Wormerine

That is true there was something about those mechanics even though I wouldn't classify them as "good" or "engaging". I think that while mechanicly they weren't very good, they added to a fantasy of adventuring. I did like that vampires would suck out your "lvls" and the rest mechanic, even though technically pointless, did reinforce the theme of adventuring and danger. I would categorize them in the same shelf and the need of buying and manufacturing ammo in original XCOM. It wasn't an engaging part of the game. Ammo was cheap and easy to buy/manufacture, you just had to do it. While it was a chore gameplay wise, and didn't add any strategic/economic depth it did play into a fantasy of running a military organization. You had make sure those were available or soldiers would be deployed with empty magazines. All of the moders remakes (Firaxis, Xenonauts) streamlined this element, and I while I believe they did the right thing, there is a part of the "simulation" that is missing. Modern cRPGs tend to flat those "not good" mechanics out. I felt PoE had a fine balance, while games like Dragon Age went a bit too far. It is all a matter of taste & preferance. While I would like to see those really unique and dangerous enemies to return, and inventory management and pre-combat preperation to return I think it is possible to do it better than IE games did.

That’s very similar to how I played those games after my initial “getting to know the rules” playthrough. But isn’t that a big design flaw? In BG spellcasters (especially mages) ranged from useless to ridiculously overpowered depending if you cast spells or not. In my case, they would hang back and do nothing unless it was a major fight, while melee fighter and archer would deal with most mobs. PoE has similar issue though with wands and sceptres they at least contribute. They rarely used high spells even on PotD. This encouraging of not using characters in your party is a big flaw. Considering that limited resting (at least in BG) is an optional challenge not supported by implemented mechanics I really can’t agree with describing it as resource management. It’s like saying a shooter requires you to co serve ammo, while at the same time having a button which immediately replenishes all ammo whenever you want. There are two ways I can think of that would solve a problem - add to the game genuine resource management. Spells and other items&skills are limited and when you go adventuring you have to be smart on when you use it. Or encourage players to freely use skills at their disposal when entering combat. PoE2 is going for the second option. I like that though there are few warning light in my head: does that mean all spells will be less impactful, as being able to cast high lvl spell in every encounter in previous games would make them really easy. I was also worried about encounters changing into spellspamfests but with limited spell per encounter it should be an issue.

??????? I don’t watch GoT either. I saw first half of pilot episode and decided that if I feel like watching bunch of boobs there are better places to find those than HBO. Not my cup of tea what I am trying to say.

How does it change tactics? In both Pillars and Baldurs Gate after the battle you end up with full health. However in BG you have to spam rest button couple time before that happens. There is no limit to resting, there is no danger in resting (unless you are really low on health and some people could die in an ambush).

Planescape: Torment

I am not mistaking this at all. What exactly does role playing do? Why do people want to play any role other than their own in the first place? To fulfil a fantasie. As simple as that. Or to be more precise to fulfil some psychological need that is lacking from their daily life. So to berate someone for having fantasies when you're no different is hypocritical at best. I don’t think I can agree with you though you did raise an interesting point. Is consuming any kind of media fulfilling a fantasy? That would assume you only watch, read, play only works related to things you desired first. And that you know in advance what you want. An extreme example: I have no fantasy of living through world war 2 and especially ghetto. And yet I watched The Pianist, Schindler’s list and many more. Calling those films fantasies is absurd. They are compelling but for different reasons than fantasy fulfilment. I see games in similar way. Yes, there are games which do cater to fantasies -I play Elite, city builders, Batman for that very reason. I didn’t see PoE as a fullfiler of my fantasies. It was way to uncomfortable for it. Companions weren’t people I would like to have around (Durance) but they were engaging for different reasons. For the similar reason I didn’t like KOTOR2 on my first playthrough. Because instead of giving me what I want like KOTOR1 did it attepted to shake up my viewpoint of good&bad in SW universe. These st at least my thoughts on the subject.

