xzar_monty

Whaat? Do you seriously think there's going to be more content? I mean, I believe it's fairly established the last patch will contain the final God challenge, but apart from that, I'm quite sure that's it, no more official Deadfire content ever.

Obnoxiously bloated writing? That's a baffling comment. How is it obnoxiously bloated? I would really like you to clarfiy this, because it would be extremely interesting to better understand where you're coming from. I've been working on the field of let's say extremely high quality literary writing for 20+ years, and I would argue that as far as style and content are concerned, PoE lies within the realm of really quite good genre stuff (so if it were a book, it would be far above pulp), and in parts, the writing is downright excellent for a computer game. It has to be said that some of the most typical generic faults are there, the phenomenon of too many adjectives in particular, but to say it's obnoxiously bloated doesn't ring true at all for me.

Yes, in 2nd edition AD&D you need to challenge the previous archdruid in order to get to level 15. Wacky, but there you go. Implementing this into BG2 wasn't the brightest idea, in my view.

BG and BG2 are actually 2nd edition AD&D, not D&D. To the vast majority of people (and indeed, all sensible folks) they're pretty much the same, but historically there's an interesting development there. Just to let you know.

It's interesting how passionate people are about the BG titles. I regard BG2 as an absolute classic, but BG1, it has to be said, is not very interesting. So much aimless wandering around on maps with essentially nothing on them. That sucks. I thought Irenicus was great, mainly because of the voice acting. BG2 is probably still my favorite CRPG, although Deadfire might come very close or even surpass it. ToB, by the way, as the finale, was a very disappointing ending to the Bhaalspawn saga. Too much railroading.

Both Ultima IV and Ultima V, by the way, back in the day, accomplished this rather marvelously: especially in Ultima IV, it took a while to even find out what the plot was, much less follow it. And yes, of course they were of their era and don't stand up to critical scrutiny these days, but there are some aspects in both that I think remain unsurpassed to this day -- which is saying something. I mean, neither PoE nor Deadfire even attempt some of the stuff those games had, in terms of how the world operates and how alive it is. And yes, your point is absolutely valid, too. Incidentally, I've been continuing to play Pathfinder: Kingmaker while waiting for the Deadfire patch, and it appears that in some aspects, that game combines the worst of both worlds: there is both plenty of CRPG railroading and the sense of a really mean and unpleasant P&P GM -- the kind whose playing group you'd want to leave after, like, two sessions. Not good. That's not the whole of the game, though, but it definitely has a dark side.

I might get into ship combat if it incurred an XP penalty. I mean, there's far too much free XP thrown my way anyway, so if there were a decent way to turn that down, I'd happily choose it. As for it being poorly explained: oh my word, yes.

The ship combat is tedious, not inviting and entirely skippable -- so if you don't enjoy it, I'd recommend just skipping it. In fact, I myself have never fired my cannons once in the whole game. I always maneuver into close combat (i.e. boarding) as quickly as possible. While doing this, I have never been hit by enemy cannons more than once, and so the damage I have taken has always been inconsequential. I'm not sure if being able to deal with ship combat like this indicates bad planning or not, but anyway, that's the way I deal with it -- the whole thing just looks so uninvitingly done. (And yes, there are naval enemies that are clearly superior to me. Those I simply avoid. That's another strange thing: the Defiant can easily outrun all the other ships in the game.)

I would say you are unlikely to get a response, although I would be happy to be wrong. Apparently, the game has been a financial disappointment, perhaps even a disaster. That may have something to do with how things are going now. However, the game has been out for almost a year now, and it's still quite buggy, and this may have something to do with the fact that it has been a financial disappointment, perhaps even a disaster. Perhaps people have lost faith in Obsidian? Who knows.

thelee, I'm really very surprised by that report. I don't doubt you, but I am genuinely very surprised. It never even occurred to me to spam rest. Different eras, maybe? I started with RPGs in the 1980s, and I do like a challenge. I also appreciate the concept of "fairness", which is nebulous, I admit it. But spam rest is not fair. It's not exactly cheating, but I wouldn't want a spam rester as a friend, let's put it like that. :-D

In order to survive or even thrive, though, you don't need to maximize anything. It doesn't really matter which choices you make: you will boss the game anyway. That's a bit bland. (Yes, I know this may not be the case with some of the god challenges. And yes, it has to be said that I haven't actually tried to make bad choices. But it has never felt that the choices I've made have been crucial, with the difficulty being what it is.)

