ISC

There is a "personality tracking" system which shows what choices give you a "minor" or "major" reputation of being X personality or with Y faction, but no numbers.

Sorry, no such thing afaik

Now we're talking!

The Wiki has some area info, but I think it could be extended by now. I guess its kind of interesting to try to pinpoint the features and themes of the areas.

I havnt played the beta, but I've watched just about every video there is and I cant say I feel that the priest seem that necessary. For several reasons: 1. a good tank will soak up tons of damage and regenerates, meaning that it is really only when you screw up, or when a fight drags on for a long time, that priests are vital. 2. other than that, people regenerate their endurance between fights and the priest cant heal health anyway. 3. there are some really potent endurance potions in the game anyway, and even if they are nerfed it seems as if they can do much of what the priest does in terms of endurance-healing. 4. reaching zero endurance do not kill characters. I get the feeling that poe is not like IE in the sense that you heal to sustain your front lines during just about any battle - or in between them - and is much more about outmaneuvering your opponents offensively. That said, priests still appear quite useful. more OT: with the current game I'd prob build a party mostly around per-encounter/refundable abilities and try to fit in the new classes, so chanters and ciphers are def in, and perhaps the monk/barbarian/paladin. Wizards and druids do appear useful though...

In addition to being subtle, the chants could be coming in waves? As the chant is structured, or every time the chant is restarted? Might make it a little less intrusive and repetitive than a continuous chanting VO.

This is awesome beyond words and such small aesthetic changes makes all the difference for dat IE feel somehow.

Aw, I was enjoying this But don't you guys have some kind of punishment for repeated personal insults from overly aggressive posters? I'd want to strongly discourage that kind of behavior in the first place, for the sake of the forum climate if not to reduce the amount of moderation necessary. You do understand that illathid is saying that he(?) would dislike more complex animations than the current ones, right? "Dislike" and "more" are the key words here. He is not saying that the animations you suggest are complex in some definitive way. If you for whatever semantic reason don't like the use of the word 'complex' you can replace it with whatever term or formulation you prefer.

Alright, I just have to give my opinion on a few things, because my opinions are very important to me. Is this implying that a game balanced for reloading fights is bad? If so I strongly disagree. Not only is this important for for replay value and to prevent sailing through the game in an evening or two, but more important to me is the challange to be overcome. If I can take on most of what the game throws at me without reloading I'd be very very bored with a game like IWD. Having to memorize specific spells is a problem, however. First of all its a hassle and second its immersion breaking. Knowing what kind of foes you're facing is a matter of scouting, but preparing specific spells is just too gamey for me. But this is a matter of spell and encounter design, to avoid situations where specific counters are necessary or where certain spells are entirely useless etc. When it comes to character building itself such issues are mostly a matter of not giving the player enough information about the system (i.e. specific numbers and possible future talents etc). But when it comes to weapon proficiencies and items I strongly agree with you, this is a major annoyance of IE games. I am fairly knowledgeable about character building in IE games, but I rarely remember the really good items between playthroughs. One way around this could be some degree of randomness, but I think that PoE handles this a bit better by having a limited number of broad categories for weapon specialization based on the general 'character' of the weapons. I think that the availability of a decent scouting system kind of saves immersion in this case as well. Your rogue spots a dragon around the corner? alright, maybe a little blessing is in order. I felt this way the first time I played IWD, following BG1. But its a very different game, and although it is very combat focused and linear, it is NOT all about combat. If it wasn't for the absolutely amazing music, environments and the way the story is told I wouldn't play it even once. IWD has an incredible atmosphere, which is one of the most important component of an RPG to me, despite my obsessive powergaming. This is bad and unfortunate, but I'll just have to live with it. However, a satisfying but unforgiving system would not be one where talent A at level X is much better than talent B, but one where certain combinations of choices are more efficient than others. This adds a strategic element which I tend to enjoy in RPGs.

LOL, when I only quickly skimmed the lines I read psychiatrist and thought of a dude giving your companions therapy between quests. :D HAHA! Though, thinking about it... when we do get to the point of having our own Stronghold, getting tax money, slaying people and monsters left and right, involving ourselves in all kinds of intrigue... how does the character manage to live with themselves? How does it make them feel? How much stress would a person go through in a world like Eora? Or any fantasy game for that matter, it's not anything I've seen before... imagine if playing Skyrim, and after a while your character starts freaking out and you can't do anything, or hallucinations or whatnot... characters going through some sort of "post-traumatic fantasy stress disorder". A psychiatrist wouldn't be an all too far-fetched concept to have in one's staff if you eventually become a conquering landlord or person in a political or powerful position. Given the level of technology a psychiatrist might be a bit far fetched after all... maybe some kind of soul-based psychiatry? Machinery or magic? Psychology on the other hand could perhaps have developed much earlier given the right discursive climate and social organization. If so, it wouldn't be very far fetched to imagine some form of therapy for every time you face hordes of undead or become captured by mindflayers or whatever. One could implement a sanity-meter as in all the cthulhu-games... Or maybe not

+1, this is pretty important stuff, both for new players and min/maxers

More please, dont stop now!

