Hiro Protagonist II

LOL. You really have no clue do you. Maybe you missed the point that PoE is taking a lot from that 'crap version of D&D'. Also, PoE has healers called Leaders. or haven't you been reading the updates? You must think PoE and the dev's are stupid to associate "healer" with "leader". All four roles, straight from the 'crap version of D&D' and WoW. You must be so happy.

So you play D&D 4th ed? What about Lair Assault type encounters? If not, then perhaps looking them up and educating yourself?

No. What I've found with D&D 4th ed is you need certain builds in a party because otherwise the encounters are extremely difficult or impossible to get through. You really do need all 4 roles. Don't have a tank? TPK. Don't have a DPS? Who is going to do the most damage? Probably TPK. Don't have a healer? likely a TPK. My most recent D&D 4th session, one of the players couldn't make it and he was our tank. That's ok we thought, we still have a Rogue, Cleric, Psion and Wizard. Hmmm. No that's not ok because someone has to get into melee while the Rogue flanks. So who has the most hit points and one of the best AC in the party? Our cleric! Healer is tanking while the Rogue is doing the deeps. WTF? Healer is the tank? Cleric is doing some damage but can't mark. And does the healer really want the enemy targeting them instead of the Rogue? No, because once you lose the healer, then game over. But as a party, do we want the Rogue to be taking all the damage? No, of course not because he's not acting as the tank, our Healer is. So we have no choice and the Healer has to take damage and heal himself. So there's 5 monsters and we manage to kill 2, but there's the boss and two lieutenants left. Boss targets the rogue and he goes down. Cleric can heal or do damage? Heals Rogue and takes half damage himself by other mobs. Rogue gets up and misses. Enemy continues to attack Healer and Healer goes down. Now who is going to heal the other players? No one. Then targets the Rogue and he goes down. Still no healer. Psion falls in the next round and Wizard runs away. Even our GM said, yeah, that's why we need a tank. Whether you want to split hairs and say, No you don't need a Paladin is just avoiding the issue that you do need a tank in your party with games like D&D 4th ed. While PoE seems to be taking quite a bit from 4th ed, I hope it doesn't go to the point where you do need to have different builds (Controller, DPS, Tank, Leader) in your party just to get through the game. It seems Josh is saying you could do the game with any class or role. eg. party of rogues and won't need certain builds. If it turns out we need at least one of the 4 roles in a party when the game is released to finish the game, like a controller (eg.Wizard) or Leader (eg. Healer) then this goes against what he just said with having certain builds in a party to get through the encounters. Also, a role like a tank is a build.

Don't let facts get in the way of your trolling Gromnir. As I said, this has nothing to do with BIS. So I don't know why you keep bringing them up. It's a red herring and nothing to do with BIS. This is about 1) Bioware, 2) Original game, 3) Overhaul and 4) BGEE. That's it. Where's BIS in that? There is no BIS. Trying to bring Black Isle Studios into this is not only moronic, it's the most retarded thing I've ever seen when discussing the Enhanced Editions. But I guess we can all count on Gromnir bringing stupid to the debate. Also, the fact is Nepenthe said (unsubstantiated and pure speculation) that the coding was a disaster that miraculously worked. No recognition to the developers, the QA and everybody that worked on the game to get it right. Not the talented programmers that spent years on it. Apparently it was just a mess that somehow worked! Again, magic. Also, you can't compare BG when released to when BGEE was released. The fair comparison is a fully patched BG to BGEE when released. Since the game Overhaul is working on is the FULLY PATCHED game. Again, a bit of common sense would go a long way, but we're talking about Gromnir here.

Gromnir. I'll see if I can make this as simple as possible for even a 5 year old can understand. Overhaul has some of the original Bio developers of the original game. You also claimed Bio "knew how and why things worked". Overhaul had access to the original code, despite not having access to the original art assets. Overhaul having the original game, the original code, and some of the original developers are now 'enhancing the original game'. What we have with the EE's is something different to the original game and in a lot of ways not for the better. Overhaul introduced new bugs to the original game when they tried to enhance it. This has nothing to do with BIS. Never has, never will. But keep trying to introduce those red herrings if it makes you feel better. If for some reason Obsidian decides to do an enhanced edition of PST and the IWD games, having some of the original developers from those games already working at Obsidian, then your analogy may apply. That would be the level playing field. Since Obsidian are not enhancing these games (PST/IWD), then for you to talk about BIS is just a fail attempt at trolling. Thanks for highlighting to the forum your selective and ridiculous trolling analogies.

Gromnir, nice trolling. This has nothing to do with BIS. It has to do with Overhaul and the Enhanced Editions. But keep on trolling!

And what do the BIS developers need to explain with PST and the IWD games? Do they not work? And BIS were not enhancing already established games. You yourself just said Bio knew how and why things worked. If we take Gromnir's post to be TRUTH. Since Overhaul already have some of the original Bio team members, then they should know how and why things worked! Thanks Gromnir, you just highlighted my point. Also, this has nothing to do with BIS. Nice red herring as always.

