Lephys

I think the best system for encumbrance is one with action-based stamina. That way, when you're encumbered, you can still move around "just fine" (probably a bit more slowly), but every step you take will sap that much more stamina (when, normally, your moving about, encumbrance-free, would hardly require any stamina at all, unless you're sprinting or something). The whole "You're gonna move really really slow" thing is mechanically silly, since, it still doesn't PREVENT you from carrying way too much stuff. It just makes it really, really annoying.

The thing about the discs is that, if they ship them with the other rewards, they can't put the last stretch of the development on there. It's not just an arbitrary "we don't like physical discs, so we're going with digital" choice.

Fair enough, but I have high hopes that this will not be the case in PoE. I mean, if you just look at the raw power output of an ability, it could very well seem that a Wizard's spell is "better" than all other abilities. And, in many circumstances, it might be. But, I will say that, playing as a Wizard/Mage in almost any game has typically resulted in my feeling plenty of feebleness/difficulty in only having my spells at my disposal. You know, the sort of "If I could manage to get BOTH these spells off in succession, I'd probably be fine, but I'm having trouble doing that because of the speed/power/(insert-factor-here) of this group of enemies," etc. The main thing that encourages me with PoE is that, in their treatment of Wizards, they're definitely going a lot less "You only get like 4 spells, but they annihilate," and more "You have a lot more you can do more often, and you'll get powerful stuff as you progress, but they're not quite so much a handful of grenades as they are a box of ammo and a few different guns." Wizards won't be quite as limited in their spell output as they usually are, and so won't need to rely on the "but those handful of spells you get are 10 times better than any one thing your other classes can do" counterweight.

Nice work, ashtonw! I've been trying to do some basic drawing exercises lately, because it's been so long since I've actually drawn anything that I'm stupidly rusty. Seeing other people's stuff really gives me motivation to actually produce something, myself. Of course, it'll just be boring graphite, because I'm lame.

Oooooooh! Lemme go get some aloe for that BURRRRRN!

Yeah, but even then, it's like putting a band-aid on someone's severed arm stub. One of the fundamental aspects of an MMO that separates it from other games is the persistent world. Plenty of games let you play with a bunch of people (Battlefield, etc.) at the same time. What matters is that you're all getting to interact with the same world. And now, what do they do? Try to put all these walls between all the players. "Oh, we wouldn't want anyone to influence your dungeon, so we'll just instance it!" "Oh, did you burn that city to the ground but some other players didn't? We'll just phase it so that you see the results of what you did, but other people still only see their own version of that place." It's not really a sandbox. It's just a giant single-player casual game with 90% optional content that you can play multiplayer if you so choose. It's strange, really. It doesn't really take much advantage of the inherent structure of an MMO. Like Zwiebelchen said, EVE does a pretty good job because they let players influence a whole lot more of that persistent world. Hell, I think they're one of the few games that's STILL a single server, instead of like 8 million shards. Which, I get the shards thing... but, still. And yes, I definitely think that they don't use GMs like they should. I think Everquest used to basically let them just strike up their own events whenever they felt like it (within reason). They'd just spawn themselves as something and start doing things in the world, and react depending on how the players handled it.

Don't worry... I shan't rest until 1000000000% balance is achieved! u_u . Seriously, though, I'm probably going to be playing the crap out of it, and reporting as many issues as I can possibly find. Because you said "coaching," I'm now imagining John Madden reviewing video footage of your joyful outburst with you, while he explains in detail where you went wrong and draws lots of circles and lines showing what you should've done, throwing in a lot of "Boom"s for good measure. Lastly, in response to the pledge upgrade questions, it's currently not possible to do so, but they're supposed to be working on getting the backer portal ready to go with upgrade-a-bility. So, I would just check on that pretty often as we move towards August 18th, and hopefully we'll get an official update (communication, not necessarily a "BEHOLD cool things we've been working on in an announcement thread!" update) on that pretty soon. I obviously can't say for certain, but it seems to me that getting upgrade functionality in place AFTER the beta starts would be kind of a bad play to make. I mean, if they have technical issues that delay it... that's always possible. But, I feel confident they're probably intending to get that going before the beta goes live.

