Update #74: The Mob Rulers: Wizards and Druids and our Partnership with Paradox

[Ffordesoon]

Savescummers are going to savescum no matter what. It's when savescumming is considered expected and necessary that there are problems.

[Bryy]

 

 

Platypus form confirmed.

[Lephys]

If buffing is so powerful, won't that encourage save scumming? Like

• Encounter
• Quick load
• Buff the hell out of your party
• Lazily obliterate enemies

It's powerful, but isn't free. As Josh pointed out, it's a trade-off. The more powerful you become via buffing, the more time you've spent doing it (while everyone else was doing stuff, too, whether it be killing you, or killing the rest of your party, or buffing themselves, etc.). So, it's not just "How much buff power do I want on meself today? Hmmm... *ponder*".

 

Also, since you can only cast in-combat, the only thing quick loading after already experiencing an encounter is going to do is let you mulligan and try different buffs, or a different priority order/buff-nonbuff sequence, etc.

 

 

Listening to Josh in the video, I got the impression that you could sling spells in shifted form. What you could not do in shifted form was using weapons. You had to rely on the claws/hoofs/whatever of the animal you shifted to.

 

This is correct.

 

This makes sense, but what about armor? If you're wearing plate, and you shift into BearForm, does your plate armor type and DT and such just go into a waiting room somewhere while you only get your BearForm's very own, unique DT and armor type (magical bearskin?)?

 

Just curious.

[Mannock]

Will the models for shifted form differ between the genders?

[Hassat Hunter]

Hmmm, the "only in combat" buffing sounds fishy. I know I haven't really followed actual mechanic discussions, but has this been answered?;

 

* Can you exploit the system by luring one enemy away from the group, extreme buff your team (with no risk since one isolated enemy probably poses little risk) then go into the fray?

* I so extremely hate the instances in TB games where everyone is dead, but it's still listed as in combat because an enemy on the other side of the map somehow goes hostile on you. While certainly not giving the "AAAAAARGH" factor of having to move turn by turn across a map, it can do annoying stuff like block saving or limit/allow actions. What exactly does the game check to base 'in combat/not in combat' and are there things done to make this 'fake combat' less frequent than the IE-games?

[rjshae]

Do wizards still get familiars, or have they been dropped?

 

AFAIK, they still get familiars as one of their starting abilities.

 

Familiar - All wizards can summon and dismiss familiars. Familiars are mobile "totems" for the wizard, providing defensive bonuses to allies near them and inflicting defensive penalties to enemies near them. Players can also access the master's spell list through the familiar, though casting a spell through the familiar still requires the master to physically cast it; it's simply targeted from the familiar. Familiars are weak and fragile. If a familiar is killed, the wizard takes damage and is unable to summon his or her familiar until he or she rests again.

[Gumbercules]

 

Do wizards still get familiars, or have they been dropped?

 

AFAIK, they still get familiars as one of their starting abilities.

 

Familiar - All wizards can summon and dismiss familiars. Familiars are mobile "totems" for the wizard, providing defensive bonuses to allies near them and inflicting defensive penalties to enemies near them. Players can also access the master's spell list through the familiar, though casting a spell through the familiar still requires the master to physically cast it; it's simply targeted from the familiar. Familiars are weak and fragile. If a familiar is killed, the wizard takes damage and is unable to summon his or her familiar until he or she rests again.

 

 

Right, I'm aware of that update, but they haven't been mentioned since then, and we already know that some of the other classes' abilities have been changed in the meantime.

[ManifestedISO]

 

coordinate with a paladin 

 

 

 

mmm, yes, this action is acceptable--all inquiries to His Dark Lordship will need to be enscrolled in triplicate missives delivered in-person to the estate. Your cooperation is noted. 

[J.E. Sawyer]

Will the models for shifted form differ between the genders?

 

No.  Druids' forms are costly on their own.  Making sex-specific variants would be an even larger investment of time.

[Osvir]

The Wizard being able to steal a spell from the enemy in combat (from their grimoire), is that a dice rolled gamble type of thing?

Example:
- I begin to cast the spell to steal a spell from the enemy grimoire
- Dice rolls
- I fail, and instead of throwing a fireball from their spell it blows up in my face.

Furthermore, being able to attribute certain spells with additional properties.. for instance, "Trap Spell" in the grimoire. So when I try to cast a spell from the enemy grimoire, it is actually a spell that has been placed there specifically to be a "trap"... or could I attribute a grimoire entirely with a "trap enchantment" so that all spells that are pulled from the grimoire backfires if anyone else tries to use it?

 

The reflection shield spell, if I have 2 wizards, can a spell bounce between them and hit anything in-between? (of course, it is a bit of a radical tactic as it will eventually blow up in one of my wizards faces, but until that point... would anything in-between be damaged?).

