SlayerDorian

It is perfectly valid to draw parallels to the real world between a fantasy world and the real world. A story would not be as good if it did not relate to the real world in a major way. Generally a fantasy world is very much based on the real world, just with some changes. If there were too many changes all at once then people would not be able to connect to the story, and then stop reading/playing. The philosophical questions presented in PoE apply to the real world, and I'm pretty sure that is one of the main points. What if you received evidence that disproved-ish much of what you believe in. How would you react? What if the whole world received this evidence, how would they react? It being a fantasy world is good plausible deniability if someone decided to start a holy war against the devs, sure. But it is no reason to write off valid philosophical questions that apply all the same.

The real core of it is that the religion/pantheon was created by mortals to control other mortals. They did not do it out of malice, but it is still being used to strongly influence the behavior of other mortals. Then, in walks the usual conflict: Were the deities (or the idea of) created by mortals to influence/control the behavior of other mortals or are they "real", as in, they have always been there. Those who choose to believe despite there being no real evidence, have faith. If there was true evidence then it would not be faith. In PoE, the twist is that there is evidence that gods exist - even though they were created by mortals. At that point, I'm not sure it's really faith but simply worship. Though on the flip side, memory is a funny thing and when you have powerful entities in the mix that could easily mess with your perception, it could be possible that you were manipulated by gods to some degree for some other purpose. Perhaps they weren't created by mortals, but one of them needed you to think they were or some such.

It is interesting how rarely it gets mentioned that the whole theme is very similar to the real world. The main difference being that there is proof that the gods exist. Many (or perhaps even all) religions could have been created to control people. Notions of heavenly reward for certain behaviors that also coincide with laws is a pretty common theme. It would be rather tough to disprove unless there was some immortal dude who was around when it happened that could tell you about it. And even if that dude said it was all made up to control the masses, who is going to accept that their god is not what they were told it was when they were first taught when they don't want that to be true. Some more open-minded folks might. But many wouldn't be capable of accepting it and even violently react.

Unless you intentionally mess up a fighter's stats/talents/equipment, they will at least be decent.

It'd be nice to see survival decrease travel time through wilderness as long as one party member has a high rank. Though, it wouldn't matter much due to time having no value in the current system. Also, even on PoTD, I don't bother with food 95% of the time. Perhaps if you could craft better recipes with survival skill.

It is simply a good genre of game that has been neglected. There have been a few here and there that mostly went under the radar. River of Time was very enjoyable. There need to be more, and by more developers. Perhaps it is just more difficult to execute than your typical shooter. It sure didn't hurt to imitate a well known classic. But if PoE were actually a bad game, we likely wouldn't be here on these forums at all by now. Looking forward to a sequel.

I send in some summoned units to eat the spell. It's basically a death sentence from what I have experienced. But perhaps that has been fixed more recently than I have done this fight.

Definitely agree. Things like this add replay value.

This is not really general feedback. It seems more like a long winded complaint about graze still applying negative status effects. Many agree. I've seen a few suggestions going around that make sense. I like the idea of graze applying lesser version of the status effect (and for a shorter time) such as prone becoming an interrupt instead.

