Zenbane

Catholic Priests come to mind lol I'll mention Wizardry 8 again, that has some armor and jewelry that is specific to Female-only. And the Fairy Race, who really can't wear much at all (similar to the Godlike's in PoE who can't wear helmets). It isn't overly difficult to implement, but I do appreciate it in small doses. Games like PoE (with Godlike) and Wizardry (females) do this quite well, imo. This I do agree with, and typically in an RPG either a character can't wear the gear until the attribute requirements are met, of at the very least, they become "encumbered" since they are carrying more weight than their strength capacity allows. This often results in a character moving slower, or not moving at all (eg, Grimrock), or taking an Armor Class penalty (Wizardry).

Do you not see the irony in you calling my post narrow-minded when you have spent 4 pages repeatedly saying that the use of gear in PoE somehow eliminates the meaning of character classes in spite of the vast uniqueness found within each class? A person would have to view the entire class system in PoE with pure tunnel vision to believe that weapons and armor take away all meaning of a character class. Which part of Pillars of Eternity lore states that all wizards come from a school?Which part of Pillars of Eternity lore states that wizards can't undergo training outside of that provided to them by a school? It's in a gaming manual of D&D somewhere, I think. Which part of Pillars of Eternity lore states that all wizards come from a school?Which part of Pillars of Eternity lore states that wizards can't undergo training outside of that provided to them by a school? None, doesn't that bother you? Even for paladins, priests, monk & whatever? It doesn't bother anyone who has actually played PoE beyond a level 2 character, and fully understands the character class system. Hey look I found the website that you pirated the character lineup graphic from: http://www.gamerevolution.com/features/a-guide-to-choosing-your-class-in-pillars-of-eternity Did you not read the rest of it after taking the picture? Hint: it talks about more than just the weapons.

That's only true if you purposely ignore everything else in PoE that is class specific; which seems to be your favorite thing to do: 4 pages later and yoomazir still hasn't figured out that the classes can't just be whatever you want since each class has a completely unique set of mechanics. lol, but weapons!

And having all "classes" using the same gear & weapons is totally roleplaying no matter their background, suuuure But all the characters have different gear & weapons depending on their background in PoE. If you player decide that they will change them to something else because roleplaying reasons that are valid you as player then it is roleplaying. If can prevents you doing such change then it isn't roleplaying it is just systemic limit. Yeah that was a bit of a goofy thing for someone to say. "Having all classes use the same gear" ... is simply rephrasing from "making the roleplaying decision to have all classes use the same gear." Basically, yoomazir thinks that if you use your own decision making process to change or alter your current role, then you are no longer engaging in the act of role-playing; "if you aren't playing this one predefined role, then you aren't playing any role." I assume then that any game with a dual- or multi-class system would cause his keyboard to lock up.

Hopefully there will remain no equivalent since typically in D&D games the characters gain experience, thus levels, simply from killing mob's; whereas in PoE experience is gained from achieving a milestone (eg, complete a quest, add new beastiary entry). The reason traditional RPG games need to give a level-based reward, like a "status," is so that players can feel a sense of accomplishment after killing 10,000 rats. I see this as a false sense of accomplishment that is geared towards distracting players from the fact that they are engaging in an experience-wheel grind. Again, simply gaining a level is not a real accomplishment. Instead, significance comes from standing and reputation, or faction ratings, which is earned or lost through player engagement in the gaming world. Personally, I prefer the way Wizardry 8 does this, where it also does not matter what level the character has reached, but instead rewards the player for how the character is built. For instance, if your fighter reaches 100 Strength then a new powerful skill is unlocked. And the figher might reach 100 Strength around level 13, or maybe around level 17+ depending on how you built the class. The common theme in your suggestions appears to be a false sense of reward from engaging in the dreaded exp grind. But I think you were just brainstorming in order to give a general counter-reply to the OP, in which case apologies if I honed in on the wrong point. Games like PoE and Wizardry do a much better job of giving proper reward for better player actions. At least in my opinion.

Then maybe instead of continuing this debate you should go play some AD&D games in order to see what happens when a game does as you suggest. I'm sure people who enjoy PoE's current system are equally tired of others suggesting that PoE become more AD&D.

