Crucis

Basically, there's not one thing here I can agree with. I don't mind the ship combat system. I like the narrator, and really don't understand why people hate her. Is it because it's a female narrator and not a male narrator? I absolutely LOVE the Valian accent. I do wish I could at least once ask what some of those odd words mean. But if they're bothering you this much, you must be really looking to be bothered. The ship rations system is nor a big deal. Basically, some people wanted a Stronghold with more depth. AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT YOU GOT!!! And now you're whining about it!!! Oh, the irony of it.

I'm the opposite. I don't enjoy dark, gloomy themes. I'm not looking for it to be a knee-slapping comedy either. If I want dark and gloomy, I'd just go read some old-school existential novel ... and be bored senseless.

I love the sea shanties!!! Yo-ho! Yo-ho! It's a pirate's life for me!

So, in other words, your Watcher was, shall we say, not thinking with his big brain. Well, i mean, it's not like my Watcher wasn't on friendly terms with the pirates. He was a shady-as-**** rogue, who even pickpocketed Edér while he was opening up about his feelings talking about Elafa (or whatever her name was, wasn't listening, was ruffling through his pockets) OK, now that's a new low... pick pocketing a party member, and worse, pick pocketing perhaps your most loyal party member, Eder! I guess that your Watcher rogue really is a scoundrel!!!

I'm kinda split on this. On one hand, part of me would very much love for there to have been a faction that a good and benevolent Watcher could side with and feel like it was the "good" choice. OTOH, it seems obvious that this lack of a "good" choice was very much by design. You're stuck having to swim the murky waters of all these very morally questionable to just downright bad factions. And on top of this, you're stuck with some Companions who are definitely aligned with certain factions, and acting in a particular way can cause a Companion to leave you, which only makes the choice of a faction that much more difficult.

So, in other words, your Watcher was, shall we say, not thinking with his big brain.

I disagree with both of you. The difference between 6 and 7 (or more) is that 6 has been the party size across all of the BG and IWD games, as well as PoE1. 6 is the traditional size.

For what it's worth, Jayngo, I always find it useful to grab as many of these companions and sidekicks as possible. Why? Because they give you options, for one thing. Sometimes you end up in fights where your current party comp just doesn't seem able to handle the opposition, but mixing it up can be the difference between winning and losing. Second, even with 5 party members, it's easy enough to pick up new people for your extended party. Say that Aloth is in your full party and you come across Pellegina. Just add her to the party, and move Aloth to the reserve. And then you just get back into the party management screen, and flip Pallegina into the reserve and put Aloth back into the party. Now, yes, this doesn't address the 5 vs 6 party size thing. But what is does do is give you the option of having her available. Also, in any boarding action, all those reserve extended party members ARE aboard your ship and will fight with you, even if you can't outright control them. So, it certainly pays to have a larger extended party, even if you're still stuck at only 5 in the active party.

I'm no expert on multiclassing and what are the best class mixes. But a pally/chanter combo certainly sounds like a super-support mix, two classes whose primary purpose seem to be for party support.

In theory, I suppose I agree with you, Judicator. OTOH, having companions leaving the party not so much due to disposition issues but issues of alignment relative to the factions is uncomfortable. And even more so when one feels like the companion or companions involved may be one or more of your favorites. I happen to like Maia because she's such a solid ranger and sniper. And I like Pallegina because I just like her accent, and her being a paladin. (I like her being a paladin because she lets me play a paladin without having to worry so much about the disposition issues a pally would face if he/she was the Watcher.) On top of that, it's not like there are all that many Companions to begin with. And knowing that the chances are quite good that you're bound to lose one of them (if you lose them in your party and not just sitting around on your little pleasure yacht) due to factional issues can be frustrating.

i believe you meant "two blunderbi" Nah. Two shotguns!

Wonderful! Now what were her class options?

