Abel

I may have dreamt, but i thought XP was nerf in some previous patch. It's still not enough? Still need to find a way to reduce it even more in order not to hit the level cap in act 2 or 3? I ask because i'm a bit concerned about it: now that the White March II is out, i plan on resuming my playthrough, and i would hate to hit the level cap this early in the game.

That would add some roleplaying value i guess: inns are meant to be a gathering place for all sorts of people. But i think it's probably more something you would see in a multi player RPG like the Neverwinter Nights RP modules.

I don't care much about arenas sinces i'm not really into fighting. To me, it would be interesting only if well integrated into the world, with lore, quests, and freedom to use it or not. In the end, combat for combat is somewhat boring to me. I need combat to have a deep meaning, bound to the story or whatever deep purpose it could have. So i voted "i don't care if there is an arena or not". There is already plenty of meaningful fights into the game.

I love muticlassing. I definitely want it. I'm a huge fan of Priest/warriors . Actually, i'm currently trying to emulate a Priest/warrior in my current playthrough. I chose a priest class, and then picked only weapon and martial abilities (currently lvl . But the fact is: my priest will never be the suboptimal fighter i hoped for, but is the suboptimal priest i anticipated. In the end, i missed some fighter abilities Eder can pick. It would be far more usefull and fun to me than this minor constant recovery i don't care at all about (since it doesn't help accuracy, tanking, or whatever a fighter could do depending of its build, according to my playstyle). Maybe, a system where each class is limited in their multiclassing? BG did this. Not quite balanced yet, but it was a good start. Rather than picking 5 priest level and 3 warrior level, maybe creating cross class abilities, or allowing to pick a few actual warrior abilities to the priest would help. I'm unsure how to do this with a fighter/wizard though.

Well, i found out very recently (and was quite surprised by that) that unlike we, french people, many not native english speakers or foreign people feel that US accent is the "correct one". i mean it in the way that they are bred with it, used to it, while we are bred with the english one all the way long, and barely ever listen to an american guy speaking. They feel that english accent is weird, while i feel the american one is weird. That may be why this "American" thing struck me more than many other people around here. And why i feel that many voice acts defeat their purpose in a setting that is not american (especially companions in a fantasy game). I just can't help but be like "wow!! what is this? american?". Not quite the good reaction when you hear a dwaf from southern frozen countries telling you her story .

My point is not the DLC matter. Just that nowadays, DLC are way different than what were expansions back in the day. I can, too, speak about games with many DLCs (Fallout 3?). To me, it was horrible. The expansion of POE is not crafted like DLCs. I must admit it scorches me to read they are DLC. They are downloadable, indeed, but that's it. If an expansion like "Tales of the Sword Coast" was meant to be sold (obviously), there wasn't the same spirit behind it like there is behind nowadays frickin' DLC, where bits of poor gameplay are seperated in tiny overpriced DLCs, or where 10 complete 3 hours dull things are sold, even if totally out of place (i will, for a long time, spit on "Mothership Zeta", which destroyed the WTF myth of aliens, never proved in Fallout 2 (and to craft a dull FPS... Oo)). Sellling envisioned addictional content is not the same thing as "creating whatever additional content we can come up with to capitalize at most our money with minimum work". Dragon Age Origins DLC were another stain in RPG history (while at the time, i hoped for well crafted, true expansions). But the development politics behinds them were not quite the same, and many mods are actually way better than nowadays DLC (kudos moders). Once the story of POE 1 is told, time to go on with POE2. Obviously, all this is my way to see things, my genuine opinion. But it does not come from nowhere. Besides, unlike things like Dragon Age 2, POE 2 is meant to be successor of BG2, as POE 1 was to BG 1, as it was stated by Josh. Unless Electronic Arts got the rights on POE, there is little chance POE 2 core elements are corrupted. I'll give you the point about the time needed to craft a POE 2. But now that the engine and such are ready, i don't think it would take 3 more years. I just hope you see my point better. About hoping more about a sequel than XX more expansions that would transform POE into a " barely related side quests RPG". EDIT; the second part of my post you quoted was not actually my words. I copy pasted it from another post by accident (damn keyboard bug).

héhé yep . But i've the idea there is a confusion in his post between DLC and expansion. While DLC is about sales (which he pointed out right), expansion is more about telling more of the story. And this is probably why we hope for a sequel to expand the story. Or maybe, Karrade, you should see POE2 as a big, large DLC of POE1, like BG2 would have been for BG1. 5 expansions in a RPG? i've never seen this. And don't want to. 5 DLC, i saw it. Was not good though...

