Darkpriest

Hmm since I can't edit the above. I rolled with 10 str, 10 dex, 7 con, 5, PE, 5 Int, 4 Cha drifter went for 4 dodge 4 spear 3 crafting, and he had 0 problem with dealing with initial combat encounter with 2 thieves (70-80 THC and dodging 80% of attacks)... The balance of armored vs non-armored combat builds needs a lot of fixing in that game

Well first of all, i had an idea, of a preatorian that is good at eti and persuasion, but is also good with sword and shield, so really not a "jack of all trades" but someone with specific focuses in each of the trees. I used a template for Praetor - 7 str, 7 dex, 6 con, 6 PE, 7 int, 6 cha 2 dagger 3 swords 3 block 2 crit strike 3 eti, 3 persu. 2 streetwise 2 trading I thought it will be ok, it actual fit very well the first few dialogs, got a free praetorian armor and some other stuff, which i won't spoil, but the first situation where i could not deal in the dialog and resulted in combat, I could not beat it without 1000000000 reloads and it was a 1 enemy. He could not hit a thing with a gladius, while wearing shield and helmet and the enemy was hitting like 90% of times... Then I decided "screw combat in this game" and started load/save route with hoarding skill points to build up only social points that were required at that time. Managed to reach the second town and do I think only two quests there and then got bored that a nice armor reward from the ending of plot line in Teron can't be used. My second character was a Merchant: 5, 6, 5, 7, 8, 9 2 dagger, 3 dodge 2 disguise, 3 persu, 3 eti, 2 streetwise, 2 lore, 3 trading ended up with 2 disguise, 7 persu, 5 eti, 5 trade, 5 streetwise, 4 lore and managed to complete all the quests in both cities related to the main plot line for Commercium and some sidequests. (had to hoard 1k gold for one thing though, which otherwise would always result in combat) I got frustrated to no end once, when I've managed to get for a certain event 5 Imperial Guard bodyguards and they could not beat 3 assassins without like 30 reloads... at that point I thought I will just go some kind of a rage mode. My last char is a merc 8,8,8,6,5,5 4 spear, 4 block, 3 crafting, 2 streetwise I wanted the guy to excel at fight in heavy armor... and guess what.... this build sucks... cannot even handle one unarmored enemy at times, not to mention more than one enemy Heavy armor makes you have some AP restrictions, and you can't dodge in it, but wait, there is more stupid things, helmets and shields penelize your to hit chance so heavily, that you can't hit a barn, even when standing next to it. He also barely blocks anything (with 4 points!) and it seems like armor is penetrated by sneezing at it. I guess that in the mind of designers a scant with a dagger should beat a heavily armored soldier with longer reach. Now, dex based assassin for example can have 1134230000 action points, with his dagger that takes almost no AP to use, and can dodge and get free counter attacks (sometimes flurries) that go through armors... I think that Romans apparently were doing things bad... they should have used nothing more than rags and daggers and would never cease to exist. I do not know what is the idea about penelizing THC so heavily by using helmets and shields.... you are already penelized by not being able to dodge and having restrictions on your max AP. It also feels like there needs to be some improvement to shield defense and ability to block attacks. Heavy armors should not also get penetrated by 80% of hits... what's the point of it then? blunt weapons, ok, they cause blunt trauma, or some special high AP cost attacks, that also can cause an Attack of Opportunity and be interrupted... otherwise it is really pointless to go any other route than full dex, dodge, "weapon" if you want to have some decent combat experience. At least I feel like it right now. If this game requires you to min max from the start, just to have a shot at the game, then it is a bad design IMO. I can agree, that you should not be able to do everything with your character ( so no stealthy lockpicking masters of lore, trade and oratory that can shot beans with a bow and tumble with spear in one hand and sword shield in the other while bouncing the attacks off with the shield on his back) , but to be good with 2 weapon techniques and 2 non-combat skills is something I would expect from a good game.

