So, 16 more days till release! What are you most excited for in LoG 2? I think the new skill system is going to be great, and in turn the spell-casting. One thing LoG could have improved I think was the magic, as you could really only specialize in one or 2 types of magic if you wanted to deal any damage, but it sounds like they've fixed that!
Of course, the new environments and map-progression are going to be amazing, and new classes/races! Yeaaah!
Now I just have to wait! Gah!

Haven't gotten a chance to look at the new skill system. How much of a departure is it?

It's a completely new skill system. They showed an example of it in one of the blogs a while back, although I don't know how much it may have evolved since then. Characters have several small skill trees that cover different fields (including racial ones) and can be developed mix-and-match (since no tree is big enough to demand or even allow an exclusive focus).

Sounds like an improvement from the skill system in the last game; you basically had to pour all your points into a primary offensive skill, then put the rest into a defensive skill. Min/maxing doesn't even begin to describe it.


Are they still doing that nonsense of STR determining damage from bows and crossbows?

I don't know offhand, although as has been pointed out in discussions on their site, strength for bow damage is actually a much older standard (using Dex for it is a fairly recent thing) and more appropriate as well, since higher strength = heavier draw = more power behind the shot; Dexterity was (again, until relatively recently) only ever used for accuracy.

Except it isn't used for accuracy for bows and thrown weapons, making them much more reliant on twitch reflexes; if it hits, it hits.

That's true - accuracy was a non-factor in ranged attacks in LoG1 (although again, I don't know if that has changed in LoG2). Strength for damage was still more in keeping with the homage and the reasoning that older games (including tabletop RPGs) used for it, though.

Except without DEX playing a role in ranged combat, now the best ranged fighter is a muscled up Minotaur with min/maxed STR and wearing heavy armor; sure, his dodge chance is abysmal due to a low DEX and lack of proficiency with the armor, but he was in the back, where he wasn't getting hit all that much anyway, and he always hit at range dspite being unable to use a knife without cutting off his fingers. That's a textbook example of a broken system.

Also, it was only the really old P&P systems that worked that way. Now, bows need to be "composite" in nature to allow for a stronger pull, allowing for more damage corresponding to higher strength, as otherwise pulling back on a regular bow harder would just break it. Even back then, DEX still governed accuracy; removing that aspect of combat misses the point of the balance those older systems aspired to.

Giving both accuracy and damage to Dex also throws out that balance. On the whole, Strength still makes more sense for damage regardless because dexterity = better aiming = better accuracy, not better damage, since the arrow isn't going to have any more power behind it no matter where it hits, and hitting vulnerable spots is covered by critical hits*, not by a higher base damage.

Big, beefy archers (whether bovine visaged or otherwise) were usually the best archers in those older systems for exactly this reason. (Dex-primary characters were often among the weaker combatants in all styles.)

* And as a caveat, I have no idea how crits are going to be covered in LoG2 either, although Dex is more likely to play a role there if anything does. We do at least know that both Str and Dex still exist from the ratling preview.

Tomorrow tomorrow cannot wait till tomorrow :)

I wonder at what time GOG will release the game. Tomorrow is not entirely precise time ;p

Feel the same :D Pre ordered directly from devs few days ago

I would assume the same time Steam unlock it's version. And it should happen around five pm GMT (19 for Poland :)).

The official release time is 9 AM Pacific: http://www.grimrock.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6963

Release should be around 5 to 5:30PM GMT, that is according to steam.

It's going to be a long day today :)

Steam updates and releases at 6pm GMT (10am in PST, steams local time)
GOG updates and releases at 11am GMT (12pm in EET, GOG local time)

So we should be playing in 2 hours time while steam users continue to twiddle their thumbs :)