Purudaya

I'd argue that Beast of Winter gave us a pretty solid dungeon dive - not in the style of Diablo or endless paths (a good thing, imo), but at least as a focused multi-level story centered on a single location. The Beyond/White Void may not have been a traditional dungeon, but it still scratched that "delving" itch. I don't know if the arena DLC is going to feature any long-form dungeons from what I've seen so far, but the final DLC still might.

I like these new challenge modes much better than the first two - very inventive Hoping maybe the Wael or Ondra challenges will mess around with the rest system a bit...

This has been common to every CRPG ever made afaik, so I doubt they'll break new ground by coming up with a narrative justification for 7 diverse companions (3 of whom you first met on another continent) to all just happen to be sitting in the first bar you come across. Aloth being on the island is enough of a stretch as it is. One thing I would like to see from upcoming DLCs would be one or more full fledged companions. The originals are already fairly short on content and I haven't met a sidekick yet who is currently worth the time, so either adding some significant content to existing companions/sidekicks or adding some more of the former would add a lot to the party experience.

Weapon styles need to be fixed; there's nothing else in the game that's as problematic as far as I'm concerned (except maybe high level POTD). Really hope they'll add a few remaining/essential combat tweaks in preparation for the arena DLC.

Interesting. What about a alcoholic pirate that is drunk and not clumsy? The Swiftblade is available right now on Nexus, and it won't be undergoing a whole bunch of changes with this new mod. Thank you for the feedback Purudaya and I'm glad you came to post here. So, the Specter. Your idea makes the most sense: stealth/invisibility autocasts shadow. Unfortunately, because summoning is an attack, it looks like you have to choose a target or a point on the ground using mouseclick. There is not a "random location within an AoE" option that I can see for summoning, which means I can't really autocast the summon. But... I can make the reverse happen pretty easily: summoning a shadow automatically makes the Specter invisible. And I think I'll work this functionality into the Specter. Regarding the other changes to the Rogue class, I'm going to leave Finishing Blow as is for now, but I've moved Gambit to PL7 (mostly to fill in the unlock options at that level). I may end up changing the Guile cost of the first Smoke to 1, but I haven't decided yet. Lastly, we received your mod request and I'll be handling it. You mention that Sneak Attack powerlevels. Is that true? (Edit: You're right, it does level!) Have I just not noticed it, because I feel like it doesn't. Regardless, there may be issuing using the powerlevel mechanic. However, we can do a ghetto version that still stays pretty clean (basically, we can autogrant replacement Backstab abilities at every power level that boost the damage bonus). It's a little tedious but it's doable. Thanks for taking on the request! I'll look forward to seeing what implementation you come up with

Instead of a manual (and free) long duration summon, it might be fun to give the specter an automatic short-duration summon whenever it enters stealth. Alternatively, you could also give the class a duration boost to all stealth abilities and have the companion automatically summon/unsummon when the rogue enters/leaves stealth. Would create some interesting choices and prevent too much time spent in recovery from non-damaging abilities. Feedback on base changes: I really like the guile cost tweaks (except maybe making smoke veil and shadowing beyond the same cost), but the tier increase for the finishing blow tree might be a little too high as the base ability isn't that strong and multiclasses would be locked out from the rest. Maybe increase the PL distance between finishing blow and devastating/eliminating blow instead? It would also be cool to see backstab linked to PL for applicable classes the way sneak attack currently is, but I'm not sure how easy that is to implement. I've tested your Swiftblade so far it's both well-balanced and fun to play. Nice work!

True, but it wouldn't be the first time that multi was a better choice and single classes already use more auto-attacks anyway. Multiclassed Helwalkers/Nalpazcas already have a lot of advantages — Shattered Pillar actually discourages multiclassing somewhat given that multis have more ability uses. I'm all for alternative solutions, but the idea that a SP shadowdancer lands wounds with auto-attacks but not with, say, gouging strike (which is literally described as creating a wound) just doesn't make logical sense. Same for other multi abilities like crushing blow, etc — successful weapon attacks cause wounds by definition, regardless of whether or not they're made in conjunction with an ability. There are other solutions like excluding grazes from SP's wound generation or, more drastically, restricting it to crits only. That would create new synergies with other classes, but that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

I don't think so, unfortunately. I can make a fake email and give you a Twitter account, if you want? Just so you can vote. Edit: Thank you for the clarification btw Clawdias! Much appreciated. That's nice of you, but I think I dislike the platform a little too much for the trouble. I don't know why they can't make a forum here concurrently and count votes from both. Ah well, I'll quietly root for ring

Yep, I know that shattered pillar could use dance of death, it just never really needed to before (hence the with/without comparison). I forgot about torment's/rooting pain though; that definitely needed to be fixed. I'd rather come up with an alternative to auto-attacks than increasing the wound limit. Just make it so wounds can't be generated from passives or wound-spending abilities, maybe?

