ScytheKnight

First off just want to say that I'm amazed with the work you've put in to PoE and looking forward to Dreadfire. Recently I've been putting a lot of effort into finishing PoE as I backed it, bought the DLC and have backed Dreadfire, but have yet to complete Act II of PoE. Overall I've been finding the party AI to be pretty good... however the higher level I get, the more and more flawed it shows itself, especially for resource gatherer classes (Cipher/Chanter). The problem is that at higher levels these scripts still put MAJOR emphasis on low level abilities. This wouldn't be quite so bad except that it basically wastes the resources needed to use the higher level abilities. Classic examples of this are Kana Rua with the summoner script, who rather than saving up 4 or even 5 phrases to whip out big summons, at level 9 he STILL blows 3 phrases on skeletons, despite the fact that they simply get one hit at this level. Also my PC Cipher is using crowd control script, has Ringleader... but instead spams Eyestrike and Whispers of Treason. Not bad abilities, but at this level saving up 50 focus isn't that hard and Ringleader has a MUCH bigger effect on a battle.. but no, low level powers are so prioritized that higher rank abilities are NEVER used. Really the only solution I can see is to strip them to an auto-attack script and micro-manage their powers every fight. Really, really, REALLY disappointing and frustrating... I think this sort of thing has been why I haven't finished yet.

I've seen both kinds done well... and done badly. But in all honestly, with the type of game Obsidian is looking at producing I can't really see them doing anything other than 2D portraits as it is part of what made the clasic Infinity Engine games what they are.

Was really interesting to note how it was mentioned that an ability like a defensive stance, will make it easier for a fighter type to control an area for things like attacks of oppertunity. A very small but really great little thing, it makes a fighter as much about battlefield control as damage dealing. As mentioned in the older Infinity engine games fighters could often wind up a pinata with a pointy stick... they just walked accross the battlefield and wacked the other guys over the head until they cried... every step getting pounded by spells and ranged attacks. But with a system like this it's a different story, now a fighter can place themselves strategicly to control a choke point or 'back to back' with a more vulerable party member to protect them. The biggest thing is they now have a role on the battlefield beyond being able to hit the other guy more then they get hit.

Ya know I heard the same thing about New Vegas... and yet when I kill Legionaries I gain Kama and when I kill NRC I lose Karma. Honestly if I had a clue how to mod NV I'd remove them... just that ONE thing and you have a MUCH more morally ambigious game taht matches a LOT more with the stuff you're told about the factions IN the bloody game itself... You're pretty much told outright that NRC are NOT 'good guys' and that Ceaser has plans for the Legion beyond bloodthirsty conquest.

Ohhhh... OK, kinda the reason why I made this post.

Hey first post here, really glad to see a project like this going, IMO RPGs have really been dragged through the mud a lot lately, getting shorter and shorter with less and less content to keep up with the "OMG these graphics SUCK!!!!!!" crowd. Don't get me wrong, Skyrim is amazing and sucking up a lot of my time lately... but it's still not a BGII or PS:T. OK so the reason for the post, I was reading through one of the Dev entries about the use of both the Infinity Engine and Unity. How is that being broken down? How do they intereact at the plaer level? The way I understand it is that the backgrounds and ruleset are being handled by Infinit Engine and characters, monsters, etc as well as effects are being handled by Unity. Is this anywhere near right? And are they both running for a player at the same time? Say with Unity overlaying the movablesa nd effects over the Inifinity Engine generated zone? A lot of questions I know, sorry. Just starting up a Bachelor's in game design so seeing a project like this using two engines really does just have me asking "How are they doing that?!"