Hormalakh

I'm doing it.

Hello, I can't find my name on the list of OO members. Anyone know who I should talk to?

Not the same enemy, but same enemy type and challenge rating. I thought that one way around this problem would be to 1- either change it so you don't get xp for sneaking, but rather you improve your sneak skill, and similarly with other mechanics AND/OR 2- your experience gained becomes a function of the challenge rating for that particular action. In your example, as you sneak by easier foes, you gain less experience. Similarly as you kill easier foes you gain less experience. Until either mechanic no longer gives you experience.

I couldn't agree more with a lot of the discussion above. Yay for intelligent discourse.

Hormalakh - Locust of the Obsidian Order, just upped my pledge by $8.

I didn't know those guys in the video were monks. I don't think I did a good job trying to convey my point. Here's another try. I'm going to give you some definitions. Give me one word that would describe these people. 1 A master in the art of fighting. Able to use swords and shields. As well as bows and arrows. Heavily built and able to withstand much damage. 2 An extremely devoted and zealous, often fanatical, soldier who has pledged himself/herself to a chosen cause. 3 While they are masters of combat, their recklessness, ferocity, and their predilection to substitute raw aggression for discipline is what describes them. 4 Also a master in the arts of fighting. These people have a predilection for not wearing any clothes and spouting philosophical nonsense right before they jump into battle. They also forecast their attacks with some sort of ridiculous name like "Flying kick-a-pow" (That was for you Osvir, due to your avatar, er...) 5. A spiritual master known for their devotion, discipline, and spirituality. They have forsaken this material world for a better understanding of the heavens and spiritual realm. While many are peaceful philosophers, some have established their philosophies into the fighting arts. 6. A master of the magical arts. They are able to change the physical world with words that nobody understands. No I understood what you said, the guys in the video are performers, but in a sense they are very much Monks too. Not going to go into poi, if anyone is interested go ahead and do your research. 1. Gladiators, Hunters, Soldiers, yes Fighters in this sense. 2. Cleric, Paladin, Necromancer(?) 3. Barbarian 4. See 1, this is more of a personality rather than a "Class". This one could be a Barbarian, yes even a Monk too (a young one). Using Souka as an example... Souka is the very definition (in Avatar) of a young man learning. He later becomes more towards a Samurai, closely related to Monks by the way. 5. Monk 6. Wizard I took the #2 definition from what was in the kickstarter. It was for paladin. I guess it's interesting that the two biggest class confusions are the monk and the paladin (please correct me if I'm wrong). It could be because of peoples' different definitions of what a monk and paladin are. And I think once we have a definition (I couldn't find one in any of the OE posts or the KS posts) for a monk, some this might be clarified. I could see Souka as a monk, but I wouldn't define Souka as the generic monk Samurais FTW.

Survive the random encounter. That's actually a pretty good way of doing it. My druid can sooth the bears and wolves and my fighter can kill them instead.

I think that ultimately this was the goal anyway. I always hated having to kill certain creatures just so I could gain some experience. What if I didn't think that the druid I was playing should be killing bears and wolves just so he can get experience?

My answers were 1- fighter 2- Paladin 3- Barbarian 4- A martial artist or a fighter. Also, Saka from Avatar (Not a monk) 5- Monks 6- Wizard

I didn't know those guys in the video were monks. I don't think I did a good job trying to convey my point. Here's another try. I'm going to give you some definitions. Give me one word that would describe these people. 1 A master in the art of fighting. Able to use swords and shields. As well as bows and arrows. Heavily built and able to withstand much damage. 2 An extremely devoted and zealous, often fanatical, soldier who has pledged himself/herself to a chosen cause. 3 While they are masters of combat, their recklessness, ferocity, and their predilection to substitute raw aggression for discipline is what describes them. 4 Also a master in the arts of fighting. These people have a predilection for not wearing any clothes and spouting philosophical nonsense right before they jump into battle. They also forecast their attacks with some sort of ridiculous name like "Flying kick-a-pow" (That was for you Osvir, due to your avatar, er...) 5. A spiritual master known for their devotion, discipline, and spirituality. They have forsaken this material world for a better understanding of the heavens and spiritual realm. While many are peaceful philosophers, some have established their philosophies into the fighting arts. 6. A master of the magical arts. They are able to change the physical world with words that nobody understands.

There may be other ways to award the player for killing large quantities of enemies. For example, there was a small detail that I really liked about the original Diablo (first game in the series). When you encounter an enemy of a certain type for the first time, you don't know anything about it. You mouse over it, and it just diplays the enemy's name. After killing a few of these enemies, you get some basic information like average hit points. By killing more of them, you eventually learn their resistances and weaknesses (i.e. vulnerable to fire, resists cold). Finally, after killing dozens of them, you get their full stats on mouse over. I wouldn't mind seeing something similar in Project Eternity. Maybe it becomes easier to get critical hits on enemies you've killed many times before.

"Really Conan? That was the 600th zombie you've killed since I left the adventurer's hall with you. You just cut his head off with one stroke. You really think that you learned something new by what amounts to you stretching your arms out a little?" Edit: Of course little old shrimpy here definitely learned a few things or two fighting what was his 20th or 30th zombie. He's still young, that chap.

