Ganrich

Yup, I moved Star Citizen's Arena Commander to my HD to make room. Sacrifices must be made to appease the RPG gods.

SSD makes a difference. Over the course of the beta I had it installed on my SSD and a 7200 RPM HD. Is the difference huge? No, but I am definitely going for the SSD install. The IE games (and NWN games) happen to be games that I have played off and on every few months over the past 15 or so years. I will play the **** out of this game for a few months at least. It is worth saving me a little on each load screen. I will burn out, and 6 months later I will be back at it.

Yup, most excited I have been for a game launch in 10 years or so. Last game that I remember this hype level was Morrowind.

^ Ranger and paladin companions are also available.

So the manual is wrong? Not sure, in this case, but it definitely isn't gospel. It has a lot of mistakes. 1). Damage Threshold is no longer in the game. 2). The bonuses for Intellect and Resolve are wrong. 3). Chanters do not get Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr as a level one phrase. It is now level 3. Just things that have been mentioned that are incorrect in a few threads. So it won't be surprising if this is number 4.

Clapping causes anxiety? I guess they can't watch Peter Pan, or Tink is doomed. "You have to jazz hands, Peter."

Good to know. I will update my journal.

Its funny how it hurts me to see that you say that about Dark Age bards when it was Everquest Bards who were copied by Dark Age ... But back to topic i think that description was already during the kickstarter campaign, so way outdated maybe, but not really sure. Fair enough. I admittedly was still too addicted to UO when EQ was around. DAoC was my next step in the MMO world. EDIT: To expand on this. I was, and still am, very much a fan of PvP. UO kept me for a long time, and DAoC with its RvR pulled me away. EQ wasn't really heavy in the PvP stuff. I only played it for a few months, and I played a Druid IIRC. 15ish years... I can't remember.

Fair enough. You know more than I do, for sure. It just seems that since it fires 8 projectiles it may have a special property for interrupt. I guess since each projectile has a possibility of interrupt they could have made it horrible at interrupts because have 8 possibilities per shot would have made it a ringer? If it was .35 then having 8 chances could make it too potent in certain situations.

They talk about multiple chanters twisting together for "bonus effects"? Any idea what that is or is that just outdated or removed from the game? Well, chanters have 3 phrase levels like the traditional casters do with spell levels. They select those spells like a D&D sorcerer, or a Cipher in PoE. I am unsure, but I believe you get 3 level 1 phrases, 3 level 2 phrases, and 2 (not sure) level 3 phrases by level 12. There are 5ish phrases per level. These phrases are buffs and debuffs. So, in theory, 2 chanters could have different phrases, and because Intellect increases the linger of the phrase, they could have 2-3 effects up simultaneously (per Chanter). They are minor buffs, but with the correct phrases it could be very powerful. This doesn't include Invocations that are what you cast when your chant counter gets high enough. Invocations have different levels as well: Level 1 Invocations cost 3 chant counters, level 2 cost 4 counters, and I assume level 3 cost 5. These range from summons (Chanter is the best summoner in the game bar none), buffs, debuffs, damage, crowd control, ect. I could see 2 chanters (that are built appropriately in order to compliment one another) being very powerful. They generate Chant counters slowly though. So, they can be inactive in play. However, high lore makes sense, and just like D&D Bards and UMD... Chanters can cast Spells from scrolls. Scroll casting doesn't interrupt your Chanter counts building, and neither does melee for that matter.

Twisting is a mechanic that came from MMOs. Dark Age Bards (IIRC) had to twist. It required micromanaging their songs so they overlapped, and that was twisting. The Chanter's Chant sheet makes this mechanic pointless as it pretty much does it for you. You can select a few phrases for a chant... phrase one ends, phrase two begins, etc. The linger effect allows phrase one to overlap phrase 2. I think this is a perfect example of the Manual being out of date. I think the manual was written prior to the BB. I could be mistaken, and this mechanic could still be in game, but I can't see how.

Sensuki, awesome vids. These will definitely help non-BB players get accustomed to the game. On the note of the Blunderbuss and its interrupt value of 0.05. You seemed unsure about it. Just tossing out that it could be that each of the 8 projectiles is capable of 0.05 seconds interrupt. This means if all projectiles interrupt then you get around .4 depending on graze/hit/crit. While if only 3 projectiles succeed then you gain .15ish. Something that may warrant testing.

I don't have your number, but I was playing Arena Commander the other day. Is the game they are set out to make finished? No. Has the funding resulted in a game? Yes, but it is a small dog fighting module, and soon it will be a FPS module, and then it will turn into a city-wide social module. I can play it now, and I can attest that it has in fact resulted in a game. They actually add stuff at a pretty quick pace.

http://eternity.obsidian.net/manual/errata ^ link to errata for the manual. Manual is out of date.

Going with Steam for Auto-Update and Pre-load. I will buy another copy soon from gog though. DRM free is delicious. Once gog gets their Galaxy app out of beta... then I will likely go gog every time when given the choice.

Obsidian has errata up for the manual. http://eternity.obsidian.net/manual/errata Nothing to see here. Move along.

It also says that Chanters get Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr as a level 1 Phrase. Which I believed was moved to level 3 (?). Unless the manual is indicative of day 1 patch changes. I am leaning toward the manual being a bit out of date, though.