Or just say "Hey guys! Aren't you late for the ritual?!" and watch them fear displeasing their superiors so much that they just assume it's self-snackrifice time. Also... "That's a lovely rack you've got there." *receives a furious slap* "Oww! I was just admiring your Vithrack companion there, geez!" *receives additional slap from female Vithrack companion*

Don't be so hard on yourself. You bet on probability. It was the non-idiotic thing to do. You just happened to roll low, is all. Besides, I think they're still working on getting reward upgrades going on the backer portal. I would think that, with the beta coming so soon, that'll probably be up-and-going before then, so that you can buy beta access as an add-on.

What Nonek said. I think of Animancy like I think of guns. Guns are real. The destruction they wreak is real. However, everyone doesn't just shun everyone who has a gun. Some people are trusted to carry guns around, and protect the rest of the people. Why? Because guns aren't inherently evil. Same with animancy. Yeah, the general consensus might be like 90/10 on the badness of animancy, as opposed to less-than-that for guns in the real world, but, it's the same principle. I don't think a bunch of random people should just be born thinking "Hmm... animancy probably isn't bad at all." But, there are people of a scientific (for lack of a better word) mind who would realize that it is a tool that can be used in a variety of ways, and that just because some people don't adhere to boundaries and do reckless/wretched things with it doesn't mean it should be exterminated. Of course, people are people. You're going to have entire cultures/peoples who will burn you for even saying the word, while there might be other cultures who have simply grown up around it more, and teach everyone about it and how it is to be used, etc. Much like science/technology in general. There are some cultures in certain places, even today, that see anything technological as evil magic that isn't to be dabbled with. They don't ask questions, they just shun it and fear it and attack it. Whereas, in other places, people grow up studying and partaking in chemistry and inventing robots and vehicles, etc. AI. That's another good example. Plenty of people are working on true AI technology. Even though a lot of us fear what could realistically occur if something got out of hand with that, we don't burn scientists at the stake. SOME people might. But "we," as in all of humanity, do not. Thus, it still occurs, and there are still people interested in it, and interested in ways of handling it such that it will not turn into Skynet. Etc. There are always going to be people who, due to whatever circumstances, see things differently. If there weren't, then there wouldn't even be anyone interested in practicing animancy in the first place, much less condoning someone else's practice of it.

I would appreciate it if you didn't accuse me of "making stuff up" when all I'm doing is expressing a failure to comprehend your point, and asking questions to better discern what it is. If the questions are false, then simply answer as such. I wouldn't even begin to know how to interrogatively put words in your mouth. By its very nature, a question suggests a lack of knowledge, not a declaration of one. Anywho, I cannot "cognizance increased suspicion o' animancers who actually can do the evils suspected 'o real world late feudal doctors?"? When have I failed to do that? My only response is, increased suspicion with whom? How do the people who still don't know who Steve the Animancer is, or where he works, or how to even recognize actual animancy at work, suddenly have a first-hand-knowledge basis of how great their fear and suspicion should be purely because the thing they fear definitely exists in the world instead of doesn't? Tell me... if something's not real, does that change anything for someone who believes it is? If a kid things raptors live in his closet, and they'll get him if he doesn't close his closet door at night, does it make any difference if he reads a news article about a kid somewhere else who actually did get eaten by raptors overnight because he didn't close his door? Yes, "people" would be quite suspicious of animancy. However, that doesn't mean everyone in the world would just mindlessly fear it. Some people are curious and would check it out first. Some people would personally know people who started dabbling in it, and, instead of just instantly labeling that person evil and burning them, would probably be prone to thinking "Hmm... okay, he's using animancy. But, he wouldn't ever hurt a fly, and is always super worried about doing anything to people against their will, etc., and has always been benevolent. Maybe I should find out more before jumping to conclusions." I just don't understand... what's the issue? Has it been given a global suspicion factor of 723, and it should really be 771? What is it, specifically, that's incongruous with the current lore? And, if you would be so kind as to answer without the eye-rolling and exasperation, that would be great. No one's making you answer me. If I'm just an annoyance, then don't answer, or just tell me so. I won't take offense. I'm genuinely not trying to be difficult. I'm just trying to understand what's going on here.

