jools1980
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Posts posted by jools1980
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12 minutes ago, Tenray said:
You should not judge too early about a build. Most builds are not working before they get some of their core abilities. Playing TCS will almost always be something like: "avoid every fight possible and collect exp until lvl x", simply because there is no other way.
Doing tactical plays like pulling mobs into a corner or fighting in a narrow corridor is neccessary when you play solo. There is no build that starts on lvl 1 and can just run in brain afk mode and facetank everything, especially not on PotD. I really do get your point! You want to play it as you feel without thinking too much about mistakes you have maybe made. You want to compensate that by being tanky, but unfortunatelly that is not how PoE works.
There are certain encounters, that need good preparation. If you start the fight with wrong equipment, wrong buffs or forgot to buy the proper potions you will most likely fail regardless of how tanky your character is.
However, if you really want a build that can afk facetank everything, being almost invincible to everything, play one of the builds I used for my Ultimate run. But that doesn't really belong here in this discussion.
Yeah, today I completed my first solo+potd run (paladin/fighter), and I did learn the hard way about all of that. Positioning, bottlenecks, rest bonuses, potions, encounter-specific gearing, all matters a lot, in this game mode.
I should mention that I exclusively play turn-based mode, btw, which also adds a layer of thought to everything.
So, would it be viable to roll a character one way (like, more balanced) get past Maje, and then respec it (does ToI allow that, btw)?
As per your ultimate builds, where can I find them? (feel free DM me if you wish, since it's OT)
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39 minutes ago, Tenray said:
It definitely works with 5.0, it is still great. However, the actual question is how far do you want to take this build ...
- Do you just want to finish the game TCS mode and get the achievement ? Then sure. The game can be completed without taking a single fight, so.
- Do you want to play casually ? Means discovering, doing random bounties and exploring the whole Deadfire ? Then I would say doing everything of this as TCS is possible to a certain extent. Most likely you will fail at the mega bosses, but they are an own category ... For everything else in the game you are good to go, imo.
Hmmm, I just tried it a bit in test-TCS (everything on except the ToI thing), and I died a bloody lot. Like you said, if it's just for the achievement, one could just cheese through the game with most builds really, avoiding all/most fights and just sneaking through everything basically. I'm not sure this build is for me, although TBH, I never played a cipher before so maybe there's stuff I need to get used to or just better at. And maybe I could tweak the build a bit (it's way too fragile as is, and Maje island is especially punishing), or just get the "+2 to all stats" BB (I haven't yet, but I reckon it would make things a lot better?)...
As to your question, I myself am not really sure what I want XD . Yeah I'd like the achievement but I'd also like to enjoy playing the game, so a bit of both I guess? Megabosses aren't my thing so yeah, never mind those.
I suppose I'll keep looking.
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Has anyone tested this with 5.0? Seems like a great build and I'd like to give it a go for a TCS attempt...
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Late to the party, but I just tried out the 2H version of this build (#2), and wanted to share my experience/considerations.
First off, I forgot to get Berath's Blessing, because I'm dumb. Also, I didn't get the GotM, nor the Effigy (is it even possible to get the latter, on a solo run?).
Difficulty: PotD
Solo: YES
Turn-based: YES
Trials of Iron: NO
Scaling: NO
Gear-wise, I got almost exactly what's indicated.
Armor: Reckless Brigandine
Weapon: Whispers of the Endless Paths (only upgraded to superb because I can't obtain 4 kraken's eyes, and with offensive parry enchantment)
Neck: Charm of Bones (+2 INT)
Belt: The Undying Burden (+1 CON)
Ring 1: Voidward
Ring 2: Entonia Signet Ring
Hands: Gauntlets of Ogre Might (+2 MIG)
Cloak: Cape of the Falling Star
Head: Helm of the Falcon
Boots: Boots of the Stone (+1 DEX, +1 RES)Pet: Abraham
Food: Mariner's Porridge
Other that these minor differences (well, not so minor, especially the lack of BB in my build), I built it exactly like indicated. It is worth noting that the build was so weak at start, and skillchecks out of my range, that most of that gear I couldn't get until very late in the game (lvl 16 or so).
Lvl 1-5, an absolute nightmare. I didn't have any gear, going through the first caves (I could only kill 2 beetles and 2 skeletons) sneaked through the rest) and the ruins on Maje island was mental. Especially in the ruins, I couldn't fight ANYTHING at all, or I would die. So I crafted some firecrackers and managed to distract&sneak past.
