Katarack21

I really want it on the left side. Like, so much. Being on the right like that just feels like an unnatural angle to keep my face pointed. It makes me much less likely to pay attention to it.

Awesome. I like all these ideas. Many of them seem like they'll be quick and easy to implement, and will provide improvements. The logs I've seen in videos and the screenshots here, it kind of looks like a mess.

Chrome and fire. Copious amounts of both. Have a Fire Godlike, glowing, holding fire weapons and doing some crazy Cipher attacks in a sweet CGI cut scene. Set it to this. Or Super Beast.

You don't understand it then I see.Yes, it is the amount of money you can put into a game but the purpose is to get a sizable profit on it. For that you needs sales in millions of units which ask that your game is of a type that more than one group of gamers will want to buy. And that is why Blizzard is making half casual games now, because they can earn back their investment. At the same time, these are the games I don't care about. I agree with you. I am simply saying that the statement "such-and-such is a AAA company" doesn't actually indicate the games the company makes but is simply a casual measurement of the companies wealth and size. The types of games being made are a product of the business-oriented culture of these large companies. If Obsidian becomes extremely wealthy on the backs of sales of PoE, it's expansion and it's sequel, then PoE can begin to influence the culture of *other* AAA companies besides itself (after becoming a AAA company). If this company, and this game, can prove the success of these types of games (focused and specialized niche games made with small budgets with targeted appeal) as a business model, then those companies will start to produce more games influenced by this one and those companies cultures will start to be influenced by Obsidian. That would be good for all of us.

AAA isn't a measure of how you make games, what kind of games you make, etc. It's just a measure of wealth, influence, and the over all size of the company in the industry, and I *DO* want them to become powerful and influential. The hope is that by being wildly successful and influential, they can influence the industry into another direction--the direction they follow themselves, with narration and character and all that good stuff.

Right, but is it possible to pick ONE character, and over time build that character into a tactical movement character--so that I can move that character around the battlefield with relative freedom, without dying or suffering the major disengagement drawbacks, at the cost of not being particularly damaging/accurate/whatever? If this ability was in the game, it would drastically increase the tactical capabilities, as you would have to adapt to occasional movement-capable enemies and you yourself would have to decide how best to use the character you designed for mobility, if you chose to do so. If you didn't, of course, such opposing characters could be taken care off with spells, off-tanks, knock down and move, etc. It's just a choice, an option for building a character, that I feel allows some leniency in the engagement system without completely undoing it and also increases tactical and strategic options.

False, there's actually a couple of skills, talents, attributes, abilities that aid a "Tumble" build, but I think the components may be named differently. I've seen a couple of "+15 Disengagement Defense", so you can totally build a "Tumbler" character, but it doesn't quite feel optimal in the Beta, because of bugs. My ranged characters can get disengage attacks by just moving a bit against melee enemies blocked by my melee units. I may be wrong. I haven't actually played the beta, just been reading voraciously and watching videos. I haven't seen or heard anything about it until now. Can somebody experiment with a build like this? Is it even possible in the beta?

I actually haven't played the beta, just watched a ton of videos and been reading about it like crazy. I'm looking forward to it a lot. A whole lot. I went crazy with excitement when I saw the Kickstarter, put my money in as soon as I could, and have been devouring everything I could about it since. Obsidian makes flawed gems, with problems almost always directly traceable to the publisher. I've enjoyed every one of their games, and wished desperately for one without such glaring problems. This is the chance to do that. This could be the game that finally breaks them through to big time AAA publishing. If they can manage to bring in all of the things have made their past games great and leave behind almost all of the bug and flaw issues because they can take all the time they need to iron it out, this game could be totally and mindbogglingly fantastic. If things go just right for them, ten years from now they could end up where Blizzard was after WC:III. Combine that with the modern-update to my all-time favorite RPG style, and I couldn't *not* be excited.

Hey, look, I don't really care how they market it, but I've read my Bernays. I know how the game is played. I'm getting my copy, and my expansion pack, no matter what Paradox does. I'm just a part of the penny gallery.

I actually like idea they used in 3.5 D&D, where they had forms of sticky melee but also the ability to build around it. They don't have an equivalent to "Tumble" in PoE, for example. In 3.5, if you chose to do it you could build a character around a tumble score, so they basically have a high chance of avoiding any attack of opportunity and thus avoid one of the major consequences of moving in melee in D&D. Doing this would often cost you, however; if nothing else you have to devote some feats and skill points to it so you lose out on other abilities that do things like increase damage or make hitting more likely. You could build a character designed to go through the melee and attack the healer standing behind their tank, for example. It created more options in combat, with you never being positive if everything was going to say in a clump or if the enemy could move towards your backup. My parties would have lots of discussions about how to prepare, even keeping our mobile character back to meet and block equally mobile opposing forces after melee began, to protect our sorcerer or archer. I don't see any way in PoE to build a character with a trade-off like that, so that they can move more freely around the battlefield but suffer in other areas. If that ability was in the game, I wouldn't have so many problems with melee engagement.

