Karkarov

And they are all horrible (Especially IWD2's gigantic block of bottom UI).So your point is? Maybe it was designed due to that reason, but hey... it still looks and works a lot better than what tech says we should use these days, so why not? Right except screen size has gotten even bigger since then and the only reason Icewind Dale 2 had that huge block was the text window.... which can now be on the side .... I think the block will be a might smaller now. Or would you like me to start posting images of mockups I did *again* which show how all these functions can easily fit on the bottom of the screen, be functional, and still look "pretty"? The conversation has been had, give it up.

You realize your conn also has to be absolutely in the gutter for you to not have a very high chance of success. Specifically a guy with 10 conn, (absolute human average according to D&D) had a 75% chance of success on the roll. If you cast it on the rate 18 conn character who was the peak of human conditioning guess what.... no roll they auto pass it. So 3/4 butt average guys could make the roll. Until your conn hits an abysmally low 4 you always have at least a 50% chance, even then you still have a 45%. So it wasn't as hard to make that roll as you imply, especially for fighter type characters. Regardless we aren't talking about Eternity versus pen and paper RPG's as Eternity isn't a pen and paper game. We are talking about it versus the Infinity Engine games where I don't ever recall having to make a resurrection survival roll or losing conn for being raised. Oh also, not all cleric spells were gifts from gods. Clerics could draw power from their own beliefs and literally supply their own spells, likewise a good DM who felt the clerics god wouldn't want the cleric raising people from the dead could simply not let his clerics learn the spell from the get go. Very few DM's treated clerics correctly, as in, you can't cast these spells cause you worship Waukeen and what does wealth and commerce have to do with summoning a huge insect swarm?

Another UI thread.... I will take pity and not post too much. Other than to say that is clearly a mock up. Obsidian has already discussed what they are going for long term and it didn't include transparent gaps between the portraits. That said that UI looks perfectly serviceable and could be easily customizable, which I think is something the final UI should try to include though I fear it won't. I will say... again.... L shape is stupid. It was designed that way due to lack of screen space not because it "flowed well". Obsidian's own more modern UI work (planescape torment/icewind dale 2 even) all avoided it, and for good reason.

A spell I never cast by definition will not be fun because I never cast it. Likewise if the spell is so weak that it can only do something so mundane I could have simply memorized magic missile instead and gotten the same effect of one shotting mice but now I can actually do damage to goblins too. I see what you are saying, but your point doesn't hold water.

Actually most of the time in Baldur's Gate when someone died I just raised them or went back to town and paid some chump change and did it there. I only reloaded on nonsense like my character failing a instant death save which forces a reload or situations where my party was simply wiped (few and far between). In PoE you do understand death is permanent right? If a party member dies they are dead, the end. Since death carries a metric crap ton more weight because of this it shouldn't happen like a joke every other encounter.

No need to memorise the 2nd ed players handbook. Just right click on the spell in the game and read it. It says it in one sentence. Not hard. Of is that too hard for you? And why do you need to go to the 2nd ed players handbook? Maybe I am insinuating no one (short of photographic memory) could possibly memorize all the spells and effects and needing to look up the different between spell deflection and spell reflection is probably normal for most players and hardly a big deal. Also maybe you should cut him some slack, I believe he even said he has never played D&D 2nd ed outside these games and frankly the IE games are a .... shaky translation of the system at best.

Yeah, where do you get off man? I mean it isn't like over half of the 2nd ed players handbook which was like 250 pages was just spells or anything. How could you not have memorized it all by now? Haven't you had enough time in like 10-20 hours of Baldur's Gate to memorize it all yet?

I would rather the story be told by the characters present in it, not an omnipresent narrator who may or may not even be there. Just my two shakes.

Here is the other problem and why I will say mechanically Dragon Age Origins is the far and away better game than Baldur's Gate 2. Baldur's Gate 2 you had mages, clerics, and druids. Those classes had lots and lots of spells and lots and lots of ways to use those spells. What about Fighters? Paladins? Rangers? Some of them might have a couple spells, but they were hardly deep, highly limited, and mostly all of those characters ended up in one block called "Person who hits things in melee". Of course you have cheese classes like Monks too but you know what how deep are they "really"? So aside from the boring repetitive combat there is very little in the way of character development (unless you happen to be a caster). Dragon Age? Everyone has abilities, different weapons could have major effects on how you played, different spell types worked differently, no two characters had to play or were the same just because the had the same class. It is just more varied and interesting to play on all levels. Mechanically it also plays better. Now does Baldur's Gate 2 have a better story? Sure. But I am not "playing" the story I am "playing" the game mechanics.

