Cantousent

This thread might belong more in the characters and builds section, but I guess no biggie. I would suggest offhand that there are two ways to look at this question. Either go with what seems most familiar with the IE games (or more specifically the BG games) or go with something completely different. If you go the Monty Python route, I would suggest that cyphers are probably the least BG-like of the bunch. That's an off the cuff assertion, so take it as is. The class that is most BG-like would probably be priests a la clerics. Sure, there are differences, but priests pretty much function the way priests function. Heavy support and 'healing' spells. Ability to mix it up a little bit in the fray, but not as good a front line fighter as a more melee minded class. I wouldn't take it from my cursory observations, however. If you're seeking some advice or consultation, give the thread a chance to draw commentary and weigh what you read before making another decision. The bottom line is, what might be best is not to worry about the character class and see if you can get a good mix with your NPCs. I think you can have at least four NPCs by the time you get to the city. If what you want is a good spread, find out what classes and where to find the NPCs, decide on your PC based on that, and then max out your party for the most interaction. That might be what you're missing.

The Long Dark is awesome. It's a complete waste of time, to be sure, but I love it. I can hardly wait for the release of story mode. Right now, I alternate between the female and male characters. I tangled with the bear a while back and ended up mangled. I survived, but sadly I decided to harvest the bear before I went back to get warm and rest. Night fell and my character died. This time, I was smart about how I hunted the sumbitch. So, after bagging two bears, and having already crafted the wolfskin coat, the deerskin pants and boots, and the rabbit fur mittens, I'm about one toasty bastard! I've completely explored the Coastal Highway and the Mystery Lake maps. I've seen a lot of the Pleasant Valley map. I don't know how much of the abandoned mine or cave system on the other side of the Carter Dam I've seen because I haven't taken the time to try to map them out. I don't think there's another map than those, but I'll probably shelve the game soon to wait for the story mode later this year.

Naw, Nakia, you keep being level headed. That's going to serve the modding community well in my opinion. Probably the biggest issue is the idea that there will be a modding forum for a game that doesn't have a lot of mods and is difficult to mod in the first place. For what it's worth, and I'm not saying it's worth much if anything, I actually revisited the idea in the moderators forum today. The Scaly One is kind of a liaison with admin, so he can bring it up with them if he thinks it wise. I don't doubt his wisdom. At this point, however, I'm probably overstepping my bounds as a moderator. For that reason, as long as I'm on the team, I'll recuse myself from this thread and merely lurk in it. Anyhow, for all I know, Obsidz is already seriously considering all these issues.

I don't think the concern is silly. It's born out of 'an abundance of caution' as the cliche goes. ...And, I'll give you a good example that's not even mod related. We habitually remove any commercial posting as a matter of policy from these boards, either by removing the thread or editing out the link. We can assume that the members are fans of the game and, hopefully, friendly with each other, but Grom and Nakia had a point about the whole plagiarism and donation solicitation angle. Those are potential problems no matter how much folks want to deny them. On the other hand, I don't see why they would be insurmountable. We'd simply have to do the same things we do in moderating other posts and threads on this board. What's the difference if we have one more place to do it? ...And, since Rosbjerg and a couple of other mods are willing to take an active hand, it's already got folks to cover it. On yet the third hand, you guys have convinced me that it would be cool. Now you just need to convince someone who matters! <.<

Sounds good, Nakia. I nevertheless refer you to my previous comments regarding my risk and my authority, which amounts to nothing. :Cant's cheeky grin icon: It's easy to speculate, but Obsidz has to foot the bill. ...And I'm advocating *for* the sub forum.

There is common sense in the people. in all of recorded history, has anybody been foolish for underestimating the common sense o' people? HA! Good Fun! Can't EDIT: Sorry, on phone and a little diminished, but I get you Xaratas. However I can understand Obsidz acting cautiously. I don't want their budget going to vett possible lawsuits. For my part, I think the best advice I could give from experience and certainly not from an official capacity (which I don't have at any rate) is to keep up the good job you've all done being civil and making logical arguments. *That* might win the day for your side when the worry is decisiveness or acrimony. I still think they should be at least relatively cautious about copyrighted materials, but that's neither my risk nor my call.

