Zed

obsidian are obsessed over mouse movement effeciency for some reason. it seems much more important to them than aestethics and readability. whatever they do, I hope they won't use IWD2-style small boxes portraits. it's ugly as hell. portraits should be portraits, with portrait dimensions.

IWD1 was fine IMO. A lot of combat but at least it was varied. IWD2 is garbage in every ragard compared to IWD1. BG2 struck a good chord with its encounter design. Just remove the ability to rest-farm monster xp, and it'll be optimal.

I would like a few of the most powerful items to be restricted to certain classes, yes. Especially otherwise boring classes like the Paladin. It might feel meta-game'ish, but it adds incentives for replaying the game too.

How about letting your backers know what you'll show at rezzed? Can we expect prototype gameplay? Can we expect new information? You didn't even mention it in this week's update... so perhaps we should expect nothing new? Saturday 22nd June 12pm - Panel: How can new business models improve PC gaming? 1pm - Total War: Rome 2 2pm - A look back at Frozen Synapse and a look forward to Frozen Endzone 3pm - Dreamfall Chapters 4pm - Project Eternity 5pm - Sir, You Are Being Hunted (eurogamer will stream it online: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-18-rezzed-developer-sessions-to-be-streamed-online )

... But will Paladins have Cormyr swords?

I like arbritary class restrictions like "gnomes can't use big weapons", "clerics can only use bludgeoning weapons". Why? Otherwise I feel like the choice of items is too streamlined. Simply pick whatever has the highest numbers. Also, I feel like penalties like "can't use x items" add to the characterization.

I think they should invest a bit in VO sets (generic lines for combat and such). These are re-usable for future P:E titles. 3 male, 3 female would have been enough with just 1 PC, but since they're making the adventurer's hall, I'm thinking 6 male 6 female. These generic PC voice sets don't need any star power VAs, and I'm sure one VA can do like 2-3 sets. For the actual game NPCs, I think "hello" lines are enough, with the exception of perhaps central characters like an antagonist (e.g. Irenicus) having full VO.

I don't agree with 1). Instead, I would like this see buffs be stronger and last for a shorter time. This combined with a limited amount of casts per battle would make buffs part of the tactical gameplay. I would really not want to see macros.

character sheets and inventory screens should be full-screen. in fact, with wide-screen and higher resolution, it allows for both on the same screen.

It's not. Finished BG1 last week and been playing BG2 since. The interface is perfect. It adds a certain depth and feeling to the game which is not reproducible in a minimalist UI. Also Sawyer has stated their intentions to go with a chunkier UI so there's no debate about what will happen with P:E, even though I like the discussion.

It should be like the IE games since that's what we pledged for. If it's not like in IE... then it's not like in IE. Not much of a spiritual follow-up then is it?

The UI in Fallout: Tactics doesn't support a heavy amount of text or an action bar. The UI in Dota 2 serves completely other needs than P:E. For instance, it's single-character. Also, the dialogue window is not a waste of space. There's a reason why it's the centerpiece of the BG games. What Dota 2 did really well that could actually work in any modern game's UI (in terms of resolution) is color ambiance. The UI is all rock, basically, but still colored by hints of sparks and other (non-intrusive) effects. I prefer Sensuki's edit to the original but it still leaves a feeling of utilizing too much vertical space. Vast majority will play in 16:9: take some off the edges. I really do think IWD2 has a ****ty UI. The party arrangement in a vertical line of IWD, BG, and BG2 is great. Widescreen is no reason to remove it.

alright here's my mock-up for a much more baldur's gate-ian UI (never liked iwd's ui) chat is on left - chat navigation is closer to "click-centric area" of party management etc. bigger 4:3 (or whatever) portraits. not ugly square ones. uses the horizontal space given by widescreen reso + incorporating BG ui elements everybody loves. doesn't look as "wide" and awkward. still scalable. allows for resizable chat for all those walls of text and combat txt overview

That UI isn't very good. Here's why: The portraits are very important: you click them to switch characters, right-click to open inventory or what have you. In-between the portraits and game-screen you put functions and abilities. Missclicks ahoy. Portraits also need to be bigger. Why not use portrait dimensions (as used in BG2?) If you're gonna have good-looking portraits, show em off. Also, this gives room to show character statuses on the portrait. The dialogue part doesn't look resizable like in the BG games. It really should be. Preferably it should also be on the left, with a scrollbar on right. I'll draw a mock-up of what I think would be a better solution.

I'm playing BG at the moment, strolling through Cloakwood (4 - before Cloakwood Mines). Keep running into this goddamn übernymph teleporting all over the map, casting (dire?) charm from inside fog of war. Really irritating... but fun because it's one of the few really mobile enemy creatures in the game. I'm thinking this Blood Woman could fit a similar role Oh and this gives me a bit of a Scandinavian folklore vibe. Probably because it's a woman creature... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_folklore#Female_creatures

I agree with this. Not a good concept for the RTwP IE-like combat system either. You're gonne be pausing like a mofo, and just for the monk too. Doesn't sound very fun at all. Just make the game turn-based if you want to implement stuff like this.

Thanks for the update. Not as exciting as next week's update will be... but still. Please ask Tim Cain to sit in on one of MCA's Arcanum sessions to give some dev commentary. That would be awesome.

Now that's what I call a dashing hat. I can't wait to see the result of your experiments. This has the potential to become the best game ever. Actually, I would be kind of disappointed if it wasn't -- everything about it is perfect.

I played all the Mass Effect games because I'm into romancing alien babes. As RPGs, they were complete garbage. Combat worse than KotOR, characters more Bioware stereotypical than ever, char development and stat management developed for a teen audience and finally a really ****ty plot.

looking forward to seeing the website. hopefully some new stuff on it, like wallpapers, perhaps? remember: no flash. no bg music.

So Avellone's Arcanum playthroughs are gonna take tuesday slots from game updates? I thought that was just a fun bonus thing.

I think we're gonna need an in-depth Sawyer update on Godlikes as a playable race and what that entails. :D

I really like the concept of the godlike. I hope Godlikes recieve an XP penalty if they're turbo-boosted like the planetouched of D&D. Are you duplicating all animations across all characters or will you make a few alterations? For instance, it would look a little silly if a tiny dwarf and giant whatever-you-have-that-is-big swings 2h weapons the exact same way.

Obsidian should release a wallpaper version of that first concept art of Sagani. Nice coloring but I really don't like Forton's stance. It looks like he's heroicly taking a crap, standing up.

No Pantheon is complete without the "forgotten ways" or "old religion". Either druidic or diabolic. I would also like Gods that aren't necessarily just "God of Healing" or "God of Battle". How about... "God of Fertility", "God of Luck and Fortune"? If farming is prominent, then there should definitely be a God for that.