Hi Kiya.
It was a pleasure for me too to read your posts.
I also do respect the opinions of others even if we agree to differ.
We ARE different in general but we also seek our similarities that bring us together to become fans of this game, right? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
Even though I am obviously a male, I prefer my hero to be a female.
Females are more Divine by nature. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
Thus, I would love to see my hero in the best armour too. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
A wish there was a very sexy armour-set that allows my hero to kill all male foes while they are busy leering. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Restrictions:
I never meant to endorse any restrictions.
I only wished that rules come natural without forcing silly freedom that neither makes sense nor comes handy in the game itself.

Items:
In the real history of the Middle Ages, any warrior would wear a dagger or two along with the major melee weapon which was preferably a war axe or a sword of choice. Other weapons did exist of course but they were less popular for lonely rangers. Lances and spears are not for heroes but for war ranks standing side by side or mounted knights charging at full speed.

If the combat rules made the damage of weapons vary by proximity, then daggers could be most useful if a hero could lose a sword and be close enough to a foe.
Under the current rules of DD daggers are wimpy tools good only for pealing apples. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Calling it even:
I like that. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" />
It is a very cute idea to wash my suffering by the idea of the suffering of others although it is not fair to either of us to suffer at all.

Inconsistency:
If you were reading all my posts, you would have noticed that I held exactly your opinion but in different words. I said that the current game design shortcomings are a logical consequence of the bad internal story line.
IOW you found logic concerning the design solutions to handle the bad story line. I agree on that, hence there is no different approach at all here.

Freedom and playing the bad guy:
Turnoff the lights Yanez, says the survivorett! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Consequences:
Agreed.

Let's face it:
Visual and audio professionals produce the basic materials for inclusion by programmers into the game.
Programmers follow the directions set by a game director/designer whose job is to correlate the audiovisual material with the story line, which must be rewritten by a RPG scenarist.
The story itself is the backbone of the artistic product, but the scenarist is the most important mind in a game creation. It is the scenarist’s imagination that sets the background locations and the events that take place in the game. When a good story is converted to a scenario the director could order the graphics and the audio effects that make the material for the programmers to knit together into a marvel of simulation.
It is the primary responsibility of the GAME DIRECTOR to set the rules of the game to comply with the scenario and produce a consistent product.
Divine Divinity never had a well written story line, a clear and consistent scenario or ever had a dedicated Game Director, and I think that “Swen” (LAR) is an amateur genius/ tyrant who held all the teams captive in his dungeon to produce his half-cooked genius ideas.
No offence intended here, but I have the mental powers to read all this through my 36 completions of this game.
If I am wrong let Swen post a reply saying that I was wrong and correct me, but I am almost sure that if he reads my posts he shall be very surprised as to how I found out all this information.
The answer is very simple, I am DAD. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Cheers. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />