xzar_monty

I did send someone ahead to scout, and I was informed that there were enough air pockets. Then I came back to pick up Eder, after which the "Watcher Only Check" is the only thing I get. Dang, is this a bug, then? Did I ruin it by swimming back after scouting ahead, or something? (Surely it shouldn't go like that.)

In the very first area, there's a sea cave, which contains an underwater passage. Clearly, Athletics is needed to swim through. I've got 3, Eder's got 3, but apparently that's not enough. This would be fine, if the game told me clearly that that's not enough. What I get instead is a "Watcher Only Check" tag which I will have to remove (by clicking the X on it), after which I can press "Leave". Is this really how the game tells the player that his stats aren't good enough? I'm baffled.

Ha, I had (sort of) the opposite in PoE1: loading times were abysmally slow, but the game itself ran really well with everything maxed.

Ok, I did try turning everything as low as possible, and things suddenly became very manageable. (Actually, I did keep the original resolution.) So, thanks! I might start enabling things one at a time in an attempt to see which one causes problems. If there indeed is one.

So, after the patch, I finally decided to give the game a go. My computer is a bit old, but it had no difficulties with PoE1. And judging by the System Requirements, it shouldn't have major difficulties with PoE2, either. But the fact is, it's slow as heck. And I mean really slow. Like everything is running at 25% of PoE1 speed, maximum. Obviously, the game is unplayable like this. I tried toning down the graphics (from high to medium), but nothing changed. Has anybody else experienced something like this? Feedback would be much appreciated.

I'm expecting to play the game in, say, August, something like that. (Nothing wrong with this, incidentally. Except, of course, the state of the game as it is now.)

D'oh. Now that's disappointing. (I haven't played the game yet, as my first try of approximately ten minutes proved that it's clearly not ready.)

Ahh. If that's the case, then it's more like bad writing and not a bug. What a shame (if what you said is true).

You said "through no fault of mine". Are you implying this is bugged, then? Otherwise I'm not sure what you're talking about.

Yeah. I've spent a total of less than ten minutes on the game so far. Will possibly try it after patch 1.1.

I simply wish to say that not having played the game yet (because of the save import and general difficulty problems), I am absolutely astonished that it's like this. If the OP is correct in what he lists, it could be a long wait before we have a thoroughly functional game.

I get that, but we all know Obsidian has limited resources and this really isn't something that should be worried about right now IMHO. Adding the option to leave the narrator out sounds approximately the easiest and quickest fix imaginable. Like, you add a tickable "Skip narrator" option, and if it is ticked, the narrator's sound files won't be run.

@Multihog: PoE1 was a great game when I did my playthrough approximately eight months after it was released. We do have a precedent.

For me, it has nothing to do with the actress. The problem is in the implementation. Personally, I got completely fed up with the narrator in the introduction. (And given what I have since learned about the rather serious difficulty and save import problems in the game, I have not even tried to move further.) If a narrator comes along every once in a while to describe a scene, a chapter start or whatever, that's perfectly fine. But this is not what happens in this game. The narrator speaks. You must click to move further. The narrator speaks again. You must click to move further. The narrator speaks again. You must click to move further. And so on. This simply does not work. The reason it doesn't work is that the narration is so much slower than anyone is likely to be reading the same stuff. Now, if you want to follow the narration, there's nothing wrong with that. But if you wish to proceed at your own tempo, like I want to do, then the narrator is a terrible distraction, because you can't turn it off. While you're reading the material, there is someone speaking that same material aloud, only a lot slower than you're reading. It's an utter mess. It absolutely doesn't work. There most definitely needs to be an option to turn it off.

The fact is, the game DOES start really badly. Here's why: 1) When you import your save from PoE 1, it doesn't work. 2) When you start a new game to check if #1 was a one-off of some sort, you will have to do the overlong intro again. You can't skip it. 3) No. It wasn't a one-off. I mean, seriously. These are very, very serious issues.

Is it clear that they did? (I only arrived here basically for the launch.)

