WrathOfDeadguy

My other hobby (besides gaming) is writing fiction, so I tend to get very into my characters. Right down to sticking with crappy gear even when upgrading would make the game much easier, because my character wouldn't be so willing to part with the gun that her father gave her the day she left home to seek her fortunes as a courier. I don't go for ultra-realism because the character is the goal, not replicating life minute for minute... a novel doesn't provide record of every sandwich the hero eats, so it doesn't need to be shown in the game. I generally run through a game once with a thrown-together character to get a feel for the game and explore the story, then on subsequent playthroughs build a specific character with a specific personality and have their course through the game charter out before starting. My Lone Wanderer was mostly brash, impulsive, and standoffish but generally kind-hearted; she was true Chaotic Good with a healthy dose of righteous fury. Long-term consequences meant nothing whatsoever- if someone was naughty in her sight, they snuffed it unless there was an immediate reason not to pull the trigger (like with the Overseer, whose death would have hurt Amata more than his brutality did). What she did at Evergreen Mills and Paradise Falls would probably have turned the stomach of a Super Mutant, and she'd resolved to murder her way through Raven Rock even before the President's little disagreement with his minions. Growing up in the black-and-white morality of Vault 101 (further compounded by the events surrounding her escape, which forced her to come up with her own moral code in a hurry) really gave her a narrow view on a world of gray- while she wouldn't blow someone's head off for petty thieving, she'd most certainly do so for anything more serious. She favored sniper rifles for the implementation of her "shoot first, ask questions never" school of justice, but always had a pistol ready for if she had to get in talking distance of a bad guy. My Courier seems to be taking a different direction... she's still firmly on the good side of things, but is much more circumspect... less likely to just see evil and immediately blow its brains out, more likely to seek a more indirect solution that won't expose her to possible retaliation. She's more able to see the long view, and can (with some self-loathing) make herself walk away from a bad situation when she knows her interference will make matters worse (i.e. can't pass a critical speech check). She doesn't automatically mark someone for death just because they seem shady; she didn't even try to get even with the Khans who Benny hired and later brought them in as allies. Everyone does what they have to in order to get by; as long as they don't act with unnecessary cruelty she'll let a lot of things slide (no funeral, no foul is her motto except where things like slavery or torture are concerned). She favors shotguns because, if there's shooting to be done, it'll probably be when negotiations break down and everyone hostile will be in close quarters... her rifle is only a necessity of wasteland life because there are some critters too dangerous to allow into buckshot range. I could keep going, but you get the idea. The amount of wiggle room for filling in character history is part of what makes sandbox-style RPGs so much fun for me. It lets me combine two hobbies into one.

I bumped into a man wearing it just after leaving Goodsprings, near Goodsprings Source. He appeared by the little campsite where Sunny Smiles gives you her little introduction to cooking lesson. I think it was a random encounter and I don't remember his name, but he set up a trap for the player so his threads are free for the taking after he's dead. He wasn't wearing it until he sprung his trap, however. I've yet to see the outfit in any shops, but to be honest I wasn't really looking- I'm surprised I remember that much. :whistling: Info from the Fallout wiki (so you can just spawn it if it doesn't turn up anywhere): 0002b385 (Roving Trader Outfit) 00078648 (Roving Trader Hat)

