Bersercker

Hm, isn't it like 1 focus per 4 damage without additional talents currently? Gonna see if thats indeed so when i get home. Upd: Yep, i thought right. Its about 1 focus per 4 damage currently. So with this change fast weapons will become really bad at focus generation, so might as well not bother with them. Slow weapons will also suffer, since grazes would give almost nothing and cipher's accuracy is not the best to begin with, though +33% might compensate it somewhat. Along with decrease in starting focus: chanter v1.1 seems like an apt analogy. I don't use blunderbuss because exploit. Hatchet with small shield and plate armor for more tankiness seems good enough. Ofc i would have switched to greatsword or estoc if i were to install this patch.

Cause they nerfed focus gain across the board just to fix it for one weapon. Also i think cipher will have to use slow and powerful weapons if he wants to get some focus (though it still will be less than with fast weapons currently imo), whereas now in 1.04 all the weapons are perfectly viable.

Aren't you overreacting here? All that was changed about ciphers is their starting focus and the focus gain through certain weapons. They are still just as powerful and cheesy as ever. It's just that you can't immediately mind-control and stun-lock three mobs at the beginning of every battle anymore. And seriously, using the blunderbuss pellets to exploit the focus gain was hilariously broken to begin with and I'm glad this is fixed now. Well its just that i saw these "chipher OP" threads popping all the time (like "mind blades OP" threads before they were nerfed into oblivion), and here is the result. I too believe they decided to fix "blunderbuss exploit" this way, istead of, say, making blunderbuss shots to count as one hit for purposes of focus gain. But i doubt you'll have enough focus now to cast much more spells than a chanter with focus gain nerfed so much. Imo, that blunderbuss exploit wasn't even a big deal, one could always not exploit it after all. See, thats what is wrong imo. Balancing based on how loud people scream always leads to medicority. For some unfathomable reason people tend to scream "nerf cipher" much louder than "buff ranger". And ofc its much easier to make cipher to be as boring to play as ranger, than the other way around.

Uh, so ciphers will be pretty much like chanters now? Well, thumbs up to all the "balancers" and meta-gamers. Thought to wait for this patch before continuing my playthrough, but i guess i shouldn't have bothered. Looks like POE goes the same path as some MMOs, even though it has no multiplayer. "Balancers" will whine "OP", unitl everything becomes bland and boing. I guess next the'll say fighter is OP and lobby for removal of his +defenses class ability. Also, why not unify priest, druid and wizard spells and have them be the same, clearly it will be so much more balanced this way.

Using +100% xp per level. As in 100%+100% . Got about 50k xp, same as you it seems, but thats only level 7 with double xp requirements. Well, the original pitch (iirc) was that players would not hit max level unless they did a lot of side content. Otherwise, they would be around level 9/10 if they stuck to the main patch which is why the end game encounters seem balanced for a party of that level. Instead, we get lop-sided xp gain that completely contradicts the intended design goals. This. It's annoying as hell that they deviated so extremely from the stated design, especially when the whole thing is really easy to fix. Yea, removing that excessive xp gain would be a good idea. There is also a problem with intended level for fights though, as It seems that like 95% fights in act 2 are for level 4-5 parties. Would have been much better if it was like 25% for level 4, 25% for level 5 etc, or something like that. So that you would be like "hm, this one is definetly too hard, gotta return later", like in act 1. Alas they probably won't change it now, cause too much work.

With +100% i've got 7th level by the start of 3rd act. Not a big deal imo, combat is mostly adequately difficult and thats the main reason why i bothered to adjust leveling xp gain in the first place. Unless it becomes impossible to pass any skill checks in 3rd act due to low level, +100% is fine by me.

Played about 60 hours since last restart i think, finishing 2nd act now. On stronghold: they should have just tied it with the rest of the story, like it was in nwn2, the prices/traders etc are fine. Need more quests and npcs (subjects?). As it is its the fact that PC owns a stronghold (is a landlord?) is mentioned like two or three times(?) in dialogue outside of the caed nua. I guess nothing can be done to make stronghold relevant, only if the PC owns it in an expansion as well...

Agreed on making AI smarter, thats always welcome. I don't get all this "meta" talk though. Its a single player game, It shouldn't be balanced with two progamers playing against each other in mind, you don't have to abuse the system if you don't want to. Ofc i agree that, fights should be challenging, ideally, without single tactics to win every fight. But "oh, i minmaxed me a fighter and i'm putting him into the doorway every time, damn this game\engagement system is crap" is stretching it too far. If you don't want to use minmaxed fighter, don't use him. Its like "aw, this Power Armour on 1st level meta is driving me nuts. Fallout 2 is crap!". My meta is "Eder is tending to botanical garden at Caed Nua".

