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What changes in game mechanics do you like the most in comparison to other IE titles ? In my opinion they made some really good design choices and major improvements. I don't wish to discuss the story or graphics or anything like that just the core beef of the game. Here are mine: Chanters The new bards are cool. In old IE games I always liked bards as characters but they weren't fun to play. Instead of fighting they would just stand and play with their flutes. Boring. Moving chanting into background sort of aura thing made them fun to manage in combat and they kept their essence. Cool! Being able to combine different chants together ads depth to it. In theory. In the end it's the reload speed you care about. Per encounter spells There are mostly 2 types of encounters in any dungeon. Bossy hard kinda like where you throw all you have and lesser guys you just kill on the way. Per encounter spells made the latter more interesting and enabled the developers to make it harder too. You don't have to feel bad about casting a spell on just a few guys to speed up the clearing process. Camping supplies Old system was bad. Sleep almost anywhere you wanted, got attacked, reload if not back to full force. Having only 2 camping supplies available at a time is great on PoD. Brings back the pen and paper feeling to it. You have limited supplies, lets try to finish the dungeons with the resources at hand. If you fail, you are punished with boring walk back to the tavern. Best feeling in the world is not finding cool loot. It's finding extra camping supplies in the dungeon. Knock out instead of death This is the best change in my opinion. In the old IE games tanking meta was the only option. It was boring and if somehow any of your squishes got attacked you went straight into reload. Changing this "one mistake and it's over" way of playing is a major improvement. I know there still is tanking meta in this combat but think how much different it is now. They can have monsters like shades and shadows that teleport to the back of your team and wreck havoc. And it's fun, suddenly wizard's defensive spells become useful. If they get 1 out of few of your dpsing characters you can still finish the fight. You don't have to load because of 1 slip. This also makes you not worry of sending you rouges into melee combat. It also removes the model where either you have everything under control. Meaning tank standing without any troubles the rest just obliterates the enemies. Or not winnable: tanks dies and everyone soon after. This mechanics allows more close calls. 4 party members knocked out and a drake with 1 dot of hp. How is it going to end? I have had a lot of super close calls playing on PoD killing last monster with a 10hp wizard is amazing. Way more epic. They way it should be. Side issue: buggy release was still unacceptable.

I just thought we should have little fun before "Pillars" comes out So let us share our IE moments through funny memes and GIFs

One of the best modern RPG breakdowns I have ever seen. He does a good job of dodging the Computer vs Console debate and goes right after the issue of trading fans for player$. Sadly, I think he's right and that things like TES & IE games are a thing of the past, unless we, as avid RPGers, keep the crowdsourcing initiative alive. (Well, he didn't say that exactly but it is the logical conclusion.) BTW: I think the industry could really do well by redefining the term casual gamer. Right now, it includes far too many people: children, soccer parents, people who play only in a social setting and low hours players. A person who plays a game more slowly, and puts in few hours per sitting may indeed play casually, but still might not want the challenge of the game reduced to the mental faculties of the average 9 year old.

I am currently doing my own playthrough of Icewind Dale 2 and I am noticing a few game mechanics (mostly UI) that I really think hold up and are superior to NWN2 (played Storm of Zethir recently). These mechanics actually make the playthrough much more relaxed and gives it a more tabletop feel IMO. RTS feel to the map controls. Scrolling on window edges and ability to scroll to places where you party is not. Party is not always "centered" on the map. (Camera follows you everywhere in NWN2) Minimap. You can double click on any point on the minimap and then click to have your party move there. Fixed view. Not only is developing for a fixed view less time consuming, I honestly dont find the moveable camera that useful in a party based game. When playing NWN2, I generally like to keep the camera at a tactical view and I hate when it changes orientations during transitions. What kinds of mechanics do you think are superior to perhaps modern iterations and would like to see again in PE?