Cantousent

I like every single description, the lack of specifics notwithstanding. Like Pops, I'm pumped as *hell.*

I don't care if things aren't completely symetrical as long as the inconsistencies aren't ridiculously overblown. I think Kal's example of creatures/gods/demigods is fine, but I wouldn't be completely enslaved to equality as long as there's a good story reason, and a believable reason, for the exceptions even for other humans or humanoids. I guess the point is that I'd like to have some way, all things being equal, to have the same build as the vast majority of NPCs I see. They claim that we'll be able to see the monster manual. If that's the case, I don't want to see any creature I can't find in the manual or, upon finding, discovering that the in game creature doesn't conform to the manual.

I would be happy if we got away from "business = bad" and "tree huggerz = good." It's not that I think there are shades of grey in every aspect of life, but any side that has traction in reality also has someone who can articulate its position with sufficient appeal to a large enough block of people to make a difference. Ideas, not swords or guns, are the most powerful deciders of humanity because people who weild swords and guns do so for the sake of ideas. Any war between populations greater than hunter/gatherer is because one side or both has belief in an ideal. It might be a sucky ideal, but it's still the thought that counts, so to speak. Within that framework, you'll end up with people who use the system as nothing more than a stepping stone for power. Hell, even if the person who starts the whole thing has nothing but personal glory or power in mind, which would still be ideas at any rate, he must convince enough people of the goal nonetheless. Napoleon might have been a self centered egoist, but the people of France still exported the revolution with "Libert

I was actually kind of joking for the most part about money, which I agree with Del about being a low priority. However, inventory in general, while not the end all be all, is important. I seriously doubt they go out on a limb regarding money, but I'm curious to see what they do about inventory. A limitless list of stuff without weight like KotOR2, a list of stuff with a weight attribute and a limited capacty to carry them, or items that fit into a limited number of slots in a pack? ...Or something else. Like I said, I saw something funny about money, and I know some of the grognards get bent out of shape about it, but I'm not entirely serious. It's still an interesting aspect of the design.

I actually don't mind ammo weighing something, but the biggest thing it did was make for more trips and spreading out inventory between a few different safe places. I do honestly think they should ignore money weight, but anything else seems more reasonable to me. On the other hand, once the PC has established sufficient influence, he might not need money at a large number of places. In fact, ol' skool Fallout had a lot more of bartering on my first few runs. Once you figured out how to get tons of caps, you were filthy stinking rich, but maybe bartering should be the norm rather than accumulating riches. If they do it that way, then attribute weight to money because you won't necessarily need tons of it at any one time. Also, if you are powerful enough to have a stronghold, you could probably arrange for payment through your steward. Of course, that assumes that the merchant is in some sort of proximity to your stronghold and trusts you to make good on the funds.

I know the weight of coin, cash, and booty in the game is a sore point for a lot of folks. After all, even dollar bills start to have real weight in sufficient numbers, let alone a stack of gold coins. How do we make the game playable with huge sums of swag while appeasing to folks who want 'realism' in their fantasy adventuring? I'd like to say that my debit and credit cards all weight less than an ounce each. Hell, probably three or four of them could barely get up to an ounce. Give the PC an atm card! Why not? If we're going to have guns and cans of sardines, why not an atm card? On the other hand, the 'realism' crowd doesn't demand that we have potable water with which to wash our hands after every trip to the head, right? We don't see the latest copy of Sears catalogue, let alone toilet paper, at every ten penny merchant in our travels. I'm kind of joking, but I'm also curious about weight altogether and inventory specifically. I don't want inventory to turn into a mini-game. Sure, attribute weight to the booty. Make us drop stuff if need be. That's all fine, but don't sacrifice a working system that allows us to enjoy the adventure with something overly burdensome in the name of realism. ...And I wouldn't make money weight anything. Sorry if there's a topic on this already. I didn't see one at a glance, but things are moving so quickly here it's hard to see.

I was thinking of actually investing more, but I just couldn't see doing it. On the other hand, I might buy in a couple more times at a more reasonable level and gift those to friends for Christmas. Hell, I think you get an actual boxed version of the game for only a little more than you'd pay for a boxed version at retail. That's not such a bad deal. I don't care about getting all the swag, but I'm actually looking for reasons to invest more. However, you have a point about waiting. I've already bought into the project. I still have another month to decide whether I'll purchase on behalf of friends.

I think the concern over the schedule is perfectly legit. On the other hand, I don't see the inherent advantage of having the design team being constrained by the community here. If you mean simply keeping people informed, I agree. In fact, I'm surprised that Obsidz did an interview that they didn't immediately post on their front page and on the kickstarter page. On the other hand, if what you want when you suggest that "the backers and the development team would walk through [the project] together" is that the fans and backers are full partners with the devs in terms of the actual design, I say not only but also hell no. There are things they might want to keep close to the vest, and I'm down with that. I didn't pre-buy the game because I wanted a game that every Tom, ****, and Biff would design. I want the game Obsidz designs. From what I've seen, we'll get info pretty regularly, especially if Sawyer follows past habits, but I don't want them to be forced into a box in terms of divulging or deciding anything.

