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Well, I'm making some pretty good progress leveling up my Mulhorandi. I really want to start stirring poo poo and starting some form of PC conflict. It's really the best motivator for logging in and roleplaying for me, but I just don't know where to start with this setting. Forgotten Realms is a lovely  black and white setting, so I figure my dude is going to have to be a horrible dickhead for absolutely no reason to start something.Goon Red Wizard (Sasha?), are you planning anything? 'Cause my character is meant to be a Thayan Knight, so he'll basically throw his blind, disposable, and fanatical loyalty your way. Could help in getting a  evil plan going.
krazysigmarite fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Oct 29, 2013 |
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Oct 29, 2013 17:53
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Eh, forgotten realms isn't that bad. The upside to it is that you can do pretty much anything you want, background wise. I don't have anything big planned though. also you don't have to be a dick just because Ed Greenwood can't write, you can be more flexible and people won't care that much. You could conceivably be a thayan paladin of kossuth, for example
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Oct 29, 2013 19:45
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Selena (Fuzz) is putting together a pirate crew, Sasha's being a general dick, and Lia's as stated a bit of a DM magnet, having been in around 10 events in a week or so. We aren't really making a goon group so much as our characters sorta get along and that's cool. Edit: Some of us are getting pretty high up in the levels, specifically Lia and Selena, who are both level 7, as we found a good group of people to run dungeons with. KittyEmpress fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Oct 29, 2013 |
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Oct 29, 2013 20:07
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Pirate crew supremacy! Come man a cannon on the deck of The Plucky Dame... well, once we actually have enough money to buy her.
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Oct 29, 2013 20:22
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krazysigmarite posted:Well, I'm making some pretty good progress leveling up my Mulhorandi. I really want to start stirring poo poo and starting some form of PC conflict. It's really the best motivator for logging in and roleplaying for me, but I just don't know where to start with this setting. Forgotten Realms is a lovely Quantumfate posted:Eh, forgotten realms isn't that bad. The upside to it is that you can do pretty much anything you want, background wise. I don't have anything big planned though. also you don't have to be a dick just because Ed Greenwood can't write, you can be more flexible and people won't care that much. You could conceivably be a thayan paladin of kossuth, for example Thank you for saying this - I am so bloody sick of people slagging off FR because it's "generic". Mind you, the people saying this are the ones who can only get interested if its Dark Sun where the world is dying, everyone's enslaved and there's no water or it's Ravenloft where everything is evil and perverse. Forgotten Realms lets you do any kind of adventure you like, and it's incredibly fleshed out with a hundred hundred ways to build new histories and continuities. A lot of the more specialized worlds limit your options because they are focused on one aspect. FR is like the real world - you can have a pirate adventure on the high seas, a jungle trek, political intrigue, and just about anything with just a bit of imagination. I wasn't directly involved with this, but I was very irritated at how they shoehorned 4th edition nonsense into FR, and a guy I know ran a brilliant campaign wherein much of the Spellplague happened, but the PCs found out about Cyric's plot to kill Mystra and were able to somewhat warn her, so she was able to leave the Realmspace to save herself while Azuth (hard to remember this bit) and maybe the Magister sacrificed themselves to prevent total chaos in her absence. Then the PCs had to go help her find her way back into the Realms with Cyric and Shar trying to off them at every turn. I don't know much after that, but Elminster ended up ascending to divinity to replace Azuth. It was a really cracking plot thread that made total sense and allowed things to be shaken up, but they could still play Pathfinder/3.5 in FR. That's why I like that world - there's really nothing that one cannot do with it.
