Amentep

To be honest, I don't understand a lot of the hate that Beamdog has gotten. At worst I'd describe their changed in BGEE to be innocuous and their worst change in BG2EE (which I've not played a lot of) seems to be a somewhat ugly UI. As to not being able to buy the original editions, I'm sure we can all think of loads of 10-15 year-old games that no longer are available for purchase. Not to mention won't run on modern machines or will run but only after some work. I don't think anyone ever expected game titles to be evergreen - always purchasable, always playable and ever unchanged.

Until you realize every asari (except for one) has the exact same face with slightly different color. Good luck in-seeing that, because once I noticed now it makes it impossible for me not to think of them all as the same character in different costumes. That's actually kind of a problem for all the ME games...and for all races, actually. The party members of those alien races look unique enough, but everyone else looks more or less the same outside of a few minor exceptions. It was a problem in ME before hand. I've only met a couple of Asari and one or two Turians so far in ME:A and they seemed distincter to me in there than in ME1-3.

I finished PoE once, but keep getting delayed in starting a new PoE + White March game by other games. Hopefully I'll get at least one complete run through the game and both expansions before PoE2 comes out.

So got ME:A over the weekend. Initial thoughts are - positive. Faces seem to have more diversity meaning there's good and bad in them. I haven't seen the horrors that I've seen people claim (but to be fair I always make-a-face and a lot of the flak I've seen regard Sara Ryder's pre-made face. I will say make-a-face is a bit more challenging than I've seen before). Some of the animations though are lacking - there have been several cases where eyes can't seem to track the same point, thus leaving some wandering eyes. I like the sense of exploration. Still very early and a lot of detail to be fleshed out regarding plot. Combat isn't easy. I'm not sure if enemy AI is better or NPC AI is worse.

Supes will be back. But I doubt Vader-head-swamp-base.

When I've thought about designing a system for health in my "I'm not a game designer but I think about this stuff anyway" way, I always looked at a dual system where you had a health pool and an "endurance" pool (I called it the "fatigue" pool). So I liked PoE's original approach pretty well. The idea I had was slightly different; the fatigue pool actually represented the characters ability to avoid damage in combat. So a miss wouldn't claim fatigue (although combat itself would drain fatigue at a very slow level) A hit would first have a check for a miss via dodging (damages the fatigue pool) then a check for armor deflection then a check for damage absorption then finally damage to the health pool. Health would generate very slowly (over weeks) naturally and would generally be healed by magic or alchemy while fatigue was replinished by rest. I also envisioned a closer tie to the sleep mechanic. Something like Stage I - fatigue regenerates quickly Stage II - fatigue regenerates slowly Stage III - fatigue regenerates slowly and only to a certain % of full Stage IV - fatigue doesn't regenerate Stage V - fatigue degenerates slowly; penalty to combat skills Stage VI - fatigue degenerates quickly; further penalty to combat skills Stage VII - unconsciousness Where each stage represents so many hours from the last rest. So what I thought of in my own way was different, but in general I like the idea of two different pools and enjoyed seeing a version implemented in PoEI. Having said all of that, I'm not beholden to it and I certainly have enjoyed games with different systems and a single health pool.

You can find the backer portal through Deadfire's main site - http://eternity.obsidian.net/ I don't think they've sent an email out to pledgers yet.

It means the same thing as your Kickstarter badge - that you backed the game through that website. Honestly, I don't get it why. Like one badge wasn't sufficient? I imagine that the Kickstarter and Fig badges are part of promoting people to support on the corwdfunding service where it "counts" towards the success of the campaign - ie Kickstarter or Fig rather than pay-paling or slacker-backering (to...er...coin a phrase ). Therefore I think Slacker-Backers and Pay-Pal Backers would just get one badge for backing PoEII and not the platform badge.

Sorry, I can't let this one go by without comment: Emphasis mine. They must using be some new definition of the word "change" I've never heard about, since the usual definition would be that using different words would count as a change (whether it was a substantial change or not being irrelevant). I think what they meant was "The Times did use different words between its print and online headlines, but the meaning and context of the altered headline remained the same."

On the one hand, its a distinctive look. On the other hand, I can't help but wonder if such a design would really hold up to real world conditions (looking at the site, I can't tell how much physics testing they've done).

My singular memory of playing BGII back in the day in co-op multiplayer was sitting around waiting for everyone to finish outfitting themselves at the shops.

No interest in the mode; if it was added I more than likely wouldn't use it.

No not surprising; he'd (or more accurately, his wife) had announced his retirement. His brain cancer and its treatment had left him mostly unable to write or draw.

Well I'd want George Berry the writer director to get money from it. Did he post it to youtube, or is someone ripping him off? It is a fun and weird film (I saw it on the official DVD )

RIP comic book artist Bernie Wrightson. He did a few high profile series outside the horror genre (like Batman: The Cult), but it's probably his horror work that he'll be best remembered for. Besides work for Warren's Creepy and Eerie, he did a well regarded set of illustrations for Frankenstein and illustrated Steven King's Cycle of the Werewolf. But it's as the co-creator (with Len Wein) of SWAMP THING that I think most people identified him with.

