YunikoYokai5

I chose Steam, mostly since the rest of my library is there. I also have my physical copy coming as well, which I assume is DRM free so I may have both in the end ^.^ Maybe XD I'm not sure if the disc needs a code or anything.

I think that is the main difference between us. My first isometric RPG was PoE Beta build 278 or whatever it was. I've only been played about 4-5 hours of BG:EE as well. PotD is far too daughting with my skill level just now. I'm far, far too new to these styles of games. I am playing BG on normal without too much difficulty though. Those damned beetles though... I did sneak into battle and managed to get a wood beetle to half health, but as soon as the stone beetle got into combat it just started wiping my crew out. Maybe my ranger should have a more defensive companion other than a lion...Wood beetles I can deal with, stone ones are the major concern for me. I think it was build 301 that I found the beetles to be really easy in and had no problem with them at all. Every build since, they have been a nightmare. Thankfully, I only had to disengage that one time and that was purely because my ranger/lion was about to go down. I don't move around too much unless I really need to get a character out of there fast.

I've been having difficulties with the beetles for a few builds now and so they are definitely at least part of the problem. I'll need to try a few other fights (maybe the lions or wade through the other beetles to get to the dragon egg or wolves). In my battle, I positioned my guys so my weaker members were at the back and my melee fighters were at the front...and 2 wood beetles and a stone beetle nearly demolished me. I'll need to start a new game to test other enemies, my current one is bugging to hell just now.

I know, I can't play my Paladin just now, completely bugged out and keeps activating his/her aura. I'm too scared of beetle combat just now to see if that will fix it XD Me too, even when I make the paladin the extra party member the same thing happens. I think they pushed this patch out quickly so we could play it over the holiday. I appreciate that but there are a lot of bugs and I do not mean insects. The bugs are severely bugging me, because they are so buggy they kick my backside ... sorry, I'll stop XD. I hope they do something with these damned beetles, what will my friends think when they learn I can't even beat some creepy crawlies!?

I know, I can't play my Paladin just now, completely bugged out and keeps activating his/her aura. I'm too scared of beetle combat just now to see if that will fix it XD

Yeah, it was more a heat of the moment response (see above. You posted right after I addressed that XD)

The beetles seem to be somewhat of an excpetion in this build. Once you get past them, on normal I had no problems with the following wolves, spiders or the Ogre with his bears. Part of the problem might be a bug that has been reported of the beetles ignoring 10 DT, the other is that their numbers have gone up again and with their close positioning it's really easy to aggro 4-8 of them at once. Regarding the attraction, I'd guess that is working as intended. Nearby enemies are alerted to prevent single target kiting. All down to preference and/or situation. If the beetles were easier/not passing 10 DT (whatever that means) then I wouldn't have a problem with them all swarming me. That's my inexperience talking though XD. I suppose I am more annoyed that the first time I use stealth properly and I still attract everything, if I wasn't using stealth then it wouldn't be a problem, I suppose. ....Thanks... See, the funny thing was is that I WAS a Shieldbearer, although the abilities that I saw (Zealous Charge, Graceful Retreat and Fast Runner) only Zealous Charge would have helped my Ranger unless I had given him those. Sadly for him, I had gone for the aura that increased accuracy aura on my Paladin because I thought that was more important on a harder build and while building him, I had gone for Resilient Companion (it says all damage types so I'm not sure of Disengagement counts with that...if it does then it didn't help) and Swift aim and that was about as high as I could level him. I'm also not sure what spells or abilities my other companions have aside from knockdown (which I didn't have when I tried to retreat my ranger's companion since he had already been downed through normal combat. I am always overwhelmed with the mage and priest spells and find most of my time in combat is looking through what the spells do...they haven't sunk in yet). I understand that, even if I don't like it despite making sense. I suppose it is a problem for me since I'm having difficulty with these beetles (and I'm not exactly good at strategy). It makes sense for humanoid characters to hear noise and to go investigate it and for insects to have hive minds (hint the name). Guess I should have waited a few hours before writing this and calmed down a little. (I can't even edit my thread to stop future people responding to that particular point. Dammit!)

