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I wish I could say that I suspected ShadySands of secretly being Mitch Gitelman all along. Honestly, the free patch sounds better than the paid DLC, value-wise. Which is good, I guess, except if you purchased the Season Pass? I suppose I'll grab the whole bunch in a year or three. Sadly nothing in there that immediately makes me want to reinstall the game. Sorry, Mitch.

Hey everyone, long time! Mitch here. I just wanted to let you know about two big releases today. The first is free Update 1.8, which contains two beloved BattleMechs: the Warhammer and the Marauder! These classic ‘Mech chassis are equipped with unique components that reflect their place in BT lore: WARHAMMER (70 Tons) - Its Optimized Capacitor Feeds increase the damage of all equipped Energy weapons. MARAUDER (75 Tons) - Its Lance Command Module decreases the damage taken by it and its allies and gives a boost to Called Shots. In addition to the two free ‘Mechs, there’s a bunch more cool additions in 1.8: Official Mod Support - With this release of BATTLETECH, we are introducing official mod support to the game and now support the ModTek format that the modding community are currently using. We’ve also added new mod management UI to the main menu to streamline mod use. As usual, use mods at your own risk. In-game modding tools are not included. New Maps - Two new maps bring even more variety to your contracts: Jumbled Karst (an iconic rock formation set between two valleys), and Boulder Field (rolling hills and rocks dot this battle scarred landscape) New contracts - Over 40 new contracts, including new persistent allied and enemy NPCs, and new contract variants that mix up the gameplay you’ve seen in new and unexpected ways. Battle a dangerous solo mercenary, train a group of overly enthusiastic rookies, and serve as the personal bodyguard of an arrogant noble. New Events - We’ve added a slew of new mercenary travel Events to “enhance” your mercenary life. Rebalanced Stores & LosTech - We’ve completely overhauled how weapons and equipment appear in our stores. Finding items is now more straightforward. We’ve also given LosTech items a boost in power to fit their legendary status. New Star Map Weapon Store Filters - We’ve added a new filter dropdown to the star map that lets you view planetary industry by type and a tooltip that tells you what you can find in each star system. Mech Viewer - Get a close-up view, rotate and customize your ‘Mech paint pattern directly in the MechLab! New Merc Company Crests - Scads of new emblems to choose from for your mercenary company, drawn from notable factions throughout the Inner Sphere. Roleplay your heart out! And there's more! Our second release today is our third expansion for BATTLETECH, closing out our Season Pass. What’s in Heavy Metal??? Behold our marketing text! Seven Classic BattleMechs These beloved ‘Mechs are a big part of BattleTech’s legendary 35 year history and several debuted in the original tabletop boxed set in 1984. To honor these classics, each BattleMech in Heavy Metal contains a unique piece of special equipment that reflects the flavor described in the original technical readouts and lore. FLEA (20 Tons) - a light-weight nuisance that is deadly if ignored. Targeting Baffles make the Flea one of the hardest to hit ‘Mechs in the game. ASSASSIN (40 Tons) - a light ‘Mech killer, the Assassin is notable for having an absolutely insane jump distance for a 'Mech of its size. Its Intercept System bypasses much of the Evasion generated by fast ‘Mechs. VULCAN (40 Tons) - is well suited for short-range fighting against enemy brawlers. Its Close Quarters Combat Suite extends the range of all equipped Support weapons and grants a substantial defense bonus against melee attacks. PHOENIX HAWK (45 Tons) - very agile and intended to outwit contemporaries and lighter opponents on the battlefield. Its Vectored Thrust Kit increases its jump distance and the damage it inflicts after making a jump. RIFLEMAN (60 Tons) - well known for having very thin armor and superb targeting ability at long range. Its Ranged Engagement Suite increases its visual range, removes the penalties for attacks at long range and reduces the Recoil from Ballistic weapons. ARCHER (70 Tons) - a storied BattleMech that has been piloted by some of the most noteworthy MechWarriors in BattleTech lore. Its Enhanced Missilery System dramatically improves the clustering and Stability damage of missile weapons. ANNIHILATOR (100 Tons) - one of the slowest and most heavily-armed behemoths in existence. Ballistic Siege Compensators increase the Stability rating of the Annihilator and the damage of its equipped ballistic weapons. An “HBS Original” BattleMech Designed by Heavy Metal Art Director Marco Mazzoni, this brand new ‘Mech is Harebrained Schemes’ addition to this venerable game setting. It’s origin is shrouded in mystery (for now). BULL SHARK (95 Tons) - [redacted] Its Thumper Cannon allows it to target an area with a barrage of high-explosive shells. Eight New Weapon Systems The combination of the unique new special ‘Mech equipment and these new weapon systems adds a host of interesting new tactical decisions to your Mech Lab and the battlefield. COIL Beam - a “Contained Overflow Inertia Linkage” system that generates more energy damage the further the attacker travels before firing. Inferno Missiles - do little physical damage but coat a target in burning fuel that spikes their heat. LBX Autocannon - LBX ACs are the shotguns of the 'Mech world, firing cluster munitions that can hit multiple locations on a BattleMech. ‘Mech Mortar - an area-effect weapon that can dramatically turn the tide of battle by damaging or destroying multiple units at once. Ultra Autocannon - fires two rounds or ballistic ordnance in a single attack. Narc Missile Beacon - a warhead-deployed homing beacon that allows allied missile attacks to be more effective against the target. Snub PPC - a short-range version of the awesome Particle Projection Cannon that spreads its damage across multiple locations on a BattleMech. TAG - paints the target with a targeting laser which improves allied energy and ballistic attacks against the target. Flashpoint Campaign: “Of Unknown Origins” A series of linked flashpoints and connected special events that bring you face-to-face with two legendary characters from BattleTech lore - the Bounty Hunter and the Black Widow of Wolf’s Dragoons. A derelict cargo ship has drifted into the Periphery from deep space. What secrets does it contain, and who will ultimately control its mysterious payload? We hope you have fun with today’s two releases and the last 18 months of free updates and game expansions. It’s been an honor to make games for you and to serve the 35 year legacy we’ve been lucky to be a part of! Take care, Mitch and the BATTLETECH Team