Well, I played approximately one third of PoE 1 at max level (which was a huge, huge minus for the game), so there is a precedent for that, at least. But I do not know the answer to your question.

Of course it should not be like this. But I already explained why it is like this. To put it even more simply: 1) The folks at Obsidian probably have no understanding of languages other than English. 2) Languages other than English are not important enough for them, so the translators are paid peanuts, if that. 3) Obsidian cannot do any quality control on the translations, because there's nobody in-house who speaks foreign languages. I agree that it is a travesty. The honest way to do it would be to completely refrain from making any translations, if there are no resources for making good ones.

It is unreasonable and unjustified to expect patience if a product that has been paid for has been delivered and is clearly not working.

What? Okay, thanks folks, that explains the weirdness. I have only tried staring the game, once, and after importing my save game from Poe 1 I was asked some questions that I thought the save game should definitely have answered quite thoroughly. So I basically got the sense that something is not right here, this still looks like an unfinished beta or something. Ahem. I really liked PoE 1 and thought it was worth the money. This is not a good start for PoE 2: you immediately see that things aren't working. Like, that's literally the first thing you see.

Yeah, this. Makes no sense to make a beginning that takes as long as that. Particularly when that "walk through the mist" or whatever is just there for effect and reminiscence. At least 50% of that should have been cut. I agree that an option is definitely needed: seeing it once was bad enough, and not being able to skip it after that would be really bad.

This is no surprise. I wrote the following reply to a thread complaining about the terrible quality of the Italian translation. Here goes: I feel your pain. Here's the thing. I'm a professional translator. I've translated about 70 books in the past 20 years. Dickens, Wilde, Pynchon, Doyle, Dylan Thomas -- also biographies of Disney, McCartney, Cleese, Salinger, Stalin's daughter. Fantasy or sci-fi wise I've translated Scott Lynch, Gene Wolfe, stuff like that. And so on. Hard stuff, demanding stuff, literary stuff. First, my sense is that the understanding of foreign languages within Obsidian is either zero or very close to zero. After all, it's a North American company. I am prepared to stand corrected and take this back as soon as someone demonstrates that I am in error. I have an apology ready. Second, I'm guessing that Obsidian are paying peanuts, if that, for the foreign translators. Consequently, what you're likely to get are Google translations quickly scanned through and edited in a hurry, if at all. Third, because of point #1, there will be no quality control at Obsidian. Nobody will know, nobody will care. The result is that unless there is someone with enormous dedication working on your particular foreign language, you are almost certain to receive a piece of cr*p. I'm sorry, but that's just how it is.

The narrator made me want to quit right in the beginning: it's way too slow, it's extremely immersion-breaking, it's a total distraction if you want to read at the same time. And if you don't want to read at the same time, you will proceed slower than a snail's corpse stuck in frozen tar. I think it's great that she's there, for anyone who likes the narration. But boy would I enjoy the option to just turn her off.

I feel your pain. Here's the thing. I'm a professional translator. I've translated about 70 books in the past 20 years. Dickens, Wilde, Pynchon, Doyle, Dylan Thomas -- also biographies of Disney, McCartney, Cleese, Salinger, Stalin's daughter. Fantasy or sci-fi wise I've translated Scott Lynch, Gene Wolfe, stuff like that. And so on. Hard stuff, demanding stuff, literary stuff. First, my sense is that the understanding of foreign languages within Obsidian is either zero or very close to zero. After all, it's a North American company. I am prepared to stand corrected and take this back as soon as someone demonstrates that I am in error. I have an apology ready. Second, I'm guessing that Obsidian are paying peanuts, if that, for the foreign translators. Consequently, what you're likely to get are Google translations quickly scanned through and edited in a hurry, if at all. Third, because of point #1, there will be no quality control at Obsidian. Nobody will know, nobody will care. The result is that unless there is someone with enormous dedication working on your particular foreign language, you are almost certain to receive a piece of cr*p. I'm sorry, but that's just how it is.

I also have nothing against it in theory. It's quite nice that the option is there. But we should have the option to turn it OFF.