rheingold

Hi roguelike, thanks for the work, though unfortunately your chart is wasted on me, I don't understand it. My problem not yours, but when I see a chart like my brain shuts down and I need to go get a beer, quickly. Can you elaborate a bit on which ranged weapons are the best and why penetrating shot is not great....

Yup sorry about sensuki, it can get confusing when the animation dosnt play:)

Yup I've just done a few tests with them. As Osvir said, it clearly is an ability they possess. But sometimes the animation plays and it's clear and other times it does not . Could be a performance issue actually.

Mm, I don't think you can even compare the DA games with one another. Origins was superb, Da2 a serious disapointment and things got a whole lot worse with Inquisition. The major problem with it was Bioware are good at certain types of games- closed, tight. Open world is really tough to get right, in fact for a rpg I reckon it's always going to impossible. Bethesda are superb at world building but godawful at storytelling. Bioware are good at storytelling and terrible at world building. Between the two of them they might actually be able to make a decent game Seriously I did enjoy Skyrim, I accepted it for what it was, and heck Bethesda can build open worlds. I definitely don't have any complaints. But I had an expectation with DAI that there would be an actual, you know story/plot. So you have a badly designed open world in which the areas are only tenuously linked with one another and no story. Skyrim felt like everything hung together, not like the areas were created by designers working for different companies and only right at the end where they stitched together. And as people' have pointed out, the actual story is laughably short, in fact if you take the grinding needed its probably only around a couple of hours. Absolutely mind blowingly insane that they thought they could get away with it.

Seems like some of the female heads are to large proportionally as well. At this point it's only Aumaua and dwarf. Again could be a design issue, but they look off compared to the other races. Certainly male Aumaua and dwarves look good.

Ok.thanks for the replies. To be honest Osvir it does look less like an intentional design issue and more like a glitch. Mainly because I'd expect some sort of animation as that happened. Or maybe a sound effect, but at the moment there is nothing. Still if it's only beetles then it could definitely be some sort of power and that would be ok. Would be nice if there was an animation to accompany it, maybe just a flurry of dirt though?

Not sure if this has been brought up already, but whenever I send a rogue out in stealth and he takes a shot at a beetle with a ranged weapon the darn beetle teleports next to him. I'm not sure if this is a problem with all opponents, though I presume it is. Pretty frustrating and it makes using ranged weapons pretty useless. It literally jumps position. Must be some sort of graphical glitch.

Those stats all counted in some way, wisdom for saves, con for hp. They were pretty substantial bonuses. The difference between a pc and the various nps was often rather glaring, mainly because of attributes. Still I am glad that it won't be an issue with Pillars.

I don't know if I buy the stats didn't make that much difference. They made a pretty big difference, certainly for a substantial portion of the game. It was only when you started to get powerful items that the usefulness started to become less important. It definitely wasn't for just a couple of levels though. The benefits went far further than that, sometime to the end of the game. It also depended on what class you where. Something like a paladin really benefited with being able to max strength, dex, con, wisdom and cha. That made for one serious character who couldn't fail saves if he/she tried.

It really is an addiction though. I mean there is just no other way to describe it. Heck, I'm not even a power gamer but I'd spend hours and hours trying to get most of my stats as close as to 18 for a character that I really wanted to play. Complete madness.... And then of course I'd roll a paladin or some other class which had serious stat requirements and wow, first time almost all 18's. Man that would piss me off. The stat hungry classes had a massive advantage over the rest.

Hmm as many people here have pointed out playtime is really in the eye of the beholder... But my impression is that this is not a particularly long game. I don't think Obsidan had the resources to really stretch it out. Also they have been pretty good in the past at focusing on stories. It's really really easy to create a long game like Skyrim or DAI if you don't have to worry about having any semblance of a story. Not so much if there is actual writing to be done.

Hey, speaking as a die hard druid fan, shape shifting has always been terrible in the older games! Obsidan sold this as a nostalgic trip back to the good ole days. By making shape shifting useless, they are just delivering on that promise

That's what you would think. I can tell you from the perspective of someone thats never liked rogues or rogue gameplay: about all they do for me is disarm traps. I don't sneak unless absolutely necessary. I just go head on. So really, my wizard can disarm traps. The rest of it: we'll make due without backstab or the ability to sneak. I doubt if I'll give any of my party stealth skill. They'll be loaded up on athletics, lore, and mechanics for the wizard. I'm not disagreeing with you at all - you don't have to have a rogue in pillars or the older games - all I'm saying is that not much has actually changed because of that.

