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Trogdor

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Everything posted by Trogdor

  1. Can someone tell me how weapon speed is handled? Are there multiple attacks per round for fast weapons, compared to slow? First impressions on balancing?
  2. The way I see it, managing your own faction would have been similar to managing your Keep / Stronghold, but a more involved affair. The level of commitment you'd put into it would of course come down to the playstyle of a particular player. It might be a personal preference but I always liked these sandboxy aspects of these games, where you get to shape your corner of the world. Its no big surprise that I rather like this part of Pathfinder:Kingmaker as well. ---- As for the link I provided, it does show ships captured at sea. Its a bit odd for certain posters to claim not a single ship on that list was captured at sea, but all at port. Well, he did admit to being "not perfect" on his history, so I suppose that can be forgiven. Just a quick look at the first ships on the list shows that has a link and sufficient information, show that they were captured at sea, not port: HMS Salisbury, HMS Falmouth, Auguste, HMS Blackwell, HMS Pendennis... etc Thanks for a constructive debate, @InsaneCommander, @xzar_monty
  3. (I never get why people get so angry posting on these boards.... ) Nsshepsters, I simply showed that capture of ships in the open ocean did in fact occur countless times. This was also done by privateers. The list actually shows that, but for some reason you refuse to see that. I will not debate this point, as the volume of evidence speaks for itself. Capturing your own ships and using them for own profit is actually one feature I think is lacking in this game. You come as the Lord of Caed Nua, even having your own coat of arms. You should be able to (If you want the micro) to finance and build your own faction, appoint captains and merchants, set up trade routes and have your own little merchant marine. I just think the whole naval aspect of the game was a missed opportunity to be expanded upon.
  4. Plenty of ships captured in the age of sails, just check out this list for an incomplete but massive list for a single century. So its just better to ignore this part. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_captured_in_the_18th_century Anyway, I noticed that I overall took less damage closing and boarding the enemy ship than taking it out with cannons, since the game system lacks a proper way to maneuver to avoid enemy fire (at least when I played it a month after initial release). My dream would have been that this part of the game was similar to Sid Meier's Pirates! where you can capture, sell, sink ships in a more exciting combat system. I think the game would have been better served with a graphical representation of ship to ship combat. Make it turn based or real time with pause based.
  5. Completed the game about a month ago after waiting for some of the early patches. Thought I'd wait a few weeks before giving my thoughts on the game. Sorry if the following text is a bit random, I was writing down my thoughts as they came. Overall, I rather liked it. Its strong point is certainly the myriad of quests you get at Neketaka, and you almost feel a bit overwhelmed like we all were way back in Baldur's Gate II. That forces the completionist in me to take a rest and I go around doing whatever attracts me at the moment. A sense of urgency However, here comes the problem. I was really struggling to find justification for staying off the critical path of the game and just mess around doing all manners of quests. Every passing moment more and more lives are sucked dry to keep big man Eothas going, and I am busy saving some dwarf on a remote island, allowing weeks to pass? The game should have more breaks in the critical path. Maybe the player doesn't know right away where Eothas is headed, giving us time to mess around. I kept putting off the Ashen Maw quest, even though I knew it was "time critical". Once I finally did it, yet still having lots of stuff to do around Neketaka, I felt like I was entering the end game and that I had "rushed" the game. So... if one of the future DLCs can nudge this part of the game slightly, that would be cool. The ship navigation / pirate part of the game. The ship. First of all, I just kept making a beeline for the other ship as boarding right away saved my ship from unnecessary damage and potential crew injuries. There should be more incentive to defeat them with yer cannons our outmaneuver them? Anyway, the ship part of the game reminded me of Sid Meyers the Pirates, I still got the remake installed and play it from time to time. However, I think this part of the game should be greatly expanded upon. You should be able to be a trader, pirate hunter or a nasty pirate. The way see it, there should be a whole economic minigame here, where civil ships from various factions trade and affect local port prices. If you are a nasty pirate and board these trading ships, your reputation should take a severe hit, removing your ability to run your own trade venture. Yes, thats right, you should be able to set up trade routes and become an economic power when you start owning multiple ships. This would be the "peaceful" way to earn money if you feel like boarding every ship in sight is wrong. This trading consortium could become a local power in its own right, an extension of the Lord of Caed Nuas reach into the Deadfire :D Taking control of the Principi This is another more far out idea, but IMO you should be able to take control over the Principi one you kill/force/convince the other Princes that you are the right person for the job and they should do things your way. This would open up a more "neutral" victory in the game where you have gone your own way without really siding with anyone. This could also be combined with the Merchant Guild idea mentioned above, where you reform the Principi into a trading consortium. This is iirc touched upon in one of the endings if you kill off the two warring Principi leaders.
