View619

You can? I haven't touched enchanting in a while, but I was under the impression that you can't add stuff like speed or dt penetration. Outside of Fine/Superb/Exceptional qualities, you can't add speed or DR penetration.

Unforunately, Nexus do not allow account creation for those who use Tor (and presumably other online privacy tools). Now that is their perogative, but it does confirm the post title as correct - mods on Nexus not being freely available. And their method of pushing premium accounts is really just as sleazy (though not illegal) as the behaviour of some "free" download sites. Not Obsidian's fault, but a plea for any modmakers out there - please provide mirrors using sites that don't require accounts. Also some of the BG2 modding forums should be willing to provide hosting. Yeah you do have a great point and on top of that, wtf? is it really so hard for Obsidian to just create the IE mod themselves and then just give it to the consumer and say you can use this tool or not its up to you wether you want to use it or not, why do I have to go through Nexus and go through all the hassle of registration to obtain this is my quesion?? and weirdly enough, im now getting denied acess to the file because, the account I just registered with Nexus isnt working?? Obsidian has nothing to do with the IE Mod, they have no responsibility to make your life easier with regards to obtaining or manipulating it. If you have a problem downloading it, speak to somebody on the Nexus or kindly ask a modder to provide a separate mirror. The sense of entitlement is truly ridiculous.

Decent review. I can agree on weak encounter design, poor itemization and the idea that the Stronghold & Od Nua should have been dropped/never presented so resources could be spent elsewhere. That being said, I don't think rant formats are the best idea for getting developers' attention. Pretty easy to put out a negative review without it.

Honestly, difficulty/balance issues aside, the game is very playable in its current state. If you rely on the opinions of some posters on these forums, you run the risk of never playing it because a vocal minority believe the game is hot garbage and Obsidian has failed completely. I agree with Osvir's advice, make your own opinion and avoid the forums and community completely while getting comfortable; do not let any external opinions influence your own. There's a lot of unwarranted negativity that could easily taint your view of a specific mechanic if you're not careful.

Have you tried the latest IE mod? It has an option to increase xp requirements by 50% per level.

The tool tips also say that Hard and POTD are challenging game modes. I doubt that basic tactics and strategies are meant to trivialize encounters in these modes. Currently survival in Hard does not require stat optimization, don't believe everything you read.

It's a good idea, just wondering if the devs would be interested with putting in that work. Then again, anybody with sufficient modding chops to make it happen?

As long as these changes apply to intelligent enemies only and they don't completely dis-regard their own attempts to protect their back-line units where applicable, then I don't see any problems.

Yeah, it looks like some logic has been added for enemies to target units with the lowest deflection/defensive or DR rating. Now we just need logic to improve how enemies prioritize threats when determining whether to disengage (i.e. disengage from tanks doing little damage to rush after back-line units) and we may have tactical combat, in open areas at least.

The increase in xp requirements per level seem to be doing the job. It's pretty clear that the main path content is balanced for parties at lower levels then you would hit in the base games. In the base game, I can get to Caed Nua at level 4 with minimal side-quests. I barely hit level 3 with a similar number of side-quests using the xp requirement mod.

I think it's funny that you criticize it, yet you mention no less than three distinct ways to deal with them. Three ways out of a small mountain. In PoE? What do you do? You.. tank them, and spank them. Preferably in a doorway. Shall we begin talking about doorways and choke points in the old games ? At least in PoE encounter design and enemies speed-engagement makes it harder to exploit. Yes, harder, not impossible. Anyways, fighting in doorways has always been a valid tactic, I even try to do it in pen-and-paper D&D. My ultimate point is, PoE is not the enemy, it does some things different- why not try to accept them and move on and enjoy the game ? After all, we were all aware that there wasn't time to develop enemy AI. In the old game, in any fight that mattered enemy had attacks that punished your doorway tactics (horror, web, lightning bolt, confusion, domination and so on). Nothing like a Hold Person to **** up your cluster of units.

Yeah, grazes still cause the effect to trigger. I've heard this is a major issue with Wizard's Petrify, where a graze and a hit are basically the same in terms of ending a fight. I think it's the entire philosophy of no hard counters, including defenses vs spells on both sides. This seems like a more elegant solution, to be honest. Makes a strong reference to the different tiers of status effects, while allowing all spells to have some sort of influence on a graze.

