Jarmo

Replaying Icewind Dale 2 now. I think my eyes will survive Pillars of Eternity.

I wouldn't just count the Godlike subraces as seperate. You really should count all of the subraces as seperate, because they all have wildly different phenotypes. So I'm counting Classes (11) * Genders (2) * All Subraces (15) for a total of 330 portraits. I realize that's unrealistic before release, but it is the ideal I think they should strive for. One of the devs said that they're going to try to make a series of hooded/helmeted portraits too, because those can be used for several different races at once. Well I definitely need variants. Give me a noble knightly like human warrior, a more gruffy version and one clearly evil. The good the bad and the weird. About 1000 portraits should satisfy the immediate need. Well over month left, easy peasy.

Yea. For some reason minimal floating ui elements seem to obstruct more than solid out of the way interface. Despite the latter actually obstructing way more. But you cant see the little bits through the cracks so it does not bother the same.

A wall of text vs one quick pointer. You had good stuff there, but (sometimes) brevity has its merit.

Champion edition should have digital hardcover rulebook and digital metal box, while royal edition would have digital leather cover rulebook vith pages of digital vellum, and luxurious digital metal box encrusted with digital jewels. Then the pricing would make sense and seem like a bargain.

If I recall, BG2 had more ups and downs than a rollercoaster ride. Opening dungeon, not fun at all. City, was wow great.. and then I got swamped by million quests, couldn't remember what I was doing. World map full of locations I couldn't remember why I'd want to visit. So it was mostly going somewhere and killing everything that moves, see if I get a mission accomplished and try to find whoever sent me there. But lots of fun stuff too. The undersea place and underdark. Not fun, kill everything, good loot though. Drow town was definitely great, especially after butchering for so long. Actual quests and stuff, with talking and all! Great! And then back the city, slogging my way through about a million enemies. Not fun. And then it was already early endgame, with killing and killing and killing a lot of vampires and other creatures. And then late endgame, fighting another million critters. Actually getting to kill Irenicus was fun though. I got a kick out of watching as he was shredded by gated demons.

Damn. I didn't expect this until late summer or thereabouts. Haven't even had time to peek at the beta yet.

Well... yeah. I can live with those. But the ones that do have a key, I just can't visualize how they also wouldn't have a keyhole or something. Would be cool though, if there were traps undetectable by "detect traps", but detectable with "spellcraft" or something. Or maybe you'd need both spellcraft and trap detection.

You know what else? Unpickable locks of "you need a key" kind. Well damn, a lock that needs a key, who'd have thought of such a thing! Me the worlds best lockpicker, but alas, I only do locks as don't need a key. No. Make it hard, maybe "need a skill of 20" hard, but not flat out impossible. If I'm the best, I pretty much want to lockpick a stone wall, be there door or no.

From there: In Icewind Dale II, we did not have hard counter spell battle puzzles. We also generally didn’t rely on that many save-or-die effects (there is a “Tactics” mod that changes this). This approach (and a quasi-3E rulest) allowed people to build a relatively wide range of parties and character types within those parties. Because the scenarios typically did not require prior knowledge of what was going to unfold, players could usually react and adapt in the middle of a battle with the tools they had brought. I can't remember what it was in IWD2 I liked (I just remember I liked it a lot), but I think this could have been a big part of it. I do have to try it again. Guess Rome 2 TW and Blackguards have to wait a bit longer.

I kinda agree with this. Clearly BG2 is a game where the real appeal is learning to master it. A game with static content -- same areas, same quests, same enemies, same placed items -- is not an ideal format for this IMO. At least I do not find it engaging to run through the same content multiple times. Procedurally-generated content is different every time and it keeps fresh. That's why Neverwinter Nights was so darn brilliant. Master the gameplay and character creation, endless adventures by the 10 thousand hand crafted modules in NWN Vault. (Lot's of crap but also lots of fantastic stuff). Shame PoE doesn't appear to support modding. Still wonder if it'd be possible to mod if one acquires some version of Unity. Wouldn't be a humongous investment compared to having 3D software and spending a thousand hours of time.

What about if Finger of Death too two rounds to act, and you had one round to apply a counter before dying, after being zapped? Then it would be like poison. It'd be a good mechanic, but I wouldn't want it to replace Save or Die. In these, I'd like something between 100% and 0% effect. To the tune of - full effect killing instantly, a bit like 1st level kobold hit with 20th level fireball - almost full effect still deadly, maybe lose 25% of max health per turn, for four to six turns, in addition to being paralyzed - almost saved, losing 25-50% of health, also getting hit with paralyze and/or slow effects - full saved, getting no effect I really dislike the Save or Reload mechanisms. Poison was save or die in early D&D, was later fixed for better.

BTW. Now I really got the cravings to try IWD2 again. Played it through right after IWD ways back when, and liked IWD2 better. Tried again few years back and again last year, but gave up for some reason. Would be interested to hear your take on that, (if you have anything left after BG2) -- It's just how World of Tanks sucks up my time now, also reinstalled Medieval 2 TW with Stainless Steel and having fun with crusader states. That also has different mercenary system, where it can cost 2K to get a bunch of Templar knights, they're only 200 per turn, whereas heavy Kwarizmian cavalry is also 2K to hire, but 1K per turn. Relatively easy and fast to build an army that'll bankrupt you in the long run. One more thing is you can only hire templars maybe every 5 turns, but can hire all mercenaries from an area just like that. (And unless you do, your enemy might). Plus I haven't tried PoE despite having access, and DA Inquisition is tempting me.

