swordofthesith

1) You are not in the majority. 2) You are also not a spokesman for anyone 3) Obsidian is not going to change the experience system. Ouch and amen. +1 to DCParry.

Awesome news!

+ 1 More spam please.

The backer access is to a BETA, not a release version of the game. And just as this game was funded by crowd sourced financing, it is also being refined by crowed sourced Q&A/testing. This was never promised as being a final release build - or anything close to it. The developers have released this build to get critical feedback regarding core systems a good 4 months away prior to release and to hammer away at bugs that a small development couldn't possibly root out on it's own. You must remember, even with a budget of 4 million USD, this is very much a shoestring budget for a company like Obsidian and they have AA titles that they are committing vast amount of resources towards. At the end of the day, PoE is just an experiment in crowd funded game development and a small passion project for the folks at Obsidian. If glaring bugs offend you, do not want to play a WIP BETA, skip this phase of PoE's development and wait for the release version. If you wish to keep on testing and refining the BETA, bring your notes and observations to the Bug Tracker forum or point how you might suggest areas of gameplay be improved, as many are doing already on this forum.

This is epic knowledge. Thankee, may you ever be strong in the Dork Side of the Force. +1

It is easy enough for the PoE developers to provide exploration incentives outside of main or secondary quest lines. Rare items, crafting components and unique item drops are just three compelling incentives PoE developers can deploy to give us compelling reasons to wander off the beaten track and explore the world they have created.

+ 1 to quest only XP. I have no problems with that whatsoever. I am pretty stoked that the developers are giving XP out for the way we choose to solve the challenges we encounter in the game, rather than killing Orc #3182371379218. Let's move beyond D&D folks. PS: Just ran into the Ogre in the Beta. I thought it was great that the developers gave us a non-violent solution to the Ogre encounter.

Great post Prime! RE the Fighter. I would recommend rather than give the fighter more flexibility (range or melee) I would like to see the fighter's tanking powers deepened with more strategic options. I am aware that we do not have a taunt feature in PoE but I would like the fighter to be able to control MOB aggro in some limited fashion to give the class better command over the flow of battle and more value to the player. Right now, the fighter acts as nothing more than a giant auto attack fly trap. You send them in and hope they engage as many MOBs as possible so that your padded armor, arquebus wielding party members can burn down the MOBs in short order.

RE the hubbub around MIGHT. First I would like to point out that I understand where all the confusion is coming from here. Every pen & paper and computer role-playing game since the dawn of recorded history has usually had an attribute for strength (big muscles!) and I think most role-players are conditioned to expect and look for it. But the PoE crew has moved away from a traditional attribute system in favor of something new and I support new 100%. I do not believe we need to re-hash RPG systems around the Dungeons & Dragons forever and I like the fact that the PoE team is moving away from it somewhat. In the new system there is no strength attribute that determines physical prowess. Instead we have MIGHT and it governs all prowess: Physical or magical. Period! MIGHT is now a catchall attribute for damage potential - not a measure of physical strength. A Wizard or spell caster that has a crap ton of might is not a muscle bound freak of nature. They instead have a tremendous command over their magical abilities and can wreck havoc on their enemies. And I am OK with that. It provides build versatility. And there are existing checks and balances to prevent a Wizard from having everything + the kitchen sink even with a high MIGHT score. The PoE Team has ensured that they will never be able to hit as hard in melee as well as a fighter or fighter hybrid. The spell casting classes are baked to be mostly subpar at melee combat with some exceptions. Additionally while you can don ANYONE in heavy armor it does come with important drawbacks. Most crucially it effects action speed. You can put your Wizard in full plate and send them up front but he or she will take FOREVER to cast their spells. Cleverly though, Obsidian has given us advantages and drawbacks at almost every turn with our choices. Yes - the Wizard will take forever to cast spells with full plate but they will have increased survivability in melee and it will allow them to better position from of their offensive spells without having to worry about friendly fire. You can play your Wizard that way if you wish. The PoE Team has made that possible for us. Or you could equip them in the lightest armor possible, put them in the back ranks of your party and turn them into magical gatling gun. That is also a perfectly viable way to play the Wizard. And yet again, you can dump might and boost intellect and dexterity to increase the area of effect and accuracy of your spells. The choice is yours. While this system is not perfect I am impressed with the checks & balances the PoE Team has given us with this system along with options and flexibility they have given us. There is a vast array of play style choices we can pursue with this system. De-bug, tweak and GAME ON! I say.^_^

This is great OP. Hope the designers consider your UI recommendation. Voted up!

+1 for waypoints. That would a great feature, would be awesome if we could toggle it off and on depending on whether we want more strategic awareness on the battlefield or more immersion.

Hi PrimeJunta! Thank you for setting the record straight! So there is no way to impact enemy AI during a fight? As you pointed out, right now the enemy AI simply swarms the nearest PC. Are there no class powers that can impact enemy AI during a fight? Make them switch targets etcetera?

Some additional player commentary regarding current problems with AGGRO and the lack of a TAUNT power:

When this bug crops up, I can usually fix it by saving my game and reloading.

HI Obsidian! Having played the Beta Backer program for several hours I have found at least one confirmed exploit with MOB aggro with Soul ignition. Outside of that I have found it tricky herding MOBS during combat. As far I know there is not TAUNT-like ability in the game. I am forced to send out the fighter ahead of the party and make sure that he draws AGGRO prior to sending in the rest of my party into the fray. Worse yet - if for some reason or another a MOB breaks AGGRO and chases after another a weaker party member the frontline fighters have no ability to re-draw AGGRO. Would it be possible to implement a TAUNT power for some of the tank-like melee classes in the game? This would make them a lot more useful and give players the chance to 'control' the battlefield.

Hi Obsidian! Thank you for all the work on Pillars of Eternity! I recently powered up the Beta Backer and I am enjoying having an early look at the game and testing it out. As I play through the game and come across bugs and balance issues, I'll try as much as possible to research these issues and highlight them if I feel necessary and beneficial to the final release play experience of PoE. This initial post will focus on the Cipher class and balancing issues and bugs related to it. SOUL IGNITION Soul ignition needs to be balanced. RANGE ISSUE: Right now there is a serious exploit with SI that allows a player to clear whole areas without entering combat. The range of SI is huge and a player can cast SI on a MOB and sit back and watch as the MOB is destroyed by the DoT effect without ever drawing aggro. I assume that this not working as intended and would recommend the developer's address this exploit in the next build if possible. Here is a post from another forum user confirming this exploit: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66960-cipher-soul-ignition/?hl=%2Bsoul+%2Bignition DAMAGE ISSUE: Right now now if a player pumps might SI can dispense huge amounts of damage. My character at 21 might delivers a crushing 500+ points of damage per cast. This completely obliterates most MOBS in seconds. I know that the Cipher was designed as a high burst damage class but I am unsure if this power is balanced. Instead of decreasing the damage for SI I would suggest that you INCREASE the FOCUS cost for SI. Require Ciphers to build up 45 or 50 focus prior to being able to cast SI. Here is a post from another forum user confirming the vast amounts of damage SI produces: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67469-another-touch-on-attributes-cipher-power-comparison/

Hi OP! Same thing happened to me, switched weapon sets in the middle of a fight and my character got stuck/frozen after combat. I think it was in the middle of an animation too.

Hi OP Stop spamming the Backer Beta Bugs and Support board. Please post your impressions of the Beta on the Beta Backer Discussion Board. Moderators, please kindly lock or remove this thread for being OT. Thank you.