Naurgalen

I'm expecting one awesome game, not perfect, but still awesome. (And if they don't deliver, when the Planessss burnnnn and all life is but torchesss, then I ssshall at lassst... be at peace.)

The maps are hand drawn 2D. They were never anything other than flat surfaces with some 3D effects on top of them to give the illusion of depth. They went that way mostly to maximize visual quality while keeping cost down and staying true to the IE games. That's incorrect. The backgrounds are created in a 3D program and then rendered into a 2D image. After that they might do a bit of paintover with Photoshop or similar program, if required. The same technique used in the original IE games. It seems that way, but I have seen pros making images in 2D of amazing quality far faster than in 3D (just because the 3D needs the making + the render) so that's why I would love to know why they went for a "first 3D" approach.

Are maps being done in 3D and then worked over in "2D" programs? Or do you start with a map/area in 2D and then add the 3D pieces where its needed? What is the reason for using one option over the other?

Its totally you, probably because we tend to remember things in a idealistic way. But compare a couple of screenshots from both games and that banishes... sure some BG2 places have PoE quality, but just a couple. The years can be spotted easily in water, the fog of war. illumination in general, some textures / buildings that feel old renders (more geometric / with less detail / repeated textures / some "materials" don't look what they represent), UI, characters and some FXs. (radioactive vines, most fire effects in spells)

I mentioned kits in the way of saying "what I would like is new ability's / skills / feats that make my class be played different" instead of "i want a new firewall that its blue and deals more damage than the normal one".

For the expansion I personally would prefer MOAR spells & abilitys for base classes and maybe some specializations (like BG2, where you could have a classic warrior, a kensai, a berserker or a wizard slayer). OFC one can have the mechanic / artificer idea the op suggested. (mage, rougue, maybe even ciphers?) But I would only like a new and completely different class if it has sense and relation with both POE and the expansion.

This thread is so sweet that my eyes -accustomed to the other posts- are bleeding.

I disagree, there are many "modern" games with very good music / songs, at the level of BG1/2 or more. Both the HOM&M and Elder Scrolls Sagas come immediately to my mind, but even the new Dragon Age: Inquisition has some amazing songs. (or if you want other style, Metal Gear: Revengance) The thing that is rare -even in movies- are soundtracks with identity: those that every song, being of tension, action, love or whatever are still is a part of a whole style that fits and complements the feeling of the scene and the theme of the movie/game. (Planescape: T. , Assasins Creed 2, Deus Ex & HR ) Those... are truly rare masterpieces. (in movies examples would be LOTR, Star Wars)

I really like what I saw on the stream, my main complains are about immersion and already touched by other members of this community: 1) City's feel empty And by empty I don´t mean the amount of quests or the talk-able npcs, I mean the basic npcs that "live" there, with 2 or 3 lines of basic shared dialog. I know that placing npcs with special working animations is impossible at this point (like a smith working, one employee with a box, a farmer with his cow or whatever), but even just people standing "hearing" someone talking, chatting in the door of their home, walking to another place of the city, looking at a monument/pond/table etc... would make wonders to the immersion with little resource inversion. 2) Combat could get a little of spice up While I have heard a couple of screams and some nice hits, more battle cries, and some sound and visual effects to special / critical hits - and deaths- would make it far more interesting. For example I propose a less exaggerated PA like crit ( ).

I'm totally surprised that people still complain about this game. It could be better ofc, but this eternal hate is ridiculous Plus, I don't really understand people who compare ME1 to DAI. While ME1 story destroys all DA franchise history's, its gameplay-wise pathetic: reused places, worst user interface in history, bland items (no special things/attacks/uses), only 3 REAL classes, limited skills, repetitive combat, boring exploration and the most useless mini game ever. Even in the choices / role-play it is far more limited. i could never play it a second time.

While I would love animated trees and maybe grass as I totally prefer a not perfect animation vs no animation at all, Sawyer has allready told that they prefer to put them later on (the expansion maybe?) when they have the time to make them as they want. Its a shame, but its their game and a subjective thing.

I like the general way you're heading with this. But a more significant way to differentiate summoning is by the amount of control the summoner exercises over the summoned creature. A chanter's ability to string together sequences should provide an innate means of summoning and controlling a creature. Likewise, a druid's link with nature should make the summoned creature a natural ally. However, in the case of a wizard, the summoned creature should begin with no control--all of the soul-based energy is being used just to drawn the creature hither. Instead, the wizard needs to find a means, whether by another spell or through a talent, to exert control. Otherwise, the summoned creature should just do whatever it would normally be inclined to do. Note that this can still be useful since the creature could be summoned behind the enemy ranks; it just wouldn't be inclined to serve as a meat shield. I wanted to focus on the gameplay aspects to demonstrate how different summonings can be made flavored to every class to don't disrupt the "uniqueness" that they have , but yes, those things add to the feeling and roleplay and would be nice to have too. (and can be expanded too, like demons needed to be summoned from the body of one enemy, or whatever thing that complements and benefits the lore of this new universe obsidian is making)

