Blackthane

Actually you know what? I'm only an end consumer. If you guys want professional financial advice, get someone qualified to look through your accounts and give you proper, confidential consulting advice. I'm done with trying to formulate strategic visions without black and white figures.

I'll keep it simple too. If I want PoE to succeed big in order to trivialize the cost of VO, I can't be hoping for it to lose money yes?

Yes, that's why I mentioned Director's Cut/GOTY versions. The packages that will inevitably include expansion pack 1, and the final complete super deluxe package that will include the first game, the 2 expansion packs, the DLC voice pack... Neverwinter Nights Diamond style? Borderlands 2 GOTY? When you get an IP that is worth tens of millions, an additional 10 or 20 grand to polish up a repackaged game you take pride in doing isn't so far-fetched. I'm not suggesting they do it now, later when the IP takes off and when it is capable of generating such high sales. However, should the expansion packs and sequel go full VO, then we might not be talking 10/20 grand top ups. Assuming Obsidian retains the use of Unity engine (and thus isn't aiming for Bioware budgets of ME/DA), its budget on VA alone is still likely to balloon to 6 digit figures if the green light is given for full VO. Still we're speculating on figures, which I would be the first to admit isn't constructive to any conversation. Of course, I am aware that if the franchising doesn't take off, and thus no huge margins are achieved, then I'm with the naysayers. No $ = no VA. We have to make sure a core product succeeds first before we can think about lending a hand to secondary industries. edit: In case I wasn't explicit, I meant to say the leftover money from fund raising for the auxiliary items can be used for VO, after paying off the basic salaries to the programmers and game designers. In essence everyone can get it for free, financed by the latecomers to the party (the Director's Cut/GOTY buyers). I am taking a wild pot shot here, but I believe that's how Ubisoft did it with Naruto. The Japanese VAs need to paid as well, but Ubi gave it to fans for free. For Ubi, they have a powerful IP at their side, and was just absorbing the costs of VAs by betting that cost will be recouped easily if they can convince the Naruto fans on the sidelines to buy Rise of a Ninja for the perceived quality in Japanese voice acting. I'm pretty sure they did market research for that as well. How well it turned out for Ubisoft, I have no idea. They could have barely broken even with that gamble. But that they could afford the risk suggests additional casflow lying somewhere to be used. And that's the basis of my argument that costs for professional VO isn't as expensive as some of us think.

Well I'll have to quote myself on the various financing options once more. It will be messy. How about you scroll back to a previous post where I highlighted the ways finance can work? Pay attention to the methods of raising revenue, the rationale on why it is possible despite PoE's minor successful start, and how funds can then be distributed. VO costs and staff bonuses are just 2 of the things that were brought up.

Not to be rude? In Philosophy 101 perhaps, not in the real world of finance.

Look at the previous posts who pointed out that Obsidian isn't limited by words count cost or changes to scripts, it just needs to fill in the gaps now for the first game. Further if I wasn't clear earlier, the idea of making it big via franchising isn't just for VO. Would you rather see the developers being paid a larger project/year end bonus, or would you rather give some of that pie back to the industry by hiring competent VO veterans - and thus contributing back to a support industry?

There is more than one way to handle cost. Obsidian is in the talks to franchise the IP right? If a tabletop and card game is in the works, 2 expansion packs are planned and a sequel is even being discussed, I can see this happening in a future version without passing the cost directly to the customer base. Director's Cut/GOTY with funds raised from VCs and private equity (after the PoE IP gets huge naturally)? Split financing from multiple revenues? On top of table top and card games, Obsidian can do figures, comics, sell mugs and T-shirts. Obsidian didn't just score for itself with PoE. It is arguably one of Kickstarter's most successful project, giving traditional financing models a wild run for their money. PoE - and Obsidian - has brand power now and with that comes financing options.

I recall downloading Naruto Japanese VOs for free on the Marketplace. It was Rise of a Ninja for the 360? Well then again, that's Ubisoft behind it so... cost issues. Hmm.

Well, free resources aren't getting any complaints from me. If they aren't triggered by the mobs that's some free cash I have by selling them. 2nd, you only heal endurance when you're out of combat. If you don't take the time to rest your health doesn't recover, which will lead to companions' death.

... am I being trolled? I mean surely the date of posting in OP would suggest that I would have evolved by now.

