FacesOfMu

Kudos to you for this one, sl_andy! Tip of the hat to you.

I'd love to see a new version of this thread now that TWM is out. And a new one for expansion and major patch. Here's my two-cents: - More class reactivity, as many people have said. I have enjoyed the higher rate of class responses in TWM as well as the higher rate of class solutions to problems (the burning house, the injured wolf, and the frozen lake swim being excellent examples of this). More class solutions makes the game immersive and brings out the in-world meaning and uniqueness of our biggest game choice - that is, choosing how we want to play the game. - More UI improvements, such as easier to distinguish item qualities (fine, exceptional, suburb, other; currently they're all blue), highlighting of selected character, seeing what actions each party member is performing (less idlers in combat), move the spell bar inline with the spell-tier button (not flush to the left of the screen), see queued abilities on screen (ideally without selecting the character). - Give traps more usabilty such as more placable traps per mechanics skills, craft throwable bombs, craft "booby traps" (equipped on person to trigger on receiving crit), or be a required ingredient in enchanting along with scrolls. - More functionality and immersiveness of the stronghold (see pretty much every suggestion to improve it) - Improve Wizard spell casting mechanics - Include companion abilities in scripted events (more "who should you send?" type options to solve problems). - Include attitude options for declining certain quests (in addition to regular decline, have a benevolent option to decline when beingvasked to kill someone, or a cruel option to leave people in their misery, etc) - A better meal system, such as equipping meals to slots per character that buff them until fully consumed, and having this slot get taken up by Inn Room buffs. Currently I rarely use food except the high level stuff to win scripted events. Edit: -NEVER have enemies be just standing afield when you encounter them. Always give them apparent, rational activity or context to their being there and then. Even most NPCs should go by this rule, too! Game reviewers should give out awards just for this element! - More Game Designer backstory where possible, and in a way where we won't be forced to miss it because of combat or combat pausing. - More puzzles! - More great and mature storytelling! Examples so far: - all the pieces regarding parenting, children, and birth which are just not covered in games sadly. Notably plots like the Hollowborn, Sagani's background, Grieving Mother and the bell, and even that one curious quest on whether to give a child a sword. The biggest event of this game that I've wanted to tell others about was Grieving Mother's storyline. It was breathtaking! - kickstarter stories that showed interesting moments in everyday lives of a PoE world. The best ones were the least dramatic, Mary Sue, and proud. - ethical issues such as what went on at the sanitarium, what good and bad animancy does, rights to power (Defiance Bay's multiple conflicts), the meaning of respect for culture (Twin Elms and Ruins, the cross-boarder looters, and the war paint), the possible outcomes of the last level of the Endless Paths, the ruins in the gorge (the sword and the soul), and the twin elms vision quests (the vision content plus the multiple pathways). - some quests that could have been written better were the merchant by the bridge, most of Twin Elms dungeons (I felt like a slaughterer by the time I was done there), the conclusion of Dyrford village (no-one cared?), the boy in the water in Defiance Bay, and the conclusion to Heritage Hill.

So recently my level 12 Wizard visited Cragholdt for some good arcane hijinks. A glorious reward was a spellbook containing next tier spells. How delighted was I to finally have the advantage of transcribing advanced spells to my grimoire, only to find that my wiz mofo can't cast them until level 13! I felt cheated once again that having 19 intellect or more, and level 12 experience in the arcane (having bested some pretty reputable wizard foes, if you know what I mean), and I couldn't pew pew one single new spell from that book until a few more hours of gameplay had passed. This grimoire thing was once again reduced to practical worth equal to, or lesser than, priest and druid spells. And the transcribing process has the gall to charge me pands for this displeasure? (not that we're short on pands at this level) It's enough to make a mage want to throw the burdensome thing away and join the more useful spellcaster classes...

This is a good point to be raised of most wikis and forums. Is there a way for all posts prior to an update to be tagged as effective from x.xx version and before? It'd be simple to make forum posts get footnoted with the current game release version they are created in (meaning advanced searches could have a version range in addition to, or beside, the date range selector), but how do good wikis show for which version the info applies? Surely there'd be some system where pages would also get tagged with the effective game version, and any page that is one version before the current could be automatically flagged as *potentially out of date* with the appropriate warning on the page. Then readers and wiki hawks alike could quickly validate the content.

