Jojobobo

I prefer hitting a couple of times very hard and having to rest to reinforce the camping mechanic rather than being able to spam lowish damage spells that could be used every encounter. What's the point when most character's can do lowish damage every encounter anyway? To let people use full power spells every encounter is silly without tweaking the mechanics as mentioned, and by having it as is it really enhances resource management at the higher difficulties. A great choice by Obsidian, IMO.

I just managed it using a anvil and hammer kind of technique; get Eder up front first as the defensive mode allowed him to have much greater engagement than the other two fighters, box the group in with the bear and fighters on the sides, send Aloth round back to crisp things with Fan of Flames. Still that took a lot of trial and error with other tactic to get right (I'm talking maybe an hour plus on the one encounter). I think a thread like this is a good idea for developing different strategies with different classes that work in variety of situations.

So I've dabbled already a bit since release to find an appropriate difficulty level (I normally stick to the hardest, but no reload settings like Path of the Damned offer very little appeal to me) and in the end I settled for hard with expert mode with a Wood Elf Ranger (I tried both the bear cave and that huge lot of wolves in Valewood, even with returning with companions like Aloth, but it was so hard I figured if I played the game on this setting I would be crawling along at such a snail's pace it would be a chore. This is from someone who played Icewind Dale 2 on Heart of Fury mode with level 1 characters quite happily). However, it's still really damn hard - vastly harder than any game I've ever experienced on a hard or very hard mode. I'm currently trying to clear out the Temple of Eothas for Buried Secrets (an early game "easy" location, right?), and I've got to the point where you have to take out two Skuldr Kings and I'm finding it borderline ridiculous. I've recruited two extra dwarvern fighters on top of Aloth and Eder and my damnable Resilient Companion Bear and I'm not getting anywhere (and yes I'm slowing the combat down, pausing regularly, using choke points wherever possible with my defensive guys and using all my per encounter abilities - even using all of Aloth's per rest spells). My own player character as well as the dwarves have also been min-maxed for best effect. I'm sure through pure attrition I will get there with this encounter, but currently it's pretty damn dire (not even thinking about what else the Temple has in store for me). The bear gets knocked out in moments, the dwarves aren't a great deal better and it's only via Eder and his "second chance" armour that I think I might even progress at this point. I've heard that heaving a Priest is pretty damn handy, but even so I would have thought I should be able to manage at this stage. I guess did invest poorly in Aloth's second tier spells under the impression that Obsidian would have made all spells more or less equal in terms of combat effectiveness, only to find Ray of Fire is more or less useless and I'm pretty sure I should have gone for something like Rolling Flame instead (my other spell being Necrotic Lance, which is semi-decent but far out-damaged by Fan of Flames); also I realise Expert mode gets rid of your AoE regions which I'm still getting used to. Having said all that, what gives? Must you literally have a Priest and min-max the hell out of people to survive on hard? My own definition of a decent hard mode should be where you don't have to min-mix entirely to be successful, which really doesn't feel like the case here. Do I have to have things like a Priest to stand a chance, even on those earlier areas (I'm sure I get a decent voiced Priest companion soon anyhow)? Or should I have just left the Temple of Eothas until later - was I wrong to assume an early stage dungeon should be do-able on hard when you first find it? On the AMA Sawyer mentioned that the Gilded Vale was not as hard as Baldur's Gate, and he only found he had "difficult fights" later on - I guess other people must be finding it a cakewalk too on hard but it certainly doesn't seem that way and in some ways complete min-maxing (which does seem mandatory) does detract from role-playing in some respects (i.e. my character must max these attributes to stand a chance at the detriment to other ones, rather than making a more balanced "normal" person which some people enjoy to role-play). Is there a hump you get over on early levels of hard, then it gets easier (better access to weapons, more abilities and talents, etc.)? Beyond all my specific questions on difficulty, is there any strategies you've found particularly useful on higher difficulty? Is there any YouTube videos you could direct me and others too to get a sense of what's going wrong? I'm not suggesting anything like hard mode should be made easier, but it does seem like a very tricky beast to master and so advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like another name for a furry.

Is there going to be a big announcement with bells and whistles on when it does? My email account attached to my amazon account which I used to pay for kickstarter is quite old and I don't check it very often, probably most people aren't in the same boat as me but it would be useful if there was some sort of eye catching announcement here when it does happen.

I want crafting to be a chore. I want the game to be as boring and dull as possible. Why won't anyone let be play the uninspired game of my dreams?!

I'd like to see a non-combat assassination feat. Using this a rogue (maybe some other classes too) could set up a situation and kill someone without it being traced back to them in a public (or at least not entirely private) situation - with the means of killing someone being entirely situational (poison in the drink, discretely fired dart with a fatal allergen on, etc.). This to me is preferable to a backstab, which is in a way a means to assassinate people but being combat orientated, and not really realistic; who could find a perfect spot on someone's back and keep their composure to deliver a killing blow every time - regardless of armour of any other factors? To me it's a nonsensical throwback.

Well, spiky and shiny bits are real purty.

