Gromnir

"we suspect that dex and perception is the best abilities for rangers. our ranger's pet does the damage, so might doesn't mean near as much as we thought it would. instead, we suspect a ranged weapon with a high rate o' fire would be an ideal weapon to be interrupting the baddest enemy in any particular encounter, and then our pet would do actual damage. light armour would speed us up a bit too, no? *shrug* regardless, am thinking rangers might be ideal interrupters." the damage transfer between animal companion and ranger does result in the ranger taking front-line melee kinda pain. constitution for the ranger requires some consideration as we ain't figured out an ideal way to bolster animal companions via priest spells to the point where they ain't siphoning the life out o' our ranger. HA! Good Fun!

Sounds to me then that interrupter builds could be very viable. am currently trying it out, but we ran into a new bug: our per encounter abilities is not resetting. also, for whatever reason, our ranger doesn't wish to use her primary weapon set, so am needing to put bow in set II. is all very odd. HA! Good Fun!

bear damage was extreme high v. meredith cronies and beetles and spiders. the damage our boar companion were not nearly so dramatic, but regardless, the majority damage our ranger duo(s) were producing were coming from our animal companion and not the ranger herself. as an aside, stamina never seems to fully regenerate for our rangers. am assuming that is a bug. HA! Good Fun!

if that is possible, it is probable via cut-scene interaction HA! Good Fun!

am thinking we had some misconceptions about rangers before we started playing PoE. were our notion that we would stand at a distance and fire deadly arrows at our foes as our bear/wolf/stag acted as a meat shield. that ain't the way things worked out for us in our limited gameplay. our first ranger build were high dex and might with a 12 for con and a 14 for intellect. it appeared that the ranger had some debuffs and we were hopeful a decent intellect would make those debuffs last longer... am not sure if it works that way or not. in any event, our first mistake were thinking o' our bear as a meat shield. we chose the bear for the increased dt, but even so, whatever damage the bear took, so did our ranger. ouchie. also, our bear were dishing out far more hurt than were our arrows... ridiculous damage compared to our arrows. with our war bow and knight weapon proficiency, we did typical 20 pts o' damage per arrow, but the bear were frequent doing more than 70. bear had far better accuracy as well. unfortunately, at one point it seemed as if every enemy were attacking our bear instead o' the party fighter and so our ranger's stamina and health were dropping very fast. one immediate annoying observation were that we frequently lost our targeted Marked Prey in the chaotic melee o' combat. which beetle or spider were the marked prey? poop. we frequent had no idea which enemy had the debuffs. in any event, some quick opinions we got from two ranger characters played up to ogre... 'cause we ain't getting quest xp for any characters. -- we suspect that dex and perception is the best abilities for rangers. our ranger's pet does the damage, so might doesn't mean near as much as we thought it would. instead, we suspect a ranged weapon with a high rate o' fire would be an ideal weapon to be interrupting the baddest enemy in any particular encounter, and then our pet would do actual damage. light armour would speed us up a bit too, no? *shrug* regardless, am thinking rangers might be ideal interrupters. -- we need a good amount of con for our ranger 'cause our pet is gonna get hurt. when our animal gets hurt, so does Gromnir. pet is not a meat shield but freaking voodoo doll... albeit an ambulatory voodoo doll with horns and fangs and whatever. -- am not sure if this is a bug, but only control we got over our voodoo doll is simple attack. the pets have special attacks, no? seems like we should be able to initiate those special attacks if they got 'em. we had a empty white sub-portrait where we suspect our beasties image shoulda appeared over our own character portrait, but that invariably disappears and clicking the empty portrait didn't do anything anyway. am sure we have other thoughts, but this is at least a start. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna start one o' these for each class we play. in the beta, we has played two ciphers. we didn't get very far with either 'cause o' bugs, but we will share some thoughts. our firstest cipher were a human... whichever culture that were getting chainmail, rapier and stiletto for starting gear. we didn't read too much o' the developer posts on ciphers, but we were understanding that melee attacks built focus that the cipher could then use to power soul magic. our thinking were that might and dexterity were striking us as ideal abilities for a cipher, but we is rare doing obvious, so we focused on intellect and might-- pick the few cipher powers that had duration and seeming aoe kinda effects. ok, we didn't get much play from this build 'cause our priest and mage had their equipment disappear instantly, but am admitting that we found the focus building aspect refreshing if less than intuitive. our focus didn't build predictably with our melee attacks and we didn't seem like a particularly able melee combatant in any event. there were a first level cipher power (soul shock) that were 'posed to make an ally kinda discharge electrical powha, but as far as we could tell, it weren't working. ectopsychic echo, on the other hand, worked quite well as long as we had characters positioned correct. mental binding sounded like a good power, but perhaps our dex were too low 'cause we didn't have much luck with it... were hoping that high intellect would result in more secondary targets affected. regardless, we only completed meredith fight as our mage and priest were bugged. our second cipher were a dwarf. we went with similar stats, but we used a bow. we were able to generate focus with the bow, which struck us as a superior weapon for a spell caster. we got further with our dwarf cipher, and we began to get into a rhythm for generating focus, but his armour disappeared. in fact, every load game would make whatever were in the armour slot disappear. our quest and task log also evaporated on game loads, so we didn't get past the ogre in the spider cave. *shrug* that being said, after a few hours o' gameplay, we decided that we like ciphers. they have a very high micromanagement element as focus is something that is needing constant attention, but that doesn't discourage us as we is borderline ocd anyways. is also our opinion that dexterity and might is likely the best attributes to be choosing for ciphers... though we have little to base that on other than gut feelings. additionally, bows work surprising well for generating focus. anywho, post your thoughts on ciphers here... and if you think you got a sooper-groovey cipher build, don't hesitate to share. tell us we got ability and weapon choices all wrong is also welcome. HA! Good Fun!

