dr membrano

I'm a bit late to the beta crowd but I have played 392 a couple times through now. My first impression is that there is a massive amount of potential for this game to be really good but only if some of these fundamentals are fixed properly. For one, it happened to me 3 times that looting was obstructed because of a corpse. Luckily each of these times nothing of any value was lost or missed as I loaded up the game and checked it out. However, in previous crpg's I've been burned by having to choose either to load the game to a much earlier save or go without major loot, or more crucially a quest item. This may be a personal problem but I had a hard time getting a comfortable combination of auto-pause settings. I like the idea of choosing which to you is a good time to pause but ultimately there was idle-item by a few in my party. An option here to pause after "one turn" or once each party member has attacked at least once would be good. I was either stopping and starting constantly which is the draw-back of entirely turn based play or one of my party was getting targeted while others were standing around which is the draw-back of real-time play. I like the writing in the game, I thought it was very well done and I definitely noticed how my stats and different characters changed the content of the text. I'm looking forward to testing out a few more builds with entirely different stats to push it a little further. At the end of the Lle A Rhemen dungeon, in the room with the animal boss guy, there are about 8 spiders that were completely unaggro, I couldn't attack them and they didn't notice me. In regards to that boss, I was rather surprised that I was able to simply talk him out of a fight, especially because it only took me actually saying one thing. I hate to say, it was disappointing unless there's a continuation of that storyline later on in the game. The way food and potions take effect needs work. I understand not wanting to make it so that you can bring tons of food into a dungeon and be a cat with 9 lives, but at the same time, potions are magical and if they exist at all they should have surprising effects. I was shocked that it was decided that food, healing potions and spells made the big dungeons too easy to get through and made things easier but you can "camp" in the bottom of a dungeon. In those other rpgs I would definitely take these camping supplies over a lot of the potions and spells I used. -------------------------- I was pleasantly surprised by the usefulness of the Priest class. It's not as much fun to have as your personal character but, IMO, the spells they have are even better than the wizard's spells. The monk as well was really cool and definitely refreshing difference from other rpgs. The wizard was kind of difficult to use because of low defense and friendly fire. Whenever I had him in the back of the formation for protection purposes I found I was needing to bring him and and leave him alone on the flanks so as to use stronger spells effectively. After getting the IV level spells the wizard became more useful but was still in a supporting role, similar to the priest, sitting in the back and using very selective spells at certain points in the fight. The bounding and concussive missiles were the two better spells and the fire wall has a lot of potential for using in the right formation. I used it very effectively in the narrow dungeons as well. I wasn't a fan of the rogue, the talents were nearly useless and the traps were just ineffective for use in a dungeon setting. I've had a chance to read through all the topics in the beta section with some context regarding peoples' suggestions and I got to say that I don't know what a lot of people are complaining about. While there are a lot of bugs, that's the point of a beta test. Most of the "problems" I ran into are things that could definitely be smoothed out as characters develop as the game goes on. There are still a lot of weapons and spells that haven't been introduced and to think that because the wizard at level 8 or whatever isn't very useful or powerful doesn't mean they don't become crucial later on. Considering how long it took to get through the "first area" in relation to the size of the map, it looks like there's a whole lot of gameplay. Glad I pre-ordered.

I agree that the wizards could use some change. My take is that they're somewhat limited. They have a few targeted damage spells and a couple multi-target spells. While I feel as though the damage and speed are appropriate, it also feels like the spells are really specific, even as to be named after a specific person. I understand that the devs were trying to get away from generic "fireball", "shock", "harm" spells, and that's cool, but at the same time the spells are for use in combat, against enemies, and there's a certain level of energy efficiency required on the wizard's part. I think that in order to achieve the desired effect with these wizards there should just be more spells. So long as there's a stark choice between choosing to learn "deal 15 damage" and "raise allies PE 15%" rather than choosing which to use first. Obviously I've only seen a few of the spells so maybe it opens up more later on.

it's definitely not that best kind of game for a live stream but just because it's the first look and I won't see it again for several months I'll watch a few streams.

if the pig can't die then train the pig to kill kill kill

Samuel L Jackson should voice the main boss.

Yes, Arcanum was buggy as hell and some of the characters were bland as hell BUT The story line(s) were excellent, the writing was very well done and fitting to the setting. These tie into the mechanics smoothly as well. There are actually good opportunities to use each skill and because you really can't be both a magician and technologist there's ample room for replays. There are many patches for the game that fix many of the bugs (not all) and even expansions for it; both of which show the potential the game has if it's done properly. I don't think that Arcanum needs a sequel, it just needs a deluxe edition where all the bugs are fixed and perhaps some aspects are rebalanced (the harm spell is so overpowered it doesn't even count as playing.)

