LadyCrimson

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.

Really! That's quite interesting! I assumed that if you did his quest, it would turn out the same way. Props to Obsidian! If you keep him in your party all the way through there's non-quest convos that pop up with him (and other companions) at certain late points, that I assume influence the ending slide you will see/can create more ending slide potentials. If you do their quest then dump them in the Stronghold forever after, there's probably a few end-slide options based on personal quest outcome alone, but no other chance to influence. Just my guess tho, based on the way Obsidian often likes to do companions.

The three beetle summon artifact works really well ... although, I wasn't in PotD, so maybe it's not as awesome then. I was lvl 11 w/enchanted gear when I did this with 3 melee types and it was pretty easy. The funny thing about all these major fight quests is when you change difficulties to see what difference that makes (anyone else do that, reload to check out differences?). If you do this quest on Easy, there are no extra adds at all...just Raedric all by his lonesome. Which was hilarious. "I am mighty and I'm going to defeat you" and then splat, he's gone.

If you hire at level 1, they are level 1 and thus there is nothing to level up. If you are level 11 and you hire an inn adventurer who is, say, lvl 10, you create them (choose class, starting stats etc) and then when you leave the creation screen and they're actually part of your party, they are "lvl 1" but given enough experience to level up to 10, so thus you get to level them up (pick all their skills/talents) to lvl 10 right away. Otherwise they would have to AI auto-assign all skills and that's not what most would want. Inn adventurers are always at least 1 level behind yours (can't hire one that's exactly your level). As to what to make ... I tend to make either an extra Fighter/tank if I'm not one myself, or a Priest, because I don't like the companion priest. There are however two companions that can act as tanks or at least tank and off-tank. One you get early, the other later.

Because with the engagement system, movement (as in running) penalties for heavy armor seem kind of pointless, thus it's attack speed delay? ...which isn't that uncommon, really, except PoE uses it on armor as well as weapon types and there isn't any "super-fast whirlwind juggernauts" potential ala Diablo's. But you can increase attack speed in various ways, and I find that upgraded scale mail still works pretty well defensively without being too horrid on the attack speed. I didn't even put Eder in plate mail, and he was still very tanky. I don't get the big deal, really. If you want to be mega dps + fast, there's a penalty for it. You can be highish damage per attack if you want, just a bit slower, so it's lower dps overall, but you still kill things just the same in the end.

that is too funny. Some nice art, too.

...good one, Grom, good one. I don't feel quite as strongly about it as you/some may, but I'm not all that into supermodel looking chrs either. Not that I mind an attractive guy/gal portrait and sometimes that's what I want. But most of the time I like ones that look less like they came out of a photoshopped Cosmo or GQ spread with their mega-cheekbones and perfect symmetry and more like "real people." Less perfect. Same, although for me it's all non-humans, really. I'm not that into the "looks like a human except they have green skin or pig/shark heads or scales on their face" stuff, like so much of fantasy/sci-fi does. Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasons (a lot less work) but not really my thing. So I tend to just stick with human is human. Or elves, who just like Spock, are mostly about the pointy ears. I'd love it if some companions in games more often were things like a giant silicate centipede, a floating pyramid-shaped creature that spins and sends spells/energy out of its top when attacking (both of those come from books I read) - totally non-humanistic creatures.

Sounds like me, most of the time. "I want (insert some snack/meal), but I'd have to leave the house ... nah." I haven't made deserts much in a while, and the general stores rarely have anything I want either, so ... this time I made my own. Rolled dough into individual portions that I freeze so I can cook 4 cookies at a time over some days vs. a giant whole batch at once that sits on a plate and tempts me to eat them all in one day.

Loaded a save, turns out I remembered wrong - I was lvl 10 when I did this one. Their overall accuracy ratings (vs. dragon's defenses) I'd guess? My lvl10 Aloth had something like 40's accuracy, haha. Rest 55-65ish (monk, 2nd fighter) and mid-70ish (Eder). I wasn't geared for high attack/dps at all (I wasn't even using Aloth as a dps AoE caster). I don't recall the order you get spells/spell levels etc (since you're lvl 9 vs. I was 10) but the ones that seemed to help for me - using them all made the Extraordinary defense msg disappear anyway - were: Priest: Devotions of the Faithful and Shining Beacon Wizard: Expose Vulnerabilities, Rygram's Enervating Terror ...and of course if you have a scroll of valor, that doesn't hurt at all, either.