anameforobsidian

I think the genre has been split in three: - People who love micro went to mobas. - People who like the strategy went to TB and 4x. - People who like turtling and building defense have tower defense. At the same time, the only standard bearer of the genre with any name recognition is Star Craft. And not only is the writing of Star Craft getting less appealing as the gaming audience grows older, but the gameplay itself is probably less accessible than C&C (with it's heavy reliance on build order). I think the genre probably needs some simpler games to draw people in, like slightly more complex than Eufloria, but not very. By the way, how's Planetary Annihilation? I've heard not great things.

You can make time to do it if you clear your schedule of trolling boards for a game you apparently don't like.

I'm sick of the stupid SJWs and their non-genocide/ non-deicide / non-imperialism / non-racism / non-arson agenda; they're ruining my realism! Durance is at best a collection of diagnosable criteria, and at worst an evil fanatic. I also have him in my party every game.

I would say there's cc spells that are more than just Debuffs. These are spells that have a noticeable gameplay impact beyond the numbers, slicken being one. - So we have damage (minolettas), AoE's (fireball), bouncing (rolling flame). - Charm (confusion) - Debuffs (blindness) - Buffs (citzals martial prowess) - Summons (essential phantoms) - Healing (minor heal) - Crowd control (slicken, turn into pig) There are still some spells that fall outside of that: - Movement spells: spells that move you and enemies, (dimensional shift, pull of eora). - Shields: these are substantially different than buffs in that they protect, and that they're limited by attacks, (Ironskin) - Summoned Weapons or items: these are substantially different for gameplay than normal summons (parasitic staff, nature's bounty). - Traps: spells that activate when you walk on them, (priest seals) - Area altering spells: spells that affect a constant area, but end when you move out (brambles, freezing pillar, walls) - Counterspells, spells that affect other spells (suppress affliction, Deprive the Unworthy)

I think what you've said is pretty fair and matches my own impressions. I'd add: - The BG story works better, because it actually places less tension on you. Being left alone in a scary world means that you have to explore it at the same time it's dangerous, and I like that. I don't think it's a better story, it just has less dissonance. - The two enemy groups attacking each other is probably not a bug; enemies belong to factions and not all factions like each other. I'd like to see more of it in the game, because it'd create interesting forms of emergent gameplay (like Gothic). This would work especially well if there were more roving enemies. - I do agree with you about the static enemies. It might be nice to have enemies moving across the map at a fixed rate and have to catch up with them. Or have tough enemies hunting you. This could work well with the faction system, by tricking them into some nasty mobs. - PotD solves some of the tactics problems by making groups so large that tank and spank does not work for most of the game. More enemy AI would be very nice. I'd like to see enemy AI cast prayer against treachery after confusion or domination. Or counter dominations. - I would agree that White March should probably be restricted to later. Or at least WM pt. 2. - Difficulty increase solves the eyeless. They have a beam attack that murderated my maxed armor monk, and I had to use Ryona's triggered immunity to initiate fights or start with a res prepared. That was nice. - There were some mobs that act differently, but I'd like to see there behavior improved. Ice Trolls get back up again after being beaten up. Flame Blights and Unstable Constructs explode after death. On higher difficulties that can get devastating. Some ghosts have that annoying pull attack. Shades are just awful. Banshees shriek. Fampyr's charm. I think that more variation could be done: making a species of troll that has really strong regen with not much health, or a troll boss with a lot of regen would be neat. A fampyr cipher with some nasty mind control. Wolves that circled the party and attacked the weakest member with knockdowns, etc.

While I agree wholeheartedly with most of your post, six Chanters are supposed to be gamebreakingly effective. Six rangers are supposed to be pretty good too.

Priests are probably the closest thing to an irreplaceable class in the party. You can make do without them. Paladins can do a bit of the heavy lifting with Lay on Hands and reviving exhortation. Chanters can definitely lay down some decent buffs. However, I still think that priests are definitely the closet thing to irreplaceable. Maybe they could give druids a bit of a healing buff and an improved revive spell in the future. Druids most useful healing spell seemed to be moonwell. Nature's bounty did not feel deserving of its spell slot.

I can definitely see how that would happen. I would say that could also be a function of pacing and spacing. The game tries to do the same thing Baldur's Gate does, where it segments areas by chapter, but Baldur's Gate had a ton more freedom of movement and areas open initially than PE. The individual areas wind up feeling less connected. So the first time I played it felt like there were two separate games. There's the crit path, then there's the Endless Paths. With the expansion it feels like they added a whole separate game. I find each of the three games interesting and enjoyable, but it can be jarring to go from one to the next. It certainly lowers the stakes of the main quest.

Also you can not kill it and still get Hylea's favor.

