Curious: How did you play the IE games?

[Larkaloke]

Manual pausing, although I don't tend to pause all that often -- probably a habit leftover from many multiplayer games, during which I generally try to not pause at all. I never liked the auto-pause, but on the other hand, there are times that I did want to pause (mostly for spell targeting or in a particularly chaotic battle).

[Osvir]

Manual pausing, although I don't tend to pause all that often -- probably a habit leftover from many multiplayer games, during which I generally try to not pause at all. I never liked the auto-pause, but on the other hand, there are times that I did want to pause (mostly for spell targeting or in a particularly chaotic battle).

 

Yeah. I tend to pause in cities too (I want to talk to someone but I missclick). I don't mind it,

 

@Comedian: I was hoping people would discuss some about the Respec that I asked about as well: How important was stats? I'm also just personally curious, it has nothing to do with brilliance (which I naturally am but that's another topic ). People are talking about stat points/level up points in some other threads and, how important was it?

[JayDGee]

Dammit I said I wasn't going to play baldurs gate again till enhanced comes out. This thread is making want to.

[Osvir]

Dammit I said I wasn't going to play baldurs gate again till enhanced comes out. This thread is making want to.

 

Some 20 days left or so

[Kevin Lynch]

It was definitely a mix of auto-pause and manual pausing. I generally had many of the auto-pause features on and paused the battles frequently to manage most every action of the party. Since I lacked multiple brains at the time, I could not realistically control the actions of multiple characters in realtime without having to let some manage themselves every once in a while. The AI was not up to the challenge of self-control.

Edited November 2, 2012 by Kevin Lynch

[Corvus Metus]

Auto-pause, mainly. Enemy sighted, enemy defeated, trap detected, character killed. Rarely used manual pause, unless I was playing a wizard.

[Continuum]

Depends on the difficulty and complexity of the fight. If there was any reasonable possibility of injury to my party, I generally turned IE games in to turn-based games. But I remember those games having a lot of trash fights that didn't require much oversight.

[Osvir]

Didn't get your metaphors on level ups especially when they seemed to be mixed in with comments about finding unidentified weapons what exactly are you asking about leveling up?

 

Sorry, didn't see the edited part earlier in this thread. The metaphor is you "mine" (extracting Ore/Experience/Level Up Points) with a "pickaxe" (Sword, character etc.etc.) so you can "Level Up".

 

In Baldur's Gate there is hardly any level up resources at all (you spend 1 point every other level on a Weapon Proficiency). Some threads I read here seem to indicate more people want a more modern take on "Leveling Up" (Which gives you 1 Mastery Point, couple of Attributes Points). People want several build orders for each class (which is near-non-existent in the old IE games). So basically people seem to want to be able to build a Fighter in several different ways.

 

I personally want my Character Stats to be built early game (like Baldur's Gate), and it should be most Difficult to upgrade any of them. An example, for a Wizard:

 

(Random numbers out of the top of my head)

9 Strength

13 Dexterity

10 Constitution

18 Intelligence

14 Wisdom

12 Charisma

 

These stats will define my Wizard throughout the game in Baldur's Gate, and I will have to consider how I put out my stats early game rather than throw something together and then "Upgrade" all my points like every modern game does it today. The modern way doesn't only devalue the Stat system, it also devalue's your Character and he is no more than a "hack n slash" tool (looking at you "Kingdoms of Amalur", which has a great Class system though).

 

EDIT: I hardly look at the "Record" screen to see when my character is leveling up in Baldur's Gate, although leveling up is important, it is not the most important feature. My character should become stronger by exploring the world, by doing that quest which yields him some weapon and armor, maybe he finds a Master Swordsman who will teach you if you are persistent enough (and this makes your character stronger, not some grindfest down in a murky cave).

Edited November 3, 2012 by Osvir

[Rosveen]

Mixed. I used autopause on the following:

• enemy sighted
  
• trap found
  
• character died
  

During the fight I paused manually because I like micromanagement.

 

 

People want several build orders for each class (which is near-non-existent in the old IE games).

Huh? You can play a tank, a DPS guy, a ranged character, a mix. Your casters can focus on offense or defense. Thieves are very versatile, swashbuckler is essentially a fighter with thieving abilities. Then there are dual- and multi-classes. I wouldn't say that IE games didn't have a variety of builds.

 

The problem lay in the attributes. Int and Wis were useless to fighters, mages could dump Str, Con and Wis, clerics didn't need Int, nobody needed Cha. That's why point distribution was incredibly simple - half of attributes was useless, so you could easily max out the other half. If Project Eternity improves on this and every attribute is in some way important to every class, then we'll have a plethora of builds without changing the core mechanics of level-ups.

[Osvir]

Mixed. I used autopause on the following:

• enemy sighted
  
• trap found
  
• character died
  

During the fight I paused manually because I like micromanagement.

 

 

People want several build orders for each class (which is near-non-existent in the old IE games).

Huh? You can play a tank, a DPS guy, a ranged character, a mix. Your casters can focus on offense or defense. Thieves are very versatile, swashbuckler is essentially a fighter with thieving abilities. Then there are dual- and multi-classes. I wouldn't say that IE games didn't have a variety of builds.

