AndreaColombo

I believe they should also affect weapon lashes, though I've never tested it.

I also never saw PoE described as not selling well. Ever since release, the Hero (basic) and Royal (deluxe) editions have been steadily placed in GoG's top 10 except for brief 1-day intervals during sales (and even during the summer sales, with several titles heavily discounted, PoE is still n. 4 and 5 even when not on sale.) For a low-budget, PC-only game belonging to a genre long considered dead and obsolete, I would say 400,000 copies in three months is nothing to be ashamed of. Most other games in your list have been out for much longer and have gone through several sales, especially during the Christmas holiday season. For the sake of argument, let's pretend Origin sales don't exist and all GoG copies are backer-redeemed copies (which is a gross over-semplification.) Let us also assume that all 415,000 copies sold on Steam are $45 as all proceedings from higher tiers (Champion and Royal) go toward paying Paradox's, Origin's, and GoG's cuts. 415,000 * $45 = $18,675,000 Removing Steam's cut of 30%, that's $13,072,000. So, over $10 million in net profit in three months. IIRC, Faergus once said in an interview that the cost of running the company for a month (the whole company, not just PoE's team; this includes all expenses) is about $1 million. So three months of PoE can sustain the whole company for roughly 10 more months. Not too shabby? Of course the calculation is over-simplified, but there you have it. I wouldn't call it an unsuccessful game by any stretch.

As usual, Luckmann and I agree on a lot

Am I the only one that always thinks about the music from the Shire (Lord of the Rings), when listening to that theme? No, you're not. (I love that Stronghold theme.)

I don't get why the monk must be a bald old man ... Oh well. Very interesting thread! I'm still sad about Cadegund having been cut—she was one of the characters I was looking forward to the most.

I sure hope Obsidian have more up their sleeve than just the multiclass talents (or off-class talents, as Gromnir prefers.) My understanding is that those are a part of the new talents and abilities offered by the expansion.

I second this request, though my top priority for increasing the challenge is still better enemy A.I. (what we have right now is not only very basic; it is fairly dumb.)

Armored Grace for every class—yay!!

juanval - You can access expansion content during the main game or after it. It is likely balanced for level 6-7 parties (e.g. you do it in the middle of your play through) but it can be scaled up if you tackle it later and are higher level.

Good ol' BMac said he would look into implementing SMAA in the expansion, so that would also be rad

Actual bracketed scaling for PoE2, please

Perception doesn't cone into it; Mechanics does. Buff your Mechanics skill and you'll find it.

Agree with OP very much. I'd like this kind of (optional) level scaling for the whole game.

Here comes the hype train! :D Optional level scaling is amazing. I hope we get a chance to apply it to the critical path of the main game as well (I personally like optional content not to scale though.) Zahua is like Forton v2.0, so Forton fans rejoice! Pity it's an older bald man, though—kinda cliché for a monk. Interesting that we'd have a Devil of Caroc character. Maybe it was a concept all along, or maybe it was born out of all the speculation on early screenshots Nice touch that you're able to see your footsteps and your breath in the cold.

When walking on the carpet in the Vailian Embassy in Defiance Bay, occlusion conceals character's feed underneath the carpet, which looks a little jarring. (The same issue affects the woman in Dyrford that asks you to retrieve a dragon egg for her; can't recall her name, but she's on the outside and her feed are literally underground.) SAVED GAME: link REPRO STEPS: Load the attached saved game. Zoom in on the party and observe everyone's feet are hidden underneath the carpet because of occlusion.

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I was thinking the same. IIRC, the only companions that actually remain in the Dyrwood area after the end of the game are Edér and Aloth (am I missing anyone?), so they are the only ones that could potentially make a comeback in the expansion if it takes place afterward (and IF areas in Dyrwood remain accessible, which they probably should if everything starts in Caed Nua; but then, will the game remember whether you killed Raedric? Will it remember whether Edér's become mayor of Dyrford? Lots of reactivity challenges right there.) This also changes the size and scope of the expansion a bunch. I doubt you could justify spending the time and resources on developing 5-6 new companions for a 20-hour game of the size and scope of Tales of the Sword Coast (then again, the fact they split the expansion in two parts already suggested it would end up being bigger than anticipated.)

According to this article on Rock Paper Shotgun: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/06/17/pillars-of-eternity-expansion-the-white-march/ The expansion does indeed start a new storyline after the events of the first game. It will be interesting to see if it really is as big as to have non-linear sidequests and exploration on top of the story. Also, it will be interesting to see if some old companions will stick around, and which ones (all of them?) But more importantly: Will I get my black gothic plate? XD

I believe what Aarik meant is that the issue stems from the saved game having been converted from a previous version. In a new game the issue doesn't occur.

The pledge for the expansion was $20. CA didn't really do much writing for PoE. Eric and Carrie did the bulk of it, that I know of.

Would be nice if there was extra reactivity for base game content too. Like your being a Godlike being taken into account in relevant convo, or the ability to sell the crate to the buyer in Ondra's Gift for example.

Interesting. I wasn't expecting any new companions in the expansion, so one would have been a lot already ... but we get new companions, so two at a minimum (waiting for someone else to say, "CADEGUND CONFIRMED!" ) Really looking forward to this! EDIT: according to this article, new companions include a rogue and a monk and there will be a party-based AI system too.

Based on this interview, IIRC, Justin Bell confirmed in another interview shortly after the game's release that there would be new music as well in the expansion. I sure hope the new items include a black Sarevok-like plate armor with matching black helm and shield, and some colored kick-ass helms to go with Sanguine Plate and Argwes Adra XD Better enemy A.I. and critical path that scales with level would also be rad.

If you've had Edér and Hiravias in your party at the same time for any length of time, then dropped Edér, your main character will have banters with Hiravias in Edér's stead (particularly weird when your character's a woman and speaks in Edér's voice.) Due to the somewhat erratic nature of banters, this one might be a bit of a bitch to repro. SAVED GAME: link REPRO STEPS: Load the attached saved game. Observe that Hiravias is in the party and Edér is not; further observe that Edér is at the stronghold and the protagonist is female. Wander around and make time pass until the next banter between Hiravias and Edér starts. Observe that said banter takes place despite Edér's absence, with the protagonist speaking Edér's lines. Note that in the saved game attached one such banters has just occurred, so it might take a while for another to fire. If there's a console command to force banters, use it.

Well, you could always hand over the plate to get the shop, then use cheats to give yourself the plate. Illicit, if you will, but same end result as you're trying to achieve.