aeonsim

So with regards to the original topic of Crowd funding PoE2 I'd happily kick in some money and with the way PoE is turning out I'd probably even put in more than I did this time. However if PoE does well I think it would be good if they used a slightly different model for PoE2, in that they fund the base game and then allow the community to fund the extra's so effectively the whole kick-stater campaign becomes stretch goals for extra companions, area's, cities, dungeons, more complex spell systems and enhanced mechanics. Where we are effectively funding the extra bits that make the game better/bigger/crazier. This would also allow them to pitch some wilder and more interesting ideas. Imagine a Kickstarter with goals like this: 200K - Enhance the combat systems and rebuild the AI. 500K - Chris Avellone gets to create his dream Companion and quest line 700K - 2 Additional companions 1M - Additional big city and new region 1.4M - We bring in two External writers to write 3 new companions with optional romances (writers who are known to do this well) 1.5M - Complete AI scripting system allowing users to customise companions AI 2M - Super res version all art assets are improved textures, models and animations for companions and creatures are completely redone 2.8M - Super Stronghold - Your stronghold now has a growing settlement choose how the village grows and defend it from those who oppose you 3M - Dynamic environments weather enters the game and effects the environment and characters and so on That could be rather fun to support... With regards to the cost of the current game at least in the countries I've lived in there tend to be fairly set price ranges for games with games ending up in which ever range best reflects there likely sales and popularity, game prices are never a continuous distribution of all prices between $1 to $XXX they instead have a number of discrete slots which they fit into, for example (New Zealand): $10-20 old budget releases (>5 year old games) $40-50 expansion packs, indie games budget blockbuster versions (2-3years old) $90-110 new PC games $110-140 Console games $140-200 Collectors editions PC/Console As such I'd expect PoE to fit into the price range for a new game so the $90-110 NZD, while in fact looking at the stores it seems a little cheaper than that between $60-80 depending on the edition, this compares to $85-120 for DA:I depending on the edition. Those are the prices a game sells for how it was funded is irrelevant, the industry effectively has set prices and people have become used to the idea that a top quality game will be in a certain price range when impulse buying, if your game is new, not on sale and outside those ranges it will be regarded with suspicion. If the game is too expensive for you at release then wait till Christmas and I'm sure there will be a steam sale which drops the price of the game down by 20-50%. It's the same with nearly all creative industry products you pay a premium to buy at launch day and the price decreases over the next 6 months to 1 year (same for books, music, movies etc). As it stands at least in NZ the price for PoE seems a little lower than I expected and it looks like a rather good deal! Also as it currently stands with the Beta I feel like I've had more fun and spent more time playing it than with some AA games I've bought...

Next next week it seems then...

The one exception for 1H builds maybe against enemies that significantly out level you giving you little chance to hit against their deflection. In that case a 1H build is likely to be able to get significantly more hits in or may shift you from all grazes to a mix of hits and grazes.

So the damage types do make a major difference if you look at the basic Dagger you may think it's equal to the Rapier based on the base damage, ACC and speed. However if you look at the damage types and the types of armour it changes noticeably making the Rapier with it's piercing damage a better option in general compared to the Dagger with it's slashing damage. Padded Armour, Slashing does +1 damage vs Piercing Leather Armour, Slashing does +1 damage vs Piercing Chain Armour, Slashing does -5 damage vs Piercing Scale Armour, Slashing does -4 damage vs Piercing Breastplate Armour, Slashing does +2 damage vs Piercing Plate Armour, Slashing damage = Piercing So in it's worse case the Rapier does 2 damage less than a dagger when against a breastplate while in it's best cases it does +5 damage vs Chain. Against creatures the difference is even bigger: Adra Beetle Rapier +9 damage vs dagger Spiders +4/+6/+7/+9 damage vs dagger Stone Beetles +15 damage vs Dagger Now the numbers are simply the difference in Enemy DR when comparing a Dagger (Slashing) vs a Rapier (Piercing) so they're not entirely reflected in reality once minimal damage and damage multipliers are taken into account, but they give you a general idea... VERY Crude modification to show the difference, by simply adjusting the damage by the difference between Piercing and slashing for the listed armour types and setting damage=0 to actually = 0.2*original damage.