Excellent point. I'll freely admit, I rest spammed. Constantly, all the time. I never considered it exploiting, never considered it cheating. It was simply the manner in which I played the game. I have beaten it with out rest spamming, since then, but originally I rest spammed by way through it without thinking about it.

That's all on Paradox, I think. Still, if I were going to do it I'd use an overarching nostalgia theme, buried beneath a hard push on narrative, reactive dialogue, a focus on a major iconic character to identify the brand (A Cipher, clearly, since they are both badass and heavily based on the unique IP) and strategic real-time-with-pause combat.

Best suggestion I've seen all day.

Good question. I often "Take All", especially when I am a beginner in a new game because I do not know what is useful for me and/or do not feel like managing my inventory at that moment, or when I feel pressured because enemies are around and I do not want to get distracted with inventory management at that moment. So I "Take All" and do my inventory management later on when inventory gets full or when I am in a safe area. That is my general mode of operation in RPG's--take all, sort later when I have time.

This. So much. I always HATED that mechanic in D&D, and I hated it more in BG. Instant-death-if-I'm-no-prescient, unless I'm lucky. How is that fun?! How is that "awesome"? It sucked. I made me nerd rage every time.

I like engagement as a concept, but there should be abilities and skills that allow you to mitigate, although not get rid of, those engagement issues. Basically I want to at least have the option of building a character who is designed to move about the battlefield with relative freedom, at the cost of other abilities.

Regarding the whole kiting thing. Kiting isn't bad, any more than stunning a foe is bad, or launching a fireball is bad. It's when kiting's stupidly reliable that it's bad. It's a matter of extents. When "how do I go through combat without getting hit, but whilst effectively killing my foes?" is answered with "Just kite, 8D!", that's when it's bad. Or, another way to look at is, if you can start at melee range from something and STILL kite it successfully (reliably, not just in certain situations in which you've actively opened up an opportunity to gain some distance), it's bad. Unless you're playing DOTA or something. Then it isn't. Most of the time, when people grumble about kiting, or bring it up as a problem, they're not talking about the sheer act of maintaining distance from a melee foe. They're talking about the full-health-to-dead strategy of killing everything effectively, with ease, by simply employing movement commands. True facts. I was merely making the point that select all is a viable tactic in large chunks of BG. Pretty much anything in the open wilderness for the first half of the game can be taken out by using select all and attack with everybody equipped with bows or slings. The kiting issue that's been brought up was a problem, but not *just* for the reasons people have been discussing. Unmodded and with only the official patches, BG had a serious balance problem with ranged weapons vs melee. Right from the beginning you can kill most enemies before they get near you; this is even successful in the Nashkel Mines and in the Cloakwood Mines. It's only later, as you start fighting groups of powerful enemies in closed quarters where melee and strategy become much more necessary. Heck, I know a guy who beat the entire game using mostly select-all, hotkeys for spells, and no pausing at all (he actually didn't know about the pause feature).

Well I sent in an question on the contact deal. I guess in the mean time I can be a member pro tempore? :-P

Balls. I gave an extra $5 to the kickstarter back when the pledge management first went up, before I knew about the Obsidian Order, and I guess now it'll be a month before I can do the 8 bucks thing. Hope the pledges are still open by then.

What does one have to do now to become a member of the Obsidian Order? Chief Eldritch Abomination is looking like a pretty good title.

To be fair, it's entirely possible to do that in vanilla BG when you're level 3ish and fighting gibberlings and stuff. If course, I play with SCS so that doesn't really apply. Actually, in vanilla BG you can just equip everybody at the beginning with ranged weapons, and select all-->attack mow through almost naything that is in the open. Don't even usually have to kite.

I don't understand what the problem with this would be. It's a request for an *option*, not a mandatory thing. Most people would probably keep it on, at least during the first play through. There is a portion of people who don't care so much about the "challenge" or the "strategy" and just want to have fun while experiencing the story, the characters, the locations, etc. Those people don't mind if the balance is off when they turn off the level cap, because that's not something that is important to them. For people to whom that aspect of the game is important, just leave the level cap on and play it that way. Why should either group have a problem with the manner that the other group plays?