Zekram Bogg

While that'd be cool and everything, I think that particular art is already used for a player portrait, and I think they'd want to both avoid taking PC portraits away from the player, and have art that is inconsistent between the games. That said, if there's a Barbarian CNPC getting added at some point, I don't think it's going to be in White March. They've not even hinted at a third CNPC being added, afaik. ...also, I find the exact class distribution to feel extremely forced, like there's some requirement that we need exactly one of each class and nothing else. I really wish they'd tried to avoid that, either by having more and more CNPC:s so it didn't come across as as obvious, or simply had different characters at different points of the same class, built in different ways. Or something. Yeah, can confirm that's Barb PC player portrait art being cannibalized, so I'm doubting that that particular character would show up as a CNPC in any future expansions. Yeah, it would be cool to have multiples of the same class as CNPCs with strong variations based on the character of who they are. I mean, you can spec one average fighter very differently from the next, so it's a system that would make sense, especially for expansions, where it has to be assumed that you'll be encountering these characters at higher levels with their initial level progressions at least somewhat "filled in" so their particular spec path is already pre-determined for them. Well either that, or going forward they're going to have to make a couple new classes in order to make the class tokenism work, since by the end of White March part 1, there will be a CNPC of every class except Barbarian by my count, and I think it's a safe assumption that White March Part 2 will come with a Barb.

I'm down with a modding sub-forum test, for what it's worth!

Wow, an animancer got a hold of this thread. But to the main point, and something of just another possible "user experience" feedback for Obs staff is my experience. I started playing PoE last weekend on normal and got through a huge chunk of the first "half" I'd say (basically everyhing outside of Defiance Bay that I could do - so Dyrwood and surrounding areas - was complete except for a lot of Od Nua exploration before I headed to Defiance Bay proper, which has been supremely easy since I'm now a bit over leveled for the zone). Then I saw stuff on the Triple Crown Solo achievement and started rolling Triple Crown characters (and dying horribly after getting through the tutorial dungeon zone in Valewood. It was the experience of playing on Triple Crown regs that really taught me how the mechanics of this game truly work. On normal I was able to ignore a TON of stuff and just move through everything given a little bit of Dark Souls style trial and error with reloading. It's not like there wasn't resistance (there were plenty of hard fights and party wipe losses as I figured out how to fight), but for instance, it wasn't until I HAD to know that you don't really get XP for kills on Triple Crown mode that I should be focusing more on turning in quests than killing wolves in Valewood and such in order to get up a couple levels in order to survive. Eventually, after about 4 attempts at a solo Triple Crown run that ended horribly quickly, I started going for just Triple Crown with an actual party (still a couple of attempts in though after misjudging the strength of those bears in Valewood). Frankly I'm finding that playing under these conditions is really the only way to play at this point. It's forced me to be far more tactical, and put a lot more thought into every encounter. I'm absolutely loving it. The only thing that really bothers me is the lack of spell cones and info. I mean, I get that Expert mode is there to turn off "helper" features, and I appreciate that for the dialogue trees and the removal of all the little indicators and the stash access restrictions but I didn't see the cones and AoE effect markations so much as a "helper" feature as absolutely critical to know how to spell cast properly in battle. Especially with the yellow "safe" zones of effect in PoE, and whether or not a spell even has them. There's really no way to know the proper AoE of a spell otherwise in Triple Crown other than using it a LOT and kind of getting a feel for it, and since Triple Crown emphasizes avoiding any and all non-critical fights you might encounter you're not going to getting a feel for it as often. This has led to Aloth burning Eder more than a couple of times now with Fans of Flame and almost causing me to wipe on a level that's far too preventable to be anything other than annoying. Frankly, I think that this one aspect should be altered a bit based on this experience. Basicially that on expert mode either this is the one helper feature not ticked off, OR there's a new set of art created for it or something. Like, instead of a visual of the EXACT AoE or Cone of a spell effect showing, there's still a visual indicator, but it's vaguer. Just the out line of the cone or something that shows it's width for the standard range, but terminates at half the distance of the cones range and isn't "filled in" to show red or yellow effects. For circular AoEs just a general circle outline at half the spell's effective range (again, without color) would still be very useful for spell placement. I mean, I get that part of the point of the mode is so you can't micromanage the placement of a spell to the point that you can fire with 100% surety of safety, and I can get behind that idea, but I'm finding that the way it currently is is a little too extreme - it's the only bit of extremeness of this mode I find not equally fulfilling, just annoying.

