Beastro

I'm sorry, but this simply doesn't make sense to me -- at least, not unless you have a party where all members are equally able to accept / resist / deal with damage, especially from melee. That would be an unusual party configuration in PoE (or just about any cRPG). A more typical party configuration will have one (maybe two) people that are far more capable of dealing with melee attacks, 2-3 characters that have some resistance to damage, and 2-3 characters that have practically no ability to resist damage. Not surprisingly, the different characters have different preferred engagement models: the better a character can deal with melee damage, the more likely they are to making melee attacks themselves (& vice versa). To take a real-world example, if the police are negotiating with an armed suspect and have a sniper available to them, should they send the sniper in (rather than positioned on, say, a nearby rooftop) with the negotiation team, because otherwise the negotiation team will feel unprotected? Now, I could understand if Lord whatever refused to talk to the parties "designated representative" while the remainder of the party readied weapons in an obvious preparation of an attack, but the only change versus the current situation (for me) would be that I wouldn't go through the dialog (or, perhaps, I'd go through the dialog, then restore and not go through the dialog). I've rarely seen a situation in a cRPG where "This is going to end in combat" is more obvious -- the whole reason (the only reason) that you were able to enter the castle in the first place is because someone asked you to assassinate him. On top of that, you've either 1) Butchered a large number of guards or 2) Infiltrated the castle by stealth and deceit in order to get to the throne room -- there is no option, for example, to present yourself at the front door and say "Hey, did you know that someone is going around trying to recruit assassins to kill you". Given the situation, even if the lord reputation was completely unearned (and it isn't -- many, many people tell you that the lord is, at best, mentally disturbed) the setup is so unfavorable to a peaceful resolution that I don't see how any reasonable person can argue that conflict is certainly likely to occur. For the record: The very first time I played this encounter (completely cold, no walkthroughs, spoilers of any sort) I did in fact send in Eder by himself with the remainder of the party remaining at the foot of the stairs leading up to the dias. I believe that I won it on the first try, to, but just by the skin of my teeth (one character still standing). There are ways to game mechanics, but sending one person into a situation like this isn't one of them. There's a reason why people do this sort of thigns in real life parleying and having an ambassador, the only difference is the focus is much smaller and one of your half dozen party members is more valuable than a dignitary so you're going to send in the one that will stand the best chance of surviving until the rest notice that things have gone south and rush in to save his ass. As for tanking problems. Someone mentioned Dragon Ages aggro system which is essentially like Everquests, only Everquest mobs are so powerful at higher levels and casters so weak they could easily one round damage dealing classes like Wizards forcing groups and much of the game to center around crowd control, damage and aggro control being a crucial subset of this with classes having party roles and specializations. A good example would be: Monk goes to pull. Aggros 8 mobs so hits feign death until the mobs walk back to their spawn one by one enough times that they split up and have a few be far enough away that they won't reaggro when the last guy is attacked. Monk then draws that mob back only for two more to be close enough to join it. Off tank Shadowknight or Paladin and rushes to grab the adds attention while the Enchanter mezzes each in turn letting the offtank know when the spell is about to hit so they can stop attacking and not break the mez. While this is going on the main tank is the only one fighting the main target to build aggro until he has enough that the party can cast high aggro spells like the Shaman or Enchanter slowing the mob and the Wizard and Rogue burning it down with their DPS killing it before moving on to the next target, only the Rogue engaged too soon and got one too many crits in aggroing the mob and dropping him before the Cleric or Shaman could get a heal in. Now as much as this game is lacking on complexity like this I still find myself unconsciously playing this style because it was so absolutely necessary in EQ and was the hallmark of competence for any class, be it a DPS one that could control their aggro and still burn mobs down or a tank that could maintain aggro while the newbie Wiz in their group kept over nuking. First thing that comes to mind is that once you know this is about to happen you'll prepare for it and then it just becomes another bit of tedium to factor in like EQ and rampage cycles that only killed people too AFK to pay attention and turn off auto attack so as not to be countered. A better idea would be more mobs on wandering routes. Not simply more but longer routes and maybe ones that are randomized. EQ had this in edition to spawn times forcing dungeon crawling groups to run from spawn point to spawn point staying alert as to when they last killed nearby mobs and wnaderers and preparing for them. There was always a oddly perverse, yet thrilling dread that came with the group being locked in combat, then becoming aware of a wanderer inching closer and closer and trying to prepare for it on the fly, or the quick panic that came from one rushing up behind and taking out the Cleric, the main healer, or the Enchanter and so preventing it from really being CCed (and the pride in facing that and beating it if you could). It's an annoyance at best and other just renders the character impotent until it wears off. They always, always target Aloth, which when charmed, then switches from his crossbow to his melee wep and shield and does **** all attacking because I give him the worst melee weps I can get since I only use the shield for when he's being beaten on. The the charm wears off, I switch him back to his ranged and go back to normal until it charms him again. It would be a completely different thing if charmed party members casted their spells, like Aloth suddenly dropping Slicken on your party, if only to waste your per rest skills. *Pictures Hoplites slowly stepping back a foot and the first rank falling dead at once when the other side gets a free attack on each of them* I can see a free attack in a game if you're trying to run your squishes off, but doing small radius movements to find tune the fight like closing up a gap in your hallway blockade shouldn't bring pain on your tanks and drop them. Hell, first playing the game (and the reason why I registered here to complain) I was piss furious that they didn't separate left click for movement and right to issue attack orders because I kept moving my guys trying to click on portraits or on them themselves. I'd personally want dynamic combat that changes over the course of a fight, not everyone cemented in place. I play with IE mod turning off engagement, but that doesn't mean I try to exploit and actually wish there was a middle ground. I'd really wish there was a restriction where I could move only so far in a given time, that way I could slowly shift and evolve a fight as I require while preventing someone from beating on my druid and allowing me to just have him run off when he's about to get KOed.

