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waltc

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Everything posted by waltc

  1. Well, the Steam version has absolutely no Steam DRM attached to it--Steam doesn't even have to be running to play the game--kudos, again, to Obsidian for making that call. Wouldn't have been fair or smart to have released a DRM-free version on Gog while wrapping the Steam version up in DRM, so Obsidian admirably didn't. So there's no Steam DRM stopping you (I have many Steam-purchased games that I've installed outside patches & mods into successfully--they often "just work" without any effort on my part.) Gog would have to sell the expansions separately--so I'd say go ahead and give it a shot. Or at least shoot Gog customer-service an email and ask them about it. Gog is more than fair about those things, and actually has a 30-day money-back guarantee that states they'll refund the full purchase price if they are unable to get the game you bought from them to run in your system...! (Did you know about that? I'm assuming the refund policy is global.) Of course, GOG may very well state somewhere that the expansions to the game are only guaranteed to work on the main game as purchased from GOG originally...Good luck! Another tactic you might try if you don't feel like doing that is to send your local Steamworks a customer-service email and ask for price-matching with GOG on those expansions--sending them a link to GOG advertising in your area might just convince them.
  2. I think you need to turn aggressive on. It makes your characters 'seek out'' other targets once the target they are attacking has been killed. Thanks guys, I'll give it a whirl and get back...!
  3. OK, I must be misunderstanding something basic because when I set up the AI to strike back when attacked, nobody does...they just sit and get hammered. Magic users will fight on auto, but they've always fought that way for me--but they hurl the same spell over and over (just make sure they are equipped with a wand of some kind and they'll automatically throw a spell from a ranged position.) So, my fighters don't seem to be attacking & my spell casters seem to be behaving the way they've always behaved, even when I have set their AI to aggressively fight. It's not a big deal for me as I am used to playing the game without the AI...but just thought I would mention it.
  4. People sometimes forget that Win10 is the best-tested OS Microsoft has ever released...as many as five million people help test Win10 for almost a year priot to its official release 7/29. Don't expect much in the way of major suprises in a negative sense, and I surely haven't seen them. PoE has been running fine for me, up to and including the beta 2.0 patch I'm now running. Any big surprises are likely to come from nVidia and AMD's D3d12 support in their upcoming drivers--which is yet to happen, actually (the current drivers are only supporting up D3d 11.1/2 thus far.)
  5. Bravo..! *Golf clap*... I was about to say something similar. Generally I buy expansions because I liked the game and want more of it. Seems ample reason to me...but also in this case it's going to be interesting to see how the EE/2.x version transforms the game, if it does actually transform it, because that's definitely going to affect any planned expansion.
  6. Enhanced editions, if done properly, are not dime-store patches that get cobbled together on a long week end... They are major efforts that are fundamental to the game...found out that the EE version of D:OS will probably land in November...!...so if you think you've been patient with PoE, just try and imagine yourself waiting on the Larian D:OS EE....! CDPR started the EE craze with the W1, extended it to W2, and will probably carry it on with W3. The concept is so smart & obvious that it actually hurts to try and imagine why it's been so long in coming to game developers (before CDPR & recent years.) CDPR discovered that if you keep improving your game long after it ships it will a) sell at a healthy clip for far longer than it would have otherwise, and b) greatly interest people in your *next* game--as they'll expect similar EE treatment, etc. It's a working strategy that pays practical dividends to gamers and developers alike. But...if a company rushes out an EE that's half-baked and less than inspring--it can hurt as much as the opposite can help. So, I have no problem with them taking whatever time they need to get it right--if they don't get it right then there's no reason to have done it in the first place. Oh yea sure--I want the thing *yesterday!!!* Heh... ANd I'd have had it yesterday, too...if only I had waited until the day after the release of the EE version to buy PoE...but no way in hades am I that patient....!
