Ink Blot

If you get this out on Friday, then I know what I'll be doing on the weekend. And if it's as good as I anticipate it will be, I may have to fly to Australia and buy you guys some drinks.

It's pretty chaotic right now, but I think this is something the player will be able to get a handle on if the devs tweak the combat info/feedback and adjust a few more things re the combat itself.

I like your thoughts on this, but I'm not sure this system actually does that though. It seems there's really not a helluva lot of difference between the 3 stat and the 18 as far as how it affects things goes, due to the way all the percentages are thrown around in the game. So sure, you can spread your stats around but if the difference is effectively fairly minimal, why wouldn't you still go for dump stats and pump everything into whatever you feel is the most effective for the character class? Much like that Fighter in BG. I don't know if I'm laying this thought out clearly though. To illustrate: why would you pump PER and/or RES with a Fighter-type build (even if they do adjust their effectiveness in the game)? Unless you want to open up more dialog options, which essentially boils down to RP reasons. I'll need to see more in-depth analysis of the game mechanics before I'm convinced about this system yet.

Ah, I see where you're coming from. I think we actually have the same outlook. From your listing of encounter difficulties I have to say that sounds about perfect to me. As to the wurms, this is, from what I can glean, a prime example of the Xvart village thing: you can pretty much take out all the mooks with a rusty spoon. The encounter with the 4 adventurers that are also looking for the egg will be fairly easy or average. But I believe after grabbing that egg, you may face something a little more difficult (I have a feeling you could be chased down by one very pissed off dragon). And that encounter should be hard. So yeah, a mix of things, with the majority being at least somewhat of a challenge.

Conversely, there was also the possibility of wandering into an area and wiping the floor with the mooks (Xvart village comes to mind), but with a surprisingly difficult challenge as a possibility as well (the traveling merchant just west of the Xvart village, if you decided to take him on - and to a lesser extent, the bear). I don't think every single encounter needs to be a big challenge. There have to be some that make you feel like "Yeah, I'm so badass I can take you mooks out with a good fart". Otherwise you're getting into scaled encounter territory, which I personally hate.

I think we need to see how PER/RES are going to fit into the equation as well, If they're tweaked to actually be useful, then it may make for a wider range of caster builds. You'll probably want at least some points in RES so you have a higher Concentration. PER will allow a higher chance of Interrupt (although I doubt casters are going to care much about this). Still, I can definitely see an argument for uncoupling healing from Might, but i think we may need to see more tweaks in the beta before we can determine how important this is. On a side note, I'm not clear on how Might affects healing: is it just healing done or is it also healing received?

I've nothing to add yet either, but this thread is a great idea. It's quite interesting at the very least to see some of the things the players have found (as an example, that 'Whispers of Treason' thing is pretty out of control).

I think this falls under what Karkarove was saying though. It really depends on what someone's idea of a 'spiritual successor' is. I don't personally have an issue thinking of the game that way. Hell, I'll even say I thought DA:O was a pretty damned good 'spiritual successor' to BG. But yeah, if people can temper their expectations by playing the beta, they'll be far happier, I think.

Agreed. Well said. I'll just add that I think the vast majority of those of us with heavy emotional investment that play the beta will be able to temper our expectations. There will, of course, be outliers on both ends: those that will end up thinking PoE is anathema, and those that will refuse to accept that OBs did anything at all wrong. But I think the vast majority will be able to look at the game for what itis, realize what it isn't, and as a result of beta testing and seeing some of the changes that it will go through before it's final, we'll be able to enjoy the piss out of it when it's released.

I haven't used them yet, but from what I've been reading, Rangers are seriously borked right now. I'd recommend avoiding them until at least the next update.

What's that sixth member? Is that a Ranger companion or a summoned creature? Maybe it has to do with that. I've seen some weird stuff happening with transitions and summons.

Yep, it's the main's abilities and skill values that are used in convos with NPCs, no matter who in the party actually approaches and initiates the dialog.

I've seen it happen against normal enemies as well. I haven't reported it yet, as I haven't figured out a condition that triggers it. Thought I'd try to get some solid info on it but was unable to. It seems to be quite random.

