LadyCrimson

I guess I'm a control freak ... I don't miss scripted combat party AI and auto-defense seems good enough. It does add some micromanagement but casting AI in this particular game would likely infuriate me by wasting per-rest spells unnecessarily and choosing ones at times I wouldn't choose. So I'd rather just hit pause all the time anyway.

Same here. I also tend to get attached to companion personality = their original portrait, so I can't even change that (unless I did it from the 1st start, before getting to "know" them). It'd be like attaching a different face to a friend or family member. Just feels weird. So in this case, using the no-personality adventurers, it's just for the visual funnies. The thought of Kirk/Spock/McCoy/Scotty/Uhura running around in the game just makes me

I Actually did that, I have my PC is 3rd to last with the wizard and druid. He still shows up next to tank on top after area transition and dialog scenes. This sort of thing used to be fairly common in a lot of games, once upon a time. Your character is the main character/leader/special person and is thought of as doing the talking. Generally, leaders don't do the talking from the back. Thus in certain scenes they tend to get auto-placed in the front to represent this...probably because it's thematically more proper and occasionally for starting position challenge reasons. Pillars actually does this very little, but it does do it here and there. I'm not sure why they chose to not do it 90% of the time but then do it those few times.

Did it take anyone else a long time to realize the inside page of the Guidebook also had some signage?

817 kittens out of 1001 kittens.

That was part of my point, tho. I do the same thing. Durance had 4 Athletics during almost my entire game. It didn't help. I'm guessing his low Dex was the main issue in those scripted panel events, OR you have to his athletics extremely high.

I started to make a Supernatural cast portrait party but I haven't gotten around to finishing it. A Star Trek:OS party might amuse me, too.

Yeah, pretty much sums it up this article/review/rant for me too. Pillars is not even close to perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but my main problem with it was the combat encounters feeling bland. The Stronghold being not necessary is true but didn't bother me at all since it wasn't a part of the main gameplay itself, imo. I just ignored it/didn't care. In workday week terms, it's like the early part is Friday (woot!), the middle part is Sun. night/Monday (sigh, back to work) and the last part/end is Wed night (closer to Friday!). Pillars never reaches any major heights but in the end all of the things I did like mitigated the things I didn't like, enough to equal something that I overall like in spite of a few glaring weaknesses. I still wish the combat had been more attention-holding however. It really does drag things down in the middle.

I wouldn't have minded Fighters having one or two more in-combat skills (vs. passive or modals)...as long as it makes sense for melee or melee-tanking. I never like weird magical melee skills like Whirlwind. I don't know why. I'm old school melee I guess - doesn't feel like warrior-melee then. But yeah...they could have done a little more in PoE I think, without turning it into that.

The new procedurally generated pre-fab caves can be pretty cool when you find a big one ... and they're very dark ... and dangerous. Killed a few zombies that were resting in there, then broke my leg.

Yes, to me that's the main thing there. Even if there was respawning, they'd just be a nuisance rather than fun to fight, mostly. Not to mention you can travel past most maps in one giant travel leap anyway ... no reason to walk each one individually if they're empty, outside of role playing I suppose. I just go from Twin Elms to Defiance Bay in one button press. I do get/understand the idea that if you do walk back across maps it's lifeless etc but don't really like the idea of respawns. Also, because of the bounties, some of which spawn encounter groups in old areas, you'd have to make sure respawning didn't interfere with those occurrences in some weird way. Not impossible or anything, but more work. A fight arena (or something) being part of the Stronghold might be kind of interesting, however.

I don't entirely get it, but then I'm not a very mathematical person... doesn't really seem like a class build per se, just an algorithm simulation testing to see who wins in clvl 1 auto-attack 1x1 fights, with a conclusion being made that the "winner" must be - what? best for playing the game? I think I'd agree with SilchasRuin ... not enough variables being tested to have a true conclusion. Tis sorta interesting tho.

If I see them or I'm engaged, I fight. Can't help myself. Couldn't say why...I just can't not stomp the enemy if they're there, just like I can't stop myself from picking up junk loot that I really don't need to be picking up, just because it is there and my mouse finger can't stop clicking. It's ingrained or something, by now. If I'm actually trying for a low-combat game, I'll sneak around more and will only fight if they engage me first. But that's not usually my style/goal.

