Mr. Magniloquent

That's not a bad idea. I put some entries in.

Might: Typically baseline value of 10. I will prioritize Might higher for Clerics, Paladins, and Druids, but is rarely maxed. Dex: Always 10 with exception to the Cipher. Ciphers always have their action speed maximized. Con: Often minimized. Melee characters will typically be assigned above 10, but rarely maxed. Intellect: Most of the classes I play benefit from this. Often maximized. Perception: Always maximized, except in the case of a purely defensive warrior build. Resolve: Second highest priority for classes I most frequent. Often maximized. Edit: This pertains exclusively to the v333 build.

Hrm. I thought about using Eldritch Aim to boost spell accuracy, but I've never actually done it because the description says it only boosts "Ranged and Melee" accuracy. I did not believe the spells were inclusive to the ranged stipulation. That ability generally results in a total-party-wipe for me as well. I will agree that this effect is excessive. I can't see much when it strikes, but considering it eliminates my party of level 7 to 8 characters in about 6 seconds....there isn't much to look at right now!

How is this debate still raging? Again, this problem has been solved already. I repeat, this problem has been solved already. Effective Challenge Rating E.C.L. Any activity that yields experience is assigned a Challenge Rating. When experience is earned, this challenge rating is compared to the challenge rating of the character earning said experience. Proportionately less experience is awarded the higher a character's rating is above the challenge. This can sometimes reduce the award to nothing. Conversely, proportionately more experience is awarded the lower the character's rating is below the challenge. It's the best of all approaches. Everyone gets experience for everything. Diminishing returns strongly discourage "degenerative game play". A quasi-equilibrium is enforced through those diminishing returns even on the most ardent completionist. Quest/Objective experience may still be awarded at a specified sum irrespective of ECL if so desired. What more is there left to argue about?

This system is far from being a total mess, and more near to functioning ideally than not. A simple standardization of all the activation and recovery times incurred by abilities and all of this is resolved. You choose your upper limits and your lower limits, then align everything in between those two points in relation to each other. That's not as much work as it sounds. I get a strong sense that many abilities were designed ad hoc--in strong contrast to the meticulous and unified design of weapons and armor. That's an annoying problem to have to go back and revisit, but not a difficult one to solve. If I'm wrong about the root of this problem, I will most certainly eat crow, but I don't feel that I'm incorrect on this.

Magic Missile was not an overpowered spell in the BG saga. It's an example of a well balanced spell actually. Relatively, the spell does not do much damage. However, what damage it does is reliable and swift. It can be used effectively to interrupt or finish off an enemy. Several spells can be used in conjunction with it to make potent use out of it. Magic Missile can also be nullified and foiled in numerous ways. The number of damage rolls and attempts to overcome resistance can be as much of a curse as it is a blessing. The optimal use of the spell varies as the caster levels up, but it always stays useful for something--whether you're level 3 and fighting Kobolds or level 18 and battling Dragons. That's the mark of a very balanced and well designed spell.

Wow. I really like what I see on Hormalakh's page. The inventory mock-up and the engagement indicators are great. As far as main UI goes, this still takes my vote: Could use a bit of tweaking, but I think it has great potential.

This is something I too have wanted for some time. Moving the action bar onto portraits (or just beneath), then enlarging those portraits and moving them to the side. I truly cannot understand why they have gone with a bottom oriented UI.

Wow. What a terrible time to take a hiatus from PC gaming. I hope you were able to catch up on what you missed!

No way. I had some free time, so I got a good gaming session in today. I cleared the whole Dyrford area, and combat was smooth and joyful. My characters hardly ever interrupted my commands, so combat felt cohesive and tactical. Does it need tweaking? Absolutely. They need to law out a master map of all abilities and chart them in accordance to their relative effects and power so that their timings can be balanced optimally. That's not really that much work to do. This system is working (less than ideally), but working. It will improve, and combat shall be glorious.

LOL! It looks like the scope of this beta test just broadened. Talk about externality. I bet this post made Obsidian clench up a bit.

I emboldened that last sentence. It's absolute truth. The only reason why I typically argue for vancian casting is because it permits unique and powerful spells. It certainly can't be done any other way--or so I thought. I'm on the final sprint of finishing my proposed changes. They are expansive. As a shortlist, they detail: Adopting a spell point system. Introducing spell scaling. Overhauling grimiores by increasing their significance and reworking the memorization mechanic. Providing mechanisms for dealing with friendly-fire. Completely rebalanced and standardized damage, duration, and casting speed(s). Additional talents, misc., etc. A couple of weeks ago I planned on having it out by now, but it looks like that was too ambitious. Soon, hopefully. I've sent some preliminary stuff to some members. Right now I'm just waiting for a bit of feedback as to avoid being my own echo chamber when assembling the final work.

Imagine that, being approached or engaged by vagrants in the cesspit known as New York City. Many of the attempts to engage her were common greetings that could have been easily brushed off with a similarly common and polite response without slowing pace. The two guys who spent some time following her could have been told to go away in no uncertain terms. So she scorns the "polite" ones and enables the threatening ones. Brilliant. This is the worst she has. If there had been anything worse, it would have been in the video. Ten hours in the cultural dead-zone of a city with a massive population, intensive density, and high rates of pedestrians, and this is the worst she has to offer. *yawn*

I had it once in the last patch, but could not reproduce it.

