Silvaren

It's about situations like you ask a friend to beat some boss for you during friendly visit in your house

I'm thinking about troubadour/blood mage with Mith Fyr + Zandethus' Draconic Fury, Alacrity, defense buffs and lots of illusion's fear debuffs along with that flail with additional pen against enemies affected by mental affliction. I don't know how it will work against any megaboss or lava dragon. Another build I would like to test is death godlike berserker/bleak walker with focus on additional damage againat near death targets but I don't know if it has any sense at all. There is always a herald but dps may be problematic.

Time restriction with Woedica's challenge force players to pick class with infinite resources and protecting Vela can be really painful problem. The good part of first ultimate was that players could at least try it with any class. I know it was possible to win as mage, priest, rogue or even druid (there was one succesful druid run?) not only those classes like monk, cipher or chanter. Josh said that playtesters wrote many pages about why it may be impossible to finish new UC. I know that PoE1 Ultimate was in the "impossible" state for some time. This time it actually may be impossible.

I'm half way through Pool of Radiance. I already left city of Phlan but it looks like it's time to go back to Deadfire Archipelago. I will try new Ultimate Challenge but I didn't do proper solo run yet neither aby god's challenge.

I'm hyped. The Outer Worlds looks like good old cRPG experience, where player agency is at its peak. No hand holding, no binary choices or dumbed down dialogues which prevent player from expressing his character. I like esthetics of the game, music and sound effects. VO is that part of development cycle which takes place near the end of the process, when every line of dialogue is finished and there won't be future changes. If you compare Interplay/Troika/Obsidian dialogue lists to BioWare/CDP Red/Bethesda dialogue list you will see huge difference and understand, why VO wasn't recorded yet. Combat looks fun. Some animations can be better, but it's still more time to polish the game. I keep my fingers crossed for Obsidian, but I will buy Outer Worlds when it will launched on Steam. The dialogues... Those options are fluid, based on skill checks, reactivity from previous quests and deeds (if you seen first gameplay material) or situational options like the one to bribe the guard with grenade launcher. Those dialogue options reflect player agency, character's skills and personal approach to encounters via preffered means. Playing second time with different character, sets of skills etc. you will get different experience with the game. I'm sure there will be more or less options in some conversations (and the limit comes from budget, because of fully voiced dialogues) but those options will allow to express type of character anyone want to play. It's much better than eg. anything what Cyberpunk 2077 showed. In CP conversations are limited as hell and most options have the same meaning. Why noone is reacting to CP 2077 the same way as it always is to structure of dialogues in BioWare/Bethesda games? In Cyberpunk 2077 were dialogues options like: 1. I have an offer for you. 2. I know the guy who has an offer for you. 3. I'm gonna kill you (meeting with Militech's agent) or the one which conclude buisness with that agent: 1. No. 2. Probably no. - roleplaying masterpiece xD

For me, the difference is that from Steam's perspective, there is no such thing as "Steam exclusives". Steam does not offer exclusivity deals: Valve is perfectly fine with publishers also selling their games on GOG, Humble Bundle, their own service, the Microsoft Store, etc. In cases where a game is "exclusive" to Steam, it just means the publisher is crappy and hasn't bothered pursuing other avenues, and that's, quite frankly, not Valve's/Steam's fault, but the publishers. Hard me to direct much ire at Steam outside of recognizing the fact that Steam is the most dominant distributor on a number of levels. With exclusivity deals on the EGS, the blame falls pretty squarely on both the distributor for offering such deals as well as the publisher for accepting them. A big screw-you to both parties involved here. I assume Obsidian wasn't a part of the decision. It took me long enough to get used to Steam, I am not allowing another garbanzo beans app be constantly up and running on my PC unless they make a really compelling argument, of which the EGS has done the exact opposite from a consumer perspective (quite contrary it seems from a publisher/developer view based on these exclusivity deals becoming more and more common...but that does not affect me and therefore does not serve as a compelling argument). So...2020. I am perfectly fine with people not wanting to play a game if it's a Steam exclusive. Personally, I've grown to hate Steam more and more over the years (I think it peaked around 2009-2011), so I barely buy anything on there, either. It's still an option for games that are only there because of publisher decision, though. It's not Valve's fault that some games are released only on Steam. I follow the longest topic (it was created in 2001) about dungeon crawlers on one of the polish forums and there were several situations when poeople were talking about GOG. GOG didn't want to publish even good and well recieved games which can be purchased on Steam. I'm talking about some niche but high quality games from indie developers, not some RPG Maker copy+paste lazy ****. Situations when developers themself reached out to GOG and GOG refused to sell the game on that platform.