Elves can't successffully breed with humans and vice versa, their union does not produce offspring it seems. Thus they are two seperate species rather than races of a species. Of course Humans and Elves do have their own races within their species, can't remember the names right now, it'll be on the Wiki I assume. On a semi-related note, the way it worked in Dragon Age: Origins was always odd as hell to me. If people don't recall, in the world of Dragon Age, elves can breed with humans, but the offspring is always human. This is then promptly casually ignored by the marginalized and oppressed elven population in almost all regards, even though you'd expect to see the average elf vehemently opposed to human-elven unions, since it's practically racial suicide in a very pronounced way quite far from the "race"-mixing you see in most other settings or the real world. The decision to exclude the whole half-everything mess from the world of PoE appeals to me not only because it makes a fair amount of sense (why'd dwarves or elves be able to breed with humans, but not with eachother, and why would they then be considered separate species' or races, and not just sub-races or ethnicities?) but also because it means that all those half-everything unions never even get to become an issue, bar arguably some pretty significant breeding-mumbo-jumbo such as performed by gods (see Godlikes, which are, awesomely, infertile). In fact, I can see this being part of the excuse as to why certain comparatively different populations can live together in relative peace, such as Orlans, Humans, Elves and Dwarves living together amicably. I can also see how it'd lead to an insanely successful bordello business. Would you consider becoming a sociologist, sir? I can hook you up with some of the cool guys at Lund!

Level 12 is the cap without an expansion - Level 'who knows what' with an expansion. Not going to affect the longevity for me (BG had only 1-8 with TOTSC but then again, there was BG2 to continue it) BG had (has) loads of longevity without TOTSC and prior to BG2 (and all the mods) IMO. I have never continued from BG1 to BG2, but have played BG now and then every since it was released. For me, BG is not about character builds and there is very little building to do in the original, and PoE will have much more build choices AND twice the level cap. I actually think I prefer a lower level and slower leveling in games like these, although I'd prefer a soft cap..

Although that was certainly how I and many others played the IE games, at least in the fun and memorable encounters. I'm not saying that you're wrong, but for some micromanagement is an important part of dat IWD combat feel, or whatever the pitch was. Hopefully this becomes a matter of difficulty level in the final product so that it might suit both playstyles in that regard.

Has anyone as of yet argued that piracy isn't bad? That piracy isn't the same as thievery has been argued, but that is hardly disputable or a moral statement. I think that people are deliberately staying away from the moral dimension here. (By the way, I am also supporting Obs by pre-ordering, I wish I could display that like you fancy backer guys )

...must resist urge to correct people on off topic matters..

There are talents for single-weapon style as well, right? Although I really like the idea of having the option to go single-weapon (which actually should be more common than DW), to me the main problem is the unused hand slot. Items are a really important part of these games, and I want to be able to use as many as possible, so in practice I cant imagine myself forgoing a slot that could hold that nice shield I just found, or a really cool magical long sword... which is why I will never ever use a monk in the first place and cant understand their lasting appeal

This, Id even like to have them stay until I leave the area. At least let them hang around for a minute or two?

This would be an awesome tagline :D Pillars of Eternity: Kind of like something like that adventure thing. Buy now!

It's not that the system can't be improved, it is that it takes more effort to improve it than to remove it, while ending up in about the same place anyway. For the record, I personally think it will be fine enough anyway, I'm just trying to convey the argument which people seem to be missing when pointing out that the engagement mechanic can be improved. No one is denying that it can be improved, but some claim that it is not very meaningful.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but... A: No one has said that Obsidian cant market the game without his thoughts about the subject. B: No one has said that the OP cant decide on what a topic is about without him/her suppressing hist/her emotions and "helping" him along on that. C: And no one is claiming that you are incapable of thinking and expressing your thoughts in a refined fashion without him/her letting you know when you are not doing it. Also, this sort of obsession with the term codependency is not going to get you anywhere good, ever.

All these ehtics. Lets be a little pragmatic here, the more profit Obsidian makes the greater the chance that we get more similar games in the future.

It seems to escape the discussion all the time, but the crowd against engagement points out that it creates more problems than it solves (if any), which is an important critique imo.

+1!