I actually didn't like Kreia. I think the concept was good, and there were snippets of excellent writing in there, but she took herself too seriously to make as many grammatical errors as she did. I think having someone like Kreia with better proofreading would be an excellent idea.

Something that appeals to me is the idea of being a support character in the grand scheme of things. You're important in the scope of the story as it unfolds, but it's clear that you're not the grand savior. That means the epilogues will be less about some epic end story and more personal in nature. I hope there's no chance of ending up general of a third world country let alone the emperor of a sprawling civilization. I think it would be better to end up as the owner of the lonely hearts inn and saloon. ...And that also means that there'd be a lot more room for expansions, like Tale says.

yeah, this is my first kickstarter game also. I'm cautiously optimistic, but I am nevertheless optimistic.

The beauty of the buy-in is that it really gives us a sense of ownership. I'm not talking the 'rude customer' ownership, but more a sense of belonging to the project and feeling like the project belongs to us. Some folks will undoubtedly use that idea to make obnoxious statements and ridiculous demands, but some folks would have done that no matter what and with less buy-in. I think the mass of us in this community will want to discuss or even argue the issues, but we'll trust you guys to make the game the right way. The big difference for me is that I'm excited. I feel like I'm part of something bigger than this community, or even Obsidian, but an actual movement. It's a form of 'every man' patronage where you don't have to have a single revenue source to fund your work as you go.

It doesn't matter if the push loses steam and they get little more than what they have so far, the real question is the game. If they take the kickstarter funding and create an awesome game, there's a good chance we'll see even greater amounts in the future. Once kickstarter gets real widespread street cred, it's going to be much bigger than I think a lot of folks realize. Someday, I think we're going to see end runs that folks today would probably say right now is nothing more than a pipe dream. I think this is gonna be big.

Huzzah! That just came in right when I signed into my email. Just think of the thousands of people chomping at the bit now!

Yeah, same here. It's the most expensive collector's edition I've ever purchased. lol I don't care about that, really. I had them take off my forum VIP moniker that I used to have, so that's not a big deal. Really, it's just the idea, kind of like you're saying, Hurlie, of being in on something, actually putting your money where your mouth is and taking a part in it. I truly relish the prospect of discussing, even hotly debating, the things they'll do with the game. Maybe even having some tiny influence in some small way on the design. I'm more excited about this project than I have been for a long long time. By the time it's over, maybe more than any ever.

Yep, I'm one of chumps who bought into the game. I couldn't see putting in tons of money, but I did my part. I don't even care about the little collectibles. I just want it to be a great game. It's about 35 grand over the target amount with another month to go. When my wife sees what I did, I'm probably dead, but I don't mind as long as she resurrects me when the game arrives.

Lately, I think I need running shoes for battlegrounds. Thanks, Shirleybot.

So, we've been losing the vast majority of the battlegrounds lately. I'm always in the top half of both sides in terms of awards and the like, often in the top third, and occasionally in the number one slot, but my team still loses. ...And I couldn't care less about personally being at the top. I'd rather be the crappiest player on a winning team than the best player on a crappy team. It makes the pvp daily take twice as long. I've been just about everywhere on Tatooine, except for a thorough exploration of the Imp side, and I've enjoyed it, but I'm looking forward to getting out. As to you, Raithe, I prefered Taris to the time I spent on Hutta when I made my character on the first trial account. I don't think I did everything on Hutta, though, so some of it might have been better later.

Sorry, Spider, I still love Tatooine. I think it's beautiful. I think that a lot of the problems you have with it would be the same ones folks have with the desert. It's a huge open area ringed with mountains. But I'm looking forward to heading out to Alderaan. I can do that now without any problems, but when I'm done here I think I'll do the bonus missions and Aric Jorgan's special line on Nar Shadda. Still loving the game, even though I suspect I'm going to pass out on my keyboard any minute now.

I played for free on a trial account. I don't know if that's the same. I've got an account and a subscription at this point and so I don't really care about the f2p thing. If it goes to what some of these games do, which is to make it free but you have to pay for any halfway decent items, I'll probably just stop playing. Even if it ended up being cheaper, I don't want to keep track of that stuff. I want to play and be rewarded if I manage to well. I don't want to be forced to check on new items I need to buy to be competetive, which is lame in the first place. Anyhow, I'm pretty much done with Tatooine. I accidently went into some Imperial area, but there was no one there. Later, someone kept challenging me to duels in the middle of a neutral city. In WoW, if you dueled in a neutral goblin town, the guards chased you down. That was okay because my WoW character could survive the bruisers, but my Republic character would have been minced fast. The upshot is, if the guy wanted to duel or, if it were *really* important, just plain hitch up and fight it out to the death, I would have probably obliged him. It's a waste of time, though. Save PvP for PvP areas and finish your actual quests out in the PvE areas. Hell, it's a PvE server after all. I know you don't like Tatooine, Spider, but I think it's one of the most open and colorful places I've seen so far. Nar Shadda has a lot of multi-colored lights, but it seriously reminds me of the Las Vegas Strip. Maybe a little seedier, like Laughlin or something. Morongo Indian Casino? I can almost smell the cigarette smoke and flop sweat every time I run through one of the cramped hallways. ...But I don't hate it. Not a bad place overall and, like I said, lots of color. Out of everywhere I've been, I think I like Hutta least. I think that's where the Imperial Agents start. Ugh. Dismal, dreary, and downright nasty looking. I always feel like I have to go out and buy something for jock itch and athlete's foot whenever I stop playing there. It kind of reminds me of living on Guam in terms of the jungly overgrown climate, only the plants aren't pretty on Hutta and the water sure as hell ain't clear.

