Macrae

Where are the results? Also, let me add that some questions were relatively unclear, such as "what are your favorite character/class in PoE". It isn't clear if it is the favorite character/class that you like to play with or that you have empathy for, which is quite different, as you can have a character or class that you liked because you thinked it was interesting, original etc but you actually like playing with another char/class...

(This review contains spoilers. Read at your own risk) Despite being a backer since July 2014 and starting playing on the release minute (not hour or day) I just recently finished the game, mainly because real-life stuff got in the way, and I wanted to write a review in case you guys needed (one more) feedback on the product you have made, I hope you'll read it and take it into consideration when trying to improve the game. I mean, companies pay for these, and we the primary users of it, are giving these reviews for free, so why not use them? So, first of all, let me give my overall impressions. I thoroughly enjoyed the game and also felt the Infinity Engine vibe that was promised in it. For this, I would say that if you take the game as a standalone, without having previous experience in similar games I would give it a 8/10, for reasons that I will further explain. However, for "what was promised" compared to "what was delivered" I think this is a 10/10, mission absolutely accomplished, a great example of a kickstarter campaign and a huge hope for the future of video-gaming that shows that a game developer can indeed fund today a game of passion without having corporate finance thieves dictating what game will be made next according to the last statistical curve they got from their market analysis department... So, now I will talk about different parts, detailing what I liked, disliked and what could be improved. Please note that I will insist much more on things I disliked even though there are overall many more things I liked about the game, because I believe only with honest criticism we can improve things. Game mechanics: In my opinion the most critical part. You definitely delivered on your promise. Supplying something very familiar to IE game mechanics while still taking steps to add your personal touchs that sets this game apart. However, and this is my most important suggestion of the whole review, I think that in trying to stay faithful to the original IE games you also simply copied it where you could have actually improved a little. To be more precise, what you should have gone for is not how previous games were made but rather what people who made previous games would have made if they had the chance to make it today. In that sense there were a few things that could be improved, mainly combat rythm/pace. See below: Combat rythm/pace: in my opinion, combat definitely feels too "roll-the-dice"ish, in the sense that people swing blades around much too slowly. I believe this really takes away from "realism" and "fun" at the same time, usually when designing a game you have to chose one or the other but not here. Because of this I found myself often equipping my frontline warriors with very light armor because otherwise it felt much too sluggish. You definitely should try to improve the animations, diversify them, make them more rapid, more fluid... Character creation: in my opinion although you tried to prevent having "dump stats", well, this was more or less unsuccessful. And this is such a shame because there is a very simple way of discouraging extreme stats: make the last one or two levels of each skill require an extra point. For example from 6 to 16 it takes 10 points, over that it takes 2 points per extra skill point and below that it only gives you 0.5 points to remove one skill point or something like that, you get the idea. This would definitely reduce the number of extreme stat character you would have and also prevent more dump stats. (Just do it! Yes, Shia Laboeuf reference ) Inventory management: very clever use of having a "party stash", nice implementation. Difficulty settings: in my opinion perfectly implemented. Loved how clear it was that which option gave us what. This is so important and so many games get this wrong. Endurance/Health meters: very logical, realistic and original mechanic that works well with this kind of game. Well implemented. Weapons: fairly good system. Crafting etc feels logical and balanced. There are no OP weapons in the game though like in Baldur's gate. In that sense, you feel you never find an epic item in the whole game. It is open to discussion whether this is good or bad. Personally, I like finding few magical waepons and very few absolutely epic OP weapons and items, they add character to the game... Items: great to have two ring slots, however, why not necklace slot + cape slot? (not very important) Classes: Mage: I think it was overall implemented ok, however, if you compare mages here to IE mages there is a HUGE gap in customization and diversity. I mean, no need to describe it in details but just think about all the different types of mages you could have in IE games: magic school specializations, mage or sorcerer, wild mages, cross-classing etc.... I mean in fantasy games such as this, warrior should be the "meat" of your party but mages should really be the characters that set your party apart, that define fantasy. They're the damn Gandalf for Wael's sake! Is Gandalf, just another character in the party he is in? No. Here, both in their diversity (see above) and role on the battlefield, they really felt underwhelming compared to IE. If not compared to IE then they felt ok, just another character class. Spells: again, nothing really amazing, felt a little underwhelming. Just compare to spells in IE where you could demon-call, summon all kinds of beasts and monsters, use powerful magic even dangerous to yourselves, becoming more and more mysterious the higher you go in spell level. Here? Nothing special. Just regular spells, although some were presented as original, they were actually just "meh". Buff spells: just a note on the duration of spells, buffs etc, I think they felt a little short (IE experts might know better than me about this though), and visually there weren't any cues as to what was used on our characters, and the ones used looked ugly. Other classes: didn't feel anything wrong with other classes. Although admitedly did only play with party members supplied by the game. Nothing special to say here. Graphics: Environments: I absolutely loved the hand-drawn environments, gorgeous and vibrant. Nothing to say here really except keep doing the same thing. Characters: On the other hand, 3d character models looked kind of ugly, especially when zooming in. This really is very obvious especially at the character creation screen, which is the most important part of any RPG in my opinion, if you decide to kepe these models, I suggest you at least reduce the size of the models during char creation screen, it is that ugly yes. They look overall "fat" and unrealistic. The second point that makes character 3d models ugly is the color pallet. Yes, the light rainbow colored items and armors (two unique light leather armor both in light turquoise color??? Really???) which really is more closer to my little pony than baldur's gate. Same goes for weapon enchantment effects: they look ugly. Monsters/dragons: Nothing special to say, not too ugly, nothing to write home about either. Story: I really liked the general story, Characters: I think characters were all well fleshed-out, interesting except, notable exception, Grieving Mother, whom I found to be forgettable and boring. I especially liked Kana's story personally... Quests: nothing to criticize. Very entertaining quests that never repeat themselves and that feel meaningful. Endgame resolutions: absolutely loved the endgame recap resolution screens, so much different variety of results according to actions that you take, I really loved it. Races: in the end, you don't feel that orcs are "missing" in the game. This was a good call. Orlans and Aumae's are really nice and original races and give enormous amount of character to the game. World and backstory: excellent. Very well fleshed out, all the cultures feel original yet familiar at the same time. Nothing to say here except that you should build upon it now. Personal stronghold: I think this was also a feature that was uninspired and could be improved a lot. I mean, when I first heard this would be implemented people imagined all sorts of things like tactical placement of improvements, a living town with people living in it that pay taxes to you, a whole court with travelers etc giving you special missions, a lot of interactions with a lot of prisoners (personally I had only 1 and didn't see any use for it). I mean there are tons of ideas out there, very few of them were implemented... That's all for now, again, I really thank the whole Obsidian team for this game, whoever is reading this from the team REALLY PLEASE TRANSMIT MY THANKS AND CONGRATULATIONS, I MEAN IT. It was something like a dream come true for me at release and I really hope you take it to the next level by improving things especially on the game mechanics side. This was my review, however of course this is highly open for discussion for anyone who wants to do it. Peace out.

