Shevek

I would guess it should not be too hard to also change spell levels and also give spells from other classes to wizards and such. The problem is that enemy spellcasters might not have access to those spells and by doing this the whole game might become super easy. Who is to say you cant edit creature files like you could in the IE games?

Well, it plays like IE to me against trash mobs (especially for the levels we are talking about here). If anything, its a bit tougher than IE since I have to be a bit more cautious more often. In BG1, for example, it was always select all attack against trash. Cheaper players do this more than I. I didnt like rest spamming but I knew folks that used to pretty much infini-haste themselves and clear everything as soon as they had access to the spell. Even without that, it wasnt hard to just auto most things to death. This sort of thing can easily continue into higher levels with ludicrous archer dmg bonuses, cheap kensai builds, hp bloat, Inquisitor use, BG2's Monty Hall itemization, etc. Again, I am not talking about the tough fights. I am talking about stuff leading to those encounters. So, in BG1 for example, every combat leading up to the rescue of Dynaheir, all of Nashkell mines until the end, most of the wilderness areas, etc. Now, if you are talking about lack of major combat options in big fights, the offender there is the magic system not the core combat mechanics.

PoE has its flaws. The skill system and the xp system (slightly better now but still a bit meh) really stand out to me. Magic trumps those problems tho. The priest and, especially, the wizard feel a bit meh to me. The issue with those classes being that spells feel a bit uninspiring. Still, I cant help but wonder if magic isnt the easiest issue to mod in. Duration (from seconds to minutes), castability out of combat, damage numbers, etc... Can't we just edit game files and make the wizard a real Wizard again? Yes, adding in utility spells etc would not be so easy but cant we edit whats there already and make the system decent with little effort?

http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/ Seems like JE's perspective might have shifted after those initial 2012 statements.

Again, this is for trash combats and thats pretty much how I played through them in the Infinity Engine games (with difficulty mods and at high difficulty; again, I am referring to trash mobs). The only time this didn't work was for cheap enemies like beholders or mindflayers but thats what spells/summons are for. If you want crazy micro ALL the time, thats why Path of the Damned was made.

Shrek: True

Indira: As a NWN2 fan, I am sure you know about Kaedrin's mod, but if not, you should check it out. It adds a bunch of PRCs, feats, etc. I used that in my last playthrough of MotB and it was a blast. Edit: Be careful to avoid the OP stuff though. Some of the PRCs can trivialize content. Still, it adds quite a bit to character development.

Most the talents were added very recently. They still need time to play with them. For comparison, I remember reading that Fallout's entire perk system was made over 1 weekend or some such. In other words, a lot can happen very quickly with regards to talents/perks/feats/etc in crpg systems. With the dev team they have, I am going to hold off judging the slate of talents until a patch or two.

Well, remember, kits weren't a thing until BG2. Maybe that kinda thing will have to be put off for the xpack. For the record, I think more class flexibility would be a good thing as well.

Shrek: -I don't think the Barb's Carnage attacks interrupt that much. I take interrupting blows and accurate carnage but I don't see what many interrupts happening. -I don't think the Barb can tank very well since his deflection is so extremely poor and he doesnt have a defensive modal like the Fighter. I think he makes a good dps/offtank though thanks to his endurance regen clicky.

Man, your entire tone was so angry, I showed it to my wife and we laughed for five solid minutes before I turned it off. (Edit: Also, I did EVERYONE the courtesy of not calling them out on a Youtube video! Wow, do you have Facebook posts about me too!? HAHA) Again, I didn't make the video to show off "my mad gaming skills." I don't play competitively or anything else. I made the video to show that you can run through hard and fluidly clear a zone without needing to rest or pausing constantly or using whole bunch of skills. I don't care if guys go down or that I don't save every drop of possible health. Seriously, man, take your ego and take it down like 5 notches.

