Matt516

Not a fan of altering the drop rules. Right now PoE uses a WYSIWYG loot system - What You See Is What You Get, which means that enemies drop everything they're wearing. This is a good thing. The issue comes with having an infinite stash to then be able to carry all of that... but ultimately, I don't think it's that big a deal. You don't make enough money to buy all the unique items in the game, not even close - so those act as an efficient cash sink. If you don't care for enchanted items, well... then you'll have tons of money. Meh. There are bigger issues with the game right now IMO. Just my $0.02.

In the first Act, playing on Hard, I would agree with you. I did everything I could do before Caed Nua (including Raedric), and then did about 5 levels of Caed Nua, and then did everything in and around Dyrford. Difficulty was great. Now that I've gone into Act II... it's started to get easier. And I expect it to continue to do so. Especially considering that Dyrford is really intended to be done during the later parts of Act II (as opposed to before Act II) and that I found its difficulty to be perfect when I played it (instead of when I was supposed to play it).... yeah. I've had some wonderful fights, mostly in Caed Nua and around Dyrford when I did it early. But in general, I would say that the game's difficulty could be a bit higher on Hard. I'd classify my experience in Act I as Hard-ish, and then Act II so far as Normal-ish. I like engagement too. And I do like the idea behind the difficulty levels (more/different enemies instead of just pumping up stats). But I would like to see the latter half of the game get a bit of a buff and to see leveling be a little slower. If Obsidian doesn't change anything significant about the balance in 1.05 (here's hoping they will), I'll probably do my second playthrough with 50% more XP required for each level. Should make the game a bit more rewarding and challenging.

That's often intended, not all lines are recorded. I'm talking about actually distorted and garbled VO... probably isn't the same issue you're having.

If you ask Dunstan about the Forge Knights after already doing so, he repeats what you said back to you. I'm assuming this is a bug.

Is this intended behavior? For the personal stats to be reset every time party members are fired and rehired? Could it have something to do with firing all of them and rehiring all of them at once (which I did to fix the stacking health bug)?

Most voices are fine, but every once in a while I'll run into a few that are extremely distorted. Never happened before 1.04. If I recall correctly, I've seen it on one of Kana's area transition chatters and on one of the generic merchant "hello" barks.

Here's mine for +50% exp req if using IE mod 4.10 (windows): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32777109/Games/Pillars%20of%20Eternity/Assembly-CSharp.dll Awesome, I'll have to try that one. Although IE mod has been updated since then so it may not work. Y'know, if +50% feels right (which it sounds like it would)... you might talk to bman about just putting that into IE mod as another checkbox toggle. That way it'll automatically stay updated with the mod.

Huzzah! https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/77348-bug-one-stands-alone-20-damage-intended-or-supposed-to-be-20/?do=findComment&comment=1665248

Great to hear, thanks! I'll stop harping on it now.

Bump. Is this going to be addressed in patch 1.05?

I don't really think something like that is necessary (or realistic). While there should be some counters to that sort of thing, chokepoint tactics should still be a viable tactic. They are (were) in real life, after all. I just think the AI should be smart enough to realize when it should be on the attack (and thus be vulnerable to this tactic which is fundamentally a defensive tactic) and when it should be content to sit back and let the player come to it.

Bump for visibility post-1.04. Would really love to see a fix for this or at least some acknowledgement. Barbarian is one of the funnest classes (IMO) but is utterly broken right now due to this talent.

Barb is only super OP if you exploit a very specific bugged interaction between One Stands Alone (which is crazy OP right now due to a BUG) and Retaliation. Without exploiting bugs, barb isn't that ridiculous - but is very good all the same. Having used both a Monk and a Barb though, Monk wins hands down in single target dps. Barb wins at AoE. EDIT: Also, there's a difference between something that is cheap and something that is an exploit. Cheap tactics are those that are far more effective than they have any right to be, but are still completely within the rules of the game - like Estocs, door blocking, figurines and Ciphers. I have no problem with players using cheap tactics (why not, they're trying to win after all) but I will call for the devs to fix them so the game isn't stupid easy. Exploits, on the other hand, are things that are very clearly bugs. Players can use them if they want, but it's clear that they aren't intended to exist and I would exempt them from balance discussions because of that. Cheap vs Exploit. There's a big difference.

