Luckmann

I'm not sure I ever used the scripts in BG2. Honestly, I often have to even turn off the AI, but I do play with it on most of the time, simply because I don't want my companions to stand there dumbfounded in the middle of combat unless I give them specific orders to hit something adjacent to them. But with the Engagement mechanic working (sic) like it does in PoE, I'll probably have to turn AI off permanently and hope for the best. Imagine trying to script around that, yikes.

It has been said that there are a few (probably very few, I would think) quests that can only be resolved at night, but overall, no, there aren't any mechanical effects from it being night, unfortunately. I would have loved it if it was at least easier to stealth at night (á la Infinite Engine) but with the shallow stealth mechanic of PoE, I wouldn't expect that at all (nor have I noticed anything to suggest that in the beta).

I hear this once in a while and it infuriates me. The colour blue is quantifiable, it doesn't matter if blue is actually blue or not, it is a specific wavelength of light. It is not arbitrary and it doesn't matter if what someone else sees is actually labelled "blue" or anything else; it's all the same thing either way. God. Dammit. Doesn't matter, because you will be hearing the same thing, for the same reason. Now, you might have different thoughts as to what it means, but you are definitely hearing the same thing. It's all the same vibrations.

Methinks you mean "Godlikespeed." Speedforce Godlike?

Which is really my main gripe with the changes. While yes, in v392 Perception reigned supreme thanks to the +Accuracy and Accuracy being incredibly overvalued, the new system seems to have created several dump stats. I didn't even know that; yet more questions related to Interrupt that I didn't even know I had. Which is why I really dislike Engagement "as is". It doesn't do anything interesting or add something meaningful when it's not necessary for it to fulfil it's stated function (i.e. when you face a low number of opponents; you're going to win anyway) and it's detrimental to gameplay when it would need to fulfil it's stated function and actually contribute something meaningful (i.e. a large number of opponents). It just doesn't add anything useful. It's effective function alternates between doing nothing meaningful, and actively taking large creamy dumps on the player for trying to play the game.

PoE is going to have it's own Nexus site. Setting up a Steam Workshop would be incredibly counterproductive, so I wouldn't count on it.

Wrong section.

I know, but it's not particularly clear on the matter. Coming from IE (and other games) interrupt is something that practically only affects casters, and exactly how interrupt works in PoE isn't.. clear at all. Also, I keep asking myself why Perception would grant Interrupt at all, really. A well-placed blow interrupts better than a regular blow? I mean.. I'd expect them to pretty much just interrupt just as well. I'd just expect interrupt to be a function of damage or pain caused, and.. I don't know. I think the Ability Scores still need adjustment and be moved around a bit more, but at this point it's hard to discuss specifics because we haven't seen how it works at the moment, and v392 doesn't apply anymore due to a wide variety of changes.

Everything I have read, including statements by the developers point towards this game being more like BG1 than any of the other IE games. You probably shouldn't use that as a blanket statement, because so far PoE doesn't really have anything up on BG1. However, yeah, in regards to the combat, it appears to be predominant in the same vein as BG1.

Backwards compatibility. That's something I've always wanted to see in games like this, but to the best of my knowledge, no-one has ever done it. That is, as the game gets a sequel or an expansion, older versions of the core game gets updated to accommodate the new features. Let's say that PoE2 adds a new class (which I see no reason to do), I want to see that class available in PoE1. Let's say they add ammunition and throwing weapons (which they really should), I would like to see PoE1 updated with the same content. And so on and so forth, so that when the game line can truly be called concluded, or at least until this particular part of the IP can be considered "finished", it provides a single, seamless (mechanically and visually; the narrative may change considerably, and even involve multiple different protagonists) experience. That's what I'd like to see for the future of PoE.

The wiki is largely outdated as of forever. I think a lot of people are just waiting for the game to actually be released.

Oh yeah in case no one answered this... No, range is no longer on the stat either. It now buffs interrupt chance (just like it did in the beginning) and it increases reflex saves. It seems a strange decision to me, since many people who playtested the earliest version were dumping perception. I'm not saying interrupt is bad, it just seems like a difficult mechanic to convey. I always thought modifying critical hit chance, piercing damage resistance, or increasing range were easier mechanics to understand since they also exist in other games. Honestly, my first thought when I got into the BB was "Interrupt? Is that really that useful, how often do you face casters, anyway...?". I'm still a bit confused, truth be told. My first idea for a character was a duelist (rapier) Paladin with high Perception and Resolve. But now I'll be really damn hard pressed to ever take Perception, and Resolve is a pretty bum stat for Paladins, so.. yeah.

I almost always play as an Intelligence 20 Aasimar as I find it easier to get into character.

I agree. If there's a run/walk toggle, there should also be a relevant difference. Given Sawyer's line of.. uh.. "thinking", I find it highly doubtful that walking will ever be anything other than a token feature made on principle by request. By ever chosing to walk you'd really just be gimping yourself.

Oh yeah in case no one answered this... No, range is no longer on the stat either. It now buffs interrupt chance (just like it did in the beginning) and it increases reflex saves. It always increased reflex saves, though. It was just unlisted before. That being said, I'm also sad to see +Range gone. It was interesting, and in this game could be fairly relevant. Less so due to "Combat Only"-abilities and gimped scouting/party Stealth, though, which is all kinds of sad.

Yes, it was mentioned in another thread that they're going to try to get the next (and likely last, unfortunately) BB out early this week.

