fyi, IP is the official name. Intellectual Property. There are IP lawyers and IP companies. IP is the 'wave of the future' is some of these cock gobbling bastards get their way. Screw innovating...just buy up ideas and then sue people who come up with something similar. See amazon and various other companies for examples of this happening today.

I never saw the point of copywrites or even vaguer stuff like 'IP'. If I wanna steal someone's text and mess with it, why shouldn't I be able to publish that? Suckas. They just can't stand that I'd make it into something even more awesome!

IP is different than copyright. Copyright is automatic and you get it for anything you right. There are also fairly good fair use laws, especially relating to written text. Fair use gets fuzzy with music.

IP is patents. Patent law is a whole different ballgame. That's where Apple build a device, sells it, then another company patents the interface and Apple has to pay them royalties. That's IP law. Some companies make it a business to buy up all kinds of patents that may be useful in the future, so they can license them out to companies that are actually innovating and turn a money. Those are vampire motherfuckers who do absolutely nothing useful, they just suck money out of other companies, which pass that extra expense onto the consumer.

Bleh...I hate patent law. There are so many problems with it.

In your Apple examle, there's still the issue of prior art., but I get your idea.
It gets espescially problematic with companies patenting vague ideas, like Amazon with one click buys.
That's one way I see the US gliding into it's own economic downfall. As long as the EU isn't stupid enough to follow I won't care, but I fear the worst.

You can not patent an idea. Patents are only given out for technical solutions.

I wish that was true.

software patents are the biggest problem. You can patent an idea with a software patent. Like amazon's one-click interface. And apple's ipod interface. And a hundred million other really stupid patents.

Prior art is about the only thing that saves us from alot of these. People've tried patenting hyperlinks, for fuck's sake. I'm sure if that'd gone through, they would've sued everyone with a website.

Anyway, you guys in europe don't get too cocky. Software patents are something people've been fighting for in europe for years now. I think it keeps getting narrowly defeated, but watch out. Also, you have your own versions of the RIAA and MPAA working tirelessly to fuck over your freedoms.

Ok, I started another game after realizing I didn't remember every phrase and character name in the game. I'll be installing some mods (tactics, ascension, redemption, longer road, ease of use, sola, the usual really), and now I need suggestions for the party.


Apart from my main I'm prolly taking a Wild Mage....but other than that I'm open to suggestions. Let's say I want 2 char slots for Edwin and Sola open. Any input is welcomed, if not I'll just go crazy myself.

A dart-throwing Wizard Slayer!! Although i don't recall if there are darts higher than +3 in the game

I don't know if you played a lot with thieves/assassins before, i always liked them. That would be something to go against your style: make a lot of 'weaker' characters in melee so that you must rely on stealth rather than on pure strenght. How about a lot of thieves and no real tank?

Of course your wild mage will just kill everything on it's own when he reaches a certain level

Hehehe...yeah, very likely. Kill everyon, my own party included.


And myeah, going all-out on rogues, mages and clerics would definitely be neat, but i already kinda did that when my party of bards roamed the lands. (as you might remember, Joss Stone, Shakira and the likes)

And since I'm going to be doing some REALLY difficult fights I better have some balance in the party. But tell you what: you 'design' me an assassin (or other rogue), class, race, gender, kit, weapons, and he/she's in! Get crackin' buoy!

Lol, was just checking to see if i had any of my own thief characters so i opened shadowkeeper/char list. First character i see:

Dum'asn Ox - Antipaladin

Don't remember playing with him

(ps: intelligence 1 - charisma 18, probably to get the sexiness? )

*edit* amazing how many old save games from Baldur's Gate i have on this computer .. anyway, if you want to play with one of my characters (like the assassin, has 19 str if i remember correctly since i played her through bg1) just give me a yell and i can send a savegame to you (if that will work).

lol, a dumbass Ox character. That's some good stuff. :p You should have characters for all the major Clankiller peeps. hehe. I should be the biggest pwnager, of course.

Awesome that you use the word pwnager It rocks.

And @ J for having a dumbass Ox character hehehe I bet he's great against Illithid with his 1 INT. I think the CHA is just a prerequisite for the anti-paladin class.

Anyway, I set up the game yesterday: BG2+ToB and then for mods:

-ease of use
-tactics
-ascension
-redemption
-unfinished business
-Solafeiun mod

Then the party:

Main char: Male gnomish fighter/illusionist with spear grandmastery.

then the thief was a blend of J and Lacessit (he was online during the creation process so I blended him in). His name is J Cindarsson, and he's a half-orc assassin using clubs, slings and darts. That's gonna be fun. Especially cos the paper doll is this HUGE, bulky orc that's supposed to hide in shadows, haha.

Then a male half-elven wild mage named Satisia Abomination after Satis' necro. Uses quarter staves and daggers. And a Dwarven priest of helm cleric named Pevil Lihatuh.

So that's 4 ppl...I'm probably gonna pick up Edwin or Korgan, we'll see. And we're gonna kill the paladins and cowled wizards as soon as we can, of course. It's gonna be fun!

P.S. J; that probably would have worked (exporting a char from a savegame of yours into mine), but i'm sure J Cindarsson the master of stealth will fill in just fine.

Im going through BG2 again. I have custom party, no original cast.

Protagonist: Druid - sucks awfully, da weakling 4ever. Human.
Second: Assassin - quite good at backstabbing. Dont have all the necessary gear yet.
Third: Fighter - Main tank, two hander. wanted to dual into paladin but guess what. That came in IWD2.
Fourth: Wild mage - still learning how to use him, this far i have managed to fireball my party, summon a mean motherf***ing demon, and generate lots of gems.
Fifth: Cleric - nothing special here, can cast twice a day hold undead, works wonderfully on vampires.
Sixth: Kensai - Originally i wanted to dual class him into a thief but then i read how dual classing works in Bg2 and decided that it wouldn't make much sense. So he is a crappy non armored warrior that beats the living daylights out of anyone standing in his way. dual - wielding long swords or axes or whatever fits the need.

The wild mage will probably get your most powerfull character at later levels. At early stages he will mostly fail whatever he's trying.