Loving the update :D

[Sensuki]

Was nice to see another video, miss those from the ol' KS campaign days.

[Silent Winter]

Example:

- I begin to cast the spell to steal a spell from the enemy grimoire

- Dice rolls

- I fail, and instead of throwing a fireball from their spell it blows up in my face.

I think it's just 'learn' (temporarily) or 'fail to learn' the spell - then if you learn it you can use it (once?) in that combat session.

Furthermore, being able to attribute certain spells with additional properties.. for instance, "Trap Spell" in the grimoire. So when I try to cast a spell from the enemy grimoire, it is actually a spell that has been placed there specifically to be a "trap"... or could I attribute a grimoire entirely with a "trap enchantment" so that all spells that are pulled from the grimoire backfires if anyone else tries to use it?

 

Trap spell sounds cool - though I'd question the wisdom of only having trap spells in your grimoire - perhaps if you could 'trap' any spell (at a cost in materials/gold/spell slots for the day/encounter) then it'd be useful.  You could cast the spell but if it were stolen, the enemy would get a backfire.

Edit: I misread - I see that's what you meant by 'Enchant a grimoire with a trap'

 

The reflection shield spell, if I have 2 wizards, can a spell bounce between them and hit anything in-between? (of course, it is a bit of a radical tactic as it will eventually blow up in one of my wizards faces, but until that point... would anything in-between be damaged?).

 

I think it's 'single-target only' spells, so not ones that affect an area in-between.  Eg M's Missiles works with it but not 'Fire-beam' (I forget the spell names).

Edited March 22, 2014 by Silent Winter

[AirBreather]

Q for the devs:

 

Per the main/front page of PoE's website ( eternity.obsidian.net ), is "Distribution via Steam and GOG (DRM-free)" still correct in light of this publishing deal? I assume so, but offical words would be appreciated.

 

Never mind, I saw this somewhere:

 

Re: the deal with Paradox affecting the DRM-free nature of POE:
"We will be providing both Steam and GOG digital versions of Eternity. The GOG version is still going to be released. The partnership with Paradox has not changed anything we have promised to our backers."

Edited March 22, 2014 by AirBreather

[Adam Brennecke]

Was nice to see another video, miss those from the ol' KS campaign days.

 

The videos can take some time to produce, so that's why you haven't been seeing more of them lately. This video was shot with Josh's phone on our second take, and the quality stood up to our others. The first take was destroyed by a bad memory card on our digital camera, and we had to improvise with the phone camera.

[Ineth]

Will the models for shifted form differ between the genders?

 

No.  Druids' forms are costly on their own.  Making sex-specific variants would be an even larger investment of time.

 

Then can we have at least one form that looks a little more feminine than those we have already seen?

 

(The lion with mane and stag with antlers are both modeled after the male of their species.)

[Barothmuk]

Looks pretty gender ambiguous to me:

 

 

Sure it has a mane of sorts, but it doesn't look like lion nor does its mane look like that of a lion's so you could pass it off as an attribute of both sexes. To be honest it looks more like a werebobcat than a werelion.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Barothmuk

[mudd1]

It's powerful, but isn't free. As Josh pointed out, it's a trade-off. The more powerful you become via buffing, the more time you've spent doing it (while everyone else was doing stuff, too, whether it be killing you, or killing the rest of your party, or buffing themselves, etc.). So, it's not just "How much buff power do I want on meself today? Hmmm... *ponder*".

 

I was talking about buffing before the encounter of course because otherwise the whole strategy wouldn't make any sense, but:

 

Also, since you can only cast in-combat

 

I totally missed that. That sounds a little bit stupid to me I have to say. Does this only affect spells that have a duration or also healing and stuff like that?

[Aqaba]

I don't know if this question is been already done but: ther will be a kind of crafting for spells and wands,ecc. ? 

[rjshae]

 

 

Do wizards still get familiars, or have they been dropped?

 

AFAIK, they still get familiars as one of their starting abilities.

 

Familiar - All wizards can summon and dismiss familiars. Familiars are mobile "totems" for the wizard, providing defensive bonuses to allies near them and inflicting defensive penalties to enemies near them. Players can also access the master's spell list through the familiar, though casting a spell through the familiar still requires the master to physically cast it; it's simply targeted from the familiar. Familiars are weak and fragile. If a familiar is killed, the wizard takes damage and is unable to summon his or her familiar until he or she rests again.

 

 

Right, I'm aware of that update, but they haven't been mentioned since then, and we already know that some of the other classes' abilities have been changed in the meantime.

 

I'm skeptical that they would do away with something so well established and unique to the flavor of the Wizard class.

