Silent Winter

but why would, specifically, 'female' characters be compulsory?

In the last review I read, they clearly said that although the male NPCs are optional, female NPCs are compulsory - I believe the design decision was based around annoying sexist forum goers. ... ... .. . Seriously - what kind of question implies that? All party members are optional

It's come up in other threads but I'll repeat it here - 'Objective XP' doesn't equal 'Quest XP'I too would like to get XP for exploring areas - but that can be set as an objective by developers, it needn't be a quest given to you. Similarly, "wipe out the xvarts" could be an objective - one that involves killing in this case (poor xvarts) - but that probably would make more sense tied to a quest. So, theoretically, this system doesn't actually do anything to eliminate kill grinding. Since murdering every hostile in the forest could be an objective. Theoretically, yes - but if Obsidian were going to design such a system, they'd probably just leave in kill-xp. This way, they can give XP once for the exploration or for the killing of the goup IF that's an objective. So 'hunt down and kill all the xvarts in Farham Wood' is a mission from an NPC but 'Kill every last bear in Farham Wood' isn't. 'Explore and find hidden cave' is a non-quest objective, awarded with XP, but 'Kill the ogres on the way' isn't. Killing of ogres may or may not be unavoidable on this route. If unavoidable then their deaths are part of the objective and the xp-reward can be judged according to the difficulty.

^sell 1 used longsword for 1cp ... sell 1000 used longswords - woohoo, I can now buy a ............ brand new longsword!

It's come up in other threads but I'll repeat it here - 'Objective XP' doesn't equal 'Quest XP' I too would like to get XP for exploring areas - but that can be set as an objective by developers, it needn't be a quest given to you. Similarly, "wipe out the xvarts" could be an objective - one that involves killing in this case (poor xvarts) - but that probably would make more sense tied to a quest.

^good point

But how would you know there's no xp for killing them until after the axe was buried in their head? The way it looks currently - you'll be rewarded equally for fighting your way through (plus loot). So yeah, I think Obsidian have made a good choice. But yeah, it's all been said, the deal's done, and the opening looked great (and will involve plenty of fighting). Final analysis awaits a full playthrough...

^quite a few of us wanted a more BG-style pick-pocketing, if only to roleplay the thievey rogue a bit more - but alas, it's not to be. Hopefully the situations where it does come up won't simply be once or twice in the whole game.

I *think* pick-pocketing is part of the 'mechanics' skill - but it only comes up in scripted-interactions (you can't use it like in BG) - so maybe Paladins won't get the option in those interactions. (Josh mentioned in the video that sometimes you'll get different choices based on your class, attributes and equipment).

The Baldur's Gate games didn't force you to make such decisions (except in the early parts of each game), but Icewind Dale 1 did. When you come to Kuldahar near the beginning, you'll see lots of powerful enchanted items in the blacksmith's shop but you can't afford a single one of them. So you leave and follow the main story line, and by the time you come back to Kuldahar later you can maybe afford one of those items. And so on. By the end of the game (not counting expansion), you can own maybe 3 or 4 of them, but you have to choose which. yeah, but by the time I could afford them ... I didn't need them anymore. This is another balancing issue - awesome looking gear that you can't afford, so you adventure until you can, only to return and find out they're not so awesome anymore. It feels like a let-down. Either have less awesome gear at the shops or balance it so that you can afford it before late-game. I like most of Nonek's ideas (naturally people would try to steal from you if you're loaded - a perception check perhaps?) - Also, why not have people rip you off if your pockets are over-flowing with gold: Innkeeper [appraise skill on you]: Bad time to be coming through here, what with the ...er ...festival and wotnot. Prices are triple what they usually are. (Disagree about paying the NPCs - unless it's a mercenary type which would make sense in-game - otherwise I consider it to be ;party money' so they get their share of the food, equipment, etc and the loot when all's done. I think they did it in TOEE, where the joinable NPCs got some of the spoils / bought their own equipment or something. But that was one or 2, not the whole team.

Actually he says you DO lose it so there are consequences (that was a point he was making through the video about actions having consequences)

Err..Did they? I didn't have such feeling although I watched the video several times...anyway，is that a weakness? Yes it is - it's not a game-breaking one, but it's distracting when I'm looking at more effect than combat. This is an IE-style game, not Street-Fighter Alpha A larger effect from spells is ok - having a rippling from a basic hit seems strange to me.