This should help not putting 100.000.000 of bloody trash mobs in the game. And, as has been previously pointed out, murdering umptillion of gobbos helping you become more persuasive is equally retarded, because the system is only a abstraction of reality. How about being better at taking the specific enemy down? By taking down 15 Goblins you get +1 to "thaco" towards that specific creature. How about putting learn-by-doing TES style where it belongs... in the trash bin. Good point. I was just thinking about Final Fantasy II (which is the reversal of gaining experience from journeying, and it's utterly utterly utterly horrible. Although the story is great, it really suffers because of this). Now this isn't what I'm aiming for with my suggestion, TES in the trash bin. If you and I discussed for a while you'd find my weak points and strong points in terms of discussing, right? If I fought a Goblin a couple of times I would do the same, the first few times I might even lose and have to run away because I have no idea what the crap I'm facing, it's patterns and what it does, can it cast Magic? Is it a Shaman in the Goblin population? Things like that make the character's combat attitude grow. Read Vagabond, please. I wasn't sure was TES was, but now that I've read your description I think I understand it and I agree with you. Perhaps a challenge rating for each skill would determine the amount that skill increases if a certain method is used. For example, using a speech skill on someone who is easily influenced might gain you speech experience at lower levels of that skill, but as you get better, the experience becomes either negligible or non-existent. The challenge ratings of these speeches (you need higher skill points to succeed for example) would help determine whether you gain experience or not due to that particular action. Experienced thieves no longer gain lockpicking experience by locking and unlocking their own doors (the challenge rating is too low). They also don't gain experience by unlocking that flimsy lock. Diplomats no longer gain experience unless the discussion was a particularly difficult one. Fighters no longer gain experience unless the challenge rating was high enough.

And what prevents you from sneaking past enemies and getting the stealth bonus, then talking to them and getting the speech bonus and finally killing them and getting the combat bonus? It doesn't. But as in real-life the more I practice something, the better I become. As long as I keep my rewards limited to the skill that am practicing, the better I get at that. You don't get generalized experience points for doing those things, you get specific rewards. So if your PC is a jack-of-all-trades that's goign to be a really slow game (and maybe there can be a limit here too). But if you want to become an expert in something, then that is what you continue to practice.

Well I would think that in this world, killing creatures willy-nilly would be looked down upon (just as it is here in the real world). You would want good reasons to kill others. One is to save your own skin (unless you are a fighter and can take the heat) and another is to value the sanctity of life regardless if hobgoblin or orc.

This should help not putting 100.000.000 of bloody trash mobs in the game. And, as has been previously pointed out, murdering umptillion of gobbos helping you become more persuasive is equally retarded, because the system is only a abstraction of reality. How about being better at taking the specific enemy down? By taking down 15 Goblins you get +1 to "thaco" towards that specific creature. OH! That's AMAZING! Give "XP" that is used towards specific mechanics! Lockpicking more increases your lockpick skill. Speech skill increases your speech skill more. Combat increases THACO. Then XP can be used towards other things like unlocking PERKS and SKILLS.

I really liked the idea that killing a new type of monster should give you ever-shrinking amounts of XP. A few other things should give you XP like thievery, spellwriting, and other things as seen in IE games.

I too changed my vote to "Don't care." I loved in BG2 that I could write spells into my spellbook and gain some experience doing that. I'd try not to save-scumm because then it made spellwriting a tactical option for me.

Nah, that's not what the poll is about. I'm trying to measure support for Josh Sawyer's design philosophy specifically. I'm sure everybody here has his own set of compromises he's willing to make but that's not what I'm interested in. Sounds good. Carry on

Hey OP, can you change the poll a little. Add this option in, I'm interested in knowing what people think. 1FOR 2AGAINST 3. DEPENDS. Majority of XP quest-based. Minimal XP for using skills against enemies (killing, thievery, using spells, etc)

We can always throw out our ideas and see if any of them stick with the devs? When brainstorming ideas, 2 heads are always better than 1.

I think if the mechanic takes into account what class you are and actually awards you based on that class, then its quite robust. Fighters do get XP for killing, wizards for spells, etc. It's difficult to do right, but if done right, it would make a lot of sense. Perhaps an amalgamation of goal-based XP and much lesser amounts of XP for class-defined skills (fighting, spellery, thievery, monkery, priestery, etc-ery)

Nah. I'm For because I never ever play fighters in games. I figured if my players need to get XP they can all kill enemies regardless if they're fighters or thieves. But this time, if the mechanic is done right, then I'd actually have to play a fighter and gain XP through killing with a sword and shield. I wouldn't be able to use a wizard to do the same thing to get that XP.

What if you got experience for going to said dungeon level and reaching the point right past the hobgoblins. What difference should it make how you got to that point as long as you got it. Fighters will kill to get there, wizards might shove enemies out of the way to get there, diplomats will talk their way there, etc. They all had to struggle to get there.

I chose for. I think this will be the first time I've ever played a game as a fighter just so I could kill enemies for XP.