Ondb

I am working as programmer myself. Rounding errors, error in calculations means total lack of unit tests. This is really strange. If i was creating new game rules, first thing to create would be proper unit tests around basic game rules, damage calculations, attribute calculations/modifications and etc.... And instead here we have game with all those bugs...

Agree. They should have all possible spells at once. However i would add ability to hide the spell from main UI. Its not problem with spells, its maybe visibility problem with too many options for a given level.

I don't, but supporting that kind of stuff is expensive (programming time wise) and I'd prefer to see that time spent elsewhere. Fair point. However i would say that scripting engine must be implemented for enemies already. It should not be much expensive to create interface for party members.

This is one thing I'm super glad about. Automation can take a hike. Ahh... Why do you care how i want to play game ?

I don't know about D&D 5e, but good sales might mean a Pathfinder game in PoE engine. True.

I have give up on PoE couple of months ago, mainly because i think the magic in PoE is disaster. However i hope PoE will have good sales, because then there is non zero change for different game (DnD 5eth ruleset and current PoE engine).

It's kind of funny that you mention The Witcher 2. The Witcher 1 had kill XP and it was the main way to gain levels. The Witcher 2 moved to monsters giving almost no XP. The Witcher 3 totally removed kill XP, only quests content provide XP now...and I haven't seen anyone complain about it on the Witcher forums. Its kind of funny that you forgot that Witcher 3 is now open world sandbox as Skyrim, with enemies which does not scale to player level. Removing the kill XP was only solution to following problem: 1/ Starting player ignores main quests, any quest... 2/ Goes to wilderness and gain new levels 3/ Making any main quests enemies trivial in process This was discussed for months in forums. Its impossible to have no scaling to player level and kill XP in enemies at the same time in open world sandbox game.

In my eyes, perhaps the most disappointing result of this approach is a game where all the characters end up doing almost the exact same thing during the game, and I can think of no better example of this than 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons. And that is the reason most people do not like 4D. Unfortunately PoE design goals are balance, then balance and finally balance.

I disagree. 4th edition is the worst system for any videogame with party.

Its not logical thing. Humans prefer small rewards happening frequently over large rewards happening later. This is the reason why Diablo3 team implemented paragon system. Its not logical, but after they implemented it people start playing game again. When combat is not trivial, humans need rewards. We have 2 kind of rewards traditionally (XP and items). Giving items after every combat is obviously problematic. Removing combat XP is dangerous thing to do. If the quest XP will happen after long time, people could stop playing the game.

Let me summarize my thoughts: 1/ We have design goal -- every class can use any armor. 2/ Problem: we have to balance armor to different classes. 3/ Problem solution: Different classes have different basic recovery time. Melee 1s+1s. (example: -%50 penalty is 0.5s), spells 3s+3s (-50% penalty is 1.5s) 4/ Problem solved. Now the recovery penalty from armor is different absolute number in second for different class. Good. 5/ Problem n.2: Spells are now forced to have the same casting time 3s and same recovery time 3s. 6/ Problem n.2 solution: Nobody will notice the spells animations. Finger crossed. 7/ Problem n.3: Ranged classes are now fighting without armor. 8/ Problem n.3 solution: Hey do you know that any class can use any armor. If you ever wondered why almost all spells have the same casting and recovery time. Its because all spells needs to be balanced against armor. And overall against total 6s time. Do you want different spell versions?: 1/ Fast spells with 1s casting time and 1s recovery time? 2/ Powerful spells that have 6s casting time and 0s recovery time? It will not happen. Its really wonderful how armor design is forcing certain spell casting system and changing overall feel of spells from IE.

As I said before, it doesn't matter if they are technically right, it won't do them any good, they rode the "hype train", when/if it crashes they are going to go with it. They simply didn't do enough to clear the waters and that is squarely on them. Simple fact is they had a slam dunk on their hands, all they had to do was make a copy of the IE games with a new story/setting and improve some minor things that bugged people and maybe add some more features if they had the time. They instead chose to "fix" core systems of the IE game and remove some altogether. They took a gamble and if it doesn't pay off it's sadly all on them. 100% agree. I am currently very, very, VERY unhappy with the "fix core systems of IE game" approach so far. I have waited 15 years to play another IE game.

Unique enchantments could be very bad for gameplay. They are hard to balance. I am not even afraid to say it would potentially make some builds excellent. And when we have excellent build there is bad build. Bad build is against one of the PoE design principles. Don't even think about enchantments and unique in one sentence...

A fair point, but the current system doesn't prevent metagaming. It's actually worse. Once you realize that the Ogre blood lets you (up to) Might+3 enchant your armor you can a make a beeline to murder the Ogre. The quest has at least three endings that I know of and the one that lets you enchant you armor is that one involves killing him. If you know that the PoE equivalent of Keldorn needs +3 might to be useful, well, it sucks to be the Ogre. Actually +3 might does not have big effect...you are free to let Ogre live. It called balanced rewards for different quest paths.

I agree. Awesome and pretty fun.

Is it possible to take Pathfinder RPG system? (and then change/modify it for your needs...) I mean from the license point of view.

I am not buying this explanation. It just RPG game, not real world. The system should be well described, consistent and logical.