Yeah, this is something folks have mentioned. I'm sure it's a bug that some folks absolutely use as a feature! :Cant's wry grin icon: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/77979-bug-list-from-first-103-playthrough/?p=1666546 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79231-infinite-money-in-twin-elms-and-an-extra-beagle/?p=1687286 Must. Resist. Temptation!

From a practical standpoint, I would think the current discussion is probably an example of why Obsidz wouldn't want a sub forum. Oh, I know folks can say that these scenarios of plagiarism, solicitation, and animosity wouldn't happen here, but they *could* happen here. The way around this is simply to have a clearly stated policy that does not allow folks to solicit donations on this site nor to link to direct solicitations. Also, any mods that might in any way whatsoever infringe on copyright protections will also be excised. ...But these are pain in the backside measures, not just for Obsidz, but for the mod squad as well. Of course, a few of the squadies are volunteerimg to do it, but most moderators would rather *not* play the heavy and instead help folks or have fun with the community. Ultimately, the upside *must* seem greater to the Obsidz admin than the downside or they simply will have no compelling reason to create a sub forum or even support modding in general. This whole commercial aspect of modding sounds like a nightmare to me. I can only imagine how it seems to the powers that be.

As you build up your stronghold, you attract visitors. Some are good and some are bad. Good visitors provide some benefit or another, such as yielding some prestige. Bad visitors are a liability and you can opt to leave them in your fortress or have one of your resident NPCs who is currently residing at the stronghold escort the bad visitor away. So, the immediate answer is that you don't have to do anything. I don't really think this is a spoiler as the stronghold was a stretch goal so folks know it's in the game. As for visitors, that's a gameplay mechanic, so all around this forum is as good a place as any for your inquiry.

Yeah, Grom. To be candid, the authorship/plagiarism angle hadn't occurred to me. There is a variety of options for the powers that be at Obsidian. They could set up a dedicated sticky thread. They could make a sub-forum. They could encourage a dedicated fan site that they don't officially support but with whom they have a loose and informal partnership. Such a site could perhaps get sneak peaks and other small perks in exchange for which the fans would provide a safe and well maintained modding center. They (Obsidz) could simply put off a decision. They could decide not to do anything (and as an added twist, simply not even address it with anyone). I think they should give the sub-forum a try, but with the absolute willingness to clean house and close it if the members decide to trash the joint. I truly enjoy and respect the vast majority of members on these boards, even the unruly ones most of the time, but folks have to take responsibility for their conduct on a board where your words are the entirety of your person.

Please don't take any of the following as official in any way. I'm a volunteer moderator. I don't hang out on the forums a lot to do other than push posts through. I don't really have any pull and I can't speak for Obsidz. Okay, no need to oversell myself there. On to the topic at hand! Hint: There will be a test to see how many people read the whole post before going postal on me. Folks say that there isn't any risk involved in a modding forum. From years of being in, on, and around these boards (and specifically BIS to Obsidian) I will say that a dedicated modding forum would undoubtedly draw more people to it. If there's not much room to mod, it could very well be a focal point for disgruntled modders who want to have more from the engine than it can currently provide. From a modder’s perspective, that's okay because one way to get a company to do something is to create a movement and one way to recruit people for a movement is to have a central place to hang out and agitate. Folks say that the devs wouldn't have to do much. The community would be happy to have a place to discuss things, even if these things are currently difficult and limited such as smaller mods (because as my lucky friend says, entire campaigns just aren't going to happen). However, once folks get a little, they'll want more, and in that case, there will be some resentment that the devs don't spend more time in the forums and give support. The argument will always be, just a *little* more. I personally believe the benefits are overstated because, likewise, the argument will always be that the little more will result in *great* rewards for Obsidian. You'd also need to make sure that you had moderators who would spend some time in the forum. Not as much long term, but in the early days for sure. After things are established and more or less calm, most forums don't really need a lot of policing in my experience. The most important thing is to make sure new members who are excited about modding don't have hours or even day long periods of waiting to see their posts approved. So, the mod squad has to take a hand. Now, I'm the lowest man on the totem pole in terms of mods, and none of the moderators, except maybe the scaly one (Fionavar), are officially Obsidz employees. With all that said, I think we should have a modding sub-forum as a test case. It might fail for any number of reasons and it could be a headache for Obsidian, but I think it could also engender good will and it would allow people to devise ways to nibble at the edges and maybe come up with novel ways to approach modding in a game that is, in itself, unfriendly to modding. I'm surprised that I'm still on the mod squad because, frankly, I figured I'd stop after the game was out a few weeks. I still come here fairly regularly, albeit briefly, and I would be willing to lend a hand in such a forum. However, the real hero is Rosbjerg. You guys who want a modding forum have a friend in him, and he's already stated he's willing to take a direct hand in it. EDIT: A change from certainty to speculation. One word.