  7. Are you sure? I thought I read somewhere that it was three, maybe four...
  8. One thing I discovered early on is to not equip my spellcasters with staffs, or other items you would think would be related to magic but actually aren't. If your spell casters are equipped with a staff they'll plunge headlong into the fighting--instead of hanging back and spell casting from a ranged position. They're generally much more vulnerable physically, so it becomes much harder to prevail when they are getting torn to pieces in every encounter... Equip them with wands and they'll properly hang back and throw magic. Learn to use the healing spells of your priest while fighting and while casting offensive spells with your other spell casters, letting your fighters take the melee end of things and keep the foe away from your spell casters--and you'll be amazed at how much easier the fighting gets. I equip my chanter with a powerful bow so that he's ranged whether he's chanting or firing his bow. My Druid sometimes throws spells, but just as often shapeshifts to maul the enemy in melee contact, depending on the nature of the foe. The fighting and prevailing isn't hard at all once you learn the rules--like any other game ever made... Learn the rules of the games you play and you'll do fine--but trying to make a game conform to your idea of how it *should* play is good for little more than frustration.
  9. 10 hours is strictly DLC territory. 50 hours +, now that's an expansion I can live with.
  10. If the game was installed incorrectly, it is far more likely that it wouldn't run at all. Not necessarily...People should never install to C:\program files(x86)\PoE or C:\program files\PoE (depending on whether the game you are installing requires 64-bits or 32-bits), because Windows has in place several safeguards in the C:\ root directory that *might* conceivably cause problems for game installations. The newer your version of Windows is the more stringent are those protections (eg., Win7 is tougher than Vista, Win8.1 is tougher than Win7, etc.) It's never affected me because I never install games to C:\, anyway, but I have heard of issues arising because of that. Additionally, I also think it is very important that people not install their Steam directory to C:\program files (x86)\Steam, either...and for the same reasons. I have my Steam library installed to D:\, E:\ & F:\ and try somewhat loosely to balance the load among those three partitions. My C:\ drive I reserve for the OS, OS utilities, and hardware drivers. An advantage of a small C:\ drive--no more than 200GBs, max, is that backups take very little time & space on another drive. I have a 250GB EVO 850 for C:\, and it takes ~15-30 minutes to do a system image backup. (Also, separate partitions are nice because if one partition falls because of a write error, you won't lose everything, just what you have installed on that partition--and if a partition should ever fail other than the boot partition C:\, then you can still boot because C:\ will still be up.)
  11. This of course seems semi-sensible as the Steam version of the game is thankfully free of any Steam DRM (Steam doesn't have to be running to launch and play the game), and of course the GOG version has no DRM, either. In light of that fact I'm having a spot of trouble understanding why everyone who wants to can't perform his upgrades directly from Obsidian if he prefers...? (I am very appreciative and give massive kudos to Obsidian for releasing the game through Steam with no DRM!) Just wondering if it's maybe an issue for your update servers...? I can understand wanting to share that load. Or perhaps you want to cut down piracy, too, I suppose, by linking updates to established Steam and Gog account purchases...(I suspect I just answered my own query.) Anyway, thanks much for the Steam DRM-less release. I only wish all game devs were as enlightened as Obsidian...(Witcher 3 is also DRM-less through Steam, but most of my Steam Library requires that Steam be running or else that I be in offline mode, so it's refreshing not to have to jump through that hoop just to fire up the game.)
  12. Suggestion: when you save, pay attention to what buttons you push--saving and loading are powerful tools. Or, just use the Quicksave key...Also, when you try to overwrite a save you get another pop-up asking you if you are sure...this is your cue to say no if you don't mean to save. When you load a game from a game in progress, you get another pop-up that asks you if you mean to lose your present game, etc. If being tired means you can no longer read the words in the pop-ups, then I'd suggest you not play until you're rested.
  13. Hmmm...that's interesting as at the beginning of D:OS the number of Kickstarter Backers is presented in big, bold, lettering...21,040, is the number Larian states in the game itself... You also don't seem to be aware that Obsidian puts the number of Kickstarter backers for PoE @ 77,000 +...again, in the game itself... ...Which leads me to believe you have neither game else you would surely know these things... Hint: in the future it might be wise to consider "Steamspy" a questionable source at best... While steamspy isn't 100% accurate, it is a close approximation. As a game developer, I can confirm that the numbers on steamspy for our game is very close to the numbers that were sold on steam. Well, are you saying that he didn't get his "kickstarter backer" numbers from Steamspy after all, then? I mean they are obviously wrong as the numbers presented by the game devs themselves in the actual games are, of course, unimpeachable.
