IndiraLightfoot

Odd fact about Orlan. It's also the name of a Russian space suit, where "orlan" means sea eagle.

Dargh, the last Orlan of Cramp Creek Still and quiet fiendish foe In the night, fierce and cold Our water, he made vile Our daughter, he beguiled Foul, besmeared darts stung Now, his ears are strung Most of his traps are disarmed Hope that's the last of his harm

Nobody answered my question... *Crybaby boohoos in a corner* Seriously though: I love all the new questions, and getting answers from a number of devs! :D Josh's answer on weapon specialization really did get me excited. Oh, this is going to be such fun! And add to that the tactics Adam mentioned - lots of pausing, positioning and spell/attack selections - and we're approaching the time where my anticipation meter explodes.

Will PE start with a tutorial area like NWN2 vanilla, a lobby like in NWN2 MotB, or a plain character creation screen?

Endrosz: Gratz times a thousand! That must have felt good! As a fellow Obz Europe, I saw your toon's progress, and I was a bit worried that you were going too fast and over-stretching yourself, but I'm happy to see I was wrong. Wow!!

I couldn't agree more! Those pesky wasps alone merit a boycott of most of that act, that and the kiddie bright palette.

I've just treated myself to a full story mode run with my lvl 60 monk, which had pretty crappy equipment, and it was a very fun ride! And Hiro is right, you almost can't die as a monk with NDE, it seems. I did the run through normal to speed it all up and get to those legendaries. And I found like a dozen of them, where four were upgrades! I got that laser-monster 2H-sword that Monte showed a pic of a few weeks ago, but later I found a daibo Flying Dragon with resource reduction as well as great life on spirit spent, and the healing went through the roof. I've also found two yellows that were upgrades, so it was certainly worth it. I still got like 3 or 4 paragon levels to boot. Also, I got a lot of cheevos, since the campaign has been reset for the post patch 2.1. All in all, this is shaping up to be one pretty fantastic Diablo, finally. I've also crafted heaps of gems.

A small and seemingly unassuming patch went live yesterday, but it was a pretty big one, for instance: -A lot of overall changes to AI combat, which literally makes it smarter -Facing cones for unit dots on mini-map -The action of dragging the in-game facing cones of bunkers, machine guns, etc. has become easier and smoother -A few changes have made load times faster Great!

Monte & Hiro: I love this! Monk was my first pick when D3 came out, but before any patch, and all self-found, a monk couldn't reach Diablo on Inferno, no matter what. It was slightly tanky and defensive, alright. But it didn't do much damage. I simply must try a monk now, also on HC, it seems. Thanks for the protips, Hiro!

To get to play the Crusader, and really get the full treatment of adventure mode, level 70 etc, then you need to get D3 and the xp RoS.

Heh! I very rarely play on Hardcore, and haven't got a toon that's passed the Butcher yet. Perhaps I will try it some more, now that I have a more stable internet connection. I'm still just trying out all the adjusted skills. So far I 've tested my lvl 60 wizard, witch doctor and barbarian. It took me a while, but I found playstyles and combos that suit me quite well for each and every one of them: -Wizard, Torment IV difficulty, everything arcane, extreme CCer, everything is slowed, and I teleport (it's perhaps a good hardcore build), with an occasional archon mode on standby. I really like her, but the going is pretty slow. -Witch doctor. Torment III difficulty, It's a weird into the frey, and do everything to the mobs at once, while at the same spiriting away to the side, then rinse and repeat. It's pretty dangerous, though, and rather inconsistent too. -Barbarian. Torment I difficulty. Just settled on a sword and board playstyle, which was a very long time ago (before 1st big patch). And it all feels so safe and powerful, like a walking tank, truly. I've opted for a lot of attack speed and lots of various healing, so she's almost invulnerable. She can stand in pools and arcane molten whatnot, surrounded by elites (even two packs at a time), and still chop-to-avoid-drop. My problem is my low damage. Otherwise, this build is ready for a much higher level, so I'm just biding my time. This is probably the most fun build so far.

