PrimeJunta

Everything but the bugs. Okay, more seriously: atmosphere, dialog, look and feel of the party, genuinely differentiated classes--a chanter really is nothing like a wizard, and a barbarian is nothing like a fighter--with at least some options to play against type (noticed the talent(?) that lets non-fighters engage an extra enemy, which lets them play the 'flypaper' role in a pinch), the general look of everything, the music, and... the floors. Seriously, this game has some really nice-looking floors.

But the weapon stats are visible in the descriptions. It shouldn't be all that hard to figure out. How is this different from figuring out which buff, debuff, or counter to use in various situations in BG2?

Oh, I'm sure a better build will be coming soon anyway, feedback or no feedback. Giving it another spin. On Easy this time.

Uh... why not switch to some more suitable weapon for your barb then? (Other than that there aren't any due to the disappearing item bug, but that'll be history soon, presumably.)

To be fair, it's way buggier than our betas. :smug: That said, if the architecture is sound and the project is well managed, a team can chew through a lot of bugs fast. When in full bugfixing mode, I average about ten a day. Most of the most annoying bugs in the beta (e.g. the disappearing item bug, the combat clusterhug bug, the pathfinding issues) are in the systems, and once fixed, they're fixed for the whole game. A lot of the bugs are missing strings and similar content issues, which are trivial to resolve once someone gets to it, and they're the kind of thing that can be done in parallel across the entire game. I'm quite confident the next build will play a lot better, and in a month or two it'll start shaping up well. That said... they should have waited a little. We got a list of things to look for as high-priority feedback, and especially the combat is too borked at the moment to be really able to say anything.

To reproduce: Create chanter with skeleton summoning invocation. Engage those cursed beetles in combat. Chant. Summon skeletons. Expected: the portrait icons at bottom have skeletons in them. Observed: they are white.

I have a hunch it's all the same bug. It may even be related to the pathfinding and auto-attack issues they've already resolved, so it's entirely possible we're just wasting bandwidth here. But hey, the QA types need to work too, so might as well give them bugs to triage.

To reproduce: 1. Create a chanter with the skeleton summoning invocation. 2. Enter Dyrfor Crossing. 3. Engage beetles. 4. Start chanting. 5. Summon three skeletons when possible. 6. Continue chanting, engage second group of beetles. 7. Stupidly have BB Rogue killed. 8. Summon three more skeletons. 9. Murder remaining beetles. 10. Wait for combat to end. Expected: BB Rogue stands up, stamina replenishes, the fun continues. Observed: Game freezes, must be force quit.

To reproduce: Enter combat with party. Select BB Fighter's Knockdown ability. Click on enemy. Expected: Icon returns to normal after enemy clicked. Observed: Icon did not change, and clicking on other characters in order to issue commands did nothing. Notes: Clicking on the fighter again worked, bringing up the icons. Clicking Knockdown and targeting it a second time cleared the problem.

Description: [selection] Clicking on a character portrait doesn't select character To reproduce: Enter Dyrford Crossings map. Click on a character portrait. Expected: Character is selected. Observed: Entire party remains selected. Note: Clicking on the character or portrait a second time works as expected. -- Description: [Ranger] Ranger's animal companion can't be selected To reproduce: Entery Dyrford Crossings map. Click on animal companion on map or in the circle with the ranger's icon. Expected: Animal companion is selected and can be issued orders. Observed: Nothing happens. Note: After the first combat, the bug stopped manifesting. -- Description: [Ranger] Ranger's and animal companion's stamina does not fully regenerate To reproduce: Create a ranger with an animal companion. Level up the ranger to Level 5. Expected: Both portraits fill up. Observed: About a quarter of each portrait is red. -- Description: Ranger's lion animal companion's portrait circle is blank To reproduce: Create a ranger with a lion animal companion. Expected: The circle in the ranger's portrait displays a picture of a lion. Observed: It is white. -- Description: [Combat] Characters in close proximity with enemies sometimes do not do anything nor respond to orders To reproduce: Enter melee with beetles in Dyrford Crossing map with three or more melee combatants. Issue them orders to target the same creature. Expected: They start attacking the creature. Observed: Frequently, at least some of them do nothing and do not respond to orders that involve targeting an enemy (e.g. use of Knockdown or other targeted special abilities). The combat log shows <Charname> engages <creature> in melee, but no attacks thereafter. Does not apply only to autoattacks. Note: Similar behavior observed with spiders in ogre caves. I think it's linked to the number of characters/enemies engaged in melee. If they form a tight cluster, some of them stop doing anything. -- Description: [Combat] Characters equipping ranged weapons auto-attack creatures non-aggressive creatures To reproduce: Equip a part of the party with ranged weapons. Enter the Dyrford Crossings map. Attack either the lone wood beetle to the south, or the group of beetles immediately to the east. Try to draw them towards the west. Defeat them. Expected: Auto-attacking characters stop shooting once all aggressive enemies are down. Observed: Auto-attacking characters target beetles at edge of visibility range, which have not yet become aggressive. Note: This is annoying because ranged characters will inevitably aggro all of the beetles on the map, which is a bit of a handful.

