[No immunities]

Well if this makes somebody happy, during my bounty missions i have found out that prone effect does not work at all. There were whole group of humans apparently immune to prone from all my Wizard spells. 

 

However Fighter knockdown worked and applied prone effect, so i could be just part of planned nerf of Wizard spells (slicken, Call to slumber) from 1.03 patch.

 

I think Knockdown targets fortitude, it's possible that the wizard spells were targeting another defense or just missing.

[Hard mode is too easy (part 2)]

So... how bout that "PotD enemy types and numbers, but no inflated stats" difficulty level? Anyone got the modding chops to pull this off?

 

I say this without having played PotD yet, so take that as you will. Might be that PotD is just the right amount of difficulty for me - though I'll still hate that most things I learned on Hard will be invalid due to the stupidly inflated stats. I'd much rather just have more numerous and more difficult enemies.

 

FWIW, I'm playing through POTD now and it seems to provide some challenge (Act 1 atm). The inflated stats just make debuffs and buffs matter imo, vs hard where I used them just because. It still has the AI path-finding and engagement issues, of course.

 

Take a look and see if the difficulty is right for you, at least until OE adjusts "Hard" mode.

[Paladins: Why the Suck and how to Un-suck them]

So...Paladin's are the bard class of POE. Interesting, I thought that was the Chanter.

[Thoughts about turning PotD on in the middle of the game to maintain "Hard" difficulty throughout?]

Just avoid bounties and see how it goes for your play-through. 

[Here's my major gripe list, after multiple completions and 164 hours played]

Plays game for 164 hours, and only wants to complain...gamers these days...

 

You're missing the /sarcasm.

 

Otherwise, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/constructive+criticism.

 

It should be obvious as to why he spent 164 hours of his free time playing the game.

[EI Mod and my opinions]

So, it's just PCGamer but it's nice to see the IE mod getting some recognition. Maybe if enough sites do a story on it, Obsidian may consider implementing some of the features. It's not like the code isn't readily available?

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/pillars-of-eternity-mod-brings-ui-options-other-goodies/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

[The gaming community and "balance"]

Some people seek external rewards over internal rewards (and the other way around too ofc).  I think those that want exploits removed (rest spamming, forex) want the external reward of having accomplishments in a game to be recognized by the community (on some level).  The presence of exploits do (sort of) remove a lot of the "bragging rights" in beating a game.

 

I'm more internally motivated, so I have no problem "gimping" myself if it means making a game more fun (self imposed ironman mode, or playing solo, or w/e) and couldn't care less if someone else somewhere was abusing the crap out of a broken mechanic in a game.  But I can see how it can bother other people.

 

It's not really about player inability to restrict themselves from using exploits, imo. It's about taking an intelligent approach to the game without the intention to exploit (such as establishing a defensive front line), but then realizing that you'll have to limit your approach so that the enemies have an opportunity to fight back. It's less about "bragging rights" and more about finding enough difficulty in the base game to not require gimping yourself with self-imposed challenges like solo, low level runs, etc.

 

That is specifically for difficulty balancing. Regarding class balancing, I think most classes are fine with the exception of the Monk whose wound mechanic is not working as advertised. Regarding item balancing, I think the lack of stand-out loot is due to the way that crafting works; you are allowed to make useful magical items without needing to worry about what you find. 

[Hard mode is too easy.]

I just tried path of the damned for the first time.  Calisca misses A LOT and my rogue dies fast.  If I play on hard, then it's way too easy.  Not sure what to do.

 

Stick to POTD until hard mode difficulty is adjusted? If there's only one challenging difficulty level and you want a challenge, you don't really have a choice.

[EI Mod and my opinions]

I think there's merit to both systems.  Pillars has made some great changes, but also the BG series still has some superior elements.

 

Let's at least credit Obsidian for having a good try, and hope they improve on it in the next iteration.

 

I would prefer that they make feasible improvements to the current iteration, which then carry over into the next. The system has great potential, but I would be much less likely to buy a POE2 or even expansion if the approach of the team is to abandon all tuning/tweaks with the excuse that it's to be expected initially, so deal with it.

 

As Luckmann and Namutree said previously, we wouldn't bother posting at all if we didn't think the game had merits. There's just no real point in discussing areas that were done well. 

[General feedback from a veteran]

Yeah, grazes inflicting status affects is weird. Not sure why they didn't make spell resolution like:

 

1. Miss - No damage or status affect.
2. Graze - Reduced damage, no status affect.
3. Hit - Full damage and normal status affect.
4. Crit - Increased damage and increased status affect.

 

To be honest, sometimes I wonder why graze even exists.

[EI Mod and my opinions]

wow, you guys are totally, totally clueless.

 

bowing out now, because this thread is filled with people who have no clue what they're talking about.

 

 

 

Played an IE game before? For better or worse, there are no attacks of opportunity in those games. And for the record, many people in the discussion enjoy the idea of engagement but think it needs to be tweaked before it really shines. Even though D&D is irrelevant to this discussion, you were allowed to move within a certain number of feet without triggering free attacks or use a withdraw action iirc, which you can not even do in POE unless the opponent is disabled. My main issue with POE's engagement is that every movement action is an assumption that you are fleeing, so I can't even side-step without triggering a free attack with increased accuracy.