technically, there is two sexes for humans (and humanoids?) as is a simple biological distinction, but there is potential an unlimited number o' genders as gender is based on cultural and social differences. sex is not a value judgement. our suggestion is to be making interrupts accompanied by a graphic or text indicator. am thinking interrupts is vast under appreciated, but as successful interrupts is largely hidden from the player, perception is getting an unnecessarily bad reputation. HA! Good Fun!

very impressive depth. thank you for sharing. we honestly do not recall HoW, but we will go back and listen to the entire soundtrack. HA! Good Fun!

It was bound to happen. Personally, I'm partial to BG2 and Heart of Winter's soundtracks. am having difficulty recalling HoW. the gameplay were... disappointing, so we has kinda blocked the experience from our mind, much like one may not actual recall the pain o' a traumatic leg break. sure, we can recall the leg break were not fun, but one may not actual recall the pain. HoW were a painful crpg experience. bg2 music did not annoy us. am not recalling it as particular good or bad, but if it weren't memorable bad, that is probable good... if that is making sense. iwd and iwd2 were our high water marks for ie games. we liked some ps:t stuff, but it all felt rather schizophrenic. so far, we has not been annoyed by PoE music. am realizing this is not a ringing endorsement, but comparatively speaking, it is a positive review. HA! Good Fun!

this thing is on the board in at least 3 places. oh well, is worth reading we s'pose. HA! Good Fun!

no HA! Good Fun!

By Directors Cut, do you mean the "Alan Smithee" extended version? The one that Lynch disowns? ... Justin, just curious but how far along are you with the music and sound effects? am assuming that any and all extended versions were disowned by lynch, yes? our understanding is that post release lynch has never even agreed to speak o' dune in interviews... which we find most amusing. ... am hopeful you is happy. am having back issues today, but we did hobble over to our dvd rack and peek at our metal box containing the extended cut. "TWO VERSIONS OF THE FILM Original Theatrical (Directed by David Lynch) and Extended Version (Directed by Alan Smithee, Screenplay by Judas Booth)" smithee being the pseudonym for the director(s) who didn't want to be named, yes? HA! Good Fun!

agreed with suggestion. of equal importance to Gromnir is some indicator o' which enemies is suffering from debuff. some such debuffs is indeed obvious. if rogue uses as crippling strike, we gets an actual graphic indication. unfortunately, not all lingering negative effects has such easy-to-spot visual indicators. half the time we can't tell which wood beetle or spider is affected by a debuff, particularly as they is all jumbled together. is most annoying. HA! Good Fun!

any time friend or foe is victimized by a knockdown effect, all we hear is Dune thumper meant to attract sandworms. is very distracting such that we don't even notice music. on the positive side, the annoying sound did encourage us to watch the sci-fi dune miniseries just the other day, and we will probably watch 1985 lynch version this weekend- director's cut 'course. HA! Good Fun!

if corpses result in a resource drain, buffy style dusting o' enemies is okie dokie with us. if enduring corpses has potential to cause even small slow-downs, we is in favor o' dusting. that being said, 1007 piles that is obscured by tall grass or trees or whatever and is not illuminated via tab is irksome. HA! Good Fun!

untrue. we know that obsidian's beta testers believe perception and resolve is weaker. is an important distinction. developers may know that testers is wrong. developers may need only discover some way to make usefulness o' perception and resolve more obvious. and yeah, perhaps perception and resolve is weak. we don't know. HA! Good Fun!

given problems such as disappearing quest logs and disappearing equipment, am agreeing with you that combat feedback is a low(er) priority. that being said, we will note that all the folks making claims 'bout lack o' balance w/o any feedback from which to base such claims strike us as... odd. also, obsidian could very easily give far more detailed written descriptions o' how abilities and combat works via a message board update. we would rather have detailed in-game feedback, but in its absence, some illumination from developers might prevent them from knee-jerk altering ability balance when all that is genuine required is explanation. HA! Good Fun!

