Epaminondas

It's an excellent game. Well written (with a few glaring exceptions), fun combat system, a huge amount of content. Sadly, the bugs are bad. However, the real problem for me is the utter confusion of the kingdom building aspect of the game. When I got the warnings before the abaddon event that was instant loss, I thought I had to do something in the kingdom building interface. However, when I went over to varnhold vanishing, I kept getting missed events that hit my kingdom. If they simply revamped the system to make it less painful to go exploring, then it would be a much better build. At least in my opinion.

Some sort of Abaddon thing ended my game. I think that's my cue to restart. Sad to have ended in such a way, but I think I understand how it works much better now.

I finally slept with Valerie. I normally don't pursue romances, but I've never seen a character more in need of getting laid than Valerie. ...And she doesn't hassle with folks needlessly anymore.

I'm increasingly irritated by how intrusive kingdom building is on my adventuring. Before, it sucked that I couldn't do things like get a new territory or increase an advisors stats without risking a whole slew of bad events failing while time passed. However, if you get too far away, you don't even see the events. So, I was out in Varnhold trying to adventure and those events hits me out of nowhere. I really wish they had fine tuned kingdom building better.

Ah, it's clear. You're a crusader. Well, the game uses the same rules and feats. I imagine there might be those who disagree even in the context of the CRPG. For myself, I'll talk about the pnp experience and there's nothing you can do about it. I say that without rancor. I don't want a duel or vendetta. Just a difference of opinion on the build issue, I guess.

This is... simply untrue. I'm in a pen and paper Pathfinder game right now with a fighter who is a melee master. He's not a tank, he's a monster masher. My cleric is the tank, which isn't the role I really wanted but it actually works very well. Meanwhile, the other fighter is a bow specialist. If we had another fighter, he could be the sword and board sort of tank. Saying that these three fighter types are the same is like saying that all clerics are the same because they're healers or all rogues are the same because they can either be ranged or melee. It's like saying that all Paladins are the same because [insert reasoning here]. ...And there are more fighter builds, I didn't mention the dual wield specialist who, owing to extra feats, is not the same but no less effective than a ranger. With the feats and builds out there, you can do all sorts of neat things now. It's not just fighters who had their class broadened in 3.x and beyond. I remember when a thief's backstab had to be melee and he could only use a dagger. I remember when elves were only fighter/wizards. ...And, even with all that, fighters *can* multiclass. As you said, even if you feel a little hamstrung, the resolution is to use multiclassing rules that didn't exist before. The fact is, fighters are much more interesting to build now than they were in 1st/2nd edition. After all that, I have to admit that fighters fall into my least favorite class category. At least for me to play. I like wizards. I always play a wizard EDIT: Didn't finish a thought above which made things look weird. I tidied it up. I would also submit that Clerics aren't all healers, but that's how people used to see them. Clerics, due to spells, arms, armor, and other new factors, are possibly the most diverse class in the game right now.

Single target control/enchants work well for me. I don't worry about damage as much as long as I can crowd control sufficiently.

Yeah, buffs that make the combat much much easier don't actually do the direct damage and so mages suck? Buffs are awesome in this game. I agree that getting back some really brilliant direct damage spells would be good, but good God, when you march all over the enemy because of the buffs your casters provide, and when you take much much less damage, it would be nice not to hear that your wizard doesn't pull his weight.

Yeah, but at least they get access to a huge amount of feats that lets them differentiate a bit more. in 1st and 2nd, it was basically about gear, which made them a bit more boring to me. Now, you can go defense, offense, bow, melee, or some Frankensteinian build.

I keep looking at this thread. You guys are wearing me down. I might actually throw a few shekels at this kickstarter.

While on the way to a friend's Halloween party, a car accident occurred in front of us. We stopped immediately. My wife called 911 and I went to help the victim. She was unable to move for pain in her back. I checked her legs and arms and she had no broken bones, but that's the extent of what I was willing to do before the licensed professionals arrived. Anyhow, here I am in my Roman Senator costume, kneeling on the freeway, holding this lady's phone up to her face so she could talk to family members. After the cops were done talking to me, I went back to her and said a quick prayer before we got back on the road. She seemed to appreciate it. I hope so. Anyhow, she'll never forget the huge Roman guy who helped her and said a prayer over her (to Asclepios for all she knows).

I played very briefly on challenging, but I kept redoing my character and I forgot to switch it last time. I screwed up my build completely in the end. I really enjoy the specials for divination, but the dearth of spells sucks. I think I might specialize enchanter next time. Then I'll give up necromancy and... I dunno yet. At least there are some decent Lawful Good options and some of them are tough ones but figure are in character. I *just* figured out how to build a second village. I have four ****ing regions and my capitol is still a village. Good Lord, it just irks me. My fault, of course, although I do think the kingdom building stuff can be quite opaque.