I find all the kickstarter NPCs kind of annoying. I can forgive most as replacements for crowd NPCs, but I find it very odd that so many are godlike. You'd expect such beings to be pretty rare and in-game dialogue (when it does pop up) about godlike make it seem that way, but kickstarter NPCs with flaming or blue heads litter the place ruining the feel of the race. This is the biggest problem IMO. They really should've either closed godlikes off to the backer NPCs, or maybe had a random drawing for 3 possible backer NPC godlikes. The amount currently within the game ruins verisimilitude completely. It further damages the game because it gives off a feel that MMOs do only without the things they have that compensate. Even if you try to RP these characters as part of the "organic" game world they still are unique enough to stand out given their design and clothing no differently than if you had someone put in their own uniquely designed character to stand around our world everyone would recognize as being abnormal. The thing with MMO characters is that each and everyone of them are under someone's control so they make up for being "artificial" injections into the game by being independent and creating their own ebb and flow of life to the world, cities like Ogrammar in WoW or Freeport in Everquest having people running in to bank or meet with friends or people sitting around AFK or talking to each other. The problem in this game is these characters aren't independent and are just lifeless lawn furnature scattered about the game world that constantly remind you that this is not only just a game, but a kickstarted game. With that said, I have zero problem with the gravemarks listing backers since once you know what they are you can avoid clicking them thinking they' might contain something pertaining to the game and not have them intrude into your gameplay.

And sneer at others when they do the same (e.g. rest-spam). Classy. As much as I agree with Sensuki over a lot about this game, he's clearly an elitist that focuses entirely on what he enjoys in these sorts of games. The problem is him lording over others and acting like he's something different. He's not. A massive part of all, games and competition in general, is finding advantages and pushing them to crush your enemies, the more novel and ingenious they are the more enjoyment is to be had. It's why I love unbalanced games so much and why I'm struggling with this one, balanced games restrict good choices and what you're able to pull off as much as they prevent you from screwing things up so they make the game feel generic. I think I'm fairly odd for a poster here as I'm neither a DnD fan nor a player of IE games, but am a diehard lover of classic Everquest which has mechanical roots in DnD where people found enjoyment from excelling at breaking content like soloing where you shouldn't, like using charm to do high end content, quad kiting mobs or solo dozens of mobs by kiting as a bard (kiting and other "exploits" in EQ were so necessary to do things they became legit, like exploiting the AI and feign death to split encounters or using half a dozen Clerics doing a Complete Heal chain against raid mobs because they were impossible to play the way they were designed). In EQ and these kinds of games I enjoy finding crazy ways of overcoming challenges and hence why I like to so EQish things like pulling and slipping groups of mobs and such, but find it hard to find novel things to do because certain mechanics penalize like engagement freezing combat. What it comes down to with Sensuki and most people as a whole is that it takes no skill or thinking to do something like rest spam while his own flavour of exploiting does, his problem further comes from looking on other forms of exploiting as below him because they don't require as much as skill as his own niche exploits do - it's the same sort of snobbery that EQ had with bard's and their massive AE kiting or Necros able to solo most encounters and do it quicker than whole groups at times.