Level 6-13: once you leave Maje Island and get to Neketaka, it's a breeze to just do talking or courier quests, plus exploring all the hotspot on the nautical chart (LOADS of XP), and you'll find yourself at level 12-13 in theheal blink of an eye.
Level 13-17, a big slump: just spent going around, killing whatever crappy ships I could find for loot and xp, trying and failing to advance any of the 200000 quests I had active. I just couldn't complete any: either enemies were too strong, or the quests required to pass skillchecks that I didn't meet (especially mapping quests or quests that involved access to remote parts of some islands, which lay beyond some "checkpoint" event). The total lack of sneaking also makes this build very hard to play. I was on the verge of quitting/rerolling a bunch of times.
Llevel 17-19: total PWNAGE. Jump into a group of 20 mobs, pop those buffs, and watch them suicide against you (courtesy of the sword's proc). Fights take a looooooooooooooooong time, especially so in TB mode, but you'll beat most stuff: positioning is essential, and sometimes going offensive on healer/caster enemies is required. After the first 16 levels or so of struggling and not being able to fight squat, I was having lots of fun at last! I finally could kill some stuff and actually progress some quests. Dinged level 20 before I even knew it.
Level 20, very late faction quests and endgame. Well, it's back to the nightmare. Some of these quests are basically impossible, some are extremely hard, and some I cheesed via sneaking.
Main issues: early on, it's very hard to even hit mobs. Later on, that gets better with gear, but the damage output is too low. Dunno if it's because I missed those extra 4 points in MIGHT (BB+GotM+Effigy), or whatever. I hit the enemies most of the times, misses or grazes were reasonably rare, but the damage I dealt was risible. Most of the times mobs just "suicided" against Whispers' effect. Later on, the suicide keeps going, luckily, although not as much with proper end game enemies (they'll actually hit or graze you for very low damage, but that doesn't make them "suicide" and that's what got them killed for me, using this build). Furthermore, enemies from the very late parts of the game actually hit you for real damage, and although the build is great at survival and dragging out fights, we're back to the damage output being too low to kill stuff before the fight is TOO long and you use up all your lifesavers and eventually just die.
Here are some notes and examples I noted down as I played through the game:
At level 16:
Beina = no go
Katrenn = no go
Old City = no go
Nomu (bounty) = doable
Tahae (bounty) = doable
At level 17 (finally obtained the Whispers sword, and a decent armour, although not the Reckless Brigandine yet):
Rathun ships/mobs = no go
Hanging Sepulchers = no go
Eamund the Fox = doable
Ikorno = doable (took about 20 rounds to take down the ironclad construct)
Mutiny = doable, but left me completely crewless and I struggled to recruit any more
Broodmother = doable (not the broodmother herself, but the "checkpoint" encounter that's on the way to her)
Bardatto family extermination = doable
Lady Epero = doable (Lord Admiral Imp and Katrenn too, but the guards kept aggroing and I could have taken them on but I didn't want the negative rep, and for Katrenn, I knew the fight VS the constructs would have lasted like 300 rounds, and I couldn't be bothered. I skipped these two, luckily I had other stuff I could do, by now.)
At level 19:
Hanging Sepulchers = still no go, the group of mobs North-East is just too beefy and has too many healers
Giant Grub = easy
Old City = clearable
At level 20, with full gear:
Drowned Barrow = absolutely no go, got rekt in no time
Maw: splintered fortress = no go, I could fight a couple of isolated patrolling rathuns, but had to use sneak to avoid pulling the big groups
Drowned Barrow = got rekt
Aeldys = took me a couple of tries, but managed it (you need to get lucky and not get turned into a piglet by their casters)
Fight VS 2x VTC ships during the approach to Ukaizo = no go
Ukaizo Guardian = lol no. 15 rounds and I took maybe 10% of its health, I was out of everything, and then he regenerated.
Ukaizo Sentinels = no way. They could hit me for 40-90 damage a pop.
So, in the end, I'm stuck: is there any way to skip the Ukaizo guardian AND the two sentinels? I managed to avoid the former by letting it engage the fleet during the scripted event, and just sailing forward, but the sentinels still spawn and they see through stealth...
Soooo, this was my first solo+potd attempt ever and I'm a total noob: do you guys have any tips on how I might get through this? Respect? Change of gear? Would the extra 2 points in MIG from the Cauldron and the sacrifice (neither of which I've done yet) make any difference? I'm really annoyed at the thought of having to quit so close to the end.
