xzar_monty

I have played the Prologue or whatever it's called. I understand what you mean, and I'm not going to start it properly either for a couple of months. I am not going to replay either, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be happy with Deadfire, and once P:K is fixed, it should be a great game. No certainty on that, though.

Ok. I think it's strange that we have the opposite phenomenon going on: you struggle with Deadfire, and I with P:K. That's why I said the logic is difficult to grasp (and yes, I know, it has to do with what kind of card you have and so on). Incidentally, my card is also slow by today's standards.

Deadfire also crashes on me every now and again. PoE1 never did it once.

The lack of (apparent) logic with these things is really strange. The times when I was computer savvy are long gone, so these days I'm just puzzled. You see, I have very few problems with Deadfire (the notable exception being that the inventory screen slows down whenever I pick up an item, and carrying it around on the screen has a noticeable lag). But Pathfinder: Kingmaker is significantly slower for me. Have you played around with the graphics settings? Do they seem to have an effect?

That's the problem for you, you see. I was not whining, nor crying. It's you who has difficulties with reading comprehension, and attitude. But no more comments from me on this for you. Username Tigranes, for instance, addressed the question very well early on in his own reply.

There is nothing to be dealt with. I understand you had nothing to contribute, which is fine, I often don't either. But when I don't, I remain quiet. I was looking for a discussion, not noxious bursts of umbrage, as they have no value.

I don't think you're in a position to tell anybody what to do about anything.

That's 2 cents very well spent. Expectation is a prison, as everybody should know by the time they reach the age of about 20.

KM? Is that Kingdom Management, or what? (I'm still waiting for further patches before starting the game, but I am keen to follow decent-quality non-spoilerish discussion.)

There were no undead buddies on Hard, just a couple of other critters that I could completely ignore until I had destroyed the main enemy.

This would seem to be it. An excellent comment. I would really like to hear Obsidian comment on the thinking behind this. I believe this is a game on level with PoE: the setting is delightful and there are so many good things in general. I, for one, am quite happy without the dungeon crawls, given what else there is in the game. But the general lack of challenge (combat too easy, no resource management, etc.) means, to me, that this isn't better than PoE, which is a bit of a shame. Thanks for the comments, everyone.

So I'm playing with the difficulty level right below PotD (Hard?), with upward scaling allowed. I'm at level 10. I'm thinking of going all the way up to PotD because frankly, there is no challenge in the game. While I'm thinking of this, I wander around a desert area where there's a ruin, and in front of that ruin I'm attacked by a really fearsome-looking thingie, an Engwithian Titan. According to the game, this is a "three red skulls" monster, something I realistically shouldn't be able to handle. I've never had one of these before, the most dangerous before this has been two white skulls. Whee! I think. This could be serious business! But no. A very short while later the Titan is dead and I have suffered no injuries and very little damage. I didn't have to use any consumables, potions or anything of the sort. After the encounter, all my resources are at 100% compared to where they were before it. Seriously, folks, what did Obsidian do? I'm going to crank this up all the way to PotD, but I'm not a hard-core combat gamer, I play for the story. But while I want to play for the story, I also want some challenge. Why isn't there any in the game? I played PoE mostly on Hard, sometimes on Normal, and I found it just fine. (The Alpine Dragon was by far and away the most difficult beast for me. I also think the encounter design there was frankly unfair with the spirits teleporting in, but that's another story.) Deadfire appears something like five notches easier, i.e. Hard seems Very Easy. D'oh.

No. But apparently I should, given that even the difficulty level beneath it appears way too easy. This is disappointing, I must say.

The game was too easy for me, so I cranked up the difficulty and enabled level scaling upwards, but I have to say that neither of these has seemed to have much effect. However, I cannot say whether it's because the game simply is way too easy or because changing the settings mid-game doesn't work. (I am at level 10 now, if that makes a difference.) Technically, the game definitely allows you to change this stuff mid-game.

I am now at level 10, and I find that I have only had one naval battle. I thought there would be more of it and it would actually be a feature in the game, but apparently not. Of course it's possible that there'll be a lot later on. I'm not saying this is a bad thing or a good thing, but it's been a bit of a surprise.

The loss of agency definitely has a lot to do with the move away from text-based interactions to multiple choice. That's an excellent point. Once you make that switch, you essentially have no choice but to make things an awful lot easier. I think it's a shame.

The rubbishy thing is that if you do not fight, the game specifically says that the leader presses something into your palm, as a gift, but you don't actually get anything.

For me the only CRPG so far to be worth a 10 is Baldur's Gate II (excluding the Throne of Bhaal). PoE would be approximately an 8.5 or a 9-. Cannot definitely say about Deadfire yet, but I'd wager it's pretty much the same. Not better, not worse.

Is there a decent way to alert Obsidian to this? I mean, this is rubbish.

No, they have not always been insultingly easy. To give you a couple of examples: in Ultima IV, way back, the solution to the final mystery in the game was not to be found within the game at all, i.e. nobody ultimately told you what it was, you had to figure it out yourself. This is superb. Also, you had to type it in, not choose from among a number of options. The solution was not difficult, but it also wasn't insultingly easy. In Baldur's Gate II, the mathematical puzzle given in the circus tent was not insultingly easy. It required a decent understanding of logic, and some capacity for calculation. Granted, you had the opportunity to not actually solve it by save-scumming and choosing one of the available options per save, and if that's how you wanted to go about it, fine. I absolutely didn't, and I remember spending about five minutes figuring it out. I loved it. Getting it right gave you a real sense of accomplishment. That puzzle could be considered "insultingly easy" only if you have a PhD in math or physics.

That was the first place I checked. Then I checked each stash item by item. It's just not there. Neither is the pendant. Both the amulet and the pendant were also unusual in the sense that receiving them was not accompanied by the text you often get, something along the lines of "You get the item: so-and-so. It was added to your stash". You know, the line you get when you, for instance, search a ruin and find a scroll or whatever. There is an explicit text telling you how an item was added to your inventory. I did not get that with the amulet and the pendant.

Right. Thanks for the replies. This does not sound good. So, when it comes to incident #1, has anyone actually got the amulet without bloodshed?

So, I came to a peaceful resolution with a group of creatures, and right before leaving, their leader pressed something into my palm. I checked my inventory, but there was nothing. This puzzled me quite a bit, so I actually went out and looked for a walkthrough to see what's going on. In the said instance, I was supposed to receive an amulet called Strand of Favor. But I didn't, it's nowhere. This was incident #1. Then, I was exploring an island, and when I dug on some site there, I found a strange pendant that felt warm to the touch. Wow, I thought, this is interesting. According to the game, I picked it up, but again, there was nothing in my inventory. This was incident #2. Anyone seen stuff like this? This is frigging infuriating and not acceptable. Yes, I have gone through my inventory, and I even used the search option for "Strand of Favor". It's not there.

I would have to agree. From what I have seen, the White Marches are the best things in the PoE universe, so far. (I believe I have seen slightly less than half of Deadfire.)

I'm at level 9 now, and apart from the four or five tools available (crowbar, grappling hook, etc., the absolutely essential stuff you don't want to be without in a scripted encounter), I have not bought anything. There has been no need. Actually, come to think of it: I have bought one thing that gives +2 might. I'm not saying that you're wrong, but so far it seems to me that Deadfire is identical to PoE in the sense that there is almost nothing to be bought in the game. Like in PoE, I also have not used potions at all, except for the two occasions I tried potions of moderate healing.