As other people have suggested, I thought a sword breaker would be an interesting way of disarming people rather than actually breaking weapons. The wikipedia page - which is of course the font of all knowledge - says that they probably weren't very useful in most cases to break a weapon. Still, if weapon and armour condition is in combat an animation where they break might be interesting - although again resource intensive. Having never have played WoW I don't really know the style, but I don't think anyone wants ridiculous armour and weapon design.

A jutte (or jitte), might also be fun. It's like a sword-breaker but in club form: LadyCrimson mentioned a sword cane, which would be a great idea for missions where guards pat you down for weapons.

I'd like to see a sitaution of crushing damage doing more stamina and less health damage (if you are heavily armoured, it effectively knocks the wind out of you but is unlikely to bust a rib unless the person hitting you is very strong) and piercing or slashing damage doing more health and less stamina damage (if you've been skewered they may have hit a vital organ, but they haven't fatigued your body as a whole).

I think FO:NV had a decent system, rarely did vendors have significant amounts of caps for you to get for your items and so if you had a load of high level weapons in full repair you have to barter them for a different item (especially with the inclusion of the Gun Runners' Arsenal DLC) you wanted rather than currency. In this regard, you get a sense that wealth isn't limitless but at the same time it doesn't inhibit the player greatly. I'm not entirely convinced that enough players would enjoy a dynamic economy enough to merit its inclusion in the game. I would enjoy it, but it does seem like it would be a very resource intensive venture. However if you look in the lore update under Readceras it mentions that a popular religious movement sparked the collapse of the nation's purple-dye market, so I think clearly the team is going to have the economy in the game in some shape or form. Instead, you can always simulate an economy through quests (or as many have pointed out, events like natural disasters or war between nations). For example maybe there's a trade embargo between the Free Palatinate of Dyrwood and the Penitential Regency of Readceras, and a coterie of merchants in Readceras comes to the player wanting them to solve their supply issues. Solutions could be liaising with smugglers in one of the regions to solve this problem, or creating trade deals with the merchants of a entirely different region not involved in the embargo to solve the supply problem. After this has been sorted, new items will be available from the merchants to demonstrate their new found supply - indicative of an economy without having to actually produce a dynamic economy.

KOTOR's theme was great, it was something new whilst at the same time feel awesomely Star Wars. The Final Fantasy series has likewise done a good job with its main theme. So yes, a nice discintive theme would be good for the series - one that isn't too fantasy-esque with the late medieval focus of the game.

So I didn't think what I was suggesting here really fell under the purview of the Armour and weapon designs - a plea threads, but if it does a moderator can feel free to lock it. What I'm asking here is what outlandish weapons and armour would you like to be in the game, or you think would be interesting? I think we all know this game is medieval inspired, but as it is a fantasy game (and with some societies more closely adhering to a Bronze Age level of technology) what kind of weird and wonderful things would you like to see that are either unusual, culturally disimilar from western medieval Europe or just not contemporary to the time period at all. As a disclaimer I thought I'd say this is just a thread for bouncing around ideas, I'm not advocating that any of these things should actually be in the game to avoid the whole "well I don't think anything like this should be in the game as I think it is too resource intensive" train of thought. To get the ball rolling I'd like to see a sword breaker in use, particularly for a duelist style rogue: I think it would be very cool, especially with some sort of trapping and disarming manoveur. It would give such a fighting style and extra layer of subtlety. Secondly I think the net and trident combo would be interesting, a la a Retairius (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retiarius). I know this is a bit more gladitorial and outdated to the medieval setting, but it would be nice seeing a combination of weapons designed to work in harmony like this.

I like sword and dagger duelist style. I think duel wielding, if it were to be used for larger weapons, should be limitted in the game or difficult to learn - in previous IE games it was all too easy to get a couple of feats and then you were good to go. I'd imagine having that level of coordination to use two weapons effectively is quite a tricky task.

"All classes should be balanced, and should have abilities that progress in accordance to the challenge they are presented with." (Cain 17:12-15) Of course I'm joking, that quote wasn't by Tim Cain and he isn't really bible worthy (well, maybe he isn't) but I think my sentiment sums up the features of a nice functional class system quite well.

I would like a long reload, so you have to chose between leaving that character vulnerable or just letting them charge in and musket-whip people.

There wasn't enough ass. I'm an ass man, and I say that more ass is called for in the concept art.

But not everyone who plays this game will have originally been a backer, and so will be ignorant of these updates. It's easy to forget that this game will in the future be something greater than the some total of the cliquish sub-society of hardcore fans who originally backed it on this forum. Not that that's a bad thing right now, but in the future the game still needs to provide for those who at first never knew it existed.

