IndiraLightfoot

Well, then, perhaps in my second playthrough, at least. Varric seems to be a cool character. I hold WL2 as the best game released in 2014 (with Endless Legend being pretty much on par), so if DA:I does indeed compete with any of those two, I would be extremely happy. I wonder how that playthrough we just saw would have been with the tactical view turned on all the way?

What a dilemma for me, then! Now that I read that you guys really like Varric as a companion, I want to try him out (I usually like having dwarves around in my CRPGs). Perhaps there will be some stop-Varric-from-backflipping mod, so I get to try him out. On the running: I'm pretty sure, there will be walking too, that's fairly standard in CRPGs, then we can shift it whenever we feel like it.

Btw, what you think of the characters running all the time? Isn't that speed pretty impressive? They must be super-fit, like Marathon-runners using the pace of an 800 m-Olympic athlete. I wonder if we can walk if we want to.

It's an early build, though. I expect some environments to have improved quite a bit a few iterations later. Right now, it's pretty colourful. Someone on Youtube naively thought DA:I was a Kingdom of Amalur-ripoff because of it, hehe.

I never played DA2, but I can tell this is something quite different from DA:O. It's pretty arcade game-y. There are lots of oomph to the combat, with over the top effects and movements. The characters are all super heroes, like Marvel Comics or something. Sometimes, it looks decent, sometimes not. Personally I hate that flipping dwarf so much that I had to google him. It turns out his name is Varric. I will stay clear of that companion. No back-flipping dwarf for me, thank you very much. I'm also not fond of the bald mage elf. He looks like Nosferatu. I'll be skipping that one as well. It has taken more than a fair share from Skyrim's interfaces, and some of that may be a good decision, given how large the maps are. I didn't like the boring sign "LOOT", for every loot dropped. And those glimpses, showing stuff of interest, are like in Thief, which I think are too strong here. They are like camera flashes, almost. Imagine, the mess this will be in multiplayer mode. All these spontaneous criticisms aside, I'm still intrigued enough, and I have already pre-ordered, so I can but wait until I have it in my hands, and I won't be using a controller, I'll be using mouse and keyboard.

Psychological studies have shown that something people really covet, and which is considered slightly shameful and dirty, is usually not picked when presented with that option in a questionnaire, for example: "Do you like porn?" "No." "Would you like a drink right now?" "No." "Do your wash your hands after each bathroom visit?" "Yes." "Are you fit enough?" "Yes." "Do you want combat xp?" "No."

Alright... *Scurries down to the huge font machine and cranks lever* ...ARE OKAY WITH MOAR XP...

Yup! That's the same way I do with pre-orders on Steam. I pre-order them elsewhere (often GMG) and still end up on Steam.

Ineth made this great graph half a day ago, so the numbers have changed a bit. However, if you block the two upper bars with your hand, one of which, at least, is already in the game, enjoy the view of all the green, cos that literally means that people... ...WANT MOAR XP MOAR OFTEN AND FOR MANY MOAR REASONS!!!

gkathellar: Fantastic post, fantastic point!!! All encounters should be special enough - that's the crux and the key of it all. PrimeHydra: Hmm, yeah. Well, if you sneak by all of them, they should perhaps disappear in some cases, and in others stay (but you won't get any xp for them, just some important quest item or some interesting loot.

It would be very neat, but I doubt that OE dare to do it. Also, if the attributes had some more weight to them, then we could gimp our character ourselves. After having played a CRPG like this several times, I usually do some gimped characters just for the joyride.

PrimeHydra: Indeed! And while I welcome hokey solutions too, even if they feel like crutches in this case, I'd still prefer that encounter xp solution, since it wouldn't require combat (cf. the quote you just cited), and it would reward all playstyles, well, except those who just loathe xp altogether, hehe.

