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Arthmoor

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Why am I getting the feeling that the further I get in this game, the closer to an all out ridiculous Icewind Dale fiasco I'm getting? I'm starting to remember why I never cared a huge amount for these D&D games. They always seem to turn into insane all out warzone battles where you get your ass kicked so quickly you hardly have time to respond.

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I don't recall any instances where you end up in an all out war like situation.. Not till Mask of the Betrayer, but even with the MotB instance, you had plenty of forewarning that it was coming. Namely, someone walks up to you and tells you flat out, "There's a pissed off army outside the city gates looking for you."The AI in some instances just was not very intelligent, and instead of dealing with it, I'd switch all my party members to puppet mode, and issue their commands by hand, pausing every 3 rounds to issue new commands. It made life a lot easier, especially in a couple of the more trap infested dungeons.The problem with the D&D games is that they try way too hard to emulate the feel of an actual pen and paper campaign. And it's just not possible, you can't anticipate every decision that anyone's going to WANT to make. You can't anticipate that a level 20 Dwarf Fighter is going to get drunk in a tavern, stumble out into the street pick up a twig and challenge the whole town to a naked twig fight. You just can't. Which will always make the Pen and Paper D&D that much better.And yes, that example is from personal experience, I had a player do that during a campaign I ran at one time. Funny story really, he stripped down to his unmentionables, picked up a twig and shouted at the top of his lungs for someone to naked twig fight him. So, I had to see how far he was willing to take it, so another drunk from the bar stumbles out picks up a twig and accepts his challenge and starts to strip. Sure enough, He really fought the guy in the buff with a twig. On the fly I had to come up with some kind of damage dice for a twig. I never expected him to take it that far, yet he did. And I have to admit it's one of my most memorable D&D sessions to date. He ended up poking himself in the eye with the twig and losing the fight, for those that were wondering how it turned out.

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There was a case in Australia where a D&D player got an invulnerability shield for his character, but thought that it actually made him invulnerable in real life, prompting him to 'show it off' to everyone by going outside and stepping in front of a truck. As you said Kayle, you just can't predict everything that is going to happen...

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I will say that the last dungeon is a pretty IWDesque sort of thing, and you ought to be warned about that experience, because it sucks. The rest of the game not so much, and indeed, by my recollection it's possible to get or craft some pretty epic gear to buff yourself up and power through most fights.And re: belligerant dwarfism, Khelgar's probably about the best take on that particular trope around, thinking.As far as D&D games attempting to replicate the pen and paper game too far, well, I dunno. I have yet to save all of creation by summoning a horse on somebody's head, so. Speaking solely in a tactical combat sense, I don't think the model is particularly flawed - it worked very well in the Baldur's Gate series, for one, never mind the fun parts of Icewind Dale. The main issue with the two Neverwinter Nights games is that they sabotaged a lot of the interface model that actually let that style work really well (camera zoom, autopause, AI), and gave us something that's halfway between BG-style tactical combat and KOTOR-style cinematic combat that's not quite as satisfying as either one of those would have been.

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Khelgar has been quite a bit of fun actually, as have a few of the other guys. Although it does seem they devoted the most effort to him, followed very closely by Shandra Jerro.Apparently I need to figure out how to master the crafting system then because to me it just looks like a lot of fluff with no real purpose. A lot like alchemy in Oblivion. Then again, I prefer spending level-ups on turning my dwarf into a powerhouse with a greataxe. At least there are some nice greataxes in the game.Kept hoping they'd do more with Qara's bit, but so far they haven't. She can't be beat for raw power though. Holy crap.Navmeshing implies someone is doing a Fallout 3 mod :P

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F:NV, actually. I'll show it off later, since it's probable I'll finish it tonight or tomorrow.Navmeshing aside, I'm pretty impressed with some of the features the GECK has. It's unbelievable how useful the search/filter thing.And yeah, the crafting system in NWN2 (and KOTOR2 for that matter) are both extremely good and extremely powerful if you get the hang of them.Qara sure does kick some ass.

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Oh hey, it is Valentine's day, huh... Guess I need to run out at some point and get some flowers or something for the wife then... God I wish I wasn't so horrible with dates.

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Y'all have fun with that. I'll be over here with my inner single guy, grumbling. Alternately, I don't get to see my girlfriend until super late Friday, so eh, whatever. Just another day at work.

God I wish I wasn't so horrible with dates.
I'm kind of in that boat too. I'd never remember Sarah's birthday or our anniversary if the first wasn't also tax day and the second wasn't precisely 5 months later. Waking up and going "Hey, it's the 15th...something is probably going on!" is about the best my poor brain can handle.Hanaisse may feel free to make a stereotypical male joke here.
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Khelgar has been quite a bit of fun actually' date=' as have a few of the other guys. Although it does seem they devoted the most effort to him, followed very closely by Shandra Jerro.

Apparently I need to figure out how to master the crafting system then because to me it just looks like a lot of fluff with no real purpose. A lot like alchemy in Oblivion. Then again, I prefer spending level-ups on turning my dwarf into a powerhouse with a greataxe. At least there are some nice greataxes in the game.

