Silent Winter

^On page 2 of this thread I mentioned the latest info we have: "PoE in-game portraits for character screen will be 210x330 - (smaller one for the HUD)" Based on a post by Josh a while back. No final info on the HUD ones. Maybe those playing the beta can give a better idea of the resolution for the character-screen and HUD ones. Edit: Got the news, thanks to InsaneCommander: The HUD portraits are 76 x 96 pixels.

Only for another 1 hour and 15 minutes ... Obsidian's on Beijing time, right? Edit: stupid clock and its inability to keep accurate time

Hmmm, Charna Me or Demon OverTime Beta? The first acually sounds quite good

It's not want of playing - it's want of time and negotiable currency I'm working every day at the minute and will be for the next month so I'll have to get by vicariousy through the videos - still, I'll have the new-game smell come December when I'll have time to enjoy it As for my name - it's an (artistic license) translation of my Chinese name, given to me by my first lot of students when I came over here.

What are you guys talking about? I've been playing the beta for hours. in my dreams

Kilya Frexpi (I actually had an evil sorceress in NWN2 called Kilya - it amused me at the time) Nowexpi Nofite Actually - from the backer beta video it looks like you just get to enter one name like in BG - so I'll only go with a name I want to be referred to by - given name or nick-name: Aldric (Human Paladin) Arron (Human Ranger) Gryth (Dwarven Fighter) Scythe (Human Rogue) Lief (Human Druid) Shai (Elven Priest) but I'll probably also look through the lore a bit before naming any Aumaua or Orlan characters to get something that fits.

I'm sure that I will need to get used to a lot of things being different. Druid's have always been shapeshifters, but have also always had the most powerful animal companions. Rangers traditionally have animal companions also, but typically they get them at higher levels than druids do, and they are less powerful. Guess I need to go into this with an open mind. In BG, only the mages/sorcerers had a familiar (after using Find-Familiar spell) - other classes could summon animals but not permanent companions (without mods). In NWN2 rangers and druids got the animal companions (which I did enjoy) So maybe that's an AD&D v. 3rd ed. thing? I don't mind them being more exclusive to one class since it gives the class something unique for different playthroughs.

^Like a kinder-surprise but with gum? Hmmm, maybe if Adam had used the gum on the beetles, they'd have been too slow to attack - is that what he used on the ogre in the 2nd vid?

I like the portraits I've seen, including the elf, but for a PC I usually just make my own (already made my druid one for PoE though it may get tweaked). I wonder if we'll have access to the portraits as separate assets (.jpg/.bmp) rather than having them only in the game code. That way I could more easily view through them all and also alter them more easily. (Perhaps this could be a little 'extra' like they have with the BG games at GOG - or is a larger version of the portraits on of the art-tier backer awards?

I'm pretty sure only the rangers get an animal companion (Druid's thing is the spiritshift) - let us know though after you try the beta.

I recall them saying it'd take 3-6 hours (depending on how thorough you are with exploration vs. rushing through I guess) - but then you've also got multiple goes with different PCs (Don't forget it is a beta though - expect some bugs to report and a less than perfect combat balance - from what I saw of the videos though, you should enjoy it - colour me jealous ).

As an aside - my 2nd playthrough will involve the ruthless killing of as many NPCs as possible. (First will take a 'look and see' approach to best RP options for the druid I'm almost certainly rolling)(...after playing character creator for an hour...)

It had everything to do with the ruins - you're told where the ruins are and the scripted interaction takes you into them It's not something you achieve through gameplay (either through exploration, puzzle-solving or fighting) - it's unavoidable. Saving heodan, I agree, could have some xp reward under this system - as could dealing with the glanfathan threat beforehand.

The argument isn't that the actual mechanical act of sneaking gets you the xp - the argument is that dealing with the problem gets you the xp - hence you don't have to go and sneak past each group - only the ones in your way. If you're getting xp for exploring you can sneak past some, fight others, do whatever you want I actually agree that overcoming the glanfathan threat (through talking/fighting) should get you xp - but not entering that cave in the scripted interaction which is on rails and unavoidable - maybe get xp for saving Heodan?

Perhaps to make it more difficult?I don't believe the point was that sneaking past / fighting a different enemy there would give you more xp, but rather having no enemies there would give you less. That would still be an unfounded assumption. Edit: make that a FALSE assumption. I just watched the first gameplay video we got (the one that showed the beginning of the game) Zero XP was rewarded for entering the Glenfathan ruins. And this is despite the fact that: 1)there were plenty of enemies outside (in fact, a whole group of Glenfathans) 2)Entering the ruins was actually a plot based objective discussed at camp. Explain that. Because not entering those ruins is impossible - it's not an objective, it's a scripted interaction. I didn't say that entering all caves/ruins would grant xp. We were discussing xp awarded for exploration / objectives vs, kills. In the beetles example, you get xp for reaching the cave - having to go through the beetles. In the beginning game example, you're on rails - you can't 'find' the cave through exploration - you're sent through it by the game. Why should that award you xp?

