Cantousent

Did you take this review from a publication or a post on a message board? If it's a post on the message board, then I'd say that his only problem is that he gets a kick out of murdering and robbing. Into the mix, throw his steadfast belief that Morrowind reigned suppreme until Oblivion hit the shelves. Finally, the Arrows he dumped undoubtedly had a better weight to coin ratio than most of his loot. Since nothing sells for less than one coin, an arrow, weighing .1, is assured to carry a 10/1 loot advantage. Some arrows, however, carry an even greater ratio. Unlike big ticket items, like a Daedric warhammer, arrows don't top out the merchant's cash reserve, which means it will sell for what they'll pay. For example, that Daedric warhammer, weighing in at 93 pounds, has a value of 5k gold. Sounds good, as that makes it ~53/1 gold to coin. Unfortunately for me, the most any merchant had in my game was 1.2k. So, that puts the ratio down to ~13/1. That's not much better than even the cheapest arrows in the first place. If this came from a publication, he needs to edit it. Seriously.

So, what video care should she use? The system is on order and time is running short. Remember, this is a laptop.

That would be right according my calculations. That would be 4pm PDT. So, blank, we're in the West Coast crowd. That's 4pm for us. 7pm for the East Coast crowd. ...And whenever for the rest of you.

I choose you all... to go to the funny farm. The NWN campaign is an example of a non-chosen one moment. For the term to have any meaning, other than to the troglodytes at the Codex, it must be reserved for situations in which it is warranted. Vol's completely nuts in regards to the term, but he is right that the NWN packaged campaign was not an example of a "Chosen One" story. However, it was still disappointing. The NWN2 story does not sound "Chosen One" driven at all. You might call it hackneyed for some other reason, but the protagonist isn't "Chosen" unless you define the term so broadly it encompasses virtually everything. If you give broad definition to the term "chosen one," folks can make an argument for every story written to fall into the same category.

My sister is buying the following system for my brother in law. It's a laptop. Will this run reasonably new games? Inspiron B130 Intel

I play the same way. It's probably one of the reasons I'm not especially worried over the length of the game. My game will last longer on one hand. On the other hand, I'm one of those folks who plays multiple times as well. For me, bringing a little imagination to the table means letting your imagination impact your in-game decisions.

In a CRPG? I could live with 1 hour a level for DnD. In a PnP game, leveling is a hell of a lot slower, but that's because there's more emphasis on role-playing. In a CRPG, where role-playing amounts to reading and responding to dialogue, players spend a lot more time fighting. There's less talk and more action in just about every CRPG than in a normal PnP setting.

Well, I continue to be out of town, with only little slices of time to devote, but I'll work on a list as soon as I get home. You'd think that the comment attributed to Feargus would be newsworthy. Regardless of what alan says, companies don't universally meet issues like these with stony silence. As I said in the previous thread, there will be some word about the length of the campaign before Obsidian releases the product. The only real dilemma right now revolves around the sort of weird manner in which this matter came to light. After all, so far we only have the word of some fellow over at the RPGCodex. Hey, I don't go there often, but maybe someone could ask the fellow who posted it about his source. He cites a "German games magazine." On the length issue, I can't really comment without understanding the context of Feargus' alleged comments. If the game is designed to last 20 for the full experience, then that's one thing. If the main story is designed for 20 hours, but following substantial side-quests and taking time to enjoy the fuller game takes the player to 30-40 hours, then that's another. As far as cut content and the like, I'm sure virtually every game has something someone could consider "cut content." The sort of specific sorts of assumptions, however, are based on what I continue to consider a questionable source. As much as I would like an answer to this issue, I can't help but feel that at least some time should be afforded to Obsidian. Even if Feargus didn't make the comments, we might not hear an answer right away. Simply put, there's no good response right now. Failing to respond is probably just as bad, but at least it puts the onus on whoever made the claim. However, if this rumor is never substantiated and ends up being totally false, we should keep in mind the source. Not only that, but we should remember this the next time someone cites some sort of otherwise unidentified source for future claims. Eventually, we'll know the truth. In the meantime, as long as we're reasonable about it, asking folks in the industry makes perfect sense. After all, isn't this the sort of information that any number of publications, electronic or print, would kill to get? Even if some "German games magazine" managed to get the scoop, you'd think that others would be just as interested.

I've been roasted.

:Eldar's passing a round to the tavern icon: Service with a smile. :D

What the hell, Baley? It's beautiful. It brings a tear to my eye. Also, who the hell is the other Anonymous user?

Well, I don't like to have characters much past level 12-14 in PnP. That's not because I like to pull the elitist card but because everything starts falling apart pretty dramatically within the ruleset by then. The stories become more forced and the opponents become more and more powerful. One day, I'll create a campaign meant to be played by super or epic level characters. As it stands, I prefer the mid to high level range. For me, that's somewhere between 9-15. For a CRPG, however, I don't care. It really is a matter of how fun I find the game. However, if I had my preferrence, I'd like to have a complete game devoted to a significant low level story. I almost always feel as if the only point of the early game is to get the characters enough levels to be viable in the mid to late game. The only real exception that springs to mind is Oblivion, and that's because Bethesda made levels irrelevant. The current convention sucks because it assumes that the only significant stories should be for high level characters. Fighting against goblins and saving a village goes by in a flash, but it should not. It should be a significant event with a build up in suspense. Too bad we're trained to think otherwise.

Nothing like driving for some 3.5 hours through the desert after several days of short sleep. Anyhow, Nick, let me know if you're game to game tomorrow. I'll make plans to see you guys at 7pm EDT. Let's make sure we know exactly what time that will be. I'll post later, when I get the chance, with GMT. That way, we can all follow the same standard. What a pain in the backside.