There's two separate points at play here, I think. Firstly, I think the argument came about because someone, maybe you or maybe someone else, was debating Disco Elysium's legitimacy as a GOTY/RPGOTY contender - in this debate what matters is how it compares regarding other games of the *same year*, and not whether it stands up to the classics. In this regard, let me know which RPGs released since Dec 2018 would you place over Disco Elysium, because The Outer Worlds aside I can't think of any legitimate contenders, myself. Secondly there's the matter of its comparisons with previous RPGs and so on, and whether it measures up to them. Now, I have only started playing the game and I don't want to give a final verdict over whether I'll find it to be as good as the classics or whatnot, but I'll say this: based on what I'd played so far, based on what I've seen and heard from various sources and so on, this isn't just a game all RPGs should be eyeing, it's a game the *entire medium* should be looking into. With the way it overtly approaches current real-life topics and philosophies without any fantastic lens or filter to soften it out, with the way the game is actively trying to expose ideologies and paint a particular landscape that doesn't just allude to but often directly reflects many of the discussions and debates of the last few years, this is the sort of game the medium needs to be doing more to be a contending artform. Next to it all your Witchers and Baldur's Gates and Morrowinds look like child's play, really. There's nothing inherently wrong with escapism but there's very few video games out there across the medium's history that dare to be more, and dare to be more on this level. I love the balls on it, I love the ambition and I love how it's a right middle finger to the manchildren who have a seizure every time someone dares bring "politics" into games. If this game opens the doors for more devs to treat video games as a legitimate outlet for more complex and layered discussions on matters that don't simply revolve around mental illness, it definitely deserves all the praise it can get.

oh, am thinking most of us can identify who the "dumbest person" is. HA! Good Fun!

I think this passage from March 19th 2002 was part of it: He could've been more diplomatic, but he's right. I don't want to go back to D&D. To me, personally, the setting's chaotic, abstruse and often silly. Mechanics were quite ugly. Don't know the newest editions though.

