PangaeaACDC

Wish there were more reliable ways to increase Mechanics. Have barely put points into anything else for Hiravias, and he still can't deal with all traps. Wish it was possible to guy gear that increased it, or make scrolls. I found 2 of the scroll that increases it (and used one without knowing how rare it was). Have never got gear that increases it. Looks like it's possible to get something on a Stronghold quest, but obviously that requires some luck. Yeah, I could 'buy' a rogue that put all points into it, but don't want to metagame like that.

Yes, I noticed those comments after posting here, when I exited the mines. I still find it odd, but it's not a big deal of course. But pretty weird that after wading through a million enemies, clearing a mountain of dangers, uncovering a murder and finding the accused was in reality innocent, we get negative reactions because we were honest about it.

I look forward to the broom that sweeps away negative status effects.

This one was a bit annoying, but... I'm playing White March 2 for the first time and came across something even more borked. Saying that an innocent man was innocent gives me negative reputation. WTF? Probably just strengthens my view that the game would be better off without these reputations entirely. Let us do what feels right in the various situations, without the pat on the back or slap on the wrist of that decision being right/wrong based on positive/negative reputation changes.

Recently I picked up a playthrough that I started a good while ago, and I've continued and finished a lot of quests. At some point I was told Geyda the animancer showed up in the stronghold. I visited, but she was nowhere to be seen. Thought maybe it was because she had popped up before, and I had read somewhere that it was possible for this 'quest' to show up twice. Therefore didn't think too much about it. Yesterday the game informed me Solmar the Shackler had shown up. I was in the Endless Paths at the time, but he was nowhere to be seen when I went to the surface. Went to another map and back again, hoping that would trigger him somehow, but that didn't work either, and he's not in the main hall like visitors are supposed to be. Lord Sidroc did show up however, so I'm puzzled why some show up and others don't. Do you know what is wrong here?

A fitting name then.

Could be that the video is edited as well. But I hope it's much, much faster than in POE1 in any case, because as mentioned it gets a bit boring to stare at the loading screen so darn often. I've recently been playing some Witcher 2 again, and the immersion is much greater when there is no loading times as opposed to every time you go in a door or change area. Hopefully it's possible to do something similar in Unity.

Tangent perhaps, but excellent news they have changed to .xml files (hopefully for a LOT of stuff), and hopefully that means a more logical structure to them too. Should make it easier to mod the game, even without "proper" modding support, at least straightforward stuff like changing items and spells and such, and presumably introducing new ones. We can at least hope.

I've watched some of the update videos which include gameplay, but didn't notice examples or talk about the loading time. As we all know, this was a pretty big issue in POE, where it often felt like I spent more time watching the loading screen than playing the game (particularly in Defiance Bay, where you typically move between parts of the city and buildings/floors a lot). For those of you more familiar with all the videos, Q&A and so forth, have Obsidian said more about this? I know it was mentioned somewhere that they would have a streaming system in place, so I sincerely hope loading times will be gone or very minimal. In BG it's not a big deal because it takes a fraction of a second, but when it takes 5-10+ seconds every time (and much more in the late game), it's a pretty big deal, and an immersion breaker. Recently I picked up an unfinished playthrough of the first game, and I'm already frustrated at all the time I spend watching the loading screen. Hence the query.

Jeese. It's not my invention or fantasies or whatever. Just look up what their site looked like, with principles and all, from some years back if you don't remember/haven't seen it. But I'm fully aware I'm in the minority in disliking the direction they have taken. It's unusual to have principles these days, and to genuinely care about privacy and consumer rights. After reading some more around the site, I think it's best to postpone a bit longer. A quasi-mana pool, moving away from Vancian casting, 5-person parties and so forth doesn't fill me with happy thoughts.

That's part of the negative change though. Microtransactions, all kinds of ****ty DLC, pre-orders, alpha games, a wide range of measures to tempt money out of the pockets of consumers while putting the risk on the consumer. GOG used to be different, they used to be consumer friendly and not dive into one terrible practice after the other. That is now changed, and they have ditched practically all their original principles. All that remains is DRM Free. I sincerely hope that doesn't fall too. Yes, we can blame people for being stupid enough to buy a product they know next to nothing about yet, or waste money on microtransactions or senseless DLCs. The point is, GOG used to be different, and are now embracing all the idiocy the greedy bastards in the gaming industry is coming up with. It's a trend in society more generally, unfortunately. People are willingly signing away privacy and consumer rights without a lick of thought. One of the advantages of being slightly older (though by no means old) is the benefit of perspective through having seen the development over time. Like a Watcher, perhaps :D

In short, step by step becoming closer to steam. Regional pricing, regional blocking, DLC all over the place, microtransactions, and of course now pushing Galaxy all over the place rather aggressively. I probably forgot many steps along the way too. Galaxy is still technically optional, but I don't expect that to last given what is occurring. It's still the least horrible store out there, but many of the "old guard" don't like the negative direction they have decided to pursue. Hopefully they won't ditch the DRM Free principle too. If they do, I have no option but to stop buying and playing games. About the question however, I can still pledge for POE2 and get the game DRM Free and for Linux, via GOG?