So, that's 77 with Mental Fortress? It may be due to grazes still triggering spell effects. I really hope Obsidian removes that, as it makes no sense imo. The spell system should really be: Crit = Increased Damage + Normal Duration Hit = Normal Damage + Normal Duration Graze = Reduced Damage + No Duration Miss = nothing. This would also make creature defenses more meaningful. 77 should be high enough in most cases, but it's due to the way grazes work. You would have to stack it like you have deflection to see a difference.

What's your total will defense?

Many thanks, the values are matching up with what I expect now. Edit Following up to say that the progression feels much better than the base game. I can never go back.

Yeah, I dont think you understand why people complain that the game is too easy... And once again, Trial of Iron does not matter if you can trivialize encounters to the point where you never fear a party wipe. It does not increase the difficulty if you already know how to approach encounters in the most effective manner.

And suddenly, IE mod is the definitive POE mod. In before it drops SCS level scripts. Suddenly? IEMod has been the definitive PoE mod since before the game was released. Yeah, I know. Just trying to hype it up a bit. Question for anybody using the adjusted xp value mod from Nexus. I'm assuming the value shown on the character sheet should be ignored? At level 1, I have 0/3 showing for the next level. Well, it looks like the adjusted formula is off. After 1 fight, I'm up to level 3.

And suddenly, IE mod is the definitive POE mod. In before it drops SCS level scripts.

Not a penalty if I neither have Marksman nor use a wood elf. A penalty would be something that affects all races and builds, unless there's a specific talent chosen to negate it.

Or you can have a choice of no talents and be forced to change your weapon set-up to melee or suffer defensive penalties like IE and table-top games. Honestly, a deflection penalty would be fine imo.

Yeah, the only "penalty" is an inability to engage... Maybe there really does need to be an accuracy and deflection penalty to using ranged weapons in melee without a specific talent (maybe). I know there are penalties in both table-top and IE games, so no reasonable excuse to not have it here imo.

One encounter spell every three levels, beginning with one cast of Level 1 spells once your character hits level 4. That could become 2 casts at Level 7, 3 casts at Level 9 then you move on to Level 2 spells once your character hits Level 11 and repeat the process. Make this the progression for all spell casters, where Druids and Priests must select a specific spell per cast (e.g. For Priest, one cast of Barbs of Condemnation and one of Restore Minor Endurance OR two of either), and Wizards are able to mix up the different spells available through the use of their Grimoire (e.g. Mage can have two casts of slicken, then decide to switch it to two casts of Fan of Flames at will). That's my suggestion.

Here's mine for +50% exp req if using IE mod 4.10 (windows): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32777109/Games/Pillars%20of%20Eternity/Assembly-CSharp.dll Awesome, I'll have to try that one. Although IE mod has been updated since then so it may not work. Y'know, if +50% feels right (which it sounds like it would)... you might talk to bman about just putting that into IE mod as another checkbox toggle. That way it'll automatically stay updated with the mod. Yeah, a toggle for that in IE mod would be ideal. Maybe even a slider between 0 - 100 if he's able to do it.

I've had Lions and Wolves stalk my party before, so it may not be due to the 1.04 patch. However, it may be a sign that the devs are putting some serious work into AI tuning.

Again, and for the millionth time - "don't use it" is not an appropriate response to the existence of an overpowered/dominant strategy. If chess had a rule where I could trade my pawns for queens on the first turn, I could surely decide to "not use it" to make the game more fun... but the game would still be poorly designed. Sure it is. This is a single player game. If someone doesn't like doing something, they shouldn't do it. In the IE games, if I had a full party, I would rarely, if ever, pre-buff, kite, attack outside of LOS, or any other powerful (OP?) tactic. I would just barrel right on into the fight and make the best of things. (Usually with as little active input as possible, and I really enjoyed making my own scripts for those games.) But... if I was playing a solo-ironman game, you bet I did everything I could to give myself an advantage (and I needed it). The exploits in the IE games allowed *me* the ability to really enjoy the game in a variety of ways, from ridiculously easy to ridiculously difficult, and everywhere inbetween. In single-player games, players have to accept some small modicum of responsibility for their own behavior in and enjoyment of a game. While this is true, using basic strategies should not feel like you are cheesing the system. Right now, things are so bad that creating choke points almost feels like I am cheesing the system, which means the underlying system is not very good. I'll avoid things like using overly powerful items (summons) or drowning myself in gold by looting everything (I pretend inventory limit is a thing), but if the simplest tactics break your game, it's time to go back to the drawing board.