IndiraLightfoot

Amentep: Hehe, yeah. And why not add to that another psycho-analytical aspect, namely that this entire forum, as well as the rpgcodex, to be sure, may be regarded as transitional objects of sorts for those who feel a bit wobbly in their holding environment, as it were?

Yeah, it is exciting alright! Even with an occasional quit and reload, doing that triple crown solo is not for the faint-hearted. I have everything on slow mode in combat, always, and I changed my settings so that it pauses on almost everything but getting hit, IIRC. It also takes patience and quite a bit of meta-knowledge on PotD (how many enemies, and especially: which areas to avoid - mostly, phantoms, spectres, shades, etc - I skipped the temple in Gilded Vale, I even skipped Raedric's Hold, but then I did most stuff in Act II (obviously ignoring the stronghold and Od Nua, as well as Searing Falls and them Bluffs and that Stormwall Gorge ghost fest dungeon. I snuck by lots of other annoying baddies - like them Dyrford crossing teleport beetles - and I also ignored those poisonous spiders in droves at that ogre. Despite doing that, and being quite selective during act 3 - mostly sneaky and non-violent, I barely made it into level 11, so the game is pretty forgiving that way.

Yeah, I can live with this, no problem, but 75% to Steam is dirty steep.

Occasionally, we are graced with a voice of reason that raises its voice with valid concerns for a change. This was such an occasion. *Tips hat*

I googled anarchy and immediately found this quote: "Another radical doctrine developed during the period of the 1830s-- anarchism. Anarchism is often considered to represent current of radical thought that is truly democratic and libertarian. It is hailed in some quarters as the only true political philosophy freedom. The reality is quite different. From its inception anarchism has been a profoundly anti-democratic doctrine. Indeed the two most important founders of anarchism, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Michael Bakunin, developed theories that were elitist and authoritarian to the core."

Eos: I see what you mean. Perhaps there can be peaceful resources as well on certain classes, like Healing Power on Priests, which gets replenished the more successful buffs you have landed on your allies and such.

I couldn't agree more.

Super awesome game! OMG! I love PoE!! What else? EDIT: I gave it 95 out of 100 in another post.

I know, hehe. Right now, PoE is neither nor or rather both, and perhaps the wisest way forward is going the replenishable resource route and drop those spells per rest (Personally, they are not sacred to me).

Well, I have put the Cipher through its paces on Path of the Damned triple solo, and I must say, it's the best. It's skills are super-flexible, varied and they replenish via Focus (which always starts at half when combat ensues), and this Focus grows when you hit/damage your opponents, so you can always claw back and come back. You can confuse and retreat, even stop a fight entirely, and then come back at it. In comparison to all the other classes I've tried on Path of the damned: Druid, Wizard, Priest, Ranger, Fighter, as well as of the classes I've tried on easier difficulty levels in the beta, it's a class on its own - and my honest opinion: I don't want to see it nerfed in any way or form. It's simply brilliant and so much fun to play. However, what I do propose is a buff, in a way, to all other classes, in order to ensure that they are equally varied, fun and resilient/resourceful come-back-kids. My proposal (not thought through in any combat mechanical detail) is that all classes (yes, even fighters and rogues), should be given a resource that gets replenished when you hit/damage opponents. It mustn't be called focus, though. It could be Mana for wizards, and Holy Power for priests, and Wrath for barbarians, well, you get the picture (and no, this is not a call for Diablo 3 in any other aspect, I promise). Let's take the wizard. The spells are probably thrown and gone after like three fights, and then you have to rest or something. But on PotD, you have two camping supplies, and perhaps you don't want to build a CON beast char anyway, so I'd love to see wizards being able, during longer fights to regain some mana, and earn the power to get to throw a spell or two later. It would make for much more varied use of spells as well, both defensive and offensive, since buffing takes place during combat. And how about fighters? Two knock-downs and then finito in one encounter? While Sporelings have unlimited knockdowns? Unfair! Let Fighters hit and damage a lot to work up a Zeal, which translates into one or two new opportunities to use a per-encounter skill during those long fights. I could go on and on, but I really think the game would benefit from having all classes as flexible and fun as the cipher. And the fix for it is pretty straight forward. Obviously, it would be cool if the expansion added more in-combat abilities for all classes, offensive and defensive, which can be slowly replenished via some Focus-like source, as some classes are a bit lacklustre and unvaried in that regard. It would be so neat. What do you think?

