Everything posted by Elerond
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Ranged versus Melee
Interrupts against ranged characters are currently rare as enemies about always target front liners, but I would guess that better AI could cause interrupts become meaningful factor when one considers which ranged weapons characters will wield, especially if one is such area of game where majority of enemies don't have DT 10 or more.
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Ranged versus Melee
Yes but currently they do so much more damage that bows don't seem to can keep up with over all damage even with unarmored enemies let alone armored ones. As currently person armed with exceptional war bow does only one third of damage that what person with fine arquebus does, but can't get third shot done before person with arquebus has shot second time. And against heavily armored enemies war bows damage is negated nearly completely, where arquebus loses only one third of it damage.
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Ranged versus Melee
I think that arbalests, arquebuses and that blunderbuss from pig farmer Rumbald (Lead Spitter with its doubled damage) have currently significant advantage against other ranged weapons especially against hunting and war bows how effective they are against everything, because they do consistently more damage during fights. I don't feel that they are necessary overpowered, but that other weapon choices are underpowered against enemies that we fight in the beta.
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The Grand Powers Balancing Thread
Chanter's summoning spells are overpowered when they don't bug out. As currently summons exist until they die or player rests and new summon destroys previous one (although this isn't always case with phantom which can in some cases summoned multiple copies at same time) With current AI behavior enemies attack always closest enemies or those that attacked them. This gives player ability to sent summons in close combat making all enemies to agro them letting your party to kill them with ranged attacks (which is helped by chanter's chant that makes ranged attacks faster and more powerful and same time generates invocation resource to summon fresh patch of minion in end of the fight). This means that chanter's party can annihilate everything (given that character vanishing bug don't cause vanishment of your main character/hired chanter) in beta without losing any health or need to rest even single time at whole time or even use single strategic resource of any sort, outside of first battle where you need to wait for invocation resources to use summoning for first time.
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Cap'n, I cannae find me mojo!
I would guess that "Teleport through earth" isn't meant to be final name for that ability but joke that developers made based on how its implementation in vertical slice/prototype/beta/etc. version worked. Paralyze or petrify both can work depending on do you want names that are perfectly clear what they mean or do you like more figurative names, but when you take consideration how abilities that player controlled characters have are named, paralyze seems more fitting name for that ability which crystal spiders have.
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Discussion: the PoE beta xp system
Those places are already checked and xp from them is awarded to player when they finally find someone that gives quest for the player, which I think that they should make them give hints about quest givers location if quest in question isn't activated. It would make system responses feel much better for player that focus more on exploration.
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Discussion: the PoE beta xp system
Quoting myself from previous thread But as farmer quest that beta uses is prototype version and not actual version of the quest (which you can find from game files) I think they don't necessary have all variations of xp checks in place, as prototype file seems to only check if you have quest activated when you enter in the cave and add text in journal if you do. They should in final version of quest probably add something in your journal xp check points to tell you that things that you have found or kill are part of quest/task Like for example when entering in spider cave there could be journal entry something like this "This seem very gloomy place maybe I should go back in town and try find more information before I venture forth". And if you still go forward and kill ogre or negotiate with it/him/her then there could be entry like this "I have killed orge in cave in near of the town, and as ogres are creatures that have bad habit to cause problems for near by kith settlements I decided to take it head with me and check if anybody will give reward for it" or like this "I persuaded ogre that lived in cave that was near by town to leave the area and as ogres are creatures that have bad habit to cause problems for near by kith settlements, I probably should go check if anybody is interested about getting rid of said ogre and collect easy reward".
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Do you want experience from combat?
Has anyone experimented to see what happens if you go to the cave before you talk to the farmer? I did this and killed ogre, any of this don't give you xp. But when you go town and speak with farmer I got xp from finding ogre's cavern when I got quest from him. Some reason I can't give orgre's head for the farmer to finish the quest but I think reason for that is that my main is chanter and she did vanishing act caused by bug which your character can vanish when you change area when you have skeleton minions summoned. But as farmer quest that beta uses is prototype version and not actual version of the quest (which you can find from game files) I think they don't necessary have all variations of xp checks in place, as prototype file seems to only check if you have quest activated when you enter in the cave and add text in journal if you do.
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One small but important problem with the beta no one seems to mention: WASD.
