Madscientist

Great news. Looks like they learned from Divinity Original Sin.

A million dollar in less than one day. If it continues like this, we get 28 millions and the game will be bigger than skyrim or the witcher 3. come on peole, pledge NOW !!!

I would prefer more and better content. Voice actors are expensive. I would spend this money in polishing and balancing of the game. I am not against VO per se, but it is not my top priority.

Just to be sure: Multi class means you can select different classes when you level up (like NWN1+2) Sub class means you can select Kensai or Berserker when you create a fighter (examples from BG2) Having both means you can select berserker (fighter sub class) at character creation, assassin (rogue sub class) the next level up and warpriest of magram (priest subclass) at the next level up and so on. Well, we have to wait for the next update.

When I read some articles, I guess we will get a ship to travel between the islands. Suggestion for stretch goal: Give us a customizable pirate ship. You can select what kind of ship you get, hire crew members and give the ship better weapons, armor, sails and so on. In combat at sea, your tanks prevent enemy pirates from entering your ship, your mage sets the enemy sails on fire and somebody else puts your ship in a position so that somebody can fire the cannons. BG2 had at least one battle on a ship (when you return from the place where you rescue Imoen). In realms of Arcadia3 your party gets kidnapped by pirates and you must escape from their ship. So there was some battles at sea in good old CRPGs.

Just a few thoughts: - Newly created chars in PoE2 might be more powerful that those imported from PoE1 (assuming you keep your level.) The reason is that PoE2 has multiclassing but PoE1 not and in NWN2 most powerful builds had several classes. Of course, this might be compensated if you keep your epic equipment you had at the end of PoE1. - In PoE1 you will usually hit max level long before the end of the game. That means your "new" char in PoE2 might be lv 12, 14 or 16, depending on what expansions you have. 4 levels are a big difference in power. - I guess we start at lv1 or another fixed level that does not depend on your level at the end of PoE1. For example, Gothic 2 and 3 were direct sequels of the first game and you meet chars from the first game again, but you start at lv1.

I like it. @gromnir: - There will be more or less powerful chars in any game where you have any significant choice in character creation. - There will be lots of "The game is too easy" and "The game is too hard" discussions anyway. I guess there will be more people who say it is to easy. I guess power gamers who finished triple crown solo in PoE1 will be more active in the forums than new players who quit after they die 10 times in a row.

I am back from vacation. So it looks like the skill based system won. I am surprized. I never played a game with a good skill based system. - Tyranny is much too easy after act1 - Morrowind and Oblivion encourages you to jump and run all the time, repair everything after each fight and select your main skills very strangely. - Skyrim was an improvement, but you became totally overpowered anyway. - Betrayal at Kronor became boring fast. I picked the same lock 100times to max my skill and repaired everything I found. - Final Fantasy 2 has the worst leveling system I have ever known. Every skill based system I know lets you become overpowered if you repeat the same things again and again. Sometimes you have repeat most bizarre or unintuitive things to become strong, if you play normally you become weaker (Like choosing the most unimportent skills as main skills so you have a low level while having high combat skills). Does anybody know a good game with a skill based system that is not broken?

