Namutree

Zerg mentality?

You may have done this, but it was far from mandatory. As it is now in poe there will a LOT of resting and going back to town for the inn. Far more so than in the IE games. The solution here is to increase our health so it isn't such a hassle just to look around in the wilderness.

Most important: A) Give us 50% more health and introduce a health penalty for running out of stamina (Except the barbarian). B) Double the combat importance of attributes. I don't want to play as the hero, "Standard Mcdefault" until halfway into the game when talents finally let me make a build. C) Fix the UI. Right now the UI is terrible and needs to be fixed. D) Introduce discovery xp. This game needs some xp that isn't tied to quests. Giving us 100-xp when we find a special area would do a lot to make the game more fun to explore. Less important: A) Lower the trash mobs hp. These fights are tedious and exploration would be funner if the enemies went down faster. B) Reduce armor speed penalty. The armor in this game comes at too high a cost. reducing the speed penalty by 20% would make the game more enjoyable. When I say a reduction of 20%, I mean that a speed penalty of 30% would be reduced to 24%. That or simply increase the defense bonus. That's all I can think of at the moment.

One solution is to follow two steps- 1) Increase our health by 50%. 2) If we run out of stamina (Except the barbarian) we lose 25% additional health as a penalty.

*shrug* Sounds like typical low-level Infinity Engine gameplay to me. One of my fighters would get hit with a crit or something while I was crawling a dungeon and I'd have to be more careful with him and let my other melee guys pick up the slack. And yes, at the end of the day, you might have 3 or 4 busted up melee characters while your ranged characters are still at full health. Not a tragedy. It's simply a matter of how long that day is. A) We aren't low level in the beta. We are mid level. B) Trash mobs are pathetic against a mid level fighter in the IE games. Much less a mid level party. C) In the IE games only the battle at hand was a major issue since we could heal for free afterwards. Now every two or three battles a rest is mandatory. We either need more health or weaker trash mobs; if nothing changes this health/stamina divide will be a drag.

That isn't what anyone has suggested as far as I know.

Says who Some classes like the ranger are designed at the moment to not be front liners, and classes like the fighter are only useful in the front.

I like it to. It's childish, fun, and the opposite of our real world. Exactly the way fantasy morality should be.

Lowering the speed penalty for wearing armor would certainly help. I think a 20% reduction would be good. When I say 20% reduction I don't mean that a 30% penalty would go down to 10%. I mean that a 30% penalty would go down to 24%. This would help deal with the drawn out trash battles and help deal with the naked party problem. EDIT: "Naked party problem"? Never thought I'd say that.

I agree. I think the most realistic fix is either to make petty enemies weaker, or to give us more health. Not more stamina; just more health.

How others perceive you is determined by how you define your character. Not true at all. In BG2 my evil fighter did a lot of things that raised my reputation, but in truth I had evil motivations and even became an evil god at the end of the game. My character's true self was very different from how people perceived her.

That pretty much sums it up. I feel the damage issue is the most serious.

I still liked it. Especially in BG1. I haven't played very much actual D&D so I don't know how it affects the classic.

This is so true. Hard to explore when every other step is a potentially deadly battle. The enemies need to be more infrequent and have less hp so while exploring most of the game time is exploring instead of combat.

Maybe he's only cruel to villains and feels his methods serve a greater good.

Been playing even more. I carelessly walked around a bit and my team was killed by beetles. This game was supposed to be about as hard as BG2, but right now I'd say it's at least twice as difficult. It's going to be hard to enjoy exploration if I can't let my guard down for even a second while trying to explore. Also, I've noticed they changed healing and it's made things even harder. These enemies really need to be toned down. Not sure if this is just for the beta, but the areas seem to be even more dense with enemies.

I don't consider reputation and alignment mutually exclusive. That said I don't feel that the lack of an alignment system in poe is a big deal since we got an expanded reputation system as a replacement.