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Oct 30, 2013 02:49
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My problem with Forgotten Realms is less that it's a generic pastiche fantasy setting (Ravenloft is even more guilty of this), and more that Ed Greenwood is just terrible. Trying to build an immersive campaign out of this is quite frustrating - I spent about two years working with 'The Border Kingdoms' campaign setting trying to make it work, but there were just so many things Ed Greenwood didn't take into account when writing 'realmslore.' He just points to a random place on the map, gives it a compound word fantasy name, writes some stupid poo poo about how Scalemailshire is a peaceful fishing village that produces lots of silver and has an inn called the DRAGON'S FIRE named after the fire dragon that died in the exact spot and the retired adventurer  Quick example of Border Kingdoms problems I ran into: The biggest city in this setting was an incredibly affluent, pacifist trading city called Derlusk. The city is specifically said to have 1. No city walls, refuses to hire mercenaries, and has no nearby allied city-states, 2. A standing city garrison intentionally capped at sixty men, and 3. is surrounded by expansionist, hostile kingdoms with vastly larger armies. Sounds sustainable, right? Maybe it's protected by an off-screen high arch general magelord or something. Then placenames of the various 'kingdoms' - places just totally arbitrarily named 'baronies' or 'principalities' that didn't have princes or simply weren't baronies utterly for the sake of cheesy alliteration. And then there were problems with geography - the area is very mountainous, but all of the rivers flowed from flat grasslands that could not loving possibly be river sources. THE POINT: Basically, while Forgotten Realms is incredibly 'fleshed out,' the actual meat of the setting makes no loving sense at all and if you try to dig into it, it immediately falls apart and shatters any semblance of immersion that could possibly be garnered from playing in this setting. It's best to just smoke something hard and utterly wear out your suspension of disbelief. And always keep this at the back of your mind: Canonically, Elminster traveled dimensions to the 'Earth' plane and spoke with a 'wizard' named 'Ed of the Greenwood.' His realmspace hideaway has a portal to Ed Greenwood's house. THIS IS FORGOTTEN REALMS CANON. Well, how much do the DMs allow from diverting from the 'canon?' Some servers are really aspie about wanting to stick exactly to Ed Greenwood events, so you can't do anything to affect the server in any meaningful way. The DMs on Cormyr seem cool enough to maybe allow it though? krazysigmarite fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Oct 30, 2013 |
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Oct 30, 2013 04:51
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Those problems are pretty common though. Derail incoming. I am reminded of the Shadow World in Rolemaster where you have things like bronze age cultures living next to iron age cultures with no transfer of ideas or technology despite all the trade they supposable do. But my favorite is the totally-not-Aztec kingdom that has conquered a lot of land despite not being able to smelt copper or figure out how a wheel works, despite all their now-conquered neighbors knowing how. Also their lack of metal and wheels is entirely arbitrary since they don't actually lack ore or draft animals. And that's ignoring all the other totally-not cultures (like totally-not-ancient Greece, totally-not-iron age Rome or totally-not-bronze age celts) that are randomly plopped down with appropriate climate with no regards for or understanding about even very basic geography.  My group had to spend time adventuring near this awful city that everyone in the region liked which was ruled by very high leveled mages who employed a ridiculous amount of seers constantly scrying for any possible threat. If they found one they'd just send out their high level elite knights who all have special unique magical weapons no one else can ever get so the special snowflake city can never have anything bad happening to it forever and ever. One last thing (I could rant for days), the setting also has a race of humans who are taller, stronger and just plain better than regular humans in every single way. Oh, and they are known as empire builders and are all fair skinned and blond.
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Oct 30, 2013 11:47
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Me and my friends used it during our P&P days and we quickly found out that most of the "realmslore" should just be ignored. For me it's become symbolic for all the theorycrafting/"system mastery" bullshit which 3rd edition D&D was steeped in. I remember the very first page of the campaign setting book featured detailed stats for Elminster (Fighter1/Rogue2/Cleric3/Wizard24/Archmage5  ), because demystifying your Gandalf equivalent is a great idea.
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Oct 30, 2013 16:09
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krazysigmarite posted:Well, how much do the DMs allow from diverting from the 'canon?' Some servers are really aspie about wanting to stick exactly to Ed Greenwood events, so you can't do anything to affect the server in any meaningful way. The DMs on Cormyr seem cool enough to maybe allow it though? The DMs stick to some of it, such as cormyr needing adventuring charters or the treatment of orcs and drow, but seem a hell of a LOT more flexible, the king was killed via an in-game event, for example. Also strange how everyone all the time forgets that in d&d necromancers are rarely arcane casters and are usually divine casters. wrt Forgotten Realms, the biggest strength is that there is all that realmslore poo poo. Literally anyone, as long as they're a dork, can jump into anything in the setting without having to learn or deal with any homebrew BS. I also thought the spellplague was a great inclusion, shaking up a rsther stagnant world, akin to the time of troubles. Ed Greenwood may be a poo poo writer but he's not the only person of influence. There's also RA Salvatore.