After playing PoE and Tyranny (and tons of other RPGs) I thought about what is the best leveling system. This is not about what obsidian should use in their next game ( I assume PoE2 will have a similar system as PoE). I just want to know what other people think about it and why do they like or dislike this and that. I will descibe what I think: - No choice: Each char has a fixed role and most stats and talents increase automatically as you gain exp. This system is used in many JRPG, like Final Fantasy 9 or Legend of Heroes: Trails in the sky. I think it is good if you want to focus on the relationship between characters in an epic story, but it is not good for a classic RPG. - fixed classes: You select one of many classes at character creation and you cannot change the class later. PoE has the best system of this type, at least from the games I know. The advantage is, that each class feels unique somehow, each class is good in something else but all of them feel useful (at least if done right, like PoE. There are tons of bad examples). But some players might think that they are limited too much. - class swapping: You have only one class at each time, but you can change between classes, like FF3,5,X-2 and TNO in PST. - Multi class: Your char can learn things from many classes as he levels up. The best example is NWN2. The advantage is that you can create any char you can imagine (some are more useful than others, of course). But some players might feel overwhelmed with the huge amount of optins and requirements they have for each class and skill. - classless, level based: There are no classes, each level you can select some stats or skills to improve. The Divinity games and arcanum are good examples for such games. - classles, experience based: There are no classes and there are no levels or levels have only minor importance. You get exp and you can spend these exp to improve whatever stat or skill you like. Good examples are Shadowrun: Dragonfall or Drakensang. - classles, skill based: You increase your skills by using them. Examples are The Elder Scrolls or Tyranny. The good side is that "learning by doing" seems to make sense role playing wise. Unfortuanatly I have never seen a game of this type that was well balanced and the system was not easy to exploit. - something else From all these system, I think I like the ones from Shadowrun or Drakensang most. You are not limited in your choice but you must focus on something if you want to be good. I will try to add a poll. This is the first poll I make, so I hope it works.

OK, lets compare BG, PST, PoE and tyranny: BG2 was my first game of those. In the beginning I know nothing about DnD, but I somehow managed to finish the game on normal. (str for fighters, dex for thiefs, int for mages, take the weapon with the biggest numbers and prepare some healing, damage, buff and debuff spells). Later when I looked more closely at the system, I found out that it is completely obstuse and unbalanced (some stats should be as high as possible, others as low as possible; So my sword+2 actually reduces my thaco by 2? Is thaco a word and can you eat it? I speak this thing like the mexican food.) Also in the beginning fighters can hit things and take a hit while mages cast a spell and then they are useless and they die when an enemy looks at them. Later fighters can still do nothing but hitting things with a sword while mages become an immortal force of destruction. Each class had several dump stats and the summit of this is the sorcerer whose power depends on nothing but his level. PST was the best game ever regarding setting, characters and story. But combat and balancing was terrible. Companions were mostly locked in their equipment, so most items you found were only good for TNO, but only if you had specialized him on this item. Combat difficulty seems random (in my last playthrough the hardest fight was in curst, where I had to save a girl from soldiers while bosses where very easy.) The game also wants you to be a mage with high wisdom and int. The first time I did not know this so I stayed a fighter with str, dex and con (good for fighters in DnD) so I missed many quests and dialogue (still managed to finish the game and liked it a lot). I think PoE has the best class, stat and combat system ever. Class balance is also much better than in most other games. My main problem in the game are tons of trash enemies and encounter design was often not good so I got bored from doing the same stuff again and again. Tyranny has a very good setting and I like that the game tries to focus on stories and choices (opposed to fighting lots of trash mops on a large map and call it exploration). But combat is very simplified and the skill system makes you cpmpletely OP fast (take a huge 2hweapon, buff yourself and spam AoE spells like crazy). summary: Give me a game with the stat and combat system of PoE (without hitting max level after half of the game), setting, story and chars as complex as PST, the possibility to finish the main game in several different paths (tyranny) and the encounter design of IWD. If this game is as big as BG1+2+expansions, then I am happy and busy for the next year

Some people say that PoE has a higher replayability than Tyranny. I say it depends on what you want. If you want that different choices in the game lead to different results in the game, than Tyranny is better. Tyranny is far from perfect in that sense, but its better than many other games. PoE is better if you want to play the game with a different character build. PoE has 11 classes and each class has several useful builds. But every time you play PoE you visit the same areas and you have the same quests. Only at one point you must chose between 1 out of 3 quests. At this point and for some other quests, many people choose their answer only as power gamer, so in this case do I want DR, crit bonus or accurancy bonus as reward. In tyranny you will usually end up as tanky melee fighter who uses also magic because this gives you most exp. I am a player who focusses on story, so I prefer Tyranny in this regard. I liked PoE (and BG1+2) on my first playthrough, but later I got bored up to a point where I quit playing. To me it does not matter so much if I play as tank, melee DD or caster as main char, because I have each of those chars in my party anyway. I quit Icewind Dale in the middle of my first playthrough, not because it was too hard but because it was the same stuff again and again (Though encounter design was much better than in most other games). If Tyranny is to PoE what PST was to BG, then I choose Tyranny and PST (I played PST a short time ago and I liked it. I tried to play BG again too, but I quit because I got bored.) If Obsidian releases a new dungeon crawler, I think I would not buy it. I will buy Torment: Tides of Numenera in any case, even if combat turns out as bad as PST.

