Scleameth

Theunis is better than Giel !

Yep - spring is in the air and my shrubs are blooming !! There is also some sort of compost heap that the previous owner tried duckt-taping together, but yeah, I imagine I'm getting a "Plants of SA" book for x-mas Hey man good luck down under - loads of my friends and family is moving down to the Cape away from the big city rush. Stilbaai is gonna be filled with Valies pretty soon! Enjoy your jobless years, mate. Working is just no fun at all! I wish took up golfing sooner! Oh man, I'm sweating just reading this post fortunately I won't be needing 'em heavy duty machines, well it would be cool to drive over to the store in one of those just to annoy the taxis! now I just need to unpack the sewing machine and get the little ones to work!

I'll look into the signal booster thingy, thanks for the tip! Yeah and the man-cave is a real bonus! I just need to have to angel chime clip playing whenever I open the door to round it all off nicely! But as you say, Scott, I've got all the time in the world to work my way through the garden and shape it the way I want. I'll paint my fingers green as a 1st step ...

So I finally bought my own house and the first month of mortgage, loan payments and municipal payments are just about to be deducted... Ouch - time to calc, calc and recalc the budget! But the bigger place is absolutely wonderful! and having a big garden is great for the kids, but there is a ton of work to do and I've actually never worked in a garden before let alone mowing the lawn! There are shrubs all over the place - I think the previous owner had a goal to plant every shrub species in S.A. in this garden... I'm thinking of renting a chain saw and just holding it knee high while walking around the garden. And thorn trees OMG - there's a nice little job waiting for me to unroot at least half the thorn trees for the kiddies' sake. The other problem is that the cellphone signal is very weak at this place and I have to walk around the house: "can you hear me now? how about now?" and also means the 3G signal is poor and affects my work. But I'll have to take that up with the powers that be, or switch over to our country's monopoly land line service. But it HAS to be sorted out before Guild Wars 2 is released - that is one game I really don't want to miss out on! Having my own study is great, although I plan to play Guild Wars 2 on the tele most of the time. But not having to work on the dining room table is a big upside The kids have their own playroom, so we can just close the door and don't need to have toys lying around everywhere! All in all life is going great (until the 15th and I realize my bank account is in dire need of an additional zero)

Well I'm glad something moves faster than light... space travel at the speed of light just is not fast enough! perhaps this find will open the door to some new physics that leads to space folding or warp speed!!

For survivability I'd rather focus on armor. Hallowed restoration is something I never use, since I'm overloaded with health potions. Devine protection is a very useful CA, but I tend to never accept against bosses. Flaring nova works well for me - not for damage, but for the stun mod it offers. Sending out two pulses with stun chance normally saves my skin often in the desert against 'em scorpion champions. The verdict is still out on baneful smite, but with all of my seraphim builds, I just never had the commitment to really see what I can accomplish with, since there are so many other CAs that deal a heck of a lot more damage early on. For ranged attack, the Archangel's snotball works best for me - the force is really strong on the light side there once you get your regen times under control and it's a quick cast time. But I agree with lujate and reckon you can drop concentration and rather invest a few points in toughness. Also rather pump points into Dex - the boost in defence value is noticible within the 1st 5 lvls and the boost in attack is also welcome. I just started a High Elf in Silver and boosted Dex and Armour from the beginning and now at level 15, nothing can really harm me much. I stood toe to toe with Gahanka at level 10 just exchanging blows until he fell - which took a while since it's always my most dreaded quest to go with a pyro elf vs Mr. Inflammable.

Heh, or when getting a security warning when installing Microsoft products!

Perhaps you can try turning that off? Notifications

I like the taskbar too - can't recall when last I actaully used an icon on the desktop... My main gripe is the slow networking - it read somewhere that Windows 7 compresses files before transmitting, but I'm talking under correction here... all I know is it takes aaaaaaaages for large files to copy across the network. We work with large zipped files and with XP copies of 500Mb took about 3 mins over the network, with Windows 7 its better just to walk around the office with a memory stick, 'cause 500Mb files can take more than 45mins to copy sometimes... I like the start button - and thank heavens all those pop up balloons are gone!