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Oct 30, 2013 18:01
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I am sorry but eberron has Halfling who ride dinosaurs so you are all forgetting the best setting. Cormyr as a server is using the important events from the timeline that would affect Cormyr as settings for events, but letting PCs change and alter them in some ways. They are also,obviously, making their own events and stories. FR is crap because it is written stupidly in a lot of ways, but is also great because as stated there are sections of the world for anything. Generic fantasy? Cormyr. Evil mage Lords? That. Good mage Lords? That one that starts with M. Spirits? Rasheman. Luskan dor pirates... amn for shady thieves. FR is great for having the ability to so anything. Just ignore and novels set in it.
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Oct 30, 2013 18:15
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Basically D&D in general is a holdover archaic system that needs to just go away, but we play what's available and unfortunately no one is making DM client games that support PW architecture based on Savage Worlds, or Shadowrun, or nWoD, or Pathfinder, or whatever other system/setting you prefer. It's obscene how much money I'd pay for a good Star Wars or other sci-fi type type PW game with real RP.
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Oct 30, 2013 18:16
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I know, right? I'm amazed there hasn't been another 'PW-builder' multiplayer game a la Neverwinter Nights, especially due to the financial success of the series. It's such a good basis for a game: throw in a lovely SP campaign, then let players sperg over their own. You have your own word-of-mouth marketing machine that will sell your game for decades. Neverwinter Nights Diamond is still one of the top sellers on GOG.com, 10 years after its release. Absurd. D&D is all we have for the moment though, and the NWN series hosts the ONLY (graphical, non text-based) persistent world communities. It's the only place to scratch that online roleplaying itch, and even then, the community is stagnating. The most popular servers are fuckhorrible Second Life sex fantasies for pedophiles and otherkin. 
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Oct 30, 2013 18:26
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Hey Quantum, can you tell your friend that plays Milosh to register on the forums if he's still playing? We're hashing out the interior design of the pirate ship and we're going for a Firefly feel with lived in spaces and personality, and I want to know what sort of ridiculously pompous bunk with perfumes and hookahs or whatever that Milosh would want to have around all the time with him. Tell him to send me a PM on the forum and I'll add him to our discussion, since he's on the crew now (there's 6 of us total now!) because we all agreed he would be a hilarious and fun addition. 
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Oct 31, 2013 08:17
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Why can't they make NWN 3 
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Oct 31, 2013 08:55
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Speaking personally, the two issues with the Realms both sorta come down to realmslore. Basically, there's too loving much of it to the point where every square inch of the setting is already filled in, and all of it is really boring. It's a generic pastiche fantasy setting, ok, but it could try doing one or two things "different." It's up there with Greyhawk in "settings that have no real tagline."
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Oct 31, 2013 10:41
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goodness posted:Why can't they make NWN 3 They made NWO instead. A kinda dull mmo is surely much better?
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Oct 31, 2013 13:09
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Poil posted:They made NWO instead. A kinda dull mmo is surely much better? Except it wasn't made by either company who made a NWN game!  Neverwinter was never meant to be a NWN game or successor. Neverwinter the city became a Big Deal in 4e (probably because NWN and NWN2 brought in players) being a place where a lot of pre-made adventures took place, from one to 20. Neverwinter the MMO tried to get in on that sweet money, but was a bit late because most people with massive amounts of nostalgia for NWN had moved on by the time it came out. Also it's an MMO which is dumb. Obsidian just needs to make a stupid "Alwaysspring" or something and litearlly just crib Neverwinter nights without the setting, and let people make PWs again, but without a terible RNG.
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Oct 31, 2013 18:35
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KittyEmpress posted:Also it's an MMO which is dumb. It's an MMO. It's dumb. But the two aren't intrinsically linked, especially given that the real original NWN (not the one that was made by bioware) was basically the first graphical MMO ever. It was also my introduction to role playing online and it was awesome. (I also vaguely recall Neverwinter being the official RPGA setting back in the late 2E days - the granddaddy of structured play/con-centric global tabletop stuff - so saying that it got a random and unprecedented push in the 4E era seems a little off in that respect. It's always been one of the default adventuring hubs for the Realms.
