Hormalakh

Also the game has some really nice graphical changes that I enjoyed. The temple at the beginning of the game has changed - that was nice.

And a founding member whose avatar is an SS officer, and at least one regular who I'm pretty sure is an actual neo-Nazi and is not Cleveland Mark Blakemore who is uncategorizable. Which is clearly all in good fun and not at all in poor taste because hey look, one of the mods is Jewish. Srsly though, I have massive mixed feelings about the Codex. It is a wretched hive of scum and villainy -- really, it is -- but it also has some of the best discussions on RPG's anywhere. But it is like diving for pearls in a pool of pigshït and radioactive waste. I.e., you had better make damn sure your drysuit is entirely 100% impermeable. it's so interesting how everyone is FOR freedom of expression until someone expresses an idea that they find abhorrent. i'll stop talking about the codex now - keeping discussions on topic and all... I finally got a chance to play the beta for a few minutes today. A few things right off the bat: 1- I really like the new UI and some of the design choices that they've made in that regard. It seems like when it comes to IE-feel, Obsidian may be getting the hang of it when it comes to UI/design choices. The feedback is starting to come together, though it needs a few tweaks here and there. I guess kudos to Kaz and anyone else involved with this. 2- Bugs still abound. In my five minutes of play, I've found that that I can't sell ingredients at shops from my stash (unsure if I'm supposed to be allowed to because they have actual prices instead of 0 cc and the stash allows me access to the ingredients which not allowing me access to the quest). Orlan head 2 also doesn't work. However, stability has greatly improved - at least for 64-bit computers. I no longer fear going from map to map and losing everything. Things are less wonky than they used to be, etc. 3- Combat on normal is starting to feel a little better. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and it's still not ~fun to play~. So far, I am getting the impression that PoE will likely play better as an interactive story more than a game, but again there is still time to make adjustments. I'll hold my final judgments until release. 4- The music is still incredibly grating. I would hope that there is a way to import music tracks into the game so I can play the game with IWD or BG2 music playing in the background. That would be quite awesome. Otherwise, I think I'm going to keep the music to a minimum. For more useful feedback, I get incredibly tired of listening to the music. listener fatigue or whatever. And the music doesn't really fit the scenes, in my opinion. When I think of Dyrford, I think of a sleepy little village with some underlying evil (underground temples etc). The music doesn't really fit that and it's just constantly playing and playing and playing... Perhaps breaks between musical pieces would be helpful to give the listener a break. Combat music is still too invasive as well. And there's been the comments made about voice volume control so I won't repeat them here.

what are you talking about? the rpgcodex accepts all the refuse of the world: we've got men, women (one of which is a moderator), trannies, furries, some are horses (andy...), etc etc. if I'm not mistaken we've got a tranny pornstar too rpgcodex is the Sigil of RPG gaming forums.

josh had stated previously that the official forums don't work for him at home (where he usually posts) and that he checks the obsidian forums at work. this might have changed - I'm not sure

You say this, not considering the crowd control abilities of the back line. A single hold person or knockdown would stop the rogue's threat. Engagement shouldn't be the only way someone stops movement. I also like the fighters only engagement idea. Or front lines only, etc

wanted to follow up: does the game work now? did u upgrade to 64 bit?

32bit pcs only run up to 3 gb of memory. win7 is "fatter" but a 64-bit architecture runs this game faster. its how it's coded I believe. dual-threaded etc.

I find it hard to believe that changes are being made to the game and nobody is writing this stuff down. it's got to be somewhere. just not in our hands.