Couple different subjects... Teaching kids safe gun handling: A little research on the subject also yields the juicy little fact that there exist such things as dummy guns, which are used to great effect by professional firearms trainers. Knowledge sticks best when taught early. As I said about three pages ago, knowledge disarms curiosity. A child who's been taught how to handle guns safely is much less likely to do something stupid with them later when encountering them in the real world for the first time. Hell, you don't even need to teach kids how to shoot to teach them how to be safe. Use dummy guns to teach safe handling, and let the parents decide after that whether they want their kids to learn more... as it should be. Such a course could easily be worked into a phys-ed or health program, and would provide a valuable lesson that could save lives. How is that a bad thing? Self-reliance: The reason why you keep and bear arms is the reason why you learn basic first aid... when something terrible happens, you want to be alive long enough for the professionals to come and help you. There is no system on Earth that is good enough to warrant taking away the individual's right and ability to self defense. Even with modern forensics, the perp has a better than even chance of not being caught at all unless the police show up while the crime is in progress. That's why we have detective bureaus and the FBI- entire agencies dedicated to catching the guys who got away with it. We would not need those things if the system worked, because if the system worked then the bad guys would not get away... and thus fear of consequence would persuade them not to turn to crime in the first place. We do not live in that world. Nobody does. On that insipid comparison between guns and cars that always seems to pop up... I really, really dislike the "car comparison" and here's why: Cars are deeply, profoundly, and fundamentally different from guns. In order to drive a car, your total and complete attention must be on the car at all times. Operating the car requires the absolute commitment of at least one hand and one foot just to keep the vehicle moving and in control. While doing so, you have to constantly be on the lookout for a plethora of other things, not the least of which are traffic signals, pedestrians, and other vehicles. If you spend fifteen minutes or five hours a day in your car, then during that time span driving your car is and ought to be the only thing you are doing. If you need to go to the bathroom, you have to pull over and get out of the car to do it. The laws regarding their use have an immediate and severe connection to your personal safety and that of everyone around you, regardless of your attitude or disposition. Yield signs exist to keep you from colliding with cross-traffic, crosswalks exist to create safe crossing zones so that drivers can clearly see and yield to pedestrians. If you obey the laws, you will never cause an accident (though you cannot predict the actions of other drivers). If you take your hands off the wheel for a few moments to do something else, your car does not magically stop moving... it has just become a half-ton of steel and rubber and ouch barreling down the freeway at 65mph with nobody at the wheel, and it poses a very real and immediate danger to everybody and everything in its immediate vicinity. If you take your eyes off the road, the same thing happens. If you have an accident, even if yours is the only vehicle involved, it becomes a major event which requires the attention of a police car, an ambulance service, the fire department (owing to the fuel), and a tow service, and that's if you didn't wreck in the middle of the road and block up traffic for hours on end, possibly resulting in even more accidents. What does a gun do when you don't pay attention to it? Nothing at all. It does absolutely nothing at all until you grip it in your hand, draw it from its holster, and put your finger on the trigger. Until that point, it is dead weight on your hip. It does not threaten anyone, it does not harm anyone. The only time you need to pay any attention to it at all is when you find yourself threatened by another person. You can carry a gun and make a sandwich, take a phone call, send a text message, and go about your daily life as normal. You can even drive a car, and the presence of the gun will not affect your ability to do so. If you carry for fifteen minutes or for five hours or all day, not once will you have to give it your full and undivided attention except in the exceedingly unlikely and terrible event that you find yourself needing to draw it to defend yourself. The comparison fails not because of what each tool is designed to do, but because of the requirements of using them and the physics of the devices themselves. Your gun will never, ever "just go off" if you forget to put the safety on before you holster it. Your car just might go rolling off on its own and crash into something if you leave the parking brake off. Bottom line, while guns may be designed and intended to kill, their operation and safe use is quite simple compared to driving a motor vehicle. Gun safety can be (and has been) distilled down into four basic rules that, if followed, will prevent you from ever doing something stupid or dangerous with a gun: 1. Always assume that every gun is loaded, even if you know it isn't. 2. Keep your finger off the trigger unless you are ready to fire. 3. Never point the muzzle at anything you are not willing to destroy. 4. Always be sure of your target and what is behind it. That's it- that's all. Four rules. You could never have seen a real gun before and as long as you bear those things in mind you could handle it safely. It's no harder than memorizing your telephone number and street address. Last post for this thread, I think... it's getting a little too hot in here.

Cazadors are the reason God invented grenade launchers. Can't stand them otherwise... if I'm low on 40mm ammo I try to steer clear. If I have enough Incendiaries I play some Wagner and blitzkrieg the demonic little buggers. The only thing I dislike more than a Cazador swarm is a group of Giant Radscorpions- then I just run. Those things are a waste of ammo whether you can take them on or not... no real vulnerabilities, way too fast and powerful. Pop some Turbo and run like crazy.