@Obsidian As a long time fan of your work since time of Interplay, throughout Troika and Obsidian I'm incredibly disappointed. You should be selling it everywhere or not sell at all. You should allow your fanbase and other consumers buy your games wherever they want. I would even pay a little more (the difference of margin for Valve) to get the Steam key this year at launch, because it would be my choice It should be my choice on which platform I want to buy the game. So maybe you delay the console version by a year too and see how well the Outer Worlds will sell just on Epic Store and Windows Store. It could be as great deal for you as for all of us. What could possibly go wrong? You should rebrand SPACER's CHOICE to NO CHOICE ;] Tim Cain: "I personally guarantee that the Outer Worlds will launch this year!". And... the magic is gone. However the rest of 2019 looks promising, at least for me. Two full playthroughs of KotOR 2, at least 4 runs through VtM Bloodlines and perhaps another 100 or 200 hours in Pillars.

It looks like PoE II uses action system which imitates RPG like Dungeons & Dragons but not in the same way. In most RPG character acts in turn has 2-3 actions. Like minor action, move action and main action (attack, spell etc). You either use your main action to perform an attack or similar thing once per round and you can move before or after main action. You can sacrifice main action to use move action twice in that round. Some RPG allows character to perform some minor action (like in Star Wars Saga Edition you can spend minor action and move action for aiming before using main action for attack). And there are often free, instant actions which can be used once per turn. There were cRPG using such rulesets. The best one to this date is Temple of Elemental Evil. Even some real time with pause games like old Infinity Engine games, Neverwinter Nights series or newer like Pillars of Eternity use turn as timeframe to perform restricted number of actions. It was 6 sec turn in Infinity Engine games/NWN series and it's more fluid as single action/recovery time in Pillars of Eternity. It's quasi real time. It's like turn but each combatant act in their individual turn simultaneously. Immediate input from player works only for moving character, but any other action like attacking, using spells, abilities or items require certain amount of time before it starts (I'm not talking about time to performe action like casting time or so). Action timeframes were used in XCOM remakes from Firaxis, in Shadowrun series from Harebrained Schemes and Torment: Tides of Numenera. On the other hand, there is action points system from old XCOM series, classic Fallouts, Wastelands 2, Divinity Original Sin, Age of Decadence and more. In PoE all attributes count as valuable but I don't fell that Dexterity is important right now. It would have greater impact in action points system. Here we have action system which doesn't reoslve action immediately. Casting time is artificial now. It would work with action points mechanics. Now it feels like some spells from D&D 3. Spells in D&D 3 could be casted once per turn. One action to cast and immediately effect. And some spells needed full round for cast. So wizard casted such spell but the end of the casting time was set to the beginning of the next caster's turn. Now it feels like almost every spell (except of instant self buffs) is like full round to cast. Sorry for chaoitc post. Maybe simple question: Which system do you prefer? LImited number of action (like in new XCOM, Shadowrun, TToN, ToEE) or action points (Fallout, Wasteland, DOS, AoD)? Edit: I think that Dexterity should have greater impact on combat. I think the same about speed of every weapons or casting time. Initiative doesn't feel right and doesn't show differences between weapon types (you perform the same number of attacks with fast weapons). There is no tactical choice between full attack or single attack. You can always move the same distance... Once again, sorry for chaoitc post.