I've only skim read after the first page, because often after that it these threads devolve into a back-and-forth and some very specific points of contention. Hence, sorry if my ideas have already been covered. First off: transparency. I feel like this is a big motivator behind this thread. People need to know how the mechanics work in a game, but they also need to know specifically. A perfect example of this is in KOTOR, where I didn't immediately realise lightsabers were finessible (i.e. they go off the higher of strength or dexterity). These things should not be glossed over, they need to be laid bare for all to see. Beyond the specifics, there needs to be some method to relay information that is less specific to the player (good spell, feat or class combinations in a party). A good example of how this was done was VTMB, where they had a (skippable) tutorial but then they put information on loading screens that helped to sketch out more explicit game mechanics (i.e. things you wouldn't notice immediately). I think this is key, and can be used to convey not only the basics but what feat combinations or spells work well in conjunction with one another (but not everything - people should be required to use a bit of their nouce to both engage and reward them for their ingenuity). This way even casual players don't get tripped up. However, if a player wants to blunder blindly into a game and do whatever they like despite guidance that's their choice. There's only so much help you can give someone. Secondly: buffs, or any other combat system that is enhanced by a party featuring a certain class/spell/whatever combination. Good things in this game should be mutually exclusive - or at least there should never be one class that any party would greatly benefit from (typically, there isn't a single party in old IE games that I've played that wouldn't benefit from a wizard or cleric buffing the crap out of people). This should not be the case. Why? Well it isn't hard or ingenious to select certain spells and cast them for each battle, people have essentially learnt how to play the game but there is no challenge. Buffs IMO need to be specific or situational - so you wouldn't feel like you were missing out by not including a wizard/priest. Other playstyles (i.e. at least 5 very conceptually different viable party set-ups should be in the game - and these should be loose to favour customisation) should be encouraged, it should never be a case of "I must include this class or else my party will fall to pieces". All classes need to be equally weighted. Basically what you need here is a balance - having a system that isn't skewed towards one specific combinations of classes, feats and spells (if it is skewed, have it skewed towards many different options - i.e. all these very different options are powerful, not just one). By forgoing the need for such narrow specificity, you make the game more accessible. However you do need some of these mechanical combinations - or at least strong hints of such - to be made clear to a player and early so they can avoid trouble from later down the line.

This is a really minor point, but one I felt was worth a mention. It would be nice if they included examples of five female, male and surnames in the manual (or character creation screen) for each race in Project: Eternity - I don't know about others but I like to name my characters in the conventional way their race is named so they seem more in synch with the world. Naturally these names wouldn't cover the entire scope of what a race could be called, but it would at least give you an idea of whether a race favours harsh or soft consonant sounds, short names, descriptive names - you get the idea. The TES series has fairly detailed conventions on naming, if Project: Eternity was to do similar I would like to have an awareness of it before I start playing - for me calling a character something ridiculous and having it taunt me all game can be a good reason to restart. Anyone else think this is a good idea - or aren't most people as anal as me?

You're making these things a bit more black and white than they are, i.e. all players who care about loot aren't bothered about gameplay. If I think a certain piece of equipment would enhance my gameplay (i.e. synergise with my character build or character's personality, give them unusual options) then to me it does pretty much become mandatory as I feel like the character would be lacking without it. The two things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Plus I'm completionist, and I can't see any reason why one of my characters - unless I was playing them as cowardly or overly cautious - wouldn't explore the dungeon when presented with it. Most people when presented with something intriguing wouldn't just go "Meh, can't be bothered"; and so to roleplay those characters properly I would go through the dungeon again even if I had long passed the stage where I enjoy it. Hopefully it will be adaptive in someway, for example offering different opportunities based on player character class when you're down there or reacting to side quests you've done that deal with ancient lore (i.e. when the ruins were built). That would be one way to keep it a bit more engaging, as with so many classes you'd have to have a fair few playthroughs to experience all of what it had to offer.

Speak for yourself, see previous answer, I have magic in spades - fire is shooting from my orifices as I type, it's not dissapointing because I am ultra-suave - I have a tuxedo and everything, yes - I am Elrond incarnate, no - I won't need to cope with anything because I am pretty much the most awesome human being on the planet. Now that I have answered your questions, good day sir.

Yes, but I don't finance football or stage dramas. No it doesn't necessarily have to have a purpose, but it should be compelling; by drawing something out by such an extent you dull its impact after the first time and so it becomes far less so. It's like having a Lord of the Rings film marathon - might seem like a good idea at first but by the end of the day you'll be ready to claw your eyes out.

Colour me controversial, but I'd have been more than happy to have never had a mega dungeon as a stretch goal. The trouble is a mega dungeon is almost certainly never going to enjoyable enough for me to want to play through it again and again on repeat playthroughs. Now here's the dilemma: either the devs offer some sort of tangible reward to get to the end of the dungeon which is good enough to motivate a player to take it on, or they don't really offer anything and so all their hard work is bypassed. On the one hand you have a situation where you are obligated to play through an enormous dungeon again and again because the reward is too good to pass up even though it has become a chore, on the other no one bothers to play the dungeon and so its existence in the game is pointless. There isn't really any balance between these points, if you give a middling to good reward but the dungeon is really purty people still won't be incentivised enough to want to go through it again on a repeat playthrough. I really hope I'll be proven wrong, that the dungeon will be a show stopper and I'll gladly sink an hour or so into getting through it every time, but I have a strong feeling that this won't be the case and to me it'll always be an enormous waste of a stretch goal. I would have pretty much enjoyed almost anything else as a stretch goal than this.