  6. You can kill everyone on tutorial island and still get off the island. Obsidian are nice that way
  7. As a casual gamer that played the game on classic, changes to classes don't really bother me. What I feel is potentially a bigger problem is the time and resources devoted to class mechanics and balance over storytelling. I'd hate to see the game such balancing go at the expense of a rich story and lots of interesting content. Thankfully it seems Obsidian has been well aware of this dilemma, and has pushed back proper class balancing post-launch. It might annoy players that play the game mainly for the tactical combat, but I think it was the right choice. (I also realize that people working on class balance won't work on writing and art, but the game still has a budget and its a question of allocation of resources)
  8. I made all my money boarding ships and selling all "blue" equipment. When I completed my first run yesterday, I had 500,000 credits after I had maxed out the ship equipment and bought most unique gear from the various vendors.
  9. Alright, so big man Eothas destroys the machine that keeps the reincarnation process going. Why is this such a big deal? If the Wheel was constructed by Kith at one time, there must be a "natural" process that predates it. The Wheels only function seems to be to siphon off a bit of soul energy for every cycle, keeping the gods alive. However, the game multiple times avoids this rather obvious solution to the problem, so what gives? Did I miss something? Is the Wheel truly ancient, predating the Engwithans? In the quest where you grab Bekarna's research there are hints to the stars being a source of arcane energy, and the Circle seem to see some great significance in this.
  10. Indeed! I tried the walk toggle first time into the town in the starter area and yeah, I walked around. Maybe on repeated playthroughs the novelty will wear off, but sure did wonders for my immersion.
  11. The post from Josh Sawyer that was posted here earlier indicates that it's due to variables being set incorrectly and the save import feature messing with negative flag values. Right now, the Edér and Vela import issues are the only known problems caused by this bug, but who knows, there may be more later in the game. I'll be optimistic and hope that by fixing the import system, they'll prevent any other related bugs from surfacing in the future, but until that hotfix, I'm keeping the game on hold because both the Edér and Vela bugs concern me. Thanks mate, I will be doing the same. I will try out some class combos and mess around a bit on the island. But hold off on pushing further until this is fixed
  12. Does anyone know more about the scope the "import save" choices bug? I really don't want to start a proper playthrough if all my choices in Pillars 1 are moot.
  13. It is a terrible prospect really, definitive proof that the gods exist. I don't think fantasy settings touch upon this nearly enough. In our world, religions invented various 'outs', you can have your sins forgiven and whatnot. I imagine the Pillars universe would be similar, and you wouldn't be forever destined for some hell like domain if you took a wrong turn. You'd end up with some sad world filled with zealots and anarchists that way. Those clinging to the "true path" by any means, and those that have had a misstep realize they have nothing more to lose, so why not go all out and making the most out of life before you suffer for eternity.. Of course, with souls being reborn and the Leaden Key doing their best to hide the truth I'd imagine the Pillars universe would have all sorts of philosophical sects as well. What determines who you are reborn as? Some sort of Karma system? Random chance? Is there an end to the cycle?
  14. It's sad to think that we've not even come further than what BG2 achieved in this regard, even if BG2's answer was still extremely linear, at least it caused players to reflect upon what the NPC was saying and consider their answers carefully. As you say, romance in most RPGs nowadays has devolved to 'choose the answer that has the heart next to it and receive instant adoration'. Where there are mechanics that allow the player to build up friendship points or whatever, as a barrier to romance progression, these rarely involve any critical reflection; usually they're just 'give random gifts until this person likes me, then I can **** them'. It's lazy, designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and it sickens me. I agree that most 'romances' in modern games are shallow, click the right choice and you eventually get rewarded with some soft porn. In the ME series I thought there was one thing Bioware managed very well, the (as a male Shepard) bromance with Garrus. I actually realized I cared for this guy and started picking him for missions. In ME3 I didn't have the heart to win in the friendly competition If Obsidian can take this approach, I am very interested. Already Eder has a bit of that Garrus quality, IMO.