No, that's not stupid. There's even psychological theory to back it up in the form of Operant Conditioning. Specifically the idea of intermittant reinforcement. Basically, because you have no idea when the "reinforcement" of new information is going to come, you're more likely to want it and act on the behaviors that might generate the reinforcment to occur (in this case, checking these forums and other news sites) than if there were a regular schedule to follow or a thoroughly updated single source of info that published at exactly 2pm on Thursdays or something. Because then you could plan to show up at 2:01 on Thursdays to get your reinforcement and move on with your day. In this case you can't, so it kind of drives you a bit mad with desire. All this is basically the cause of psychological addictions (and is heavily used in MMOs and casinos [and well, to some degree or another, most video games]). It may be a lot of things, but it sure ain't stupid!

True. But you know what would be cool? There are three "wandering" companions in the game who are just sort of not specifically caring about where they currently are in the game when you run into them - Aloth, Grieving Mother, and Hiravias (I mean, they have stuff they want to do and all, but the place where you meet them isn't nearly as critical to their stories as far as I can tell unlike say Durance, who pretty much needs to be standing by that statue of Magran, or Eder who needs to be by the hanging tree). A cool little feature would be that these three characters are seeded to spawn in each other's spots differently every time you start the game. So if you start a new game you might find Hiravias in Gilded Vale getting harassed by townies, Aloth in Dyrwood Village, and Grieving mother out on the road in Stormwall Gorge, or Grieving mother in Gilded Vale getting harassed, Aloth in Dyrwood Village and Hiravias in Stormwall Gorge, or any of the combinations of these instances. Considering they're all to some degree or another, offensive casters, they kind of all fulfill a similar party role. And since the game keeps companion characters roughly near the player's level, it really doesn't matter (gameplay progression/balance wise) what order you run into them. I dunno, something like this could be a neat little mix-up thing for players playing the game again. Obviously not critical at all or anything, but a neat little touch.

Whoa there buddy! Hi. I'm not talking about modding this game for my first playthrough (which I'm about half-done with I'm guessing?). I'm talking about the future of the game over the long term. More specifically, for content. The old Infinity Engine games had TONS of user made content for others to enjoy, and this game seeks to emulate those games, so i figured that tradition would be continued. And it is, it just seems like it's tough in Unity 4 from what I gather. Which means it's going to take longer. Also, I wasn't demanding a modding tool or "complaining" about it. You're reading a lot into what was a simple question. Calm down. Is it wrong for me to assume that modders of a game will gather at the official forums for that game? Is it wrong to assume that answers to these basic questions can be answered here before I look more deeply into things on my own? As for "just do it". I will. Just trying to get a lay of the land first. (and seriously, you think 5 voices sets per sex split over 6 races is good? This game needs some stuff like voice packs ASAP)

That is a shame then. Not being an expert in Unity, does anyone know how difficult it is to port between 4 and 5? I noticed the file structure wasn't too complicated and seemed fairly mod friendly, but saw no official support. I guess this is more a tacit go-ahead on modding then?

