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I think my favourite Obsidian game will always be Alpha Protocol. Great writing, great characters and the one game where I felt Obsidian were doing completely their own thing. Kotor II, FONV, Mask of the Betrayer, they all were standing one another's work. Pillars was its own thing, but a homage to what had come before. Outer Worlds too often reminds of FO or ME or even Borderlands. But AP is just AP.

I mean, it's not really true. They will treat you and then bankrupt you. Which is better, I guess?

Xairete! I won't claim such a pretentious name as Eldar, but I certainly wish you all a wonderful new year. I'm just Dan, License number 952xxxxx. :Tired of creating alts grin: I sincerely hope everyone had a great new year. I'll be making pointless posts aplenty before it's done.

Whether you like PoE over Deadfire (me) or the other way round - I think it's absolutely safe to say that Deadfire is more accessible and more rational when it comes to mechanics (even if the inner workings under the hood might be more complicated).

My image of humanity is generally positive. But this has nothing to do with underestimating people. It has to do with the time and money that the average player generally has at hand and the scope of sales numbers we are talking about. There surely are players who can't spare a lot of money but have time and will examine a game very closely before buying it. On the other hand there are players who don't have a lot of time but money so they just buy what they think looks good. And then there's a lot of players in between. Those specific behaviors cannot explain a massive sales drop like Deadfire's (compared to PoE) while - and I repeat myself - the reviews given by streamers, critics and users are nearly the same(!). So - if the problem was the execution of the things you asked above then the reviews should reflect that. Which they don't. So the overall quality and implementation of Deadfire doesn't seem to be the problem. But we discussed this in length already. So - is it more likely that a) all the players who passed on Deadfire did it because they consumed a lot of Let's Plays and asked themselves the same questions you did - or is it more likely that b) those players saw the new nautic setting and passed because they think "Hm... not my cup of tea"? If you ask me and lots of others b) seems to be more likely than a). So far we have collected some simple yet reasonable explanations why Deadfire dropped so hard (since reviews were on par which suggests implementation and quality was not the problem): Players didn't like PoE for whatever reason and thus didn't buy Deadfire - while new players wouldn't want to start with the second part (sequel problem) Players didn't hear/read about Deadfire (marketing failure) Players didn't like changes that were announced before release (e.g. party size reduction) Players didn't like the move from Kickstarter to Fig Players didn't like the setting (pirate vs. medieval) Other reasons like story, implementation, companions and whatnot can be an additional reason. But they can't explain such a massive drop while the reviews from critics and users didn't tank at all. If the reviews would have been bad then I'd say "sure". But they aren't bad. I didn't aswer your post because I object that there are players who asked themselves those questions before they decided to not buy Deadfire. That was not the reason. I'm just not thinking that this can explain a massive sales drop. I also answered because you made it sound as if the theory "the setting put people off" is somehow ridiculous while your theory "they all closely monitored influencers" is really what explains it all: Which sounds like a rather presumptuous approach that needed a refutation.

I'll agree to that, even though some of the things in that game are quite horribly buggy it feels fresh and interesting. And I do love the dialogue stance system they had, it's pretty damn cool. And the reactivity... Mmmm...

Lara de Muertos

This happened to one of my friends. I actually tried to warn them away from PoE1 because I thought it was less accessible for them than Deadfire in terms of gameplay (I strongly believe Deadfire is a less murky and more rational system and that is probably a controversial point to some people who prefer Vancian/PoE1 system), but same thing happened - they basically hit a wall getting into PoE1. At least from Obsidian's perspective, they still get money from the PoE1 sales though, even if there's no follow-through.