This happened to me after I had reopened the game...only I don't have any other abilities to activate to try and stop it! XD I didn't try combat. I was too afraid of getting my backside handed to me.

Hi all, hope you have had a great Christmas! I've finally found time to sit down and play the new patch with some fresh eyes after playing quite a bit of Baldur's Gate (Enhanced Edition mind you). Overall, I'm a very, very happy little cookie, although some niggling problems are starting to creep out of the woodwork, problems I was indifferent to before my BG experience. Let's start with the things I like: - The game just seems to feel better than in the other patches. I'm not sure if its the polish or the seemingly improved movement speed when in town but it feels smoother to me. - Levelling up: I absolutely adore the new level up system. It is so much easier to see what everything is for now. Thank you for getting rid of the talents/skills lock you had before! - Graphics: The game looks amazing! The models look much better and those backer NPCs are now much less intrusive, and less likely to glitch out as they had done in previous builds. I've not been very many places yet because the difficulty is slamming me into the ground but from what I've seen, it looks great! (has the contrast been lowered? It's hard to tell) UI: The UI is a thousand times better, I feel. Everything is so much clearer and it is much easier to read and understand what is going on. SFX: Did the special effects get turned down? I didn't find myself struggling to see through mountains of fire, web and electricity this time around... Pathfinding: Has the pathfinding been improved slightly? I didn't find myself fighting with it so much this time around. We'll see what I get into really tight spaces though. FPS: The general FPS outside and inside combat seem to have stabilised. I didn't get to the area where I had major issues, but so far so good! Alas, there are a few problems... - Difficulty: Now, last patch was easy, the patch before was a bloody nightmare and the patch before that was really easy. This one is a pain in my backside. I'm on easy and I lost both my Fighter and my hired Ranger because of beetles...(well, technically I lost my ranger due to disengagement but hey). Now, I'm not a good player, but I'm playing BG:EE on normal and I have absolutely no problems with the enemies there. Exception being when I am stupid and/or running into areas I shouldn't be in yet. - Voice volume: Can we please have an independent slider for this please? Game music is fine, effects are fine but damn it all, the voices are too loud for my liking. - Combat log: I am really in no position to be critising this, especially since I don't use it but I feel I have to because I use the BG combat log quite often. My major concern with the combat log just now is that it is going a thousand miles a second. Even watching my recording back, I had to pause the video to see what had downed my Ranger (see below). Maybe combine some lines or remove some if you think it is not needed? I had two seperate lines for 'BB Fighter engages Stone Beetle in Melee', BB Fighter engages Wood Beetle in Melee' one after the other. I also feel that it's current location is not ideal. I would prefer to stick it in the centre if possible. - Engagement: Now, let me stop you all right there. I know this is a sore topic on these forums so let me say this right off the bat: I don't hate the feature, I just have some niggling issues with the thing that have come from my BG play, mostly a lack of clarity. Now, I lost my Ranger to a stone beetle disengagement (a crit as well, which was just unnecessary on the beetle's part XD) but the main problem is is that I couldn't see in the ability descriptions which one dealt with engagement, and with my BB Fighter down and my Knock Down now gone from me, I had no idea what I could use to break the engagement. Now, I like to play quite passively, so an aura on my paladin or my priest/any other class would be wonderful for getting my guys out of a tight spot (say, x aura gives xx% chance for character <xx stamina to break engagement without penalty). I tend not to move around too much regardless so disengagement never really affects me unless I need to get a guy out due to health reasons, which in this case, was the main reason for receiving that critical disengagement. Enemy Attraction: One thing that is bugging me is that when I clearly see only 1 wood beetle, as to take them out one at a time and now get 90% of my team destroyed, it ALWAYS brings down it's buddy Wood Beetle #2 and Stone beetle. Even in stealth, it seems to be that everything runs on a hive mind, as soon as 1 creature in its group is attacked, everyone is made aware. ------------ I think that is mostly everything, or the main points at least. I have come across quite a major bug with my Paladin upon reloading but I'll report that later. Overall, I am loving the game and I am looking forward to release! ...Assuming you don't keep the difficulty at this level XD Dammit, I was getting pummelled! P.S: Please don't fight about engagement here. There are plenty of threads elsewhere about this for you to talk in circles. Thank you...

