Barachiel

I like the stats on paper, but from an RP perspective, it's all a very flimsy excuse to either subvert expectations or try to avoid dump stats (or both). Now having said that, I usually prefer the array of midling stats. The only game I've ever power-gamed on is the Infinity Engine series, and that's just because 2nd Ed D&D was so damn stingy with stat bonuses, I felt compelled to have the best stats possible starting out with any character. *nods* I like the classes and I'm figuring things out. I wish the game did have multiclassing because it seems like, given what happens, starting out one class, then gaining Cipher just seems like a natural story point. But that's what POE2 is for, I guess (assuming I don't stick to your advice and just stay single classed.) I did notice the "Aspiring" feats (abilities, whatever) that give you a taste of another class' core mechanic. I've got a low level fighter and a low level cipher. My fighter is nearly untouchable. Hits often, is hard to hit, can take a hit easily and recovers quickly. My cipher has a couple cool powers but has at best a 50% hit rate, mediocre damage, and if i stick him in armor, his casting slows down to a crawl, but if i don't, he dies in two hits. I know at some point the Linear Warrior, Quadratic Wizard effect will kick in and the Fighter will taper off in power while the Cipher becomes as unto a God, but I'm not sure how long that'll take and if i can take the frustration of getting there, given I'm an amateur with the system. But my inner roleplayer LOVES the concept of a Cipher!

Huh. I've not done a lot with flanking in the early game. At least not in deliberately moving the team as individuals around. Everyone swears Normal mode is too easy and you can just let the AI do the work, so I that's typically what I've done, barring micro-managing spell/power usage. The more I look into this system, the more I think that "Min-Maxing" stats is a trap. Many of the stats seem deliberately designed to trip up the old D&D Powergamers (MIG affected spell damage; PER (which is also the WIS equivalent) being used for accuracy) by merging different stat needs on a whim (seriously MIG being a measure of physical AND spiritual strength? that's... there are countless examples of a person having a great deal of one and not another; same with PER I'm pretty good at reading people and finding things, but I've a vision impairment that makes hitting things at long range near impossible) for no other reason than to prevent "dump stats." With that in mind, with so much weight given to EVERY stat, and how Buffs in the mid-to-late game render a lot of this largely irrelevant, I'm beginning to think this system is designed around a spread of slightly above average to decent stats (15 15 14 13 10 10 for example) rather than the usual min-maxer paradise of a couple super high with the rest being average or dumped. I mean look at it like this: as a Melee Cipher, I feel like I need at above average levels: MIG for physical and spell damage, DEX for attack speed, PER for decent Accuracy, and INT for spell duration and improved AOE. RES comes recommended in general to keep my defenses up (and is tied with PER as the main RP dialogue choice stat, I've noticed; so that's a good stat for the PC to have in general). CON is the only one that isn't strictly mandated, but as a melee fighter, it can't be shortchanged either, because I need Endurance to not die. Every class faces this to some degree. Despite the "Star" system highlighting only 3 stats, the classes I've looked at (Fighter, Cipher, Paladin) all need 4 good stats at the very least, and nerfing any of the other two would be a serious detriment. God I hate point-buy systems, and miss the days of hammering "Re-Roll" in BG. *laughs*

Interesting! I have another question that's been on my mind, since reading up on mechanics. Cipher gain Focus by damaging enemies. Every melee cipher build I see talks about high Might to do more damage. But I've tried that, and I've noticed that due to average Accuracy and only a 10 PER, that my Cipher misses as much as he hits, at least in Act I. Wouldn't the way to gain focus faster be to hit more often and worry less about the damage per hit, by having a high PER?

What would you recommend in the place of "Bloody Slaughter" then?

I've narrowed my options down to a "Lady of Pain" 0-recovery build, which would require starting over (it's been nearly a year, so that doesn't bother me too much), or rebuilding my current Cipher. I've found this build for a Melee Cipher. It's over a year old, and I'm uncertain if it's still viable. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1293352068