I'm honestly surprised that there was a karma loss for killing House. After he explains his plans a bit, it's pretty clear that he's a Neutral Evil type. He's perfectly willing to let the NCR and the Legion ravage the wasteland to weaken each other before he makes his bid for power. Grand vision or not, he's definitely not a good guy. I was pretty surprised that there was a karma loss for offing him (especially in light of the arrogance displayed in the obituary note you get upon killing him). Killing him might be ill-advised, even wasteful (considering the wealth of knowledge in his head), but I don't think that it should be considered an evil option given the circumstances. On the other hand... when the NCR then asked me to go slaughter the Brotherhood, I dropped them like last week's garbage and threw in with Yes-Man. It's blindingly obvious if you've already been to the bunker that the Brotherhood isn't in a position to threaten any of the major players, and they aren't interested in threatening the general population. They're dicks for not using their tech for the betterment of the wasteland, but they aren't knocking over caravans for loot either.

Toast. If I have waffles too many times in a row, I burn out on them for a while... but I've never tired of toast. Also, this.

A person not inclined to break the law will not be more inclined to do so just because they have a gun. Ask a carry permit holder; having deadly force on your hip makes you more careful, not less. You think about what might happen if you cut that guy off at the red light. You avoid getting in a fight with that jerk who just took your place in line. You do pretty much anything you can to de-escalate any confrontation you get into inadvertently, because you know in the back of your mind that you can't predict how the other party will react, and if they become violent you know one of you might end up dead. You don't think "gee, it'd be really easy to knock over this convenience store if I put my gun in the clerk's face." You won't think that because you didn't think "gee, I wish I had a gun so I could rob this place" the day before when you weren't carrying. If you do not have a criminal mindset, and I think we can safely say that very few people do, then you will not behave like a criminal. If you are not a violent person, you will not become violent if you have the means to do violence in your possession. A gun is not a magical device, it is a tool with a very specific application- it does not alter your disposition or personality. We "gun folk" like to call that holding oneself to a "higher standard of care." Can't speak for everyone, and I know there are some real twits out there with guns and knives and slingshots and all manner of other things that can cause a person harm... but I know an awful lot of people with guns, and not one of them strikes me as the vigilante type. I'd venture to guess that responsible people outnumber careless morons by a comfortable margin. With regards to negligent discharges (accidental is when something out of the shooter's control causes the gun to fire- negligent is when the booger hook pulls the trigger when it wasn't supposed to)... it happens to the 'trained professionals' as often as it does to anyone else. There's a fantastic video on youtube of an officer teaching a "gun safety" class to a bunch of kids- he shoots himself in the foot because he forgot to check his weapon and point it in a safe direction. People make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes hurt, and sometimes they kill, and it happens regardless of how safe we try to make the world. The sad fact is that the more you take responsibility away from a person, the less they feel like being responsible. When was the last time you remembered to look both ways before crossing at a traffic light? Odds are if you looked, you only looked at the guy with his right turn signal on, because the light will "protect" you from everyone else, right? Should we ban privately-owned cars so that nobody ever runs a red light (do we think that the trained professionals would never do such a thing)? Should we do away with traffic signals because some people will ignore them anyway? No, and we shouldn't do away with all gun laws, either. But it is important to recognize that the law is not a shield- humans are unpredictable. Yes, accidents will happen. The question is whether or not the number of crimes prevented by mass carry of weapons for self-defense will overwhelmingly exceed the number of accidents. Incidentally, accidental shootings almost (almost) never involve anyone but the person holding the gun... and there's a reason why so many of them involve trained professionals. Imagine you're a police officer, and your partner just slapped the cuffs on that guy who's been burglarizing houses all month. You had to chase him a few hundred feet, you're winded, you have the mother of all adrenaline rushes, and you're about do re-holster your gun. Did you remember to take your finger off the trigger? Oops. With regards to children getting shot... I'll probably catch flak for this, but I think gun safety ought to be a class in school- as early as practical. The earlier you teach a kid something, the more firmly it sticks in their mind- you don't even need to use live ammunition in order to get the message across. Start out, say, around fifth grade with the basics- using dummy rifles and handguns. Let the parents decide if they want their kids handling real guns and ammo after that, but make sure that every kid understands how to responsibly and safely handle a gun. That way, when they go over to their new friend's house where daddy is stupid, they'll know not to point that loaded revolver they found at their friend's head and pull the trigger. You can't just say "kids shouldn't be exposed to guns" and call it a day... I'm sorry, but that smacks of the same logic that fuels abstinence-only sex education (which, as we all know, put an end to teen pregnancies). Obviously, the current methods aren't good enough- knowledge disarms curiosity and temptation. Deny that knowledge and, should the opportunity present itself, that kid's gonna find a way to learn it themselves... all too often with dire consequences. Better that children learn about guns through a responsible adult rather than movies and TV and videogames... if you want reality to be on their mind, it has to be put there before fiction.

