archangel979

I actually had the opposite frustration: starting with version 1.0.6, auto attack stopped working (for me and at least some other players). I was used to auto attack before, and considered it a convenience, especially when fighting big hordes of easy enemies. Auto attack didn't work for me with summons either before or after 1.0.6. I considered reverting to 1.0.5, but I ultimately decided to adapt, and I have. The advantage is that I play more strategically now. The disadvantage of lack of convenience in fights with big hordes of easy enemies remains. I don't know how your experience is the opposite of mine. What version are you playing, and do you have auto attack turned off in options? I have not tried to play the game with version 1.06 but I have been reading patch logs and I didn't see any changes mentioned about this. If this was really finally turned off when AI is set to OFF that is great news. I just need that pathfinding fix during combat so I can go back to playing the game, these two problems got me really angry during my first play and I said I would not go back to playing it 2nd time until both are fixed. A game with tactical combat should not have things that make problems with enforcing basic tactical decisions. Another thing the game needs is not allowing players to manually pause 0.5-1 second after autopause activates. Currently it is too easy to unpause the autopause. That time should be enough time for players to notice autopause and not try to pause themselves.

Doorways are not a problem, the problem was that during combat even when your character model can pass between two allies he cannot and starts dancing around like a dancing queen. It is especially irritating when you are trying to cast a life saving buff with Durance or Aloth and they need to get in range but they cannot and just dance around. This is standard 2-2-2 formation I am talking about, no custom formations. Combat starts, my two melee in front row move forward to engage enemy and Aloth is in 3rd row behind Durance and Kana. The other 4 characters have not moved since combat started. Aloth is given order to cast a spell outside current range, he tries to move through middle between Kana and Durance and you can see there is space to move through but he cannot so he starts dancing around while I pull my hair out. BG1EE has better pathfinding that this... Another problem I want to see finally fixed in this patch/expansion is when you turn off party AI, really turn the damn thing OFF!!! My party does nothing until I tell them to do it. I click on enemy to attack, he should move to enemy, kill enemy and then just stand there and DO NOTHING!! Instead they decide to find another enemy and attack him, melee characters even decide to move towards that enemy and as result break formation I feel like I am commanding a party of barbarians Only thing party AI OFF does currently, it will not attack enemy until you give first command but after that they continue choosing targets in range on their own and attacking them without being given an order :(

Not much of a problem, some customers will knee-jerk refund for sure, but barring the game being a total mess (in which case it's not a flawed gem) most people will find something worthwhile to slug it out. Assuming the vendor actually takes steps to fix things so to not waste the goodwill of those customers. Give customers some credit in that they will appreciate the situation on a developer by developer basis, that and if you release crap, don't cry about what follows. indeed. it is one thing for a game to have some or even many problems at launch but be still enjoyable to play, and another to be so badly made that the buyers feel insulted and scammed. an example of the former would be alpha protocol... the new batman was the later still, this situation is a long overdue wake up call for developers and publishers that we wont take anymore crap. the fiasco with the order 1886 was the first slap towards the industry, this will probably drive the point through their thick sculls I think you have short memory. Diablo 3, Sim City and some others predate Order 1886

They will fail and future products will have devs that will take these failures into account when planning their game features and finances. And Early Access is still an option for devs that cannot released a polished released title.

This was a bug from day 1, just like some others that were never fixed.

Not enough info out for me to be really excited so for now I am more excited for announced full mod support. Long War 2 will be even more awesome

They don't need to make it big with this game, just get enough money to make the next game and put everything they learned from this one into that one. Their head is in the right place (they want to continue making hard games that don't hold your hand).

The problem is more that no review site has done a review. And than E3 happened very soon afterwards.

I hope the reason is E3. Hopefully after E3 some bigger sites put out reviews.

Tnx guys for supporting this developer. I want them to get enough sales to make an even better and more ambitious game.

