sapientNode

RNG sucks I agree. As far as loot goes that is. IN my opinion everything should be hand placed based on the overall design of the world and campaign. However I think we would be hard pressed to find developers that can think in that scale or have the producers go ahead to limit items based a certain design. RNG has become the go to in order to please the people who just want stuff and will lose attention if stuff is not dropping. Some of us remember quite well finding a single +2 blade and it being like the most amazingly powerful item you find for 3/4 of the game. I think evolving weapons is a cool idea and I think a very robust crafting system could allow for non linear games and a feeling of finding or creating something very powerful.

does this patch have an eta for going live?

Um. I'm not having any issues at all playing the game. It works extremely well, with only a little slowdown loading as I get more save games (I probably keep way too many saves - last playthrough is over 600....), but it's not nearly as bad as other games I played in years past. I guess maybe I don't know what you mean about "barely functional"? This game works so much better on my antique system than I could ever have hoped for, and certainly than I expected when I bought it! The game is not even in no way barely functional. It has its issues. However it plays fine and I have so far not found anything that is game breaking or even bugged out. Played it twice now. Functionally the only thing I have issue with is this totally random and sporadic save/load issue. Sometimes my loads are very fast. Other times I get 3 or 4 hangs where it doesn't even seem to be using my cpu at all. My assumption is the 2.01 saves will still be fine in 2.02.

Really excited to see what the new optimizations for save and load are. The save/load issue is so sporadic and random

i don't even know what this post is saying

I just killed the Spider Queen on level 2 of Od Nua. But I did not get experience. My main character was unconscious. Does that matter. I noticed something similar on my last playthrough to when I did not read any exp gain in the logs when I killed certain enemies. Figured since its a giant spider that the exp gain would be somewhat significant but its was null. Can anyone explain this?

I am just reading this bug report. So is this bug still in the game after update 2.01? Just want to make sure I have some back ups in case it is.

I am bit preplexed right now with fighter versus any other tank to be honest. I am early game testing out a Paladin and she takes a lot more damage with higher reductions and as a moon godlike. The fighter can still go toe to toe in a doorway and stamina fight groups better than anyone I have seen. As for the nerf there is a nexus mod that rebalances it back: http://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/91/? Its something...

Yah iemod is definitely not the best alternative but its better for me. I am using it at 50% which has indeed made early game painful. Yet still on PoTD I feel very powerful against the phantoms and anything I have fought so far. As was mentioned a system like E6 would be fantastic. Keep whatever cap they want where the linear progression happens and then just offer feats and skills per each or every other level. Potentially an attribute point or 2. I think with the cap removed we perhaps would gain another 5 to 6 levels perhaps? If all side quest and character content was completed. 2 more attribute points and maybe a few more skills would not be too out of bounds. Of course I am not sure what the innate level to hit and defense formulas are for characters.

I dunno if I agree, but I can see where you're coming from. What might be cool is an E6-esque system, where levels were capped but experience was not, and could be spent to buy certain minor character bonuses after they reached max level. Reading through that system I would say that would be a totally awesome way to do these games now. At least some derivative of it since we are entering an age that the games are gaining so many variable and non linear paths that we need a new style of progression. Also designers are not at all spending the time they did back in the day hand placing things like that shiny +2 blade you would have through your entire game back in the day. Having the ability to continue to expand your character the way E6 does would be fantastic.

I agree with the separation. Divinity Original Sin handles this ridiculously well. I can literally go with my Rogue all alone and case and rob any place I want. Almost as if my other characters do not even know I am doing it. So if I am rping some good characters they do not get pissed but they do accept my large sums of gold in our adventures with little questions asked. A Rogue is not going to drag their party up stairs so then they can go case the joint and steal things. And a Paladin would not tolerate my little sneak thief robbing everyone blind either. Separation is definitely the solution. However as it is the engine will not allow it because of how it loads so we have to deal for now. I am glad they added the fact I can stealth without stealthing my entire party. A step in the right direction for sure.

