xzar_monty

We don't know why Deadfire bombed but I'm pretty sure we can say that we know there will definitely not be any POE3.

Yep, the pushing effect in Deadfire is excellent and (in my experience) completely solves these problems.

The best/worst I saw was quite possibly Eder standing still with my main character chasing a shadow or a shade around him. So picture that: a green circle stands still while another green circle carousels it clockwise, chasing a red circle. Both circles circling the green circle in the middle are in constant contact with it, i.e. touching it. This lasted for a while. For some reason, this carousel motion appeared to make Eder incapable of engaging the shade/shadow. I admit it is funny, in retrospect, but when it happened, I just went oh dear.

I also belong to this group. The only meaningful exception is the strongest healing potion, Miraculous Healing or whatever it was. Generally, I think the boost-potion system is badly planned, and implemented in such a way that there's very little reason to use potions. I think it's a huge shame, given how many potions there are and how much work has clearly gone into them. But basically the problem is that 1) because the boost you get from nearly all potions is so small and 2) because the risk of being interrupted while drinking is so big, potions simply aren't worth it. Better to spend that time doing something else.

You nicely describe my biggest gripe with Deadfire. My biggest gripe with PoE is pathfinding in combat.

Can you give an example of someone claiming their own posts to be fact/truth? Just one is enough. Thank you. If you say it happens far too often, surely you must have seen lots of examples. Of course all posts in a thread like this are guesswork/speculation. Not opinions, particularly, like you say: an opinion is a personal view of how or what something is. An opinion does not to be backed up by anything at all, and anyone can have an opinion on anything -- and therefore all opinions are essentially equal (meaningless) in a thread such as this. Guesswork/speculation may involve a more or less thorough look at the data available, which potentially makes it more valuable.

Indeed. What strikes me as particularly baffling -- and, truth be told, a bit worrying -- is that people make arguments like that (i.e. flamesium's argument) without apparently being aware that what they're actually talking about is their personal opinion only. It has no value.

It's not only unlikely, it's impossible. Too many variables that cannot really be checked. The only way to really find out why Deadfire bombed would be to re-run the universe several times from the time of the game's development, change just one variable in each re-run (and keep everything else in the whole universe where it was) and see what happens with each of them. Outside the novels of Peter F. Hamilton, we're not able to do that. We can certainly come up with explanations whose probability varies from zero to substantial, but we can't really know. And I'm not even talking about the kind of certainty we can (only) achieve in mathematics, I mean everyday knowing, the kind where we're basically just pretty sure why something is the way it is -- we can't reach even that. We've talked about this a lot here, and there have been some pretty good suggestions, like the nostalgia effect and so on, and I suppose that's the best that can be done.

This mirrors my experience of trying D:OS2. I had no idea what was going or what was important in the world of the game. What's more, none of it seemed inviting, and the system was unappealing, so I stopped playing very quickly.

And this really is a legit point. This kind of documentation can be really, really poor in the game. Which is a shame.

Optimization is really not necessary at all, unless you're the kind of person whose approach is always optimization. Even if you have way less than optimal stats and gear, you will do just fine. Optimization may be needed to an extent on the hardest difficulty (PotD), but otherwise certainly not.

I have completed the game twice, just so that you know what kind of experience I have. It's decent, but it's not as if I know everything. Anyway, I would recommend this: follow the recommendations that the game gives you. In other words, when the game suggests that you should bring this or that NPC along for this quest or that, it's a good idea to do it. This way, you will get the most content -- and by content I mean character interactions, narrative finesse and so on. For me, this tends to be the most interesting part of any RPG, and in Deadfire, the NPC recommendations for the quests were just very good. As for the sidekicks, I never used them at all, except for the quests that they were recommended for. In other words, I had Ydwin with me for Beast of Winter, and I brought Konstanten along for SSS, and they were both good. I recommend you do the same. I did not bring Fassina with me into the Forgotten Sanctum, but I may well have missed something good there. I think it's fairly easy to play the game in such a way that 1) you tend to have a fairly fixed party while at the same time 2) switching the characters a bit for specific quests according to what the game suggests. Enjoy! PS. If I were you, I wouldn't determine my faction in advance. I wanted to see as much as I could about all of them, and I made my choice only after that. My choice was that I didn't go with any of them.

