PrimeJunta

Take two screencaps and save them in PillarsofEternity_Data/data/art/gui/portraits/player/?

@Stun As it happens, that's another of Josh's decisions I agree with. His goal was to avoid quadratic power progression where some classes advance linearily, whereas others advance geometrically. Spells that gain in power according to character level are quadratic. It is IMO inherently better to turn the less powerful lower-level abilities eventually into per-encounter or unlimited ones, in line with the progression in general. And, of course, to design the lower-level spells so that enough of them retain utility even at higher levels.

@Gorbag See, according to Archangel, "anything Archangel doesn't like" constitutes an objective flaw and it is therefore incumbent on Obsidian to fix it. The notion of different people having different preferences appears not to figure in his conceptual apparatus.

What's with your obsession with Tumblr? The only one I follow with any regularity is Josh's, and despite his admirably progressive political views, he rarely brings them up there. I really like how they're reflected in P:E though -- I think Sagani has to be the first Inuit-inspired major character in a mainstream computer game ever, for example. And a woman to boot. Not to mention the whole colonial thing, Skaen as a vengeful god out to smash the patriarchy, and, of course, having the Ocean Folk representing the leading cultural and technological power. Overall I'm very happy with the way politics of games have been going in recent years. Shadowrun Returns does it exceptionally well too, despite their regrettable anti-Communist bias. We're watching standard racist sci-fi and fantasy tropes die a quiet death. "Gamer culture" will folllow, even if there's going to be some kicking and screaming on the way.

@Luckmann I think the subrace bonuses in Elder Scrolls are symptomatic of racism at Bethsoft. Edit: That's a tangent though. I won't pursue it further on this thread.

So you're saying that game design should be held hostage by vagrant tumblrites? I'm saying that they would be idiots to invite accusations of racism by putting in something like that. Also that I personally would find them distasteful and would not hesitate to point that out.

I bet if they gave Ocean Folk a bonus in Athletics and Survival and a penalty in Lore and Mechanics, you'd find out plenty quick just how much bearing it has on reality. Buuut, they already have the culture bonuses, so I honestly don't understand what you're complaining about. Or are you saying that Meadow Folk Aedyr should get different bonuses than Savannah Folk Aedyr? If so, what for?

I have an almost-unused set of DnD4 books in my shelf. I read them through. I remember thinking they were godawful for a PnP game but might work pretty well on a computer.

At level 4, the relevant numbers are 59/71 and 95/114, for a wiz and a barb with Con 9/19, respectively. Endurance, not health. Health is irrelevant for enemies.

Haha, I think you'd have to have a serious masochistic streak to go with Trial of Iron on a first playthrough. I think it's fairly crucial even for later playthroughs. Even really good players sometimes screw up, and if every fight is to the death it makes things seriously more difficult.

Wands in P:E are nothing like wands in the IE games though. They're just a ranged attack. (Also, in the IE games the wizard wouldn't be able to hit the side of a barn door with anything anyway, so it didn't really matter what weapon you gave him.)

@archangel Unlike unlimited stash access, inventory access during combat does make a significant difference to difficulty though. But by all means mod it out. Agree about 11. On the other hand I've gotten used to the combat tooltips; they get the job done decently enough... or would, if the FX weren't making it hard to see who's who.

Cultures do get different bonuses. Are you of the persuasion who believes black people are great at athletics but not so great at maths?

@Gorbag The possibility to run from a fight is pret-t-ty crucial for anyone attempting Ironman/Trial of Iron. @archangel I like that they made quickslots a gameplay feature rather than a UI one. It gets some actual utility out of them. Edit: in re the unlimited stash toggle, now who's concerned about how somebody else plays their game? In any case, I disagree about that. Making the stash not access-anywhere wouldn't lead to any particularly interesting strategic decisions. There's plenty of inventory space to hold whatever you're likely to need on your adventure anyway. All restricted stash access brings is drudgery -- having to play inventory tetris when you rest or are at shops. As I said, I detest inventory tetris, it's dull, rote, and a time sink. Deciding what goes into a handful of quickslots, now, that does require some planning, and is therefore more interesting and adds an additional challenge.