Well, if the game was only just released and there were no patches to mention, then I would say that you would be 'none the wiser' and playing couch co-op on console will probably be your best choice. You'll likely not miss out on the Sacred experience and it will take a loooooong time just to finish the game the 1st time 'round if you go exploring every nook and cranny for side quests & bosses. there is a ton of content on the original release and you won't be disappointed going the console route. It's only when you get to seeing all the great stuff the CM guys are doing with the pc version that you wish you could have a bite of the fun, but I've not gone and gnawed by wrists in spite of it. I regularly play Sacred on PS3 and I'm still enjoying the game immensely and still trying out various builds. The console controller has it's pros and cons. I like the movement with the controller and in general all actions are just 1 or 2 clicks away. I dislike the inventory on the console - or rather the inventory organizing. I dislike the ranged attack on the console - pc is just point and click, but console is click move... mooooove..... mooooooooooove aaaaand release! I dislike that on console you have to assign weapons to buttons and would sometimes get all mixed up about which button has which weapons assigned to them. But I normally only assign 2 slots to weapons and my primary attack would be my stock attack CA, like pelting strikes = X. All in all I'm very happy with the game on console just the way it is. Ice & Blood would have been nice, CA patch would have been awesome, but it remains the same addictive kill/loot/level up, rinse and repeat.

I've only properly played the game on console and there are a number of issues that could be corrected, but it's plug and play as essjayehm states, which is great. But my mouth waters every time there is new discussions about some CM patch. Ice & Blood + CM Patch would be my 1st choice...

Well I'm trying my best to explore as much as possible, but I've found 2 or 3 caves that are a little above my level that I just need to leave for later on... But it is a big world to try and explore everything. And I'm not gaining much xp from critters anymore, so I'm aiming to complete side quests and then I'm basically exploring in a straight line, so I'm probably missing a whole lot along the way... but I'll just have to start visiting merchants more often rather than dismantling items to make room in my inventory. I have a ton of iron and wood which is far less valuable than actual items. Or go roll some dice...

Finally got a copy of this game and I really like it a lot. A lot more than dragon age tbh. Well, I had to do this Rustler's Run on horseback and after about 15 attempts I gave up trying. It seems that one has to have an absolute flawless run to make it back and forth in time, but I ALWAYS end up running into some or other obstacle that costs me that precious 5 seconds... eventually I dropped a personal teleporter at the halfway mark and ported there when starting the run and casually trotted back with oodles of time to spare and completing the objective of the quest, but now my map is marked with the waypoints of the run and it's still flagged as an incomplete objective in my log book. Is there any way to cancel a quest? Otherwise things are going well good with my battle mage, although I feel like I should have a lot more magic cards than I currently have. I keep on getting oodles of Necro staffs and gear, but not very much for fire which is what I'm trying to specialize in. Is the game dropping me a hint that I'm not getting? I hope the game dishes out more\all skill books or am I going to have to fork up 12K at a merchant? At the moment I'm level 15 and just can't seem to break the 6K gold mark... There is always just "something" that I have to purchase right now before starting my savings... actually it's very similar to my real life financial situation... Otherwise I'm lock picking like a maniac, but I like that the game rewards my lock picking efforts with a skill point here and there... Oh and voice acting is a little dodgy - I've actually never complained about voice acting before with any game, but there are some NPCs in this game that would get a few slaps talking like that in real life. There's a guy (close to the Rustler's Run) on the jetty that want to buy termite larvae from my, but is constantly chewing in between sentences - I know they want to highlight that he's actually eating the larvae, but heck that was just a LITTLE OVER THE TOP!! But still stunning visuals overall - once getting used to the blur effect...

You mean like a final level... ! An Epic bug level, ultimate homage to the franchise... I like! gogo Heh, not a bad idea at all! A secret final cave that's loaded with bugs like Underworld... all those flies, worms and bees!!

there always hope - perhaps develop the game with so many bugs that it get you kicking and screaming? Or make the mouse movement so insensitive that you have to make really wild movements...

