Finally someone that understands and articulates what im trying to say! Thank you sir, you are the reason I posted. I am not saying lets fire them, im saying they came into this thinking they could make D:OS-The DND skin. I dont want that. My main concerns are a closer to DnD balance. I know the hate for barrellmancy is strong. The higher ground is a dumb mechanic almost everyone hates. I know the ground effects arent liked. Beyond that, small changes could make this more DnD, less OS. My main "ask" is the character import/export so I can play with friends easier. That makes this more of a DnD experience. I hate the idea of being force to play as an NPC, if I dont start a brand new game with a friend. I want an entire party of player characters, not being forced to play as the Origin characters. Again all things that require small changes to what they have already done. Its not horrible, especially in this state, but I would say, if youre inviting people to pay full price for your alpha build to give you feedback, RESPOND to those people. A small customer service team on the forums or a weekly update chat addressing the top items on the forums, which is super easy to do. Something to open discussions with your paying testers.
I think you should shy away from "almost everyone" style arguments. That's probably informed by confirmation bias, and well those of us who likes something usually don't talk about it on the forums.
Personally I find this argument about "this is Divinity Original Sin" is stupid. Firstly, DOS is more than barrels, surfaces and height advantage. DOS has a completely different action economy and ruleset altogether. If I was coming into this game expecting to play DOS then I'd be very disappointed that they "dumbed down" the combat and character creation system. Sure in DOS Barrels and surfaces play a part, and is part of what makes that game cool, but it's not the main point of the game.
Besides surfaces is a part of "the DnD experience", they work somewhat differently than DOS, but they are there. My personal opinion is that Larian should read the Players Handbook again, and implement it as is, then see where their ideas can be added. I think the issue with Height advantage is an issue of balanceing it, not an issue of "it's stupid" the idea is great, and something I know is house ruled at many tables.
As for your "ask": Larian has stated they are planning to add a Mercenary system, and you can recruit "build it yourself" characters from the camp. This would solve your issue, and don't require an import export function.
This is stil a work in progress, don't act as if it's a finished game. This is the Alpha build, treat it as such. Major changes will come, and I'm sure they have heard us loud and clear: "Make it more like Dungeons and Dragons 5e".