Oooooff... somewhat spoilery. You see some of the companions in action, get some idea of what at least some of them are like and what their motivations are, there's a bunch of smaller and larger spoilers about areas and such. No major quest spoilers though. If you really want to discover it for yourself, I say pass on this one. It's more than just mechanics or core gameplay.

@HH you can switch the combat tooltips off in the game options if you like. I find them pretty important though as they display how each of the toons is doing and what they're up to.

@archangel There's a toggle in the game options for "Access stash anywhere." Re the quickslots and "access inventory anywhere," I like the specifically because they punish you for failing to plan ahead. I don't hear you whining that BG(2) punishes you for failing to memorize the right spells. Similar mechanic, with similar fun. Re 7, haha. I honestly don't pay much attention to how moving around the map is animated. It's about the same speed in the IE games and the P:E BB, and feels about right to me. Some monsters move fast, for sure (the spiders for example) but then you had plenty of fast monsters in them too.

And the other half is OP. There's also a bug there where Grazes on status effects behave as Hits. This makes spells like Slicken stupidly overpowered: drop it on something, and they're all knocked down for a pret-t-ty long duration. You can cheese pretty much any fight with it. Thanks for pointing those out though; if they actually worked it would go a long way to making the wizard more interesting to play. I'd still miss the Charm and Summon spells though.

I've never succeeded in paralyzing anyone with Fetid Caress in BB392.

Agree about 9 and 10.

Opinions, opinions. 1. Agree -- running away should be an option 2. HALLELUJAH! ALL PRAISE THE GREAT JOSH! I bloody HATE the IE inventory. Infinite stash for the great win! 3. Disagree strongly. This is a good change as it forces you to think about your quickslot choices. Hated the way quickslots worked in the IE games, it was just mindless busywork. 4. Agree that magical ammo would be cool. Having unlimited "standard" ammo doesn't preclude that though. It would need UI controls though. 5. Agree, it should be in the center. 6. Agree, it should be higher. Not a huge deal though. 7. I never walked in the IE games. Never ever. So don't care. 8. Good point. Never thought of that.

@Luckmann You're just jealous of his impeccable dress sense and manly good looks. Admit it. You'll feel better.

Yeh, they're different. The paladin is almost as good at tanking as the fighter, and it has auras which buff the entire party without you having to manage them. (Okay, it only has one aura that's worth taking ATM, namely Zealous Focus, but I trust they'll adjust the numbers so the others become more attractive.) Most of the active per-encounter and per-rest abilities aren't all that interesting though. Overall I liked the paladin and look forward to playing one. I haven't seen any info about the order behaviors beyond the descriptions and what's in the wiki. I think linking them to the disposition system is a super-cool idea though. The barbarian kiiiinda sucks in BB392, again because of the numbers. Wild Sprint is fairly useless because he'll take so much punishment from disengagement attacks and just getting surrounded that he won't have time to do much damage before getting knocked out; Rage is nice enough I guess, and I didn't see Yell actually accomplish much even though I tried using it. If they beef up those abilities a bit it'll be a very cool class. (It was stronger in some of the earlier BB builds, I seem to recall.) Barbs have loads of Health and can get an at-will self-heal, so they'll actually make surprisingly decent tanks also, if played against type. Carnage is quite useful in the front line as you will typically have several enemies within range. Ultimately though a warrior is a warrior is a warrior. It'll stand there and hit things. That's what they do. Applies equally to the fighter, paladin, and barbarian. The rogue does play noticeably differently because of the stealth and mobility related talents; it's inherently higher-management. My fave melee class ATM actually.

Intriguing statement. I kind of thought the opposite, that there is no way you can fail the quest (other than abandoning it of course), but there's a remakrable number of ways in which it can be resolved.

The main issue is that the nastier status effects have very short durations. There's no point countering them since by the time you'd get the counter out it'd have worn off anyway. Also: Whisper of Treason and Puppet Master are cipher Powers, not wizard spells. I've asked for similar spells for the wiz -- perhaps weaker at equivalent level, so he doesn't tread on Cipher's toes. I don't know exactly what Terrified and Confused do, but I the effects aren't very dramatic, nothing like the IE games where enemis run away or wander around doing nothing or sometimes attacking each other. I just tried Bewildering Spectacle as an opening move on Medreth's group in the BB and it was pretty much a waste of a spell. I suppose it might be useful to stop someone for using special abilities/spells for a moment, but that's about it.