Ink Blot

You know them all already. It works a bit differently though. Just click on the armor/weapon to examine it, then choose 'Enchant', which brings up the menu. If you have the ingredients, you'll be able to enchant. If you don't, you'll see which ones you need.

Thing is, from my experience, it isn't. I think the restriction is pointless, actually, as it seemed to make no difference at all. From my experience, at least. And yeah, if we're given the ability to enchant items, then I'd like to be able to enchant all wearable items.

I like this idea as well. Something further or alternatively: everyone has different and sometimes conflicting traits, depending on who they're dealing with. Perhaps if you use the cruel response to someone, that's your reputation with anyone affiliated with them. Or, that's your reputation in that town. So you could end up cruel in Dyrford but benevolent in Defiance Bay. Or honest to the Dozen but deceptive to the Justiciars. Something like that. After all, I felt the traits were not really about how your character actually is inherently, but more about how others perceived him/her.

I admit, I thought it was pretty stupid that you could put 100 suits of armor and 200 weapons in your stash, which you could access at any time, but for some strange reason, you couldn't put camping supplies in it. But whatever. I found on both Normal and Hard settings, the limited camping supplies didn't affect me in any way whatsoever. So with that in mind, I find it's kind of pointless. Whether they remove it or not really doesn't matter to me. Custom made companions don't affect the game in any way whatsoever unless you want to hire them. It's not something that can happen by accident, so I see no reason for them to be removed. Stronghold: if it's going to get some love, then keep it. Otherwise, I wouldn't miss it, as I utilized pretty much none of the features other than the bounties. Enchanting/crafting. I'd like to see that become more robust, but if it were removed I also wouldn't miss it. I never used it in my runs of the game. As well, I tend to prefer something like suggested where you find rare components and have a master smith create a unique item with them. For a substantial fee, of course. The one thing I'd like to see removed, although I know it won't be, is engagement. Not a fan.

CTRL+Left Click on character portraits.

So, why are you here, then? Trying to enlighten the misguided 'fanboys' with your undisputed wisdom? Perhaps trying to shame Obsidian into making the game you want? (I wonder how they'll parse through all that helpful criticism in your original post though). Perhaps you've a need to spout bile and invective? Or is there maybe an underlying compulsion to just post a troll thread and see how many people you can piss off? Do tell.

But, but... degenerative gameplay! Must be killed with fire - or at least stuck in place with engagement.