Returning to the original point of the thread, I don't see why summoning things should be an "exclusive" for a class instead of a "type" of magic (conjuration in d&d) that can be tailored to every class where it makes sense. For example of the variety of spells that can be made in this approach: - Summoning creatures that can be tailored for the classes, common examples: * Many but not very strong minions -aka swarm type- for area or concentrated damage if you command them (druids insect/spiders swarms?) (weak to area dmg) * 1 strong, durable summon -aka tank/dd type- for cc/focused dd (wizards demon/elemental?) * A couple of medium spirits with support spells (priests prob) * The rangers pet, that is unique because it is related to his master instead of being other creature * A time limited "resurrection" of the enemy's body for necromantic wizards-priests-cypher all can be candidates - Summoning weapons (Chanters would be awesome for this, like they narrate the story of the legendary sword and summon it for a limited time, but priest, paladins and wizards can have it too) - Teleporting oneself or others (there is already 1 spell) - Summoning area denial - "soft" CC things: walls (can be elemental too), grease, poison clouds, ice etc... (*) (*) magic traps work the same, you let opponents walk over them and suffer or go around. Rouge traps are "invisible" and don't really work as area denial but as a burst of damage, a CC or whatever.

The problem is not the "realistic" graphic style: Titan Quest, Path of Exile and many other games have "realistic" graphics and don't have the mess that sometimes I have seen in PoE. Most messy pictures have 2 problems: 1) Very high contrast (look at the webs for example, they are almost 100% white instead of a light grey where they have the most light. Other spells could be less whitey too.) 2) High contrast IN complicated textures is the real big problem of that image (reducing the contrast + making the webs thicker would reduce the complexity of the image, letting you see better what you want to see) 3) Little to non transparency (some effects, like the webs could be partially or fully transparent) 4) Very huge "status" effects (the "ensnared in a web" effect covers the whole character instead just some part of it -like for example the bottom half- & that, full body, is too much if you consider that the same character can have other fx that you must "read" applied at the same time. Another example was the blue mage shield in the demo video that they showed us some time ago. It covered almost al the character and had 0 transparency. 5) Most spells effects could also be smaller, and with improved identifiable "shapes"

While I totally like both DA:O & what I have played of DA:I, I really prefer BG2 style of combat, and expect PoE be more close to that as the real successor. Still I must agree with Skie Nightfall too, sometimes I feel some people want a carbon copy from the BGs Saga and forget that this is other game/IP, not a Saga (yet) with a tweaked engine and time has passed - some gameplay mechanics evolved, so it will never be exactly the same. (And that can be for better)

AND I DID. I was actually pointing out his dysfunctional communication. Lephys, you are defending him. Whom am I defending and how? I am defending noone. You are projecting your thoughts onto me Lephys which means you need to calm down. There is no "dysfunctional communication", you are telling that Grumpymoose is making "absolute facts" when in his text the word "sometimes" already discards that position. While you can have your opinion, and all will respect it, attacking other people just for the sake of it is not nice and probably that's why Lephys reacted.

I must agree that it is indeed strange that the wizard lacks summoning spells. (what descent mage doesn't want to acquire knowledge via interdimensional beings? or creating / summoning minions to do his biding? maybe even try to create life?) I will totally miss some of the most traditional and iconic spells that a mage can have

My first impressions: + Amazing Graphics ,Art & Landscapes + Amazing Music & Sounds FX (+ the tavern songs, that are the (very) improved version of Skyrim bards in taverns) + Nice roleplay: Having used the Keep feature + being Dalish opened in the 5 first hours a lot of "unique" dialogues. If this continues it certainly is one of the games with more considerations in dialogue about your race / what you did in previous games. + Jumping / Elevations are not just for the looks or "being more MMRPG": You can use them in strategic positioning, some skills take them in consideration and they are even used in some battles as a mechanic. + Strategic Camera / Mode is needed for harder difficulty modes + friendly fire, normal is easy, probably made to play in a hack& slash gameplay from third person and giving orders with hotkeys at real time. (So you can play the game in 2 completely different ways) + Interesting crafting = Story so far is decent, in the levels of BG but with FAR more roleplaying options. (but less than P:T) = Animation quality is varied, sometimes amazing sometimes not. - The game was made for consoles, and the UI suffers for it. Still, its not terrible, except for... - 1) The strategic camera sucks at the moment... yes it can somehow be used in open terrain but in dungeons its a mess because it is limited by the ceiling (fortunately there seems to be little indoor fights) Hopefully they fix it and let you zoom out more. - 2) Nvidia players as myself might seem some problems, I had 2 crashes to desktop from graphic drivers problems. The good news in a couple of days Nvidia is patching these issues. Subjective things: - I don't like fetch quests even if they are secondary or tertiary, I know Devs can use them to fill the world with hundreds of things to do, but I'm a man that prefers quality vs quantity, and always feel that the time would be better used in main / more complex quests. That is why "open-world rpgs" appeal me less than the classics. Still I know that they have some advantages 2. - I haven't met all the companions, but I like the ones I had :D Overall it seems like a good solid game, 7-8. 9 if the story improves drastically. We will see.