Hmmm... I decided to grab it, I got it, and played it... to be honest, while the concept is really interesting and the story points look good, the execution is very unappealing. You basically have to metagame hard to be able to progress in the game at all. Create a character -> check the starting dialogs skill tests, reroll with new character and put skill points accordingly, and then always just keep your gained points until the moment you hit an obstacle with some tests that you currently can't pass, and add points in those skills. Do not bother with combat skills at all. While the combat has many options attack types etc. It simply sucks and is frustrating. Unless you build some kind a full dodge, one weapon (spear it seems is the best choice) super high dex character, you will just die whenever you will encounter more than 1 enemy. The problem is, that if you won't metagame the skill points assignment, you will hit hard obstacles that you will not be able to overcome with combat, because from what I've seen, you do not have party members, and you always hit packs of 3 -5 various types of enemies, which would be a really good challenge for a party, but are a complete hard wall for a solo character.

I did try the demo long time before and it was interesting I was just wondering how people who have this game rate it?

Hmm, guys, I noticed it on Steam Early access now. I wanted to grab that game before, but would like to make sure that it is a really good purchase. So what are your thoughts on the current state of the game? How is it shaping up? and most important, is it really worth it?

Just to address one point. 3 - the only time when trees look diversified is in autumn. Go to any forest in mid summer and tell me that you see this kind of a palette of colors, or better show the picture. I can tell you that they are uniformly green, with slight differences in shades of green. There is a big reason why it is that way. It's because of a substance called Chlorophyll, that allows trees to conduct photosynthesis. If the game is during the autumn time, then fine the changes make sense, if it is in the mid summer then the original makes much more sense.

XCOM: Enemy Within. Really fun with various new toys

They only teleport on their turn, so they do not shot on the same turn, meaning you have time to reposition, retreat, regroup and place some covering fire. Sure it is not super cool, especially if you are playing Impossible Ironman, but on Classic and below you have a decent to high chance of getting in one piece out of that. It happens maybe one or twice per whole campaign max, and sometimes you do not see it at all.

As they say: If it's not 100%, there is a chance to miss If it's not 0%, there is a chance to hit

plz read, that i said that DLC or so called F2P, which does not imply that either of the two titles is F2P... I clearly differentiated later that F2P is something like DotA2, and DLC+expansiosn is something akin to Civ, XCOM, and in case of Bioware ME, DA....

Hey, consider it (teleporting), as if they would also have stealth suits, like late game XCOM operatives or use some super high advanced alien tech. - Learn. Adapt. Survive. The only thing that might be very annoying in Ironman walkthroughs is when you misclick because of some camera issue or just a simple twitch of your finger

I'll refer to this point. The art of making DLC or any additional content in so called F2P games is difficult. For example Firaxis has a good recipe when it comes to their games. Take the Civilization 5. The DLCs add some scenarios with pre-made maps, along with a civilization or two, but do not change the core mechanics, they do not add some material to the core gameplay (like special research options etc.), when they want to add something more, they go and revamp some mechanics or add a ton of content, but then it's called "an expansion", the art apparently long forgotten. For the F2P the best example i think is Valve and their business model with DotA 2... If you are not familair with it, you really should check that business model and what they've built around it. As for RPGs, Bioware's RPGs... ME3 had this very unfortunate event with the Day One DLC. Not because it was Day One DLC, but because of the content of that DLC. If you make anything else than customization options, like looks + some weapon + some small trinket (like a robot dog) and put something that can change the whole playthrough, then it's ought to bring unpleasant comments as it is, what people describe as shameless money grab. Day One DLC should be something not core gameplay influencing, but at the same time incentivising pre-orders to some people, the look packs, etc. are this kind of an incentive. The companion and a different view on a whole story arc, is not... Here I will refer the Firaxis' Day One DLC to X-COM:EU. It was nothing more than some customization options, and look how many people still pre-ordered it and even later, bought it as separate content. Imagine what would happen if that Day One DLC was for example Slingshot (if you are unfamiliar, it adds a couple of narrative missions, a custom soldier and allows to grab some of the end game tech way earlier)... You might underestimate how many people are suckers for simple customizations in the looks of their avatars... The good idea of DLCs is shown i think best by the Lair of The Shadow Broker to ME2 - it adds a chain of missions/quests which are completely unrelated to the main plot, they flesh out some of the background of some of your companions, and adds some lore element to previously fairly remote NPC, that is still referred here and there. If you want to add new companions and influence the main story, then for whatever's sake, make a proper expansion with a load of other stuff on top. It's not about, DLC should have stuff that I do not want, but about, DLC should have stuff that should belong to DLC and not main product or full fledged expansion. The problem lies probably in the producer/designers meetings when they probably also discuss expected revenues and profits from the said "game" and they already assume, here, we will have like 3-5 DLCs, here we will add some big one to start with, so we'll get high recovery on the production before sales will drop, etc. Also, for whatever reason it seems that expansions fell out of favor... I assume it's because of the profit to amount of work ratio, when comparing DLC and expansion.

and to be more mainstream, probably also doing dubstep while referencing to Bieber's famous quotes (if there are any?)

