Keyrock

Awesomeness. I'm assuming the red... feathers? are part of a headdress, likely attached to the skull, rather than being part of lizard-creature-to-be-named-later's body. Correct?

Yeah, I mentioned it before, but it bears mentioning again. The scripted sequence pages are flat out awesome.

@curryinahurry - I like those. A "U" shaped UI definitely makes a lot more sense than a thick bar at the bottom on a 16:9 or 16:10 screen, which I'm assuming comprises the vast majority of potential players. The only thing is, where does the message/dialogue box go?

I hit level cap last night. It's all endgame dungeon farming for EPIC LOOTZ!!!11!!1 from now on.

I'm definitely all for a hotkey to turn the UI off completely, even if it gets rid of the portraits too, An option in settings that would automatically switch the UI on when in combat mode, then off when not in combat mode would be awesome.

For me the old solid interfaces just felt clunky, even back in the day. For a while that kind of UI was all there was for these types of games so I didn't think about it much, but when minimalist transparent UIs came along they were like a breath of fresh air. I agree that the chunky solid UIs were a part of the Infinity Engine games experience, not a part I'm eager to revisit.

Hmm, sounds like this calls for a poll.

Update 54 brought with it a work in progress mock up UI and rekindled the age old stylized vs. minimalist UI debate. Simply vote for your preference and feel free to elaborate. Personally I'm firmly in the minimalist camp, I prefer the UI to stay out of my way as much as possible. I want to see as much of the environment as I can on the screen.

True. I'm not so hung up on the UI that I would want them to sacrifice time from other areas of the game just to please me. On the other hand, Rob did specifically ask for opinions, so I'm going to opinion away. I'm firmly a member of the minimalist UI group. Less is more in my mind and as much transparency as possible. Basically I want the environment portion of the screen to be as big as possible. Anyway, I'll have no problem living with whatever they come up with for a UI, I'm far more concerned with quality of content and gameplay.

I like the swap, but what I'd like to see is to move the action and hotbar buttons over into the red box "non-customizable buttons...". Maybe squeeze the character portraits together a bit more and/or make the menu buttons area smaller so that space could be wide enough to do 2 rows of 6 buttons. Then squash down the menu button area and dialogue area a bit and chop off the UI right above the character portraits all the way across. That height UI would be perfect in my mind.

I absolutely love the scripted events screen. The style is impeccable. Also, plan for future: Step 1: Mod lizard-creature-to-be-named-later into playable race Step 2: Create party of lizard-creatures-to-be-named-later Step 3: ??? Step 4: FUN! (note: step 3 is crush some filthy elves with party full of lizard-creatures-to-be-named-later)

On a more serious note, while I like the style and feel of the work in progress UI (I'd like to touch it so I can feel the texture), it's a bit bigger (read: taller) than I'd like. I personally like the UI to take up as little game screen as possible while still giving you all the controls and feedback you need. Still, I think it looks pretty spiffy

Stats and skills do transfer... to a degree. Low to mid stats will tend to stay intact while high stats may get lowered or they may not, it seems random. Skills will transfer but up to a point, anything above that will get chopped off, what that level is also seems random. Some loot transfers some doesn't, you can find a comprehensive list of what does and doesn't online somewhere. I think it's a clean slate as far as previous classes goes when transferring, but I can't say for sure. You want to settle into your final class well before end game so you can get them high enough level, especially when dealing with slow leveling classes, as many of the 'powerful' hybrids are. I'm aiming for a final party of Val, Sam, Nin, Nin, Mon, Ran. Subject to change, of course. It's been so long, I can't say for sure, but I remember not changing classes nearly as much in Wiz 7. That could just be faulty memory though.

I don't remember if you can switch back to a class you've already been, it's been a while. Since you keep skills when class switching, and since you can increase them even if you're now a class that wouldn't normally have access to that skill, as long as you already have at least 1 point in that skill, when class switching, getting at least 1 point in any new skill should be a priority. Weapon skills will train on their own as you use that weapon type, so no need to prioritize them. Make sure you pick up stealth skills and magic skills for all your characters at some point. Kirijitsu, Ledgermain, Skullduggery, and any magic skill are always a good place to put points into. Kirijitsu should always be a priority since it doesn't seem to go up on its own through use.

Don't all elves look thin and malnourished? Maybe all elves are on crack?

That's supposed be THE Drizzt? I doubt it, that looks like a standard wizard companion. I'm surprized Cryptic and PWI allowed someone to use that name.

BBW too? ESPECIALLY BBW

What's the hang up with AAA anyway? I play games I like, whatever category they may fall into, whether it be A, AA, AAA, AAAA, AAAAAA, BBB, QQFH, WYSIWYG, RSVP, BYOB, etc.

Yeah, I have just such a dummy email set up exactly for that purpose. It's got a ridiculous pile of spam in it, but it's fine since I never use it for anything but that kind of stuff, so I practically never check it. I never do anything that requires a credit card # either.