If we talk about the same situation, then I threw a stone at him when he wanted to talk. He ran off and I chased after him. I fought some minions and had to talk to the villagers too, but at least I skipped his speech. During conquest and also later in the game I sided with the disfavoured.

@Keyrock Watch the movie "The gamers: Directors Cut" I got it for free from gog during a sale. https://www.gog.com/movie/the_gamers_directors_cut There are some students playing PnP RPG and you can see how their choices work out in the game world. Very funny movie that makes fun of many things you often see in RPGs.

OK, what can we take from Tyranny for PoE2: + all chars have different poses and companions have their equipment in dialogue. + In dialogue, companions do not only give comments but NPC also see my companions and react to their comments. + I like the conquest mode at the beginning. + The mini map and how it changes to combat log during combat. + The way how traps are and the fact that you can push enemies into traps. + The way how all support skills are good for combat and dialogue. It was already in PoE, but I think Tyranny made it better. Also your background, reputation and your past actions (conquest mode or in the normal game) are used better in tyranny. + I like spell crafting. I do not want all chars in PoE have it, but it looks like a good idea for one class. + The main char in Tyranny feels more part of the game world than in most other games. + Unique classes/skills for companions (to some degree already in PoE) + combo attacks + I like the stronghold of Tyranny better than PoE. The stronghold was one of the weakest parts of PoE. I also disliked the fact that you were forced to return there often because of attacks in PoE. + Money and other resources. In PoE and most other RPGs I swim in money after a short while. In Tyranny I always had less then 10 iron rings. There are many useful things you can spend money for in Tyranny (trainers, crafting, buy spell components, . . .) I think the main reason was that not every trash enemy dropped something in Tyranny. +/- With classes or classless is a matter of taste. I like both games in that regard. - I want friendly fire back, at least optional. - Not so simplified mechanics. I want flanking, interrupt for almost everything and such stuff. - the UI of tyranny is terrible. PoE was better. or use the Ui of DA:O with a huge skillbar and the option to switch between several skill bars if one is not enough. - learning by doing systems are often easy to exploit. - Better enemy AI. All enemies gathered around my tank (Barik) while my glass cannons shoot AoE like crazy. PoE was also terrible in the beginning but it improved a lot after some patches. - Better AI for companions. In Tyranny my archer wants to go to the tank to buff him. But the tank was surrounded by enemies so my archer walked around the tank+enemies because she could not get in touch range. Their spell and target selection is also terrible sometimes. - better pathfinding. Tyranny is bad but PoE was also bad at the beginning. I do not know any game where it works very good. - I want a hold the ground command, so that party members stay where they are in combat or they do only move when I tell them to move. - I like summons, if only to distract the more intelligent enemies and block their path - You have only humans, ghosts and a few beastman as enemies and all dungeons look the same. - too limited equipment for some companions. The worst game in that regard is Planescape torment. The game gives you tons of cool items, but your companions cannot use them and they are completely useless unless your main char has chosen exactly this "class". In Tyranny, does anybody need heavy armor? other things: + I like the teleport spell from Divinity: Original Sin. You can do so much cheese with it. Of course you should be able to use it only once per encounter (or a few times per rest) and some enemies should have it too. + I said that I like how you can push enemies into traps. It would be nice if enemies could do it too. So if you try to block the enemies with your tank standing in a door, they attempt to push him back so that some enemies start to go for the casters who do lots of damage from the back row.