Shotguns are at their best when you have some cover to work with. A shotgun with a tight spread (hunting shotgun, caravan shotgun, etc) and slugs can work some decent medium-range spam fire without wasting as much ammo as automatics, but you're best suited using rocks and corners to get closer before firing. The great thing about shotguns is that they land hits all over your target- for best results, aim for the upper chest. You're less likely to miss that way, and some of your pellets will probably find their head. Shotguns are especially great when combined with explosives... any explosives, even weak, cheap ones, and even if you have no explosives skill to speak of. Explosives weaken and cripple enemies even if they don't kill them outright; follow up with a shotgun blast and you can net yourself several kills at once. The same trick works wonders against tough critters like Deathclaws; a mine cripples the legs and lets you get into shotgun range (but not quite melee range) safely to finish them off. Videogame shotguns being unrealistically short-ranged as always, look for ways to close the distance without exposing yourself to return fire. Most folks think of sniper rifles as great for stealth characters, but the higher your sneak skill the more you can benefit from the huge up-close damage output of a shotgun, and the less your shotgun combat experience will hurt (as you'll be able to get into effective range unmolested).

Any hints on how to find these bad boys? :D

I can't feel my legs!

I live in a state (NJ) that is not very friendly to any sort of carry... or even ownership, for that matter. I do, however, have a concealed carry permit for use when I'm in other states that recognize it, and I legally carry whenever I am able. I understand the reasoning behind prohibiting concealed and/or open carry, but time and crime have proven that restrictions on the lawful use of firearms have done nothing to curb the unlawful use thereof. Put simply, if a person means to commit a violent crime, they've already made up their mind that the law doesn't matter- adding another law is not going to deter them. Washington DC, Chicago, Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles- all gun-unfriendly cities, and yet there are more shooting deaths in those places than in just about everywhere else in the country put together. There is a very good and logical argument to be made that violent crime is more closely related to population density than the way the laws are written; the correlation is clear. However, gun control laws including prohibitions against concealed/open carry haven't had any positive effect. Indeed, violent crime across the entire nation has been in decline for several years; this trend was not reversed by the Heller and McDonald rulings, both of which deemed the strictest of gun control measures unconstitutional. Concealed Carry in national parks (where state laws permit) also recently became legal, and there was no rise in crime in the parks. Arizona passed legislation permitting unrestricted carry, and there was no increase in violent crime. Texas allows concealed carry by legislators, and blood does not run down the aisle every time someone disagrees with a vote. I hold to the belief that the single best deterrent to crime- of any sort- is the promise of swift and decisive action against the criminal. Police are a reactionary force; rarely are they able to arrive on the scene in time to prevent a crime from taking place... or even to stop it while in progress. They almost invariably respond after a crime has been committed. This is not meant as an insult to the police; they do a valuable job and are instrumental in keeping us safe... but they cannot be everywhere, and they cannot guarantee the safety of ourselves and our families all the time. That is why people need to be able and willing to protect themselves, and the most effective means of doing that is a firearm. The only places where I feel people should not be allowed to carry: - On airliners. Not, mind you, because I believe there is a risk of hijacking, but because of the risk of someone shooting a hole in the plane if they have to use their gun. This is one of those situations where the law can be there to stop a crime from happening, and that's what armed Air Marshals are for. - Into bars. Mind-altering chemicals and weapons of any kind don't mix. You'll note that I didn't include schools or government buildings on that list. Carry into these facilities is, for the most part, illegal already (with a few notable exceptions), and yet these are still the places where the most horrific shootings occur. Obviously, the law and whatever security was in place didn't stop the criminals from bringing guns inside and wreaking havoc. I believe that teachers and government employees (and I'm including the military in that after the tragedy at Ft. Hood- I wasn't aware it was even illegal for servicemen to carry on bases) should be allowed to carry lawfully in their workplaces specifically to prevent such atrocities, without resorting to the expensive and often oppressive measures which otherwise would have to be taken (metal detectors everywhere, security or police in every hall, random searches... these things damage trust in authority and confidence in self as much as they cost boatloads of money to implement). Otherwise, I support unrestricted carry unless a person has demonstrated that they are unfit to exercise their rights responsibly. In an age where background checks can be performed instantaneously even by officers on patrol, permits are redundant and unnecessary- if you have a record, it's illegal for you to have a gun anyway, and simply running your name through the system can clear that up. My position on the gov't and law enforcement having the ability and authority to perform such checks without probable cause is a whooole other can of worms. Suffice it to say I'm a staunch Libertarian who believes people should be left to their own devices unless they willfully infringe upon another person's rights. ;)

