AdaMusic

OK. I am definitely one of these purists. I feel like the combat design of PoE would suit TB combat much better. I am also one of those players who never used scripts in the IE games and enjoyed it. The combat in IE games was much more suitable for real time with pause. I hope they tweak the current combat system instead of switching to TB.

I personaly like that fighters, rogues etc. do not feel like a summon, well no even most summons offered more choices than those classes in BG. I always hated the fighter in BG because it was a autoattack bot. Edit: The BB fighter has two active abilites in the beta. What is wrong with the fighter feeling auto-attackish?

I agree. To make gameplay fun I feel like the devs need to remove the fighter/ranger/rogue abilities OR add really good party AI (with customization). I'd prefer to simplify the classes though.

The ping pong delay is pretty interesting. I'd like stereo delay more.

There was stats rolling in BG; you could defo had a crappy character who sucked at everything and also a really gifted character who was good at everything.

Before we start tuning a lot of values, we need to get the basic bugs fixed. The next update to the BB should clear out the most frustrating aspects of simply selecting, moving, and executing commands reliably. Then we can look at overall combat speed tuning, among other things. Sounds good. I don't mind the combat speed as long as the game feels responsive. Starcraft 2 is a pretty good example where fast tempo combat actually feels really good just because how responsive the game is. In Baldur's Gate 2 the game speed was just too slow - I always crank the FPS up in the config just so that the game runs faster (destroying some cinematics, but defo worth it) and feels more responsive. Will the next patch contain the pathfinding fixes that devs have been talking about? And also, did you cut the grass swaying out of the game or is it just out of the beta?

I honestly don't care much about the naming of stats as long as players have an intuitive feel or a nearly intuitive one. The point is to make something that is fun and enjoyable, not a chore or math homework (though the math isn't too tough to calculate out, not everyone is good at grinding numbers and spitting out hollow dreams). Imnmersion is a fickle thing that usually doesn't pose a problem if you're having fun playing the game. I wont be having fun playing the game if I don't feel immersed into it. In my case, and many others, immersion = fun.

Only I who dislike the magic words in spell casting? Feels cliche.

That is another way of putting it.

Well said. This is really just a small slice of the game and music. Personally I find that game music sticks (or not) with me when I play a game a ton. When I played Skyrim for the first 10 hours, I would have been hard pressed to recall a single melody or phrase. But after 80 hours, I hear the music and it brings back good memories of the game. Ears have muscle memory, and it takes bit of time for that to sink in. For what its worth, I've been composing music as a ghost writer for many years. A couple american TV shows you may or may not heard of, Nikita, Eleventh Hour, Tomorrow People. And many many other smaller things as well. This is just the first "bigger" game that I put my name on. Just cause we're on the topic and you said the name "Skyrim" and others have already linked songs they like, I can name two from that game I loved. But then again come to think of it those are the only two songs of any fantasy game I've played that really jumped out at me. (not that I've played many. I essentially come from Bethesda's games, mind you) I'd rank Morrowind and Oblivion soundtracks on par with what we've heard from PoE thusfar as none of them feature a song I'm just dying to have on my ipod yet they all suit their purpose; the majority of Skyrim songs are much the same in that regard. PART of it I think is just the setting you link up to it. For example Metallic Monks from the Fallout games was a song I never really paid much attention to and often thought of as "that Freeside song," but after it was used in the Lonesome Road trailer it became something I had to download; the trailer gave it meaning for me. Likewise the theme for the Glow (and Mr. House) is made that much better by the fact that you're gonna hear it while exploring old world relics and trying to figure out what's REALLY going on within the setting. And yeah, both of the songs I linked above were songs I encountered in a (rare) emotional moment within Skyrim. (Also for those of you saying "emotional moments in Skyrim? You're lying!!" I would be, but ironically the German voice actors are better in Skyrim's case) Also it's too bad those two songs are the only thing they did right with Skyrim OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH SICK BURN~~~ /revenge for my two-week forum ban at Bethesda Wow. Jeremy Soule is just such an amazing composer. Those tunes are just out of this world. I honestly think this guy is a modern composing genius.

The information and answers given from Sawyer about items, crafting and enchanting in this thread sounds really good. 1 step closer to a masterpiece.

Hahaha. :D True dat. If you adjusted the bonus scale for D&D's attribute system to go from -1 at 3 and +1 at 20, you would get the same outcome you're talking about, though -- and that would be a balance issue, not a fundamental mechanical issue. It may be that Might grants too little of a bonus from point to point, it may be that wizards' spells simply do so much damage that a low bonus doesn't have a large impact on their viability, or it could be something else. Josh, one of the things that I think you aren't taking into account when dealing with PoE numbers in general (i.e. not shifting the numbers to negatives and positives and only making things positive, or large numbers, or decimals) is that these "complex" numbers are easy for the computer to crunch but become hard for the players to comprehend in terms of magnitude and implication. 1000% bonus damage? What does that mean for a player? 10x damage makes more sense. Same with other numbers. I really think you should look back at how you're implementing numbers and while considering that the computer can crunch those numbers for you, people have to actually make informed considerations with those numbers and keeping the numbers manageable will go a long way in usability. Ultimately, present the information in a way that most people could understand it. And it is not only about understand-ability either. Immersion is also important, meaning that the stats, modifiers and "percentages" should have a meaning lore wise. Questions like "why is the stat named might?" should be answered by the lore, not only by the description of the stat itself.

I agree totally. That doesn't mean that lore items with history should be rare. You can have a crappy dagger that has a cute description; still much more interesting than a Sword +1 that you just crafted.

I see your point. I just feel like the best way to do it is to make the "generalist/specialist"-spectrum fit the lore.

Thanks for the answer. Is it possible to finish the game without crafting/enchanting? I feel like both the 2 Witcher games forced the player into crafting, which is something I disliked. In Bethesda games and FNV I feel like it was made optional, which gave the game more depth without taking away immersion/gameplay for those who disliked crafting.