Pitbull can take a funny run Once the combat log settles down and stops behaving like a Boo on a sugar rush, then I would be happy to add stuff to it. That and I'm easy to please and im used to games plastering paused on the screen XD I'm no hardcore IE plays so things like this don't bother me.

I don't mind it if the paused is on the screen rather than the combat log, but purely because thee log is far too cluttered just now. Even then, I could take either log or on the screen quite happily.

I think my main problem with the combat log is that it just flies by so quickly. It seems like every tiny action is recorded and I can't keep track of that without pausing every few seconds to read it in the heat of combat. 99% of the time, I ignore the log until after combat. Sadly, I've only got some minor BG:EE experience to offer for suggestions to fix it, so more experienced users would have to try and help sort it out a little. I'm not sure why the PoE combat log is so much harder to keep track of compared to the BG:EE one

Personally, I'm a fan of the BG (EE one, I don't know if the original did this) coloured circles for each team member (based on your primary colour). it makes it easier - for me at least - to tell which of my characters are which. Although with the current contrast issues with the background I'm not sure that is a good idea yet.

So basically you want the enemies to drop what they are wearing when they die? I'm pretty sure that loot system has already been discussed (very thoroughly) and the devs have answered that thread as well. Didn't the devs say that the know the loot system isn't dropping everything because they need to tweek some things? I think that means that enemies should be dropping their weapons, they might be working on the armour bit still perhaps if this doesn't include it. You might see this in the next patch, if the devs are happy they have scripted everything properly. If I have misunderstood, I apologise!

It seems to escape the discussion all the time, but the crowd against engagement points out that it creates more problems than it solves (if any), which is an important critique imo. Of course, I have no doubt that many points are missed. I'll admit I've severely skim read this entire thread (14 pages of people talking in circles...) and I don't completely understand engagement other than you get damaged when you try to move away from an enemy and the AI fixates itself onto a single target so you could run circles and let archers and mages take care of the enemy while he does nothing. There are far more problems than this, I realise, but there is simply too much to read and there is far too much...bias and/or passion for people's corners (For or Against) it is difficult to gauge the pros and cons for the entire thing .

There is so much hate in thread. From what I can understand, there are roughly 3 corners to this triangle: Those for, those against and those in the middle. Those for may like it because you need to be a little more tactical (eg, having a second character knock down a foe locked with another character to they can escape without being injured further). Those against are saying it is against free movement. Those in the middle, such as myself, neither like or hate the feature and may want to suggest either alternatives or food for thought (such as constantine). I agree with everything but I occupy the middle since I don't like how it restricts free movement however, I can also see some potential with some serious tweeking to add a little more tactical possibilities. Also, can I just say thank you to Sensuki for testing this game so rigorously. You've probably found more bugs than most of us combined. However, I do wish to point something out: This is the danger to kickstarter projects (or buying any game that isn't complete). You have no idea what you are getting in the end. One famous Youtuber, TotalBiscuit, does talk about kickstarting in his Kickstarter vs Pre-order video and says you should only kickstart if you have disposable income and if you do, why not use your money on something that is actually complete and you know it is good/what the mechanics are rather than something that the marketing material may be over embellishing and is not necessarily representative of the product you eventually get? There is always a danger that you are throwing money away on something you may or may not enjoy 2 or so years down the line. Just trying to play devil's advocate here, sorry.

