That is probably my one complaint so far after a couple of hours, is leveling up and applying skills is never really covered in depth. I kind of discovered it after some trial/error. Also you can apparently learn certain skills from certain people for money at any time. But I don't know if it's worth learning the same thing on diff. characters (Will side characters stay with you) and such.
Seems like a steep learning curve, but on the bright side, I have yet to feel punished for making the wrong choices.
DrunkMc on
0
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited February 2009
I agree. I first wanted to make a stealthy/thief character, but decided against it. I later realized I'll have one of those in my party anyway.
Many skill checks use the highest level in your party. So, for conversations, only one person needs "Fast Talker," for example.
I'm leveling up Blacksmith right now to see if that's worth it.
So, is a magic user viable as a main character or will you die horribly and often in the beginning?
You get a beefy person in your party pretty much right away, so if you send her in first, your main magic user can sit back and explode shit pretty easily.
So, is a magic user viable as a main character or will you die horribly and often in the beginning?
You get a beefy person in your party pretty much right away, so if you send her in first, your main magic user can sit back and explode shit pretty easily.
Cool, I've always enjoyed playing as a smooth talking mage in games like these so that's a good thing. How do the magic system work, by the way? Is it mana based or is it spells-per-day?
Silpheed on
0
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited February 2009
It is mana based. I am pretty sure there is more customization though as a magic user, kinda like how you can alter your parry/attack ratio. I know that I have a spell on one of my party members that I can "ramp up" to be more/less powerful.
The OP needs to be updated too. The game is out now, and there's lots of cool shit we could be putting in there to attract more folk.
Has anyone ran into a problem with the intro video being blacked out when you start the game? I checked the official forum, but it seems that no one has had that problem.
That is probably my one complaint so far after a couple of hours, is leveling up and applying skills is never really covered in depth. I kind of discovered it after some trial/error. Also you can apparently learn certain skills from certain people for money at any time. But I don't know if it's worth learning the same thing on diff. characters (Will side characters stay with you) and such.
Seems like a steep learning curve, but on the bright side, I have yet to feel punished for making the wrong choices.
I feared that too, but from about 5+ hours of playing, it's not a problem.
I chose a burglar as my first character. There are 21 characters and I decided to roleplay him a bit and give him only skills that make sense. The burglar is the best class in picking locks, traps and a few other skills like perception and haggle.
What I realized, is that you must specialize to really benefit from your class. For example, a mage will simply never be able to pick locks, even if you give him the lock pick skill. That's because all talents depend heavily on your main stats, like Courage, Endurance and Strength. I'm just starting to learn the system, but they depend really heavily on those. You could for example have a thief with 0 in pick locks still pick an easy lock if he has high stats.
Pretty early on, I found chests that had +10 difficulty, needing roughly 10 in lock pick to have a fair chance, and that got increased to 15 pretty soon too! Boosting a skill from 14 to 15 takes a lot more skills points than boosting a skill from 2 to 3. Your character WILL be specialized in the role you assign them, I pretty much gave up trying to buy every skills for my thief. In fact I probably won't buy him anything, I already have all the skills I need to develop from when I rolled him.
Press k to open the console, where all the numbers are rolled.
Also, to resolve the camera conflict that I brought forward with a few people... after a while I completely got used to the camera. In fact I really love it. You will see for example how Dragon Age will take on the camera, it will be very interesting and it might even be similar. The main benefit is that you have 4 camera modes all at the reach of your mouse wheel and each of them is very useful. I use them all depending if I want to explore, fight, loot or order several people at the same time.
Games like the Witcher you use only 1 character and so you always have the same perspective for camera, Drakensang you use 4 characters, so you need multiple, easy to access, camera angles.
I will update the OP, it's just that I have never done a good OP before, heh.
I went with the Warrior class and lowered my skill point allocation from a bunch of weapon skills like daggers and axes and so forth. My sword skill is already maxed, so I might as well stick to that. I then put the remaining points to get my Etiquette to 8 and my Faster Talker and Human Nature to 6. I hope that'll work out well.
