Abel

I'm pretty sure the dev already thought about all this. According to what i seem to remember, they said long ago that PoE should become a saga through several games (like Baldur's Gate). But in the meantime they crafted PoE 1 so that the end could suffice for a stand alone title (not like Baldur's Gate 1 way, where there still had one huge thing that wasn't solved at the end). There may be a big "truth" that wasn't tackled in PoE 1. Like if in BG1, we'd have killed Saverok without knowing we were half brothers. I really hope for a true saga. A very long journey, where everything is somewhat linked. it was the case in BG, and i loved it (and still love it). I really want to see what destiny has in store for my PoE 1 character in PoE 2 and 3. As for the characters' leveling, they're not stuck with D&D rule books like Bioware was. Bioware had to put a drastic limitation on lvling because lvl 20 was somewhat known as "epic level" in D&D world. I guess Obsidian can decide that epic level in PoE is 50, or whatever. There is even no proof that there is not 20 spell lvl in the Pillars' world. Or no one i know about.

Love it. Exactly my thoughts. The stronghold is currently souless. As i just said on another thread, it's like a browser minigame. All your ideas would put some life in it, and would give it some bonds with the rest of the world (even if some of your ideas may require more work than others). There is more to do with it. But this would already be great. The priest should be able to provide some services, every NPC should have basics dialogues, like every commoner in the game world (at least), the bad visitors should have some conversation options, even basics ones. You should be able to bribe them to leave the keep with dialogues too. Not only by clicking a %¨µµ%¨£ button. While i'm just by his side, i actually need to click the button to send him away!. I can't actually tell him to do so directly. That frustrates me SO MUCH.

Did not read past page 3. Still, the Stronghold improvements part is the most promising to me. Right now, for me, the stronghold is just like some sort of minigame that has nothing to do with the core game. No dialogue with visitors (pay them for leaving by clicking a button), quests like in a browser game (let's do our dailies by clicking some buttons), all about statistics (build whatever you want by clicking a button, that will just change statistics), no impact on the RPG part of Pillars ( since, as far as i know, no one will recognize you as the lord of Caed Nua), bounties without lore (ok, one mob and his minions just showed up out of the blue, and who know who offers a reward for killing them for who know what reason), and so on. The Stronghold has many features, but no one got the love it deserved. In BG2, there was a chapel in the Arnise Keep. And you could recruit a priest to put in the Chapel. It's just an example, but what is a chapel without a priest? It gives rest bonuses? improves prestige and such? oO. agh! Among all the things i would want to see improved, pached, modified... the stronghold is probably number 1.

Thanks Obsidian for continued support of your game. Hope the sales are ok. Don't know if a rebalance of armor fatigue is planed, but i'll keep an eye on updates.

To me, it's not a matter of control, really. It just feels unnatural that whichever level you are in your current playthrough, they will always have the same amount of experience points than you when you meet them. It's like a form of world level scaling. And i hate level scaling because i feel it's unnatural and way to "appropriate". To me Durance should be defined by his proper caracteriscs, not be adapted to those of the PC.

Another one: i'm far from the endgame yet, but heard you could max your level way too early. I did 3 bounties in a row yesterday in difficult mode (Sly Cirdel, Iklak and the lurker), and with codex entries and xp reward for the quests done, i managed to complete nearly one whole level with my 6 party members (6 to 7 i guess)... Isn't it too much?

I haven't read all. But i'm not agree with the OP. It's true that i play a sub optimal charater in difficult mode (a tank priestess). But so far; i feel the AI is pretty smart. When i manage to engage ennemies with my 3 tanks (Eder, Pallegina and my priestess), very often, the AI will disengage, using before many engagement breaking abilities (like escape or with effects such as prone) to circle my front line, flank my characters and nuke my backline. While i manage to engage all the ennemies i can with my tanks as soon as i can, i generally end up with Aloth dead, because foes use all the abilities they can to disengage freely from my frontline. It makes spells like paralyse, effects like AoE prone, hobble and so on very, very, very usefull. As for grimoire slam which helps Aloth to disengage freely quite often.

Yeah. And don't like when all my party members level up at the same time. Removing auto leveling would be really great for a second playthrough onward.