Narcos, the negatives: No free mode on the map. You do some random side missions, and after two of those the next story mission unlocks. With nine story missions marked on the map, the DEO campaign looks to be twenty seven missions - more if you farm extra side missions. Resting is an issue. If the objective is to secure evidence, I can simply not pick it up and heal to full before completing the mission. Hopefully that will not be the case with later missions. Also, it creates a lul in the fighting, when both sides just sit behind cover, resting. And it puts strain on the AI, who needs to prioritize between resting behind cover and getting farther away from the grenade launcher that can damage them even behind full cover. Can't change equipment. A policeman will always carry a pistol. A Sec Bloc will always have an SMG, a pistol and bullet proof vest. They can gain new skills when leveling up, but the game is designed that you fire and hire. I will have to check again, but I am under the impression that characters you train up manually, will have more skills than the ones you hire at high levels. I don't see the problem some people complain about, that they only activate one unit and ignore the rest. I believe they didn't really get past the intro.

iwd kept the doors open and the lights on for a few more years at black isle, and believe it or not, iwd were black isle's most profitable development. were relative quick and cheap to make iwd, which were likely the only reasons the interplay bosses gave it the green light. iwd2 were an attempt by black isle to replicate iwd success and were an even more desperate attempt to keep black isle viable... and more immediate, kept the people at black isle employed. however, is a darker side to iwd franchise development. iwd and iwd2 were developed instead o' more ambitious games, games which mighta' changed the fortunes o' black isle as 'posed to just keeping interplay bosses from shuttering the operation for a couple more years. iwd were not as successful as bg or bg2, not even close. even so, the business o' game development is not simple and straightforward. as an aside, licensing issues is what killed black isle's bg3 development. oh, and is worth noting the relationship 'tween wotc and the black isle developers were less than perfect. josh never posts here, so is unlikely you ever get the story from him, but there were a rather public kerfuffle 'tween the d&d folks and black isle regarding monte' cook's ranger. were embarrassing but understandable gaslighting by black isle in an attempt to make folks forget josh's excess o' exuberance on the matter. wanna bet monte cook's ranger were only the most public conflict 'tween d&d folks and black isle... or obsidian for that matter. bet josh in particular would as soon as gargle broken glass than work on another d&d game. regardless, obsidian don't have d&d license, so no d&d games will be forthcoming from obsidian. nevertheless, deserk's wish for obsidian to "go back to making DnD-based games," is illustrative o' the core problem we identified earlier. a significant portion o' fans were disappointed 'cause poe were not their idealized bg3. obsidian didn't even make iwd. obsidian made nwn2 and a couple expansions, but can you recall how many requests you heard for poe to be more like nwn2 during the development o' poe? few and far between. HA! Good Fun!

These are so ridiculous, I love 'em.

I think tinkering is a good idea; taking a piece of equipment you like and keeping it relevant by raising its level. The problem is that regardless of the item's starting level It costs more to raise a level 1 gun into a level 10 than it does to turn a level 30 gun into a level 35. The cost to tinker rises exponentially which discourages tinkering altogether. It wouldn't break the game if tinker prices were linear since you can freely pick up high-level gear anywhere anyway. Having a high Engineering skill doesn't fix the problem. I also find it odd that you use bits to tinker equipment while weapons and armour each require their own parts to repair. Surely it would make more sense to use parts to tinker, given their lack of use otherwise?

Actually it’s called Half-Life Alyx, a VR game https://mobile.twitter.com/valvesoftware/status/1196566870360387584

Vote here: https://thegameawards.com/nominees And here: https://www.google.com/search?q=TGA+vote

just noticed this. am thinking we have all been where amentep were, and is so wrong. if you are feeling symptoms of flu or cold, you are contagious. 36,000 people die in the US every year from flu. fact amentep don't know o' anybody who died after coming into contact with him is irrelevant, 'cause there can be many degrees o' separation 'tween him and some old man or young child who eventual caught his flu and then died. even if not die, he coulda' been responsible for multiple other folks becoming sick to varying degrees o' severity. am not suggesting amentep killed somebody by coming to work sick, but he will never know if such happened and is a hardly a mathematical impossibility. again, we all do it. many o' us has or had old skool employers who expect us to come to work even if we are deathbed sick. we went ten years w/o ever having a sick day, and it sure weren't cause we were never suffering flu or worse. is terrible and stoopid and dangerous. is a different issue, but similar kinda mentality, so am gonna note how concussions were viewed when we played high school and college sports, particular football. if you were tough, you would get back in game asap after a concussion. guy is vomiting and unsure where he is following a helmet-to-helmet hit. a couple plays later, the concussion victim who couldn't stand unaided or recall his own name is strapping on his helmet and back on the field, and fans and teammates alike is cheering the guy's toughness. wrong. shouldn't be applauded. sure, can appreciate the player's willingness to play hurt, but everybody else-- coaches and fans and announcers-- should be critical o' an obvious concussed player returning to field. flu season if you are symptomatic, stay home. ... admitted, is ez for us to stay home now that we are retired. HA! Good Fun!