Perhaps not quite limitless, but a heck of a lot more than I have time to read through. I've been playing on Path of the Damned without min/maxed characters or even "ideal" party (not even using a fighter or cipher) members and it is actually quite easy for the most part. I actually make it a point not to travel back to town to rest up. I conserve fire power and fight smart. However, I know this is a difficulty of my own creation, not really part of the game. Which is a bit sad because it could be have been part of the design and truly be part of the game, not just some hole I filled in locally. By playing in this manner, I have seen for myself that it is quite possible on PotD, without min/maxed characters. So it is definitely not just a few min/maxers running around saying things are too easy. They really are too easy. In pretty much every fight that isn't trivial already, if I were to use all the summon items I have and unload spells like there's no tomorrow then the fight becomes trivial. Aside from it being silly, there's nothing to stop me from waltzing back to town for a nap and reload of camping supplies. A. It's nice that you're playing with in the actual spirit of the game and its rules. Kudos to you. B. But maybe not everyone is as skilled as you are. Maybe some people don't care to (or remember to) use those summoning items. (Honestly, I never buy them, but will keep the ones I find. And even then, I only rarely use them.) In truth, my first 3 full run-throughs of the game have been on Normal, and I won't say that all that many battles have been particularly difficult. That said, I'm not a freaking masochist who's looking for battles to be brutally difficult, like a certain rather large ardra creature that even in Normal mode seems to all but require the use of very high level spells to beat. I skipped that creature in my first two runs after making a few failed attempts to defeat it, then reloading and just choosing to talk my way out of the situation instead. Only on my 3rd run, did I dig my heals in and decide that the creature was going down. Frankly, IMO, this creature was entirely too difficult for Normal level and required too much cheese to beat, whereas the other "creature" of its kind (further to the east, and at a much higher altitude) was entirely manageable. C. As for nothing stopping you from going back to town for a nap, well, nothing but your choice to play by the spirit of the rules. That said, if something was put in place to actually stop you from doing this, it could also stop people from retreating from a location, not because they were running out of camping supplies, but because the player decided that the area was too difficult for his party. Or for that matter, what if you've played by the spirit of the rules, conserved your spells well, used all your camping supplies, but for whatever reason, you've run into a situation where you're out of spells (or nearly so) and out of camping supplies and have characters who are dangerously low on health? Why shouldn't you be able to retreat to rest and heal up, and resupply your party? To my mind, there's nothing wrong from a role-playing perspective with turning back in a situation like that. It seems to me that if you create something to prevent abuse of running back to town for a quick rest, you run the risk of punishing the players who do it right and play within the spirit of the rules. But for yucks, here's one idea that might ... might ... work. Instead of having a hard time limit on completing the mission (let's say, clearing a dungeon and perhaps finding whatever you were sent to find), maybe have the amount of XP you earn tied to the amount of time it takes you to complete the mission, starting from the moment you start the mission (i.e. enter the dungeon the first time). There could be a base amount of XP that you earn no matter how much you abuse resting and so on. But there could also be bonuses for completing the mission in under X amount of time. Also, I'd be careful about which missions were treated this way. For example, the dungeon literally under Gilded Vale. Why shouldn't a arty climb out and rest in the inn rather than rest in the dungeon? We're talking about climbing out of glorified basement and walking over to a nearby inn here, not talking about climbing out of some deep dark cave dozens of miles in the middle of nowhere. And the Endless Paths should probably be treated much differently as well, because of its design. From what I've seen, the EP really isn't meant to be cleared all at once. I think that it's meant to be cleared over several sessions. Go in, clear a level or 2. Leave, go do other stuff. Gain a a level or 2. Come back do more of the EP. Rinse and repeat until the EP is done. Anyways, just a thought.... A. Thanks B. True, this is what less extreme difficulty settings are for. I do agree that said adra creature is a bit much for normal. It's also sad how petrification is pretty much instant win the situation - makes for a very non-epic battle. There are clearly some finer details in the balance of this game that should be worked out a bit. As far as not buying or using summoning items, well, where do you draw the line at that point? Not using weapons? Not using buff spells? Not using attack spells? When considering the balance design, one must consider all of the tools in the game that are available to the player. C. Here is where most people look at the situation incorrectly. It doesn't need to be an all or nothing thing, though it is no surprise that many would have this knee-jerk reaction. This is where true game design skill and talent can shine. The fact that limited camping supplies is effectively negated due to no downside of traveling time back to town to rest is not debatable. However, the solution to the problem is. Your idea of a slider-type reward based on how long it took is a solid foundation. However, experience is definitely not the way to go. People who are seeking challenge are also the ones calling out that exp gain is too fast and you can easily out level much of the game content. You'd end up with those who are really good at the game gaining exp even faster, thus out leveling the rest of the game even more-so. Though, a mix of special items (as long as they aren't too overpowereing), cool story stuff, perhaps even new story branches, unlocking new companions, and many other things that won't unbalance the game could be great. There are many other ways to add value to time as well, the sky is the limit - and it doesn't have to be extremely harsh, especially on lower difficulties, just present.