Late to the party as well, but from what I gather it's possible to "pledge" for $35 for the base game, but I'll have to do so using Paypal? (not debit card?) As usual the game probably won't be in an enjoyably playable state for a good while, but $35 will probably be less than at release anyhow. Due to the madness of regional pricing the first game actually costs ~$36 for me at GOG now, without a sale, but whatever. Just to make sure, though. If I "pledge", I would be able to download the game using GOG, DRM Free for Linux? Sadly they have become much worse lately, but steam (spit) is out of the question with their plethora of DRM and terrible practices, so GOG is the only potential option for buying games.

He messed me up something fierce too, so I reloaded, snuck up to him and cracked his neck instead of stealing his key. But the lot of bruisers that split into several fast feckers totally did us in. In an odd way it felt good to get our asses handed to us.

More spoilers, but one thing I found really jarring was that after the riot in Defiance Bay, apart from a torched building, basically nothing changed. That was pretty disappointing, as I had expected all kinds of chaos there, and "please fix this" quests. The Dozens basically put the city to the torch, and the Knights aren't going to lift a a finger?

Update: At level 10, I think we need to turn around. Some brutal things in that place, and I'm nowhere close to finishing it. I checked some spells, and they're tossing level 13 spells and abilities at us. Total party wipe. Noooooooooooooo Better to start on WM part 2, or head back to Defiance Bay.

This is SPOILERS territory, at least a little, so beware. I'm approaching the sleeping orlan outside Cragholdt. None of us have anything but 0-1 in stealth, so he starts to wake up. I'm then given some options to deal with him, but all are redded out, despite approaching him with Aloth or Grieving Mother, who have Call to Slumber and Puppet Master. Why is that? Is this a bug?

Aren't the people you employ at your stronghold supposed to heal between attacks on the stronghold? Pretty sure that's how it worked before. I had two guys that had sought employment, but Caed Nua kept getting attacked, and by the 3th and 4th attack, they started combat at "Near death", which put them over the line. Attaching one screenshot, where you can see in the bottom right that combat just started, but my guy is an inch from death.

Usable items have to be fairly weak or risk the ire of the majority of players who didn't back the game. Gaun's Share in PoE was fine is this regard, as as far as my playthroughs go it's just something to sell to Theodan (Heodan?)[That guy who dies really early on ]. I meant for real life. I want to see people's past lives, souls, all that jazz :D

Druids actually are a lot of fun, because they can deal some serious damage with spells, and also go toe-to-toe if you fancy shapeshifting. I'd like to put in a word for the fighter though. It sounds boring, but in this game you have knock downs and various other abilities that turn them into more of an active class. My current main character is a dual wielding fighter (with war hammers), and he can deal out some very, very serious blows. It's a lot of fun to see him smack through enemies.

There are both items and other ways to increase attributes, so it's not a big deal. For instance, you can increase Perception by 3 if you sleep a certain place. Basically every inn have various attribute bonuses if you sleep there, though it costs a little. You can also enchant your gear to give +2 in an attribute, though you need a few levels and expensive ingredients to do it. For some reason I never wind up doing this, because there are items that buff you, and I can never make up my mind (because you can't undo that kind of enchantment). If you for some reason are deeply upset with your character, you can always pay to rebuild him in an inn. Essentially he is reset, and you can rebuild him again from level 1, and pick abilities and such anew. For the main character (and probably adventurers you create), I believe you can redistribute attribute points as well. It's untraditional, but I'm using the NPC Paladin as a pistol shooter, with a unique ability that makes her shoot off five orbs against a marked enemy. It's pretty cool. That will usually either insta-kill or bring the target to "Near death". You don't need a pistol for that btw, but as it has a pretty solid base damage, a paladin's flames of whatever-it's-called will add a bunch of fire damage on top. I prefer to have most dialogue options unlocked as well, hard not to after having played and adored Planescape Torment, but this time I'm playing with a guy without very high attributes for the typical dialogue options. Still, you qualify for a good bit of them just by having for instance 14 Perception. And it's not difficult to buff it further to 16-17.

When you mention it, I've heard about that list and know that items aren't exactly perfectly randomly generated. But I also try to stay away from overly much meta gaming, and just pick up whatever we get. Resting somewhere for 20 days to get *that* item, whatever it may be, wouldn't feel like fun to me. Sure would be nice if we could craft that lore-increasing scrolls though, but from what I saw in the game yesterday, we can't

How about something we can use? I won't push the envelope too much, so how about a Watcher ring with 3 per rest uses? I'm sure it could be handy

Must have been unlucky then, because we haven't got any gloves of that kind yet. But at the next level I can put another point into lore, so Hiravias can use level 2 scrolls, and thereby use the scrolls that increase mechanics. That will at least provide a temporary fix, because investing in points above 10 is horribly expensive.

Can confirm Zahua can be picked up in Stalwart early-ish. She was waiting around somewhere after I head cleared the ogres. Speaking of traps, however, should we invest more than 10 points in mechanics? I noticed there are some traps here and there that can't be seen or disabled, and I have mechanics at 10 now. A bit annoying.