wanderon

I did a little testing with it and it does appear to "spread" those projectiles as well - two lions were coming at me with some space in between them and I targeted the one on the left and hit and damaged both. It does not seem to indicate a "score" for all 8 projectiles every time it fires tho and as you say I have not seen damage over 10 from a single bullet with the limited amount of testing I did.

Looking at Leadsplitter - description says 8 projectiles does this mean the damage range shown (10-15) is for EACH projectile? You also have 2 DT bypasses listed - rending for 5DT bypass and regular DT reduction of 4 bypass - do these stack to 9? Also what exactly does Target plus length 14.2 meters mean for AoE - does the shot do damage within the length as it moves toward the target? Additional comments on pros and cons of this weapon welcome as well...

The primary difference between the difficulties is how many opponents you face - their stats are supposed to be the same, so I would expect the AI to behave identically on the different difficulties too, sadly. The Path of the Damned is supposed to be the only difficulty where the enemies gets an actual boost, as well as throwing the highest amount of opponents against you. I would be incredibly surprised if the AI used more skills at this level, too. Wont classes like the Ranger be terribly under powered on high difficulties? Depends on how the classes are balanced in the final game - I'm pretty sure the current BB is not the final edition of the ranger altho it does play better than previous ones IMO. Playstyle and party composition will also have a lot to do with how things shake out in the final game as well.

To my knowledge, in all IE games, and even including the NWN games, Insane/Hardcore difficulty increased the damage output of enemies by 100%, to 200% (I played Baldur's Gate 1 and IWD2 last year on Insane ). It did not affect anything else: HD/level, XP reward, saving throws, abilities, everything stayed the same. The way difficulty is handled in PoE, i.e. changing the enemy composition, is already a lot more effort than a simple multiplier to damage. Damage boosting produces very uneven results, since not all enemies rely on big damage to defeat you. This is my reward for playing on higher difficulty in PoE, a game that demands more attention. I like it. True for all except IWD 1 and it's expansions where hard difficulty and insane difficulty both increased experience over normal. IIRC hard was 1.5x and insane was double - pretty sure this included only monster exp not quest exp.

So for two weapon vs one weapon you get one attack each with two weapons in a similar time span as one attack from a one hand weapon (assuming they are comparable speed)? So dagger and stilletto would attack once each as quickly as a single dagger? Or would it perhaps be as quickly as a single long sword instead?

How do the current weapon styles work? One handed melee weapon vs two handed weapon vs two weapon styles vs one hand + shield? There is a listing of weapons and how they work in the official wiki but no information about one handed vs two weapon style. I gather the main difference between one handed vs two handed is speed and recovery but I have no idea how two weapon styles work.

I don't have much of an issue with casters running out of spells before the other party members are ready to rest but my spell casters use regular attacks as much or sometimes more than spells in fights that are not going south on me. Most are ranged attackers but I occasionally use BB Priest in melee usually with a reach weapon from behind the front line - I play on Normal tho so that may well enter into this. Regarding camping I have not had an issue with that in the beta but it will be interesting to see if there are an unlimited number of camping kits available in the full game and how far one must travel to get some - especially in the massive dungeon. I have found it very useful that the rest bonus from inns lasts until your rest again it will be interesting to see whether or not the gold supply is such that one can almost always afford them when available.

Frankly I don't find it any more immersion breaking to be able to ignore a character that is close to getting knocked out knowing he will rise again than I do to be able to tell at a glance in the heat of battle exactly how close any character is to getting knocked out thanks to those handy dandy markers along side of their portraits - after all wouldn't it be even more immersive if none of those mothers' little helper doodads were available in battle? I would also disagree that losing a character to a knock out is never a penalty in itself altho I rarely use any potions etc in the Beta so my options to "heal them" are very limited anyway meaning I often have no choice but to let them fall. (and I am not a reloader) I am also somewhat confused about why people say there are no consequences for being knocked out - now to be sure I am not a number cruncher nor do I pay much attention to exactly why/how the mechanics of the game work as they do but what exactly causes my characters to become more and more drained of health and endurance as we venture from battle to battle until there is no choice left but to rest? It certainly seems to me that the ones who fall more often seem to be in the worst shape?