Hi, I have a technical question: I have the release version of Pillars and would like to update it but I don't know if I will lose progress or not? Also, when we install the white march will we have to start a new game to be able to access the new content or not? Thanks in advance

I thought I had the same problem too but actually the "fourth part" I had was the engwithan scepter thing..

Hehe..nice argument, except that I'm not the one demanding censorship here.. And, I'm just expressing, after them, my opinion, stating that I am a little disappointed, nothing more. If you think I shouldn't do this please go ahead, I don't want to censor you.. You are demanding censorship, because you're directly comparing people who disagree with you to murderous lynch mobs and the nazis, and thus putting them outside the range of acceptable conversation, characterizing them has indulging in hate-speech (which is censored). You also don't understand what intellectual integrity means. It means being able to back up your ideas, and sticking to them when they're rational, and dropping them when they're shown to be irrational. Anyone even using the phrase "feminazi" has already given up any claim to "intellectual integrity", because he's using crude, offensive, propaganda-speech, which compares fairly harmless people to a massive evil army (bordering on a death cult) which took over Europe by violent force and exterminated millions of people. There's no intellectual integrity there. It absolutely does not mean mindlessly sticking to your guns, or worse, someone else's guns, as you seem to think it does. Good post, personally I have always found the characterizations " femnazi" and " SJF " ( social justice Fascist ) offensive and completely exaggerated and unnecessary People like myself support SJ initiatives, the last thing I am is some kind of bigot who should be associated with groups of people who committed genocide I have asked people to refrain from using such words but some people still use them. So I can really can identify with your logic So according to SJW, words like "feminazi" and "SJF" should be censored.. xD Just shows what these guys really stand for.. xD In the end all we'll be able to say is commenting about the weather hehe..