I think you're taking some of the stuff you've seen seen on Something Awful a little too seriously. The attribute system isn't a disaster by any means and I haven't seen any hint that Josh is thinking about overhauling it to that degree. Other stuff, yes - resting, the Interrupt mechanic, maybe skills. Attributes? Nah. That Sensuki stuff is old news and ended up being basically a non-issue. I can't agree this time. Just my two cents, but an example to picture my problem with attribute system as it is: I play a female elf priest of Eothas. I won't browse through her history, but suffice to say that she has a strong link with her faith. Now, to reflect her priestress ability, i put something like 17 in might... And then, this frail little woman could shatter rocks with her bare hands... I say no. She has magical power, but no strenght at all... It really, really bothered me that muscular strenght and magical power were the same attribute. I couldn't find a way to roleplay her in scripted interactions and such (besides doing my best to try to ignore what i see on my screen while trying to be in full immersion: really bad idea) Anyway, while importing your character from BG1 to BG2 you had to browse once more the character creation screen, because some things changed (like weapon proficiencies). Even if the attribute system were to be modified, it's no big deal. A power player will build a power character. An anti power player with still puroposedly trash his PC, and people in between will not have changed either.

Once more, exactly my thought. Infinitron, if you don't understand people wanting a brand new lvl 1 character (which i don't understand either), i, myself, don't understand people saying they want a new lvl 1 character because there is no way to continue the watcher's saga as it is. I mean, Obs has its ideas, and thoughts. They planned since the start to craft a real saga. Saying it's now impossible because we're lvl 16 is really treating obs guys like complete fools. If they want to, they surely can. The fact that we don't see how, is another, irrelevant matter. And thus, i'm totally on the line with Infinitron here. I loved Baldur's gate because i could play an entire saga. A long, appealing, neverending journey. The more i went through the game, the more i learned about the lore, the creatures, and the world. You can't see the world with the same eyes being lvl 1 and being lvl 30. And if i'm to play a lvl 30 character, and to love it as if i saw its birth, better to live his adventuring life from the start. Lvl 1. Saga. Makes sense now i guess.

No choice but to quote this, as it is exactly my mind. +1

It indeed does. And I must say, I love the character. Someone at Obsidian clearly nailed the whole "characters are not defined by their class" thing. Devil of Caroc and the barbarian-woman-whos-name-escapes-me-right-now are perfect examples of that. I had Manega (that barbarian woman) in my party for a while yesterday. Her character seemed fine, though I just don't know how to get the most out of barbarians. The one thing that bothered me about her was her voice. It just seemed ... wrong .... to me. Given the size of Aumaua, it feels wrong that she doesn't have a deeper voice. (Deeper for a woman, that is, of course.) She sounded too sweet and kinda, sorta petite. It was a little off-putting to me, same as I find Sagani's (complete lack of an) accent off-putting because as I've said in the past, it seems far too "American" and not nearly foreign enough. OTOH, Pallegina's accent is absolutely wonderful in its foreignness. Understandable, yet foreign and exotic. Regardless, it's nice to have Companions to cover every class finally. I just wish that they'd (all) been findable closer to the start of the storyline. Maybe the rogue most of all. Lol. I'm totally with you . Most voices are way to "normal" for characters that are more "otherworldly". It's like a random guy voiced a "very specific and non "eathly" one with a random voice. And in the end, i strongly felt this "too American" thing all the game long. "Wanna see, gonna go", and so on. Even Eder seems to have a close relationship with some films with Clint Eastwood... Pallegina is indeed one of the very few character whose voice is "believable" to me. And all this is probably why i don't like voice acting in games. Ones like New Vegas may be ok (because of the setting), but all this u.s. thing feel nothing like fantasy to me.

Agree with that. Level scaling was one of the reasons i dropped fallout 3... The whole game became totally silly really fast.

Stronghold is a great concept. I like it. As a concept. But it was quite failed in PoE due to the mechanics in it. No interactions, no bound with the game as a whole. The 3.0 patch adds some much needed features. It's a great thing. I will probably enjoy the stronghold more now. Though it's still not enough imo. I wish there would be some random NPCs here and there to add some life in it, too.

True. And i think it's basically what the difficulty levels do. The mobs are not the exact same depending if you're playing with easy or hard settings.

I actually would prefer to be able to store my stuff (like unics or ingredients) in my stronghold rather than in that infinite, invisible, overpowered and unbelievably convenient stash.

Yep. And "throne sessions" and amount of taxes should contribute to forge you a reputation as a ruler. Cruel one, benevolent one, weak one... That should be used at times in the game. Mostly in Defiance Bay since this is where the ducal palace (and the politics) is. This would just modify a few dialogues of few key NPCs, and add a few random lines to commoners in the street. Something about reactivity of the game to your stronghold.

