Gairnulf

Most probably you mean Fallout, where Tim was producer and lead programmer. For Fallout 2 he is listed as just lead writer. But then it was far less probable for suits to be involved with Fallout than for Fallout 2. You may find this presentation interesting, if you haven't seen it yet: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1015843/Classic-Game-Postmortem

How about introducing a switch in the options whether the mouse should pan the view or not? And even a second switch which inverts the decision made with the first switch during combat. My philosophy is that the UI should utilize screen space optimally, without much room between elements. But that's just a personal preference of course. I agree with Sensuki, that the combat log should not be transparent. What's more interesting for me is why he needs to resize the combat log vertically. The combat log doesn't give him enough information in its default dimensions, and I aim to address that by reformatting how the combat log presents data, in my thread here. Like Sensuki, I'm also in favor of more ornate/prominent border of the solid UI as a whole, and of its elements as well - portraits, combat log - instead of having empty space between them. I'd prefer larger portraits, or thicker borders around the same portraits to having space between them.

I'm bumping the thread so that forum members who have recently come to the forum in expectation of the release date can see it and hopefully support, and add to my suggestions. I'd also like to ask if the developers are intent on implementing any of the suggestions made by everyone here in the final game. I don't see any changes to the combat log in the latest BB and I'm getting worried. The combat log is a really important tool for me, and I guess for many players, especially the less experienced.

I was about to say I don't see what's wrong with the box art. It's very logical - the edition that's to be sold to people who have recently learned about the game is in bright violet and features fantasy characters in combat. The version that will be sold to people who are more likely to know what the game is about (Collector's edition) has a nostalgic cover art in line with the IE games, and doesn't need to communicate in detail what the game is about. Very neat move by Paradox, imo.

Maybe it is, but I'd be curious to test it. I have almost 60 hours with the beta by now and I can't get used to the pace of combat. And it's not like I started playing rpgs this year. I'd hate it if reviewers label the combat as an unmanageable mess, or point out that the ratio of time spent paused vs unpaused during combat is about 3:1 for beginner players. My reasoning is thus: I noticed while fighting Medreth's group that when they are down to one last man/woman, the delay I get between chatacters' actions becomes similar to that in the IE games, which was fine with me. By that time I had lost someone from my group too, so this means 5 characters total were fighting 4 to 1 and the intervals between attacks were long enough that I could follow the battle without getting overwhelmed. I wish I could replicate the same intervals between actions when there are 10 characters fighting. Anyway my question was if it's possible or not.

Something that occured to me last night while playing the beta - is it possible to mod in an "obligatory" pause of 1-2 sec right after any character's action has ended during combat? I think this would slow down the overall pace of combat and make it much easier for a new player to tell what's going on and whose will be the next action. I'm suggesting this in the mod thread because I the team has been feature-locked for quite some time.

I've just updated some stuff on the FAQ page. It used to say the game will be released in Dec 2014, no system requirements, etc. BTW, it's time Obsidian updated the system requirements section on their own site Does anybody know if the final game will support map notes? Josh said "Sorry, we don't have that" in his last steam in answer to a question, but I'm not sure if this means it will not be in the final game. The wiki currently states that map notes will be present and links to a crappy forum called somethingawful.com which launches an annoying video and asks me for $10 to show me Josh's post. So if anyone can confirm about map notes, it would be of help.

Hmm, I searched for AoE in the first few pages of the forum and in your bug list thread, but didn't turn up anything. I didn't want to submit an issue which was already submitted. Oh well.