  14. Hmmm...that's interesting as at the beginning of D:OS the number of Kickstarter Backers is presented in big, bold, lettering...21,040, is the number Larian states in the game itself... You also don't seem to be aware that Obsidian puts the number of Kickstarter backers for PoE @ 77,000 +...again, in the game itself... ...Which leads me to believe you have neither game else you would surely know these things... Hint: in the future it might be wise to consider "Steamspy" a questionable source at best...
  15. Yea, too bad you didn't go to Win7 when you could have...you'd be getting Windows 10 for free on July 29 2015, direct from Microsoft. In any event, if you can't use a 64-bit OS it looks like you're going to be out of luck in many games anyway, especially in the future. Even the lowly game consoles are running 64-bit OSes these days. Good luck!
  16. It's only it doesn't do that in my case. I'm still on 1.06.0591. Although I've got automatic updates enabled. I don't see a method to force the client to do a manual update anyway. I'm really looking for a solution there. Try switching out of the beta branch in Steam (if you are currently enrolled in it). That's how I got it to download. You also want to make sure that you have "download updates in the background while playing a game" on and activated--I had mine turned off, it turns out. Don't know when I did that... As soon as I fixed that and fired up the game (immediately after verifying game files) the hotfix installed. I had been having lots of sound problems in 591--the hotfix seems to have restored everything and maybe even made the ambient sound a bit better. I am playing on WIn10 x64, and it's weird because when I first began playing PoE I didn't have to run as admin, IIRC--now, for some reason, I have to run as admin to see my saves in-game. Probably something to do with Win10 security tightening up as I installed 6 security and rollup patches for build 10130 today--that has to be it, I would think, relative to my saves being on C:\ because the game isn't even on C:\, let alone under c:\program files. I love this game...! Edit: Wanted to shout out a big "Thank You!" to Obsidian for arranging that the Steam release have no online Steam DRM component--the game runs whether Steam is running or not. Great call...! It is noted and much appreciated! However, of course, you do have to run Steam to get updated...but that's it!
  17. You really need to time that because 60-90 seconds is a really long time... I note that after 1.06.xxx my save times have never been faster--I noticed how much shorter they've been, in fact, and have been pleasantly surprised by it. No doubt about it, though, loading does take longer than saving at the moment--nowhere near 60-90 seconds for me, but 15-20 seconds, certainly. Saves are 2-4 seconds at the moment, so quite a bit of difference there. Game is definitely on the right track.
  18. Had it been left up to Jobs, right-clicking today would not be an issue since a Mac mouse would have only one button...:D That's Apple engineering for you! Best of luck!