The Long Dark. Yeah, it's a bit of auto-eroticism, but I think it's fun to see how long I can survive. Right now, it feels like maybe indefinitely, although that means moving on as my resources dwindle. Frankly, I can live to the perimeter of the sandbox. I'm not quite at a month yet and I just moved into the Carter Dam from the Lake area. Plenty of skins and food right now, so we'll see. Once you make the craftable clothing, daytime cold almost becomes a non-factor. Apparently, you can't repair, craft sewing kits, so that's a bit of a bummer. If that weren't the case, I think I could set up shop at the lake and live there forever... or until I went mad from loneliness.

Sadly, it really is a risk for copyright infringement, Qrush. Great job with perfectly wonderful motives, but I had to remove the links to your work. The one thing I will say is that if you did what you did already, then you've certainly got the talent and determination to keep exploring, working, and sharing things with the community. So don't take this as a rebuff.

I pushed this through, but I also reported it to get word back from the mod squad/admin. I'm just worried about copyright infringement, since I don't know for sure. However, it's really cool to see someone from the community take the time to do something for the rest of us. Many thanks, man! :Cant's beaming grin icon: Hopefully, it can stay.

I would say that, as a new player, you should probably pick up NPCs to fill out your party, even if they're the same class. First of all, while you might have to make tough choices with early gear, each class has at least a little something different to contribute. Fighters can be tanks, but they're not terrible damage dealers depending on how you customize them. Wizards can be range damage dealers, but you can customize them to step up into the fray. Then, when you get more NPCs to fill out the party, you can dump some members (which will cause grief because you will have come to know and love some of them. Others you'll love to hate). I would *not* eschew pre-made NPCs in favor of adventurers guild character you make. One of the beautiful things about RPGs that focus on story is NPC interaction and NPC subquests. You lose those if you don't take any NPCs. Later, after your first run, you can theorize about party composition and experiment without losing the joy of the stories the pre-made NPCs provide.

In Action RPGs, the stories can be good, but the way they unfold tends to be more one way, with the devs putting a story out for the player and the player following along as much as he wants. In PoE, you'll make more decisions about where the story goes. That's a generalization. In an ARPG, the player decides on a class and often trees within that path. In PoE, the player decides on a class and different avenues open up within that class, but there are more general abilities, talents and traits available for character customization. Moreover, some of that customization reflects on non-combat situations. Don't get me wrong, both games have combat (and sometimes an ARPG will also allow for some combat avoidance), but RPGs such as PoE lend more latitude for combat avoidance or even peaceful solutions. You *will* fight in PoE, but there are many situations where dialogue or stealth will allow the party to skip combat altogether. In some situations, non combat solutions yield even better results in the short or long term than combat. In an ARPG, the immediate goals are virtually always known and lead directly to the long term goals. In an RPG, the short term goals are generally known, but can often lead to diverging paths in some manner or another. ARPGs tend to be extremely linear. RPGs tend to have more options for non linear exploration or advancement. This is all off the top of my head, and I'm speaking in generalities on purpose. There are always counter-examples, although some people strain mightily to come up with them. Some are more less obvious. One thing I can say definitively is that some of our more erudite members can give a much more interesting and detailed response, so, having pushed your question through to our most excellent members, I'll leave it to them to cough up with the goods. :Cant's welcome to the board icon: EDIT: word choice confusion

Hey Woldan, sorry about your mom's accident, man! I'm glad she's well. Don't go smiting anyone in a fit of rage!

