Thoughts on Gamescon Stream

[Caerdon]

 

 

I've got to say that one thing I don't particularly like is the fact that crippled, injured, maimed and just plain weak characters automatically have inferior Souls, because of bodily might also representing spiritual might. Just seems a little off.

 

Edit: A waste of some interesting character concepts as well.

 

It's not that bodily might represents spiritual might, it's just that they are intrinsically connected. You can still emulate that kind of character pretty well with low CON and DEX. Byt yeah, you can't get over the fact that there's only so much you can do with only six attributes, no matter how you twist them around. On the other hand, with these attributes some interesting character concepts are possible that wouldn't be possible with, say, D&D.

 

 

I can't really say what bugs me about this, it just seems a little off to insist that the only people with perfect Souls are the physically strong. It just seems to be a little too Nietzschean for my moderate tastes, but i'll leave it there.

 

I understand what you mean. However, physically weak body doesn't necessarily imply that the soul is also weak, it might only limit the soul's ability to project the power it possesses. Healthy body, healthy mind; the body is the temple of the soul; all that, you know?

 

Again, it's unfortunate that six attributes can only portray so much. But how we see them depends greatly on how we look at them. I really don't want to sound condescending here, but if you feel that there's something "off" with the attribute system or the body/soul concept or anything else, try to look at things from other perspectives until you find one that fits the way how you want to see things. It really works quite well.

[SirBlackjack]

 

No. I paid for a collector's box set and Obsidian turned around and tried to make me their slave. Not gonna work.   I wouldn't report ANY bugs. In fact, if I found one I would just lie and say I didn't.  Or maybe I'll make up a fake bug for just giggles so people would waste time tryingt fo find it or trying to prove a bug exist. Of coruse, I ruined by sick plans stating it so publicly so eh. That ruins that idea. L0L <>

 

You may be fine bein a slave doing work others get paid decent wages for but I sure ain't.

 

I will get what i want a = a box collector's edition of PE + dwarves. Everything else is irrelevant.

 

Joking or crazy? I'm undecided.

 

I was asking myself the same.

[Endrosz]

I've got to say that one thing I don't particularly like is the fact that crippled, injured, maimed and just plain weak characters automatically have inferior Souls, because of bodily might also representing spiritual might. Just seems a little off.

 

Edit: A waste of some interesting character concepts as well.

 

...

 

I can't really say what bugs me about this, it just seems a little off to insist that the only people with perfect Souls are the physically strong. It just seems to be a little too Nietzschean for my moderate tastes, but i'll leave it there.

It's a "you win some, you lose some" situation. Wastaland 2 does have dump-ish stats, but there, skills matter more than stats, so it's not a big deal, and you can have your "lost" character concepts there. Eternity went its own way: it gives player big-impact stats like DnD (a nostalgia box checked), but following up on that Sawyer favored a no-dump approach, and it's a valid route. Eternity's builds will be more varied, but less "real".

[tanman]

Maybe it has already been mentioned in some of the previous posts, but didn't we see nature being moved by wind in previous bits of video? It all looked so static in this vid...

Edited August 18, 2014 by tanman

[Killyox]

It seems icons for skills and spells are placeholder. Animations on abilities and spells need more polishing. Damage numbers could last longer on the screen.

[Killyox]

 

I've got to say that one thing I don't particularly like is the fact that crippled, injured, maimed and just plain weak characters automatically have inferior Souls, because of bodily might also representing spiritual might. Just seems a little off.

 

Edit: A waste of some interesting character concepts as well.

 

...

 

I can't really say what bugs me about this, it just seems a little off to insist that the only people with perfect Souls are the physically strong. It just seems to be a little too Nietzschean for my moderate tastes, but i'll leave it there.

It's a "you win some, you lose some" situation. Wastaland 2 does have dump-ish stats, but there, skills matter more than stats, so it's not a big deal, and you can have your "lost" character concepts there. Eternity went its own way: it gives player big-impact stats like DnD (a nostalgia box checked), but following up on that Sawyer favored a no-dump approach, and it's a valid route. Eternity's builds will be more varied, but less "real".

 

Which stats in WL2 are dumpish stats?

 

Right now not a single stat is useless. Sure you can dump luck and charisma and go for a more combat oriented party but doesn't mean they are bad. Charisma chars level faster, unlock special events, leader with high charisma and high leadership skill is actually very strong combat boost for all. My Lockpick/Safecracker/Science/Handgun ranger has 5 or 6 luck so he can open stuff and loot with higher luck for better gear. Trust me there is difference between luck 1 and luck 5 and more in regard to loot. Also helps handguns

 

Right now i am doing a game with each character having 3-4 charisma and some 6+ as well as each has 6 intellect. Previously I dumped cha for all except leader as well as luck and went for combat stats. I also upped now game difficulty with this CHA/INT group and it's still very combat effective. Shrines also help in this regard. This is also the team I will most likely play at release.

