wanderon

I've been fairly successful with playing Fighters low maintenance. Activate Defender and occasionally use knockdown or the other thing when needed. I believe Paladins are also capable of effective low-maintenance. I agree - the barbarian as well and to a somewhat lesser degree the rogue.

And then the next step is those silly mage on mage fights from BG2 buff vs debuff who will cast the last one? I hated that....

Not a fan of pre-buffing either and losing that capability is fine with me. It always felt like cheating to me - ok gang huddle up so our spell casters can put a dozen protection spells on us before we see what's down the road - don't worry it won't hurt much. (can already hear the don't use it if you don't like it echoing off the walls)

I agree!

It would seem likely to me that at the very least they would plan to have somewhat robust AI scripts for the "official" companions but suspect these may be more about the companions creators view of how they would act than a more generic view of how the class might react - similar to the default AI for companions in BG2 perhaps. Personally I went through several phases with AI scripts in the IE games in general and BG in particular where I started off with default scripts but micromanaged spellcasters - then went through a period of assigning scripts and downloading new more complete script mods and allowing the party to run on auto unless things started to go south (which became boring quite quickly - I much prefer to play hands on than to watch the game play itself ) In the end I went back to leaving the default script and/or assigning a simple auto attack and then micromanaging everyone as needed. That being the case I would be satisfied with just a decent auto attack script that kept characters I was not issuing orders to from standing idle but would also welcome some multiple script choices based on class (mostly for the adventurers).

Or maybe check out upcoming game projects if you're interested in them. Ahh, the power of "or." Unless you only have one in the water...

Pretty much identical to my own experience, except that I used Spell Cast. That and Enemy Sighted were both really good in terms of reducing worry. You'd be surprised, at least with respect to the IE games - and if PoE played like that with auto-pause options equivalent to the IE games, I'd hold that to be a problem with PoE. For me, auto-pause lets me relax somewhat, and take my time figuring out the micro so that it can run interference-free. I know a lot of people like the whole auto-pause thing but it's just not my style - I can find the pause key very well thank you very much and if I miss out on something by not letting the computer watch out for me that's ok - it just adds a little bit to the challenge and I kind of like that. On the other hand if I manage the party on my own there's nobody to thank for my success except.... well me...

Yeah, all these requests are for toggleable options - not presets. Oh heavens no. Oh yeah I get that but it certainly sounds like the OP wants to use most of them all the time - sent shivers up my spine just thinking about that

I have never been a fan of auto pause - played IE games for years without ever using it - fairly recently I did start using pause when trap found or in PoE when anything hidden is found but reading through the OP - I just have visions of a game that will never run more than a micro-second before something pauses it - I would tear my hair out (if I had any hair left )

Today was the first chance I had to play with 301 and I too am finding it much improved - Like the new icons - still getting used to the new attributtes - I like the +/- portion - what they do is still not very intuitive to me but I'm willing to see where it goes. I still have no clue how the chanter sets up his chants there is just not an iota of official information on this that I can find and yet the system "allows" you to do whatever you wish and I can't believe that placing them in any old order is going to accomplish anything - 1 of this and 2 of that and 3 of these and then one each of this that and the other -???? And when do you move on to the next "staff" how many staffs can you set up? does it matter?.....So I just don't play them... still some weirdness going on here and there - (I have a boar from Medreths party that won't die - he is knocked out - wakes up (red circle) everyone hits him but does no damage - he disappears - shows up again wash rinse repeat - (this happened with two characters in a row so I'm guessing this is a known issue by now) - This time we just walked away and went on about our business - have not yet been back to see if he is still there - if his master is dead shouldn't he be dead too? crashed in the egg area and I suspect it was caused by attempting to use the wreath of flames item which seemed to go completely wacko with weird visuals and audio stuff going on which slowed things to a crawl and at some point BB priest got "stuck" - saved and exited which caused a crash altho the save loaded ok after a restart other than losing any stuff we had not picked up (like the mages loot with the grimoire) And about this egg quest - the first time I tried it we succeeded (probably on easy) and have never succeeded again (now on normal) BB fighter failed (dropped egg) with athletics of 7 and today barbarian adventurer failed (dropped egg) with 8 athletics what else or what score is needed? All in all I'm seeing positive improvements and I'm pretty happy with the direction things are moving thus far!

If there is going to be an armor bonus for non-magic helmets then shouldn't there be a penalty for reduced vision and head turning as well...

Alpha? Beta? are people just obtuse or what - the Beta we are currently playing is three small areas of the game hastily cobbled together after removing any hints/spoilers for the storyline specifically so more people could have access (without being spoiled) - and from this tiny platform ripped from the huge area that the full game encompasses people can intuitively determine all this doom and gloom crap that gets posted here?? Just another round of pot stirring hitting the floor - SMH

Misses are sometimes frustrating. Attrition is always boring. Take your pick. Yes. This is the crux of it. I'd prefer the former any day. While I find that completely immersion breaking, it pisses me off in BG2 when your highly trained fighters are swinging away like crazy and constantly missing, what are they Drunk? I can understand if there weapon connects but they do little damage because of the defence but when a trained fighter who's only job is to be good at hitting things with a weapon constantly completely misses, then there is a problem with the mechanic. It's especially obvious when you gang up on one enemy if they've got 6 chars attacking them there is no where to dodge all those attacks (unless the they're completely incompetent) so they should get hit, how if there defence is really good they won't take much damage from the blows, but they will get hit. You do understand that in BG2 the animations were not in sync with your actual attacks in either timing or number?