I recognized Liam O' Brien within 5 minutes of starting PoE. His distinct voice and accent left a strong impression from Persona 3, and from that day the moment Liam's voice graces my years I'll give any game he voices an extra +2 points. The last time I heard him was in Darksiders I believe. Yeah more of him won't hurt.

The only minor gripe I have right now is that some parts of the dialog are voiced, and some aren't. It does break immersion. I can live with it, and at the same time I welcome any further enhancements to giving audio life to a script over another 15 floors of dungeon crawling. Unless you add beholders. Throw in displacer beasts while we're at it. And chimeras.

You don't really need another tank unless the situation is pretty dire. Like 20+ mobs rushing through a 3 man wide doorway. In which you can simply line up your support classes (chanter, paladin) with a fighter and cast Withdrawal on all 3 of them to form a roadblock while your dps nukes away from behind.

I find myself disagreeing with the harsher criticisms over backer content NPCs. There isn't an over abundance of fire godlikes as well. I was initially influenced by the net vitriol, but after spending some time reading the actual text I find it adds flavor to what would otherwise be generic NPC #201.

The spores are not easy at that level for PotD, because you can't split pull them. The best you can do is to lure the 4 small ones near the entrance to avoid the dominate effects from the larger variants, where if your party doesn't have enough durable tanks they will tear through your party. So head over to Caed Nua and try to clear that so you have access to the druid. Stealth your way through the courtyard (stick to southern end) to avoid having to fight so many shadows and wisps at once. The mobs at the courtyard (and the library too) disappear once you've finished this dungeon. Once inside, abuse chokepoints with Durrance's Withdrawal and nukes. For the dungeon boss (the fight after a lengthy talk), one way to do it at low level is to pull > disengage > pull again > kill off the blights one by one (a lot of pulling + disengaging), and if possible get the spiders at the south western end to aggro them. Once you have another nuker on your team life becomes much easier. You could also, as suggested, hire another generic druid/wizard (one more Fan of Flames!) at the inn if you aren't inclined to stick to a companions only run.

Just a little background before I jump in. I main a cipher, play on PotD, and I'm fine with the resting mechanics. I've cleared Temple of Ethos, various Gilded Vale quests, Raedric Hold, Caed Nua and I'm about to start with the ogres on Od Nua floor 3. I've also stopped playing for a while before I further invest any talents and spell selection due to the possibility of a huge balance overhaul from patch 1.05. As far as I can tell, the stronghold's rest mechanics is tedious due to the 3 loading screens. That's supposed to be addressed in 1.04, we'll see how it works out. Clearing Od Nua is a pain since running back to rest for more wizard/priest spells is a given, and I've yet to encounter any mid-point resting spots. However, I've yet to test out chain pulling with a wizard's (Aloth) Blast + Dangerous Implement + Kakaloth's Minor Blights. For Temple of Ethos, there exists at least 1 camp supply in it, making it possible for you to camp 3 times for that dungeon without returning to the inn. Raedric's Hold has 2 NPCs that can act as rest points for that 4 level dungeon, and there are various ways to avoid combat. If you're doing the quest "Lord of a Barren Land", there's your way of getting spells without tailing it back to town, and hence going through multiple load screens. You still need to load the basement and the top floor where the 2 NPCs are located though. I believe there is another NPC at Anslog's Pass (could be wrong here) which will offer the party rest if you complete the quest "A Mother's Plea". That would mean dealing with quite a number of mobs first though. You can leave the pack of guls there alone, and abuse the rest offered if you truly need them to complete the bestiary. Since mobs don't respawn in PoE, and there are NPCs who offer rest points, I don't see camp supplies being limited to 2 as a problem. Unless the quests in Defiance Bay and Twin Elms are significantly different in structure, I don't anticipate a critical problem with the current rest mechanics as well. Priests, druids and wizards all get per encounter spells at level 9, and ciphers get theirs from level 1.

Glad to see loading times being addressed. So there's a 1.05 patch that's in the works, and that should have some major changes to class balance yes? Not seeing much of that for 1.04. When's the last patch going to hit? Not being snarky, just got bitten before from sniper rifle to This Machine nerf and Animal Friend that got boosted to mildly useful perk due to the inclusion of night stalkers. But I would have suffered from burnout by the time I reroll character #21 just to get things right for the latest patch. Yeah I'm all for putting my nerd glasses on and doing min-maxing, but not knowing that all that work needs an overhaul in the name of balancing for every patch. Half your fans who grew up with BG and Torment are in their mid 30s, some of us are are hitting 40s and we don't have the luxury of time that we did 2 decades ago.