I finished the game on normal in 50h. Lots of reading, some time spend in the forums to report bugs and at the beginning I sneaked around every map to find hidden things. It is normal that I need twice as much time as other people, its like this for almost every game. The game is more linear than PoE, but also more focussed. In Pillars I got bored later because of fighting tons fights agains trash mops, those bounties or the endless path which was also fighting on rather small maps without much of a story. Tyranny felt a bit like a JRPG (i like those) but it kept me engaged until the end. I admit that the end of Tyranny feels very rushed. I like about tyranny that your main char is really a part of the game world and that the world feels more "realistic" than evil. You are a random person who becomes destenied to save the world from an ancient evil, this story has been told a million times and that can be very dumb unless it is done very good (Lord of the Rings movies) or it does not take itself too serious (Anachronox as an extreme example). Baldurs gate 1+2 and PoE were very good games, but the stories were not very impressive. Having several factions who are not good but also not completely insane sounds more realistic to me. (This reminds me to play the witcher again.) Regarding the stat system, class balance and character building, PoE is one of the best games ever and some changes done for tyranny are not so good. Some things became too simplified (flanking, friendly fire, things that make every "class" feel special somehow), but I like the skill based system (I don´t want it for every future RPG) and I like that combat has more action. In PoE most of the time I used auto attacks because I did not want to waste per rest attacks. With tons of trash mops in PoE, I used the same few per encounter attacks for this char and the rest was auto attacks. In Tyranny, once you have gained some skills there is always something you can do and you can spam fireballs, lightning bolts and whirlwind attacks. One more thing. In PoE I had to stop my first playthrough because i got by the infinite stat stacking bug and some others. I could finish Tyranny without facing game breacking bugs, Though I did report several bugs as well. I think Tyranny is a good game now and it can become a very good game after some patches.

My party is level 7 now. I have me (mage), Eb (mage), verse (archer) and Barik (tank). So its one tank and 3 glass cannons. On the first map my mage (Warmage, life + lightning) needed to drink some potions and I thought: "This game seems much harder than PoE, I never used potions or food in PoE." Then I got to the camps and had a full party. Once I had a tank, everything was very easy. Use buffs, send Barik first and the others shoot from the distance. Right after the end of chapter 1 I went to the other village. On the way there I came to a bridge and people wanted money for crossing a bridge. This bridge battle was the hardest so far (I was level 4 or 5 and had to use potions), but it was not really hard. At first battles were boring because I only had auto attacks and I waited for the cooldown of my spells to end. Now my mages have so many skills that they can cast something all the time. My quick slots are filled with the spells I use most (buff, heal, damage+CC), but I got much more and most of them I never use because I have to press pause and look through several menus to see if something useful has no cooldown. I think the UI of PoE was much better, especially for casters with tons of spells. There are just so many sources you can get skills from (skill tree, sigils, party members, reputation) The story and setting is great, but combat feels slow and boring. I do not understand why Tyranny has higher system requirements than PoE. I have played PST a short time ago. Both games are very similar (great story and setting, lots of reading including "lore dumping" but not so fantastic combat. The graphics of PST were more than enough for me. I play a story driven 2D isometric RPG, not a cinematic 3D action game. Edit: I play Tyranny on normal difficulty. When playing a game for the first time I always use normal. I have finished PoE on normal and hard (which was not so hard at all). I will not play PotD. I play games mostly for the story, not to have the ultimate challenge. I do not mind optional super hard bosses (killed some of them in some games, but lots of them were too hard).