It's still beyond me why shattered pillar got the auto-attack nerf. It already gains fewer wounds and it wasn't generating them much faster than a Helwalker/Nalpazca with enduring dance enabled. The idea that a full attack ability can't generate wounds but an auto-attack can is nonsensical to the point of being immersion breaking. It's really too bad — I never really liked Obsidian's concept of the self-flagellating/wound-accruing Monk, so it made a nice alternative lore-wise to have one that gains momentum from dealing damage rather than receiving it.

So... Is there any way to participate without a Twitter account?

Oddly similar to what I wrote Ah, that's what I get for not reading through the whole thread first. Great minds and all that

It's also just a really cool map. Walking across an exploding bridge frozen in time at various points of devastation was as fun to look at as it was to play.

If you start adding a finite resource (eg food) for resting, then you run into the same problem as in PoE1: the stash. When you give the player what is basically a bottomless, portable bag of holding capable of storing infinite sets of plate mail from the start, it's hard to justify capping them at X bowls of mariner's porridge for resting. I actually wish they had done away with the stash in Deadfire, or at least made it only accessible while on the ship. It had a purpose in PoE1 to prevent players from having to run back to shops/the stronghold all the time, but now that your stronghold is also your primary means of transportation it really isn't necessary. A ship-based stash would've also helped them stagger the economy better as players would have to be more discerning about what loot to pick up rather than returning to port after every level 12+ quest with 50k worth of exceptional armor to sell. The game could instead add an 18-hour rest cooldown or at least designate certain areas/circumstances where resting is not allowed. You can currently rest on the bridge at Ashen Maw, the Scourge-infested last level of the White Void, just about anywhere outside of combat on Splintered Reef, etc - even just denying rest in maps with active enemies would be enough to add some depth/strategy to the empower system, at least for the few larger dungeons.

Which monk subclass are you playing? Keep in mind that shattered pillar's reduced wound cap and enduring dance's fast wound generation can get you to max wounds quickly, after which you won't be able to trigger rooting pain until you spend some wounds and generate more (and even then, it no longer has a 100% proc).. I don't believe rooting pain has animations/visual cues, but you should be able to view the damage in the combat log if its firing.

Assassinate and backstab will only work if you are sneaking/invisible, no exceptions. I'd like to see more options to trigger backstabs especially since the 1.1 nerf, but allowing them on enemies who can be paralyzed sometimes upwards of 10 seconds (and blinded for far longer) would be game breaking. That said, there is some good gear that allows assassins to capitalize on backstabs (a cloak that adds stun to any attack made from stealth, new boots that grant a free per-encounter invisibility after a kill, etc) and adds some helpful utility to stealth builds.

There was some of that to be sure, but some of the new enemy types were fun to fight and the game had, what, 3 boss encounters? They're also adding 4 new "Mega bosses" as free DLC between now and the end of the year, so that might be up your alley

Isn't that kind of how the rest of the base game is, though? I actually thought the use of a longer-form, focused, and more linear narrative was a nice change of pace, especially given the lack of large dungeon adventures in the OC. The rest of the game has a lot of exploration on a meta-level; specifically on the world map. But most of that leads you to a linear vignette. Outside of Neketaka and Port Maje, you don't see the same sort of large map with exploration. Some maps like Dyrford Crossing, Northweald, Russetwood, or Whitestone Hollow would be nice, because in those maps there's a lot to discover in the map your in. Fallout had random encounters, and random little dungeons you would find, but it also had the occasional sprawling map with everything from a special person trying to protect their cows to a robot giving Lost in Space references. Don't forget Dunnage, there's a good handful of sidequests there iirc as well as a scripted encounter, it's just that it's broken up into areas instead of one large map. Another more open hub-like area with sidequests would be nice (maybe in the arena DLC?), but I think larger freewheeling exploration maps like in PoE1 have been replaced by the land/wilderness map to some extent and might feel out of place. I get where you're coming from though, I guess it just comes down to how much you enjoy the vignettes as an alternative. I found Neketaka, Splintered Reef, and Dunnage to be more memorable than any map in PoE1 (with the exception of the White March), some of the smaller vignettes less so.

