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J.E. Sawyer

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Everything posted by J.E. Sawyer

  1. J.E. Sawyer
    Kaz will be doing a pass on all portraits for consistency.
  2. J.E. Sawyer
    Though I'm not sure if it's currently working in the BB, weapon-inflicted conditions like Stun should have their base duration modified based on the attack speed of the weapons, so fast 1H weapons have the shortest durations and 2H weapons have the longest. E: I know there's an issue in our bug list for Tim, but there are a lot of bugs to go through, so I'm not sure if it's been addressed yet or not.
  3. J.E. Sawyer
    Adam is a better person to ask about that than I am. Sorry.
  4. J.E. Sawyer
    Before we start tuning a lot of values, we need to get the basic bugs fixed. The next update to the BB should clear out the most frustrating aspects of simply selecting, moving, and executing commands reliably. Then we can look at overall combat speed tuning, among other things.
  5. J.E. Sawyer
    The Might bonuses are always multipliers, so if it feels like a particular ability or set of abilities does too much damage even when the Might is set very low, the problem is likely with the base damage values on those abilities.
  6. J.E. Sawyer
    I don't believe I've done that. The mechanics I've engineered for PoE were largely based on my experiences watching a wide variety of players run through the RPGs I've worked on from Icewind Dale to F:NV. E.g.: wild damage curves and all or nothing effects regularly frustrate a lot of people. Graze was added to normalize those effects over time. The Miss/Graze/Hit/Crit windows are always the same and I don't think they're notably more complex than variable Crit ranges, Crit multipliers, and rolling to confirm in 3.X.
  7. J.E. Sawyer
    Personally, I don't believe that Might is overpowered, but I do think Dexterity could be improved a bit more. The difference between 10 and 20 Dex is 10 points of Accuracy, which is only equivalent (sort of -- not exactly due to how Grazes/Crits work) to +2 in D&D terms.
  8. J.E. Sawyer
    Is that true of currency as well? It behaves the same way... It should be, yes. It sounds like the same bug manifesting in different ways.
  9. J.E. Sawyer
    It's very easy for us to remove recipes. My goal with the system was to allow people to fine-tune their gear over the course of the game. If the presented list of recipes seems too large or if it makes the unique items feel less unique, we can roll back exactly what's offered -- because there's quite a lot there. I think the best things to leave in the enchantment recipes are the bread-and-butter upgrades like quality (Fine/Exceptional/Superb), damage procs, and the more common elements. That way if someone just wants to keep an item competitive and viable throughout the game, they have the means to do that instead of needing to get rid of the item.
  10. J.E. Sawyer
    Camping Supplies are supposed to automatically go toward your party total when you pick them up, regardless of who did so.
  11. J.E. Sawyer
    It's not, no. First, you can only enchant weapons, armor, and shields. Cloaks, boots, bracers, etc. can't be enchanted. But even within the boundaries of weapons, armor, and shields, there are currently few (no? I can't remember) recipes for Spellbind and Spell Hold, which tend to be among the more distinguishing features.
  12. J.E. Sawyer
    Yes. Not many, but a few, and they won't be as powerful as Crom Faeyr given the power spectrum for PoE.
  13. J.E. Sawyer
    It should be, yes. Crafting is really just there to let people fine-tune things.
  14. J.E. Sawyer
    I don't know the exact count of items with detailed histories in the game, but there are dozens and dozens of them.
  15. J.E. Sawyer
    Banked companions gain XP at the stronghold at a reduced rate unless you send them on adventures, which helps make up the deficit.
  16. J.E. Sawyer
    If you adjusted the bonus scale for D&D's attribute system to go from -1 at 3 and +1 at 20, you would get the same outcome you're talking about, though -- and that would be a balance issue, not a fundamental mechanical issue. It may be that Might grants too little of a bonus from point to point, it may be that wizards' spells simply do so much damage that a low bonus doesn't have a large impact on their viability, or it could be something else.
  17. J.E. Sawyer
    Having more characters slightly reduces the overall XP you gain, but it isn't straight division. Currently I think there's a 5% reduction in overall XP gained between party members. We've structured it this way due to how characters are banked at the stronghold and because players can hire additional adventurers for money at one level below their own. If you play with a smaller party, you will level a little bit faster, but not tremendously faster.
  18. J.E. Sawyer
    This isn't true. If you look at the enchantment list, you will see that many of the things you mentioned are in the list (e.g. Wounding, Stunning, Draining are all in the weapon list -- only "slow" from your list isn't) and more. Though there aren't currently recipes for them, there are also Spellbind effects for weapons and armor (allow you to cast specific spells while the item is equipped) and Spell Holding for shields (go off when the holder is hit with a Crit). While the core list of effects are likely to remain accessible via the enchantment system, many of the Spellbind and Spell Holding effects are more likely to remain unique properties. We also have to build up to a BG2 level of power. PoE is not in the same "power band" as BG2. It's more comparable to somewhere between BG and IWD. There is already a property available in the Backer Beta called Overbearing that inflicts Prone, which also allows your rogue to gain Sneak Attack bonuses. The Stunning property would also do that, though either can be combined with Vicious to gain additional bonus damage.
  19. J.E. Sawyer
    The barbarian is about as bad at ranged combat as the ranger is at melee combat (actually worse, since the barbarian's Carnage abilities have no effect with ranged attacks). The wizard isn't good at either and has to rely on the inherent Accuracy bonuses of spells. All three can benefit from having a high Intellect or a high Might, but the classes still do have a focus to them.
  20. J.E. Sawyer
    Cassowaries are cool and mighty. Good idea for an expansion animal companion!
  21. J.E. Sawyer
    Animal companions in PoE are fundamentally melee-oriented. Most of the ranger's attack abilities can be used with melee as well as ranged attacks, but their base ranged accuracy is +15 (equivalent of +3 in D&D) above their base melee, so they're typically more effective with the animal companion running interference and the ranger using ranged weapons. I don't think we've talked about the full list of ranger animal companions, but they are (with current bonuses): * Antelope - Higher defenses. * Bear - Higher Damage Threshold. * Boar - Gains Might at low Stamina. * Lion - Terrifying Roar ability. * Stag - Carnage ability (like barbarian's, but limited-use) * Wolf - Faster movement rate.
  22. J.E. Sawyer
    Of course not. Not at all. If you don't have faith in the sincerity or consistency of what I write or say, why would you take me seriously? I try to be as forthright and consistent as I can be with everyone, but as much as I try to imagine things from other points of view, I ultimately can only see things from my perspective. If people see contradictions in what I'm writing, saying, and doing and I can't reconcile those contradictions, one way or another it's a failure on my part. Either I'm genuinely contradicting myself in word/deed or I'm not explaining myself well enough and the conversation becomes unproductive for everyone involved.
  23. J.E. Sawyer
    Yes, you are in control of how your companions advance. When they join the party, they are auto-advanced to their starting level, but you advance them after that point.
  24. J.E. Sawyer
    I also had the team implement Wild Wasteland in F:NV, an optional mode people could enable for wacky (including pop-culture) content. The common element is that they're optional. If you don't enable it, you'll never see it. I don't think you take most of the things I say take seriously, which is an unfortunate failure on my part, but hard to overcome.
  25. J.E. Sawyer
    Adam was experimenting with scaling meshes via associated bones (scaling weapons for race/sex variants was the ultimate goal, IIRC) and big heads were just one of the things he did to prove that it worked. I asked BMac to associate it with a menu option and that's about the extent of work that went into it. Comparing it to something like romances or multiplayer is disproportionate by a factor of at least 100.
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