Andhaira

Infinitron must pay for this retardedness. As penance, he must do a review, and a Lets Play of Lichdom: Battlemage!

You will have to grind for money, ingredients, items, etc. Who knows, the butthurt is reaching such critical levels on the no xp from combat thing, Obsidian may decide to implement xp from combat after all.

Does having more or less characters in a party change the experience gained?

Yes, that's what I am saying. Everyone who played a class to level 8 post their abilities here. One person doesn't have to play them all to level 8, just post the ones you did get to level 8 and their abilities.

Only load games from the start screen or it will wipe out quests. I read somewhere that if you save a game, quit the entire game to desktop, then restart and load. This cuts down on the bugs significantly. Is thus true? Or will quitting to title screen be enough?

Since we have a thread that details everything classes get for levels 1-5, I was wondering if someone could list the abilities their characters get at levels 5+. I would start myself, but thus far all characters I have played (Paladin, Druid and Wizard) are not recieving experience for completing quests (if someone has a workaround for this bug I would be glad to know it)

Oh I agree, which is why I said it's the first beta, things are supposed to be wonky. (I do wish though they had ensured that saving/loading was stable, as of now I don't save my games because they cause all sorts of glitches when I do. In my first game I played a Paladin, and after saving loading not only did equipment start disappearing, my Paladin got a Deflection bonus of 2972, meaning she could basically solo the entire beta, which she did) But anyway, both can be worked on at the same time, and even if the 1st is a problem, it does not prevent us from seeing the problems of the second. One thing I forgot to mention in my OP are the character movement speed, which @Sensuki mentioned in his combat thread. In the IE games characters did not run, in this that's all they do in combat resulting huge amounts of confusion and problems.

After some analysis and introspection I have come to understand the main reasons combat is so wonky, rushed and feels so unbalanced in PoE I am ofcourse taking into account that this is the first beta version. Things are supposed to be wonky. But aside from that, there are fundamental issues in the system which I do not think anyone has gone over on these forums: 1) One of the main inspirations for PoE is D&D 4e. This is apparent to anyone who has read and played D&D 4e. The per encounter powers are a direct influence of that system. In fact, all powers/special abilities for non casters are directly derived from D&D 4e, and much of the spells for spell casters are based on a mix of structure in D&D 4e and previous D&D versions (including the version used in the IE games) This is not a bad thing. D&D 4e was desinged to translate well into a computer game, specifically a MMO, because HASBRO had given all it's subsidiaries a target of $100M of sales, including D&D. The only way a pnp game like D&D would be able to meet this is via a MMO. This has been directly related by WOTC desingers. I personally am not a fan of MMOs, like many true crpg and tabletop pnp rpg players, as they are souleless games. However, when playing D&D 4e even I could tell this would make a fantastic turnbased computer game. Turnbased being the key word here. Fast forward to PoE. A decision was made to use a derivative of the 4e ruleset mixed with Josh's own take on various things like Attributes and Skills. A decision was also taken to make the game RTwP. Finally, a horrible decision was made NOT to have rounds in combat, but instead base combat 'turns' on various other factors. This is where it all starts unravelling. 4e is not meant to be played in Real Time, due to the large number of abilities available per class. The IE games got away with it because non spell casters had limited options in battle, very limited. Mostly, they could just swing and attack. That's it. Even spellcasters could only cast 1 spell per round, after casting that spell there was a delay, even if you didn't use the pause function, The delay was due to six seconds not having passed yet, as six seconds consitute a single round. In PoE not only are there a ton more of abilities per class, there are no real rounds. Heck, spellcasters like Wizards have the shortest 'cooldown' inbetween spellcasting. When you cast a spell, you can almost immediately cast another! So you quickly mash down on pause to issue more commands to your wizard/spellcasters. If you are not pausing, you are going to get scr***d. Then you have all your other non spellcasters, who have their own abilities. Most of them you have to use otherwise your pc is near useless. The rogue is a good example, you can't just direct the rogue to target an enemy then forget about him while he whacks it to death. You have to keep micromanaging his special rogue abilities, and make sure he is flanking. So what am I saying? I am saying that everything else aside, the first step to fixing combat is to bring back rounds. Forget this new experiment in keying cooldowns over factors like armor/weapons etc. It's a good idea in theory, but this is not the game to be experimenting with something like this. It is better instead to go back to something that has worked for nearly 40 years and has been playtested to death during that time. A six second delay between all actions/attacks/spellcasting will make combat much more managable, pause or no pause. The only other option is to make the game turnbased. I myself prefer turnbased games, but I don't think that is feasible at this point because it might be seen as a betrayal by backers who preferred the IE games' RTwP system.

Do NOT do this. The Co8 mod adds in Cloud's sword from FF7, I kid you not. Avoid like the plague.

No, I totally disagree with this. One of my main complaints with IE was the horrific fog of war that completely obscured the beautfiul maps. I much prefer the fog of war to be invisible, i.e. you can see structures, statues, etc all over the entire map, but items, monsters, NPCs etc are only revealed one you have LoS and come into a certain distance.

No I do NOT like the PE Paladin concept. Specifically, I most dislike the fact that they are supposed to be team players and weak against singular powerful foes. If anything, Paladins should be the opposite, i.e. they call out and challenge the most powerful of the enemy in a single combat to death. It is the Fighter that should deal with the weaker, trash mobs while the Paladin takes on the leader.

So, any updates to this yet? Been over a year, but I haven't heard anything new about this project. Is this game even being worked on, or are they still in the conceptual stage (i.e. just talking and taking notes)

Guys, I am NOT saying there should be a lack of progression. Reread my initial post. I am saying start out stronger, but level up slower. In the end that should balance it all out. BG was great, but getting killed by a single strike from a wolf outside candlekeep was pretty pathetic.

In all crpgs pcs start out pathetically weak, but after gaining like 20 or more levels become really strong. I prefer another way: Let the pc and companions start out stronger (say level 5 or so when compared with other rpgs) but they level up slower. And let the max level be 10-12. This will allow for a much more fun and interesting first half of the game IMO.

I wish America would pick on an enemy her own size. Someone like Russia, y'know. But ofcourse, we know that will never happen. Pity, as I would love to see some action on the global scale.

http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=1802091#1802091 I started a discussion on the Codex about Obsidian's upcoming blockbuster, the Wheel of Time RPG. This is a game I am very passionate about, having dreamed of playing in it since I first read the novels oh so many years ago. (As an aside, I am currently in the planning stages of running a pbp post game using the d20 version of the game converted to Star Wars SAGA edition. The free conversion pdf, professionaly made with many new talents and feats can be found online). Anyhow, I would invite everyone else passionate about the game to post in the thread there, on the Codex. Developers from Obsidian are also welcome to post there, we at the Codex miss you all. We at the Codex tried to contact Red Eagle Entertainment for an interview for this game, but never got a response. I wanted to interview Obsidian, but we figured that since they don't own the rights to the property, they probably don't have permission to do an interview. If this is not the case, and if Obsidian CAN do an interview with the Codex, please let me know. Regards