Karkarov

I agree I found uses of the percentage rolls odd too but that boat has sailed more than likely. If it is something they can just change on the fly without having to then rebalance the whole of combat then by all means go ahead. Somehow I doubt it will be as easy as just dividing by 20.

You do know Sensuki this is all fixed by just slightly lowering damage range maximums (they clearly didn't do it enough yet), and slightly increasing minimum damage/maybe slightly reducing damage penalty on graze. It is a balance thing, we don't need to change the whole system it just needs tuning.

You need to re read my post right above your last one again. It deals with the so called promises they made very aptly.

They did not promise too much, your reading comprehension and nostalgia goggles failed you too much. Their next kickstarter will be plenty successful.

Well for one thing Black Isle wasn't making Baldur's Gate thinking "I bet people will still talk about this game in 17 years and use it as a bench mark on other games!" They were just trying to make a good game. Second, those games are only so well liked because of nostalgia goggles and the fact that no one ever went back and tried to make games like that again. I hate to suggest this, but there is probably a reason for that too. That said, there really is no other game to compare Eternity to because it is a "IE" style game. You could compare it to something more recent like Drakengard but I suspect most of the forum has never heard of those games and it is fairly unlikely they played them. There is Dragon Age: Origins but oh god that's Bioware and they make the worst games ever don't they? Personally I would rather play NWN2 again than any of the original IE games because it doesn't boil down to retarded hard counters, kill the wizard, and RNG half so much but nah NWN2 sucks too doesn't it? Not sure why but it does. Also there is the last bit. When your feedback is only "This game sucks because this other game is better" you basically just said "I don't like your game, no reason why". They aren't making BG2, they never were. If you want to play BG2 I suggest you go play BG2 not try to demand Eternity get turned into BG2 with a newer paint job because that is not going to happen.

When it works without losing features in the current ui let me know. It is nice work and Bester has put lots of cool effort it, but I don't care to see the combat log 75% of the time and I never want to see the main menu.

You know most of my concerns. Engagement could be improved, I feel the stats are still poorly designed and not logical, lot of class balance tweaks, blah blah. All I am saying is despite all the reservations about say engagement that exist if they shipped the game with the system more or less as it is now I wouldn't be overly upset or feel like the game is "screwed" because of it. My main worry at this point is sweeping class balance or heavy mechanics changes. I think it is pretty close to that magical sweet spot now and any 50% change (JSawyer TM all rights reserved) may do more harm than good at this point.

I just want to call out this sentence here. I have given my fair share of feedback on the forums. Some of it seems like it got heard and made it in the game. Just as likely the devs were going in that direction anyway and my feedback (and others who had the same or similar to say) had nothing to do with it at all. I may not always agree with everything in Eternity or every direction Obsidian has taken it.... however... A game will never be more than "okay" if the design team does not have a clear vision and does not make sure that vision is never compromised. Design by committee makes a great "okay" game than no one really dislikes. It does not make a "great" game that some dislike but those who it is made for love. Obsidian needs to stick to their design goals even if it means some things I don't like (and other backers too ) don't get changed.

You know you are dealing with a new beta tester.... when they don't remember how you used to solo the BB with a Cipher and never even get hit it was so easy. That's why all the Ciphers skills are combat only now ;p, some of them got nerfed too.

Ah but that's not true. For one thing walking up and "stabbing a guy" is a offensive power. Just not a really fancy one. Also Ciphers have the soul lash thing which should be active when combat starts and helps them do a bit of damage as well. Most of those abilities were disabled out of combat because they were too powerful, solo cipher just mind controls a guy and waits for everyone to engage him. Solo cipher uses a dot that doesn't aggro, one shot kills who game. Solo cipher.... blah blah blah.

In all honesty I think it is time the "soloists" wake up and smell the coffee. You won't be one manning this game with anything other than maybe a chanter. It was not designed around it, they didn't consider it, and it isn't being looked at. Yes Cipher has restrictions but in an actual party they are not huge.

Actually in the most recent patch I have seen enemies switch targets, though I am not totally sure what the driving decision was that motivated their switch. They also no longer attack "the fight thing I saw".