I can tell you that 32-bit pcs are sucking at the moment. I upgraded to 64-bit and all these crashes went away. you look like you're 64-bit compatible

Finally, some answers as to your build process. Forgive my presumption, but having a fairly rudimentary understanding of software dev, I just wanted to point out a possible inefficiency in your prog/QA workflow that might help with faster turn-arounds. The inefficiency occurs when a bug that is causing the issue is found quick enough (and the change in the code is made fast enough) that by halfway through the workday a new code compilation is finished. However, what can likely happen is that by the second compilation, another bug will be found that is game-breaking and a whole day is lost because it's too late for the QA to run their checklist. What I think would help with your work process is having an extra layer of QA during code compile - if you don't have this already. One of the QA leads or a programmer should be going over major changes in the code (which should be annotated somewhere already) and verifying that the code isn't missing something obvious. In other words, someone should be looking into that "black box." This way, while the code is being compiled and before QA has to run a checklist, obvious issues will be found (by a local expert who knows to remember to keep looking for the same/common problems) and they save hours or at the very least find bugs in the code they wouldn't have otherwise found. This way a whole code-compile/QA checklist run (literally a whole workday) doesn't always have to occur before it's back to programming again (saving literal hours in the process). It's an arduous task with such a behemoth (a whole game) but if code review is broken down into small chunks (at the very least reviewing the code of the major three parts that were changed in the newest BB), this can be very helpful. Again, my apologies for the presumption: as a backer I totally understand it isn't my place to be making suggestions to your workflow or anything, and I know it's very hard to understand how things work from the outside, but I thought I'd just make a comment. Anyway, don't work too hard Adam. Have a good Friday.

Can maps be created in the mods? Anyone know how far we can get with this? I'm thinking even if rudimentary maps can be placed in the game, we're looking at something spectacular... The question would only remain then, Bester, who will create the Baldur's Gat, IWD, PS:T games in the PoE engine utilizing the mapfiles from those games.

Some things can be fixed in post-production and maybe in expansions, eh?

Are you sure they're "fixed?" Because we haven't been really testing them "out in the wild" yet. So here's my concession. Playing BG1 now and I'll have to say that it's extremely annoying when the AI runs away or tries to kite (which it does quite often because everything is ranged) and the lack of many stuns or abilities to hold them in place. Many times hold person or other spells are saved against. Then again I'm playing Strategems, so it's possible that the initial AI didn't know to kite. And it showcases how stun abilities are extremely needed. I guess engagement is supposed to solve this, but then again, it was also changed to not be able to re-engage for the next 30 seconds. Which solves one problem. But what if I need to hold a person down again? Or what if the computer uses my engagement "ability" on an enemy which didn't need it? Now when I want to hold down the next enemy, I really can't (and have to chase them) for the next 30 seconds. I would argue for just more active stuns/holds abilities than a passive engagement mechanic. It's the same deal really, but I get to choose who gets stunned/engaged and who doesn't. Actually, why not make "engage" an active ability that you have to trigger? I don't have an issue with "engage" being something that my player or the computer has to use, but - especially now that it has a cooldown - let me choose who to use it on and who not to. I need it against ranged fools, not melee xaurips. So let me choose when to enable it so that I can be more tactical with my engagement. And let the computer do the same thing.

Not from what I have seen in professional matches, at least on the point I made. You haven't been watching enough professional matches - and yes, pro mataches are a different beast than most "casual games." Generally, they are called the carry because in the late-game, they can "carry the team." One very good example of a carry is Drow Ranger. At low-levels, she has an extremely slow attack-animation, is extremely squishy (low HP) and moves incredibly slowly (slow movement speed and terrible turn rate). She generally needs another hero to help her lane or just needs to get XP, gold and level quickly with good equipment. Once she gets her level 6, however (mid-game) and because she is an agility hero (attack speed, movement speed, and damage) her agility score shoots up (that's her ultimate ability, it's a huge boost to her agility). Suddenly everything changes, she can get gold incredibly fast, can move faster and has faster attack animations as well as high damage output. Then it starts to snowball with each adiditional level in her ultimate. By end game she can pretty much take out the entire other team if she isn't shut down immediately. Two-hit kills, etc etc. I'm not super good, but I've played in higher rating games before where if the game goes on long enough, carries like Faceless Void are indomitable. In those games, the general strategy is to finsh the game before it hits 35-40 minutes, because it's generally game over if it goes that long (that's how long it generally takes a faceless void to become unstoppable). There are many other carries like this in DoTA. Other scary ones include spectre, phantom lancer, anti-mage. Someone like a faceless void, doesn't need a front-line at late-game. He has an ability where he can pretty much jump in the middle of a group, throw off an ability (time stop) which holds everyone in place and he just bashes everyone to death. His hits also have mini-stuns and he has evasion, so he pops his ability to stun many if not all of the other team (depending on how clumped they are), then he kills that group in like 5-10 seconds and then mops everyone else up.