I had a dwarven thief in P&P who was from a family of dwarven locksmiths. They had a chip on their shoulder that the other dwarven smiths got much more attention than the practicioners of fine dwarven lock crafting. So that character never did much with the stealth side of the class. That said, they didn't dress that...colorfully either.

Perhaps my post was unclear or too subtle. Please respond to other posters' opinions, not your perception of who that poster is, why they posted something or anything regarding their mental state. This board is for debate and discussion of opinions not each other. Good: 'You made argument "a", let us deconstruct argument "a" in a congenial atmosphere of camaraderie' Bad: 'You made argument "a" and therefore you are mentally challenged' Bad: 'You made argument "a" and you clearly think you are immune to logical thought and I shall have nothing more to do with you' Bad: 'You made argument "a" and I shall now psychoanalyze your motives for believing that was a good argument based on where you fall within Maslow's hierarchy of needs.' If this is not clear, please ask a moderator for assistance.

My post wasn't specifically directed at any one poster and covers some concerns over more than one post from yesterday, some not on this page at all. But we (the Mod Team) thought a friendly reminder in the thread might help things from getting heated(er). No intent to specifically rebuke anyone was intended; consider it a friendly request to all posters to remember the spirit of debate on the board.

There has been some concern over posts yesterday where comments have been directed towards individuals rather than about the points being made in the discussion. Please remember that we ask that the users of this board treat one another with respect, even when opinions differ. You are certainly entitled to dislike someones opinion; you may dislike the poster themselves based on your perception of them through interaction. Remember: respond to other posters' opinions, not your perception of who that poster is.

I think that's a case of them both having the same root (Middle English: lif) but Live as an adjective derives its meaning from alive (from Middle English: on life meaning in life). My understanding is that usage dropped the forward a, my guess would be because the awkwardness of saying something like "An alive fire"

Internet research (FWIW) indicates that both names are evolutions from their pre-Roman names (Careloyw, Cairlerion) that made their Roman Names (Glevum Castrum, Ligora Castum). This becomes adapted by the Anglo-Saxons (Glevceastre, Ledeceastre). In the case of Glevceastre, the Latin pronunciation of the name Glev would make the v a "u" so Gleu. The Anglo-Saxon "ceastre" would be pronounced (if I understand it correctly) as "chah-ayst-r" hence "glou-chah-ayst-r". Eventually the Anglo-Saxon pronunciation altered through use or outside influence (France?) making ceastre into cester pronounced with an "S", thus making the pronunciation Glah-ster. I'm a little less clear on how Ledeceastre (Leh-deh-chah-ayst-r) dropped the d. Could have been just a concatenation thing of convenience, saying "leh" over "leh-deh" was more economical. Ceastre had the same evolution to cester and thus beccam "less-ter"

I get the "opportunity cost" line of thinking. But if almost every fight is "post-buffed" anyway then its not really a cost is it? Except there'd be the chance to interrupt or disrupt the casting in combat that couldn't happen out of combat to make the cost a more strategic choice. Outside of combat you're always going to be guaranteed success, so there's no real choice there if you're goal is to maximize efficacy. Ie if I cast "SuperBuffo" before combat the only thing that could prevent me casting it is me deciding to cancel it somehow. So I always get the effect of "SuperBuffo" and can then on my initial actions look to non-buff oriented actions But if I can't cast "SuperBuffo" until combat starts, I now have to weigh how long it takes to cast SuperBuffo vs my other action options and so the choice becomes - in theory - more strategic.

If you're not enjoying it - stop watching it. If you are enjoying it - keep watching it. That's my opinion.

Nope, not a linguist. So if any linguists want to come along and correct me feel free! I find word etymology fascinating and its one of the (many) things I read about in my free time. So really I'm just saying my understanding of things (and if I'm wrong, my misunderstanding of them). Most of the differences in US and UK English are cosmetic to us average users so typically if you're not getting into slang you're probably not going to have trouble being understood. There are a couple of places where US and UK use different words entirely (for example lift vs elevator, lorry vs truck) or spelled radically different (the aforementioned draughts vs drafts, curb on a roadway vs kerb on a roadway). Don't know the exact reason for this; as you say its borrowed from the French but unlike other borrowed French words not pronounced the French way (des-seir) so it may have something to do with the expected sound when saying the rt ending (which to me makes it sound like cert in certify, so des-cert which ran together starts to sound like des-zert). No real clue on this one though beyond that guess. Sorry!

Depends, was it a good series? Let me put it this way, generally speaking I'd rather have 13 episodes of something I want to watch than 300 of one I don't. Ideally those 13 episodes won't end on a cliffhanger (but it has happened).