Ye Great but Totally Subjective 'PoE' Comparison Table (by Messier 31st of His Name) Lo, and behold! I give you my subjective 'PoE' comparison table, in which I briefly describe what Obsidian did better in my humble opinion. Note that inferior/superior doesn't automatically mean that it is awful/awesome, it just means which one I liked better. There are also things I would like to personally see in the hypothetical third part, if it ever comes out. We know that Josh wants to learn from the low Deadfire sales and it isn't clear if we get to see a continuation anytime soon. Super brief notes regarding a specific feature are in the right-most column but if you want to see a lenghtier explanation, then scroll down to the less interesting text part down below. Don't discuss, as there is nothing to discuss, because my will be done, my will is law. Sorry, got carried away there for a minute… what was I? Ah, yes, feel free to comment! Cheers! Ye Not-So-Great 'cause Less Interesting Text-Only Part for Reference That's right. I like the medieval feel, and this is why I prefer the Eastern Reach. Deadfire is a great addition to the RPG genre, but I sure wouldn't like to see another tropic regions of Eora too fast. I guess a big chunk of Aedyr is out of the question. I wouldn't call the story in Pillars 'down to earth', but truth is the first game has an impact on a nation-scale, whereas the sequel decides the fates of all Eora. Aren't the stakes too high too fast? Iovara dropped a huge bomb there, telling you that the gods are artificial beings made by kith. Eothas wants to do exactly what I suspected all along (destroying the Wheel of reincarnation), thus the reveal is predictable. Deadfire had better moments, e.g. the true meaning of the godlikes (they act as failsafes for the gods), or what Eothas was thinking when he marched as Waidwen toward the Evon Dewr Bridge (he was aware of the Godhammer bomb and walked into it on purpose). Thaos is not the best arch-villian out there, but sure he is a memorable one. Deadfire lacks a character like him, but the story of the game clearly doesn't need a nemesis type. Hypothetical sequel could use one, though. The great come-back of Fyonlecg! Oh, and the final boss of Deadfire? In my playthrough someone took care of him for me, so that's a small disappointment. The White March is not only a great story - it blends in with the main game quite nicely. The expansions to the Deadfire are really good, but some things bug me. BoW seems as an excuse to make yet another Icewind Dale shout out, SSS is an arena (and I detest arenas) with a 'meh' plot behind it, and the FS (the best of the lot) has the Cult of the Unseeing Eye (BG2) vibes. And Fyonlecg. PoE companions are both good and bad. If you wanna know any better here is the ultimate PoE1 companion review (https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94100-companions-the-ultimate-review). These companions are fine, I like the idea to finish some of their quests with a feeling of no closure. Yet it was Deadfire that gave the companions more life. They speak more often, and are not so incapacitated as in the original. I can hate Tekehu, but I must admit he is better written than - let's say - Maneha. What I really need from the 3rd game is a fully fleshed out proper dwarf companion. The DCRF will not stand idly, I say. Sidekicks are a good way to spice up the roster without having to spend too much of the precious devtime. Maybe this could be a way for Cadegund, Gacgen or Bonteru to make an actual in-game return? Ekera, do you even remember Cadegund? Open worlds tend to get you marooning in the dark too much, or running straight ahead to the final levels. I think that the Baldur's Gate style map and travel system looks and works better. There could be a line showing progress while traversing the land, just as it is done within the Deadfire cities. And speaking of cities... First of all, I think that the Deadfire city screens are fantastic. You know, them places where you decide where to go and also see info regarding population, trade, et cetera. Neketaka is a huge improvement since Defiance Bay, but… I really want to see another Athkatla, where the background sounds of chatter and ringing bells give the best impression of a city in a computer game. Other than than that, I'm waiting for a dwarven town that hasn't been abandoned, destroyed, and/or fallen. Durgan's Battery was close in the second part of the expansion. No brainer, this one. PoE1 factions were interesting, but lacked significance. Once you're out of the capital, nothing about them really matters anymore. Factions from the Deadfire are so much more meaningful, like the ones in Fallout: New Vegas. Caed Nua started as a joke of a stronghold, and is much better after lot o patching. I think that the idle companion adventures are a great addition, and the whole questline revolving around a certain Lord Gathbin is one of the most fun things to do in the first game. The worst thing that persists is them darn loading times, which prevent you from walking around your hold. The Defiant, on the other hand, is a much more useful thing (being a aprt of the whole travel mechanic, duh), yet nothing important happens there. Naval combat is a chore, so I just hang out and listen to the shanties. The Endless Paths are serious business. You can't rush through it at the beginning, it is a memorable experience that has to be cleared in intervals. Despite the great ambition you can tell that levels are inconsistent, and sometimes boring. Also, I had a different vision of the final level at the bottom. The closest thing to a dungeon like that in Deadfire are the Drowned Barrows. Writing is top notch in this adventure, but the whole thing ends quite quickly. So the future grand dungeon should be either shorter version of the EP, or a longer version of DB. Questing in the original game was simply better. More side quests were fun in PoE1 than in PoE2 in my humble opinion. The greatest thing I remember from Deadfire is exploring the Narrows and finding my way into the Delver's Row (fantastic locations). Naval battles? Don't get me started - they're a chore, and I almost always end up in direct combat. Bounties always were alright, and the addition of optional mega boss fights is a nice move. Full VO and watercolour portraits do their job, change my mind. Never was I a supporter of multiclassing. But given the fact that it is optional even in case of your companions and not thrown upon you/them by force, (+ the addition of great subclasses), well, it would be a setback to not give this option in a future game. Skill trees are kinda standard procedure, aren't they? Similar situation as with multiclassing - as long as there is choice, all is good. My preference is RTwP as in Baldur's Gate, but I don't have a quarrel with good turn-based system. Dragons! (yay!) Yeah, it bugs me to see an unnamed dragon. I wonder why the name of the adra dragon (Sefyra) isn't revealed untill you venture into the Mowrghek Îen… Anyway, I can't have enought of these lizards. That is fully grown dragons, Searing Falls was crawling with them younger drakes, and it was driving me crazy, why so much spam? I also like the possibility to talk things through with dragons, because I like using diplomacy with powerful creatures. Music coulda been more throneofbhaaly. I still remember "Abazigal's lair", "Amkethran", or the "Domain of the Dragon" from Shadows of Amn. I caught myself humming them the other day. Lots of Deadfire tracks blend into one, and are easily forgetable. Taverns and inns are both great, though. This is such an improvement! ❤️ I couldn't care less for more eye-candy in a isometric cRPG. First Pillars were the last game that I've tackled on normal. Ever since I've become a father I'm playing on easy or story related modes, because of the lack of time. I'm sure there are a lot of parents who play more than me, but in my case there's just not enough time. High difficulty and big challanges were not for me to start with (I had immense trouble with Big Boss Battles on story-mode, good thing this is all optional). Lack of time means I'm not going to replay the game anytime soon, but that's a nice addition. There you have it, I like PoE1 slightly more. And now for the Pathfinder: Kingmaker *cracks knuckles*

