it? most peoples actually continued to speak their mother tongue, and were unable to speak with the folks in the next valley beyond the hills to the west... or east... whatever. the internet and airplane travel and all sorts o' other devices is making the world smaller, and english is the language that is being utilized as the language of choice during this process. listen to air traffic controllers in lisbon or shanghai. go to a large bank in bogota. correspond on the internet. there is gonna be some kinda critical mass point reached beyond which it is gonna simply become too much trouble for folks 'round the globe to choose another language as the global one. HA! Good Fun!

if you pm Gromnir and we doesn't respond, do not take personal... 'cause we typically ignore/delete all pms we receive unread. we react to pms with as much relish as we does to the flaming paper bag left upon our doorstep. HA! Good Fun!

hey now, maybe some of you should try to be nicer... after all, scientologists is all that stands between you and the dark overlord Xenu. ... over the years we has chosen to defend the rights of some pretty wacky religions. the iskocn and pentecostal snake handling sects and moonies and bhagwan shree rajneesh followers is just a few of the peoples who has gotten help from Gromnir. will defend your rights even if we thinks your religion is kooky. truthfully, we thinks that scientology is a hoot. anybody here feels bad that john travolta and tom cruise got taken by some yutz who , while he may have been a "virtually a pathological liar" 'bout his military record and his education, were no doubt completely honest 'bout his new religion. HA! http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/la90/la90-1a1.html is a fun read. HA! Good Fun!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> What is wrong with turned based combat? It worked wonderfully in the Fallout games. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> did it? from a publisher pov we ain't sure you could say that tb worked in fo. sales for fo was nice, but not great. publishers needs to ask why fo weren't a great seller. fergie was with interplay and bis during the development and publishing of the fo games, and when asked why he weren't developing tb games post fo2 fergie admitted that it were not a popular feature. hypothesizing on reason for lack of tb approval fergie admitted that even the best tb combat could become "soul numbing." toee, as 'posed to fo, were probably the game that coulda' changed the minds of crpg fans. admittedly, even in toee, which did a much better job with large scale tb combats than did fo, tb could become tedious... but taken as a whole we thinks combat were a positive in toee... one of the few positives of toee. initial sales of toee were very strong... but they trailed off fast. we suspect that word off mouth helped kill toee.... bad rpg elements, terrible writing and bugginess were just tip of the dirty diaper pile that were toee, and the internet were full of people complaining 'bout toee shortcomings. but What If remains to haunt us. what if toee had been developed by non arse-clowns? what if toee had become the start of an ongoing series as it were originally envisioned. what if millions of people had been exposed to pretty good tb combat, as 'posed to a few hundred angry fans who were unable to recall toee w/o either cursing atari or troika (though few people cursed both troika and atari... go figure.) did tb work wonderfully in fo? we don

the thing is that the humor we has seen in the dialogues does not appear to be intended. llyranor's pov may be different, but most of the writing encountered so far has a groan factor that makes it difficult for us to stomach. again, we may be jumping to judgment too fast and will give some more time, before we decides. HA! Good Fun!