So because this is a role-playing game are promancers in favor of allowing anyone to romance anyone else or are you all suggesting that there be prescribed relationships that occur between certain individual characters automatically? Isn't it discriminatory to prevent me from having a gay interracial romantic relationship of my choosing? Can we also talk about how difficult it would be to role play a love interest with a non-player character?

I think the inventory in Arcanum is done really well. You get your inventory space but you also have a belt which can hold 10 items irregardless of their size. This is useful for carrying one sword that takes up 1/4 of you inventory or large pieces of machinery/building materials. Ultimately it's all judged by weight and long before you reach your absolute max carrying capacity you become encumbered and are only able to walk... slooowly.

I think that in most games I've played there's been a large emphasis on wizardry and magic which, while totally justified, leads to spellcasters having an edge over other builds. Not that a warrior with a greatsword isn't fearsome but there's typically a spell that is overpowered and easily abused. Not to mention that there are new/different characters types in PoE (like the monk) which I should use... which is purely personal, I enjoy new things.

What they SHOULD do, as with all other items sent through customs, is wrap it in a t-shirt and declare it as "gifts and chocolates". They'll be none the wiser.

I found out about PoE while checking Terra Arcanum.

First go around I'll be doing wizard; it's a cop out but if everyone in the game is somewhat magical it does make sense. I'm really interested in monks and godlikes though so I'll definitely be looking to get one in my party so that I can see how they work without having my whole party depend on me figuring it out from the start. Second go around, provided I like them, a monk will be my choice.

I think this is really a conundrum of single player games. An economy cannot function on the needs of one person. Typically, in MORPG's, there are several players who each have different requirements. Even on a smaller scale within a party in a SPRPG, you buy things that you don't need but someone else in your party does. The rest of the games economy is purely imagined; what might the inhabitants of the city want from the local gunsmith? There are just very few examples of other customers being simulated. Typically games will have a restock point, where if you sleep for a day and come back the merchant has new "special" items while retaining the mainstay potions, bullets, food, etc. This in itself often gets abused by people who can't help but want one specific item from one specific vendor and hassle that person everyday until they magically stock it. The problem, therefore, is how do you properly simulate the economy of an entire city when there's only one unpredictable purchaser? The stronghold idea was actually refreshing in this respect. People may be miffed that they will now also have to pay the Imaginary Revenue Service taxes on their stronghold property but I think it's a great money sink. The maintenance will also cost money and there are several stages of rebuilding that you must go through as you progress through the game. It seems like this will require several installments of money rather than needing one lump sum and deciding to kill the gunsmith for his wallet. This also ties into another post I made regarding open-endedness in situations like this. There's no doubt that in a good RPG you should be able to choose to murder the merchants. If you kill someone who a moment ago was offering to sell you 10 swords, it makes sense that he have the goods on or near him, unless he's selling certificates or pawn receipts. The obvious response, in real life terms, would be where the hell is the law here? If the local merchant gets murdered and someone walks into the general store trying to sell rare, one of a kind swords, shouldn't that raise some red flags? If you sneakily killed someone in their bed at night it'd make sense that the police didn't bust down the door but at the same time, there should be some sort of repercussion in the game that acts as a deterrent to absolute vigilantism. Just because I'm a master thief and murderer doesn't mean my level 2 character should always get away with it no matter who they kill. And just because my character is a master swordsman doesn't mean he should be able to take on an entire city of trained, armed guards either. Maybe these planned economies just don't work in face of storylines where you're the man going to slay the super almighty all-powerful demigod end boss that is threatening Armageddon on all the world. If you succeed, why would you need to revisit the gunsmith later on?

somewhere they discussed how the leveling up would work. They tried not to make it a long grind for levels or for loot but at the same time it'll take more than a few hours to really make meaningful progress. Honestly it's too early to say how many points is adequate because there are more attributes that are parceled to NPC's in PoE than in other games. It may be easier to live off the environment rather than rely on gaining levels just to have one useful component for your character. Now, if they have "unlocks" that require a certain level and are the "bonus point" for gaining that level, I think it'd be even more interesting than just having one extra point to throw into a pool of DX or INT.

I hope beyond "dungeon-delving" puzzles there are some that require acquired knowledge from the game. They mentioned that they don't want people to be able to walk through the endless paths in one run. Does that mean just because it takes too long and the NPC's too difficult or could it be that your character doesn't yet have the experience to be able to solve them. I think there's room for a lot of the individual puzzles to have their own side-quests to old sages for ancient bits of wisdom or for Gordion Knot-esque unconventional wisdom.

I would like my barbarian to be highly abusive in relationships and demand that the devs find a way to introduce Stockholm Syndrome into the NPC psyche. I know of no other way to be satisfied.