Thanks guys!
ADDENDUM - Because I'm a stubborn dunce, I just kept at it. I managed to cheese-sneak past the two Sentinels at Ukaizo, thanks to firecrackers and my 3 points in stealth. The fight with Furrante on my way back from the machine wasn't easy, but did it on my 2nd attempt (I switched to a greatsword with high damage -Whispers' is crap for single target-, chopped down the two priests asap, got lucky when a wizard cast a wall right in the middle of their group, and then went back to Whispers for finishing off the cattle), and I made it to the end of the game. It was fun, at times, and I don't mind a challenge but overall I feel I struggled more than I enjoyed this build.
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Woooooah! What's with the hatred for Hiravias? Personality-wise, I will concede that he's a bit of a doorknob-with-an-attitude (inb4 famous Druidic rap lineup, D.W.A.), but functionality-wise, he's a one-man army. Buff, debuff, heal, aoe's, melee, you name it.
"Better call Hiravias".
Well, I was bored so that last line of mine gave me an idea and here, I drafted up a billboard thingie...
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First let me just say that PoE has been, so far, a stellar game, and this is mostly meant as constructive debate about potential improvements for the next iteration.
I am just making my way through defiance bay for the first time, and I remember reading an old blog post about content density, especially in comparison to BG2.
Now from what I remember, Athkatla was a bustling place, and this wasn't a turn off. You walk in to the Copper Coronet and you have so much stuff going on. You pick and choose what caters to your interests. Then there was BG1, where content was less dense, but you got the ENTIRE city, edges perfectly lined up from one zone to another. There were so many random little houses and corners which you could poke around in.
I guess in PoE, the cramped wilderness areas had already foreshadowed the issue somewhat. I mean you go to the first wilderness area from the initial starting zone and you are basically confined to walk a very narrow and short path through it. You got inaccessible cliffs and a little grassy area and you are done. In itself it's not a big deal, but there are so few of the areas in total. Still, I was eagerly anticipating reaching the first major city to see what it would have in store.
Now to give you a summary of the feel: I'm walking through the administrative centre, and there's just 3 buildings you can enter! And not much is going on in any one of them. I'm sure there are some tie-ins with future quest-specific reasons to visit, but the general pattern is each building has 1-3 people with actual names, and then a bunch of generic NPCs who all say the same rotation of phrases. Another example is the major inn at the city. There's barely anything of interest going on, and compare that with BG2's major inns. The net effect is when you go on a tour of the environment, it feels a bit dead, at least in comparison to the games I mentioned (and even Planescape).
To sum it up, I would say that not only is the scale somewhat diminished (which is understandable given the development challenges), but the content could definitely be more densely packed in the environments that were actually fleshed out.
This is also one of my critiques to the game. Defiance Bay feels "hollow", empty, both visually and content-wise. Even in the middle of the game's day, the districts really feel like everyone's at home, dozing off. There is not that much to see, do, or talk about. I was surprised to find that many inns, in Defiance Bay.
In fact, considering how deserted the districts felt, whereas I was expecting them to be bustling with activities of their own, and things to do for me (Ondra's Gift is the only exception: it does feel acceptably populated and there are enough "things" going on).
On the other hand Dyrford, for example, is a small village out in the sticks, and despite its 8 total buildings actually feels more "lively" and better "crafted": this seems a bit at odds with the "state" Defiance Bay is in.
On occasions I wondered if this was a deliberate choice from the devs, in order to convey a sense of "gloominess" and "melancholy", resulting from the city having had a glorious past and now being somewhat dimmed because of internal strife and the ongoing and apparently unstoppable Legacy.
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I never tried that myself, not after finding out that "stealing" from a house in which there's only backer ghosts still results in "getting caught" and losing reputation.
Well spotted. Will "test" tonight.
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B.The author thinks Attributes in PoE do not offer considerable bonuses, then proposes to the reader min-maxing attribute options for various character combat roles, in essence contradicting himself, while proposing a certain power-gaming playstyle in a review.
It is true that Attributes in PoE have lesser impact, which is in fact an achievement. That way one player's Aloth with his 'crap stats' wouldn't fall that much behind a min-maxed wizard another player hired. At the same time, a player who loves min-maxed attributes will get something out of them. It's the best of both worlds.