Don't think it will really be needed, it isn't like we have to deal with detailed face/appearance editing or a ton of choices. You will basically pick a race, male/female, maybe a hair/skin color, what region you are from, then a class, then distribute stats. It isn't much to really worry about, you should just be sure you like what you have before you continue.

Unless "long time" is two months ago.... no played it pretty recently.

What you just said is pretty darn accurate, but I am going to add on one more bit. The problem isn't that you sometimes have to counter someone else's spell, it is that you had to do it in almost 50% of the fights in the game, and that there were so many counters you had to use in literally every other fight past a point. You should never need 4-5 counter spells for one fight. I needed that many for one fight so many times in BG2 I can't even guess how many times it went down.... probably over 100 times. Also Mr. Badass whoever who never used counter spells. I guess you used the console to beat Irenicus when he he got his free time stop (twice) to give himself protection from magic weapons, phase out, stone skin, protection from missiles, greater spell shield, and god knows what else. Because he sort of makes himself immune to pretty much everything unless you start using things like pierce magic, spell thrust, etc etc etc.

Do you what the problem with the people on this forum is Hassat? You are all too arrogant, you are all too insular, and none of you play any games that are well.... not ancient and or made by someone other than CD Projekt RED. Stop being childish. I pointed out a blatant flaw with the chart you linked, which is what I meant by "your chart" as in "the chart that you linked", and you replied with the usual petty insults and of course completely ignored my point about the chart. What's wrong with BG2? Let's start. 1: Counter the Mage. I am pretty sure I have covered this elsewhere but Tic Tac Toe isn't a great combat system, and it is exactly what 50% percent of all encounters in Baldur's Gate 2 boiled down to thanks to the constant non stop wave of mage after mage after mage after mage.... There is nothing fun about casting the same half dozen counter spells, sending my melee in, watching mage guy die in one round (cause I countered everything) 500+ times. It isn't fun, it isn't exciting. 2: D&D 2nd Edition rule system. Why is this a problem? Because it means there is absolutely no character ability development. The only difference between this fighter and that fighter is one decided to go dual wield and the other went two hander. That's it. What is different between this level 15 rogue and that level 15 rogue? One is better at picking pockets and the other is better at moving silently. Massive differences, so unique. Lot's of games have done it better at this point, even the hated Dragon Age 2. Character development that isn't about their backstory would be nice. The fact that this rule system never translated well to PC in the first place could be brought up too. 3: Save Scumming due to sucker punches and insane bouts with RNG. I know you think that is good but most people will just say it is frustrating and just wastes time. It isn't like there is any skill involved, you just reload and try again either bringing your hard counter or hoping to get lucky on the roll. 4: Bad storyline flow "Rescue Imoen NOAH!!!!!! But it is okay if you take 6 months, it's all cool. Save the Elves NOAH!!!!! .... Actually if you need a in game year to get ready feel free, they can hold out. Irenicus is busy getting a pedicure." 5: Inability to create the exact party you want, apparently some people cared enough about this Obsidian addressed it in the kickstarter itself. To be honest these things are also just off the top of my head. I am sure if I wanted to think about it for a few hours I could come up with more. Make no mistake I am not saying BG2 is a crap game, but I am saying it definitely can be done better.

NO~! Everyone must die, kill em all!!!!

You understand I actually refer to BG2 combat as "Counter the Mage" right? That doesn't mean I think it is a sucker punch (maybe the first few times before you realize every mage in the game is just the same mage with more or less levels of countering) it means I think the combat design is ... in a word... crap. Countering the Mage isn't fun. It is repetitive, boring, has no strategic value, doesn't actually add anything to the fight. Counter the Mage is this .... Tic Tac Toe. You are player 2 and your only job to prevent player 1 from winning, since in Tic Tac Toe you can't win as player 2 unless player 1 is dumb. Once you exhaust all of player 1's options though you can now beat him, There is no actual difference between countering Kangaxx, Irenicus, random lich, zhentarim mage hiding in a bush, bandit mage #5, or bobo the clown mage. Well except for the fact that you had to notice the Zhentarim mage hiding in the bush before you countered him and you might be afraid of clowns which makes Bobo have an edge. So my point, cheesing and countering isn't fun. It is boring and trite. I would rather fight 5 normal humanoid bandits who simply use different weapons and have good ai to fight in different ways all day long than fight Jon Irenicus once. Because the bandits wont be the same fight over and over and over and over and over and over and over and ov..... Hmm Lephys.... it almost sounds like you are saying "Save or Die" is less interesting and adds less to a fight than simply poisoning me with a damge over time effect? By jove I think you may be on to something!