No respawning at all, which is great. You'll see the number of spell uses left on the button of the spell level Icon. I >>3; II >> 3, etc. hard to miss it. Spells are per rest. Some abilities are per enounter. If you use all your spells at the first ennemy in sight... well, you need to carefully think how and when to use them. If you can use 3 level 1 spell per rest, you can cast 3 times the same, or 3 different onces. But once you have cast 3 level 1 spells, you'll need to rest the have them available again. My PC is a tank priestess. Heavy armor, large shield, Eothas flail (and all abilities spent in weaponry at level 7). She is a good tank (helping Eder), correct melee DPS (same accuracy as a base fighter), and she uses her spells only during hard fights. That helps me avoid the unrealistic problem of 1 fight/1 rest in difficult mode. So, i barely use any camping supplies. Melee capabilities for a priest make them usefull even when not using spells. And i have a rule of 1 rest max every 26 hours (and another saying that any knock down character or animal companion means game over). So, my idea is: if you think you don't have enough spell to make Durance usefull all the day long, try give him some ranged or melee capabilities.

Haven't done Caed Nua yet. But i understand how you feel. I refrained myself to create various topics of this kind. About one line, one music, or whatever :D. There are few things i don't like in PoE, but many details are priceless. Like the exchange between Eder and Pallegina about the father and the hen... Or the fact i pause combat 30 minutes when the music "Come Soft Winds Of Death" plays... Or how a brothel patron at the Salty Mast explains how not only the drinks are stiff around here, or how Sagani wants to get "to the point" after 5 years, and yes, many others.

+1 to the OP. This lack bores me very, very, very much. Last time, Sagani gave a dagger to a boy in Copperlane (Sagani talked to him, not anyone else). There were a survival check, maybe to tell the boy how to use the dagger properly, or whatever. But you know, Sagani, and all your party members are just mutted dumbs. She checked the skills of my PC, saw she had not 4 survival, and then, shut her mouth. Thank you Sagani, you're a helpfull little puppet... The fact that during your interactions with souls you're the only one to see, only your PC skills are checked is ok. But with casual dialogues like the example i gave, it just irritates me. Even in BG, you could speak to a NPC with Aerie because she had wisdom your PC did not had, and then, a wisdom related dialogue option was available. It felt like your companions matter. It's definitely not the case in PoE. Beside a few moments when your companions say something during dialogue (which is mostly totally unnoticed by NPC anyway), your companions seem soulless. I sometimes even wonder why they follow me like a pet. I did not see yet a companion being angry or something about my decisions. Keldorn could fight you if you did things he really hated, and it's true for most of the BG2 companions. While it can make the party managing hard, it felt ike they had things to say, opinions, temper, and all these things. Did not see any of it in PoE so far.

Imatl is the NPC that give you the Clandestine Cargo task in Ondra's Gift. He asks you to retrieve a broken scepter from a beached ship. When i talked to him for the first time, i already had the 3 parts of the scepter. Speaking to him, i wondered if Dunstan could actually repair the scepter, so i told Imatl that i had no time to help him yet, even if i already had the broken scepter. Then i realised that Imatl had the fourth part of the scepter and chose to talk to him again. Now, i had an option to ask him about his friend who use to have an interest in Engwithan relics. The problem is: since i refused before to help him, he actually never spoke to me about this particuliar friend. It's nonsensical that i can actually ask him about her when i have no clue of her existence. How to reproduce: -Bring the 3 pieces of the broken scepter to Imatl during the Clandestine Cargo task. Then, refuse to give them immediatly. -Then, talk again to him, and you will have an option to ask about his friend you actually never have been talked about. Expected behavior: -Well, you shouldn't be able to ask about someone you don't even know actually exists. PS: had the same sort of problem with Durance dialogue in 1.03 (didn't tried in 1.04). While i never had the first dream with him (don't know why), i had the option to speak to him about it. But i've no clue where is the problem here. Had to Google to understand where all this stuff came from (spoilers warranted).

Made some research and did not find anything about this, so i've decided to post. The Forgemaster's Gloves, which can be purchased from Dunstan in Crucible Keep grant Firebrand spell, or at least should do so. I've tried using the spell with Eder and my priest protagonist. A nature like spell effect is played when the spell is cast, but there is no effect at all. Nor visually neither on the character sheet. Eder still have it's slashing damage (instead of fire, according to the spell description), still handles his saber (instead of a fire sword), and there is no difference at all wether it is in damage dealt, or accuracy or anything. And it's the same with my priestess and her Gaun's part flail. I tried unequipping all items before casting the spell, too, casting it 3 times in a row, and so on. But it just doesn't work. If it's me that don't understand something, I apologize. But, even if it is the case, there is a problem. Each time i find a magical item, i have to save the game and perform tests, and tests, and tests, just in order to figure out how to use the item or understand what it actually does. Have to shut down the game, make research with google, because nothing is explained in the game. Once, it's ok. The 10th time it becomes frustrating. Well, there is the same problem with many spells and abilities. How to reproduce: Buy the forgemaster's gloves from dunstan, equip them, attack a random NPC to start battle (because of the combat only thing), and cast the firebrand spell. Beside the casting effect, nothing happen. Expected behavior: -Firebrand spell is actually cast -Firebrand spell is explained on the item's description -special ciconstances needed to use any item or spell bind or spell holding is explained on the item's description, rather than needing you to go search on google (Shod in faith boots is a good example). -All magical items should be handled like this, with things usefull to know about it explained on the item's description, rather than who-know-where.

