Bix Copperblast

This was present in the previous patch as well. To reproduce: On a cipher, cast a spell, then shoot a bow. The cipher will appear to be drawing the bow but the weapon will not animate accordingly (ie. it's static).

Still no weapons balancing? I want to use bows but ATM they are completely outclassed by guns and crossbows.

I think you're not being fair here. If a change attempts to bypass / improve something that is dull (ie. managing the inventory), then I think the game is better for it. If it provides a shortcut for something interesting (quest markers as opposed to NPC directions), then it's a questionable change. edit: No changes to weapons? Didn't they mention they would be balancing certain weapon types? Or are these patch notes not final?

Stopped 10 hours in, when I heard v1.05 will introduce some balance changes. The combat is disappointing and I'm hoping the patch will go some way in helping address that.

well, there was gunpowder in lotr... HA! Good Fun! Black powder was in use well before even the crudest of firearms were invented. The Japanese for instance used black powder several centuries before the introduction of the matchlock by the Portuguese in the 16th century. But it does make one think that in LotR, maybe they too were just a few centuries away from developing firearms. Somehow, Legolas packing a fully-automatic assault rifle does not seem to be quite as charming .

Not a fan of the guns, mainly because of the incredibly slow muzzle-loading. Makes my characters feel very 'unepic' spending a seemingly interminable time performing the mundane task of loading the gun (something peasants could do, which is partly why said guns were such a wild success), when they could instead be performing wondrous feats of archery. So I use bows. Even though they suck .

What's with all the hand-waving? Sure, Luj1 was a bit tactless, but he did make valid points.

May I suggest class or weapon-specific, race-agnostic portraits such as can be seen in NWN? ie. an image of a poisoned dagger, a bow, etc. That could be a catch-all solution for those players who are just unhappy with all the portraits.

Because I find it more enjoyable to have characters with weaknesses that I need to work around. It gives them more character. That's not to say that I run completely inept characters (ie. I'll likely never create a wizard with 10 int).

I can't stand min-maxing in a RPG. If a game highest's difficulty is so challenging that I need to min-max, I just turn it down a notch, because in most RPGs (most games for that matter), the difficulty settings mostly just alter monster stats, so I'm not missing out on anything. The most fun I have had with RPGs is trying to make quirky characters / parties work, typically with self-gimping rules. This allows me to RP and still have a challenge, and also increases the number of different parties I can create with the voiced NPCs.

I honestly read that as Joking Touch. How appropriate.

His thinking was that, because shooting a war bow requires a lot of strength and a lifetime of practice, unlike guns and crossbows which even peasants could wield effectively, the skill would apply. Given that might applies to guns and crossbows,not just bows, I think it's fair to assume that Obsidian is not that rigorous when it comes to realism.

Oh, see, I thought we were talking about barbarian the character class, not barbarian the imperialist fantasy about foreign cultures. In that case, she's definitely a barbarian. I mean, she doesn't speak any Greek. Where do you think the DnD barbarian class comes from?

I'd say that she's a Ranger, except the Animal Companion pretty much screws that. She's a rogue. Culturally, maybe, but I ain't never seen her charge into a horde of dudes and start cutting them all up, and that's what a barbarian is. That's what some barbarians do, mostly in popular media. Barbarians are simply uncivilized, warring peoples, and the wildlings seem to fit the bill, including Ygritte. She never showed any particular affinity with nature beyond what any tribal person would so I'd rule out the ranger role. PoE is easy enough that you can get away with playing a ranged barbarian. This does highlight the limitations with the game's class system though.

I understand that, but as I said in the OP, why bother adding those neat reloading and firing animations (which many RPGs don't do; bows and crossbows are often just completely static) and then not have proper animations for idling and running? Oh well, it annoys me but it's just a cosmetic thing so I won't harp on about it.