podgie_bear

My game name came about because my wife was making fun of my love of hack'n'slash rpg's. She asked me who I thought I was, Conan the Barbarian? Then said that I looked more like a 'Podgie Bear-barian'. So I started using Podgie the Bearbarian out of stubborn pride, which eventually got shortened to Podgie Bear.

Have you ever wondered if you would get your 15 minutes of fame? Of course we know that most people will never have heard of us, but how do you feel if you suddenly find yourself immortalised? I was quite happily playing Sacred 2 and decided to do the chicken quest (graveyard north of Thylisium) and was collecting dropped loot, when I accidentally clicked on a grave and was shocked to find that it was my own! It was my actual vampiress character from Sacred Underworld and was actually labelled 'Podgiebear vampiress'. Now I know that this is hardly grounds for claiming to be famous, but imagine my shock on finding myself standing on my own grave, hardcoded into a game that is sold worldwide! I am not surprised to find people like Caroline Hacker included, but had no reason to suspect that my name would be included in the game. Now I feel quite honoured to know I can go there and see it anytime that I want, but the shock of finding it that first time darn near gave me a heart attack.

I would like better characterisations. I loved the grouchy old dwarf from Sacred Underworld with his disrespectful views. I could easily imagine him on a Saturday night, in the centre of a bar brawl, then staggering home with a bottle in each hand, singing lewd songs. It made him 'real' and helped me get into character. I remember I was devestated when my poor 'Wee Jock' died (killed by the lag monster). However, despite being a brilliant game, the characters in Sacred 2 don't seem able to 'grab' me in the same way. It's fun developing them and playing them, but if they die then 'Oh well' I'll just build another one. They just don't engender the same attchment.

What life insurance? The area where I live the average pay is so far below what is supposed to be the national average that most people can only dream of earning that fabled figure! In fact a lot of jobs are now advertised at minimum wage rates, but with zero hour contracts. If there is not enough work, they send you home without pay. You cannot refuse these type of jobs, or you will not qualify for any unemployment benefits because of your refusal to accept suitable employment. However if you accept them and get sent home, you cannot claim any form of top-up benefits for the first 3 working days and when you get back to work any benefits you managed to get are cancelled and you need to apply from scratch the next time you get sent home. We spend our lives living hand to mouth and cannot afford luxuries like insurance! The dental school told me that the treatment I need would cost me over £3,000 if I had to pay for it, which is roughly 5 months wages at my rate of pay.

You have my sympathy Bondbug. It has been a number of years since I have been able to get dental treatment (due to our government's "improvements" to the dental health service), but have now managed to be accepted as a test subject at a dental school. So I get free treatment by letting the students practice on me. For years I have only had one lower molar that I could chew with but I will soon be getting dentures for the first time and should be able to eat properly again in the near future,but first they have to remove a badly deformed molar so that I can be fitted for the dentures. You guessed it, my only lower molar!

Someone sent me this and I thought that it was true enough and funny enough to share with you all. Gates vs. GM For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, 'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.' In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part): 1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........Twice a day. 2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car. 3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this. 4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine. 5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads. 6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light. 7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying. 8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna. 9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car. 10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off. Please share this with your friends who love - but sometimes hate - their computer! Now, how true is this?

I have major problems with him as well, as my blowpipe equiped dryad hits the same brick wall as you. I am going after the *&%$£^! with my Shadow Warrior next. Lets see how good he is against 4 Nether Allegiance Spectral Soldiers, a high level Skeletal Fortification, Spectral Hand, and Rallied Souls all at the same time while my Augmenting Guidon flies overhead! Hwahwahwah!

Oh poo! and other words to that effect. Thanks for the information anyway.

I have been doing a bit of trawling through Sacred Wiki and ran across the 'Save Christmas Quest'. I realised, so that is what that kobald at Thylisium docks is for, great Christmas Island here we come. Oh no! no longer available as of patch 2.40! &*%$£! That is what I am patched to, 2.40. Is there any way to revert to a previous patch without a reinstall, or am I never going to meet the Santa Ogre?

Not if you are not using any Combat Arts except for buffs.

I had seen the wiki pages before, but had skipped through most of it as being similar to playing Sacred. Re-reading it I spotted the relevent bits that I had overlooked previously. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I suppose I had better start re-reading the wiki articles and see what else I did not notice before due to my laziness in assuming I knew all the basics. I was trying to be clever and increase the level of my Seraphim's Battle Stance buff despite not having picked the Exalted Warrior skill, because I was not going to use any other Exlted Warrior Combat Arts and would not need to worry about regen times. Oh well, I guess I might have to develop the Exalted Warrior skill in my build after all. Back to the drawing board I suppose.

Excuse me if this is the wrong section, but I am wondering if someone can advise me on a frustrating little problem I am having? Is there a limit to how many runes you can eat? I have found that I if I eat more runes than my character's actual level it can cause strange things to happen. For example; Toon level 2, Combat Art level 2, eat another rune and the Combat Art level stays at 2 but the rune disappears. Or sometimes; Toon level 2, Combat Art level 2, eat another rune and the Combat Art level rises to Combat Art level 2.8 and the rune disappears. Does anyone know if this is a bug or is there some rule in operation that I don't know about? Is your Combat Art level allowed to be higher than your character level?

