Let's talk combat

[Troyen]

Gaining +5 HP from one point is definitely more noticeable than gaining +1 in say Speed, but I'm not sure if that's a problem with Constitution/Will or a problem with the other stats. I do like having control over increasing my character's HP/SP as needed though (especially because SP lets me cast more spells but Arcane makes them stronger). It did seem fairly easy to double my health in the first Act though so maybe 5 is too high.

Hard to say without the other changes to monster power in 0.8.0, maybe let us try those first and then adjust attributes as necessary?

There is a certain mana pool and regen you want, after that every time you get +5 mana for a level up you might be thinking, aw man why did I waste that last point in will

Presumably monster HP goes up with each level too, so it requires more spells to finish a fight. A bigger SP pool also increases your time between resting. Regen is the bigger issue with making Will/Con less valuable after a certain point. Simply equipping a 2HP regen ring made me spend less healing spells on my Ranger than before (and instead, I found myself wanting to give him more haste effects).

[yayswords]

I think trying to deal with longevity by going for a large mana pool is inefficient use of stats, it's a whole level of stats just to cast 1 more spell. Unless you combine it with Invigorating Prayer of course. A large mana pool might be a decent solution if we healed to full between battles. Of course, getting regen up to like 20 will imaginably be tough so a large mana pool isn't entirely wasted in postponing the inevitable until there is some plot-generated rest.

BTW Jack did you slow down respawns?

[jack1974]

No respawns are the same, didn't touch that.
And yes I agree Troyen, better to test 0.8 and then decide based on it. Since now, without stat-derivation, battles are the same for everyone (there's a small randomize but is like 2-3% of stats, so minimal) I can tweak each battle individually in case is too easy/hard.

I *think* I might have made it a bit too easy (had to rebalance all the enemies...), so when you try tell me which battles you found too easy, though I think that the random battles should not be too hard. The plot battles instead they should be, like the Huge Kodiak, Mormont, Ratmen, Giant Snow Spider. Those, I want them to be hard. The others can be easy, because since are random there's the risk that a level 1 player maybe stumbles into them and loses (OK probably he shouldn't be complain if happens while playing Nightmare, but still... )

[Nightsnow]

The poor spider boss ended up with only 90 hitpoints so I two-shot it... on nightmare, I also didn't have any problem with any battles (expect the goblinb ambush which was near impossible because it was so soon and no Valis to tank for me) so I think you need to check difficulty.

[jack1974]

Yes, I made the goblin ambush battle easier now, and the other ones, in particular the boss battles harder (just uploaded 0.8.1).

[Nightsnow]

Okay, will try download it. (Though I did sorta enjoy exacting sweet, sweet revenge on that spider).

[renke_]

just uploaded 0.8.1

so, you don't need the 0.8 save game I just prepared to mail you? Sigh :)

(Though I did sorta enjoy exacting sweet, sweet revenge on that spider).

haha :)

Don't know if you changed something in 0.8.1, but the balancing in 0.8 is b0rken - normal felt like a nice walk through the park...

[renke_]

okay, 0.8.1 is better - but still not good ;)

I repeated the brown and polar bear battles and the end fight(s) - the archers needed two fire balls instead of one and the polar bear was not down with two normal attacks but I used throw axe (I love this skill ;)). But a bear hug with 14 damage on normal? While Vaelis and my ranger do 50-60 dmg with standard melee attacks?

I don't know...

Will try again (though not today) with hard, but the stat derivation wasn't that bad - on normal I had seldom fights were I simply _knew_ I will win; this is different in the current builds (both 0.8 and 0.8.1).

[jack1974]

Will try again (though not today) with hard, but the stat derivation wasn't that bad - on normal I had seldom fights were I simply _knew_ I will win; this is different in the current builds (both 0.8 and 0.8.1).

Yes but the problem was that I had no "universal method" to tweak/adjust a battle, since each party could have a different configuration.
I could still use the system for the bosses, but I prefer to have fixed values. In your case with the bear I suppose he does so little damage because you got good armor, in my quick playthrough I didn't equip myself well, that's why I am asking saves from you Nightmare players
And the 0.8 save is good, since the changes will reflect in the battles

[Nightsnow]

Got through nightmare, okay-ish now. I had to heal a lot and only barely managed all the quests and strangely enough it was the necromanter and not the spider that gave me trouble this time.... And I still had trouble with the goblins (though that might had been my build. Will try a different skill set tomorrow).

All in all it was better that 0.8, though I do still think that maybe the some off boss battles (at least on nightmare) might be a little too easy, they felt more normal-level for me.

Anyway, It is late now will try a different build tomorrow.