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Valorian

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  1. Valorian
    And that's because? You guys throw that statement like it's truth revealed, but no one gave a strict answer why it cannot be done. All you guys do is tossing examples how it was done badly. It was explained more than a hundred times by dozens of Obsidian forumites. So you don't even have to google for an answer. Level scaling is in conflict, or disharmony if you will, with the very purpose of levels. Levels are meant to provide power and growth to the character, but this progression will be suppressed wherever level scaling is present. Distorting creatures based on PC level is a cheap and easy way to provide a continuous level of challenge (or continuous lack of challenge, depending on the difficulty setting). The reason why it was always done badly is because the concept is bad. And sad.
  2. Valorian
    Warping enemies' levels around your character's level or your party's power can't be done right, range or no range. Before you get too excited and immediately point out that you also mentioned time and story progression... I know. If someone feels like their game absolutely needs some sort of scaling (it doesn't), the best way to do it would be to tie the power of chosen and specific encounters with something other than PC level. For instance, they could bind scaling to the number of times the player uses the rest button (time progression) and like difficulty levels in PoE, scaling should be done by "replacing weaker enemies with more powerful types or increasing how many are present in encounters." That is, if they really want to scale something at all.
  3. Valorian
    Nothing is "needed" Sarex, but it's beneficial for the game. It separates, generally speaking, hit points into a tactical element (stamina) and strategical element (health). Since you suffer only 1/4 of damage to your health and stamina does regenerate after combat, you don't have to rest after every battle, but you still have to pay attention to your health.
  4. Valorian
    What confuses you about the stamina/health system? It has a clear purpose.
  5. Valorian
    What does that matter that one player would find max level and the other player would not if the player challenge remains similar? They will still have the same enjoyment of the game. Players who don't enjoy level scaling would not still have the same enjoyment of the game.
  6. Valorian
    The most recent quote from J. Sawyer, a few months old, about level scaling (already posted) is this one: "JS: It’s all pretty much set from the beginning. We may—we haven’t really looked into it a lot but we might do specific encounter scaling on crit-path stuff, but we haven’t so far done anything like that." Note how he uses the term encounter scaling instead of level scaling. Regarding the "but BG2 had it too!", that is invoked every time this topic pops up, there are two things to point out. The vast majority of encounters don't scale at all in BG2. I'm talking 99% of encounters (the game has well over 4000 creature files). Those encounters that do scale, never scale by level. The script has 2-3 encounter variants, composed of creatures with different names, stats and abilities. Was this encounter scaling necessary? It wasn't. Did it improve the game? No. BG1 level scaling, that is sometimes mentioned, is much like the Bigfoot. Some claim they've seen it, but nobody has any proof. Even Bioware realized that level scaling is simply dull and decided they're getting rid of it for DA:I, and said so proudly in the first gameplay video showcasing big open areas. This is the best decision they've made in the last 10 years.
  7. Valorian
    Strength is back.
  8. Valorian
    "Optimal killing potential" and "a wizard who kills things with magic" aren't the same thing. We also don't know enough about how the system will actually work to say that optimal killing potential will be the result of high dex and high might. Could be that he's great in mano-a-mano combat, and absolutely stinks if he's got to take on more than one enemy, or that he's rubbish against bosses because he hasn't got interrupt or penetration or what have you. Putting nitpicking aside for a moment will probably let you grasp the meaning of what people say. He clearly meant a wizard who's good at killing things. We have enough information about what attributes do. Might increases damage directly, dexterity increases accuracy . These are the two attributes that you'd want to raise if you wish to deal more damage with a specific character and consequently kill things faster.