Alyx takes place between HL1 and HL2.

In case you are going to call the guy a "paid China troll", he was not in China and likely had never been to China. IMO, he has never even been outside the US. Here is a report on China ‘organ harvesting’ -- and how it was a smear engineered by Falun Gong and its extensive media network and political connections in the West. The report is on The Grayzone, which, if you do not already know, is a very respectable independent news outlet, on par with the Intercept. The Grayzone actually shares a lot of the same contributors and journalists with the Intercept. Link: https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/30/reports-china-organ-harvesting-cult-falun-gong/ Link: https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/30/reports-china-organ-harvesting-cult-falun-gong/ As I said, people should not believe everything they see in the Western media. Here is a good example: Do you still think Saddam had weapons of mass destruction? Just to be clear: I do not know if organ harvesting is actually going on in China. I have not seen any solid evidence to prove that it is actually happening, nor am I certain that it is not happening. (i.e., just because I have not seen any evidence or proof does not mean it does not exist.) I have looked at/into sources that claimed China was harvesting organs, and I evaluated those sources. All of them were problematic: either the sources had good reasons to lie, (i.e., the so-called "survivors" or "victims" were Falun Gong followers who wanted asylum,) or they were organizations that were connected to or working with Falun Gong, (like the "China Tribunal" or the Xinjiang separatists) I do not trust anything coming out of Falun Gong followers because I have seen their newspapers (The Epoch Time, which is freely distributed everywhere in Chinese communities and enclaves all across America) and YouTube video channels (China Uncensored.) Those newspapers and channels were aggressively deceitful and misleading. I also had logical reasons to doubt their claims: Falun Gong has been banned in China for over 20 years. Practically no one in China practices it now. How is it possible China still has so many healthy Falun Gong prisoners to harvest? How is it possible for any Falun Gong followers to survive 20 years in China's prison if they were supposedly tortured and treated so inhumanely? If China truly has "organ transplant tourism", which supposedly is a booming industry, then why haven't we seen any actual tourist who had received organ transplants in China? If China's booming organ tourism has existed for so many years, then there must have been a lot of tourists who have traveled to China and purchased organs for transplants. Yet I have not been able to find even one such "tourist" in the news. I had a bunch of questions about China's organ harvesting. I thought about the claims, and a lot of things just do not add up or make logical sense. If something you see a news that interests you, do not trust what they report right away -- especially if it is CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Look into it. Fact check it. Then, think about it critically: does it add it? does it make sense? Do not believe everything you see in the Western media, (actually, any media.) As I said, China's biggest fault in terms of media control is censorship: it censored dissenting and unfavorable news and opinions. On the other hand, Western media actually make up and report fake news; even China does not sink to that level. And Western mainstream establishment media not only lie about China. The media has also lied about Iraq, about Syria, about Russia, about Israel, about Palestinians, about Saudi Arabia, about Yemen, about Bernie Sanders, about Harvey Weinstein, about Jeffrey Epstein, about Yellow Vest protests, about Bolivia, and the examples just go on and on -- just straight-out lies and lies, just making up fake stuff and pull ****s out of thin air. CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post have become the absolute worst, even worse than Fox News, and I do not even watch Fox News, (have only seen clips of it on YouTube.) BTW, I was not always distrustful and hostile against the media. I used to trust those "big names", CNN, the NYT, the WaPo. However, in the past few years, I kept catching them lying, more and more often, and on bigger and bigger lies. Seriously their dishonesty have been getting worse. Now they have become brazen. Finally, one last thing: a lot of Americans already do not trust the media on Iraq, on Syria, on Russia, on Israel, on Palestinians, on Saudi Arabia, on Yemen, on Bernie, on Weinstein, on Epstein, on Bolvia. Yet, whenever the media smears China or reports something negative about China, then everyone unquestionably believes whatever the media says. Frankly IMO the problem is those people's own anti-China bias or anti-Chinese racism: they want to believe the media when it lies about China because the media's narrative fits into their own preconceived notions about China.

Well the quality is terrible, but it's the best one on YT.