Hi y'all! ***SUPER SPOILERS AHEAD*** Having played the game now to the end with both a party with a mix of companions and adventurers on Path of the Damned and then doing it solo with an Orlan Cipher (my favourite race and my favourite class - the latter so very flexible and always resourceful - the mental McGyver of CRPGs), I must say that PoE is a masterpiece. It's one of the best CRPGs ever made - it certainly can rub shoulders with BG1 and BG2 and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath. I won't go into the combat mechanics and such - I'll just leave my premature review here first: I had played the beta a lot, almost always on Easy or Normal, but I knew the mechanics decently. Also, I had replayed games like BG1, ToEE, NWN2 OC and PST before I got my hands on PoE. My first playthrough became a plain PoTD with three party members: Aloth, Eder and Durance, and three home-made adventurers (a sucky Ranger, I had to have Indira Lightfoot in my first party, though, it's tradition, a two-weapon fighter, and then my main Breida; an Aumauan Druid (very competent druidic tank. Breida survives almost anything unharmed, and Indira usually suffers hard - and now and then Aloth - at least early on. The pros: -I absolutely love the story. Considering it's a low-level CRPG, it's brilliant, it's a homerun out of the ballpark, kind of thing. Superb! -Music, sound effects, art - everything is outstanding! Love it, love it, love it! -Very nice exploration and plenty of hidden stuff for a completionist on a first playthrough -Pretty decent class/race/build smorgasbord, at least on paper, as it were. -Combat on the PotD-level is truly deadly, and it is especially fun in Act I and half Act II, this also goes for triple crown solo, it seems. I like that complete urgency feeling. -Aloth and Durance are great fun as companions, while Eder is so-n-so. The cons: -Party play is basically me directing and owning combat with my tank Breida, with the exception of teleporting phantoms/shades etc and burrowing beetles, nothing can really touch this "put the tank in a choke point, and rain ranged pain and AoE hell on them baddies"-tactic. I do, however, have a variety of ranged attacks and spells to pick from, so it's not all monotonous. Breida is very rarely hurt at all (I've built her entirely as a tank - so she has super-high defences in everything and dex 3 - you get the picture - she can stand in her own AoE effect and melt almost any group of baddies herself, without any party. However, I have Aloth be the big damage dealer, and that he certainly is. As a contrast, I use Durance in the old pre-buff role of the IE games, but he's doing it in combat, instead. He's built entirely as a support character. He has 800 damage in like 90 hours of play time. He simply protects, heals and buffs my party, nothing else, and that is a bit boring. I am dreaming of the 3.5 ed D&D monster priests of doom. -Soloing the game is far too much a matter of RNG - the system doesn't really allow for my skills being rewarded with my passing/resolving encounters (including violently). Often, it's all up to where I am at the start, casting the same spell, running in the right direction fast, chance has a lot do with it, sadly. I keep pressing on, however, although it's a chore, sometimes. I feel such a challenge should involve tactics, first and foremost. That's why I don't like some fights where you get entirely locked in, with nearly no tactical options available to you when combat starts but trying to flee to some corner and survive. -Some of the quest nesting in Defiance Bay is too confusing, and it's easy to make a mistake and almost wreck the game without you knowing it. -Crafting is alright, but it still feels lacklustre. When you play on potD, and even more so soloing it all, you do need to use food, crafted stuff and scrolls, etc, a lot. You wouldn't make it, otherwise, which in itself is a flaw, I reckon. And well, the game isn't all bug free. This happened when I had to Alt tab out of the game to check some mail and then returned: Overall, though, I'm extremely happy with the game. It's certainly a low-level classic isometric CRPG, already. My Triple Crown Solo PotD hellride with a cipher charmer runner sneaker trapper certainly took quite some time and patience. Here, heavily damaged and all, I thought I was done for, but just by picking the right words, I got myself some dragon friends instead. I did use quit and reload quite a number of times, over 20 during the whole game, and once in the last boss battle. I had to made use of the invo-recovery glitch in some bad situations in like five or six fights, including the last (there it was a must), and it all came down to charming and confusing spells like Tenuous grasp, and later spells that stole power from enemies and sometimes even increasing my accuracy, and then having a 2H weapon to beat through DR on singled-out enemies. I had my eyes set on a weapon I found with my first PotD party, a certain 2H Rose morning star (at Cliban Rilag) that heals you 20% per hit - extremely useful on a solo run, especially with a cipher that doesn't really need to rest with high Con and Focus as a resource. And if I was caught-up and flanked, I confused enemies (just 10 focus for TG, it's a steal!) and then bolted. Despite my using glitches, it was a very exciting playthrough. Oh, I almost forgot, get figurines with more than one summon on them - they'll work wonders in engaging many enemies when you solo - you need three, not one. I just love those - in the game, I found three such figurines, and I needed them all, often. And later Cipher spells are super-powerful. I could even use Thalos himself as my own Titan-bashing puppet! Poor sod. So, Mr Sawyer, no need for that smug smile anymore... Finally, I'd really like to commend Obsidian for this fantastic story: The writing really impresses me, the great tone and its consistency. It is for the most part serious, with slight undertones of light humour and cleverness at select nodes in the plot lines. Everything is told with a very nice sincerity and intellectual stringency, and it's always done honestly, with a straight face, as it were. It's almost the opposite of another recent CRPG - Divinity: Original Sin - where almost everything is jovial in tone, tongue in cheek and often nudge-nudgey. I'd actually say that quite a lot (perhaps too much) of WL2 also had this style of writing being prevalent almost throughout. I hadn't played WL1, so I do realize it could be a part of the genre. Moreover, it's more descriptive and story/plot-driven - the narrative structures are always at the forefront, no matter how difficult the subject matter is - souls, animancy, hollowborn children, etc - any factions are derivatives of this. A contrast to this would be DA:I, where almost all text you get, whether from companions or narration, is either personal or faction-driven, and the rest is almost included like an afterthought. I'd give PoE a 95 out of a 100 (minus some combat stuff) - there's always room for some improvement.