It's a pretty solid game. I read that your party members aren't exactly written with much to explore, that they're just there. If true, that's a disappointment, but it's still a fun game. Does anyone know how many characters there are that you can recruit?
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
I went with the Warrior class and lowered my skill point allocation from a bunch of weapon skills like daggers and axes and so forth. My sword skill is already maxed, so I might as well stick to that. I then put the remaining points to get my Etiquette to 8 and my Faster Talker and Human Nature to 6. I hope that'll work out well.
It's a pretty solid game. I read that your party members aren't exactly written with much to explore, that they're just there. If true, that's a disappointment, but it's still a fun game. Does anyone know how many characters there are that you can recruit?
You get up to 4 characters in your party, also if you right click on them, you can talk to them. Say you recruit a person from the town Ferdok, if you ask them about some of Ferdok's quests, they will actually have some answers. So there is an element of conversation, depending on who your party members are. The Amazon is generally crazy and has no information about anything, at least up to where I am now.
What I realized, is that you must specialize to really benefit from your class. For example, a mage will simply never be able to pick locks, even if you give him the lock pick skill. That's because all talents depend heavily on your main stats, like Courage, Endurance and Strength. I'm just starting to learn the system, but they depend really heavily on those. You could for example have a thief with 0 in pick locks still pick an easy lock if he has high stats.
This is because of the way skill checks are made in the system. To take the lockpick example, if you try to open a lock you don't roll a d20+modifiers against your skill level. Instead, you roll three d20 against the three attributes connected with that skill and use your skill level as a modifier.
For example: Lockpick is connected with intelligence and twice with dexterity. So let's say your character has an int of 14 and dex of 16 and you roll 12, 20, 17. Normally, this would mean you fail the skill check, because your second and third roll are over 16. But if you have a lockpick skill of, say, 5, you automatically use four points to bring your second roll down to 16 and the last point to do the same for the third roll and pass. If the lock has a modifier, that gets subtracted from your skill points before the roll.
The same system is used to check if you successfully cast a spell (with the enemies magic resistance as modifier) and in that instance the effects (damage, duration or even mana cost) often depend on how many points you still have after you passed the three rolls, so it's usually a good idea to raise the spell level even if you almost always successfully cast it.
And you can get 10 different NPC's to join you by the end of the game, Dashui.
Also, to resolve the camera conflict that I brought forward with a few people... after a while I completely got used to the camera. In fact I really love it. You will see for example how Dragon Age will take on the camera, it will be very interesting and it might even be similar. The main benefit is that you have 4 camera modes all at the reach of your mouse wheel and each of them is very useful. I use them all depending if I want to explore, fight, loot or order several people at the same time.
Games like the Witcher you use only 1 character and so you always have the same perspective for camera, Drakensang you use 4 characters, so you need multiple, easy to access, camera angles.
I will update the OP, it's just that I have never done a good OP before, heh.
My complaint is that the camera seems 'floaty'. When I let off the right mouse button I want the camera to stop, not coast to a standstill. Turning down the sensitivity helped a bit, but I'm noticing a bit of an environmental design flaw in that caves and such are so tight, whereas in something like WoW they are large and airy. May not be the most realistic or artistic, but it allows the camera to pan around. I've run into a problem a few times where I just can't move the damn camera because there is geometry in the way.
Arrath on
0
Zilla36021st Century. |She/Her|Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered Userregular
For those that have gotten fairly far into the game, is it worth putting many points into Etiquette? I'm also thinking about playing a rogue instead of a warrior because of his high social skills (he has high attributes for all of them). If this game has a lot of dialog where those skills matter, I want to be the kind of character with lots of charm. Of course, I don't know much about the game. Perhaps in the end, there aren't a lot of situations where it matters. Does anyone have an opinion?
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
For those that have gotten fairly far into the game, is it worth putting many points into Etiquette? I'm also thinking about playing a rogue instead of a warrior because of his high social skills (he has high attributes for all of them). If this game has a lot of dialog where those skills matter, I want to be the kind of character with lots of charm. Of course, I don't know much about the game. Perhaps in the end, there aren't a lot of situations where it matters. Does anyone have an opinion?