It's not as far as we can tell, it seems to be something like this: Quest/boss rewards - Fixed Quest/boss related containers - Fixed NPC items - Fixed Hidden Items/Locations - Some fixed, some Random Basic Containers - Random

I don't really consider this an issue and it's WAY down the list of things to change/fix. This only seems to concern UNNAMED items, quest rewards are always the same if you complete the quest in the same way. While from the 2 or 3 times I've defeated the Cult leader to get his key for the locked chest behind him I've always gotten the same named item. Also at least some of the hidden items are specifically placed for example one body always gives the same +10 deflection ring (>10x) while I've seen some variation among other locations (3 or 4 times) such as an Amulet of Fireball or a Cloak of Flame in the same location. Also considering NPCs pretty much drop there gear there gear that is pretty much fixed as well. Currently it seems like this: Quest rewards - Fixed Quest related containers - Fixed NPC items - Fixed Hidden Items/Locations - Some fixed, some Random Basic Containers - Random Looking at that it seems to be that a very large proportion of your income is fixed especially on the harder levels where there are bigger groups of enemies and thus more equipment to take, at least on Path of the Damned I'd estimate 70-80% of my income is coming from Quests/NPC equipment and is thus fixed, which leaves something like 20-30% of the income random. Also at this time it does not appear that we know if the container income is completely random or the income from all the containers in a dungeon effectively averages out, after all it's possible for an individual chest to vary greatly in value but that the sum of all chests in the level/dungeon is always similar, as such looking at an individual container seems rather silly.

Don't worry this time round it'll be the space pig that frees you!

That the weapon doing the heavy lifting, not the class. It's like having a mage class that doesn't have any magic skills, but rather a dozen magical items that each can cast a spell or two. The Class/Paladin is responsible for +150% of the bonus damage from that attack. A maxed out weapon only gives something like +100%, assuming Damaging 3 is +50%, Slayer + 25% and the additional damage type +25% (though superb weapon is +40%?, so max maybe +115% on weapon? ). So give a Paladin a maxed out weapon and they can deal weapon damage +250-265% bonus damage with one hit, Give it to a different class and they can only do +100-115% bonus damage...

BG2: Paladin + Carsomyr, The Holy Avenger = AWESOME Paladin + normal weapon = meh, works all right...

There are also slayer enchantments for weapons which gives an additional +5acc and 25% damage. In the beta you can pace up to 3 enchantments on a weapon so you could pick one of the slayer talents then put the ghost & vessel slaying enchantments on your favorite sword. Which would stack up to give you +50% DMG and +5 acc vs one class then +25% DMG and 5acc against the group you don't have a hunting talent for. While still leaving you with a slot on the weapon for the weapon quality enchantments or something else. Combine that with the smite ability and say the bleak walkers talent to add corrode damage to an attack and you could end up with an attack that does: +50% base damage with increased chance of crit (+25% dmg) +100% fire damage +50% Corrode damage + the third weapon slot bonus. For a total attack initial attack of at least standard DMG + 200% bonus damage against undead or similar.

I think it stays at +20 for each hit, not certain though I usually don't get around to using it.

I rather like that art reminds me of some PNP books. Whether or not the characters depicted are actually in the game is irrelevant. After all if you want to make a party as depicted it's completely possible just make your PC like one of them and visit the adventurers hall...

You could try on PoD , but yeah it's something I've noticed seems to be happening but too busy to reproduce it with timings this week. Also it maybe associated with the chanter not being ordered to attack any one after casting an invocation.

The rogue can make an excellent melee fighter just not a tank, you need to bring them in after the enemy is distracted and you need to micro them to make sure they're always targeting someone with a debuf, or applying them them selves. They can if played carefully go one on one with an enemy from the start but you need to micro them and be using the correct weapon types to deal max damage as they're all about killing the other guy before they get too hurt them selves. The chanter is nice as it's the first really good Bard style class they do a good job mixing their core idea with fun mechanics. Their chants have a large area of effect and provide some cool utility/buffs/debuffs and there invocations when they can be cast are very powerful. I think there may be a bit of a bug with chants in the current build as I've noticed very uneven accumultion of chant points. The start working fine but after the first invocation it seems to take them an awfully long time to start there next chant.

