Hassat Hunter

Maybe it's just me, but I put F2P MMO's in the same quality rank as 'mobile games'... you aren't? Larian seems to do fine on making only non-AAA projects?

Every game has cut content. That's only natural, and in most cases, a good thing.

I'm pretty sure they subserved that problem already, you know. Project Eternity?

That's the risk of a one-char based game. In PoE (a teambased game) such a weakness can be compensated by another teammember. Fire Wizard in a fire-immune area? Impossible in, say, Diablo II. But in PoE that wont be a problem since you can simply use the other 5 teammembers. That's why I rather prefer immunities are in (unlike an older thread who wanted them abolished). It might make things more complicated if you want to solo, but then again, isn't that the point of solo'ing a team game, challenge? Anyway, OP, weren't you mad they rejected the additional wildlife areas, something you again point out in this post. Doesn't quite seem to vibe with the posts content. Also, something may sound right, and have good reasons from one perspective, but really, only once you get to play you can tell if it's fun. There are things like over-balancing, over-compensating flaws, and sucking the fun right out choices. What's an improvement for one (yay, no identification!) may be a con for another (so all items are pre-identified... well, that sucks out some of the mystique and fun) and some people actually like functions many people complained about (like item-degredation, or Deus Ex-type aiming systems). Improvement is a very subjective term.

Just relaying information given explicitely by the devs themselves (in this case, when the expansion got announced on Kickstarter). https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts?page=12 I can't find the "we will make the x-pack form PoE profits" quote right now though... EDIT: So far I found this; http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61770-is-4m-enough/?p=1254973 Check the search paramers I used yourself; http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?app=core&module=search&section=search&do=search&fromsearch=1 Several people over various times mentioned the X-pack being funded by PoE profits way before me. I just can't find the exact source... but where's smoke...

Sure, according to all the proper regulations Ukrain stands NO chance to enter the EU. But, am I the only fearful that they are willing to cut a corner or 2,3,4, all just to reinforce their overblow ego that the mighty EU *saved* Ukrain from the evil Russia? There seems to be some Cold War mentality going on that we need some border against the Red Evil, and accepting the cesspit of Europe into our midst to achieve that is a small price to pay. And that... worries me.

That wont work if there are ingame popups toward achievements... (which is the worry/concern).

I think Drakensang did it rather well, it had a huge range of skills. Sure, some where useless, and pretty much all of them were of the type "you only need this on one character" but most of them say extensive use due to their inclusion in gameplay, be it from gathering ingredients for crafting (I personally hate crafting, but I know a lot of people don't. Otherwise, it would still allow you to sell additional components), or haggling, or skills that gave more information on the map about interesting locations or resources. Aside from that, appeared in conversations, taking the highest skill of any teammember in mind. Though with skills like survival or lore, I think somewhat of that functionality already is in PoE, just not sure on the specifics how another char picking it too (like lore) is going to help. Another tricky one would be 'lockpicking'. It's a non-combat skill, but it's really hard to make sure more than 1 people having it is useful. Maybe some complex mechanics requiring 2 people to work on it at once (or 2 seperate mechanicms to be used at the same time to advance, using lockpicking), still probably not the rule but more the exception. The other solutions would be to make it class-based (but not that class, all locked stuff is gone for you) or not including lockpicking at all (I think an IE-game where every door and chest is unlocked or keybound would feel... weird).

Are you talking about Obsidian or MoldyCheese (or the people who figured the entire game was a KS exclusive)?

KOTOR2 does the same. However, the actual class the player took is, if I recall correctly, mentioned/checked ONCE(!) ingame... and that check was broken too. With the M4-78EP mod it's 2, still, that's very measable. And in PoE aside from class you also have race. I don't recall exactly how Dragon Age did it (it's been a while), but I do know there's a lot of stupidity in this regard in, say, The Old Republic ("What's a Cathar" as Cathar... :/). With text only, there's no point (ie. a big loss of potential) not to refer to it more often and actually give specific unique responses to classes or races. Regarding skills, same can be said of feats. They weren't even in until IWD2, only profencies. With a party of 6, a lot of skill exclusives are possible. In most games the problem is skill checks are then handled by the PC or conversation instigator, then making those many skills a convo problem, but I assume that can be worked around by instead just taking the highest skill ranking for any teammember, and in that case allow that person to wedge in (possible due to no VO). Something that Expedition: Conquistator also did. Although the problem there is that people with strange mannerisms or accents might be misrepresented in those standard 'highest rank' dialogues since not everyone got an unique version of course...