The combat options open up as you level up. The cool thing about spells is that you unlock whole rank of them once your Int+Occult get to total 26 and then 32 so you can play around with many of them. Yes they are all less or more useful with 0 points put into them but they do open up new options. I would say there is less combat than in PoE but also less talking in starting area. I have not gone far outside starting area to tell you more. There is a reason why I said it is a mix of BG and Fallout and not PST or PoE. It has some nice C&C (your actions during the game decide what kind of end you get, not your actions at the end; also your actions can cause death of whole villages).

I am sure some of your heard about it but for the rest I decided to mention this cool little game. It is a new party RTwP RPG done with PIXEL ART and the shortest description of gameplay/story would be: Imagine someone taking Darklands, Baldur's gate and Fallout 1 and mixing it up to make a cool new game. The longer official description you can find here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/335120 (there is a GoG versions as well here http://www.gog.com/game/serpent_in_the_staglands) To hype you up let me leave some of my impressions and experiences with it. Story You start as a Moon God that is stuck in mortal realm and must find his way home. As you must take a mortal body to travel and find out what happened you can be slain. You can create more than one body at start and travel with full (5) premade party if you want to or you can collect companions through the game (or kick premades to make room for companions). I been told there are around 30 possible companions to find. Some of them are only temporary with you and if you want to roleplay an evil guy/god you can bind their souls to yours so they lose their free will (they change their behaviour than). The story is very free form like Fallout, you explore the overland map like in Fallout at your own leisure and run into random encounters or villages/towns/places of interest in your quest to return to the Moon. Character System It is a classless system but you can choose from couple of races which each have 3 subraces. Your race gives you your look while subrace gives you a mechanical bonus They are not a direct copy of any other RPG I seen. You don't get to choose a class but skills are split into 3 groups: War skills, Spells and Aptitudes. War skills and Spells each have 3 ranks that you can get access to as you raise their primary skills during level up (Str and Dex for War skills and Int and Occult for Spells) while Aptitudes are a mix of non-combat skills and unique combat abilities (for example Linguistics lets you use an Incantation book to cast Curses on enemies and environment (a powerful curse can speed up day/night change which normally you can only do by spending money on a Inn, camping supplies or running around the Overland Map) but also lets you examine certain things in the world or get more from some conversations while Woodwise will detect/set traps and give you more information about nature phenomenon you run into). You get points at each level up and can put them into War skills, Spells or Aptitudes of your choice that you have access to. There is of course an inventory system that is like in BG games, one spot = one piece of gear but lots of items can stack. The whole party has one common inventory (the system is done better than in PoE) while the inventory itself is split into combat and non-combat items (two button filter one of the other part). Inventory screen will show for each character how currently equipped gear affects their stats while on Character Screen you can see the total results that take into effect your active War Skills and spells. Gameplay Like expected you get to explore the world, talk to many NPCs and try to loot anything you can see (NPCs will give you one warning if you try to loot their items) You will often need certain Aptitudes to get access to quests or just a bit of extra stuff (in above scene 1 point in certain Aptitude will give you a cool special item). Thing to note is that the game does not hold your hand. I am not kidding. The game has a Journal screen but you need to fill it yourself (although many quests will put scrolls into your inventory that will usually have most info you need), and the local area map is just a zoom out of your normal view that you can then scroll around to get your bearings or watch your party move long distance over the map. But it has many cool things hidden that you can find with the proper use of ingame resources and a functioning brain. Combat is often brutal like in BG1. Remember the first time you went out of Candlekeep and got murdered by a single wolf? Yes, that can happen here as well. Play smart and the game will reward you with victory. The start is hardest, I can tell you that. Your created characters start naked and with little money (and first shop has no armor to sell), but companions you can find early start with armor and weapons so use them well (or loot their stuff and kick them in good old Bg1 style :D). Read what your spells do and come up with good battle plans that uses most of your party skills and you will do well. Combat is often short and brutal so don't be afraid to use all resources at your disposal. War skills are all passive and you can have 3 of them active at any time and can change active one at any moment. There are all kinds although lower level ones are just some direct combat boosts (the notable exception is skill for Elixir bag that lets you elixirs do splash damage - yes you can throw Elixirs in the game as a weapon ) Unlike Bg1 spells in this game are not as OP, they are more toned down like in PoE but you don't have any limits on spellcasting. There two basic type of spells: those that need to channeled and those that don't. Channeled spells last until you stop channeling them which locks down your caster for that one role, while other kind last a fairly short time (except Shapeshifting which can be prolonged a lot if you build your character right) and use those at start of battle. There are no classic fireball/Lightning/invisibility/teleport/fly spells but you can still do a lot. Some fun spells can do things like turn a target into a Fiend that makes everyone around want to attack him (both friend and foe) and he channels negative energy while being attacked and releases that as a AoE damage once he dies. There are some fun outside of combat uses for spells like using some spells to change your form so you can fit where you normally would not be able to. What is that cat doing there Aptitudes can also be used in combat to charm enemies, summon helpers or curse them (like I mentioned earlier), set traps, craft potions to use in battle or check out the stats of your enemies to know how to fight them better. Closing Word Of course the number one question will be: Can I play games with pixel art? If you can answer this question with YES go buy this game today. It is only 20$ (and on Steam sale atm), done by only two people (can you believe that), it has 30+ hours of content and devs are improving it fast (mostly some UI issues left now) while listening to the best community suggestions. If you like the game spread the word around as all mainstream sites have completely ignored this gem. BTW, both Chris Avellone and Sawyer tried it and liked it.

