DCParry

See, I am having a bad response to this game. It is a hot mess. Now, with that said, it can be a fun hot mess. The lack of documentation really bugs me. The increasing encouragement to participate in degenerate game play, and the sheer randomness trial and error nature of combat encounters gets my nerves very quickly. I really have to take it small doses or else I will throw my computer out the window.

Silver backers not only smell better than your average backer, they are also physically more attractive to others of any gender. Especially the shiny kobold backers.

Rather than making certain classes less interactive, I'd prefer that the companion AI is decent enough to be competent without a lot of 'interference'. They won't operate at peak efficiency, but they should be good enough to play through on the easier settings. That way someone with a more laid back playstyle can be happy, yet players like me who actually enjoy RTwP party based tactical combat can have fun with all of the members of our party, instead of just half of them. If you have to rely on companion A.I. in a game where you are supposed to be in charge of a whole party, there something wrong in its systems. PoE is not an MMO nor a single character RPG. The whole point of a party based game is the squad management. It doesn't matter how "fun" is to play a specific class (leaving alone the fact that a low-maintenance class could be as fun as any other class). What's matter is how "fun" is to control the entire squad, which is what you do all the time as a player - and relying on A.I. is the antithesis of fun, even if the A.I. in question is really good. It's not by accident that in the old I.E. games the only classes that required real management were casters. Melee fighters didn't required management at all. PoE already enhanced the original formula. You have a very narrow definition of party management. Perhaps someone finds a great deal of satisfaction in picking talents, equipment, and tactics that allow the non-PC party members to succeed without immediate microcontrol. The effort and the planning that went into such an approach is not a less valid way to the game. Also, while you may consider such an approach "the anthesis of fun" you are just stating your own preference. Someone else's definition of fun might be vastly different than yours.

It's a shame they aren't just scaring your wrong-brain. I second Stun's awesome question. Seems like the base range (to which Intellect's bonus/modifier is purely additive) should be affected by weapon reach? And, of course, now I'm just imagining a Barbarian dual-wielding wands (the most ridiculous weapon I can think of). Well, there is reach and there is effective reach. If 5 people are standing perfectly spread out in a cone in a semicircle in front of you I see the spear being a superior weapon. However, take those 5 people and squish them tighter in elevator with you and a dagger might actually be able to be more effective. Of course, this is all over complicated for the combat system to take into account (it is a game, not a combat simulator, in before blah blah SCA weapons training with real spears I can do all that and so on), I think we might be able to abstract and not worry TOO much about weapon interaction with carnage.

I know all the hate on DA:O is still what the cool kids are doing, but I tink maybe the problem you had with Ostagar was player based and not game based. Ostagar was a significantly different experience for my city elf (who treated the king and other nobles with open hatred) than my dwarven noble (who begrudgingly accepted such people as, well not equals, but at least the sort of people one could associate with). While the combat/mechanics were the same (which I assume was limited by resources), the dialogue and choice of interactions produces a different experience (if you are willing to allow roleplay beyond the reactions of the game itself). Why would a dwarf or an elf care about Rabbit? I mean, dwarves have no experience , and if anything, both city and Dalish would possibly have a deep phobia (city) or hatred (Dalish) of Mabari. Would individually crafted responses and quest lines that makes ever play through and entirely new and different experience be better? Most certainly yes. Is this sort of expectation feasible? I would say it might not be. Now I have a picture of voyeuristic giant spiders sneaking in to watch two of the wee people do the dwarven nasty before interrupting them and ruining the mood. EDIT: USE YOUR WORDS!

I think this is a good point to note. There could be a lot of differentiation between characters with the same skill level but different stats. Does a athleticism differ if you have a high constitution as opposed to dexterity? Could be either two checks - one skill, on attribute for success or a check on one modified by the other. So for a lore check, having no matter how high an intellect you have, you cannot instantly decipher an ancient forgotten language, but perhaps a high perception gives you chance to notice patterns/irregularities in wall carvings that help you associate it with a more modern language or tell that it is a warning or some such. The bottom line is we don't know yet. Also, I have noticed that most of the time the skills are called "skill sets", which imply that each skill has either a wider application than we might assume or even branching specializations (not likely, but again, we don't know enough yet).

I was about to post to ask about the keys for release, but this is even better news.

Semi-confirmed rumour - baby drowning mechanics in PoE.

Based on what? Tweets? Really? What convinced you that the previewed content was a significant departure from everything we've been exposed to in the copious updates? Or did I miss something again? No, that nothing is changed, but I am understandably excited to see actual game play footage, and I haven't yet, thus my disappointment.

