Wow. That's a hop, skip, and jump from the graphics in the Beta. I'm looking forward to getting this for 360 in a few weeks.

A Troll that has taken some damage is the coolest looking character in the game. I've got to take a screenshot of this.

Yea, they've bumped up the resolution on the 360 from what it was on the beta. Everything looks more crisp and you can see farther. The characters are finished and have more polygons. The map backgrounds are more detailed and it just feels polished all around. I was hoping for these changes when playing the beta and it seems they've done pretty much everything I was waiting for graphics wise.

Holy -blam-! I thought the graphics in the beta weren't too shabby, and now the final game has some great effects!

I have to admit I've been skeptical of the supposed improvement that will come to H3's graphics in the final version. If it's like Shadowrun, then I don't think anyone will be disappointed.

Good point.

Well, you have to remember, the beta for ShadowRun and H3 had to be downloadied. They didn't put the highest resolutions, and polygon counts in, because the file would be enormous.

I know they gave a dummed down version of ShadowRun with incomplete graphics and old art becasue the file size was much, much smaller.

Ha, I suppose you're right. The downloads were still 1 GB even with the reduced graphics. Come to think of it, in SR's case where the game is 100% multiplayer, there's not a lot to spend your data limit on besides maps, textures, and polygons (to my limited knowledge). A dual-layer DVD holds about 9 GB IIRC. That's a lot of room to expand.

H3 might not be such a pronounced difference since there's a large campaign to consider.

I would just like to say that I am replying to Midnight's post and no one else's.

Thank you.

I would like to continue this trend of replying, because it looks so organized.

Looks organized when you view posts chronologically.

Where is the option to view posts chronologically?

Below the last comment it says "Comment Viewing Options" Choose "Flat List-Expanded." This displays all posts chronologically regardless of whether they click your precious reply button so that the new posts are always on bottom. I get tired of having to backtrack through a comment chain because a new comment was posted in reply to an earlier comment. My world is indifferent when people use the reply button, so it's difficult to remember to do it. I try to remember for the sake of those who use the threaded view, but out of sight is out of mind.

@Midnight:

Like for instance this comment's parent comment. There's no way to tell who you are replying to.

The flat comment has no relationship to other comments unless you "reply" to them or your call out the OP.

In larger forums, flat and chrono doesn't work. Even here it gets confusing. There will be posts between several comments and it gets messy.

That's the way I see it.

I agree.

But who do I agree with?

Only I know.

Just chiming in because it's come up across multiple threads now.

I too prefer to view the posts chronologically. Personally I don't find it confusing at all. Even when someone replies directly to someone else they are usually speaking in the context of the discussion at the point and time when the reply occurs.

In the threaded view, depending on when someone replies to someone else, you can have new comments spanning several pages, and you have to click into each page to check. The longer the thread, the worse things are. It is possible to completely miss comments and posts. Especially if I havn't been able to check the forum for a couple of days.

I try to always hit reply for the people that like the threading, but I never see it. To me, when posts are viewed non-chronologically, the forum is far more confusing. I used to have to scroll up and down and click across pages to try to piece everything back together. I very seldom switch to a threaded view now. I find it very inconvenient. The only time that comes readily to mind was to recently see what Mintz was bitching at Midnight about.

I'm not saying that the way I view things is the way things should be. I'm throwing out an alternate viewpoint.

- Brick

I agree with someone as well.

@Rapture

I agree it is messier to not reply to individual comments for those who view the forum threaded. If I were perfect I would hit reply every time. It's just not enough of an issue for me to be concerned about.

If you take away the comment entry box at the bottom of the thread and force me to have to click repy to post a comment then that could solve it.

we'd reply to everything.

True...I don't think there is a perfect solution.

Perhaps we should channel this energy into getting our 288 lurkers to actually post something instead of worrying about how all of my comments look.

I agree with some... one... who replied to... some person.

O RLY?

You can display up to 300 comments on one page. In one click that puts just every node's comment on one page.

If you prefer a lower comments/page number, I don't see how a comment on the second page can be connected to a comment on the first page unless it is addressed to someone (and it usually is not). To me, it's just a random comment that requires further research to find out where it fits into the conversation. If a post has more than the "number of comments to display" setting that you have chosen, it's going to roll over to another page no matter what.

It's hard to tell who is talking to who when someone doesn't hit "reply" or address is comment with at least an "@" symbol and name. It's especially hard to follow the conversation when someone chimes in several days or even weeks after a post has been made and the context has faded away. And then it's even worse when the comments span two pages.

