Zahar

I hpe they hit the nail again, because PoE and specially Deadfire has some of the best class design and systems in any game, period. I just replayed Deadfire (2 runs actually) and man, it's so complex yet elegant...

Hello folks. So, I've been replaying Deadfire and this made me really interested in Avowed. While I'm a cRPG player first, I also liked Fallout:NV, Skyrim and the Mass Effect series, so I can enjoy a 1st or 3r person ARPg IF the RPG systems, writing and sense of reactivity and persistence is there. We all saw the gameplay already, but coming fresh from Deadfire I'd like to know what to expect from the RPG systems. I've read it's a no class system and I'm ok with it, but are the skills/talents/etc capable to alter gameplay or just percentage bonuses? What about relations with our companions (not talking about romance) will it be as in depth as Deadfire with that cool reputation interface? I've read a lot about combat, graphics and the non romance option (sincerely I'm ok with it, it can be cool if done right but receives WAY too much attention compared to what matters in an RPG imho) and just want to know if there is a source for the other juicy parts. Ty for your time folks.

Yeah, reinstalled after some years because I felt like playing a CRPG while waiting for BG3 patch 4. This happened to me. Actually I finished PoE2 some years ago, no idea why this would happen. Whakura just RESPAWNED after I left Engwithan site and can't be entered by this side of the map. Edit: No mods, fresh install in 2021 from Steam

Thanks for the kind reply. I experimented and ignored the quest. Played around 4 more hours and no issues. and thinkind about it, I already went to that place and cleared it. So maybe the crash is caused by the game failing to list this quest as "botched" and trying to point me to some inexistant NPCs? I'll start a new game and try to do that quest without clearing the robots soon adn will reply if this is the issue.

Hello there. I've been playing the game for a few days now and decided to complete all side quests. I returned to edgewater and tried to do the die robot quest chain. But once I accept to go to the area with the mechanicals to rob the robot brain the game just quits to desktop. I happend if I try to fast travel there and also if I just try to run. Once I'm near the place the game just quits. No idea what should I do. This is isheartening because I'm pretty hyped to play. thanks. Edit: playing the xbox live vof PC version. Doesn't have a choice to check files or anything.

Frankly, I think the game is good enough for you to try and understand the combat system. My first character was also a Druid, so I think I understand your confusion. At first I also felt movement was too fast to allow proper usage of tactics, specially with ranged characters. So here are my 2 cents: Combat is not too movement oriented. You just position your team in a way yor tanks engage enemy runners and then DPS things to death. In case the fight is harder, you also crowd control and debuff, using your precious per rest abilities. Crowd control is specially powerful, remember to grab those abilities when leveling up if you have the chance. At the very start (solo part), you'll need to either avoid fighting or sneak to nuke or disable (with a fast spell, spell speed is listed on the top of the spell description) and proceed to a fast kill in animal form. Don't worry, you'll only be alone for the first minutes into the game and your animal form will destroy low level enemies, so your should be fine. If some enemy is too hard, it's not the time to fight them, you can come back later. Once you reach the first inn, hire 2 characters. I recomend a priest and a tank, warriors are the most straightforward tanks, but a paladin, monk or barbarian can work too. Without spoilers, you'll start gathering story NPCs soon too, so you'll have (at least) a 5 person group in no time. Use the formation button to make sure your team always move with the tanks in the front. Also, every character must be given some points in Stealth - 1 is enough at start, try to have at least 3 by lv 5. That way your group can reach a place where you can cast without breaking stealth or at least being detected fairly slow. Also, remember to enter the options and choose the auto-pause for end of ability cast and everything else you feel like you're missing in the first fights. You can change that later if you thing the game becomes too slow. After you have this setup, this is the modus operandi: 1 - go to the distance you already know you can reach without being detected. Move with right mouse (hold and drag) to adjust your formation orientation; 2 - with the game paused, use casters and ranged DPS to nuke or disable the enemies from stealth with fast or normal speed spells (at druid's first level I'd use Talon's Reach and wizard's slicken); 3 - using the pause (if you enabled it, auto-pause exactly when the spells are cast), order your tanks to engage the melee enemies that started to run toward your team (they will not allow enemies to leave melee, there's a system in the game making leaving melee complicated, and usually the AI will not try it - for more info, there's a link: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Melee_Engagement). 4 - DPS stuff to death - try to focus fire so you'll kill faster; 5 - profit. If you're into a harder fight or against enemies that reach your glass cannons, crowd control them (anything works, their spells, warrior takedowns, etc) so they no longer have a melee engagement zone and then run away from them with the fragile characters. Fast as hell movement means you'll be far in a second anyway, and by that time a melee character must be close to the enemy so he can't follow. Also, remember to use your priest to buff at the start of the fight, specially against spells - with time you'll know wich spell is resisted by wich defense and automatically decide the buff priorities. If you don't need defenses but it's a fight you're expending per rest abilities, buff attacks instead so you can kill faster. Also, as you level up and learn more stealth levels, you'll be able to cast slower spells from stealth (stealth is only broken when the spell is cast, not during the cast time), so you can use more devastating openers against hard mobs. Calling the World's Maw, for instance, is simply amazing, high AoE DPS and crowd control. Hope that helps. PoE is an amazing game even if you're not fond of the combat system. And after learning it I really like that system. Cheers.