Admittedly my burglar social skills are low, but I did see them pop from time to time(the first couple of hours). The problem is that you need high social skills for the dialog option to show up. So it's hard to test how often it's used unless you pump the skill. If you're going to play the rogue, probably the most social class, try boost his social talents a lot for roleplaying's sake.
What about armor and combat skills for a rogue? Should I get him a shield? What about armor? The game doesn't make clear all to well what works and doesn't for particular characters. I had picked up a padded shirt earlier but it lowered my evasion skills or whatever for my rogue.
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
I plan to bump Seduction up and go talk to that Mountback Queen :winky:
In all seriousness, I do like this game. I don't think I'll play a ranger in the full game like I did in the demo though.
Arrath on
0
FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
edited February 2009
I just started watching the lets play, and I realize it's late and most likely has been addressed, but the Burglar has "Danger Sense" Also, Legolas.
Fencingsax on
0
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited February 2009
I love very story-driven RPGs like this one. There is a clear storyline to follow, but there is also a nice helping of side-quests and other activities in which to partake (crafting, gathering, etc.)
My main complaint, and it's not really even a valid "complaint," is that this system makes multiple play-throughs less exciting than a very open RPG, like Oblivion.
I'm several hours in with my Soldier character, but I was pretty carefree in my points distribution. I am going to restart the next time I play and pick a different class, I think. I might pick a stealth class, like I originally wanted.
I'll also jump on the bandwagon and say the game is overly vague in some areas.. especially what armours/weapons are actually hurting your character's stats. I understand the D&D stats from games like Baldur's Gate, but this one is a bit odd.
Edit: I just started a new game as a Thief. I wish you could change your appearance in this game... I don't like looking like a 12 year old boy.
What about armor and combat skills for a rogue? Should I get him a shield? What about armor? The game doesn't make clear all to well what works and doesn't for particular characters. I had picked up a padded shirt earlier but it lowered my evasion skills or whatever for my rogue.
I hope it's not too late, heh. For thief characters usually, keep them low armored.
I'm still making a decision myself but realize that each 1 point of encumbrance will decrease your dodge by 1. It might even affect other things. Mages for example must keep an encumbered rating of 0 or they can't last spells. This means that the "armor use" combat skill is really useful because each of the 3 levels gives you -1 encumbered so you can get 3 free points and still use your thief or mage normally. But you need high strength for them, starting at 12 strength for Armor Use I.
Dodge on the other hand is easy to increase because of combat skills again, your thief will probably have the agility needed to get Dodge III. Also a good plan is to go all out dodge for defense (as opposed to parry) and then put your weapon masteries for maximum offense, you get the best of both worlds! Then it only becomes a challenge to keep your encumbrance low. Elvish leather provides 2 protection and is light, and there are some other magic items.
I don't recommend a shield because Dodge will do all the job of a shield or of parry. I am using a light bucker that doesn't take away any stats though for a while until I get my perfect build together.
Some great combat skills to have are offensive and defensive combat. They can be always on during fights and offensive adds +2 Attack Value per level and Defensive combat adds +2 Parry per level.
You can see how much each piece of armor has encumbers you by looking at their description. It might say 0.4, or 1 etc Remember Armor Rating all it does is decrease damage, you still need dodge or parry to avoid attacks.
I was playing around with encumbered just a short while ago, this picture is of my dwarf party member with Armor Use II and thus 0 encumbrance. His armor took by itself 4 encumbrance. Hard to believe but he has 9 dodge in this state!
Renegen on
---Yeah
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FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
In that screenshot your mage is decked out in steel armour. Hypocrite!
What about armor and combat skills for a rogue? Should I get him a shield? What about armor? The game doesn't make clear all to well what works and doesn't for particular characters. I had picked up a padded shirt earlier but it lowered my evasion skills or whatever for my rogue.
I hope it's not too late, heh. For thief characters usually, keep them low armored.
I'm still making a decision myself but realize that each 1 point of encumbrance will decrease your dodge by 1. It might even affect other things. Mages for example must keep an encumbered rating of 0 or they can't last spells. This means that the "armor use" combat skill is really useful because each of the 3 levels gives you -1 encumbered so you can get 3 free points and still use your thief or mage normally. But you need high strength for them, starting at 12 strength for Armor Use I.