I started the game and I really like it. I think the world is not evil but rather "realistic". The game does not encourage you to be a hero who saves every kitten of every tree (most games give the best rewards if you act nice and "lawful good"). In Tyranny you have to make choices, they can range from being nice to being a complete psycho, most options make sense and they have good and bad consequences. Much better than most games I know. I play a female mage who tries to be "lawful neutral". I follow the law, punish criminal no matter how good their intensions were and I tell everyone who stands in my way: "This is the LAW and you must obey. Do as I say or suffer the consequences!" I demand payment if people want me to work for them, but I will not accept bribes if people want me to ignore the LAW. I am loyal to Kyros and Tunon. I sides with the disfavoured and I will stick with them unless they try to cheat me at some point. I consider the scarlet chorus to be insane psychos and I will only do something for them if I get a really good reward for doing so, else I tell them to get lost. I will play the game again after I have finished it. I want to make a male 2h warrior with tons of strengh and no brain, choose a completely different conquest, turn off the option that shows reputation change in the dialogue window and try to act like a brutal psycho. For combat, sometimes it is boring. Sometimes I press pause to see for all chars if anything has finished its cooldown because often I see nothing but auto attacks. Combat feels very slow. "Auto slow in combat" was the first option I have turned off. I used it in PoE because with 6 chars there is always somebody who can use any useful skill.

about kyros: I am not a native english speaker. Assuming Kyros was female, would this make her an overlady or does the term "lord" not imply any gender? I have my own theory about kyros: PS: how to make a spoiler box? Once I saw the option somewhere, but I do not find it anymore. Edit: Thanks Raithe

The last video was very interesting. So you gain exp for aggressive skills when you do damage, you get exp for defensive skills when you take damage and you get exp for support skills when you deal damage while you have a buff or while the enemy has a debuff. some things: - I hope offense and defense are balanced. When you attack with a weapon, your weapon skill goes up and you hit more often and harder, gaining more exp. When you improve a defense skill, you can evade attacks better, the damage you take goes down and you get less exp. Also the offensive exp are limited by the sum of HP of all enemies. The defensive exp are limited by the damage you can take. Players might prolonge fights by taking more damage and healing themselves to max out defensive and healing skills. Can you heal enemies to get more offensive exp? - It looks like the support skill of all chars go up when one of your chars use them (several chars got a skill+ when one of them disarmed a trap). On one side this is good because you are not forced to always have one char in your party ( There is one who is good in disarming traps, but you have to use him even if you do not like him). On the other side, will different chars in your party have not only different personalities but also different skills? I am not sure what is best. - I hope when leveling up it is dependent on your base skill. In the game they found an item that gave +dodge (or parry, not sure). If your skill is higher you need more exp to increase it further. Better gear might make you level up slower.

I got PoE from gog and updated the game to version 3.03. When installing the patch for the main game and white march 1 there was no problem. When I installed the 3.03 patch for white march 2, the updater says that some errors happened. The patch log says: Pillars of Eternity: The White March - Part 2 patch log Incorrect version of: D:\Spiele\Pillars of Eternity\\PillarsOfEternity_data\assetbundles\px2_0506_whitestone_cave.unity3d Incorrect version of: D:\Spiele\Pillars of Eternity\\PillarsOfEternity_data\assetbundles\px2_0602_durgans_battery_west_tower_upper.unity3d Incorrect version of: D:\Spiele\Pillars of Eternity\\PillarsOfEternity_data\assetbundles\px2_0603_durgans_battery_west_tower_elevator.unity3d Incorrect version of: D:\Spiele\Pillars of Eternity\\PillarsOfEternity_data\assetbundles\px2_0701_stalwart_mines.unity3d Incorrect version of: D:\Spiele\Pillars of Eternity\\PillarsOfEternity_data\assetbundles\px2_0702_vithrack_caves.unity3d Incorrect version of: D:\Spiele\Pillars of Eternity\\PillarsOfEternity_data\assetbundles\px2_0703_vithrack_interior.unity3d When I start the game in the main menu I can see it is version 3.03 Will this cause problems? Did this happen to somebody else?

