Marceror

Man, the look of SoD is kind of horrible. The sprites just don't look like they belong in the game world. Am I the only one seeing this?

This is great. Just wondering why the hell one needs to consult unofficial sources to obtain this information. The mind boggles.

^this is exactly what happened to me, BG1 was the last of the IE games I tried, and it seemed just terrible after PST, BG2 and IWD. That's interesting. When I first played Baldur's Gate, very shortly after it was released, the experience was a bit different for me. I'm pretty sure I heard choirs of angels singing, and the heavens were opened (really), telling me that it was my sacred duty to skip basically all of my classes for the next week so that someone could get to the bottom of why my foster father had been so brutally murdered. I'm pretty sure I also skipped a few showers, meals, and plenty of sleep, just for good measure. Really, I can still almost feel the trembling delight that overwhelmed by body with every moment I played that game. Up until that moment, I had no idea that so wondrous an experience could be had with mouse and keyboard. I was utterly baffled that my roommate at the time -- who had actually purchased the game rather than me -- was so disinterested with his purchase that he decided to gift it to me without a second thought. I naïvely said I'd check it out, completely unaware of the wonderment I was about to experience. Yep, Baldur's Gate was a game changer for me.

Thinking we should have a hyperbole forum here, and all posts that ride the hyperbole train like this one can go there and hang out with the other hyperbole saturated posts. Really, I think all the hyperbolists (new word?) would be happier than pigs in you-know-what in that forum! Really, I'm only thinking about you guys here!

Those are going to look good on your shelf. Your friends will be impressed! DO IT!

I would imagine so, if they can now include hundreds of NPCs on the screen, supposedly, without issue. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the performance improvements. Beamdog has apparently rewritten the majority of the Infinity Engine across their 4 IE (re)releases over the last 4 - 5 years.

Wondering if there's a plan to develop a Pathfinder based CRPG. Since there is already a relationship with Pathfinder that has been communicated, it doesn't seem like too big a stretch that a CRPG could be coming. If it were to use the engine developed for PoE, it seems like such a project would have a serious jumpstart in its development process over and above what PoE had to contend with. I could see myself getting excited about something like this.

That's very crude word play here by Paul... he purpously replaces "MMO-addiction" with "Immersion", those are two VERY different conceptions, and pretty dishonest way to advertise his MMORPG =/ I whole heartedly agree with this point. When I read Lord of the Rings for the first time, I was absolutely engrossed and immersed in the story. I could hardly put it down. But, I didn't forget to pay my bills, attend to my wife, or go to work. The immersion was a completely positive experience, and aside from perhaps going to bed too late a few times, there was nothing negative that came out of it. It's similar for me with Pillars, IE games, or just about any other game that I really get into. That said, I stay away from MMOs these days because they don't have pause buttons. You aren't only immersed in those games... you're often stuck or trapped. If you've got a large group going to raid some super difficult boss encounter, and the main healer drops out, the rest of the group is going to suffer and resent that player. Three years of playing Everquest in the early 2000s taught me some hard lessons about MMOs. But, I think immersed is an unfortunate word to describe that experience. Being unable to put away the crack pipe is a bad thing. Being immersed by an experience that captures your imagination is a good thing. I think casual vs. hardcore would have been a better way to characterize.

Well? Only the highest, highest level of detail has been provided about the game thus far, and I assume a lot of that has to do with the fact that there's a publisher in the picture this time. It might be a while before you get any information about the religious leanings of the game world. We still don't even know if this is going to be a real time vs. turn based game, 2D vs. 3D, Isometric vs. some other perspective. We're a powerful evil guy though... so likely not going to be making attending Sunday morning church services too great of a priority.

When I first went to Caed Nua, I tried the first level and was getting my *ss kicked, so I just figured it was too soon to go to level 2. I came back later and got through a few more levels. I'm currently in Act 3 and have gotten through to level 7 with relative ease, so I probably should've come back a little sooner. Based on this, I get the feeling the levels were designed to be done in spurts, not necessarily all at once. Yeah, the idea is definitely to break it up. If you start going through the dungeon early, you may do okay for a while, but you will very quickly get outclasses. You need to be very well outfitted and at higher levels for the latter levels. This is also a reason for the main stairway, so you can return easily to deeper parts of the dungeon. Plus, who wants to wade through 15 levels of dungeon without a break? That would be pretty grueling.

You've never been immersed in a good book? That's actually kind of sad. For me, using my imagination, guided by some great writing, can be one of the most immersive, interesting ways to experience a game like this.

Magic 8-ball does not lie.

