HozzM

I can see that. Its pretty much THE town in the game, and, as such, fairly large as maps/areas go relative to the rest of the game. I felt that it slowed the pace of the game down by being introduced so early.

The two PCs are there to facilitate co-op play. It is a little wonky if you are just gonna play solo, which probably most people do. I would urge you to give it another chance. I thought it was a fantastic game. Love the combat.

Mass Effect was amazing, IMO. The last great Bioware RPG.

It is confusing. The Guidebook Volume 1 (by Dark Horse) is the same as the 'Collector's Book' from the Kickstarter. The Collectors Edition Guide (by Prima) is a hardcover version of the Digital Strategy guide from the Kickstarter. AFAIK, the other 'book' from the Kickstarter, the almanac, is digital only.

You had to fill a survey with the name you wanted in the thanks section of the credits. They would have used that information for the strategy guide as well, I would assume. Yeah, it was in the backer portal. Ah, yes. I figured that was just for the game itself. I just wasn't aware/spaced out on a Prima guide, I guess. Not really worried about it per se, just a principle sort of thing. I'm weird that way. I am curious about that as well. I don't really remember the survey part. I don't either. I guess it was a long time ago.

Despite being 3D and Turn Based, I already feel that Larian's Divinity: Original Sin got more "old school" things right and is a better spiritual successor. PoE pigeon holes far too many things for my tastes and comes off as a deeply contrived but inferior form of D&D. I want to believe that many of the things I dislike about PoE are just birth-pangs, but in reality they are fundamental disagreements with design that I find to be deeply not IE. This is not to say I wanted a clone. Look no further than D:OS for an example of what was great about 1990s RPGs being brought to a modern date. Having been very involved in the beta, I cannot reiterate that opinion with PoE. I loved D:OS, especially the combat. Best combat system in a CRPG in I don't know how long, maybe ever. That said, in the 12 hours I have with the beta PoE feels very much like a successor to BG2. Combat is a weakness, for sure, but it was in the IE games too. I enjoyed them despite the combat, not because of it.

You are correct. This is a strategy guide and is completely different than the Dark Horse Collector's Book. The Collector's Book is the lore and art of the game. What is the backer equivalent of this book on Amazon? The 'Collector's Book' or the 'Digital Almanac'? Or neither... http://smile.amazon.com/dp/1616558091/ Looking in this thread it appears that the GuideBook Volume One is the same as the Collector's Book offered at the $250 and up Kickstarter tier.

I have only played through the beta content once so far. I created a Druid and hired a Monk. Looking at the stats, the monk did the most total damage by a fairly large margin. This is notable if for no other reason than the Monk was lower level than everyone. Was level 3 when I hired at the Inn, compared to the party being level 5. Finished level 7, with the rest of the party being 8. Monk total damage was 7300. Next highest was BB Fighter at 5900, BB Wizard at 4900, BB Rogue at 4300. My Druid at 2600 and BB Priest bringing up the rear at 1500. Obviously total damage done does not tell the complete story of party effectiveness but the Monk having a massive edge on the rest of the party despite being lower level is interesting. Total damage taken? BB Rogue lead with 2500 and change. Monk next at 2500 rounded up. 3rd place was BB Fighter at 2300. Druid next at 2100. BB Priest next at 1500 and BB Wizard last at 1000. I expect melee classes to take the most damage of course. But looking at my stats, again based just on one play through, the Monk class looks very strong.

I believe this is the area described by the outer green ring when you target an AoE spell.

You are correct. This is a strategy guide and is completely different than the Dark Horse Collector's Book. The Collector's Book is the lore and art of the game. What is the backer equivalent of this book on Amazon? The 'Collector's Book' or the 'Digital Almanac'? Or neither... http://smile.amazon.com/dp/1616558091/

I respect that someone might have a negative opinion of the box art, and care about it, but I have to say I could literally could not give less of a **** about that. I want all resources spent on making the best game possible. The box art could be blank, that would be fine with me.