It's my opinion that for the most part people are looking at these things with too narrow a focus - number one their opinions are based on playing (or sometimes just watching) a rough beta version designed primarily as a bug catcher - For instance why would people complain about the lack of portraits in such a build - do they truly believe the current number even remotely represents the number that will be in the finished game or the number and style of options they will have to tweak them? Secondly many of the complaints and calls to remove are seemingly based on what may be nothing more than annoyance with something that is done in a new manner that then may require some sort of learning curve to accommodate which of course is more difficult (and annoying) that having the same old comfy sweatshirt to pull on. People almost never seem to take any sort of detailed examination of whatever it is they dislike they just announce their annoyance and demand it be removed and or replaced with some other system - which of course always worked just fine in BLANK (they rarely even ask for or speculate about any clarification on why the devs may have put the offending thing in the game to begin with) It just seems to be - oh this is (silly, stupid, annoying, not needed, not like BLANK,) lets put up a poll and force them to remove it quickly. Sorry the whole process just annoys me..

Sounds like yet another "this is new it wasn't in the IE games thus it must be removed" I think it's fine - leave it be.

That's right in what you say that it's only your PC. The companion's skills have no effect in dialogue. They are only there for 'tasks' like pushing the stone statue (BB Fighter can push it) and things Mechanics for the Rogue, Stealth can help with all characters, Athletics the same for all characters to combat fatigue, and survival to help with potions. Some are going to be dump skills like mechanics for most of your characters, except for the Rogue or your main PC with a mechanics dialogue check if indeed there is a dialogue check for mechanics. If there's no dialogue check, then I wouldn't be investing in that skill for my main character. I did notice there is a survival check with the Ogre, but I didn't invest in it. I just killed the ogre. I will say combat is a lot better now and he was a pushover. LOL. Barely any health lost on my BB Fighter. He's the only one with armour while all my other characters are nude. I think there may be some interjections in conversations from NPC party members or at least I think I recall hearing someplace that party members may have something to say (out of your control) based on factions, their own agenda etc so it seems to follow that it's possible they may interject related to skill level as well but then again skill checks in conversation may be strictly PC checks.

Are companions skills in lore or any skill triggered in conversation even meaningful in any way? As I understand it its the PC skills that are used in all conversations regardless of which character initiates the talk isn't it?

Awesome work all - won't get to this for a week or so but sounds great!

After the first update the food items etc for sale at the inn no longer had the specifics of what they accomplished by using them either (conveys +x stamina for X time) just the general description from Julia Childs. Maybe this is related?

I'm not a number cruncher but it seems to me that not having every animal companion created equal is probably a good thing - otherwise it becomes a one size fits all and the choices become pointless. Does the bear do more damage than the stag if you count the carnage damage the stag does? Does it's high DT make it less prone to damage than the supposedly highly defensive antelope? Does the boars increase in might below 50% stamina bring it's damage up to the bears in a long fight? Does the lions roar work well enough to make it as useful to the overall battle as the bears high damage by taking enemies out of the fight early on? Haven't played with these enough to have any clue what the answers to those questions are but that's the type of questions I think need to be answered before a major overhaul of the animal companions is begun.

I heard this was coming in the first DLC...

I've used several but none really enough to "score" yet. I've played bear which currently has a size issue that can mess with path finding and/or get stuck in walls etc...did fairly well in battle I played antelope which was very survivable for me (liked it best so far) and recently tried a stag on a ranger adventurer but he never got to the battlefield (stuck in door of the inn.) Haven't played a boar yet but played against them and they seem pretty tough on the opposition side and seem to hit pretty hard. not excited enough about the Lion "roar" to try one out myself but I suppose it might be useful - I plan to test them all more efficiently once the next update comes through...

Take your time guys I started downloading Wasteland 2 last night about 11pm (EDT) and it's almost finished now - just one more G to go - gotta love TWC $14.99 internet....

I'm guessing things didn't go well last Thursday or Friday to have an update early this week? Time reacts differently in Southern CA than it does in the rest of the world...

Perhaps the adventurers will simply be limited in number based on how far along in the main plot line you are or maybe you will be able to make them and remove them as you will and they won't be concerned about balancing the game for those with an all adventurer party concentrating instead on balancing for a PC plus companions. As for companions not matching up to characters you make yourself - based on what I've seen so far of the attribute and general character creation system - this isn't going to be like the IE games where you can simply min/max your stats to create super power characters so I suspect this is going to be mostly a non-issue. I suspect the companions will be well done for those who want party members with a role to play in the adventure and adventurers exist for those who don't care about that and prefer to create their own themed parties instead.