Osvir

I set off a handplaced trap, not a trap that I placed (I don't know or think self-placed traps are as powerful as the handplaced ones). Scout Mode detects traps (right?), I don't know if you have to be in Scout Mode to disarm them (I don't think so?). Haha, well, I've played super careful on previous runs. Probably why I haven't gotten very surprised until now.

Played on Hard, Expert Mode. Explored as usual in the Dyrford Village. Found a chest in the house next to Hendyna. BOOM. 2 Characters outright died, the rest were knocked out. Game Over. Traps are terrifying. I love it!! Here's some tips to avoid "Mistakes were made": - Save OFTEN. - SCOUT MODE EVERYWHERE (Better safe and paranoid than unsafe and dead xD) - You need someone to be Master of Mechanics. That's it. Be careful out there, and have fun :D

With Rogue, try to use Traps, and also try to use Scrolls (Lore & Mechanics). Shadowing Beyond will allow you to escape any combat with a Rogue (You could view it as "Flee"). Resting bonus and food bonus would be crucial as well. You'd want to take out 1 or 2 guys in a fight, then retreat with Shadowing Beyond (if you get low Stamina/Health) and Rest. Then rinse-repeat. You'll also be able to bypass lots of combat with a solo Rogue with Shadowing Beyond. As a Wizard, Concelhauts (Sp?) Corrosive Siphon used to be super overpowered but I don't know anymore, with an Intelligence+Might Wizard (AoE super powerful LifeStaminasteal myes). Flame Wave and Ghost Blades should help too~ Mind you, I haven't had a successful solo run either (I've actually only tried it with a Barbarian and with a Wizard. The Wizard almost took out all of Medreth's group on Normal/Hard, I don't remember, and the Barbarian got squished). You weren't supposed to be able to solo Dragon Age: Origins on Nightmare ("Impossible" according to Bioware developers), yet I've heard that people tried and succeeded (With Rogues). Requires tons of meta, probably.

Some XCOM/Xenonauts/Massive Chalice/King of Dragon Pass/Darkest Dungeon Elements? That'd be interesting, imo and imp (in my preference)... in like a spin-off Pillars of Eternity Expansion and/or Campaign where you play a Baron or a Lord or something and you could possibly use your Stronghold/Manor or whatever to send out adventurer's and hire sellswords to do your bidding, and have a marketable product/resource or something. Heck, even adding some 4X elements as well It could use the same Pillars of Eternity system and lore, and even world. Hmm... if the lore fits... maybe it'd be possible with the Pillars of Eternity assets? (Make spawn point at Stronghold, set history a couple of years back~). Stronghold prequel "Pillars of Eternity: Maerwald's [something]" EDIT: It's funny with these kinds of threads. A) Someone makes a new thread of an already existant thread/topic "Use the search function!!" or "Post in [link] thread!!" B) Someone posts in an old thread, adding to an old discussion, thus necroing it "Make a new thread!!" Albeit I agree with B (Make a new thread and link to the old thread), I just thought it funny

No, they just can't be bothered adding a toggle for it in the Options menu. That's all it is. Same thing, different semantics. But I know that they are designers and developers so, "Designed to be like that", sounds better to me than me pretending to speak for them and say, "They didn't bother to do it in any other way". In a certain light, both of those citations can mean the same thing. Like I said previously (with some clarification): I partially agree with you, about being able to toggle the helpers rather than "force" all of it onto you from start to finish. But then again, that's where I find the charm in it: it isn't "On" toggleable (only during New Game), it is meant to put you slightly more on your toes and you're going to have to think and use your brains more, and, if you can't handle it, you can disable Expert Mode, in-game, but you won't be able to re-enable it. It also is more traditional in relevancy to the IE games (where you pretty much had zero visual helpers). And that's also partially why I'd like to have the "who's targeting who" helpers gone from Expert Mode as well.