Loading zones and transitions aren't at issue... there are plenty of places where the terrain is fully modeled and traversible but physically inaccessible because of an invisible barrier. If you tcl you can pass through the barrier, tcl again and proceed as normal. It just sucks that you need to cheat with the console in order to use the terrain to your greatest advantage in exploration and ambush. Sometimes the barriers work against you in even more annoying ways... they are often placed on the low side of slopes to prevent the player from climbing up. However, if you are already up and wish to come down the barrier can not only impede you but cause you to become irrevocably stuck... at which point you need to use tcl to get out of your predicament. Overall, the game would be much improved if someone were to do away with the meddlesome things.

It isn't bugged... it took me a while to figure out what was going on too. The quest arrow is pointing to a location in outer Freeside (where the Mormon Fort is). What you want to do is enter Freeside via the North Gate and proceed west until you reach the blue gate between the Freeside zones- but do not pass through it. Instead, head north along the street until you reach the railroad tracks. You should be underneath the highway overpass by the old train station; now head west again. As you reach the wall, there will be a break in the rubble to your left; go through and head southwest towards the large industrial building. There is an alley on the north side (facing you as you enter the area); the door is in that alley on your left. Hope that helps in lieu of a detailed map. :) This is confusing because the marked location is directly west of the northern zone door; if you were standing in front of the door it would appear to be sending you through. If, however, you look at your local map, you will see the actual location. Remember that Freeside's outer zone is shaped around the inner zone (which contains King's and the Strip North Gate).

Mars, Olympus Mons or Valles Mareneris. Wouldn't even care about how to get back afterward... there's nowhere else in the universe I'd like to see more, and I'd be perfectly content if all I got was one breath of air and a pair of goggles to keep my eyes from desiccating too quickly... if I lasted long enough to see it even once, I'd die with a smile.