I understand the issue with the problem of having the cap right at the end which is why the level cap removed would be perfect. The argument that having no cap will make it so we can get everything is incorrect. We are not going to be able to get everything. And we still have to plan to take certain things so our early game and mid game progress is what we want it to be. A cap makes more sense in the old BG and IWD days than it does in PoE. Why? Because as it stands they throw an enormous amount of weapons at you which are magical. You get so much gold by the end you are swimming in pools of it. And enemies are by far not at all difficult even on PoTD. I mean seriously you can use knockdown on a frakin Dragon... And the first time I fought Wyverns it was a yawn fest. The game has already ceded to a more mainstream approach with very little in the way of forcing actual tactical progression and a really thought out character path. So there is no reason to have a cap except just to have a cap. It would not affect casual gamers and it would give completionists further paths for development. And for me when I hit cap I lose all interest. Before cap I am thinking about what skills I can choose and what will be new level of power. After cap I feel like I am dragging myself to each encounter and wishing I could go back and not do certain quests. Luckily iemod does offer a solution with a increase in exp needed to level. However this just solves the problem of outleveling content and keeping things somewhat difficult. Especially on PoTD and solo plays. If they do not want to plat out progression so it has a balanced than removing the cap just reduces their work on that aspect of the game anyway.

I absolutely agree. The level cap considering the design makes no sense whatsoever. It already does not have a steep enough curve of difficulty to count the cap as a true barrier. I too lose interest when i reach the level cap because there is no more goals for my character progression which is very important to me playing this type of game. I despise having to think ahead and micro mange the content so I do to not reach cap. That ruins the fun of doing the content. It is literally as if I get punished for doing content wherein a completionist who goes through the game fully and with precision should see nice bonuses in both power and equipment. I have my game bumped to 50% increase with iemod this playthrough with PoTD. In the hopes I will not fall into the same problem like you did my first playthrough where I hit cap before completing Elms or Caed Nua. After which time I basically stopped playing. If I do reach cap again I will just shelf the game wait for the next expansion and wait for a true exp cap remover. I understand they design many games today for the casual player so with PoE they had to make it so you would near cap if you just steam rolled to the end and ignored side quests or character content. However it is also a lazy design because they could have plotted exp gain in other difficulty levels and any difficulty hard or above would have an increased cap or an entirely removed cap. I play an RPG to gain progress not to just click button and read a story (which was exceptionally well written) I need to the progress or else it becomes more like a passive experience like a movie and even the most amazing story does not keep me coming back to load the game up.

I still do not know how you just hit cap but perhaps they did adjust the exp table which means my newest 50% increase will be rough. As for what i find difficult. Well currently I am on PoTD and completed up to Caed Nua. I reloaded 3 times altogether in that time. I have only died fully twice. My comparison would be to this games quasi predecessors IWD and BG. Within those games at the highest level of difficulty I had to micro manage each and every single action and spell. In this one most of my fights have been AI driven with perhaps one knock out which is usually the squishy Rogue. I suppose the obvious issue is that we really do not have death. Enemies once someone is knocked out move on to another target and do not keep at it until the party member is dead. And we ultimately have 2 layers of hp with endurance which is almost like an ironskin spell or something of that nature because its DR for all intents and purposes. In addition many enemies that used to be almost unkillable without precise timed spells can be taken down. I speak of trolls which we run into right away and in previous games would have such extraordinary regen that only burn spells or something similar could actually put them down. Similarly some weapons would simply not land hits which does occur in PoE but rarely and it doesnt stop you from taking an enemy down unless you are solo I suppose. The only enemies who both have issues with weapon lands and swarm and port and whose mechanics feel like some old school fights are Shades and Shadows. Other than that enemies do not have a specific strategy to follow in order to take them down. I mean I pretty much swatted Wyverns when i first fought them and the boss Wyvern was a yawn fest. And then the Dragon I actually landed a knockdown and was like ummm WTF... What did my little human fighter do kick him in the toenail and make him trip. A dragon in an old school fight would damn near be impossible without the party using every single spell buff and strategy in their arsenal. And it was a stamina battle. So by the end it was 1/4 of health on the Dragon with just the 2 or 3 melee classes swinging away and hoping the Dragon would not land some insane smack down hit that would force a reload and a redo. Ultimately I started at normal bumped to hard and then used console to bump to PoTD then I restarted and did PoTD. Overall I am steam rolling enemies with mostly AI driven battles. Perhaps I am just really familiar now with these games and have skill in my strategy but it does feel easier than the games I compare it to from the bygone days. PoTD states and I paraphrase that I will have a soul crushing extraordinarily hard time of battles in it. So far I am up to Caed Nua and almost all fights have been AI driven and I am feeling like I have incredible gear on or I have been console buffed and I am only level 3.

I am incredibly confused how you just hit cap doing everything in Vanilla? I hit cap and did not even have 3/4 of Caed Nua underground done and I had a few Elms quests as well as a number of quests in Defiance that still were not done. I was quite a bit off from the burial place before I was capped. Are you talking pre expansion? Did they actually change exp gain in expansion? None of the reports I see or what I am seeing on PoTD point to any type of exp change. I am playing with the 50% iemod so I hopefully do not run into the same issue I did with my last playthrough.