It's good to have an option to play RTwP or TB (but it is more like quasi real time as Infinity Engine games were). It looks like it's a very long road before turn based mode will be playable, balance and fun. It feels like different game and I'm not sure if it can be fixed easily. I can't describe it properly yet but it will need more changes in many systems.

I started soulblade/wizard for citzal's spirit lance in turn based playthrough today but I guess it's not so cool anymore.

I guess by the % showed near Dex as bonus to action speed. Lower initiative is better and armors add % to it like +35% so it become higher which means worse. And such +35% feel similar to bonuses from every point put in Dex. Those Initiative values are low numbers and they are unaffected by RNG probably so it make sense maxed out for quicker action in turn.

Two screenshots from my review: https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oNzQWKJhlFw/XCOS6BVMm3I/AAAAAAAADuI/544Vv8IJDRUbhK23pygax9KMmCBf91B1wCLcBGAs/s1600/forgotten-sanctum-llengrath.jpg https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l4mrTf1uNr0/XCOTCMgLK0I/AAAAAAAADuM/o9UPyHvyK1A0nQlouxAtg-RjqpQFJcACgCLcBGAs/s1600/forgotten-sanctum-llengrath-2.jpg And there is third one Llengrath you can discover and his portrait.

Iirc last upgrade is one of two: Structurally Stable or Casually Fixed. You already have Structurally Stable. I had the same problem last time so I guess they are mutually exclusive.

And yet there are many people who say that level cap should be higher. They hit level 20 and lost the only reason to play further. But there isn't much time to have fun with all cool endgame stuff. Like Bittercut in PoE 1 with Helwax Mold used after enchanting that weapon to legendary.

Most of the Arkemyr reactivity comes from the imps. With bonus reactivity for people actually wearing his robes when first meeting them. I had it in inventory but I forgot about them! Damn. I have to try this next time. I liked Fassina before Forgotten Sanctum. Now she's even better. Everything she says in the DLC is "fassinating" :D

It summons the stairs to the final area of DLC.

Summoning Kalakoth's Minor Blights from crafted scrolls do nothing. The icon of spell appears as active effect near the portrait of my character but weapon isin't summoned. I tried with both ranged and melee weapons setup and bare fist. There is no problem with summoning Firebrand from the scroll.

Belt of Magran's Chosen doesn't help as same as Mith Fyr ;< It's funny that Frostfall, Firebrand and other elemental melee weapons prevent from arcane archer -5 acc penalty. Too bad those weapons can't be used with AA special arrows. I don't know if it's a bug, but summoning Kalakoth's Minor Blights from crafted scrolls do nothing. The icon of spell appears as active effect but weapon isin't summoned.

Yeah. I mean it's shame that Black Bow isn't PL 7 spell. PL 7 is still endgame stuff but could be used in multiclass builds while in current state with the Black Bow spells on 8th it's impossible. So none tried Mith Fyr with arcane archer? I noticed that animation of Frostseeker changed a bit. Projectiles are faster, not so flashy and fly in straight line. Old version looked cooler. EDIT It doesn't work with Mith Fyr.

Mith Fyr adds fire damage. Can it solve the problem of elemental attacks to avoid penatly from arcane archer? Or the damage type of the weapon has to be pure elemental. Too bad Black Bow isn't on PL 7. It would be interesting for multiclass characters to use that spell.

Pull of Eora is one of my favorite spell since my last playthrough. Sparkcrackers and Dazzling Lights make sense. Btw, how your barbarian build with low deflection for barbaric retaliation worked out?

Looks fun but it's rather hard to focus enemies in tight space. I wonder how it will work with Wahai Poraga or some other AoE weapon (or something with kind of splash damage like Keeper of the Flame).