What I find odd is how anyone expected Baldur's Gate 3, which is clearly what many people seemed to think was happening with the Kickstarter. 1: The D&D license was never on the table... so they were never going to make a Baldur's Gate, or have use of the rule set the Infinity Engine games used. 2: The IE games are all based on what is ancient tech by today's standards, clearly you have new options today for making your game that god forbid might be better. 3: The IE games also had plenty of fairly obvious problems, common sense would tell you that when making a game in their "spirit" it is only rational to try to fix those problems. I cant even imagine what it is like to be a game dev looking back at a game you made a decade + ago, there must be a million things where you think "If only I had done this a little different..." 4: Obsidian was always clear and upfront from day one this would be a new IP with their own hand made rule system. So considering those pretty basic things... it is sort of obvious we were never going to get a brand new IE game just with a new name on it. They need this to be a new IP, they need it to succeed, and they need it to grow under it's own inertia. That was never going to happen if they simply made a IE clone with a new name that was cashing in on nostalgia alone with outdated mechanics. Hence the use of the word "Spirit" of the IE games in the Kickstarter campaign not "We are making a new Infinity Engine Game". Also Hassat.... I would love to know how your graph knows how many pc and console games sold in 2014 since we are only 4 months in and how it knows the sales of 2015 a year that hasn't even started yet. That chart is simply based on "trends" and the trend doesn't factor in things like a new console generation getting released.

I wasn't responding to you per se because I knew you were being sarcastic. I was responding to the idea that removal of sucker punches is somehow less variety than having them when in fact suck punches in general are the opposite of variety. To be more specific "disarm the trap" is no less or more fun if the trap just causes a floor to cave in, a save or die, the building to light on fire, poison smoke to fill the room, spikes to shoot out of the wall, or a door with a golem behind it to open. It is the effect of the trap that actually matters. Meanwhile silence the lich is nothing but "counter the mage the game tm" also known as Baldur's Gate 2. It isn't all that fun, it doesn't have much variety, and it is basically the same encounter over and over and over.

Wait, so you're for getting rid of the sucker punches? I thought you were against it. EDIT: And, I mean, that's also patently false, but I'll accept that you believe it. Here is the thing, sucker punches are actually the opposite of variety. The only difference between a trap that is save or die from poison and a lich casting a death spell that is save or die is one you needed to have protection from poison for and the other you needed protection from death. Both are still roll a dice and fail you die. You can design a dangerous hard encounter where the enemies simply fight smart and it can be tons more creative and exciting to play out than Kangaxx ever was. Good combat design with a large variety of encounters is always more enjoyable, and possibly a ton harder, than "counter the mage" will ever be.

I couldn't agree more. 'Pillars of Eternity' is our chance to show the RPG gaming industry they are headed the wrong way, or at least that more games addressed to mature audiences are released. There should be more titles like Baldur's Gate I&II, Fallout I&II, Planescape: Torment and I really hope 'Pillars of Eternity' imminent huge success is going to send a loud message to producers. What I get from that is that there is a reason you shouldn't trust user reviews on metacritic.

Death is permanent. I don't intend to be "knocking out" the enemies I feel I have to fight. So if I kill a enemy, no, he had better not respawn when I come back if I don't kill the whole group.

As long as "bringing back that feeling in their own way" doesn't include one shot kills on major enemies or chump weaklings one shot killing you all due to random chance, dumb luck, or hard counter situations then yes, I agree.

Oh yes, they will get it out this year. But you are right.... How good/playable it will be is definitely up in the air.

Ohhhh, right. I forgot about that. Oops... 8P Looks like that was useful for Endrosz. Good call, That's all well and good but they really need to just fix it so we can simply edit the pledge. Contacting support, waiting for them to respond, etc etc. It just seems a little silly for something that should have been a no brainer inclusion to the pledge editing system from day one.

In ZA our IP changes based on ISP and termination point is that of the ISP. This is not unique to ZA. Managing via IP is not a solution and never will be. Simple 2-factor authentication is the better solution. Okay allow me to rephrase. My ISP doesn't provide internet to people in Germany. So if a guy with a IP that is from a company that provides internet in Germany is trying to log into my account..... odds are good it isn't me. Pretty simple concept.

So, yeah, I think that's part of it. They're honestly worried about being held legally accountable for the results of someone hacking into your account and running amock in their game world. Then, you coming in and going "WHAT THE HELL?! YOU SHOULD'VE KNOWN THAT WASN'T ME FROM THE IP ADDRESS!" Fair enough however IP Addresses are very specific and the numbers aren't random. Once you know how to read them you can tell where a person is located within a small region based off the IP alone. So an IP that is assigned to a guy who lives down the street from me won't be hugely different, but some dude tries to log in to your account in China it is obvious it isn't likely to be you. I have no problem with them doing this but they need to apply it in a way that makes more sense.