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So after much deliberation over the course of the weekend, my friends and I (more commonly known as the Cheesebags) love the game to bits so far and have come up with some cool ideas for things we'd love to maybe see in future updates. I will sort the lists into categories for convenience. Possible new Creatures: We decided to ballpark some new ideas for possible future creatures to add to the garden. Due to the wasps in the banner image on the steam page we assume you already intend to add them into the game. So we have left them out of this list, but below we have some of our other suggestions. Bees Mosquitoes Butterflies Moths Dragonflies Caterpillars Centipedes Fleas Earthworms Silverfish Snails Frogs/Tadpoles Utilities: Ladders We reckoned that ladders would be a useful way to ascend a built wall that might take up less floor space than stairs. Zip-Lines These could be a great method of travel between two fixed points, they could work either in a traditional sense and you'd slide from one higher point down to the lower. Or maybe they could work with some kind of pulley system from two points of equal height. Rope Swing For this we figure like in lots of games you could either have a fixed anchor point built and you could jump to grab it and swing back and forth to clear some kind of gap. Or maybe it works on a portable sense somewhat akin to Indies Whip but functionally works the same, maybe with a sticky tip of some kind to attach to surfaces. Elevators/Dumbwaiters These could be excellent for those that built raised bases. Perhaps using some sort of pulley system one might be able to raise/lower a platform with chests on or a grass pallet. This would for sure help for more convenient item hauling in a vertical sense. Rowboats We assume that the pond is going to have more to it, but we figure that a boat of some kind would be fantastic in traversing across the water. They would possibly be made from acorns leaves or lily pads. Rain Catcher This Item is dependent on a weather topic that will follow below. But if rain was ever implemented a receptacle of some kind to catch the rain would be brilliant. Stationary Slingshot Turret This idea came about thinking about a kids slingshot, and maybe moving forward with that in mind maybe there could be some kind of stationary slingshot style item to launch the players over a great distance for easy travel with the gliders. This could be a really high demand recipe as it is a rather strong item to have. Quality of Life: Inventory sorting function This was one of the first things we came to yearn for in game, we fell that the ability to auto sort a storage container, your own backpack & and easier way to merge you personal inventory with that of the contained would be a much welcome addition. Inventory stack increase Due to the limited amount of storage space in the backpack and the containers, we really feel that the stack size of items could be increased to some degree. It feels like 10 is far too low as the inventory in your backpack alone fills up too quick and maybe increasing up to at least 20 would be great. Craft 'X' quantity of item function This comes about due to the fact we feel crafting larger quantities of items takes too long when doing them one at a time. For example, being able to adjust the number of how many woven fibres you want to make based on the amount of planet fibres in your backpack and craft all at once would be a huge time saver. Pallet capacity increase Similar to the inventory stack quantity feeling too low, we feel the same issue extends to the pallets. Considering how many grass planks in particular you need to build larger structures it would be very handy if the amount of planks you can get onto each pallet could be increased to maybe 30. This would prevent having to stop building and gathering planks almost every living second of the game as you burn through them so fast and building. Storage Chest Naming This one isn't nearly as major as the custom markers on the chests a already pretty cool. But maybe being able to add a name to a storage container just to further mark it with a specific kind of item would be neat, Equipped items not taking up an inventory slot So far we feel that we dislike that the tools and certainly the armour take up a backpack slots while equipped. I'm not sure and the best way to go around dealing with this in the game in the cleanest way for the UI. But its definitely a thought we'd like to put out there to discuss with everyone. Ability to move built structures For far it's been a bit of a pain placing a structure or utility item down in the wrong place and having to recycle it (receiving less materials) to move to another spot. Only to then to not have enough materials now and having to stop and go harvest more. Maybe having just the ability to move a completed base piece would be handy but obviously could be avoided currently by being very careful with where you but down blueprints. It would still however be a very handy feature to have. Custom Blueprint Group This one is inspired by other building games, namely Planet Zoo. In this game you have the ability to create a 'group' blueprint based on a structure you've made so that you could save it to a library and the whole blueprint of the structure could be placed in one motion to make it easier to make duplicate structures. This would be a fantastic feature to add as I would like to repeat a few structures we have made within the garden. Filter Specific Trail Markers This one is another minor one, but even though there is already a way to hide the trail markers from the UI. We feel that being able to isolate certain ones, namely the quest ones while keeping all the other ones could be great. Because in our game at least, we know where to go for each of the major landmarks now but still use a lot of our own custom trail markers. But having our own in addition to the quest ones can be quite overwhelming and would like the ability to filter certain ones away. Additional 'Major' Features: Different weather variations This one I'm sure has been brought up by others, but a weather feature with some of the usual classics, rain, drought, snow, overcast, humid could be neat and effect the game play in various ways based on each individual weather. I wont go through all of them as this paragraph would be gigantic but maybe a few examples might be that some of the games creatures might act differently or perhaps the rain might be very dangerous to travel through but would obviously be a plentiful source of water. Season Variations This one is similar to the weather note prior where maybe just some of the games features, game play mechanics and of course visuals might change up to complement the passage through the different seasons throughout the year in the garden. Understandable this one is a giant effort to bring to life but would be awesome on the less. Base Building: Below are just some off the cuff ideas we had for other base building items that could be added to spice things up. Bunk Beds Slime Mold Ceiling Light Flower Petal Roof Pieces Support Pillars/Columns Bug Cage Trap Equipment: This is the same as the above category but for general equipment. Thistle Armour (returns damage back to attacker) Wing suits (possibly made from insect wings wasps/dragonflies etc) At this moment in time these are all the suggestions for game play changes and possible future content that we the Cheesbags have come up with. We hope that future readers of this like some of our ideas and would be open to discussing their opinion on what we have brought up below, or even add their own ideas! And lastly to the team over at Obsidian, we hope this might be useful information to all of those working on the game. Keep up the great work, even in early access we are having a blast and cant wait to see the next content update from you guys. Stay Fresh! - Corey. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Just under here I'm going to keep the ideas from everyone in the thread so that in the event of crazy amounts of ideas flooding in we can keep most of the coverage from the topic up near the top for easy reading. I will credit everyone accordingly for their ideas Tamable creatures This is one that I reckon comes up a lot for many players. But I do really like the idea of being able to tame certain insects to maybe just have around player bases in order to defend them from threats. Then also down that same vein even have some mounts to ride around on much like in honey I shrunk the kids. Being able to ride an Ant or a Ladybug would be terribly fun and a great addition to the game.