Those aren't secrets, they're traps. Also, moving to spoilers. P.S. Secrets found with Mechanics glow purple. P.P.S. If your chr. can't climb the vines you can bring Eder back a bit later and he can do it

Not to cherry pick out of a nicely written posting, but there are potions of Bulwark Against the Elements, which I thought gave you some minor element resist, like the spell? But I'd agree you don't really need it....I don't think you even need food or healing pots at all, outside of PoTD difficulty where they can definitely be pretty handy at least in the early game (haven't done PotD very far, not sure if holds true all the way through).

I like that Game of Thrones woman. I keep thinking Walter White (Breaking Bad) might make a good game portrait.

After saying I wasn't that interested, once it becomes a question of my memory, I of course had to go check in-game. I guess elves are a fraction shorter than humans. Female humans are shorter than male humans (female human and male elf maybe the same?). No one looks gigantic, although the Amaua are taller/heftier than humans. Pic doesn't have the shorter races in it, but they might come up to the taller Amaua's elbow or chest. P.S. two guys in the leather are elves, human female in front/middle, human male behind human female, Amaua on the right.

I could swear the elves were slightly taller than humans. They seem that way in the creation screen at least...but I didn't eyeball them closely while in-game. They are more slender - typical elves.

Please stop your exposition tirades long enough to go to the gym and work on your dexterity, flexibility, and athletics, so we (the rest of your gloriously nimble party) can jump over chasms without having to patch up your broken ribs and fractured ankles afterwards. Thanks. ...seriously, another reason I don't want him in my party ever again. Although boosting both his Dex (food) and his Athletics (scroll) high enough did prevent it. At least Aloth, once I boosted his Athletics to 4, stopped being an issue in those type of instances. But Durance...nope.

Everyone is 8 feet tall, except the dwarves, who are only 6 feet. ...I have no idea and am not that interested personally in what chr. height is. But some are shorter than others - dwarves and I think the orlan being shorter than humans, and maybe a couple of the other races are slightly taller than the humans if you look carefully. Or maybe that one is my imagination.

It's a style that all the Diablo like arpg or most fantasy mmo games are based on, where such is actually the whole point. Some people are probably used to that sort of thing these days - eg they like playing their decked out chrs. for a lot longer than just doing the quest progression. ...but it doesn't fit in the PoE game, I agree. It's a story-game...you play it, progress/move forward, end the story, then start a new game with a new chr. and do it all again. Not play the same areas just to kill stuff with the same chr. over and over.

If you have 7+ Athletics they all become Engergizer bunnies. Eventually they'll still complain about wanting to make camp, but it takes a long long time. I'd travel to a map that took over a day to travel, go fight some stuff, then travel back and they still weren't tired. It would be nice to know what the actual initial rate of Fatigue gain was.

That's when you start a new game.

Fired up Alpha11 of 7 Days to Die and played a little while. It's prettier, somewhat, especially the trees. While I never had terrible performance before, it is a bit improved on the new Unity5 build for me, since I can have shadows and AA on now, and still get 50-60fps most of the time. Less dragging sensation while running around. Your chr. levels up now, although I'm not sure what this does ... maybe increases chances of crafting better weapons? Dunno. The new item level system is sorta interesting, although the random factor of the actual crafting is bit annoying. "Craft Stone Axe" means sometimes you get one with "frail" one with 60 durability, sometimes a "frail" one with 100+ durability. I don't really get it. Not that it matters, since durability wears down so fast you can barely chop a tree down. But I ran around some houses and got a lot of blue and purple quality gun parts and a fireaxe. The fireaxe beats down doors like butter, much faster than before. And it's a little more fun to go "cool, a purple/flawless sniper part! Now I just need the other 3 parts in flawless, too!" Oh and I found one hole in the ground (a cave) but I haven't explored it yet. I hear there can be monsters down there. That all said ... outside of graphic changes, the item quality tiers, and changes to the "horde" and mining systems, overall it feels pretty much the same. Instead of feeling like you're fortress-invincible in 1-3 days, it'll take you 6 or 7.

They have to be not in your party. eg, any companions you aren't using "sit around" in your Stronghold doing nothing, and you can use the Stronghold menus to assign them to tasks. The other tankier companion is And off-tank...well I don't know what "everyone else" defines one as, but I tend to see them as a character who is not the main-tank...eg, they can soak up dmg and be a decent tank, but may have other purposes than to just stand and engage (some kind of extra-support role or being the one you send to flank enemies your main tank has already engaged) and is not the one you tend to first send into the fray to start the fight. If that makes sense. It's not always a class-dependent thing, imo...just a party-role aspect.