I would think that it would enter before birth. The way the Legacy worked means that they would have had to have been non-stop biawacs otherwise. (Unless the Legacy cleared the area of souls so that there were none to enter when the child was born). On the other hand, I vaguely remember the Grieving Mother shaping the soul of mother and child, but I could be wrong. Of course, all of that's in the game. Souls don't exist in real life.

Three points: 1. How is sending the character with the most armor in front of the big dangerous beast cheese? In any rational world you would want to put the person with the most protection in front of the danger. Especially when that's what they've done for their entire career. 2. I beat the Ardra Dragon and the Ice Dragon on PotD without using any scrolls except resurrect. And I always give my characters resurrect scrolls. I know my experience is not yours, etc. But it just takes knowledge of the game system, not any sort of abuse or much luck even. You use protection against fear and reapply when needed. That solves a huge problem with the dragon's defense being too high. Then you target their weakest defense with debuffs. Master blaster mage tactics aren't that good against dragons, so you use what works. Then you step up the debuffs. Then you kill it. Sometimes you can charm or confuse the adds and they'll tank the dragon for you. Sometimes you can charm or confuse the dragon and they'll kill the adds for you. If you haven't charmed the dragon and they're not stunned, stay away from the mouth and tail. If you're near the mouth you'll get eaten or burned, then you'll have a bad time. If you're near the tail, you could get tail-whipped, then you'll have a bad time. 3. The game includes not one but two mechanics for getting out of dragon fire. One is boosting your reflex scores. Snake's Reflexes, Weapon and Shield Style, Wary Defender, and Adept Evasion do this. The other is much simpler. Don't stand in front of it's mouth. If you find you are in front of its mouth move. There are dozens of abilities and items that help you move quickly. Some characters can even move faster than the dragon. None of these tactics are cheese. They all fairly make sense.

Optional fights designed to challenge the player are hard? Clearly balance must be terrible. And no, you don't need to cheese your way through it. Just use persistent status effects, and then when one hits use the reduced defenses to land more. This'll cause a cascading failure in defenses, so you can get a big debuff like petrify up, and then beat the hell out the dragon. Also cast resistance to fear (or whatever the name of the spell that protects against the terror aura) on your party. It's a level one spell.

Immersion is the most frustrating word in gaming. It literally means something different to each person, and every time there's something that conflicts with their view of the perfect game, we get to here about how it ruins immersion. How can I get immersed in a game like this? Imagination.

Not really, there's a ton of burst, AoE, and wall effects that outnumber the close range ones.

He went with the intent to kill. The fact that he changed his mind and killed out of cowardice rather than wrath is not terribly mitigating.

Deathknight Bleakwalker would be pretty cool.

I would place them in tiers rather than best vs. worst. Top Tier: Hirviras, Eder, Zahua, Sagani. All of these quests involve learning and exploration, and the quest itself is something you do in game. Mid Tier: Pallegina, Kana, Durance, Grieving Mother. Pallegina and Kana have pacing issues, but interesting characterization that involves the world. Durance and GM don't have you do anything except conversation, but they're well written. Bottom Tier: Devil, Aloth. Devil has no personality growth in hers, and it's far too quick. Aloth has fundamental problems as a character; his quest doesn't really show growth and his surprise at the end of Act II overshadows the whole thing. Maneha (haven't played, she's too annoying to keep in party for long).

Primordials is probably the best of the new Druid Spells. The oozes have a lot of resistances, so they can off tank that extra surprise group for you. I had a hard time with tornado, most bosses have substantial resistance to prone, and the AoE is wide enough that it's fairly difficult to avoid your party. Some of the new wizard spells are awesome. The best of which is Wall of Many Colors. Wall of Many colors is great for boss fights, because it keeps creating status effects over long term. I was repeatedly charming the ardra dragon and using her to tank her adds. Wall of draining is decent. The AoE blasts are okay. Ningauth's bolt is nice, even if I never got the phantom to trigger. Priest spells are great. Storm of Holy fire and Resurrection were in my heavy play list. Watchful guardian had a hard time triggering.

