Yenkaz

Some loot is random, some isn't. Some of the random chests seem to use a 'high yield' table and gives stuff like special equipment. Trust me, I've messed up enough times just before entering a new area to notice.

Feet. FEET!? A real gamer straps himself unto his chair and snaps his neck before even starting, then plays using his tongue and nose. A lifetime of handicap is no price too high for the true gaming experience. I have to admit you have a fair point, and it is indeed a far more rewarding challenge to use my face only to truly experience this game the way it was meant to be. Also, lending the neighbours cat and putting a significant amount of catnip on the keyboard enhanced this even further, my face may be utterly maimed but I finally find this game challenging enough. Thank you, this greatly helped my experience! Although, I may have to cycle through keyboards as the blood from my mauled visage keeps messing with the hardware... Or maybe this is just another challenge that I should embrace!

Why do 3D environments matter? This game is bloody beautiful! If anything, this game is a great reminder that you don't need amazing facial animations to convey interaction between characters. When I compare this game to DA:I, a game I've come to view as an example of trying to appease everybody, creating a beautiful game that feels hollow and almost like fanfiction, I don't miss the superior graphics at all. I'm not saying graphics don't matter, just that a more basic engine as the one used now allows to focus on the story and gameplay, perfectly choreographed and physically realistic fighting animations don't help with that. The more advanced the 3D engine is, the more effort has to go into making it work with the game, which necessarily means draining resources from other areas. The animations are outdated now, but that hasn't kept this from being an enormous commercial success! This game is an astounding success. Sales, professional reviews and most importantly, users are breaking the expectations of most everybody. It did not achieve this by spending almost the entire budget on using the most advanced possible 3D engine to make it as sparkly as possible! I sincerely hope the expansions and possible sequels are made with the current priorities in mind.

Feet. FEET!? A real gamer straps himself unto his chair and snaps his neck before even starting, then plays using his tongue and nose. A lifetime of handicap is no price too high for the true gaming experience.

I think the fact that this, along with people complaining about not being able to walk, is a pretty good sign. The greatest problems with the game is that it's not annoying enough and you can't do things slower?!

Honest warning: I'm not done yet, but I've spent many hours getting used to the characters and their interactions: 1: - Edér: Having a calm disposition does not make you a 'flat character'. He's honest, reliable, likeable and has some pretty amusing interjections. I'm just happy to have him with me to protect my paper wizard. Not every character needs to be axe-crazy or have a background where they performed great heroics or traveled half the world - it's nice to have someone down-to-earth to balance things out. - Durance: How is my party supposed to work without my crazy hobo veteran keeping everyone alive yet slightly rattled? I do like how most characters are perfectly able to handle his temperament - Pellagina by disdain, Sagani by sticking by her ways, Kana by being.. well, himself. No unavoidable conflict like in BG2 with Korgan-Aerie or Keldorn-Viconia here. Also one of the most interesting backgrounds thus far... In many ways he reminds of of Kreia from KOTOR2, and that's not a bad thing in my book. - Sagani: I don't even know why I like her in particular. I think it's partially because I would group her with Edér as an honestly good person, who's also believable. 2: - Pellagina: She can be a bit aloof, but she's not really antagonizing the other characters and her interactions are often about her taking an interest in other people. I like her pragmatism and determinism to help her country, mixed with a desire to also do the right thing. I can relate to the conflict between duty and morality. - Kana: I just like having someone a little jolly and optimistic, yet not stupid, around. Someone needs to keep Durance from souring up the place too much. Him being this earnestly curious about the world is nice to see. 3: - Aloth: Maybe because I'm a mage from Aedyr and didn't use him after i got Pellagina? I don't want to micromanage two wizards when I've got Durance already. Call me lazy. Unlike Edér he never really struck me as very interesting. - Hirvinas: Just seemed pointlessly crass and I had no use for him when I found him :-l. 4: - Grieving mother: I'm just not up to the task of the crypticism and I don't like being forced to bring her along everywhere. I only got her after I finished every side quest in Defiance Bay with my stock party from the two first groups, and now I feel like I want to complete the game with it, so I only brought her for a peaceful resolution to the quest in the place east of Dyrford. I hope I'm not missing out on a lot by not bringing her along for per personal quest? I'll probably bring at least two of the companions from group 3 and 4 for my second play through. Aloth in particular, since I won't be a wizard then.