You've never done any programming I see. Coding disasters don't just miraculously work. That's an insult to the programmers and other people who worked on the games. It also implies that the programmers didn't know what they were doing at the time with their coding (coding disaster as you put it), but hey. it somehow how miraculously worked. Must be special programming magic. Also, as a few have pointed out, they have some of the original team members working on the EE's. You should have a minimum base line (original game) and work up from there. At the moment, the EE's don't even meet the base line in various ways due to introduced bugs.

It's one of the challenges of hardcore and one of the things you have to be careful of. One wrong move or mistake and everything is gone. The game could freeze, disconnect, or anything else and bye bye character. Some things are out of your control and you have to take it on the chin and move on when it happens. You're literally sitting on the edge of your seat. And when there's a close call, especially with boss fights, the adrenalin really kicks in. The hard part is between levels 61 to 68 when there are hardly any good drops. When I finished HC I was around level 67, most of my items were level 61 which is why my dps is so low. And the fact I never bought anything off the AH in both SC and HC. I've had a couple of level 60 deaths (Monk and Barb) and many Wizard deaths in the level 50s last year. It's a totally different play style. Vitality is the number one attribute you need as well as Amethyst gems. Seen many deaths due to people playing hardcore like softcore and not getting their health up. But it does make you a better player when going back to SC imo. At the moment, I'm playing Normal to get achievements. With my health and Toughness being so high, it's not a problem. I managed to get a couple of good drops (nice one handed weapon) since the screenshot and my DPS is now 190K. I did have 6.5K life on hit but it's dropped down to just under 5K with the new one handed weapon. I'd rather take the dps for now. Yeah, scoundrel is pulling his weight and killing mobs. Still can't believe his dps. I was talking to someone from our clan who's done Urzael and Adria on Torment, his build was way OP and he barely scraped through. A few red screens with low health. He said he won't be doing Mathael. I think I'll put HC on hold for now. I have other HC characters I want to level up but now want to level up my SC characters. Going back to SC and want to get my Barb (67), Monk (64), DH (60), WD (60) and Wizard (60) to level 70 and also take out the Crusader.

Finally got my monk up to level 70 in HC. Hopefully will see some good drops come in now. My scoundrel nearly does more damage than me. Also time to level up my other characters too.

Just finished Act 5 HC. Holy crap that was a hard fight, and it was only Normal at level 65. Health was 291K and Toughness 2.9 million. A couple of times I was worried and had Breath of Heaven, Serenity, Healing Potions and the healing wells going all the time. Glad that's over with for now. And Adventure mode looks great.

Forgot to mention. Epiphany is my favourite Monk ability. He goes bat**** crazy when it's activated and isn't affected by things like frozen by monsters. Similar to Wrath of the Berserker for the Barb and the spirit regen is hilarious. I use the Wave of Light bell on monsters like a machine gun.

On my third day of playing and have been doing all the side quests and collecting all the achievements. And I still haven't finished Act 5. The maps are freaking huge!. And there's so many side dungeons off the main quest to explore. Playing my Monk in Hardcore and at the start I thought T1 isn't that bad. Then I went into Westmarch and holy heck. Straight back to camp and went down to Normal. Normal is a breeze throughout most of Act 5 but now I'm in Pandemonium and a couple of parts feels dangerous, even on Normal. The part where the two angels protect you with the machine... at first I didn't realise they protect you and lost half my health in an instant. I was like Any higher in difficulty, and I would've been dead. And this is with 246K health and 2.5 mil toughness. Just getting some of the achieves in HC and when I finish Act 5, going back to SC for a while. One player in our clan who had all the HC achievements (even with Loot 2.0) before RoS was released lost his HC character, trying to get all the achievements on T1 on the first day. Torment HC in Act 5 is too dangerous for a lot of seasoned players. It's pretty scary.

Damn this is an awesome game now. Blizzard have redeemed themselves. To think 6 months ago I was dreading to come back to this for the expansion and now it's full of awesome.

MMOs are more popular than ever, especially freemium MMOs. Personally, I'd rather not play them.

Played D&D since 2nd ed and 4th ed is my favourite when it comes to pnp. And I like how PoE is taking a lot of things from 4th ed.

Bugs that haven't been fixed since release and balancing issues that detract from the game. I couldn't recommend it to anyone, and I was a fervent supporter and pre-ordered this. Was a huge disappointment considering the GOG version works perfectly and BGEE is a step backwards. I didn't buy BG2EE. Once bitten, twice shy.