No works fine for me. I'm using PC version patched to 2.40

Exactly what I think, and one of the greatest strengths of the Sacred games is that they are able to cater to both aspects seperately or in combination without compromising on quality.

This is a descision where the answer will be different for each individual. For me it is at the point where the toon is not enjoyable to play any more. OK, so it may take me years to get anywhere and I may never reach Niob, but what the heck, I enjoy my playing. Mind you, I really should consider developing and keeping a toon that can act as a shopper( keep meaning to, but never quite get around to it).

My appologies, you're right, I have duel wielded with Fadalmar's with other characters and I forgot duel wield isn't available for Vampiress.

Now me, I am happily sitting here, stuffing my face with my traditional Bacon Butty! Consider, a large sub roll, 4 thick slices of bacon (that's canadian bacon for you colonists), 2 fried eggs and liberaly smeared with traditional english brown sauce, washed down with a large mug of hot sweet tea. Ahhh! I can feel my arteries hardening just thinking about it! What's more, it is Bubble and Squeak for dinner. I would describe what that is, but I am sure that leaving it to your imaginations for a while is sufficient to drive you crazy, although I will provide details if requested, or you can be satisfied with whatever horrors your imagination came up with.

You don't have to confine yourself to either one or the other, why not pick duel wield than use them both at the same time? As for which armour, I always liked Defiance of the Recundis. Ok, Thorwins give you Vampirism+ and Lifeleech+, but Recundis gives you + to Parrying, Armour, Criticals, Attack and Defence. Also something rarely mentioned about these sets, It is not just the bonuses for the completed sets, each individual item in the set has its own bonuses as well. Before you make up your mind, compare these bonuses too. Possibly if you are going to play perma-vamp, you may want to consider the E'sal Hy-Lef's Vicissitude set :- Bloodlust+, Vampire Combat Arts+, Shock+, Turn into Vampire +%. And since the set does not include a weapon or a shield, it is tailor made for duel wielding!

Hi Gogo! I'm quite happily playing SP at the moment (not able to upgrade to Ice & Blood just yet, hence no MP) and have tried three different toons so far. 1) Dryad sniper build :- good fun, but weak against mobs. 2) Clustering Maelstrom Inquisitor build :- This one was fun against mobs, but lost out to the Griffin boss. 3) Skeletal Fortification Shadow Warrior :- I really like this one! Skeletal Fortification kicks butt big time if you play it right and if played without buffs, the regen can be vertually ignored. I am however considering whether I made a mistake by developing Spectral Hand to high level, and whether I would be better off concentrating on Demonic Blow for use against single monsters and bosses considering the boost I get from Augmenting Guidon? Should I concentrate on modding a big two-handed weapon for massive damage, dual wield or one handed plus shield with boost to Combat Arts or defence? Ahh! Descisions, descisions! I'm trying to do what I did with my Wood Elf in Sacred, namely use two Combat Art's only, Thrornbush for main attack and Call of the Ancestors for mobs. Sacred 2 being more complicated, I am allowing myself a third Combat Art (ie Augmenting Guidon) which will augment the other two, of which Skeletal Fortification will definitely be one for my Shadow Warrior and Clustering Maelstrom for my Inquisitor. I would like to concentrate on that boss killer, but the best way of blacksmithing keeps niggling at me and I really want to sort it. I still miss my grumpy little Unarmed Combat Dwarf though, I would love to have seen what Wee Jock could do to these feeble sassenachs with his fists using that eight punch 'Assault' Combat Art and I really miss those wonderfully sarcastic comments he used to come out with. I always thought he was wasted as shopper/smith. He was probably the best all-round fighter in the game and his only weakness was his inability to dual wield. I always wanted to dual wield handguns with him (drool, drool).

It is redefinable! I use the direction keys to move around and have defined the right Control key as the pick up all key so I can operate it with my little finger without having to move my hand.

Thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction, it is greatly appreciated. Now if someone can just give me some advice on the second part of my question (what sort of items will be of most benefit to which character?), then I will be a very happy bunny indeed.

Hello, warm friendly and very knowledgable friends. Can someone please help me to understand what sort of items can be fitted into which type of slots when blacksmithing equipment. And perhaps more importantly, what sort of items will be of most benefit to which character? Please bear in mind that we old bears are not too technically savvy. So if this info is already available, please accept my humble appologies and point my faltering foorsteps in the right direction and I will shamble off quietly.

Seen the video, I want one! (Lust, lust)

Sorry mate, I haven't tried Shadow Warrior yet, I only have level 20 save files for Inquisitor and Dryad. Not much help I know, but I felt that someone aught to answer you even if only to say sorry. I have been there myself, my whole computer got fried and I lost all of my save files for every game I own. I know exactly how you feel.

I like the in-game music as well, but then I am still new to the game. Once I have been playing for a while that may change, in which I may return to one of my favourite groups for gaming music. Nightwish. As far as I am concerned there is nothing better than their 'End of all hope' to get the blood pounding in a desperate battle situation!