Waiting for Godot.

Time is relative.

Fair enough, I've got no problem with that. What I think is slightly problematic is that the game does indeed offer you things that make leveling up even quicker than it usually is (as you just describe), but to make things even a little more challenging, you'll have to use a mod. It's like: leveling up is dead easy to begin with, and we can make it even easier, but not harder. It's as if Obsidian really does go out of its way to handle its customers with kid gloves, when it comes to difficulty or challenges. I don't like it. And, again, let me reiterate: I don't like this aspect of the game. Otherwise, it's great. Except for the bugs, of course. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is punishing, maybe even excessively so, I'm not sure yet. In Deadfire, you have to look really hard to find a challenge.

While waiting for Deadfire's next patch, I've been playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker a bit. The comparison is fascinating: I've had to do a lot of work to even get to level 4 in P:K, and leveling up always feels good, because you have to put in the effort. Whereas in Deadfire, you can hit approx. level 7 or even 8 by basically just walking around after the first island. That does feel a bit cheap to me. (Overall, Deadfire is by far the superior game, but leveling up is too easy and fast.)

Most people, by definition, are not stupid.

Oops. Sorry, I misread you. Ignore.

Which mods are you using, by the way? I tried editing the file itself, as per instructions on these forums, but it didn't work: the game hangs upon starting.

Does draego's comment (rather) definitely imply that a) there will be a beta, and b) the real patch will only come out after the beta's been there for a while? I have no idea about this, so I'm just curious to know. If the patch's not even in the beta state (as described above), that's a real disappointment.

Would not change them at all. Within the parameters of the system as devised, I think it works quite well. However, I would do away with the system altogther, because I don't think it's a particularly good way of categorizing weapon effectiveness. But this was not your question, and doing this would be outside the bounds of your mod.

Have you ever needed an antidote, though? It's the potion that I tend to collect huge amounts of but that I have never once drunk either in PoE1 or Deadfire. The reason for this is that although some afflictions are troublesome, none of them last for very long, and they are all therefore mere nuisances instead of severe problems, even in the heat of battle. This, for me, is one of the main reasons why battle in PoE or Deadfire is never actually scary -- to the extent that it can be in RPGs -- because you know that all effects are temporary. (The system itself, I think, is fairly well balanced, it has to be said.)

Yeah, the thing is when you're young you can be so easily impressed by just about anything with new concepts (regardless of their execution) because you are, quite obviously, so innocent and inexperienced. I will happily confess to being totally awestruck by the first Dragonlance trilogy as a young adolescent (it also definitely improved my English at the time -- I'm pretty sure I learned the word "taunt" from that Kender character whose name I cannot recall anymore), but I'm almost certain it couldn't possibly bear re-reading today. So yeah, there's that.

I read the Icewind Dale trilogy about 15 years ago, and I have to say it was really quite bad. I agree that Drizzt is a nice character, though. Anyway, I was constantly struggling with Salvatore's woefully inadequate grasp of language, and after he used the word "fascist" to describe a group of beings in the Forgotten Realms, I had no chance but to conclude that he didn't know what he was doing. Maybe he has improved since then.

Also, given the way the United States was was formed (and when), it wouldn't actually be anyone's fault if it didn't have folk/fairy tales. Although, as Amentep says, it does. It would be like blaming the Dutch for not being a nation of mountaineers.

Disney is a superb example of a certain kind of America that has very little to recommend itself. In fact, when Tolkien was first approached by Americans with plans to make something filmic of his magnum opus, he specified (in his letters) that he absolutely didn't want the result to have anything to do with the Disney ethos or aesthetics. Very understandable, that. A late friend of mine, who used to be a professor at the university of Iowa, emphasized this about America: all the crass stereotypes are true. In other words, you will find an awful lot of jingoistic brutes with no education and no interest in anything historical or outside their small little community. However -- and this is the important point -- the opposites of these stereotypes are also true. Thus, you will find extraordinarily well-educated people who will make most Europeans (of whom I am one) look philistine in comparison.