Plano Skywalker

it's all about the snow.....people who don't live in an area where it snows, like to visit it vicariously once in a while. plus, those kinds of conditions bring out the survival instinct.

it would seem to me that the DnD Wizard is patterned off the Tolkienesque wizard and, in practice, it is an archtype for those removed from society and yet wielding a great deal of power over society (i.e. medieval monks). Wizards do make good plot devices (i.e. the bufuddled old geezer like Fizban) as NPCs. following this pattern, one should only rarely encounter a wizard and low level adventuring wizards would be almost unheard of. now, the dual-classed or multiclassed wizard makes a little more sense (in terms of being an adventurer) but the Sorcerer is the "adventuring wizard" that DnD very much needed. the "dabbler" now has more tricks in his hat to play with (at lower levels) but, because he is a dabbler, he will never master the art (which is good since he is an adventurer and not a famous city-dweller).

yeah, I see what you mean...they dumbed down ranged weapons for KOTOR but, fact is, d20 has never really properly accounted for the power ranged weapons have. unless you have body armor (and, even then, you'll still be wanting to go to the hospital) on, if you get hit in the upper torso by a .45 at point-blank range, you are either A) dead or B) wishing you were....you're definitely not going to continue fighting.

I know a guy who doesn't mind canons on ships in a fantasy setting but doesn't want other blackpowder weapons around. I say blackpowder is fine....arquebus, canons....they're all in the period that D&D is based on. I just think it should require an awful lot of feat and/or skill slots to use effectively....plus, they do misfire and are not incredibly accurate during that period.

yes, I think that if you play as female Revan and speak to Juhani often, she has a statement that would suggest that.

as long as they work out any legal issues, I agree that Jefferson should be sold as a NWNs2 expansion....not just a "premium mod" but, essentially, an alternate OC sold as a shrinkwrap in stores (but still requiring NWNs2 to play).

thanks for the info, I'll probably check it out. the Nile vocals are just to gutteral for me...I prefer clean vocals but I think I can handle what this band apparently does.

is there any other band you would compare it to? clean vocals or cookie monster?

what are your favorite albums of theirs?

Apocalyptica -- "Reflections" album one of the few cds that is worth every penny brand new. excellent stuff.

Yeah, I have to say that I like it to. However, I wouldn't mind if they occasionally had more focused, tactical episodes and did not always try to tie it together (i.e. a 3-episode arc in which you only see the landing party and do not see Galactica). But, all-in-all, I like what they are doing. The main story is strong enough to keep this from being an out-and-out soap.

Option 3 is the best there is....even better with hard-coded Exile...that way, Exile can have deep roots in the story. but either way, my vote would be for option 3....new protagonist with a controllable Exile later in the game.

well, I think it has to do with using the NPCs to tell the story (a la PST and K2). that comes at a price: lack of companion choices, especially early on. on balance, I like the K2 approach to storytelling...but I do wish for a compromise: make some party members releaseable and have their story clues surface elsewhere.

Celtic Fiddle Festival cd.........I have to say that watching Firefly has gotten me into the whole warm fiddle idea...good stuff, actually.

I understand, Architect, but it is all about salvaging a messed up situation. Ideally, KOTOR would have been designed as a proper trilogy (you know, something about SW and trilogies...kinda fits) but it was not. They really did not know how well K1 would sell and so they "left room" in the story. So now we have a situation in which at least half of KOTOR fandom (it would seem) wants to learn more about Revan but also would like him to be flexible in the games (with regard to gender, appearance, etc). K2 is highly regarded by RPGers and, well, Exile is just not the fan favorite that Revan is. We've already discussed the downside of a hard-coded Exile in K3. Now let us take a look at the other unsavory possibilities: --- Revan is used as an elusive plot device but is not seen and gets no resolution in K3. --- this is actually the path of least resistance...turn KOTOR into Charlie's Angels with Revan as Charlie (never see him but he is always pulling the strings in the background). while the designer/publisher might be tempted to do this, this would SUCK for anyone who actually cares about the story arc we are in now. the True Sith become little more than the bandits of the week....please devs, do NOT go this route even though it appears to be the path of least resistance. --- have either Revan or Exile be the PC --- this, of course, is the hard-core fanboy's dream. it is also absolutely impractical using the d20 system (which, one would assume, they would use for K3). either Revan or Exile would just be too powerful for any kind of challenging gameplay and story-based deleveling would be impractical since it has already been done for both characters. --- new protagonist as PC --- yes, 3 is a crowd. Three protagonists is too many. UNLESS the others are indisposed. Well, in order to have them indisposed, they need to be doing something. It is one thing to be "desperately seeking Revan" in the Unknown Regions but looking for both is impractical. Exile needs to have a reason why he is not going on the mission himself....being the new head of the Order is the ideal reason, IMO. Now, they could have different voice actors and such for Exile depending what you said about Exile early on in conversation but they would already be doing that (presumably) for Revan and that is just an awful lot of extra work. anyway, whether hard-coded or not, Exile needs to play a prominent role but cannot be the primary PC in K3. think of it this way: Revan is the Holy Grail that you seek (i.e. the Star Forge), Exile is your teacher (i.e. Bastila or Kreia), you (the new PC) are the hero. I like the idea of multithreaded endgames in which someone like Bastila (or, in this case, Exile) becomes a controllable squad leader (but only towards the end of the game).