  15. I will play on classic/normal. The PoE combat isn't that interesting for me, so I can't be bothered reading up on all the spells, effects, etc. I play the game for the story. From experiences in other games, you at one point tend to find a few rotations well suited to counter most of the stuff thrown at you. If you want the ultimate challenge in tactical gameplay, face off against a human opponent in Gargy Grigsby's War in the East. No game is ever the same
  16. Nice change. I was never really comfortable with Might being so ambiguous. I want my barbarian to crush enemy skulls with pure muscle power, not some mystical spiritual force energy thingie. Now I can do that! Yay me!
  17. Adding some sort of filter function to the quest log would be nice, based on location/region. In Pillars II it could be linked to a particular Island or area within a larger island. EDIT: Locations would be based on what your character knows. If the quest location is unknown.. it would be placed under unknown. As you uncover more information, the quest could be moved to a location.
  18. You bring up a good point, and one that frankly troubles me somewhat in many RP games, Pilllars included. As you say, it doesn't seem natural to talk to every person you come across or check every side alley or building. Yet most players do this, we are meta gaming in a way, knowing if we do this we will be rewarded with extra loot, extra quests, XP and whatnot. That is one aspect I felt Skyrim got right. The amount people, buildings and possible adventures were so overwhelming, that for the first time in... forever... I didn't play the game as a completionist. I talked to those characters that seemed interesting, or went to places that piqued my curiosity. The amount of content seemed to overwhelming that I had to pick and chose because of real life time constraints. It was incredibly liberating to play like that, and a lot more like the paper&pen roleplaying games we used to run. It would be great if Pillars 2 could give you the option to play a similar way. Maybe that local tavern has different guests from day to day and you hear different rumors. Heck, should apply for the world as well, with characters moving around and changing places, giving the illusion of a more dynamic, living world. Maybe a character you didn't bother talking to moves around the world with his own agenda, and you might strike up a conversation when it feels more natural. Zones can be made in a way that lets you explore more of it in a natural way when you traverse it, running into situations or locations that pique your interest. The point is that the game world should try to make the player stumble into side quests in a more dynamic and fun way, rather than expecting the player to click everything in a relatively static world.
  19. Well, you usually get a hotfix or minor patch shortly after to fix the most serious issues. But deeper issues are usually pushed back for the next major patch/DLC. This worked rather well initially when they just had two IPs with the DLC model they were working on; Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4. However, with Stellaris and Hearts of Iron 4, it seems their team has been spread a bit thin. That aside, the Paradox community is one of the best out there, the "veterans" hang out at the Off Topic forum. As for getting the games, I find them a lot of fun, but I would probably hold off a couple of years before buying a new game. They usually need a few DLC packs and patches to find its stride. Crusader Kings 2 I would highly recommend, plenty of role-playing options there. The Game of Thrones mod for it is excellent as well
  20. That's just outright false. Their DLC practices are the best in the industry. They were... It's gone downhill. They used to sell all sorts of little cosmetic stuff piece by piece for super cheap so you could pick and choose, and their big DLC packs were like 10-15 bucks. Now they charge 15-20 for packs not nearly as big or good, and bundle all the little stuff into 5-8 dollar packs. I'd argue that pricing and value of content can't be a deciding factor in whether a DLC policy is good or bad as every individual will have their own determination of whether the price is worth it or not. What makes Paradoc's DLC policy good is that none of it required to play, and it comes with free patches that add content as well as bug fixes for those that decide not to purchase the DLC. That is correct, but it aint perfect. In the past when Paradox released an expansion, they abandoned their base game. So you were more or less forced to buy the expansions if you wanted an updated and patched game. Now as you correctly state, the DLCs are voluntary, and the community still profit from new features and patching. HOWEVER.... many Paradox games are now caught in a vicious patch cycle. A new DLC is released, which naturally introduced new bugs and balancing issues. However, instead of fixing these issues before they move on, they have started to implement these bug fixes in the next DLC. Which in turn introduce new bugs and balancing issues... Crusader Kings II is a good example of this... So either they need to start properly patching the games between each DLC, or they need to spend more time on QA. Regardless, the current DLC scheme is better than the old one. Hearts of Iron 3 without all the expansions is pretty much unplayable...