Isn't that kind of how the rest of the base game is, though? I actually thought the use of a longer-form, focused, and more linear narrative was a nice change of pace, especially given the lack of large dungeon adventures in the OC.

Given that scaling (if you have it turned on and downward scaling is enabled) is currently +4/-4 and the recommended party level is ~15, I'd suggest being at least level 11-12 before starting. Otherwise, 14-15 depending on difficulty.

It's relatively challenging, had to reload once or twice on fights where I was ambushed/poorly positioned or going up against a boss. It seems to handle difficulty better than the base game, but you could still probably get through it with minimal use of consumables/per rest abilities. It's definitely not a cakewalk, though, and with a recommended lvl 15 party on PotD with scaling I could imagine it being quite difficult..

Aside from maybe writing your OP without having played enough of the game, you've actually been pretty reasonable in genuinely listening to others' feedback and keeping an open mind. Hopefully your second approach to the game provides a better experience.

I really liked the direction Obsidian went with this DLC - while the Harbinger village and temple content were pretty much standard fare, the various levels of the Beyond were some of their best artistic work yet and the additions to the lore/worldbuilding (especially the callbacks to PoE1) were a really nice surprise. The combat was adequately challenging on PotD with level scaling and a level 20 party, although there were a few semi-trash mobs/repeat fights that felt like they were meant to pad the experience a little bit. The optional 2nd boss fight was also a little too easy, although it probably would've been just right for a lvl 15-16 party (as recommended) with the same settings. Other than that, it was absolutely worth the 10 bucks - here's hoping the other DLCs are of similar quality, because they're off to a solid start so far. Oh, one exception: Vatnir. He wasn't bad per se, but I didn't find him particularly interesting/likeable (aside from the very cool physical character design) and wound up wishing that I had taken another companion through the DLC instead as he didn't really add much. It's also hard to get invested in sidekicks generally when you know they won't have much interactivity later on, so one or two more full companions would be really nice to see in the next round of content. Really nice work, though; I thoroughly enjoyed it

I have only played the "light" version of her quest, is the alternative really all-out evil? It would be nice if it were a little more in the gray area - Xoti could use a little bit of a dark side...

I think a lot of people think of roleplaying and having preset story parameters as being mutually exclusive. I can understand the appeal of totally making up your own story, but games like the Elder Scrolls series tend to suffer from a lack of narrative focus/urgency and character development as a result. PoE is more along the lines of the infinity engine games in that it places the character in a controlled set of circumstances and the player can then roleplay how his/her character would respond. Deadfire doesn't make you fill a seafarer role due to poor mechanics or lack of gameplay options, it's all explained through the narrative: 1. You wake up on a ship with a crew that was purchased for you. 2. You discover that you're going to need that ship to recover your soul. 3. You happen to be in the fantasy equivalent of the Caribbean, so that's going to be the demographic from which you hire further shipmates. So yeah, the circumstances you're thrown into are predefined (just like they were in Baldur's Gate II), but you can still very much roleplay this game however you want. Your character may have to sail around on a ship with a crew full of salty personalities out of necessity, but that doesn't mean s/he has to like it. I'm actually looking forward to playing an anti-Principi paladin on my next playthrough in part because of the potential role-playing aspect of going against the grain. Speaking of BGII, I'm reminded of lawful good characters having to address the moral dilemma of siding with either thieves or vampires to advance the story in that game. Sometimes a few limitations on player freedom can make for much more interesting roleplaying opportunities than a write-it-yourself approach can. EDIT: All that said, it's perfectly possible to crew your ship without a single "pirate"-like crew member. In addition to crew members representing Valian, Huana, and Rautai factions, there are imps, wilder, undead, and other non-human crew mates to choose from as well. I believe they also have personality flags that affect how some ship events trigger, but don't quote me on that.