I kinda agree with you somewhat but... Expert Mode is Expert Mode, stuff is meant/designed to be exclusive for Expert Mode. I would've prefered from a gameplay point-of-view that some (if not all) of it should've been toggleable in the Options Menu... but then it wouldn't be much of an "Expert Mode", then it would've just been "Expert Options". (P.S. Expert Mode doesn't make the game any more or less difficult in any way, it just requires you to observe the flow of the game slightly more, in my experience. One could call it "Artifical Difficulty" Mode even)

@Luckmann: I don't know about you or Sensuki or anyone else but I can play and follow combat and the game in Expert Mode without having any trouble. Practice makes perfect, right? I've been playing with the helpers so much that I feel comfortable without them. And everything looks better too. Ya just need to learn to let go man, fly with your own wings EDIT: Furthermore, I don't know if that green flank thing Sensuki mentioned is removed by Expert Mode (Because the arrows and stuff showing you who is attacking who is still in there), I haven't seen it though. Honestly, I'd want everything gone in Expert Mode, all of those helpers (even the pulsating arrows showing you who is attacking who). Point being... we won't need any helpers eventually, because we're going to get better and better at understanding everything, and I think all those helpers take up too much screen estate. They feel more or less like they are part of a tutorial, and something you'd be able to turn off in-game.

The portraits looks great! :D @Bobby Null & Obsidian: I would like to see some mohawks.

Ouch. Traps And "You have been caught stealing" (No reaction though?)

Expert mode = removes helpers

Yes! Or, every Adventurer's Hall Companion you make gets "saved" as a pre-generated character, and as you play a second time, you could quick-hire them or even be able to upload AH companions and maybe even be able to add a short brief biography/history to the character too, to create some online interactivity and even give AH companions some more soul. In simplicity: Create a character, copy/note all attributes, background and cultures, class and race etc. Make a thread, flesh out biographies in the forum text-software. Old story/repeat: I bought Icewind Dale (thinking it was a hotseat multiplayer game judging by the back of the box haha), but it wasn't... so I was fairly disappointed when me and my friends couldn't play it on one computer haha. But they made a character each, and we played a little bit together. They fleshed out the biographies with their own stories, and that party is probably the most fun I've had with any party in any of the Infinity Engine games. @Baron_Bathory: The reason why I suggested you to use a Savegame Editor was that you get the same effect as Export/Import with it. 1) Play a game to Level 12 (Max level), before finishing it, save your game. 2) Start a new game, make whatever character (it doesn't matter*). Save the game when it starts. 3) Modify all values to have the same values as your Level 12 character in a Savegame Editor. * Depends on how advanced the Savegame Editor (being able to change name, class, race and so on?).

Wasn't Josh playing on a lower difficulty though?/ In the backer beta difficulty level makes a huge difference because it exponentially amplifies the amount of time you spend paused in combat. On the stream from January? I think he says "I'm playing on Hard so I might die depending on where I go", before going down into the dungeon. But you have to also consider that Josh is most likely a Master Sensei of the system (I mean, he designed it). He probably knows the weaknesses of all enemies the second he sees them, and what type of weapons and abilities are strongest against every enemy as well as how to get the most out of his party members through leveling/building (party optimization). I think the joke of "IRollD20s" in the console on PAX East was also a way of him saying to us "I'm really good at this game". So, even if we'd have the same party composition as he did in the mega dungeon, on the same difficulty, same skills/abilities/gears and everything, it isn't certain that we'd blow through it (like he did) on our first try/first playthrough. EDIT: What I wanted to convey with my comment from the previous post "Setting the bar/expectation at 100+ hours sounds like setting yourself up for disappointment" was that... the less you expect, the more you get. If I expect that a completionist run is only 1 hour, boy am I in for a treat! Would you rather "expect" 100 hours, but fall short on 80 hours? Or would you rather "expect" 50 hours, and get 30 extra hours on top of it? I try to not have too many if any expectations. I just know I'll enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts

That's a pretty old screenshot (January 14th 2014). That PC Gamer article is from January 16th 2014. I couldn't see the Records screen in either PAX East or PAX South but here it is from Josh Sawyers stream, January 2015 (I did hover over the timeline on those videos quickly so I'm not 100% certain). 4:41 on Aloth.

Haven't seen any sort of indication for this. When/If there's a Savegame Editor, knock yourself out EDIT: Bester made one (a prototype) for an old Backer Beta update (doesn't work no more).

I got a Monk Concept/Idea :D Shirtless, pants-only, armor/torso wear? Maybe for expansion...? Or maybe even... Monk tattoo's, Fist/Torso/Head Enchantments/Talents? In a similar way like Godlikes can't wear any helmets, perhaps there could be Monk "permanent Talents" or Enchantments that take up an Equipment Slot? (I.E. Taking "Head Tattoo" makes the Monk unable to wear any headwear, and taking "Torso Tattoo" makes the Monk unable to wear any armor etc.).

