Starmaker wrote:I always play through it the best way (as a mage with harm, medium magic affinity, and a bunch of companions). I restarted or made significant rollbacks about two dozen times before I found it, and now I can't force myself to start a different character because why would I play a suboptimal character. I tried to find the one true path with technology but got scared of the projected effort and time expenditure.
1) The techno character is way stronger than the character you describe.
2) The high magic affinity character is stronger than the character you describe.
In what possible sense does your desire to not play a sub optimal character cause you to reject stronger characters in favor of a sub optimal one.
Starmaker wrote:I always play through it the best way (as a mage with harm, medium magic affinity, and a bunch of companions). I restarted or made significant rollbacks about two dozen times before I found it, and now I can't force myself to start a different character because why would I play a suboptimal character. I tried to find the one true path with technology but got scared of the projected effort and time expenditure.
1) The techno character is way stronger than the character you describe.
2) The high magic affinity character is stronger than the character you describe.
In what possible sense does your desire to not play a sub optimal character cause you to reject stronger characters in favor of a sub optimal one.
Plot content. Combat in Arcanum is easy even at the highest difficulty. I just want as many quests resolved in the way I want them resolved as possible (which happens to be objectively difficult), and as many NPCs whom I like in the party as possible, and all the fate points that don't interfere with those goals. This requires passing various "you must be this tall" checks. So I buy Harm, some utility spells, max Persuasion, max Teleport, unbuffable stats to required minimums, an assortment of skills, and pick up blessings at specific plot points. Until at least level 20, I'm walking around with Unlocking Cantrip as my highest-level spell. I hit top MA eventually, but by that time it doesn't really matter.
I'd like to hear everyone's opinion on Dragon Age 2. Fans of DA:O seem to despise it, but for me personally, it was one of the best RPGs since Mask of Betrayer. And one of the few games I've played three times.
My opinion is rather mixed. I like the gameplay, but the party management is very choppy and the tactics system is basically worthless because there aren't nested conditions. The specific problem I ran into is that I set up a tactic for the blood magic lady to use her blood-control AoE on large groups and then she kept using it on enemies who did not have any blood. Likewise, there are some cool combos you can do but the timing is a complete mess.
The plot pretty much completely falls apart in the third act, though. Several pretty significant events simply do not pay any attention whatsoever to your position on the Templar-Mage axis, despite it being literally the most important thing in the game. The end fight is pretty good, but there's a lot of nonsense along the way and frankly they could have just cut out pretty much every bit of main plot between the start of the third act and when things went totally to shit without even slightly damaging the story. Especially the bit where I was railroaded into saving the guy who I'd threatened to kill if he ever showed his face in the city again.
In general, too few of the options along the main questline let you be a sane person. This is particularly egregious in light of the DA:O Broken Circle quest. In a nutshell, after Ostagar Logain offered freedom to the Fereldan Circle if they came to his aid in some fashion. It's not entirely clear what the terms were, because the mages were looking likely to reject it when the pro-revolution faction attacked the meeting, people's powers started to rage out of control, and when all was said and done there were fleshy growths all over the tower, blood mages were cutting their way through demons while the Templars who eluded being slaughtered or mind-controlled sent for reinforcements and approval to exterminate everyone, and a motherfucking Pride Abomination had captured most of the top mages and was preparing to forcibly summon demons into them.
Why is this relevant? Well, you are entirely capable of beating up all the demons and saving a bunch of the mages, canceling the extermination order, and having it totally work out. This pretty much completely invalidates, uh, basically everything the Templars say, but you can't point this out. Likewise, it becomes increasingly clear that the Templar order, if anything, makes things worse but you can't ever make the argument that their extremely heavy-handed zero tolerance policies have a habit of driving mages to extremes when they escape the prison-tower.