  19. Actually, Linux is more of a minority in the Gaming Scene than Mac, but yes Mac is right under Windows. It's because Micro$oft owns the market pretty much. They have for a long time. In fact, they also have bought most of the shares on Apple, so they pretty much own more than half of the company according to some articles I read on the internet - if that's even true. How much of the information on the internet can you without a shadow of a doubt trust is actually honest? Anyway, as for the capes; apparently either the code or software within their game that show cloaks and the physics from them doesn't support Linux; Mac on the other hand is a little different, it is supported there. But Unix isn't drastically different from Linux so I don't understand why Mac and Linux are so far behind when it comes to what's available, besides maybe lack of money return on Linux; which is a shame for me considering I just really enjoy having all the freedom I get on Linux. The main reason that OS X constitutes ~5% of the global OS market (Windows has a 93%+ share) is because Apple doesn't actually compete with Microsoft in the global OS markets. Unlike Microsoft, which does not tie Windows to any particular brand of computer hardware, Apple ties OS X to the Apple-branded x86 Intel-compatible clones it sells (called “Macs”.) OS X could very easily run on everything just like Windows (it is based on NextStep, and has been an x86 OS from the start)—but Apple artificially ties it to the Mac exclusively, through the Mac firmware. While Windows will run on anything x86, including a Mac (via Bootcamp), OS X will only run on an x86 Mac. At least legally… Apple wants to sell the hardware, whereas Microsoft wants to sell software. The two companies are very different (for instance 2/3 of Apple's total revenue comes from cell-phone hardware, whereas ~90% of Microsoft's income comes from software sales, including Windows.) Also, about the shares...several years ago when Steve Jobs became the “Interim CEO” @ Apple, the company was nearly broke and on its last legs. Jobs went begging (literally) to Bill Gates, hat in hand, for financial help, and Microsoft bought ~$512 million dollar's worth of Apple shares at the time, just to give Apple some much needed cash, IIRC. (Contrary to popular opinion, Gates and Jobs had an association that spanned decades. They were not the best of friends, but not enemies, either.) There was a big announcement of Microsoft's help at the time in a video of Jobs & Gates together making the announcement—you can Bing/Google it and find it, I'm sure. At that time, Apple also agreed to cease and desist its longtime-running “look and feel” lawsuit against Microsoft (Apple at one time believed that nobody had the right to make a GUI-driven OS except Apple, believe it or not.) Anyway, long story short, Microsoft sold all of its Apple shares at a profit years ago. I have no idea if Microsoft has bought shares of Apple since—if so, I've not read or heard anything about it. Seriously, most of what you will read on Mac fan sites that concerns Microsoft will be false—you can take that to the bank…
  20. There's nothing wrong with 3d...it's a wonderful graphics tool...in the right hands. But that's the problem, isn't it?...."The right hands"...seem to be all too rare these days... Companies like id software, imo, did more to hurt the promise of gaming than anything else because they couldn't tell a story if their company depended on it--except the already-cliche'd "Satan worshipers-Demon-gonna' getcha'--even on Mars" kind of "stories" that came straight out of dime novellas. Then there's EA--a company that seems to know almost nothing about personal computers... It's crazy. I love great graphics--I love a great story even more--but finding a developer who can do *both* is challenging. You wouldn't think that would be the case after all of these years, would you?
  21. Honestly, I suspect that this was deliberate-- Obsidian wanted to make strong and interesting female characters, while avoiding the easy prurient route to audience appreciation. They decided on no romance, and they wanted to avoid tempting the audience into asking for it. So we get a devoted mother, a mystical maternal figure (if not literally a mother), and a warrior who has been raised with a somewhat genderless self-image. The allure of fantasy games is that we undertake quests and activities not possible in the "real" world--it's an alternate reality. So why clutter that up with a bunch of cartoon porn? It's one thing to slay imaginary monsters and evil-doers in fantasy RPGs, quite another to have cartoon-fantasy sexual activity in a game. There is enough of that on the Internet as it is... No need to foul up the game with that kind of thing, imo. I have no clue why people want this stuff in an RPG, and then want to fantasize even further and call it "romance." When Geralt visits a whore for some (hopefully) VD-free fun in the Witcher universe, what does that do for the person playing the game? Not much, actually. I guess it's okay if your game of choice is the Sims. I guess.