A little more detail please. I'm working in and around Poko Kahara, and I haven't run across this gun yet.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely NOOOOO!!!!! This type of game is all about playing a PARTY of multiple characters, not playing solo! Turning PoE3 into a solo game would be the absolutely worst decision possible, and would guarantee that I'd never buy another PoE game.

An Arctic setting? (Could be a little boring visually, but it is "different".) As for an oriental/asian inspired setting, given that some of Eora's cultures have been a mishmash of Earth cultures, there's no reason that they couldn't come up with a pseudo-Asian culture that was a mashup of, say, Japanese and something screwy, like ancient Egyptian. Also, do we know if all of Eora has been properly explored? Are there any significantly large regions that have never been explored? It seems entirely possible that if the devs wanted to say "yes", there's no reason it couldn't be "yes". Furthermore, that might even make for an interesting setting. Say that after the events of PoE2, the Watcher and friends go on a "3 hour tour" on the Minnow, er, I mean, the Defiant and get lost in a storm. And end up ship wrecked on an unknown shore, that just so happens to be of this heretofore unknown Eoran land and culture. And that the entire story revolves around exploring this new land and eventually ends up with the Watcher having to resolve some great problem. And perhaps finding a way to get home, wherever "home" may be for a Watcher whose home at Caed Nua has been stomped flat by Eothas and ends up living on a sea-going RV, I mean, sloop. And maybe the game could start with you back in Berath's little room, where she says "Not again! Just figure out who you are and get outta here!"

I like what you're saying here, Jayngo, though not 100%. 1. I like the reputation wheel. 2. I'm not fond of the abilities trees. It's not the content of the abilities trees. It's the fact that It's annoying has hell having to hover the cursor over every friggin' single circle trying to figure out what each ability icon is. Give me back a text based list!!! I can read through a text list like ten or more times faster than having to hover over each of the damned icons!!! 3. Rangers: Please make ranger pets into an at-creation optional thing, rather than a mandatory thing. And come up with some other ability that rangers who choose to be pet-less will get instead of a pet. Also, add more non-pet related Ranger abilities. 4. Bigger dungeons. Absolutely YES!!! They don't have to be quite as deep as the Endless Paths, but big nonetheless. I'm reminded of the great big dungeon in the IWD1 free add-on Tales of the Loremaster. That was a great dungeon as well!!! 5. Setting. I don't need it to be back to a true Medieval Europe setting, but it'd be nice if it was something different from the Dyrwood and Deadfire. I don't know that I was a fully arctic setting either though. OTOH, is there enough meat on the bone for a White That Wends setting? I have to admit that I like more rural settings more than urban ones. Some people seem to have a need for a big city. I don't. I don't know if this is because these people live in cities themselves or not. (I've wondered if the relative dislike of Xoti and her accent comes from players who are city dwellers who have an ingrained dislike of people they see as hicks and rednecks, and they see Xoti this way.) A White That Wends setting would get you plenty of Pale Elves. A Naasitaq setting would get you plenty of dwarves. And there might be something to be said for a Living Lands setting with its wide variety of weather, etc. 6. Stronghold. I'd be happy of the PC's "stronghold" was a pleasant cabin in the woods. Or if there was a city, perhaps a nice little townhouse. Nothing that needs any serious managing. 7. Weapons. I'd like to see a very wide variety of weapons, with plenty of choices of each type. I do like how anyone (aside from a Devoted) can use any weapon with proficiency. And that taking the proficiency only gives the character access to the weapon's special ability. Speaking of weapons, I really wish that they'd give quarterstaves another look. I don't like that they're essentially slow, reach weapons. When I think of quarterstaves, i think of a weapons that doesn't have particularly special reach because you hold it in the middle. And I don't think of it as a particularly slow weapon. i tend to think of it as a relative quick weapon compared to other 2 handed weapons because it's mostly made out of wood rather than steel, plus you're holding it at its center of gravity, not at an end. And I'm with the previous poster who suggested adding 2H great axes and 2H great hammers (or whatever they should be called). I'd also like to see more Eastern style weapons. I know that some "eastern" weapons are mostly the same as medieval European weapons, but not all. I think that having a Katana in the game, whether it gets called that or not, would be nice, perhaps as some sort of 2H weapon that doesn't necessarily hit as hard as a greatsword or estoc, but might be faster, more capable of crits, and slashing only. Sort of like a saber but requiring 2H to properly wield, and thus more damaging than a saber (or perhaps only more damaging if you had the 2H weapon style). 8. More spells? Personally, I don't really care for more spells myself. The variety of spells is already so great that it's confusing knowing what to take and use without adding even more to the confusion. 9. Subclasses. I don't mind the concept of subclasses. Not at all. But I really would like to see more depth and lore added to some of them. 10. Sub races. I'd love to see more subraces added to the game. But I do get the feeling that the reason we don't see more is that, at least for some subraces, it might require adding more animation models, at least for those that don't already exist. That said, would it be all that difficult to add in those models for the Avian and Marine GL's, since there are already NPCs that are of those races, and models for them already exist? It'd also be nice to see a little wider array of past professions, as well as not having so many of the existing ones limited to 1 or 2 cultures. And for what little it's worth, is there really any reason for there to be a Raider and a Mercenary profession? Seems to me that they're so similar in nature that they could be combined into a single common slot. I think that it'd be nice to add a third subrace to those races that have only two at the moment. This could include Aumaua, Dwarfs, Elves, and Orlans. Anyways, that's all I have for now.

