Yosharian

But was it necessary to say it twice?

Well the question was at what difficulty level will you play your first game of Deadfire, not PoE. My first playthrough of PoE was on hard, but I now feel comfortable enough with the mechanics that I intend to start Deadfire on PoTD.And yes, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of all backer beta players have posted here at one point. That's a very specific subset of highly invested players. PoTD doesn't require power gaming. I beat it the first time with a suboptimal RP focused chanter build with no forethought and a party composed entirely of story companions without minmaxed stats. Lagufeth are real c****. Adragan fights can be a ball ache if you don't have some kind of counter to dominate.

Yes I agree on DOS1, I had the same experience. The story was generic and badly-written. I can say that DOS2 is an entirely different beast. It's still whimsical at times but it is a massive improvement on DOS1 in the storytelling department (and every other department).

Godlike abilities will never, never come close to what an decent hat will give.

I actually wouldn't mind seeing this in the game. My Bleak Walker would throw the stalker in the dungeons, but since we don't have one in the sequel, then the companion would walk the plank. Even people who let the stalker follow them would have to reconsider once they started a romance with another character. It simply wouldn't be ok to have the stalker there, all jealous and sharing the campsite. And if the stalker stays for too long, the "break up" might be complicated.

> "why are you forcing it down my throat?" I'm trying to find the person that said that but I can't find him This is patently absurd. It is precisely this breed of arrogance which causes discerning people to view intersectionality as distasteful. Homosexuality is not the issue, it is force which is an issue. Art does not judge, it invites judgment. Not through force, but through enticement. Contrarily, it is the nature of force to create resistance. It is for this reason that propaganda, no matter how attractive or well intentioned, can never do more than aspire to artistic expression while utterly failing to realize the transformative power of art. One cannot be beaten into enlightenment. Freddy Mercury was queer, yet he was also masterful, to describe him only in terms of his sexual preferences is insulting. This is true of any individual. Sappho is not significant because of her proclivities but because of her verse. Leonardo da Vinci was arrested along with several other young men at 24 and charged with sodomy, it largely accepted he was in all probability homosexual, yet this neither detracts from nor lends enhancement to his accomplishments. It is utterly immaterial. Judging an individual upon their sexual appetites is as petty and ridiculous as if the criteria were culinary instead. Nor are these example isolated.. Richard the Lionheart, Michelangelo, Donatello, Alexander the Great, Tchaikovsky et cetera et al. And we know of these individuals, and their accomplishments, and their preferences, precisely because of the efforts undertaken by "mostly white, mostly male, mostly straight" individuals. The attraction in RPGs is exploring ideas and constructs. People play in different ways, embracing every extreme from complete pacifism to wholesale slaughter, but when any outcome results in forced resolution which negates their potential for individual agency they always react with hostility. Fallout 2 had gay relationships and gay marriage and suffered little, if at all, for the inclusion. Because it was just something else you could do. Because it was optional, and only fanatics fail to appreciate having options. And fanatics are never worth listening to. I can't remember hearing any complaints about Zevran, either