All considerations about the review apart, I have to disagree with you on this. From a "realism" and "coherence" standpoint, it really doesn't make sense that a non min-maxed character is only slightly behind a min-maxed one. I am not a fan of min-max'ing personally, and my critique to this system is that it really takes away a good part of the inherent meaning of attributes themselves.
A min-maxed mercenary should be strong as hell and dumb as a doorknob, or strong as hell and slow as growing grass, and the balance should be found in those kind of tradeoffs (think Davide VS Goliath stereotypes, to fit this example of mine). Rather than "balance", the system in PoE achieves "blandness": the influence of attributes is only slightly noticeable, and the feeling is that all characters are at least decent at most activities. Rather than the (quoting you) "best of both worlds", I felt that this was the "mean and rounded average of both worlds".
Sure, this makes it easier to assemble a functional party (I switched companions many times, and I was in no particular difficulty, nor advantage, with any party lineup), but it also takes away one aspect of RPGs that many of us loved.
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4 / 5. I would've preferred saying 8/10 or 86/100, but alright.
I understand 86/100, but how's 4/5 different from 8/10? :D
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(haters gonna hate)
Unfortunately, 2/5.
Writing: ranges from average to mediocre, never really managing to stand out. It has a few decent/good moments, but they get overshadowed by the average-ness of the whole. Companions are forgettable (GM has a few "ooooooh" moments and Eder has a couple, but they're too scarce and spread over too much "nothing" to be noticeable).
Main Plot: again, it failed to get me hooked up with what's going on. Being a "Watcher" could/should have been made more central and dramatic, IMHO.
Quests: similarly, quests are never really engrossing, and soon felt just like "flavouring" or "filler" ("chores"). Many of them also feel really "disconnected" from the main plot, and most of them have little-to-no influence on how the world reacts to the PC and their actions.
Gameplay: too much filler combat, unrewarding exploration, small areas. Caves are sort of copypaste. Endless Path is utterly pointless/irrelevant, and so is the whole Stronghold. Reaching the level cap halfway through act 3 left me a bit bummed (not because of the loss of future XP, which I don't really care much for), but it gave me a false feeling of "completion" ("omg what do I with my life now?") and sort of stopped my progression short, whereas the game still had a whole act and a half to go through. Some classes could use some balancing, and so could the attributes system. Itemization is abysmal, the "economy" is risible (I am currently sitting at over 100k and can't find a single way to spend it). Conversation skill/race/talent/attribute checks are also heavily biased towards some, while others are almost entirely ignored. Stealth is not really viable. Skills need a major facelift: as it is, the only worth ones are athletics and mechanics (and maybe a few points in lore, just for dialogue checks), while the rest are absolutely useless.
Combat: gets boring fast, and becomes really un-challenging after the player levels up a few times, thus feeling more like a chore that's in the way of enjoying the plot. Encounters need revamping, mobs and party alike need a hint of an AI. Considering the game is clearly focused on combat, and that there's so much of it, I would have expected some more care to be put into this aspect of the game (both in terms of core mechanics,
Game World: a lot of effort has been put into creating an original world, and yet not much effort has been put into easing the player into it. Every other NPC will try giving you a history lesson, no matter what. There is a lot of lore lying around, which I enjoyed reading, but that also contributed to the feeling of just being "infodump'd" on.
GFX: outstanding. The game looks pretty, the visual design is neat and fitting and there are no complaints whatsoever in this respect.
SFX: the voice acting goes from meh to ok-ish, but what I enjoyed is the really really good soundtrack. I love the soundtrack.
Overall: the game is not "horrible", but the sum of its parts is so "averagely inglorious" that it can't make up for the game's shortcomings.
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At least they gave me an opportunity to go and get myself a drink, or take a Bio break.
So this guy went and played Dragon Age: Inquisition every time a loading screen came up?
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So I entered Galawain's Maw, and started exploring the area, without having received the quest yet. I went north-east by crossing the broken bridge with a grappling hook, and then pushed on in the same direction until I met the wall of brambles, which I also managed to get past with a skill check.
So I found Sul and Irensi, and killed both after trying to come to reason with them (well, I did suggest the Bear was a more legitimate candidate, and they didn't take it well).
So as soon as I did, my journal created the quest entry and updated it to the phase "Return to Desthwn at the front of Galawain's Maw: I've resolved the stalemate between the beasts. Desthwn will want to know the outcome.", and I was shown a brief cutscene showing the bear and his attendants emerging from a dark passage in the north-west. I then explored and cleared the rest of the dungeon, killed all remaining lions, and made my way back to the front of the Maw.
