POLL: Is your general sentiment towards POE negative or positive?

[Gangrelrumbler]

There is no advantage of buying Enchanced Editions over the originals.

 

[A horse of course]

it inspired me to buy Enhanced Editions of BG1, BG2 and IWD1.

 

[Ziem]

x1.35 damage vs x1.25 damage aren't something that will make you jump with joy and feel excited about an item, unless you are Josh Sawyer I suppose.

It makes me plenty excited when I realize what it means for the damage output of my arbalest. Percentages are awesome.

/facepalm
its not about percentages
the items simply lack originality
it feels like theyre designed for an mmo or some diablo clone, instead of something creative we basically have a bunch of crap with prefixes and suffixes
except these fucking diablo clones do it a lot better
in pilloe there are like 25 prefixes and suffixes combined, and there are no rares/uniques/set items or anything of that sort

 

[jcd]

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[Grimwulf]

There is no advantage of buying Enchanced Editions over the originals.

I'm pretty sure MP was not an option in original IWD. Setting it up is a bitch at first time, but right now playing it with buddy and having a fucking blast. Also, class kits. They might break the balance or whatever, but they give options and entirely new flavor. Finally, love the new UI.

Before PoE I never thought of IWD battles as tactical. But after PoE 90% of IWD encounters seem to me FUCKING BRILLIANT.

Before PoE I never thought that BG1 has particulary great companions. But after PoE they actually feel lively. They are engaged in your conversations; they start their own; they comment and react on your actions; they have all those relationships.

Bottom line: PoE made me return to infinity engine once more, this time through Enhanced Editions, that I missed for whatever reason.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Isn't supposed PoE use this kind of scaling? I remember talking about this during the development.

I don't think it does but only someone who played through the game several times using different routes would now for sure. I hope it is something they consider for the future (expansions, sequel) because IMO it's the most non-intrusive way of keeping the challenge up in a semi non-linear game. Of course it shouldn't be overused, the feeling that you're exploring a living world that doesn't revolve around you needs to be maintained.

 

[Gord]

Before PoE I never thought of IWD battles as tactical. But after PoE 90% of IWD encounters seem to me FUCKING BRILLIANT.

How long since you played it? It's been a few months for me and no way IWD trash mobs (which make up 90% of the game) are better than what PoE has.

 

[Infinitron]

PoE's encounters seem pretty similar to IWD's to me. Lots of "horde management" combat (which requires some effort unlike hordes in BG1 which usually consist of 1-hit-kill trash mobs), relative de-emphasis of mages.

In general, I think there's actually a remarkable sense of continuity between Black Isle's Infinity Engine games and Pillars. I suspect The Black Hound would not have been too dissimilar to it.

Before PoE I never thought that BG1 has particulary great companions. But after PoE they actually feel lively. They are engaged in your conversations; they start their own; they comment and react on your actions; they have all those relationships.

But this is the real wtf

 

[Grimwulf]

Before PoE I never thought of IWD battles as tactical. But after PoE 90% of IWD encounters seem to me FUCKING BRILLIANT.

How long since you played it? It's been a few months for me and no way IWD trash mobs (which make up 90% of the game) are better than what PoE has.

Since I played what? IWD? I've started like a few weeks ago, still playing. Before that - like 5 or 6 years ago.

Trash encounters only last through "tutorial" stage of the game, and end up as soon as you enter Kresselacks tomb. From that point til the end of the game all encounters are hand-designed and demand tactical thinking, as much as RTwP combat allows tactcs. Unless you play something like 5 Fighters + 1 Fighter/Mage/Thief shit, in which case no tactics needed

It's all about DnD vs PoE's shit-tier core rules. Some 'Dexer nailed it better than me somewhere in earlier threads - PoE spells mean nothing, they don't make a difference, and need not be countered. Web in PoE slows down movement - you can't do anything with it, but it also not significant enough to make a difference. You just ROLL with it, IGNORE it. While Web/Entangle in DnD fucks you up - you are totally stuck in one place, with penalties and shit. But you CAN counter it with potions or spells or rings of free action. Same goes for almost everything. Spells in DnD mean something, they do make a difference. Spells in PoE are more like hack-n-slash fashion.

Before PoE I never thought that BG1 has particulary great companions. But after PoE they actually feel lively. They are engaged in your conversations; they start their own; they comment and react on your actions; they have all those relationships.

But this is the real wtf

What? I was pissed off by total insignificance of companions in PoE. They sometime make "comments" during conversation that are absolutely always, 100% of the times, IGNORED by fucking EVERYBODY. You know what I mean.