LOL Scott - 100% chance that bosses would turn over and die on sight when Mr. T arrives in his bunny-tank!

Thinking about "what I really want" from Sacred 3 herewith my list: I want $10 paid into my bank account every time I gain a level. I want 20 different classes each with 20 unique sets. I want all characters to be able to wear at least 30 amulets and 20 rings ie Plenty-o-bling I want the game to have insanely good graphics with very low system requirements. I want customizable CA animations I want my in-game actions to influence the real world I want a bunny mount or a tank

x100 I'm just wondering about this whole dynamic events system... They say that you'd be tasked with defending a town and if you don't succeed, it will be overrun. If your fight back is unsuccessful, the enemy will turn the town into a stronghold. Now what if you logged off in a specific peaceful town a week ago and during that week suddenly the town is turned into enemy stronghold? Does your game continue in the middle of chaos as if you were soundly asleep during the entire combat? And what if no-one was around to save the town in the first place? Does a falling tree make a sound if no-one is there to hear it? Will certain dynamic events "respawn". I read somewhere that one person might read a magic book in the highest room of the highest tower on the highest mountain and that will set off a whole new set of dynamic events... So will that be "it"? This one person was the only one who could do it? Or will some other person be able to do the same later on? Say, a week or a month later. Would this not lead to camping? Also, the videos all look great ( ) and are "in game" footage, but what about those slowmo's? Surely an MMO can't turn real time action into slow motion just for a certain player? The slow motion video sequences has to be edited, right?

Hi and welcome snacksmoto! This forum catches lurkers off guard when suddenly one morning you find yourself with the craving to post! But great that you share your console findings!

Sorry I'm not any help with PC version But I had to reply here and assure you that this is a totally normal start... and it grows... constantly! I have at least 30 characters started, lost, aborted, in waiting, in planning, in silver, in gold, in plat, in niob, etc. etc. and I have no idea how many hours played, but I don't think anyone really keeps track after the 1st 1K hours...

Thanks Llama - so was SotS1 good enough to have SotS2 on your birthday list? I think the blocky gfx (well according to me at least) is all the little windows lined up in a neat row and the fact that every ship is sparkly clean with straight lines and such. But then again, not much dust and rain up in space to get the ships all dirty, and if I was build a multi-gazillion-dollar ship, I would hope it shines and sparkles!

heh, yeah the voice acting sounds strange! It appears as if they're steering clear of a "bad voice acting" review, by leaning towards the totally weird side? Or is that just what subspace transmissions do to female voices? the gfx looks a little blocky yes, but I'm not sure if these graphics are the final cut or if they are still going to do some polishing, but they talk about a whole new "MARS2" engine... dunno if it is a big improvement on the 1st game, and that is why I actually wonder what the verdict is on the 1st... I suppose as you zoom out the blocky appearance will dissipate. It's as if they're trying to show off with close zoomed gfx and not really giving much away with how the game will look on the grand scale? But if they made space look real and big and beautiful, that would be good enough for me. I remember spending hours just staring at the environment when playing Haegemonia - screen shots could never do the game real justice. But real good gfx for a 2002 minor league game (tons better than both Home Worlds IMO, well mebbe not so much HW2, but still better):

Sword of the Stars II This suddenly popped up as I was searching for new Space Strategy games and it looks really promising! I played the Home World games, but the best Space RTS I played over the years has to be Haegemonia. Perhaps not the best game overall, but certainly really good looking -and that is what I want most from space games! But I've been out of the loop for a number of years regarding space RTS games and this game is something new to look forward too What I like is the idea of a random tech tree (or tech forest as they apparently refer to it). Also the design of one's own ships and the weapons they carry. But I've never even heard of Sword of the Stars 1 - so I'm wondering if anyone on this forum played it and what the verdict was? Was it a type of game that made you drooool for a sequel, or just another game stacked in the closet after a few hours of play?

Happy Birthday! Have a great day!

Another lurker transformed into a poster!! It appears that the force is truly stronger on the DarkMatters Side Welcome Balraw! Those 10 minutes you're referring to is what my wife calls my "Sacred-minutes", but very closely resembles Microsoft minutes!