  21. He must mean an x86 type tablets that can run a full version of Windows like Surface Pro etc. iPad and Android pads run on an ARM type processor that probably doesn't have enough processing power to run a game like PoE.
  22. I'd love to see PoE II. Playing through PoE for a second time + expansion, I've had some thoughts. -The game really needs larger outdoor areas. Shockingly... I would not be totally opposed if a move to full 3d was made. Something similar to Wasteland 2... only better. I didn't think the graphics in PoE were that spectacular, so such a transition wouldn't be that noticeable. It would also have other advantages: -Would help remove clutter in combat by allowing the game to move the camera to a more top down view should the player want -The landscape can be more dynamic and interactive without needing to "cheat" with penrose triangles and the likes -Would probably help remove the (for some) long load screens -Theoretically you could zoom in on characters you interact with. Low polygon count and pixelated textures would hurt this though. -More RP and interactivity like the start of "The White March Part I"! The ability to eavesdrop and follow characters, and the trek into the burning building was a nice touch. I am generally all for things happening in the world at their own pace, and its up to the player, their skills, and even plain dumb luck to pick up and notice these clues. Maybe you hear about a young foolish adventurer heading out to some location. If you are quick, maybe you can save his life or even talk sense to him before he runs into danger. If you leave the quest in your log for several in game months, all you will find are his sun dried bones. That sort of thing. Bring a sense or urgency to *some* quests. Not all. -Related to the above...where possible, avoid spawning quest related characters *after* you accept the relevant quest. One of the charms in the Baldur's Gate games were that you could complete a number of quests simply by stumbling into them. Kill some crazy dude, find an item etc. It also helps create the illusion of a persistent world thats there regardless of the player actions. -More tough choices. Quests with multiple variables and outcomes and consequence. Some quests should hurt, and trying to juggling it all to get a "perfect" result should be difficult, if not impossible. -I'd generally hope that PoE II remains more grounded. Move a bit away from all the soul related stuff in PoE.
  23. Hmm I am not quite sure I agree. I found the Infinity Engine games to be pretty straightforward. I usually ended up with three tanky characters in front (fighter, Pally), one healer (all slots devoted to healing) and mage (all slots devoted to direct damage or breach / lower resistance spells) Then the ranged thief in the back. My brilliant strategy in all fights were: Kill mage, then splatter the rest. My PC was usually a berserker fighter. I can't really play POE the same way. Or well, I suppose I can, but I have to reload quite a bit. I feel POE wants me to treat each battle as a unique challenge where I need to use the right tools (spells, abilities) for each encounter. Use the right buffs/debuffs for certain opponents, pay CLOSE ATTENTION in combat, be ready to adjust when the opponents cast spells and so on. I really don't really feel like going through all that, so I have rather powered through the encounters in a ham-fisted brute force approach. It ain't pretty, it doesn't really work, but you get there in the end. After a few reloads in the more difficult fights That being said, I found the game more enjoyable with the expansion and the ability to give your party scripts. I like playing games on "normal" difficulty, since I figure the game has been beta tested and developed with that setting in mind. Also, just breezing though a game on some super easy setting feels like a cheat, so thats not an option. TL;DR: Infinity games were more like rock-scissor-paper. POE is more like chess.
  24. I'm 25 years old, thought the government claims I'm 33. First gaming experience I had must have been when I was around 4-5 years old and played on my fathers Commodore 64. As I got older it was the Nintendo Entertainment System all the way... was in ~91-92 or so my father got a 486 DX2 66 Mhz and I forgot all about that Nintendo. The graphics, gameplay, music, the story... it was all leagues ahead of consoles at the time. Gaming companies such as Sierra, Microprose, Origin and Bullfrog became instant favourties. First 'modern' computer rpg I played must have been the adventure-rpg hybrid series Quest for Glory. Got into Dungeons & Dragons in the late 90's by playing the paper and pen version with buddies... getting Baldur's Gate after that was a no brainer, and the rest is history..
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