I'm thinking the same thing about Penetrating Blast. It gives -5 DR, but doesn't Blast's description say -5 DR vs Reflex? I'm confused by the wording. So does that mean stacked figures of -10 DR or...? I think there's a problem with Scion of Flame's UI description. From base of 40~55, Scion pushes it up to 44~60. Fireball has the same issue, base of 25~35, boosted to 27~38. Those are 10% figures, not 20%. So is the 10% worth it? The higher level flame spells aren't so hot. Torrent is a level 5 spell and has the same base damage as Fan of Flames, which means it can't be converted to per encounter use. Wall of Flame is probably the next best fire spell for a wizard, if you can lock down a foe to take damage for 5 seconds. Fan of Flames is still an AAA spell, I'm just wondering if SoF talent is worth it?

You're now officially part of the ragtag team! Durance would be proud to call you field commander. You're one of them now.

There's no counter-argument here about how clunky Bethesda's engines are. I'm not necessarily saying I want fantasy games to be made using Beth's engine alone (i'm open to any competent engine - feel free to use Bioshock!), just wondering why the majority of fantasy games thus far haven't been able to make that full transition to combine good graphics (DragonAge fails here), gameplay (Witcher fails here) and story (both DragonAge and Witcher fail here) in one. Like I mentioned earlier, I think the only one good 3D RPG is a science fiction entry. But the KotoR series didn't have a lot of razzle and dazzle in them. Lightsabers would qualify, but I don't have my fireballs. I think the only group that's consistently keeping up with advances in technology are the composers. As for isometric games, they're making a nice comeback. Shadowrun has 2 games released recently and SR: Hong Kong is in the works? Wasteland 2 and the upcoming Torment sequel will cater nicely to fans of isometric 2D style games. And to address the Fallout comment? I was thinking VATS. I mean using VATS as a method of pausing in combat to give tactical commands in a 3D game won't work, because huge open environments won't give the player much doorways to use. The entire isometric landscape will change to one of a MMO where aggro control abilities dominate strategies. Well you could pause, place a tank in a doorway and switch characters to your 3 casters...

Cheers to diversity. Why should I take offense at that even though I enjoyed Skyrim vanilla on consoles?

Didn't New Vegas have up to 4 companions? Humanoid, + dog/robot + faction follower (NPC trooper/ranger) and the last one is a Freeside follower? Granted you can't control most of them. They are just additional canon fodder.

Any really good looking fireballs? Like FF 7's Bahamut CG level of good looking. Spell effects have really been underwhelming so far. I think the last game that did Meteor right was Kingdoms of Amalur. But that's all WoW like visuals. I'm looking at more realistic ones. Witcher 2 has some awesome background graphics and lovely models, but I'm not so sure I have fond memories of its spell animations? Skyrim's dragons were lively. If only Destruction magics was coded right. Stun-locking with low damage fire crackers...pfft. I want to bring a dragon to its knees with my fireballs! edit: Dragon's Domga's dragons and chimera were really well animated too. Too bad the town's graphics and characters look bland and horribly superficial, like dolls talking and walking.

Yeah well, if any remake is going to happen Torment and BG 2 gets priority in the queue. Just throwing it out here... I don't have many good things to comment about Bioware post KotoR. Let's just leave it at that. Read: didn't like DA and ME series. I did thoroughly enjoy New Vegas though.

Hold your pitchforks! 2D rules! In all seriousness, at times I'm reminded of wandering in Oblivion. Justin Bell was credited as the composer yes? His tracks remind me of Jeremy Soule's style. When I was strolling through Defiance Bay, I felt like I was walking through Imperial City. Rushing through Magran's Fork and Black Meadow are also reminiscent of wilderness treks in Oblivion/Skyrim. Still turn based tactical combat won't work in a Fallout-esque context. VATS to cast Fan of Flames and Blizzard? Chokepoints in an open world? Even the dungeons of Skyrim don't have much tight corridors if memory serves.... But solo stealth would work. And at least dps magics have the right numbers in PoE. Ah one can dream. Ok, rant over. The 2D defense force can get to work now. "So? Go back and play Skyrim!" "This is for IE fans, if you want 3D go play DAO or Witcher 2!" "Meh, I'll gladly take polished pre-rendered backgrounds over buggy 3D crap anyday!" ....