I don't think the problem is with "flat" versus "threaded". I think the problem is with "not obviously in reply to" and "in reply to". I don't mind the flat'ers. But the "not obviously in reply to" stuff is hard to follow. To me, it's a loose comment that requires further research of a large chunk of the thread above it.

To each his own.

I won't bring this up any more unless a flat'er choses to discuss it. Readability of the content is a concern of mine.

I like to read posts chronologically as well.

...I hate that.

Well, we have Mr. O RLY who came out of the shadows. He's a very valuable contributor.

And all this conversation about your forum posts could be easily solved if you just clicked "reply." Oh, the humanity.

...

So, other than giving you obscenely large biceps, the Marines has also taught you how to debilitate innocent high-schoolers?

The O RLY thing is ten times as annoying as people not clicking reply. I hate whoever started that O RLY thing.

How can the "O RLY thing" possibly be detrimental to your browsing experience?? I love the guy!

O RLY? Y? R U 4 r341?

With the threaded view, even if I bump the view up to 300 comments on a page, I still have to scroll through all 300 comments and visually scan to make sure I'm not missing anything...and I have to do it every single time I check the thread. The longer the thread the worse this is.

Nothing in what you said changed that.

Also, Re: the deliberately obscure posts in other threads that looks like a smart-assed attempt to prove a point. I can hence-forth drop using the reply button, and go make a bunch of responses to people that make perfect sense, even with large gaps between them. If I do, it doesn’t mean you’re wrong in general.

I'm not saying:
- Don't use the reply features.
- That other people should use the view I'm using.
- That you are wrong about a threaded view making it easy to tell who is speaking to whom.

I'm saying:
- That not everyone likes to look at things the way you do.
- Flat and Chrono is not confusing to everyone. I personally find it the superior view if I am trying to stay on top of the comments across the entire forum, vs. worrying about a sidebar in one thread.
- The threaded view is not a superior way to view things to everyone.
- That it looks like you've started nagging one of this site’s better contributors because you don't like the button he’s clicking when he contributes.
- To each his own.

I don't want you or anyone to change your default forum view.

It's not about Flat vs. Threaded. It's not about one being better than the other. It's not about me declaring that I have a better or right way of looking at things.

It's about "using reply to comment" or "not using reply to comment".

If Flat'ers (and Thread'ers) would use the "reply" link everyone could go on their merry way no matter how they read their comments. Flat'ers would keep reading at the bottom on the threads. Thread'ers would keep scanning up and down the thread looking for the red "NEW" logo.

For the Thread'ers the "reply" link takes out the guess work that Flat'ers do all the time (or the work that we don't want to do). Flat'ers don't see the difference regardless if anyone uses the "reply" link. It affects the Thread'ers though. The longer the thread the worse this is. The more users in a thread the worse this is. The more time that passes the worse this is.

You said it best. BUT WE have to look at things the way you do each time the reply link isn't used. That's the whole reason for people to post the "WTF are you replying to posts". They are forced to look at things in a way they don't wish to. If anyone is (unintentionally) imposing a view on someone, it's the person (whether they are a Flat'er or not) that doesn't use the reply button.

You can't break a Flat'ers system.

You CAN break a Thread'ers system.

It's not about Flat vs. Threaded.

Since it affects others and I care about the look of the site, it is my goal to hit the reply button every time it is necessary.

Right now when I reply to threads I feel compelled to click reply even if it doesn't make sense. I am scared shitless to not use it for fear we'll have a week-long discussion about it if I don't. Sometimes I make the conscious decision not to use it because my post is very general, but if I reference any previous post then I am told to use the reply button.

I think the responsibility of being understood is incumbent on the commenter. If I was really doing that poor a job then I apologize.

Bickering about the use of the reply button is a lot uglier than my lack of use of it, IMO.

Excellent point. Thats a perspective I hadn't considered.

I've changed my position on the issue. One of you let me know next time Midnight doesn't use the reply button. I'll yammer at him too.

Also, sorry for making it into more of a discussion than it had to be. I was waiting to see if I got to go back to bed or back to the rocking chair, and this seemed much more interesting at the time than it does now.

@Brick: I'm glad we all talked about it. I'm sorry it took so long for me to lay down my thoughts on the matter.

@Midnight: I'd rather have a weekend discussion than have a few people bothered by it until the next time it happens. I just wanted to make it clear that not using the REPLY button breaks the Thread'ers system. It has taken me a long time to express that.

THIS thread has gone from being about "Shadowrun screenshots" to "clicking a link on a forum". Yuck.