You unlock more by completing higher difficulty levels. You get the whole list, if you beat the game on Impossible.

The Meld resource is more of risk vs reward thingy, and i suspect that unless you are playing classic+/ironman it won;t really change the combat by that much - really normal is not that hard right and you can easily complete whole missions within 6-10 turns (depending on spawns) I am still more interested what changes to the strategy layer they will introduce. I have to admit, that MECs and genetically enhanced soldiers are cool concepts. Same goes for some new weapons (like grenades, etc.), some skill balance changes. I am also interested if the new weapon types, like rail gun, etc will be available for other classes or are they stuck with the ol' classics. I will probably lose a lot of time on that game...

Meh, they ruined the game design, so unless they will revamp the game from being a hard gear check, to more player skill, and character + skill build dependent, then I am not really interested. The core design is so flawed. I still cannot understand, why they walked away from the D2 successful formula? Just to make sure that people will be more item dependent, thus forcing them to use AH? Max leveled character from d2 with basic act 1 normal gear, could have easily went through the whole game, up to nightmare's late acts, in d3 the max leveled character has serious problems with finishing act 1 on normal with the basic gear, which is kind of stupid...

hmm, is it true that you actually will be able to pick a race for your main character? I thought that Bioware is sticking with voiced protagonist human only. was that just a troll rumor or something?

@up "and if in doubt, bring even more dakka"

Any ETA on that? I am in need of more cRPG/tactical fix :D

Going back to the game, after some thought I feel like it's rather short. BTW. What's this thing with the Berlin Campaign? Will this be out as a DLC or it's backers only thingy? Unfortunately I wasn't able to participate in KS (too late!) but I do like the general game design concept (aside of no save game options...)

After completing Shadowrun retuns twice and completing a Blitzkrieg campaign in Panzer General 2 (classics!!!) I am back to my DotA 2 fix... Need to prepare myself also for watching the TI3 (DotA 2) with the largest single tournament prize pool in the e-sport scene up to date...

I have to admit I've enjoyed the game and even made two runs on it (Human Decker, Dwarf Rigger). Now I am trying to get some very unusual character, max cha for etiq. and get some levels in pistol combat - elf female. The Campaign shipped is a nice narrative, although I admit that while rigger's double drone strat was kind of nice and drones were also useful for accessing some areas, but I felt like generally there was some missed potential. Decker is even worse. I hoped for some more options to travel to Matrix, especially since his equipment and programs are fairly expensive and combat usefulness almost non-existent if you will go Max int/ Deck/ ESP route (he can't hit a barn, and with a debuff on the enemy he can;t hit a car.) But one debuff per round and two more APs that are basically useless is really the downside. I guess the game favors less maxing, and more variety. The final chapter is a bit tedious, other than that, a really nice experience and I really would like to see more campaigns on this, maybe with a bit more persistent shadowrunners squad

Trying out the NWN 2 mod - BG Reloaded. Feels like there are some bugs and it's definitely more difficult, because you can't activate spawns partially :D - not to mention that ECL races (for example Viconia) have much more difficult time there, but it is still fun. A lot of custom classes and some subraces (half celestial with ECL like 5? - you need 15k exp to reach lvl 2) !!!

I noticed that. Any good? Decent enough to play it and have fun Nice interception mechanics, being an own minigame, and generally looking good, with the retro like 2D drawings. They are still balancing things, and working on the AI (for example grenades now are rather useless, same with shotguns and pistols, and the AI does not defend UFO but fights with all forces outside) There is some cover mechanics, as a minor improvement over the original XCOM and better "aiming" mechanics. Still it is a niche game

Since Xenonauts now entered into Steam and is available for pre-pruchase and beta testing, I am playing that... Utilized my Kickstarter from this one. It is still rough in terms of balance and some AI, but generally the game is playable in full.