Right, so you're saying in your daily life you regularly save the world? Help every random stranger (or kill them), fight terrible monsters, boldy go where no man has gone before etc? Are you saying that you are exactly as daring, witty and handsome as Commander Shepard and every other PC in existence? If so, then accept my apologies. You are clearly an enlightened being that plays games for their philosophical and speritual value rather than anything else. But something tells me you're none of those things. So, i hate to break it to you, but you play games for the very same reason us filthy "fappers" do. And i'm not making a fuss at all. I simply said that i would've preferred a different character. No more, no less. It is you who seems to triggered here. The point Sedrefilos was making was to not mistake fantasy as a genre: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy With fantasy as a psychological phenomenon: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_(psychology) Fantasy RPG is not a game which fulfills your fantasies (though it can if that’s what devs are going for) but allows you to role play in a fictional world, often (but not necessary) drawing inspirations from folklore.

Not everything, just prebuffing. :-D why do we argue knowing all well, that will change nothing? In my case I am curious why OP wants prebuffing. I still don’t really get it. But I know he wants it badly.

The more moving/interactable parts you introduce to the game the bigger a chance of player breaking something. PoE was very restrictive and I hope Deadfire will open up.

Really? Weird. I've seen it with a friend. The cinema was almost full of people (seems to do well in France at least). Probably the only AAA US film i've seen in years that is actually worth it. Better than the original in some ways. While Hollywod only sell crap usually. Good surprise. My screening wasn’t too bad either. However, it’s been 2 weeks since release and according to Box Office Mojo the movie just broke even combining estimated domestic and international gross and I am pretty that doesn’t include cost of promotion. On one hand I don’t want it to turn into smash hit as doing a sequel was a risky endeavour already and I don’t need Blade Runner cinematic universe. But I would like to see more high budget SF like that. Villeneuve mentioned he would like to tackle Dune at some point. If BR proves those kind of films don’t make enough money to justify investment it probably will never happen. Still BR seems to be steadily earning money so we will see where it will end up in the end.

I hope banter is ON. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/91677-the-dwarven-companion-recovery-front/page-4?do=findComment&comment=1888344 The image there is dead, but I got my answer from one of the devs, and it was positive back then... Yeah, I remember it being confirmed. It would be great to see anything on top of features listed in the vid. I find it strange they wouldn’t mention banter and “introductory quest related conversation” is so specific I assumed it is all there is. They could have limited the sidekicks content during the development.

sidekicks: 1) standard voice set 2) unique portrait 3) introductory quest related conversations It seems they will be quite a bit more shallow than I hoped for after initial pitch. No banter, no character conversation (whats your backstory.) I am afraid they might end up sweeping floor back on the ship after initial quest is done.

Unless things changed since PoE1 reducing someone’s radios is a negative only. Only the “core” radius of the spell hit both friend&foe while extended via INT radius hit foes only.

I want historical RPG Josh is mentioning. In of the interview Feargus mentioned an idea to do Noir RPG which is something I have been wanting for a long long time. I would take Cyberpunk over space opera.

Raising accuracy or damage of your attacks is also a huge deal. I'd just like the weapon to actually matter. Let a wizard with a broken stick for a weapon suck a bit at casting, just like a fighter with a rusty sword would against a dragon. I'm not advocating a game design where wizards are balanced around having no bonuses from their weapons and become overpowered if they have them. I'm not sure I'm informed enough to address the grimoire argument. Would I have to choose between a grimoire that buffs me and a grimoire that has good spells in it, or can I put the good spells in a grimoire that also buffs me? The latter would work. I'm not a fan of that item (and it's a scepter ), but let's say I am, then we have a good "caster weapon" even though it's only good when attacking, but it's only really a caster weapon on the basis that it can't bind to non-casters. Shouldn’t we compare how weapons influence fighter’s skills vs wizards spells and fighters use of weapons and wizards use of weapons? Though I do understand that your issue is that equipment doesn’t interact with spellcasting which for the most part is what wizard is doing. I would say that increasing accuracy of a spell isnt the same as increasing accuracy of an attack as the former is much more potent. Hitting petrify can be a game changing move, while more accuracy on weapon will slightly increase your DPS. I really don’t know that much about grimoires either, but I am pretty sure they mentioned they want to make them more unique.

