magritte

If Pillars of Eternity was a novel, I might agree with you, but pillars of eternity is a game not a story. The rule of eliminating extraneous information doesn't work here. The different races give more options for character creation, which is an integral part of a roleplaying game. Secondly, Obsidian likely had an eye toward establishing an IP which could be used for expansions and sequels which may tell different stories set in other parts of the game world.

I never heard of House Doemenel until after I'd done the first quest for Dozens & Crucible, and a bunch of other quests in Defiance Bay. I first encountered Doemenel in Dyrford. Am I screwed as far as they're concerned because I helped Nyfre in Cat and Mouse?

It's pretty much copied from Final Fantasy 7. Overland maps existed well before Final Fantasy 7. I can't speak for the ones in FF7, but I would have described the Storm of Zephyr ones as a refinement of the approach used in Fallout 1 & 2, but considerably more dynamic. Of course, using a battle map and a world map has been a common approach in strategy games (e.g. Heroes of Might & Magic) for a long while. As I've said before, I don't think random encounters would really add anything to PoE. I like the overland map approach, because it adds a new gameplay element, as opposed to just additional battles devoid of any real context. But doing something like that would not be a small undertaking, so I'm not advocating it. As far as whether it's really more immersive to have random encounters, I think it's important to remember that the villages in PoE are actually pretty close together. Adjacent maps are only a few hours apart. I don't think it's that unreasonable to think that if you kill all the monsters near the road that you probably won't encounter any more in that area for a while. It's not like you're traveling hundreds of kilometers through trackless wilderness and then returning months later. Think of a monster encounter as an apex predator. Most predators aren't nomadic. They operate within a particular range around their den and avoid moving into the territories of other predators.. Sure, after some period of time, the amount of prey in an area where the apex predator has been removed will increase and attract new predators into the unexploited territory, but it won't happen overnight. And while I've used a biological example, I think the analogy works for bandits. A group of bandits would normally operate out of a hidden camp and work the local area where they know the terrain better than the travelers and can use it to their advantage for ambushes. They're not going to just wander about through unfamiliar terrain where they might encounter other bandits or dangerous monsters. So if you defeat the bandits who operate along a particular stretch of road, I'd expect it would be some time before a new group will appear to take their place.

The game that had the most interesting approach to "between areas" travel was the Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion "Storm of Zethyr". I thought the small-scale "overland map" was a clever way to convey the sense of a larger world, as opposed to the postage stamp-sized open worlds of Bethesda or the approach used by Bioware (and in PoE) which doesn't really give you any sense of scale of the in-between map areas.

While this is true, I do think that a player should be able to flee combat in any game which is not leveled to the player. Since there's no way of gauging whether a combat is too difficult* without actually playing it, there's really no choice but to reload. It's particularly disappointing because the health and endurance mechanic does such a nice job of reducing the need to reload. I don't see the reasoning behind the game design choice. It's not inherited from the Infinity Engine games, nor really very common in RPG's in general, and it's certainly not there for realism. And the OP is correct. It makes the Iron Man approach pretty much impossible on a first playthrough. While it might be true that few players would choose to flee very often if you couldn't take unconscious characters with you, the game allows you to pick up replacement characters pretty easily. And I have played fights where I ascertained that I was going to lose before the first character was knocked out. I have certainly done this in other games. You could argue that Ironman is supposed to be a challenge for players who've already mastered the game, I suppose. *before somebody says you can use scouting, it won't work. These difficult combats invariably involve foes you haven't faced yet, so the bestiary won't give you any sense of how hard they're likely to be.

Balance is only necessary in a multiplayer game if the emphasis is on player vs player. In party-based cooperative play, not all characters need to be equally effective in combat to be necessary elements of the party's success. I don't think any of the first three editions (no experience with the later ones) of D&D are particularly well-balanced.

Yes, if you used existing companions, it would be pretty cheap to develop. It's mostly going to be a matter of writing additional dialogue trees. I guess there would be some expense associated with bringing in the voice actors for a little more work, but I'd guess Obsidian could do it pretty cheaply compared to the cost of adding new maps, new spells with spell animations, new character models. And since it is a DLC, those who aren't interested in romances don't have to buy it. Personally, I'd rather pay money for something that adds something new to the game than something that's just more filler content that's not substantively different from what we already have. I think that's why I very often buy DLC's for strategy games but hardly ever for RPG's.

I'm not a fan of the idea. I think PoE--and RPGs in general--need fewer meaningless trash fights, not more of them. Give me a focused, well-written 20-hour RPG over one with 100 hours padded out with dozens of hours of indistinguishable, unmemorable fights. I wouldn't mind encounters during fast travel that were story-related, but more combats just to have combat or increase difficulty.? No thank you. I don't want to feel like I have to reload and try again if I get beaten up pretty badly after a tough combat because I'm afraid that if I rest my characters will get killed by a random encounter.

