IndiraLightfoot

That explains it. I rested six times in RL five hours, so in a sense that really rewards the player for staying alive, I guess.

Zansatsu: He also played on Easy with five characters. I didn't die once (and no reloads) in five hours straight, so I guess Adam had a bad beetle day, to be sure!

Interestingly, I had buffs from expensive resting last really long, even beyond map travelling six hours! It's worth the money to sleep like kings.

Well, although combat difficulty probably belongs in a different thread, it's not that hard (at least not on Easy, just unfamiliar ) .

Karkarov: Wow! I had a breeze down there on Easy with five characters. That ring-a-ring-a-roses kukri cultist sounds really scary! EDIT: And yeah, that area ain't the boss area as far as I can tell, coz I've been there, and it was more of the same

And to add insult to injury, this below is really sad for the beta and the possibility of ever getting to level up:

Oh, those ruins seem to be the most generous one in the beta, especially if you look around hard enough.

PrimeJunta: Good feedback! And I must add that I didn't use any ranged weapons except for the BB wizard and his spells, a handful of BB priest spells, and one test with an arbalest. Still, I notice that my wizard has done most damage in my party, so ranged weapons seem to be the way to go atm.

Immortalis: In its current state, you might as well add "filling all cracks and crevices with grime and dirt" as well.

Funny thing: Such thinking only seems to hatch new "degenerative gameplay". It's humans vs UI and simple systems/AI we're talking about here.

Immortalis: I hear you. I wonder how Josh & Co will be reasoning in this case? Or perhaps all this is due to heavy xp system bugs? It could be that an intricate small-increment xp per encounter system already is in place? But I fear not atm.

Msxyz: And the pace of the game increases pretty heftily.

^This. And even more importantly, if a few did, who cares? Why not choose the path of least resistance, and Occam's Razor and all that, and just have some per encounter/per kill xp system?

This makes me think of Seinfeld and crisps, and you know it!

Couldn't this be fixed with some "successfully snuck past this encounter once"-tag/flag? And then the player gets rewarded just as much as the more murderous bunch? They will only get kill xp once, I mean, the critters are gone once dead, hehe.

That still wouldn't solve the problem, the character progress curve would still be erratic. Even I don't approve of any Josh-bashing of yours ( ), I reckon these are very good points! And add to that: Josh himself has already said that the game is very combat heavy, and this is certainly reflected in all the systems and abilities and what not.

We certainly have the real experiences from the beta to thank for that!

I forgot to mention the scripted interactions. The few I've run into so far are just lovely!

aluminiumtrioxid: It's not easy, but it has available predecessor systems that Josh & Co almost knows by heart, so I reckon if anybody can fix it it's them. On the other hand, that mix of several xp categories and xp triggers, which also criss-cross in a horrendous way, and you're in for a systemic nightmare, or perhaps I'm just being pessimistic?

Sensuki's and Stun's captured all I wanted to say, perhaps except that I like the faster pace, since it reminds me of how I play in NWN2 - but this isn't exactly IE-inspired. If you are used to a RTS-game like COH2, the micromanagement here is a walk in the park, so I've been having it easy on Easy. No reload in five hours, and I've mostly done combat and exploring.

That doesn't have to be universal kill XP. I agree with the premise. But it can be XP tied to that encounter as an objective. Really, my objection to kill XP is primarily focused on dungeons and quests. Places where there are clear objectives to accomplish that enable multiple approaches. Get to the 3rd floor, stop the goblins from attacking the town, recover the diamond tiara of Cthulhu. Each of these could have paths of stealth, dialogue, environment, combat, or probably a mix. Each of these should generate an XP reward that is comparable to the others, while disallowing the optimal path double dip where you complete it one way (by stealth), then complete it the other way (by combat), for increased reward. The only goal of this is to allow people to take a variety of approaches to challenges without seeing one as gigantically more beneficial than the rest. In that regard, challenges that only have one viable approach should still yield a reward. Which means if you find yourself stuck in a cave with shades and the only way out is to disincorporate their ectoplasm via stabbing, some XP to be gained would not be inappropriate. I sympathize a lot with this sentiment. The question is: Can it be done? And if it's really complicated, will OE have time enough to make a decent xp system out of it?

It's already looking bleak for how the xp system seems to work right now in the beta build, which seems to be quest xp only (or some extremely large in scope objective xp (as far as I can tell after hours of playing in several maps and doing most stuff). I really do hope they change into something more IE-inspired and rewarding.

Helm: It's implied already at the first option: "Quest xp only". Technically, all those options in the poll includes quest xp as well. Obviously, we can discuss the size of those quest xp rewards, since it depends on which xp system that gets picked. I've edited the poll to reflect this clearly. In all fairness, I could have added a no quest xp or something, but for the sake of clarity, I will refrain from that. We all want quest xp, don't we?

philby: That's so very true, but I figure we could be bolder than that, and say that the rewards should be more than tiny - they should be fair and reflect the exploring, RPG-ing, fighting, what not, that actually took place. It would be weird if one huge route of exploration gives you xp crumbs, and another equally long route, with almost the same stuff done, gets rewarded big time, since then all munchkins would take the quest-railroad route, and ouch for the sake of the game, if that gets to be the case.

Alright. Thanks for clearing that up!