Namutree

Actually, Namutree's complaint of trash mobs being a significant challenge and not orders of magnitude easier than boss fights, would fit IWD2 as well. On my first playthrough of IWD2, the little groups of nameless Malarites on the Shaengarne Dam gave me big trouble and forced me to reload several times (just to name one example), whereas some of the named "bosses" in the game could be disabled in round 1 with Feeblemind or similar. It's true that this is different from the BG/BG2 outdoor area exploration experience, but those do not define the Infinity Engine "spirit" alone. The trash mobs I am complaining about are the one's you find while exploring. The spiders are fine. The beetles/lions are the guys makin' me mad. The spiders are in a cave and that's kinda a dungeon; thus it falls into the IWD/IWD2 territory. Heck, even in BG the enemies found in caves were though. Keep in mind IWD/IWD2 didn't really have exploration as they were too linear.

Without any xp for exploration as the system is now it is not even like BG. I explored a lot in BG in order level up specifically; because I didn't find most of the quests interesting. A big part of the feel of exploring in BG is the sense progress you make while exploring. Now exploring isn't all that exciting knowing I get any xp for it; not to mention the now enhanced trash mobs will make it much deadlier. By adding objective xp they could fix this "if I'm not on a quest I make no progress while exploring" issue, but if they don't; poe is going to be a major disappointment.

I see. Well their are differences between BG2 and IWD1 as well.

Yet anyone could fight up front. Give you mage 18 Con then set him up with defense spells and defesive talents (Which I'm sure will be a thing) and presto! Mage tank! Any one can use Constitution. It's all about using the attributes to their strength.

BG share the same combat of IWD so if he despise (and he plainly admit it that he would save basicaly nothing from BG2) he despise both BG and IWD. They have similarities in pace, but technically the combat was different. For one; you couldn't stack as many buffs on a character in IWD2 as you could in BG2. There are subtle differences in the stats and level up system too; both of which affect combat.

Objective xp is a great middle ground that prevents degenerate grinding while also not tying 100% of the xp to quests.

They already said that the exploration was to be like BG, and the combat/dungeon crawling was supposed to be like Ice wind dale. As for the story; it was pitched to be like Planescape Torment. So in terms of story you should be set.

About Sawyer not liking aspects of BG2. First of he didn't say disliked the game overall; lets not conflate what he said. Heck, there are things I don't like about BG2, and I love that game. Even if he did; BG2 is 1/5 of the IE games, and I know he liked them as a whole; so it doesn't really matter. I never asked Sawyer to like making an IE style game. Obsidian said they would, and now I'm trying to hold them to that promise. I couldn't care less what the developers think of the IE games. All that matters here is their honesty. If they are honorable people; they will tweak the game to make exploration feel like it did in BG, and make combat feel like it did in Ice wind dale. That is what was promised.

The problem with that is that if they did lend from CRPG game of the past Obsidian would living up to it's word, and according to some on this thread that would be TERRIBLE because the IE games apparently had terrible mechanics.

There's no settling in. It's a terrible system that forces quest railroading. No fun exploration to be had, we'll too busy doing quest to have any fun. Strange how Obsidian mentioned exploration so much during development; only to throw it away by needlessly giving quests a monopoly on xp. What kinks are there to work out anyway? The quests are bugged, but that'll be fixed. The fact it ruins the game will not. As I've said before; we don't need kill xp, but we need to be able to get xp from general adventuring and not just quests. Simply doing something special like finding some hidden ruins, but right now we have to do errands for the villagers or else we can't get xp. Kill a dragon? No villager told you to do it so it doesn't count; no xp for you. Next time, try asking npcs to tell you what to do. Found and explored secret ruins? Meaningless! If it isn't a quest you get no xp at all! While kill xp is a lost cause; objective xp may not be. Osidian; fix this.

I dont really think that spamming fireballs/clouds of whatever off screen was interesting or challenging. That wasn't what the mage battles were like.