+100% exp requirement? That might be kind of extreme. Think you'll get to level 9 before the end of the game? I was a bit 'overleveled' when i changed the requirements, so i needed 15k exp to reach level 6 but for 7th i need 12k. I didn't do leaden key quests, dyrford, any bounties, and searing falls yet, so i think i will. Never reached act3 yet though, so if there is little xp there it might be harder to pass skill checks and win fights...

Done most (i think) quests in act 2 with double xp requirements and only reached level 6. Probably gonna get level 7 before act 3 if i do bounties and the rest of the quests. So, kind ok so far, killing ogres at od nua at level 5 was quite challenging . The only things i don't like is that i was level 5 throughout most of act 2, and cant get enough mechanics for dyrford dungeons (might have to use scroll to raise it). On the other hand most of the fights in act 2 were made with about 5th lvl it mind it seems.

Um, are people complaining about "OP" cipher actually play PotD? Also, whats up with mental binding "OP" when 1st level wizard's slicken is clearly superior in every way and also truns into per encounter later on? And mental blades? Cmon they are just garbage. Also LOL at "bringing wizards up to ciphers level". Imo currently its like wizard>priest>druid>cipher>chanter for thougher fights, while cipher and chanter are better for easier fights since you can preserve per rest spells.

Imo if they started with zero focus, they'd be garbage compared to wizards, druids and priests. They are pretty underwhelming already on higher levels. I imagine they could be changed to start with zero focus and in exchage get increased focus gain along with some increased combat abilities, but imo their are fine as it is.

Yea, double xp may be too much. Certainly too much for the 1st act. But i don't mind if i finish the game at 10-11th level, at least the battles are more challenging. Even had to use summoning artifacts and potions a couple of times. Hm, i guess better not use the sites that give exe instead of dll.

Yea... the string you suggest looking for is not in the unadulterated Assembly-CSharp.dll file. Alas. How did you go about finding this value so perhaps I can find it in the unadulterated Assembly-CSharp.dll file? Thanks for your efforts. I just searched for F4 01 00 00 in original file and compared a bit of symbols around them. It was 3rd and 4th instance like Daemonjax said. Or search for F4 01 00 00 5A 2A, there is only two of them afaik, the ones that need changed. Uploaded it here for use in other forum: http://www.multiupfile.com/f/31ec184f (v1.0.3.0530 without ie mod double xp requirements)

I think I did all the possible side content that was offered up until that point. I went through Valewood, Gilded Vale (and the temple in there), Magran's Fork, Esternwood, Black Meadow, and Anslog's Compass. But even when I reached Caed Nua, I was still getting owned on Hard. Abilities would always miss or resist, especially Mental Binding, and my party was all around Level 4. I set it to Normal but that made it too easy. Given that this is an RPG, I just assumed that all the misses meant I was too low level to do a certain piece of content but there wasn't anything else for me to do. To be honest, tabletop-based combat systems are not really my cup of tea. What made me enjoy Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate, and Fallout was the writing. The combat was just something I tolerated to varying degrees. Was pretty hard on my first attempt with barbarian PC(Path of the Damned), but i didn't go to Raedric keep same as you. I guess you can avoid the blob of shadows, shades and phantoms in the courtyard until you get one more level so that leaves only the one indoors. Done it after about 30th save load i think. xD Better focus shades first, cause they'll keep summoning new shadows. On my second playthrough with cipher PC Caed Nua was much easier, but i did Raedric keep before that. The, um, last fight in raedric keep was like 2 times as difficult at these shades though, so better leave that fight for later as well.

Hm so i changed into Tested it with a save just before "old levelup", and it changed the number in the UI. But when i got enough xp for an "old lvlup" it gave me new level. Was like 14907/30000 (old level 6, requires 15000, new level 6 requires 30000) and after i leveld up it became 15100/42000(new level 7 requires 42000). I thought might as well change the previous F4 01 00 00 (dunno where i got that idea). Strangely enough after i did it and loaded the same save it didn't give me a levelup at 15100 xp. So i had: Decided to test it further and changed the second E8 03 00 00 back into F4 01 00 00: Loaded the save. UI displayed 14907/15000 before i've got some exp, and 15100/15000 after without giving me the levelup. So it appears that first F4 01 00 00 is for actual levelups and second is for the UI. Which imo would be kinda strange... Can you doublecheck? Maybe there are two similar methods in there? Might as well be third somewhere (unlikely but still). There are only two "F4 01 00 00 5A" though (i think 5A has something to do with closing bracket for some reason xD).

I get stealth and survival on my main character in case of relevant dialoge options(though only seen one or two survival so far). Stealth might have been more useful if the maps were designed with it in mind, or there were more relevant scripted interactions, dialoge options etc. Also need separate "scouting mode" for party members. In Age of Decadence there is no "scouting mode", but stealth skill gives +crit chance and options to kill some bad guys while talking to them. Or taking out one or two guards without rising an alarm via dialoge etc. Like: Bandit leader: Give me all your money or i'll split you open. 1. [give 100cp] I dont have any more! 2. [give 1000cp] Here you go. 3. [Attack] Your end is at hand! 4. [stealth 4] [Come closer, distract him and slit his throat.] Might be a good idea to make something like that in the addon. Other skills could use some use as well ofc...