Which games are you excited to be released and which games do you want to have a new release? Like i want a new Splinter Cell game and im looking forward to Watchdogs Legion

Which game or games which are old or classic do you still play and enjoy to this day and how many hours you have on that game or estimated hours

So I know it's not entirely up to Obsidian to make it happen. But since I finished playing Kotor II, years ago, I've been aching for a new story driven Star Wars game of the same quality. The Mass Effect games were nice, but EA dropped the ball big time on them. And the Kotor MMORPG is... well let's just say it's not my cup of tea. If there's any chance at all Obsidian could keep a new Kotor game in mind, man that would be absolutely fantastic If anyone agrees let's hear about it. Maybe if we get enough whispers going we can convince someone high up to make it happen for real. A dreamers dream maybe, but one I'm holding out hope for.

Hey, fellow Osidianites! All this CD Projekt Red Controversy has really got me thinking and I really want to have a discussion about it. Yes, I know everyone with a Youtube channel is talking about it at the moment but I'm curious about what y'all think here. If y'all don't know about the CD Projekt Red hurrah, apparently working at current Video Gaming's Sweetheart company is the 7th circle of Hell. Due to the spotlight of negative Glassdoor reviews , the game company put out a PR clean-up statement. Here are some really good videos to get you up to speed: 1, 2 Now I wont lie, I'm also starting this discussion out of self-preservation. If you don't already know, I'm a black woman that wants to get into the video gaming industry. In an industry that is 78% white males and with African American MALES only making up 9% of the industry, I know my journey is gonna be an upstream battle with a spoon for a paddle. But I love this industry so much and see so much potential in it that I think it's worth it. However as a black person, the true canary in the coal mine for black suffering in a workplace is: if even the WHITE people there ain't happy, then your black ass is gonna roast. Don't get me wrong, I don't think the workplace should be adult daycare with everything being fun and stress-free, but as an educated psychology student, I know morale in the workplace is crucial. There can be stress, pain, overtime, and frustration of the highest order but if there isn't any emotional payoff or self-actualization to justify it you end up with what's to be expected: people quitting, depression, hatred for upper management, health problems, rebellion/sabatage among workers, even suicide. Studies have shown a thousand times over, happy employees = less financial and social scandals for the company. I think the reason why CD RED is getting a lot of the spotlight is that most of their consumers aka people who don't work at CD RED but know their product are really conflicted about what to do with this information. The Witcher series has changed the game, not just for video games, but how to treat your consumer base. In one of the videos I've linked, a supposed ex-CD RED employee joked that since CD RED treats their fans like gold but their employees like ****, they can essentially get away with HR and PR murder. So I have to ask, are great games worth it even at the expense to the emotional and eventually physical immolation of its employees? Most of us are aware of the infamous "crunch" sessions in the video gaming industry. Those last 3 weeks before a game is launched and in the game developers offices where employees are spending 15-18 hour days at their desks. They're away from their loved ones, bad posture, eating breakfast, lunch, dinner takeout in the break room (if they even have one) on a product that might not even sell and/or review well. Here are some articles (for and against) crunch in the video game industry, 1, 2, 3, 4. Game developing is definitely a high risk-high reward industry and we, the consumers often see the high reward part. But what about the high risk and possibly little to no reward part? Do we as consumers have an obligation to demand better treatment of the employees to an entertainment that we cherish so much. There's the Actor's Guild for the movie and TV industry. We've seen that video game Voice Actors are demanding better treatment and trying to unionize, and some of you guys might remember the 2007-2008 Writer's Guild Strike . Is this par for the course for Game developers? Also this might pertain to us, Obsidianites more because most of us are backers for PoE and PoE II. What if we were to find out the game we kickstrted were forcing employees on year-long crunches and firing anyone who objected, such as the Glassdoor reviews for CD RED? (I don't think Obsidian is like this, but just to serve as an example). What kind of reaction would we give? TL;DR: Sorry for all the questions asked here. We as consumers often praise the "Blood, sweat, and tears" mentality in the video game industry, but what is too far? Video game fan and consumers have a lot more power in the entertainment consumption as to compared to the movie, book, or tv industry; sometimes swaying how developers work on their games. Is CD RED in the wrong if their products come out so right?

After playing through Pillars, my opinion on standard Vancian casters sorta changed: the basic impression remained the same, but the usefulness of them did shine through. I am still not impressed by a Priest(just take a Paladin...? Seems more useful), but the other two are just fantastic. So where is the problem? Chanters / Ciphers / Monks etc. Per encounter resource builders as opposed to standard Vancian casters. This is the part of impression that remained the same. Let me elaborate: I feel that Vancian casting systems(Druid etc) should exist only in Vancian settings. What are those settings? Those are settings that allow you to rest whenever, wherever as long as there are no enemies nearby(think BG, NWN etc). This is important because of one thing I'll mention here. In semi Vancian settings(say Pillars), you have TWO LAYERS to spellcasting: STRATEGIC(long term resource management) and TACTICAL(what to use, when to use etc...short term in battle decisions) layers. Strategic layer exists because you can't just rest whenever / wherever(camping supplies). This part of equation is completely VOID / "LACKING" in a standard Vancian setting. Thus you have only one layer to it that is often very fun: TACTICAL. Thusly, you can freely buff your party, debuff enemies, fling fireballs etc as you wish.You CAN'T do that in Pillars(unless Cipher, Chanter etc). And this is one of those things that, rightfully if you ask me(though I do understand why it is in there: kickstarter backers requested it), infuriated a lot of players: even with AI, you can't use "per Rest" abilities as you would in, say, BG II or NWN. Then I saw the Gamescom Tyranny video and I noticed there are no Chanters / Ciphers etc. Only spellcasters(Entropy / Frost etc). This made me think: will Obsidian make the right choice and abandon Vancian casting for good? I mean, it's not like Obsidian has ANY links with DnD anymore, thusly they can FREELY ADAPT the rules(think of Homebrewed Warhammer Fantasy 9ed rules or the difference yet eerie similarity between WHFB and Warmachine). And why would they use Vancian rules in a system that actively suppresses it? edit: I agree that adding in a strategic layer is ok as opposed to simply spamming(basically) willy nilly, but this way does not work imo. What do you think? Should Vancian spellcasting remain a part of future Obsidian RPGs or should they adapt Cipher etc mechanics and go full tactical mode? Is Vancian spellcasting antiquated?

