Heijoushin

While there were some controversies surrounding the enhanced version, surely more content is always better? And I imagine they've squashed the worst of the bugs by now.

am thinking it gots 'bout same creative limits, which is to say, none. sure, will be engine limits and practical resource allocation limits, but am never gonna accept a limit 'pon creativity save one which is self imposed. etc. no limits. HA! Good Fun! Although I do bow to the overall wisdom of your statement, with a system of caves, it seems a little strange having so many war-like races co-existing so close to each other. I mean, they pulled it off pretty well but still. On the other hand, different islands can quite reasonably have completely different culture/races/architecture etc. Also, with islands, you can meet a wider variety of NPCs (travelers, pirates, adventurers, locals, pretty maidens etc.), where as deep in Od Nua, you can only encounter psychos from a past civilization.

So... after all our bitching, looks like we're getting a string of islands. I guess I'm okay with this. It has a lot more creative potential than caves.

Summoned monsters didn't remove fog of war in IE games so I don't think they could really be used for scouting. Quite so, "scouting" is perhaps an exaggeration. But the monsters could go in first and take the arrows for your party. If you party is already engaged with the enemy by the time the summoned monsters appear, then they're not very good arrow fodder. Also, summoning in advance allows spellcasters to solo (to a degree) since the summons can be their shield. 1. Send goblin summons in. 2. Enemy gather around goblins. 3. Hurl fireball 4. Repeat Ha! Good fun! But I guess I'm fighting a lost cause. If they're making all abilities "per encounter", that means that the abilities can only be used *in* the encounter.

While that feature might be handy at times, I'd rather not have it. I don't want an RPG that plays itself. (That leads to the likes of games like Final Fantasy 13)

I also wasn't really blown away by the Chanter. Interesting idea, but not so fun to play. I think part of the problem was PoE's rule of "no magic/abilities outside of combat" (a rule that was quite controversial at the time if I recall correctly). Part of the fun of summoning is summoning monsters ahead of time, either for scouting purposes, or as part of your preparations for attacking an enemy position. In PoE, not only could you not summon ahead of time, you couldn't even summon immediately once you're in combat! I say, let the player summon outside of combat. Allow me to summon a wolf and scout ahead, or to have 3 skeletons lead the charge alongside my tank.

I don't think we really need a mega dungeon. Like a good book or movie, dungeons should know when to stop. Y'know, leave the player wanting more. So I agree that 5 or so levels is just right. The Endless Paths was especially painful on second/third/fourth playthroughs. Though if there is a big optional dungeon, I would like a medieval castle format like Raedric's Hold. Castles are fun to explore cause there's a variety of areas (dungeon, gardens, towers, libary etc.), not just endless caves.

I really enjoy "preacher" (^_^)

Tournament/arena might be okay purely for some extra 1-vs-1 or team battles to test your character. Vs. some interesting opponents that you wouldn't normally fight. Like the quests in... Oblivion was it? One of the Elder Scrolls anyway. It wasn't mind mindbogglingly deep, but since there are no trash mobs in PoE2, some extra fights might be fun. Otherwise, all I want to see is: - More companions - More spells - More portraits - More weapon types I trust them to get the dungeon size right. We don't need more of that promised to us.

Okay, just read the latest update from Josh. Not really anything new, although he did mention that fighter + wizard = battlemage. Care to guess the names of some of the others? There are some strange combos after all (particular with barb, chanter and cipher I think) Chanter + Barbarian = Singing Savage? Cipher + Barbarian = Psychic Savage? Chanter + Paladin = Choir boy? Holy Singer? Monk + Rogue = Monk of Loose Morals? (feel free to post serious guesses as well of course!)

Honestly, I found the last couple of stretch goals really boring. Great if Pillars is coming in your language, but pretty "meh" for everyone else. Not that I think most people contribute for the sake of a pledge goal, but what would really get the player base fired up is things like: "new weapon type", "more spells", "more portraits", "more companions" etc.

Hmmm... well, early level wizards were a bit of a pain with the Vancian system, so I can see why they went in the per encounter/resource direction. I do feel sad about leaving the Vancian system behind though. Not sure how I feel about this "empower" thing. Wouldn't it just come down to a damage boost that you have to manually toggle each move? I would also love to hear details and reasoning behind it.

