What mechanics you enjoy the most in comparison to original IE ?

[Cpmartins]

Things I like it better than IE:

They combat system. It's surprisingly flexible, and rewards strategy and foreknowledge of the foes you are about to engage.

Flexible formation system. It allowed me to get my fighter in a very advanced position on pretty much every engagement that mattered.

The scripted interactions, I don't rightly remember their names. It adds up a nice "oldschool" feel to the game.

Melee classes having a more active role on fights.

 

Things I like it better in IE:

Mages. Because they are gods.

[Althernai]

I like the XP system. In the IE games, if the goal of a quest was to retrieve an item from a dungeon, you could, in principle, sneak most (or even all) the way through the dungeon, take the item and leave... but this was a suboptimal way to play because killing every enemy gave you XP whereas sneaking did not. In fact, if you wanted to get all of the XP, the way to play was to kill anything with a red circle and then some. I've played games before which tried to avoid this by not giving any at all XP for combat, but that was also somewhat unsatisfying. PoE's beastiary system strikes a good balance.

[Jasta11]

-Create your formation. I like this, so much. 

 

-Engagement: One thing I loathed in IE games is that holding a frontline was close to impossible unless you were in very specific circumstances. The system is not perfect (pathfinding is an issue) but it allows you to setup a frontline more easily, if you use the right tactics and equipment. It allows you to control the flow of combat much better.

 

-Transparent game mechanics. If you weren't a D&D veteran, there were a lot of obscure mechanics in IE games. PoE lays it out far more clearly, and adds lots of convenience such as AoE markers and the exact formula for hit/miss and damage, spell descriptions, the precise impact and duration of status effects and enemy vulnerabilities. 

 

-No weapon/armor limitations. Want to have a druid packing an arquebus, a mage in full plate or a paladin dual wielding daggers? Who are Obsidian to stop us from enjoying the fine things in life? 

 

-No overpowered mage protection spells. This drove me (more) insane in BG2. You basically needed to have a mage on hand to dispel those stupid protections if you didn't know the rules of the setting by heart. None of that annoyance here.

 

-All classes have abilities. In BG1 and 2, if you weren't a spell-caster, auto-attack was the extent of your playstyle until HLAs came around. I'm so glad Obsidian left that behind.

[Starwars]

I enjoy the reputation/disposition system. While its use is fairly basic here, I think it does a lot to encourage some roleplaying. I think the basic reactivity in dialogues goes a long way. I hope they can expand upon it further on down the road.

 

I also love the scripted interactions though I wish there were more of them.

 

I think character building as well the combat system is a lot more fun in PoE even though there are details in the IE games I like more. I'm torn about pre-buffing. On one hand, I find it quite nice because it's not a particularly fun *mechanic* the way you tend to use it in the IE games. On the other hand, the freedom to just cast whatever you want, whenever you want is something I miss quite a bit in PoE.

[eggdogg]

I am probably in the minority but I think PE is an improvement over ALL the IE games in terms of mechanics.

[VioNectro]

I think it improves on the IE games in most aspects, except I think the camping supplies change has just added busy work for those who wish to rest at all costs; also I think the attributes system could have been better, plain dnd 6 attributes work better in my opinion than what we currently have. Needing to stealth to spot secrets is a bit annoying. Of course path finding seriously needs attention, I don't know if the green circles are too small or what but too many times spaces that should be passable aren't for whatever reason and your characters start running in all sorts of random directions to try get there.

 

Of the good, I really love the chanter class and the full page story telling interludes with the SFX, it's really great to "turn on" the imagination.

[Guest BugsVendor]

Things I like it better than IE:

They combat system. It's surprisingly flexible, and rewards strategy and foreknowledge of the foes you are about to engage.

Flexible formation system. It allowed me to get my fighter in a very advanced position on pretty much every engagement that mattered.

The scripted interactions, I don't rightly remember their names. It adds up a nice "oldschool" feel to the game.

Melee classes having a more active role on fights.

 

Things I like it better in IE:

Mages. Because they are gods.

 

Concerning wizards.I will agree that the new attribute system is not that well thought out.

 

Probably most people noticed it, but having the same attribute improving damage for both magic and standard melee / ranged combat feels a bit odd. Not only in terms of story telling - every powerful wizard is strong as a bull but also in terms of game mechanics where almost every single character you create will have 18 might.

 

But I like some other stuff, like intelligence allowing longer time for spells and larger aoe. It's logical.

 

I like the XP system. In the IE games, if the goal of a quest was to retrieve an item from a dungeon, you could, in principle, sneak most (or even all) the way through the dungeon, take the item and leave... but this was a suboptimal way to play because killing every enemy gave you XP whereas sneaking did not. In fact, if you wanted to get all of the XP, the way to play was to kill anything with a red circle and then some. I've played games before which tried to avoid this by not giving any at all XP for combat, but that was also somewhat unsatisfying. PoE's beastiary system strikes a good balance.