@Lephys excellent post as usual. I remember BG2 having those spells which you could prepare before going in combat. You would combine three low level spells which then you could quickly cast at once when needed. That was neat. As it is right now I don’t feel like adding prebuffing makes any sense as spells don’t have an effect on the world except for combat. One of the things I really loved about Divinity is how reactive all skills were - you could use invisibility to sneak, teleportation to move party member through gap, or dangerous area, use flame, earth, air shields to bypass hazards, float your rogue to move through traps etc. The thing with BG&BG2 was that they had utility spells: wish, unlocking, search for traps etc. It made more sense to cast those spells outside of combat, because they were useful outside of combat. I would be very happy to see those skills and spells have a wider application than killing stuff. Especially now, when there are no per rest abilities. Not only they would make exploration more engaging but further diverse your playthroughs as you would have different ways of interacting with the world around you with different characters.

There will be helmet&cloak toggles.

Aren’t grimoires be more this time around than just spell containers? I feel unsure about buffing spells through items. Raising accuracy of your spells is a huge deal. Same with damage or duration. I certainly didn’t feel that getting weapons for a mage were unexciting. The soul bound wand which had a chance to mindcontrol was a treat (though a bit too good to not equip IMO). In my mind attack/ability are two different things. You CAN focus on weapons with mage if you want to. Making items more interesting for a mage is a good idea but I would rather see it done through grimoires and trinkets, with weapons having an effect when you, well, use the weapon.

Then why in nine hells are you a backer, if devs opinions don't carry any weight with you? Yeah, see, I have the freedom to back whatever the hell I want, so .... Had no intention to suggest otherwise. Just expressing my astonishment at seeing someone who generously funds a project led by a team he doesn’t have a trust in.

Kanisatha's welcome to correct me if I'm wrong, but I am fairly certain they meant developing their characters in the sense of levelling up. At least that's how I interpreted the line "By the time my party reaches a high level I start losing interest in the game because there's no more character development left to be done". I agree with your post pretty much. In a way I'd prefer a smaller core of well developed companions and then a number of non-companion NPCs who are well developed. I also had an impression that he talked about mechanical levelling out rather than narrative (if that’s a case he never saw characters in PoE reach end of their developement as he never reached th ending). What confuses me is why party limit is an issue in this case. As far as mechanical levelling up you get access to all companions no matter whom you take with you at any given time. I do get an argument of seeing less banter&full stories of each companions but the relationship system seems to be build around an idea of not everyone interacting with everyone in every situation. Whatever, for now party limit is set in stone anyway.

Obsidians philosophy with PoE is to make all weapons for everyone. Making specific weapon types beneficial to one specific class goes against this. Wizards in PoE cast spells through grimoires, not weapons.

Not at all. Both decisions (limitless storage & prebuffing, as well as a more flexible access to spells) was made to avoid chore. Choosing what you carry around you for each dungeon run is very interesting (see Darkest Dungeon.) In IE games there was nothing stopping you from looting everything. If you needed something you left in your base or needed to buy something there was nothing stopping you from going back and grabbing it/buying it. IE didnt force you to think about what you take or need. It just took more time to access things you needed/wanted once you figure out you need them. PoE accelerates this process. Limiting prebuffing on the other hand does make things more interesting. Instead of casting all the spells you want you have to plan ahead and decide what is more helpful to you at any given time. Crafting was poorly done. Felt like fulfillement of Kickstarter promise without much meat behind it.

Well, IE games are still fantastic. That said changes introduced by Obsidian I see and fixes to issue Baldur's Gate and Co. had. Unlimited resting was one of them, bad spell balance (including prebuffing) was another. It seems Deadfire aims to be a sequel and improvement over PoE rather than recapturing nostalgia which hopefully will result in a better computer RPG all together. Time will tell. I would certainy like to see an interesting way of using character abilities and spells outside combat, but prebuffing isn't one of them. I think Divinity did a good job thanks to its turn based systems. Spells would decay very quickly in real time so you could cast a spell before initiating combat but it wasn't as crazy as IE.

If quests will take place mostly in contained areas it would work, yes. However, if quests tend to hop from one map to another (like in PoE) it might be more confusing that anything else, at least in a way I approach the game - I tend to follow quest line threads rather than cleaning areas. I think filter option would be nice. Maybe search for quests active in current area etc.

If I located to quote properly Hedhwr was a name of raider who was ordered to rape the woman.