Really, making it Qunari-Mage instead of Templar-Mage would have made more sense. At least the Qunari's horribly inhumane system actually works for keeping down demonic possession and aside from that they're pretty much inarguably superior to Kirkwall's actual government. Also, at the end of it all, I kind of got the feeling that things would have ended better if Hawke had never been born.
Also, on a characterization level the party dynamic was kinda fucked. After the end of act 1, there were only three companions who I could tolerate and could tolerate each other. I mean, Fenris hates mages, while Merril and Bethany are mages. This was unfortunate, because I liked all three of them. Anders and Isabella were just intolerable.
Now, I did like playing a warrior. I specialized as a Reaver, which increased my damage output as my health dropped, so I had a lot of fun keeping my health in the range where I beat the shit out of people without running out.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
Why is this relevant? Well, you are entirely capable of beating up all the demons and saving a bunch of the mages, canceling the extermination order, and having it totally work out. This pretty much completely invalidates, uh, basically everything the Templars say, but you can't point this out. Likewise, it becomes increasingly clear that the Templar order, if anything, makes things worse but you can't ever make the argument that their extremely heavy-handed zero tolerance policies have a habit of driving mages to extremes when they escape the prison-tower.
There were author's saving throws about "Templars are totaly not Chantry no really Chantry aren't religious extremists christians."
In one of the games there were also mentions of Ferelden's templars being rather nice, compared to all other templars. The chief templar in Ferelden seemed to be total bro with the chief mage, compared to Meredith and Kirkwall's chief mage.
Also, on a characterization level the party dynamic was kinda fucked. After the end of act 1, there were only three companions who I could tolerate and could tolerate each other. I mean, Fenris hates mages, while Merril and Bethany are mages. This was unfortunate, because I liked all three of them. Anders and Isabella were just intolerable.
I agree on Anders and Isabella being twats. I never had them in the party ^_^ I liked Carver more than Bethany though. Carver starts like an insuferable douche, but gets better over time and you can understand him feeling small and useless, compared to two magical relatives. Bethany just starts bland and gets bitchy later.
The combat was faster paced in 2 (the first seemed glacially slow), which was appreciated. However, I think the fact that spells no longer affected your allies too was a mixed blessing: It made certain spells get cast a lot more often, but it also neutered some of the strategy (because even on easy in Origins, a fireball would still stun your allies along with the enemies, and so would crowd control. Glyphs and stuff were something you needed finesse to use rather than programming in "When surrounded by 3 or more enemies, cast Stunning glyph).
The tactics system in 2 had a lot more slots which is a huge improvement (I had trouble getting my allies to do anything without babysitting in Origins), but was still lacking in needed complexity.
Downsides: every dungeon is the same, the characters of Origins were a lot more interesting than 2 (Awakenings wasn't as good as Origins possibly due to shorter length in character development, but at least Anders wasn't a hypocritical twat in that one. Supposedly the writers originally were going to have Justice possess the bitchy elf bitch instead, which would have explained the change in Justice to Vengeance a lot better in my opinion). I give some props because I liked Nathaniel Howe, and the dwarf girl was adorable (just don't put her and Oghren in the same party...)
I think it's interesting how the friendship/rivalry system changes certain characters. Fenris as a friend becomes a tragic figure, Ferris as a rival is a whiny bitch that asked for it. Anders becomes more himself as a friend but more Justice as a rival (although not enough to keep him from fucking everything up at the end). DLC becomes more holy as a friend and more vengeful noble as a rival. Still, I'd say that the character list is far less interesting.
There is a lot of DA2 story that's not properly woven into the exposition properly (Kirkwall has an unusually high number of blood mages and demons and crap because of both the fact that the entire city is designed as one big focus for blood magic, and the fact that one of the original Tevinter magisters that became the Darkspawn is trapped nearby), but you wouldn't know that without reading lots and lots of side text or consulting a wiki).