First off, let me clarify that I know that one of the main dev's has explicitly said he does not like/enjoy romance in games. As such, I am fully aware that the majority of people backing a game made by such a man mostly share his notion. Here's why I fully disagree with this sentiment. A disclaimer first, since I'm largely anonymous in that no one here knows who I am nor cares; I'm just gonna give my view on romance and sex from my experience and hope that people take it at face value. A short introduction; I was heavily picked on as a kid, didn't have any real friends up until I was 16+ and during the first years of drinking and socialising (16-19) I literally had to drink myself ****faced to even talk to women. And even then, the first few times I'd actually tremble. Hell the first time I made out with a woman my legs were shacking afterwards (even when drunk) because it took such a toll on my weak confidence. Then I did my conscript service and noticed I'd grown up to be a fairly good-looking person. Tho in truth I was still a wreck in my persona, I followed the whole "the game" view of sex and interaction where-in I'd be someone I was not to gain something I truly didn't want: Sex, and gratification; Only the person they had sex with was not truly "me", it was this person I played to have sex with them. I became a sex addict because I wanted validation, I slept with more women than I can literally count and although I will admit there is a great learning in this (as we learn from mistakes) and some great adventures, there was also a heavy toll on my psyche. I became a alcoholic and I've been batteling depressions for more than a decade (I'm 27 now). Nowdays I'm pretty zen about all this, I never ponder or care for sex in the sense that it bothers me... If I find someone interesting and we share mutual interest and sexual affinity then it happens, if not who cares: The point herein is that it's not a "goal"; I don't start talking to anyone with a pre-defined agenda where sex is a goal, because in that I automatically will form myself to achieve said goal instead of just having a normal human meeting with no hidden intentions. It is here gaming and romance comes into the picture. I feel that a lot of times, romance in video-games follow the first road I traveled. You instantly recognize that what the writer and character has in intention is sex. Given, this is not always wrong; Sex is in truth extremely healthy and fun: Thousands of years of religious oppression and control has taught us otherwise, to feel shame when masturbating or showing sexual intent. We make love behind locked doors and don't speak of it, but we'd gladly express hatred and anger towards things as if that was somehow better feelings to show. I mean just ponder the fact that each and every human that has ever lived, a estimated hundred billion humans, was ****ed into existence! And probably not on the first try! That's a lot of sex. So my point is simply that, when handled "correct" (or my perception of what is healthy, natural and honest) sex and romance is not something to shun. When it follows the first path, the path of intent before reason, then yes it becomes a trope. It becomes a cliché, it becomes a rulebook of how to engage in all ways except being natural and "self". Now let me bring some examples to the table to discuss when romance is handled well, and when it is not. At least in my opinion. Anyone who has played "Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit)", Knights of the Old Republic (1-2) and Halo will know what bad romances are. Let me explain; In all of these games, for no apparent reason the protaganist and a female will somehow develop a bond, or rather the woman will covet the male, without any real reason. I love Halo, but Master Chief has no persona (shown in the games, I don't care if he has a library of books on the side; What we are shown is what we are allowed to judge upon), yet for some reason Cortana loves him in a semi-romantic way. I find that these kinds of "romances" are blatant whoring for the male player-base... Much like boothbabes. Now I don't mind women having sexuality, or being the ones to engage, on the contrary I am all for it. But if there is no real personal journey, no real discussion of character, who "we" are in these games, then why the hell would anyone love us? What these "romances" are, are not romances at all, it's abusing our inherit care for our main character from a perspective only we have been able to see, yet somehow the females just suddenly want to sex the protagonist for reasons they could never know unless they'd seen them through our eyes. And even then it's unrealistic at times. Worse yet is when, as in KOTOR, the developers still shoehorn romance into the game but are so deathly afraid of sex (thanks to americas churches) that there's no sex. And sex is a natural godamn thing, it's as natural as friendship, smiling, breathing. But instead of just treating it as another urge within humans, one that in no way defines us, but is a part of us, some games tip-toe around it making it to a huge elephant in the room. There are some middle-ground romances that are both positive in one way, but negative in another. A good example here is Morrigan in Dragon Age, and Jack (the female bionic) in Mass Effect 2-3. See both of these characters are quick to show a sexual interest in the character, and at first I actually thought Jack would be this badass woman who knows what she wants and takes it, but then also has a deeper side (which most people do have, even when sexual deviants). Nope. Turns out she's a damsel in distress that in the end just wants to be held by a big strong man. This is bad romance, even if it is good storytelling. Same with Morrigan, she comes out strong, then even needy and vulnerable... But for no apparent reason, sex without feelings is sex. Sure we can develop feelings but unless you're 13-19 years you'd be a godamn idiot to "fall in love" with someone if you have no godamn clue who that someone is; You're not in love with that person then: You're in love with the image you are projecting upon them, your perceived idea of who they are, "The statue in the marble block". Some amazing anti-examples of this is Baldur's Gate 2, where especially the "good" and "evil" romance really goes above and beyond character-development for not only the companions characters but their growth in the relationship as well. If you play the expansion together with the main game, the "good" romance interest will (SPOILER if you haven't played Baldurs Gate 2) go from a near helpless, naive and vulnerable girl to a fierce protective mother and partner in the expansion. This is romance done great, because even if the romance starts out with perhaps ulterior motives, it's nearly impossible not to fall in love with the character itself... We actually understand why our character would love them, and our journey also shows us why they would come to love us, the player. Another good example of this is Garrus and