Only, when I talk to Desthwn, noe of the dialogue options allow me to progress the quest any further, all leading to Desthwn asking me if I have sorted things out yet, with me only being able to reply "still on it"...
Anything I can do to sort this out?
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Vault Dweller and Grunker's review will be more positive. Vault Dweller hates Baldur's Gate and RTwP combat and his main priorities are C&C and reactivity, so as far as he's concerned pretty much anything is better than the BG games. He's also a developer so he's kinda bound by 'professional courtesy' as well. Grunker is a BG2 guy and I think he enjoyed the game but he thought that encounter design and itemization were absolutely terrible among other things.
Dunno man, that's one of aspects I didn't quite like in PoE. C&C seem irrelevant, within 10 minutes of act3 I had the following happening ("translated" into spoiler-free speech):
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NPC: please do this horrible thing for me
Me (a holier-than-holy pally): No, I won't. [ending the dialogue]
Quest journal: "New Quest: Do the horrible thing"
That don't actually has anything to do with C&C it may be poor way to mark quests that you don't want to do in your journal, but it don't anyway impact on your choices and their consequences.
If I choose not to do a quest, surely I don't expect it to pop up as "active" in my journal. It feels like 4th wall breaking: "Hi player, we know your PC refused this quest, but we, the developers, want you to do it nonetheless, so here's the entry in your journal". That's just ignoring my choice, to be honest.
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Vault Dweller and Grunker's review will be more positive. Vault Dweller hates Baldur's Gate and RTwP combat and his main priorities are C&C and reactivity, so as far as he's concerned pretty much anything is better than the BG games. He's also a developer so he's kinda bound by 'professional courtesy' as well. Grunker is a BG2 guy and I think he enjoyed the game but he thought that encounter design and itemization were absolutely terrible among other things.
Dunno man, that's one of aspects I didn't quite like in PoE. C&C seem irrelevant, within 10 minutes of act3 I had the following happening ("translated" into spoiler-free speech):
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NPC: please do this horrible thing for me
Me (a holier-than-holy pally): No, I won't. [ending the dialogue]
Quest journal: "New Quest: Do the horrible thing"
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NPC: oh it's you, the guy who did what he did back in that time and place I can't spoil! We meet again! Oh btw everything you did got nullified because Obsidian decided so...
Me: D'uh, ok, I'll go back and fix it. Again.
Both examples came across as the game completely ignoring my choices and actions, and, more specifically, the game didn't even provide much of a reason (plot-wise) for it, other than "because we say so".
More in general, I never had the feeling that the world was really giving a rat's arse about my present/past actions. Even after some major events, there was not really much feedback from the game's world. I'm talking about "changed" convos, people addressing the player differently random chat bubbles from NPC, that kind of small, "flavour" touches that yet add so much to a game's atmosphere, maybe even a few minor side quests "spawned" in consequence of the player's influence over the world/region.
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Character-wise, Aloth gets the cookie of most irritating companion. I got rid of him as soon as I could.
Utility-wise, is it instead Kana that takes the most-sought "useless cardboard cutout" prize (or course different party setups might actually find her useful: I just didn't, at all).
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Yeah, money is a tad too easy to come by, especially money from selling all the junk that enemies drop. I fully upgraded my stronghold, bought/enchanted everything I needed to on all my party, I always sleep in the most expensive choice of room in taverns, and I still have 30k cp on me, and I haven't even finished act 2 (playing on Normal: I guess Hard would just mean more money, because of the increased number of junk-dropping [no pun, please] enemies).
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You can see if the spell will be cast with or without moving around: once you selected a spell and the mouse cursor is in "targeting/placing" mode, if the desired location is out of range and will require your caster to move around, two little footsteps will appear on your mouse cursor.
Furthermore, the spell descriptions also mention what the specific range is.
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I don't mind any form of technical reading. I love short descriptive, efficient sentences that empower me to solve a problem.
But god damn it man, how the hell do you guys bring yourselves to read all the text in this game?
I could not finish Divinity Original Sin due to all that god damn reading. I tried drinking strong coffee, but it didn't help. Do you think I should consider some kind of legal methamphetamine for Pillars of Eternity?
I feel like I've been baited and switched.