Just remember Citadel for ME3. Yes, it is pure fan-wankery, but its glorious fan-wankery that will likely have you chuckling away.

so we aren't talking something which would be .5 miles or more away from gd's home like the big turbines. would need be much closer? fumes. property value loss. cancer. east coast states have much different riparian rights laws than does the much drier west, so am honest uncertain what is gd's rights, but general rule is if you live on land with creek, river, stream, etc., you cannot reduce or disrupt downstream flow. therefore, any sorta dam needed to make a waterwheel or turbine functional is gonna be presumptive verboten. is why gd once mentioned a water turbine as his post apocalypse solution to energy independence. HA! Good Fun!

I actually finished Pathfinder on dec 29.

A big thumbs up to the devs for including Tomb Raider 2 Lara with my beloved blue tank top and khaki shorts (also available is the bomber jacket outfit): And also Angel of Darkness Lara: The character model even appears in cutscenes: Her facial expression doesn't change nor do her lips move with the OG models, which is super hilarious at first, but after the novelty wears off it just makes the cutscenes kind of creepy and awkward. I'll switch to a Nu Lara model to play through the campaign then switch to OG Lara once I'm done and just cleaning up challenge tombs, collectibles, challenges, etc. I'm still hoping I can get the classic blue tank top and khaki shorts outfit for Nu Lara, either as an unlock in the game or via a mod.