I agree with Gromnir. PoE ruleset was designed mostly by Josh Sawyer and he had long experience with D&D and AD&D before even joining Interplay. He knows what works well, what doesn't. Ofcourse Josh has his personal preferences in terms of game mechanica and he spoke about it in one of his videos. One of the principles behind PoE was to make unified core system. So it is accuracy for regular attacks, abilities and spells against certain types of defense. Defense instead of saving throws isn't new. I knew this type of stats from Star Wars Saga (d20 system). In D&D 3 while casting spell there was only one roll - target's saving throw against DC of 10 + attribute bonus + lvl of spell + misc. In PoE it's still one dice roll but instead of saving throws character which makes an attack roll the dice against static defense. So it's similar but the roles are switched. In D&D fluid defense vs static DC, in PoE fluid attack vs static defense. It isn't much different. Miss,graze,hit,crit are better imho than simply miss/hit/crit. At lower levels characters in D&D miss often. It's boring during the game both p&p a video adaptation. I remember my paladin swinging sword without any luck for turnes. Misses at lower levels made most people to stop playing Temple of Elemental Evil. Grazes are good option, can provide some satisfaction. And unification of core system is good for that. You can graze with debuff which is way better than all or none (like most debuffa in D&D). In D&D spells work in two ways. All or nothing, all or half damage (or small damage like 3k6 from failing Finger of Death). Instant killing spells or abilities aren't good if you can build character with high enough bonuses to make DC impossible to pass. I remember my solo runs as sorcerer and priest of Talos in Icewind Dale 2 or as sorc in NWN. I understand that instant killing spells are OP and I know that Josh doesn't like it either. Josh made interesting presentation of attributes system in PoE during GDC iirc. In AD&D scaling was terrible. In D&D were empty levels. No matter if your character has 10 or 11, 12 or 13 etc. It's stupid just like Bethesda's so called "Fallout 3" with skills like lockpicking. No matter if your character has it set to 50 or 74, it's the same value from system perspective. It's bad design. PoE attributes are way better in terms of scaling. They have lower impact on the game but still are pretty important to conisder. Resolve still is dump stat in some builds but it isn't the scale of D&D or even greater in second AD&D. Builds may change priorities. Like CC wizard focusing on Per/Int/Dex doesn't need Might at all while Evoker does. PoE give players more arbitrary choices during character creation. Ad&D wasn't intuitive at all. Thied edition changed it mostly for goos but 4th (while provides unification to core gameplay and character progression system) confused players with number of choices during character creation (all those powers). D&D 5 simplifies thing once again. PoE has two layers of mechanics. Simple on the surface (attack rolls, defensive, miss, graze, hit, crit) and complicated layer deeply burried under the first (action speed and recovery, additive/multiplicative formulas, stacking, armor penetration). It shouldn't be so complicated but understanding of that deeper layer and player's mathematic skills aren't necessery to have fun with the game. The reason for overcomplication, high numbers value and other things which are problematic to calcuate come from game being designed as computer RPG, not RPG.

I would stick to the concept of wearing actual armor but with an option to just customise its looks as same as one can pick enchantements (some kind of list /options directly when player interacts with the item in inventory). I thing that making a sacrifice of armor (like with the pet machine) would be silly. It could be immersion breaking for someone - making a "sacrifice" to distil magical properties. It could work just as a game feature. You don't have to explain everything (like for example aiming in old Fallouts was just part of graphical user interface, but Bethesda added some stupid explenation to make V.A.T.S. in their post-apo Elder Scrolls series). I don't think that weapons should be possible for transmogs. Weapons have special animation effects during attacks.

It's one of two things which disapointed me in Forgotten Sanctum (second is that archmages don't know about Arkemyr being killed by the Watcher). After you talked with Eothas at the end. Wael will destroy adra colossus, then the narrator is saying that statue lies smashed on pieces. Next slide... But Eothas managed to fulfil his plan. So Wael's intervention did nothing.