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aVENGER

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  1. The only difficult battles I've had on my first playthrough were the ones where waves upon waves of enemies spawn out of thin air, usually behind your party. I really didn't like that, it kind of made Tracking and scouting useless. I mean, I'd check a seemingly empty area and right after I bring my PC there a bunch of enemies would insta-spawn everywhere. Sometimes it even happened that when I save a game in an empty room, and load the save at a later time, I'm suddenly surrounded by enemies! :lol:

     

    This was most evident in the

    Thieves' Warehouse (weapon shipment)

    and the

    hidden Githyanki base (inside the city of Neverwinter)

    quests.

  2. As the title says. For me, Sand clearly stands out. His snide, witty comments had me laughing all of the time he was in the party. Chris did a great job with the writing and the voice actor did his part perfectly as well. IMHO, Sand is on pair with BG2's Edwin and KotOR's HK-47 as far as sarcastic comic relief companions go. :unsure:

     

    Runner up: Shandra. I liked here character a lot. She starts out as a simple farmer girl and builds up gradually from there. She also seemed to get along quite nicely with my Paladin PC, without seeming like an uptight arrogant prick half the time, like a certain druidess. :)" I would have made her my no.1 choice if it weren't for the

    dreaded "FF7 Aeris effect" which makes her die on you at the start of Act3. Up to the very end I had hoped that I'd get a chance to resurrect her (this is a D&D game after all) especially when Ammon Jerro found that medallion of hers, but alas, it was not meant to be. Hmm, perhaps she could make an appearance in the expansion (i.e. like Aribeth in HotU)

     

  3. I got the distinct feeling from that ending that the shard-bearer will no longer be featured in any games as a character. As a point of reference, sure, but not as a character. It's a shame, really, I love sagas. Maybe next time.

     

    Not necessarily.

    The party might have been sucked in through the portal and ended up stranded on the Astral Plane. After all, the soldiers found no trace of them (save the cloak) when they searched the ruins of the fortress. No corpses = no proof of death = possible sequel. >_<

    An epic level HotU-style expansion seems plausible, especially considering that the epic feats are already in the 2DA's.

  4. But the Torment rights and characters still belongs to Interplay yes? I only know that Obsidian purchased Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate 3 intellectual properties unless Torment is amongst the purchases.

     

    Actually, I believe the rights to all D&D based games are now owned by Atari. IIRC, that was one of the reasons why Interplay couldn't publish their own BG3 (project Jefferson) back in the day. So technically, Obsidian could use any assets from their past (BIS) games, including NPC's. :cool:

  5. Anyone caught this? Apparently, if you manage to gather enough influence with

    Zhjaeve

    she mentions a few notable Githzerai warriors, including Dak'kon. Now, I personally couldn't get her to talk to me about that, but several people on the Bioware forums have reported this. FYI, here's the transcript taken directly from NWN2's dialog.tlk file:

     

     

    "I have known many heroes before they knew themselves. I knew Chardassa's Heart, whose mercy turned aside Vilquar's Blade at Sargassa's End. I knew Oliss' Sacrifice before he gave his mind, filled with well-crafted lies, to turn aside the plans of the illithids and shield us from a Third War. And the tale of Dak'kon is known to all zerths... when his loss of faith shattered the walls of Shra'kt'lor, and finally, when he came to know himself again at the Pronouncement of Two Deaths As One. So when you ask if I think you can save us all, know that I have seen others with your will move the planes themselves and turn aside war. Trust this. Trust yourself, and even the King of Shadows will fall."

     

     

    I like it how Chris managed to subtly sneak in that small reference. :cool: BTW, judging by the end sequence, the next NWN2 expansion could take place in the Planescape setting and, who knows, if we're lucky we might even run into a few of Torment's NPC's. :rolleyes:

  6. Avenger,

    If you don't know someone is evil *before* you attack then you can't say that you're being good by attacking them.

     

    Well, that dryad openly admitted that she helped slaughter a whole village out of revenge. That's pretty evil in my book. :deadhorse:"

     

    You still have a point though, and it's a shame Obsidian didn't impelment the Detect Evil ability for Paladins, even as a simple dialogue option when dealing with evil creatures like in IWD2 for example.

  7. You're right though, there wasn't a clear good or evil option available.

     

    Actually, there is.

    If you have Elanee in your party and decide to attack the dryad, she'll say that the dryad has been corrupted by the shadows and she'll even prevent her from using the giant animals against you in the ensuing fight. Since the dryad helped Lorne murder a whole village out of petty revenge she's at least somewhat evil in my eyes. Besides, Casavir's Smite Evil ability worked quite nicely on her. :D

     

    OTOH, the goblin leader said that they abandoned their former tribe because they simply wanted to settle down and live in peace, and not go out and raid and plunder as they were commanded. Doesn't sound very evil to me. :("

     

  8. I've experienced a few stray bugs here and there but no real show stoppers so far. Well ok, there was that one time when a plot critical cutscene couldn't trigger because I wasn't directly controlling the protagonist but I hear that's patched now anyway. Besides, it only took a relaod to fix it.