Sensuki: I wasnt just aiming my response to you. The idea that I would make a 30 minute vid just to respond to you is silly and I am actually a little put off (and, I guess, flattered?) that you would make this to respond to me. The forum doesnt revolve around you, man. This was made for the forum. Just to note, I have not watched more than a few minutes of your videos. I do't need to. How much ego do you have? Frankly, I find your little attitude abusive and totally unprofessional. I know how to utlize things to their "full potential" but I dont NEED to pause the game, issue 20 commands, cast heals constantly, buff/debuff/knockdown, whatever, just to save a few points of health. I can clear that entire zone (admittedly, save for the druids) without needing to rest. I can clear the area and have a good time on hard without micromanaging and super analyzing every moment of combat. Sensuki, seriously, you need to learn to talk to people with some modicum of civility if you expect any kind of rational dialog to take place. Remember, its not all about you. Also, do not put words in my mouth, when you go off like a pissed off teenager about "he thinks picking active abilities equals difficulty... blah blah", I just turned the video off. If you do not know how to engage in civil conversation, then kindly take you "arguments" elsewhere.

If I get your analogy, you feel that combat in PoE is lacking because it lacks the feature set of IE (as notepad is to word). I just disagree. I feel PoE has a pretty robust set of abilities and character/party building options to enrich combat. Btw, thanks a ton for your mod. It has been invaluable. Edit: I didnt use many tactics because I was fighting trash and I specifically wanted to address concerns by folks that combat in PoE required too much pausing and abiliy use even on trash.

One could use that line of thinking to streamline a game all the way down till it becomes pong. Having counters to a mechanic does not negate the purpose of the mechanic at all. The counters may not always succeed or be available thereby presenting the player with dynamic challenges.Moreover, planning for those counters adds another wrinkle to character/party creation and makes assembling your team more interesting. Finally, are you ultimately saying that all mechanics that can be countered are bad? Is damage bad since you can counter it with healing? Where does that leave us? As to the rest of your post, the parts of the vid I saw were terrible. Yes, you can play the IE games in many ways. But all games present you with options. That player played very poorly and its an odd thing to ask, "hey, if you choose to run head long into death in PoE, can you just run away and then kite bad AI with impunity after you get smacked down for making poor tactical choices?" To me, that kind of "mobility" (at least to the 9 minute mark) is cheese. That was the worst kind of IE play and showed all the worst AI/pathing abuse.

My impressions of combat (Hard Difficulty) Tutorial for Casual Gamers (Normal Difficulty)

The game does not need AI scripts for party members to avoid excessive micro managing.

Currently, I do not see the point of a Wizard in any party. Even with the increase in AoE from int promised in the next patch, I wouldnt make a wizard. The problem stopping the current implementation from at least being acceptable is the spell damage is far too tame. I have said this before, but the fix is a simple numbers tweak. Take the spell damage and duration numbers and double them. Leave the number of casts alone. After that, the wizzie may not be the same as IE but it will at least be a respectable glass cannon. This wont make the Wizzie great but it will at least be ok and useful when you need the big guns. I understand why some folks would like a more robust spell list but that isn't going to happen. OE isnt going for it and doesnt have the time even if it wanted to. I can understand some of their points too. It wouldnt do to have one caster get the spells apportioned to others, I guess. Still, I am not sure if the spell list couldnt have been made a bit more interesting without stepping on the toes of other casters. I do think OE may consider boosting spell damage numbers a bit. If they don't, as I mentioned earlier, I am sure we will be able to. After my first play through, I have no problem modding the game to get the numbers right and I will have to mod the game to even consider having a wizard in my party.