  22. Unforunately, Nexus do not allow account creation for those who use Tor (and presumably other online privacy tools). Now that is their perogative, but it does confirm the post title as correct - mods on Nexus not being freely available. And their method of pushing premium accounts is really just as sleazy (though not illegal) as the behaviour of some "free" download sites. Not Obsidian's fault, but a plea for any modmakers out there - please provide mirrors using sites that don't require accounts. Also some of the BG2 modding forums should be willing to provide hosting. You don't need Tor to register with Nexus or to download the mod. Moot point--end of discussion. When you want to download from Nexus, turn off Tor. The software is available from Nexus and free of charge. Besides that, no self-respecting person who thinks he's a "gamer" should be without a free Nexus account--the site has hundreds if not thousands of mods for dozens of games. I've had a free Nexus account for many years and Nexus has never once "pushed" a premium account on me. Here's the thing some people have no concept of, however: putting up a server from which people can download game mods costs money--the person who does that cannot do it for free. Nexus is a great site--it utilizes dozens of servers which have to be paid for by somebody. It utilizes great software like the Nexus Mod Manager that is constantly being improved and has to be paid for--software doesn't grow on trees in the wild. So criticizing them for asking for donations is idiotic in the extreme--without those funds Nexus would not exist. You don't have to contribute (which you can do for far less than $50, btw) if you don't want to--you can still join for free and download for free. So what if they ask you to turn of Tor as a condition before you can download? If you want the mod, you'll do that gladly. The thing to remember is this: just because you have a computer and you buy a game doesn't mean that anybody owes you anything for "free." You are not entitled to anything for free simply because you exist and you want it. That's a valuable lesson that some people never learn.
  23. PoE is different from the "old IE games"--different, not inferior. I have much enjoyed the differing spells and learning how they work. But, there's a magic missile spell in lvl1 Wizard, and there's a MM spell from lvl 3 that is much more powerful than the lvl 1 spell. I think your central problem is that you want to play this game like you remember playing the "old IE games" and this is a new game with new rules--it is not a D&D game and wasn't intended to be--and so you're trying to force PoE into a mold it will not fit. Blank your mind of the "old IE game" memories and try and concentrate on PoE and PoE exclusively--learn how stuff works in PoE. It's a lot of fun and I think in many ways much better than the "old IE games"--the magic is just terrific. One thing I love about PoE is that after a rest *all* of your spells are available for casting (in combat)--not just a few of them that were "memorized" in the IE games. You can't cast all of them, of course, but you can choose from all of them. Also, lower-level spells are very relevant unless you rest after every fight--which I can't see being possible with the limited camping supplies. After you cast your Lvl3 spells of choice, then lvl 3 is grayed out, but lvl2 & lvl 1 are available. When lvls 2&3 are grayed out, then Lvl i spells are all you have left to fight with. Happens to me frequently--often it is that my Wizard has used up all of his lvl1,2,&3&4 spells before resting (all of them that he can cast per level, of course.) About the only thing in the game that I genuinely don't like is the shortage of healing potions in the game--the ones you can get for Health (not Endurance) are very weak, and the spells I've seen so far for Health are also very weak. The abilities you can assign, like FIeld Triage, are also very weak comparatively. Limiting the number of camping supplies one can carry in his unlimited stash seems ridiculous without being able to purchase robust healing potions or having robust healing spells--it simply means that I have to make more trips back & forth into a town just to rest because I've run out of camping supplies temporarily. I think Health regeneration suffers in the game compared to Endurance regen in combat--and it's an unbalanced mix for the simple reason that I am out of combat far longer than I'm in it (exploring, etc.) But set yourself free of MM--there are some really powerful and really cool spells in this game. I will say that I am amazed to read that some people actually don't like Wizards because in order to use them they have to pause the combat and assign spells... Very weird, imo...
  24. Some magazines report that Skyrim sales on all platforms have reached 20m. Even assuming PoE should reach 1m after a few years, which I feel is optimistic... something about that ratio is terribly depressing . It often seems that the worse the game, the better the sales. probably 20 m across all consoles. also skyrim have alot more budget than PoE and it is watered down, simplified RPG that cater to the less intelligent mass, of course it sells more Such a shame, what the genre has degenerated into, that games like Skyrim sell that high, and the insult that they are consindered rpgames. I would be fine with a gaming industry where ES games appealed to a minority of the gamers, but such games being the trend... If I could describe it with 1 word, that would be 'disappointment'. OK, some perspective...Skyrim has been selling for years, has several patches and fixes, and has hundreds of established mods (some of them are excellent) and several expansions to its name. PoE at this stage in its existence is not comparable... Check back in four years to see how many copies of PoE have been sold, and then compare the two. Also recall that much of the expense of creating the game was paid out of the Kickstarter and Obsidian had that money secured from day one.
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