I used to think Bastila should be a controllable character (in addition to the PC) in a multithreaded endgame. But the more I think about it, I do believe Exile would be best in this role as, shall we say, "coprotagonist". As to hard-coding, well, I think we should be given the chance to determine Revan's appearance and voice pattern early in the game. However, it would be really awkward if we were able to do that to 2 different characters besides the PC...I mean, really awkward. Revan, of course, is hard-coded as well (in the EU)but just not very well fleshed-out. I don't think Revan should be hard-coded in K3 but I see no reason why the Exile couldn't be. Most KOTOR fandom is fixated on Revan more than Exile anyway. At any rate, I really don't see any way around a new protagonist for K3 and, if they do that, I definitely think Fable-style rapid aging is the way to go (not for the entire game, just until you have to take your Jedi or Sith Trials)....we need to be able to choose our own backstory, including homeworld, social class, the whole bit and not just be ambushed with it as the game progresses.

yes, understanding the economy of the Trinity was one of the earliest controversies and led to the great creeds of the Church, such as the Nicene Creed.

ahhh, but that is the beauty of it. the PC does not start off as a fully-trained Jedi who has amnesia or is a bit rusty. (this is NOT flame bait) Use Fable-style story progression, at least until the PC reaches about age 25, then no more rapid aging. this Jedi, who was trained by someone like Vrook as a Youngling and has already seen real combat (which is handled in the rapid-aging section of the game), is also something of a prodigy (yes, we need to get away from that but not in this story arc)...in fact, he is a distant cousin of Revan (helps explain his eagerness to help and also why he is a Force prodigy). also, a hard-coded Exile could be a controllable squad leader during much of the endgame....K3 has to be multithreaded in order to give everybody enough closure. Revan is a storytelling device and cannot be controllable....ain't gonna happen.

I know that KOTOR II made it look like Exile was on his way to the Unknown Regions to find Revan. Still, that doesn't have to happen immediately. Now that Vandar, Zhar, and Vrook are all gone, the Council needs a strong leader. I think the hard-coded, LS, female Exile would be a prime candidate to be the new leader of the Order and to help rebuild it. Since the Exile has so many duties to tend to on Coruscant (and doing a lot of travelling between Coruscant and Dantooine), she needs to send someone else to find Revan...someone strong in the Force...someone she can send long-distance empathic messages to . But she also knows of a good pilot and astromech droid that would be helpful in such a search. And, thank the Maker, she even has a suitable ship for the voyage! Seriously, I think Exile is the key to K3 but that Exile does not actually make the trip to the Unknown Regions.

actually, it could be argued that Hinduism is not polytheism in the strictest sense...the "endgame" in Hinduism (as I understand it) is to one day reach Nirvana and to, essentially, be absorbed into the great river or the essence of Brahma, the creator. every soul will eventually reach this destination, even the gods...effectively, there is (or WILL BE) only 1 essence, according to this belief. that is actually Pantheism, as opposed to Polytheism. Hinduism is pantheism in polytheist drag. As I see it, every religion is either Monotheist, Polytheist or Pantheist. Polytheism deals with seperate *essences*, for instance, Odin and Thor are 2 different souls and will always be seperate from each other. The Christian trinity is not pantheistic nor polytheistic. ONE ESSENCE.

just to be clear, I was not actually providing a definition for altruism. I was just stating that one could argue that it is a universal reality. I am actually of the view that everything we do, we do for ourselves. This includes acts of kindness and altruism. In a theological/philosophical context, though, "true altruism" could exist even though human beings cannot themselves practice it.

I think it depends on what kind of programming you are doing. If you are writing a graphical rendering engine for a FPS, I would say it would help to be a math wiz. If you are writing, shall we say, "light business apps", such as a knowledge base or inventory tracking system, then I think math skills are less important. You still need to be very clever, though, but in a more artistic way. You need to convince the end user that your program really is going to be better for him than that Excel spreadsheet that he has tweaked up. The program needs to be very intuitive and "smooth" in operation. Most light business programming projects fail, not because they don't do what they were meant to do in the strictest sense, but because they just aren't very intuitive in operation.

no, bacteria are not sentient beings....well, I've just made a negative assertion, which is actually harder to prove than a positive one. altruism being useful is a universal reality, yes...one that is with us in this life and will be there in the next.

well, not with a major publisher....although indie titles might provide that.

well, I trust that is true but I just haven't played FO 1 and 2 yet. But I think KOTOR follows in the general footsteps of FO and PST: alignment is a moving target and dialogue matters ALOT. I would hate to play a game that was nominally Fallout but had the kind of dialogue that Fable had.