Fardragon

I think it would be better to simply increase sidekick interactivity. The companion system fell over it's own ambition and ended up a mess.

Right. My bad for assuming that the people clamoring for an increased level cap wanted more than to see the little number go up. Yes, the cost of developing new abilities, creating animations for them, several QA passes for balance, a narrative pass or two for higher level skill checks, etc is what I was referring to. It's a psychological effect. Seeing a little number go up would be sufficient to keep some people actively engaged in the game when they would otherwise loose interest.

Don't like it, it should go.

Neither can Bioware, or anyone else currently in the business. I think, to an extent, it's simply a case of the well having run dry. All the stock fantasy characters that people know and love have been done. In trying to do characters that are "different" we are getting characters who are unlikable and/or dull. I also think there is too much emphasis on "romance", a lot of it as a consequence of lobbying on message boards. Just for once I would like some heroes who kept their minds on saving the world rather than getting their legs over each other! If people want Mills and Boon, make it a separate genre.

There is a Story mode just use it They made it just for special little ones like you who like bedtime stories That should be removed too. It doesn't matter how difficult you make a single player game, it will always be easy to beat once you understand the mechanics involved.

My suggestion: remove all difficulty settings from the game. It's a story based game, combat encounters should support the story. People who are looking for a challenge should play against human opponents.

I don't think It would need to be as much as 200 years in the future. Rautai is already entering the industrial revolution. Once that happens change happens rapidly.

I think the difficulty of ship combat/boarding is off topic for this thread (all I will say is I found it enjoyable, and quite easy to win at both). The idea of a "prize share" where the British Royal Navy would share out the proceeds from captured enemy vessels amongst the crew lasted well into the 19th century, as did the practice of press ganging (which wasn't limited to foregners, it was a known hazard of living in any British port city). So the only real difference between the navy and the pirates was once was state sponsored and the other was independent. Privateers where basically mercenaries - state employed pirates. But you don't even need to be a privateer in Deadfire, you can complete the game without ever attacking another ship.

And water could harbor bacteria, protozoa, and the like. Mixing it with rum to make grog made it safer to drink. So pretty much anyone who wanted to keep a healthy crew in the age of sail would have alcohol as an essential part of crew rations. It has nothing to do with piracy.

There is absolutly no requirement to engange in any illegal activities in this game. Sure, you are frequently invited too - it shows strength of character to turn them down.

A history changing time travel story might be reasonable, but otherwise prequels all have the same problem - we know how it worked out, so it removes even the faintest illusion of player agency.

The Engwithan gods are representations of their cultural values turned up to 11. Iovara has a line at the end of the first game that explains this (paraphrasing her: “anything taken to an extreme becomes grotesque”). Every mythology has a creation myth and an “end of the world” myth. Rymrgand is the latter."Myth" being the key word here. Just because people believe it doesn't make it true. Rymrgand may well believe that his eventual victory is inevitable, but that doesn't make it true. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe Yeah, but what does that have to do with Rymrgand? Entropy existed before him, it will exist long after his death (which will predate the heat death of the universe by a long time). Entropy isn't dependent on his existence, he's merely a charlatan who claims that it does. Not necessarily true. Entropy exists in our universe, but the PoE universe appears to be a different universe, governed by different physical laws. So maybe in the PoE universe entropy is just a myth. I don't think that's the case here, mainly because it doesn't fit what we know or what the games have been going for. They mention that the Engwithins found that there was only a "wheel" that slowly grinds souls away. That's very in line with entropy I think. The gradual but steady path to non-existence. I don't think it's probable, either. But it is possible*. Just as it is possible that Rymrgand (or one of the other eleven) is not Engwithan. *One workaround for entropy comes from the Doctor Who story Logopolis: Open portals to other universes and allow negative entropy to blead through.

The Engwithan gods are representations of their cultural values turned up to 11. Iovara has a line at the end of the first game that explains this (paraphrasing her: “anything taken to an extreme becomes grotesque”). Every mythology has a creation myth and an “end of the world” myth. Rymrgand is the latter. "Myth" being the key word here. Just because people believe it doesn't make it true. Rymrgand may well believe that his eventual victory is inevitable, but that doesn't make it true. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe Yeah, but what does that have to do with Rymrgand? Entropy existed before him, it will exist long after his death (which will predate the heat death of the universe by a long time). Entropy isn't dependent on his existence, he's merely a charlatan who claims that it does. