kenata

Interesting thoughts. I actually agree with your first point very much. Without the addition of deployment, it would be really nice if the standard delpoyments actually selected the best troop for each part of the formation. Additionally, it would be cool if these deployments could be modded in some meaningful way so that quest and encounter mods could specify the exact deployment of their engagements. As for your second point, this is a fairly easy thing to mod. I would suggest you t

There are two significant files for modding unit health. The first is CoreUnitStats.xml, which defines the base health value, and CoreUnits.xml, which holds the basic unit definitions. A good way to start modding health would be to create a new faction and a new base unit. Once you have these created, modify the constitution and health values of the unit and compare them with those of the static factions. Remember that if you leave out a stat in the unit definition, its default value is used

It is interesting to look at this review now in hindsight after finishing the game. I too was bothered by some of the thing stated in the OP, but as I played through the game, I came to realize just how deep the game actually was. There are a couple of things from the OP I would like to point out though as I think they were overstated. The crafting system in DA2 is definitely different than in the Origins, yet the infinite crafting resources is not somehow new to DA2. In Origins, elfr

[quote]Ahh...LoL. I see what the problem is now...ooops. The problem is me...hehe. I was under the impression that ALL of "Part 2" was what took place in the Deep Roads. The reason I thought that is that you get a cut-scene before you go in, you get a cut scene when you come out. So to me, I thought that was the "border" of a whole part. My bad. It was the "Deep Roads Expedition" section that only took me about 4 hours (taking my time). I guess I'm still in part 2 then.[/quote]

[quote]Unless there is some kind of bug that broke something I don't know about, I don't think I did. I's say what all happened but I don't want to give anything away for those going through it atm. When I was in the Deep Roads area though, I talked to everyone I could and did every quest I could get, which weren't many. Maybe something messed up? I thought it seemed Way too short. Hmm, I'll browse the official forums and see if there's any mention of it.[/quote] I agree that you may

omg...The people that make this game are my neighbors.

[quote]the Few things the game does right, and more importantly the Many things the game does Wrong...[/quote] I have played a fair bit of Dragon Age 2 at this point and over the past few days I have bounced back and forth between the love camp and the hate camp. As I near the end of the first section, I find myself still torn. While I am find some of the streamlining to be questionable, my largest complaint is not about changes to the system or even being bound to the single city. Fo

[quote]What exactly do you think the scientific method is anyway? To say that is doesn't work makes absolutely no sense, much in the same way it doesn't make any sense to say that 1 + 1 = 2 doesn't work. To revisit that statement...[/quote] I am not exactly sure how one would analogize 1+1=2 and the scientific method, as one is a fact of definition while the other is a methodology of inquery based upon the socratic method.

[quote]Fair enough. I would suggest that a good working definition of 'works' in this context to be: "Produces things that are widely used and would not be available without it." That said, I didn't mean for this thread to be a debate on the merits of the scientific method. But I won't be upset or offended if anyone else wants to continue along those lines.[/quote] I am unsure if I would agree with your definition of works, as this would exclude a large set of systems which can be sai

[quote]Very true. And most importantly, as I'm sure you know, is that it works. And when we're led up a false path through faulty premises, eventually the bottom falls out and the data are re-interpreted as necessary.[/quote] To say the scientific method works is questionable. It is fundamentally a wavelike process wherein key discoverys build up a distinct scientific paradigm until further discoveries tear down the paradigm. Yet, the basic assumption would imply that upon the discove

[quote]Playing the single player Fallout, I have zero use of community features. Steam is nothing more than a memory hog at that point, a pointless interface I never use. I've never even brought up the interface there.[/quote] This is a personal preference, and not a universal feeling amongst the larger majority of gamers. While it would be nice to be able to disable the interface if you just don't like it or use it, it does allow many very nice features for those who want to take adv

[quote]Nope. Xander & Nym from the book extra content can NOT cast. I think there are two other non-casters from the book, but I haven't played them. BTW, Xander is cool. If you like the game, might be worth buying the book for him even if you don't plan to read it.[/quote] This is probably an oversight of some kind. Did they ever cast, like back in the essence days? Edit: This is odd, the spell imbue champion seems to target friendlychampion. I was under th

[quote]Remember: the single player crowd has no need whatsoever of Impulse, outside of a store. The featureset being developed (communication, connecting users) and its competitiveness with Steam is contingent on people who actually want to play with other people.[/quote] This is not true at all. One of the best features of steam is the in-game chat, though it does not simply connect two players playing the same game. In fact, when I use this feature, I tend to be playing a different

Discussions of the necessity of linguistic recursion are fairly amusing, especially those originating from Chomsky. The average neuron has the ability to form recursive connections in its inherent structure, yet this capability does not necessarily imply that a particular set of neurons needs to create recursive connections. It has long been thought that this linguistic structure is necessary during the creation of sentience since the referencing of self by self appears necessary for self-awa

[quote]And I designed Galactic Civilizations and Elemental: War of Magic. GalCiv is loved. WOM was panned. Did my design skills suddenly fall apart? Or do other factors weigh far more? If you read the current issue of Game Developer there's a Civ V post mortem. The biggest problem they ran into was lack of time. They had to axe a lot of features from the design because they ran out of deveopment time. Not to belittle game design - it's important - but it ultimately is

[quote]1. Terrain.[/quote] You do have a point about the in-between lands of a faction. They exist primarily as the area traversed by units and secondarily as a possible location for a goodie hut. However, the mechanics you suggest do not necessarily make this land more interesting or compelling to control. These kinds of mechanics are incredibly similar to those found in the Civ series, though without the addition of tile improvements. All these mechanisms do would be to add up all t

As far as I know, this is not exactly a bug. A bunch of the modders have run into this problem, as the system does not allow you to set a cast limit for spells. Thus, any spell should be castable multiple times no matter the target. Honestly, the best solution would not be some hard coded once per spell cast as there are many use cases where this would be undesirable. What has been suggested before is a tag in the spell definition that dictates a cast limit per target.

[quote]i said earlier that i don't care about multiplayer, but i've simultaneously no desire to go all Egyptian over this issue. i respect stardock's judgement and dislike the way this has taken over the forums. even if multiplayer is only included to shut up reviewers "con: it has no multiplayer," then it will have some value i guess.[/quote] Sethai and I usually don't agree, but here I agree with him completely.

[quote]Well when it comes to streamlining I think it's hard to say that it's outright bad or good. I'm sure even the most hardcore complexity fan can find streamlining changes they actually liked if they think about them.[/quote] I completely agree. Steamlining itself has both good and bad uses. The current trends in the game industry are fairly understandable when one takes a look from a purely business stand point. Most games make the vast majority of their sales in the first two we

[quote]The all important question is: why would a feature be undoable in MP but not SP? The only reason I can think of is it is being done wrong.[/quote] There are any number of reasons why a feature would work in SP and not MP. Some are balance or design reasons, others are technical reasons, and still yet others are simply business reasons. To say that the only reason that a feature would be unimplementable in MP but not SP is that the feature is somehow being implemented wrong seem

[quote who="mqpiffle" reply="11" id="2899953"]No it didn't...I completely agree with you and was a bit peeved at myself for not noticing it sooner. It doesn't seem like I can remove the offending upload, either...[/quote] Yeah I am not sure if you can remove them yourself. You can always try sending an email to support and ask them to remove it.

[quote]In means, we are getting some random frogs down the pipe. [/quote] mmm....random pipe frogs...tasty.

[quote]Well, shared viewing and chat facility in allies' battles might help.[/quote] True, but now at least, we can acknowledge that the idea of SP like MP would be more than the simply " just add humans" that has been circling this forum for a while.

[quote]So what do you suggest for the MP problem, especially given Alstein's comment?[/quote] Honestly, Alstein is correct, sometimes gamers can be a bit wacky about these types of things. In general, you have a couple of good options. First, you could simply sell the game + a DLC for MP. Secondly, you could release the game as SP only, then later a delux edition which includes MP, as well as a DLC for MP for those who already have the base product. The first case is the one alstein i

[quote]Ya, I'm also pretty much all against dlc... but who knows, maybe SD can do it right and not do full game release (60$), mappack (15$), new faction/skin (5$ a piece, 3 to go), drummer's set (100$[/quote] I completely agree with this. The first time I ever really became aware of DLC was with Oblivion, when they were selling mount armor packs and small side quests. At the time, I thought the idea was silly. In a lot of cases, DLC is done with respect given to the players, wherein