1. The guy says "We are going to load and actually put up protective spells...blah blah blah." Why? Because some enemy instagibbed him. Right there is a major difference. In PoE he wouldnt have to necessarily metagame and reload. One guy may go down but he may be able to just deal with it and keep going since that guy will come right back after combat rather than be instagibbed like he was there. That speaks well for PoE in my estimation. 2. If that were PoE, he would be setting up engagement with his tank when he goes in at 7:53. At about 8:30 he runs from an enemy with two guys. In PoE, one of his guys would be hit with engagement attacks. I don't see anything wrong with this. This could be avoided by having any of his 4 guys use one engagement breaking skill or he could leave one guy engaged in combat and move the other one down and suffer no engagement attacks (unless the enemy can engage multiple targets). 3. At 8:47 he gets beat down by cone of cold for being stupid. The guy ran blindly in the general direction of an invised spell caster... Wtf... I have no problem with him being massacred by engagement attacks in PoE when he runs up. In fact, the fact that doesnt happen in the IE just goes to show how engagement attacks are a good thing. He also is having two characters twiddling their thumbs so his playing freaking sucks. 4. I am guessing you are referring to the nine minute mark where he runs into another room, the healer blocks the path and the idiot AI stands there like a moron. He then cheaps out the AI by running in circles... I just don't know what to say. Is this supposed to be good? After that I just stopped watching. I am happy that isnt entirely possible in PoE. What all of this ignores is he could have just cheaped that combat out by tossing in some stinking clouds and cloudkills or at the very least he could have used summons or any number of other things against that invised dude. I dont know how to respond further. All I can say, is that is a different game and that the situations are not entirely congruent so making a 1 to 1 comparison is difficult at best. I don't think I would put myself in the situations that player puts himself either - that makes comparisons harder. So, I guess if you are saying, what if in PoE, I run headfirst into a ****ty situation and eat massive AoE dmg, can I proceed to block enemies with my priest and do donuts kiting bad AI? I guess the answer to that is no. However, I do think that PoE gives you tools to deal with situations like that. If that were a PoE barbarian that took that dmg, he might his his endurance regen, a PoE rogue might hit his escape skill and use his snare from range, a PoE fighter might use his a knockdown, a PoE chanter might sing the song which reduces the effectiveness of engagement attacks, etc. You could block enemy movement with summons. We also do not know what consumables will be like. That may give additional options in situations like that. I dunno, end of the day, thats all apples and oranges. Frankly, I find the PoE options more attractive.

Gfted1: Lol, I do not believe combat is laden with problems.

I just don't feel the game needs to be streamlined. I don't feel the game systems get in the way. The game plays pretty fluid on my end. If anything, I wish there were LESS streamlining. I want more than 5 skills (as you mentioned) for sure but I think the ship has sailed on that one.

Is streamlining something you are advocating? Haven't we had enough streamlined crpgs in the past 14 years?

Again, zero explanation. I would also disagree. Movement in combat in PE is not as common as in the IE games but it is occaisionally useful. Though not in my short combat vid, I have had plenty of instances (in boss fights) where I moved characters after hitting the chanter disengagement song and backed off with an injured character and had another step in. I disagree about "trap" choices. I think the game is in beta and they added a slew talents in the very latest patch. Calling talent choices "trap" choices at this stage is premature at best.

Well, a few points: Easier or simpler systems are not always better. Necessary rest is not a bad thing. Dependencies are not bad either. I am also not entirely convinced that your suggestions would make the game any more tactical but thats a nonissue for me since I find the game to be tactical enough for my liking. As to the point of the dual health system: it allows players to track attrition while still being able to move from encounter to encounter at "full endurance" without needing to rest spam. I understand what you are saying but this implementation works. It works well. Other implementations may or may not work better but this is good. So, in my mind, this is all a moot point. Changing the system this late in the game would undoubtedly lead to a poor implementation of something else no matter how simple it is. Also changing implementation is just not needed. The system is fine.

I think you feel that double health is unneccessary because of the amount of effort you are placing on keeping the endurance bar up. If you approach endurance as expendendable and only cast endurance heals when absolutely necessary (when you MUST keep a guy up), then the system clicks. I really like the dual health system it makes healing an optional thing that is still nice to have but popping potions and funneling heals is no longer as necessary as it was. This reduces rest spam and overall IMPROVES pacing in my view. No offense about the other stuff you mentioned but thats alot of stuff that just doesnt matter when you sit down and play (thats why we get games right?). I dont think casuals will have issues as they are going to transition in and adapt from level 1. The folks who have issues are the seasoned gamers who are resistant to games which offer new approaches to things. Edit: I DO think enemies are too fast. I am hoping that creature files are easy to mod and that we can alter those values if Obsidian does not. It should be an easy fix.

I think thats something people should adjust their perspectives on and realize is different in this game. Its not character death; its a temporary knock out. Frankly, I think it works well with their 2 pool system and is an overall improvement.