Arkan's flippant response is probably the best answer nonetheless.

7pm on Thursday evening it is. After this week, I should be okay on Fridays. Not the whole day, but for a chunk of time somewhere during the day. I'm hoping for folks being there, but I've got copies of everyone's character. If someone can't make it to a particular session, we can still play. I'd like to work around schedules rather than have a party member missing. On the other hand, we can miss a single character and still play. Now, if one person can't make it, I'm willing either to set their character aside for the session or use him as an NPC. I won't guarantee that the character will live, but will play the character both with an eye to keeping him alive and playing him in the way the player described his character in the little bio you did. Our favorite bard might not try to get laid quite as much as if Baley were playing him, but he will try to get laid nonetheless. The wizard will act not only like a wizard, but like the wizard Tigranes described to me. Your choice, although I hope that everyone can make it.

I'm game for 8pm EDT. It's daylight time right now. That would be 5pm on the West coast.

I will hunt you down, Llyr. Then I'll sick Hades on you. EDIT: Cratereus is my junk mail address. You should know that. It's the one I gave you guys for my online campaign. bwahahaha

That's not a bad idea. We'll write to the gaming magazines. If it comes to nothing, so be it. It might actually get other folks looking into the issue. Post the list of email addresses here, Gromnir, and I'll write tomorrow when I get the chance. I'm out of town tomorrow, but I'll check in periodically. Also, just in case this thread happens to disappear, my email is c r a t e r e u s [atsign] a o l [dot] c o m, just in case. Maybe we can get some folks to write. *shrug* Waste of time? Who knows? I'm still game.

You know, I'll be in Las Vegas on Thursday. I can make any time between 7am to midnight on Thursday come to think of it.

Friday and Saturday are out for me, guys. I hate that fact, but I'm out of town until Sunday Afternoon. However, I will have internet Access if we could reschedule for Thursday. I can make it late on Sunday or Thursday anytime. Let me know. The next few weeks afterwards, Friday, anytime between 7am to 7pm will work also. I'm really sorry about this.

Enough non-sense, Pixies. Post pictures of the cruise. BTW, where the hell are alan's pictures?

Me too. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> What a yutz.

How do we know what content was cut and why? The only comment I've seen specifically regarding this regards the number of areas in a PW sort of setting. That's not cut content. I hear all sorts of things about placeables and statics and whatever. Are there fewer object but the player is better able to manipulate those objects? Anyhow, the fact is, we assume the campaign will only be 20 hours and then we assume that something must have been cut and the material cut must be related to the quality of the overall game. Too many suppositions (just for you, dega) for my tastes. I'm still trying to get my feeble brain around the issue, but I do know one thing: it's perfectly reasonable to expect that Obsidian, if not Feargus, will clarify the issue. The real question is, how soon? I'm willing to keep my ear to the ground and just hear the news within the next couple weeks. Nevertheless, the longer the speculation continues, the more folks will assume the statement, as it continues to remain unanswered, is valid at some level. Now, as I said in the previous thread, it's probably in Feargus best interest not to answer us right away. In fact, it might be in his best interest to let us stew and then have the official assessment of the exact hours come out later from a different source within the company. Even so, it's in my best interest to agitate for an answer. However, I'm willing to sit back and consider the issue. No matter what, I think Feargus was unwise to make these comments and, since no-one has flatout denied the comments, Feargus must have said something to someone. I agree with Llyranor. It would be quite good if someone could root out the source and give us a first hand account rather than the source we have now. For one thing, the Codex fellow says that NWN2 will suck anyhow, which sounds pretty damned charged in the first place.

Okay, but that's not an example of bending the rules, it's an example of breaking them. When I build an NPC, I do everything from the ground up. I attribute stats, almost always in the same amount I give the players, and take feats, assign skills, choose spells, etc. Then, I give him items or special abilities that I deem consistent within the framework of my story. I have had players ask, "How did he have this?" or "How did he do that?" They haven't always been happy with my answer, but normally they are. When they aren't happy with my answer, it's never because I didn't follow the same character building conventions but because they either didn't think about it or, if they did, then they misunderstood the rules. So, yeah Kaftan, I'd have been irritated also. I probably wouldn't have made a big deal of it, but if my GM kept doing stuff like that, I might jump ship on his campaign.

Gameplay can be increased without adding hours in a linear fashion. Suppose that NWN2 only has 20 hours of gameplay on the first play-through, but each subsequent play-through, due to different consequences, choices, and dialogue options, offers an additional 20 hours of gameplay. Would that, then, be bad? The single-player campaign would still only offer the 20 hours that are attributed to Feargus, but would include multiple, different 20 hours in replays. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This is the crux of the matter. Not only do we not have the original quote, but what we do have is a retranslation. The full quote from the jackass who gave us this little snippet is: Well NWN 2 is gonna suck anyway, but its sad to see that the game lenght of 20h which would have been the minimum limit for FPS a few years ago is now applied to RPGs. Not to mention the fact that by "youll play 20 hours for sure" he propably means rather "the game will take you 15 hours to complete max, if you 'enjoy' the game and dont rush trough it - whatever that means- it will take you 1 or 2 hours longer" And the logic behind making a game shorter to ensure that more ADD kiddies actually complete it is beyond me. So, what does that mean? I honestly don't believe the 20 piece anyhow. I don't think anyone knows for sure how long the game will last. I believe Sawyer when he says that there's no really surefire way to guage the game length at this time. I agree with Gromnir in that Obsidian clearly knows about this "quote" and has not responded in any way. Is this a matter of silence giving consent? I don't want to win an argument. I want to know the truth. If we get some idea of the context, then we can judge Feargus' alleged comments much better.