Here's a short article on D3 by Tracey Lien over at Polygon, and the devs really sell me the idea that adventure mode will be my way to go, since to me D3 has a huge potential to be the perfect casual game. When I play other games, like a rogue-like or Company of Heroes 2, I like to be more focussed and on the edge, but not when playing D3. It's more relaxation and high hope for nice loot! Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls' Adventure Mode is the 'smartest way to play' The upcoming expansion to Diablo 3, Reaper of Souls, will offer players "the most varied and smartest way to play" if their aim is to level-up and find gear, according to lead designer Kevin Martens. Speaking to Polygon, Martens described Adventure Mode as a sandbox for Diablo 3, allowing players to play the way they want to. He said finding new gear and levelling up is the main draw of the game for a lot of people, and the development team noticed a significant number of players going into areas with the highest density of monsters with good loot drops and chests, killing those monsters, jumping out of the game, restarting it, and doing that over and over again. "We took the 'If you can't beat them, join them' approach, and now you can do that across a wider variety of content, so you're not stuck in the one run of the game," Martens said. "If you want to get the best gear and you want to get it as fast as possible, mathematically, this is the best way to do that. You're getting a big tour of the hundreds of hours of content we've added, and this is now both the most varied and smartest way to play." Adventure mode can be accessed once players defeat the final boss in Act 5 of the expansion. The mode has all the cutscenes and conversations disabled, and players will be able to bring their existing character or a new character into the game. The main focus is to kill enemies, pick up loot and level up, and the player's gains carry over to the main game. Players can freely move between Adventure Mode and the story mode and, according to senior level designer Larra Paolilli, Adventure mode offers the freedom to jump in and play shorter sessions. "People can come in and play for 15 minutes or a longer session because of how we've structured it," she said. "Adventure Mode strips away everything and just exposes the randomness of the game. it lets you play the game the way you want to — it's like a buffet for Diablo 3."

So, eight hours into the game, and as some of you know, I'm a Dishonored-fan! Well, Thief 4 is a mixed bag. I've done a couple of story chapters and a few side missions. The graphics are for the most part lovely. Overall, it's a bit too dark and dreary, or should I say badly lit cul-de-sac? Still, the environments are fantastic. As for Garrett, he looks a bit too much like a proto-Batman, which I reckon is a bit of a downer. And don't ask me why, but many leading characters have blackened eyes, as in bad-makeup, not cool. Personally, I think the number of frequently used functions and corresponding keys are a slightly too overwhelming. It could have been simpler. Well, about the gameplay itself. It's a very good game, and a more than decent Thief for the 2010s, but it lacks the flow, freedom and finesse that Dishonored had in spades. Also, the AI of the baddies is less impressive. It's often inconsistent and nonsensical, almost. I play at the mid-difficulty level, with most options on. However, with the lean function and even no focus points at all, I can sneak pretty close to most hostiles. They rarely open doors or collaborate (however, their hands stick out through doors, so I can see where they are, hehe). Whether your detected or not is a bit roughshod. Sometimes, they feel you through walls, other times, not at all. So far, I rarely use anything in my inventory, as opposed to Dishonored, where it was the hub of the game, almost (disregarding certain challenging playthroughs). My worst criticism, however, is the lack of freedom. It's almost as linear as Bioshock Infinite, and even weirder: Garrett can't jump up on things or climb the simplest gutter pipes. The game decides for you where you can jump or where you can shoot a rope arrow into some wooden beam (almost never); essentially this cripples the seemingly agile, fit and skilful Garrett. This flaw is hard to swallow, but as long as you buy that and just play, Thief is at least better than Bioshock Infinite (perhaps not the story, as I have just scratched upon that one - so far, it seems New Age-y and thin). I recommend the game as being quite decent, but perhaps not worth the full asking price on Steam. I'm glad I managed to get it at half price.

And the horrors we laid our eyes upon... Unspeakable! That's my new all-patch 2.0 barbarian btw. Reached level 13 there thanks to Monte's quivering palms of death! My barbarian has found two legendary crafting materials too. Not bad.