 

Regarding AI, I have to wonder how difficult it would be to make a priority script where the AI always targets units with the lowest defenses or DR, only engaging the tanks when forced to due to engagement. Is it due to the fear of increasing the challenge across the board? Better to have players feel like gods instead of mere mortals?

[Engagement and Disengagement suggestion / request.]

I'm hoping that the reason disengagement attacks trigger when you move even a step away from the opponent is due to a bug and isn't by design. Although, judging by the way the AI will re-position while engaged to switch targets  and avoid disengagement attacks,(literally slide across the ground while hugging the engaged unit), I'm worried that it's intentional.

 

There needs to be an actual zone of control though, and this needs to be visible to the player outside of expert mode. The red cursor alone does not give enough feedback to allow for re-positioning of front-line units safely.

[Hard mode is too easy.]

 

Well, I hear WotC is putting together a CRPG. Maybe they'll do better?

 

Roflmao...have you ever used any software designed by WotC?

 

 

 

A man can dream, right?

[Hard mode is too easy.]

Well, I hear WotC is putting together a CRPG. Maybe they'll do better?

[The gaming community and "balance"]

Well, if the devs hard-coded everything then modding is going to be a nightmare imo. I don't think any decompiler will give you line for line accuracy on the source code either, so it's going to be a real chore if OE doesn't plan on releasing some form of documentation to assist.

Just following best software development practices would make modding easier overall, specifically placing values in external files and making references in the code vs hard-coding.

 

Personally, I spend enough time attempting to modify poorly documented, poorly implemented software at work to be bothered to come home and repeat the process.

 

Regarding balance

 

I don't think pointing out that, in games made 15 years ago, certain strategies trivialized the game and it was up to the player to restrict himself to avoiding them is a good argument. The idea should be to correct the mistakes of the past, especially when one of the selling points of the title is to provide the player with meaningful choices such that optimal choices would not be the best choice by a wide margin. 

[Brigandine and Plate Armor Discrepancy]

Just an issue of poor balancing among the armour types. Hopefully the dev team will give it another pass, so many things that need to be re-worked before an expansion is even considered imo.

[has anyone tried to do only crit path to gauge how much xp we get?]

It seems like Endless Paths and the Stronghold events (bounties) are the main culprits of massive xp gain. Not too surprising, since these were stretch goals and would not have been a high priority balance task.

[Hard mode is too easy.]

For what it's worth, I don't think the statistical percentage of players who have finished the game is a testament to overall difficulty. Personally, I restarted twice after working through Act Two because it became boring and I was hoping that trying a different class or difficulty would change that. It's hard to care about completing the game when the combat is no longer challenging or interesting.

[hard vs POTD - what are the differences?]

Regardless of difficulty, the game becomes much easier after act one. I think POTD has a challenging early game, but afterwards is trivial outside of specific encounters.

[Patch Notes 1.04 Discussion Thread]

Since 1.04 doesn't include any balance changes, hopefully 1.05 substantially retunes things. It would be pretty hard to ignore the biggest thread on these forums after all.

 

Do they even read the forums anymore? 

[Should discussion about The Poem be ... censored?]

If we can keep this nonsense in one thread and it gets deleted by a mod if it shows up to derail others, then let people talk about it until the end of time.

[EI Mod and my opinions]

 

 

Okay, clarifying the situation - Bester (the main guy) and Sensuki (the other main guy) are both frustrated with the game, and have left. I dunno about the other other main guy. I think that's everyone.

 

There is the distinct possibility that people who know what they're doing will be able to update it for future patch releases. And by distinct possibility, I mean, "people who aren't me know exactly how to do it."

That sucks. Sensuki was the dude who spent a ****load of time betaing PoE and if he walked away that doesn't look too good,

 

 

Or it looks like he would never have been happy with the game from the start. I've been lurking the forums since the beta was released and while I think he did a great job finding bugs, I rarely agreed with the changes he pushed for mechanic-wise. That he doesn't even give the game a chance before modding the **** out of it and then leaves it completely out of frustration only tells me he made his mind up a long time ago.

 

 

He makes some good points about issues with some of the current game mechanics, though. I think it's salvageable, but many areas definitely need to be tweaked or even re-done before I would give POE a 9/10.

[EI Mod and my opinions]

Okay, clarifying the situation - Bester (the main guy) and Sensuki (the other main guy) are both frustrated with the game, and have left. I dunno about the other other main guy. I think that's everyone.

 

There is the distinct possibility that people who know what they're doing will be able to update it for future patch releases. And by distinct possibility, I mean, "people who aren't me know exactly how to do it."

 

Pretty much this. Bester and Sensuki dislike the game, so naturally they won't be interested in keeping the mod up-to-date. The best you can hope for imo is for somebody to update the mod so that it's compatible with future versions of POE. Don't get your hopes up for any new features.

 

There's Kakarov, but I believe he's strictly UI.

[POSSIBLE SPOILERS Modding thread: A simple mod and Console commands]

Honestly, putting POE on hold until Obsidian figures out what they want to do isn't a bad idea. A lot of good ideas, but the implementation hasn't been great based on what I've played.

[Low-level spells becoming per-encounter at high levels]

Really hoping the devs are taking these things into consideration. The underlying encounter system is great and has so much potential, but if it remains like this, with all these issues, then it will be a disaster going forward.