I disagree with Labadel; Class or race-specific conversations would be great to add replayability, diversity, and to reflect once in a while *that's your class*. It doesn't have to be all options (like Malkavian in Vampire: Bloodlines) just an extra line/option once in a while, sometimes even with a different effect. It'd be a shame if there would be *only* skill, ability or influence checks...

Is there still choice and diversity then? Not much point to choose if you got about 4 skills and 2 points to spend... (especially if 1 is stealth, down the drain for me, 3 left, take down crafting, well, it's a given :/) Or isn't it that bad? It would be a shame if it's only half of KOTOR2, that does seem to have a reasonable level (IWD2 was just insane though, definitely not that).

Kickstarter doesn't seem quite as popular as it used to be however, so that might not be a possibility in the future anymore. It can be blamed on devs (bad finances, bad products, promises that got retracted), but also on gamers (having no clue mostly on a lot of stuff, and demanding a lot of things).

All those funds went into PoE base. They said specifically the x-pack would be funded by the profits made from selling PoE (which apparently more missed, some even thinking PoE was only sold to backers, as seen in the Paradox threads).

That major features are in doesn't mean they are finished, or final. Doesn't mean *new* content* can still break everything (as you must know with the expert engine knowledge). Also, what Bryy said. EDIT: And I just thought, based on Adam's new post... since the X-pack is based on the income of PE... how can they really calculate/know that at this point?

Obsidian and Paradox are planning to kill us all with bombs in our shipped versions... PROVE ME WRONG. You can't? Then it must be true, since it cannot be proven untrue, and is so obviously not completely taken out of thin air it must happen! /observation of discussion, and somewhat more fun way to say it than above post

So, if Paladins are modeled on Warlords... what are the... oh wait, nvm. Eh, so confusing naming then.

Hmmm, the "only in combat" buffing sounds fishy. I know I haven't really followed actual mechanic discussions, but has this been answered?; * Can you exploit the system by luring one enemy away from the group, extreme buff your team (with no risk since one isolated enemy probably poses little risk) then go into the fray? * I so extremely hate the instances in TB games where everyone is dead, but it's still listed as in combat because an enemy on the other side of the map somehow goes hostile on you. While certainly not giving the "AAAAAARGH" factor of having to move turn by turn across a map, it can do annoying stuff like block saving or limit/allow actions. What exactly does the game check to base 'in combat/not in combat' and are there things done to make this 'fake combat' less frequent than the IE-games?

How are you going to do that? It's a free-to-play MMO.

That's why I said "leadup"... since it's a leadup. And any SANE person wouldn't... but do you know the EU?

So, if Priests are based on Paladins... what are Paladins based on? EDIT... my bad... So, if Priests are modeled on Paladins... what are the Paladins modeled on?

You know what Alpha means, right? Even if the main plot is set out, doesn't mean it can't still change. And there's a lot of side-stuff to do. I don't expect they can suddenly loose all their people on that... unless said side-stuff will be plotless (bad), mapless (bad), enemyless (bad) etc. It's way too early to 'let people go'...

Germany or France may be able to take the reducement of power (since they produce the most in the EU)... but what about, say, the already faltering southern countries. It's really bad to think of the individual countries as the EU and base potential losses on that since the differences inbetween countries is gigantic.

You obviously never worked with game engines if you don't know about inherrent limitations. No engine *ever* allows you to do everything, unity included. The unreal engine was used for Deus Ex... but the limitations... the amount of absolute hackwork in the code to get things work seemingly proper (but not really) is astonishing. The amount of glitches, errors. The amount of cut corners. Think similarly of Vampire: Bloodlines and Source. I don't actually digged into the code here, or see the people work on the patches discuss things, but the shape of the initial game should say enough. Also, you seem to be under the assumption that game development is... writers write stuff > stuff is implented. You'd probably be surprised how much content is re-written or outright cut during development. Engine limitations being only one of the many reasons for this. I was just pointing it out that something completely out of developers control can throw a wrench into plans... but apparently my subtle pointing out was too subtle. So, yes, it's pretty much a waste of time to work fully on the expansion on this point, as a lot is still subject to change, whatever the reason may be. While I suppose some content maybe re-used for the expansion (and so indrectly something is done for it, say, an unused outdoor map finds an actual use there) it wont be actively done so. It's not even Alpha!

Russia is a country... the EU isn't. I bet most EU-members (if not all) have economies way smaller than Russia...