I was underwhelmed by the beginning also, but I understand the reason for it. Think about it- what was the common theme with custom character saves that were so common as downloads for Oblivion and Fallout 3? Almost all of them were saved at the end of the intro. If I were a developer doing research and saw evidence that what seemed like a majority of players weren't playing the expository section, then the first thing I'd do is cut it right out of the mix. If you want, you can go right out from the Doc's office and start the game proper without any delay. Personally, I love the tutorial/intro bits. All of my saves from RPGs are right after character creation, so that I can savor the birth of my character's legend. However, it seems like the opposite point of view won the day with New Vegas. I'd have enjoyed the hell out of a section leading up to the Courier's capture, even if it went on rails, and have the Doc's office be the end of the tutorial where you can re-adjust stats and appearance. On the upshot, the Courier feels a lot more important than the PCs of the past few sandbox RPGs. After a certain point, you start to feel like you're no longer just a gofer to be sent on errands by everyone in the world (even though you still do)- those errands serve your purpose, and you can bloody well take control of the whole affair and work behind the scenes to upend everyone else's agendas. In every previous Fallout, your objectives and goals were more or less external- Save your Vault, save your village, save the world, find Dad, and so forth- you had choices about how to go about doing those things and some of those choices carried more weight than others, but ultimately you were doing everyone else's dirty work for your own reasons. In New Vegas, it is entirely possible to just say "naaah" and take a third option, or to support the major and minor factions as you see fit. There is a lot more roleplay potential here; the premise may be weaker but that also leaves plenty of room to move your own backstory and motivations into the PC.

The one thing that I feel really detracts from exploration is that Obsidian makes much more extensive use of invisible barriers than Bethesda did in Fo3. Around DC, if you needed to get somewhere but couldn't handle the enemies there, you could almost always find a way to sneak around and make your own back door by jumping from rock to rock, sliding down walls and cliffs, etc. I've run into half a dozen places so far around NV where the terrain would permit passage to someone patient enough to find the right angles and sweet spots, but invisible barriers blocked off all but the intended approach... forcing the player to go through all the enemies guarding it. Black Hills is one such location. The rock quarry with all the Deathclaws (the name escapes me; it's near Goodsprings) is another. This being a sandbox game, I don't really understand why it's necessary to do that and rather hope someone will mod those barriers out at some point.

Cases/hulls are used in reloading- when you combine them with the appropriate powder, primer, and some lead at a reloading bench, you get usable ammo. If you break down existing ammo that you don't use, often you can use the components to craft ammo that you will use. Reloading benches can usually be found around shops that sell weapons.

I know there's at least one female who wears an eyepatch among the group of Great Khans you encounter in Boulder City (she was guarding the captives, IIRC). Pretty sure it's over the left eye, too. Too bad it isn't already a lootable item. :/

No offense intended; I respect the amount of work that's been put in by modders, but Type 3 base looks like a porn star implant job. Wouldn't mind seeing a port-over of Type V or something comparable... I want a body mod that enhances realism and immersion; balloon boobs have the opposite effect. Same goes for epic muscleman abs on the male side.

Another vote for this... it's a pain in the butt to go through all those transitions to get where you're going. It's not so big of an area that it should need to be divided like that.

I'm a bit sad that I seem to have just been lucky on the Albino Scorps and the Reavers... now I'm gonna be looking over my shoulder every time I hear battle music. XD Another good point is to always make sure you have appropriate ammo and weapons, unless you're trying to do a run with only specific gear. Since I preordered, I tend to lean on the Sturdy Caravan Shotgun... it hasn't left my side since the word go; I use it for damn near everything. I also carry a 9mm pistol for pushover enemies, Thump-Thump (grenade launcher) for crowds of heavy-duty nastiness (multiple Giant Scorps or Cazadores), and a Sniper Rifle for range work... the last I traded up from a Varmint Rifle, which I'd been using for the entire first half of the game until finally 5.56 just didn't cut the mustard anymore. I do have a melee weapon, a machete, but only use it defensively when a whole bunch of melee enemies goes after me instead of my followers. I use standard 20ga for most encounters, since I have gobs and gobs of it. Magnums for Cazadores and tougher melee enemies, slugs for humans at medium range. 9mm only gets used on crap like Mantises and rats. Thump-Thump only comes out when I pull a big group of Cazadores or multiple Giant Scorps. The Sniper I've been saving for Deathclaws, Lakelurks, higher-tier Super Mutants and other tough but easily headshot-able enemies. Mines... it's all in the timing. If you see them, then immediately crouch (puts your POV closer to the ground so you don't have to be right on top of them to disarm) and move directly towards the mine, centering it under your reticule while mashing the action key. I prefer not to deal with mines by destroying them... if there's loot nearby the explosion scatters it and can dump valuable stuff in inaccessible places. Plus, mines have one of the better value/weight ratios, so letting them go boom robs you of mucho money. :) If you don't see it first, then as soon as you hear the beeping start you want to reverse your direction of travel, run, and jump to put as much distance between you and the mine as possible. Only the very most powerful mines don't give you enough time to get completely out of the blast radius with a low explosives skill; as long as you go slow and careful around anywhere likely to be mined or trapped (ruins, anywhere hit by the Legion, Powder Ganger outposts), you'll rarely if ever take damage from them.