I don't have a crazy amount of points in science in my second play-through (only 40 instead of 100), but it doesn't seem that bad to me. You can't realistically expect to upgrade anything forever and the first few tinkers are cheap. There are bits everywhere, though if you use them to progress the main plot or bribe NPCs often then I suppose you could be feeling the squeeze. But well, that is your fault for spending your bits differently.

Vintage solar clothes dryer. :P

thanks very much! The setting certainly gives it a unique charm and if it delivers some sort of narrative hook as a driver i think it could be something special.

Aside from what you say, I think here is a lot of interesting stuff in there when it comes to RPG system, which others devs might want to look at. I don't think that adapting skill system would be a good idea: for one it requires a lot of dedicated writing, and talking skills work for Disco but most likely wouldn't work for most games. But I like that Disco skills don't only determine what our character can do or say, but what they see, hear, notice.

Thankfully these two games are still not available on GOG, so I should be fine

Ahh the youngsters - so enthusiastic.

Greetings employees of Halcyon, The Board is beyond pleased to share with you the The Outer Worlds has been nominated for FOUR Game Awards. This is amazing, and we are very glad to have all of you here with us to share in this momentous occasion. Nominated Categories: Best Narrative Best Performance - Ashly Burch Best RPG Game of the Year As a productive member of the Halcyon Colony, it is now your duty to head out and show your loyalty by voting for The Outer Worlds. The Video Game Awards happen on December 12th, so you will need to make sure to cast your vote before then! 🗳Vote now: http://thegameawards.com/nominees And on Google: http://goo.gle/TGAVOTE

To be honest I didn't like these Co-op games but looking at the Artwork from Craig I'll try this game as it is coming to Xbox game pass.

Behold, my God-tier GIMP skillz:

Or maybe just get attacked because of the blatant sexism contained therein? It's one thing to say "I find the women in this game to be more sexually-appealing/attractively-rendered than the ones in its sequel", it's another entirely to say "this female looks like/was made into a male" when she very obviously wasn't, or calling Ydwin trans based on her appearance and assuming a disconnect when her "voice actress voice is beautiful". One doesn't have to be a BLM supporter to decry obvious racism and one certainly doesn't have to be a feminist to see how utterly misogynist some of your remarks are. No, I don't. Here's a random female PC on Pillars: Here's a random female PC on Deadfire: Granted, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, but I honestly don't see how the latter isn't more appealing than the former already by virtue of not looking like a low-poly potatohead straight out of the 00s. And I certainly don't see how the latter is any less distinguishably female. But, you do you. Mind that like the others I'm not entirely in disagreement that the lack of sex appeal could've factored into the franchise's declining popularity, but the assumptions you make from game to game - and ffs, the way you express them - are very far off the mark. Personally I think the lack of sexualization in the Eoran setting was already evident in the first game: contrary to how you portray her the banshee *wasn't* an attractive lady in the first game, and even normally "attractive" mythical creatures like their take on the dryads were much more monstrous, what with their skin covered in thick bark and their limbs and hair resembling roots and branches, than other settings' green-skinned naked ladies and whatnot; or the lack of a succubus variant in the setting, or fampyrs not really exploiting the "sexual predator" parallel so prevalent in vampires and so on. In this sense Deadfire is no different, and if anything I'd argue it's a step *towards* a more sexually appealing franchise, what with the models being more detailed and giving clear predominance to traditionally attractive options and so on, and what with companion romance finally being a thing as well. The whole thing for me ties back to the streaming/media issue we spoke about a while back. Much like streaming and gaming channels have become another huge part of game consumption and promotion in the present day, so has fanart and cosplay for example, and it's no secret that the characters that tend to inspire most of these (or at least the most popular and widely-consumed products within these) are either very specific "mascot"-type characters (in Pillars' case, Edér and the space pig had a bit of love in this mold, but likewise other franchises have the likes of Minsc and Boo or Vault Boy) or, indeed, attractive female characters. Even entirely secondary characters like twi'leks in Star Wars can inspire art and cosplay beyond what even the male protagonists of these series have. After all, sex sells. Though much like some of the previous points I've mentioned, much like some decisions can overly alienate the audience or be too niche or in the sake of art, some can also harm the series as an artistic product. I wouldn't want to play a Pillars game that followed a heroic monomyth that's all about beating a big bad behind an army of minions and becoming a god simply because it's what sells, because there's way more interesting things being explored in this setting and games, all in a far more interesting and involving manner. I wouldn't want Pillars to be more like The Witcher or Dragon Age: Origins any more than I'd like Joon-ho Bong to be more like Michael Bay, and in the particular mood and setting they've established with the Pillars universe it would feel plain jarring to introduce overtly sexualized characters, creature types or scenarios all of a sudden. Regardless, all of this sure as hell isn't due to some completely imagined push away from sexual appeal from the first Pillars to Deadfire the way you're assuming above.

sorry... i think i need help. addicted!