Might not be a bad idea to hire a 6th character from a tavern. Maybe a paladin for more tankiness and group buffs would be a way to go. Also, not sure how comfortable you are with real-time-with-pause, but don't be afraid to hit that pause button often. Particularly with a large number of casters, you are going to lose a lot of control if you aren't pausing a lot. If you essentially approach combat as turn based you could do a lot worse.

Yeah, I suppose I can see the logic, but this didn't bother me in the slightest after the game was initially released. I just made sure to pump athletics a bit, because, folks who are running all over the continent on foot probably need to be fairly athletic. But uh oh, I guess I'm letting my grognardic leanings be revealed.

There's not a ton of percussion in PoE music, but it's there. Particularly the battle tunes have a lot of it.

There doesn't seem to be any reason for you to start over based on what you shared. Just go back to Glilded Vale to pick up Eder, and focus on easier side quests in that area. Make sure to check all buildings in the area, as you won't get many of the quests otherwise.

Really? Why in the world was travel fatigue removed? Because someone "realized" walking long distances doesn't make one tired?

I'm really pleased with the music in PoE. It definitely takes beats from Infinity Engine games, but in honesty, much of it to me is more evocative of NWN music. And since I really enjoyed that music that's totally fine with me. It's a bit more pensive and melodic -- very appropriate for the Eastern Reach at this time. I particularly enjoy tracks like Ondra's Gift, Dyrford, and Elmshore. Elmshore is one in particular that I will just sometimes hang around when it's playing just to listen to it. I guess I do that for Dyrford sometimes too. I also very much like the Endless Paths music. Dark and ominous, yet not overbearing. The combat music is very good. It's come a long way since the Backer Beta, where I think we really just had one battle tune initially. It wasn't a bad tune, it was just too much repetition of the same. Personally I don't think Justin should change much of his formula for PoE2. If it ain't broke... and all that.

Yeah, his direct statement that he would not do "whatever" again (attributes, classes, fill in the blank) is rather confusing given that he didn't seem to mean it, given other circumstantial details. It probably made more sense in the moment when Josh could contextualize his slides.

I just came back after about a year's break. I don't remember things very well either. But, I'm finding that it's okay to just pick whatever feels good. Combat isn't that hard, and if you really mess up, you can always retrain your talents (which was added in a patch at some point). So my advice is not to sweat it too much.

Okay, so if Josh will be involved with PoE2, and he will not be doing attribute and character creation systems again, does this mean neither of these will be present in PoE2? Or was he just being tongue in cheek with that comment. A PoE2 without attributes and classes sounds like a horrible direction for the series. Or they just use one from PoE and maybe adjust it bit. Yeah, but that would be Josh doing "it" again. Designing and tuning attribute and character creation system? I don't see how he would do it again if he uses one that he already made and tuned. Sequels often bring with them new stuff. You don't typically release a new game with exactly what the previous game had. So new classes seem likely inclusions -- looks awesome in the marketing. Higher levels -- also looks great in marketing material. Maybe something like prestige classes could be added in - would have lots of people literally swooning. Surely it's possible that PoE2 could be released without such things, but it would seem like a bit of a missed opportunity.

Okay, so if Josh will be involved with PoE2, and he will not be doing attribute and character creation systems again, does this mean neither of these will be present in PoE2? Or was he just being tongue in cheek with that comment. A PoE2 without attributes and classes sounds like a horrible direction for the series. Or they just use one from PoE and maybe adjust it bit. Yeah, but that would be Josh doing "it" again. Unless he's talking about the creation of such systems, vs. merely the implementation of existing systems. But these systems would presumably need to be evolved and further developed in other games. Would be cool if Sawyer could drop in and clarify that point.

Okay, so if Josh will be involved with PoE2, and he will not be doing attribute and character creation systems again, does this mean neither of these will be present in PoE2? Or was he just being tongue in cheek with that comment. A PoE2 without attributes and classes sounds like a horrible direction for the series.

I'm curious what specifically Josh says he won't do again, but Obsidian probably will: As long as people are just talking about "it"... well, we're having a pretty vague conversation.

Regarding "epic" levels, yes, these create a whole host of challenges. But so what. A PoE 2 that adds another 6 - 8 levels and an expansion that does likewise seems very doable. BG2 never fully got the high level balance right, nor did D&D epic levels. But that never stopped me from enjoying the hell out of late game Baldur's Gate 2, or from seriously enjoying my only pencil and paper DnD campaign where I played a character to epic levels - a cleric that I played from level 4 to level 28. I wrote an entire novel about that character, because I grew to love him so much. So this idea of let's admit defeat before we've even started to fight is not one that I personally subscribe to. All ya'll are welcome to your opinions of course.