Tali from Mass Effect. In the first game they're not even romance options, and Liara is a good example of the bad kind of romance where there's no real explanation as to why either person would come to become drawn to the other (or well, Liara to Shepard because Shepard runs around doing great things, but Shepards interest in Liara comes down to less than 5 minutes of talking and the fact that she is sex-able). But Tali, Tali says it best in Mass Effect 2 when Shepard slyly asks her if she's flirting with him, "What, would I somehow develop feelings for a daring space-caption who not only saved the universe but also my life on two occasions? Heavens forbid!" And it is in these cases I find the lack of romance extremely detrimental to a role-playing game. If I am given a world and a character where romance seems a distant sparkle, like say Gear of War, well of course I won't expect or care for it. But give me a world so deep as Pillars of Eternity and it becomes downright absurd that no one would somehow not want to **** another character. Christ, put any amount of humans in any situation and sooner or later they will have sex, it's part of how we've evolved to be and to deny that is to break character. I'm not saying every npc, female or male should suddenly want to have sex with you, quite the opposite. But I am saying that if I spend literally days, weeks, months on the road with companions. Friends I learn about, share stories infront of the camp-fire, laugh with as we explore deep caverns, bleed with as we fight monsters, that we'd go through all of this and for some reason none of the people involved would find a kindred spirit? Disclaimer about sex: And no, it's not because I want some "rule 34" situation, if I wanted that I'd go to the site, if I wanted porn I'd go watch porn. We gamers don't play games to fap (well most of us, most of the time). We play games to get engrossed in fictional worlds, to explore, to live lives we'd never live anywhere else, to see and experience things. And to experience all feelings of the spectrum, sorrow, anger, hatred, friendship but for some reason leave out one of the biggest parts of being human (or a mammal for that matter) just seems so bizarre to me. Skip the sex scene for all I care, biowares barbie-bodies never did make me do anything but cringe. But I still remember Viconia from Baldurs Gate 2. Hell this was years ago, it was after I'd stopt ****ing around like a idiot, and it's insane to admit it but part of her writing stuck with me harder than half of my real-life sexual encounters. It was a moment when my character asked her how she was holding up, in the back of my head I had intent on consoling her to show her I cared, but she rebuked and instead said to me "Enough about me, how are you feeling?" I just sat there, in the dark of the night, with pale-blue light reflecting on my face... And I just started crying. It was the first time in so long someone had honestly asked me that. Now there's good writing. I'd been so engrossed in the world and my character, that when she asked my character that, it was as if she asked me that. That's the kind of romance I'd like to see, where the character we choose to play resonate with other characters who find mutual grounding. TLDR See, to me romance is just something natural. It either happens or it doesn't, not much too it and it's not a big deal. Some characters we enjoy the company of, others we hate, other we want to murder and yet others still we want to help. I just don't get why one of these many basic human emotions are boycotted because it is somehow a cliché? It's only a cliché for as long as we make it one, and the sooner we start acting like it's a big deal the sooner it will stop being a big deal. Just look at "Hatred", everyone goes ape**** about it but most gamers didn't care, "Doesn't look like a good game" and that's that. Whilst traditional games media tries to drum up a ****-storm, no one else cares. So why are we afraid to add writing that would only solidify the realism of a fictional world? Because to me, it just becomes silly when all the other feelings are readily called upon to create realism, "devout", "stoic", "proud", "loyal", but love or romance is absent? To me that's not a realistic world, it's a world that seems to readily avoid a basic fact of reality: Attraction and procreation. If you've read this far I thank you and I hope I didn't repeat or rant to much. I just wanted to share my own thoughts and views on this since I do realize that romance is a hot topic in gaming because it is so often wrongly called upon and used. I just think that it is our job as "mature" gamers to transcend this absurd debate, just as we've transcended violence in gaming. Instead of the old "only virgin boys want romance go play waifu similatur you loser" we could just admit that a great many people see and have sex as a normal part of their life, and there's nothing extraordinary, special or whatnot about that.

Hello there forum , so with upcoming Patch 1.05 bringing ton of changes to our game , i decided to start my 3rd Playtrough for the new patch , with Min/Maxed Ranged Rogue PC meanwhile using "story companions" to support this character as hard as they can . I am going to play simple Path of the Damned , without any strings attached ( no Trial no Expert ).Here i make this topic so you could help me find best choices for this build , also to discuss anything that is related to Ranged Rogue and Player Character specific buffs and Min/Max'ing .Try to keep the discussion about Ranged Rogue only ( No Ranger , no Cipher discussion and no melee Rogue either) , also keep in mind that Max damage is the key and the point of this build not dialogue choices or anything else like that , so dont mix it into this thread . Thank You ! Spoiler Heavy ! Let's begin. Race Choice : Hearth Orlan Living Lands(Might 18 Con 3 Dex 18 Per ? Int 18 Res ?) OR Wood Elf Living Lands (Might 19 Con 3 Dex 19 Per ? Int 18 Res ?) We got two Race choice's . At the moment i am leaning towards Hearth Orlan(Full Crit focused Build) but Wood Elf and its +Accuracy is always an option(This is POTD and Accuracy=Crit),also Wood Elfs tend to get better attributes and you can start 19 Might 19 Dex or 18 Might 20 Dex , meanwhile Orlan can get as good as 18 Might and 18 Dex only, but their racial is BEAST . Any1 choosing Wood Elf over Hearth Orlan ? Why ? Why Not ? Attributes : Max Might , Max Dex , Max Int - These are the obvious choice's not much to discuss here tho ATM i am prioritizing Might over Dex all the way (Speed is nice but the damage just gets real with more Might and it doesnt scale that good with more Dex imo) Anyone maxing Dex over Might ? Going something like 18 Might 20 Dex Wood elf builds ? Why ? Why not ? Min Con - No use for constitution at all , this character is supposed to never get hit and use Shadowing Beyong if he does get targeted . Attributes choice : Perception or Resolve ? So After Maxing MIGHT,DEX,INT , Minimazing Con , we still got arround 12 Points left