Dodge on the other hand is easy to increase because of combat skills again, your thief will probably have the agility needed to get Dodge III. Also a good plan is to go all out dodge for defense (as opposed to parry) and then put your weapon masteries for maximum offense, you get the best of both worlds! Then it only becomes a challenge to keep your encumbrance low. Elvish leather provides 2 protection and is light, and there are some other magic items.
I don't recommend a shield because Dodge will do all the job of a shield or of parry. I am using a light bucker that doesn't take away any stats though for a while until I get my perfect build together.
Some great combat skills to have are offensive and defensive combat. They can be always on during fights and offensive adds +2 Attack Value per level and Defensive combat adds +2 Parry per level.
You can see how much each piece of armor has encumbers you by looking at their description. It might say 0.4, or 1 etc Remember Armor Rating all it does is decrease damage, you still need dodge or parry to avoid attacks.
So the less armor on my rogue the better, huh? Will there be a lot of clothing options for me still? I don't want to be wearing the same sets of garb through most of the game. I need to deck myself out in cooler gear!
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
0
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
In the simplest terms: the more armour you wear the more you're encumbered. The more you're encumbered, the harder it is to dodge, attack, and parry. As a rogue, you need dodge especially.
I'm fairly early on with my "Thief." I quit playing my Soldier character because I found it was easy enough to find melee-types for my party, and I wanted a more versatile "main character." So far, I've found very little gear that I can wear that won't add some encumbrance, but it's up to you. As Renegen said, there are eventually magic items that you can wear.
Just right-click the item and check the value under "Encumbrance." If it's .4 or something, it won't really hurt you. Just keep an eye on your DV, AT, and PA values when you put the stuff on. If they go down, you're being penalized.
In that screenshot your mage is decked out in steel armour. Hypocrite!
She's really good with fencing weapons though, that and I didn't really boost any of her spells so she only has about 1 or 2 combat worthy spells. I'm waiting for a real mage to spend.
I just got Gladys, so now I only need one more good looking woman to join my party! I've already got the Amazon. Who else would be good to join the ranks (I'm a rogue, Gladys is a charlatan, and the Amazon girl is... an Amazon) and where will I get her?
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
I just read an review describing this as the next Buldar's Gate (they gave it an 85/100 and didn't like the slow start and the voices, but I'm used to both being bad (I love the Gothic ganes)) So I'm looking forward to this game, but is it possible to make an character focused on pretty much talking and almost no fighting?
I just read an review describing this as the next Buldar's Gate (they gave it an 85/100 and didn't like the slow start and the voices, but I'm used to both being bad (I love the Gothic ganes)) So I'm looking forward to this game, but is it possible to make an character focused on pretty much talking and almost no fighting?
There's more text than voice work in the game, and the voice work I have heard has been fairly good. As far as fighting goes, you'll definitely find yourselves in situations or in quests where you can't avoid a fight. The fighting is a lot of fun, however. If you do want to make a charming character, you might want to go with the rogue. He's pretty deft on his feet so far and he has high skills in each of the social categories (whereas the Warrior, for instance, can't put points into Seduce).
From what I've heard, there's not much party interaction and exploration, so that's one big thing where it's not like Baldur's Gate. There are no romances to pursue. That leaves me a little sad, but it's such a rich game I don't mind too much.
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
I'm having trouble running this. It loads fine, I twiddle with the options, etc. I click New Game, it starts loading and I see the screen with the voice over. It loads and I click Continue. It shows the character creation screen for about 2 seconds and then BSOD. The message on it isn't really helpful.
Drivers are updated. I can't really find anything about others having this problem.
I just got Gladys, so now I only need one more good looking woman to join my party! I've already got the Amazon. Who else would be good to join the ranks (I'm a rogue, Gladys is a charlatan, and the Amazon girl is... an Amazon) and where will I get her?
The next woman is a Lea elf. She's best at bows, nature talents and magic. You find her in the marsh place with the first part of the Dragon Quest.
Direct2Drive is also another option for digital download.