Okay, I'll toss in my couple cents, since I finished my run through the game last night: Combat: Probably enough has been said and argued about Engagement already, so I won't go into detail. Suffice to say I don't care for it. Engagement aside, I found the combat as compared to the old IE games to be tedious and not a lot of fun. On the other hand, I very much liked that you could get into some serious trouble by entering areas that are over your level of capability. Pathfinding was maddening, especially in combat. This needs work, but can, I'm sure, be fixed relatively easily. Story: I personally found the story to be a bit... scattered? I found the delivery was very uneven, where you'd get chunks of it that would propel you onward, then have long gaps where it just didn't seem to be moving anywhere. The big chunk of story at the end felt out of place, as there was such a long gap before that where it wasn't really moved along. This really took away from any motivation I had to get engaged with the main storyline. Scripted interactions (i.e. the story boards): brilliant idea, but needs more depth to them. Don't get me wrong, I liked them a lot. But I think they need more meat to them in expansions and sequels. A lot of potential in these, that is not fully realized. Cutscenes: this is not unique to PoE, but I was hoping they wouldn't do it: Damnit, don't force-move my characters in a cutscene and leave them in some contrived tactically weak position when the inevitable combat starts. I ****ing hate that. Thankfully, Obs only does this a handful of times, but that's still a handful too many. Quests: To me, this was a mixed bag. Some were very good, with a twist on the typical 'fetch' quest structure that made them quite fun. Others (too many, it seemed to me) were nothing more than 'fetch', 'kill', or 'fetch-and-kill' quests, and those are disappointing. I expected better from Obs. In relation to this are the dialog interactions where your ability scores or your disposition come into play. I love the idea. The execution... not so much. It seems that there really wasn't a whole lot of point to choosing [honest] over [stoic] or [diplomatic] most of the time, as it seemed to lead to the same resolution. Very little difference in the outcomes, anyway, as far as I could tell. And the ones that you could use your ability scores in: things like Perception or Resolve. Again, I love the idea, but it's a serious, serious let-down to choose that [Resolve 16] option and instantly be able to convince those guys to stand down (being vague here so as not to involve spoilers). It should take multiple checks and different dialog choices to convince someone to completely switch gears. Many of these resolutions seemed way to easy. Almost to the point of being laughable. Exploration: I liked how there were some areas where you could get into places in more than one manner. I liked the various environments as well, and some of the maps were very good. And I really enjoyed the nod to the BG games in that you had to travel to the east edge of the map to open the next map to the east, etc. But overall, I found many of the maps were quite small and not overly compelling. I actually enjoyed the idea of the Stronghold and don't really think it's as bad as many people say. But I do think there is a lot of unfulfilled potential there. The Endless Paths? I appreciate the fact that they put in a dungeon with no other purpose than to wade through encounters and collect loot. And they fulfilled the kickstarter promise of the mega-dungeon. But... I personally have to agree with others that say they'd rather have not had a mega-dungeon at all and put those resources into shoring up other areas of the game. Items/Gear: Have to say I'm in the camp that thinks a lot of the items are 'meh'. While I'm not looking for mounds of uber-gear, I'd love to have seen more items that you could find parts for and reforge or make yourself. Something noticeably more powerful than most of the items you find or buy. On a related note: Crafting: I'm not a big fan of crafting in games, but I have to say the simplistic crafting system in PoE was something I could probably get to enjoy. But it needs a few tweaks. First, you should be able to disenchant (I couldn't care less whether or not you get the ingredients back) so you can upgrade when you have only 1 or 2 slots left. For example, you have an Exceptional weapon with 10/12 slots taken. You should be able to remove the Exceptional enchantment so you can upgrade to Superb. Or at least allow the override to take into account the slots the original enchantment used. Secondly, if you can find a property on a weapon or armor, allow the player to be able to enchant that property as well. If this involved finding rare ingredients, or having to destroy an item with that property in order to learn the recipe (or both), that would be great. But I hate having things show up on gear that you can't get access to in some fashion. Companions: Take this with a grain of salt, since I really only picked up Sagani, as she was one of two that I was most excited about when the game was released (I'm a sucker for Dwarfs). Unfortunately, I didn't find her compelling enough to make me decide to drop my self-made party members and grab the others. I did finish her quest though, but found it was just okay. Maybe it was just her, but I didn't find there was a lot of good reactivity, nor did I find the character writing all that great. I'm considering trying another run of the game (although I'm more inclined to play something else right now) and maybe give the others a shot. Oh, and I did Kana's quest in one of my unfinished runs. I found it thoroughly disappointing. Shame, as I liked him better than I thought I would. But his quest just kind of fizzles out. Two Large Cities: Well, that's debatable, but that aside... I found Defiance Bay to be disappointing. The only area that seemed to have a lot of content was Ondra's Gift. First Fires and Brackenbury were disappointingly small, and Heritage Hill I found very content-light as well. Not what I was expecting from a city that was supposedly going to be content-rich and rival Baldur's Gate. Twin Elms was not too bad, although I'm not a big fan of the barbarian village vibe in general. Both areas missed a lot of potential though, IMO. Loading screens: ye gods, you have to transition in city areas and some other places (stronghold) so many times. The loading times need to be addressed in a serious way. It killed a lot of any kind of enjoyment I may have had in Defiance Bay. And I didn't even bother resting or shopping at the Stronghold because of the loading times. Okay, this has gone on longer than I planned. Overall I found the game to be a lot of missed potential. Some things can't be substantially changed without a massive overhaul of the entire game system (Engagement, I'm looking at you) but that's okay. In the long run, despite some of the things I don't like and probably never will, Obs has a real chance of realizing this massive potential in sequels and expansions. I hope they do. They're more than capable of it, and they've got the foundations laid. So did I get the game I was hoping for when I backed it so long ago? Nope. But I'm optimistic that more in the series, whether that be expansions or sequels, will end up being something I do really like. I certainly don't regret tossing my money at the game, even if it just means that more games of this style will be made in the near future.