 

The problem lay in the attributes. Int and Wis were useless to fighters, mages could dump Str, Con and Wis, clerics didn't need Int, nobody needed Cha. That's why point distribution was incredibly simple - half of attributes was useless, so you could easily max out the other half. If Project Eternity improves on this and every attribute is in some way important to every class, then we'll have a plethora of builds without changing the core mechanics of level-ups.

 

Eh yes poor choice of words. I feel personally that modern day games devalue stats as a resource, and stats lose importance. "Should I get more Mana or Damage hmm?", 18 Strength defines how strong your character is but it is treated like your character is on steroids in modern games and it doesn't show. I meant that "Stat Building" is near non-existent during gameplay (only apparent at character creation).

 

Also, that.

 

Edit, thoughts:

* Strength carrying capacity, physical damage and "Presence", upper body work and general muscularity

* Dexterity, mobility and technique, finesse, footwork

* Constitution, durable, resistance to melee damage and health, center, "Chi"

* Wisdom could be how well you get healed and how much as a Priest you can heal. Humbleness, wise-guy, magic persistence (duration and anti-duration), Monkish.

* Intelligence how well you control magic, spell resistance and spell damage. Mind, smart, the brain.

* Charisma, lead (Morale), rally, bartering/trading, [speech Skill], the Heart.

 

[speech Skill] should be defined by "Charisma+[stat]". Having a high [strength+Charisma] you could be a bully, and get more intimidation checks. If you have high Dexterity too you could get to choose between [str+Cha] or [Dex+Cha] (where Dexterity would yield more "Bluffing"). This way you would choose what kind of character you got from the start, and would give your character more "Bluff" options throughtout the game generally.

 

We all know that Wizards in armor will be a type of Wizards (according to Josh) so obviously you would need to spend points in a respective stat to make the most of it. Fighters are going to use magic, which would make Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma important for every role.

 

Regardless, whatever "Stat" system Obsidian chooses, some stats will be better for some classes builds.

Edited November 3, 2012 by Osvir

[wanderon]

Didn't get your metaphors on level ups especially when they seemed to be mixed in with comments about finding unidentified weapons what exactly are you asking about leveling up?

 

Sorry, didn't see the edited part earlier in this thread. The metaphor is you "mine" (extracting Ore/Experience/Level Up Points) with a "pickaxe" (Sword, character etc.etc.) so you can "Level Up".

 

 

You mean do you grind experience to level up faster before embarking on the main quest lines as opposed to just following the game as it plays out taking your levels as they come?

 

Or do you mean you want to see this that or the other particular thing as a part of the level up process whenever it arrives?

 

In any event Josh has made it pretty clear we will likely level fairly slowly but gain significant growth with each level (and probably top out around level 12ish.)

 

Personally none of that matter too much to me - I am more about playing the game as the devs design it and less about scrambling for the power build of the day - in fact more often than not these days I look for ways to play a more mediocre character in order to give the game a better chance to whup my butt - masochism I guess but then it feels even better when I am successful!

[Theobeau]

Mix.

 

I also seemed to play it a little OCD in that there was a difficult resist compulsion to press quick save every 10 minutes or so.

 

Perhaps it was all the crash to desktops that plagued Windows 95 machines (it was Win 95 right?)

[Osvir]

Mix.

 

I also seemed to play it a little OCD in that there was a difficult resist compulsion to press quick save every 10 minutes or so.

 

Perhaps it was all the crash to desktops that plagued Windows 95 machines (it was Win 95 right?)

 

My game is crashing all the time on Windows 7 xD my own fault really, 20 gb of mods

[Labadal]

Mostly used (and still use) manual pause. I don't feel like I can rely 100% on auto-pause.

[HansKrSG]

I tried out auto-pause once, didn't like it, so I went back to manually pausing.

[Osvir]

Didn't get your metaphors on level ups especially when they seemed to be mixed in with comments about finding unidentified weapons what exactly are you asking about leveling up?

 

Sorry, didn't see the edited part earlier in this thread. The metaphor is you "mine" (extracting Ore/Experience/Level Up Points) with a "pickaxe" (Sword, character etc.etc.) so you can "Level Up".

 

 

You mean do you grind experience to level up faster before embarking on the main quest lines as opposed to just following the game as it plays out taking your levels as they come?

 

Or do you mean you want to see this that or the other particular thing as a part of the level up process whenever it arrives?

 

In any event Josh has made it pretty clear we will likely level fairly slowly but gain significant growth with each level (and probably top out around level 12ish.)

 

Personally none of that matter too much to me - I am more about playing the game as the devs design it and less about scrambling for the power build of the day - in fact more often than not these days I look for ways to play a more mediocre character in order to give the game a better chance to whup my butt - masochism I guess but then it feels even better when I am successful!

 

No I mean that in general you "mine" experience with a "pickaxe" in video games (Whatever the genre, there is a Resource which you Use to Level Up) .

 

And I completely 100% agree with the second underline paragraph.

[Drakxii]

Mostly manual pause but I ALWAYS turn on trap spot pause, because if I don't I will walk on 90% of the traps.