Hehe..nice argument, except that I'm not the one demanding censorship here.. And, I'm just expressing, after them, my opinion, stating that I am a little disappointed, nothing more. If you think I shouldn't do this please go ahead, I don't want to censor you.. You are demanding censorship, because you're directly comparing people who disagree with you to murderous lynch mobs and the nazis, and thus putting them outside the range of acceptable conversation, characterizing them has indulging in hate-speech (which is censored). You also don't understand what intellectual integrity means. It means being able to back up your ideas, and sticking to them when they're rational, and dropping them when they're shown to be irrational. Anyone even using the phrase "feminazi" has already given up any claim to "intellectual integrity", because he's using crude, offensive, propaganda-speech, which compares fairly harmless people to a massive evil army (bordering on a death cult) which took over Europe by violent force and exterminated millions of people. There's no intellectual integrity there. It absolutely does not mean mindlessly sticking to your guns, or worse, someone else's guns, as you seem to think it does. I'm probably going to surprise you but yes, you are right in saying that using the term "feminazi" is not using rational argumentation but rather falls in the category of what is called "sophism". But then, when debating people who do not aim to find the truth but rather win the debate (like feminazis xD) you cannot win by rationality. This is basically something you have to learn to become a successful politician for example. But then again I am looking for truth therefore I am willing to admit such things to people who I consider reasonable or honest. For the rest of your post I'm afraid to say though that it's far too passionate [Passionate 3] to be able to make sense logically. I mean the term feminazi is just a mildly-serious term, or at least I used it like that ("what do we have left except laughing"). And Nazis were just one evil among many other in human history, even during their time Communists killed more and Capitalists killed more later on. It's just a meme, not so important.. But anyway, the political debate about political correctness is a very important a long one, however I believe most people are not ready to debate it properly..

Hehe..nice argument, except that I'm not the one demanding censorship here.. And, I'm just expressing, after them, my opinion, stating that I am a little disappointed, nothing more. If you think I shouldn't do this please go ahead, I don't want to censor you..

Reminds me of this affair oddly enough.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pALQxetf_k8 ****ing man lands an ape-made rocket on an asteroid for first time in history but gets lynched by mobs from **** fan clubs for a shirt he wore that wasn't feminist enough.. I don't know if I should cry too or just laugh.. Nothing else left to do except laughing anyway against feminazism and political correctedness...I thought financial independence would mean creative independence too but apparently sales and etiquette still matter more than integrity and bravour.. If I wanted to have that I would have just bought dragon age inquisition. It's a bad game but hey it's big budget, wide audience and very politically correct!! Probably getting banned for this but I hope it will show people what believing in freedom of expression and intellectual integrity really means...

I had the same feeling when I rolled my role-playing-oriented 12-might, 10-con, 12-dex, 14-per, 16-int, 16-res (something like that) fighter. I thought at the time that he would be very weak when hitting things. But actually what really happens in the game is that you find just the right amount of items that give you bonuses where you need them, which in my case was mainly might and dex. So, just roll a char according to what you like the most, and complete the rest with items..

Hi all, I already talked about my experience of playing trial of iron on hard on my first ever playthroughs and the reasons why I did it in the following thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71530-i-challenge-you-you-only-get-one-chance/page-3 Now, although I loved the experience, I've given up on it because, simply put, I failed and real life time constraints wouldn't permit me too many retries, and therefore I'm playing on hard mode non-trial of iron. I want to write the differences I experience between playing these two modes: 1 - General feeling: first off, although I take the same pleasure playing through the game, there is definitely less concentration and positive stress going into battles and my general attention level during them is lower. 2 - Battle-planning: I'm definitely playing more casually, not thinking too much before engaging enemies and not planning tactics as much as I tried to do in ToI. 3 - Risk-taking: my risk taking and risk aversion are also different. While I played much more safely during my trial of iron, for example by hiring custom chars as soon as I could afford to beef up my party, I don't do that so much now. Also, in my trial of iron playthroughs I was heavy on deflection, hatchets and shields, especially for my main char, while now I'm going two-handed sword on both my fighters. 4 - Now, for the odd thing, although I play by taking more risk and more offensively, I still didn't die, and encounters generally seem to have become easier. So it looks that for me playing offensively rather than defensively made me...survive more easily. xD 5 - Death counter: I still didn't die or load a game in non-trial of iron, which is a little depressing.. xD 6 - Role-playing: for the dialogs, path choices and general role-playing there are no differences. Of course it's a little ironic that now that I'm playing non-ToI I just don't die or load the game...damn logic!! xD

Same exact thing happened to me too, playing hard and ironman. However, I don't complain about it personally, as long as there is a logic to the game. And it's logical that bears are much more powerful than the few bandits and wolves you encounter until then. Also, the "beauty" of trial or iron, although I failed at my first playthroughs on hard, is that you don't know what will happen and how you should prepare, so you should always prepare for the worst..