Wizard - Ranged AoE standard attack, using the blast talents with implements. Spells are mainly AoE damage, Crowd Control, group debufs and a few personal buffs. They've got spells suitable for doing damage to pretty much anything and any one but you'll get the best effect from stacking the secondary effects of spells together and exploiting them. ie reduce enemy reflex then hit with reflex targeting spells. Spells available to target any defence and can do pretty much any damage type. Rogue - Crazy damage against a single target, but squishy so flank with them. Need to either target enemies that have debuffs on them from the wizard, priest or Cipher or use own debuf abilities to hit an enemy once theres a debuff on them get something like 25-50% extra damage from sneak attacks. Cipher - High damage spell caster with decent single target melee and ranged damage and spells that hit single targets or small groups hard. Lots of fun to play most spells target enemy will, limited number of spells but unlimited castings if you keep damaging the enemy with your weapons. Some nice spells to charm/control enemies and some great single target debufs, mental binding is a must have. Priest - Average to decent melee fighter with the God specific buffs, can act as a secondary tank if needed. Spells are buffs, edurance healing and a few debufs and moderate damage spells. Have so nice OH **** spells for getting allies out of danger along with some cast and forget healing spells. Barbarian - Melee AoE specialist lots of health and can be fairly mobile. They don't have the defences to act as a tank and are a poor secondary tank however give them some Int and send them in after the tanks have engaged the big boys and they'll do a lot of damage to all the enemies near by. Very very good at cleaning up small to moderate size groups that have been distracted by another character. Have enough health and endurance to survive alot of hits, but they will get hit ALOT more than a Paladin, Fighter, Chanter or Priest.

To me realism or realistic actions in an RPG are about being internally consistent and coherent. If the developers regularly introduce deus ex machina items and events to dig them selves out of a plot hole they've created then sorry that's not realistic (within the setting). The exception to this being if the setting never makes sense and every item, plot and event is completely insane and violates all the previous rules.

And hey if your a complete bastard to all your companions and they all leave will that's when you spend some cash and hire some mercenaries, you've paid them so they don't care about what sort of bastard you are they'll just follow orders and ignore you all the rest of the time.

Essential Phantom the 4th level that creates a duplicate of the Wizard is broken. While the spell creates the duplicate the duplicate does nothing at all. It will stand around at the location it was summoned usually without moving, it can't attack and doesn't seem to be able to engage the enemy, effectively it acts as a sack of hitpoints for the enemy to attack if they can be bothered which they usually don't. {Expected outcome} When summoning the Essential Phantom it appears and can be controlled like any other Summon/Companion Creature, it should move when ordered and attack nearby enemies and be able to engage one. {Current outcome} Stands around until combat ends.

It works all right with Implements as well, -5DR with the best of Crushing/Piercing, Slashing/Piercing or Crushing/Slashing means that the enemy DR against the attack can be much lower their base DR. It's not amazing but it is an interesting option for a Wizard and probably better than Dangerous implement. If you chose the correct implement for the enemy then it can be a pretty impressive change ie Penetrating shot with either of the Crush damage Implements against Mail pretty much negates all DR. While against Plate they'll switch from the Slashing damage to piercing or crushing dropping DR from 18? (wiki can't check game right now) to 12 then reducing that by -5 which drops it down to ~7. In short best of weapons work nicely with the two DR reduction Talents.

Ideally I think Spirit shift would work better if it effectively covered the human form in a new 'Skin'/Outer layer. So the human is still at the core of it but the magic has wrapped around them build a sort of temporary second body. This secondary/animal body then provides a number of benefits and disadvantages that stack with the ones provided by your equipment (but not weapons, have to be put away to shift). Thus if a Druid of 80 Endurance, 8DR, with 40 Def and 14M, 10C, 12D, 10P, 18I, 11R shifts into a Bear the are modified in the following manner. + 100 temporary Endurance (180total), +12DR (20 total), -10Def (30 total), +10M (24), +10C(20), -5 D(8 ), -1 movement speed and gains a creature weapon of +10Acc with 20-30Dmg and best of Slashing/Crushing. While if they shift to a Cat form they get: + 60 temporary Endurance (140total), +2DR (10 total), +20Def (50 total), +6M (20), +6C(16), +10 D(22), + 10 P (20), +1 movement speed, 40% attack speed and gains a creature weapon of +16Acc with 20-25Dmg and best of Slashing/Piercing. Each 'Spirit shift' skin would provide it's own differing set of temporary bonuses while it was active. Things like the temporary boost in Endurance would make the form much more useful as if your running low on Endurance during a fight you could spiritshift to gain some additional health and become more damage resistant or harder to hit depending on the form your'd chosen. Or at the start of the fight you might decide to use it knowing the damage your'd take would effectively vanish when the spirit form finished while allowing you to deal a fair amount of damage.

Agreed ideally Spirit shift would be like putting a 'Skin' over the top of your character, with either separate Endurance or increasing the endurance, changing the stats (ie greater might), additional DR from having a second form/protecting you in addition to your normal armour, and a few new abilities.

The problem is that these aren't research, those are all links to newspaper articles and similar things, some of which are peoples interpretations of research and some are there opinions or the personal opinions of those they interviewed. If you really want to understand if there is an effect you need to read the primary literature (and have a good statistical background unfortunately) where people are actually testing this in a scientific manner. For example: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcom.12129/full http://interpersonalresearch.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/4/0/10405979/ppmc_-_vvgs_and_real-world_violence.pdf http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=violence+and+video+games+and+computer+games If you read through the research articles there you'll find every thing from a negative association, to no association to a positive effect (decreases in real violence). In general there is no apparent scientific consensus at this stage which based on the number of studies suggests that what ever effect be it positive or negative they have is relatively minor. Like many you seem to be mixing causation and correlation when it comes to violence and games. If people are confused & troubled enough to plan to commit crimes and then carry it out finding they played doom or created game levels with layouts similar to the site of the crime does not mean that the game encouraged them or made it more likely that they would. It's simply that they used what they knew about something to try and plan it before hand, if they'rd been hunting fanatics they'd probably practise out in the woods or in abandoned building but that'd never be reported because there wouldn't be any evidence of it. Or the example of kids steals car keys and goes for a drive then it's all due to GTA is silly they got reported that way because it was sensationalist and there was a political angle, if you look up the statistics you'll find out kids have been stealing car keys and going for a drive since cars were invented and these 'GTA' cases have no impact on the overall per-capita incidence of such events. Doom sold 4million copies and it's "supposed to" have caused how many mass shootings? Run the numbers and you'll find that things like drinking, smoking, bullying and mental illness are far more likely causes than 'Doom' or any other video game. The truth is the actual per person level of violence is decreasing and has been for a very long time, and this trend has continued even as violent video games have gone from non-existent (1960's) to exceedingly common (2015).

I've had a go on Path of the Damned with an Melee focused party, not single class but mixed: Barbarian, Chanter, Fighter, Monk, Paladin and switching between a Rogue & Ranger. For the most part they worked really well annihilating the standard encounters with ease, the Chanter was mainly being used for his arua/chants, with fights often ending too quickly for the invocations. However the problem they hit was that there were a couple of optional boss fights which they couldn't handle at all on Path of the Damned, they definitely would have been able to pull them off at Normal though and probably Hard. Effectively they lack sufficient diversity for the hardest difficulty levels where certain enemies seem to have been built for slaughtering melee types (the Ogre + Elder Bears & The Cult leader + party). I suspect that the same thing would happen with single class parties. On Easy and Normal they'rd do very very well but on Hard they'rd struggle and on Path of the Damned they'd die due to a lack of diversity in their options for dealing with certain enemies/bosses. Now a party of Chanters or Monks might be able to over come this as both have a wide range of options for dealing with enemies.

Backstab - It's a Rogue specific talent or ability that is supposed to give 2x damage when you hit from invisibility, however with the sneaking changes it seems to be impossible to sneak up close enough for it to trigger, so alternatively you have to use the Rogue Invisibility ability/talent which is 2 per rest...

That's a load of crap politicians love the idea so it gets a ton of air time but if you actually read the literature in the field it's all over the place. The small studies are hideously under powered to detect real effects and thus find effects both ways some say video games increase violence others say it decreases violence, which is generally a sign that the experimental designs suck or are lacking power! If there is an effect your expect the direction of the effect to remain the same even if the size of the effect varied. While the big studies have tended to find no effect or possibly a small reduction but with out enough strength to be certain. Keeping in mind correlation does not equal causation the general tends at a society level have been for decreasing per capita violence over the last 20 or so years while the amount of game playing has drastically increased, many of which are violent.