[Bli1942]

Maybe it has already been mentioned in some of the previous posts, but didn't we see nature being moved by wind in previous bits of video? It all looked so static in this vid...

 

Yes the waterfall video had moving bushes and trees. I would be incredibly disappointed if they dropped it. Someone earlier in the thread said they did, but that was what would've really set this game apart from the older graphics. It already looks way nicer while keeping the feel, but moving foliage would have been brilliant

[Panteleimon]

 

Maybe it has already been mentioned in some of the previous posts, but didn't we see nature being moved by wind in previous bits of video? It all looked so static in this vid...

 

Yes the waterfall video had moving bushes and trees. I would be incredibly disappointed if they dropped it. Someone earlier in the thread said they did, but that was what would've really set this game apart from the older graphics. It already looks way nicer while keeping the feel, but moving foliage would have been brilliant

 

 

Some of the tall grass moved too. The best part was the water moving with tides, though.

[Lioness]

Combat felt quite a bit clunky with the permanent pausing and clickity clicking around.

 

I prefer turn based when there is more than one character involved (yes I know the IE games weren't). That said I am all for realtime combat with pause too,  but that does not preclude the ability to queue up commands and/or scriptable AI companion behaviour. (Like KOTOR for example)

[Bli1942]

Real time with pause combat is terrible IMO, only bad thing about the IE games. I hoped they were going to change it, but at least Torment has turn based, I can deal with it on PoE. I usually just set it to easy because i find the combat so irritating

 

At least they fixed some of the mage stuff being so bad and that dying doesn't happen so much

Edited August 18, 2014 by Bli1942

[Stun]

No. I paid for a collector's box set and Obsidian turned around and tried to make me their slave. Not gonna work.   I wouldn't report ANY bugs. In fact, if I found one I would just lie and say I didn't.  Or maybe I'll make up a fake bug for just giggles so people would waste time tryingt fo find it or trying to prove a bug exist. Of coruse, I ruined by sick plans stating it so publicly so eh. That ruins that idea. L0L <>

 

You may be fine bein a slave doing work others get paid decent wages for but I sure ain't.

 

I will get what i want a = a box collector's edition of PE + dwarves. Everything else is irrelevant.

If getting to play a chunk of PoE a few months before the official release in return for some QA work = being a slave, then whip my be-hind, master, and call me your slave.

 

I'm looking forward to it. I'm a gamer who frequents message boards. Playing games then coming online and complaining about the bugs in them is something I do anyway, without being asked. I don't consider it work. I consider it my right under the First Amendment.

Edited August 18, 2014 by Stun

[Lioness]

 

 

Counter point:  The Aumaua is bent over in this screen shot from running forward, as is the one normal human party member.  The only party members standing normally is an Elf, a Orlan, and a Dwarf who have all been shown the be smaller than humans.  Everyone in the village is a human so the door will clearly be scaled to human size.  In other words the scale is correct, we just have a lot of short party members.

 

I am unsure that elves and orlan being at the same height as a human (door)knob is by design.

[Semelle]

 

 

 

 

I didn't watch the stream, but if Adam didn't immediately try to kill the wood beetles he was in for a beatdown. Their poison is pretty damaging, so you usually want to go after them first.

 

Yeah, he seemed to be focusing on the rock beetles, in those battles. He also seemed to forget some of the characters, at times. Was it the rogue that was left idling most of the time?

 

The rock beetles are burly, but that wood beetle poison will kill a character pretty quickly. If a few of your party members get poisoned it can be tough to recover. We may end up toning it down depending on feedback from the beta.

 

 

In IE games, poison was one status effect that, if you weren't hauling around antidotes or cure poison scrolls, could easily wipe out your party. I specifically remember a spider infested house in Beregost for example.

 

How many ways are there to deal with poison in PoE?

 

One thing about the poison in IE games, however, was that it affected you MUCH slower, something like 1 or 2 hp every round, so you could finish a fight, mess around for a bit, and eventually decide to drink a potion. Here it seems to knock you out in a matter of 3-4 rounds, you need to be right on top of it to catch it

 

 

And I was wondering if there was different types of poison, some more lethal than other. 

Like a poison affecting you with a 1 or 2 hp/round and another 4-6hp/r? 