This is how I remember it. I could have remembered it wrong, but I don't think so. The thing I remember so vividly is that there was no nice way to reject him, and doing so gained 'rivalry points'. I remembered it as 'loss of friendship points' but now I remember it was rivalry points that are gained. I was quite irritated by that. And I really didn't like the way the writers portrayed Anders in DA2 either. As for DrowsyEmperor's comment on Bioware, I don't think he was arguing against the inclusion of LGBTQ+ romances exactly, but I may have misunderstood his words. Anders "flirt" deal is generic enough that it didn't strike me as being romantic. I *didn't pick the romance option* and I went on with my game; me and Anders stayed best bros fighting Templars together and it was never an issue. It's virtually impossible not to pick up some rivalry points with everybody, so that didn't bother me. It seemed to me less about my character being a jerk and more about Anders being miffed at getting rejected, which seems perfectly okay to me. Lots of people get a little pissy at being rejected, doesn't mean they can't still be best friends who bond over a mutual hatred of Templars. Almost every character in that game has a dialogue at some point that seems a little iffy--it could be flirtatious it could be not--and that's generally the point where you get the option of clicking the "heart" icon or not doing so. With Anders the difference is that he comes right out about it and you have more "romance" options in the dialogue then "not romance" options, so you have to actually pay attention. The point is it's still just an *option*. You can choose to romance him or you can choose to *not* romance him; the choice is *entirely* up to you. It's not a forced relationship; at no point does the game *make* you be gay. You can be in a homosexual relationship, a straight relationship, or no relationship at all--your characters sexuality is *up to you*. What you said was 'romance never came up'. That's clearly not the case with myself and all the people I quoted: romance does come up, and not only that but it is handled extremely poorly, in that the only option to turn him down is a particularly cold, heartless one, and then he has a hissy fit and gains rivalry points. So romance does come up without any sexual interest being shown by the player. Not saying any more than that, merely that what you said was inaccurate. For the record I agree totally that even this doesn't represent the romance being 'forced down your throat'. I actually think a lot of the hate Anders gets is simply because he is such a whiny bitch. Zevran is way flirtier than he is but I distinctly remember turning down Zev and him being really cool with it, which contrasts sharply with Anders responds. Even so that only happens if you deliberately foster a relationship with him--you have to get to a certain point of friendship before he'll start that. If you don't talk to him and just use him as a fighting companion, that'll never happen; you also get several options to flirt with him before that starts. It's totally possible to play through the game with Anders as your companion and literally never have romance come up. As a side note, I didn't even realize it was possible to romance Fenris and I *never* went without him in my party, because he's just a total badass. Just made me sad when I had to kill him at the end. ****ing Templars. I foster relationships with all NPCs, even the ones I hate!

are you having a bad day? or is this how you usually communicate? Lmao

Draw me like one of your French girls, Jack

This is how I remember it. I could have remembered it wrong, but I don't think so. The thing I remember so vividly is that there was no nice way to reject him, and doing so gained 'rivalry points'. I remembered it as 'loss of friendship points' but now I remember it was rivalry points that are gained. I was quite irritated by that. And I really didn't like the way the writers portrayed Anders in DA2 either. As for DrowsyEmperor's comment on Bioware, I don't think he was arguing against the inclusion of LGBTQ+ romances exactly, but I may have misunderstood his words. Anders "flirt" deal is generic enough that it didn't strike me as being romantic. I *didn't pick the romance option* and I went on with my game; me and Anders stayed best bros fighting Templars together and it was never an issue. It's virtually impossible not to pick up some rivalry points with everybody, so that didn't bother me. It seemed to me less about my character being a jerk and more about Anders being miffed at getting rejected, which seems perfectly okay to me. Lots of people get a little pissy at being rejected, doesn't mean they can't still be best friends who bond over a mutual hatred of Templars. Almost every character in that game has a dialogue at some point that seems a little iffy--it could be flirtatious it could be not--and that's generally the point where you get the option of clicking the "heart" icon or not doing so. With Anders the difference is that he comes right out about it and you have more "romance" options in the dialogue then "not romance" options, so you have to actually pay attention. The point is it's still just an *option*. You can choose to romance him or you can choose to *not* romance him; the choice is *entirely* up to you. It's not a forced relationship; at no point does the game *make* you be gay. You can be in a homosexual relationship, a straight relationship, or no relationship at all--your characters sexuality is *up to you*. What you said was 'romance never came up'. That's clearly not the case with myself and all the people I quoted: romance does come up, and not only that but it is handled extremely poorly, in that the only option to turn him down is a particularly cold, heartless one, and then he has a hissy fit and gains rivalry points. So romance does come up without any sexual interest being shown by the player. Not saying any more than that, merely that what you said was inaccurate. For the record I agree totally that even this doesn't represent the romance being 'forced down your throat'. I actually think a lot of the hate Anders gets is simply because he is such a whiny bitch. Zevran is way flirtier than he is but I distinctly remember turning down Zev and him being really cool with it, which contrasts sharply with Anders responds.