NV definitely has a higher difficulty curve than Fo3 had. Tough enemies seem to show up in groups more often... and it really, really pays to have a follower for them to go after. Rex and ED-E are essential by default; they're great choices for bait duty. Combine with explosives or other power weapons and profit. ED-E's enhanced sensors are also an absolute godsend for exploration. You might not always be able to avoid the really nasty stuff, but at least you can usually count on having the element of surprise... go into sneak the moment red shows up on the compass and use something with zoom to pinpoint the threat. The key to successful and frustration-free exploration is to maintain your situational awareness and never rush into combat unless you're confident that you can win. I'm just thankful that Albino Radscorpions and Feral Ghoul Reavers don't seem to be in attendance this time (unless I've just been lucky so far). Some stupidly aggravating baddies, those two. Giant Scorpies and Cazadores are more than irritating enough.

I've been having fun so far, but one thing has really started getting under my skin... when I go to sell some crap at the store, it takes forever to scroll through to what I want to get rid of, even by category! All the additional items and item types really clutter things up and make business transactions a major chore. What I'd like to see is: A. A reduction in the font size for the buy/sell window so that more items appear at once (thus reducing the amount of scrolling it takes to find what you want). - and - B. For all items which have a value of 0 to not appear in the player inventory side of the buy/sell window (reducing the clutter factor). It'd have to make those same items visible in the vendor inventory side, however, since they occasionally have such items in stock. If it can't be done, no biggie. - and - C. A reclassification of all reloading items (powder, primers, lead, cases/hulls) as Ammo. Right now they clutter the hell out of the Misc. Items list, which was already the most cluttered category in Fallout 3 and now an utter nightmare that players will dread sifting through. That's about it...

I believe that the release is scheduled by pacific time, since that's the time zone most of the software giants are located in. A release at 12:00AM PST means 3:00AM EST. Nothing to worry about; it isn't bugged.

My first character, being a Dalish elf who had no prior experience with any outside society, chose Harrowmont because he came across as a warmer, more benevolent leader. Every other character since has gone with Bhelen. The thing about Harrowmont is that he doesn't give half a damn about anyone beneath the nobility- even though he is a kinder man, he is rigidly adherent to the dwarven caste system. My human mage looked at the situation and concluded that tradition had thus far done the dwarves no favors (after all, look at how much territory they've lost to the Darkspawn... and as Awakening reveals, at least some of their losses were the result of higher dwarves refusing to arm and train inferior castes). My city elf put an ear to the streets, quickly drew a connection between the casteless and her own people, and backed Bhelen to the hilt because traditionalists like Harrowmont reminded her too much of the human nobility back home. My dwarven noble just shook her head, said "well played, brother," and handed Bhelen the crown because if he could put one over on her then he was more than worthy as a king... and she was only too happy to use his deviousness and ambition for her own purposes, since by the time she went back to Orzammar she had bigger fish to fry. Harrowmont would have been useless to her by then; he was a great advisor but she needed a King with a capital K, a mover and a shaker instead of a spineless law-and-order-and-tradition type. Bhelen got to be King, but sister still got all the glory in the end. ;) All just roleplay excuses, but when you get right down to it the only characters who I could see rationalizing a choice for Harrowmont are either ignorant of dwarven society or arrogant nobles who care nothing for the commoners or the larger picture. Bhelen just makes a better king.