Oh, I think that fighters are perfectly legitimate. ...And, with the advent of 3.5 and subsequent version of DnD, fighters are an interesting class to play. I was just pretending fighters were army/marine infantry just to have fun. ...And, just in case there are any army pukes or devil dogs out there, I immensely respect you and your service. :wry grin:

On normal, the game is absolutely forgiving of virtually all mistakes. I've had one battle that I just couldn't win and had to resolve through dialogue. Actually, I prefer dialogue, but I had to resolve it with the chaotic good option instead of the lawful good option. I could have saved and eventually made my persuasion check, but that seemed cheesy, and I sometimes take neutral or chaotic good options anyway. Other than that, there hasn't been any really ugly fights in quite some time. This game really rewards buffing. Throwing long lasting good buffs on your companions ensures that fights go quickly. You can truly see the difference. I've rarely used my mage for direct damage, although fireball and energy channel can pack a punch on a bunch of baddies at the same time. Keep us posted as to how your fighter works. I mean, your first mistake is picking a ground pounding infantry grunt for your main character, but not everyone has great tastes during character creation. :tongue in cheek grin:

****ing Spiders! ...And Twisty Passages. Anyhow, can anyone tell me if there's some reason to keep Dinosaur Bones? It says that it's a spell component, but it doesn't say which spells. If it's some sort of necromancy crap, I'm offloading them. I have no use for necromancy.

At this point, I'm getting close to what has to be at least a chapter ending in Kingmaker. Great game with some really irritating flaws. One of the best DnD games I've ever played, though. Well... Pathfinder, but you know what I mean.

Yeah, that's a real bummer. Makes me wonder what else they'll change. On the other hand, I've learned to temper both my expectations and my ire pre-release. Hell, with everything being released early all the time, I've learned not to care. If It's really important that it not be buggy, I just wait until the 'official' release day. Anyhow, my favorite class will always be a fast talking wizard, but I'm willing to overlook one or two twists if it gets the bulk of 3.5 right.

Wait... What? Wizards are niw sorcerers? Hmm, I thought this was a 3.x game?

yeah, I much prefer turn based combat *and* real positioning. Granted, a lot easier to flank/back stab in Kingmaker, but I like the rules. 3.5 is my favorite even still. The do like streamlining the skills, though. With a good DM, all those skills could be put to good use, but even PnP it's tough, let alone in a CRPG.

I don't know if I'm just lucky or more patient, but the load screens aren't all that long for me. They are numerous, though. A lot of transition screens. The kingmaker part is fun, and I don't even mind the suspension of disbelief elements to party members and whatnot. However, I hate that kingdom management imposes on me. I completely agree with Sloth about the whole getting messages that I must go to the throne room ASAP. If things would just hold in place as Gromnir says so that I don't end up being squeezed on both the RPG/quest end *and* the kingdom building end, I would be behind the barony aspect whole-heartedly. In an RPG, the kingdom/resource management can be a nifty addition, but it shouldn't impinge on adventuring and role-playing.

I agree. I haven't looked it up recently, but teleporting to a place you know extremely well shouldn't be a problem even for the basic teleportation spell, let alone teleport without error or whatever it's called. I think you should be able to teleport to your bedroom in which you've spent so much time without any risk at all.

Well, I just had the game stop and let me address things in the middle of claiming another region. Last time I did that, I got royally screwed. Maybe it's in the patch. Indira posts the patch notes, which I blithely ignore. At any rate, I still have to restart the rest of the claim process, seven days left, but this is *much* better. EDIT: nope, lied. It still went through stuff. It's just that these events stuck around long enough for me to finish. I've often thought about what you said, majestic, but if they denied you companions because your barony would fail without advisors, this game would truly suck. They would either need more people available for advisors or more companions. As it is, while it is a bit jarring, it's certainly better than not being able to take the party you want. I think Volourn mentioned a teleport spell to move around with more alacrity. I don't think that's such a terrible idea, although I imagine the grognards would hate it. I kind of don't want it, but if they screwed over RPGing for the sake of kingdom building, I'd want teleport as a way to make it feasible to have both.

I'm thinking about restarting. Bugs suck, of course, but I've gone through without any real ugly bug related grief. However, the fact that I can't count on anyone taking care of my kingdom in situations where I leave for a fortnight to do something really irks me. There's no excuse that events unfold without any sort of management while I help an advisor or claim a new territory. Utter stupidity. Now, I can see that the kingdom doesn't manage as well during that time. Fair enough. That the event goes completely unanswered...? Who the hell thought of *that?*

I go against my advisors from time to time, but they don't seem too terribly angry with me.

For the kingdom management to be fun and not a chore, they have to balance the simulation with the whole "I got screwed because I wanted to play a CRPG and not a resource management game." Anyhow, I've liked the kingdom management so far except that while I'm working with one of my advisors to build up his or her scores, I get screwed by events that don't get any attention. That's not even simulationist. It's retarded. Anyhow, My people are level 8 at this point. I looked and it turns out that with my many restarts to build the exact character I want, I left the difficulty at normal last time. So, that's why the game has been so easy. I kind of suspected something because my build has several combat oriented flaws (although it's great for getting all the RP results). There's only one fight that I just couldn't figure out how to win. There's this fey chick who torments a little dwarven paint trader and I killed her ent things. Then she pops out. I try the lawful good dialogue option and fail. Then she pulls out a can of whoopass and it's brutal. I tried maybe seven times to figure out how to approach the battle, but there are too many of those little red capped runts and my party gets swarmed. I finally decided to go for the chaotic good dialogue option and got the swine hearted biddy off my back.