Renegen on
---Yeah
0
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
I'm enjoying my thief character much much more than my old soldier. He is really not that powerful in combat (does maybe 1-3 damage when he manages to hit) but he dodges almost everything.
Out of combat, he's great. He's a sweet talker, pick pocket, and I have yet to meet a lock he can't pick.
Pick pocketing is kind of funny in this game. You can just walk up to anyone in any situation and pick their pocket, provided you pass the talent check of course. I'll walk up to a group of 3 NPCs chatting in the streets in broad daylight and proceed to empty their pockets one by one.
It didn't take long before I stopped hitting "Pick up all" though, because there's only so much Fluff a man can vendor before he loses morale.
I think where I am right now I stole 500 old breads, yes 500. I was tempted since that was 5 ducats just waiting to be shoplifted. I hope I can buy that 1000 ducat ship at some point, although I did squander quite a few of them.
Renegen on
---Yeah
0
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
I think where I am right now I stole 500 old breads, yes 500. I was tempted since that was 5 ducats just waiting to be shoplifted. I hope I can buy that 1000 ducat ship at some point, although I did squander quite a few of them.
Not really a true spoiler, but it's a prediction that I'll bet comes through:
Go back to where that dude is standing. He specifically says he will sell you "The boat behind him." If you look down into the water, there is a fucking rowboat floating there. I bet if you do cough up 1000 D, it will be a trick and you'll have purchased the rowboat... and that will be all there is to it. I doubt you'll even be able to go anywhere. Maybe you have to do something to get your money back from the scam... like kill him or talk your way out of it."
My only problem is I have no idea what to put my points into when it comes to heavy stat based games like this, especially one this complex where skills do a check on three attributes. Is there a limit to how high I can put points into base attributes? What should I focus on for a rogue? There are just too many stats! My brain!
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
0
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
My only problem is I have no idea what to put my points into when it comes to heavy stat based games like this, especially one this complex where skills do a check on three attributes. Is there a limit to how high I can put points into base attributes? What should I focus on for a rogue? There are just too many stats! My brain!
For my Thief I saved up at first to put one more point into Dex, bringing it up to 15. I now spend most of my points keeping my dagger skill maxed, and popping points into some of the more versatile talents.
For something like lock picking and pick pocketing, I don't pump points into it until I notice I'm starting to fail checks.
I think the game expects you to more or less leave your base attributes alone. They make them fairly expensive to pump up, and I don't think doing so at the cost of your other skills/talents is a good idea. I'm considering saving up to bring strength from 10 to 12, just so I can learn Armour Use and put something on for a bit more protection.. but that will only be like 500 points since it's so low.
Also, semi spoiler but useful tip:
Eventually you will get a house where extra party members will hang out until you want them. I plan on keeping a couple party members as "utility" only, and maxing out their crafting-type skills at the expense of everything else. When I want to make something, I'll just go home and have them do it; otherwise, they'll just sit in my house. Party members in your house gain experience as you fight out and about.
Posts
Seems like a steep learning curve, but on the bright side, I have yet to feel punished for making the wrong choices.
Many skill checks use the highest level in your party. So, for conversations, only one person needs "Fast Talker," for example.
I'm leveling up Blacksmith right now to see if that's worth it.
You get a beefy person in your party pretty much right away, so if you send her in first, your main magic user can sit back and explode shit pretty easily.
The OP needs to be updated too. The game is out now, and there's lots of cool shit we could be putting in there to attract more folk.
I feared that too, but from about 5+ hours of playing, it's not a problem.
I chose a burglar as my first character. There are 21 characters and I decided to roleplay him a bit and give him only skills that make sense. The burglar is the best class in picking locks, traps and a few other skills like perception and haggle.
What I realized, is that you must specialize to really benefit from your class. For example, a mage will simply never be able to pick locks, even if you give him the lock pick skill. That's because all talents depend heavily on your main stats, like Courage, Endurance and Strength. I'm just starting to learn the system, but they depend really heavily on those. You could for example have a thief with 0 in pick locks still pick an easy lock if he has high stats.
