IndiraLightfoot

YunikoYokai5: Have you tried clicking the like, and thereby unliking it?

I'd might be willing to give this game a try of it was released for PC and Steam.

I was serious, but I seem to have misunderstood something important - I didn't realize you were discussing Hard difficulty. I was trying to stay true to the topic at hand. My reply is about Easy difficulty and trash mobs. If these are that frustrating and "tactics-dependent", something is indeed wrong. I agree with Lord Wafflebum. Thrash mobs on that difficulty should be more or less "devoid of challenge".

Disregarding when your party is a bit brittle at level 1-2 in BG1, thrash mobs like that are per definition devoid of any need for tactical counters. They are indeed trash mobs and can be killed in each and every way conceivable - for instance, you can easily solo them. However, most importantly, that you need any tactics at all to take on trash mobs in this game, just as you described, is most telling: It means something is wrong with combat. In BG1-2 or IWD (perhaps not IWD2), most trash mobs you can handle in a multitude of ways, many of which have no need for any kind of tank at all. In all fairness to this discussion, any suggestions for variety in tactics should for obvious reasons disregard trash mobs and focus on encounters of medium difficulty and above, were it not for even trash mobs on easy difficulty being "too hard" (read frustratingly magnetic and abrasive).

It's not a tactic. It's the only way to play the game, and it's not a very fun or rewarding one, at that. The big question is: How can combat become varied enough, without being frustrating, even if we use more RL than P? And an equally important question: How can such a varied-enough combat be supported by a generous assorted collection of combat styles via the classes?

If Josh & Co don't read this thread and take it into serious consideration, I will scream me head off senseless!

They are both portrayed by Hugo Weaving if that's what you mean. Duh! Well yeah, duh, but your comment didn't seem to imply any prior knowledge so there.. :S No worries! I was just playing stupid for once, instead of being it.

ManifestedISO: At what difficulty?

They are both portrayed by Hugo Weaving if that's what you mean. Duh!

And soon the dragons' constant presence will become repetitive and annoying... *Shiver* Yeah, a mere nuisance, a butt you stub out in a smouldering fallout crater of its own momentum, inertia and gravity. Then you snort that mega skellie into your Fus-Ro-Dah-widened nostrils, and the rush is no longer there - just indifference over a hollow achievement.

Elerond & Orogun01: Your avatars are suspiciously similar. Could it be? No, or.... Well, perhaps. Nah! Mr Smith and Elrond are one and the same!! LotR is part of the Matrrix, I knew it!

Orugun01: Yeah, there's always that! However, in some weird way, I have become more lenient at the same time, mostly because I've gotten more impatient when playing games, so I can accept a little handholding to at least some degree without getting all upset about it. Two things that I don't compromise on, though, in my adult version of "magic" CRPG are: -The story-atmosphere-setting complex -And what Gorth mentioned, that precious "internal consistency"

Nonek: Good question! In a weird way, many of my favourite CRPGs with "soul" have rather modest beginnings: NWN2 - you start in the inglenook, at your stepfather elf's side. There's a village fair coming on.... Dishonnored: You are playing hide and seek with the empress' daughter... BG1: You are about to leave the safety of the rather mundane and bookworm-heavy Candlekeep, although with a clandestine threat looming over you... Obviously, very soon, something catastrophic will strike your player character in most of my "magic" games, and then you are off on your journey. However, I'm not that fond of full on action at the start of a CRPG (this thing worries me regarding DA:I, for instance - I also disliked the typical Elder Scroll start of Skyrim). EDIT: Not that such a full-action start would automatically ruin the possibility of a CRPG having that "soul".

This week's funniest post all categories!

^This! That is the very crux of the matter. This is one of the very things that break combat in the PoE BB. Very nice summary of the disease behind the symptoms, and that praise of course also goes to Sensuki for revealing mechanics that is absurd in their shortcomings (invisible attacks... Pfft!), hamper party-building choices and fun party-based combat.