 

I don't know a lot about poison, even in the IE games and would love to read more about this.

[Caerdon]

 

Counter point:  The Aumaua is bent over in this screen shot from running forward, as is the one normal human party member.  The only party members standing normally is an Elf, a Orlan, and a Dwarf who have all been shown the be smaller than humans.  Everyone in the village is a human so the door will clearly be scaled to human size.  In other words the scale is correct, we just have a lot of short party members.

 

I am unsure that elves and orlan being at the same height as a human (door)knob is by design.

 

 

I didn't write that.

 

Nevertheless, the door ring appears to be at the upper chest height when compared to the orlan, so I'm not sure where you're getting that from. Also, I'm not sure why both of you are assuming that's a human door, maybe the miller that built the place was an aumaua. Or maybe there's some other reason for that door to be so large, just like I wrote earlier. It's not like larger-than-usual doors don't exist in our purely human world.

[Karkarov]

Nevertheless, the door ring appears to be at the upper chest height when compared to the orlan, so I'm not sure where you're getting that from. Also, I'm not sure why both of you are assuming that's a human door, maybe the miller that built the place was an aumaua. Or maybe there's some other reason for that door to be so large, just like I wrote earlier. It's not like larger-than-usual doors don't exist in our purely human world.

That would be because I am only seeing humans living in the town, all the buildings have the same design style, look about the same age, and everything is scaled to be roughly normal versus a human.

 

The one thing that disturbs me about that picture is that supposedly human guard on the bridge.  Dude must be packing away those wheaties, he is possibly bigger than the Aumaua party member.

[Caerdon]

 

Nevertheless, the door ring appears to be at the upper chest height when compared to the orlan, so I'm not sure where you're getting that from. Also, I'm not sure why both of you are assuming that's a human door, maybe the miller that built the place was an aumaua. Or maybe there's some other reason for that door to be so large, just like I wrote earlier. It's not like larger-than-usual doors don't exist in our purely human world.

That would be because I am only seeing humans living in the town, all the buildings have the same design style, look about the same age, and everything is scaled to be roughly normal versus a human.

 

The one thing that disturbs me about that picture is that supposedly human guard on the bridge.  Dude must be packing away those wheaties, he is possibly bigger than the Aumaua party member.

 

 

Uh... let me get this straight. You're seeing only humans and human scale buildings in the town. And then you're wondering why one of those supposedly humans looks as big as an aumaua and why one of those supposedly human doors looks as big as an aumaua door? And you're still pondering how's that possible, since there can only be humans and human-size doors around, as those are the only things you're seeing...

[SnarkyArky]

I disagree with the sentiment of armours looking generic being a bad thing. If anything, I have grown to dislike the overdesigned pompous armours that no fighter would wear into battle. Having things rooted in reality tells me that the designers are thoughtful about what they put into their fantasy world. Making something over the top for the sake of being extreme can be fun in itself but we have so much of it these days that I have grown to dislike it because now when everyone does it without an afterthought it's just seems lazy.

 

Obsidian going with the style and thoughtfulness they do is one of the reason I decided to invest in PoE. It's a product and a company I can respect due to its integrity.

[Necro]

Also, one thing to keep in mind about difficulty is that higher difficulties don't just scale up damage and health on enemies - it changes which enemies spawn. For example, those same fights on a harder difficulty have adra beetles and more patrols. I remember playing on medium difficulty and pulling two groups at once because I wasn't careful with character placement.

 

best decision ever.  i SO hate going from normal to "hard" which tends to be simply enemies do more damage, have more hp and you do less. - this does NOTHING but lengthen a fight.

[Marceror]

 

Also, one thing to keep in mind about difficulty is that higher difficulties don't just scale up damage and health on enemies - it changes which enemies spawn. For example, those same fights on a harder difficulty have adra beetles and more patrols. I remember playing on medium difficulty and pulling two groups at once because I wasn't careful with character placement.

 

best decision ever.  i SO hate going from normal to "hard" which tends to be simply enemies do more damage, have more hp and you do less. - this does NOTHING but lengthen a fight.

 

One of the reasons I tend to shy away from a game's hardest difficulty settings is because it really bothers me when a level one rat can attack for massive damage.

 

The approach OE is taking is greatly preferable to me as well.

[neo6874]

If getting to play a chunk of PoE a few months before the official release in return for some QA work = being a slave, then whip my be-hind, master, and call me your slave.

hmm, should i use the normal whip, or the +1 with d6 cold damage?

 

(also, "I get out my robe and wizard hat...")