@HSO3F: I think that D:OS2 makes many steps toward improving on D:OS1, though it looks like some of these are also missteps. Overall, I believe that Larian was listening to fans of the first game and tried very hard to remove some of the greatest points of irritation. The armor/status system overhaul, for instance, is very clear evidence of this. Players told Larian that D:OS1 had too much RNG, and Larian listened. Unfortunately, the new system has its own problems (it's very binary.) In any case, though I cannot give specifics about our plans, I can tell you a little about our design philosophy. We intend to create as much mechanical/systemic nuance and flexibility as possible. We hope to specifically avoid solutions that are binary as well as those that hinge heavily on RNG--these considerations will be applied to all points that impinge on the build-creation process (skills, talents, etc.)

Can't wait for EE 2. It was a great mod for D:OS 1, and i'm impatient to break things with EE2 as well :p
Good luck guys!

@Keyen: Actually, I think that players like yourself will find our current direction especially pleasing.... Prepare for battle!

lmao guess this answered my question about EE for D:OS2 :D
awesome,

(hope your reading this bethesda,,, this is how giving back to modders should be done)

do you accept donations for your work Elric ?, and if so, how would we "freely, and willingly" be able to donate to you :)

Thanks for asking! Our intension with the project was never to receive donations, and so we've never created anyhing for that. However, we've had a number of people asking to donate in the past, so we'll probably get something set up for it when we're done with the next project.

I'd love to see EE 2! D:OS2 is even better than the first one, I think it has room for a lot of cool new things. I'd really like to see new talents, and passives (-1 turn buffs). Keep up with the great work! :D

Just wondering how it is going.

Thanks for checking in!

Things are definitely coming together; we're enjoying working on the mod, and it's at the point where it can be played. It is a much more ambitious project than the first, but we are by far more experienced with the tools of this engine. I think we'll be able to present a very enjoyable and unique experience.

So when it is eventually released should i keep my eyes out for "Epic Encounters II" or will it be under some other name?

It will have the Epic Encounters name in some way, and we'll list it's release in various places, including here.

I am very curious as to how it's coming and what exactly you guys are doing, as I'm presently working on what may be a pretty similar mod.

Thanks for asking!

Things are progressing nicely! We are very happy with the work we have thus far, and are excited at the direction development is taking--though we aren't yet confident on setting a release date. As to the nature of the mod--it's a much more ambitious project than the first. Here are a few major points about the project:

- While we have built an entirely fresh play experience for this mod, and it is not designed for the base campaign, the mechanical adjustments (akin to those of the first Epic Encounters) will probably be offered modularly--such that players can apply them to the base campaign if they so choose.
- From the beginning, we have been designing the mod with mod-compatibility in mind.

will you still use the physical/magic armor or will the damage/effects be more like DOS 1?

@Ciden321: We have been giving this topic a lot of thought, but we are not yet to the point of modifying it. The new and the old system both have merit. The old way is more complex and makes you manage more resources (damage reduction in this case,) which is great for people that like tweaking builds and min-maxing, not so, however, for people that are hoping for a little more streamlined experience. The new system turns the DR aspect into a simple HP pool. Basically, you now have three health bars that partially overlap. This part of the system is not too bad to navigate, but the design questions get muddled a lot by the way that armor in D:OS2 is a status effect gate. I think that we can all agree that the Grit/Willpower system in D:OS1 is a little too frequently frustrating due to its randomness, which is something that we tried to address with the introduction of partial saves to certain abilities. Now statuses are all chained to armor, so the randomness is gone, which is great, but the way in which this is done is completely binary, so not so great. Overall, although it is very intuitive, I am not particularly a fan of conjoining the armor and status systems because it decreases granularity and complexity, but I am generally the sort of player that prefers to manage more rather than fewer stats and abilities. I think that we would ultimately want to negotiate some sort of middle ground: significantly more granularity than D:OS2, but joined by much less randomness than D:OS1.

@Elric: my friend and i have beat both DOS:1 and 2. (as well as DOS:1 Epic encounters; also one of the first to download your mod) We loved the difficulty your mod brought. We also enjoyed DOS:1 combat significently better. DOS:2 was a very easy game no matter the difficulty if all 4 heroes were the same damage type. I understand the frustration with DOS:1's RNG but i feel it was superior.