I would like to pass as many checks as possible and experience as much as possible. What are the base requirements for all stats and skills for checks throughout the game? Including White March. If this has already been posted can someone shoot me a link please? thanks

So what I am getting from this thread is that the best time to do the content is either mid game for items or wait until the end and upscale it? If I wait until the end will I have enough enemies to fight to fulfill the evolving weapons? If I do White March mid game with 50% increase to exp will I be good to do the rest of the game and not feel like I am extremely powerful? I am playing PoTD right now. Which feels more like Path of the somewhat difficult. The way that the difficulty modifier explains it is that PoTD will be a soul crushing extreme challenge. Anyway so White March? when?

I do not necessarily believe this is the porblem for all of us. My load times just to get to the loading screen are absurd. I also just loaded a fresh game in the first area and it took nearly a minute to load the area. Between the 45 seconds or so to get to the load screen and then the minute to load the first area I am thinking there is something that is wrong than just loading of data. I do not have a super awesome computer but it loads other titles quite well. The loading issue is also sporadic as in about 1 out of 5 times it is fairly fast to load.

As the title states are there any solutions or workarounds for this problem? I just started a new game and loaded my first save which has only one companion and is in the start area with maybe 10 minutes elapsed and it took close to a minute just to load the actual save and another 45 seconds or so to load the load screen itself. What exactly is even being loaded in the load screen that I cant even get to that without it bogging down. Lots of apphang errors.

Doesn't the IEMod break with every new patch? I haven't experimented with it yet, but I thought I remember reading that. They do indeed have to update iemod with every patch. However the mod itself is fairly essential in my opinion. The experience nerf of 25/50 and square is literally exactly what is needed to not outlevel the content ridiculously fast. And iemod has a ton of other amazing features. As for experience I was not through half of beneath Caed Nua and only 3/4 of Twin Elms when I hit cap. Then I quit to wait for the expansion. I did not use the experience tweak with iemod that playthrough. I lose all interest once I hit a cap.

Hmmm... They had about 4 times the budget of Divinity Original Sin as well as Dragonfall. For a Kickstarter close to 5 million is quite a sufficient budget. Of course I know that loony cat card game hit 9 million I think their internal teams were not communicating or they just agreed early on they would put everything and the kitchen sink in and it would round out well. The story is still absolutely amazing and solid and the voice acting and atmosphere is excellent. Experience and Itemization is a significant problem though and was not plotted out to keep a balance of difficulty throughout the game.

You can change this either via the options or with autohotkey check out this mod where he did some really cool things with putting multi functions in one mouse button: http://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/89/? something like this you could tweak yourself too to get your keys back to what your used to.

Looking for opinions on what is the best nerf table to use for White March from iemod? I want to play as many side quests as possible but I do not want to level insanely fast and trivialize content. I am playing PoTD. My first playthrough I capped out without even doing all side quests in Twin Elms and then stopped playing. I dont want that to happen this time. I am thinking either 25% or 50% Will that allow me to get close to cap or make cap at or very near end game with the expansion content being completed and with the new level cap?

The issue with scaling and overall design today is that we no longer have game design with a focus on the interconnectivity but rather with pleasing everyone and making sure it has lots of stuff in it. Also games that even offer a hint of non linear progression have to retool their designs incredibly to make sure they think out as many possible scenarios to make sure the balance is correct. Unfortunately the answer to this today is auto scale or dump tons of stuff in game constantly which ends up trivializing everything. The age of the difficult challenging game has given way to the age of the game which is more a interactive movie and character equipment is often cosmetic not functional. However with this large of a budget they definitely could of had a more robust design with great attention to challenging progression for those who chose it.

I think the overall thing here is that there is already so much of so much so being able to add whatever enchant you want to gear wouldnt really do anything. If they revamped the rng uber drops and made fine supberb and other damage modifiers unique and something that stayed with you that would be fantastic. On top of that they added the evolving weapons which I like in theoryy and am about to fire up White March and see how they play out. Bottom line though too much returns a negative value after a certain threshold. So for chanting we would need reduced drops of uber gear to make it relavent. Instead they levae uber drop sin and have a semi functional crafting system so they both become trivial. As far as I can tell you could never look at enchanting or even equip the best weapon and still fly through enemies even on PoTD.