PoE expansion: The White March part 1

[Dongom]

Party AI and Monk/Rogue companion, YES!

[AndreaColombo]

Good ol' BMac said he would look into implementing SMAA in the expansion, so that would also be rad

[juanval]

I don't understand the level-scaling. English is not my native languaje and I think I missed something. Can you explain the next questions please?

 

Why the expansion is developed in mid levels (6-8 perhaps)? If we finish the main game at 12 level, the expansion must be for level 12 parties.

 

This is because we can access to the expansion without finishing the main game?

 

 

In my opinion, the major problem of the main game was the unbalancing of combats. The 95 % of battles were easy at hard difficulty. I fear that level-scaling could make unbalanced combats.

[AndreaColombo]

juanval - You can access expansion content during the main game or after it. It is likely balanced for level 6-7 parties (e.g. you do it in the middle of your play through) but it can be scaled up if you tackle it later and are higher level.

[juanval]

Thanks Andrea for your fast answer. Then I understood the feature.

 

I hope Obsidian do a fine work this time with balancing in combats.

[PIP-Clownboy]

Party AI/Sneak Attack Barb yes please and thank you. Mindlessly hitting the enrage button to open every single encounter was extremely unfun. 

[Venatio]

I think the multiclass options make the prospect of certain classes (especially Paladins) far more appealing. 

Edited June 19, 2015 by Venatio

[SpectreX]

I honestly don't understand why some people are bashing this already. Bottom line is you wanted more content, they're giving it to you. Until you play it you don't know if it is going to be utter crap or not. Would you rather just have the base game and play through it multiple times until you get bored? At least they are "Trying" to dish out more content. 

It's a lot better than most devs who created a game from kickstarter. 

[Gromnir]

paladin as needing/benefiting from the faux multi-class?  huh.  fighter is an obvious class for Gromnir to be considering the benefits of the off-class talents. particularly when we play eder as a dps fighter, we run outta abilities and talents that we is genuine interested in taking.  some kinda mini sneak attack option would be something to consider for one o' those last couple slots as we most often use such a choice on a utility feat that, while useful, is sorta a compromise pick.  our paladins, on the other hand, is less likely to run outta useful choices.  our ranged/support paladins, particularly the gunners, has more than enough choices to utilize all talent opportunities. a tank paladin has gotta use multiple talents as it is to make 'em viable tanks comparable to fighters.

 

chanter-specific talents is currently limited and kinda lame.  perhaps we would consider playing a chanter as something other than a secondary tank once we get a looksee at the options. maybe.

 

regardless, paladin is not the first class we were thinking o' when we heard 'bout off-class talents... and we refuse to call 'em multi-class talents, 'cause ain't anything like multi-classing based on the description we got so far.  off-class talents works for us and is less dismissive than faux or fake class talents.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[AndreaColombo]

I sure hope Obsidian have more up their sleeve than just the multiclass talents (or off-class talents, as Gromnir prefers.) My understanding is that those are a part of the new talents and abilities offered by the expansion.

[Sedrefilos]

So I can't continue after I've finished; must strat over...

Damn. Guess I must wait for part 2 and play from the start with both expansions.

[Jotra]

So I can't continue after I've finished; must strat over...

Damn. Guess I must wait for part 2 and play from the start with both expansions.

 

Where did you get that? The game makes save just before you enter the point of no return. You can use that save and take your party to the new exp areas.

[Fardragon]

In addition to Sneak Attack, there are a couple of other class abilities that look interesting (AKA borderline broken) transferred to other classes. I would put Carnage next on the list. Blast (Wizard) looks interesting too, combined with Dangerous Implements, for an AoE Ranger or Rogue. Oh, yeah, Shapeshift might actually be useful on a class that isn't too busy casting spells to use it!

 

The class I see being most problematic for making any of it's abilities work with a different class is Chanter. 

[MadDemiurg]

I think most weapon dps builds would go for SA and Carnage multiclasses. I don't think that wizard multiclass is going to be blast. And as stated all multiclass abilities will be weaker versions of original ones.

[Quillon]

So how will this party AI work? Will there be any player input like tactics in DA Origins?

[Nakia]

I don't remember how DA:O worked but I am assuming that it will be similar to the IE companion scripts.  'Course I could be wrong.

[Rabain]

I don't remember how DA:O worked but I am assuming that it will be similar to the IE companion scripts.  'Course I could be wrong.

 

Agreed, I think it is going to be a very basic, choose a tactic script: Melee, Ranged, Ranged Spell Aggressive / Defensive, Healing /  Buffing Focused or a simple class specific naming convention with Aggressive /  Defensive option. Hopefully modding these scripts should be doable.