Removing swearing would not make the game any less troublesome for kids. We're talking about a game with really mature themes. It's like reading a book about genocide and saying it's child-friendly because they don't swear. It's not tha language, it's the subject matter.

Agree completely. The specific animation from DA:O I have in my head is a quick thrust of the sword and then pushing the enemy off with the shield. It's quick, violent and realistic(-ish). The long-time obviously scripted motions get tiresome in the long run, but those small natural actions are great. I think long animations can work if they don't keep the character locked. Say, if you backstab an enemy and quickly your character release the wounded enemy, but he rolls and try to stop the jugular bleeding with his hands before collapsing by himself, it can be pretty good. About trust and shield bash moves, yeah, I remember that one. It can also be made with a kick instead of shield in case of 2handers, a single one hander, etc. Pretty cool animation. Also, conditional "fatalities" would be great and rewarding. Say, if you finish a prone enemy with a character using a shield bearer, he could smash the downed enemy head with the border of his shield, etc. Even if I do want realistic mutilation in some cases, really don't want them to go overboard here - I want it to feel grisly, not a gorefest. I want the same effect that tree full of hanged people had, a world full of dread, not a sadistic wet dream....

You can say that again. Bisecting Super Mutants have never been so much fun. On the topic, I must say I also loved the kill animations of Dragon Age: Origins. It could be annoying at times, yes, and it sometimes interfered with combat, sure, but it had some really nice sequences. Or headshots with a high-caliber weapon in Jagged Alliance 2, melon explosion. I think that violence for the sake of violence and excessive blood is silly, and I think that the gibbing in the IE games and PoE is stupid (I turn it off), but visceral, brutal kill animations, as long as it doesn't happen all the freaking time, or if there's at least enough of them so you don't get instantly bored, can be real "Aww yiiiiiis" moments as well as "Oh god I think I just threw up a little in my mouth". I'm still waiting for a CRPG capable of giving me that proper "cut someone up along the abdomen and watch their entrails fall out as they try to collect them"-experience. I want to have the game capable of making me feel like a horrible human being and make me question what I just decided to do to these poor thieves that never really stood a chance, because I'm wearing plot armour and have quicksaves. I think I like death animations better when they convince me they are NOT scripted, even if we know they actually are. So the trick is, the destruction has to be not only compatible with the type and energy of the hit but also the direction - something not done right in a lot of games (or mods, like the skyrim gore mod, forgot the name, where people are not cut in the direction the blade was traveling). Considering what I saw so far, I think Witcher 3 will have some pretty neat death animations and physics. About DA:O, and talking ONLY about the kill animations (not the excessive amount of blood everywhere), I liked it too. But I'd really prefer to have quicker kills without the perceived loss of control over the characters - something that can be very annoying and frustrating.

I like the engagement system, but it does need some fine tunning. It's indeed very hard to use melee DPS characters because dancing around the enemy without a disengagement attack requires too much micronanagement - and some luck, since enemies DO move while engaged sometimes.

Actually I'd really enjoy some brutal kill animations. I find them very capable of making turn based (or RTwP) games feel a lot more visceral and satisfying. I can still remember my thrill when playing Fallout Tactics for the first time. Oh, the reaper. And the combat shotgun. Strategy games in general feel more rewarding with interesting and sometimes violent death animations. Starcraft 2, for instance, has grat death animations, while Grey Goo has none - and I felt this led me to feel weapons in grey goo are "meh". And I liked Grey Goo. The flying ham is just not interesting. I don't like blood explosions, I'd like realistic damage for the weapons/spells used. Something like Company of heroes 1 and 2 do, as an example, and nothing close to Mortal Kombat. Not all kills are gory, but sometimes explosions are really strong. In a medieval high fantasy setting, a lot of weapons have sharp edges too... Anyway, it's not in the game, ok, it's a great, really great game the way it is. But if they could add some nice kill animations with the expansions they would make me a happy panda. About the language, I'm pretty happy with present balance. NPCs talk brutal stuff and they don't need to use teenage-like language to impress me. Durance can curse, but those animancers and Griefing Mother sure talk mature stuff anyway.

Hard is not too easy. Hard only stop being hard because of the weird level curve allowing your team to be much higher level than enemies if you do all side quests before the main quest line. But I must say, without dinamic levels, it's pretty impossible to cover all bases - if the game was impossible without doing side quests first (like, say, Dragon Age Inquisition), people would complain a lot too.

I'd like unique, skill-enhancing bonuses on unique items, so gameplay can change, something like Diablo III did. It allows for a lot of replayability with the same class and is, well, fun. Stat increases are good, sure, but not as entertaining. Also, give us the choice to start a new game + with all the levels and items and all enemies at lv 13 so we can test everything and feel trully powerful.

I understand it's not for everyone, but I can say I'm loving the game. I don't agree with EVERY choice, of course - even some stats and mechanics feel a bit awkward to me - but the whole package has incredible value. And about the story and writting, I gottta disagree, it's better than almost any game I played in the last 10 years, the possible exception being Dishonored.

Is it the 500 mb patch I'm downloading today? I already had 1.3 and could not find a patch log anywhere...