Starwars: Mebbe I spoke too soon. I have yet to play SR: Dragonfall! Nonek: Ultima V & VI certainly deserve to be on my "magic" list as well! Diablo 1 and especially 2 had atmosphere in spades, but it still lacked that care for my character that I crave. Orugun01: Nostalgia is but a part of it, no more. Reading my list and others (New Vegas was mentioned, which for me didn't quite make it - I'd rather place its "magic" on the scale of Skyrim's - heretical, I know!), there are newer games there, and the books and films that give us that same sweet "soul" are recent enough. Still, my entire array of opinions on this could be that of a semi-old fantasy geezer!

Gizmo: I hear you. Comparing a Rembrandt to an Andy Warhol print certainly is a painful experience on so many levels.

Hurlshot: Heh! To some degree, this may be true, at least for me. But like Althernai wrote, I do get that same "magic" from books I have never read before, so it's not just nostalgia and CRPG jadedness. It's some sort of atmosphere and kind of writing that bring out the emotions. I'm not much of a weeper (no Dishonored-pun intended), but certain documentaries about the world wars, sport achievements and grand deeds in fantasy can still make me shed a tear or two, it seems, well, on top of my family and my beloved kids, obviously!

The post below inspired me to make this little thread on the topic of that "magic" we'd love to see in CRPGs: I feel exactly the same way. I've played both Shadowrun Returns and WL2, and they were pretty great in many respects, but they lack that RPG "soul" or "magic" that's gripping to such a degree that I really immerse myself in the setting - also, that I want to take another dive into them, just because the story and the characters and the setting is that good and "magical". Obviously, this is a matter of personal taste. Still, I have to 'fess up and say that not a single post-apocalyptic CRPG has ever gripped me in that way. I have no idea why, but that's the way it is. I've done some soul-searching in my corrupted gamer-heart, and the result is pretty weird, even to me, but here's my personal list of games that I can think of off the top of my head that had that soul, and not all of them are CRPGs in your ordinary sense either: -BG1 & 2 -Planescape: Torment -the NWN2 series -the NWN series (barely) -DA:O (barely) -Ultima VII -Dishonored (The setting, the story and the main characters certainly have "soul") All these games give me "magic" that is on par or even better than reading a good fantasy novel. I'm reading Patrick Rothfuss atm - his books have that RPG "soul", I'm after - brilliant stuff! Examples of games that don't have this CRPG "soul" or "magic": -M&M, even the latest iteration (X Legacy), lacks it -The Wizardry series -IWD 1 and 2 -DS series (the last one had it in parts thanks to George Ziets) -Shadowrun Returns -WL 2 (plenty of smiles, but I didn't care for my characters or those NPCs - I had a hard time telling them apart, despite diff skills) -D:OS, and also the original Divinity (more of the funny part of the spectrum) I'm really hoping that DA:I, T:ToN and PoE will have that "magic" that I desire, only time will tell. What are your thoughts on this?

Althernai: A fantastic post! Thank you! And a section of it, inspired me to make a thread about that magic in a CRPG.

ManifestedISO: Heh! You got me there. Even my little mountain excursion was pretty eventful, and I rarely did follow that main quest line - and that was extually lots of fun, but it also caused a few bugs to happen that first time. I had to resort to the console to fix a couple of them in the south-western part of the map.

Yes please! In my very first playthrough of Skyrim, it feels like I downed my first dragon just after the first barrow visit up on that mountain next to that tiny starting village. It was a huge disappointment. Even in NWN2 OC, your encounter is memorable, and in DA:O, it certainly was.

I know of at least one surprise encounter with one of them, apart from end game stuff. And yes, you are absolutely right about those trinkets. There are in fact a number of those, so know need to sacrifice all points on that. With those tokens, you get to reach 9 or 10, wich makes the mini-scorp conversion odds at 65%, 10% critical failure, IIRC, and if you have a decent number of APs on your comp tech guys, you get two chances each turn, so it's pretty easy and fun to watch. Heh, and if you critically succeed, those mini-scorps get overclocked.

An interesting read, posted as an update on Kickstarter itself, mind you, showing how Kickstarter is dying... Its by Augustín Cordes, who is behind Scratches and Asylum: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/agustincordes/h-p-lovecrafts-the-case-of-charles-dexter-ward/posts/1035283