Valorian

You're mean for not answering the question. * is sad*

If you're outclassing the enemy's defense score but are being outclassed by the target's DT, thanks to the sliding crit you'll crit more often; the crit will make all the difference in the world. 6 - 12 damage. DT absorbs 10 damage. Normal hit: 1 - 2 damage. Critical: 8 damage. Up to 800% more damage, which outclasses even a scythe's crit in d&d. I'm sure you'll balance the sliding scale of the crit just fine though. That said, please tell me if stamina regenerates in combat naturally and I promise I won't ever call your proposed xp system 'extravagant'.

There has to be. You couldn't save in combat. Yeah. Also, as I understand you don't naturally regenerate stamina in combat (y/n?), so that's also an instance of the "in combat" state usage.

If you just stand still for a bit, you'll regenerate. He can't. The compulsion driving his fingers is too powerful to control.

Against targets with high armor, 150% max damage is a huge difference compared to a normal hit.

Yeah, some people would be perfectly happy staring at their character performing the cloned attack animation for hours and hours, throughout the entire game, if they get to see an AWESOME exploding death animation (à la DA2) every now and then for the awesomeness factor. : Not only silly, but obtuse as well.

Oh boy, crits on a sliding scale. There's going to be lots of... blood-spattering annihilations.

What an utterly silly poll. More than 1 attack animation vs multiple death animations Of course attack animations are more important, you'll attack dozens of times during each combat encounter. Death animations, even if varied, would be varied only against specific types of creatures, under specific circumstances. Additionally, most of the time when you party members fall down in combat it will be due to stamina going to 0, not health (no death animation).

Did it? I don't remember that. I remember only 2 per weapon. 1. the basic attack animation and 2. the critical hit animation No. The animation is different for miss, as well. That's 3 times as many attack animations. They were aestetically pleasing and well done, too. 2:44

"If the games very slow paced and combat is much less an emphasis you can get away with only one basic attack, but if you're going to be using the same attack several times per fight, and the average fight is like 7 seconds things get boring quick." Yes. I expect the average fight to be considerably longer though, so the visual boredom will be even more accentuated if we end up with just 1 attack animation. I like how in NWN2 you get more attack animations as your base attack bonus increases, neatly reflecting your combat prowess.

By not going after all the XP that's available in the game. I don't see this as "gimping my character". You do?

Real-l-ly? Then why are you intentionally gimping your character by playing in a sub-optimal way? "I guess I'll shiv myself in the kidneys now and go into battle naked LOL" was the way you put it elsewhere, I think. Unless it was Helm, of course; you two are a bit hard to tell apart. How am I intentionally gimping my character if I don't feel the compulsion to obsessively run around the sewers like a rat, like you do? If there are obsessive-compulsive rats in sewers I just unleash my Cat to do the job.

The is butthurt again and desperately seeks vindication by including me in his small examples. LoL

I'm not sure why health is the "be all / end all" of resource management. If a rogue uses as many stamina potions to get through a stealth path to equal the same cost a combat path has in health & stamina potions where is the difference in cost between the two? The difference is stamina regenerates on its own, health does not.

Tell me, Valorian, do you actually enjoy playing a game like a rat running in a maze, obsessively hunting for locks to pick, traps to disarm, and goblins to kill? I'm just curious. Do you play like that, like a rat running around in a maze, obsessively hunting for locks to pick, traps to disarm, and goblins to kill, when the reward for each of those actions is XP? Because I don't. I take my time and enjoy the game. If you can't control yourself and go on a rampage each time you sniff xp, that's not my problem, nor the problem of kill xp. It's your brain's problem.

I've been running D&D campaigns on and off for about 25 years. I stopped awarding kill XP about 15 years ago. So no, that's not the reason. I'm just glad that game devs are finally seeing the light too. Good, but a computer game is an entirely different beast than your tabletop games with a few people.

Objective XP is XP explicitly placed somewhere by the designer. Pumpkin, kill XP is also explicitly placed somewhere by the designer, by placing creatures that can be killed.

PJ learned a new word (systemic) and now wants to get rid of anything attached to it. : How cute. Guys, you need to understand that a few people (PJ included) are not arguing against kill xp because they dislike kill xp. They're arguing against it because the overlord suggested he's going to design the game without it; so now it's all about proving how this is THE BEST thing to do.

While I agree that monster variety is paramount, I'm not so sure about special death animations on the expense of basic attack animations: "We're starting out with one basic attack for each weapon type with variants as a lower priority." ToEE and NWN2 had quite a variety of attack animations per combat style. NWN2, for instance, has up to 4 per style. And they even vary depending on the character's gender. BG is much less varied when it comes to attack animations, but even in BG there are generally at least 2 attack animations per style. Watching the same one and only attack animation over and over again, especially in quick succession? That would get really boring real quick.

Kill XP is quite simple and refined enough. If you kill a creature whose challenge rating/level is above your level you'll get additional XP. If you kill a creature whose challenge rating/level is below your level you'll get reduced XP.

Apparently some people fear that getting rid of kill XP will mean they can't game the system and min-max enough for their tastes. Go figure. No. Removing something that was present for 20+ years in rpgs, and proven to work just fine, would diminish their enjoyment of the game. This has to do with min-maxing as much as your furious crybaby campaign, against rogue's sneak attacks being a rogue's exclusive, had to do with common sense.

It is delightful to see that more and more people are starting to voice serious concerns against the " 'objective' xp only " system. The faithfully blind are very loud, as it is usually the case, but the voice of reason is becoming even louder.

Amentep, you're going to explode from all the conjecture. Throwing rocks around as a tactical option during sneaking to put it on the same complexity level as combat? Come on.. If you don't/can't lose health or die while sneaking, as a direct consequence of sneaking, it will always be inherently more advantageous than combat. And if you do lose health while sneaking.. Why the hell would you lose it? Note that a trap can maim you regardless if you choose to sneak or not.

So all you have to do is stand still and regenerate you precious stamina back? In combat you don't have the luxury to stand still and regenerate stamina while monsters are pounding on you. I'd say that using stealth in any form has to reduce stamina. Maybe it drains less when you're not active, but the "stealth button" is really encompassing a lot of different things - from hiding in shadows to controlling breathing and should always require "stamina". Sneaking involves: positioning, deciding if you want to risk throwing a stone to make a noise on the opposite wall in order to distract the guards, selecting optimal travel paths, timing travel between guards... When you fail in combat the consequence is retreat or death. When you fail at sneaking the consequence is retreat or fight with diminished resources (which has retreat or death as its failure) But if you succeed in combat you get the reward of extra loot (from bodies) to go along with environmental loot. If you succeed at stealth, you get the reward of environmental loot. Greater risk = greater reward? 1. Stamina regenerates easily. Health does not. Does sneaking degenerate your health? 2. Yeah, sure. After throwing the rock while sneaking, you can even enter in a deep state of cogitation and ponder about the option of calling the Angel of Death to distract your foes by kissing or touching them (that's another tactical option - kiss or touch). 3. Sure you can run away in both cases. But it's easier to run away if you're not directly on top of your enemies and if some of your party members aren't already eviscerated, right?

Yes, they're trying to find a "solution" to an inexistent problem. Desperately. And failing, of course.