wanderon

Load and save times are pretty long for me but I'm guessing only 4G of RAM has a lot to do with that - I'm probably lucky I can play at all...

MIne's due tomorrow also (regular box edition

some abilities are "passive" (always on during combat) and these do not show above your portraits (since you do not have to turn them on) altho you can confirm you have them on your character page

While it is possible to use BG or IWD portraits that have been sized to fit and added to your game I have not seen any official POE portraits that were used in previous games??

Not according to the test noted in the OP - are you disagreeing with those results? If so by what evidence?

Two days since I got notification my regulation box is on the way but so far all tracking shows is that a shipping label was created... guess I won't start counting the minutes yet...

I have only worked into chap 2 (with numerous characters) and have never noticed any "missing portraits" so I'm guessing I was not expecting to see them in the first place (or I am at least OK with them not being there) I would like to see more PC portrait choices especially for the new races - if I get bored with the human, elf, dwarf etc I can always add IWD portraits but I doubt I'll find any Orlan or Godlike on the net.

Just got notification my regular boxed edition has shipped as well - perhaps the wait is almost over!

Agree 100%. If I make the effort to get back to the Stronghold to defend it, I oughta get to keep all the loot from the enemies my party kills. Also agree about how it's bogus to not get to strip any prisoners and keep their stuff. Those prisoners should be going into their cells with little more than an orange jumpsuit .... or the fantasy RPG equivalent (simple clothes?). Frankly, it's why I don't take prisoners. Also note that you have no choice but to take over the strong hold and repair the Eastern Barbican if you want to get to the areas to the east of Caed Nua. Another thing that annoys me is that I have spent all this gold repairing the castle, but it seems that enemies are breaching its defenses constantly! Why can't there be another area just outside of Caed Nua where you get to fight the attackers rather than having them miraculously always getting inside its defenses as if I, the Lord of Caed Nua, invited them in for a party and an obligatory sword fight. I haven't done much with the Stronghold yet but doesn't the success or failure of the enemies of the stronghold depend on how you upgrade it? In other words some upgrades increase security some don't?

Nostalgia may bring a few folks in the door to see the show but the game will stand or not on it's own merits. As for companies moving away from this type of game during the interim between the IE games and today I'm pretty sure that everyone getting on the console wagon as the latest new thing and things that needed to be cut from the original RTwP party based game style to accomplish that is why those games today have so little in common with either the IE games or PoE. I'm pleased with PoE and suspect it will get better as it progresses and that the patches will eventually slow down so I can get past chapter 2 before deleting old saves and restarting after patching.

Yeah Eder is currently doing an opening salvo with a fine Disappointer in my current game

Or a life ender... for your foes

Never mind... I see now it removes damaging 1 when I add fine...

So if I add the Fine enchant to Oidhreacht (which has damaging 1 and draining) then the +4 accuracy will work but the 15% damaging will not stack with the damagings 15% damage? (It will allow me to do so apparently)

Ok if you have damaging X on a weapon and then add Fine do the damage boosts stack or only the highest come through?

In other words you have no arguments left. Kthxbai. Again I feel the need to point out that YOU don't search for secrets, the characters do that as long you put them in scouting mode. If pushing one button to find all secrets seems interesting, challenging, or in any other way a meaningful gameplay mechanic for you, then I really don't know what to say. Might as well have an "efficient combat mode" button that you have to remember to push before every fight or all your stats get cut in half. Super boring checklist bull**** is all it is. We're not talking about the kind of secret searching you have in games like Legend of Grimrock where YOU actually have to find the secret switches in the wall and click on them. In such scenarios the slowdown comes naturally because YOU are making an effort to look for stuff. To enforce a slowdown ON THE PLAYER (because the slowdown is 100% irrelevant to the characters) is basically cargo cult game design that entirely misses the point. You must have a different game than I do - putting my characters in scouting mode just makes them get quiet and hunch down - if I want to find anything that they are not standing on top of I have to move them - I have to choose where to move them and which ones to move - or not move - I have to direct every single phase of moving them - on the other hand that's exactly what I want to do and I want to do it SLOWLY just like I would if it was me walking around in some new world trying to stay alive and find cool stuff and dangerous traps - so the way this game allows me to do that is just awesome. You on the other seem to want to have your cake and eat it too - good luck with that.