I dislike how the only person who makes any damn sense in the entire game (The Arishok) has no option to join him. I dislike how there's one dungeon that has passages blocked up and recycled for every dungeon in the game. I don't like how Orsinio proves the templars right by becoming a DA:O DLC boss except easier (originally Orsinio wouldn't resort to blood magic unless you sided with Aribeth, and Aribeth didn't go batshit crazy unless you sided with Orsinio, but they wanted another big fight at the end).
The setting is compelling though, even if 2 did not live up to the standards of 1. It kind of feels like how I'd imaging Warhammer Fantasy would feel as a western console RPG.
Last edited by TheJerkStore on Fri Nov 08, 2013 8:19 am, edited 2 times in total.
He's a lot more brutal in some of his moves. And he'll Zandatsu more than one person at a time. And he can taunt enemies, which makes them attack more aggressively and hit harder, but have lower defense.
So far, I've fought Blade Wolf and a Metal Gear.
And the VR things are HARD AS FUCK.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Maxus wrote:
He's a lot more brutal in some of his moves. And he'll Zandatsu more than one person at a time.
Raiden can do that too.
Koumei wrote:I'm just glad that Jill Stein stayed true to her homeopathic principles by trying to win with .2% of the vote. She just hasn't diluted it enough!
Koumei wrote:I am disappointed in Santorum: he should carry his dead election campaign to term!
Just a heads up... Your post is pregnant... When you miss that many periods it's just a given.
I want him to tongue-punch my box.
]
The divine in me says the divine in you should go fuck itself.
Maxus wrote:
He's a lot more brutal in some of his moves. And he'll Zandatsu more than one person at a time.
Raiden can do that too.
It's somehow not come up as Raiden.
I guess because as Sam, I taunt then go into blade mode and cut multiple fools at once.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
I beat the MGR DLCs. Blade Wolf's was a good bit easier because with some patience and study, you can sneak-kill just about everything. Sam has his fun parts, though, and I enjoyed fighting as him more. Blade Wolf doesn't have what you'd call a varied moveset.
Also, I had a few bucks left on XBL, so I bought the Gray Fox costume, which comes with his sword which serves as an alternate to the normal main sword rather than a secondary weapon like the Spear of Arms or the Scissorblades.
Once upgraded, the sword is stupefyingly powerful. Those giant gorilla enemies? The ones you often see in the sewers? Yeah. Three hits, and the third hit splits it up the middle. The Fox Blade has an special enhancement (for 100k BP) which make it ignore armor sometimes. It might be a function of how upgraded the sword is because after doing the DLCs I had the scratch to upgrade all its stats to the maximum (okay, I mighta replayed a few bits, because they were fun).
Last edited by Maxus on Mon Nov 11, 2013 2:18 am, edited 2 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
See, I recently downloaded the Roberts Male Body Replacer mod, because I got tired of the ugly-as-fuck vanilla body.
But here's the problem: For whatever reason, the male Khajiit texture is fucked up.
I've traced the problem to the .dds files: The male Khajiit body texture file is footmale.dds (the directory is textures/characters/Khajiit/male/footmale.dds), and there seems to be some problem with the female Khajiit body tex, footfemale.dds. But I don't know why it's a problem.
See, in the mod itself, there is no footmale.dds for Khajiit. Instead, the file is called RTfootmale.dds. The way I've been doing it has been by renaming the file with the RT, thus overwriting the vanilla texture file.
But whenever I do this, for whatever strange reason, the female texture starts using the footmale.dds file, causing that to become screwed up, despite the fact that the files for male and female body textures are in separate files.
Basically, the way it is now is that I can either have female Khajiit with the correct textures and fucked up looking males, or vice-versa. No other seems race seems to have this problem.
Anyone know enough about the vagaries of Oblivions inner workings to know what the problem is?
Is this wretched demi-bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
That sounds like a buffer overflow problem of some sort. I don't know how Oblivion specifically does it, so I can't say for sure, but from the description it sounds like it loads the racial texture files into adjacent sections of memory, and the revised footmale.dds is too large. I was under the impression people could install higher resolution textures just fine, though.