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Oct 31, 2013 18:46
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Around the time I got my 2e FR box, the RPGA city was Raven's Bluff.
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Oct 31, 2013 19:18
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goodness posted:Why can't they make NWN 3 Conflict with Atari.
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Oct 31, 2013 19:46
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Hypocrisy posted:Conflict with Atari. Don't worry, Atari doesn't have D&D digital licensing rights anymore. It's in safe hands with Hasbro now. There will never be a good D&D CRPG again.
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Oct 31, 2013 20:10
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At the rate they've been going there will never be a good D&D of any kind ever again anyway.
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Oct 31, 2013 20:13
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Hypocrisy posted:Conflict with Atari. The only thing that the lawsuit seems to have changed is that instead of Atari mismanaging the license and not doing anything worthwhile with it, now both Hasbro and Atarai are mismanaging it together.
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Oct 31, 2013 20:15
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Fuzz posted:Hey Quantum, can you tell your friend that plays Milosh to register on the forums if he's still playing? We're hashing out the interior design of the pirate ship and we're going for a Firefly feel with lived in spaces and personality, and I want to know what sort of ridiculously pompous bunk with perfumes and hookahs or whatever that Milosh would want to have around all the time with him. Tell him to send me a PM on the forum and I'll add him to our discussion, since he's on the crew now (there's 6 of us total now!) because we all agreed he would be a hilarious and fun addition. I will, but I have also told him to register on the forums. Also he's a goon and reads this thread and really should be posting in this thread or something. Littlefinger posted:Around the time I got my 2e FR box, the RPGA city was Raven's Bluff. )
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Nov 1, 2013 11:47
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We got our subforum for the pirate guild on Cormyr. 
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Nov 1, 2013 16:52
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Anyone have any dirt on the PW "Sundren" ? I've been popping around different PWs. Cormyr is fun, but it's difficult to find people to play with and progression is painfully slow.
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Nov 4, 2013 08:27
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krazysigmarite posted:Anyone have any dirt on the PW "Sundren" ? I've been popping around different PWs. Cormyr is fun, but it's difficult to find people to play with and progression is painfully slow. It has 0 RP exp and is an old server that's mostly full of high level cliques that dominate most of the plots, from what I've heard. Pretty standard fare.
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Nov 4, 2013 08:33
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So I have a question about playing Neverwinter Nights 1. I have just got the platinum pack from GOG and rolled myself a sorcerer for the NWN campaign. I did the tutorial and realised I seem to have totally screwed myself in terms of dungeon delving because : 1. My character is weak as hell and doesn't have the magical power to deal with 3+ enemies and 2. My character cannot open locks or disarm traps meaning all those tasty boxes remain untouched In the tutorial it mentioned I can find henchmen to help me out, where do I find them ? It looks like I need some sort of fighter and some sort of thief to help me out here. Is it like Baldurs Gate where I can recruit a party of 6 ?
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Nov 4, 2013 10:15
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mitochondritom posted:So I have a question about playing Neverwinter Nights 1. I have just got the platinum pack from GOG and rolled myself a sorcerer for the NWN campaign. I did the tutorial and realised I seem to have totally screwed myself in terms of dungeon delving because : For NWN OC and SoU you can have only one henchman. In the HotU you can have two henchmen. In the OC you cannot control your henchman's inventory. You'll find the thief in the Temple of Tyr. Which is where you'll start after the tutorial. All other henchmen can be found at the Trade of Blades in the City Core. Each henchmen has his/her own personal quest. If you're a completeist then can do all of the quests. After you have completed each quest the henchman will give (Chapter 1) or upgrade (Chapters 2&3) an item. Make sure you do the Cloaktower quest since you're playing a sorcerer. Aratoeldar fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Nov 4, 2013 |
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Nov 4, 2013 10:47
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Aratoeldar posted:For NWN OC and SoU you can have only one henchman. In the HotU you can have two henchmen. In the OC you cannot control your henchman's inventory. Hmm, so I am basically screwed out of either a meat shield or a rogue depending on which I choose. Maybe it is worth multiclassing to a thief so I can fulfil all the party roles.
