Wormerine

Obsidian tackles this issue in a different way. There is no health/endurance, meaning if you do well and no one falls in battle you will be just as good as you were before the engagement. If one of your characters fell he/she will gain a wound which can be removed via camping. More importantly though, the way spells work has been changed. While we will have to wait until beta to see how exactly it will work, we know that spells are no longer "per rest" resource. Instead you can cast up to two spells from each spell level every fight. More powerful spells will come with cast time and you can get interrupted which will result in loosing the spell. The renewable resource will allow you to empower spells (make them more effective/accurate) or use the same resource to cast a spell from a level you have already depleted. Hopefully, it will make engagements more interesting instead of either not using you abilities in easier fights or burning through tougher engagements by throwing everything you have at the enemy and then resting.

This... seems like a very logical argument. I didn't dive into game mechanics nearly as thoughtfully to figure out whenever my debuffs as effective as I am thinking they are. With limited amount of spells spellcasters will be able to cast in one battle making debuffs more reliable might be a way to go.

You would never even try it? What if you find out you like it? I would give it a shot at least. Lets be honest, this kinda of design doesn't have place in a game like PoE. A danger of going into a dungeon and getting stuck there clashes with the rest of the game. I love rogue-likes. Played way too much ADOM many moons ago. But you either create a game with save states or you create a one-life run. Shaking up core game design that much within the same game is a bad idea. If the game had a more modular nature, it might have been an interesting idea for a "weekly dungeon" feature. That said I would love to see non-indy rogue-like. And I mean rogue-like in its original meaning (we can have nice graphics though!)

I do like descriptive text very much. I wouldn't like for it to go away. What would improve quality of writing is better content design overall. I didn't feel like PoE suffered from too much writing but that they conveyed through writing too much. So many of games concept, events and characters were described to you rather than introduced via game content. Hopefully, bigger budget and more time to develop the sequel will fix that up.

Maybe so, as long as you explain what more hardcore means. I am! *can No, I mean I am explaining, right there at my post lol I see. 1) it doesn't hold your hand. 2) it doesn't highlight interactive objects, while it highlight everything else. I don't know, second one seems more like UI inconsistency rather than game design. Granted, there was one instance where a chest was hidden in/among bushes (might be more but I just missed them) but I would argue that stumbling into it wasn't nearly as rewarding as to force players to hover over every table and shelf to see if they can open it. A minor annoyance - a bit like I appreciate mod for XCOM2 which shows Pod activation tiles and their overwatch range - it's not like it gives you information you are not supposed to have, you just don't have to waste time counting tiles. Point no. 1 - fair enough. Though I feel it is more a case of focus and polish than "hardcore" design. That is why I was curious how do you define "hardcore". In my mind "hard core" means that it takes someone who is very much into the genre or this type of game to appreciate it - not something you can just pick up and play that easily. I feel DOS is very elegant and very approachable. Mechanics are easy to understand, world quite intuitive to interact with. Game is complex but "hardcore"?

Probably it would be better to contact Obsidian itself rather than community forums.

Maybe so, as long as you explain what more hardcore means. I am! *can

Maybe so, as long as you explain what more hardcore means. Its harder? I am not so sure, though I didn't try DOS on harder difficulties. It doesn't hold your hand, true, but that's because DOS is more of a mechanic based sandbox RPG than a storytelling RPG. PoE would fell apart if you could miss critical parts of the story, and DOS would fell apart if it wouldn't make you figure things out yourself as well, the quests themselves aren't all that interesting. I admit that there a parts of DOS I would happily skip. Shopping and inventory management is annoying due to the time it take to go from one shop to another, and how fiddly inventory is (please please Obsidian, can me make sure we can see all of party members' inventory on ONE screen as it was in PoE1? Switching between characters is really annoying). I do share your hope that Deadfire will open up a bit. Various mechanics they expand on (stealth, picking pockets, reverse picking pockets, exploding barrlels, factions, relationships) give me hope that they will make more flexible and involving quests. My favourite quests in the game were Roderick's hold and monastry in WM2 and I hope that they are looking to give that kind of depth to their whole game this time around. We will see. Beautiful thing of having multiple RPGs with different strengths might lead to devs learning from each other resulting in more ambitious game overall. PS. I am refering to DOS as I have not played DOS2 and probably won't be able to play it for a while .

I am actually only now giving D:OS a second shot and I am having quite a good time. I still feel it works much better in coop though. Many of its design decisions are made with two players in mind. While having to create two characters is odd but creating your character, while your friend creates his on the other side of the screen was really cool. I don't hate camera THAT much but it is a much less smooth experience than a old good isometric provides. I actually disliked DA:O camera more - I felt it liked to obscure things with architecture a bit too often. No button to highlight for interactive objects is odd. I missed quite a bit of things on my first attempt due to missing a shelf with important info. What I do very much like in Divinity:OS is how consistant the game is. All spells and abilities are available outside combat (as well as other items are available in combat) and some of them can be used in a creative way to interact with enviroment. Thanks to it, it doesn't have thing clear cut-out - dialogue, combat, expolration - design that PoE has. Things intertwine in a very organic way. The story is nothing to be bragging about but it can get a chuckle out every once in a while.

I do like fixed isometric as I don't feel like full 3D makes game more fiddly to play without adding much. In case of Divinity it helps with making game editable (with GM mode etc.).

Thoughts? I got it. You make a Troubadour chanter, single class, and their name is Cranberry. You can thank me later. Why Cranberry? Sorry to ruin the joke.