     

    IMHO, while NWN2 does have its share of minor bugs and interface annoyances in general it's quite playable and, more importantly, a very enjoyable game. Personally, I haven't had so much fun playing a proper cRPG in a long time. So, while NWN2 may be a bit buggy it's a been great game for me so far (just starting Act 3 right now). It's also very reminiscent of the classic BIS cRPGs so if you're a fan of Planescape Torment and Baldur's Gate 2 I think you're going to love this game. :)

  9. On medium texture settings and with shadows turned down to low I get 15-25 fps on my A64 3000+ and 6600GT in most areas. Not exactly smooth, but playable. Compared to that, your next rig should eat the game for breakfast. :deadhorse:

     

    BTW, make sure that you have a lot of free space on the partition which will hold your "My Documents" folder since the NWN2 save files can take up to 500MB easily. That's with 3 used slots + quicksave, and I'm only starting Act2 right now, so it's bound to get even larger.

  10. I have the full FAQ in a CD somewhere, I can put those things online if Sammael wants them back.

     

    He said he wanted to re-publish the FAQ soon, so I guess he has an archive copy of it as well. You could try contacting him via email since he rarely posts here now. There's a tip about it on his google-hosted website which I linked to in my previous post. :(

  11. ... And what's the problem? :)Oblivion is rated one of the best games this year, and Deus Ex is the bestest game EVA, and Fallout was okay, too. :blink:)

     

    Don't get me wrong, I love the Thief series as well as Deus Ex. I just don't think that such a design approach would work for Fallout 3. If we're lucky, we might end up with something like VTM: Bloodlines which could be pretty good, but compared to what a real FO3 should be like, it just wouldn't cut it.

  12. Recapturing the audio and visual style of Fallout isn't enough to make a fallouty Fallout 3 game though.

     

    Just to clarify, I was replying to Dark Raven's post and thus commenting solely on the graphical aspects of Bethesda's Fallout 3. Of course, good art alone is not enough to make a worthy sequel and there are many other things which should be done right.

     

    Whether Bethesda will succeed in making a good Fallout game remains to be seen, but as I've already said, I doubt it.

  13. And made in 2D not 3D.

     

    Heh, I don't think there are many "Fallout 3 in 2D!" supporters in this day and age, not even among the hardcore fans, especially now that 3D graphics are nearly approaching photo realism. :cool:

     

    Instead, I think most people would like FO3 to retain the artistic style of the prequels. You know, small things like the rundown, gritty atmosphere of the Hub, a Junktown-like area theme, the tidy sterile halls of the Vaults and of course the overall '50s pulp-fiction tech feel. It would be a shame if the whole concept got streamlined into "Oblivion + guns + desert = FO3!" :ph34r:

  14. I remember it was Troika who tried to get that license.

     

    Yes Troika tried as well but Bethesda had the most funds so, in the end, the license went to them. As for Obsidian:

     

    GB: Were any of you at Obsidian interested in acquiring the rights to Fallout 3 when they became available? What was your reaction to the news that Interplay had sold the rights to Bethesda Softworks?

     

    Chris: I don't think it was ever an option that ever came up (I think it was offered to much higher bidders than we could hope to be) - and Bethesda totally works for me. Oblivion kicked a great deal of ass.

     

    http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/fallout2-2.php

  15. BTW, although Emil is the Lead Designer he seems to be working closely with Todd "Axes are blunt weapons!" Howard on designing FO3. :ph34r: Link

     

    For the purposes of Fallout 3, Todd and I have worked really closely on design. To be honest, Todd and I work really well together creatively; we share most of the same philosophies, and want the player to have the same kinds of experiences. So the overall design (setting, combat, story, quests, etc.) is mine, with a healthy dose of input from Todd (most of which I agree with anyway). Ultimately, Todd could have vetoed my entire design -- but very little of my original idea has changed. And the other designers work with the stuff Todd and I have established, and run with it -- often putting their own touches on things, as is expected.

     

    On a more positive note, here's Emil's Bethesda profile.

  16. According to DAC and RPGCodex Emil Pagliarulo is the Lead Designer of Bethesda's Fallout 3.

     

    Anyway, I've been the lead designer on Fallout 3 for quite some time now. It's not exactly the type of offer you turn down, you know? And no, I really can't say anything about anything. But I just wanted to pop on and say hi.

     

    IMHO, he's a fairly talented guy as he did some awesome levels in the Thief games and was also responsible for the Dark Brotherhood quests in Oblivion, as far as I know. Despite all that, I still have less then a spark of hope that Bethesda's FO3 will be a worthy successor to the franchise. At best, it'll turn into some kind of a Deus Ex/Oblivion/Fallout mixture which might be enjoyable on its own terms, but I doubt it's going to be even close to the prequels or the canceled BIS version. <_<

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