1563

Which bullshit? I’m not sure I’m following - The chants are self-running, its actually a lot less micromanagement than Priests and mages I find.

1564

Perhaps the game need better feedback for a few things.

Like,… I would use chanters powers more If I knew they had then charged. Theres no indication the chanter is chanting, or that his powers are up. My chanter (Keno) is just another guy with a pistol in the back. Perhaps the buff icons are too small, so the feedback about who is doing what is lost except if you pay a lot of attention to everything.

1565

Chanting starts as soon as combat begins, Many times I heard the NPC chanter’s audible chanting before realizing the game had auto-pause for combat . The chanter has a small counter in the lower right of his portrait ( Likewise Ciphers and Monks for their particular resource). When it hits 3 , that’s you cue. Though higher level invocation requires more.

1566

I know the information exist, but its not notified of change with cues. Like… the icon with the number can blink or glow when it gets to 3. In the middle of combat theres a lot of information to keep track, so something like this would help. Has for audible chanting, I have not noticed it. I would probably like it if I can heard it when I select my chanter.

Another feature that would be useful, would be a “halo” around characters that make invisible what is obscuring the character. I have seen it in other rpg’s, so if the combat is behind a tree, you can still see your character,… the game draws like a “hole” trough the tree leafs. I guest is a feature that must be supported by the engine, and maybe is even expensive for the gpu, but is very noticeable. Otherwise I don’t know why they add some foreground elements in some places, like walls in foreground.

1567

I know the information exist, but its not notified of change with cues. Like… the icon with the number can blink or glow when it gets to 3. In the middle of combat theres a lot of information to keep track, so something like this would help. Has for audible chanting, I have not noticed it. I would probably like it if I can heard it when I select my chanter.

I get that it could be more prominent, but since I click on each of my characters in pause every second or so of combat, it’s not exactly a huge issue. When you select your chanter, it’s pretty obvious because the chant icons are lit up.

Another feature that would be useful, would be a “halo” around characters that make invisible what is obscuring the character. I have seen it in other rpg’s, so if the combat is behind a tree, you can still see your character,… the game draws like a “hole” trough the tree leaf

This I very much agree with.

1568

Yeah, it’s hard to tell what exactly is going on combat with all the spell effects and walls getting in the way. It would be nice if the UI elements that indicate who is attacking who stayed visible. The auto pause system could use a couple more options too.
I like the combat system though, in the IE games and NWN2 combat was something I forced myself to endure.
PoE is the first RTwP RPG with combat I actually enjoy. I’d still prefer a turn based combat system but the engagement system makes RTwP bearable.

I’ve built most of the upgrades, the stronghold taxes I get back are around 800-1000 gold. Tax income is tied to stronghold turns though and turns only advance after you’ve completed quests or tasks. The goons you can hire to defend it need to get paid for every game day, if you rest a lot it’s probably a good idea not to hire too many.
It might pay back the investment late in the game but the 30k? gold you need to upgrade it fully is not that much later on.

Platemails sell for 200 gold and one of the areas in act 1 has hordes of platemail wearing enemies. If you have a character with decent stealth in your party you can also steal almost everything without taking reputation hits.

1569

I played this all weekend, and here are my thoughts:

I hate the camping supplies system. Up until I did lord K’s keep, I was careful to conserve supplies ( I am playing on hard mode). However, in that keep there are two ways in other than the front door. Both of them fatigue your characters which you need to camp to recover from. So they want you to do the entire dungeon only effectively bringing in 1 supply. I only found one more supply in the keep. I think this would be hard pressed if you had 4 supplies. This is when i started cheating in free rest times.

Now lets not even get on the endless paths… I am fairly deep in now. Do they expect you to just run to the surface, back to some town to buy a few supplies at a time and then run all the way back again only to adventure a little further before resupplying? This is nuts.

Even worse: Caster’s have spells per day which you do not even want to use because you might need them on a next encounter and you can’t get them back unless you camp with limited supplies. It is kind of like the healing potion problem. You are afraid to use them, but end up with dozens of them by the end of the game. Thankfully a simple cheat code solves this issue and I think it is a very poorly designed system. It should have been an option like the other hard-core options.

My main is a chanter and this class is a little boring. He is just a “fighter” who, once in a while summons a creature (skeletons are worthless BTW).
Wizards seem to suck. Their spells are super short range, and at the very least, the NPC wizard guy’s spells do not do very much damage.
I made an NPC rogue. He does crazy DPS. I like him a lot, although the combat AI drives me nuts. Ill tell him to attack someone, and then he will take a circular route and engage a different target.