to almost max either Perception or Resolve . If interrupts were any good ( Maybe they will be after 1.05? ) Perception would be obvious choice ( also fits the class in general rpg sense ) , How Valuable is Some concentration(Resolve) if we never getting hit , also having high resolve would help WIll defense ( paired with max INT = much will , no charms ? ) . I am lost here , what would be your prefered choice ? Both seem to have little impact . That is why it is always hardest choice for me here when making a ranged rogue . Skill Points Distribution : Stealth X , Athletics 3 , Lore 0 , Mechanics 2(Class) , Survival 10 . So the idea here is to get 3 Athletics for basic needs , and Max Survival ( Using potion or two every fight on this character is gona be a thing , even on trash fights etc , more into that later ) , after survival i put rest points into Stealth, 2 Points in Mechanics from Class will be enough to cover early game needs , after that just gona dedicate one of the companions to have 10 , not planing to use even single scroll with my ranged marksman so Lore = 0 . Talent Build : Marksman > Shadowing Beyond (OH Sheet button, not gona run full glasscanon without this, getting it as early as i can either) > Vicious Fighting > Penetrating Shot > Bloody Slaughter - Self Explanatory Here Max Red Numbers . Last Talent Choice: Weapon Focus Adventurer / Devastating Blows / Envenomed Strike / Interrupting Blows(If Maxed Per over Res) . Last talent choice is unclear , what would be your choice out of these ? Devastating Blows +2% seems pathetic kinda... Interrupting Blows might be a thing after 1.05 ? anyone tested it ? WF: A is always a decent choice so is Envenomed Strike's ( Not that good with a bow tho ) . What is your opinion here ? what would you choose ? why this and not that ? Skills Choice : Level 1 : Blinding Strike / Crippling Strike ? - Which one is better for ranged rogue ? why do you think so ? Blidning clearly better debuff but Crippling is 2 per encounter . Level 3 : Dirty Fighting - Obvious Choice Level 5 : Finishing Blow / Deep Wounds / Level 1 Skill ? - Confused Here Level 5 and 7 you can take 2 out of these 3 skills which ones you go for ? Why ? Level 7 : Finishing Blow / Deep Wounds / Level 1 Skill ? - Same as above Level 9 : Withering Strike / Fearsome Strike ? - Same choice like lvl 1 , which 1 is better ? 1 Per rest ( sets up deathblows ) or 2 per encounter ( 1 debuff only ) Level 11 : DeathBlows - R.I.P Enemy Weapon Choice : War Bow - Borresaine / Cloudpiercer - Which one is better ? Stunning seems to be way to go for me is Jolting Touch striking worth it ? and The Rain of Godagh Field for endgame. 2nd Set : Arbalest for Alpha Strike - Is it worth to open with arbalest and switch to war bow? Too time Consuming maybe(Without quick switch it takes long to recover) ? What is your Opinion ? Other Items : Best i can get (+3Might , +3 Dex ,+2/3 Int , +2/3 Perc/Resolve , +Crit) Armor : Clothing + Gwisk Glas /Jack of Wide Waters - When i need more armor/survival/2nd chance ill swap clothing for those 2 . Any other good armors to consider ? Buffs Choice,Faction Choice, PC Talents Choice : In general i am leaning towards stacking might with every buff possible ( Inns,Courtesans) , any1 consider to stack Dex instead ? A little bit of Both ? Why and why not ? Here are the Buffs and Talents available trough the game : Mob Justice ( Dozens +5 Acc ) or Merciless Hand ( Doemenel +0.3 Crit Dmg ) - This is important choice , what would be better stacking even more accuracy or going for crit damage ? does this one stack with Dungeon Delver ? I am leaning towards Merciless Hand , but going Merciless Hand + Hearth Orlan over Dozens+Wood Elf is huge accuracy loss in the end , that is why there is a decision here . Galawain ( +1Might+1Athletics ) or Skaen ( +1Dex+1Survival) Wild Running (+Defenses ) or Dungeon Delver ( +0.1 Crit ) - Does this stack with Merciless Hand ? Salty Mast Boon Choice(Much faction them courtesans) +2Might+2Const (Alternative +2Dex+2Const) Sacrifice Companion Choice (SO CRUEL :D) Sagani(+1Per+2Accuracy) or Hiravias (+1Dex+1DT) Food Choice : +2/3Might Egg/Beef or Dragon (Alternative +2Dex) Inn Choice before Important Fights : Dragon's Lair +2Might+2Int+2Cons (Alternative+2Dex or +4 Int) Gift From the Machine(+1Might) ,Blooded Hunter(+1Stealth),Song of the Heavens(+1Per), Scale-Breaker Potions Choice : 1 Healing + 3 DPS / 2 DPS + Figurine - Most Likely 3 DPS Potions and 1 Healing that restores alot of endurance instantly Eldricht Aim(Stacks with what? What does this potion replace which buffs ? ) , Potion of Power , Potion of Merciless Gaze(Stacking? Does this Stack with Paladins Crit Aura ? if it replaces paladins crit aura there is no point to take pallegina as companion then ) , Potion of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion ( This is beast but only available from mid game in big quantities ) Companions : Eder Main Tank , Aloth 2ndOT+Debuffer+CC ,Durance Buffer/Healer+Gunner Arquebus(+Marking for PC from that endgame Arquaebus), Kana 1st OT+Buffs+Summons+Reload&Fire Chants ( Does Fire weapon chant enhance ranged ones ? ) Last Companion Choice : Pallegina (Crit Aura ) / Grieving Mother (Cipherlol) - If Merciless Gaze Potion replaces Palladin's crit aura there is no choice here then , just taking GM .( Question here is if Palladins Crit aura is Exclusive is 5% of crit worth whole cipher maybe it is if thats 5% i cant get anywhere else ! ) Planing to use Wizard to setup Sneak Attacks for Rogue and Control the fight , priest to buff the rogue and heal the others , Eder for maintanking , Kana for Reload and Fire weapon chants . Going to do first part as a party of 5 until i can get trough Caed Nua then picking either Pallegina or GM , leaning towards GM at the moment . Post your insights , advice and criticism , and help me make those choices , i know most of them seems pretty small but all of them together forms that one max damage build . I Will try to update the thread with your ideas and keep it documented , for people who want to min/max a true marksman .

I really hope there are resources and the will from the developer's side to address these two, major issues present in PoE's combat: -Enemy AI We've been informed during development that there was not enough time to properly develop enemy AI, as a result enemies take simple decisions and act in a similar fashion despite their type. Combat will be a lot more colourful and challenging if this would be to be taken care of. -Option to Escape Combat A rare few parties may manage it, but certainly not the majority of them and since PoE is a game where you may end up fighting enemies tougher than you, the option to escape should be there. It could be done via an 'escape button' (not unlike scouting button) that enables the party to run at an increased mv rate, albeit applying a penalty on defenses, so as to outrun enemies and get out of the aggro zone. It will be risky, having to suffer from disengagement and all, but the option should be there. Thoughts ?