OP, you may need to modify your thread title to make this more pointedly about Scripted events and the might stat. There's a lot of great theoory crafting on the attributes and it seems most replies so far are in good consensus that the diversity of derived stats is great for almost every class. It does seem apparent that the wiki emphasises physical and spiritual strength, whereas scripted events emphasise physical strength alone.

Thanks for the contextual information you added! Just so I'm reading you right: BG = Baldur's Gate and IE = ?? I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who didn't both with grimoire swapping. You might have seen my response in the other thread where I said I believe that the spells need some rebalancing. That's probably a difficult thing to do given how attractive tier 1 and 2 spells are to use given they become per-encounter. I'm a firm believer that skills shouldn't become obsolete by later skills, and from this game I've also learned the reverse is true, that earlier skills shouldn't make later skills irrelevant (unless that is a specific character build strategy that the player has chosen at the sacrifice of other benefits! ). I'd like to see all the skills developed in a way where they can all be useful, and on the whole the design team has done a great job with this. It's just that Tier 1 and 2 thing from level 10 that throws it all out of whack. Also, of diversity, I'd say the Priest wins that hands down. The Priest is the only class that handles a decent number of damagers (single, AOE, DOT, and trap), CCs (smackdowns and Halt), PLUS foe debuffs PLUS heals PLUS protection, prevention, and cures. Druid has a great variety of damage types and ranges, some heals, a handful of protections, another handful of slows, and that's about it. Wizard has a wide array of damagers, a wide array of self buffs, some nice CCs, and that's about it. The Wizard could have 100 spells available, but as far as I'm concerned I pick out a few good ones to my style and repeatedly read about this "grimoire swapping" business on the load screens.

I take it you haven't had much need to switch grimoires, either? For the Druid and Priest spells I am pretty glad I don't have to prepare them in advance. And that's good considering most of the valuable protective Priest spells are very specific to enemies, and I often don't realise how valuable some of their spells are until I am looking to counter something an enemy has done. If I had to prepare Druid spells, I think I'd do the same as my Wizard and just get some great favourites and never bother changing for the rest. I'm still mighty glad I don't have to prepare them and really enjoy checking the AOE ranges to find the one that I want.

I hear you saying that it should not be possible to spam one spell that is so powerful that you don't need any others. I completely agree with that, and I think there's some serious balancing issues in the current tier system for all 3 of the major casters. As it is, I am already overusing the Priest's Iconic Projection to get through almost every mob at the moment (level 2, straight line, wide ally-aoe heal and foe-aoe dmg). And remember, the designers have already implemented spells-per-encounter for Tiers 1 and 2! This already means being able to cast the same spell 6 times in a row (Iconic Projection, Slicken, Dancing Bolts, etc) to great effect. Whether it's 6 casts per encounter, 3 spell casts per rest, or unlimited casts, if there are any "clear the board" type spells that can be used 3-6 times to win most fights, then the skills need to be re-balanced. Frankly one of the things I love about PoE's combat system is the dual-ring, friendly-fire targeting system. Having to pick the right spell based on area size, friendly fire size, cast time and cast range is a wonderful method of getting players to really think about all the possibilities, making predictions, and optimising the results. Targeting and spell effect sizes really gets my mind working on joyful, intriguing strategy! So if the skills were set right so that there was no one "golden bullet spell" to keep casting, then my suggestion boils down to challenging why the game is the way it is currently, and seeing how it can be better. If the skills get their due balance, then we still have two issues: Why do Wizards restore spells at rest when they are reading from books? And why do they get 4 per level, and not more and not less? The first question is not just about how much they can cast in combat, but it's about the lore of the game, too. The second question is about questioning arbitrary numbers that are in very stark contrast to what's available for the other two major casters. You're right that currently you need to choose your spells and do your best to predict what will be wanted between now and the next rest. In a system where you may be able to fit fewer "powerful" spells in one book, or fit lots of low level spells around one big one, or spread them out across several books, you'd still need to make these discerning choices. Page capacity on grimoires would free the Wizard from the irrelevant limitation of casts-per-day, while still not having a golden bullet for every occassion, and not having one grimoire that fits all the best spells.