Racism as we understand was as much as thing in medieval period as it is now. Romani people, Jewish people, Sami people, Arabs (plus north African people), Native Americans, red haired people, for example were along people that suffered mostly during middle ages in Europe or areas that Europe pursued to control. They were discriminated against, they suffered violence that was aimed towards them just because of 'race' they belonged and sometimes they were even executed because of it. Wait, who oppressed Native Americans between 476 and 1453 CE? EDIT - OFF TOPIC: Also, it seems to me, the apparent inevitably of "racism" [as an aside, scholars do define racist attitudes that preceded the modern periods in different ways than modern racist attitudes, this is not a controversial statement] in speculative fiction often functions as a way to make those of us who come from cultures where racism and racist attitudes thrived a little bit better about our past.

I am not going to comment on the previous attitudes in the thread, but after seeing all the tweets linked (thanks sensuki!), I have to admit I am disappointed that I am not able to see any of this as of yet. It is not the end of the world, but, I really can't find any better expression then disappointment, which is a first so far in the development.

I am not sure if it will make sense for the next update, but I can see if we can get a UI screen for the one after that. Give unto me a UI! puuuuhhlease =)

Yes, but we must remember, a delay DOES NOT guarantee a better game. Perhaps it has a tendency to result in a better product, but there are too many people who assume always, 100% of the time that more time = better game.

Again, we assume that there are going to gaggles of marauding ghuls wondering the streets of any town that an animancer has walked through. I assume said animancer would not be long for this world, as he would be killed and/or apprehended by the authorities, the family of his most recent client, or (most likely) other animancers who don't want to draw too much attention to themselves. Remember, the experience of the adventure is not the experience of the common person.

yet another limit on how common undead would be: religion. if there is religious reasons to find animacy deplorable, then am guessing we has yet other reason to shrink our pool o' potential willing victims. some folks is trying to have cake and it it too. you want undead creation mysterious enough so that otherwise reasonable rich people would be hoodwinked into making themselves a guinea pig for an animancer. at the same time, you want undead widespread enough to be a crpg staple monster. if you make mysterious and obscure, then you is reinforcing Gromnir's criticism that undead necessarily is gonna be rare. HA! Good Fun! See, I personally don't care if undead are "widespread enough to be a crpg staple monster." Given the lore description of them it seems unlikely, and I don't see why that's a problem. it's a problem 'cause Gromnir said that based on descriptions given to us thus far, corporeal undead would be rare. folks disagreed. that is how we has got to this point. HA! Good Fun! Well, we should remember there is a difference between rare and 'rare'. Your average cooper or cobbler might never see an undead, and only have experience with the folk explanation (whatever that might be.. watch out little Jimmy, you keep doing that and your palms will get hairy and you will become a fampyr!). As for the rarity of for the PC, we probably have stacks of them piled up in the woodshed outside the keep. ;-) Also, there are plenty of other desperate scenarios, literature and folklore is full of characters who are unable to let their own loved ones die, so we could have anything from the pretty young wife who is not fully aware of her condition because it was forced upon her by her grieving and loving/brutish, controlling and abusive husband who couldn't let her die, the young lord who fell off his horse on his 11th birthday who remarkably recovered is doing fine now, but he seems to be eyeing the serving ladies quite intently, but we are all sure it is just puberty and so on...

There is no update 79, only Zhul.

Early access can be a double edged sword, but I have no strong feelings one way or another about it (I sometimes buy something like Endless Legends, something I would have bought anyways, just to show some support for the devs and then forget I have it until the release). As for delays, I am of two minds here. Delay do the unavoidable conflicts, issues, emergencies is perfectly fine. These sorts of things may result in a relatively small delay and there is nothing the devs or anyone else can do about it. Now, delays because of feature bloat and the inability to manage your game properly is a horse of a different colour. This sort of behaviour seems to be plaguing many KS projects (although most of this comes from new/indie studios that are smaller and less experienced than Obsidian). It is like they get some money and go all spazzy monkey boy seizure and want to add in everything so the entire experience is actually never finished and the game is watered down and directionless. Now, I have no expectations that this will happen to Obsidian AT ALL. They are a great studio with a lot of experience and they have a solid design document and aren't going to delay because the Steam early access money has allowed to opportunity to provide anatomically correct models of all the background animals, but the game is going to be delayed a year in order to feel realize the vision they have for the appearance of sheep testicles. More time does not always equal better game.

You are technically correct. The best kind of correct.