Player: So, hollow children, eh?
Villager: Aye, they are born without SOUL.
Player: Whatever can be done?
Durance: I killed your mother last evening and fucked her corpse after that.
Villager: They say that Raedric had brought this plight.
Player: Who is Raedric?
Durance: In fact, I have her corpse right here. In my backpack. You want to see it?
Villager: Raedric is our lord.

You have this feeling that after completing PoE the devs were like "Aw, fuck! We forgot about companions participation in conversations!", and then like "Screw it, let's just insert random comments here and there".

 

[Infinitron]

It's all about DnD vs PoE's shit-tier core rules. Some 'Dexer nailed it better than me somewhere in earlier threads - PoE spells mean nothing, they don't make a difference

Cast Chill Fog (level 1 mage spell) on an enemy horde, put a rogue at the edge of the area of effect, then get back to me on that. PoE's spells can be completely devastating if you use the rest of your party properly.

It's funny, because in the past, many people said that "Sawyer shouldn't focus so much on class balance because this is a PARTY-BASED game, the classes are supposed to compensate for each other's weaknesses." Well, there you go.

While Web/Entangle in DnD fucks you up - you are totally stuck in one place, with penalties and shit.

One thing DnD had that PoE doesn't is the possibility of escaping the effect of these sorts of spells periodically with a per-round saving throw. I remember Entangle being particularly underwhelming due to this. Enemies would rarely be stuck in place for very long.

In contrast, once you're Hobbled with a Web in PoE, you're a sneak attack pincushion and there's little you can do about that. Although I agree that PoE's Web isn't, in general, a very powerful spell. A more powerful high level version that could also make you Stuck would be nice (or maybe something like that already exists?)

 

[Lurker King]

"To be clear, and to give credit where credit is due on content contributions (I don’t want to steal anyone’s thunder), I wrote the first iterations of two companions (Durance and the Grieving Mother, who have been scaled down to about ¼ of what they were originally, and the Grieving Mother’s mental dungeon was excised as well, which was essentially a stealth adventure game inside her memories).

The final versions that are in the game are the province of other narrative designers, and I would be uncomfortable taking credit for the final implementation of the two characters. "

Durance is one of my favorite companions of all times and Grieving Mother is awesome. So, they are not the product of just MCA, eh? I also enjoyed Éder and kana Rua. Hiravias and Sagani sounds ok, but I didn’t played will them that much. Aloth sounds really bad, but I almost didn’t played with him. Pallegina with her ridiculous accent definitely sucks.

Both WL2 and PoE are very flawed games but flawed doesn't mean bad. At the same time, the flaws rub different people different ways. I couldn't get past the flaws in D;OS, but I managed to do that just fine in MMX and WL2. I struggle with Pillars. It's not the kind of game you can't stop playing, but at the same time there are aspects that do make me want to keep playing, so that's something.

- Ok, Lurker King. The next question is worth 1.000 points! What are the bad elements that D:OS, W2 and PoE have in common?

(a) Bad art.
(b) Bad writing.
(c) Filler combat.

- That’s an easy one. I will go with (c), the filler combat!

Concerning W2, D:OS and PoE, I think that everyone will agree that trying to inflate games with filler content is not that great. Although, I’m not sure that they could really improve the rest in so little time.

By the way, the more a think about it, the more I realize that AoD is unintentionally a poster boy for how C&C should be implemented in games. Obsidian makes a big deal out of the reactivity, but they also tried to implement filler content, because this is what most players expect. Naturally, the C&C suffers in result. Besides, the fact that many players complain about AoD shortness while ignoring most of the hidden content shows how this path is ungrateful and poorly understood.

Considering that they put the game together in 2.5 years, they did an amazing job. The problem is that the game of this scope requires 3-3.5 years. Overpromising on KS didn't help - they had to add the mega dungeon, stronghold, crafting, another city.

This.

The quests up to that point were essentially just fedex quests.

99% of cRPGs out there only have fedex quests.

 

[Irenaeus]

47.5% of users scammed by the Fraudsidian fraudster trio and happy with it. Disgusting.

47.8%

 

[Rostere]

/facepalm
its not about percentages
the items simply lack originality
it feels like theyre designed for an mmo or some diablo clone, instead of something creative we basically have a bunch of crap with prefixes and suffixes
except these fucking diablo clones do it a lot better
in pilloe there are like 25 prefixes and suffixes combined, and there are no rares/uniques/set items or anything of that sort

You know, for a shit game Diablo 2 actually had very good itemization.

But when we're comparing BG1/2 against PoE it's impossible to do anything other than laugh at this objection.

You prefer itemization where the majority of all items are "+1" or "+2"? That's just... I agree that I do prefer the inventory art and sketches in item descriptions of BG1/BG2 though.