No dev in their right mind would ever work for the Codex. For one, it's just an internet forum. For two, they hate everything. Not true. They like Fallout 1, MCA and Tim Cain.

It seems this game will not have tactical combat. If that turns out true, I don't care about it anymore.

He is a co owner, not just a worker.

MCA barely mentions his work on Pillars and quickly moves on, while he talks at length, and, dare I say, lovingly, about Wasteland 2 and TToN. Hmm... I noticed the following: Completely reading into things obviously, nothing to back it up, but what if he is planning his own Kickstarter project? There is a recent interview with Fargo where he talks about Van Buren IP InXile got and how Avellone had great ideas about it when talking to him. So my guess is that after TToN is out, Avellone is going to make a KS pitch for a Van Buren KS or "The real Fallout 3"

If you want old school go play Serpent in the Staglands, a mix of Baldur's Gate and Darklands and with Fallout 1/2 free roaming on the map.

What you actually mean he will be researching the nature of the criminals so he can come back and fight crime in a black suit.

I would curse you whole family for that comment if I could There is only one place for him: InXile

As far as I can tell, it comes from people who don't like Sawyer assuming that Avellone agrees with them. Codex considers Avellone god of developers. Most of Codex also does not like Sawyer. 1+1 =

I find it funny they want to charge extra for people that will keep their game alive longer. People like creating (free) campaigns and if they need to pay extra to do that properly they will not. And if no player made campaigns, game dies faster and sells less copies. I actually do not want to create content. I figured everyone involved in a session would need the same tile sets to be able to participate. Is that not the case? I think they said only DM needs it or something. The system still stinks. It is anti-community. You are not supposed to charge extra to people that will through their free content give you more sales.

NO. This is done by some devs from Argentina financed by publisher behind World of Tanks game (they bought MoO rights from Atari).

I find it funny they want to charge extra for people that will keep their game alive longer. People like creating (free) campaigns and if they need to pay extra to do that properly they will not. And if no player made campaigns, game dies faster and sells less copies.

I am still waiting for pathfinding during combat to be fixed. Characters get stuck on each other too easily while they don't outside of combat. Also I am still waiting for a real implementation of Turn AI off option where our characters don't change targets at any times (now they choose new targets after you tell them to attack one and that one dies; instead they should stop attacking and wait for new orders).

New XCOM? from who? Same people that made the last one. Word is that around 1st of June we will find out all the details.