Ok so I have played through the beta, on Normal. I created a Druid and hired a Monk and played with the 4 BB characters. Of the 6 classes I have played with, Rogue seems by far the weakest. Strongest? I don't know but I say Priest because of Holy Radiance. Again I don't know if it is a bug or not but it sometimes insta-killed enemies in range at the start of fight. And it heals as well and is a once per encounter ability? Sign me up! Healing...the direct healing spells seem weak. For example, Priest, level 3 spells. Watchful Presence compared to the same level direct heal...no contest. Druid passive heals like Nature's Balm and Moonwell I found far more useful than Priest direct heals. As far as the beta content, for the most part I found it pretty good. I did think the cultist dungeon map was a bit of a drag (the one accessible from the tower in the town and from the statue in the area east of town). There was a fight around every corner and the biggest struggle was not the enemies, but the path finding. I am a turn based combat fan in general but this map especially, I felt like the combat system took away from the experience. Still loving the game and looking forward to the release. I will play through again with a different main character class and a different hireling class.

I have participated in 5 Blizzard betas and they have all been extremely polished and many (all?) of them have been the latest build, and content complete. I do think they gain a marketing advantage with this approach (especially back in 2004 with the WoW beta), but they also seem to utilize the massive feedback sample size they get effectively. Diablo 3, in retrospect, and with respect to Blizzard betas, seems to be the exception because that game changed a ton post-release.

I have had access to the beta for a while but had not spent any time with it until this latest build. So I don't have anything enlightening to say other than to offer my first impressions with the game. According to Steam I have 6 hours with the game total. I consider myself above average at RPGs, have played all the IE games, BG2 especially, a ton of times, so I thought I would be able to just drop in and do well on Normal. That was not the case. First rolled up a Barb, and went with the 4 stock BB party members and promptly got smoked in that first fight, Meldreth. Like, smoked. Embarrassed, really. The Barb was a lot more squishy than I thought he would be, and I was not paying any attention to positioning before the fight and before I realized it might be a good idea to micromanage my party, especially the casters, it was too late. I did beat that fight after another couple of tries but decided I did not like the Barb. Next game I made a Ranger. Well, game started and my pet was nowhere to be found, could not figure out how to summon him (reading up on this it seems like this is just a bug I encountered at an unfortunate time) so I quit that character after the first fight, which was not hard. In fact I found that BB Priest could solo it with just Holy Radiance, is that a bug? The combat log was not very helpful in seeing what exactly was happening but it seemed to just instantly kill all the enemies in range. Next character I made was a Druid. Seems like a pretty good class so far. I have the majority of my 6 hours with this character. I hired a Monk at the inn too, they seem pretty good as well. Question about Swift Strikes though...I understand that it costs 1 wound to use but the feedback from the UI was not very clear on whether or not I had triggered it and whether or not it was active. When I click the icon to use it, it does not light up the way the other character abilities seem to when I click them. It does seem to activate though...my monk's fists are blue and my wound count goes down by 1...I found the stun to be good as well. Venturing out of town initially I found the beetle fights to be hard but only because I took them for granted and gave my party no direction beyond attack...I underestimated the beetles. Spiders I did not underestimate, scouting with a stealth character helped me a lot in the Cave. On Normal the ogre fight was easy, Druid's Charm spell worked great taking the bears out of the equation, monk stunned the ogre and that was pretty much it. I am back in town and in that dungeon under the tanner's tower, but just at the start. Some general observations/feedback: Let us name save games Is there a character specific action queue in combat? Seems like there would have to be but I cant seem to find it or how to use it. As many others have stated, that webbed graphic has to go. I thought the spiders were playing with fire or something. All in all, I am very excited about the upcoming release. This very much feels like the spiritual successor to BG3 that I have been wanting to play for 10+ years now. The setting being 'not D&D/Forgotten Realms' took a little adjusting to but in the end I think this will be a good thing for all involved.