I agree with this - some did seem a little over the top I didn't think so.They should improve the power of enemies, but not subdued the ability.That's the sweet spot of combat. By the 'ability effects' I was thinking of the special FX rather than the power of the abilities - some seemed very big for what was a small ability. (large waves of power coming off it)

I agree with this - some did seem a little over the top

It's not.

My eariler post didn't post I actually think the 3D models (at CC) are great. They look good to me and do the job nicely. I think it's better to use the ones that are going to be in-game. I don't see the benefit of making separate models/higher-res textures for this.

Edit: double-post

agreed - needs better contrast (or a different pattern). I'm ok with wood, but parchment might make more sense for some areas. If they want to stick with wood, they need to look at that text and how it shows up

unless most people have little to nothing on them - successfully looting 2 cp from everyone in the village gets you 20 cp for a lot of work - or even max-dex doesn't get you everyone so it'd still be a gamble if 'peasant A' could be pick-pocketed or if 'Commoner B' is too alert.

Yeah - there should be a good variety of presets - including variations of a colour (dark, medium and light - reds, blues, browns, greys, etc). Must have jet black too, unless they've found a darker colour. I can understand not wanting the RGB wheel for the reasons Lephys mentioned but there should still be enough choice from the pallette.

I did (use the icon) - at least for the first few playthroughs - I agree that there shouldn't be superfluous icons that get very rarely used and could be put in a different menu-screen. Er, no. I'd prefer a 'boring old' functional health-meter Of the 3, I actually prefer the PoE one - though I agree that it could be spruced up a bit, I don't like the aesthetic of the ones you showed either. I've made my other opinions in those threads linked by MasterPrudent so I won't repeat them here. In general, I like a stylized but functional UI.

While I'm fine with it, I agree that balancing it around a couple more points would be better - having a 16 and a couple of 14s just looks like you can create more different builds. It's largely psychological as the game will be balanced around the points you have and you can also reduce some stats (I believe) to add to others, but that can make a difference for some people. Agreed - this would be very handy at first playthroughs (unless it's all in the manual?) Agreed - this is a simple but effective way of making conversations easier to follow and giving the speaker a 'voice-trigger' to mentally tune to. I agree - though the different colours for different party members isn't something I'd use - a nice simple green for party, blue for NPC and red for hostile makes my brain comfortable. As for the rest - looks great, looks fun to play, can't wait (but will have to) Edit: Still making my way through the video - one thing I noticed just now is that the positioning of the portraits relative to the action makes it harder to keep an eye on health (v. the positioning in BG with portraits on the right). Tried eye-flicks to the current position v. my preferred position and it definitely seemed longer / less intuitive - maybe I'll get used to it *shrug*

I'd also prefer the 'try and pickpocket whomever' type from IE games. Being told 'pick his pocket' in a dialogue is kind of 'meh' - it screams 'THIS ONE has something worth picking' Won't spoil my game, just seems like an odd decision.

Sorry to hear that, Namutree, <8(... May fortune find you. ^What he said Edit: Should've read further - welcome back --- Can we release the character creation portion about a week or 2 before the game? I'm gonna need that long - looks great Suddent urge to create an arisrocratic barbarian...

Not really. Playing with a party of 3 in the IE games was actually much easier than playing with a party of 6. Mainly because XP was shared (as it will be in PoE, btw), which means the smaller your party was, the faster you leveled. And if you soloed, you leveled... 6 times faster. Wait, isn't that what I've been saying since about page 3? Yes - until you hit the level cap (which I believe was already brought up) early-mid game much easier, end-game not so - so it depends on whether they're balancing the xp-rewards around the critical path to have a party of 6 reach the level cap (or perhaps level 11 - with the final level made up of some optional content). Or whether that'll just let you hit level 9 or 10, in which case the solo-er may well be poweful enough at level 12 to take the final boss ... but that could also mean the 6-person party at level 12 would beat that same boss far too easily. We've heard that some of the optional bosses are harder than the 'final fight', so it may be that the main-game is soloable but the optional bosses are just that bit too tough. Or not, we just don't know enough about the mechanics and any possible tactics/exploits.