The beginning of this game was excellent:
[pic]
But once the lack of voice acting creeps in, it's just sooo hard to stay interested in the game.
Don't worry, it will come naturally to you, after you pass 2nd grade. :smug:
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So, I'm in his throne room, constantly having too much trouble to defeat him. I never came close. I'm level 4, as a Wizard. I have Aloth, Durance, Eder, and the Chanter, what's his name, that guy looking for the book underneath your stronghold?
Yeah. . . I"m getting close to level five? will it at least be possible then?
The others in the thread also gave very good tips, but here's my 2 cents as well.
Firstly, you can always turn the difficulty down to easy (assuming you're playing on Normal), or just visit the inn and hire a 6th party member (if you do, roll a melee character, which is what your party seems low on), which should give you enough advantage to comfortably kill the guy.
Alternatively, you can just travel on to Dyrford (assuming you managed to beat the Old Watcher and opened up the path) and pick up the GM, which is a great party member to have.
One more option is to just travel around a bit, do a few easy quests, kill some easy critters, and get that level 5 you're so close to. Then come back and royally hand Raedric his own buttocks.
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At first I was a pretty staunch defender of this game and it's changes to the IE style, but the closer I get to the end, the harder it becomes for me to even want to boot this game up and complete it.
There have been many people suggesting that the combat quickly becomes formulaic and follows a flowchart of - Sneak -> Position -> Tank and Spank and win
This is pretty much the case. Once you get a full party and get into the mid game, this is what every combat encounter becomes. Sensuki said it best in another topic that there is no dynamic shift or any strategy involved, it's just a set of motions that you go through almost every fight, you don't have to adapt to combat at all, because once your Tank is engaged with the mob of dumb enemies up front, you simply lay down all the AoE CC you have and you move onto the next exact same group battle. It's the same thing, over and over again.
I started to get a little concerned with this combat system in Act 2, and I never ran into a situation where combat became different or engaging. You level up and get new spells and abilities but early game spells remain really good for most of the game, and there are a lot of priest, Wizard and Druid spells that are never really worth casting in battle. The fact that you can't pre-buff in this game also reduces strategy and combat dynamic IMO.
So I keep trucking along because of the story, but even that is nowhere near the level I was expecting to get when I pre-ordered the game. I have a couple well written characters and fairly simple fantasy story going, with a pretty boring Antagonist. It just doesn't grab me and keep me moving like Baldurs Gate or BG2 did, and it's nowhere near as impressive as Planescape: Torment.
I don't expect PoE to be at the same level of those games but it just doesn't seem like they put enough heart into the story. I don't know how else to describe it.
I like certain things about this game, I really do, but when I tally up all the things I dislike, such as the combat, the attribute system and some parts of the story, overall I just find myself struggling to finish and I don't think this will be a game I start up again after completing it like I did with Baldurs Gate 2, and Planescape.
Bring on the flames!
My personal gripe is not that combat is "bad" per se (well, it surely ain't great, in all fairness), but that there is so much of it. Moreover, combat never really got around to being fun, to me, and just feels like a necessary chore that I have to endure in order to progress with the story.
Sure, this is quite common an approach, especially in RPGs, but the combat needs, has to, be fun, or challenging, or at least be enjoyable, in order for the chemistry to work out. Combat in PoE just feels dull to me, and the fact that it's around every corner doesn't really help the cause.
Indeed, things get worse once gets a full party and a few levels in: tanks up front, and then it's pretty much sit&wait. For most encounters (on Normal), I rarely have to do anything at all, which is a bit sad. PoE would totally shift from "Good" to "Excellent" in my book, if combat was both "balanced up" and its occurrences were better "planned" (less combat, more challenging).
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I dunno, maybe it's because I'm playing on normal, but I haven't even really bothered playing around with the enchanting system so far. There is a sufficient amount of dropped unique weapons in the games, and some nicely enchanted ones are purchasable too (and money isn't that hard to come by).
Sure, the issue can be annoying: in fact I was surprised to read about it and would have never thought that enchantments wouldn't have been replaceable. I'm sorry you had to find out the hard way but hey, thanks for sharing. If I'll ever get around to enchanting something, I'll be careful.
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Hey all,
To start with, I should say that I am a veteran of old IE games. Cut my teeth on BG and BG2 back in college, love Planescape:Torment, etc. I'm not a noob to cRPGs of this style at all.