Okay, the combat feelz. Been playing a little more. Got through the beetles with nary a scratch (on Normal). Unfortunately it's really hard to say much about it at this point. There are those three critical issues many others have pointed out, and a fourth that's almost as serious. Before they're addressed, it is going to be clusterhug. I'm confident though that once they are addressed, it'll be fine, and they're not all that hard to address. Namely: 1. Y U NO DO???? Often characters just appear to ignore orders and stand around being clobbered. I was following the combat log, and Dyrtipix was actually making no attacks and doing no damage at all. There was "Dyrtipix engages <critter> in melee," and beyond that, nothing. (Not always Dyrtipix, either, but often.) Even if I issued a specific order. 2. Autoattack bug. They know about this, but it is a bit of a blocker. Doesn't appear to affect ranged weapons guys as much. Most combats I won were actually won by BB Wizard auto-plinking with his BB gun, since my frontliners refused to do anything but stand there. 3. Dat pathfinding. May be related to 1. Perhaps they didn't do anything because they didn't realize they were standing right next to the critter to which they were supposed to do it, and got confused, puir things. 4. Speed. Yah, it is too fast. Playing in slow-mo is workable, but that's a bit too slow. Needs to be slowed down a bit. A secondary highly annoying thing is the disappearing weapon bug. Dyrtipix was not all that effective in many of the fights because she was using her bare fists. Not great. Gonna try a ranger next, see if ranged attacks work better. But melee needs those critical bugs fixed before I can say much more about it.

I don't know if I'd put it quite as harshly as that, but on the whole yeah, too many floating panes. Using UI screens instead of panes would also make it easier to port to tablets. :troll:

That certainly needs fixing. Did you report which ones in the Bugs forum?

Then why not post your thoughts in the appropriate thread on the Gameplay and Mechanics forum instead of going OT on this one?

If anybody cares, I like the IWD2 icons. I hope they'll keep them. :nostalgia:

Yes there is. Stealth is a skill, rogues have a bonus in it, and it makes a huuuge difference. Switch stealth mode on to see the different detection circles for the characters. No sleight of hand as a skill though. Presumably there will be pickpocketing in some of those CYA screens, probably bound to attribute or skill checks.

Agree about 1, 2, 3, and 7. Never noticed problems with 4, 5, or 6. Strongly disagree about attributes. On the contrary, I think it is way cool that you have to make actual trade-offs. Why even have an attribute system if, for each class, there's only one right way to distribute your stats? (-> looking at (A)D&D here.)

It would help but I don't think it'd be quite enough. If you've got everybody in melee, you wouldn't be able to tell who's fighting whom. This is a big deal because of the disengagement attack mechanics. But yes, at the very least make it extremely obvious when a character is engaged, so you know to be careful not to attempt to move and provoke a disengagement attack unless you're really sure you want to eat it.

I agree. I'd be happy with a console command to add moar copper pennies too.

It'd also help if there was a setting for your preferred combat speed. Walking around, the speed feels about right, but combat is pretty frantic. Since we already have slo-mo, why not make it a preference so the combat speed of your choice always kicks in when combat starts? (Or did I miss it and is there already one?)

Engagement is a crucial new combat mechanic in P:E. The IE games didn't have it; instead they had AOO's. It's vital to know who's engaging whom. Currently this is... not obvious. The combat would become a lot clearer if there was a visual indication of who's engaging whom. For example, an arrow from selection circle to selection circle.

@Namutree I disagree. There are two main problems with the combat right now and both are easy to fix: the auto-attack bug and the PAAATHFINDINGohlordpleaseno. Fix those and it'll already work a lot better. The overall rhythm and feel, the abilities, and the general responsiveness are great. Add a few more relatively simple tweaks like clear visual indications of who's engaging whom, and it'll be much better than the IE's.

Another early impression. One tactic I've been attempting is sneaking BB Rogue ahead, hiding her to the flank, then advancing the rest of the party in order to draw the bugs into melee, then stabbing said bugs in the back with BB Rogue. I haven't figured out how to do this properly because stealth applies to the full party. The upshot is that when combat starts and everybody gets unstealthed, one of the bugs runs straight at BB Rogue and ruins my perfectly crafted plan. Is there a way to do this in the current stealth system? If not, should it be possible to stealth individual characters like in the IE games?

Mm. Maybe. I'll do that in a bit. Perhaps they'll adjust BB Fighter's stats in one of the updates. Still, if the monk tanks much better than the fighter, one or the other needs tweaking. Or both. I also agree with you about the "adventuring day" point in the other thread, although I will need to play more to have a genuinely informed opinion about it. But even so, at least BB Fighter goes down a good deal quicker than I'd expect, and is -- so far -- the one that prompts a rest first.

Okay, very early impression, but still. I'm having fun dancing with the beetles (and developing a certain amount of sympathy for Adam's plight). Enjoying it, and attempting to play the classes to their strengths. I like the way they play overall. Except: the fighter feels too fragile. I plant him in the front, set him to Defender mode, and then clobber with the rest of the party. And he consistently loses the most health. I send Dyrtipix the barb to the thick of things to carnage, and she barely gets scratched when his health has gone down nearly a quarter of the way. That doesn't feel right. The fighter needs a different Endurance/Health damage ratio (6:1 maybe?), or better Deflection, or I'm doing something wrong. He shouldn't get worn down so fast even if I forget to use his Knockdown (which I sometimes do). Tanking is what he does, after all. The rogue rules at murdering things, the barb at general carnage, the wiz at fireworks, and the cleric... okay, I haven't figured out the cleric yet, but the fighter does not rule at tanking ATM. Even the barb feels like a more effective tank because of the better end/health ratio, and that can't be right. Other than that, this rocks, so far.