It's only been 10 days since the last update...

So what's the purpose of this idea for a new mechanic? More realism? More difficulty across all difficulty levels? Masochism? Bored on a Sunday afternoon?

I have not had much trouble with the Beatles except for that whole Paul is dead thing... Seriously tho I have not had much trouble with them in this build on normal - the oil slick is pretty much a win button for any fight which I'm sure will be nerfed at some point (next build perhaps) but even without it I've managed the beetle encounters without a party wipe even if I lose one or two to a knock out and that's with a variety of PCs and the BB crew plus 1. (Ranger, druid, cipher, priest). Admittedly most of the time I start steathed and can employ some tactics and with a little work can keep away from the mass dogpile but I have occasionally just walked up on them also and let things develop as they will. Same with the spiders for the most part - in fact combat seems to be shaping up pretty well overall (on normal) for me.

I agree that Heart of Fury was a great feature of IWDs. But it's not a difficulty option, it's New Game+. PotD is a difficulty option, like Insane in the IE games. Playing on Insane didn't have any additional reward in the IE games. Actually playing on hard or insane did have rewards in the IWD series in the form of higher experience rewards which in turn actually made things easier to some degree as you leveled faster... I liked this myself as it gave me a gameplay reason to choose those higher difficulties -

I cba to c/p SRD ....??? Tried plugging this into google and it didn't know wtf it meant either...

Oh yeahhhh... I forgot there were sea otters. I was just thinking about the river variety. For some reason, all I could think of was sea lions. Maybe they ride Elder sea lions. Perhaps they are the Walrus (and not the Eggplant) !

But then you can sit down with some popcorn and watch it unfold before you - almost as exciting as videos on FB!

Yeah sort of like bringing a gatling gun to a fist fight once you get past the flying bullets they're not so tough...

Not necessarily there are both fresh and salt water otters (sea otters)

Crickets? There's a sticky wicket - are we talking about lighters, cell phones, or a bat and ball game?

To my mind not having access to inventory in battle except quickslots is the one thing that makes the unlimited inventory acceptable for convenience - that yes you may carry the world around with you but you still must make tactical decisions on what weapons, armor, and quick slot items you will have instant access to in the next battle. If people want to use this as a reason to savescum so be it I have no issues with the way others choose to play - I think it's a reasonable restriction considering your unlimited inventory is just a reload away as opposed to being in a barrel in front of the Elf Song halfway across the city.

I haven't played PoE since beta v1.0, have quick slots been removed? With up to four quick slots it seems every possible eventuality can be accounted for; one set for slashing weapon, one for crushing, one for piercing and one for....? +up to 6 characters. Plus many weapons deal two different types of damage using the "best" option between the two for what you are currently fighting - you don't even have to make the decision of which to use.

ahhh but the adrenaline rush each battle then provides when it's win or start over is to die for (ooops game over )... Dying and then starting over however need not be considered a bad thing since for me at least it feeds yet another addiction - restartitius!!!! so it's win/win or lose/win - hey I think we have a winner! (All that said I probably won't start right off with Trial of Iron - maybe I'll roll to see... )

Moustache wax in every shop!

I'll join the hate BG2 mages faction especially the whole silly buff/debuff nonsense...

Doesn't everyone in CA carry mace?

I have not had many issues with BB mage being taken out immediately (on normal) altho I have him at the back of the formation (naked until we find a robe) and he uses his rod as much or more than spells due to friendly fire issues once combat gets going. Still he often supplies the killing blow on the toughest enemies with one of the missile spells as combat winds down thus earning his keep and tbh I'm not all that fond of mages so perhaps it just doesn't bother me if he is not all that awesome