Happens to me regularly. Today I was trying to attack Medreth with the BB Wizard, only to have the BB Wizard attack another knocked down enemy. At least I know what's causing it now

[Description of the issue] When you level up as a wizard and choose spells from the list in the level-up screen, their AoE isn't adjusted to show the difference between default AoE and AoE your character will get. [DETAILED list of steps to reproduce the issue AND what to look for] 1) Level up as a wizard. 2) Choose new AoE spell from the list. 3) Notice the AoE shown before the base AoE is the same as base AoE. 4) Inspect the same spell from another interface. 5) Notice that AoE which the character will get is adjusted for the character's INT bonus and is different than the base AoE. [Expected behaviour] AoE should be shown adjusted for INT bonus in the level-up interface. [Other remarks / Comments] Initially I thought the AoE bonus from INT itself was bugged, but when viewing a spell's description in other interfaces, they show the correct default/adjusted AoE. So the bug only affects the level-up screen. Screenshots:

No, they wouldn't piss off the core audience like that, come on!

Agreed. A "Loot area" button sounds the same as a "Win Battle" button to me :/ Not enough that we have a limitless inventory, which I didn't like from the beginning, but now a vacuum cleaner button to go with it? Why?

The "Bio" boxes containing "witty" descriptions disgust me. It's like saying "I'm a random knowitall on the Internet, here to tell you about something you probably know better than me, in language I've borrowed from stand-up comedians I've watched on youtube". No added value, just copying stuff he's read somewhere and considered to be funny and edgy.

I was not clear with the CKII example I guess - it was Paradox' best-selling game until then (I'm leaving the inspection of their pre-CKII titles to you), and I think it was a surprise to them as well. In addition to revenue from sales of the base game, Paradox also made a lot of money from DLC and expansions, which isn't taken into account in a simple measure of game copies sold. So the situations are really different, and take my CKII comparison just as an example of a game that was intended for a niche audience but ended up selling surprisingly well for the company that made it. BTW, I haven't seen any evidence PoE is indeed directed to a niche audience only and not directed towards non-grognard audience, which Snoozer seems to take for a fact.

For a variety of reasons they are unable to make a third delay, so guys who ordered physical stuff and the devs have to pick the lesser of two evils.

When it comes to guessing how the QA team is prioritizing bugs, I believe they are prioritizing bugs more likely to be experienced by players. The "hardcore"/regular player differentiation makes more sense to be used when deciding on implementing new features. I've pointed out issues in the past which I consider minor issues when looking at them through the perspective of a new player, but more of a letdown to an old player. The lack of map annotation for example - it's something I've hardly ever used in the IE games, where it was present at all, but I'll still miss it in PoE. A newcomer most probably wouldn't care.

Mine was first I was just so irritated at this guy not doing a minimum amount of research before writing. Opinions are opinions, but there are informed ones and there are... those like what he has posted. I also believe he is quite deliberately misleading the audience by not specifying that this is 1) a beta, and far from release, 2) not intended to write previews off of, 3) a portion of the game taken from the middle of the campaign. I'm not sure if he himself is aware of these facts.

It won't be regarded as a niche product after the reviews start coming out in mainstream sites, where the audience wouldn't have heard of the game if it hadn't read about it in the mainstream site. CKII was also a niche game, until it sold extremely well. Why not wish for the same here.

"A Song of Ice and Fire" tries to be a realistic fantasy soap-opera saga. I define realism in fantasy as the rational behavior of individuals within the fantasy environment as it has been defined by its creator, without pulling mcguffins out his ass.

Oh, it certainly could. I made the mistake of picking up wasteland 2 on launch, and even discounting the bugs, the game itself was so horribly lacking that even after multiple 1 gig patches, I'm disinclined to pick it back up. Then, quite honestly, they should have waited and not committed to a date. Then the game would have been even better at release, but in the strange world that we live in, this doesn't necessarily mean it would sell better. And in a perfect world you don't need to pay the team when you put off the release for another few months, but we don't know what's the situation at Obsidian right now. Then, quite honestly, they should have waited and not committed to a date. This tells me you've never coded in your life and therefore don't understand complexity in fixing bugs. Fact of the matter is that on a PC platform, with its myriad of possible configurations compared to consoles, makes it insanely difficult to stamp out all bugs. There will always be bugs. Not all bugs are equal, and I kinda agree with Voss, but it's not about the bugs. I imagine it's more about running out of budget and having negotiated a release date with your publisher. IMO, many signs point to the release being a rough landing. I hope for the best though, and that the game gets as good reception as possible from the casual crowd (I hate that term but it's so convenient) everyone outside of our forums here. It's this that will make it a success, I think it should be a success for all its quality creative ideas and a setting which personally I already see becoming a classic. There are bugs which will irritate guys like us and then there are bugs which will turn away the general public, and I'd rather have the general public happy and us waiting for patches for the things which the general public wouldn't even notice, than us very happy at release and the general public indifferent to the game. Weigh those two outcomes and you'll see I'm right.