It's never like that in mobas, carries do a lot of damage, but the amount of the dmg that they can translate to the enemy team is directly proportional to how good the carries front line is. What that means is that if a bruiser gets to the carry he will stomp it in to the ground. Or to make it even more clear 1v1 the carry rarely has a chance against a bruiser. For Sensuki:http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2oz30x/high_ranked_dota_2_player_gave_lol_a_shot_70/ It is in Dota. LoL is different.

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. Right. And not only that, but that there are other solutions to this problem which really preclude Obsidian from having to recreate the wheel. Some of these solutions are more elegant because they are made for real-time games with real-time mechanics in mind (DoTA's turn rate for example). 1- Assertion: Engagement is messed up in that it's less tactical. 2- Assertion: Engagement creates more problems than it solves. 3- Assertion: Engagement is a new solution to an age-old problem,. 4- Assertion: Other solutions are just as valid as engagement. 4a - Assertion: Some might be more elegant and tactical than engagement. 5- Conclusion: If there are other solutions then Obsidian should (have?) looked at those solutions. Though, it seems that, at this point, engagement is here to stay and that only minor/major adjustments can be made. I would ask the developers to keep a close eye on this mechanic and consider if it should stay in PoE2. Or even the expansion.

You say this in jest, but in true Pen and paper D&D a classic wizard's lifestyle is not too far from this. First, there are spells like Wish and Gate that literally drain the wizard to the point where he's bed ridden for a week. Then there's the stuff that takes up the majority of his time, like studying ancient tomes, enchanting items, and creating Golems which will put him out of commission for weeks or months at a time. Then when he's free to come out of his tower and go adventuring, THAT's when the world gets to see his earth-shattering powers in action. Obviously this kind of stuff can't be accurately duplicated in a video game because it would make playing a wizard really boring, but video game developers can do the next best thing. They can make a wizard intentionally weak and squishy early on; they can make him high maintenance, and they can limit his spell casting frequency. And if the player is willing to endure all that he will eventually be rewarded...because mages become the most powerful class later. In MOBAs, these are called "carry heroes." At first they're super weak and need other heroes to save their butts a lot, but once they get near the end-game, they carry their teams to victory because they're just so ovreepowered it's hilarious (and SUPER FUN to play). There is a reason why many people like playing carries in competitive games like DoTA. Because while they're squishy at first and have to run to their little corners, when they gain levels, they're unstoppable and it's fun paying your dues and then ROFLSTOMPing everything in your path.

Regarding the whole kiting thing. Kiting isn't bad, any more than stunning a foe is bad, or launching a fireball is bad. It's when kiting's stupidly reliable that it's bad. It's a matter of extents. When "how do I go through combat without getting hit, but whilst effectively killing my foes?" is answered with "Just kite, 8D!", that's when it's bad. Or, another way to look at is, if you can start at melee range from something and STILL kite it successfully (reliably, not just in certain situations in which you've actively opened up an opportunity to gain some distance), it's bad. Unless you're playing DOTA or something. Then it isn't. Most of the time, when people grumble about kiting, or bring it up as a problem, they're not talking about the sheer act of maintaining distance from a melee foe. They're talking about the full-health-to-dead strategy of killing everything effectively, with ease, by simply employing movement commands. I agree with you, though I'd say that being effective isn't the issue; it's a matter of actually having to make a choice that matters. There is no risk/reward with some kiting. But if you risk getting hurt with kiting (the enemies move faster, turning around for your character is slower and allows them to catch you, trying to kite and getting stuck in engagement means that you stuck in position) while the reward is getting off free hits, then the risk/reward calculation is sufficient enough that kiting isn't always the right answer. For example, I'm playing a new Baldur's Gate 1 game with a modification that makes bears run faster. At such a low level, one or two hits from a bear kill my heroes. So while I am kiting individual bears, I know that it's still a risky thing to do - though, still, not too risky - and that challenge makes it fun for me.

