light487

Crash To Desktop from game ending up causing me to reboot my whole PC on account that there were unrecoverable graphics and/or memory glitches occurring in Windows even after the game had unloaded. I have attached my output log but unfortunately there was no error log or crash log generated. It happened after Day 1. I'd killed the guys near the bridge, left the map to the south-west and returned. Saved the game, left the game and then returned later. I explored the area to the north of the bridge on the west size (the grassy area with the NPCs and golden celery) and then as I was crossing the bridge again, the game crashed. Oh yes, not sure it matters but: O/S: Windows 64bit SP1 CPU: AMD Phenom II 1090T X6 3.2GHz RAM: 12GB DDR3 GPU: Sapphire Radeon 7850HD OC 2.0GB output_log.txt

2. The initial barrier to get into the game - specially at the level the beta starts - is incredibly high. It's higher than the beginning of Icewind Dale 2 by far, and you're expected to figure out most of the mechanics - completely unknown mechanics - without the help of a manual. And few of the popups describing what the stats do are there, and the ones that are give you very few hints to what they help with. There are still mechanics in the game that are unknown, complicating things further. (I am only quoting that bit but I did read your entire post) This is what I brought up in one of first posts in this thread and I have to totally agree that this is most of the problem. The main reason I feel confused is that I have no context for my party's combat experiences. There was no preamble to give me a context or even an idea of how I should be looking at things. Essentially what they are getting is feedback on "initial impressions" because they have not properly introduced the area/situation of the game the party finds itself in. I'm not talking about a story setup but instead a beta tester introduction of what things matter and how a tester should be looking at the game. A different part of the game, earlier on, would be much better for "initial impressions" but we don't have that. What I think was needed is a 3 act mini-game. A short few very early character/party quest lines and combat experiences then the act finishes and some beta tester text to introduce the next act is given. The game moves through to basically what we have now, mid-game, and the player tests that. Then the act ends and the final act, late game, happens. Would have changed a lot of the feedback methinks... Without context, most intent and purpose is lost.

So if there's no AI scripts.. do party members auto-fight in the style of your choosing then? Or do you need to give them orders based on the situation of the encounter? Do rangers behave automatically like rangers? Do mages behave automatically like mages? and so on?

Well that's a crying shame. Hopefully it is something they considering adding down the line as this is an essential feature for many of us to truly enjoy the game without micromanaging every character's, every move.

I'm sure it's all been said already.. but I'm a casual gamer too and I find the combat both good and bad. At times I find it absolutely confusing and no idea what is going on and others I find it really engaging. I think that having party members with many skills and talents from the outset, since it's the beta and we need to test, is part of the problem. Obviously when you first start out, you should have limited skillsets and so you don't have so many options available to confuse things.. but as it is, I find the whole thing a bit of a mess being thrown in the deep end with so many skills and talents to play with. It seems I need to pause combat after every round to be effective and that means to me that the game's encounter design is incorrect for RealTimeWithPause but better suited to TurnBased. I may have missed it in the interface but what made BG and similar shine for me, as a casual gamer, is the scripts for the characters. Are there scripts for the AI characters in there somewhere?

Yup.. hehe.. downloading it now. I feel like an idiot.. but there you go. I thought I'd leave the thread undeleted in case someone comes along with a similar question now that the game is visible on Steam, which is what made me start looking around

You know.. I don't know how I missed the August update.. I'm thinking back on my life in August and I can't think of any reason I would have overlooked it... It has been kinda chaotic with my son being only just turned 1 now.. so that was probably it. One good thing I suppose is that the beta has been updated a bunch of times and I can come in with a fresh set of eyes.

So yeah.. I didn't even know the beta had started.. I paid for Beta access.. but no one has sent an email with a key or any update to announce that I should ask for a key.. so here I am asking for my key.. can someone explain where I go to get it? Thanks!

Was there a deadline on add-on selection? It still let me select everything but I only just did it now

Curious if the Kickstarter Surveys have been sent prior to now? I can't seem to find it but it was such a long time before now and so many updates etc. I just checked my pledge and it seems that I've added an extra $25 on top of my $25 tier, plus another $8 for the Obsidian Order "membership". I can't think of anything other than the early access beta that I would have added an extra $25 for but then I can't find any record of me telling Obsidian (via a survey or other) of that either... EDIT: Well that's embarrassing... I just realised I never completed all the Backer Portal stuff. All done now... I hope it's all ok still?

Any word on this?

Yup.. why it should be limited to that, I don't understand.. this is a new system, so let's break the mould. How about we have dialog choices that are based on class.. and race.. and situations as well as decisions made in the past.. how about choices based on our reputation and fame across the land.. our actions in combat.. how many puzzles we solved.. things that are not tied down to specific stats but rather to things that all character types have the ability to affect throughout the game.

This is not going to be an AD&D game.. ...throw out all your preconceptions. This is a new game, with a new system, with a new lore etc etc The fact that a Wizard can wear Plate seems odd but only in the context of previous games. Think you need to look at what reasons a wizard could or could not wear armor.. and why that is so. Is it because of movement restrictions? why is that a concern for a wizard?? Is it because the metal somehow inhibits the wearer? why would it do that? It's not electricity or anything like that.. it's magic. Re-evaluate your assumptions and think about it all over again from the very beginning.. why should it be this way or that way at all? Don't just take the easy way of "that's how it's always been" and leave it at that.. think about it objectively.

