Wormerine

Well, I didn't mean to suggest that languages should be a skill you can choose. Rather it could be tied to your background - so one language + commontongue per character. The idea is, that the language would come in play only in certain situations. In the example I gave in my first post: you aproach two Vailian merchants talking. You don't know language, so you don't understand them. They notice you, and you start conversation with you in commontongue. However, if you do know the language, you do pass the skill check, and can understand what they are talking about. Something you can reference when talking to them, or what might be helpful to you in some way (quest related, item related, just flavour text) etc. Naturally it would be silly, if longer conversations would be written in made up language with a translation in the tooltip.

I did like how PoE handled resting. I thought it made sense, was thematically appropriate, and well... worked. There is one good thing, which comes from rests - there is an element of resource management. I do remember sleep scumming when I played BG back in the day. With pillars I found balance quite well done. I never run out of supplies (even though I never played below hard/PotD), however limitation on rests allowed did force me to think more carefully about what I am doing. Not overcasting if I don't need to. I liked it. It wasn't an issue, but it did encourage thinking, befoe activating limited use abilities. More involved mechanic might be welcome, but not necessary needed in my humble opinion.

Here is a crazy idea I wanted to share: I remember in one of the twitch-streams Josh mentioning that the annotaion system from Tyranny is being moved to PoE2: Deadfire. It will provide not only lore but also translation of foreign languages. Now I assume it is nothing big, just couple words, or phrases here and there. BUT WHAT IF: There are many factions from different regions. They speak different languages. WHAT IF you could only understand languages you know as a character - for example in PoE1 I played as an Orlan from Old Vailia. That would mean my character understands Vailian. The game would provide translation of Valian phrases but not Aedyrian or language of native Deadfire tribes. On the other hand, I might have Aloth in a party and he might act as a translatior for the Aedyrian. It might give your character and party a better sense of belonging and origin. Now, WHAT IF the foreign conversations weren't just small phrases. WHAT IF when walking up to a couple of Vailians talking you would be able to overhear a bit of their conversation. It would be a gibberish if you don't know the language, but you would learn something more, if you do. Some flavour text, get insight into their motivations, extra details about quest etc. Now if that would be implemented into quest design it could get interesting - Opening new ways, hints about possible ways to resolve situations, extra loot stashes. What is more, as a character you might get drawn to the faction which speaks your native language, as your interactions with them would be more... complete so to speak. I think it would be a nice and fluid way of connecting character with his background and the world around him/her. Naturally, the idea isn't simple at all, as it would require dedicated writing and quest design. But hey, just throwing it out there.

Yeah, that is right, I am not a fan of cooldown based combat (Dragon Age, Tyranny.) Not that the cooldowns are bad themselves. Just the way they were implimented in DA and Tyranny was poor. It took a lot of choice out of the combat. Infinity Engine combat was based on choice - how to buff, how to debuff. It is not perfect and a more intuitive combat system would be appreciated. In Tyranny there is no choice. You have abilities which you spam whenever they are available. It is a mindless system and one which gets dull after a longer period of time. I like Tyranny and KOTOR as they were short RPGs and didn't have time to get bored with combat (and were very storydriven). DA:O on the other hand? oh gosh, most of the game was combat with an unengaging system. So yeah, some of the things they mention do worry me though I will wait with my judgement until the game is out. PoE combat can be improved, and I hope it is what they are doing.