I'm not sure how you managed to do that in every battle. Take the encounter with the Spider Queen, for instance. There are a number of spiderlings that mob rush you as soon as combat starts. I'm not aware of a spell or ability that will CC all of them as well as the Queenie and her 3 or so underlings without your party getting swarmed. And if you're swarmed while trying to fight with ranged weapons, you're gonne get butt-raped by regular attacks as well as poison. Maybe there are some CC spells/abilities I've not realized fully?

Not if you arrive there at a higher level than you are in the BB. Or, the areas may be adjusted to a lower difficulty.

What illathid said: there is no XP award for kills in the game. You can only get XP by completing quests. And in the beta there are no quests tied to Stormwall Gorge at all. So adventure in Dyrford Village, talk to various people to get the quests going, then head to Dyrford Crossing to be able to complete the quest chains. Onve you've completed the quests and leveled, then head to Stormwall (it's a good area solely to test out combat mechanics and see if there are any bugs with various abilities/monster/area designs).

Yeah, that's when he hits you with that big chunk of crystal as an opening salvo, yes? Funny thing is, I've survived that numerous times. I even had the priest cast Consecrated Ground as well as the Supress Affliction spell (although I think she may have died before I got that one off). What really threw me is I had killed the two small ones as well as the Widowmaker and only had the Crystal spider left. The only character dirt napping at that point was BB Fighter. I was lining up spells, hit the space bar to start the action again and all of a sudden 4 more party members pull a face plant and now only poor old BB Wizard left to try to deal with Shelob. Being the nudist he is, he was starting to show signs of nervousness. I think he may even have soiled his Grimoire. In the end he only got off one more action before he ended up shuffling off the mortal coil as well. An ignominious end for those poor intrepid fools. I'm pretty sure the next group into that cave is going to find an assortment of human and humanoid bones in that big stack in the Ogre's cavern...

Just a fun little report on my latest... experience. Heh, I was trying another run on Normal and rolled up Dwarf Fighter. Nothing fancy. Immediately added a Nature Godlike Chanter to the party and off we went. Grabbed some XP and leveled by doing the Nyfre quest as well as the Dragon Egg quest. Killed everyone involved in the Nyfre quest, gathered up all the loot I could find and grabbed the greatsword and wand from the weapons merchant as well as the two belts from the tanner (before killing him and his pal and taking their loot too). Stripped off the ranged attackers, and gave them the best ranged weapons I could find. So there we were, heading into the Ogre cave. I sent old BB Fighter up to draw that northern group of spiders and then the spell casting and ability bombing began. Before I knew it... TPK. Now, this is the second run in a row that those spiders have done me in. It wasn't just the poison (I tried compensating for it). I don't know what the hell happened there, and couldn't read the logs to find out because as soon as the party went down, the game crashed. Now, in all the other runs I've done except the latest two, the spiders haven't given me that much difficulty. There have been a couple where I blew through them and a couple where it was touch and go with the big group around the queen, but this... this is just evil. I'm scared to go back into that cave. Don't make me do it! Hold me. So it seems I've misplaced my mojo. Anyone seen it lying around anywhere?

Are you going to Stormwall first thing? If so, don't do that. Wait until you've gained a level or two. Go around Dyrford village and gather up some quests (talk to everyone), then head to Dyrford Crossing. After that you'll have a couple extra levels, better gear, and more spells and abilities.

Bloody spell should burn the poison glands right out of those damned beetles and spiders...

Are you getting an absolutely enormous AoE with that spell? Mine pretty much covers the entire screen.

Wait... this game is a sausage fest? Who knew?

Tons of people seem to love crafting. I can take it or leave it, but overall I'm more in your camp on it though. It seems to me it's generally either completely superfluous (you don't need to do it for any reason because you can either find or buy items that are as good as - and usually better - than you can craft) or it's absolutely necessary because it's the only way to get the best or extremely useful items.

Yeah, it struck me as odd too. I just told myself it was actually a really long tunnel to the water area and left it at that. If not examined too closely, I can pretend not to notice my logic is made of rice paper. :D

Don't you find that the beetles swarm the Wizard because he initiated the battle and injured them? Then you suffer a crapton of attack when trying to shift position and end up dying in 3.2 seconds from massive poison snuffage?