constantine

They look to be an animal and a ring. Animal is maybe just cosmetic, while the ring could be a magic item. I see no problem having them on you from the start.

For the 3rd time... there's a counter to EVERYTHING in BG2. To protect against Imprisonment during a battle, any intelligent mage will cast Spell Immunity (abjuration). It will grant you immunity to imprisonment for many, many rounds. It's a 5th level spell, which means your mage/wild mage/sorcerer will have access to it (many copies of it, even) several dozen hours before ever facing anything that can toss an imprisonment at him. And in case you're thinking to yourself: "well, it seem silly to waste a spell slot on a spell that will only come in handy in very rare (almost never) instances when someone might Imprison you".... Nope. Spell Immunity has several uses in BG2. A good mage will always have it at hand anyway. The fact that you can use it to protect you from Imprisonment is actually kind of trivial in the grand scheme of things. When I play a mage in BG2, I typically find myself using its enchantment version right at the outset of any major battle because I dislike getting disabled by mind effecting spells. But I digress. Here I am ranting again...in an obnoxiously offensive debate that shouldn't be happening. There is no comparison between BG2's magic system and PoE's "magic" system. One is gloriously awe inspiring, while the other is an insult to the very concept of "magic" in a fantasy RPG. Well said. However Obsidian devs stated situations like that as 'gm sucker-punch' right from the very start of development and wanted to eliminate them. Irony is, they also stated that PoE is going to be a game that it won't hold the player's hand through quests. Also Expert Mode is supposed to remove journal entries that tell you where to go and what to do next in each specific quest. So players are encouraged to read and not wait for all to be given to them. On the contrary, combat is to lack this kind of treatment, where every build & Class combination is viable (at least that was the initial intention). Obsidian has shown their focus right from the start. No wonder combat is as it is.

I ve watched your vid Shevek, but I am with Sensuki there. Combat has shifted a lot from what was promised back from the start. It's, plainly put, badly executed. IMO, the d100 die for attack resolution is a bad choice and maybe the root of the problem. This is MMO-like combat, and a bad one that is. Engagements is terrible; although I liked the idea, it seems it was implimented very badly as well. Infinite, automatic free attacks- LOL. The sad thing is, Obsidian is happy with their work. Fundamental changes are *not* gonna happen and all people like me can hope is for modders to take on the final game and tweak it to the point where we like (by *we* I mean backers that share a similar perspective). Obsidian don't know how to work their combat and crafting a system from stratch and me thinking it would be great was far-fetched. However, they are great story-tellers, and that is what we can expect for PoE to hit home. In the end, this matters more.

I agree, but it seems they re not coming back. Too bad.

LoooL

THAT!

The game looks marvelous. The narrative is true art. There are many role-playing choices in dialogue and quest resolution. The Classes are interested and unique with each other and development is deep and meaningful. Baldur's Gate I&II would be very jealous in those departments, even about Classes. On the other hand, combat feels static and unbalanced. It is hard to keep the pace and you need to pause/slow-mo very often, breaking immersion and not enjoying all the visual goodness. Battles end too fast. The d100 attack die is a bad choice for attack resolution. Music score we've heard so far is mediocre.

Anyway, my personal choice wouldn t be to choose a style to deal less grazes, I'd increase ACC for that & higher crt chance also. Another really cool option for 2H, already proposed by many: increase chance to interrupt.

So, 1H style is bad and less to no use when ACC>>DEF and 2H is bad, uninspired & reduntant. Suggestions: -1H:convert 10% of hits into crts -2H:overcome small portion of DT, or +x points to dmg or same as 1H

I like your idea lots and, from back in the KS days, I thought PoE would be that kind of game, where exploration would be a part of the game. I was really disappointed to see the first gameplay videos highlighting everything.

Has Josh/Obsidian mentionted that there are thoughts to apply changes to the engagement system? Imo, engagement mechanic is 1 of the main reasons combat sucks, either make it work or remove it (or play with a mod that removes it post release)

Dear backers, it is very likely that many mods will exist to fix PoE, the Wizard fix being one of them. And Im up for it, I don t like a Campaign World where wizards and arcane magic is so inferior.

Bioware is all about the casual gamer, so in that basis, they are successful. Their stories are good & the final chapter of Dragon Age is much anticipated. Not something I look forward to though, they are dead to me. But I can t deny they succeed in what they offer.

Alpha Pr was successful in story- roleplay elements, but combat was a failure.

It's 'Alpha Protocol:the espionage rpg' all over again.

I am not a casual gamer, but quite the contrary, I want PoE to be challenging, punishing & HARD. That doesn't mean I don't feel for you. EASY should be well, easy. Maybe they can even add a CASUAL difficulty setting with even less challenging combat for people interested in nothing more than the story. Right now, even I hate combat. Because it's complicating without reason, it breaks immersion instead of doing the opposite, it's not fun, it's ugly, it hurts my eyes, it killed my grandma. It's a complete failure. I hope it gets fixed, if only for the hype I had for this game for the past 2 years.

I voted for the 3rd choice- the solid UI. I would like it if the HUD was more compact than what we have now. I wouldn't mind for the 'IE nostalgic' choice also, but not my first choice. The important thing is the combat log is in the middle. I would prefer the char portraits to be in the solid HUD as well, and if they decide to add actions bars on the portraits it will be pretty easy to monitor what is happening just looking at the bottom of the screen.

Balance, balance, balancing issues. Im sick of hearing about it to everything PoE has to do with. 2-handed weapons should cleave a man on a hit, at least make the talent one of offensive nature.

So, they need to change two-handed weapon style and maybe add a style for ranged weapons ? Or even 2, one seperate for firearms.

OK that's better. And no need to argue about it

Actually with a Keen Scimitar *or* Improved Crt with Scimitars, as threat ranges don't stack Still, I don't think it's OP, it's single-weapon style- you re sacrificing a shield's protection, or two weapon style's more atks, or the two-handed style's large dmg. But even if you think it OP, i d still choose two weapon style, coupled with pumped DEX. DEX may find a reason for existence after all !

The point is that you should do more hits than grazes, so the skill should convert hits into crts. When you have lv difference with the enemy, you re not gonna notice your higher powerif it stays as it is. When *you* re the lower lv and do more grazes, you re still gonna land some strong crt blows, albeit fewer.

Sorry for double posting. I think single weapon style would be good if it converted 20% of hits into crt hits.

LOL when I got to the part where I read about 2-handed weapon style I said (out loud) WT* ?! Underpowered + you re right, should be offense-oriented. I don t like the single weapon style also. It's very bad. It will have very very *very* low occurence. The other 2 are very nice. I also noted that a missile/ranged weapon style is missing.

Reading this discussion makes it hard to believe it is about an IE-inspired game Seems PoE combat/class builds is growing very MMOish. It will be fun, but definetely not the best outcome for me. I wonder if it's what the devs intented from the start.