First off, I'm starting on Normal Difficulty (i can beat the old Infinity Engine games with SCS installed without using cheesy meta-gaming tactics), but Dear Sweet Lord Fluffy, this game has mechanics that make my brain melt. Nothing works like I expect it to, and quite frankly, the system seems a little over-engineered, but I digress. I've started the game twice, but keep giving up somewhere early in Act II as combat becomes a slog. Oh, I'm winning. But I can tell I'm taking WAY too long, and for really hard fights, I have to use cheesy tactics and exploit the AI, something I don't like doing, as a rule. I'm also looking to move from POE1 to POE2 after I'm done. So at the moment, I'm torn between three classes: Fighter, Paladin, and Cipher. I've tried the last two in my aborted playthroughs, but haven't touched Fighter. What I'm looking for: Melee DPS, with maybe some mild off-tanking. Kinda prefer Two-handed, but Dual Wield is not off the table. Heavy Armor (Medium will do in a pinch if it wrecks resource management) RP Build (ie I want stats that'll let me pass some of the checks); no min-maxing needed as I'm not going POTD or Solo. I've browsed the forum and run some searches, and I've found a few interesting builds. The Fighter "Lady of Pain" variations look interesting. But everything seems designed around POTD and/or Solo so I dont' know what I can safely "tone down" for a less challenging playthrough. On a side note, I'm looking to the future, too. It seems like Cipher (Soulblade) and either Paladin or Fighter make a good Multiclass Combo in POE2. Does it matter which class I take through POE1 (and thus is the "main" class)?

I'm having the exact same issue as the OP. Figured I'd not bother starting a duplicate thread. In fact, my last achievement was from 2016. I started over this month, and just realized I'd completed "Watcher with Eight Friends", but did not get the Achievement for it. I've not used the console, so I'm not sure what the issue is. I found a thread for "removing" the flag for disabling achievements with a hex editor, followed its instructions, and sure enough, the flag is already set properly. *headscratch*

Pretty much what the title says. I've had Pillars of Eternity pretty much since launch, but I never got around to playing it (along with 100+ other Steam games). Well, I finally find myself in the mood, and am feeling a trifle overwhelmed. I've done a fair amount of reading on here already, but everything I find seems tuned for PotD and a complete custom party. As a first timer, that's not what I'm looking to do here. Bit of background, I'm an old hand at the Infinity Engine series, though hardly a master of it. I've started a game, trying for a melee Cipher build, and he just dies. A *lot.* Even if I move him to the back of the party, enemies beeline him over even Aloth and Durance, down him, then proceed to the rest of the party. Because of this, I'm strongly considering starting over with a Tank character. Here are how I'm setting up my game and what I'm looking for. * Normal Difficulty * Original NPC Companions (Eder, Aloth, Kana, etc) * Prefererred PC classes: Paladin, Cipher, Fighter, or Rogue. I'm not just looking for a single build, but tips on how to develop the NPCs properly. This game is very different than the 2nd Ed ruleset I was used to for these types of games, and I'm having to "unlearn" a lot of stuff.

Middle Mouse Button is good to know, but the Cage Mouse function is NOT working for Dual Screen monitors either.

You and every other higher tier Steam customer. Welcome to the party. *sighs* I should have bought it from GOG. No Steam-DRM and none of this BS.

What about those of us who didn't back it? I only pre-ordered, via Green Man Gaming for Steam, and while Steam *claims* I have installed all the bonus content DLC, nothing is there except the in-game items. I've restarted Steam several times, and done everything but uninstall the game itself. is there a way I can register my Royal Edition steam key on the Portal so I can DL the content from there? Hell, if there's a Royal level backer with all the stuff, would you be willing to share? I'll forward you a copy of my GMG receipt so you can verity my purchase.

Same here. I've restarted Steam twice, started a new game, restarted gain. Still nothing downloading, and nothing in the game folders beyond the manual. Royal Edition purchaser here.

Heheh, good point. *shups*

As a long-time fan of VtM: Bloodlines, I have to agree, Alpha Protocol is *nowhere* near as buggy as that game. The fan community is *still* releasing unofficial patches for it, I think! *shakes head* Now that being said, I've long felt Obsidian seemed to be working hard to take Troika's place as the "Development House Most In Need of a Good QA Department", but no, AP is *not* as bad as Bloodlines, *ESPECIALLY* not at release.