Because we can comprehend the concepts behind them and how they affect certain builds. We don't need to wait to know that almost all conceivable builds have a major need for MIG. Which is why I have suggested giving the healing influence of might over to RES. Probably shouldn't discount how much people will make decisions (at least initially) on what *sounds* good, whether or not the implementation gives commensurate effects in-game. which is the problem. folks is acting as if they know what is the actual benefits of taking 1 point of might over 1 point of perception. you don't. Gromnir doesn't. perhaps the obsidian developers know, but they ain't giving us an easy way to discover the actual relative benefits. activated abilities and spells would appear to be the method by which enemies dish out the pain. now, if Gromnir has a ranger who sends his animal companion to attack the most dangerous enemy in a group and with our high perception we could virtual guarantee that the enemy never activated an ability or spell, that would be a very powerful limit on enemy power, no? unfortunately, from the combat log, which retains only a very brief amount o' info, we can't tell what we is or isn't interrupting or how interrupt percentages work or even what is the kinda actions we is interrupting. interrupt, particularly for our ranger who would appear to be doing most o' her damage via her animal companion, would seem to be a very powerful ability... but that is just a guess, 'cause we don't know how it freaking works. might Sounds like a good choice for mostest characters. for mages or other characters who perhaps focus on aoe abilities that don't need to hit a particular foe, intellect actually strikes us as probable the bestest ability, but as a practical matter, we don't know how much intellect increases aoe size and duration... heal/buff priests would seem to greatly benefit from intellect, but again, am not certain how much they benefit. it seems as if folks is reading descriptions o' abilities and deciding that might is a clear win and perception is a dog... and folks could be absolutely correct, but Gromnir don't see any reasons for such conclusions other than gut level feelings. HA! Good Fun! ps the reason d&d ain't used is 'cause it has obvious dump stats. at the moment, people believe that perception and resolve is dump stats, but they could very well be wrong. in d&d, a mage benefits not at all from strength. the obsidian developers did not wanna make obvious dump stats. if all abilities were genuine useful, there wouldn't be dump stats. again, am thinking most o' the complaints 'bout abilities is based on lack o' understanding and inexperience with the new system. the problem is that even as we get more experience, the lack o' detailed understandable feedback from combat (again, logs is very short and not as detailed as we think obsidian believes) makes it near impossible to get a grasp o' what is actual going on in combat and how each ability contributes.

we had a german poli-sci professor at Cal that never got tired o' pointing out just how homogenized both major US political parties is... which is kinda fascinating when you realize how much more diverse the US is compared to the majority o' european parliamentary nations. we got left v. right here in the US, but folks who actual gets elected is almost invariably extreme moderate compared to what folks elsewhere considers left v. right. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna repeat this again, 'cause we ain't seen an answer yet: how on earth is folks deciding that the current abilities is poorly balanced? given the lack o' combat mechanics transparency, how is folks deciding that might outshines intellect or that perception is a dump stat for all builds? is this a gut feeling kinda thing? is there a thread wherein combat mechanics/numbers has been parsed and we simple didn't see it? is a bunch o' threads speaking to ability score improvements, but Gromnir is still not certain how primary and derived stats affect gameplay, at least not with any certainty. how can folks be so convinced o' improvements if the only thing they gots to base conclusions 'pon is wiki links and gut feelings? am genuine confused. HA! Good Fun!

Not really, Gromnir brought it up previously and basically no one else has said anything, except Nepenthe noting it wasn't a very flattering comparison for US police. Given the context I wouldn't be surprised if he thought I was Russian rather than being a proud citizen of the least corrupt* nation of earth**, and he was Scoring a Point by mentioning eastern Europe's police. *alternative interpretation since it's a perception index: country best at self delusion, burying their head in the sand and being smug about not being corrupt. **OK, equal with Denmark. Bloody Scandics, always getting in our way on the indices. I notice you and Zora aren't debating each other anymore, you both get did a little personal in your last debates. I enjoy you guys debating because you both have intellectual and interesting styles of debating etiquette My advice is both apologize to each other and both admit things got a little heated? Also I learnt something years ago, and I know this is hard to implement on a forum, but in life you can sometimes lose an argument or debate when you win it , because the person you are debating with gets such a bad impression by the end of the debate that they decide they won't discuss anything with you anymore...they would rather just avoid you because of the potential acrimony that comes with having a debate. And to be avoided in life because of what people perceive about you is never a good thing, especially if the person has lot to offer other people. And both of you do have a lot to offer others *chuckle* closest to heated we has gotten in months is ros bs notions wherein he assumed that he knew what life is like for Gromnir simple base on fact that we is American... and speaking to his ancestors raping our ancestors, we kid you not. zor can't get us heated. we like zor posts. is too little humor on these boards. HA! Good Fun!

bester mentioned how he/she would never come to the US because of cops. bester is eastern euro (you may scroll up). zor is just a honk for euros who is naturally contrary and has inexplicably defended weird russian choices on more than one occasion... the ukraine thread being indicative o' zor's more obvious tinfoil hat moments. *shrug* HA! Good Fun! ps please do not forget the silly rt links we has seen in this thread.