Lephys - with puns unfurled! Anyways, I was thinking maybe as opposed to effect changes, mechanical boni and mali could be assigned.* For instance, if you have been consistently acting in ways that you believe to be counter to your deity's wishes, some spells require greater effort to cast (i.e. more of a resource, get an extra round cool down, so on). This could be taken even further, if you o something you KNOW is going to be problematic (like attacking the high priest who has done nothing wrong) then casting spells would still be possible, but cause minor stamina damage each cast. Just an idea (there was something like this in the fantasy series the Blacksmith's Son). The thing is, the priest's abilities come from his or her faith and belief in the deity, not the deity itself. This causes some complications since if you can rationalize your behaviour enough, there is little dissonance (at least consciously, the dissonance can of course be a manifestation of the unresolved conflict in the unconscious; I recently taught my students Jung's Psychology of the Archetype of the Trickster Figure [which they hated, I feed in their hate] and there is a lot of fascinating conceptual overlap between the use souls [for both the priest and the chanter] and Jung's ideas). * A slight pet peeve, but since it has been absorbed into English (and we are the heathen bastardizers of better languages) I have bowed to convention, technically it should be bona and mala (unless our conception of pluses and minuses are masculine)

"Shaka, when the walls fell".

I hope it is a monkey-pony monster.

It very well could. What it means is simply that we can only choose from 4 different godlike variants when we create a character. Whether we will never see any more types than that in the world is kind of up to the devs' plans. It's entirely possible that there are more than 4 variants of godlike in the lore/world of PoE, but not available to the player because of race/sub-race design resource restrictions. It's kinda like how MMO's often have expansions that "add in races." It's not that those races suddenly were born into the world. It's just that you couldn't play as them before that. Whether it's because they stick to a particular region and the story of the original game took place elsewhere mainly, etc., is, again, up to the devs. it seems more likely to me that these four variants represent all possible godlike combinations (i.e., only these four types of characteristics, depending on the type of divine influence, for example an earth themed godlike could be an descendent of mighty lord Jabba, a god of wealth, or the mysterious deity Grizzly Adams, a god of mountains, or even just a errant wild soul that inhabited and took on the attributes of earth or rock) as opposed to four specific and limited divinities. Also, I inferred that godlikes are not actually strict descendents of "gods" but are merely touched with other worldly powers.

Well, there's much more you can do than just have them stack and call it a day. They could stack in with progressively-reduced intensity (1 success is a .5 second interrupt, 5 successes is a 1.5 second interrupt, etc., for example). I was merely pointing out various example approaches/possibilities. Stunlock is a concern, but so is the situation in which you just command your whole party to attack that Wizard who's trying to cast a bad-news spell, only to only get 1 actual concentration check simply because you didn't manually ensure that everyone's attack fell 1.3 seconds apart. Does that make sense? Imagine if other stuff did that. "Oh, 6 people attacked all within 1 second? Well, you only got 1 armor penetration check." So, I'd say they're both concerns, which is why I'm curious what Josh's/the team's thoughts are on that. I would prefer just a straight independent effect, so if you get hit with (at completely imaginary and arbitrary time stamps): 2 Arrows (0.0), 1 Arrow (0.2), 1 Arrow (0.4), 2 Arrows (0.6) First 2 Arrows, you make on concentration check and fail one, so you are interrupted/staggered/whatever until 0.5. You are hit at 0.2, make you check, at 0.4 you fail so you are now stunned until 0.9, for the last volley you make one check and fail one, now being stunned until 1.1. I think intensifying the effect for number of simultaneous checks would lead to a sort of "degenerative" gameplay situation, but I could be mistaken. Of course, this discussion could be exaggerating the danger of actual interruption by arrows for anyone with a halfway decent concentration.

That farmer who is able to curdle milk using his soul power is going to make a killing with yoghurt. I wonder if Might would then determine how thick the yoghurt was, while intelligence would increase the amount of yoghurt he could make at a time. Now I am thinking of all the weird ass power from Misfits as soul powers. Lactokinesis for the win.

I like this idea, but I wonder how to deal with this in a party situation. Would everyone have to have an outfit? Of course, this leads to a particular type of micro-managing or issues arise (just like when I would forget in FONV to change FelciaWhatsoherdayface out of BoS armor and NRC would shoot me, although I thought they weren't supposed to do that, and that was with one character - knowing my luck I would outfit my party in uniforms from every faction so no matter where I go someone hates me!). I would love re-activity for disguises, but I imagine that would be a crap tonne of dev time.