constantine

BG did so many things right that the things it did wrong didn't matter as much. Still, what I expect from PoE is to be the *improved* BG

In reply to the OP's post, you should know that in D&D pen'n'paper (the ruleset where PoE gets its influence from), wizards are the most powerful class, even with limited spells. Also, unlike the IE games, some of those powerful spells need costly components to be cast. 'Stoneskin' requires 250gp worth of diamond dust, while 'Tenser's transformation' costs a whooping 5,000gp!! Still, in every balanced campaign world mages are feared not only by the common folk, but also by the wise adventurer. That being the case, still they needed their 'at-will' spell atk, their 'weapon swing' you may say. D&D 3.5 finally incorporated such an option in the form of optional feat powers. It is good to see PoE impliment their spell-casters as such, with their arsenal of encounter powers, turning them more low-mentainance. The trade-off is their spells are weaker than their D&D counterparts

Attributes are a numerical representation of your character, her weaknesses and strengths, her liabilities, and her potential. Changing them outright means you are changing something fundamental about her physical or mental being. It is not supposed to be something taken lightly. That is why a major quest, a major item, or a major character epiphany/triumph is needed to even nudge it a little. Rewards given lightly become under appreciated, and in the current dark age of S.M.E.G. (Spoiled Millennial Entitled Gamers™) we have need of rarer and hence more precious cRPG rewards on the stat department. Actually even those of us living in the 'dark ages' () have become accustomed to stat increases on lv up, since even D&D 3rd ed. introduced them, in the the form of 1 ability point every 4 lvs.

A big, loudy NO to lockpick/trap exp. If no trastic changes occur to the exp system, we d better have a controlled advancement via quests/quest objectives. Lockpick, exploration, bestiary exp & the like is a joke.

My feelings exactly! Can you elaborate on that mates ? FO1&2 are among my most favourite rpgs of all time, and if you re saying W2 is so worthy I may as well try it out.I can try.Although there are no targeted body shots like in F1 and F2, due to game being party based the combat as a whole is more fun and more complex than in Fallout. It has similar feeling of freedom of movement and letting you chose the outcome of events. Since you are part of a organization and not a lone figure, the freedom is a bit less than in Fallout. Overland map travel is like in Fallout although there is no really special random encounters. This is one of the parts that are worse. There is no low intelligence dialogue and there are no traits and perks(although they said they would like to have some and implemented a trinket system instead). Everything else is similar to Fallout or better. Besides there being no low intelligence dialogue it also has no real dialogue options in general, it's more like the npcs you can talk to in game are information vendors.And the combat isn't better because you can't shoot a guy in the **** and you can't shoot a guy in the eye. I really love the concept of wasteland 2 but the execution is pretty horrible really, I'm surprised it has gotten such high ratings in reviews. That's good news for PoE though I bet it will also get good reviews just for it's concept, but I'm hoping of course the execution will be better in PoE's case. We got a 14percenter here.Or course it is a real dialogue. You cannot blame the game that Ranger NPCs like to tell their Ranger recruit their history. The raiders you talk to don't have huge conversations. And it is not like you are forced to read it all or ask all the questions. If you are not interested in reading or don't care about the backstory you can not ask about it. Just because the game does not have dialogue trees like you are used to, it does not mean dialogue is bad. Combat is better because you got a full squad to control and fight with vs one guy you control in Fallout. Same like IE games had better combat than NWN1 for same reason. The team based combat is way more complex then choosing which part of body to shoot. It got high ratings because not everyone is a 14percenter. OK, so far so good. What about character development, is it deep enough ? Are there non-combat skills & does it matter to have one ? And I guess there r multiple resolutions to quests, some not involving combat.

Let 'Bestiary XP' burn to ashes.

My feelings exactly! Can you elaborate on that mates ? FO1&2 are among my most favourite rpgs of all time, and if you re saying W2 is so worthy I may as well try it out.

I too want both of them ! I can't wait to read as much of this new fantasy world as possible :D

-->no problem man

However, it is something every GM at pen'n'paper games was 'forced' to do from time to time. There's nothing worse than missing on the thrill of an encounter you ve planned way ahead, only b/c the players have become stronger than you expected. I find nothing wrong with that, nor my PCs the times I tell 'em I did it. Actually, they support my doing it.

