Exactly how I felt. Finding new stuff is one of the best things in rpgs. I really wish they could have just licenced D&D instead of using their own system both for richer lore and for familiar rule set.

the more i play RPGs the more I feel like theyre impossible to balance (even moreso with tactical RPGs), when I was younger it was easy to just play the game and wow this is hard or wow this early part is easy but now its just like numbers and **** and its easy to find ways to cheese everything and find every holes.

Kind of annoying to have to set your own limitations for difficulties.

Like most games that have ultra-hard settings are only beatable by ultra cheesing (crap like blocking doors or hit and running out of range for 30 minutes instead of 2).

I dunno, PvE games make me sad lately. Guess im too old to be immersed anymore. That said I feel like Pillar managed this very well for the earlier part of the game (i.e. before you get 6 guys and AoEs together are unbelievably strong)

I need to reinstall PoE. I got about 3/4 through when it first came out, then got a new computer and haven't played it since.

Did the updates and the new add-on help the game much?

Currently I'm playing Age of Decadence and really enjoying it, even though it's very hard and I suck. It's a turn-based isometric with loads of possible character builds. I'd recommend it if you're into that kind of thing, and don't mind a game being a bit rough around the edges.

I actually liked the itemization in poe. Thought it was cool how upgrades helped but there were no items that were "xx of the gods" or whatever. Added to the gritty and violent nature of the game imo.

Deal-breaker for me was the combat sucked.

Thanks for the recommendation thethethe going to check that out.

Patches have changed the combat quite a lot imo,

I bought PoE at release but for some reason didn't really get into it until after Patch 2.0 came out. Really enjoying it - I think they've done a great job of creating a system where multiple builds are viable for any class. I'm playing on Hard and think I am midway through Act 2nd and am finding it a decent challenge although do wish I could step up to Path of the Damned.

I think the itemisation is quite good - you can customise weapons quite heavily and there are some good unique weapons. Don't know if there's anything like BG2's absurdly OP weapons such as the Flail of Ages but that's a good thing - I don't want to build characters designed to equip specific powerful weapons and really don't want to trivialise the combat. In BG2 your party's damage output could become so high that anything weaker than a boss got steamrolled.

The writing in general is a bit too serious; some levity would not go amiss although it's preferable to the outright campiness of Divinity Original Sin. Rewarding the gold backers by populating the game with characters with pointless back stories was a mistake - like many others I read several of those walls of text thinking they must be important until I finally googled it and realised I was reading fanfiction.

How are you using your Ranger? I've got Sagani in my party, who is not optimally designed, but she's doing loads of damage with bow or blunderbuss. Got talents/Chanter 's songs that reduce her reload time to keep the DPS up. Key thing to keep in mind is that the recovery penalty from wearing heavy armour has little effect on someone using a crossbow or gun.

I think the greatest mistake which relates the seriousness issue is the blandness of NPC party members. Half-way into the game, I didn't really like or care about any of the party members. They just don't have strong personality. Planescape: Torment or Dragon Age: Origins really did great job with the party members they were both unique and funny. There just wasn't a Morte or Alistair in PoE.

You forgot the best:

Yes, I did

I was even trying to think some notable NPC from BG, but couldn't really think of anyone who left strong impression (fwiw Yoshimo is probably my favorite NPC in BG).

I didn't know this. Doesn't make any intuitive sense to me either. I had her in medium armor and she kept dying to like 3 hits.

It's because all weapons have attack and recovery time. Guns/crossbows also have a reload time which is much longer than the other times. You can't see the numbers in-game but these are reflected by the combat animations. The armour recovery penalty only affects the recovery time so the percentage increase in the total time a gun-user's attack takes isn't that big.

Obsidian admitted that the attack mechanics are obscured from gamers and is something they will address in a sequel. This guide helps a lot: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=416939844, as does this one: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/687020-pi...ity/faqs/72035.

The tl;dr version is that characters using a single 1h or 2h weapons will prefer light - medium armour to keep their DPS up. Dual-wielders and gun/crossbow users can wear heavy armour without compromising DPS too much.

Interesting... when I was playing the game my entire back row was completely naked. Sounds like I made the game a lot harder on myself.

Except for dexterity and reload speed items, all attack speed bonuses/penalties only affect the recovery time so their effects are never as large as one would initially think. That means you can put some armour on your back row guys without drastically lowering their DPS.

lol at having numbers that govern attack speed but are hidden from players. WTF. The whole thing seems super overcomplicated to me. Why not have one single number that governs how often you can attack? What is the point of having attack, recovery, and reload speeds?

This is a problem I've had repeatedly in this game. I'll get an item and it says "increases Movement speed". OK. I have no idea what that means. Does better movement mean I attack faster? Or just run faster? Can I escape from people attacking me more effectively?

The fact that I don't know the answer to these things means the game has failed to communicate them to me.

Also thanks for posting the guides and all but the chance I read that **** is zero.

This is undoubtedly the way most players will feel about trying to understand the game mechanics and is indicative of the game's failure to explain them properly. I started looking for guides because I was confused about what weapons would be best for my character. The Dragon Age games have some complex attack/damage calculations going on under the hood but they show you the DPS.

I think the point of having multiple numbers that together constitute attack speed is that it feeds into the flexibility in character building and equipment choices.

RPGs are pretty much never challenging and will always require you to set limitations if you want a challenge. You always end up over leveled at some point and just steamroll the content. Also, any RPG with a resting system is going to be easymode unless you limit yourself in how often you rest. So lame

POE is a computer game, it might be relatively complex compared to COD but over all its just is not that complex at all.

FWIW a lot of RPG fans want mechanics that take a bit of investigation to master.

Revisiting the game after taking a "break" soon after it was released. Feels much smoother and polished now, will probably complete it.

I wonder about making a catch all thread for these old style rpg's. Anyway, Obsidian is releasing another RPG towards the end of this year, Tyranny. We also have Divinity 2 and Torment of Numenera coming at some point in the first half of next year. Pretty hyped for Div 2 in particular.

Ugh I was hyped for this and Setsuna too though.

Not heard of Tyranny before. Definitely looks right up my street.

As you mentioned a catch all thread, I figured I'd mention this here as it's probably of more interest to subscribers here.

Titan Quest Anniversary Edition
- re released for it's 10th birthday, with a bunch of changes.

I'd never played it before last week, when went away and wanted a game to play that could run on my crappy laptop. So far I'm enjoying it, although I've definitely been spoiled by playing it's spiritual successor, Grim Dawn.