Gorbag

^ But not snow. That looked terrible in BG. So, just to be clear, there are areas, where it is raining all the time and areas where it never rains? If so, I can live with that.

First off, dropping into an ongoing discussion is a terrible thing to do, and I am sorry. I agree that biological factors hardly matter now because, as you said, "individual population" is not based on biology for a long time. Whether it mattered in the past and when, is a different question, going far and away from the topic of this thread. What it can be based on IMO, is environment. Even though it is at present a lesser factor than it was in the past, environment has always shaped political behaviour as much as any social behavoiur of the affected group. Furthermore, as any living things, people adapt to environment or move out or die, so you could say that people who lived for a long time in a certain environment are somewhat physically changed to accommodate adaptation. In this train of thought, returning to the topic at hand, if any generalizations could be made for the sake of innate bonuses, they should be made based on where (and therefore how) people live, rather than who they are (not to mention that such approach is significantly less politically loaded than a race-based one). This, I think, is how the "subracial bonuses" work in PoE anyway, although to some extent (as we have Island Aumaua, but not Island Dwarf for example, as if dwarves cannot live on an island and therefore develop differently than their coastal/mountain/etc. cousins). As for "racial bonuses", I guess if we take different types of beings (such as "Human", "Aumaua", "Orlan", "Dwarf", etc.) and compare them as mathematical averages, we could reach some conclusions based on in-game made-up scientifical data, such as "Humans are generally faster than Aumaua", "Aumaua are generally stronger than Orlans", etc. It may not be correct for *any* Human or *any* Orlan, but then again we have all skills and attributes to play around with, so that *our* Human and *our* Orlan may deviate from the arbitrary "norm" however we like.

What probably won't be in the game: five click-when-timer-ends spells lack of UI style in favor of extra quick gameplay dialogue wheel TES-style dialogues getting quests from questboards, letters and people with exclamation marks over their heads safe-zone towns, inhabited exclusively by The Healer, The Trader and the aforementioned people with exclamation marks over their heads.

Streamed content gets additional prior stability passes though. That's not to say that the game won't be as stable on release, we'll have to wait and see. It's probably day 1 for me, unless I have other stuff to do.

Is that what she said? P.S. Man, I hope this thread does not get locked, it's so perfectly immature.

What does any chastity belt do? It prevented the promancers from "role playing" a 'relationship' with their Bhaal sister. If Bhaal does not stop at dragons, then there is no line anymore, is there?

Pfew! I thought it was a Noober thread. Got me worried there for a sec.

I think the "can't change weapons in combat except for quickslots" thing is made to look like a bigger problem than it actually is. Remember that we have Josh Nohardcounters Sawyer at the helm, so the chance of encountering a pack of clay golems, only susceptible to that flaming hammer you carelessly threw in your inventory, is pretty close to nill. Special weapons can help you, but they won't make or break a battle.

@Prime Junta: Well it's easy to forget other points of view when your mind is set on something. Just as I forgot to think about how the inability to flee from combat affects those who play Trial of Iron/Ironman regularly. That's what discussions are for, not only ganging up against stuff.

But that's exactly what the mod does. It adds the option to move anything anywhere for those who are not satisfied with the current design. Fixing a problem in PoE would suggest that there is a problem to fix. Currently there is a design choice which some like, some don't care about and some dislike. The mod is there to satisfy the last group of people. I'm not opposed to making the UI customizable, as long as it does not turn into the UI of NWN2 and retains the IE feel. Also I'm not sure how the customizable elements would fit with the solid background (which I plan to use). EDIT: That's based on what I've seen of it. I haven't tried the mod personally, as I said, I'm not a BB player.

Not being able to pre-buff or use combat abilities out of combat does not help either. I guess Trial of Iron in PoE would be pretty damn brutal.

Yeah, I forgot about the Trial of Iron mode in PoE for a second. I guess it would take some careful scouting now, but even then I'd not try the Trial of Iron on my first playthrough.

1. While I agree that running away is a viable option, how often did you run away from combat in IE games? In those games it only worked when enemies were too big or too slow to chase you, or when you are allowed to exit a map while in combat and the AI does not allow enemies to follow you (which kind of made it feel like an exploit). 2. I see it as a permanent bag of holding. Those were insanely useful in IE games, so I don't think having one from the start is bad. The choice on whether to use it or not (and how extensively you would use it - like throwing everything you come across in there) is entirely up to you. For me, having crafting components in a game always creates an inventory clutter, so I'm just going to throw those in the stash and only use them if I need them. 3. Not a thing for me. I always put any weapon I feel I'd need in a quickslot. Now that I can equip a ranged/two handed weapon and an off-hand, I don't think I'd ever need to add anything from my inventory during combat. 4. Agree on special ammo. Conventional ammo, on the other hand, was both cluttering the inventory and causing unnecessary backtracks. Even IE games had infinite bags/quivers and magical ammoless bows for that. 5. Yeah, it's not in the center as usual, but I think I'll live. 6. I'll have to play it for some time to see if it irks me (I'm not playing the BB). 7. I don't know if the standard movement in IE games is considered walking or running, but I've only ever used that, unless I had some speed amplifiers. 8. Didn't think about that before. I personally prefer enemies to be named based on what they do (like orc shaman, kobold commando, goblin trapper, etc.), or having different types of creatures based on their abilities (like sword spider, vampiric wolf, cave bear, etc.) Agree on 9 and 10.

That sound effect playing in your mind. That's what you get.

Piggy-back on Lephys: ...or at least could voices fall into the "ambient/environment" category? Coz you know everybody is going to bump those and you'd kind of want characters to speak louder than crickets at any time.

A troll is dependent on the disapproval of his targets, which is kind of a backwards codependency. So you can say that trolls are coindependent.

This is gold.

Yup! BTW Ps:T features alternative ways to end the game but not alternative outcomes of the endgame events, at least not for TNO (maybe it would have been nice if there was any way to redeem him, but I guess nothing can really change the nature of a man). PoE is supposedly going to have both.

Ah, so that's who he is! Love the guy. Although Sarevok did not have as many memorable lines in BG as David Warner's Irenicus had in BG2, I love what he did to the game.

I must admit I haven't paid much attention to his work until now. He seems to be in a lot of stuff though and I've probably heard him a lot, never knowing it was him. I'd personally go for Jeremy Irons' sleazy pompous villain delivery.

Ouch. This cannot be good. On topic, I bet Pillars of Eternity would end up being a lot more accessible that the Infinity Engine games (not that I've had any problem whatsoever accessing them, but, as the OP would put it, I'm a grognard, so there). That said, please note that accessible =/= easy. Also, bear in mind that what is "accessible" to one is "dumbed down" to another.

The reason for this is that the KO/game over mechanic does not check if there are any enemies around in order to decide whether to trigger the game over screen or not, so it really does not matter if you get overwhelmed, you end up in a draw or you just trigger a trap. Your party gets KO'd, you immediately get game over whatever the reason. And since soloing is basically a party of 1... I guess the mechanic could be modified to check for enemies, but I'm pretty sure it will be a lot of work for little gain. Furthermore we may end up getting another easily breakable mechanic. From a roleplaying point of view (as with all other mechanics), one may explain this however they want.

Yep. I must have missed that. Care to share a source?

Here's what it actually is Confirmed? EDIT: I know the stronghold and Od Nua are the same, I'm asking about the chapters.

Yeah, I thought as much. My guess is