The big burning question is: If you took all of them backers, 70,000+ peeps, and had them play the beta. How many would react negatively surprised at finding that there is no kill xp? Even some of the critics of PoE lacking kill xp on these forums are still pretty big OE fans. I have an eerie feeling that there are tens of thousands that instantly would be taken aback by this and complain that the gameplay in between quests feels empty and unrewarding somehow. Good thing that Josh & Co, and obviously Paradox, are already aware of this and are attempting to insert a similarly rewarding system. Unfortunately, it's very strange to pick lock xp, trap xp and "kill x monsters and get xp"-bestiary fill-up to "solve" the issue of kill xp. Like many have already emphasized in this thread: encounter xp (not just special encounter xp), and let player solve their own encounters, the way the want to, and reward them for it every time.

Interesting tips. Thanks, melkathi! Here's one back at you. If you look at my screenshots they are pretty high-res. Still, I have big fonts and never a problem reading anything. How? Well, I activated a big screen mode-toggle, and then everything just went perfect. EDIT: I just checked. It's called Big Screen User Interface under Options and then UI.

On Endless Legend: Things are pretty peaceful on Medium difficulty, which I personally like. I much preferred the latest expansion for CiV, rather than the more-aggressive 2nd one, for instance, since I'm much more of a map explorer and peaceful builder when I play this kind of game in SP. There are lots of things that slowly dawn on me as I play EL. My longest playthrough, this one, just keeps on giving, and I'm 250+ turns in, and it feels like I've entered some fantasy iron age, barely. There are hidden info mouse-overs everywhere. One good thing to know is that you can only assimilate one minor faction early on, so choose wisely (I just picked the first one I encountered. However, I created my own version of its monster unit, which is really cool: "Ice Wargs 2".) Later on, in like Tech Era IV, you can open up a tech that grants you the ability to pick another one to assimilate). Overall, just the sounds effects and the music alone is pretty brilliant, and also the sleek UIs everywhere.

I really do wish that Josh could see how sensible this would be. It would feel fresh enough, and it would make each replay of the game unique enough, and it allows for different solutions to encounters, instead of just kill-xp each and every time.

Yeah. It had that Goethe-Angst and -Stimmung, married with and marred by Zeitgeist and Weltschmerz.

Agreed. The xp system of the Elder Scroll would be a bad fit, but WL2's on the other hand...

I know Olga! She is from the Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems.

Well, still sounds great enough.

Would character creation, by any chance, be included in that beta?

Even if I'm not a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series, it still is entertaining enough, and that kind of xp system makes much more sense than quest xp only, if I would simplify the issue. Basically, you get tiny amount of points for your experiences. Quest xp only is totally gonzo and much more gamist, rather than simulationist: You do fantastic deeds, and in very specific ways and in certain orders, and then finally, epiphany! From above, God the GM, grants a huge lump of xp, and you take a bow in gratitude. EDIT: I like the xp for everything policy in WL2 too. It's no biggie, it's just fun. I have fun playing it. EDIT2: Interestingly, there seem to be lots of RPGers who see xp as serious business. It's almost like its radioactive. It should be handled rarely and with great care. I guess, this is one faction from the PnP side of RPG-ing, which really did the xp like after each session, or when quests were done (based on adventure scenarios). I respect that, but I'm also very much more a computer game-gamer. I see them as rewarding little fun-points, I really like them, but they don't represent anything sacred to me that we need to hold back on, or something that we need to reign in, as if it was the alcohol of CRPGs. I say: let the xp juices flow freely. There is nothing degenerative about xp.

Or, why not make the latter part of the game all super-tough, so if you enter in those territories at level 8-ish, you will have to be extremely good to make it (and even a bit lucky), and if your level 12 (max), it's still quite touch.

I see no problem in voting yes to all of them, but I miss one of the presumtptions about the xp system before it became clear that "objective xp" meant "quest xp only", and it was my favourite: Per encounter xp! Every time you kill a bunch of critters OR manage to sneak by them undetected once (all the way, not just a few of them), then you get a bit of xp. That would have been interesting, and also, give loot to the killers, and potential loot for pickpocket freaks. EDIT: And if you once have snuck by them ,then you wont get xp for killing them afterwards, obviously.

Personally, I agree with you. That would make for even more unique builds.