Bumping. Because the manual just became available on Steam, and it also says that Duration is now governed by Resolve. Just thought this may want to be discussed some more. EDIT: The Manual could be out of date because the Chanter still has Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr as a level 1 Phrase. I am unsure.

I didn't get my hopes up with this. The last D&D game I enjoyed was NWN2 MotB. I agree with the sentiment that mentioning the IE games was disingenuous. They made a much more casual game, and that is fine. However, they tried to use less casual games with a cult following to gain attention. It worked, but then they showed those people the game, and many find it leaves a lot to be desired. I don't believe many fans of the PnP games want a game that is a huge leap from the source books, but they also understand that those turn based mechanics will go through some changes to make them applicable to a RTwP game. This is why the IE games were enjoyed. They didn't change things unless they were needed. DAO was what it was, but they didn't have a library full of rules that people expect either. I am not saying that I won't pick the game up and give it a go. I won't get it day 1, though. I will likely get it on the cheap when a sale comes a ways after release. If you are going to use the D&D license, and want my day 1 support, then you gotta try to adhere to the source. Otherwise, you may as well have some originality and create your own world. Heck, Pillars of Eternity seems more like D&D than the full blown D&D licensed game. That to me seems strange, and it makes me a bit sad for the D&D game.

Old Charlie broke the handle, and the train it won't stop going. No way to slow down. http://youtu.be/uCcwNoVSt2E

Tanky may have been the wrong word. I am just saying Durance's Resolve will give him more durability than without. He won't immediately fold if he gets someone on him on Normal or Easy. It helps with concentration as well, and that means he will be less susceptible to being delayed with important heals, buffs, etc if something does attack him. It won't let him be a frontline fighter though. If you get more than one guy on a squishy then you are probably doing it wrong. I agree that dev selected Talents being poor will lead to frustration. Eder is early enough that I think you will have complete control on his outcome. The same can be said about Durance, I think. The healer and the Tank being among your first companions is good. It means you can change their leaning if your PC fills those rolls already. I will say giving new people to the genre complete control could be a double edged sword. Give newbies enough rope to hang themselves, if you will.

I have read the thread actually. The thread has mostly been about Aloth's stat allocation. Sure, you are discussing why Perception is broken, and I don't disagree with you. The post that is 2 above my previous one is commenting on Aloth having perception instead of might for damage. Eder is mostly fine, as you pointed out. He isn't optimal, but his stats will make him kind of easy to be either an ok tank or ok damage. Durance isn't being complained about because Priests aren't terribly great damage wise, but his stats will make due as a buff, debuff, healer. He will be semi-tanky as well. The healer being kind of Tanky is good for newbies IMHO. Kana seems to be the character that the forum seems universally happy with, and look at that... Near max Might and max Int. Dash of Perception, but since we focused on Might and Int first it isn't an issue. Perhaps, I did use a strawman, but even so there are still people here that have commented in a way to lead me to my post. That said, I remember the stat debates during the early BB, and argued in them copiously. IMHO the issue is they stuck with 6 stats. There isn't a way to spread these bonuses around to make each stat equally useful while having 6 attributes. Not saying I don't want 6 attributes in my IE successor, but just saying. I also argued then that the defensive stats would become dump stats, or atleast stats most classes (particularly ranged) can ignore. I also argued, and this was incredibly early, that interrupt (governed by a stat) would likely be OP or pretty useless. Also, keeping intellect and might as they are makes them the go to attributes while sometimes Dexterity is a better choice. Here we are, defensive stats ignorable (unless tanking), interrupts are pretty weak, and int and might are the go to. I agree the stats are lopsided. I remember calling for Duration to be pulled from Int and to given to Resolve, and Sawyer tried that for a while. I fell away for a bit shortly after because of RL stuff. I remember people complaining that casters had to spec into 2 attributes to be good (not including might), and I can only assume that they got it switched back over. I think being able to have high duration/small AoE, or short duration/larger AoE, would lead to more interesting builds. It is what it is. I still think each attribute should have 1 offensive bonus, 1 defensive bonus, and govern a save stat. It would balance out stats, but then certain classes and certain builds would have dump stats/leave around 10 stats.

I can't believe anyone would seriously think that all the companions would be min/maxed with high might and Intellect. I am really surprised by the comments in this thread. It would be incredibly boring if all companions were just maxed might and X stats. I am actually excited by Aloth's stats. I am making a chanter with high Int and Lore (maybe some Perception) and plan on focusing on the phrase Thick Grew Their Tongues, and possibly solid interrupt weapons. Using heavy melee with scrolls, potions, and invocations weaved in. A Battlecaster, or Bardbarian. This cemented Aloth as my 6th companion. He was up against the Druid and the Ranger, but Wizard versatility + the high perception pulls him ahead. Interrupt is somewhat weak, but I also find an entire party of max Might and Int, save the Tank(s), a bit boring. Also, people could run through BG solo... So the companions being suboptimal has zero bearing on difficulty.

Yup, the Mechanics skill isn't locked to the Rogue class. Any class can pick locks and find traps.

I remember when BG came out: I had a speaker phone, and me and a buddy played the entirety of the first BG together while chatting after school. Ah... Before the days of Teamspeak, vent, and mumble. We played a few hours a night. In between our UO sessions, that is. I had a ball. I still want PoE to not worry about MP.