The Paladin is by far the class I've played the most, and since paladins are generally the class I favour the most, it is also the class that I have the most thoughts on. The Paladin class has a number of outstanding issues that I'd like to raise, but first, let's go through what the Paladin gets, level per level. Character creation. At this point, the Paladin gets to choose between Flames of Devotion, a 1-per-encounter Ability that does Weap.Dmg.+100% Burn Dmg. and Lay On Hands, a pitiful 3-uses-per-day HoT (Healing over Time) Ability. The Paladin also gets Faith and Conviction, a passive bonus to all defences that depend upon your Behaviour/Reputation; the Paladin also gets to choose an Order that defines what Behaviour improves or diminishes the bonus from Faith and Conviction, however, what disposition is celebrated or condemned by each Order is not actually explained or expanded upon, which is just all kinds of odd. Finally the Paladin gets +1 Lore and +2 Athletics, which strangely implies that the Paladin is more Athletic than even a Fighter. Skill Points and a Talent. Nothing special, which makes perfect sense and it's alright. All Paladins get to choose between a number of unique Talents, same as any other Class, really. Skill Points and a Class Ability. Apart from the aforementioned Flames of Devotion and Lay On Hands, the Paladin now has three more Abilities to pick from; Zealous Charge, Zealous Focus and Zealous Endurance. All of these are Modal Abilities that can be toggled, with a incredibly short range of 2.5m, acting as Auras, and as of v392, only Zealous Focus is remotely worth considering. Skill Points and a Talent. Nothing to see here, same as everyone else. Move along. Skill Points and a Class Ability! This time, the Paladin adds the following to his list of choices: Inspiring Triumph, a passive Ability that triggers a defensive bonus to all allies within 5m every time the Paladin downs an enemy; Sworn Enemy, a once-per-rest Ability that targets a single enemy and gives the Paladin (and only the Paladin) a damage and accuracy boost until that one enemy dies; and finally, the first "Command"-style Class Ability, called Liberating Exhortation, a once-per-encounter Ability that lets a single ally ignore Hostile Effects for 15 seconds (they will resume afterwards). Skill Points and a Talent! Skill Points and a Class Ability, go figure! Again, the Paladin gets to choose from all the previous Abilities that hasn't already been chosen, and adds Deprive the Unworthy and Reviving Exhortation to the list. Both are "Command"-style Abilities, but for some strange reason, the offensive Deprive the Unworthy does not follow the same pattern of being named as an Exhortation. You'd think they'd at least come up with something analogous, such as Depriving Judgement or something. Anyway, Deprive the Unworthy is a straight-up offensive version of Liberating Exhortation, and it suppresses the Beneficial Effects of a single enemy for 15 seconds. Strangely, the Paladin only gets two-per-rest of Deprive the Unworthy, whereas Liberating Exhortation is once-per-encounter. Reviving Exhortation, also added at this level, is also a once-per-encounter "Command"-style ability that allows the Paladin to revive a fallen ally with a modest amount of Endurance restored, much of which will be taken away from him after 15 seconds. Guess what. Skill Points and a Talent. Booyah. Skill Points and a Class Ability! Another two Abilities are added to the list; Righteous Soul, a underwhelming passive Ability (why are passives even offered up as Class Abilities?) The exact nature of this passive is questionable, because the wording of the Ability is ambiguous at this point, but it supposedly makes you resist all Poisoned, Diseased, Charmed, Dominated, Frightened and Terrified Effects, as well as reducing their duration by 5 seconds. Potentially powerful, but again, why would passives even be offered up as Abilities? Passives are by their nature and definition passive, and even if powerful, definitely not contributing to interesting choices in combat. Second, Reinforcing Exhortation, a twice-per-encounter Ability that increases the Deflection of a single recipient ally for 20 seconds. Another "Command"-style Class Ability. Skill. Points. And. Talent. Skill Points and... Class Ability! This time, only a single Class Ability is added: Hastening Exhortation. This is unsurprisingly another "Command"-style Ability, but this time it's three-per-rest, and it multiplies the attack speed of a single ally by 1.2. Final level. Skill Point and a Talent. Final stop. Everyone get off the rapetrain, it turns out that it's got brakes after all. Now, after going through all that, let's take a look at the available Talents as of v392: Critical Focus; Improves Zealous Focus. Deep Faith; Improves the defensive bonuses of the Order-dependent Faith and Conviction passive. Greater Lay on Hands; increases the healing of Lay on Hands. Intense Flames; Increases the damage of Flames of Devotion. Untroubled Faith (Paladin); negates some of (removes?) the negative effects from Reputation on Faith and Conviction. At the very least, this should be renamed, because it really stands out with that "(Paladin)", since no other Talent is class-marked like that. There are also several Order-dependant Talents, all which affects either Flames of Devotion or Liberating Exhortation (for some damn reason), or triggers on kills: The Black Path, Bleak Walkers; similar to the Inspiring Triumph Class Ability, except it Frightens all nearby enemies whenever the Paladin kills someone. Remember Rakhan Field, Bleak Walkers; nearly identical to the Intense Flames Talent, except it adds 50% Corrosion Damage instead of 50% extra Burn Damage to Flames of Devotion. Inspiring Liberation, Darcozzi Paladini; affects Liberating Exhortation, and gives the target ally a bonus to Accuracy in addition to the normal effects. Fires of Darcozzi Palace, Darcozzi Paladini; affects Flames of Devotion, giving the Paladin a Flame Shield upon using it. Enduring Flames, Goldpact Knights; causes Flames of Devotion to also cause a Burn-dmg DoT equal to 50% of the total damage. Bond of Duty, Goldpact Knights; whenever the Paladin uses Liberating Exhortation, the target ally also gets a large defensive bonus against Charmed, Confused and Dominated. Strange Mercy, Kind Wayfarers; again similar to the Inspiring Triumph Class Ability, except nearby allies gain Endurance every time the Paladin kills someone. The Sword and the Shepherd; Kind Wayfarers; every time the Paladin uses Flames of Devotion, all nearby allies heal a trifling amount of Endurance. Shielding Flames, Shieldbearers of St. Elcga; similar to the Kind Wayfarers ability above, it grants a small deflection bonus to nearby allies every time the Paladin uses Flames of Devotion. Shielding Touch, Shieldbearers of St. Elcga; again, the target ally gains an Accuracy bonus when the Paladin uses Liberating Exhortation. Yawn. Now that I've gone through all of that so that everyone gets a more or less clear picture of what the Paladin has and can get, several thoughts and ideas have occurred to me based on playtesting paladins in v392 BB. In no particular order of importance, here are some issues and potential solutions. Mileage may vary. • First of all, the paladin suffers from a lack of combat options. This is particularly glaring for the first 5 levels, which in the context of Pillars of Eternity is a figurative eternity. The fact is that at the moment, Flames of Devotion doesn't just appear to be a default assumption made by the developers that the Paladin is expected to have (judging by Talent support, more on that later), but it completely obliterates Lay on Hands. So while every (almost?) other class gets either multiple uses per encounter of one ability or another, or gets something that hinges on being deployed tactically, the Paladin gets a once-per-encounter ability that is swiftly blown (because there is often no reason whatsoever to not use Flames of Devotion almost immediately, or even attempt to initiate with it) and is then relegated to autoattack. At level 3, when the Paladin gets to pick a new Class Ability, all that is offered up are auras. Now, likely to inflate the sense of combat options artificially, Auras have been turned into a "Combat Only"-Ability, but it doesn't functionally change the fact that it is completely passive. It is not until level 5 that a Paladin can even think about doing anything in combat that isn't healing 3 times per day, or use flames of devotion once per encounter followed by auto-attack. • Second, the supposed core abilities of the Paladin is seemingly lost in translation. It is my understanding that a few aspects of the Paladin was intended by be part of his core concept, primarily Commands (Exhortations + "Deprive the Unworthy") and Auras. Due to the way ability gain has been modeled, however, it is entirely possible to opt out of these things completely. This isn't necessarily something bad, and it depends largely on what the developers want to do with the class, but it is definitely something that should be discussed. What is the concept of the Paladin, what assumptions are made? This ties into a third point. • Third, the Order-specific Talents are somewhat out of whack. Why is it that the Order-specific Talents all favour either Flames of Devotion or Liberating Exhortation specifically? There are two notable exceptions, The Black Path (Bleak Walkers) and Strange Mercy (Kind Wayfarers), both which gains on-kill bonuses to nearby allies. It is still a very strange, lop-sided favouritism that seems to assume that these two abilities are part of any Paladin's core skillset. The Paladin-specific Talents need to be looked over, and spread out to apply to more or different Abilities. Not a single Order-specific power affects Lay on Hands, for example, even though you'd think that such a thing would fit the Kind Wayfarers like a glove. Even though there only exists two different Paladin abilities that can be taken on creation - Flames of Devotion and Lay on Hands - only one of them is consistently affected by Order-specific talents. This is very odd and jarring. This also goes double for Liberating Exhortation. If Flames of Devotion seems to be a default assumption of the class that can conceivably be missed, it is currently very unlikely that anyone would. Liberating Exhortation, however, enters the scene when there are multiple possible abilities to choose from, and it is entirely possible to build a Paladin completely without picking up Exhortations. • Fourth, the oddity of the 2 Athletics, 1 Lore starting Skills. It is odd that a Fighter would be notably less Athletic than a standard Paladin, but I also think that there is a missed opportunity at play. I would suggest that instead of cementing the starting Skills of the Paladin, make the starting Skills 1 Athletics, 1 Lore, and 1 Order-dependent as such; http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69902-v392-class-skills-starting-skills/?do=findComment&comment=1553094 • For some concrete suggestions, partly based on personal preference and interpretation: Revamp and look over all the Order-specific Talents, to diversify them based on more open-ended assumptions. It should not be assumed by the entire system that you end up with very specific Abilities, unless these Abilities are specifically granted. There are many Exhortations, why only favour one? There are two starting abilities, why only favour one? Lay on Hands need to be considerably buffed. In earlier versions, healing was stronger than it is now, and it was supposedly nerfed across the board. I do not think it would be inappropriate for Lay on Hands to be a premier healing Ability that blows others out of the water; it is per-rest, and potentially a core ability of the Paladin class as a whole. It should also not be a HoT; it should be instant. The Greater Lay on Hands Talent could add a HoT to the Lay on Hands ability instead. For some reason, there is no "Extra Lay on Hands" or "Extra Flames of Devotion" Talents. This should be rectified, and the former should add two additional uses of Lay on Hands per day, and the latter should add one extra use of Flames of Devotion per encounter. It is not interesting, but it is useful and consistent with what other classes can often get. Make Auras a core part of the Paladin concept; on Level 2 or 3, allow the Paladin to choose one of the three auras independently of other Abilities. Additionally, there should be Talents to support all Auras, not just Zealous Focus, an aura already well-known to currently be the only worthwhile one. Rebalance the auras. Especially Zealous Charge is utterly useless due to the Engagement system's current implementation making movement in combat largely meaningless. Also, auras as "Combat Only"-abilities (if "Combat Only" is to be a thing at all, rubbish as the concept is) is utterly ridiculous, an artificial buffer at the initiation of combat meant to inflate the feeling that the Paladin is doing something worthwhile besides auto-attacking. Stop it. Auras are passive modals that should be on at all times if the Paladin wishes it to be so. Rework the Exhortations (including the oddly-named Deprive the Unworthy); ideally, they should similarly be part of the Paladin's core skillset in some capacity, possibly being granted outside of the regular choices offered to the Paladin. Additionally, they should all either be Per-rest (preferably not) or have a similar Per-encounter use (preferably). Them being so conceptually similar as to share names almost across the board, but mechanically dissimilar feels odd and contrived. Instead of making the core functionality between them different, balance them based on the assumption that their functionality is conceptually similar, such as "2 per encounter", "1 per encounter", or "3 per day". Create the framework for how the concept is meant to work, and balance it based on those assumptions afterward. If all Exhortations would be offered outside of the normal Paladin Ability choices, all of them would ideally be offered up at once, instead of the odd progression that they go through. There is no conceptual reason why Liberating Exhortation should be offered before Reviving Exhortation, and I believe this to be a vestigial holdover from a time when the Exhortations were granted at given levels, rather than as a choice amongst a plethora of different abilities. Righteous Soul is terrible. Complete passives should never be offered up as full-fledged Class Abilities. This feels much more like a high-level Talent than anything else. The Paladin already suffers from combat option(s) starvation, and while flavourful and perhaps powerful, this is a bad choice not from a player perspective, but from a development perspective; it should not be offered like this at all. Inspiring Triumph should be made into a Talent. There are several Paladin-only Talents with the exact same functionality, but with different effects, and this has no business being a Class Ability to begin with. It would be much better served being turned into a Talent. Doubly so not only because of it's relation to how other Paladin-specific Talents already work, but also because of the aforementioned "passives are bad as Class Abilities, especially for Paladins"-issue. That is it for today, and I hope that this doesn't read as an enormous wall of text. I did my best to avoid it, but I'm not sure how successful I was. I hope the relevant developers take the time to read this brick, and any thoughts not just on my thoughts but also on the Paladin class in general would be greatly appreciated. It is not uncommon for large posts to kill their own threads, but I hope people instead see it as cause to discuss the Paladin class and possible perceived issues with it. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and is just some thoughts and notes on my perceptions of the Paladin class and issues I've discovered during play or from subjective analysis.

Way back in October last year I made a camp out thread for Kickstarter Update 20, which was the Environment Screenshot update. There'll probably be a few people 'staying up' for tomorrow/today's update. The Update 49 Environment Demo video was posted quite late due to issues with youtube video compression and stuff, so it's a wonder whether Obsidian has already recorded their Gameplay Demonstration / uploaded it to their Obsidian youtube account or not. At a minimum we have 9 hours or so until the time frame for updates begins. What are people looking forward to seeing in tomorrow's update? It could be multiple things at once - the backer site is a given, and a video of some sort is almost guaranteed - as it was mentioned by Chris Avellone at MIGS 2013 in Quebec and the Update 67 spreadsheet says that there is 37.0 something allocated for a Press Demo in the 3rd milestone, which is due to end this week. I hope they end up doing a Gameplay Demonstration video akin to the very first Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns video that shows off the UI, character movement, combat and other stuff (for PE - questing, scripted interactions, looting etc, perhaps char prog) along with some new Justin Bell music. Will also be nice to see character models of Orlans, Aumaua and Godlike as well as enemy monster models for the first time. The backer website also might have some new information, lore and whatnot. Also pretty sure the Pillars of Eternity title will drop as well. edit: I'm also interested in hearing who the Contract Writer is that they hired.