I've been doing Tattoine. It's a fun place. Because I do the dailies, I tend to be much higher level than the quest areas, which makes leveling slow. Well... that and I accidently did Nar Shadda before Taris. I have to admit that the planets can be a bit of hit and miss for me. Some of them have better quests and some of them have better atmosphere and visuals. All in all, I'm happiest with Tattoine so far. It's simply beautiful. Having lived in and around the desert my whole life, I can't help but enjoy a game that conveys some of the feeling of being there. Anyhow, leveling slowly but surely. I'm level 30 now, and that's just fine. Cal comes online with one of his many toons every now and then. We don't really have anyone at the same level and I don't want to stop playing my troooper, but he keeps giving me great tips on the game. Of course, he also brags about his damned legacy gear, the bastard. :Cant's tongue in cheek grin: The only thing that makes me really jealous is the speeder at level 10. I don't care that much for the swag, but moving where I want to go faster is sweet.

I know the light/dark side tooltip. Hell, it's the default when I installed. I don't really care about it so much as to see if my 'alignment' makes any difference in the mid to end game. I think the spectrum in the game fails for two reasons: 1. It's completely transparent, which means we know what every choice means in the first place and 2. the outcome only has an effect on the response, which is minimal at best. What I want to know is if it makes any difference in the least. Will I get any different quests, have any different dialogue, or live with any meaningful consequence as a result of my choices. I doubt it, but I'm curious, so I'm going to play my Sorceror as an all lkight character and I'm going to make a sage as an all dark character and see if it makes any difference. Yeah, I know I'm a lost cause, but that's my intention. As it is, I'm pretty much done for the night, but I will say that Raithie has a point about healers. i've won mvp without earning it, but I will also say that I think I've earned mvp and it's gone to someone else because of the way the game attributes victory points and badges. I don't really care, though. Bragging rights aren't all that important, but I do get to be interested more as I increase pvp play. I will also say that, if anyone does any flashpoints with me, I would suggest relatively early in the evening. I personally would stack my performance up against other folks at any time, but I tend to be a little more lubricated as the evening passes. By the end of the night, I literally sometimes get a little sleepy when I play, especially if I've done the instance more than a couple times. I've literally healed end game raids in WoW without remembering chunks of time, which is purely evidence that most of it is reflex rather than intelligent thought, although I think I tend to do better after I've done a late game raid a few times, but havne't fallen into routines. Peace out.

Pub players' alts. I think I'm not gonna do any more group content on my imp agent apart from boarding party and the foundry... I laughed out loud at that. :Cant's guffawing icon: As I play more, it seems to me that I tend to win more than lose as Republic, but it's not a massive difference. Also, I play at night, and I've found, at least in WoW, that some factions tend to do better at different times. Some guilds meet to run BGs at arranged times and stuff like that. In that huge BG, the one where you have to call out the opposing general, you could always tell when you had a large guild run on either side. Alterac, I think. It's been a while. That was the only BG where I thought Alliance actually won more often... other than the BGs to decide who got beneftis for different regions, such as Wintergrasp. Anyhow, after Cal got me excited to try my hand at an Impy, I created a Sith Sorceror. I played her until level eleven, so I got a chance to go to the fleet and learn crew skills and whatnot. I don't like her as much as my commando so far, but I do enjoy that it's something new. I also get a kick out of following every light side dialogue, although I personally think that it's hoakie as hell to get light side points for betraying the Empire. I can understand not torturing that apprentice or taming that freaky looking beast. I can even understand being kind to the Jedi, but actually telling him about the Empire's plans? That makes you a traitor, and there's nothing light side about that.

Just finished a couple of disasterous pvp matches to start the evening. Now I'm queued up for a Flashpoint if anyone wants to join. :Cant's broad grin icon:

Wow, that's some timing. Okay, trying to remain cogent right now. The game is great. I'm level... 24 now and going to pass out. I haven't mentioned when I've been online, but I'm kind of on and off while I do other things in the evening. We should get together, though. I'd even make a smuggler or some other republic mook to do a quick flashpoint with you again, Super Cal. lol I'm looking forward to end game content. I seem to be able to hang tough so far in pvp and flashpoints. :Cant's **** eating grin icon: I know I tend to be a little bit erratic in my activity, but I really appreciate you guys pushing the game. It's aweosme! Anyhow, out for the night. I'll check tomorrow to check on things.