I'm sorry for your loss. Eder has found his Eden and won't be coming back. He'll be perma-locked in epiphany over a certain deity he embodies so dearly.

Well, you're younger than me, and half the slang words connoting or alluding to intercourse in one form or the other has been around since the days of Pompeii, at least, just look at that rowdy graffiti.

I had no idea. It certainly shows my age, wouldn't you say?

A childish over-reaction on my behalf, where I let your typo get bloated beyond all sensible proportions into a shooperior cultural reference of yore. My bad.

See next post. *cough*

All that I can say is: My dearest SSD, I love you!

Indeed. In order to play PoE durably and reasonably safe in all situations, even sneaky run-off-at-first-sight-of-any-threat builds, especially at higher difficulties, the naked approach is very rarely a good idea - and for solo play it's suicidal.

Heh. I can also confirm this: My robe-clad ranger with super-high dex pumping arrows swiftly is almost always targeted as soon as the first arrow hits, even by non-hit enemies. Something in the code gets flagged, and then they even stupidly sacrifice disengagement just to get her. The rest of my party is much more armoured/protected, and the game knows it - but I use that to my advantage. My ranger is my bait. Also, I've built Aloth to be pretty tanky for being a wizard.

Here's my two cents: I had played the beta a lot, almost always on Easy or Normal, but I knew the mechanics decently. Also, I had replayed games like BG1, ToEE, NWN2 OC and PST before I got my hands on PoE. My first playthrough became a plain PoTD with three party members: Aloth, Eder and Durance, and three home-made adventurers (a sucky Ranger, I had to have Indira Lightfoot in my first party, though, it's tradition, a two-weapon fighter, and then my main Breida; an Aumauan Druid (very competent druidic tank - I soon felt she could solo like 60% of all PotD-content, which inspired me to use my first party as pathfinders for my second campaign, which is now in mid-Act II: a Triple Crown Solo PotD hellride with a cipher charmer runner sneaker trapper (I do use quit and reload and a few glitches to my advantage, so it's far, far from clean, hehe.) The pros: -I absolutely love the story. Considering it's a low-level CRPG, it's brilliant, it's a homerun out of the ballpark, kind of thing. Superb! -Music, sound effects, art - everything is outstanding! Love it, love it, love it! -Very nice exploration and plenty of hidden stuff for a completionist on a first playthrough -Pretty decent class/race/build smorgasbord, at least on paper, as it were. -Combat on the PotD-level is truly deadly, and it is especially fun in Act I and half Act II, this also goes for triple crown solo, it seems. I like that complete urgency feeling. -Aloth and Durance are great fun as companions, while Eder is so-n-so. The cons: -Party play is basically me directing and owning combat with my tank Breida, with the exception of teleporting phantoms/shades etc and burrowing beetles, nothing can really touch this "put the tank in a choke point, and rain ranged pain and AoE hell on them baddies"-tactic. I do, however, have a variety of ranged attacks and spells to pick from, so it's not all monotonous. Breida is very rarely hurt at all (I've built her entirely as a tank - so she has super-high defences in everything and dex 3 - you get the picture - she can stand in her own AoE effect and melt almost any group of baddies herself, without any party. However, I