Spells should have been organized according to effect, then scaled to level. For example, anything with the Petrification effect would have a minimum spell level of X, but its variables like damage/duration/aoe would scale with character level. In this way, you only have to design a spell once and it always remains useful. This allows you to spend time designing unique, useful, and interesting spells, rather than rehashing higher tiers of the same spell. PoE also has a great deal of spell levels. Designing ten levels of spells across....4 classes would be monumental. Having them all cast from relatively exclusive and narrowly defined roles will be a challenge. Compound that with spell not scaling....and you're looking at a whole lot of Final Fantasy "Firaga III" type junk spells. It's a problem.

Comparatively, no doubt. While there is much to be hammered out with the asynchronous nature of PoE combat, I think that trek would be greatly alleviated if my characters obeyed my commands, lol. It would be much easier to gauge what needs tweaked and in what manner if there were not so much "dissension in the ranks".

It's been heartbreak for me in that regard. Spell casting was a major portion of the IE experience for me. Remove it, and I probably would have liked the games, but not held them up on the pedestal that I do. If I had known Mr. Sawyer's resentments, I likely may not have funded. This is not to say that I am remiss in my choice, but PoE spell casting has proven to be a major disappointment for me in that regard. Luckily, worst-case-scenario, modding shall easily redeem all.

The purposes of Kickstarter aside, ALL fantasy RPGs are attempts to forge something beyond the anachronisms of human limitation. Most of them have magic, after all. No; You're not really addressing the point. The concepts being demonstrated in PoE's combat do not seem solid to me. They seem unnecessarily experimental. Normally this wouldn't be a bad thing but in this case it is. You don't peddle a retro game and then produce something so....alien and unfamiliar. It also feels fractured, as if the devs aren't really sure what they want the finished product to look and feel like. (more on that below) Kickstarter is for risky business. This game is something they didn't feel anyone else would fund. Whether the are delivering what they petitioned for is another thing. I most certainly agree that much of this feels experimental, and perhaps their reach has exceeded their grasp. They are majorly risking their reputation on this game though, so I feel more confident that they will pull it together in the end. They must. It will be very difficult to suffer an embarrassment such as this. Their extended polish time is evidence of them understanding this. Rounds are for human PLAYERS. It's a mental thing. A round is an organizational tool that makes complex, numbers-based interaction between 2 opposing combatants flow in a way that a gamer can understand and follow. In any case, PoE still feels like it has rounds, but the mechanics often times seem to be in opposition to the concept, so the end result is something that doesn't feel right. And I'm not sure how the system as a whole can be 'tweaked'. The issue seems to be at the core level. There's hardly anything that feels right in combat. I don't think rounds belong in a RtwP game. The real-time aspect contradicts even a "hidden" round. If the round is beneficial, then it makes sense to explicitly being a turn-based game. Turns are a vestige of human limitations, they just aren't necessary in this medium. Getting the balance right will be difficult. I agree that it's awkward at the moment. I made an entire thread about it. Every patch though, it has improved. I have no reason to expect that it won't. So long as progress is made, even if slow, I'm going to keep the faith.

No, Melee combat is by far the worst, I think you are talking about spell design rather than the act of spellcasting. I disagree. Melee combat has many kinks, but it will still get the job done. My grievances with magic are far beyond spell design. If they were isolated to that, I would have said spell design. It goes to the class concepts, resource mechanics, action/recovery times, memorization, you name it.

The high angle is isometric, the lower angle is too low to be called isometric. I think it's more like 15 degrees lower. Again, that isn't very relevant. Whether a character is obscured has more to do with where the effect is applied in relation to the character, not the background. You're forgetting that Combat HUDs can be disabled. Many people keep forgetting this. The designers must design the game to accomodate the disabling of combat helper features. When you are trying to target a spell while the Fireball after effect is going off and there are multiple characters together with their selection circles obscured, it is difficult to accurately know which character is which sometimes if you cannot see their selection circle and thus you have to wait until it is visible to be able to cast your spell correctly. SELECTION CIRCLES WERE NEVER OBSCURED IN THE INFINITY ENGINE GAMES. I have not forgotten that HUDs can be disabled. They were implemented for a reason. They are deliberate. They convey meaningful information. They convey this information in the manner which the developers feel is most suited. Removing those indicators will implicitly supply the player with less information. Even still, every character in every screenshot is directly and indirectly observable. All of their locations and headings are able to be witness and determined without any effort. See above, no self-respecting RTS style game obscures units and selection circles like that. I have NEVER had trouble determining which unit is which and belongs to who, and have never had to wait until Spell FX exprire just to make a command. In this game I do and that is totally unacceptable. You're blowing this far out of proportion. Every character is visible. If a person cannot deduce a character's feet relative to their head, then this game shall present much greater hurdles than a ~1 second potential partial obstruction. They may even have to endure the horror of potentially waiting less than 1 second for the effect to dissipate. This certainly isn't one to justify removal of an attractive and lovely aesthetic in a visually muted and static game. Being that the game mechanics do not permit less than 1 second reaction outside of instantaneous modal activation (which can be done while paused anyhow), it's a non-issue. What little that spell may obstruct can be directly or indirectly determined otherwise, and it occurs within a time-frame that is negligible due to game mechanics.