Man, I'm kind of burned out on Kickstarter for a while. I realize the stack of crowdfunded projects I backed that should come out in the next couple of years and it's both great and terrifying. I have nothing against any projects doing Kickstarter right now, or in the near future, and I may support some of them by getting the word out, but short of Roberta Williams doing a Kickstarter (for a completely new, original game, in no way connected to any of her previous work called Quest King) or a Kickstarter for Starflight 3 (who owns the Starflight IP anyway?), I can't see myself backing anything financially anytime soon. ... ... ... Of course, this is the same thing I told myself a couple of months ago and then Torment: Tides of Numenera and Divinity: Original Sin happened...

The blue/purple tools give you a better chance to get a higher rank result when crafting special items, which in turn means better item. PWI ain't getting my money for a random chance at getting good crafting components. If I can "earn" enough Zen doing stupid surveys and stuff or accrue anough AD to buy them via AH or by converting to Zen, then I'll do that. Otherwise, I'll just go without. It would maybe be possible to establish a business where I drop a starting fee to get some good components, make some rare items, sell them for AD, use the AD to but more components (either directly or converting to Zen), and eventually turn a profit, but I doubt I have the patience to do that enough to make it really profitable. Not to mention, at that point the game becomes a job and that's not why I play video games. I'll likely just go with whatever I find in my travels or can afford via AH from the AD I have, and whatever I can make with that and whatever AD it can fetch, that will have to be enough.

So if I don't but an xboxONE then I'm a communist?

You not only can switch classes, it's HIGHLY advisable that you do. This can be taken too far, as switching classes like crazy will mean low level and crappy stats (changing stats resets your stats I think) at the end or a TON of grinding, but it is beneficial to change classes a couple of times, at the very least once, as you will wind up with more skill points that way.

I know what you mean. The first bit of the game is brutal, even when facing weak enemies, because instadeath is just around every corner. If it makes you feel better, I had a party member with 2 hit points at start. I've taken a shot at this as well. The character creation system as a whole is just bonkers, from a modern perspective. You pick your Name, Race, and Gender, then get a "bonus point" roll for additional attribute points, which generates the list of classes that you can pick from. Most rolls are in the 4-10 range. But 1 roll in 5 will be in the mid teens, and I even got one role of 26! (My Valkyrie is fantastic.) Then you pick a Profession, and the game rolls for HP, and for Skillpoints. The assignment of attribute and skill points is mandatory, by the way, even if you intend to trash the character and re-roll. The other hilarious thing is the degree to which the game manual celebrates the fact that every player starts the game by spending an hour or two frustratingly generating characters. And this was a successful, award-winning game. The presumed audience for CRPGs in the late '80s was just... peculiar. Anyhow, yeah, my mage had only 3 HP, but the big deal is that I had a front-liner with only 4. Still, there was no way I was going to re-roll again to generate another Felpurr Ninja and hope to get another HP or two. Party is Dwarven Valkyrie, Dog-man (Rarwulf? Rawrulf?) Monk, Felpurr Ninja, Gnomish Priest, Dracon Alchemist, Faerie Mage. I'd probably could've done better by skipping the Alchemist (their spell list actually isn't that great, and the Ninja can learn it if I ever bother to put points in his Alchemy skill) in favor of a better front-liner (move the Monk back, but give him a 'reach' weapon), but I remembered having one the first time I played the game, so I stuck with it. For whatever reason, I think I remember that the game punishes you in some way if you don't have a bard in your party. All my dog-men are named Barf. In Wiz 6 you probably don't want a Bard late game, as they're not that good late game, but it's definitely good to have a Bard in early game as they can cast spells without using up mana. It doesn't so much matter what you start out as, it's more about what you end up as. The trick is to pick up magic skills along the way then switch to whatever class you're going to finish as. Late game it's all about good hybrid classes like Valkyrie, Samurai, Ninja, Monk, and possibly Lord and Ranger. I went ahead and, as babaganoosh alluded to, spent somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour and a half or more rerolling a whole new set of characters. As mentioned, the character creation system is completely ridiculous because it's super duper random and the difference between getting a bad roll and getting a really good roll is MASSIVE. If you just take what they give you on the first shot, it's pretty much a given that you're going to wind up with at least 4 characters that are complete and utter garbage. Now, later on, if they survive, that's not a very big deal, because your stats will advance so much, but the trick is surviving to get to later on. You will likely spend that hour and a half or more that you saved by not rerolling ad nauseam reloading games ad nauseam where your weak ass characters got savagely murdered. Even with a party full of character with good rolls you are likely to taste death a good number of times early on, but at least it won't be as crazy. Either way, you're going to put that time in, one way or another.

Outside of the short tutorial section at the very beginning, there's absolutely nothing mandatory in the entire game. In theory, you could get to the level cap doing nothing but standing around in Protector's Enclave and praying to your god each day. As LadyCrimson mentioned, Sgt. Knox will trigger starter quests at certain levels, regardless of whether you finished the previous area(s) or not. I'm getting to the point in mailsmithing where I can make greens in the high 40s and blues in the low to mid 50s, if I have the necessary crafting components. That's not a big deal in itself, but I should soon reach the point where I can make lev 60 blues and, in theory, purples. I hope you can eventually craft purples.