[Quillon]

DA:O's tactics were nice, not the vanilla but a modded version allowed lots of flexibility and I even completed a playthrough with using only tactics including the controlled character. Whenever combat started I just layed back and watched how my tactics played out : D Only if they carried tactics to second and third game, then I wouldn't have had to bear playing such awful combat of those games.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Quillon

[Zwiebelchen]

 

No offense, but until you know about the character's personality, you can't really judge what the character's about based on the character gender (if this character even has a gender)?  

 

 

I'm just saying that the premise of a construct and bald monk are just so ... unoriginal these days. Name just one RPG release in the last 5 years that didn't have a gimmicky robot/construct/droid/mechanical sidekick and I can name you at least 5 that had for every single one you mention.

 

And only very few of them so far had been interesting. One of many is about the only one that was well done ... if you actually consider him a construct. For "real" robots, I can only remember one that was interesting. The Geth companion in ME.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Zwiebelchen

[Messier-31]

Constructs are so anti-climatic.

 

Only a monk would be worse... oh, wait. Nevermind.

[Elerond]

 

 

No offense, but until you know about the character's personality, you can't really judge what the character's about based on the character gender (if this character even has a gender)?  

 

 

I'm just saying that the premise of a construct and bald monk are just so ... unoriginal these days. Name just one RPG release in the last 5 years that didn't have a gimmicky robot/construct/droid/mechanical sidekick and I can name you at least 5 that had for every single one you mention.

 

And only very few of them so far had been interesting. One of many is about the only one that was well done ... if you actually consider him a construct. For "real" robots, I can only remember one that was interesting. The Geth companion in ME.

 

 

If you look premises of other characters in PoE you see that they are mostly quite unoriginal also these days.

 

Roughish white male fighter

Elf wizard

White male priest that curses lot

White female psyker copy that has had difficult life

Big orcish looking scholar

Female ranger from tribal culture 

Character from despised minority that has beaten odds and got good position in society

Shapeshifter from tribal culture that is surprisingly wise

 

These all are archetypes that you can find from all over contemporary fantasy. But with every single one of them Obsidian was able to do something interesting that makes them at least somewhat memorable.

[hamskii]

EDIT: Posted in wrong thread

Edited June 19, 2015 by hamskii

[SpectreX]

 

 

 

No offense, but until you know about the character's personality, you can't really judge what the character's about based on the character gender (if this character even has a gender)?

 

I'm just saying that the premise of a construct and bald monk are just so ... unoriginal these days. Name just one RPG release in the last 5 years that didn't have a gimmicky robot/construct/droid/mechanical sidekick and I can name you at least 5 that had for every single one you mention.

 

And only very few of them so far had been interesting. One of many is about the only one that was well done ... if you actually consider him a construct. For "real" robots, I can only remember one that was interesting. The Geth companion in ME.

Obsidian can never win can they? Do something that's not very RPG Standard = outrage that PoE isn't a true RPG

 

Do something that's RPG Standard = outrage they aren't being creative.

 

 

Don't like what they release? Don't play it. Develop your own RPG

[EdwinP]

Overall, I like what I have seen thus far with, though I await a more detailed information from Obsidian next week; the week of the 22nd.

 

I do wonder if their will be rock throwing Frost Giants ( in addition to club using Snow Ogres ), encounters designed for strategy not brute force attacks (I liked the Castle where you could take enter via the front gate, from the top or bottom. Each was a different experience.

 

and look forward to seeing if skill levels will have a greater impact ( i.e. athletics, survival, lore)

Edited June 19, 2015 by EdwinP

[Fardragon]

 

 

No offense, but until you know about the character's personality, you can't really judge what the character's about based on the character gender (if this character even has a gender)?

I'm just saying that the premise of a construct and bald monk are just so ... unoriginal these days. Name just one RPG release in the last 5 years that didn't have a gimmicky robot/construct/droid/mechanical sidekick and I can name you at least 5 that had for every single one you mention.

 

And only very few of them so far had been interesting. One of many is about the only one that was well done ... if you actually consider him a construct. For "real" robots, I can only remember one that was interesting. The Geth companion in ME.

Obsidian can never win can they? Do something that's not very RPG Standard = outrage that PoE isn't a true RPG

 

Do something that's RPG Standard = outrage they aren't being creative.

 

 

Don't like what they release? Don't play it. Develop your own RPG

 

Agreed. You can either go for a standard fantasy archetype, in which case you will be slagged off for being unoriginal, something totally off the wall, like a kobold bard or gelatinous cube Wizard, in which case you get slagged off for being too way out, or you can try and create realistic ordinary folk, in which case you get slagged off for being boring. There is no "Win" option here.

 

The third new companion is probably a barbarian. So, what are you going to do? Make them an uncouth hard drinking mountain dwarf with an axe? A dour pale elf with two scimitars? They wouldn't by archetypes if people didn't like them! How about a female hippy nature godlike who talks about peace and love whilst hitting people with a giant axe? Far out, man!

Edited June 19, 2015 by Fardragon