Sans insulation I suppose but they've said that steel is the most common material available which is a poor surface conductor, if you were touching it at all I'd imagine you'd get zapped. In fact, whether or not you were directly affected by the electricity is almost moot because the metal would be hotter than an oven afterwards.

To me a monk is someone with mental focus that surpasses the perceived expectation of their ability. The exact vision that came to my mind regarding monks in PoE is the self-immolating Buddhist type. Able to withstand great pain and affliction in order to effect at a higher order.

Someone in another thread put it well when they said that a player shouldn't be able to add their own intelligence into the game; if you're playing a low INT character you should never be out-witting NPCs. From spoilers, I've gathered that they're doing their best to make magic somewhat "separate yet equal" insomuch that each school has its own benefits rather than one obvious-choice power group of spells opposed to non-combat alternatives. But this goes to Hiro's point; how padded will it be? If you choose to level your skilling abilities in lieu of combative ones, when it comes time to fighting a boss you better hope you learned how to craft a bomb. I think it'd make the entire game more fun to know that you can get to the final boss battle and simply not be powerful enough to defeat him.

It's just describing nuances of fighting that you'd expect in a "real life" fight. If someone is not at all dexterous and has never used a bow before you would not expect them to simply pick one up and be proficient with it. While you're playing the game, one simple number will appear as your "hit" but as you play you'll begin to wonder why you're not as accurate or powerful as you think you should be. The simple "hit" will take into account all of yours and your opponents' strengths and weaknesses. Common sense tells you that hitting fully armored opponent with a wooden staff won't be as effective as using electricity. I'm eager to see more than a two-hit teaser of what a full battle involving several different classes looks like. Very interested to see how they balance out on average when you're not just planning to take advantage of multipliers. Should be worth the wait and anticipation.

Rather than have an alignment meter that tallies good and evil deeds they should work on giving NPCs better memories and to be more vigilant. If you walk into a city and kill 20 people shouldn't all of the existing guards plus additional ones be constantly searching for you? Or at least they should be suspicious of people they don't know in a way that reflects on their speech; "Hi, Stranger! Some outsider came into town and murdered everyone at the inn today but c'mon in!" Progressing time forward a few days shouldn't absolve you of any and all murders and it shouldn't just reflect when you're conversing with people but they should be actively trying to capture you. As other people have said before, it's not good and evil but action and consequence. If you think you're strong enough to take on the entire city then great, go for it. I feel like there should be a pandemonium mode when the all-powerful all-evil wizard comes into town to kill everyone where nobody is open for business.

I don't mind a common starting point between different classes/races but it shouldn't really hinder your progress at the start. Sure there should be npc prejudice and sure there should be necessary differences in the tutorial of different types of character but if skills and abilities are not relative to begin with then you're conceding that one race or class is just simply better than another from the get-go. I think that it really does require a sort of amnesia on behalf of the player with regards to their characters past. If the Mountain Mines are a difficult dungeon and a dangerous place altogether for a Human, how do you compensate for the Dwarf starting there? Should the distribution and level of enemies change based on which class or race you choose? A large city sounds like an apt place to start, as said above, no matter where you "come from" you could always have business in the central hubs. I agree that BG2 is a good example to follow too

My initial thought was that God is the Watcher or rather gods are watchers. To tie into PoE I would guess that there aren't really any gods but individuals who have attained a godlike, legendary status. I surmise that Od Nua is a mortal god that resides at the end of the endless path. As you progress along the endless path, you're descending into Od Nua's inferno of hell, becoming godlike yourself at the end.

In all honesty who here isn't going to be replaying this game several times? I've replayed all my favorite rpg's at least twice and this game, for me, is long anticipated. At this point, I'd wait an extra few months to know that it was completed and all possible content was added. It'll save me having to dl a patch later and/or waiting 13 years for a sequel like I have for Arcanum.

It'd be cool to see consideration regarding replay-ability with this. If there were say 10 legends of mystical items in the world, it only seems natural that some of them would be fictional, right? Sawyer mentioned a drop list with random generation so it'd be cool if there were 10 legendary items in total but each time you play you could only acquire a random 7 of them if you played the game 100%, the remaining three would be proven mere legends. So; Game 1 Boss A drops Item X Boss B drops Item Y Boss C drops Item Z Game 2 Boss A drops Item Y Boss B drops Item Z Boss C drops Item X But in all honesty I would prefer not to see any Uber items. I think an enchantment that could be attached to ANY item would be more fitting with open-ended roleplaying. If instead of always having to kill the dragon for the Golden Axe of Brutality you could, by your own choice, be using the Iron Mace of Brutality or shooting from the Crossbow of Brutality.