How DARE people put a tariff on fun!

Maybe if we get them drunk, they'll hand over their keys. 6_u

You don't have to do anything. I only pointed out that you didn't. And neither did Josh. He presented the masses state of unknowing and assuming. Being ignorant of facts and assuming a bunch of stuff already happens in the real world, with real things that are dangerous. That still doesn't stop the dangerous things from happening. It just keeps the people using the dangerous things out of towns and cities filled with a bunch of ignorant (on the subject matter), assumptive people. Or, at least, very discreet. Thus, I still fail to see your qualm with this. What is it exactly you're expecting? For animancy to be infeasible to even practice anywhere? That if a bunch of people think negatively about something, the world is rid of it? Also, like you said, they know it's real. And, as Josh said, a lot of animancers don't do sinister stuff, but instead try to help cure things that conventional medicine can't. Beneficial stuff. You seem to be arguing that people have born witness to things like undead and other atrocities that were, indeed, created by animancy, but if anyone has ever succeeded at anything beneficial with it, then that's "real" too, and no longer just arbitrary belief or assumption. However, none of that changes the fact that most people still have no idea what animancy actually is. Just because factual evidence of things exists in the world doesn't mean people all get their hands on it and/or read about it. For every actual act of animancy that terrorizes some people, and gets rightfully blamed, there are 100 mystery ailments and just-plain-negative things that get attributed to animancy (wrongfully), only to be revealed as not even what they seemed. *shrug*. You seem to want it to be completely one-sided or something. The evidence is there, thus everyone and their mother should just somehow prevent the feasible operation of animancers or something. I don't understand why that is. Souls and magic or no souls and magic, people are people. It's no different than in the real world, when it comes to massly attributing mystery stuff (because you, the masses, don't actually know about it directly) to something you see as negative. It's a bunch of heresay, one way or the other. Even if it's fact, if you don't know it's fact, then you're just jumping on the bandwagon for all you know. Which people already do, regardless of whether or not something's actually real. Yes, plenty of people will want nothing to do with it, and probably be actively hostile toward animancers. Doesn't mean every single person ever on the planet is just going to jump to conclusions and not want to get further info on it, and/or believe in the good it can do, get tricked, just be an idiot, etc.

I'm not hurting my own cause. There are horrible things in the REAL world. Why does it matter whether they're affiliated with souls or not? The human biology is real, and yet people still didn't know anything about it. What, because it's souls and animancy fampyrs, suddenly people's brains just become wellsprings of knowledge? "Oh hey... now I know that guy is an animancer, and what he's trying to do!" Are the animancers going to wear scarlet letters on their chests? I'm not denying that a world filled with magical horrors is more horrific than only reality's horrors. What you're failing to actually present, here, is the reason why anyone would be any more knowledgeable about any of this in one world than in the other. People attributed all kinds of stuff to doctors and medicine and science. And yet, look at us today. People still advanced science and medicine aplenty. No one hunted down all the scientists in the world and beat them all to death. We have all manner of chemical agents and biological warfare, today, and yet, still, we have labs all over the place, with people doing God-only-knows-what. You think the majority of the population is about to explain to you, in detail, what all is going on in those labs? Nope. They just believe what they want. It's no different in a world with monsters and soul manipulation. I can blame everything I've ever seen in my entire life on animancers, and still that doesn't help me actually identify animancy from non-animancy, much less animancers, themselves.

I believe the whole idea is that the build-range is broader with a given character, rather than having to make a new one and pick a different class in order to experience that breadth. It's not really all that strange of a thing to say. They're not comparing quantities of builds. They're comparing breadth of a given character's build options at any given point in time.

