Okay, this is now fixed in the current patch.

Okay, here's what I've got, it'll be in the next patch (sometime in the next few days)

Shooting:
* Spaces and portals can be shot through if they are transparent.
* Obstacles and opaque terrain can never be shot through.

Talking:
* Spaces and portals can always be talked through, transparent or not. (So you could have an opaque door where you can talk to the guy on the other side of it, even though you can't see him)
* Obstacles can never be talked through.

Having obstacles, transparent or not, always block shots /talking sounds good to me.

I think there might be a goof in the manual (or in the code, depending on your perspective) on that point -- I'll have to look at the code and verify what exactly is the difference between a non-passable space and an obstacle.

On a related note, I think obstacles always block talking, but I'll want to check that too.

Does anyone have a problem with obstacles always blocking ranged weapons and talking, regardless of whether they're see-through?

In the manual (p15), it says that obstacles should always block ranged weapon shots. But when I tried setting a simple stone wall obstacle object to "transparent" view mode, it let the ranged weapon shots go through. Is this intentional, or is there something else I am doing wrong here?