I'm thinking this: is the bulk of it. Just look at how many people dismiss Darth Roxxor's review out of hand just because of the tone of it. Many even stated they didn't bother reading all of it. I can only surmise it's because they don't like the criticism of the game, despite the fact that many of those criticisms are valid.

Oh, the irony...

Nice numbers.

Completely agree. I found Defiance Bay to be (unfortunately) very content light through almost all five areas. The exception being Ondra's Gift. This area, at least, seemed pretty packed with content. The other areas... not so much.

Totally anecdotal, but I found when I had my Cipher wear no armor (or just clothing), many of the mobs would target her specifically and relentlessly. Once I gave her some heavy armor, they totally ignored her. Not sure if there's an AI routine that gives lightly armored targets a higher priority, but it sure seemed that way to me. Probably worth checking out what happens in your game.

A few thoughts on this: 1) Since it seems inevitable that Rangers are tied to animals for some reason, perhaps the ability to charm or disable any single non-humanoid creature when in combat. This creature obviously fights as an ally when charmed. Have it last for a specific time period. Perhaps if not charmed, the creature flees the battle. So, a guaranteed ability, but depending on the roll (and the Ranger's skill/level as well as the level of the creature), it either charms or forces the creature to flee. Obviously, there would be a few very high level creatures that are immune. Perhaps have them be stunned/disabled or suffer a malus for a short time period instead. 2) Give the Ranger the ability to set a trap or traps (possibly tied to the Mechanics skill of the character) while in combat. 3) In 'natural' areas (underground, wilderness) give the ranger either a bonus to accuracy or a bonus to spot traps. Or both. 4) Perhaps give the Ranger a chance to harvest extra ingredients from 'natural' sources (animals, plants). Just a few things off the top of my head, and I'm sure others could come up with something better or improve on these. But something to throw in the mix, at least.

Aye, I remember him from the old NWN boards. I used to moderate them, actually. Good times. Oh, and kudos, Wanderon. I actually thought I was older than you, but you've got a decade and a half on me.

I probably shouldn't get into this, because it's gone nowhere for pages, but... No. But you're missing the point, I think (I've not followed enough of this back-and-forth to be completely sure I'm on target). You could dump other stats and suffer no real egregious repercussions.

I've yet to play a game that has a 'ranger' class that is actually any good or fun to play. *shrug* I just pop them in the same pile as Monks: avoid (I hate Monks) and play other classes.

I don't recall even being able to meet them at level 1 unless you're talking about a certain ruin early on. And it should become obvious that this is a pace you may need to retreat from and return later after you've gained some levels. That's one of the things I felt Obs did right, at least: you can end up wandering into a situation that's too tough to handle. Do some quests, gain some levels, and come back to them later.

Seems reasonable. I guess that would apply to me, at least (BG 'veteran' that finds PoE okay etc.) Hard to say whether the OP would love it or not. Oddly, I find I'm in no way compelled to play through PoE again, although I may try out a combination of classes that I didn't play through the first time (doubt I'll finish though). Interestingly, I played through Wasteland 2 several times and Divinity:OS three times. Go figure.

Sounds like you're solo. Best thing to do is get to town and grab some companions. Get a tank to engage your enemies, then start raining ranged death with your wizard.

When did they patch buses and subways into PoE?

So you missed the 'NO SPOILERS' part of the forum title?

Yeah, that was firmly tongue-in-cheek. I actually like the ruins as well. The real hair-pulling frustration is, as you noted, the narrow corridors (and the pathfinding combined).

Not willing to try digging up the article, but I recall reading something along the lines that Skylines was accounting for around 11 million of that.

Firewine Ruins?