Out of combat use of skills and spells is actually an an added value...

Josh sounds like he wants to develop a TellTale Adventure game rather than an RPG. Without the stats to represent a character it might as well just be an action game. He got rid of non-combat uses for spells and things like pickpocketing in Pillars of Eternity 1 which could add to story telling possibilities. I don't want a story told to me with multiple pre-ordained branches. I want to be able to make my own story using my stats and abilities and have the game recognize that I have done so.

As I always say if I want story I can play literally any other genre, even sports games sometimes have stories now. I play RPGs for the sole reason of actions being defined not by my skill but by my character stats.When I play Street Fighter I have to time my V-Skill to hit my enemy but when I play RPGs I want my character stats (dexterity, accuracy, speed, whatever) to define if I hit or miss. I don't want Link's sword hitting an enemy because of my timing, therefore I don't play Zelda, but I'm happy when Pillars of Eternity let my characters stats define what I can or cannot say, or how hard I hit an enemy.This is my supreme joy, this is why RPG is above everything else for me. I started with fighting games but it is because of stats and rulesets that RPGs became my favorite genre (both cRPG and jRPGs, but never Action RPGs since they are just action games for me).

That's a weird takeaway from that. Especially given the well known company-history. They always start a major marketing offensive years before the game comes. They always did that. Even if they would start marketing now, it could still come 2020.

I would say that really depends on the customer, it usually doesn't hurt. To me the growth is more about progress and change of pace and a game can do this other ways as well.

Oh, Battletech... And I still have FFXV and AC: Origins... And GW2...

Well, you are a stealthy leveler to be sure. I have TRed a couple of times and I am back to level 6 close to banking 8, with Battletech coming out though...

I don't want to overstate it because obviously the dev was either trolling or this was pre REDO everything the rumours kept saying, but in the early summer of 2016 someone from CDP had said it would be out later that year.Will it be out this year? I doubt it.

Haha, nice catch. Edited for clarity.Thanks.

I know this subject to controversy, but for me RPG stands as much for Role as for Roll Playing Game. The gradual increase in power that your characters experience are as much part of the journey as any branching storyline.