So I just started playing PoE over the weekend (thanks for completely destroying my weekend Obsidian et al!) and for the most part, am absolutely loving it. GOOD JORB OBSIDIAN! I just had to come to the official forums to begin further discussions on how to be a hardcore PoE-boy, hence the standard boilerplate forum newbie tradition of asking very loud critical questions on features that forum vets have all already probably discussed ad infinitum. Since I'm new and don't want to waste anyone's time but just get a measure of the land, I'll limit this to 5 points (just like my post limit!) 1) First and foremost: where all the mods at? I've found a savegame editor, and a bunch of portrait packs (currently collecting and putting together an art-style/lore friendly collection myself) and some UI stuff. Is the game tough to mod? Are there plans for an eventual editor (found no info on this) for eventual endless player-made content? Also, voice packs - I have the audio equipment and access to varying levels of professional to semi-pro actor friends, but have only found a thread on replacing player character audio. Has anyone figured out how to create new audio categories so we can have more options rather than just 5 different male/female ones? This seems pretty critical considering the pretty low number of PC voices and long-term game modding down the road. 2) What's the deal with in active dungeon-camping? Obviously the game recognizes location states by type. It has to, because when you play in expert mode or just turn off the help feature on the universal stash, the game will differentiate between towns and "everywhere else", restricting stash access to towns only (which is a cool feature that I dig). And yet nothing on making camps in active dungeons five feet away from a bunch of angry cultists/spiderlings et cetera? I mean, this seems like a huge no brainer to me coming from table-top. At least as an option like the universal stash. Safe-Camping - On/Off. On and it works as it is in game. Off and the game makes a roll based off of two modified values - threat level and survival (a vastly underplayed skill as of yet). Threat level = Base value * current % of enemies in the location (interior locations only). Base value is set on expected player level of dungeon. If you have a level 10 dungeon and have cleared out no one you've got to beat a roll with a threat modifier of +1000 to camp in it unmolested, or basically, you WILL get attacked should you camp. If you're in a level 2 dungeon and have cleared half of it, you have to beat a of 15 + 50 to not get attacked with half your party still asleep (prone until a timer of 30-90 seconds finishes or taking damage), and 50+50 to not have your sleep period interrupted by encroaching enemies by your watchman (whomever has the highest HP when camping) so that while combat begins with everyone likely still fatigued, at least everyone is up and awake for it. Past that it's smooth sailing. The group that attacks you being culled from a "Active Patrol" list of dungeon general baddies (with multiple groups for more diverse dungeons). The player's roll is the PC Party's collective Survival Skill ranks + 1/2 Stealth Ranks (or Collective Stealth Ranks +1/2 Survival ranks, whichever is lowest) / by # of people in party * avg Player Character level. So, if collective Survival is 15 and 1/2 party stealth is 9 in a group of 6, you get a 4 multiplied by the Party leader's level (6) for a 1-100 roll with +36 modifier. Or you know . . . something similar to that. Not that I haven't been thinking about this for the last 4 character levels or anything . . . It's just, I cleared half of Raedric's keep camping next to the recently slain corpes of foes 10 feet away from their brethren and it started to bug even my munchin self. Please Obsidian! Take away this vile camping abuse temptation! 3) Fighter needs Feats badly! The fighter class in this game feels VERY D&D 3.5 to me, in both all of the good and bad ways. Primarily, by having a lot of highly utilitarian but emminently non-flashy abilities. A Huge chunk of them are passives or other abilities with very minimal art - like modal/temporary modifiers. Other folks get spells, auras, yells, chants, pets, et cetera. Fighters Get a knockdown and lots of stances and passives. It's all useful, but it's also all . . . undramatic. But the Fighter class in 3.5 had one thing going for it that I think alleviated that - a LOT - Tons-o-customization through bonus feats! Sure, fighters could be Captain Boring Broadsword compared to all the flash and panache of wizards and druids and Barbarians, but they were a very talented and specialized kind of boring! That extra oomph of variety of boring utility abilities made them the swiss army knife of classes. This game uses talents, but the concept is the same. Fighters could use a couple of bonus talent unlocks in their level progression to give them a bit more spice than the other classes here too. Not many, like, every 4th level (so, at 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 if and when we get to level 20). Or maybe eventually at 5,10,15 and 20 if 5 is too many. Again, if they're going to be a bit boring, they should at least be excellent at being boring. (or maybe just add lots of cool, flashy stance animations since this is a video game, but that costs a lot of time and money, so I get why that's probably not feasible I mean, More Critical Death animations please!!! Seriously, gibs are so 1990's Quake. We need more 1990's Fallout instead. We need a few beheadings, impalements, flying arms and legs. At least for Kith models. I get that this is probably annoying for all the differently shaped critters, but most of the the kith models seems to share the same skeletons. If it works for a human, it should work for an Orlan!). 4) Why can't I split up groups of stacked items? Oh, it's because I could find nowhere in the game except checking these very forums on how to do it? There's no option in the controls . . . nothing? Seriously, this bothered me for like, just until 5 minutes ago. This game could use some better player education on this. And a lot of little things, but that's the one that bothered me the most enough to remember it. 5) Where are my horrible choice trade-off traits? I thought this was an Obsidian game?! I was expecting all kinds of - "Hideous Visage. You were scarred as a youth in an awful manner and now it makes most fear you. Resolve checks for Diplomacy have +3 Resolve requirement, Intimidation, -3" or "Gangly. You're taller than most for your species, and while this causes others to look up to you (hah), it also mean you stick out like a sore thumb (-1 to all resolve check reqs with members of your species, x2 cost for Stealth Skill point progression and -5 Deflection)" and all that jazz. I miss traits. . . they added so much replayability spice. The spice must flow. But yeah, this game is awesome, please make more of it. I will be purchasing all of the things of it in all likelihood. And coming back here to chat with you all!

So, I'm 9 and what is this? By which I mean, does this voice pack replace VO files or actually allow for a custom VO slot on character creation/save file alteration?