Excellent idea, similar to the XP system of D&D 3rd ed., which is perfect. But no, what they want to give us(mainly) is quest XP, to keep the game experience balanced around the player's actions. This is a very worthy cause(one which I applaude), but the implimentation is WRONG. You may as well advance the player a lv after certain key points in the game, instead of having this illusion of proggression. Some PCs may hate to delve in the affairs of others(quests) and just want to venture dangerous places and battle monsters to become better at battle. Shouldn't this be an option? Why do the quest hunters have to outlevel those adventurers? Imo the most balanced XP system was that of Fallout 1&2, where one could attain high lvs while doing a minimum of quests. The options. should. be there. My propositions are: -bring back combat XP in the form of encounter XP, which will be balanced around party lv strength(quite similar to D&D 3rd) -keep quest objective XP and when combat is required(or chosen by the player), those can replace encounter XP -modify difficulty of key story encounters based on party strength, up to a level that makes sense

Well... let's just never try anything that might not possibly be perfect on the first go. Also, the game is still not finalized. You can't tell someone they failed an obstacle course when they're halfway through. Unless they died or something... Slowness and number of iterations hardly matters in light of the proper results. I have no issue with people voicing complaints about the current state of the game, but they're still working on the game. Maybe spend less time deciding they've failed and more time making objective (aka useful) arguments as to why things should be changed, and how. Whether they change it or not is beyond our control, but constantly going "OH god... this dinner's gonna be burned" when it's still in the oven is both pointless and disrespectful. You r right, but I guess my suggestion is obvious: stick as close to true D&D as posiible. After all, this is where they got their inspiration from. Plus, we want more of such.

Agreed. I dont like it either. I didnt even like DAO (the first one) combat and attribute system (altough DAO had also very good things, mainly the storytelling), and it seems PoE is much like DAO in that aspect. Bad news, imo. I dont understand why the hell they dont just copy (with some tweaks) the system that has worked well for decades (D&D). 1. They don't have the licence.2. They don't consider D&D a good system. And I agree that some PoE systems remind more of DAO then IE games. Yes, they hate some D&D mechanisms (I know I do as well), but I say that their effort to recreate some 'faulty' rules resulted in an even more faulted combat system. Like it or not, D&D has worked its system over several decades, making some basic rules the 'necessary evil'. D&D has it the best way around and I know that PoE rule-set is never gonna be as good.

What I realised quite recently is that Obsidian people are the crafters of some of the best crpg tales. I can't wait to play their best new thing. Just keep the developer-backer communication running. Only good things come out of it.

Oh the hrs I ve spent pickpocketing at the Fallout games. Yes, don't bring this back, please. :D

Then are you happy with having your party venturing for days without gaining any XP, while helping some villagers can advance them a level ? I hate to grind and then being overpowered for the game, but I understand that some people enjoy having their game that way. What *I* would like is for the game to scale quest/key encounters depending on average party lv. Some modifier-buff applied to enemies or/and bigger enemy numbers.

The poll is nice and I've already cast my votes, as I stated in a previous reply, but what I'd REALLY like is: -ALL encounters yield XP (which effectively translates to combat XP), barring quest encounters, which will reward depending on the resolution the player chooses. -Quest objective XP. -Nothing more. Come on developers, things can be nice and simple.

Torment XP system sounds good for Torment. What. I'd like to see in PoE is every encounter to yield XP, barring quest encounters (which will reward depending on the player-chosen resolution). Also quest objective XP and that's it. NO bestiary/lock-pick XP or such. It's non-sensical that a party can venture for days upon days and gain no experience from it, while helping some villagers can suddently advance them. The spoils of war are what they are, like it or not.

Sounds like a good idea.

31. I was into consoles, until the moment I decided to try Baldur's Gate, it was quite some years after the game's release I think, I was 19-20 when I tried it (and a pen-and-paper AD&D DM/player since I was 16 years old). Anyways, Baldur's Gate ruined all other video games for me Ever since the series, I was desperate to get another 'fix' of such a game, but nothing was quite the same. Not even like-wise games of that generation, not even games that did many things a lot better than BG, moving to the next level, like Planescape:Torment. However, I have my hopes up for the Obsidian Team, ever since PoE was first announced. Somehow, I have a feeling that PoE will be my *new* BG and nothing has led me down so far, despite what I read in the forums.

Despite what you may think guys, I appreciate Sensuki's work for the game (even though I think he can be annoying sometimes). The bottom-line is, he'll cry out about 100, 300 things- we may get to actually see 20 being fixed. That's more than nothing.

While I agree with the sentiment, I am enjoying the irony of this statement.

Also how cool is it that magic weapons in dungeons correspond to the area/history of the place you explore :D

Im playing Icewind Dale too. Love the encounters. And 2nd ed. rules, of course.

I voted 2,5,6. Special encounters is an excellent idea, kudos to the Poll OP. And I'd hate exploration XP, as well as lockpicking. Please no.