IMO Obsidian's decision to have "keywords" for many of the items has backfired. When people find a pike with a unique prone-inflicting effect they don't think "wow!", they think "oh, it's only keyword X. That's not unique!".

The IE games recycled a lot of attributes for weapons. And those that were truly unique are to a large degree a subset of the possible attributes of weapons in PoE (if you translate the attributes roughly between game worlds).

How long since you played it? It's been a few months for me and no way IWD trash mobs (which make up 90% of the game) are better than what PoE has.

I replayed IWD 1 like 2 months ago and I think that is one of the prime reasons I regard PoE as highly as I do. PoE does almost everything better than IWD. Rose-tinted glasses and the established FR setting aside, PoE is simply better than IWD. IWD also suffers from worse "reverse difficulty curve" than PoE (even though it is 100% linear!). I played IWD on Insane, and the the further you get into the game, the more the combat becomes an easy slog, until the final boss which is actually a challenge (compare to PoE's Adra Dragon).

 

[Infinitron]

Don't play IWD on Insane

 

[roshan]

I played IWD on Insane, and the the further you get into the game, the more the combat becomes an easy slog, until the final boss which is actually a challenge (compare to PoE's Adra Dragon).

This is due to stupid mechanics by Black Isle. Insane gives you more XP, and the game spawns more mobs the higher level you are. So you end up extremely overlevelled. There's actually more challenge if you played on normal. I actually ragequit at the valley of tombs because of how easy the game is.

Beamdog plans to fix it with the next patch though.

 

[roshan]

There is no advantage of buying Enchanced Editions over the originals.

This is quite simply bullshit. The EE versions are the definitive way to play the game in 2015, unless you want to install some no longer maintained mods (and most IE mods are crap anyway).

 

[Gord]

Trash encounters only last through "tutorial" stage of the game, and end up as soon as you enter Kresselacks tomb. From that point til the end of the game all encounters are hand-designed and demand tactical thinking, as much as RTwP combat allows tactcs.

Did we play the same IWD? Because I sure had tons of copy-pasta trash mobs right until the end. In fact I got so bored by it eventually that I had to play it in small portions.
I could maybe agree that the best encounters in IWD are superior to the best encounters in PoE, but saying IWD has no copy-pasted trash? Bitch, please...

PoE spells mean nothing, they don't make a difference, and need not be countered. Web in PoE slows down movement - you can't do anything with it, but it also not significant enough to make a difference. You just ROLL with it, IGNORE it.

That I can agree with, many spells and effects in PoE are currently much too weak and inconsequential.

But you know what? Forget about PoE AND FUCKING GET BACK TO YOUR DOMINIONS LP, DAMN IT! I NEED MORE NAO!

A more powerful high level version that could also make you Stuck would be nice (or maybe something like that already exists?)

There's "Stuck", which roots you in place and overrides "Hobbled", but I'm not sure if it does exist in a AoE-spell variant like DnD's web.

 

[Grimwulf]

What r u talking about? Difficulty levels in IWD were implemented by Beamdog. Original game only gave you a choice, whether to play Heart of Fury or story mode. HoF is intended for second playthrough with already pimped party. Of course it gives you exp boost, which is somewhat exploitable to level-up fast.

Either play CORE RULES - the intended experience; or at least switch the "Do not receive EXP boost from higher difficulty levels".

 

[Grimwulf]

FUCKING GET BACK TO YOUR DOMINIONS LP, DAMN IT! I NEED MORE NAO!

I must gather muh party before venturing forth.

Spoiler

It's coming, honestly.

 

[Gord]

Btw, difficulty levels are in pre-EE IWD as well. You get a slider from Very Easy to Insane or something and an additional toggle for HoF mode.

 

[Infinitron]

Best thing I could find on Google Image Search:

 

[Irenaeus]

Lebensmüde sounds horrifying.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

What r u talking about? Difficulty levels in IWD were implemented by Beamdog. Original game only gave you a choice, whether to play Heart of Fury or story mode. HoF is intended for second playthrough with already pimped party. Of course it gives you exp boost, which is somewhat exploitable to level-up fast.
.

 

[Grimwulf]

Best thing I could find on Google Image Search:

Judging by icon, dis is Heart of Winter add-on? I can't remember configuration utility in original game for shit. And it's certanly not included in EE.

IWD2 has this thingie, tho.

 

[Volrath]

Negative. Could not bring myself to finish the game.

On the other hand, it inspired me to buy Enhanced Editions of BG1, BG2 and IWD1.

Dis is all I ever needed.

Just fucking kill yourself.