In the recent Obsidian PAX panel, they specifically mentioned putting in the option to start a fight against an enemy who was just too powerful to beat (I'm guessing one of the Archons), which had QA ask them why they put the option in. After that, they decided to remove the option or at least made taking the option not result into death. Sorry, but I do not like when devs remove options because players do not like the (plausible) result of their actions. The setting of Tyranny reminds me a lot of Age of Decadence. In AoD, if you act like an idiot you will be dead very soon. So if a fresh fatebinder attacks an archon, the archon will just kill him. You are not the only fatebinder and there are surely some people who want to have your job. If you intend to kill an archon, you should be very strong and have a plan to exploit his weaknesses. However, if the game gives you the option to attack somebody, then a fight should start and the game should react if you win, even if the enemy is very strong and it is very likely that you just get killed in seconds. Combat in Tyranny will be much easier than AoD, unless you go for triple crown solo maybe. But in PoE some people managed to kill every enemy that way ( I did not. I did not even play PotD)

Thanks. So leveling up is similar to skyrim.

After watching the videos, I think this game has one of the best character creations I have ever seen. You do not have the class restrictions like DnD or PoE, but you will not be a master of everything in the end like in the elder scrolls. I guess after the part shown in the video comes the part where you chose what you did during the war which determines how the world looks and what faction likes you. This looks really great, even better than Age of Decadence. Next thing I would like to know is character progression. Your skills go up by using them. Do levels still exist and do your attributes change? Or are your base stats set in stone and the only way to improve things like accurancy, damage and defenses is to improve skills. Without levels, your hit points would be constant for the entire game (like AoD) and the only way to survive longer is to get better armor/dodge/parry and to do more damage (you kill enemies before they can kill you). About Kyros: In his/her centuries of being a godlike overlord, he/she has trancended above such primitive concepts like gender

The more I read about it, I get the feeling that the setting is more "realistic" or "historical" than evil. When I look at real life history, I think of ancient china and the roman empire. In china several kingdoms were fighting each other until one of them defeated all others and created an empire. The first emperor created a centralized administration and enforced the same laws in the entire empire. This empire lasted over 2000 years. Even though many people died because of his actions, I fail to see how he was more evil than any other leader at that time. The movie "hero" may be interesting in this regard (if he was evil or if he did it for a "greater good") The roman empire conquered large parts of the known world, many people have been executed by them and economy was based on slavery. The empire lasted for centuries and it was rather peaceful within the empire most of the time. Many people in the conquered areas adapted to the new situation fast because the empire brought large improvements in life quality and lots of trading. You can see "Life of Brian" where they discuss what did the romans ever do for us. The best example that shows an evil empire (and is close to this game) may be the movie "Apocalypto". A group of raiders attacks a village, kills many people and enslave the survivors. They sell the woman as slaves and the man as human sacrifices. When the sacrificing stops, they try to kill the remaining slaves as some kind of sport. While this group seems close to the scarlet chorus and the movie is based a bit on maya and aztec culture, the movie is mostly fictional after all. When I look for an "evil empire" I would look more to the modern times, like nazi germany or the areas controlled by the IS. This is not because things were much better in ancient times. It is because now we have "good" examples that exist in the same time as the evil ones (like states without torture and death penalty).

I like what I see in the video. It really looks like you have a lot of choice and consequence so it feels a bit like a party based Age of Decadence. Tyranny will have more combat but it will be much easier unless you try to solo it on the highest difficulty. I really like that you have the option to betray everyone. In many games you have the option to choose between 2 (or more) groups but in the end the result is the same. (I think of NWN2 where you have to choose between the guards or the thiefs or BG2 where you must choose between thiefs and vampires) PS: - I play games mostly because of the story, not to have the ultimate challenge. So I will mostly play with a full party and the companions I find most interesting. I leave PotD or even triple crown solo to other people. - I liked Age of Decadence and I finished it twice as (very different) pacifist. But I had no chance to get past the first hard fight as a combat char and I think the game depended too much on meta gaming.