Yea, thats what i was thinking. No way to tell without trying it out first though. I think i'll change it to triple numbers if i'll be close to levelcap, or if i'll be like above level 9 at the start of 3rd act.

For many things, I'd agree with your comment. But when you can hit the level cap by the middle to two thirds of the way through the game (without even going out of your way to do so) and thus be overpowered to the extent that the rest of the game becomes trivial, that's an issue. I didn't hit the level cap until very close to the end of the game (had approximately half of Twin Elms left to do) and I actually "went out of my way" to DO all the side quests and extra content. It's not an "issue". You may not enjoy that the game didn't . . . somehow . . . magically read your mind and provide you with the magical perfect experience you imagined you wanted, but that doesn't make it an "issue" or a "design flaw" or a "balance problem". It means that you played in a way that you didn't like all the results of. I could equally complain that I didn't max out certain skills and thus, say, couldn't disarm every single trap in the game the instant I came across it. That doesn't make this a "problem" or mean it requires a "fix". It means if I want to be able to disarm all the traps I need to put more points in Mechanics. "I want to play the way I want" and "I want to never accidentally out-level foes" are mutually exclusive goals. Besides, it's so farkin' easy to tune the combat in this game to the difficulty you prefer to play at, it's not even funny. Run with a smaller party. Pull more mobs at a time. Don't bother upgrading your gear. Honestly, it's like the people in DDO who go out of their way to play the most broken, stupid, overpowered builds and then complain that the game is "too easy". Well, of course it is. You intentionally went straight for the easy button--and then when you hit it, you complained that it worked. Silly. But it should be the other way around don't you think? Player should be searching for ways to make combat easier not harder. Like, enchanting weapons against specific enemy type, buffing himself with food and rest, using scrolls, potions and summoning thigies, thinking about optimal party composition for especially difficult fight, etc. At least at maximum difficulty. Otherwise why even put all of these into the game?

Wow, thanks! Looks like i can finally go past the beginning of act two now. Gonna try it out in the evening. As for not being retro-active, i imagine respecing characters with ie mod console or something and getting lvlups again should do it.

Currently the game "forcibly prevents" players that want to do side quests from enjoying combat because apparently "the optimal" way is to rush main quest, finish the game ASAP and buy the next game.

I think getting xp requirements to grow exponentially, while making it so that getting the 12th level requires completion of 99% of the quests is a good idea. Obviously totally rebalancing all the xp rewards so that both "completionists" and "modern gamers" were happy would be better, but are we completely sure Obsidian is up for that? Might be a waste of effort too, since most people that were happy with the xp rewards probably already completed the game and forgot about it. Imo just put normal xp, and reduced xp options into expert mode, just in case, and problem solved(the xp related part at least). P.S. Apologies if you read the this post of mine in every related thread. If you mean xp requirements for each level, see here. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/75906-seems-like-xp-balance-is-out-of-whack/page-7?do=findComment&comment=1648191

Yeah, it looks like the quest files are referencing some id values to determine how much experience should be awarded. I'm trying to figure out exactly where the exp tables are; if it's something that can be modified in VS then that would make it a lot easier. A good start would be linking the different quest files to their in-game counterparts. From there, you could start playing with the "ExperienceType" and "ExperienceLevel" values. Or, just create a script that ensures that no quest outside of the crit_path has an ExperienceLevel greater than some number. So i asked one knowledgeable dude, and apparently there is no xp table. But there is a formula located in PillarsOfEternity_Data\Managed\Assembly-CSharp.dll in CharacterStats class ExperienceNeededForNextLevel method. It is : ((currentLevel * (currentLevel + 1)) * 500). Also the guys that made iemod already made some framework to change that kind of stuff https://bitbucket.org/Bester/poe-modding-framework A shame its not in xml, i'm not sure i'm up to getting visual studio with all the additional stuff required just to change this. Also i wouldn't be surprised if its very easy to f something up with that decompiling stuff...

Speaking of D:OS, did they end up fixing the combat dificulty with patches? Not sure it could be fixed at all but who knows... Ended up ditching it after about 20 hours or so, since story and the like felt kinda bland and silly, and with combat that turned into kind of mini game that you had endure between conversation there was nothing interesting in that game for me...

I read in other thread that one dude got 10 level in 1st act doing caed nua quests, the other completing most quests of caed nua & side quests got 12 lvl in the middle of 2nd act, and the third, without caed nua, but with most side quests got 12 lvl at the end of 2nd act. So it seems simply dividing experience by two or three might do the trick. Not sure how much experience you can get is in act 3 though... I guess i would be skipping caed nua quests until there is a fix\mod\expert mode option.