In a vain attempt to merge the 2 threads (whose arguments are getting repeated in this thread), I'm posting my reply for these xp-arguments in the experience points mechanics thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66528-experience-point-mechanics-fighting-enemies/?p=1479909 --- In other words - yeah, where's the druid video? The 18th is tomorrow (or perhaps the next day in Irvine's time zone) - anyone going to be doing a let's play / live stream with a druid?

In a vain attempt to merge the 2 threads, I'm posting my reply here from the other thread: 'dealing with an enemy' yes. I like Ganrich's 'fog of war clearing' goal for this. In reference to geting the ogre-xp without needing to talk to the NPC first (and it being noticed that 'finding cave' is a rewarded objective as I was advocating earlier: Yes - watch the 2nd playthrough vid where Adam goes straight for the ogre without asking the farmer first.

I voted any time outside combat but I'd also be happy with 'while resting' And as Volourn and others have said: no free heals and spells back on level-up - keep it like IE games.

Perhaps - I was merely pointing out that 'kill some' as necessary isn't the same as 'kill all' as an objective. [stated design goal of Obsidian, not my original idea] If we're rewarding killing of enemies directly then I'd rather have the kill xp (as stated before, there's nothing inherently wrong with kill-xp) - but having an objective to kill every last one for 200xp v kill almost all of them for zero xp seems a poor design choice to me. (Again, it'd be fine for a single quest or 2 to involve removing a threat for the locals / faction who hates them, but if it's going to be for every area then just give us kill-xp. This is an idea that I fully support - partly because I have OCD about clearing the fog of war but also because it solves the problems stated. You'd either have to kill the hostiles or sneak really close to clear the fog and then be rewarded for doing so. As you said, the percentage would need to take into account unclearable areas like those over a large body of water or something. Perhaps to make it more difficult? I don't believe the point was that sneaking past / fighting a different enemy there would give you more xp, but rather having no enemies there would give you less. I don't think levelling the characters sooner and then giving them harder enemies amounts to a greater challenge - personally, I think 'hard' difficulty should be harder because you're facing harder enemies at the same level as you would face lesser enemies on 'easy'. Having said that - we don't know how Obsidian has designed it - so if xp rewards are greater in 'hard' then they'll be greater for that too.

If all the levels were like that, then you could say that (I wouldn't say that just for 2 levels out of 15 though) But I imagine it's not going to be 1000xp per level but rather 200xp for solving this puzzle, 100xp for that puzzle, 300xp for dealing with the ROUS problem, 100xp for getting the ogre to eat the ROUSs and 200xp for going through the exit plus some optional xp for cleaning the lavatory in the corner. In other words, not something that repeats or gets 'farmed'. Anywho, whether we're calling it systemic or not isn't the issue in the thread - it's whether getting kill-xp is needed. Combat is fun anyway, most of the time. If you could actually find a way to reward stealthing past the enemies (which as pointed out is tricky to implement) and only have it done once and still reward killing the enemies just once but not receive both xp-rewards then that'd work too (but be more effort than the current system for no gain). Right now you're getting to the XP at the back of the cave - to do so you must deal with the beetles/spiders or wotnot.

Then your poll should have had more options I like the idea of an IE style screen - (but that involves full-screen for inventory/level-up/spell-book etc, not the floating windows.) I like the zoomed-in character as an advanced paper-doll. It's on the inventory screen too. I'm not going to vote against it. The poll didn't let me choose 'keep the zoomed in character but change to consistent screens' so I went with option 1. I get that some people don't like the zoomed in character but I honestly think they're great - looks better than I'd expected. I'm comparing it with BG and finding it favourable. I'm not comparing it with the latest games. I work with higher res 3D models than those in my spare-time so I guess it doesn't impress me.

We shall clone him! ... but at 1/8 the original size. And we shall call him 'Josh Orlan'

It bears repeating: Obsidian stated PoE would be combat-focused. With that in mind, it wouldn't surprise me if Obsidian decided to encourage fighting over sneaking during the exploration segments of the game. After all, they never said sneaking would be a viable way to play the whole game, quite the contrary. I expect sneaking to offer alternate (and viable) solutions during specific parts of the game, same as every other skills, but nothing more. Yes, they said it'd be combat focused. I'm not arguing that - my point remains that they've also said they're not giving xp for kills to avoid the need to kill-grind. Therefore it would make little sense for them to turn around and say 'wilderness areas require you to kill all the monsters' Many of the monsters may be unavoidable - but not every single xaurip/beetle/spider/whatever. To me, saying it's combat focused just means there's a lot of unavoidable combat - which I'm fine with, I enjoy the combat - but it doesn't mean they're going to actively encourage you to kill every monster. They don't need to do that when the majority are in your way anyway.

Druid (Human or Orlan) - then will likely pick up Eder, Sagani, Orlan-Cipher-dude, Cadegund, and whichever other companion seems like a good idea at the time. Will need another melee so Pallegina or Forton? 2nd playthrough will depend on first - will probably take remaining unused companions and choose a complementing PC of either Orlan (if not in first playthrough) or Aumaua race. 3rd - etc but with more adventurer's hall companions.

IIRC, you can leave some of your PC companions around the stronghold to gain exp while your main party is out adventuring, so if you do this for a long stretch of time, I could imagine them gaining multiple levels. Good point - in that case, it's definitely a good idea to allow to stay on the screen and just click to make each level up choice.