PrimeJunta

I'm all for mutually exclusive content but IMO class is not a very interesting thing to connect it to. I prefer companions, faction affiliation, and character history. Put another way, rather than a paladin stronghold quest, I'd like to see a holy order of warriors stronghold quest, open to anyone satisfying the quest requirements – e.g. high enough reputation with the holy order, suitable personality traits, and sufficient martial prowess. Wouldn't necessarily have to be a paladin.

I wonder if someone broke them on purpose and carted off most of the fallen-off bits, e.g. to build something else. I think they'd end up looking much like that if you had super-sticky magic mortar. It's a popular way to make ruins in any case.

First off, can I have a pet goat? Please? Master's Call would just be so perfect for it. Second, I like the way these classes are shaping up. However, I also would like to hear more about cross-class talents. A goat-less archer would be fun too, so I hope I'll be able to make an effective one based on one of the other classes. (I don't particularly care for the idea of goat-less rangers, though; messing with a class's core distinguishing features sounds like a bad idea.)

I like the idea. Also good replay fodder for the ultra-powergamers who just might be able to beat the encounter anyway.

The gnoll stronghold in BG1 has respawning gnolls. Quite quickly-respawning at that; the first time I got there I scouted forward extremely warily and it felt like I'm being constantly attacked. (The second time I went in fast and barely noticed the respawning though.) Same for that ruin in the East with endless waves of kobolds. I'm sure there were plenty more.

@teknoman2 That's correct. Thanks for setting the record straight.

@Karkarov very well put, couldn't agree more.

Woo, backed. Looks great, and it's trying to do something that hasn't really been done yet.

@Labadal Arcanum has combat XP. However it's awarded in a screwy way. You get it for every hit on an enemy, and it's personal rather than divided between the party. This in fact screws things up big-time as a "social" character who relies on minions to do the fighting will get way less XP than others, and a character with high accuracy but low damage will get way more XP than a character who does the same damage with fewer hits. This seriously screws up one of the most attractive features in the game, i.e., that it's possible to do things in a crazily wide variety of ways. (On second thought, let's not discuss the various ways in which Arcanum is unbalanced. That would be a long discussion. I figure MCA has already given Tim Cain a piece of his mind about it anyway.)

First off, I believe there won't even be a persuasion skill in PoE. Attributes and other skills will be checked however. I also believe it's likely that these will be for your main character only, i.e. you can't spread them across the party. I agree that if, indeed, it is possible to spread the required "talky" skills across the party, this aspect will get a great deal diluted. Second, two of the points I listed aren't about ability/attribute checks at all: they're about reputation mechanics. These aren't subject to this problem. And third, the other two points are about raising the cost of talk solutions. The upshot of these adjustments is that you'll have to work harder to be able to resolve things through dialog. If reputation mechanics are solid, you won't be able to max out your rep among all factions and all personality traits. This means that you'll have to play more strategically if you want to resolve things by talking: make hard choices about which factions or personal reputation traits to cultivate and which to ignore. Screw it up and these solutions simply won't be available, and even in the best case, you'll never see all of the talky solutions in a single play-through as some of them will be mutually exclusive. So yes, ultimately you will click on a dialog option, and that single click as such can only ever be as interesting as a single click can be. The interesting part is making that dialog option available in the first place. That's strategic difficulty, which is every bit as important as tactical difficulty.

(1) Why? What's wrong with increasing combat difficulty only? (2) Can't you think of any ways to increase overall difficulty? I sure can. Off the top of my head, here are a few easy ones you can do simply by tuning numbers, with no added mechanics whatsoever: - (stealth) increase radius of noise circles - (stealth) increase radius of enemy detection circles - (stealth) decrease radius of party detection circles - (stealth) shorten detection lag if present - (stealth) make stealth buffs rarer or more costly - (stealth) raise lockpick check thresholds - (stealth) raise trap disarm thresholds - (stealth) reduce availability of lockpicks - (talk) raise ability check thresholds - (talk) raise faction reputation check thresholds for factions - (talk) raise personal reputation check thresholds for individuals (e.g., something that requires "Merciful 20" on Normal becomes "Merciful 50" - (talk) raise costs associated with talk solutions (e.g., if bribery or payment is involved, raise the price) - (talk) make talk buffs rarer or more costly - (overall) raise buy prices in shops - (overall) lower sell prices in shops - (overall) reduce loot - (overall) reduce XP rewards Srsly, guyz. This isn't rocket science.

I hope there's a time lag associated with detection. I.e., you'd have to stay within someone's detection circle for a moment before detection triggers. This would also make sneak backstabs feasible -- a stealthy character would be able to get close enough to run and stab before detection is tripped.

A fireball that only kills enemies sounds like a divine invocation to me, not an arcane spell.

Engage them with your fighter to get them to stay put, outflank with your rogue, stab stab stab, mop up blood.

I just hope they'll make the sneak animation as cool as Arcanum's. Prowling FTW!

That would irredeemably and tragically diminish your utterly unique uniqueness, BruceVC. That would be too tragic to contemplate.

Why would you want them to make skipping combat hard in Path of the Damned? Why not just have two challenges, regular Path of the Damned, where avoiding tough combat wherever possible is a viable strategy, and Hellbound Fiery Bloodsoaked Path of the Eternally Damned Extra Hardcore Challenge, which you only get by completing Path of the Damned without avoiding any of the combats?

Yes. What's puzzling me about this discussion is that people who apparently enjoy the extra-hard combat challenge of Path of the Damned apparently also want to do everything they can to avoid said challenges, unless provided with extra incentives in the form of loot or XP. Out of curiosity, would an Achievement for fighting ALL the battles -- i.e., never taking the non-combat path where a combat path was on offer -- in Path of the Damned do for a reward? I'd imagine that'd give you some hardcore cred to flaunt, if you're so inclined.

Assuming that non-combat gameplay in an IE style game amounts to "pick the right dialog option to win" reflects a pretty serious lack of imagination IMO. We don't normally interact with the world primarily by throwing fireballs at it. Most of these interactions would be perfectly viable. Some of PoE's antecedents have even done some of them.

The Internet needs more people like you, @milczyciel.

Annd... let the butthurt recommence.

Chalk me up for the "scroll wheel to adjust AoE" idea. Removing or reducing FF around the edges sounds cheesy to me.

I have had to roll back to a previous save because of stuff like that. Sometimes on day-1 purchases I've had to start over after game-breaking bugs were patched :cough: bloodlines :cough: gothic3 :cough:, which is why I -usually- wait a while before playing nowadays.

Funny, I've played lots of RPG's but don't recall ever having used a console command in an actual playthrough.

I'm sure the good folks at the 'dex are crushed by all this disapproval. Crushed!