Pretty early on, I found chests that had +10 difficulty, needing roughly 10 in lock pick to have a fair chance, and that got increased to 15 pretty soon too! Boosting a skill from 14 to 15 takes a lot more skills points than boosting a skill from 2 to 3. Your character WILL be specialized in the role you assign them, I pretty much gave up trying to buy every skills for my thief. In fact I probably won't buy him anything, I already have all the skills I need to develop from when I rolled him.
Press k to open the console, where all the numbers are rolled.
Very good game, and should I mention it's $30.
Games like the Witcher you use only 1 character and so you always have the same perspective for camera, Drakensang you use 4 characters, so you need multiple, easy to access, camera angles.
I will update the OP, it's just that I have never done a good OP before, heh.
It's a pretty solid game. I read that your party members aren't exactly written with much to explore, that they're just there. If true, that's a disappointment, but it's still a fun game. Does anyone know how many characters there are that you can recruit?
You get up to 4 characters in your party, also if you right click on them, you can talk to them. Say you recruit a person from the town Ferdok, if you ask them about some of Ferdok's quests, they will actually have some answers. So there is an element of conversation, depending on who your party members are. The Amazon is generally crazy and has no information about anything, at least up to where I am now.
That covers like every genre I love, scept tbs. ^_^ Good times!
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
This is because of the way skill checks are made in the system. To take the lockpick example, if you try to open a lock you don't roll a d20+modifiers against your skill level. Instead, you roll three d20 against the three attributes connected with that skill and use your skill level as a modifier.
For example: Lockpick is connected with intelligence and twice with dexterity. So let's say your character has an int of 14 and dex of 16 and you roll 12, 20, 17. Normally, this would mean you fail the skill check, because your second and third roll are over 16. But if you have a lockpick skill of, say, 5, you automatically use four points to bring your second roll down to 16 and the last point to do the same for the third roll and pass. If the lock has a modifier, that gets subtracted from your skill points before the roll.
The same system is used to check if you successfully cast a spell (with the enemies magic resistance as modifier) and in that instance the effects (damage, duration or even mana cost) often depend on how many points you still have after you passed the three rolls, so it's usually a good idea to raise the spell level even if you almost always successfully cast it.
And you can get 10 different NPC's to join you by the end of the game, Dashui.
My complaint is that the camera seems 'floaty'. When I let off the right mouse button I want the camera to stop, not coast to a standstill. Turning down the sensitivity helped a bit, but I'm noticing a bit of an environmental design flaw in that caves and such are so tight, whereas in something like WoW they are large and airy. May not be the most realistic or artistic, but it allows the camera to pan around. I've run into a problem a few times where I just can't move the damn camera because there is geometry in the way.
Admittedly my burglar social skills are low, but I did see them pop from time to time(the first couple of hours). The problem is that you need high social skills for the dialog option to show up. So it's hard to test how often it's used unless you pump the skill. If you're going to play the rogue, probably the most social class, try boost his social talents a lot for roleplaying's sake.
In all seriousness, I do like this game. I don't think I'll play a ranger in the full game like I did in the demo though.
My main complaint, and it's not really even a valid "complaint," is that this system makes multiple play-throughs less exciting than a very open RPG, like Oblivion.
I'm several hours in with my Soldier character, but I was pretty carefree in my points distribution. I am going to restart the next time I play and pick a different class, I think. I might pick a stealth class, like I originally wanted.
I'll also jump on the bandwagon and say the game is overly vague in some areas.. especially what armours/weapons are actually hurting your character's stats. I understand the D&D stats from games like Baldur's Gate, but this one is a bit odd.
Edit: I just started a new game as a Thief. I wish you could change your appearance in this game... I don't like looking like a 12 year old boy.
It just adds +3 to perception sadly, I thought it was a lot cooler too.
I hope it's not too late, heh. For thief characters usually, keep them low armored.
I'm still making a decision myself but realize that each 1 point of encumbrance will decrease your dodge by 1. It might even affect other things. Mages for example must keep an encumbered rating of 0 or they can't last spells. This means that the "armor use" combat skill is really useful because each of the 3 levels gives you -1 encumbered so you can get 3 free points and still use your thief or mage normally. But you need high strength for them, starting at 12 strength for Armor Use I.