I feel that camera is more convenient to control by using mouse in this game, which is why I don't feel it is important to use most conveniently placed keyboard keys to control camera, but other things in the game.
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Is the PoE beta + the update info on target with the KS goal - IE spiritual successor?
They also defined what they meant with term, which seems not to be comparable with all meanings that people have for such term. With some generic gobbledygook And with some more specific details Added with more specifics about how they will spent money that we gave them And then they added more details about their vision in updates. But regardless do you agree with them or me or anybody about what was promised and meant about PoE being spiritual successor for IE games and how well PoE fulfills those promises and meaning, I think it is overall in that point of time bit moot thing to chew the cud, because PoE fulfill or not fulfill peoples standards for spiritual successor status and that probably will not change significantly in next few months and only thing that people can realistically hope anymore is to get PoE polished so that it will be enjoyable RPG experience regardless of fact can it fulfill one's personal standards for spiritual successor status for IE games. IMHO.
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My Personal comments so far..
Urm... Ouch.... I guess that means I need to adjust my playstyle... Do anyone know why? Even Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 had healing, so I see no reason why not PoE should have it.. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/328976
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On "Degenerative Gameplay" - Fixing the Incentives for Healing and Scouting
Wait, is he designing this game for himself? Of course our opinions are what matter... not his. No, he don't design game for himself, but also it don't think it matters what you or anybody else than designer thinks when it comes to things that designer feels to be mistakes done by him, which he don't want to make again, in that it is only his opinion that matters in end of the day (as they are his personal feeling about subject) and only thing that you can do if you disagree is to try to make him see that he didn't make mistake in first place. This of course don't stop you giving favorable opinions or demanding features that designer feels to be mistakes, but if you can't convince him that he didn't made mistake in first place then it is quite likely that he will continue to think that he made mistake in first place, which usually mean that he will not want to do it again. But of course in case of PoE designer under scrutiny don't necessary have final word how things will be and you can try influence other people that has power to overrule his decision, but I don't think that even that will change his view about subject, but you could get what you want.
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On "Degenerative Gameplay" - Fixing the Incentives for Healing and Scouting
I don't see these things as mistakes. But I really don't think it matters if you don't see them as mistakes if person that made or was part of making said things thinks/feels that they are mistakes. Especially I don't think that it helps that people keep attacking said person on their view that said things that they made or were part of making are mistakes. Issues under discussion are things that at least some people feel to be broken at least some level, meaning that they aren't universally seen working as they are originally meant to work or that their existence makes things better, even if they aren't game ruining things.
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On "Degenerative Gameplay" - Fixing the Incentives for Healing and Scouting
If you know that your design or design that you have used previously has flaw in it, and then you design new system that has only spiritual/aesthetic (meaning that you don't try copy that previous design you used but only mimic overall feeling that it gave out) link to previous design you used what kind of logic you should use to just copy paste that flaw in you new design and be happy about it? Because as software designer I try always fix/avoid my design mistakes in next design I do, because I feel that it is quite idiotic not to do so.
- Are they even listening to our feedback?
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Status effect transparency
So, ultimately, you can't hover over at the start of combat and have all the information available, even with a high Lore value? With current system high lore value brings more information about enemy with each hit and kill, which I don't think is most intuitive system and beta's scope and variety of enemies don't let you benefit from that information much with character that finds it out, although you can use your meta game knowledge with next character.
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On "Degenerative Gameplay" - Fixing the Incentives for Healing and Scouting
None. And so what? I think that question rose, because you said that there should be 'detect' button that purpose is to switch detect mode on and off, so it comes to question why there is need to switch detection mode off, because if there isn't reason it is usually better not waste GUI space for button that has no purpose.
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The state of Feminism, the good the bad
I support feminism and feminist when their meaning for the word feminism is to establish, and defend equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights between sexes even in cases where they focus on those sectors where women have less rights than men. If they use some other meaning for the word I probably don't support their cause. Longknife: Cherry-picking information to match your agenda is something that cannot be awarded to any singular movement as it is something that humans do by nature (confirmation bias) and therefore all movements will be guilty of it, even movements that are so determined to show that feminist (or some other) movements do so.