So... you're saying 2 out of 5 had romances? And I would hardly call anything in PST a traditional romance... so 1 out 5 unless you really want to argue for PST. Lets stop poking that hornet nest.

Great suggestion that would make poe feel more like an IE game. I like to think Obsidian was already planning to do this anyway, but it helps reminds as another has said.

Like who?

Oh? I don't remember any, but my memory of that game is poor. I played many years ago and wasn't all that into it; mechanically speaking it's definitely the weakest IE title, but I think the story was good.

They didn't promise anything like romance. Wasn't BG2 the only IE game with romance? Romance certainly isn't needed ingredient to making an IE successor considering only one of five even had them.

Because some of us went exploring without a specific purpose and didn't get any xp at all, and even when the bugs are fixed they still would get nothing. We don't want to be railroaded into doing quests. After all; we were pitched, "The epic exploring of BG". If we don't either get kill xp or objective xp (like finding a dungeon) then the exploration sure won't be like BG. Exploration needs to have some way of giving us xp. Doesn't really matter whether it's just for discovering a new dungeon or killing a special monster (Like the giant spider in the spider cave). If quests are the only way of getting xp; poe is going to be a very boring game. Especially to replay.

You have a pretty liberal view of what qualifies as an IE successor. Oh well, to each his own I guess.

Yeah, well. I gave them my money too for a modern reimagining of the IE games, and I got exactly what I wanted. If by modern reimagining you mean everything is different. If you're an anime fan; might I suggest you go see Dragonball Evolution. It's a modern re-imagining of a classic too. You'll love it I'm sure.

That's your opinion, and if that's what you think I suggest you play with a different class that better suits your preferred play-style. That's a part of why the IE games were so great; they allowed a variety of different play styles. If you don't like the PoE style of classes and encounters then I suggest you play a different game that better suits your preferred play-style. I might if poe turns out to not be the IE successor I was promised. The issue is that I was pitched the exploration of BG and the combat of IWD. I already gave Obsidian my money, and I'm not ready to give up on poe yet. All I'm suggesting is that Obsidian should do what they said they would do and make a successor to the IE games.

I have already done so in the form of my difficulty thread where I argue that enhancing the trash mobs' strength both moves poe from the IE games and creates a screwed up difficulty curve. My solution is to lower their hp by 10%.

I don't, and here's why: A) Trash mobs bring a refreshing break to exploration without stealing the show. Think of exploration as a slice of pizza and trash mobs as seasoning; now think of strong trash mobs as super strong seasoning. So strong is the seasoning you can't even taste the pizza anymore. B) Weak trash mobs also make the bosses feel more special. When you are fighting a boss you won't be used to being pushed so hard by the game, and this battle will be very memorable. With strong trash mobs the bosses won't stand out, and what would be epic moments in the story will feel very anti-climactic. C) This isn't a big deal for everyone, but weak trash mobs make the player feel like a boss. Not to mention all the problems that come with strong trash mobs.

I hope so. So far I have been discussing my impression, and if such a fighter is possible to make I will be one of the first in line to thank Obsidian for giving us the IE experience.

To say it is mmo-ish is not an insult as much as an observation, and an accurate one. I played a bit of runescape 3 a year ago and it wouldn't be a stretch to say poe's combat is some where between the IE games and that. If I had to guess; I'd say it's closer to runescape 3 than the IE games, but not by a whole lot.

That's your opinion, and if that's what you think I suggest you play with a different class that better suits your preferred play-style. That's a part of why the IE games were so great; they allowed a variety of different play styles. They're deadly killing ability didn't come from their breastplate; it came from their weapon proficiency and their weapon. Both of which are strategic decisions. I get that you seem to want the fighters to be more tactical, but the fact that they weren't very tactical was a defining class trait. Changing that is a radical shift of play style. This merely reinforces my notion that the supporters of the major changes poe has made simply didn't like the IE system.