Perhaps not quite limitless, but a heck of a lot more than I have time to read through. I've been playing on Path of the Damned without min/maxed characters or even "ideal" party (not even using a fighter or cipher) members and it is actually quite easy for the most part. I actually make it a point not to travel back to town to rest up. I conserve fire power and fight smart. However, I know this is a difficulty of my own creation, not really part of the game. Which is a bit sad because it could be have been part of the design and truly be part of the game, not just some hole I filled in locally. By playing in this manner, I have seen for myself that it is quite possible on PotD, without min/maxed characters. So it is definitely not just a few min/maxers running around saying things are too easy. They really are too easy. In pretty much every fight that isn't trivial already, if I were to use all the summon items I have and unload spells like there's no tomorrow then the fight becomes trivial. Aside from it being silly, there's nothing to stop me from waltzing back to town for a nap and reload of camping supplies.

I agree that that particular dragon is a SERIOUS spike in difficulty. So much so that my first two playthroughs I used the "other" way to get around the situation, if ya know what I mean. Honestly though, that particular dragon almost felt so hard that it took too much of a cheesy approach to kill him, though I will concede that some people who may have an extremely good grasp of the game may be able to do it without cheese spamming certain spell scrolls. And yes, I found Thaos to be not terribly difficult. I beat him the first attempt in each of my 3 play throughs, the first play through, I hadn't even buffed my party with various long term pre-battle food and potions. I will say though that if one doesn't do nearly enough of the side quests and gets to Thaos too soon at too low a level, you may have problems dealing with him. And camping supplies would be more of a limit if one role-played the game more (in terms of managing one's camping supplies), rather than looking for every way to get around every rule and limit in the system. However, if people refuse to role play the soft limits and then whine about how there are no limits ... A) maybe the problem is on those players and not the game itself, and/or B) devs might come up with a much more punishing, unfun system that a lot more players would absolutely hate than those who claim that camping supplies aren't really a limit. I will say that it'd be nice if there were random encounters while traveling and there was a chance that resting in the wild could be interrupted by a random encounter, like in the old IE games. Having your rest interrupted was annoying, and yet at the same time an interesting diversion. You actually had to be careful where you rested, unlike in PoE where you can rest pretty much anywhere in the wild with no risk whatsoever of interruption. Actually, if the camping supply limit system were completed (as in, it is no longer trivial to side-step), it could easily be tuned per difficulty setting. Those seeking a challenge might actually get it. There are limitless complaints that hard isn't hard. Heaven forbid someone suggest adding difficulty that isn't just tossing in even more monsters per encounter or giving monsters more HP/damage/special powers/whatever. Respawning monsters is perhaps an ok middle ground. I'd actually like to see both implemented in different places. Given that monster exp caps after killing a certain number, as long as they aren't dropping too much loot on respawn then it shouldn't be an easily abused system. Again, tuned to appropriate difficult settings so there is no room to complain. "OMG hard is hard!" - would be a nice thing to hear, I think. Regarding random encounters, that is also extremely easy to side-step. Just reload the save if you weren't really ready for that random encounter and go again. Basically, it never happened. It's really not random if the player has near absolute control over it. As far as putting expectations on the player to "role play", or in other words, start creating their own rules that are more restrictive than the game rules. That's never a good solution for a digital game. It's nice to leave room for it, but it is never a good solution for game design to just say the players are the problem. Hard not being hard is a design issue.

The only real difficulty spike is a particular dragon. It's also true that there is an inverse difficulty ramp at the beginning of the game - which is rather odd. Thoas was a piece of cake - in fact, I was really expecting him to change into a second, more powerful, form or something after I wasted him the first time. This was with premade companions before any stat fixes were patched in. If the limit of camping supplies actually meant something, then the difficulty setting would immediately have more impact. But, since you can just pop back to at inn via a few load screens (travel time means nothing in this game), you never really need to worry about fighting smart, conserving fire power, or conserving resources. Ultimately, you don't ever need to worry about, or plan for, anything outside of a single encounter This is a major source of why a few more monsters don't really make much difference. It's as though there was intent to have a challenge of making it through (a dungeon, quest, or whatever unit you can think of) with only X amount of rests/resources, but was completely negated by traveling back and forth through the lands for nap having no consequence.

Pickpocketing has always been pretty lame. Mainly because it's so easy to just reload and try again. I'm fine without that being in the game. Similar thing with the whole random encounter when resting system that the older games had - if things go south, just reload.

Don't forget Chocolate Dragon: Summons a corn studded serpent that breaths toxic gas and blinds targets with its claws if they fail a reflex check.