xzar_monty

Yeah, this. Can anyone explain this phenomenon to any degree? I find it totally baffling. Some areas are perfectly fine, no problems whatsoever, and some are so slow you want to go and watch paint dry for some excitement. And I mean these areas are slow without any encounters. Just walking around.

There are different approaches. While I understand yours, it's not one I go for myself. In PoE1, I reached max level in the beginning of Act III, when I went to Twin Elms. I lost my interest in the game right there and then. So, the ability to develop my character is much more interesting and important than ever reaching maximum level. I believe I will reach max level in Deadfire long before the story comes to an end (unless it's a lot shorter than I think). I don't know what's going to happen then. My hunch is that I am not going to lose interest in the way I did with Poe1, but it will certainly be a disappointment. To me, maxing out is just not interesting. Again, different approaches.

Problem with this, your crew will get less experience that way. So upcoming fights are much more tedious than with a trained crew. Also, depending on your opponent, some of them can quite easily blow you out of the water with two or three broadsides, while you're approaching. Trying to injure their crew in the first stages of the battle on the other hand, buys you a lot of time to make up your own strategy. You may well be right. So far, I have faced one superior opponent that I decided it was wise to run away from, as they indeed might have sunk me with their broadsides. Incidentally, it appears to me that the Defiant is particularly good when it comes to outrunning other ships. Or perhaps I have just been very lucky with how the wind blows.

Indeed. I, at level 13 currently, have only found one soulbound weapon (and I'm not even using it, as it doesn't really fit any of my characters). No complaints about this, note. I appreciate that they are rare. I did think there were too many of them in the White March.

I agree on the manual pause thing, that's a design flaw in my view. Stealth is not really realistic, given that the enemy vessel has seen you coming, although I understand why someone might disagree. And yes, the squishied member problem is there, too. I still prefer to board.

I believe I will still try to board whenever possible. The only reason for this is that naval combat gets pretty boring quite quickly. It's not bad, but it's nothing great either.

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Eder continues to be a very well-written character. The authors deserve applause. Maia is also very good, especially because some of her shady-looking dealings seriously made me question whether I wanted to keep her in my group (so far I have). It's always good when a fictional character engages you to this extent. Xoti I'm not perfectly sure about. Both the voice acting and the writing seem to contain a few too many cheapish attributes, but then: I have had her in my group ever since I met her, so she can't be all bad.

Ok. This was very good information, thank you. So there is a difference between the two approaches (ship to ship combat vs. boarding).

What happens to loot if you sink enemy ships?

I have now faced three or four battles at sea. My strategy has always been this: I try to close down the enemy vessel as quickly as possible and then engage in face-to-face onboard combat. During my fast approach, I have been hit by enemy cannon fire, but never more than once per approach, and the damage done has been easy to deal with afterwards. I have never once fired my own cannons. The question is: is there anything to be gained from a different approach to naval combat? Would I gain something by sinking enemy ships, for instance? My logical guess is that I would lose the loot, which I don't want to do, and this is why I use the strategy I have.

I will have to agree. This is particularly apparent in Neketaka: you get absolutely huge amounts of XP just walking around and talking to people.

Sheesh. Avellone's post, both in content and in style, is terrible. If you're seriously involved in a given business, this is NOT how you talk. It actually made me feel sad, it's so far below any standards you'd expect from a well-known figure.

I just went on Youtube to remind myself what it was. And yes, I agree, it's nice. It should also be easy enough to learn by ear in a couple of hours, if you've played for some time, or immediately, if you're a pro. It's quite simple.

Fair enough. Apparently there's quite a difference between hard and potd, much less so between normal and hard.

Are you talking about potd only? Because on lower difficulties, even on hard, it's nowhere near to how you're describing it.

There is a significant difference between normal and hard when it comes to this fight. Hard is indeed a lot more difficult. Haven't tried potd, but I suppose that takes it up another notch. I suppose the main point is that since you're at a relatively low level, you have a lot less wiggle room in case anything goes wrong; i.e. if you make a tactical mistake or happen to be particularly unlucky with the dice, you might not be able to recover, given that you are fairly low on HP and resources. After this fight, and playing on hard, there has been nothing that comes close in terms of difficulty.

I thought about this, too. Unless you browse the net, which I don't want to do, there are plenty of abilities where you can realistically have no idea whether they'll be useful or not. I mean, you can simply have no knowledge about the kind of challenges you're going to encounter, and your capacity to assess the usability of various abilities versus others is quite limited. I find that quite nice, actually, although you're probably right, too: if you play on potd, you probably should pick just the right things -- but unless you check out stuff on the net, you can't know what they are.

Yeah, very much this. I had the druid NPC with me for some time, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I'd take any of the Wildstrike abilities. I suppose they can be useful if you specifically concentrate on that stuff, but even then I'm not sure. Some other abilities that appear very, very dubious to me are in the Ranger development tree. There was one where the animal companion "plays dead" for some time and then appears reinvigorated or whatever. This is not an accurate description, but I'm pretty sure you can identify it, anyway. It looked utterly useless to me, I couldn't understand why it's there. And I'm perfectly willing to be proven completely wrong...

The digsite is the hardest fight I've had in the whole game. (I am currently on level 12.) A lot of people have also found Gorecci Street incredibly difficult, but it wasn't for me. (Not intended as a brag -- I guess I was just lucky.) Hire adventurers, use all your resources, get the drake on "bloodied" and then "blessed harvest" it with Xoti. If that hits, you're a lot closer to winning. If not, you might be in trouble. Good luck!

I wouldn't say it's extremely underwhelming, but I get what you mean: very simple melodies in 3/4 time upon a background of conventionally "dramatic" strings isn't exactly innovative. Another problem for me is the inconsistent tone, maybe because of the recycling of music from the first game, music everyone who has played it instantly connects to the Dyrwood-Setting. Maybe it was also rushed somehow, who knows. The Shanties are nice though. Yes, I agree that the musical connections to Dyrwood are problematic. I also think the Shanties are the best part of the soundtrack. They sound authentic enough to be credible, i.e. they are nicely written in the tradition of actual old sea shanties. I'm a bit surprised by the small amount of (new) music the game contains. I don't know if the songs are going to change later on, but it has to be said that I've listened to the same couple of tracks a lot at this point. Incidentally, the same goes for the game tips shown on loading screens: looks like there are only something like four or five of them, and they repeat endlessly.

I wouldn't say it's extremely underwhelming, but I get what you mean: very simple melodies in 3/4 time upon a background of conventionally "dramatic" strings isn't exactly innovative.

Which forum is that? I mean the one in which Chris Avellone is apparently participating.

I would never trust any CRPG other than NetHack to not crash. And NetHack remains a treasure, even after all these years, by god but it's good.

I'd never even heard of Underrail. Thanks for the tip, appreciate it. Will see what it's like, not sure about purchasing, but will definitely check it out.