This is why I'd like to see stuff like camping supplies you dragged along being costly and limited, so you can stay in the dungeon for maybe a week max. The hired mercenary costing another 250 per day and so on. Some incentive to not sleep for 2 months in the snowy pass like I did in Icewind Dale. Just bottoms up with a few healing potions and press on.

1. Random thoughts. Some kind of optionally punishing choices, like "I'm not siding with thieves, certainly not with vampires, I'm taking them all out." It should be clearly communicated it's going to be impossibly hard for you. Mentor kind of characters that'll make things easier for you. BG2 Jaheira would have been a good choice, if maybe that uubiduubi cult of hers could have actually helped you out a bit. Someone who'd you like to have around for the first playthrough, but not the following ones. 2. Best to not even try. I know I get a kick out of whenever I manage to grab something good I'm not supposed to have yet. I bit harder to get, a bit easier after that, balances out in the end. 3. I'd like urgency to be enforced. But I'd also like it not being present all the time. Maybe companions could add insight, like " he says it's urgent, but those trolls have been there for months, they'll keep a few weeks yet". Finding an artifact or something from some ruin, no need for it to be timed. But if someone asks me to save his family from that burning building over there, you shouldn't have time to rest a bit first, even less go for a pilgrimage to lonely mountains. I prefer (partial) resistances to immunities, don't really like counters. But those should be communicated somehow in advance. Guest giver, companions, somehow. - "If they're right and there are Vampires there, we'll need magic weapons" - "garlic repels them too, and silver weapons, though not as well" - "maybe we should wait until dawn, they might be asleep or at least weaker" Stuff like that. Give me a hint before the fight. Let the area description show wyvern droppings so I know to bugger the heck out if I'm level 1, let a companion tell me we need poison protections.

Playing it right now. It's not bad - I mean, it's still BG2 - but it's probably not worth the price tag. Don't have it, but I'd say if I were to invest 50hrs into the game, I'd invest €10 (or whatever it's going for right now) as well.

Would be better post by far with the last bit removed. But +1 anyway, as I prefer NWN1 combat to NWN2 combat, by a wide margin.

Yeah this, there's like one quest in the underdark much later that has a time limit that might potentially matter, the companion quests give you ages and will warn you before they leave anyway. The last time I played I had Viconia and .. that paladin dude whatshisname.. they didn't get along and I thought I could just ignore it for a while or talk them out, being a charismatic talker man and all. Turned out all nasty, having to struggle out of some dungeon without a proper warrior and way encumbered hauling some extra bloody paladin loot.

If I remember correctly, at high levels multiclass is basically a trap. If you go all the way to throne, you'll be something like 10-20 levels behind of what single class would have. Maybe a new thread, since this is already 10 pages of propaganda. --- Yeah, ok. With a small party it should be fine.

Not sure if I remember correctly, but couldn't you take a bunch of the first class in the beginning and almost immediately reach the same level with the second class. Could you even do the switch in character creation?

The last time I played BG2 was with a scounderlish character, fighter mage multiclass or something, lying thieving kind of guy. Which I picked for RP reasons, (we are stealing everything not nailed down, after all, attacking with little provocation and so.) So I was perfectly happy saying I'll take the quest, assuming I'll get to talk with the wizard and find out what's going on. Didn't even occur to me I'm bound by my word and actually on an assassination mission. So it's not just playing the paladin wrong. It's the game,

Yup, pretty high opportunity cost all right. Hope the effect at least wears off.

Channeling Sensuki, why don't you use an archer or Magic Missiles to interrupt the mage's casting, then rush, Knockdown, and murder? Nah, I had most characters equipped with slings and stuff. Lots of opposing mages perished in the hail of bullets. And I did use buffs and dispels and such, just not the counterspell ability. Also rushed hasted many times. I did finish both IWD's with the first party I made, though I had better reflexes and micromanagement 10 yrs ago. It's just those fights weren't fun for me, not the same fun as beating down a helpless opponent is fun fun. There's the rub. Building an optimal party is hard, I did love playing with the builds, especially in DnD 3.0. But that's kind of fun only when you've played a bunch of games with the same rules. And it's OK for me to pre-plan a character, if it's D&D it's almost assumed the players know the rules. NWN games (and ToEE) are actually better (than IE) with this, as you generally will find a way to enchant yourself your weapon of choice, so if you're a warhammer weaponmaster, you don't find out only later there are no warhammers to have. But then I've played a few other RPG's, which I can't recall right now, and needing to know what your build needs before the game even starts is a pain. The first play is much more fun if you start playing first and only then have to make up your mind. Dragon Age is better in this, Skyrim better yet.

The only game so far where I've liked mage battles is NWN1. Rush, knockdown with a greatsword and wham bam when he's lying there helpless. IWD my main tactic was to scout with an invisible thief, open up with offscreen fireball from the mage. Then wait out of sight until their sorcerer supremes protections wear out. Only then start the actual fight.

Don't know of others, but. In the past 10 yrs, I've played both BG's, ToEE, both IWD's and both NWN's, plus a ton of NWN modules. And never once used counterspell. Not once, don't even have a clue how I should go about using them.