Last one I promise

Hi all! I made some edits to the post to better organize it and be more clear on what issues were fixed with this patch. There is just a hotfix patch and we do have another one coming, so if you have issues that are here and they haven't been reported yet, please let us know. If your issues have already been reported, we'll have a list of what to expect in the next patch out to you all as soon as we nail down everything that will be going in. We appreciate you patience and hope you enjoy the game!

here's another cause the first was so much fun

I think you are on to something, though I don’t think the blame is purely on the audience not being able to accept what PoE truly is. While I love those games to death, to some degree they always rang false to me. While trying to fulfill expectations one might have from IE games I don’t think they are truly free to pursue their own goals. Brilliance of Baldur’s Gates was that the player progression and RPG systems where smartly tied to the overarching narrative: you are a son of Bhaal and death follows you. No matter if you want to be good or evil you kill a lot of stuff, fulfilling the prophecy and your role. You kill Sarevok because you are a better murderer then he. As you near to having a shot in claiming the throne, you become more powerful, killing more and more powerful stuff. While mostly a pulpy adventure, there is a subversive cleverness in the story, which simply makes it all work. All better Bioware game do this: KOTOR, Jade Empire, all manage to tie your growth with the story of the game. Obsidian also leaned into this one multiple occasions. PoE, unlike so many post-BG RPGs, doesn’t follow this arc, but still has the gameplay. We kill stuff in hundreds, grow in power and move from killing wolfs and boars to mythic creatures. Yet, little of it is acknowledged in the narrative. There is some stuff in the lore (souls growing stronger etc.) but none of it is related to the main game. I would say that character growth happens purely in game space, and isn’t really acknowledge by game’s world. I do like that mere mortal can’t challenge a God. But that expectation isn’t challenged by the game either. Expectations are there: both because of tradition and existing gameplay systems, but the game doesn’t even acknowledge such possibility. The problem isn’t that we can’t challenge Eothas, but that after 20 levels and major in-game growth, game refuses to respond to it.

I watched this video about attributes and the game indeed meets the goals he set out to achieve. I think there's a need to fit into the descriptive world, rather than to just have the stats as labels or simply a variable_name with no attachment to the real world, since that is how players relate to "Might", "Intellect" etc. So using those labels MUST have a purpose, and the game seems to try to do that to a degree, meaning that weird things happen. It's not purely fitting into the variable_name style mathematician/coder's world nor the more descriptive "casual" player's world, but it attempts to stand astride the two and I suspect this is where all the confusion happens. People don't like being befuddled. Josh says in the video that some solutions are unexpected - I think for this game they should have changed name of Easy mode to Normal. That may have appeased a lot of the confused players whilst not changing the game for people who want to play super challenging content, and perhaps have boosted sales of Deadfire.

Shoot them in the face.

I sorta agree but this assumes that people have to go into POE like an old d&d game. In those old games people needed to meta the crap out of the game to not screw their build with the wrong weapons or in the case of NWN games the wrong abilities. so there was a level of power gaming you had to do to get into the game at all. POE to me lowered the bar of what you needed to know to start the game but if players are used to d&d they may assume its the case so they may try to learn the systems really well and find out they are difficult like you mentioned. but if instead people just picked up the game and just played and made a character they thought they wanted they would find it worked out pretty well. I see this line of question to this day with new players saying whats the best build or is my build bad or will this build gimp me or will this build work with companions. and they havent played one moment of the game but assume they must power game or the game will be broken. this seems like a very dnd mindset and maybe fun for tabletop but for single player game it takes out some of the fun of just playing the game. but you are right they could have done better job explaining some stuff. i get im talking about a slightly different aspect but the builds question kinda bleeds into the systems question somewhat