Anyway, overall I like the game a lot despite its flaws. I am not sure what the perfect party combination would be. You definitely want two melee guys who can tank. I think the 2nd level chanter’s fear aura is pretty good. I am not sure I would take a wizard, but the priest sounds useful.

I do have a question though. In the endless paths there is an area I will call the elemental temple area. What happens when you place the 4 elemental pieces? I did that and I could not see anything special happen. Also, as a party of level 6 should I continue the way to the bottom or is this end game content? I sure hope that completing this quest has a major xp boost. I do not like the no-xp for fighting monsters thing too.

1570

If you have a character with decent stealth in your party you can also steal almost everything without taking reputation hits.

How does this work, exactly? Does the steal cursor stop being red if your stealth is high enough, or is it a question of being unseen when you do the stealing? When do you know it’s “safe” to steal, and does it affect anything in-party?

1571

It’s safe to steal when your characters can’t be seen (the detection marker underneath them). Specifically, under the character doing the stealing (it doesn’t matter if the rest of your party is in full view).

1572

Does anyone know how action queuing works in combat? I thought I heard we could queue up 3 actions. When I pause obsessively it’s not always clear whether the action has triggered and I can queue up another one.

1573

I know you can hold shift while performing actions to queue them up, but combat has been so fluid I have to stay on my toes so much I’ve never done it (except for queuing up moving along a specific path, which seems to work okay).

1574

Two things change it from a total pain to merely inconvenient:

  • Being able to sleep on the keep itself.
  • Every few levels, the dungeon have 3 exits, one goes directly outside, …you can use that to enter again directly to this levels, I think is levels 1,3 and 5, but I don’t remember.

Maybe you are supposed to do it later on, since about 3 companions are interested in what is there.

1575

I understand why some people are down on chanters - it’s frustrating to have a great ability only to have 3/4 of the combats end before you can use it. On the other hand, it’s very rewarding in long battles to be able to pull out a game changer when everyone else has used up their per-encounter powers. (And they can be game changers - the ability to drop DR on the enemy can suddenly turn what seems to be a doomed battle into a cakewalk.)

The key thing is your chanter can be doing all kinds of other stuff while chanting, so the way to think of him is as your insurance policy in case the battle takes longer than average.

A tip for people making chanter main characters: the skeletons do trivial damage, so their main use is to split them up and have them harass multiple targets, meaning they’re mostly useful against large groups. And if you’re playing on Normal, you’re mainly going to get small groups in the start of the game. So go for the phantom instead. (Also the chanter companion you get already has the skeletons.)

1576

Following up on our discussion about supplies before we actually played the game –

I don’t know how you’d tackle the problem any better than Obsidian has here. The Endurance/Health system is brilliant, and stealing encounter/daily powers from 4E D&D was a great idea. Supplies give just enough of a reason to try and be efficient without being overly punishing or leading to failed game states. Overall I’m just incredibly pleased with the balance here, though I wish there were more encounter powers.

If you’re playing on hard and upset that the game is too hard for the amount of supplies you’re given, well…I don’t really have anything to say other than the blindingly obvious thing.

1577

Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line?

1578

Is there a good list of Talents to choose from. I’d love to be able to see what my character should be aiming for in the future. Especially when it comes to Priests and Paladins, and the sub class.

1579

I’m loving the story so far, but I’m not really enjoying the combat. It just doesn’t feel all that satisfying to me. In most cases, it’s over too fast for me to do much more than one or two special attacks. I never feel like I have a good grasp of the timing of stuff. I get frustrated when my dudes shuffle around all will-nilly because they get blocked by some bit of invisible environment. And it turns out that I do indeed hate the resting mechanic. It amplifies the health potion hoarding from other RPGs. Not only am I carrying around a chest of vials and bottles, but apparently a ton of campfire wood.

Love the world so far though.

1580

Remember, just as you can use Fast Mode, there is a Slow Mode as well, which is great for allowing more micro management of combat.

1581

Can someone explain enchanting to me? Are those anvils basically a capacity for upgrade? For example, on a 0/12 weapon you can put Superb (6) and other enchants totaling 6 total?

1582

Chanters tanks really do feel like fire and forgot. My chanter has high Perception and Resolve, and can’t do anything until the Phantom comes out.