Cantousent

And some of these responses would be a legitimate reason for Obsidian to lend some support to the project. Oh, neither anything official nor something that constitutes a significant investment, but maybe being a little free with talent, letting JE take some time to work on the project, and maybe providing easy access to computers and equipment. Even if Obsidian only provides minimal aid, they'll be able to take a lot of the credit if the mod turns out to be high quality. It will increase Sawyer's street cred, which also benefits the company. No, I'm not saying that Obsidian will do any of this, but I've heard of companies who encourage their talent to do these kinds of projects and provide support of varying degrees as well. It makes sense. None of these things really costs Obsidian all that much, but a well received mod not only promotes their title, but it also promotes their designer and gives them a some prestige.

Craptacular shield or not, I really look forward to Dragon Age. A lot.

You know, I knew the answer at one point, because I had cursorily studied the issue in college. Unfortunately, alcohol and fast living have killed those brain cells.

I believe the theory goes that we'll have greater extremes in both directions but that the earth's average temperature will steadily increase. Great joke and thread. I think we have overthought the issue as well.

Why not? It seems he posts from work anyhow. In fact, what are the standard hours for designers? I get the impression that there are busy times when they see no end of their workday.

That's not always true. For instance, does Obsidian let Sawyer use his work computer to do any of the work on the module. I mean, this "unless it makes immediate monetary gain, the company will not do it" is unreasonable. There might any number of reasons for Obsidian to lend support in some kind or another to the project. How substantial that support is, if at all, is a question. It's not out of the question, however.

I guess it might be common knowledge. I'm uncommonly ignorant about the happenings here lately. Still, on one hand I appreciate that Sawyer has much more freedom pursuing it independantly. On the other, I wish he had more support. I agree that Obsidian won't help him on an independant project. That was my point. Still, they must know he's working on it and it appears that he's not keeping it a secret. In fact, maybe he can drum up some support for this title just because of the history behind the Black Hound. Maybe not a substantial amount of support, but at least a little. Who knows?

Shades of Gray -- Monkeys

Good Lord, could we talk about the mod and the interview for a while. For example, it seems significant that Sawyer isn't crafting this as a premium mod. That's going to make it harder to complete because he probably can't count on any significant help from anyone to do it. I mean, will Obsidian invest any resources in something that promises absolutely no commercial return?

Now THIS made me laugh. hahahahaah breath hahahahahaha whew. haha I don't know who to believe, but guns will be part of the national landscape for the forseeable future.

Great read. The various factions will try to use the protagonist, but he might end up using them. Very Millers Crossing on Sawyer's part. :Cant's broad grin icon:

If someone wants to create a new thread about the actual expansion, please do so. Leave the conspiracy theories out of the new thread. You've had your say, Girias. Indeed, you get the last word. That will have to be enough.

I played Oblivion for hours and hours. Still, I doubt I get this. Since items that end up in the "doubt" column don't usually end up on my shelf, I'm pretty confident I won't. However, if it gets good press here, I'll take another look at it. The big problem I have with Oblivion, and it's one that nagged at me more and more as I played, was the ill-famed balancing scheme. It was a little weird at first. By the end, it was downright loathesome. It was the same way with Borringwind with me. I played it for hours, and then couldn't understand why. I never bought the expansions for that title either. The big difference is that I finished Oblivion with a much better disposition. I'm at least willing to take another look because it really seems that Bethesda has been moving in the right direction with their titles. They're constantly trying to improve. One advantage to this expansion, other than taking advantage of Oblivion's success, is that it gives folks a chance to see what Bethesda can do with NPCs and alternate story paths/quest resolution. This might not be a mistake, as that's the area that falls most under attack from their detractors. If they can strut their stuff in this expansion, then many of the Fallout 3 critics will be muted.

I voted "No," but I really meant "not at this time." That's not exactly the same as "not until I must." I don't trust Vista at this point. Certainly, I trust it a lot less than I did XP at release. Nevertheless, as soon as I get word that it is reasonably safe and stable and that it will work properly on my hardware, I'll probably upgrade. Undoubtedly, I will purchase the components for my next system with Vista in mind.

Even if this site is halfway legitimate, that's a hell of a lot of downloads. Now, barring this is just some prank on the part of some Fallout nut, the things that you guys cite don't change the fact that the number of downloads is huge. For example, you folks cite the types of shows (my wife really loves King of the Hill and she's 42), but this page only claims to give the numbers of torrent downloads. The commentary, both theirs and yours, regarding the downloads is extraneous. The tracking on the downloads is the issue. Moreover, the fact that bungled downloads and other factors might shave a significant amount off of the real total doesn't much mattar as those same factors assuredly had an impact on every title in the list. The question is, does the link go to a reputable source?