Kept hoping they'd do more with Qara's bit, but so far they haven't. She can't be beat for raw power though. Holy crap.

Navmeshing implies someone is doing a Fallout 3 mod :P[/quote']A lot of effort went into writing the characters, more than most games, less than BG or DA. One thing you need to remember with that though is that a lot of stuff won't open up without high influence checks, which is a bitch.I'd just like to clarify that I never meant to suggest you didn't know about the pause button. :facepalm:I just didn't have a huge problem with the interface, though navigation (in the world) was a bit of a pain. It was certainly better than the sodding radial menus in NWN1.

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What's even more of a bitch though is cruising along, getting past several dungeons, and a bunch of stuff at one's keep only to encounter a glitch in a main quest critical area that has effectively stopped the game. Made even worse by the fact that I could fix it if the toolset would just work instead of crashing on launch.

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Hopefully the internets and your old saves can fix that.So, hey, remember how in Oblivion's script editor, if you were missing an endif or something, it would usually call you out for it in some fashion on compile? Wasn't that great?Which is to say, F:NV GECK script editor, that it would be helpful if you would present me with error messages instead of silently failing and giving me a "Do you want to save the current script?" dialogue which doesn't actually do that thing. Just kind saying, you know?

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Which is to say' date=' F:NV GECK script editor, that it would be helpful if you would present me with error messages instead of silently failing and giving me a "Do you want to save the current script?" dialogue which doesn't actually do that thing. Just kind saying, you know? [/quote']Wow. Super user friendly there, Obsidian.Which brings me to say- 'God bless the CSE'
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Yes, actually the internet had the solution. Some whacked thing with DX9 where having used the web installer to install it wasn't enough. Had to download the full package instead. Toolset launched fine after that and I managed to get a replacement fire elemental put on the map. Then I realized I'd actually saved over the original module. Good thing the game didn't care.Also, there are instances where the Oblivion CS does not flag a missing endif. Several vanilla scripts had this problem and got fixed by the UOPS when the OBSE compiler became able to flag those issues. CSE didn't really make that any different, it just presents it in a useful editor :)So you might try NVSE and see if they fixed the compiler issues there?

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Oh hey' date=' it is Valentine's day, huh... Guess I need to run out at some point and get some flowers or something for the wife then... God I wish I wasn't so horrible with dates.[/quote']
Y'all have fun with that. I'll be over here with my inner single guy' date=' grumbling. Alternately, I don't get to see my girlfriend until super late Friday, so eh, whatever. Just another day at work.
God I wish I wasn't so horrible with dates.
I'm kind of in that boat too. I'd never remember Sarah's birthday or our anniversary if the first wasn't also tax day and the second wasn't precisely 5 months later. Waking up and going "Hey' date=' it's the 15th...something is probably going on!" is about the best my poor brain can handle.[/quote']Geez, you two really are natural born romantics, aren't ya'? :lol:This is why God has given us computer calendars and web sites like BirthdayAlarm.com, so those who are date challenged can be aided without embarrassment. ;)(So, Sarah's an Aries too, eh? Dragona's birthday is April 5th, as was my mother's, and my eldest son's birthday is March 25th while my youngest son's birthday is April 14th... I've got LOTS of Aries in my closest family. ;))
I just didn't have a huge problem with the interface' date=' though navigation (in the world) was a bit of a pain. It was certainly better than the sodding radial menus in NWN1[/quote']Radial menus are rarely a good thing. I don't know who came up with them, but.. :headbang: Even Planescape:Torment used one and it was probably the worst aspect of that game.
What's even more of a bitch though is cruising along' date=' getting past several dungeons, and a bunch of stuff at one's keep only to encounter a glitch in a main quest critical area that has effectively stopped the game. Made even worse by the fact that I could fix it if the toolset would just work instead of crashing on launch.[/quote']Ouch, that's definitely not cool. :(
So' date=' hey, remember how in Oblivion's script editor, if you were missing an endif or something, it would usually call you out for it in some fashion on compile? Wasn't that great?Which is to say, F:NV GECK script editor, that it would be helpful if you would present me with error messages instead of silently failing and giving me a "Do you want to save the current script?" dialogue which doesn't actually do that thing. Just kind saying, you know?[/quote']How helpful. :rolleyes:
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@Samson - Well, it's not like there haven't ever been whacked DX9 things ever before. Also, where is there a game-breaking fire elemental? I feel I should remember that.As far as NVSE goes, it's pretty much a moot point now. But hey, I just had a great experience when I realized my attempts to use the set enable state to opposite of parent totally didn't work, so at least that's just like Oblivion.Too, the vanilla Oblivion CS at least gave you semi-descriptive errors some of the time. The F:NV GECK doesn't. At all. Ever.@Conner - Well, you know. It's not so much that I don't get the romance thing (flowers, jewelry, cooking, it works!), as much as when you spend as much time single as I did you really get a bit jaded about the whole thing. "Oh hey, it's that holiday designed to make me feel like shit for failing at dating! Woo-hoo!" etc. I enjoy it now, of course, but remain ever so slightly jaded.Also it's really hard to celebrate when your girlfriend is 8 hours away, you know? This weekend will be far better in that regard.As far as radial menus go, would you believe I actually got pretty good with NWN1's, albeit the end of the line Diamond edition's version of it. PS:T's was a complete and utter disaster, however. Christ that thing was shoddy.