Sure, but those are aimed at the very specific crowd only. I doubt they reach a wider audience than those really interested in Obsidian or PoE. Speculation time - publisher might provide various ads on websites, making deals with outlets to get a word out, reaching to audiences of their other titles. Who knows how much paperwork is needed to publish game globally. I imagine that if the work of a publisher wasn't significant devs wouldn't cooperate with them willingly.

Eder? Really? I couldn't care less on which side his brother fought. Devil was fun, but the conclusion came too quick. Wouldn't have minded to kill some more guys. But what I am talking about isn't wether the quests were fun or the NPCs were nice persons. The only NPC that really seemed to be affected by this rather sick little world was Durance. The only NPC that reflected about that world was Durance. And the only NPC that gives you a glimpse into the mind of the people that started that war, killed that god and had to deal with all they had done is Durance. Of course he's an ass. It's hard to live in such a world and not be an ass. Ok, I have to strongly disagree with you. Most of the companions supported games themes and reflected the world around them. To me finale wouldn't be nearly as engaging if not for the companions.

I likem a lot. I didn't expect them to be game changers, but some of them seem quite interesting. For most part they seem to ephesize certain aspect of a class and that is what I am looking for.

So everyone: what's your thoughts on the change of how multiclassing works? I welcome the change - the only contact with 3rd edition of D&D multiclassing was NWN2 and I did find the system overwhelming. A more restricted, but safe, way of doing it means I might actually multiclass. However, I am interested what some of you minmaxers thing of it? Disappointed? Indifferent?

As a big fan of stealth genre I can see benefits of multi-layered walking speed.

I agree completely. The problem is the system you are talking about already exists. Except instead of walking there is sneaking. You move slower but are in the "sneak" mode. As PoE had a noise simulation I imagine running is noisy and if you run in hostile situation you can attract enemies. We know for sure that spells make various amount of noise, meaning if you are sneaking through a castle and attract a guard and you decide to dispatch him with a fireball you might attract nearby patrols. What people are asking is literally a fluff option to walk for immersion sake for role playing purposes.

Yeah, that's what I thought you were referencing, and have no idea wtf they were doing... Crazy punks.Improv... I don't think I am a very good comedian. https://youtu.be/huJ81Mq2y34

Yes, Doctor! Yes, Yes, YESSSSSSS!!!! But wait.... now I want to be able to teleport everywhere in Deadfire. What have you done? YOU CHARLATAIN! YOU MADE THINGS WORSE!!!

Well Doctor... I suppose I want my character to be what I can't be in real life. He gets all the attractive women. He is an asset to the comunity. He is important and respected. He fights injustice and evil when he sees it. He is also more... well... fit. You see I am always late. And it is not because of poor planning... there just aren't enough hours in a day. Now, if I could only move faster. Sadly with a backpack and violin in hand I can't run very far. So after leaving work I am late for a bus I could have caught. I could sleep in on weekends if I could do my errands quicker. So when I am gaming I want my character to run. Always. Not because he has to. But because he can.

They tend to release those mid week though, right? (Tuesday/Wednesday)

At the very least the end state of the companions, I assume that if it is covered in the ending slides, and is not 100% contained to the Dyrwood, it is likely to get a passing mention. Also, the white march choices. Gah, I have to finish TWM, too? I backed POE1 and haven't finished it because I just don't care about the story, and I backed POE2 for some reason anyway. I'm trying to finish it by sticking mainly to the main quest line. You don't have to do anything. From what was said save from the first game is not recommended in any way, unless you really want to continue that particular character. You will be able to define all the choices when starting new game without a save anyway. That said, White March is worth it. In my humble opinion it is the best content in the game especially the monastry in WM part II.

I agree, but if all characters can have the mechanics ability and the mechanics ablility enables you to pick locks, disarm traps and probably more stuff in PoE2, then where is the difference in method? In BG your mage could open locks, but he had to use a spell. OK, that was a bit clunky, but it would be an interesting thing to expand upon. What's the point in having a thief if everybody can open locks? What's the point in having a ranger, when everybody can use traps? Yes of course, you can invent something, but in my opinion that would be only to justify those classes. And to be honest: Backstabbing is just playing with bonuses. It does not immediately feel that way, but it is. Basically there is no real difference between backstbbing and lets say Wounding Shot or something. You know that ranger thing with the arrow icon. For me the real distinction begins, when a class is able to use a game mechanic, the others can't. Didn't they do that to some extend already? I really liked how different classes had different mechanics attatched to them - cyphers gained focus from damage, while chanters neede phrases to cast spells, rangers had a pet, barbarians AOE attacks etc. With rogues and fighter the issue was that they didn't do anything particularly interesting. After just being WOTC for XCOM2 I wonder if it wouldn't be cool to have rogues operate from stealth a bit like the Reapers in said expansion.

It's not as if Obsidian abandoned PoE after initial release. Though none of the free updates were as significant as EE for D:OS they did improve their base game over time. It's really heartwarming to see devs care so much for their product. D:OS approach reminds me of early Project Red with their EE update for original Witcher. Being commited to leaving good game behind, instead of maximising profit can came back to you.

I am pretty sure you will have to. All assets are new so you will have to recreate you character. You will be able to change class for sure (after all misterious stuff happens and you are back at square 1). During the stream Josh said that they are not sure if they will allow you to change your race/background (probably not) but if they do, there will be a story reason for it.