Cantousent

I'm actually considering buying this game. On the plus side, it's supposed to be well considered and an honest to goodness attempt to recapture some of the ol' skool aspects of gaming I have loved over the years. On the negative side, I have a bit of Codexian fatigue. On the mitigating of the negative side, I have noticed that the Codex isn't the hive minded group of contemptuous haters as which some folks have depicted them. On the down side of the plus side, I don't have time to finish other new games I have genuinely enjoyed, such as Dragonfall. Anyhow, no matter what, I think we should congratulate the designers of AoD. I'm a hack who lacks talent, but I refuse to let my personal deficiencies prevent me from appreciating the accomplishments of others. Good luck with sales, you glorious AoD bastards. I might just buy the game to support independent developers. I just hope I'm not burned for it. <.<

I'm going to move this thread to the modding forum and leave a redirect here. I'd like to encourage people to use the modding forum for things like this. Now that we have one, and some in the community have pushed to get one, I think we should support the people in the community providing content such as custom portraits. Great job and keep up the good work!

Off hand, I would simply point out that IWD required you to build the party whereas the PoE design team included enough pre-made NPCs to join the PC in creating an entire party. From what I've seen on hard (though not PotD yet), the game is pretty forgiving and you can get by without min-maxing or playing Munchkin (Oh how I hate that term) style. Frankly, on hard at least, I don't even think you need to build your character super well to get by well enough, although you could conceivably build a character sufficiently poorly that you're hosed. Let me be a bit more specific, a good player could take a poor character and win, but people who make poor character builds by accident tend to play those builds even worse than they build them. I'll leave it to our more erudite members to give their input, but no matter what, come back and keep us updated about your progress. :Cant's broad grin icon: EDIT: always with forgetting a single word that changes the entire meaning. :Cant's now *sheepish* grin icon:

Hey guys, you're to be congratulated. The folks who wanted a modding forum now have one thanks in largest part to the willingness of the community to calmly and patiently advocate for it. I'm the junior mod on the totem pole, so this isn't *my* victory. I doubt I had much to do with getting this forum in place. There will be guidelines and FAQs coming soon along with a list of forum moderators and, most importantly, interested members who will share their experiences. The *only* thing I'm doing now, and this is because there are no posts as of right now as I create this thread, is to congratulate you and, just as importantly, urge you to keep up the good work you've done by maintaining the principles that have made this forum possible in the first place. 1. Be gentle with one another. Debate, even fierce debate, is always welcome. Personal attacks and pointless acrimony don't help anyone. 2. Be conscious of the intellectual property of others. Not just because of potential trouble but, beyond that, because it's the right thing to do. When in doubt, consult Obsidian's guidelines here: https://eternity.obsidian.net/legal/ip-use 3. Help one another. The point of this forum is for folks to compare ideas and create possibilities for everyone to share. 4. Lodge complaints against Obsidian where you find fault and speak your mind, but remember that they created the game, this message board, and this sub-forum. They deserve some gratitude for that. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be here. This is all I have now and, as other mods assert their authority I'll probably gulag this post. I just wanted to get a quick word in saying congratulations.

Didn't have time to play until last night, but I took your advice, numbers, and got the Director's Cut of Dragonfall. They really have done an excellent job with the game. I really tend to prefer to play games in order for a variety of reasons, and especially for the one you cite: I don't want to play an older version and not enjoy it as much because I miss the improvements in things like the GUI or AI.

I agree with Malignacious. I mean, I don't tend to get mad at folks, but I do hope the developers don't take the advice to let characters walk through each other. My reason is simple, your positioning should have consequences. Now, that doesn't mean that I always like the assumption about where my party members are standing. I do appreciate being able to position them, especially in instances where I already *know* there is either the potential or imminent fight. That, and of course make sure characters can path properly and don't end up stuck in walls and whatnot. However, I don't want characters to be allowed access around each other in just about any other circumstance.

Looks cool. I haven't played D:OS yet, so I don't have a real opinion about Avellone working on D:OS2. I'll have to take a look into it. EDIT: Oh, and I think this topic is probably best in CnC rather than PoE general.