Dodge on the other hand is easy to increase because of combat skills again, your thief will probably have the agility needed to get Dodge III. Also a good plan is to go all out dodge for defense (as opposed to parry) and then put your weapon masteries for maximum offense, you get the best of both worlds! Then it only becomes a challenge to keep your encumbrance low. Elvish leather provides 2 protection and is light, and there are some other magic items.
I don't recommend a shield because Dodge will do all the job of a shield or of parry. I am using a light bucker that doesn't take away any stats though for a while until I get my perfect build together.
Some great combat skills to have are offensive and defensive combat. They can be always on during fights and offensive adds +2 Attack Value per level and Defensive combat adds +2 Parry per level.
You can see how much each piece of armor has encumbers you by looking at their description. It might say 0.4, or 1 etc Remember Armor Rating all it does is decrease damage, you still need dodge or parry to avoid attacks.
I was playing around with encumbered just a short while ago, this picture is of my dwarf party member with Armor Use II and thus 0 encumbrance. His armor took by itself 4 encumbrance. Hard to believe but he has 9 dodge in this state!
So the less armor on my rogue the better, huh? Will there be a lot of clothing options for me still? I don't want to be wearing the same sets of garb through most of the game. I need to deck myself out in cooler gear!
I'm fairly early on with my "Thief." I quit playing my Soldier character because I found it was easy enough to find melee-types for my party, and I wanted a more versatile "main character." So far, I've found very little gear that I can wear that won't add some encumbrance, but it's up to you. As Renegen said, there are eventually magic items that you can wear.
Just right-click the item and check the value under "Encumbrance." If it's .4 or something, it won't really hurt you. Just keep an eye on your DV, AT, and PA values when you put the stuff on. If they go down, you're being penalized.
She's really good with fencing weapons though, that and I didn't really boost any of her spells so she only has about 1 or 2 combat worthy spells. I'm waiting for a real mage to spend.
There's more text than voice work in the game, and the voice work I have heard has been fairly good. As far as fighting goes, you'll definitely find yourselves in situations or in quests where you can't avoid a fight. The fighting is a lot of fun, however. If you do want to make a charming character, you might want to go with the rogue. He's pretty deft on his feet so far and he has high skills in each of the social categories (whereas the Warrior, for instance, can't put points into Seduce).
From what I've heard, there's not much party interaction and exploration, so that's one big thing where it's not like Baldur's Gate. There are no romances to pursue. That leaves me a little sad, but it's such a rich game I don't mind too much.
http://www.gamersgate.com/?page=product&what=view&sku=DD-DRAK
This is the only one I found.
Drivers are updated. I can't really find anything about others having this problem.
Direct2Drive is also another option for digital download.
Out of combat, he's great. He's a sweet talker, pick pocket, and I have yet to meet a lock he can't pick.
Pick pocketing is kind of funny in this game. You can just walk up to anyone in any situation and pick their pocket, provided you pass the talent check of course. I'll walk up to a group of 3 NPCs chatting in the streets in broad daylight and proceed to empty their pockets one by one.
It didn't take long before I stopped hitting "Pick up all" though, because there's only so much Fluff a man can vendor before he loses morale.
Not really a true spoiler, but it's a prediction that I'll bet comes through:
For my Thief I saved up at first to put one more point into Dex, bringing it up to 15. I now spend most of my points keeping my dagger skill maxed, and popping points into some of the more versatile talents.
For something like lock picking and pick pocketing, I don't pump points into it until I notice I'm starting to fail checks.
I think the game expects you to more or less leave your base attributes alone. They make them fairly expensive to pump up, and I don't think doing so at the cost of your other skills/talents is a good idea. I'm considering saving up to bring strength from 10 to 12, just so I can learn Armour Use and put something on for a bit more protection.. but that will only be like 500 points since it's so low.
Also, semi spoiler but useful tip:
Eventually you will get a house where extra party members will hang out until you want them. I plan on keeping a couple party members as "utility" only, and maxing out their crafting-type skills at the expense of everything else. When I want to make something, I'll just go home and have them do it; otherwise, they'll just sit in my house. Party members in your house gain experience as you fight out and about.