After reading the first post in this thread, I thought that this was just going to be a drawn out request to give players the Fantasy version of Lara Croft as payment for teasing fans with a "lady in heavy armor and a musket" drawing, but then I read this... Well that is an incredibly impressive logical leap. There is a word that helps resolve any confusion with customization, and that word is, "baseline." The mere existence of comparisons in no way implies a need to remove the starting point for those comparisons; which is what the OP is suggesting. For example, if we weren't talking about video game characters and instead talking about household pets - lol - then the logic in this request would be as follows: 1) We have customized breeds of dogs. 2) We have customized breeds of cats. 3) Why have categories of living organisms to begin with if we can customize a breed? A famous quote comes to mind, "Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!" Case in point, we have classes in order to create a baseline for behavior and attributes; outside of that baseline, an impressive array of options become available. The options for character building reside on top of this baseline, and the existence of those options does not imply the need to remove that baseline. PoE shines in its ability to provide quality customization options coupled with a very distinctive, fun, innovative set of class baselines. Wanting this to change is one thing; but suggesting that a removal of the baseline is inherent due to the existence of the options is something entirely different, and whacka-doodly.

Which of all your themes would you say has put the most smiles on your face? I'm looking to mix things up on my next playthrough.

That's not cheesy, sir, that's called "twitch gaming," and is the sole reason I ranked high more times than not on BattleField 1942 servers

I came across a great article regarding the making of an old cult classic RPG, Dungeon Master: http://www.filfre.net/2015/12/dungeon-master-part-1-the-making-of/ This is a game that takes up a mere 400k on a one-sided disk, and take a look at the amount of source code that was written: Just something I thought would be of interest considering the posts of late, regarding expansions, a sequel, and of course, some complaints about a weak story, or weak NPC dialogue, or lack of population in places like Defiance Bay, etc. I am willing to bet that the source code for PoE is more than 5 of those binders. Hell, the current state of Defiance Bay's code is probably enough to fill just one of those binders...

There's "mana" in PoE? I must have missed that part, I might double-check. Although, if you're making boom-fire with bat guano and sulfur, then you're an alchemist, not a mage lol

Getting to Defiance Bay wasn't exactly friendly. The northern bridge was out of commission, and both looters and monsters plague the surrounding area. In trying to get to Defiance Bay I had to help a woman retrieve cargo from her boat that looters were in control of, and due to the bridge being out I had to find an alternate route by taking a more dangerous road. When I finally arrived in the city, I came across a woman whose boyfriend was really an evil wizard that was keeping the local citizens completely addicted to drugs, while the real boyfriend was bound 'n gagged in the back room. Not to mention that the first few locations I entered hoping to find a quality weapons and armor smith were populated with a bunch of armed guards and/or armed mercenaries, all of which had no qualms letting my group know they we aint welcome. And that's just within the first 30 minutes of arriving. So yeah, I can understand if the entire city is either empty or has locked doors. It's hard to get there without dying and when you arrive, 90% of the people are sadistic a-holes. I don't see the problem lol

There's merit in that. Unfortunately, I think that many people that post issues/dislike for the game are too easily handwaved away as suffering rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. Personally, I wasn't impressed with the game and felt it didn't meet the goals as stated by the devs in the kickstarter. Granted, that's subjective, but it's the way I feel about the game. And I have to say it's not nostalgia that I still find the old IE games more fun than PoE. Yeah sorry, I didn't mean to imply that if someone doesn't like PoE, then clearly they fall in to one and only one category. Fact of the matter is that we are all unique 'lil snowflakes and it could be anything from color palette to voice actors that ruin a game for someone. I have a buddy who quit Fallout 4 last week because he said it was too depressing seeing people in rags all the time lol There is a certain type of critic/cynic that, imo, ends up being more predominant in gaming forum communities. That is more along the lines of what I was directing my sentiment towards. If anyone here remembers when the Vault Network forums were in their prime then you know precisely what I mean. In contrast to the Something Awful gaming forums that does a much better job of filtering out the noise. I wouldn't rank PoE as a top RPG of all time (in lets say, a Top 10 list), however, in the past 3 years it is definitely one of the most enjoyable RPG experiences for me personally. PoE and Grimrock are highest on my list. And to put that in perspective, my #1 favorite RPG in the past 10 years would have to be Morrowind.