They were only endless for every other party that didn't succeed in that dungeon! Or maybe it even ended for them as well ... in death.

It's always frustrating when a companion-only subclass or subrace is superior to the subclasses or subraces that the player can access. Heck, I find it frustrating that they didn't include the avian Godlike subrace into PoE2. It may be just about the best looking of the Godlikes, and it's a shame that players have no access to it. Instead, we get a really ugly one like the Death GL's. Sigh.

For what it's worth, remember that the player's ship is his stronghold. And there were plenty of people who wanted a more involved stronghold for PoE2. I was NOT one of them. I was happy with a low maintenance stronghold, and find this new stronghold as ship to be entirely too tedious. As for the Endless Paths, I agree and did the very same thing. Heck, I expect that most people did the exact same thing. About the only way to really be able to handle the EP without stopping and coming back would probably have been to wait until your character was closer to the end of PoE1 and was strong enough to handle the final levels. of course, if you were able to do that, then the early levels of the dungeon would have been ridiculously easy. It really wasn't a dungeon meant to be completed in a single, top to bottom visit.

No one forces you to do that optional dungeon. I personally loved it. This is a game, not a novel or a movie. Pacing isn't something that I'm concerned about. Fun is far more important to me. And a huge dungeon to explore and pillage is a great thing from my perspective.