Chuck is awesome if you like a healthy dose of Geek Humor. IF you want more serious spy stuff, stay away. Season 1 was cut short by the Writer's Strike, so Season 2 re-did a lot of the plots and themes from that season for new viewers. Basically, you can get away with just watching the series premiere then skip to Season 2 and only miss one minor plot arc of any consequence. 24 I'd avoid unless you know which seasons to skip (mainly Season 3 & the most recent/final season). The best to watch cold are Seasons 1 (obviously),2, and 4. After that, the mythology gets way too dense for most newcomers to get all the drama and handwringing that goes on. Alias is *awesome* if you don't mind a bit of sci-fi slipped in under the radar. Basically, the metaplot revolves around a 15th Century architect who somehow invented devices CENTURIES ahead of his time, that various agencies are racing to collect because of some mysterious prophesied endgame. Note, avoid the 5th season. The show got an extra year at the last minute, and it shows. A lot of fans feel the show had its *real* ending at the end of Season 4, minus the last 30 seconds. And of course, Burn Notice is god-like. It's one flaw is it sticks to its formula a little *too* much. The Spy Plot for each season is in every episode, but until this year, the A-Plots had almost nothing to do with it. At first, you wont' care, but by midway through Season 2, it starts to get frustrating how he can be in the middle of something crucial to finding out who Burned him,... and then things grind to a halt as he helps some random person he bumps into walking down the sidewalk. This last season finally fixed that by making the some of the clients have a connection to said metaplot, so the Client of the Week stopped seeming like padding.

Forgive me if this has been explained elsewhere. The reason why Jolee, Juhani, Zaalbar, and Mission were left out of the What Happened To Them explanations is because these are the 4 party members that are killed on-screen if you go Dark Side. Rather than have to do a LOT of extraneous coding and cut scenes dependent on the LS/DS ending response you give to Atton about K1, they just left them out. That way if you saved the Republic, they're off doing other things to be revealed later. If you killed them all horribly on your ascencion to retake the Sith throne, there's no reason whatsover to see or hear about them. Even if K3 is made, its slim that whoever does it will add them in carte blanche, for fear of ticking off the Dark Side Purists who would want the interal logic of K3 to match the path they took in K1 (and maybe K2).

For me, Peragus was more interesting than Taris, but the Star Forge was more fun than Malachor V. Peragus had a more spooky/myserious atmosphere that I just enjoyed more. Taris is lovely and all, and I don't hate playing through it as much as some, but if I had to choose one, it would be Peragus. As for Star Forge, both had the overwhelming hordes of enemies, but for the Star Forge it made more sense. It was a damn weapons factory, and Malak was sacrficing hordes of his own troops to slow you down while he readied himself. The spookier mood of outside Malachor V just couldn't balance the scales. The longer I was on Malachor V the more confused I got as to what was happening and it never got better. The Star Forge and its endings may have been simple but I'll take simple over non-existent any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Hence the "fell into the same trap" comment....

Fell into the same trap as a few others. Got KotOR2 off Ebay, turned out I got the Russian version. Did manage to get it to install in English, but the game won't patch. By some miracle is there anyway around this? *sigh* I hate the concept of having to buy a game twice.

Actually I had the game opening day and finished 72 hours later so my opinion was not influenced by things dug up on the Net. The ending was garbage. The friends sitting around watching me play all agreed, "WTF?! Thats it?! What about.... <insert loose end here>?!" That nearly ruined the game for me. That being said, I think much of what was leading up to said ending was absolutely fantastic, and the storytelling mechanics were in some ways sharper than the ones used in the first game. Kotor 2 has the potential to be better than Kotor 1 but its unfinished state with scavenged ending in the end means it fall short just meters of its goal. Fortunately this is what we have the mod community for.

Gee, I think I just did.

The simple truth at to whether or not is worth it relies on the answer to one question. Is it the journey that makes the game, or the destination? KotOR2 has a MAGNIFICENT journey, so good, that the glitches are little more than a minor annoyance. Its immersive, and dark, and atmospheric, and I loved every minute of the first 38 hours of game play. The destination however is absolute dren, and depending on the type of person you are, you may feel jipped and angry to devote so much energy to such a great game, only to see it complete fail in the end.

I didn't think I could be either. I heard all the complaining and figured it was just the usual whining. The game was SO good, SO much fun, I figured any ending would be satisfactory. Boy, was I wrong.

And that is why the Ending sucks. Because YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!! I can't say anything more about it without actually giving spoiilers, but what I wrote was an example of something ANYTHING to give the game an ending. You could have the voice over I mentioned. you could do a voice over saying you found a new jedi order. you could have a voice over saying you took the mantle of Darth. You could have a voice over saying you Visas and the Handmaiden got together and had hot 3way action because there IS NO RESOLUTION OF ANY KIND, other than with Kreia.