TL;DR at the end of the post Question 1 A reasonable question I asked while playing my Wizard main was "Why do I have access to just 4 spells per level, when Priests and Druids get 9-7?". No doubt many players ask this, and probably answer by saying "Wizards get more spells to choose from, so it balances that greater variety by having fewer available at one time". It's true, I did a count and found that Wizards have 67 spells available to them while Priests and Druids have 45 each. Supposedly, if you want as many spells as a Priest or Druid during a fight, you'll manage more than one grimoire and swap them in combat. Grimoires will also contain no more than four spells per level. By level 12 you'll have access to 24 spells per book, compared to the 45 constantly available spells for the other two casters (you would need 4 grimoires to make all spells at all levels accessible, as levels 1 and 2 have 14 spells each). I never felt the need for more than one grimoire in the entirety of the game. I chose the four best spells per level and did pretty well with my selection. Maybe I didn't feel the need for another grimoire when I had Aloth in my party, but Aloth's grimoire always mirrored my own 75% or more. Certainly there were times I coulda used a spell or two from another book, but weighing up the benefits of acting now vs delay while swapping and then swapping back to my best spells meant I just didn't bother with another book. The sad thing is that combat with magic-users became much more entertaining from level 10 onwards. Getting an entire level of spells per-encounter rather than per-rest made me stop holding on to spell uses "just in case" I want them in the next 2-3 combats before I rested. Spells became much more available and dispensable, much like the Cipher's focus abilities that continuously renew. Question 2 This lead me to my next question about grimoires: "Why do I have limited uses per rest?". In the old DnD paradigm, cast spells were immediately forgotten until resting unless more of that spell was prepared. At rest, the Wizard would re-memorise the spells from their spellbook. Clearly level 10+ Wizards don't have any problem remembering the first two tiers of spells. So if Wizards are carrying their grimoires into battle and casting them from the book, what is the uses-per-rest limitation for them? Thinking about these mechanics made me want to see the Wizard spell system get an overhaul to help differentiate them from their Druid and Priest kin. I wanted to see them as these accumulators of vast arcane knowledge, with extraordinarily powerful or useful spells available to them, and seemingly unlimited energy at their finger tips - so long as it was in fact at their fingertips! Revamp? So I came up with the idea of getting rid of the "four spells per level" number and seeing grimoires as magical devices that are crafted using arcane methods and ingredients to be able to store multiple pages of magical scrolls together. For whatever reason, in the POE world magical scrolls normally get destroyed or consumed when they are cast. However, a grimoire uses its special casing to be able to keep different scrolls bound close together without magically reacting to each other, and also prevent them from being consumed when being cast. A Wizard therefore is a learned individual, capable of reading and understanding spells, and keep them together in his or her book for very easy access in times of need. The combat difference between these grimoires and the current paradigm is that a grimoire is built to only hold so many magical pages together. Spells are kept in the grimoire for combat reference, but the more complex or powerful the spell is (i.e., the more change in the world that the spell creates), the more pages that spell will take up in the grimoire. What you'd have is a numeric-volume system much like the enchanting system whereby a grimoire of certain quality can fit combinations of different spells up to the page limit for that book. Example Let's say a starting Wizard has a starting grimoire that fits 6 pages, and these are the page counts for the following spells (all these numbers are all just figurative placeholders): 1 - Arkemyr's Dazzling Lights 4 - Chill Fog 1 - Conelhaut's Parasitic Staff 1 - Eldritch Aim 4 - Fan of Flames 3 - Ghost Blades 2 - Jolting Touch 1 - Kalakoth's Sunless Grasp 3 - Minoletta's Minor Missiles This book can take any number of these spells up to 6 pages. To get more spells will require a better made book, or keeping another grimoire or two at hand with a different configuration. Each higher spell Tier requires 1-2 more pages per spell than the last tier. Also, as the Wizard levels up, they no longer need so many notes for lower level spells, and lose a page per spell per tier in a tiered structure from about level 8 or 10. So at level 8 all Level 1 spells need 1 less page. At level 9 all Level 1 and Level 2 spells lose a page. At level 10 all Level 1, 2, and 3 lose a page, etc etc. This means by Level 10 a few Level 1 spells are fully known and don't take up space in this Wizard's spellbook (i.e., they know it well enough they no longer need to refer to notes), and by Level 12, all Level 1 spells and some Level 2 spells are fully known etc, etc. . What's the Benefit? What helps balance this page count mechanic is that Wizards no longer need to rest to restore spell uses. In fact, Wizards can cast these spells as many times as they want in combat. There is no per-rest or per-encounter counter for the spell levels. HOWEVER As soon as a Wizard repeats a casting (the second, third, fourth time they cast any spell), they get the attention of foes and need to prepare to defend themselves. After all, the Wizard throwing all fireballs is guaranteed to get the ire of all enemies! This means that a Wizard should diversify in their spell rotation or have defensive spells to deal with the consequences of drawing attention to themselves. (Ideally, repeat castings cause the Wizard to glow brighter and brighter. Enemy AI would be designed that they aren't likely to keep casting the same spell unless necessary, but they will still start glowing like a beacon to everyone). Endless casts, but "repeat casting" aggro So a Wizard could cast missile, chill fog, fleet feet, [missile], chill fog, fleet feet, [missile], chill fog, jolting touch, jolting touch, jolting touch, [jolting touch], missile, and the aggro would only be gained on the second and third cast of missile, and the fourth cast of jolting touch, and the fifth cast of whatever, presuming the Wizard has lived that long (an aggro on the second cast of a spell, then when any spell has been cast 3 times, then when any spell has been cast 4 times, etc). Ultimately, as the Wizard accumulates more arcane knowledge and spells, they are more likely going to carry multiple grimoires and swap them in combat to reach the spells they need. They can also find grimoires of better quality to take extra pages. After all, that one extra page capacity might be all the difference between needing to swap books or having everything desirable fit in the one book. Boss Wizards are also going to carry their powerful big spells (that you'll learn from them) in one book, and will also do grimoire swapping to get to their lower level spells. This makes for a great lamplighting in combat to say that a big spell may be coming up. TL;DR Wizards get less spells available to them in combat than Priests and Druids, and getting more means swapping books in and out. Despite having more spells in the game, Wizards are hadicapped in combat compared to other spell casters. In DnD Wizards forgot spells after casting and would rest to re-memorise them. This isn't DnD, and PoE Wizards cast from books, not memory. Spells-per-level-per-rest doesn't make sense for PoE. Spell-casting gets most fun at level 10/12 when spells become less of a commodity (per-encounter spells for tier 1/2 rather than per-rest) Suggestion to make Wizards match game lore, have more their own style rather than same spells-per-rest as Priest/Druid. Copy the Weapon Enchanting system and give every grimoire a number of pages it can hold, and every spell the number of pages it will take up in the grimoire. Stronger spells and higher tier spells require more pages. Higher level Wizards need less and less pages for low tier spells the higher they level. Wizards can cast spells as much as they want. There are no per-encounter or per-rest uses for spells. The first time a spell is cast for the second time in combat, the Wizard gains aggro from all the enemies. The first time a spell is cast for the third time in combat, the same thing happens, and so on. It's not per spell, just once at the second repeat, once at the third repeat, etc. This system means that Wizards: look for better grimoires that hold more pages (spells, or spell combinations). need to think about their strategy of how to fit the best spells in each book are more likely to carry and use secondary or tertiary grimoires can cast as much as they want and no longer need to withhold spell uses for potential future battles that may never need them need to rotate their spells and use a diverse mix OR have defensive spells to deal with aggro when it happens. bosses will swap grimoires in battle and keep the most powerful spells in the best grimoires.