Is the issue that they' need fewer HPs, or is the poison from the beetles taking your fighter out? Both really. The fights take too long and the enemies can dish out too much damage because they take too long to kill. Reducing their hp kills two birds with one stone.

I used to like the idea of a health/stamina divide, but I didn't expect the trash mobs to be such a hassle. Either the standard trash mobs need to go down easier, or we need like 50% more health.

Been playing the beta some more. It seems like I have less hp than before. Strange. Also, the trash mobs are somehow even more tedious than before. Either the beetles need less hp, or they need to give us more health. No matter what the fighter needs more health. I don't want to be going back and forth to use the inn every other fight.

This may be a little off topic, but I just want to say this. Gromnir; I know some people have giving you a hard time about your writing style, but I still like it.

Agreed. Reputation is far from an improvement over alignment. It's just different. Reputation: How people perceive you. Alignment: How you actually are. One is definitely NOT better than the other. I like both, but if I had to choose I would prefer alignment. Especially if alignment would have mattered as much in poe as it did in BG1. I really loved how your alignment determined what kind of Bhaal powers you got. Play evil? Get a power where you drain the life out of others; like the jerk you are. Play good? Get a power to heal yourself and others; like a nice guy. Made that game not only different, but different mechanically; which I consider more important than how it affects the story. My point is.. the reputation system has clear archetypes like.. ****y or Aggressive or Honest.. these archetypes have replaced the Lawful Evil / Chaotic Good archetypes. Those old archetypes were useless except for certain dialogue choices and class choices.. they sucked.. I see this new system as a merging and improvement of reputation (a number that says whether guards attack you or not) and your alignment (basically useless) I think those systems naturally blend together nicely.. whereas in the IE games.. a low reputation basically screwed you in every way except to get certain companions.. As I have already said, reputation only affects how people perceive you; not as you really are. The BTK killer was a preacher and did little good deeds all the time; he would have had a good reputation, but inside... He was/is a monster. Reputation is not the same as alignment, and though you may prefer it; it can NEVER convey what alignment conveys. The new reputation system is a consolation for the removal of alignment, but not an improvement. Having BOTH would have been an improvement.

Agreed. Reputation is far from an improvement over alignment. It's just different. Reputation: How people perceive you. Alignment: How you actually are. One is definitely NOT better than the other. I like both, but if I had to choose I would prefer alignment. Especially if alignment would have mattered as much in poe as it did in BG1. I really loved how your alignment determined what kind of Bhaal powers you got. Play evil? Get a power where you drain the life out of others; like the jerk you are. Play good? Get a power to heal yourself and others; like a nice guy. Made that game not only different, but different mechanically; which I consider more important than how it affects the story.

I noticed I can now zoom in/out with the - and + keys! Just like the IE games! Good job Obsidian! Keep it up. Also, it seems they've changed the spells on my spell casters and it got me killed. No big deal though; I'll just need to get used to these new spells.

I was going to stop posting, but I guess I just can't keep myself away... For the (I think 2) posters whom predicted my return; good call. You are both wise and gentlemen. Now onto my actual post... First off: Mayama is right; the alignment system was axed. Reputation isn't alignment and never could be. I was sad to see alignment go, but I didn't really complain since reputation was added as a consolation. Too bad we didn't just have both. Oh well... The difference between the kill-xp and alignment cut is that nothing replaced kill-xp. Quest-xp was already in the IE games. If Obsidian added something like discovery xp I am pretty confident Obsidian wouldn't even get a third of the complaints they are getting. Maybe I'm wrong though... For those on the pro kill-xp side; it would be cool to know if discovery-xp would be a decent consolation. For me at least it would be. When I say discovery-xp I am referring to when you find a special place/person/thing you receive some xp. EDIT: Wait! This isn't a xp thread! I better make my post a bit more relevant to the subject. I think poe could be a disappointment, but it certainly isn't doomed at this point. At least not in terms of functionality.