I really don't see how the AI could possible handle friendly fire, action delay and AOE well. I'm having a hard time hitting things properly as a Wizard already because enemies won't conform to my expectations. Luckily, Edér can take it when I occasionally need to turn his surroundings into a crisp.

Fast battles do seem like a design choice, and that is honestly not a bad thing in itself (DA:O sometimes had battles dragged on forever) though it makes the lesser crowd control abilities seem a bit.. well.. useless. What's the point in disorienting and blinding your enemies, if you could instead blast them to holy hell in 30s instead of a minute?

StubbinMyToe: I agree with you, to an extent, but c'mon, melee fighters should not drop everything and have to be told to attack someone else, if their targets catches an unfortunate case of early death. There's nothing odd about expecting them to pick the nearest targets to pummel unless told otherwise. In fact, the problem here is that they are supposed to do this if they kill the target themselves, but they are left confused if someone else kills their target, it seems. You'll still be screwed if you don't manually order your priests to heal and bless and your wizard to unleash fire and disorientation upon those foolish enough to oppose you, and you'll be using your fighters in an suboptimal way if you don't use their abilities. It's just about having them at least use their autoattack since you may be focused on positioning your wizard to cast a cone spell and you'd appriciate it if your fighter kept hacking away at those nearby on autopilot, at least.

There is an annoying tendency for characters to have to be directed towards new enemies all the time, otherwise they just stand there while their friends get murdered horribly. It's a shame there are not more AI settings to make them automatically search out new targets and use abilities if they are not directed otherwise... well, as for using abilities, I suspect an AI wizard would be more of a liability than anything with the friendly fire and casting time. Just AI settings for autotargeting new enemies would be a huge boon + maybe sustained abilities.

1: Nice. 2: Wait, she has 20 extra attribute points. How?... Actually, that's probably a spoiler, nevermind. Should be playing more.

Roleplayer in me wanted to invest all in INT, PER and RES believing that they would unlock most dialog options, gamer refused to absolutely sacrifice DEX and MIG and didn't want to die if a dire rat looked at me funny. I think I found a tolerable compromise.

I'm in a bit of dilemma in regards to skill points. Trying to create a Wizard character prioritizing Intellect, Perception, Might and Dexterity, in that order more or less.. but I'm uncertain on how specialized to make skill points without missing out on dialoge options! Preferably I would like to keep any score, including intellect, at or below 16 to allow room for the other skills, but I don't want to miss every other dialoge check (frankly, the most thing important to me). Without spoiling anything: Is there a significant portion of skill checks that require 17int or above?

Well, despite coming down from Kickstarter fever, Obsidian earned the trust from me after KOTOR2, Fallout New Vegas and Deus Ex Human Revolution. The former two I found to be much improved takes on Fallout 3 and KOTOR1 and the latter was a game, I just bought when I had too much money and time on my hands - and afterwards had to conclude it was the most entertaining RPG I've played since DA:O. I think they're building up a name as a gaming company able to make very different and yet very good RPGs - From traditional action RPGs and D&D Star Wars to South Park. Now I want to see what they can do with a top-down RPG in their own game world.

Two planned, not sure which one to do first: 1: Male, Death Godlike Wizard, Aedyr culture, drifter. Heroic hero of heroism that I can't seem to stop making. Would be Paladin, but I just love playing casters so very much. 2: Female, Savannah Human Rogue or Bleak Walker Paladin, Xiamitl plains culture, Scholar. Machivellian streak, strives for power and influence, but not Stupid Evil.