Thanks for the answer Sking. May i suggest that many items/mechanics should be better explained in tooltips or item descriptions? There are many things i can't understand, and the "spell holding" thing is just one of many examples. For now, i have to do many tests, loading and reloading over and over the same test savegame in order to try to figure out how worked these boots and the forgemaster gloves, both sold by Dunstan. Could not understand anything about the gloves yet. So, more reloadings to come... (will try to cast the spell while no weapon is equipped, because it does not work when my priest has her flail in hands). Dunstan will end up bruised all over many times i guess .

I opened this topic because i was actually concerned too by the balance between brigandine and plate. For now, i mostly use brigandines on my front line warriors because of cosmetic matters only (fine and exceptional brigandine is really beautiful on a female character model ). Besides the DR matter, there is also a price difference between brigandine and plate. The unenchanted brigandine is way cheaper than the unenchanted plate, which is ok. But, the difference is not so huge when it comes to the enchanted versions sold by Dunstan. Wich is a problem, because you really tend to ditch brigandines to use plates then. I thought there might be a hidden feature somewhere that explained that plate had better DR with the same recovery penalty, but haven't found anything so far. I'm a bit surprised by the handling of robes, too. Robes are actually armored, with 15% recovery penalty. I thought that unless the robe is enchanted, it is still plain cloth. Plus, i find that there is not enough recovery difference between, say, scale and plate (35/50 i guess). i would have found it reasonable that unenchanted robes give 0 DR but offer special enchantment possibilities, padded implies 5 or 10% recovery penalty, hide 15%, leather 20%, scale 30%, breasplate 35%, mail 40%, brigandine 45%, and plate 50%. Or something like that. For now, leather armor giving 30% penalty and plate giving 50% feel strange to me. I mean, if you are to accept the 30% penalty for 6DR, then, you're definitely tempted to accept the 50% for the 12 DR granted by plate. And then, i understand why Luckmann say that player is tempted to play either with plain cloth or plate armor.

There are workarounds for this. I have WinXP too, and my game runs like charm. I put this link (once more). Try this topic, page 3. Easy tweaks to make the game run without crashes on 32 bits systems, allowing windows to use more RAM for PoE: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71503-poe-and-windows-xp/page-3 EDIT: Obs is a at work to try to adress the problem on 32 bits systems. Don't seem to be an easy matter though.

There are sometimes a whole part of the sentences missing, like nearly half the sentence. I should have taken notes about this, so i could post more details... Damn. Still, for now, i play in english version. I have a really hard time (especially understanding Durance: hours of struggling), but i still understand better than with french text. True Isaya, the paper with the clue about the bells in Eothas temple is badly translated. I saw it, but fortunately, it made more sense in english. Want to point out another key translation that i feel is odd. "The Dozens" (Defiance Bay) is translated, i think, by "Les Douzaines". oO "Hey my seller fellow, i want a dozen eggs for i'm going to cook a tasty cake for grand'ma!" Noooo... this kind of naming can be ok in english, but iit just sounds weird in french in my opinion. So maybe "les Douzes" or "Les Disciples des Douzes" or whatever, but not "Les Douzaines". I think that chosing between english or french wording for places should be better than translating (oddly) half of them, and keeping the rest in english. Some examples: "La Baie du Défi" sounds really better when called "Defiance Bay" but if translated, it would be better imo to translate it by "La Baie des Défis", "La Vallée Dorée" seems ridiculous and should be called "Val Doré", wich is nicer (i think). Concerning other areas, you can't keep the english name for "Valewood" and chose a french one for "Prairie noire" (which i would rename by "Près brûlés" personally). I would translate "Valewood" by "Bois du Val" (according to "Val Doré", which is near heading south), "Esternwood" by "Bois de l'Est" (even if this is not East...). "Woodend Plains" should be translated by "Plaines Boisées" rather than "Plaines dégagées" (which sounds stupid). I have a hard time with Defiance Bay areas, since "First Fires" could be easily translated (oddly, by "Premiers Feux" :s), which is not the case for Copperlane ('"La Voie cuivrée"? oO) or Brackenbury ("Fougères"? oO). A possible workaround for ugly french translations of these areas is to remember Baldur's Gate 2, and adding "District" in the name. >> "District de la Voie Cuivrée", "District de Fougères", "District des Premiers Feux", and so on... Would add a classy touch, but still not really satisfying to me. There is the same kind of inconsistent mixed tranlations in "Twin Elms". It is a really difficult game to translate, but still... In the end, you say that the localizations are updated for the game in patches Isaya? I thought the translation was done, and that's it.