I am a hardcore forum dweller (maybe the most hardcore one given my post count... especially when it comes to POE) but I partially agree. Not the b.a.n.a.n.a.s. part (the mechanics of PoE are superior to that of the old IE games - it basically tries to be more coherent and that means making some compromises when it comes to "realism" vs. being clean and avoiding exceptions or special rules - which are a nightmare in any software). But indeed the mechanics of PoE are often obscure and difficult to comprehend. You need a LOT of time (in forums, wikis and/or in the game) to master them*. Part of that is due to the awful, just awful job the game does in explaining the mechanics to you. This is my biggest complaint about PoE (which I mostly love dearly): tooltips, explanations, good and helpful UI features and the like: nope. So I think it is solid reasoning to say that this might have driven players away. I said it already but who wants to see a superb tooltip system that explains every effect in a solid yet unobstrusive way should play "Slay the Spire". I wish more game developers would adapt that approach. It's not even revolutionary, just thorough and neatly done. * I like those deep, systemic-driven mechanics you can tinker with, but I am aware I'm the minority.

People wanted a game in the style of Baldur's Gate. Obsidian gave them a far more complex combat system than BG's and one that isn't intuitive (it MAY be difficult to gimp your character, but Intelligent Barbarians and Mighty Wizards are not obvious, let's not even talk about all the tank builds that recommend no armour whatsoever - this game is bananas, B.A.N.A.N.A.S. ). The game is incredibly difficult to master comprehend, let alone master! It surprises me that Josh Sawyer doesn't understand this to be a major factor in customer retention: https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/188915786456/will-there-be-a-pillars-3-that-is-not-something The game did what it set out to do in terms of creating that Baldur's Gate style of game, but I believe many players found combat much less fun than anticipated and didn't want to come back for that reason. I don't expect hardcore forum-dwellers to react positively to this appraisal of the game, but I think it's important to express it.

They stack.

Lower the difficulty Story mode bruh

Hey, the bear cave caused me at least 3-4 tries with my Stag Druid (1st PC). Don’t knock it, it’s tough for newbies.

To be fair the game gets a whole lot easier once you a) gained some meta-knowledge (where to go, which enemies can do what) and b) understand the mechanics a bit better. Still: reloading 50 times because one can't win a certain (optional) fight and then ragequit instead of just pursuing a different route (and come back later) is just silly.

Try using a guide with a premade build that definitely works. I have had the exact opposite experience, and started a second play through on hard (in which im streamrolling) the second I finished my first.

Yeah well - other players might want to raise the question: "Why didn't you do something else first and came back later? It's kind of an open world game." and the only honest answer would be "Ooopsi, I didn't think about that". This player went out of his way to gnaw on a bone he can't chew yet - while there were plenty of other, softer and meatier ones laying around. I wonder how he got past the infamous bear cave.

in the off-chance new players come across the above misinformation by the OP ... most enemies are not immune to everything, and bounty quests from the Warden were not intended to be 'very early' or for 'beginner' parties ... the player stronghold must be rebuilt and upgraded over time before Warden bounties become available above all, over the course of the game, save often; if your party gets wiped clean in seconds by an enemy, do not reload 50-60 times ... reload once before the battle and travel to a different map or pursue an alternate quest to gather experience and upgrade items and weapons before returning to a difficult encounter ... try it, it's fun

Awwww, it cares so much it did not only register, it edited its ragequit post!

Bye

I like a lot deadfire , awesome crpg . but i know some reasons why it was not as sucessful as expected (although it was not flop , for what i have read, the sales became regular after all the expansions were released ). first the secondary reasons. fewer companions than in poe 2 , possible extra companions replaced by the sidekicks (half-made companions). bad naval battles. poe2 is also more unbalanced. lack of evil companions, details like companions not fighting with the player and other companions based on actions during the game. maia should become hostile if you mention you sacrificed kana, for example. but the PRIMARY REASONs , which im sure were REAL CAUSES . first, is that in poe2 you have to have played poe1 to understand the story of poe2. and you also return to level 1 in a way that breaks the immersion (the poe1 companions also return to level 1 for an unexplained reason) , second there is also the fact that was no kickstarter at all. THAT were the real causes. regarding kickstrter, i dont think it need to to be fully backed by kickstarter, but a partial financing is very useful. the main cause was really the lack of kickstarter. all other causes could have been surpassed by using it.

That's not funny. Those people get to vote.