Get a couple of these and youre on the way:

That wasn't the claim though. The gaming population can go in the opposite direction even if that's true. It would be hard to get evidence either way on this. You can look at successful RPG series and see trends though, it's true that RPG players are playing games that don't need as much maths. Even then, just taking that as a premise, the amount of gamers who are numerically literate enough to play a complex RPG can still grow because the overall gaming population can grow at a rate high enough that 5% of them is larger than 10% of them 10 years ago. That was the case from what I saw on forums. Obsidian would have the data on how many people completed act 1, 2, and 3. I would say technical problems and bugs were an issue. It's certainly true that I much prefer playing PoE now than at launch, it's even more true for Deadfire vs PoE. The amount of times this is brought up by people in forums is a good indication that at least a vocal minority didn't like it. Fourth reason is lots of competition in the RPG space that PoE didn't have, from Obsidian itself, deciding to release RtWP RPGs in 2015, 2016, and 2018. Also just doing a second round of crowdfunding. Numbers are going to drop off. Kickstarting something gives the impression that once it's started, you don't need to do it again. PoE sold well, that money went back to Obsidian. Other models like Patreon exist for when you're pre-ordering or subscribing to something. People were willing to contribute to the Obsidian independence and survival project. Not so much the take on our risk, funding, and pre-order all our games so we can sell out to Microsoft project.

I honestly found it an incredibly underwhelming payoff for such a late game quest so I hardly ever used it, but when I do use it I leave myself to Nonconductive and Suppression. Punishment/Condemnation is quite uncommon in the late game, and rarely ever a big deal and anecdotally I feel like acid damage is rather rare compared to electricity. (Note: answer changes a bit if you're gearing up for a megaboss fight because in that case I think Bronze Core is better against Huane O Whe)

First off, in general, in most developed or developing countries, successive generations are more numerically literate than previous generations. Second off, the kids are alright. Third, doesn't explain why games like P:K do well. If anything, like I brought up in another thread, Deadfire is better than PoE1 here because so much more of the system is rationalized, there's less murk, there's a slower pace to combat, and encounters are less trashy and you have less party members to worry about. So this can't explain a massive sales drop. I think if we want to go down this route, it's not the numeracy, but the fact that (as has been mentioned by some developer--possibly JE Sawyer) that RTSes aren't nearly as prevalent these days as back in the late 90s/early 2000s, so people just aren't used to the style of gameplay that RTwP is, and the context that it lives in makes less sense. But even here it doesn't explain a drop-off from a million+ sales, I think it only serves to explain why it's hard to grow your audience or find a new, less nostalgia-focused audience and therefore makes the case that RTwP is a niche genre now.

Mass Effect trilogy. Outer Worlds made me crave some classic Bioware stuff. Plan was to play Mass Effect2, as it's been a long time since I played it, but as I didn't have a save to import, I loaded a half-way complete save for ME1 and completed that first. I also plan to continue over to ME3 - never played any of it's DLCs, and the last time I played ME3 was around it's release. I am curious if I will hate it as much as I did back then. I am surprised that I don't enjoy ME2 as much as I did. For all it's faults ME1 had scope, consistancy and immersion, which ME2 lacks. Small things, but they matter - changing how traveling works, means that Normandy leaves the station everytime you return to the ship . Being in direct control of the ship, just doesn't gel, with being commander, rather then pilot. No Mako sequences make the world feel small, even though content wise ME2 is most likely far more packed then it's precedessor. While combat is improved, it is still not a good action shooter. The only thing I don't miss is managing the inventory, which was a boring chore in ME1. Plot of ME2 has some odd plot choices and forced melodrama, which I didn't bother me before. There is also far less companion content then I remembered. Overall, ME1 felt much more grounded and immersive, then ME2. ME2 feels much more gamey, and faster pace breaks the illusion much easier.

The grounded ones are the MAX series, not the 800 series

It's going to be both weird and exciting to go back to this game after such a long time...

The Ebon Hawke in KOTOR1/2 was awesome. I just wish on Deadfire's ship people had more stuff to say.