I opened this topic with google because of confident aim. While the warrior's weapon spec increased damages by 1.15 is displayed correctly on the character sheet, i can't say if the min damage bonus of confident aim is mplemented correctly, because there is no feecback in the same character sheet. The rules are complicated and still well explained (2 good things), but i guess that some more details, explanations, tooltips,... to help the player would be great. The lack of feedback was already pointed out during the beta. One example of that is i just don't understand the "XX damage over 13 sec (10 base)". Can't figure out if having high int is a drawback here because the damage are dealt more slowly, or if the "xx damage" is dealt on a "x seconds" basis, with the increased duration allowing an undertermined amount of increased damages. Very unclear to me. Don't know if i explain it well, since i use to struggle with english. Still, i agree that there are stange things sometimes. last time, i roll a 98-7=91= miss with my wizard, in the Eothas temple, while casting "iconic projection" on a shadow.

Yeah, i browse the bug reports here, and i was thinking the exact same thing. Some of the bugs are... well, you know :D. I pity the obs guys. Should not be as fun for them.

Another detail that was pointed out during the beta. Agree that the feature should be introduced. Baldur's Gate had its way to do it, but the problem was that you could not switch between a bow and sword+shield. The "ghosting" idea should make the job, provided that the complexity of the game code don't introduce bugs allowing to "duplicate" items or whatever . Yes, with such complex games, i fear the bugs.

The old problem with the "combat only thing" during the beta was something near what you explain here. Stealth is concerned, too. It may not be a "combat only" problem for you, but, without the combat only thing, this problem would not exist at all. This mechanic came for both gameplay reasons and technical reasons (problems with persisting bugs in save games). The problem is, in fact, that you should be able to engage combat the way you want. Not sure if the combat button (like in fallout 1/2) is a good workaround. Would need a dev point here, to be sure. But for what i see, this topic will last long. I'm agree with your concerns, many others will agree too.

Yeah, I got the "secret found" and then while moving my cursor around found a sort of hovering secret door below the opening in the wall. I seem to recall clicking on it which may have made it go away, but I'm not sure. I'm also pretty sure that the door itself became visible (well, as a purple rectangle) when I hovered over it. Clicking on it didn't make it disappear for me, and there wasn't the purple rectangle. So it was hard to see. But seems i'm not crazy. Must be the door :D. thanks.

I've seen this as well, and i'm pretty sure the "secret" is the secret door you just opened. It wasn't detecteable before you open it with the gem, but afterward, you have a nearly invisble area on the screen, and hovering the mouse on it change the cursor to the "open door" type. Seems to be the shape of the secret door, now hidden in the floor.

I don't think the PC specs are a problem. I don't even meet the mini requirements i guess (quad core AMD, limited 32 bits OS RAM, 6 years old GPU (GTS 250)), and beside the crash problem in Gilded Vale whom a fixed with a tweak, i play PoE just fine with full anti alias. It may be more of a folder problem. I will just say that during my first install i had a problem. I deleted the game and reinstalled it, but the problem was still here. I figured out than just desinstalling my GOG version was not enough, so i desinstalled the game AND, afterwards, all the remaining folders, manually. And then, my problem was gone, after a new reinstall. Don't know what your problem is about, but if you are to try a desinstall/reinstall, try to delete all the remaining folders manually before reinstalling. Sometimes, some *.ini files or whatever are still here after a desinstall, and if there is just a corrupted info in it, the problem will remain after reinstall. I'm not a PC pro, however . But maybe this could help you.

Robustesse me semble une très bonne idée oui. De mon coté, en revanche, j'avoue que les trads foirées dans l'histoire me dérangent plus encore que celles des diverses "regles". Très difficile de faire fonctionner l'imagination pour voir la scene décrite quand ca n'a aucun sens. J'irai voir sur la Couronne à l'occas. Si j'avais pas déjà des trads à faire sur mon temps libre, j'aurais probablement tenté d'améliorer certains passages et participé au travail collectif. Le chantier est titanesque. Peut être que j'apporterai ma pierre un peu plus tard, si je peux.