First of all, the Project Eternity wiki source for Modes. In a discussion on Xenonauts forums (great game by the way, it's still Early Access but I recommend it to anyone who enjoys tactical turn-based games) I'm discussing an Ironman suggestion and what it means to me. No one agrees with me over there lol, partially because I'm probably intruding on their established community circle regardless... it made me curious to see what people stand on the subject of "Ironman" over here. What is Ironman to you? To me, in fact I didn't really know what Ironman really was up until 7 or 8 months ago. I had seen it but I had stayed away from it, or played it and not fully understanding it. I researched it and got excited about it and now I always play it whenever the option is available. Only 1 Save, Permanent Death, Save File gets deleted and so and so forth. In a sense, in terms of risks, it is the most realistic mode as there is no "turning back" when or if you make a mistake, in a way a la "in real life you can't ever save". To me Ironman means this: - No Auto-Saves (No Checkpoint Saves) - Only Save & Quit (Single Save File) - When you load the game, the Save File is Deleted - Save Scumming = If you Copy the Saved File and put it somewhere safe - Only 1 Life (If you make mistakes you tread on and do the best out of it), Rogue-like-ish - A true incentive for tactical, careful, strategical and slower paced gameplay because of real risks - Arcade-like-ish (Get to the final boss, die, start over from the beginning) What ticks me off about Xenonauts Ironman is, it is not the Ironman I researched or that I have experienced in other games. Death of my units is not permanent because I have a save file from an earlier state. It Auto-Saves after every mission you do, and you can Load the Save file whenever (And when you Load it, it isn't deleted). So Xenonauts is using a sort of "Light Version" of Ironman in my opinion. It is not too much of a big deal really, as I can manually delete save files (alt+tab and save file folder) to get the real Ironman experience I am looking for. The topic makes me curious though: Is this what "Ironman" is today? Auto-Saveman? How will Eternity play on Ironman? Will it Auto-Save every now and then like Xenonauts? Does Save Files get deleted when loading? When can I Save? Could I get more insight into this from anyone of the Devs? I'm also curious what the community thinks about Ironman here. The suggestion is as follows: If Obsidian feels uncomfortable at putting "No Auto-Saves", "Save & Quit" and "Delete Save File Loading" in the game, could it be possible to at least add it as an optional "switch" thing in a text config file? Default values (if Obsidian feels uncomfortable about it, which the Xenonauts developers seem to be): Auto-Saves = 1 Save & Quit = 0 Delete Save when Loading = 0 Ironman values (to me, which would have to be manually adjusted by opening the config file): Auto-Saves = 0 Save & Quit = 1 Delete Save when Loading = 1

[Apologies if this topic should be posted elsewhere, this was the best place I could think of for it.] I've been noticing a rather disturbing trend on this forum as of late when it comes to discussions on Project Eternity, and I figure somebody should probably bring it up. Now, I understand we all care very deeply about the success of this project and a lot of us are expecting Project Eternity to be the grand glorious return to the golden age of yore. However, a lot of people have very different and often conflicting ideas on what will make this project successful, as is obvious in the long threads about particularly controversial topics like resting, experience gain and such. While this is okay and in fact a good thing, how these conflicting ideas are being discussed a lot of the time is becoming problematic. Again, I understand that we're all very passionate about this project, and it's natural for that passion to be expressed through what we want in the game or what we think it needs, but we're going overboard and it's derailing legitimate discussion. I'm seeing civil and legitimate debates and discussions turned into really petty internet arguments where it's just a back and forth between two or more dudes trying to prove the other party 'wrong' without trying to see the issue from the other perspective. It gains the thread plenty of attention but all the new opinions and perspectives it brings in are swept away by the constant mile-long multi-quote posts that often just boil down to "Once again, sir, you're the jerk." Now I know anyone who's doing this is only doing it because they care so much about the project, but I'd like to contend that this behavior does more harm than good when a discussion thread degenerates into this state because the communication is no longer efficient or productive. We're supposed to be the Glorious PC Master Race, are we not? If this is true, can we not rise above these petty squabbles for the sake of the community and the project? Can we stop treating our opponents as though they're knuckle-dragging morons because they have a dissenting opinion? Can we all accept that sometimes we may not necessarily be correct in our arguments or assumptions, and not be afraid to admit that? Can we stop ridiculing and ostracizing the man who wants this game to work with a gamepad, even if his reasons aren't necessarily the best and he doesn't necessarily realize the implications of making an interface work on a user experience level with both a keyboard/mouse and gamepad? Project Eternity's got a veteran design team, and they're not going to listen to any arguments that were shouted the loudest, nor are they even going to listen to what arguments are proven right in discussion. They know what they're doing, and they're going to rigorously prototype and playtest every argument they can in the most efficient manner possible before any community suggestions that are beyond 'three days of work to implement vanity feature' are integrated into the design of the game at large. This means we don't have to worry about 'my' Project Eternity being hijacked by some huckster trying to sell everyone on x feature, because debate and discussion means squat when put next to hard playtesting data. The real purpose of these discussions is to bring as many perspectives and ideas to the table as possible for the design team to synthesize while allowing them to get a general idea of what this small slice of the fanbase wants, as hopefully a sample group for the rest of those who kickstarted the project. I believe these arguments getting out of hand muddles that valuable data. I don't know, maybe I'm just new here and I'm seeing patterns that aren't there or this is something that's just part of the culture around here and that's just something to accept. If that's the case, feel free to just let this thread die. But if anyone else thinks what I'm saying here has merit, can we start trying to make a better effort towards respecting each-other and and keeping discussions on track? Thank you.

I'm neutral because I adapted fine to all the magic mechanics I've come across. Instead of bemoaning Obsidian's basic decision on spell/ability cooldowns, let's have some constructive discussion on what can be done right with them. From Kickstarter comments Q&A (linked from Known Information sticky): Josh comments: (Geez, it's a fair bit of work to quote things when a thread is locked. )

Hi All, I know there has been several games where a debate or discussion was used to instead of a big bad batte finale, must notably with the Transcendent One in PST and with Letho in Witcher 2. But these were just one off instances rather than permeating throughout the game. I was just wondering whether there has been any cRPG where debate/discussion acted as a combat system in itself. Not too sure whether this is workable or not since it might need to be in the form of a card game or something similar to be practical. There are times when playing as a wizard/mage - where I start thinking. Here we are, two powerful archmages standing toe to toe with a major difference of opinion. And all we can do to settle our differences is to start hurling fireballs at each other? How about a civilized discussion or debate? The loser can leave and reassess his position. The winner can proceed with his objectives and get some cool loot. A win-win situation.