Well, this all happened before I got home, but I'm pretty sure they didn't send some poor bastard into my attic. I'm sure there's no one in there. <.< I hope not. >.> :Cant's chuckle icon: Sounds like Mesh had a much worse day of it than me.

Just got back yesterday from a trip that took me through Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and several days up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Only my second time to the Great White North. The day before we left Canada, we got word from our cat-sitters that they found our security and front door open when they arrived. Very strange. I won't go through all of the procedures I use before we leave town, but it's crazy. The cat-sitters called the fuzz and they cleared the house. Nothing was taken. No signs of forced entry. No suspicious marks on any of the four locks on the front door or the two locks on the back. None of the foliage that surrounds the back patio or windows around the house were disturbed (and I would wonder why someone would jump the back fence into an orange tree or lemon tree with thorns as long as my thumb (yes I have measured them against my thumb)). Nothing out of place as if searched in any way. I would almost expect that they had come in and maybe done some cleaning. Cant's tongue in cheek smile: I'm going to change the locks and katy bar the doors. I can only katy bar one door or the other when we leave the house, but oh well. I'm absolutely certain it's human error rather than an intruder, but I'd better do it anyway. I'm not even upset. Just something weird. After spending a couple of weeks driving what turned out to be almost 3k miles, I'm too tired to fret over an intruder I'm positive doesn't exist. Might put up cameras around the outside of the house that record to one of the computers. The outside is already lit as all hell day and night, so I can think of much easier places to burgle with a lot more expensive stuff in it than my house. heh, maybe someone broke in and saw that I didn't have anything worth filching and left.

Hey, ManISO, I'm personally celebrating with an auburn ale. I haven't been able to follow things closely, but what I've seen looks great so far. No buyers remorse from me!

I would keep checking here, mith. I'm not actually an Obsidz employee, so there might be a solution I haven't seen. I try to check stuff, but I'm really no different than any other forum member. Hopefully, there's a solution that I haven't found that someone else can provide.

Hey mith36, I searched and found this response from one of the devs: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/80368-character-stuck/?p=1707136 It doesn't look like they've managed to fix the issue, but I would suggest providing the same info that the dev asked the previous member to give him. Good luck, man!

This is a keen looking spin-off tabletop game in the last days of the kickstarter. I'm on my phone, so I can't do it credit, but I *can* quote the initial informational post:

I personally don't get all the dice hate. I can kind of get the desire for something different, like chanter cards, but I'd like a stretch-goal that reads 'if we reach this level, we'll provide free trauma care when your wife kicks your ass for backing another kickstarter.' :Cant's glancing nervously over his shoulder icon: For me, we might as well get dice because this game will be a crapshoot. Oh, don't get me wrong. I think the basic game looks solid so far. ...But I want as many people to buy in as possible because I'd like there to be at least some continued support. If we can get a decent spread of cards right away and maybe at least one expansion, then I think this game will have decent longevity. An added bonus if the game is good enough to entice the wife: she might actually play PoE on the computer also. I haven't had time to really dig into the updates, but I am enjoying the artwork and the mechanics are intuitive on their face. With card games like this, it's all about finding cool and often unforeseen combos. I haven't had a chance to look sufficiently to see how that is, though. ...But, yeah, give the dice a little love.

For my part, I actual find paladins with passive abilities the simplest to play. Of course, I expect I might get scorched by someone who finds them complex, but I enjoy my paladin. :Cant's rueful grin icon: The only warning is, she's pretty much a tank as opposed to DPS. Kind of a little bit of utility also.