Just going to throw my two pennies in this, although it won't progress anything at all about the whole discussion. I won't lose sleep if they get rid of engagement and I won't cry if they keep it. Mostly because I am so unused to IE and similar styles of combat I could adjust fairly easily (that and I'm terrible at combat and strategy ) We have people who are all for engagement, we have those who are completely against it. I won't even try to pretend I understand the hatred or the love for engagement. Either way, one group of people will be dissatisfied in the end. If what I had read is true and Obsidian are keeping engagement then I doubt calls to have it removed are going to be heeded. My only suggestion would be to suggest ways of improving it (more abilities, spells specifically designed to counteract disengagement, maybe certain classes can get a bonus that means they can escape disengagement relatively unharmed or have more chances to cause interrupts so you can back your people away safely, like a smoke-screen or something). I don't know how to fix this because I don't fully understand the exploits, problems, AI flaws and everything else that goes into something like this. I leave that to the people who know what they are talking about. Hopefully the devs step in and try to resolve this since I am sick to the back teeth of seeing so many threads on this forum dominated by this engagement argument. Just my opinion, of course.

Yeah, I'm evacuating out of this thread. There is so much hate flying around just now. But for something on topic, is it just me or is there some more...decoration around the town (eg flowers and such). If not, then I'm a blind bat XD it looks really nice but that contrast has to be sorted, especially on the grass. I tend to use the colourblind mode because I find blue easier to differentiate from in foliage just now. Hopefully they fix it soon!

No, but naked wizards. They fight with the power of naked. Don't play this way around other people; it'll be humiliating. I hope due to this beta, Obsidian adds an NPC into the game that has only one trigger: If any player party member that is a wizard and does not have any armor walks by him that NPC starts making fun of a naked wizard dude :D You. You I like. That would be brilliant! XD

Please don't fight everyone, you've had this argument on about 4 other threads already Anyway, I've found out for backgrounds that there is one background that gives +1 athletics and +1 survival, but it depends on your culture and only the Slave gets it. Eh, I still don't like how with some cultures you get double skill pairs available to you (Drifter and Hunter are the same, for example). Hopefully the devs spruce this up a little bit. I also agree with redoing the level up choose skills/abilities. It is so hard to read for some reason! Maybe update some of the icons to the ability icon (if they affect one). Personally, I'd rather have them separate so I could ram my needed skills and choose my abilities after rather than have them linked. We have a team with us, surely we are going to have some characters that are terrible at detecting traps or don't know a damn thing about anything!

How are people finding the AI pathfinding? I had someone comment on my overview video of the patch that they were worried about how fixated the AI became with a single character even if their threat level is minimal (as demonstrated by Sensuki in one of his Medreth's fights with a ranger's companion acting as bait). Not sure what patch that was but has there been any noticeable change in the pathing that people can see in this one? I ask those especially who have come across huge waves of foes.

Agreed with the hostility. It makes newer players such as myself more than a little nervous when posting for fear of someone smashing your points with information you simply don't have the knowledge about. The SFX are still blindingly painful to see through! XD Hopefully they tone it down in future patches.

Add more backgrounds or remove the double stats (there is at least two +1 stealth & +1 athletics). I would like to see a survival and athletics one if there isn't one already.

Well, I've not gotten into a huge fight yet to check functionality there in all honesty, but I'm not all that bothered that they changed it. I personally think it does the job for smaller fights at the very least. I like the new size though, makes it a bit easier with bigger enemies, especially with the grass/contrast issue. I understand your view, regardless if I agree or not, and will say no more on the matter. Anyway! I need to go and test to see if it still crashes when I try to go to the gorge after handing in the ogre quest and leaving by the top left exit of the village by the temple!

^ This is truth Personally, I would have called it an opinion instead of a truth since I cannot seem to find any quotes from the developers that they changed some things 'just because'. I also don't agree that it is inferior. It is different, absolutely, but not necessarily inferior. This is just my opinion so please don't take this personally, but when someone tells me 'feels like' I don't expect an absolute replica. I expect a few things to be similar, in this context I would say atmosphere, storytelling, characters etc to be similar to previous IE games. But I also expect things to be different such as spells, mechanics, interface, classes etc. I would disappointed if the developers didn't try to add their own flare to it. BG and its related games have such a huge reputations that any attempt to surpass them would fall short and disappoint people as has happened to many, many other things (movies, books etc). It might not be a good flare, as someone pointed out, but that's the difficulty with making games. You won't please everyone.