You've got the right idea. No way. That's regressive. Obsidian is attempting to forge something beyond the anachronisms of human limitation. The concepts are all solid, it's just an issue of degree. I know that devils lurk in details, and that they are enough to ruin anything--but that doesn't mean Obsidian should shrink away from the boldness to do something potentially great. That's the heart of the kickstarter purpose--to foster risk and endeavors that might not otherwise come forth. Combat rounds are for human GMs. CRPGs do not need them. Engagement is tactically necessary and more or less attack-of-opportunity taken to its logical conclusion. To remove them would be a far greater disaster than failing to balance them perfectly. Melee is where PoE is on the right track and only improving. It's the spell casting that's all botched--not due to degrees, but in concept. Now that's a real problem.

Melee combat is actually where PoE gets things right. The concepts are all solid, fixing them is just a matter of balance and degree. Some weapon and armor statistics are overdone in my opinion, and DT vs DR most certainly causes problems--but again, it's a balance issue. That's all rather minor in the grand scheme of things. Where there seems to be a conflict is in deciding how lethal combat should be. The mechanics suggest a lethal and simulationist bent, but at the same time ad hoc attempts to allow a high frequency of said lethal combat. It's a bit of a contradiction. The Health/Endurance mechanic is an obvious attempt to bridge that gap, but I'm not sure it can be. The intricacy of the rules are only further complicated by the deliberate absence of curative magic. While I understand the choice, it only makes balancing all the more complex. Attack resolution is probably the place to start in fixing that. The introduction of grazing hits has proven to be something of an ordeal. I don't think it should be removed, but it certainly isn't doing Obsidian any design favors.

@Sensuki Without performing and trigonometry, those two screenshots show perhaps...10 degrees of difference in viewing angle? That's being generous. The viewing angle of incidence is not relevant towards whether characters are obstructed by spell effects anyway. That has to do with where the effect is applied relative to the character, not the background. There are also more ways to identify a character's location than their selection circle. The enemy's health and action indicator bar above them not only identifies their friend/foe status, but their location. The same applies to player characters. In every single screen shot you've provided, I can see character location in explicit, relative, and implied terms. That these effects last for a second makes any obstruction less of a concern. The game mechanics do not even particularly permit <1 second precision. You would have to concoct a very contrived scenario to where such a lapse would differentiate success and failure. Even in your screenshots, which you lead to believe are obfuscating, every single enemy's position and heading (if any) are visible and discernible. To claim otherwise is disingenuous. I do not understand the hyperbole on this matter. These spell effects are lovely. They succinctly convey wonder and provide a glimpse of the fantastic into an attractive but otherwise mundane and static backdrop. Presentation and aesthetic matter more than in merely displaying status. PoE can and should afford less than a moment to dazzle. I do not find the exclamation that they will foil tactics to be credible for the reasons above and more. This is an issue where we shall likely agree to disagree over.

This game is isometric. All viewing angles are the same. That screenshot was captured at the moment of impact, where the effects are the most intense. Within my screenshot, you can see characters, but not terrain. Within yours, both are visible. I'm not sure what your images are demonstrating as being more obstructive. I also reiterate that the effects last for a second--in the most literal sense. I don't find it to be a problem at all. Perhaps you were going to reorganize your strategy and reassign your entire party's actions in that one second, but it all hinged on being able to scrutinize a single static blade grass......I guess I'm just not that hardcore. Ok now, do you also want to compliment the artist about this? And I've been told there are even more jarring examples to be found in the BB. Maybe you and Sensuki can agree to disagree on fireballs, but you have to admit there's still A LOT to be done with respect to VFX in this game. To the extent that I wonder whether most of the spells fx are still just placeholders (?). Cause they can't possibly be all final. It's obvious that GREAT care has been taken in the environment renderings, I can't believe for a second that the spells will be neglected to such extent. PS: I'm not saying that to be overly negative, I am actually quite confident that the devs will fix this in time. Right. That web effect is not behaving as intended. It's being applied to the characters mid-sections or higher, rather than beneath their feet. The grease effect is even worse. I'm not going to criticize or debate the aesthetic of a glitch. The effect itself is lovely, the glitch is only glitch.

That's as bad as it gets. The initial white-out is present for perhaps a second, before it fades. Only terrain is obstructed...for one second. The spell effect is beautiful. Its impact can be felt, fire roils for less than a moment, then whirls away into the ether. My compliments to the artist. Characters are still visible, even in its most "obstructive state". The spell has presence, as it should be. Magic is about being outside of the ordinary, and this spell conveys that. I will gladly sacrifice <1 second of being able to view a static patch of dirt or grass for a moment of magic.