 

This is a very good point. I also don't miss XP per creature as well.

 

I don't like however getting xp for lock picking doors and disarming traps. It feel almost like farming. If I go around a tavern and there is a dude in a room I would lock pick all the containers just to get the xp but I would never take anything so I don't lose reputation.

 

The new abilities system also seems a bit meaningless. All I care about is mechanics. The rest is just useless the way I see it.

[crabe]

I am probably in the minority but I think PE is an improvement over ALL the IE games in terms of mechanics.

 

 

Same for me. It just needs to be refined and balanced. There are many good ideas/theory in the system and interface, but sometime you see they're not really well exploited.  For example the system is designed for that you play very tactically, planing well your fights, managing your efforts etc. and that's great... But after a while (I would say after level 8 ) the game is really easier (IMO) and you don't care so much, apart for some bosses, to act in an optimal way. I'm not sure if it's a problem of balance or if the gain in experience/abilities is too much rewarding.

 

Anyway, it's a super basis for the next games.

 

Where I prefer IE is about the loot and items. It was a great moment in BG when you found your first +1 weapon, and the same when you found your first +2, +3 etc. That's a bit childish, but eh, it was part of the fun.... In Poe there is IMO too much and not enough significant  loot. 

Edited April 5, 2015 by crabe

[Pighardia]

The Journal is much, much better for a start, as is the general UI.

 

Also I really like the improved stealth. The best and biggest change is the endurance system though for me.

 

The interactive story bits are also excellent imo.

 

 

I think it improves practically everything. It didn't feel as much of a chore to play as the older IE games.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Pighardia

[Katarack21]

I'm enjoying the combat system in PoE *much* more than I did in the IE games. Infinity Engine combat was always very difficult for me; partly because there was no actual way to force your tanks to hold an enemy and I generally played a mage or sorcerer, and partly I think because I'm just not a very strategic or practical person.

But I've been playing PoE on normal difficulty with a cipher, and the combat is the perfect degree of difficulty for me--challenging, with some fights requiring repeated efforts, but not so much that it seems impossible and with a great feeling of accomplishment and reward after I succeed. Even the easy fights sometimes feel like they could go wrong if I'm not careful, and even the hard fights feel easy when I get exactly the right tactics and set ups.

I like the combat in this game a *lot*.

[DocDoomII]

-I like the possibility to enhance your equipment. But I would like to have someone like Cromwell or Cespenar to bring pieces of weapons or metal and leather and get powerful artefacts (I'm still in chapter 1, so I don't know if there really is something like that)

-I like engagement

-I like the addition of primitive fire arms

-I like limited sleep

-I like "per encounter" abilities

-I like 50% and 200% speed

-I like resting bonuses at the inns

-I like that dismantled traps are placed in your inventory

-I like "adventure book" interactive scenes

-I like free for all armors and weapons

-I like learning spells from other people's grimoires (but maybe it should use different resources, not just money)

-I like that all stats, skills and character background could be used in coversations

 

on the top of my head.

Edited April 5, 2015 by DocDoomII

[Caerdon]

I consider Eternity an improvement on most aspects when it comes to game mechanics, and it's hard to isolate specific mechanics that I enjoy more than others, but here are three things that come to mind right now:

 

1) The resting mechanic. I never really rest spammed in IE games either, but the way Eternity handles things has still improved my gaming experience a lot. It adds excitement, feeling of attrition and urgency, and strategic depth.

 

2) The health/endurance mechanic. I love it, I think it really succeeds in combining the best aspects of traditional and regenerating health, and it has some interesting features of its own. I like how well it handless long-term attrition and how it doesn't just eliminate perma-death entirely, even though you don't have to worry about it most of the time. I like how it puts a limit to healing and even makes it a double-edged sword: with enough healing a character now risks death instead of just getting knocked out. Just think about that from in-universe perspective: even with magical healing there's only so much your body can take, and sooner or later your body will simply fail and there's nothing that can be done at that point.

 

3) The four defenses. This one's a bit of a dark horse and probably not utilized in-game quite as well as it should be, but I love how status effects lower specific defenses making the enemies more vulnerable to attacks targeting those defenses. This is a huge improvement over the way saving throws worked in IE games. I don't think this system really reaches its full potential, but perhaps that's because I just haven't been able to pay attention and take advantage of that system the way I should have - probably because there are so many options that it can be a bit overwhelming. I suspect that the majority of players mostly just ignore this stuff, but there's some huge tactical potential there.

 

I could list many other mechanics, but I guess that'll do for now.

[merkmerk73]

Engagement is cool as hell. Once I realized why my guys were getting beat the hell up after trying to kite and understood that the red movement cursor means bad news bears, I got significantly better at the game.