It seems to me that it's a lot like medicine, in relation to the "unwashed masses." Plenty of people got horrible diseases and conditions and didn't really understand anything at all about the human physiology. Yet, the few doctors who actually studied that stuff, in-depth, knew a significant chunk about it. Thus, the knowledgeless folk imagined all kinds of stuff about doctors. They thought medicines were magic, or sometimes, if people were treated but still got worse and/or died, they'd just assume that the doctor cursed them or something. Heck, a lot of people probably just thought scientists, in general, were practicing witchcraft. "HOW DID YOU JUST MAKE THAT FIRE?! HE'S A DEMON!" When people don't know things, they somewhat arbitrarily (mostly emotionally) attribute thing A with thing B. "I don't know what it is you're doing, exactly, or why, or how... but it COULD be anything, and who knows what could come of it?" Then, something bad happens, and it's at least circumstantially related to that unknown, questionable practice. You now either decide it's good, or that it's bad, etc. Then you try to describe the process, because it seems better to guess than to just walk around with the question mark. It's kinda like early religions. "Oh, that giant circle of light in the sky grants us light and warmth every day. SURELY IT'S A GOD! Oh no, it's gone all dark? WE'VE ANGERED IT!" I still don't get why masses of uneducated people with no knowledge of a given thing are magically supposed to properly link causes and effects. They live in a fantasy world instead of a real one. Okay... there are plenty of horrors in their world even if animancy didn't exist and never produced any. So how are they to tell the difference between some creature or sickness in the world and the direct results of animancy? I don't understand why they're supposed to attribute things to animancy, when most of them have no friggin' idea what it is. Unless someone goes around providing seminars on animancy, as part of a charity.

Surely it will depend largely upon whether or not the rest of the party is wicked or innocent. There is no such thing as innocence - only degrees of guilt! So... KaineParker's Paladin won't really ever issue forth any protection, only varying degrees of smiting? The best an "innocent" person can hope for is an extremely tiny/feeble smiting.

@Karkarov: That's actually very encouraging. I'll definitely check it out in more detail. Another, somewhat similar game (it's a shooter with character-customization elements and co-op play) I'm very interested in is Evolve. Something just made me think of that. But, yeah, I've been trying to figure out which game'll actually get me to spring for a PS4. If Destiny's good enough, it might be the one. Back to the note of MMO's, and piggy-backing on what Zwiebelchen said, I just had a thought... What if, in an MMO, the guild who first bests a dungeon gets to sort of control it? Set it up, "level edit" it, etc.? That would be pretty interesting. I think one of the main things MMO's lack is a significant interactivity; the world changes you (levels you up, gives you various loot, etc.), but you don't ever really change the world, at all. There's this huge fear that, if every single person who could ever want to play it can't jump in and experience the EXACT same dungeon, and potentially get the EXACT same items, etc., then some vile crime has been committed.

And throttle we shall! What a splendidly pleasant surprise announcement, ^_^ Will there be a formal/organized feedback/bug-reporting system?

Wow... I sure botched that tag job, didn't I? * Timespinner Sorry about that. (Naturally, I didn't notice until after my edit duration had elapsed.)

Perhaps I chose my words poorly, then, haha. Even then, you have some kind of defense (unless it's 100% effective), plus the fact that you can do plenty of stuff to them, too. I guess a better description would've been that Ciphers are not Magneto, with souls being metal. 8P At least, in the way this all seems.

Is attachment not something one may freely choose to do? It can only be forced, or not exist at all?

Si. It's still all only partial control, no matter how devastating it is. Ciphers don't just puppet-string your soul, change who you are, and/or plant you into another vessel, etc.

This is a bit old-school, but it looks to be a pretty solid game, if anyone's interested: Midora It's very reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It only needs like 20% more to hit its mark, and 6 days to do it. I don't think the project heads have been as successful at spreading the word as others, so please share this if you think anyone you know would be interested in it. Another good one (that's actually already hit its goal, but still... it looks awesome!) is: [url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lunarraygames/timespinner]Timespinner[/i] It's kind of Chrono Trigger meets Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.