Alright, one and a half hour more of just testing out my level 60 wizard and the new, re-balanced skills! It's fun, but frustrating. After I found myself to flimsy and unpredictable vs Elites and bosses in Torment IV difficulty, I went down a peg. In III. it's more laid back when I test stuff out. I had a glass cannon wizard before, with low HP, 40K, and lots and lots of damage. It was one of them Archon wizards. I had to throw all that out of the window and come up with something else. As I found that I died way too easy and fast to certain Elites and even that pesky Skeleton King, I finally realize what my problem was: -too low HP -no healing, not on hit, since no life steal anymore (forgot about that! ) I took one more look at my half a dozen new legendaries and set items I've found, and saw that they hade low resistances compared to mine, but huge boosts to Toughness (almost doubled) and Healing (more than tripled), so I just swapped out a few of my golden oldies, and then my survivability rocketed. I have a lot to learn, but I now realize it's a new game altogether. I can't just look to my DPS as my sole saviour. That is good.

Indeed, there's less junk loot, but more fun critters to mow! Finally, they have indeed focussed on what Diablo is all about: Killing demons and devils for potential upgrades and gold, and having great fun while doing so. Gfted1: Gosh! You have tonnes of paragon points, but now I recall that you had one toon go all the way up to lvl 100 on the old system. You are right about the new skills that the Elites are displaying: ball lightning, strange poisonous labyrinths under your feet, and mortar barrages. It makes it all challenging. I find that I use teleport more often now, that's for sure.

Haha! Gratz on that mean, mean sword! Let's just say that I'd be surprised if that kind of sword design appeared in PE, alongside estocs and rapiers!

My adventures with my confused wizard in Torment IV continues! In like two hours, she died like half a dozen times, while I was trying out all sorts of skill combos. No penalty anymore for swapping skills in-game, it seems. The very attributes and stuff changed as well. I'm not even sure what Toughness and Healing really do. I mean there is Vitality and you get healed by life regeneration, life on hit, etc. It's all a bit askew. Another weird thing: If I put all my paragon points in general on INT, I get higher damage and more arcane power than if I just place them all on Increase Arcane Power. Bizarre! More reflections: Everything is so smooth and sleek. Nothing is really annoying anymore. All in-game interfaces are simply great and intuitive. The Nephalem Valor is gone, replaced by what, I don't know. Sometimes I pick up some Nephalem Destiny Orb or something, and a few times, I found yellow Pools of Reflection, which rewards you with more xp if you are not dying. My first Diamond was a kick! I've found one upgrade so far, a yellow Scoundrel token, which was hysterically good, and with all the values and enhancements I wanted it for him. In total, I've found four legendaries in little more than two hours of actually playing the game. None of them an upgrade for any of my characters. Also, I really like how scarce loot is now, and I try to salvage everything for future crafting. One map, Weeping Hollow, took me about 45 minutes to clear (I did every pixel of it), by using a very weird CC wizard, which mixes kiting and tanking depending on the opponents. In almost every sense, this is a new game. So, like Monte, our clan leader, I will most likely start a character from scratch too, just to get the full experience of this brave, new D3!

The cornucopia of CRPGs can get depleted! In another thread, someone said, you can never have enough CRPGs. Well, I beg to differ. I've never just played CRPGs, I like all kinds of pc game genres. The more that gets made, the more the original premise loses a bit of its soul, so let's broaden our horizons and play Candy Crush! *Runs for cover*

That one time is so rare, it's a major feature in the main exhibition hall of the Museum of Crime in Irvine, right behind the garlic vendors.

That makes me think of a hilarious SpongeBob-episode, ending, as always, with Squidward chasing Spongie and Patrick in his bulldozer.

SP as in offline, no, but otherwise you can play it sp to your heart's content. I usually do play it that way.

That's the post of the day, I reckon! To me, this is what it all comes down to: Will PE have that replay value that BG and NWN2 had? I'll keep a special candle burning in the hopes that indeed does have that great replayability.

I found my first legendary after the new patch (in a barrel), and it almost knocked my Witching Hour-belt off. Well, I'm saving my legendaries now till the Mystic arrives with RoS. A nice surprise: No need to mass id anymore. All yellows are already id-ed at pickup. Only legendaries need the attention of Deckard Cain's confused ramblings.

That's about my difficulty level too, at least for two of my toons,