  9. Valorian
    Because making a wizard good at one makes him automatically good at the other. It's not that a muscle wizard is stupid, it's the fact that if I want a wizard who kills things with magic he has to be a muscle wizard. I'm not saying that I don't want to be all FACE THE POWER OF MY MAGIC MISSILE HOAK HOGAN! SKRONK!, just that I find it stupid that if I want to do damage via magic that's my only option. That's not really entirely true, though. If you want to make a wizard who has the highest raw damage when he hits normally, then you pump might. But pumping intellect will increase AoE size and make your DOTs last longer, while increasing dexterity will make you hit more often and shift you towards more critical hits. Those are both viable directions to go to increase damage without increasing "the damage stat." It is true, what he said is correct: "if I want a wizard who kills things with magic he has to be a muscle wizard" (if he wants to augment the wizard's killing potential he has to raise might, and dexterity, I'll add). So you need a dexterous muscle wizard for optimal killing potential... with magic.
  10. Valorian
    So many possibilities... -give them half the attribute bonus from the base race and then the Godlike-type specific attribute bonuses on top of it -give them the full attribute bonus from the base race and then the Godlike-type specific attribute modifiers on top of it (even +/-) -modify their attributes based on race only Will a couple of +/- attribute points disrupt balance and require rigorous testing? Unlikely, but it's great for flavor.
  11. Valorian
    I agree with you and I'll add that one of the stretch goals, the 2.2 million one, was "new Region"(.."the world of Project Eternity grows in a major way with the inclusion of a whole new faction and the territory it holds"). So there's a "base" region and a new region that was unlocked with a stretch goal. They didn't specify the number of areas or levels like they did with the megadungeon, but I guess the base region could be a game on its own (hopefully including a decent number of wilderness areas), then maybe with the new region goal achieved the number of wilderness and other areas increased to represent this new territory. Cities and dungeons (mega or not) can't be substitutes for wilderness areas, especially if you're allowed to explore the wilderness non-linearly, like in BG1.
  12. Valorian
    I'm counting: Druid Grove, Umar Hills, Temple Ruins, Forest of Tethyr and finally Small Teeth Pass/North Forest which should really count as one area due to size. I guess we could also count the entrance to the Windspear Hills dungeon as wilderness. There's a dearth of wilderness, yes.
  13. Valorian
    Is this still the case? BG2 has about 5 (relatively small) wilderness areas. BG1 has ~40.
  14. Valorian
    Why? Making smart decisions and superior knowledge of the game and its mechanics should be essential for that. Because it would be nicer if there's some (marginal) incentive for doing so, other than shooting yourself in the foot and masochism. It doesn't even need to be split into 6 parts. One solution would be to increase XP gain by 15% for each empty party slot, instead of splitting it among party members.
  15. Valorian
    How is that an essential mechanic? I'd rather it be an actual challenge - which is what soloing/small parties should be in a party based RPG. Instead of being a challenge, solo/small parties, BG1/2 in particular, make 95% of the game easier which is illogical. Even worse is when NPCs join at your level so you could easily have a full party near level-capped in chapter 2. Sometimes you want to build an AOE focused group or something and smaller crew would make sense there for combat efficiency but you shouldn't be overcompensated for choosing to fight 10 dudes by yourself. Among other things, that's because in BG1/2 a level 5 character has ~5x more HP than a level 1 character of the same class. In PoE that won't be the case. You'll be at a big advantage having, e.g., 480 HP (6 lvl 4 characters) vs 110 HP (1 lvl 8 character). They all need to go down for GAME OVER. Splitting XP will be essential for soloing.
  16. Valorian
    Or a scripted interaction where you have to arm-wrestle someone... or every time you want to bash a door down.. Magic wouldn't work in all cases. Also, wizard specific text assumes your wizard would do it that way, just 'coz wizard. He could be a really strong wizard who would not use magic (assuming he has the appropriate spell at all) to execute demanding physical actions.
  17. Valorian
    I also don't think it would be super complex to balance a more nuanced attribute system. They're introducing an interesting concentration/interruption element to combat, which is certainly harder to properly balance than assigning magical and physical damage (and accuracy) to a different attribute. I understand what they're trying to do with attributes, but I believe it's not needed or worth it to sacrifice the RP aspect of an attribute, because the same goal can be accomplished without pushing RP out of the way. What do we really get out of an attribute that increases damage with melee weapons, spells and magic, pistols, helps you bash doors.. It could be as well called POW!, SLAM! or KABOOM! For this reason I'd really like Might (or Strength) to affect magic resistance for spellcasters, but not spell damage. I think it would also make room for some neat mage/fighter builds.