The stat governing meditation is WIS, martial arts DEX/STR, and musical instruments, CHA. :checks back: No, you didn't. You made an assertion and then appealed to common sense. That's not an argument. Seriously, the "pasty bookish hunchbacked antisocial nerd flinging fireballs" archetype comes from D&D, presumably because its authors were pasty bookish hunchbacked antisocial nerds getting pushed around by the high-STR, high-CHA jocks and wanted a power trip. There's no cosmic truth to it. It's also one of the most boring wizard archetypes out there. Azar Javed from The Witcher was way cooler, as was Anomander Rake from the Malazan Book of the Fallen, or many others. I'd like to add, that a wizard's power can't come from meditation and martial arts, because we have a class in PoE for that. It is called a monk. As PoEs lore explicitely says (quoted by a user before me), a wizard is all about using magic books, mental discipline, lots of education. I'd like you to notice that I don't want a high INT low STR wizard. You can have you high STR wizard. But it HAS to be a high INT high STR wizard (as Azar Javed), because intellingence is EXTREMELY important for a wizard. No it doesn't because the attributes are essentially modifiers in PoE. The game works under the assumption that if you pick a wizard, by default, your smart enough to be one. Adding to intellegence simply makes you a smarter wizard. PoE attributes are not physical attributes, they are modifiers for a default physical assumption based on your class.I am assuming if the wizard is smart by default, it will pass all INT checks in game (dialogs and etc..).However he/she does not pass those checks if you don't increase his/her attributes. At least the attributes values and role playing options in game should be consistent. Being physically intellegent doesn't automatically mean your an intellegent conversationalist. Real life proves that. Does the INT (as a attribute in PoE) represent physical version for you ?

The stat governing meditation is WIS, martial arts DEX/STR, and musical instruments, CHA. :checks back: No, you didn't. You made an assertion and then appealed to common sense. That's not an argument. Seriously, the "pasty bookish hunchbacked antisocial nerd flinging fireballs" archetype comes from D&D, presumably because its authors were pasty bookish hunchbacked antisocial nerds getting pushed around by the high-STR, high-CHA jocks and wanted a power trip. There's no cosmic truth to it. It's also one of the most boring wizard archetypes out there. Azar Javed from The Witcher was way cooler, as was Anomander Rake from the Malazan Book of the Fallen, or many others. I'd like to add, that a wizard's power can't come from meditation and martial arts, because we have a class in PoE for that. It is called a monk. As PoEs lore explicitely says (quoted by a user before me), a wizard is all about using magic books, mental discipline, lots of education. I'd like you to notice that I don't want a high INT low STR wizard. You can have you high STR wizard. But it HAS to be a high INT high STR wizard (as Azar Javed), because intellingence is EXTREMELY important for a wizard. No it doesn't because the attributes are essentially modifiers in PoE. The game works under the assumption that if you pick a wizard, by default, your smart enough to be one. Adding to intellegence simply makes you a smarter wizard. PoE attributes are not physical attributes, they are modifiers for a default physical assumption based on your class. I am assuming if the wizard is smart by default, it will pass all INT checks in game (dialogs and etc..). However he/she does not pass those checks if you don't increase his/her attributes. At least the attributes values and role playing options in game should be consistent.

Why does it have to come from books, rather than, say, meditation, martial arts, a pact with the infernal powers, physical discipline, or something similar to learning to play a musical instrument? IME every time someone says "it's just common sense" he's run out of arguments. Quoting wizard desc: Wizard is one of the playable classes in Pillars of Eternity. Widely respected in most societies, wizards of Pillars of Eternity are men and women of high education and extreme mental discipline, if not always outright intelligence. Wizards are sometimes called navigators of the mortal soul, charting out and practicing the precise ways in which "ordinary" people can unlock the power inside of themselves. Using their knowledge to truly spectacular ends, wizards rely not only on ancient practices but also their own research to propel them forward. According the lore wizard soul power comes from books. Wizard soul powers comes from grimoires. Remembering now?

So we disagree, big deal... I don't understand why you are taking it personally. If you don't care care what i am saying then stop reading my posts. Simple.

Have you actually looked at the current attribute system? PoE allows for fighters who are intelligent instead of strong. And it works quite well, except for one small problem: The values have to be tweaked a bit. Also nobody's saying that the intelligent fighter should be as good as the strong one in every circumstance. It might be that, all in all, he's not as good a build. Nobody (who you should care about) wants perfect balance. But if I can actually roleplay as an intelligent leader instead of a dumb brute while still being quite good in combat situations, then that's enough reason to play this build. The point he is making: 1/ there should not be viable intelligent Fighter build (who is weak in STR, CON, DEX). 2/ There should be viable melee INT build, but in different class (BattleMage or Paladin who has spells (powered by INT) which benefit his melee focus). The very idea that class does not have bad builds is the problem. The goal that Josh is trying to achieve so badly.

I have really hard time to imagine game dev be happy with 1 character stun locking every enemy via unlimited interrupts Imagine going against Ogre with 2-3 melee characters with interrupts. Should this work?

Why should it be in the game at all? What does the game gain by having it? I have questions for days before we get to yours mate. If we're talking other games that have them...there is a system in place for that mechanic alone such as built into armor or having a value that needs to be taken down then you are interrupted after (say you take 10 damage then you are interrupted next hit). In BG mages were automatically interrupted so that was merely hit the caster mode and was stupid then too. This is exactly what i was thinking.

Funny, as the PoE lore and the way the system works has more in common with anime than D&D (not that i have a problem with that) PoE system is basicaly Naruto with "soul power" instead of chakra. Comes as a requirement with the philosophy that mundanes like fighters and rogues must be equaly strong with mages You are wrong. In naruto you have the taijutsu (only need stamina, no chakra -- just pure combat skill), others (ninjutsu, genjutsu,...) are all based on chakra. So in reality they are all wizards. Normal people that does not control chakra does not become ninjas.