[It's just me or there are holes in the dialogues? (first 5 mins mini spoiler maybe?)]

I'm finding a fair amount of broken dialogues and quests. The conch shells are an perfect example- finding the conch of the depths (which no one had asked for) jumped the quest for the conch of the heavens by several steps. And the random lackey behind the wall acted as if we had met before and all was going to plan (and knew about the mural in the place she hadn't seen yet)

 

I suspect several of the quest writers thought the game was far more linear than it actually is.

[Companions and Romance]

I liked how the game handled the character sexualities. Each of them make it clear that like both men and women without it feeling forced and without resorting to falling back on the promiscuity stereotype. Special mention goes to Maia here, don't think I've seen a bisexual character handled that much to my liking in a game before and they really hit the nail on the head. It's also nice to see male characters being so open about it, since it's usually reserved for women.

 

Eh? Both Maia and Serafan rather exemplify the 'promisicuity stereotype.' Maia is just awkward about constantly running into former lovers with a current one. Haven't spent much time with Tekehu in the party, but his urge to share his gifts doesn't seem that much different- he comes across as a teenager burying his insecurities under sex (and being able to talk to his 'mom' about him doesn't help that impression).

[Game progression route?]

If you mean Dunnage, to visit captain Furriante, there actually isn't any reason to go there. (You get credit for benwith at deadlight)

 

The real path is to Neketaka. For all the open world feel, the main plot and most of the side quests are fairly linear. And currently have a tendency to break if you do them out of order.

[Vella, Xoti question...]

I don't know why people were expecting something profound from a stolen baby from an end-game side quest.

 

Especially given how short and not-so-sweet some of the companion quests have turned out.

[Valian Dialect]

Learned something disturbing: "duc". I've always thought of it as "duke", not "duck", dunno how I lasted that long thinking that.

I take it you mean the pronunciation? Because it is the same title.

[Definitive FAQ on Beraths Blessings]

Spellblade doesn't get sleight of hand- its coming from a background, which is why it isn't getting the bonus.  No bug.

[Remove Diplomatic Points?]

Woedica, Berath and Skaen don't look like gossipers. So is it Hylea or Magran?

Definitely Hylea.  She's watching you through the birds anyway.

 

 

But, yeah, dispositions seem like they're problematic at the moment.  I'm not even halfway through the game and I've got 4 maxed, several others halfway, and stray points in everything but cruel.  And for the strays, I've got 'em because I didn't have a choice but to pick 'em.  I'm not sure how priests and paladins can manage at all.  

[How are the factions?]

I definitely choose the Vailian, everybody else is a slimy ****roach really. I can't stand any of them. The Vailians are FAAR from being good, but at least they are not pretentious **** trying to sell you that they are doing good here.

 

I will probably make a playthrough for Huana then Pirates after, but I just get sick from the Deadfire Company.

 

Eh.  DTC seems to be the only rationale actors in the area. A few discrete 'tidying up' of details (and a few people) seems a lot better than wholesale murder/slavery, destruction of souls, and/or wide-scale repression and literally feeding the bulk of the population garbage (and just murdering the ones that fall ill).

[Wish PoE wizards were like DnD wizards]

I loved BG1 and BG2 wizards too. They were sick and fun. 1 wizard against a whole army (2-3 webs and then fireballs and stuff), or a series of magic missiles that actually killed stuff or a lightning bolt or the best: powerful summons

 

its was a good trade off that wizards started off crappy but eventually became game-changers

That isn't a good trade off.   From a game design perspective, that's a terrible trade (a class should be enjoyable at all level and not an 'I win' button at any level).  From an 'anyone who isn't playing a wizard' perspective, that's a terrible trade (protect the gimp so he can make me irrelevant later).

[What do you think, should the Blessing of Berath to be changed or removed for PotD difficulty?]

What do you think, should the Blessing of Berath to be changed or removed for PotD difficulty?

Considering its optional... what would even be the point?

[[QUESTION] Ydwin Full Companion DLC]

 

Blah. Pass. Do something useful with the DLC instead of trying to flesh out Emo MissGothypants with more cliches and idiocy.

At this point, the only use for the sidekicks is filler because most of the seven companions are inherently factionalized. Unfortunately the class selections of the sidekicks are a problem in making them useful replacements for several companions- priest and paladin choices in particular would have improved their lot immensely.

 

I've met her in game and she really isn't Goth, more like distracted nerdy girl if you really want to use a cliche descriptor.

She's a pale, socially awkward blood drinker who ignored convention and did a stupid experiment with her own soul to achieve a kind of immortality. That's pretty much the goth ideal (even thouh it completely falls apart at the last bit in the real world). I really don't know what the term goth means to you at this point, unless you're bringing in the Gothic tribes from early European history.

 

 

@akrasjel- if there is zero content after you recruit her, she doesn't have plot hooks. A few plot references maybe, but those would have been exactly the same if she'd been a static NPC rather than a sidekick.

[How to get the Mace in subterranean Temple?]

So that’s how they solved the dump-the-resolve problem.

Eh? It seems more like a continuation of the have-high-resolve-to-progress problem they created in POE1.

[Wizard - Hail new cheese king!]

New cheese King? Apparently you aren't familiar with the last 4 decades of the D&D derived branch of the fantasy genre.

[Weapon modals with +2 penetration. Are you happy?]

It's pretty bad. The number of times it will actually help is pretty small- when I've encountered things where AR is a problem, they've got AR In the low teens and adding 2 to 7 to 9... Strangely makes no difference. Switching to some other weapon or just putting up with grinding them down slow is sadly better than trying to work with the pen system. It's just that bad.