I don't know, Tigranes. I mean, I didn't really think that the dragons in PoE were overboard in comparison with other games, but most of the examples I saw in the OP were from other games. *Generally* speaking, I don't think fights that require either tons of luck or 'trick' tactics are good design. Typically, unless there's a strong roleplay reason, I tend to appreciate potential fights that can be avoided through stealth, roleplay, or negotiation. PoE actually came through on that end pretty well in my opinion. I tend to think that every big fight in the game should be tied in with the roleplaying aspect, which means you don't need those 'one or two tries' if you've played carefully. That's the rub. We old skoolers tend to expect to take a few tries on really hard fights. On the other hand, I really like the idea that AB proposed above about questing providing some buffs, info, or some other advantage. More than dragon or some big creature fights, I really wish we could edge away from the ultimate end battle of all time fights.

I didn't check the whole thread, only a post that had a report. No biggie, just make sure you spoiler tag stuff. Look, guys, I know the game's been out for a while but try to be conscientious about spoilers. The report itself wasn't 'angry,' just an observation and so this is just a friendly reminder. :Cant's easy grin icon: As for the original post, I generally agree. I don't mind fights with 'tricks' as long as there's some chance to learn them before-hand. Make the tricks of the fight part of the story rather than just trial and error things that require an internet check for most folks. Reward conscientious gamers who pay attention. Even then, you'll still have a lot of casual gamers who need someone to hold their hands. It's the age old fight between the 'bragging rights' folks, other folks who genuinely just like a grueling challenge at every step, and folks who want mostly stiff challenges with a few 'sweat ops.' Take all those, and keep in mind that the devs probably want to include so called casual gamers for whom most fights will be a real challenge. For my part, I think a few grueling fights are good, mixed with a lot of tough fights, and a couple of fights that get to be fairly easy if you pay attention and do your homework. Of course, I'm starting to loath end fights altogether... especially ten false end-fights before the 'real' end fight. I'd like to see the hardest fight a little before the very end and then have a bit of awesome role-playing and story-telling for the last ten minutes or so.

That's actually damned impressive, my Humanoid friend, but the odd ten or fifteen bucks isn't that big of a deal. ...And I already own Hong Kong, so it's only a matter of buying that one xpac rather than deciding between the xpac and the sequel. On the other hand, I still haven't played the new PoE expansion, so I don't really have to buy anything right away. I'll revisit when I'm done with that, which will probably be at least several weeks if not several months.

Okay, guys, now that I've finished Shadowrun Returns, I'm wondering, should I play Hong Kong, or get the Dragonfall xpac and play that first? EDIT: ...And I started a game and literally saved and quit right after I saw the intro and finished the first conversation. I'm quite impressed so far. It'd be nice to see a game with a little less atmosphere, it being all the vogue these days. On the other hand, this *is* Shadowrun. Asking for less atmosphere is like asking for Warhammer with a little less suffering and despair. It's part of the setting. :Cant's tongue in cheek grin icon: Nevertheless, I prefer to play games in order and Dragonfall isn't very expensive.

I think it's impossible to quantify tastes. Don't get me wrong, you can make reasonable and cogent arguments for why one game is better than another. You can't make a purely logical argument for the simple reason that logic does not dictate tastes. Are there are rational objective statements one can make about art? Sure. Is there any pure logical statements to quantify tastes? I don't believe so. That's why we have such a huge variety of literature, T.V. shows, movies, and music. You might love the complexities of Schoenberg, and I can't deny his genius, but I swear to goodness I would rather listen to a current rendition of the Turkey in the Straw. That said, part of the joy for most of the people here is the lively debate. Debate and discussion is one of the great things about this board. At least that's my opinion based on personal taste. :Cant's wink and grin icon: As for you, oaktown, I was going to take a screenie to show how I deal with trimming quotes, but I'm afraid it will confuse you more than the current system. If you want to use the standard interface, just practice with deleting the standard interface and it will become easier. It's less precise, but I can't imagine anyone will complain at you for making errors. Oh, by the way, Zork is the best computer game franchise, bar none. That, my friends, is a statement of fact... of course. :Cant's big beefy grin icon:

I use the actual codes for that very reason, oaktownbrown. Sometimes the long trees get to be a bit much, but don't sweat it now. I'm heading to bed soon, but I'll try to figure out a quick and painless way to explain it and probably PM you or maybe post it in this thread just in case other folks have the same question. Maybe not for a couple of days as life is, as always, so busy for me! :Cant's wry grin icon:

I haven't had the chance to post lately, but it seems we're getting a lot more reports from this thread. I want to mention a couple of things first of all: 1. Please don't goad folks. I mean, a little heat isn't so bad. We *are* pretty tolerant here. We *want* folks to stay and debate and even argue. Just don't go postal on one another. 2. If you use an epithet to describe someone, our usual hands free approach will change and you'll be put on moderated status. That's actually one of the rare things that irks me personally. Now, to be fair, I only saw one thing that might have been an epithet (and I don't count 'fanboy' as an epithet). Since I only saw it once and I wasn't sure, the benefit of the doubt goes to the member. Guys, you might be bitterly divided with someone on one point today and be on the same side of another issue tomorrow. Please be gentle with one another. I took the time to edit the huge assed posts in this thread so I wouldn't have to close or remove it. Reward me by making forceful and piercing attacks on other *arguments* and not other *people.* Don't type with angry fingers. Don't resort to name calling. Don't intentionally try to pick fights with folks.

The only reason I thought that is that I maxed out my mage abilities and put points in other places, but I think I might have been better off using some of those excess points in int/deck. Of course, I'll probably read advice/responses for the next while before I start my Hong Kong run, so I'll see. :Cant's one raised eyebrow grin:

I finished Shadowrun returns just now. I don't have time to start the next one, but I was quite happy with what I played. I did my first run on hard and I would be tempted to increase the difficulty and do another run, but I have other games to play. <.< I probably can't start for a while, but I'm sure it will be a lot of fun. One thing I think I'll do for the next game is invest in my usual magic build, but also diverge into decking. Don't get me wrong, I'll go full mage, but I should have plenty of points to divert some to decking and I think that will be an advantage in some spots, at least according to experience. Time will tell.

Just confirmed my Hero-U pledge. I'd forgotten about it. I won't have time to play it for a while, but I will eventually and so I'm happy.

That's right, Bawtzki, but the good news is that you've now made enough approved posts that you're no longer moderated. :D

Interesting take. I agree about Eder, but I disagree about Durance. Durance is religious, to be sure, but his brand of religiosity is going to be off-putting to a lot of religious folks. I don't think his character is meant to be sympathetic at all for most of the game. His character is meant to be brutal, ugly, and unfeeling. He's too intense, and in too nasty a way, for most folks to relate to him. There is a couple of particular plot points where I do think he can evoke sympathy, at least I sympathized with him, but those revolved around his circumstances rather than his personality. Durance is probably the best written NPC in the game, although I'd still pick Eder out of the two of them because he's a bro and he's good for a laugh over a beer or two. Also, unlike you, I liked Aloth considerably more, especially the Eder/Aloth dynamic. Too funny. At any rate, Welcome to the forum. Thanks for taking the time to pen a few thoughts. Stick around and continue to be active on the boards!

I understand the idea of thinking outside the box, but the decision to play cutesy with might always struck me as misguided. Just my thoughts as a consumer. As a gameplay mechanic, it's okay because it just spreads out the theory and number crunching between a set of stats. It *works* but it feels weird.

Someone mentioned some sort of scaling in another thread that apparently made things too tough for him to finish. I'll see if I can find it, but I remember approving it recently. Actually, I just went and looked. Someone responded, but the OP in that thread seemed to think that the difficulty had increased in the expansion for existing encounters. Please be advised that the link contains some minorly spoilerish things. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/81575-turning-off-upscaling/

I don't even have time to try it. I've been able to play about fifteen minutes of Shadowrun returns over the past week and I *started* a new game of PoE to check out the White March. Still, I'm stoked about Tides, so I think I'll ink in some time to try the new alpha after Tuesday when I should have a little time. I'm really looking forward to this one.

There's a small button you could easily have clicked by accident.

Sorry, I haven't been able to spend much time, so I'm just approving posts. Now that I've read it, I think it really *is* a good idea to include a screen shot. It sounds to me like some of the spirits that pop up after you've 'awakened' your watcher powers. These 'ghosts' don't always interact with you or even have floating text. They will usually disappear if you walk towards them. I don't want to say definitively without seeing the screen though. :Cant's wry grin icon:

I think that's set at five moderated posts for everything. It is for normal posting, so you're almost there. Keep discussing and posting and you'll be there in no time.