Either the other races have the correct texture size with the revised one, or whoever coded texture mapping did something stupid with the female Khajit mapping. Try swapping the names of the male and female textures; if it's a specific problem then the textures should be reversed but display no ill effects, while if it's a general problem something else (presumably one of the other player races, most probably the next one on the selection list) will become fucked up.
In addition to a memory overflow, it might be a texture dimensions issue. It's possible the game saves space by combining multiple textures into a gigantic texture and then mapping a subsection of that texture, so if there's a mismatch between the male texture actual dimensions and what it tells the program its dimensions are, that might produce the problem.
Mind, it would take a very precise form of fucking up for either of these issues to result in females using the complete male texture. It'd have to access a fixed memory offset, then use the structure that contains that location even though it probably isn't set up to redirect back to the start, and I'm pretty sure most coders dealing with memory would sell their souls to be able to do that on purpose. Are you sure it's displaying the male texture in its entirety, or is it displaying only some of it and displaying the female texture for the rest, only those parts look basically identical? Alternately, is it loading part of the texture and mapping that over the entire model?
As for a fix, that kinda depends. If it's a generalized overflow problem, you'll need to shrink the male texture or perform voodoo to make it the last thing loaded into texture memory. If it's specific to Khajit, you'll probably be able to fiddle with whatever file decides which texture goes with which model. Look into what people creating entirely new creatures do to texture them, then do that to female Khajit.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
My girlfriend and I killed The Twins this morning. I used Orichalcum Armour (full set), Starcloak, a bunch of buff potions, and the Starcannon. For ammo, I accepted that "grinding hundreds of these will take hours but not actually be difficult in any way" so used the character editor to just have a thousand.
Next will be Plantera or the Destroyer of Worlds. Then maybe the Pumpkin Moon or Skeletron Prime.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Koumei, I'd recommend the destroyer next. If you're using ranged weapons getting the souls of might from the destroyer to make a Megashark will make things MUCH easier. Plus with a properly set up arena destroyer is the easiest of all. Pumpkin moon is currently the hardest content out there and probably advisable to power up some more first.
I'm pretty sure you can use a lance on the destroyer with high def + cross necklace and laugh in his face, fleeing every now and then to catch a breather. I mean, he's a worm - he is begging to be skewered by a multi-hitter like that. But then again, I think I had used an infini-money glitch and wasted a lot of time randomizing all my accesories to +4 warding for another 20 total defense on top of full adamantite or whatever, sooo... Not sure how easy that actually is.
I'd say probably in order of easiest to hardest (with a basic open arena for manuvering only)
Destroyer, Twins, Plantera, S Prime, Golem, P Moon.
Admittedly I have yet to beat the Golem without cheating like a rampant asshole.
Also if your world is Crimson the Ichor spell is a godsend even if you're not a mage, tag a target with it to reduce defense then apply violence liberally.
Last edited by Pariah Dog on Wed Nov 20, 2013 7:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
I've been playing Fire Emblem Awakening. I played one of the past Fire Emblem games (I think it was the first one that was translated to English, with Hector and Eliwood) and I hated it, but I'm loving Awakening -- it's totally awesome.
I have clocked a combined total of like 90 hours on Awakening in two playthroughs.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
I've been battling Hardmode Jungle for a while, gathering Chlorophite (I now have a full Chloro-suit) and trying to get turtle shells. I have one. Two more and it's Turtle Armour. Likewise, making an aboveground shroom area so I can get Shroomite.
And of course, just blending items together, making the glass tower bigger, making cloud houses and other fun stuff.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
I want to start over Awakening in Lunatic+ mode (I'm in Hard mode right now), but I want to use Katarina from the DLC with the new (read: good) art but aaargh you have to beat the final, hardest DLC to do that and have it carry over to your new game...
