wolfstriked

standard UI conventions for this sort of game is for the numbers "1-N" (N=6 in this game) to select characters, and "=" to select all characters. Function keys are mapped to actions for individual characters, corresponding to the order in which icons are shown above the character portraits.Problems with this are....... You want to keep your eyes on the screen and not look down at keyboard constantly though.I feel this is the reason that in videos of POE the player has the mouse pointer running all over the screen and most of my IE playthrus have been done with pointer instead of key binds. Having to look at keyboard for every character choice and then for every character order is not good for a relaxed gameplay session.You could leave hand on keyboard and memorize where the keys are by feel but that contorts your hand quickly.Most will choose to play by running the mouse pointer all over the screen.So in order to command a character you move pointer from top right of screen down to the lower left/choose a character/chooses an order to execute and then move pointer back up to upper right of screen to select the recipient of the chosen order,back and forth 6 times.With the WASD you simply press W to remove the mouse travel.The pointer simply moves over the character portrait area to allow a quick character and order command and then simply release W and select the recipient of this order and repeat.Its very efficient and makes for a more enjoyable experience. That said a way to make choosing 1-6 and the Fkeys feel more intuitive is to give us ability to use SHIFT/CTRL/ALT as modifier keys.So with QWEASD as the keys to individually select each toon by pressing SHIFT these same keys now function like the Fkeys.Even better would be to allow us to bind Middle mouse button as the modifier as that frees the left hand to more easily access QWEASD keys,no contorting required. Maybe someone can think of something better.....

Hitting W places pointer over the character portraits in lower left allowing you to select the character and give him/her orders.When You release W the pointer reverts back to where it was onscreen(usually near the combat area)allowing the player to select who is the enemy that the attack is for.ASD can each have unique functionality.SHIFT-WASD if more is needed etc.Just examples are clicking S puts pointer over the middle UI,clicking D can increase the text area and clicking A can shrink back down. This is something that might seem lazy at first but if you think about how many times in just a single combat you are moving the mouse everywhere onscreen it makes sense.Honorable mention is players with very large screens.

Love Dwarves but they are never made the way I would like to see them.Extreme strength with +4 points towards that score(living deep inside of rock tends to requiere great strength) coupled with a large negative also and that is very slow movement.So in open area combat they kinda suck as enemies can kite them from afar but get them into closed tight spaces and those little buggars grow and grow and you will feel just how tough they really are. Which gets me to a question I have for POE.I have this thing in RPG's that ruins the game for me whenever it happens and that is magical items that improve attributes.You go all out in making parties with strong fighters and then you find a ring that grants your weakling the same strength.Why even bother then is the feeling I get and then I start metagaming and starting fighters with low strength and high dex and then giving them the belt of cosmo strength.In my recent playthru of BG2enhancedI found Viconia and love the fact that she can not use so many weapons.It added flavor to her but then I found a belt of stone giant strenth and voila.Sorry just my pet peeve with RPG's and magical items that balance out all the characters.

Sorry,its gamey to see them just disappear and turn into a gold sack with a sword laying on top of it.Looks more like it belongs in Sonic the Hedgehog than a fantasy RPG that is striving for a bit more realism.I had a gritty imagination when I played D&D yrs back and so it bothers me to no end but its the devs game and I will live with what they deliver.

Wow,that quick mockup just made the wait even harder.Really like the way that looks.

I felt the paladin and fighter looked pretty solid too in their chainmail and breastplate. Sorry but Is your avatar a pic from NWN2? Looking at it I have to wonder whats the catch with wearing that fur-leather shirt that covers only the upper half of the torso. The catch is you're a savage beast who don't give a ****. Intimidation and all. Hopefully there is full body hide armors available.

Whats with all the colorful glow effects and whos idea was it to add them?It doesn't blend well with the more realistic vibe that POE is striving for and I shudder to think what higher level players will look like with a bunch of protection spells cast on them.Multicolored glowing orbs,why....?

Just wanna add that for me I feel that the circles should hardly be noticable unless you look for them.Muted colors with low brightness that blend into the terrain.

Some things I found in video that I feel detract from the experience and I don't wanna come across as a troll when I just mean to give my opinion. Firstly the models are not highly detailed and so they do not look good when zoomed in so I agree with some posters here that its jarring and doesn't fit with the game.Please Obsidian give us an option to choose something different.As posted a smaller character which is as large as the character in game at full zoom is good and I also would take just equipment slots with no character model at all.The first thing that jumped out at me in demo video was the character creation screen and how un pleasant the model looked.If it was small like in game I would of not had that feeling. Second is that I really feel that the devs should not focus on making things so easy.I was watching a video if Wasteland2 and saw that when you loot a fallen enemy you have a circle of looting pop up and everything inside this circle can be looted at once when having to go to each fallen enemy one at a time grounds you into feeling that the world is more believable.Its just a small thing that just removes the gamey aspect.The player in the W2 video was clicking on a body and then spam clicking to just take it all.What would make a dev think that is good for gameplay,to speed up the player so they get into a speedrun mentality?Also,please dont turn dead bodies into a loot pile with coins and a sword sticking out of it.Just leave the body as is and we can click on it to loot...PLZ. Next is my pet peeve of all RPG's and that has to do with lighting.A simple way to make a game world feel like its uninhabited is to remove all light sources.Stalker games has firepits lit all over the place and fantasy RPG's have either lit torches or glowing stones littered thruout dungeons.The demo video has ALL the traits of an RPG with glowing rocks and lit torches everywhere.What about having some dungeons in complete darkness and force the player to need torches to see.Just imagine how atmospheric it would look as you forge deeper and deeper into a sealed off dungeon.When I was playing D&D yrs back my DM foced us to carry torches for non dark vision characters which we could drop if in combat and then pick them up again to carry on. Finally I again agree with some posters that some of the animations look wonky.The stun effect with all thre characters standing in place and twirling their heads around stood out to me.The running animations also to me are a distraction.Please,a few different animations for the different types of bodies and races would really add to the game.Right now they all move exactly the same. Other than that I am really anticipating alot of good play thrus with this one.