have Aloth be the big damage dealer, and that he certainly is. As a contrast, I use Durance in the old pre-buff role of the IE games, but he's doing it in combat, instead. He's built entirely as a support character. He has 800 damage in like 90 hours of play time. He simply protects, heals and buffs my party, nothing else, and that is a bit boring. I am dreaming of the 3.5 ed D&D monster priests of doom. -Soloing the game is far too much a matter of RNG - the system doesn't really allow for my skills being rewarded with my passing/resolving encounters (including violently). Often, it's all up to where I am at the start, casting the same spell, running in the right direction fast, chance has a lot do with it, sadly. I keep pressing on, however, although it's a chore, sometimes. I feel such a challenge should involve tactics, first and foremost. That's why I don't like some fights where you get entirely locked in, with nearly no tactical options available to you when combat starts but trying to flee to some corner and survive. -Some of the quest nesting in Defiance Bay is too confusing, and it's easy to make a mistake and almost wreck the game without you knowing it. -Crafting is alright, but it still feels lacklustre. When you play on potD, and even more so soloing it all, you do need to use food, crafted stuff and scrolls, etc, a lot. You wouldn't make it, otherwise, which in itself is a flaw, I reckon. Overall, though, I'm extremely happy with the game. It's certainly a low-level classic isometric CRPG, already.

This bug persists in 1.04. I restarted with a new main character, and once again, the first bounty hunt erases the warden lodge upon my return, and some wall improvement as well. I haven't had any mods installed for PoE.

I finished my first bounty (Black Meadow, since it was next doors, and I have it easy vs Forest Lurkers), and when I came back to present the warden with the head, the entire Warden's Lodge was missing, as if I had never built it. However, I had just gotten four bounty quests from it, just one area map before, as it were. It's truly bizarre. One or two upgrades have also been completely reverted. They are available for purchase again, but that's not very fun (thousands of coppers). Is there a known fix to this pretty big bug? EDIT: I managed to fix it by repurchasing Warden's Lodge for 1,000, and then keep pressing rest in my inn, which fortunately was still present. However, one South Wall +4 defense-thingie was massing too, so one of my hirelings got ambushed during his travels, so all the money the warden gave me, I had to reinvest in stuff I've already bought. Still, I'm very happy that the warden still recognized the quest and gave me a reward at all. Nasty bug, I pray that I'll never see it rear its ugly face yet again.

In my PotD playthrough now (I'm playing plain old vanilla 1.03), I had done one quest for the Crucible Knights and small stuff in Defiance Bay (got my CK-rep to be at Ally (good)), and now I did the second Dozens quest Bronze Beneath the Lake, which aggravated CK (I had to respond with deadly force, I had no choice) - after that my rep with CK was still Ally (faintly good). I even was able to visit the CK stronghold in Defiance Bay. Then, however, I slept at an inn in Copperlane, and when we walked out the door, we were ambushed by assassins and justicars, leaving behind notes saying that CK want us killed. I had to dispose of these assailants, and afterwards my rep with CK is still Ally (faintly good). Is this intended?