I numbered the list to make it easier to respond to. 1. I like it as it stands, but I can understand how others might prefer it. I would say the need for this is smaller than other RPGs because party members do participate in skill check screens. 2. I think they do this a bit, but more would be better. 3. I completely disagree. The number of crafting ingredients alone make a normal inventory impractical. A compromise could be stash at strongholds, and a donkey follower (dungeon siege) with expanded space. 4. Don't know what you refer to here. If it's resting in a dungeon, that's a bad idea. The use of camping supplies makes resting and using powers more strategic decisions. This would encourage people to go back to inns, or lead to people getting stuck in mandatory dungeons. 5. Multiclassing, sure whatever. However, the cross-class talents do let you do that a bit. Weapon proficiencies annd your choice of armor let you do that a lot more. 6. Agree, especially for lower levels. I feel like I barely knew level 1 before it was gone. Introducing a full party earlier could help. 7. Agree, and JE Sawyer has said the next strongholds will be more like BG2. 8. Absolutely not. From a realism perspective, good rests definitely improve your athletic and test performances. Another way of thinking about this is a room could have a feature like a washtub that makes you less sore, and hence stronger for the next day. From a gameplay perspective, room bonuses are definitely worth considering. I generally don't take them until act 2 and then I never go without them, and normally pick where to sleep based on the rooms. 9. Yes. They could even do what BG1 did and have lower res npcs. 10. The backer stuff could have been handled better. I would have liked seeing them as random mobs. 11. I put off-off tanks like ciphers in chain or brigandine. On PotD, there's a good chance many people will wind up in melee. I do think brigandine could be dropped. 12. I think the mechanical virtues of the skill system outweigh the current problems, but I personally think intelligence and might should be almost wholly swapped. Intelligence fits the idea of more damage (knowing where to attack), and might fits the idea of bigger explosions. 13. Less voices the better. Maybe a few more character choices, but generally stick with few voice actors. That means less resources and more/better writing.

The inflated stats on PotD hardly make a difference, the real difficulty comes from the substantial change in encounter composition. Many strategies and builds become less viable as difficulty increases for that reason. (Tank and five glass cannons particularly). Up the difficulty before complaining about it not being difficult enough. Also, keep going in the endless paths or White March. Galvino's lab will murderate you at mid-levels, and Durgan's Battery, Concelhaut's tower, and the Eyeless are not pushovers at any level. Asinine OP is asinine.

I like the skills as they stand. I think traps could use a bit more work, but some people swear by gaze of the adragan traps. Lore is excellent due to revival, and skill boost scrolls for challenges. Mechanics is necessary. Athletics is something most melee characters should take. Survival is finally useful. I have Sagani take it to high levels so she can get the appropriate slaying boost. Stealth is used all the time, and makes for great openings.

In BG2, when you make a character, you level them up to 7 or 8 before the game starts. Thus, characters who are ported over do have a significant advantage if they did everything, but not an overwhelming one since your character levels quickly from low levels. Like, quickly enough that if you make a dual-classed mage, you can level up to your old level by doing two non-violent quests and reading a bunch of scrolls. I second Infinitron's idea of some kind of soul-drain. They've already said that Watcher's souls are valuable for epic spells. Maybe an Irenicus like figure could steal your soul and you have to find pieces of it around the world. They could give you a manufactured soul based on Azo's work on wichts.

He is sailing South by Southeast away from the most southeastern city of the Vailian Republics, which means Dreadfire Archipelago. Arrr, mateys! It's a pirate rpg. I'm happy with that, though would have preferred Rautai, or even Aedyr. The Vailian Republics don't seem much more than Renaissance Italy, but black. P.S. Why does this forum lack a pirate emoticon G1fted? It's worth pointing out that there's a bunch of advantages to choosing the Valian Republics: It's supposedly the only other places in the setting where animancy is nearly as widely spread as Dyrwood. Animancy is one of the most novel and interesting parts of the lore, and Galvino's workshop was a great little dungeon. The game would probably have a whole bunch of faction politics, which is one of Obsidian's greatest strengths over other companies. The worldmap seems the most developed there. I seem to remember some indicators from the kickstarter that the extra city was going to be one of the Valian cities. Outside of the Dyrwood it has the strongest characterization already. That could lead to less exposition dumps. If Pallegina is any sample, fighting a group of gunadins. It's close to Dyrwood, so it would be easier to explain some ties / repeating NPCs. Renaissance Italy is fairly different from the pseudo-Germanic high Middle Ages setting we expect. Historical influence could lead to fewer good / bad binaries, very different religious nature, different climate, and possibly a better focus on game economy. It fits the established Early Modern themes well. I want to see the people who made the gorgeous art in Pillars do isometric Renaissance art. I still remember seeing the fountains in BG2 to this day. Imagine seeing some Renaissance or Humanistic art, architecture, and fixtures.

The game was decent when it came out and it is much, much better now. I can't wait to see where it goes for PE2.

I wouldn't mind seeing PE go to epic levels, but I have to say the White March pt. II feels near epic already. Fighting a wizard who's named in the mechanics, the whole thing with Abydon. The spells that kill low health characters. The baby version of the five points exploding heart technique for monks. Stormcaller, just in general. I think they're going to have a hard time creating new mechanics that feel epic just like BGII did. As for the plot, there's several places it could go epic. Most notably Durance's quest, the child and Sun in Shadow, other places that formed the same function as Sun in Shadow, the spells Concelhaut mentions, the hollow places in the middle of Eora that the Ardra dragon mentions, Vithrack cities, etc.