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On Healing: a New Idea
Same issue can be found in IE games (especially BG & BG2), where fights in cities had only tactical meaning as all strategic resources (spells, abilities) where easy to replenish without drawing any negative effects those games had, mainly speaking about random enemy encounters that could happen if you rested in wilderness. Consumables are only strategic resource that can lost in those fights so that they aren't easy to replenish Only sensible way to bring more strategic layer impact to those fights is to add timed quest/missions/happenings in the game, which were thing that backers seemed not want when they were under discussion.
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Josh says: PoE's Fighters and Rogues aren't boring
One of Obsidian's ambitions is build their own IP, which includes world (lore, races, etc), rule system, etc. things that have made D&D so successful. And I would say that Obsidian has borrowed lot of things but maybe less from AD&D and IE games than many though they would and more from D&D 4E, Darklands etc. games that Josh seems draw his inspiration (which is only free thing they can get as they need to write everything from scratch to new engine, new system and in new world and lore). Although I would also say regardless of what games they draw their inspiration I don't think it would have added class variety any more, as they started with goal that game will have 11 classes with no class kits or prestige classes at least not before expansion pack. Which means that all variety inside of class needs to come from class mechanics of themselves, especially when they decided that there is no multi-classing.
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Ranged versus Melee
Good thing in P:E there's no reason you'd want to do that, unless you thought they carried really good loot of course. Except if it has same issue as IE games that combat don't end before all fleeing enemies are dead, which is only reason why I hunted fleeing gibberlings or xvarts down.
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Josh says: PoE's Fighters and Rogues aren't boring
People may compare PoE to BG:EE, but I think it is bit unfair for Obsidian if we do so, as Obsidian had only limited budget and two years to produce PoE with 11 classes they promised us (BG had 8 plus specialized mage), where BG2 and especially BG:EE had most of the ground work done before games were even in preproduction which gave their developers ability to produce more variety in class system.
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Josh says: PoE's Fighters and Rogues aren't boring
At level 5, a Baldur's Gate thief has gotten three weapon proficiencies (2 at lvl 1, 1 at level 4) Thief's progressed level-wise faster, so it was level 6 when a fighter's mid level 5. It has its backstab ability progressed three times by then, but its use require flanking, backstabbing or enemies prone, IIRC, or coup-de-grace situations. To be fair, though, the thief comes in different versions right from the get go. There is the classic thief just mentioned, plus you had the bounty hunter, the swash buckler, the shadow dancer (BG:EE), and the assassin. They all feel quite a bit different in combat. In addition, it's more common than not, to have your have thief multi-classed by level 5 (or rather 6, due to the fast xp gain), provided you meet the requirements for dual-classing. So, playing a thief in combat in BG:EE (which I play now, as a swash buckler, is definitely more varied, than the handful options we get right now in PoE BB for the lvl 5 rogue. At level 5, a Baldur's Gate fighter, already had specialized a lot with a weapon and this could be a ranged fighter or a tank fighter , or a fighter not caring that much about AC, shields, defending, and just going all-in for damage in various ways. The fighter had already spent 5 proficiency points at level 5! Yet again, the class kits can't simply be disregarded. For fighters, you had Berserker, Kensai, Wizard Slayer, and Dwarven Defender (BG:EE). They are rather unique in combat too. Fighters are equally common to multi-class with, once again, as long as the dual class requirements are met. This means that the fighter, with its class kits, weapon proficiency choices plus weapon variety (ranged, melee...), is doubtlessly more varied than in the PoE BB. You didn't have class kits in BG, they come with BG2, which engine BG:EE uses.
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PoE at PAX Prime
This is because Paradox took over responsibility to sell the game from Obsidian in last month and currently Paradox isn't ready to sell game, which probably because they haven't yet got ready their PR material and contracts with retailers for the game, but I would guess that at the latest you can pre-order game in sometime in next month.
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On "Degenerative Gameplay" - Fixing the Incentives for Healing and Scouting
Losing one member from your party is punishment, but it isn't necessary enough punishment to incentive enough to prevent people to let their characters to fall down. Detection of secrets and traps is something that players want by default to do as not doing so only penalties players, as slower movement speed outside of the combat is only burden which isn't really incentive not to do things but punishment for players to doing things in optimal way. Which is way detection should be always on or there should be some other incentive than faster movement speed not using it constantly.