That would be Sand. You only account for a sixth.

No, the real problem would be using the scaled encounters from Oblivion. That was a mistake. I don't think Fallout 3 with the Oblivion engine will be "Fallout," but it might be a great game nonetheless. The thing for you to do, Sand, as well as some of the other faithful, is to ask yourself, "would I give the game a chance if it didn't sport the Fallout name?" I guess that's the crux of Tale's argument. If you're stuck on the fact that the game won't really represent Fallout to you, then maybe you should try to forget the name and look at it as a different game altogether. Frankly, that's how I view it.

I enjoyed Oblivion, but I would be much more interested in the game if it were in the same style of the other two Fallouts. Like Sand, I think the tech demo is much more in line with my view of Fallout. On the other hand, railing against Fallout development projects is sooooo late '90s. You know, there must be a new fad somewhere. I would probably be rabid and foaming at the mouth except that I'm too lazy and I'm looking for the next big trend, not the last one.

You've done a great job on keeping track of these tidbits of information, Sammael. Thanks. For everyone else, let's focus more on what we know of the Black Hound and less about our observations of other members.

It's actually $500 after taxes and shipping. The price tag is $473. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16824116121

I don't take forever to make decisions. Sometimes, however, the decision is to wait. I almost purchased a 21" CRT today. The voices advocating CRTs won the day. However, I opted against it for a couple of reasons. First, the idea that we're on the edge of a new standard restrained the purchase. Second, my monitor works. Why spend the $500 on a monitor that isn't truly necessary at this time? So, I'll just keep this little 19" monitor I have right now. ...At least until after the England trip this March. I'll reassess the need after that.

Good points, all around. I dunno. I feel it's a bit unfair for Elizabeth when folks dispute her points from both sides. I contend that toolsets shouldn't be easy while others contend that the toolsets out there are actually quite easy enough. I do have to say that I admire folks, like DR, who can delve into the engine and create mods. Alan, of course, has points than he needs, but I'm more than willing to give him more. Have some points.

I think the example of the "sword of wounding" is particularly poor. Of course, it's easy to point to some sort of generic weapon that functions the same whether it's packaged in the orginal game or custom created by the end-user. That's not the point. Alan understood me correctly when he cited the tileset. The point isn't creating some sort of common or reaonablly commen effect on a weapon. The point is that, to make area creation easier, the design team used a toolset that looked ugly. ...ramps instead of trails in mountain areas... caves that look more like square niches... weapons that looked increasingly generic as time progressed. Let's not even include graphics. Let's just talk about those swords of wounding. Because the design team must concentrate on the toolset as well as the level design, they're already constrained from the very beginning. Sure, the toolset is designed to allow for a great variety of experiences, but what happens if the toolset doesn't support some cool idea that someone has in later development. What if they want to throw a twist into the sword of wounding that isn't feasible with the current toolset? This is not an idle example. There were changes in NWN2 in the late stages of development. So, if these ideas aren't possible with the toolset, then they can't go into the packaged game unless the toolset is also changed. If the developers didn't have to worry about an end-user toolset, then they'd have half the work. At the very least, they'd have less work. Your example fixates on a trivial matter, a single weapon, whereas I'm talking about the whole product. Modding is great. There are many mods out there for games that didn't have a toolset packaged with the original product. ...And the majority of mods for those games have one significant advantage: the folks who created the mods were dedicated enough to train themselves. I don't even mind toolsets. What I don't like is when the end product must be made only using a toolset that must be reasonably simple enough for the avergage player to use. Look at the premise of this thread. Not only are Toolsets getting to be too difficult to master for the average player but, more importantly, difficult toolsets are a bad thing.

You know, I've seen some remarkable pictures on LCDs. The problem, as I understood it, was how fast the crystals changed during gameplay. Kind of what Steve said. If that's not a problem, I'll go LCD but I'll invest in one with a good picture. By the way, friend, your sig is total comedy. :Cant's chuckling icon:

I'll probably keep my ear to the ground, then. My 19" monitor looks damned good, so it's not like I have to go out and buy one today. If the best thing to do is wait, it's not like I have to upgrade a system in order to play games. I'm looking for a bigger monitor while using my larger ones. I checked out those links, meta, and I was wondering how the currency exchange would effect my purchase. I liked the idea of a 22" monitor, but I'm curious as to why a 20" monitor is so much more expensive.