keysersoze

This partial randomized loot is a bad design. Fully randomized is good (Diablo), non randomized is good (BG2), but this mix is crap for a game were you cannot retry dungeons normally. First time you play through all the loot is randomized (Unless you are using external help) Second+ times you play through, you should be able to plan your build based on previous experience. If you don't want to use "X", because it's OP or whatever, don't use it. But don't stop other people who want to use "X", and only find out 30 hours in that "X" was randomized, that they were lucky on there previous play through, and that they have to restart if they really want "X"

I think its in the val..... embassy in first fires

This is great news, but is the gold version still scheduled for 2014 ?

Sounds great, in particular the "Finishing Blow (Active)", great mechanic for people who are pushing the edges tactically, but can be safely ignored by more casual players

Great job on the Character UI, great to see the information directly without having to push an unnecessary button / tooltip

Interesting update, efficient workflow, keep up the great work

And thankfully they are not spamming like Star Citizen

Item Durability has been an annoying mechanic in every single player game I've experienced. And it can make you view your chosen items in a negative way due to bad timing (FFS - NOW my "sword of slaughter +6" needs to be repaired - in the middle of this dungeon - piece of ****). You should not make the game worse as a whole just to buff up the "Crafting Skill" to make to comparable to other skills.

I think this or a macro would to a great idea for pre-buffing before fights, my end game pre buffing sequence in BG2 would take longer than the fight itself. On the fight itself I would be concerned about overkill, e.g. all 4 mages fire, but the mob is death after 3 of the attacks hit, wasting one mages attack.

Adding more complexity to a game does not necessarily make a better game. Games should be easy to play, hard to master. New complexity Can add more depth which is a positive to experienced players and what your going for Makes the game harder to learn, which will turn off some players before they get to the fun (for them) parts. Turning too many people away and will hurt the chances of a PE2. Makes the game harder to balance. Bad balance hurts experienced players, as the harder difficulty levels need wider safety margins. So the feature ends up making the game easier, so less mental sweat (Gyah). This is the main problem I see with this idea. It makes the game more random, less easy to balance which leads to an easier cheaper less challenging (and less fun in my opinion) game on harder difficulties. New complexity should add overall to the game, not take away and I think this idea takes away. For an example of less complexity/options adding to the game, look at Joshs ideas on weapons (that there are no terrible weapon types, e.g. mornstars are not automatly better than maces, daggers are reasonable mid and endgame unlike a lot of similar games) ------- If you want more complexity why not model the foot and hand grip. Warriors have a chance of slipping when running due to arbitrary factors x,y, and z. And archers have a chance of dropping their bow if they are too sweaty. Also better cut the hair of all your characters hair short because you want to reduce the chances of hair getting into their eyes, and the range werewolves can smell them from. And your characters have a chance to get a cold or flu the longer they stay in the cold dungeon, and and and................................................. New complexities do not make a better game if they are not well thought out.

There are limits with the Unity engine, for example "Kerbal Space Program" (which uses Unity) could really do with a faster physics engine. BUT Unity is unlikely to limit PE. Technically PE is going to be a 15 year old game with modern bells and whistles, it does not need to push the limits technically. It pushes the limits with story and design.

If you want a DRM free version go GOG, they seem a great company and your support will help them more than Valve, competition is good and I hope GOG survive. I've had steam for 8 years, and think its great. I've went through 3 PC's in that time, and the ability to download steam, add my user password, and I have all my games, with up to date patches is incredible. Installing from a DVD is a pain in a hole now. Switching between machines (desktop + laptop) does require Internet access but is quick. Long term Valve would be one of the last companies to shut down the DRM servers.

Also can obsidian add a windowed full screen option. To allow viewing of websites with dual+ monitors while playing, without having big resource slowdowns when switching back into PE.

This is a bad gameplay idea, it adds a level of randomness which might be hard to overcome with the isometric interface. If you're playing easy mode this does not matter, but if you're playing at your limit and your permadeath character dies due to it, you will be very pissed off. Also it would not be consistent, for example a shrapnel grenade should be blocked heavily, but a poison cloud will not. This would add confusion. Also would an imp block less than an ogre ?, by right the size of the protected creature would need to be added to the equation, for example an imp will only block ~20% of the ogre.

I'd agree with Zeds mockup from page 1. The text box should be resizable and on the left, like in most other games. It's current position is just weird, we read english from left to right. I'd suggest not going too old fashioned with the interface. Google 3 UI screenshots from 30+ modern games (such as DOTA 2), flag cool UI techniques that would benefit an RPG. Add them into a quick mock up, and see if you can fit them together in a reasonable way. Add a IE engine UI veneer to it, but the core UI should be modern. I think going the more modern route will help reviews with non backers, who have never touched an IE game, improving chances of a PE 2, or PE throne of Bhaal. The egg story pane is beautiful, and immersive.