Is there a limit to the amount of URLs in a post? I wanted to create a "Developer Tracker" thread with about 12 URLs linking to the developers' content pages (showing posts) for easier navigation.. but it kept giving weird errors saying that I hadn't written anything. So I tried saving it as a draft PM and yesterday it was there.. today, the draft is completely empty.. including the PM I sent to a moderator to see if they could post it for me.. It took quite a while to create that post.. so a little annoying.. but just curious if it's even possible.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown did some great stuff with turn-based combat.. but personally I would be extremely and utterly disappointed in the game and the development team (and the community for allowing it) if this was anything but RTwP.

Think it should depend on the companion's motives, personality and the friendship you have with them. What I'd like to see is the ability for that companion to become autonymous from the player character. So while you go your separate ways, they might go on to form their own party or settle down or whatever was their original motive for joining up with you. Perhaps they will wait for you and so on. If there was some more far reaching consequence than simply affecting the PC, then maybe the PC might actually be willing to give the companion funds and equipment to help them out, that may come back to help them at a later time... or if you don't give anything, it might come back to bite you later and so on. By doing something like this, it would mean: - getting the companion killed to get rid of them would affect you more than a few lousy gold coins. - would make your decisions have weight - would make the companions more value, even if not in the party any longer - and so on...

Thanks.. that's "Lucky".. my Peachfaced Lovebird (parrot).. he doesn't look like that now because his feathers malted after a few months (as they do naturally) and now his head is all red in colour This is a picture of him a few days before we took him home from the breeder

I'd like to be able to have a little shop (or multiple shops) that I can run and manage. Not sure how many people have played a little JRPG called "Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale".. but the basic idea of it is that you own a little shop that adventurers and other people come in and buy things from you. You have to lay out the items yourself, set the prices and sell them. Occasionally people will come and ask you to get certain items for them and so on. How you get the items is by visiting different places to buy merchandise in bulk to get discounts, crafting specialised stuff and going to dungeons to find loot that can then be sold. Putting this kind of thing into the game would extend the game and make having these real estate assets much more purposeful than just having something nice to look at. It would give people a reason to go out and hunt for loot after the main story is finished.. and give people soemthing to do with all the "junk" they've collected through the game and beyond. It would also extend the usefulness of the crafting in the game. You could have multiple shops (weapons, armor, general items etc) just like in a regular town.. all managed and stocked by you, the player. That's the kind of thing I'd like to see done with the stronghold..

With regards to Beta Keys.. if I select Steam, how will Beta keys work? Will there be a separate Beta download through Steam or something?

The only real customisation I want are the basic things.. like skin colour, hair colour, maybe height and weight.. just the most obvious things that would be plainly obvious. Then of course I want to see armor changes, clothing changes and all that happen within the game. If I want a fat friar tuck human and spindly, under norished dwarf.. then I want to eb able to do that. I don't care about the finer details like facial expressions or how big their nose is because 99% of the time I won't see it.. but being able to see fat little friar tuck hiding behind a tree as he casts a spell, or spindly little dwarf running around chopping at knees.. that would mean so much to me and how I felt about my characters.

Then I am wrong.. maybe that is how I read it and it made sense that way to me.. so it stuck And havign said that, I hope that is indeed the way it works

Speed reading? Just kidding

From the definition I read, Stamina does seem to imply an Action Points like setup.. maybe not identical.. but similar. You perform an action (like attacking), you lose stamina.. you take a hit, you lose stamina.. don't have enough stamina? then you can't take an action. action points. Call it what you want.. the result is the same really when talking about "doing things in combat". Is it ONLY Action Points? No.. it's not.. because when you hit 0 stamina, you pass out.. and AP doesn't affect that.. but it has the same effect as AP do.

Definitely want to see this as a possibility.. I hate the fact that once you become regarded as evil, everyone suddenly attacks you with no way to counter it other than becoming good again. I personally like to play Lawful Neutral characters.. but do like to dabble in the evil playthroughs to see what happens (going to try and do this with "The Walking Dead" after I've finished all 5 episodes). Bribery and other social skills (like maybe knowing some official or being part of a guild) should be able to be used to ensure the evil character is not penalised with essentially an unfinishable game if they continue to play as an evil character. As FlintlockJazz says.. murder is murder.. evil does not mean murder.. it may just mean not going around saving all the children.. but instead doing things for your own purposes and if there's no personal gain to be made, then that path is not taken.

The way I imagine it might go in terms of gameplay is something like this: Quest: Deliver Urgent Message (yes, we all love these quests, don't we?) Rewards: - 500 General XP - 1000 Gold - Uber Sword Time Limit: 2 days The time limit is very important because it means that you might only be able to rest ONCE.. or twice if you are extremely lucky. You set out with your band of merry (or not so merry) adventurers.. and along the way you encounter some definitely not to merry monsters. You fight and some of the characters are wounded.. they're not dead.. but they're injured/wounded. Based on the severity of their wounds you decide you will continue and try to get closer to the destination. On you go and then again you are forced into combat.. your party gets further injured. Now things are looking pretty bleak.. Olaf is dragging his axe because his left arm is broken and so on.. so you opt to rest, do some first aid and so on. This wastes the precious little time you have left.. but you're already just over half way to the destination. On you go after resting, though some of the major wounds are not yet healed completely yet and Olaf arm is still very sore. You continue on in this way and have another couple of fights.. the last of which a party member is knocked out. Eventually you get to the destination and deliver the message in time and get your rewards.. but there was a serious possibility that any one of your party might have been killed and so on. There should be a real sense of tension and dread as you balance the time to get there vs the vitality of the party. I'd hope that my party is in need of rest.. in need of a bit of relaxation.. a few rounds at the local inn and other less honorable activities.. and through that R&R.. they become better bonded with each other, their wounds heal properly and become stronger and/or more resilient as a result. Stamina is just action points.. not health.