I definitely find it rougher when something comes really close to delivering what I want, but then falls just short. Where I can see daylight, but then they shank the extra point cause they went for a tie, or got all sloppy in the clutch. I mean that's always worse hehe. The difference here is that I think the mess isn't nearly so dire, cause I can see the places where they could clean it up, to make the experience more satisfying. I got a little list in my head and a running tally of the puzzles I enjoy compared to the things that still irk me, so I can easily imagine the sort of nightmare scenario I'd enjoy, vs the one I wouldn't, or how mods might be able to get it there. Sometimes I feel like they're in this situation though, where they're trying to clean the kitchen and also cook at the same time, but that's really difficult to pull off in an orderly fashion. In the lowpoints of the EA I was very frustrated by the slow drip here, but then the game on launch felt much improved and gave me much more of what I was after, even if it was a sery very long time coming, so I'm somehow still optimistic. Being honest, that's probably cause I knew it wasn't ever going to Nightmare on Elmstreet for me again, but it might still be Nightmare on Elmstreet III or even Nightmare on Elmstreet IV, ya know. Which is really all I need.
Maybe a year from now, Gimblebock wises up, cause it probably always takes 12 months longer than I'd wish. Perhaps that rope trap goes from a 100% killshot to a coin toss in honour mode, just to make sure we can never quite sleep on anything. Maybe the toll collector comes back in that one, but somehow screws us over even harder if we're already meta broke, the lottery of bounced checks legendary. Something like that. I'm not totally sure how it might look exactly, but I can still sorta picture it. Like say they add a zero to all the resurrection costs at Withers, or additional costs there like a perma hit to CON. They could remove healing potions from the game entirely, and tweak some of the merchants/consumables so they don't replenish things that compete directly with class abilities and feats. They could have a shared initiative mode, where you can't just break off one party member to remain at a safe remove. Or have it where if Tav gets chunked at any point then it's instant game over, regardless of who else is left alive. Things like that shake it up. I was pleased with honour mode, even if they still serve it up pretty fondue there, and clearly it's a meta mode more than a 'going in blind' sorta mode, but that's pretty BG to me still. I feel like the tactics aren't really my top reason for replaying BG games. It's something else for me, like that keeps me coming back, and I don't know how they did it, but I'm still here. An accidental apologist I guess, didn't see it coming, but pleasantly surprised nonetheless. I wish the game that's out right now was the game that spent 3 years in EA, cause its easier to tease out the knots now with the wider view, whereas half of everything in EA felt like speculation, like 'so is this it?' Once they call it, probably takes at least a year or 2, before the mods I'd want most can go to town. Right now the game feels just too delicate, and every time I start modding it, I end up having to go back to the vanilla thing after a couple weeks when it hotfixes.