Yeah, I'm very interested to see what 1.05 ends up looking like. If there are major tuning changes of some sort to Hard/PotD, that'll be a good sign. Honestly what I'm most worried about are the fundamentally non-future-proof parts of the game systems, like Might scaling and the XP curves. Individual encounters can be balanced, but those are a few systemic issues that could give them some trouble in the long run.

Balance isn't necessarily all about variety, but in this case that's certainly a good facet to focus on. Highly dominant/OP strategies reduce variety and player choice, making the game boring in no time.

My Barb is 16/10/10/8/16/18 - not optimal for DPS of course, but I like the Resolve dialogue options and can do some decent and high AoE damage - plus I almost never get interrupted. And I use a Greatsword. It's a weirdish build but I'm enjoying it - and it's certainly viable (at least on Hard). If you're looking for more abilities and talents to burn, there's always the "Brute Force" (I think that's what its called) and "Threatening Presence" combo. Attack Fortitude if it's the lower defense, and automatically AoE debuff enemies' Fortitude at the same time. It's fun. Savage Defiance is a great second wind, and a completely instant cast at that. I'm going with Improved Defiance and Improved Frenzy, myself. But you should really just do what you want and have fun!

Again, and for the millionth time - "don't use it" is not an appropriate response to the existence of an overpowered/dominant strategy. If chess had a rule where I could trade my pawns for queens on the first turn, I could surely decide to "not use it" to make the game more fun... but the game would still be poorly designed. Well, the difference is that chess is multiplayer. But I agree, it's too easy to use chokepoints. Yet I don't see an easy fix, short of making the AI always back off from doorway chokepoints (which would also be easily abusable) or giving them ways to just bypass tanks such as teleportation, which is fairly cheesy. Perhaps giving enemies more knockback spells? Chess is multiplayer, but the point still stands. Imagine an alternate universe in which chess is only played against computers, if you will. I picked it as an example because it's generally considered one of the best balanced games in the world. But you are right - single player games don't demand perfect symmetrical balance. I still think easily exploitable or extremely dominant strategies mean bad game design though.

Changing the talent to change hits to crits instead of grazes to hits would be a huge improvement. I agree that giving the "I have high Accuracy" weapon style a talent that mitigates the effects of having low Accuracy is really stupid.

That's fascinating. It looks like the offhand weapon is being treated as a single 1H weapon, getting the +12 Accuracy bonus that comes with that. Not sure if that's intended behavior or not - are you even supposed to be able to go "fist and offhand"? Either way, your display in the inventory certainly doesn't match up with what's happening, so something's bugged. EDIT: Her hit points aren't bugged, btw. 70 * 6 = 420. That's correct.

I have dismissed all these characters at least once and rehired. Don't remember if the party has seen combat since the last time I did so. Not sure. I was trying to fix some bugs that could only be fixed by doing that.

Are you currently experiencing a power outage in your area? Is your computer currently turned on? Does your VCR blink 12:00? Wait, you have a VCR? A few helpful standard IT questions from my past.... Incidentally, if you want to make rebooting sound impressive, you call it power cycling. Have you power cycled your system? Some people will think you have really "innovative" troubleshooting ideas if you ask them this. Have you tried damming up the electron flow and then releasing it again?

I've observed this as well, but only with lightning effects.

Ammunition... gross.

I agree. They made it way too much of a headache. If you actually cared to resist certain damage types, you literally have to swap armor and carry different sets around. It's the same with weapons. It makes me miss THAC0 and the archaic DnD systems of the IE games, they were easier to understand and just much easier to play. Oh come on now. It's a very simple system.

Just installed patch 1.04 on Steam. When I go into my party's character sheets, all the information under the "Personal" tab has completely disappeared. Only my main character still has stats. Wat do. I want my stats back.