Every time (Suppressed) I feel (Suppressed) like playing (Suppressed) some Pillars 1 (Suppressed), there's (Suppressed) this one (Suppressed) part (Suppressed) of it (Suppressed) that makes (Suppressed) me not.

Alignment Chart of Alignment Charts...

I canceled mine when I got laid off but a friend of mine loves his. I think I mentioned the time he got ICEd in one of my rambling stories.

I guess we get to see if that threat of disproportionate response was for real.

Hello everyone and thank you for the continued reports. At this time I don't have anything new to report regarding an update for the font size. The team is continuing to work on this issue and as soon as I know more I will share it with all of you. I apologize for any inconvenience this is causing you, but thank you again for sharing with us and for your patience while we continue to investigate this, we appreciate it.

Rockstar's shtick with meta-commenting on their silent protagonist in GTA Online always felt a bit weird, glad they brought it over into Red Dead Online... ...NOT

Yes I wouldn't recommend Intel CPU's right now unless you're willing to spend extra on water cooling and a high VPM motherboard for overclocking. Socket 1151 is to be replaced by an updated (non backwards compatible) 2066 this spring so there's no practical reason going Intel this moment whilst AM4 has plenty of "bang for buck" for at least 2 more years. I mean sure, those extra clockspeeds generate higher fps especially for 144hz gaming but it's probably not worth it for a mid range build. I got lucky because I bought a cheap z390 motherboard and an i5 9600k and I became obsessed with getting as high clock speeds as possible so now I have a solid cooling system with 2 Noctua 100+ cfm fans attached to a radiator and I am more than ready for the core i9 10900k when it comes out, as it's also socket 2066 compatible. Anyway good luck with your build and I wouldn't worry about C77, as it's also designed to run on those aging consoles, so that in and of itself should be somewhat of a relief. Also I would go with the 'Super' cards, as they have higher clock speeds and higher clock speeds means more fps, especially on 1080p

I know, not so glamoruous as Trumps constant sabre rattling, but Australia is still burning. Besides Melbourne, Sydney and in particular Canberra suffering under heavy (and dangerous to the health) smoke, the poor Kiwis have gotten their share of the smoke. Not it's the South Americans turn to feel the Aussie heat 🔥 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/07/australian-bushfire-smoke-drifts-to-south-america-un-reports Oh, and Australia needs to get the maps updated to 2020: Edit: 25 people confirmed dead, a number of unknowns. Thousands of homes burnt to the ground and 8.5 million hectares of new ash wastes where there used to be forest (including rain forest) and bush land

Why should I ask myself those questions when discussing the reasons for Deadfire's mediocre success? Those are things you can answer once you bought and played the game for quite some time - not when looking at it in a store, deciding whether to buy it or not. Here the possible explanation "different setting put off potential players" makes more sense.

I feel like Winston deserves a chance to challenge Favre for the most interceptions ever. He can get there by the end of the decade if he keeps it up.

Yeah but which one did you enjoy playing more?

RDR2 was close to the top for me last year, when I played it on the PS4. It's fantastic.

I was hesitant at first but now that I've purchased, downloaded, installed and played it, this is easily one of the best RPG's I've played. Everything just sort of fits together almost perfectly. Some of the dialogue is bizarre but that's small potatoes. Recommend it with your drug of choice, of course.

Its name is Rekvu's Scorched Cloak and it heals you from fire dmg as long as you have 1 injury (e.g. a Severe Burn). Cipher has no means of hitting themselves with a fire spell. As Bloodmage it's easy to deal burn damage to yourself with several fire spells that do friendly fire (e.g. Wall of Flame or Fireball).

Ciphers can rarely cast any of their spells (even the buffs) on themselves, and I doubt you can even cast Soul Ignition on allies. You wouldn't want to outside shenanigans like the one you have in mind, so the game won't let you.

Poor little fat rat... story with a happy ending ☺️ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47370291

"Sounds great on paper" is actually the name of my new membranophone band.

ARE YOU SAYING THAT GOLDMEMBER DOESN'T SOUND DUTCH?!?!?!