Not to mention the world of hurt in which the person who would be playing the "leaked" version is going to be I'd say the Backer Beta only hints at what an unprepared person will be up against if attempting to play an unfinished PoE. Kids, don't try this at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7I-YI_fiRU Just sayin' - "1.0" is a very relative indicator of how complete a release is. Nowadays games tend to reach what used to be called "gold" status a year or two after the "1.0" version has been released, while in the meantime fans tend to pay and pray - respectively, for "dlc content", and for speedy patches. Speaking for myself, I've just accepted that I'm getting the latest beta build of every new game I purchase at release, whenever I make that mistake. In the case of PoE, I really wanted to see this game see the light of day, so I backed it, albeit late, for as much money as I could, because I felt like donating for a good cause, more than like a customer pursuing his rational interest. Rational interest dictates to wait about a year until you see it at a discount, and buy it cheaper and in a more complete state. But I think we haven't become backers out of rational motives I said after the second delay of the release that I wouldn't be surprised (or was it that I expect) if the game is delayed a third time. Issues like this physical discs delay make me remember that statement. I won't say "it seems it should have been delayed", because I still haven't played it, in order to form any impressions, so I keep my fingers crossed for the best initial release possible. Anyway, since I signed up for a digital download version, my ranting is out of place. I've got to say I'm very impressed with the excerpts from both the Collector's book and Almanac. The Collector's book reads like something written by a person with actual knowledge of folklore, anthropology, and philology in general. It's a rare pleasure for me to study a fantasy setting of such quality, especially when compared to the style present in widely-proclaimed "Game of The Year" titles-which-I-will-not-mention-despite-being-past-40-hours-into-them-on-origin, which regardless of all the hype, look like they've been written by mediocre fanfic bloggers. So, I'm setting myself for something really great in that aspect of the game, and as the date approaches, I'm finding myself anticipating the game with impatience to see how great it's going to tie together everything I've seen so far, and with fear that the time constraints will lead to a release that's too far from that level of completeness which I (and I guess everyone) would want to find when I start it up for the first time. BTW, while on the subject about the game's style, attention to detail, and honest attitude towards its audience, I have to tell you I read in an update "on the Internet", that PoE is bound to feature "the F word" a lot and even - "Maker preserve us" - prostitutes! Forgive me the strong phrase, but - "Andraste's nickers"! How should I explain this to my mum?

I noticed it as soon as I looked at my combat log after the BB Fighter was unable to score a hit while his stamina was drained... maybe just bad luck. Later, when I encountered for the Nth time beetles which bury underground and then hit me from underground without me being able to hit them back, I just alt+F4-ed. I really wish the game would sell as much as possible, because I'm fond of the team because of all their efforts, but I think basic things like this should have been nailed down looong ago.

Eh, I think the current build is already kinda okay'ish. Combat is broken by the interrupt bug. Experimentation with the ruleset continues, and personally, I expect it will continue for some time after the release. Is that "kinda okayish"? I don't think it is.

I wish I could be so optimistic Judging by how every BB release has been broken in a different new way than the last releases, I'm afraid of what I'll find when I start the full game. Still, I won't be able to hold myself from playing the initial release. I'll shut myself off from the world after I get my serial key and not come back for about a month I guess.

That's very cool then. And at what point do I have to decide and how do I submit my choice?