You already killed the xaurips :D. Need to find something else

Most of the things Bleaks, archangel and i spoke about have nothing to do with some kind of RTS like, uber complex stronghold. Most are about flavor: adding some NPC for flavor, some basic lines of dialogue to them, moving some stuff from one place to another, and so on. I think Bleak and archangel explained quite well that they primarily wanted "easy" things to be done. Not uber complex ones. The examples you give are in the same trend. Maybe they're even more complex actually. Because writing and developing a quest line related to the bounty hunter may need much more work than adding 10 cloned NPC with a mere "greetings my lord" line when you approach them. By the way, This is one of the important details patch 3.00 will improve . Great thing indeed.

Agree with that. Plus the magic/counter magic spells in BG2 needed some learning time. But in the end it was very tactical, and rewarding. Especially with an AI mod called Sword Coast Stratagems. There were many protective spells and many spells to get rid of them. That was a good way to limit the damaging AoE spells spams.

Exactly my thoughts Bleak and archangel. I really, really wish for all this to be added in some way in the near future. The White March II will include some important other details though. It is a first step. But ALL what you both said in the 2 first posts are deeply needed. A few more things: - I want to be able to tell visitors to go away through actual dialogue. I really dislike having to use this impersonal mini game interface while i'm just beside them. - Invaders of the stronghold should NOT be met INSIDE the walls when things are manually resolved, but OUTSIDE. Because it defeats the whole purpose of building WALLS. Plus, there should be some kind of portcullis (is it the right word?) and you should be able to loot the raiders rather than being forced to let them go by a loading screen. - A limited quantity of siege machines on the walls (like in Raedric's hold) would be great too. May even be a further security upgrade. They should have NPC engineers. Of course, this, too, is more flavour oriented. - I would like not to be warned that 5 ghosts will break into the main keep 7 DAYS later. There is no way i would be warned this much time beforehand. Actually the whole "invaders" system should be slightly reworked in order to make it more believable. - I would like a "war room". What i mean is something like what you can see in the Crucible Keep and the Dozens' Hall: large table with map, marks, notes. A place where the chief of my garrison is, and where i can ask him about stronghold's defense related things. - If Caed Nua is really a domain, then NPC recognizing you as its master is not enough. You can't say by your own you're a Lord in the Dyrwood. In BG2, it was by the power of Nalia and the laws she used that you were invested. The Duc should be able to make your position official (with some low nobility title maybe). Perhaps a reward after some key quest. This may even involve jealousy with some Crucible Knights. The Stronghold is a cool thing. But there is SO MUCH more to do with it. Even without 1 whole year of development. Right now, it's not alive. It's impersonal. It's all about mini game interface. And it doesn't mix at all with neither the story, nor the world.

I still never went past beginning of act 3 in the game. But there is one thing i felt while playing: the quests give too much experience points, while dungeons (and combat) don't give much. And now, you'll level up quite fast doing quests in Defiance bay, and stall in dungeons. Plus, the reward for fighting mobs, and even more mobs isn't there, making fights a bit boring. Am i the only one to think this is a bit too unbalanced? And that Exp points from quests make characters level up too fast at times?

I'm earing you . It's a valid assessment. It's just that for me... in A RPG, believability >>> ALL. Because it's a RPG, and i need to believe to play it. You know, in my current playthrough, i use the notes to write the diary of my character in game. Her thoughts, fears, hopes, projects, reasons, and such. I need the world and the gameplay to be believable to be able to think like her (call it full immersion if you want). To me, it's the purpose of a RPG. The better part of a RPG. There is only one thing i can't go along you with. "You don't like it, then ignore it". Someone else said in this forum on another thread something like this: "Please, don't tell me to ignore it if i don't like it. The only fact this is in the game makes it impossible to ignore". Exactly my thoughts. EDIT: One last thing. The other worst thing for me in Pillars is the life being regained while sleeping anywhere. Magic can't heal, even a nosebleed... And yet, sleeping a few hours in the weeds makes any dying guy a fresh adventurer ready to go. This was not like this in BG. This pillars mechanic even defeats the purpose of priests to me. I used to have 2 or 3 priests in BG, in order to heal my group in any dungeon (where i would never sleep). I loved priests. They bore me in Pillars.

Yeah, which bed should i chose if tomorrow i want to lockpick things? You'd suggest goose feather? or duck? Oh, maybe duck is actually usefull to get ready for a good lore conference, sorry ^^ Or maybe you don't get my point

Well, i did not say they will. Just, they could. Level 16 means nothing to me in the Pillars world. It would be huge in D&D though.

Well, it's the same thing as sleeping in a room giving a bonus in mechanics, and sleeping in another one, a bonus in intelligence :D. i still don't get the point... Personnally, when i sleep, i just hope to feel rested. Not healed (when magic can't do anything), or more clever, dextrous or whatever. Same with the invisible but unlimited stash. I crave for a wagon being actually pulled along by this poor Edèr, the face redened by efforts :D. Food is not my first concern actually. But this is one of them, yes. All these aventure game mechanics in a RPG that end up being not this immersive because of them. For me, at least, it's a huge problem.