Well that's weird. I turned Zev down too and he didn't try to kill me, haha. I think you are remembering this wrong. Zevran trying to kill you is a result of having low approval with him when the Antivan Crow encounter happens. It may be indirectly affected by the romance thing though. This is what I found on the Wiki:

From a forum thread I found: This is how I remember it. I could have remembered it wrong, but I don't think so. The thing I remember so vividly is that there was no nice way to reject him, and doing so gained 'rivalry points'. I remembered it as 'loss of friendship points' but now I remember it was rivalry points that are gained. I was quite irritated by that. And I really didn't like the way the writers portrayed Anders in DA2 either. As for DrowsyEmperor's comment on Bioware, I don't think he was arguing against the inclusion of LGBTQ+ romances exactly, but I may have misunderstood his words. Edit: more comments I found in the forum thread

Including non-heterosexuals in a game is not a crusade. I think you need to look the word up, cause you don't seem to understand what it means, or your are exagerating in a way which is ridiculous. I've never seen an argument against LGTBQA romances or characters that doesn't boil down to "Eww, that's gross and I don't want to see it in my game." and that is, frankly, bull****. If you don't want to romance Anders, *don't*. It's that's simple. Nobody is forcing it down your throat. It's there as an option for people who want that. It's entirely up to you whether you pursue it. I played a male character who was best bro's with Anders, for the express purpose of murdering Templars, and romance never came up between us *because I never picked that option*. In fact through all of DAII and DA:I I never romanced *anybody*. My character was way to focused on fighting Templars and defeating Corypheus to even think about romancing anybody. In the ME series, I romanced Ashley Williams, because she was awesome, and held to that through the whole series. Again, it was an option that I chose. Literally never have I seen a game *force* you into a homosexual relationship with anybody. The idea is frankly ridiculous. > romance never came up between us *because I never picked that option* Pretty sure you're wrong on that point

Wildstrike lashes applied their bonus to spells??

Let's kick off the discussion with a picture of Josh carrying a bazooka. Discuss.

I would like: 1) No more random loot 2) No more random missions 3) No more permanent enchanting

I wish there was an easier mode in FTL As for the story in rpgs, it is not that combat is more important, but that on your third playthrough you might be more interesting in trying different builds and tactics. It depends on the player, of course. There is a mod for FTL that removes the time limit aspect. I enjoyed the game much more after I installed it

Where the hell did that come from? Calm down you psycho

It's an abomination. I refuse to acknowledge it's existence.

> not even in Bioware games > Straight male tends to have the best looking lady as romance interest and almost always has more potential love interest comparing to others. > most of the time the game was writing with the mindset of having a straight male as protagonist Clearly you haven't played any of the recent Bioware games. I'd definitely agree that this is the case for the Baldur's Gate series, though. > If you change a portrait, you won't change a 3d model, which is set in stone and is even more detailed than in PoE1 That's true but for the majority of the characters this won't make a huge difference. You can pick a portrait that's reasonably similar to the character's in-game model. Maia is an exception since she is green-skinned race, but there are some Aumaua portraits on the net and you could also look for Half-Orc portraits, they might fit. As for Xoti, are you seriously telling me you can't find a decent-looking latina portrait if you look online? Hell, this is another area where girls have it worse because it's much easier to find very attractive female portraits online than it is to find male ones. > Setting pale elf portrait to a char, who obviously has black hair and brown skin is strange and only breaks the immersion. Congrats, you spotted the problem with a portrait I grabbed off my hard drive in a matter of seconds. It was merely an example. > The main motivation of people asking to add her was interest in such type of female character What's your point? This doesn't seem relevant at all the discussion. We're discussing how character aesthetics affects your enjoyment of the game, and I'm pointing out that with a very small amount of work you can customize your NPCs quite a lot. > About Xoti, a human girl, being statistically more attractive to a human male (average player) - it is basic psychology. People feel more attracted towards people, not aliens or strange creatures. We may go for exotic, but are still programmed to get attracted to our kind. This works even on the level of human races, when in most cases a partner is usually found among the same race. I agree with this, maybe you were responding to someone else? Not quite sure I see the relevance here. In ME:A, Bioware's latest game, a straight male can romance three different characters, all of them are companions who has more content and better made cut scenes comparing to the other non-companion romance(seriously, I had zero idea why they spend so much resource on making that Cora sex scene instead of polishing the game), plus two flings, one of them is straight male only. That's more than any other sexual orientation. I'll say in DA:I a straight female is better when it comes to romance, not only they have more choices(if you choose to be human or elf), but they also have better content(only because they can romance Solas). But that's probably the only exception. I mean as far as I'm concerned ME:A doesn't exist, but yeah, ok