I find all the kickstarter NPCs kind of annoying. I can forgive most as replacements for crowd NPCs, but I find it very odd that so many are godlike. You'd expect such beings to be pretty rare and in-game dialogue (when it does pop up) about godlike make it seem that way, but kickstarter NPCs with flaming or blue heads litter the place ruining the feel of the race.

Really? Wow. I just assumed this was in because, well, even the most basic of RPGs like Final Fantasy have things like flying creatures being immune to ground effects and never bothered using certain spells in such fights. My second game is as Eothosian Priest and I really was expecting more than a few extra flavour texts scattered about. I also noticed there's about one part where an Aristocratic background even comes up outside of the tutorial and it's yet again, just a short line of flavour text.

Second Chance items change knockouts, especially when they want to avoid losing too much health as they allow that character to disengage, come back and return ignored. If health is low enough once they come back I switch them out to ranged or burn spells which leaves Eder and Pallegina somewhat screwed if get taking out because they're the only ones without ranged weps for my party. As for what I think of engagement. My second game with IE mod installed and it disabled has made the combat more interesting if only because it's more dynamic now allowing me to send in squishable high DPS melees and then work out ways of saving them, sometimes with them having to kite mobs chasing them while the rest of the party is busy, IMO something I love to see and haven't experienced since playing Everquest. For me the game drops off both story wise and gameplay wise once you get to the third town in Act III and it actually feels more like the middle of a game than nearing the ending of one (but then again, the entire game feels like an Act I). The antagonist and his group are a big left down. Given how much he factors into the early game, Raedric and resolving the problem in Gilded Vale come off feeling like they have more impact and the crisis has more urgency given the short-term inevitability that there''ll be almost no one left alive soon enough if nothing is done. Actually when I think about it, having the game be centered around Raedric might have been better, been a smaller, more focused conflict within a greater crisis that is seemingly inexplicable and remote. To extend that story beyond one act, just change it to where you need to travel to the other parts of realm for plot reasons like needing to gather political support in order to resolve things in the manner you want. Characters are interesting, there's just not much done with them with them talking about us being a party together and doing stuff when it feels like almost nothings been done with them. Durance and Grieving Mother seem to be the only ones you really have conversations and evolution. Tana's storyline can be wrapped up very quickly while Aloth's story seems poorly paced with too little hinting and foreshadowing and an underwhelming ending (worst than most, all companion quests are underwhelming given how little is done and given how they all seem to conclude in the same manner).

Is it possible that all of the items that disappeared were items that you got off of Calisca and Heodan? If so, you may be encountering this problem: [bug] Disappearance of equipment dropped by early companions Mine weren't. The main thing I noticed gone was the xaurip spear I was using as my main wep as well as the clock from the ruins. Thx, for the link! I'll us it! ... wait how do you use this? I upload a save and all it does it prompt me to download it again, no link or anything.

Jam all your guys by the barrels in the bottom of the room with your tanks on the outside, that way the shadows can't get to them while you can keep waling on them. Having three tanks is good enough to shield your guys from attack.

I don't have that and not sure I'd want to put more of my personal information on the internet for just a 14 day trial. :/

f8a90377afde4452a311c857a58294a7 8198338 GildedVale is when I decided to return to CS and try my mechanics out.

Gonna link three saves to show you. Here's the second (I hope these are uploading). f8a90377afde4452a311c857a58294a7 7684361 CilantLs is the reload when I noticed my stuff missing.

f8a90377afde4452a311c857a58294a7 7681316 CilantLs is before leaving the ruin.

After you're Awakened and am about to leave the zone in my new game I noticed that when I returned back to try to unlcok the extra traps in the ruins for Exp that my chest piece and main handed wep were gone. I reloaded my quicksave at the CS zoneline to Valewood and found them still missing, had to reload to just after I'd beaten the spiders and before Awakening to get them back. Later I returned with a full party to try the traps again and kept in mind that this might happen. As soon as I zoned back into Cilant Lis I checked my guys and about half of their items were missing, mostly main handed weps, armour and everyones neck slot items. Shields and ranged weps (ranged all being in my second slots) seemed to be ignored on everyone. Sufficet to say I reloaded back to the save I made in Gilded Vale before I left and continued on avoiding going back again, still I'd like to grab that Exp sometime. I'm using IE mod, btw, if this helps/is a possible contripbuter to the bug.

You didn't miss anything. Seems they all pretty much boil down to nothing happening or changing. After completing Sagani's knowing full well how it was going to end given how all the others had before it, I wasn't surprised. It's not either or and the list you made shows good, focused endings. "Save the world" ones are too braod in scope, PoEs is too narrow, so much to the point that you feel nothing happens in the game.