I've got a couple of screen shots with Zoltun Kulle being turned into a chicken. I love the Enchantress. Die little chicken! Interesting Monk Build Indira. This is mine in Hard Core. A lot of healing and resistance. I have three heals by pressing 1, 3 and Q. Mouse 1: Deadly Reach / Keen Eye (Every Third Hit increases my Armour) Mouse 2: Wave of Light / Wall of Light (Increased Damage) 1. Breath of Heaven / Circle of Life (Healing) 2. Mystic Ally / Earth Ally (Increase Vitality) 3. Serenity / Peaceful Repose (Immune to Attacks and Heal) 4. Mantra of Healing / Heavenly Body (Increase Vitality) or Time of Need (Increase resistance to all damage types) I sometimes change the Mantra's rune depending on the situation but mostly keep it on Heavenly Body. Passives: 1. Seize the Initiative (Increase Armour) 2. One With Everything (Resistance to elements) 3. Near Death Experience (Receive 35% life and spirit from fatal damage. Absolute must and life saver in HC) Paragon: Core - Dexterity Offense - Critical Hit Chance Defense - Resist All (then Armor after Resist All is finished) Utility - Life on Hit

There will be profit for Paradox for the initial 10K+ orders from the Kickstarter. That's guaranteed whether their paid upfront or not by Obsidian. Paradox would have worked out how much it would cost to produce 10K+ boxes of the game. They've been in the game for 15 years? If there was too much risk, a company with years of experience would have said, 'no thanks, too much risk or no money for us'. On the contrary, they were more than happy to strike a deal with Obsidian and negotiations would have been taking place over months to finalise this. Months that Paradox would have worked out how much this is going to cost them. This is not some fly by the seat of your pants deal. Companies don't operate like that. This would have taken months of negotiations, of going back and forward, to work out distribution, marketing, cost of producing boxes, manuals, pressing discs for the game, audio cd, etc. It would've been very in depth with something like this. And both parties are more than happy. Both make money. The backers get their game. The game gets marketed and sells, and overall it's good for both Paradox and Obsidian. What distributor wouldn't want to make money by distributing the game? It's good business sense to make money.

Paradox aren't risking their jobs or anything. They're acting as distributors and marketing the game. That's it. And the 10K+ orders they have to fulfil from the Kickstarter has been paid for by the Obsidian. So for the initial 10K or so orders, it's risk free. And a company like Paradox who want to make money will market this game to get more distribution profits. That's also good for Obsidian to get the game marketed for them, to get it out there and royalties in return.

Apparently what tends to happen with the successful free-to-play games is that while most players don't spend anything, or at least only rarely, there are enough maniacs with too much time and money on their hands to make up for it.The freebie players keep the game populated which keeps the paying players involved in the game which means they keep buying things. Blacklight Retribution is a good example, it's a free Call of Duty type game, you can actually unlock almost everything by spending an obscene amount of time playing the game but you can also use real money to get it right away. This means sensible people may occasionally spend a small amount of money on that new scope or pack or special offer to save them a week or two of grinding but the big fish will spend a fortune to get everything. New weapons, armours, patterns, hero characters and other unlockables are added on a regular basis (including new maps and game modes which are free to everyone) and it's supposedly been very profitable for the creators and very popular with it's fanbase. Yeah, this is similar to WoT in that you pay for a premium account to get extra XP and pay for premium Tanks for better XP/Credits which gets you up the tiers quicker. Also it's an ego trip for some players to be the best in the rankings. And you can only do this by spending money on a premium account. I recall one one player creating a thread a year ago who became number 1 in WoT NA and admitted to spending over $5000 to get to that ranking. Also, WoT surpasses WoW in revenues, despite WoT being free and WoW being subscription based.

I'm not disappointed in the least. Maybe because I'm not a slathering drooling fanboy, staying up all day and night, waiting with baited breath, on any news to be released from Obsidian on their announcement of their games. TBH, I don't get all the hate. Obsidian are currently working on rpgs, they're pitching ideas to publishers for rpgs and they'll continue to develop and release rpgs. This won't change at all. It would be a very foolish company to knock back work because of some weird ideal like 'we only do rpgs and nothing else even if it means the company going under'. I've played WoT and it was fun at the time when released. I'll probably download this when it's released to check out what it's like. But like WoT and Fremium MMOs in general, it became a never ending grind with new things (tanks) being released and eventually gave up. I won't be doing the same for this game.

Steam? You got me there. You can buy pretty much any boxed copy of a game. Also World of Tanks have a boxed copy in stores. I never bought it though. I was more making a joke than anything that I don't play MMOs anymore and this will be the first Obsidian game I won't have a boxed copy.

eh, I might eventually download this when it's released and see what it's like compared to WoT. Can't see myself playing it, but would be curious to see how it compares though. WoT was my first and last MMO. Enjoyed it at the time when it was released.

The updates are focussed on one aspect of the class. What can my class do in a fight? And that's what we're getting. I want to know what a Rogue can do, same with a Wizard, Druid, Paladin and other classes. Focusing on non-combat skills can be an update in itself with encounter design, regardless of class.