Saw this poll on Josh Sawyer's twitter (so its something they're thinking about), and thought I'd make a topic here. Which would you prefer? A: Select both classes at character creation B: Add different class on level up C: Both of the above (like multiclassing vs dualclassing in Icewind Dale) D: Other (please specific) and why? I'm leaning towards A. I know that B actually gives you more options for more complicated builds but... I want my character to feel "ready" from the start. With B, one tends to start planning out complicated character development paths to get to your desired goal. Example: 4 levels to fighter, 1 to bard, 1 to Dragon Disciple (Neverwinter Nights 2... good times) Great for power-gamers, but as a result, your character doesn't even start to feel ready until level 6-7. We know you want that two-handed sword-wielding, fireball-slinging dark knight, but must he spend half his life as either a fragile wizard or a vanilla fighter? Or worst case, you made a mistake somewhere with the requirements and discover you can't level up to a certain class. Also, I imagine A would probably be better for balance. What do you guys think?

Completely agree with OP. I am hyped for POE and of course would love more potraits. But the examples presented in the backer update simply struck me as unprofessional looking.

Well... Promising too muchs is counterproductive: they have to invest money, and worse, time, in some "extras" that they may Changing subjetc, does anyone know if those watercolor portraits are definitive? I mean, I like the art but the background seems a bit... off with the rest of the game. Maybe if seen in-game they feel good, but that's my first impression. Agreed. I love potraits and love the idea of more NPCs having one but the examples they showed weren't particularly impressive artistically.

Don't know if this is the right place for a Tyranny post, but here goes... I've just bought the game, so I haven't seem much yet, but here's what's standing out already: The selling point for Tyranny is that there's no cheesy "Good vs Evil" plot, right? You play a morally grey Fatebinder who must make decisions with no clear right answers. Sounds good so far. But then you have the two factions, the Scarlet Chorus and the Disfavored, who sort of represent "Chaos vs. Order" (and virtually ever in-game decision seems to affect your reputation with these groups) Now, okay, Chaos vs. Order might be a little more interesting than Good vs Evil, because both can be toxic is large amounts. Too much Chaos, and you get a savage world where the strong bully the weak. Too much Order, and you get a totalitarian society where people have no freedom. However, it kind of disappoints me that they abandon the old Good vs Evil dynamic just to put in another blatantly obvious BINARY system. We went from this: A mongrel accosts your hero in the street. What will you do? a) Save the dog (good) b) Kick the dog (evil) To this: A mongrel accosts your hero in the street. What will you do? a) Slay the foul beastie for the glory of Group A! b) Recruit the foul beastie for the prosperity of Group B! It's still just a blatantly obvious binary system! Is this really progress? What do you guys think?

Why... would they make an artifact like that? 5 cost and... it puts you at a disadvantage!?

You were so high up!? Master, please teach me your ways!! m(_ _)m

I think it does affect the ending, albeit in a minor way. Some of the text regarding your stronghold is different. Yeah, lots of people/monsters in the Endless Paths were leeching energy off that statue. It seems like your character should be able to get some benefit there.

Awesome! Would love that lion!!

I'm currently very into a free card/strategy game called Duelyst. Think: The combat system of Fire Emblem + the cards of Magic the Gathering. No! Actually, it's more like Yugioh the anime. You place a card, and a monster appears on the board. And like Seto Kaiba, you can throw lots of money at the game, but you won't necessarily win (Seriously though, the in-game purchases are pretty fair as these things go) https://duelyst.com/ See, the art is pretty too. Also, you can play it in your browser (although the performance is better if you install the game), meaning that you can get a game in anywhere you have internet. Is anyone else playing?

So... what does everyone think about the new "making your own spells" feature they just revealed? I can't help but compare it to the Morrowind/Oblivion system... fun, but kind of simple and shallow. Just range + element + extra effect. Not to seem ungrateful, but I'd prefer that they just work on more creative spells...

Nothing wrong with playing the game for achievements if that makes you happy. I find that achievements sometimes extend the games lifespan for me.

Casting a fireball behind enemy lines, or Aganazzar's Scorcher in a line from the side was quite satisfying back in IWD. On the other hand, in Pillars, the "non-friendly fire" area of spells that you got from a high int score was also super useful. It helped make spells like "flaming hands" (or whatever the pillars equivalent was called) more practical (without a non-FF area, it's hard to use such a close quarters spell without putting your mage in danger

I revel in Starship Troopers' unabashed brown-shirted, fascist propaganda glory. Robert Heinlein's quite the character. I haven't finished yet, so I can't comment on the overall political message but... Generally speaking, I think it's safe to say that men of the world are getting less macho overtime (I read an article the other day saying that the average man's physical strength has decreased in the last 30 years since more people are doing desk-work now). If this continues, the average gent should be pretty tame by the year 2300. Which is why it's funny to read about such fascist, hardcore WW2 guys in this book set in the year 2300 (^O^)