One thing I rather like about the combat mechanics is that they don't allow the style of "tanking" that has become popular in so many other games where the tank magically attracts all the enemies and they just ignore the squishier party members. In PoE, a melee fighter can engage a number of opponents aided by things like hold the line and extend some protection to nearby allies but you do have to position him carefully to make it work. You can't just send one or two fighters into an open room against a dozen enemies and expect them to be able to protect all the range attackers and spellcasters. I like that strategic positioning is an important part of combat (unlike say, Dragon Age: Inquisition), though I still struggle with mob control. It always strikes me that the taunt/challenge mechanic used by tanks in most games essentially cripples the A.I. As players, we always try to go after the glass cannons, so it makes sense that our enemies would do the same if they can.

While I would buy such a game if it existed (I'm totally up for Neverwinter Nights 3), making such a thing would not be a small undertaking. And the fact that there hasn't been a major attempt at that kind of game in nearly a decade suggests that it's not perceived as a big enough market to justify the development cost. Now, granted, they could be wrong, since Divinity: Original Sin and Pillars of Eternity have proven that there's still a market for isometric RPG's.

It's kind of the point of DLC to add things to the game that weren't "meant to be" in the orginal game. If it was meant to be in the game, it should have been there from the start, and if it wasn't, it should be provided free with a patch. Now, you may not feel a romance is a worthwhile addition, but that's a totally different thing. Some people think romances would add to their enjoyment of the game.

I don't think the game is so much hard as oddly laid out, in that the quests that are available to you earliest and nearest aren't necessarily the easiest. My usual approach to most RPGs is to try and complete all the quests in a particular region before moving on to other regions, and the game can seem quite hard if you try to operate that way. It seems that they want to encourage you to move through the main plot line relatively quickly and go back to other areas. That said, I did manage to complete the quest in the Temple of Eothas at level 2-3, though I left one room (with five shades) untouched, and I had to go back to the tavern for the free rest a couple times. I actually did most of the first level with my level 2 cipher PC and Aloth, because I didn't realize I could rest for free, and so I wasn't able to recruit Eder. After the first level I went back up rested and hired an NPC cleric as well as Eder and that helped a bit, but it was still pretty challenging.

So my stronghold has started to give me opportunities for minor adventures, but I'm not sure how I should use them. I assume the experience goes to the idle character that undertakes the adventure, so it seems like it's pointless to use a character unless I'm going to use that character again. I hired a ranger and a cleric early on, but I've replaced them with the pre-written NPC's who are now higher level than the ones I hired. So should I dismiss one of my active party members so I can send them on this adventure to take advantage of the experience gained? How long is a turn anyway?

Well, I was assuming when I first encountered him that it would match with Magran who shuns diplomatic and passionate, preferring clever and aggressive.

Oh yes, we could definitely use better visibility in combat. Even just highlighting the selected character in a clearly different color (blue or purple?) would be helpful--I often find it difficult to tell where the character I've selected is.

I'd like to see quests with more possible solutions, perhaps stealth or diplomacy. This is something Obsidian has shown they can do well (e.g. Fallout: New Vegas) but wasn't really on display of Pillars of eternity. I would generally like to see the game be more responsive to your characters behavior. I like the disposition points much better as a reputation system than alignment or that awful paragon/renegade system of Mass Effect, and I'd like to see it have more impact on the game. And as many others have agreed, more party banter, and generally greater interactivity of the companion characters.

Huh. Here I was wondering if I should hang on to a cleric I had hired rather than adding Durance because I was worried that his alignment might not work with my PC. Glad I decided to take Durance, then.

Thanks. I'm used to games that you have to do a bunch of optional quests for experience before you can progress in the main plotline. It's a bit odd from an RP standpoint to abandon the Raedric quest one room from the end but I will have to do head off to Defiance Bay. While I respect the philosophy of not levelling the world with the characters, it would be helpful if there were tough "gateway" encounters that warned you off quests that you weren't going to be able to complete rather than a pile of trash fights that lull you into a false sense of security before giving you a boss battle that's beyond your ability.

Okay, so I'm level 4 about 1000 xp from level 5. My party build is perhaps non-ideal: PC is Cipher, Aloth, Durance, Kana, Eder & a 3rd level ranger that I created...everybody else is 4th. I cleared most of level 2 of Od Nua but the room with the sacrificial pit massacred me. I went down to level 3 and killed a couple ogres but I'm guessing from the difficulty of facing 2 ogres at a time that I'm not going to be able to beat the ogre chief. So I went back and tried to do Raedric's quest. The monsters on the way were so trivial I figured maybe I was supposed to do it before Caed Nua. The keep itself didn't seem too difficult but after I got the key from Nedmar, I went down into Raedric's and again was totally out of my depth. I suppose I could try to make it to Defiance Bay, but since the quests there didn't come until after I'd made it to Caed Nua, I'm assuming a higher level is required. Maybe my party's just too weak. I may have gimped my cipher by giving him too balanced an attribute set but I was afraid of being locked out of conversation options, but I'm still locked out of a lot of them (resolve, particularly). I don't have any idea how to use Aloth effectively. It seems like the area of effect spells in the game all require the wizard to be on the front line in order to avoid affecting the rest of the party but he's too squishy. Should I start this game over or is there some area that I'm overlooking where I can get some more experience?