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Nov 4, 2013 11:01
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In the OC I am pretty certain that 99% of the time you can just bash the poo poo out of locked boxes and take their goodies that way. I think spellcasters get a rod of infinite ray of frost cantrips in the tutorial, so until you get stronger spells you can just use that to blow up the locked things.
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Nov 4, 2013 11:29
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SorcerousHam posted:In the OC I am pretty certain that 99% of the time you can just bash the poo poo out of locked boxes and take their goodies that way. I think spellcasters get a rod of infinite ray of frost cantrips in the tutorial, so until you get stronger spells you can just use that to blow up the locked things. Really ? I got the rod, I should have realised I could smash things open. Maybe I am getting mixed up with a game where if you "Bashed" the chests all the items inside were broken.
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Nov 4, 2013 12:54
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mitochondritom posted:Really ? I got the rod, I should have realised I could smash things open. Maybe I am getting mixed up with a game where if you "Bashed" the chests all the items inside were broken.
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Nov 4, 2013 14:55
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Flagrant Abuse posted:That's NWN2, where bashing them open has a chance to destroy some. Including gold, somehow. Ah yes that was it. I am odd in that I have played NWNII and its expansions but not the first game. I was actually going to play through 2 again and the "Mysteries of Westgate" which I never got round to last time, but unfortunately the camera controls in those games is so utterly awful it verges on unplayable. Additionally there seemed to be some crippling AI bug where my characters all just stood there saying "Shall I attack ???" over and over while lizardmen minced them all. I have a lot of love for the NWN games, and DnD games, but NWN2 is probably the most buggy and shockingly crappily performing games I have ever played. Even my 2012 built PC (which ran Skyrim on ultra ok) seems to stammer and heat up until every fan is going full power when the NWN2 engine starts. Not even the game itself, but the character creation screen. Just one of those janky old games I guess 
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Nov 4, 2013 15:02
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krazysigmarite posted:Anyone have any dirt on the PW "Sundren" ? I've been popping around different PWs. Cormyr is fun, but it's difficult to find people to play with and progression is painfully slow. Yeah, progression can be painful. Fortunately most of the people aren't that high. Who are you? Can find you a group that way.
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Nov 4, 2013 15:20
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If you want to play on Cormyr DO NOT play a loner DO NOT play a dickhead and probably DO NOT play a thayan. Grouping is required for every single class, if you want to do dungeons you will NEED friends. Even a cleric will get owned on here for quite some time. It is very much a server that does not support lone wolf/antagonist characters unless you have others making characters to interact with you. Quantum was lucky with Milosh, but unless you can play together often just make a tolerably nice character, or atleast one that not everyone will hate.
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Nov 4, 2013 17:09
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mitochondritom posted:but NWN2 is probably the most buggy and shockingly crappily performing games I have ever played. Even my 2012 built PC (which ran Skyrim on ultra ok) seems to stammer and heat up until every fan is going full power when the NWN2 engine starts. Not even the game itself, but the character creation screen. Just one of those janky old games I guess Reduce the shadow quality and it should run a lot better.
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Nov 4, 2013 17:18
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Poil posted:Reduce the shadow quality and it should run a lot better. I think I tried that actually I turned them off as I don't find shadows add much to the experience. I uninstalled it in frustration and decided to give NWN1 a go instead.
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Nov 4, 2013 17:37
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The dungeons arent particularly difficult now that I'm lvl 5. Just that you have to do the same one literally dozens of times over and over again which is incredibly boring. My difficulty finding people to play with is because I play from Perth, Western Australia and most goons aren't on during my hours. Ive been trying to catch QuantumFate's thayan but TZ makes it hard. Sorry my Thayan didn't get along with your Joie de Vivre Sunite, making fun of half orcs is just way too irresistable. I generally dungeon and RP with anyone who is on during my hours and have been trying to catch up with the goon pirates (lvl 7). Hence my query regarding alternative servers with populations during oz time. krazysigmarite fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 04:43
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krazysigmarite posted:The dungeons arent particularly difficult now that I'm lvl 5. Just that you have to do the same one literally dozens of times over and over again which is incredibly boring. Oh, if you get along with some people that is good, I don't think any server besides BG is active during Aus time though. I was concerned most people would not get along with you, because most do not get along with Sasha... and he's lower key than yours.
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Nov 5, 2013 04:53
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