Deflection from Int is still stupid, Perception is still must have and insanely OP due to how combat mechanics work, and Dex is basically useless unless you are a melee duel wielder with light weapons going for interrupts. So yeah, same stat system we had last patch with the same problems.

Yeah the biggest thing they could do to fix engagement (and it might be enough by itself) is to just make it so you only trigger an engagement attack when you actually "leave" an enemies engagement range, not when you simply move after being engaged.

Well I wanted to keep consistent numbers in both examples Junta you could make that same argument in Eternity though. I can't cast fireball if I didn't bring a wizard and give him a grimoire that has it, etc etc.

Actually Lurdis I (and many others) feel like engagement needs some touch ups and part of the suggestions I made previously was giving it only to "tank" characters since the entire mechanic was invented just to make them extra relevant.

I haven't seen this one myself but in various beta levels I have seen it happen to BB Rogue. At one point it got so bad all BB Rogue could do was turn their modal on and off.

Just be aware Lurdis that while what Sensuki says is true it isn't that simple. It relies immeasurably on whether you grazed or crit and the enemies DR versus your damage type. In general while the RNG gods can make some fights really hard or insanely easy in Eternity most of the time it is actually somewhere in the middle. Also it rides a ton on your weapon choice.... cause you aren't doing 40 damage to a stone beetle with a generic sword unless you also have a ton of other special abilities, passives, modals, etc running and score a lucky crit. Even then it is highly unlikely due to the beetles high DR versus slashing. Here is the real difference between Eternity and Infinity Engine games. Eternity is 70% pre fight planning and proper deployment, maybe 30% in fight adjustments and changes. Infinity Engine games are 70% in fight countering and adjustments and 30% prebuffing.

In all honesty it doesn't really bother me anyway. As long as rangers are at least usable in combat it is okay. "Perfect balance" is a great goal and idea.... but with 11 classes it might not actually be possible. It won't be the end of the world if one is weaker than the others. Sure power gamers will avoid it but who cares? As long as the class works and is capable enough to be effective someone will use it and have fun with it.

How on earth would that be an improvement? It would make Rangers even worse than they are now. Forces you to play a ranger intelligently. Also makes it so enemies can't just focus fire your soft companion and drop you. It is an ill conceived design to begin with, people thinking they will drop the shared health are probably well... living in dream land. Best case you can hope for is Rangers just get artificially bloated health and stam pools.

*insert qq about wizard battles* I think Junta is right here. Eternity the RNG can make a fight very very very easy.... but I have never seen the RNG make a fight I "should" win into a fight I lost.

Sounds to me like you have it in for Mr. Bear Junta. That said, yeah, Ranger needs some help. I have no doubt they will get adjusted before release. I think the shared health works okay, as long as you set a catch 22 rule that the pet always "falls unconscious" at 75% endurance. That way the last 25% you gotta deal with the ranger themselves. Also maybe make some rules like if both ranger and pet are caught in an aoe they only take the damage once not twice. If health falls to 25% or below the pet is permanently laid out until resting to recover.

Your video cards memory means jack all if the game is configured for nvidia cards not AMD and AMD doesn't ever bother releasing drivers that address performance issues on the game. I was only getting 20 FPS in Lords of the Fallen and my video card blows both yours and sensuki's out of the water as does my PC specs.... strangely a game patch and a driver update later I saw stable 45-50 fps on the same settings. You seriously underestimate how much effect driver updates and proper tuning of games effects performance.

Oh don't get me wrong. You need to pause, probably more than you did in BG1 even. But every 3 seconds? Not in a normal fight no, unless you just want to for some reason. Not even in most hard ones. Also if you are moving your characters constantly you are either kiting and trying to exploit engagement, or your initial positioning was just plain crap. A tank deployed the right way at the start of a fight for example probably wont need to move more than 1-2 times tops during a normal fight assuming they move at all. There is no advantage to moving around a guys rear mid combat, or moving a range character who is in no actual danger at their current position.

Eternity is a real time with pause game, you should not be needing to move characters every 3 seconds and depending on the character it is plenty fine just leave them swinging away in most normal scenarios. The amount of micromanaging many people on this forums say is required is pure bunk and is nothing but their playstyle. Eternity is not X-Com and the combat of the two really should not be compared.