Yeah, I reckon you are still going to need one character to take up the scouting, sneaking, disarming role. You can call him/her whatever you want - a scout, an archer, the chocolate Easter bunny, dosn't matter, except that character will still be fulfilling a rogue like position in the party. Only thing it might not do is sneak attack or be the main dps bunny. In D&D and all its bastard offshoots a rogue was not just a rogue, hell you could have a fighter or mage who picked up a couple of skills to get by, or an assasin. There was huge variety in how you played a "rogue". Frankly from what I see with pillars nothing has changed whatsoever. You want a traditional rogue, go ahead. You want another character class to function as a part time rogue- go for it. Semantics indeed.

Finished playing DAI - which was a major let down, though I should have seen that coming... Now playing Kotor 1 & 2 - hopefully will finish just as I download Pillars! Then the Witcher 3. Though I am concerned about that as well.

Hey guys thanks for the thread. I'd like some more info on the game world ie the countries, races, history and gods! I think that about covers it Seriously having some backdrop to he game would help me in creating my first character.

No, no you're a "fan of this genre" yet. Son, your penitence is: Go play Ultima 4 (it's free!). Until you discover what makes it a classic RPG, you're not allowed to call yourself a fan. Also, "like it's from 2001" will be taken as a compliment by a lot of the Kickstarter backers, including me. Ultima 4? Good lord, what am I even looking at. Okay, I'll keep trying to get into CRPG's then. At least Divinity Original Sin got my foot in the door. I guess I'll try to look past the graphics then. Actually I wouldn't even bother with Ultima at this stage. If you are interested, have a look at baldurs gate 2 or Icewind dale 1&2. Ultima had a huge influence, no doubt but it's probably not going to be that enjoyable for most people at this stage, whereas the other games are still very playable. There are also some enhanced editions floating around with some minor tweaks. Beamdog is the company responsible.

Well, it was sold to the backers as a 2d isometric game with a somewhat nostalgic trip back to the older games like Icewind Dale and Baldurs gate series. Including the graphics. So yeah, that's the whole point of the game. http://kotaku.com/5991061/the-best-looking-isometric-games Hope you enjoy the graphics cause it ain't going to change now

That's like going to a car dealership and the sales person saying that "you can buy the car now but you cannot have it for another week," and you saying, "well that's fine but at least give me the keys to the car!" LOL Exactly!

Also my favourite class is not completely useless. Druids!!!

Are you referring to DAI by any chance? Talk about a pig dressed in lipstick. Really looking forward to Pillars, no more dumbed down console games ftw.

Aargh - can't you move the release day back by 3 days! My birthday is on the 23rd of March, come on, pretty pleeze with a cherry on top.... At least give me my key on the 23rd

"You guys think its great to have an omnipotent class that is basically able to do anything in a game, and that is fine. I think it's not much fun because that makes it a clear better choice every single time, devaluing everything else in the game." This +1000 Just listen to yourselves , how can you possibly expect Obsidan to take you seriously. You are upset because you can't make an all powerful god like character. Balance in this game is probably important to a lot of people. Obsidan is a business and they have to make sure that the game has a wider appeal than a couple of hardcore gamers hanging around a forum. The bottom line , is that the people posting here - including me, do not speak for the majority of players. It's critical that Obsidan (and other companies) understand this, and make a game that will sell. So yeah, they are not likely to jump every time a few loud people cry.

LOL, really, I must have missed the requirement that there be completely overpowered god like mages when I signed up to back POE. My bad

Guys, I really don't understand this... issues are never black and white. Class balance IS important. Is it the most important issue, of course not. Is there a point where it should be over riden in order to fix a broken class. Yes. Nothing should be sacred. BTW As much as I loved BG2, D&D 3.5 etc (and still do,) they were ridiculously flawed and illogical. If a system can be created that fixes some of the more glaring flaws then I'm ok with that. For all of the wizards were gods people - maybe they have forgotten about the 1st level punching bag with 2hp, a dagger they couldn't hit a barn with and one magic missile spell. The only time wizards where ever powerfull was when the resting system was abused. Yeah, sure you had time stop, horrid wilting - for one fight a day! I might also add that the people complaininmg about the wizard class being to weak in POE seem to want an all powerful god like figure - as if they roled a high level mage in BG2, and didn't need to rest - the character could cast an unlimeted amount spells. Regarding the actuall balance issue - it is important even for a role player like me... while my character does not have to be the most awesmely powerful hero, I don't believe anyone really wants to play a gimped character. Hopefully Obsidan will get it right - and to be honest from what I've seen they seem to be doing ok. There is plenty of difference between the classes which is probably the most important issue.