One possible answer could be a virus scanner or something that (almost) constantly does something.

I don't know. Your aggressive tone, however, does not help you, nor does it encourage anyone to help you. And really, "thousands"? Without checking, I am inclined to be absolutely certain that you are wrong. Please show me the link to 50 posts that describe your problem. That's a start, but you're still at least 1950 (that's something like 97.5%) short from what you are claiming.

Given that I did not suffer from any of the problems you describe (apart from the fairly long loading times upon first entering an area), it looks like there is something in your system that is bothering you game.

Wow! Quite a coincidence. I know something about games of this genre, but I'm certainly not a true expert, so trust me, that was just luck. But thanks for the info!

Wow. That's one I cannot remember at all. Looks like something in the Bard's Tale / Phantasie mold, i.e. good and all but not particularly original or groundbreaking.

This is a pretty good comparison, yes. Football Manager has also demonstrated what can happen when you're the undisputed leader in your field: a stunning complacency can creep in and improvements between releases can become so small as to be almost meaningless. What I mean by this is that match commentary, manager interview questions and answers and even some technical glitches (not quite bugs but definite errors) have remained essentially unchanged for something like five years -- nothing has been done about them. This is why I'm almost certainly done with the series, although, as you say, nothing comes close and has come close for quite some time.

No, I played P:K only after it had been around for quite some time, so I didn't experience any of the big early bugs. And I did finish it, too. I think the storytelling and especially the dialogues are where it loses most clearly to Deadfire -- I mean, the writing is so simplistic and bombastic that there are hardly any proper dialogues in the game. Essentially you just have to click all the options you're given and you'll find out whatever there is to find out; proper Deadfire-type dialogue trees don't really exist in P:K. But I did finish the game, so clearly it had its charm as well. And I am going to buy P:WotR. I'm probably going to pass BG3, though, if it's turn-based only.

Reading these forums has woken me up to the fact that this is a question that divides people. 1) There are people whose interest in a game like this tends to wane once they reach level cap and there's nothing further they can strive for in that respect. 2) There are people who enjoy spending a lot of time at top level and doing things that only the strongest can do; their argument is basically that it wouldn't make much sense to create those highest levels if you only get to spend a moment capable of using all those fancy abilities. I think both approaches are valid, logical and good. Like you, I am in group #1, and I think both PoE and Deadfire suffer from the fact that you (can so easily) reach level cap so soon.

Thanks for that. I'll check those titles. I may not buy any of them, but at least I'll check them. My experience is fairly similar to yours. I've played very few titles over the years, but some of them I've played a lot. Heck, I probably know a lot more about NetHack than any reasonable person should.

@Boeroer: That wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement. Any other titles that you might suggest? I'm basically certain you know the field a lot better than I do.

@Boeroer: Did you enjoy Tyranny? I'm thinking of giving it another chance, in these circumstances. I understand it was full of unnecessary filler combat, but I wonder if this has subsequently been fixed or something. I mean, there used to be too much fighting in PoE, but I think that was toned down at some point. Could be wrong, though. The amount of necessary fighting in Deadfire was just about right, although there could have been a bit less of it.

This could be excellent news. Disco Elysium is a brilliant example of what you can accomplish when the writing is good. The game doesn't need violence, it doesn't need elaborate character creation, it doesn't need full voicing, it doesn't need overly stunning graphics and effects. A little of all of that is fine, and Disco Elysium provides it all, along with a very good story that is nicely written.

Your last sentence precisely expresses my feelings. It may well be that our niche is quietly ceasing to exist, going out with a whimper. It's not a big loss, but if it does really happen, I do find it sad. Heck, this is exactly the time when I'd love to have one of these games to play, but there just aren't any. I mean, I've played BG2 a few times, PoE and Deadfire twice, P:K once and that's it. I don't think there are any others that I could seriously dive into the way I dove into those games. I did try D:OS2 but man, it just isn't good. Turn-based combat is so unappealing, and the dialogues are poor. If anyone wants to make suggestions, I'm very happy to hear them. Isometric approach preferred, narrative ambition and complexity pretty much required (although P:K didn't have it).