[Almost all negative Steam user reviews are due to bugs]

 

And yes, while the voice actors are talented, the constant VO stresses that the writers.... have issues. Very few conservations flow naturally, and several give to be under the impression that the writers paid by word count, rather than coherence.

The voice acting is only a bit above average quality, it's nothing special. Some people are giving the voice acting too much credit, and it's only because they didn't expect it to be done "good enough" in the first place.

Then the narrator, which seems to be a hit or miss with people.

I didn't say the voice acting was anything special. I said the voice *actors* are talented.

 

The game could be an interesting story about human-relatable issues like trade/exploitation, leadership and (two way) loyalty, and the framework is in place, but instead it just dumps made up (and inconsistent) gibberish about souls into everything. No amount of voice acting talent compensates for that.

[The General Level Scaling / Difficulty Thread (not POTD)]

Eh. That would make fights longer, but wouldn't make them interesting (or challenging).

 

I've had to reload for exactly two fights:

One my cipher was in conversation range (melee range) with a red, three skull rated ogre bounty, and the other was my first ship battle, where my cipher was in pistol range of 8 or so enemies at the start of the fight, and I didn't know or have any way to anticipate at 4 more melee enemies would hop the upper deck railing and run down at her. Because nothing and no one has ever been able to move past an obstacle ever before in these games. :/

 

Other than that, I've had one character fall in battle...ever, in some sort of wave battle against undead in the Undercity, where they just kept spawning. Accuracy on both sides seems to be a real issue, as bonuses are much more rare, but defenses seem to be roughly the same as they were in pillars 1

[Ok, let's do this backwards, what class for these stats/theme]

Nothing. I wouldn't build a character that way, especially in pillars.

 

'Teleport' and cc point towards fighter or rogue, maybe barbarian (or just a pair of leap boots). Nothing else really even halfheartedly does what you want.

[[QUESTION] Ydwin Full Companion DLC]

Blah. Pass. Do something useful with the DLC instead of trying to flesh out Emo MissGothypants with more cliches and idiocy.

 

 

At this point, the only use for the sidekicks is filler because most of the seven companions are inherently factionalized. Unfortunately the class selections of the sidekicks are a problem in making them useful replacements for several companions- priest and paladin choices in particular would have improved their lot immensely.

[Almost all negative Steam user reviews are due to bugs]

Honestly I'm more impressed that the negative reviews are about real issues and bugs and not anything else. Though it's a little embarassing and sad that the game was delayed a month under the auspices of bug-fixing and still came out in this state. What was it like in April? The mind boggles.

 

Negative reviews of 'this isn't working right' are both valid and reasonable. At this point I feel like I've done a warm-up run, and a real play-through of the game will have to wait a month or so, with a class that actually works well with the game mechanics and combat design.

 

And yes, while the voice actors are talented, the constant VO stresses that the writers.... have issues. Very few conservations flow naturally, and several give the impression that the writers are paid by word count, rather than coherence.

 

And quest chains snap and jump often, for all the wrong reasons. Picking up a related object (the other conch shell) shouldn't progress a quest, or make strangers recognize me. Making a big deal about not being introduced to a character seems like a bug when you can find said character yourself.c dispositions and reputations are just weird. I have most of the disposition traits, and several at max, less than halfway through the game, several because I had to pick one I didn't want, despite having three favored dispositions (and getting a reward for turning over an object should never be 'benevolent')

 

[Edited for my own coherence issues.]

[Is Xoti supposed to be this insane?]

I don't know about the rest, but hearing that Xoti has feelings for Eder is no shocker for me.  They're both Eothasians, both come from farming backgrounds.  They seem to have a lot in common, though IIRC Eder's a bit older than Xoti is.

 

As for Pallegina, I never thought of her as being particularly anti-religious, though I suppose this could easily be something new for this game.  That'll stink though because Xoti is the only priest among the companions or sidekicks.  And, at least in PoE1, I always loved having Pallegina along.

Palle's expanded backstory is... unfortunate.   Basically it turns out that

she hates Hylea because she was really emo as a teenager and was gonna commit suicide unless an animancer fixed her nose.  So he broke her godlike-ness, and it turns out she didn't have the 'normal' Avian godlike appearance all along.

 

Yay.  The woman with no agency was further reduced to a whiny teenage retcon, and that's why she's so angry and stuff.

[Ranged without Ranger?]

Easily. The ranger class has a couple passives that help ranged builds, but its mostly centered on the pet.

 

Almost any noncaster class will build a better ranged attacker. As will chanter.

[Basic ship questions: exiting ship and recruiting/upgrading sailors]

I know how to go from world map to deck, but I want to land and disembark so I can go elsewhere in the world. How do I do this?

You can either land at a port or an anchor icon on an island. Just click.

[[POTD Difficulty] Launch NOT tuned discussion thread]

-1. Fix the basic stuff first. Lots of bugs still to be stomped out, and loading time optimization could use a bit of work. Frankly potd ranks behind a decent array new portraits, especially with the old ones reused for shiphands.

[Anyone else having trouble making a character and sticking to it?]

This phenomenon is technically called playing a CRPG.

Kinda?

 

Between factionalized companions and class combinations, skill functionality (and use opportunities) weapon availability, and just how things work (particularly armor and pen), this game seems to require an extra heaping helping of meta knowledge.

 

Add on the things that you can choose but not change (class selections for npcs, before you can find out what those choices do) and various game state bugs, its in a weird place.

[Companions location]

Has anyone managed to recruit Mirke yet? I've not seen any info on how to do it - I've completed the "Blow the man Down"-Quest by going along with her ideas, but she won't join my party.

She isn't a companion or sidekick