I think it's a terrible idea for anyone to enter in a romantic relationship with their boss. And the walls in those cabins are thin, man. That said, Vicar Max is welcome to enlighten me any day.

couple disagreements from your criticisms: am less ambivalent 'bout the world map. didn't like deadfire 'cause it necessarily led to a multitude o' forgettable and brief encounters. am knowing obsidian worked kinda hard to make all those rando world map encounters unique. *shrug* the expansions were a saving grace for deadfire overall, as bow and fs provided a couple well developed areas which were allowing for more meaningful narrative and increasing complex gameplay options. the world map one-off encounters which boosted sense o' exploration, by comparison, were sad and anemic little wastes o' developer efforts even when done well. am also gonna disagree with #18 and the boss-battle impressions. yeah, we did get bogged down in sss, but that were a matter o' choice. sss were akin to making the basement o' the ice temple in iwd2 an entire expansion. nobody forces Gromnir to overcome every sss challenge, but... completionist is gonna complete, yes? that said, other than a couple quibbles, we saw deadfire boss battles, in general, as much superior to poe fare. have kinda spoken 'bout this previous, so won't dwell. am gonna particular observe our agreement with 14 and vo observations. am knowing the vo for deadfire were a big selling point and obsidian had to pay extra to do so. having full vo meant it were much more difficult for the developers to make changes to quests, but the tragic part is the vo quality didn't even enhance our gameplay experience much if at all. meh in fact, am thinking the expository narration were a bit more tedious because it were vo. if we would have quick read through the text as we did in other crpgs, is likely we wouldn't have noticed how much we disliked the heavy-handed deadfire exposition. 'cause it were vo narration, we actual bothered to listen to all such... at least we did so the first time we played deadfire. eventual had our clockwork orange moment enduring deadfire narration. no real standouts from the vo for companions, though we kinda liked serafen and am believing xoti's oklahoma bit were appropriate even if it were annoying. the sidekicks were a non-factor for us until the expansions and then only ydwin truly got on our nerves... 'cause nobody but leonard nimoy has ever genuine pulled off the vulan schtick. obsidian spent loads o' money on vo. developer needed embrace inherent design limits when utilizing full vo. for all such cost and effort... meh. what a waste. HA! Good Fun!

Wow, I actually disagree with quite a few of them: 1) setting - Deadfire all the way. A more unique, better realised place. 6) companions - I didn’t care about a single companion in Deadfire as much as I did about majority of companions in PoE1. While they probably got more content, a more linear and focused quest progression meant more coherent story arcs. 8) world map - I am torn on that - on one hand I feel that Deadfire’s map is simply more engaging then POE1 one. At the same time it hints at potential that was never quite realised. If it were more interactive with some procedural stuff it would be excellent. As it is it can feel more dead then abstract PoE1 map. 9) cities in PoE1 sucked. Gilded Vale had barely any content in it. Major cities were under developed. Stelwart was great but that’s White March. Neketaka on the other hand is a phenomenal, deep city. Even smaller areas, are better developed then most PoE1 content. 12) dungeons - before DLCs I agree that the game lacked a deep dungeon. However, PoE1 didn’t do great in that regard either, and Caed Nua sucked. Sorry. 15 levels doesn’t mean much, if they are boring, copy/pasted Enemies which I just fought on the surface. 13) I wouldn’t agree that side content of PoE1 is better then PoE2 but if we purely count things listed - sure. Bounties in Deadfire only worked when fought on land, and even so, it’s far to easy to outlevel enemies. 14) VO - Actually, I don’t have stand outs in Deadfire, in the way I had in PoE1. Perhaps it is a result of less engaging narrative and writing IMO. Actor can do far more with coherent story arc, then a small encounter. In addition, I don’t remember bad performances in PoE1, and while PoE2 is good for the most part, there are occasional bad apples. 18) I felt that one thing that suffered from per-encounter system was boss battles. I never found big battles in PoE2 enjoyable, and while megabosses and DLCs did a decent job in raising the stakes, I never quite enjoyed them as rapid, lethal encounters in PoE1 (and IE games)