Well I played a female and I thought the Anomen romance was fine. I have certainly seen worse romances since then. Besides, now there are a ton of obnoxious romances you can mod in if you want something else. I think Beamdog even put them in their new edition. I mean if you were a man you had to romance an elf and I can think of few worse fates. The Anomen romance was half my sister is dead, and half oh by the way you remind of my sister Don't worry boys there will be a love interest for you. If it makes you feel better about the equality Eder just went up a level in racist so yay? > Don't worry boys there will be a love interest for you. Who are you talking to, exactly?

This, a million times. When the game starts asking me to choose from a list of past actions, or worse forces past actions on me, I immediately begin to switch off mentally. It's really, really off-putting.

Well I played a female and I thought the Anomen romance was fine. I have certainly seen worse romances since then. Besides, now there are a ton of obnoxious romances you can mod in if you want something else. I think Beamdog even put them in their new edition. I mean if you were a man you had to romance an elf and I can think of few worse fates. > I can think of few worse fates. You take that back! =) Haha, you mean Madeleine? Well that's awkward.

> Her appearance is maybe the worst. Wow, so ugly. Are you for real. She's as cute as a button. That's a fan edit. This is the actual Ydwin portrait: You think I don't know that? That is the entire point I'm trying to make to this guy... I literally linked to that fan edit in my response to him but clearly he didn't get it. No worries, I've seen you link the above pic a few times before so I wasn't entirely sure if you were confused about it or not. Thought I should clarify just in case. Ok, no worries

Was pathfinding so bad? I don't remember that. God yes. I am playing through the game right now with 5 characters who can potentially melee and the game just cannot cope a lot of the time, it's a mess. Characters will: Fail to attack, with a reach weapon equipped, and an enemy within range Fail to path around allies to reach an enemy that is nowhere near surrounded Stand behind attacking allies and do nothing, despite there being a clear path around the allies to attack the enemy All beeline for the same enemy despite the fact that the battle lines have changed and they are now attempting to path past enemies in order to get to that enemy Fruitlessly bump up against enemies attempting to get to an enemy they now cannot reach Suffer disengagement attacks attempting to get to enemies they now cannot reach Fail to switch targets in a timely manner due to battle lines changing between the commencement of battle and reaching the target Often stutter from side to side while attempting in vain to path past enemies to get to an enemy they cannot reach Fail to respond to commands issued via pressing a hotbar button Completely freeze up, failing to do anything after being issued a hotbar button command There's probably more but those are the memorable behaviours I've seen. And this is on a current playthrough. As in, CURRENT PATCH. Not from months or years ago or whatever. (A couple of those are not related to pathing but whatever) I am in the process of replaying BG1EE right now and honestly I can't say that Pillars' pathing is much better than that game's. One of my biggest annoyances is not being able to map a hotkey to the AI toggle. Constantly reaching over to the far left of the screen to turn AI on and off is TIRESOME AS HELL.