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Good to know they never did fix that whole "set enable state to opposite of parent checkbox doesn't work until you reload the object data" bug from the Oblivion CS.

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Good to know they never did fix that whole "set enable state to opposite of parent checkbox doesn't work until you reload the object data" bug from the Oblivion CS.
Even I don't know what you just said. :huh:
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Works like this. You can do it in Oblivion, too.- Find somewhere with a persistent object.- Find a non-persistent object, open it up, and parent it to the persistent object via whatever means you like.- While you're still on the parenting tab, make sure to click the "set enable state to opposite of parent" checkbox.- Hit OK.- Watch it totally fail in-game.What you have to do, of course, is do the parenting, then hit OK, then go back in and click the box and hit OK again.

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Well' date=' you know. It's not so much that I don't get the romance thing (flowers, jewelry, cooking, it works!), as much as when you spend as much time single as I did you really get a bit jaded about the whole thing. "Oh hey, it's that holiday designed to make me feel like shit for failing at dating! Woo-hoo!" etc. I enjoy it now, of course, but remain ever so slightly jaded.[/quote']Uh-huh, I hear ya'... ;)You know, it's funny, yesterday we were out driving back from dinner and Jack FM was on the radio and they had one of their in-between songs announcements that said something roughly like "We wish you a happy valentine's day.. by you, we mean all the girls out there. To the guys we just wish you a speedy recovery." :lol:
Also it's really hard to celebrate when your girlfriend is 8 hours away' date=' you know? This weekend will be far better in that regard.[/quote']Ouch. Didn't do the Valentine's weekend thing instead to make up for not being able to be together for the main event? Or is that a side effect of the whole "gotta learn to use a calendar" thing? ;)
As far as radial menus go' date=' would you believe I actually got pretty good with NWN1's, albeit the end of the line Diamond edition's version of it. PS:T's was a complete and utter disaster, however. Christ that thing was shoddy.[/quote']Agreed. After hours of NWN Diamond edition, you start to get used to it, but even that was painfully reminiscent of PS:T, if not as bad. Hell, even in PS:T you eventually get used to dealing with it, but I can't say I ever got to where I actually liked it.
What you have to do' date=' of course, is do the parenting, then hit OK, then go back in and click the box and hit OK again.[/quote']I've actually seen a number of computer apps (even worse, I've seen a few phone apps like that) which require you to effectively hit OK for each change rather than for all your changes at once.
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My mod completely and totally works now. More on this later.

"We wish you a happy valentine's day.. by you' date=' we mean all the girls out there. To the guys we just wish you a speedy recovery."[/quote']So true. Sarah is ever so much more sentimental about these things than I ever am, although in a charming way and not a super-annoying way. I chose well in this regard.
Didn't do the Valentine's weekend thing instead to make up for not being able to be together for the main event?
This weekend is the one she could get off' date=' so it's the one we're doing. Probably works out better that way, since I now have an un-snowed in car and the doctor told me I could start walking around like a human again today.
Agreed. After hours of NWN Diamond edition' date=' you start to get used to it, but even that was painfully reminiscent of PS:T, if not as bad. Hell, even in PS:T you eventually get used to dealing with it, but I can't say I ever got to where I actually liked it.[/quote']What kills me in both cases, of course, is that BG1/BG2 had a really excellent interface system that worked great and pretty much flawlessly. In the case of PS:T, you can make the excuse that the engine is actually of an older vintage than BG, so of course it's less polished, but NWN has no excuse. Of course, the only excuse for NWN as an entire game is Deekin, but that's a seperate thing altogether.
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@Samson - Also' date=' where is there a game-breaking fire elemental? I feel I should remember that.[/quote']Ammon Jerro's Approach. The thing with the braziers. Somehow, some way, the 3rd fire elemental you have to fight to get the heart in order to activate the brazier simply never showed up. No brazier, no entry to Ammon's Haven. Main quest grinds to a complete halt.Also, I am once more reminded why these D&D style games are losing favor. Battles with insanely overpowered things like red dragons is *NOT* fun, ever. It's also *NOT* fun to make a deal with said dragon only to have it conveniently break that deal because the developers were assholes and wanted to force you to fight it. I was left with little choice but to enable god mode to bring that thing down after it burnt my entire party to a crisp several times before I even knew what hit me. Being made to reload your game several times before having to give in and cheat to get past it is about the most ridiculous thing ever. I swear, if the mission I'm being sent on now really does turn out to have a mountain full of the things I'll just turn god mode on and leave it on for the duration. I fucking knew they couldn't resist revisiting the insanity levels of Icewind Dale.Tempted to cheat grant myself about a million xp to take a stab at evening the odds.
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Well, you wouldn't actually need a million. :P Depending on your race, you might only need about 300k. :P If you tell me your race, I can determine your ECL, and give you a number if you really want. :P

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