Mistaken double-post! See the correct one here: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/81222-wizard-grimoires-why/

Thanks for replying Aarik D. Files here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x9wb05rpfie6ddy/Saved%20files%20before%20and%20after%20Party%20Change%20bug%20FacesOfMu%202015-08-22.zip?dl=0 Version 1.06.0617 - steam Thanks for looking in to this. I hope you find a solution for me before White March!

The travel time to and from the stronghold it pretty nasty. I expect in one of the future expansions there'll be some sort of in-game mechanic made to alleviate this. I posted an idea here on the forums on give the Stronghold more attractiveness to people wanting to upgrade their equipment but not remembering where to go: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/81001-stronghold-upgrade-suggestion-brokers/

Sorry to rez an old thread. I've just had this bug happen to me. I had returned to the stronghold and dismissed my entire party of Lvl 12s (including Pellegina) and invited 4 members who were under 12 (Sagani, and 3 customs). I went to the lodge and claimed two bounties, then went to the chest in the hall and moved everything to my stash. I've gone out of the hall, levelled up on of my characters (Rogue), gone to the lodge to switch everyone back, and everyone leaves but the Rogue, and no-one joins. Notably, in the party selection window, Pellegina shows as Level 7 when she is actually Level 12. Moving between instances doesn't bring them back. Tried restarting POE and loading from a save before the fault, no fix. I did something at one point that got them all to join (I think after POE restart?), but Pellegina was Level 1 and lost all her items. On this occassion I also went to assign someone to a major adventure, and all my characters were selectable options for the quest in one line across the screen (even those in my current party). Haven't tried not adding her as I'd prefer this fixed rather than worked around, and peeps have said consistently here that the problem tends to stick with one character.