[rjshae]

Looks pretty gender ambiguous to me:

 

 

Sure it has a mane of sorts, but it doesn't look like lion nor does its mane look like that of a lion's so you could pass it off as an attribute of both sexes. To be honest it looks more like a werebobcat than a werelion.

 

Note that all the developers said was that this is a "cat" form; there's nothing about a werelion or a werebobcat. But I agree with you about the genderless appearance.

[Osvir]

 

Example:

- I begin to cast the spell to steal a spell from the enemy grimoire

- Dice rolls

- I fail, and instead of throwing a fireball from their spell it blows up in my face.

I think it's just 'learn' (temporarily) or 'fail to learn' the spell - then if you learn it you can use it (once?) in that combat session.

Furthermore, being able to attribute certain spells with additional properties.. for instance, "Trap Spell" in the grimoire. So when I try to cast a spell from the enemy grimoire, it is actually a spell that has been placed there specifically to be a "trap"... or could I attribute a grimoire entirely with a "trap enchantment" so that all spells that are pulled from the grimoire backfires if anyone else tries to use it?

 

Trap spell sounds cool - though I'd question the wisdom of only having trap spells in your grimoire - perhaps if you could 'trap' any spell (at a cost in materials/gold/spell slots for the day/encounter) then it'd be useful.  You could cast the spell but if it were stolen, the enemy would get a backfire.

Edit: I misread - I see that's what you meant by 'Enchant a grimoire with a trap'

 

The reflection shield spell, if I have 2 wizards, can a spell bounce between them and hit anything in-between? (of course, it is a bit of a radical tactic as it will eventually blow up in one of my wizards faces, but until that point... would anything in-between be damaged?).

 

I think it's 'single-target only' spells, so not ones that affect an area in-between.  Eg M's Missiles works with it but not 'Fire-beam' (I forget the spell names).

 

 

Arr, but what if those Missiles backfired and instead of firing back at the enemy they fire at your own characters? I can think of 3 states

 

State 1: Success! Cast the spell back at the opponent!

State 2: Failure... you failed to cast the spell.

State 3: Backfire. Whooopsiiie, your Wizard just hit your main character in the back of his head with a couple of Missiles.

 

Onto another note that I noticed in the video or I think I read it in the update:

 

The battle is over, your opponent is dead. You pick up the enemy grimoire to learn a new spell, there is a resource cost of copper. I'm wondering if copper is an ingredient or a "medium" that you use, a component to be able to pull out the spell out of the grimoire.

 

Alchemy, kind of. Which makes me wonder if there's going to be a Wizard boss or just an NPC Wizard (Quest guy or VIP character in the world) who stashes up on lots of copper. Or if a Wizard can be stronger in a cave where there are lots of copper veins or something.

 

Is there some "kryptonite" equivalent in the world? If copper is used to pull spells out of a grimoire, can I boost a spell by using more copper?

Edited March 22, 2014 by Osvir

[Mannock]

 

Will the models for shifted form differ between the genders?

 

No.  Druids' forms are costly on their own.  Making sex-specific variants would be an even larger investment of time.

 

 

Thanks for the answer.

 

Wasn't asking for it, I was just wondering what your plans were.

[Tauron]

 

Looks pretty gender ambiguous to me:

 

 

Sure it has a mane of sorts, but it doesn't look like lion nor does its mane look like that of a lion's so you could pass it off as an attribute of both sexes. To be honest it looks more like a werebobcat than a werelion.

 

Note that all the developers said was that this is a "cat" form; there's nothing about a werelion or a werebobcat. But I agree with you about the genderless appearance.

 

I know...If that thing coupulates with another of those things...we would classify it! Now to capture us some male and female druids and have them go at it. Right. Nothing bizzare or pervy about that, it is all in name of progress.

[Silent Winter]

Also, since you can only cast in-combat

 

I totally missed that. That sounds a little bit stupid to me I have to say. Does this only affect spells that have a duration or also healing and stuff like that?

I think that Stamina replenishes immediately after combat (but not health) and 'heal' spells only affect stamina.  I think you need a rest-spot to recover health (though there may be special items that can help with that).

So only casting in combat makes sense for those.

 

Other things (like if there's an invisibility spell for scouting or something) might make sense to cast out of combat but I guess it depends on what utility spells they have.

[Ineth]

Looks pretty gender ambiguous to me:

 

 

Sure it has a mane of sorts, but it doesn't look like lion nor does its mane look like that of a lion's so you could pass it off as an attribute of both sexes. To be honest it looks more like a werebobcat than a werelion.

 

 

Hm I was looking at the in-engine render where it does look very much like a male lion:

 

 

But maybe that's not final yet, or it may give a different impression in the actual game (when it's animated and in isometric view).