There is a note section in the journal where you could write the name of the area or even make seperate notes for each area - the only downside is you can only edit by backspacing from the end - I'm hoping they fix that part

If you could use both priests and druids it would probably work ok but even 6 priests is likely to be doable.

Then I'm sure you also wait the appropriate amount of real hours when traveling on the map, right? I mean it's just be horrible ROLEPLAYING to move from Defiance Bay to Gilded Vale in 5 seconds, RIGHT? What kind of supercharged magical being can do that? If you want to waste your time then guess what - you can spend as many real hours walking around in every room "looking for secrets" as you want. That's no reason to impose idiotic wastes of time on everyone else. Obviously the devs disagree

But hard is not the "hardest" difficulty - for that they gave you PoTD which even without playing it I would wager is a lot of notches from easy or normal.

The fact scouting mode makes you slower influences none of that in any way, you'd still send them to check the exact same places. I have no idea why you think the char must move slowly to detect stuff. There are no periodic (per round or whatever it was) checks like in D&D games; Stuff gets spotted when nearby instantly in PoE. All the slowness does is, amazingly enough, slow it down for you. So that adds what to the experience exactly? The fact that scouting mode makes you slower is exactly why it makes perfect sense that it effects your ability to find things because you should not be able to run across an area and still carefully look for traps and hidden items that's why it's good roleplaying - because it's about having your character act and fit into the world like a common member of the games races not some supercharged magical being who can sprint across the room detecting traps and other carefully hidden items as he flys by. It's about immersion and being a part of the setting not just figuring out the games mechanics to hurry up and get to the next encounter so you can finish the damn game and move on.

YOU don't have to pay attention to a goddamn thing, the CHARACTERS do the spotting. all YOU do is press the "find all secrets kthx" button, which has no consequences whatsoever for the CHARACTERS when they're just randomly traipsing around town, it only wastes YOUR time. If you want an option for idiotic time wastes, go right ahead and make a mod that makes the character move 99.9% slower when in scouting mode for all I care. While you're at it wait 12 real hours when characters travel 12 hours on the map, such immerse/rp/MeaninglessBuzzWords wow. Actually this happens to be one of those games where your characters do nothing without your input so I actually have to pay enough attention to first send them looking in likely places for clues and treasures and traps and to turn on stealth when I do so in order to make them move slowly enough so that they don't miss anything - you can call it button mashing or time waste if you wish - I prefer to call it roleplaying and gaming and as it turns out it's not me who needs to make a mod to accomplish MY goals in this endeavor as the game works just fine as it is for this sort of thing - thanks Obsidian - good job!

Having the roleplaying option is fine. The implementation is highly questionable though, IMO. Wouldn't it be more logical (in game terms) and more roleplay-friendly if something like Perception governed your chance to find hidden objects? And wouldn't it be more believable roleplay if going slower just increased your chances of finding hidden objects, but moving at regular speed didn't actually preclude you from finding them? And perhaps one of the skills gives you a boost to your chances. To me that makes more sense than having it rely solely on Mechanics and stealth. Whatever, as noted, if you're a player that wants to find everything (or most things), you'll just be in Stealth mode all the time anyway and this game mechanics adjustment will be meaningless. It's not meaningless it just doesn't apply to those who aren't playing in a such a manner that it comes into play. It still works for those who are not interested enough in what they find or don't find to stay in stealth in areas where something of use (or danger) may be hidden or those with a mechanic skill so high that they will find most things of significance anyway (and that suits them). It doesn't apply to me as I stealth almost constantly in any new area but I appreciate the fact that they took the time to implement it and give an option to those that will use it.

That's an average gamer, when you say "old" I expect 60+. Hey who you calling old? Says the 66 year old...

So I guess that's a no....