PoE Multiplayer implemented as DOTA-style combat inside Strongholds. Tis the future... embrace it

lol, this is a great quote. Granted, we have a couple things to keep in mind: 1) other high rated RPG's grant unlimited rest, like Wizardry 8; 2) Someone unlocked the "no rest" achievement in PoE for beating it with only 7 uses of the sleeping bag, https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83364-im-just-here-to-brag/?p=1756342 Of course, counters can be made to this counter argument. Like maybe not everyone loves Wizardry 8, and ooh look the "no rest" achievement was done on easy mode. However, the focus here is on the fact that for some reason, PoE tends to make people believe that they absolutely have to do things in extremes just because the game allows it to be done in moderation (rest, food, power builds). It's hard to tell if PoE is too easy or too hard, on any difficulty mode. Some threads talk about how it was already too easy, and the White March expansions make it even easier. Other threads talk about how the game forces you to "play bad" in order to be successful, by having to rest spam and eat "every damn chicken in this place." If I were to point at one thing causing all the confusion, it would be the fact that PoE somehow managed to blur the line between Story-driven gaming and Sandbox gaming. It's not entirely one or the other, hence the complaints on both sides of the spectrum. Personally, I find the blurred line to be superb. That was a great read. Insanely accurate and better represents what a Generation X RPG gamer should wholeheartedly experiences while playing PoE. Halfway through reading that I instantly thought to myself that it is rare for a forum post to properly pinpoint the fact that "nostalgia" drives the disheartened critic of a quality game. You got that covered too though, "nostalgia playes a huuuuuuge role to how we see Pillars compared with older IE games." Completely agree. Nostalgia and unrealistic expectations are key ingredients for most cynics. Then again, the younger generation of RPG gamers don't really have much to be nostalgic about either, which is why we need newer games (like PoE) to meet our unrealistic expectations; ah and the circle of contradiction is complete lol

The finished product isn't being released until next year, so you can't really love it just yet. You have a mild reputation for posting views of PoE based on the fact that it didn't deliver on everything it promised; or more specifically, didn't meet your expectations. That "love" you are describing about the new Torment is clearly an expectation of an unreleased product. There's a pattern here. This how it starts. The occasional post about the utopia a soon-to-be-released video game is going to be, and then when it's finally made public, bam! It wasn't quite what we thought, our expectations weren't meant, yada-yada-yada, angry posts on the general discussion board, etc. I have the original Torment game in its original box in my closet. I do hope that the insanely overdue sequel lives up to the hype. Due to the cult following the original game has, coupled with the amount of time it has taken to create a sequel, even if Torment 2 makes few promises and tries to limit expectations, the reality is that fans will likely be expecting RPG bliss and revolution. EDIT: Re-reading this it seems like I might be calling out a specific person, but I am just trying to address that thing we've all discussed in previous threads, where expectations get the better of us. That one quote from archangel reminded me of that; but not to be interpreted as a callout or anything similar.

I don't think we're talking competitive here, but rather co-op - and while it would be nice to have, it's not really something I'd want Obsidian spending resources on. Infinity Engine games had perfectly functional multiplayer and all of those features were in. Aside from hatchets, obviously. Hatchets would have to go. There's no way they'd work in co-op. lol - aww, poor hatchets. I agree that the outrageous requests (nerfs, etc) would be much less if this were co-op, but I've seen what happens even with PvE MMO's (LOTR online, Final Fantasy Online), whooo even in co-op people get upset when the guy next to them has a better build.

Oh gawd, I'd hate to imagine how many features would go on blast if this game went multiplayer: 1) Hatchet Haters 2) Per rest / Per combat issues 3) Rest Spam 4) Food 5) NPC Gear 6) Rest bonuses Come to think of it, everything related to resting would have to just go away, and this would need to be a turn-based game. Yikes!

Plenty of great ideas from this thorough review: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416939844

Pen n Paper folks! Good 'ol faithful )

Did somone say dual hatches?? Hell yeah!

You just described about a years worth of my entire winning strategy as Annie in League of Legends. How dare you, sir! You're right tho, as you also described the primary reason I haven't played anything DoTA related since 2010.

Making the Stronghold an entire mini-game (invasions, etc) would be fully possible if they release a companion mobile application. That is my personal request 'cause I think it would be awesome.

Wait a second. Some spells in PoE can only be used "per rest" and others "per combat." Wouldn't that imply that once a spell is cast, it was forgotten and needed to be replaced in the casters mind? Before the next battle and after a full rest? I've played plenty of D&D games and even the dreaded table-top, and if memory serves, all that is needed to "put the spell back in the casters mind" is clicking on a few icons or simply declaring it out loud followed by a dice roll.

What main character did you use, and which NPC's or hired mercs? Just curious