1. I don't mind that the characters were reset. Not a big deal for me. As for "nobody bothered thinking of a way", that assumes that they wanted to try to in the first place. Maybe they never had any intention of continuing the level progression, and therefore there'd be no need to think of a way to continue the progression (even with the changes to the game system). 2. Regarding the pirate theme, that's what you're going to get when the the game is placed in the Deadfire. The devs didn't really have to say a single word for players of PoE1 to realize that a PoE2 set in the Deadfire would be Pirates! Pirates! Pirates! Jeez. As for the ship and related stuff, I can sympathize, but you're overlooking something. Some (and I do mean "some") people complained that the Stronghold system from PoE1 didn't have enough depth to it. I was not one of them. I never wanted to play freakin' Sim Stronghold. But the Devs obviously caved to those who do with this ship as stronghold model. And honestly, it's not really a shocker. A stronghold was going to exist in POE2. It was only a matter of what form it would take. It could have been another static location. Or it could be what it is, a ship. And because it's a ship in a game located in a region infested with pirates, it's not a shocker that all the other aspects you mention end up being part of the "ship as stronghold" system. Also, having your own ship makes sense, because it allows the player to go where he wants at will, not on the schedule of some third party owned ship. Did the player's ship have to also be his stronghold? Perhaps not. But even if it wasn't, you'd probably be stuck having to deal with all the same details of ship management. Frankly, I think that the only way to get around having a ship as stronghold would have been a change in the entire setting of PoE2, to a place where you could travel from place to place on foot all or most of the time. But even then, I think that it was bound to happen that the devs would have made stronghold management more detailed. And thus, you'd have ended up with most of the details inherent in ship management as part of castle/stronghold management. 3. Hard to disagree with anything regarding a better organized journal. 4. Or maybe the issue is that many of the veteran players are just so skilled that the devs would have to make the game nigh on unplayable for players new to PoE and isometric CRPG gaming. If classic is too easy for you, crank it up to a higher difficulty and don't blame the devs for classic not being difficult enough for you. Now, if you get to PoTD and it's still too easy for you, then maybe you have a case. But until then, just keep cranking up the difficulty. 4a. As for passive vs active skills, I'm not going to shed any tears over this. Personally, I don't like seeing every class being buried in active skills. Some people aren't happy if they're not constantly triggering active skills to get through battles. But there are some of us who are quite happy to only use actives once in a while, and can be quite content to point some characters (particularly front liners) at their enemies and leave them alone while paying attention to spellcasters or perhaps some ranged combatants who you want to more carefully control whom they target (i.e. switching from some enemy frontliner who isn't near death to an enemy spellcaster who you want to try to keep interrupting). I personally do not want to have to constantly baby sit all 5 characters in my party to control each of their actives just to be able to fight every battle. That's boring to me. But I also don't really like using AI either. I prefer more of a middle ground where I probably control some of the party more closely while allowing others to be on semi-autopilot (just my auto-pilot and not an AI's version thereof). So, if the game's difficulty is in a place where I can play how I'd prefer and not have to go into extreme micro-management of the entire party's active abilities every freaking second of every freaking battle, I'm cool with that. And if that means that I'm using more passives than actives, that's fine with me!!!

This is a fair point. And may be a reason why it'd be easier add new sidekicks into the game rather than new companions. After all, sidekicks really seem like they're little more than just mercenaries you make yourself. And that's not a bad thing. In fact, it might be nice if there were a bunch more sidekicks.

For what it's worth, nature godlikes seem like such a perfect match for druids and rangers for no other reason than they are NATURE godlikes, not out of any syncing of their subrace benefits relative to any given class or subclass's own abilities.

I'm going to have a hard time using Tekehu, because I never really use druids. I just can't get comfortable with any druid character. And while I don't have any problem with Chanters, they always feel like a luxury to any party rather than a critical, must-have class. And with only 5 character parties (4 if you discount the PC), it just doesn't feel like there's room for a "luxury character" which is a shame because I would otherwise be quite willing to give him a shot. I might just have to wait for a second run-through to try him out. But right now, I'm more comfortable using characters of classes that feel more reliable to my play style. I'm only playing on Vet but I used him as a pure druid in a party with Pallegina, Aloth, Eder and my wizard PC. He's usually decent as an emergency healer. Once he gets his summons though things get a little silly easy. Ryz, I never played pure Druids even back in the BG or IWD games. Oh, I'd play Jahiera who was a Fighter/Druid, but to me, she was more fighter than druid, almost a pseudo-ranger. I've just never gotten into the entire (pure) druid concept. It just doesn't click with me. Plus I tend to trend more towards a more physical, less magical play style. Different strokes, and all that.

I'm going to have a hard time using Tekehu, because I never really use druids. I just can't get comfortable with any druid character. And while I don't have any problem with Chanters, they always feel like a luxury to any party rather than a critical, must-have class. And with only 5 character parties (4 if you discount the PC), it just doesn't feel like there's room for a "luxury character" which is a shame because I would otherwise be quite willing to give him a shot. I might just have to wait for a second run-through to try him out. But right now, I'm more comfortable using characters of classes that feel more reliable to my play style.