Ok guys now I'm going to give a little bit of feedback on my runthrough in ironman hard mode. So, first game, I was super pumped, here in my time zone (China) I could start playing 1 hour after release (download etc) and it was 1 o'clock in the morning and I had to work that morning at 8.. xD but **** it. PoE was here, so I had to start my adventure. So, first game I create my proud fighter. A lone human dissident ousted from the old vailian kingdom, seeking to start a new life in these parts of the world. He's heavy on Resolve and Intelligence and decent in the rest, with an average constitution. I plan on having him smart his way out of tricky situations during the game and play quite defensive, with a lot of active abilities that have effects over time. So I start the game, and...well the first thing you notice is the game is gorgeous. So I play the first parts, manage to keep Calisca and Haedur in my party, almost playing a "perfect" run with good micro management switching back and forth between ranged and melee attacks to keep my people safe. Then get out of there, arrive to the next area Vyrwood. At that point, it's the first time in my life I am playing an ironman on first playthrough and I am indeed quite proud of having even survived these first encounters successfully, my excitement level and concentration are over the roof and I'm completely immersed inside the story. I play quite cautiously and try to evade the bandit camp as I'm alone but still take on the sole bandit and the wolves just behind. The fight with the 3 wolves is quite tough and that reminds me that my focus should be on finding party members, so I go to the town, save and exit and go to work without sleeping.. xD So, after work I start playing again. In town, I do some conversations and questing and get Aloth in the party. So I patch my wounds, sleep a little and return to Vyrwood to clear the bandits and the rest of the map. At that point I'm quite confident but still cautious, playing with a sword and a board for more deflection, I still start to learn how to play with my mage Aloth. Anyway, I clear the bandits and the little Xurip or whatever it's called and finally arrive to the cave, and I have been warned by the NPC on the road that there is a bear inside. At that point I say to myself, well I took 3 wolves by myself, I can surely take a bear with 2 party members. So, I enter the cave, draw the bears with my bow, get him inside my mage's range, stun the papa bear with my main char fighter, work on him to bring his life down, well....after having been stunned 3 times he then rises up and hits me in me foken face for 50+ damage crit, my fighter's down and my mage's all alone against two bears, in his last effort Aloth tries to burn both of them with a spell but one of the two stays up "near death" and that's the end of the story for me...that was it!! xD Indeed, I died in a sublime blaze of glory...lol.. xD Anyway, I start a new game, say this time I'll play more cautiously. Almost the same but this time I play even more cautiously. First, I wait to get Eder in my party before venturing in the bear cave, and second, I hire a level 1 custom Aumaue hulking Paladin tank as soon as I can afford it in order to hold the line so my fighters can put some dps. This turns out to be very effective and I clear the bear cave without any problem. I quest some more and then head for the temple in the middle of Gilded Vale. So, here also I manage to kill almost everyone without problems until I come to a group of Skayn (or whatever these cretures are called) of 4 including a Skayn King (just below the three bells) and, well, I "almost" beat them...end of second runthrough.. ------------- So, at this point I have to look at things realistically. There is definitely potential to beat this game in Ironman and definitely I don't grasp yet all the mechanics to be able to fully take advantage of them in the game (I went almost blind into it). Therefore I have to admit I couldn't do it, I failed my challenge. It was fun trying but I will have to play non-ironman now. If I was a student and not working I would definitely go for another try but right now I simply don't have enough time for playing games already so if I wan't to play through the whole game I will have to play with saves. But I have to say, the excitement during my first playthrough was through the roof, it's a shame I died to the bear. But I definitely don't blame the game, I think the scaling was logical, a bear in real life would be something quite different than a wolf and I should have expected that. In hindsight I think I should have played much safer, for example by hiring 2 or 3 custom chars as soon as I could afford into the party and studying the party composition a little more. But anyway, it was fun, I tried and gave it my best shot, now I will still immensely enjoy the game playing non-ironman hard mode.. Of course, me having failed doesn't mean it's impossible.. (anyone still not dead in their first playthrough on hard IM? please share!)

I think it's on GoG now!! Started downloading..

My word...my brain doesn't even function properly anymore....

Challenge accepted.. I'll post some pictures to prove I taste my own recipe..