*groan* the difference 'tween 10% bad cop in the US and 10% bad cop in eastern europe is brobdingnagian. bad cops here include the a-hole who gives us a speeding ticket for going 5 miles over the speed limit and acts like being a cop instantly added 6 inches to his d&$#@... and he wants to prove his extra length to you. 10% o' US cops is jerks, which ain't surprising as at least 10% o' the population is serious jerks. 10% o' bank employees is jerks. 10% o' supermarket clerks is jerks. 50% o' dmv employees is jerks... go figure. what you folks in eastern europe means by bad is that sodomizing folks with baseball bats and running white slavery rings. *shakes head* serious folks. some of y'all gotta get a grip. no doubt there is folks here who genuine believe that cop encounters in the US is dangerous and even potential lethal, and if you feel that way perhaps that approach will serve you well. but statisticaly speaking, violent crime has been on a steady decrease in the US since the late 90s and in spite o' the fact that everybody and their brother has smart phones and instant access to video and photographic image creation, valid claims 'gainst cops has also decreased save in some noteworthy locales. now sure, we also has bad cops here that folks in eastern europe would recognize as bad. is corrupt US cops who hurt people and steal and is racist aholes, but am not certain if this is media nonsense you people is buying into or that you watch too many movies like training day or... lord knows what you people think. *shrug* we has dealt with many (too many) cops while we worked juvenile hall and then during our brief stint at US attorney's office. we lived on a reservation as a kid, so we dealt with white cops in south dakota, then we moved to one o' the more notorious neighborhoods in chicago. we got loads o' experience with cops, and our worstest genuine experiences, with one exception. were that we couldn't get cops (or firemen) to come to our neighborhood in a reasonable and timely fashion. bad cop in south chicago were not so much cops shooting innocent folks, but that cops didn't show up til they weren't needed no more. this ferguson stuff gives people an extreme distorted notion o' reality. is too bad. there is bad cops. there is racist cops, but genuine dangerous cops in the US is probable less than 1%. at the moment in ferguson, you got cops with 0 practical crowd control experience from a dozen or more municipalities trying to work together and protect themselves and the public and they is doing a poor job. shocking? mot really. Following Police Instructions Does Not Make You A Punk. get young males o' all races to actual believe the aforementioned would save lots o' grief. HA! Good Fun!

Genuine question: what kind of feedback do you think would tell you whether changes were making a difference, and did the IE games give you that? The only way I ever found out empirically what made a difference was to build a different character or pick up an item with a big stat boost. E.g. equipping the gauntlets of ogre power on a feeble fighter/mage in BG made a dramatic difference, but it was an item with a pretty dramatic effect. Everything else was just numbers. There's a neat comparison screenshot of INT's effect on AoE (I can never seem to find things I want to cite), but given the scaling of most stat effects, again you need quite big shifts to show up anything. actually, in games such as iwd2, the combat log gave extreme detailed feedback. we could see to hit rolls and how they were individual modified and we would see enemy ac plain as day. mage spells would obvious not need to-hit, but we could see ref/fort/will saves and various modifications, and we could see how damage was calculated including such stuff as feat or ability modifiers. the combat log would be retaining many pages worth o' info. similarly, as we has stated elsewhere, a simple and obvious dynamic character record sheet would help. in ie games, switch between dual-wield o' stilettos as opposed to a bastard sword would immediately reveal a bab change or thac0 change on iwd2 or bg2 character record sheet. change armour would similarly reveal a change in ac on character record sheet. combat feedback need not be as arcane and obscured as it currently is. HA! Good Fun!

btw, the only thing wrong with quest and task experience is that like so much else in the game, it is not freaking working. if our quest log disappears same as our companion mage's grimoire, then we ain't getting xp for doing quests and task. and serious folks, if you thinks you is coming up with a new pov on this, you ain't. back in 2001-2003, the black isle folks were alternatively working on either baldur's gate 3 or fallout 3, and at that time the advantages and disadvantages o' ad hoc v . quest and task based xp awards were debated into insensibility. the black isle/obsidian guys has been vocal proponents o' quest awards for a Long time, and we has yet to see a new argument in favor o' an ad hoc approach. HA! Good Fun!