That said, while I'm loving the game, I'm finding the combat pretty challenging, and I'm playing on easy. I'm pretty sure I'm doing something wrong here. I'm just trying to figure out what it is. It's not like I'm dying all the time, but in the tougher combats one or two characters routinely drop to zero stamina, and I can tell I'm not utilizing my casters properly. Combat feels like an awful, horrible slog to me.
So far, I'm into chapter 2, and my party looks like this:
Protagonist: Chanter. I sort of envisioned the character as akin to some swashbucker/mage and blade builds I did in BG2. So I decided to make him into a dual-wielding melee character. This seems to have been a big mistake, because he's one of only two melee specialists in the party (due to the luck of recruitment) so he ends up taking a lot of hits even though he doesn't have incredibly high stamina. If combat lasts long enough though he can either summon skeletons or shadows though, which can be a big help since there isn't much on the front line in the party.
Aloth: I don't understand how to use mages in this game. Almost all of the offensive spells seem to be AOE, which are damn hard to aim correctly. My biggest use for him is to paralyze (via fetid caress) and let the other characters whack the hell out of the baddies.
Eder: Works as advertised quite well. One of the only characters I'm pretty sure I'm using right.
Durance: Again, I'm not sure how to use his spellcasting well in combat. Yes, I cast spells to boost endurance in combat. But clerics have few offensive spells, and lots of spells which either inflict minor penalties on the enemies, or boost my party in a minor level. I can never decide which one is appropriate for the situation. Due to his quarterstaff, he ends up in melee more than I'd like.
Kana: Seems okay, but aside from using a gun, he's sort of a repetition of my character (even knows most of the same chants). I only have him in because I haven't found more story NPCs yet.
Sagani: Just got her a short while ago. I don't mind her so far, but I hear rangers suck. Still, It's sort of upsetting that I keep getting squishy ranged characters and casters.
I should say I've accumulated a ton of consumables over the game so far. Ever since the IE games I've been a big fan of never using any consumables unless you absolutely have to, and I've crafted a good deal of scrolls, potions, and some food. But I seldom use any of it, because I don't know what particular consumables will be appropriate for a given situation.
Anyway, tips would be appreciated. I am thinking of rerolling and just starting over again.
About your party, I'd say you're lacking one extra melee character to beef up your frontline: Pallegina comes to mind, or just build one up from the inn.
Personally, I found Kana and Sagani both equally useless unless you're playing heavily on summons/pets.
I even dispensed with Aloth (too much of a glass cannon, plus I loathe him as a character), and preferred to keep GM and Hiravia as "damange" casters. GM has very powerful single-target spells (plus the bouncy one), and Hiravias (which can shapeshift and double as a devastating melee) has some badass long range aoe.
Durance I keep for buffing, some CC, and obviously healing.
I'm terrible at combat in IE games, and yet I'm playing on medium with this party (PC as a dwarven 2h damage pally, Eder, Pallegina, GM, Hiravias, Durance) and I'm finding most encounters fairly easy. Kill healers/casters first, pause a lot, focus on the same foe as much as possible is all the advice I can really give (and banal at that).
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As it is, I rather pay 200 cp in inns like Dryford to get +2 to 3 different stats.
Yup, my point exactly. Even without the resting bonuses from the inns, I'd rather pay the 200cp just to be spared the hassle of the loading screens.
it is a useless part of the story
Except that it actually isn't. I'm not sure if the stronghold will have a more relevant role later on in the game (I'm 40 hours in, close to completing act2), but until now, it hasn't really had any actual importance in the game's main storyline: they could have just put the Old Watcher in any other area of the game, because that's the single feature that makes Caed Nua slightly relevant.
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None of the above.
What I'd really like is a big, huge, lively, reactive city whose completion takes up at least half of the game's playtime.
Ship Crew Disappears for No Reason?
in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Technical Support (Spoiler Warning!)
Posted · Edited by jools1980
Additional info + savegame + log uploads
My ship's crew simply started disappearing, despite good morale (70+), plenty of food and drinks, and no events/encounters that might have resulted in deaths.
I must have lost about 10 crew members (active duty+reserves) in the last couple of hours of gameplay, and there are no new crew members to be recruited in any port/tavern.
Any clue, anyone?
Addendum - I noticed that the crew never falls below three members. Even if I hire new ones, they'll disappear within minutes, but 3 will remain.
Savegame - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CmucjOaWTDB8bZ2I_0elF8C-WjISINRY
output_log.txt