Spekko

Huh? I promised that? When???? I'm sure I heard it somewhere... But for real, I would love a book of the scores, or a set of pdfs or something. I know that a tiny, tiny, tiny amount of people would ever have a use for it, but as a musician and composer myself, I always like seeing how other people actually orchestrate, notate directions, etc. on paper. I can dream, right?

I am all for a xaurip companion. We can call him D-er, Xeekin. I am serious, though. We need a xaurip companion.

Looking forward to the pony. I hope it's a friesian. Also looking forward to the printed scores, Justin, as well as the piano arrangements of the soundtrack you just promised.

I would really like the fights to have more counters and things. It seems like a lost opportunity, to allow wizards to switch out spell sets on a whim, and then have no real reason to. I don't necessarily want it to be as extreme as BG2 was, where you either dispelled them or they were invincible, but something to give me some more incentive to switch out grimoires once in a while would be nice. Seems like a waste to give Batman these utility belts I am however, totally in support of things doing some damage no matter what, even if it doesn't make a ton of sense (like fire blights taking fire damage). Mostly because I remember building a shadowdancer in NWN SoU, all excited to be able to hop in and out of the shadows doing sneak attacks, only to find that everything was undead, and immune to sneak attacks, so it just ended up being incredibly disappointing (and annoying). Only other thing I find genuinely disappointing is the lack of item crafting at all, after it was so good in NWN2, and the lack of enchantments. I'd be fine with unique items getting stronger, exclusive versions of enchantments (like Damaging 3, +3 attributes, etc), as a trade off for the ability to customize a weapon. But it would be nice to be able to craft items with a customized appearance, and some more enchantments to learn and things. Otherwise the only complaints I have are pretty minor. No one sitting, some things that are randomly pixely and low res when everything else around them isn't, lack of a xaurip companion, that kind of stuff. (p.s. make a xaurip companion)

It would be nice if there was some explanation of what spell striking did in the mechanics cyclopedia or something. People on steam are saying it only works on the first critical hit of an encounter? Not really sure, honestly. I figured it was a percentage thing, like 5% or something, but I guess not. But maybe it is. I don't really know.

The stronghold definitely feels underwhelming and a little unfinished. The adventures don't even have any names or lore or anything, just Minor Adventure. Major Adventure. Even WoW's garrison gives you a little story and objective and everything. The resting bonuses not stacking and instead picking between one +1 skill. I thought they all stacked at first so you got a very broad +1, which seemed alright. But I guess not, so it's pretty pointless, even without the loading screens. Not to mention that it's pretty empty, which would be alright, and at least helps to explain why I keep having to fight guys inside my keep, instead of getting any use out of those walls I built... I was really excited about that, because defending the stronghold in NWN2 was my favourite part of the game, but in PoE it's just bleh, the fights are over in like 10 seconds. And just how do they get in? Is it the maze? Do they have a map of it? Can we get a minotaur upgrade? It's a little... strange.

I'm sure there will be a mod for this, but I'd also be perfectly happy with one that changed all their names to whatever generic title was most appropriate for the map (Villager, Commoner, Adventurer, etc) and changed all the ones that are godlikes to some other random race. That would fix both of the things that annoy me about them. Having read a few of the stories, I thought most were pretty okay, actually, and better than I expected overall. (Aside from the fact that they all start with "You see..." which is a little annoying.)

Really love the first and third screenshot, but that main drake in the middle screen, I don't know. There's something off about the texture, I think. Maybe the lighting, under the wing, I'm not sure. It just looks flat and kind of... NWNish. Excited to be murdered and eaten by them, though. Or vice versa.

You're awesome too. You've got to BELIEVE! I haven't played FTL yet, but now that you mentioned it in context of "listener fatigue" I think I will! Thanks for pointing that out, !!! You got me there... BTW Chopin Piano Etudes = best music ever. Chopin's Etudes are what got me into music, and playing the piano. Put on Louis Lortie playing Op. 25 No. 12 or Op. 10 No. 3 and everything becomes right with the world, at least for a few minutes. Anyways, this was a great update, and I'm really liking it so far, but I'm curious, is there any chance that we'll ever get to see a full score for one of the pieces (or maybe all of them but I probably shouldn't push my luck...)? As a composer and arranger myself, I always like studying the scores of other composers and really getting into the details of how they wrote the piece, and possibly, you know, stealing some of their ideas on how different instruments can be combined. You know... it's like that Stravinsky quote.