You do realize the post right above yours contains a "****ing self-made analysis with pros and cons" right? You do realize that when someone generalizes he uses the majority of examples and not the minority?

The amount of bioware hate has reached overwhelming levels. Maybe its that I'm old, but the web now-days feels to be filled with child's without real opinions and arguments to defend. Its allways "this game is awesome" or "this game sucks" mode, never a ****ing self-made analysis with pros and cons anymore. And this comes from a man who thinks that DA2 is one of the worst AAA games to ever came out. (the 1st position is for C&C4, for ruining the franchise that I couldn't keep playing to finish the story I loved from the original C&C)

And how is foliage "not moving at all" while other things are being moved by the wind (fallen leafs, water etc...) more immersive? It has no sense.

As I said in another thread: The trees & grass movement is a complicated thing, while I understand that some people prefer not having it because it "looks ugly" (I disagree, for me it is more a thing of how it is animated than how it looks) the problem of not having animations affects not only "the looks" but the ambient/mood of the place. Slowly moving foliage can totally change the feel from a peaceful village vs a windy one in the top of a mountain. And worse: There can be immersion problems if we have other things being moved by the wind and not the trees/bushes (windmill, smoke, tavern posters, rain, leafs etc...). Those things I would feel strange in a second.

The trees & grass movement is a complicated thing, while I understand that some people prefer not having it because it "looks ugly" (I disagree, for me it is more a thing of how it is animated than how it looks) the problem of not having animations affects not only "the looks" but the ambient/mood of the place. Slowly moving foliage can totally change the feel from a peaceful village vs a windy one in the top of a mountain. And worse: There can be immersion problems if we have other things being moved by the wind and not the trees/bushes (windmill, smoke, tavern posters, rain, leafs etc...). Those things I would feel strange in a second.

1) Hitler never cared about capitalism or socialism, he started in that political place, and then when he gained power totally changed all the rules.Im not telling you bull****, if you were jew in those days, your political ideas wont mean a thing to him, you will die all the same. That is why he is just a nationalist extremist. 2) Answering this point is very complicated to me, because you are telling me that killing innocent people is right and we cant think more different than that. But still, I need to inform you that the military junta was just that: rich generals trained in US to kill communists before they spread. Not only that, those are the same that attacked the Islas Malvinas making a ****ing war to stay in power. Finally, we both know that in capitalist world money IS power, so don't tell me that its not a social system at the same time. 3) Illusions... how many scientists that make contributions to the whole race are millionaires? how many doctors? what is the % of millionaires that have really transformed the world with their inventions? How many people work 14+hs and are paid inhuman salary's? How many people in dumpsters became kings? You cant tell a system by its variations, systems are defined why their patrons, the things that happen the most. 4) How we are is made 70%(more or less) in the first 7 years of life. (+ reading Freud would help you understand how limited we are to choose in reality) Ethical and moral things are learned from our parents, friends etc... not from the money they had. As I said before: educated criminals are far worse and dangerous, always 5) None. As social animals we need to help others because we are always being helped out. But the way (and not the fact/amount) we help others is something that we should select. That is what being responsible and free means.

Man if you are going to ****ing genocide you don't just tell that to them when they are going to vote for you. People can say lots of things, but only their actions is what define them. And if you are going to associate Nazism to Socialism you really need to read again you history books. (If you don't know: he was ULTRA nationalist, and that was the problem) At the same time, genocide can be coupled with every political system that existed in the world, here is South America there were many "capitalist" genocides. In fact, in my country, Argentina, in 1976 only by having a friend that was communist (even if you didn't know) it was enough reason to torture or kill you. And the human rights thing is very biased: when the world is 95% capitalist you know, its reasonable most things will happen in that political view just by sheer amount, specially when they are needed. (education, food and healthcare are basic needs that capitalist don't usually cover) If socialism was made to push people around I can say that capitalism was made so that the aristocracy wont loose all of their power by letting people live in inhuman conditions. So its your choose: you live by the rules of the "oppressive majority" or you live by the rules that a couple of people with lots of power and money dictate. Capitalist freedom is an illusion. Do you think that people that steal or kill to eat had good parents? a good education? that they don't suffer as human beings? That they really choose the ****ty life they are on? Socialism fails just because in time it becomes a dictatorship, with the people in power becoming corrupt. That is why I advocate for a real democracy, where everyone is responsible for himself.