One of the sad things about huge playable worlds such as in PoE is coming across a new store and seeing all the neat unique gear and thinking "well, when I get more pands, I'll come back and upgrade my gear". The problem isn't not having enough money, but not remembering all the stores and what gear they had that you want to go back for. Most stores I'll have this wistful thought for (after I've spent thousands already), but then never remember which store to visit or why I wanted to go back. Introducing the idea of the Broker. The Broker is an upgrade on each store at the stronghold. They are an NPC that waits for you in the shop for you to tell them what you want to buy. Whenever you come across a new store in the PoE world, your Brokers reecord all of the items available for you. For weapons, armour, and accessories, it's only the items above a certain grade (let's say Fine and above). When you visit each Broker in your Stronghold, they look like a shop and list all the items they've remembered in a list. However, when you purchase the item, you can select the timeframe in which the item will be delivered to your Stronghold treasury. The further the store from the stronghold, the higher the cost over the in-store purchase value. The faster the delivery, the higher the extra pands you must pay for the Broker to order it and have it delivered for you. As some stores may sell the same item but at a different price based on your reputation, you may be able to select which store to order from. In some cases, it may be cheaper or quicker depending on how far the stores are that you have the best reputation with. Upgrading each store with a Broker means you won't have to keep a hand written list of where all the valuable items can be bought or keep minimising the game to refer to the wiki for locations. The Broker would mean that finding a new store will still cause you to lay out cash to upgrade your gear when you find it, but after you leave that store you can trust you won't leave behind great gear that you'll soon forget at the next intriguing plot point or moment of tension in the gameplay.

Thanks, Celliot. Is there the possibility of changing the content of the loading screen to make the wait less noticeable?

I find the chanter a bit of a dull class to play. I have Kana at level 6 and he has four invocations to use. Only recently did I feel a third phrase in his cycle was warranted. In play they're not much more functional than a summoned critter with an aura.

I really love the developer commentary! It's nice to appreciate the thought, time, blood-sweat-and-tears that went into each location. I kinda wish there was more of it in other screens, too, like unique item tooltips, each new level of each class, first time a completed quest is selected in the journal, etc. Do the developer comments cut out before finishing for anyone else?

Add Dragon Age 3: a great place for advancing the plot, interacting with companions in meaningful dialogues, furthering quests, and brandishing trophies.Although I'm only halfway through construction, the stronghold feels like a minigame in a holiday house. It's very static, unimmersive, and could almost be completely avoided. I'd like to see Caed Nua better reflect my character's relationship with Dyrwood. I would like to feel like there's a good chance something new could happen for visiting. I'd like to see the land and spaces come alive with my growing influence. And I'd like my visit there to give me good reason to go back out into the world rather than just as a stop-over.

I would love an autopause event for whenever an ally has no action queued (EXCEPT when their action is cancelled by the player). There are plenty of times I expect my party to be rushing in to action to find most have stopped in their tracks for some unseeable reason. In fact, this usually happens after my fighter uses Constant Recovery and autopause on skill completion activates. Besides that anomaly, I'd still like to get a pause if one of my party is looking for something to do (maybe not an issue with the new AI changes coming up!)

Having reached Defiance Bay this week for the first time, the load screens have become very noticeable. I wouldn't be too concerned about them if there was much more interesting content presented each time. I'd prefer the screen to also show a random playable character's sheet with mouseover details enabled. Using that loading screen time to get a better understanding of my party and have details sink in over the adventure would be great way to immerse ourselves in the variables that matter. Also, showing the detail sheet of any random skill or talent currently accessible (even those not taken at level-up) would be another way to get to know the game and inspire good theory crafting on skills we'd normally overlook. Finally, any random entry from the ingame lore book/dictionary would be nice. Much better than the <20 or so info cards we cycle through currently. Without interesting and distracting content in those loading screens, travel and adventure becomes quite odious.