I'm curious if there'll be ways to influence your party members to go "dark side", as a Cipher (or, maybe the "Watcher" has some soul powers that allows the Player to do something like that on any playthrough). E.g. Edér seems like a friendly dude. What if you can "dominate" companions minds and make them "unfriendly"? My first playthrough I'm going to attempt to make a saint though EDIT: More information here (Official Wikpedia, Disposition) on reputation btw @OP.

Reagents/Ingredients+copper. You right-click the item for the description, and then there's an "Enchant" button at the bottom. You can enchant anywhere as long as you have the items and money. I believe you can only enchant Torso, Weapon, and Shield. Maybe helmets too? (If there are generic boots & belts & gloves, with no stats like in Baldur's Gate II, there might be enchanting to them as well).

Oooh! I took a closer look at two of the pictures and... first off... This guy! What sort of trickery is he up too!? (It looks comical, 4th wall breaking for that screenshot "Whooops! Got to hide from PrtScr!" haha) EDIT: Check the original, better resolution on that (I made both pictures into jpgs, bad call ) And... new headwear that I didn't pay attention too. A mask and a ninja thing~ correct?

Oh Shadowing Beyond it could be so much more! Short version: - Scouting Mode (Search Mode? Readied Mode?) for trap seeking and dungeon sneaking (That "Transparency" that is put ontop of the character's wouldn't be needed either) - Shadowing Beyond for scouting "beyond" enemy lines... too bad it's a Combat Only ability :/

^Not at all, just extremely infuriating in Co-Op games (I usually have a clear idea of my characters and will pick the choice most fitting for them pretty quickly, and I read fast too, but I played with a friend in Baldur's Gate and it took forever whenever he was choosing xD)

^And that's also a point I didn't consider (I was just considering actually exploring+combat for how long it would take). Reading is going to be a big part (something Josh jumped past a lot) and that's going to ramp up gametime by a lot. Maybe 100 hours isn't too far-fetched after all if the completionist run includes finding all books and reading it all (depends on how fast you read I suppose, and how many books there are to read). And it also depends on how fast you decide stuff in dialogue too I suppose.

I don't. It's speculation. Then again, it's a place for mercenaries (which, I just learned, has nothing to do with adventuring really). A mercenary is a person who takes part in an armed conflict who is not a national or a party to the conflict and is "motivated to take part in the hostilities by the desire for private gain." I was thinking that a "mercenary" could apply to sellswords and bounty hunters as well.

^Josh played and "finished"* 1 level of the mega dungeon in about 20 minutes (Of course, it was only level 3, I think, and the levels will probably get tougher and tougher as you go further down). You're going to have to walk really slowly to get 25-30 hours out of that dungeon I would guess the dungeon itself is 10 hours, tops 15 hours. ruzen has an excellent point though. Setting the bar/expectation at 100+ hours sounds like setting yourself up for disappointment. *Well, nearly finished it. Maybe 30-35 minutes if he had explored all of it. Then again, hm, might take longer for us depending on how much we have learned the combat system when we get there and depending on what difficulty we play on.

*nvm* Judging by this VO sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfrroBk21do (at 0:17) It seems somebody named Maerwald is/was the owner when you show up. ^^^^^As in, will someone else claim it during your playthrough (if you claim it)? (I doubt it by the way) What place are u talking about? Well, it's called Admeth's Den, but it pretty much is a realized "Adventurer's Hall" 41:34~45:30

Valmy: I know lol. The bounty dude = has to possess the Stronghold. It'd be odd to go there just to pick up bounties (if you haven't taken the Stronghold). Man I'm starting to wonder if...... if you don't pick up the Stronghold... will someone else take it/inhabit it? (Faction or organization) Of course, I doubt my speculation or concept is in the game at all... but it's thoughts for future, for mods, for expansions or for sequels, prequels or whatever. It's brainstorming and it is in the name and definition: "concept". I.E. needs to be worked on to realize. I do think that, if you would choose to not get the Stronghold, that there could be another place to pick up a few of them. I mean.. is this the only guy in the Eora world Eastern Reach that has this information? "Yeah there's some nasty bounties out there and I'm the only one in the world who gets contracts! Mwaha! Monopoolyyy!!". One would think that a bounty is something that adventurer's or actual monster- or bounty hunters would earn their living from... right? Wouldn't it be odd if there's only one place to get them..? EDIT: Read my post again (otherwise I'm just repeating my post over and over) about Defiance Bay and the Adventurer's Hall, or re-watch Josh Sawyers stream when he goes to Defiance Bay and showcases it. Looks like a place for picking up bounties