That sucks Adam - I'm really sorry to hear that. It seems like your save/load system has been consistently giving you problems with every beta update - is it worth looking into further and figuring out once and for all what the underlying issue is? I imagine it's more complicated than you can explain - but maybe a systemic issue needs a systemic response? Anyway, we appreciate all the hard work.

Okay so lets talk the possible future and what troubles you The Netherlands was complicit with the CIA so in the last 7 years since this type of interrogation was used what laws have changed in your country that is a direct result of what the Netherlands did with the CIA ? Here's something for you Bruce, if you weren't already aware: There are numerous laws in the U.S. that make what the CIA did illegal on many levels. Violations of multiple parts of the U.S. Constitution itself, violations of various laws specifically outlawing torture, violations of various laws limiting what the CIA is allowed to do, violation of various treaties the U.S. has signed (though I myself don't think we should have signed most if not all of them), violations of statutes requiring the proper informing of Congress/President/etc, and more. Enough to put the folks behind this behind bars for a long long time if they weren't above the law and we actually prosecuted (something that isn't going to happen anytime soon but should). Heck, some of what they've done is very arguably treason, which can carry the death penalty here. Even if one accepts for a moment (I do not, but for the of argument I will) that what the CIA did to the various people it detained was perfectly fine in a war time situation, the implications of allowing them to break all the laws they have and get away with it are huge. On an international scale, perhaps not so much (though I do think Rostere is generally right that things like this are used by some as an argument against republics/democracy/capitalism, because some in fact do), but internally the situation is ultimately dire for it's evidence the U.S. has fallen far from what it once was, has become something that most of the people who founded and ran this nation for the first 100+ years would have fought against, and ultimately all of this completely undermines law, order, justice, and the rights of the individual within the U.S.. Now, people who support what the CIA did of course generally do not see that dire on the horizon, or the evidence of it that's already manifested, or they don't care. These people are for the most part by and large pure evil, ignorant, or just plain stupid as they lack the ability to perceive cause and effect along with an appreciation of the basic sentiments of many of those around them. This is not a popular thing within the U.S. at all, and many of the people who have a problem with what the CIA has done and a number of other egregious assaults on what this nation was and is supposed to be (because this CIA torture thing is not the sole egregious assault, not even close sadly) are buying guns, ammo, and stockpiling resources, and that's no joke though I'm sure many here will brush off the various implications of that. It is not just your imagined tin foil hat wearing people, country bumkins, and doomsday prophets doing this. Many Average Joes, along with many of those in the military itself has been doing this for while now.... It's not going to be China, India, or anyone else that brings the day of reckoning home to the U.S as some this thread are thinking, it's going to be people within the U.S. itself. How apt coming from someone living in New York. How are the riots?

Exactly. Bitter Mideast greets US torture report with shrug. These same governments are allies of the United States. The same ones where their people have revolted against those dictatorships and become anti-American governments.

have you been to china or the middle east or are your horror stories from the "news?" Though to be clear, living in a world without the US is not something I want, I don't know if your ignorant dismissal of the rest of the world is the way I'd go about expressing it.

On a side note, it might be nice to add a load bar to the loading screens, or at least some sort of movement so players can distinguish a simple slow loading area from a freeze. I agree, this is very much needed.

soooooo?......I am waiting in anticipation - I actually want to play the engagement mechanic with the changes to see how it feels.

I think Obsidian has made great strides in terms of changes in the beta. There are a lot of changes that are not so visible on glance-over, but things are starting to settle out. I think some of the suggestions that people have and expect are a little late for where the game is at currently. Combat mechanics, for example, is just something that will play how it's going to play for this first game. The combat has actually been slowed down a little, and the game is fairly playable. Things aren't perfect but it's getting there. The question is just a matter of how much time do they have to perfect the game.