I wouldn't call it "overwhelming" or "extreme(ly)", but fair enough. Honestly, before we have our hands on the rebalanced Backer Beta as well as the actual changes, it's very hard to tell for sure. But based on what we know, Might should be more valuable now in some (all?) regards. The complete no-brainer of taking absolutely anything that adds +Accuracy should be gone. Other things can compete with it now.

That's not true any more, though. They fixed the multiplier/integer bug(s), which has significantly devalued accuracy and individual character's reliance on it. I would not mind trying out whether Accuracy from Perception works again or not. Right now I think the stats are a bit wonky (especially how both +AoE and +Duration is tied to Intelligence and Resolve now will be something of an oddity for Paladins to pick, rather than the chief stat you'd expect them to take, but both those issues are really separate points).

I'm holding out hope that Edér will actually be able to end up as either a Fighter or a Rogue depending on your choices when you meet him, or something like that. That being said, judging by what we actually no, there's not really anyone to fill the shoes of the rogue, unfortunately. None of the known companions (which should unfortunately be all of them, in their shallow glory) appears particularily skulk-y or rogue-y, really. I would be very surprised if none of the companions functions as ranked up in Mechanics, though. Kana Rua as a chanter is likely ranked up in Mechanics, although I'd be surprised if he isn't majoring in Lore, judging by what we know of him. Durance, while a Priest, is another likely candidate, being that he runs around with a firearm and his faith appears fairly technically minded (although mostly aiming towards warfare, so it might not be applicable to Mechanics as used in PoE).

I'd be very surprised if the Hearth Orlan bonus isn't nerfed to hell and back before release, though. Either way, I'd really go for roleplay rather than anything else. A Pale Elf Barbarian sounds awesome and a really nice contrast to the impression I've gotten of Pale Elves so far. Go for it.

Agree completely. First, high-level skill checks should not necessarily come with great rewards. First and foremost it should provide interesting situations that may or may not be beneficial, and a skill check - no matter how high - should be a roadmap to the fabled +7 hackmaster. It makes it so that everyone will always completely and utterly specialize every character in their entire team. Second, I loathe the "higher skill checks at higher character levels for no discernible reason except linear progression"-thing. Skill checks, both high and low, should be spread out in the game. All the skill checks right before the central maguffin, the big bad, or the reveal shouldn't necessarily be hard skill checks, nor should the starting-level skill checks all be 1, 2 or 3. I'd absolutely love it if that Stealth 3 my character somehow ended up getting will be relatively relevant throughout the entire game, if I'm narratively rewarded for that 6 Lore I got on lvl 1 right in the starting area, and it's not just an artificial number that goes up while I'm playing. Obsidian have said that not everything you can do with Skill Checks will be automatically better than the alternatives - they're just meant to be alternatives, things you can't do otherwise, without skills. So I really hope they they thought of this, too.

Ah, you only failed the Literacy roll.

Not sure what will be doable in the final game, but afaik, you can add any Ability (or Talent) to yourself. However, I find it doubtful that this'd add the "spellbooks" and so on. Maybe they are also just background "abilities", but I don't know. But to an extent at least, yeah, you can create "hybrid" characters, if not classes. It'd be firmly into cheese and cheating territory, really.

Well, as a role player aiming to immerse myself into a game, that would be a real bummer for me. So NPCs are allowed to walk, but I have to run everywhere? Yes. Unfortunately. I cannot describe how much better it would've been to walk everywhere compared to running everywhere. I LoL No Both are bad. I prefer a walk option myself but not having the ability to run is infurating too. Especially when you are confronted with fetch quests and the like. That also counts towards other gernes. Theres several moments I remember when a game expected me to backtrack several locations and I was like fuuuuuuuuuuuu because the charachters were slow Both are questionable design choices. You might have failed your reading comprehension check there. I didn't say that not having an option to run wouldn't be infuriating. I said that always walking would be preferably to always running. Obviously, like I said, the best option would be to have both (sans combat, possibly). Both, either always walking, or always running, are bad. But always running is worse. Let me know if I need to draw you a spreadsheet and a diagram to explain the post. Yeah, without working out the animation, I think it'll just look weird to have the walking animations apply to armed "combat characters", especially with movement speed-changing abilities. That said, I think it is unlikely to make it into an expansion, because I don't think Sawyer even sees the issue at all (like so often). I remember someone trying to ask him about it and got a confused response involving the Slow-Mo/Speed-Up option(s). Wish I could find it now, though.

But why? If you play a lot of "old" games supporting only 4:3/4:5 resolution, it’s far more comfortable to play them with a square screen than a wide one.My screen native resolution is 1280x1024, because most of my games are from that era and don’t look good on wide screens, even with mods (old IE games are a good example). I would be pretty pissed off if PoE were designed to look good on 16:9/16:10 only. I don’t keep this screen for gaming nostalgia only: Web browsing, office work, all this kind of stuff implying long texts are far easier to do on a square screen. You just can’t read text stretched on too wide an area, so all of this extra horizontal space is kind of wasted. But... why? I play 4:3-games on my own widescreen just fine, it's not like it stretches it or anything; all you end up with is black borders at the sides where you wouldn't have any monitor either way, so to say. The same goes for reading; there's extremely few sites that stretches text clear across the screen, there's a reason it's usually condensed to 1/3-2/3 of the screen, centred. I remember the old CRT monitors. I can't even look at one of them anymore without my eyeballs wanting to creep out through my ears and stab me in the back while I'm not looking.