  18. Valorian
    Glad you like it. I'm not sure why someone assumed that I'd put spell damage, healing, duration and aoe together into one attribute. Resolve sounds more fitting for duration and aoe IMO, you're summoning your inner willpower and concentration to keep the spell up and to increase its magnitude. Intellect for direct spell damage and healing. But both options would work. Yes, that's one of the reasons why I'd switch DEX and PER for spells (accuracy - interrupt/penetration).
  19. Valorian
    Could be spell damage to intellect, spell duration and aoe to resolve. I'd say concentration is less useful for classes that are meant to stay back and cast spells from a distance so giving this bonus to the attribute wouldn't disrupt balance hopefully.
  20. Valorian
    All right, here's my mighty suggestion. -- Might affects all damage dealt with mundane, physical means. So.. no luck with Might for wizard-y characters? Wrong! -- Might also affects resistance to spells for spellcasting classes, decreasing damage and duration of hostile spells cast on them by a percentage. How is this possible!? They're spellcasters themselves, they know how magic works. Might helps them resist unwanted magical effects. Naturally, damage with spells would have to be transferred to another attribute, probably Intellect. PS. I'd switch Dex and Per for spells too.
  21. Valorian
    I'd be very surprised if NPCs end up not having attributes. PoE will have symmetrical combat mechanics. As an example, eliminating attributes for enemies would make lowering enemy attributes with spells and abilities impossible. Making opposed attribute checks would also be impossible. I don't think attribute-less enemies would be easier to balance, considering that the player character and party members would be in a different universe mechanically. BG2 has.. *opening the creature editor* .. 4689 creature entries. All of them have all 6 attribute slots filled.
  22. Valorian
    A gelatinous cube is as much part of a fantasy universe as a skeleton warrior or a mage or a person asking obtuse questions (like that guy in Nashkel, BG, for example). You probably won't be able to communicate with a gelatinous cube, because it'll have an exceptionally low intellect stat. Just because a creature can't communicate with people doesn't mean it shouldn't be defined by attributes. I don't really think they'd do something as shallow and just throw in combat stats for creatures, leaving everything else undefined. Interaction with creatures doesn't necessarily mean combat.
  23. Valorian
    Because attributes have the function of defining a creature, both for mechanical and RP purposes.
  24. Valorian
    Who says that "strength, dex, intellect, wisdom, etc" are attributes even worth defining, for your character? Why strength but not education? Strength/dex/intellect are important attributes because you'll probably spend half of the game fighting. Anyhow, I'll just find it odd to see a mighty gelatinous cube with the same attributes of a powerful wizard. Both excellent at what they do, one hits you hard with spells, the other hits you hard with slime. I guess 'coz soul power.
  25. Valorian
    Wizard with high Might (Strength) and Dexterity: His fireballs will disintegrate enemies as they deal exceptional damage and are very accurate. He will also be good at walking on suspended ropes and moving large rocks. Wizard with high Intellect and Perception: "Hey look, I have huuge fireballs (sadly I need a few of them to kill a rat), but I *am* able to interrupt the rat's attack pretty often!" Please look at the character sheet in this update. The listed character has a 13 Might, granting +26% to Damage. Let's assume you're Pro Mighty and have an 18 Might. That's +36%. Or you're an Ordinary Joe with a 10 Might, which is +20%. Let's say a normal Fireball does 5-30 damage. Pro Mighty does 6.8-40.8. Ordinary Joe does 6-36. Ordinary Joe does not need multiple fireballs to kill a rat because his average damage is 21 vs. 23.8. Of course, these aren't the final values for the attribute modifiers, but proportion of advantage is important. Well yeah, your example shows that an 8 point differece in the attribute doesn't really have a relevant impact on damage, which isn't exactly a positive thing. Proportion surely matters, but there are probably single target damage spells.. and there are certainly encouters where you fight a single enemy.
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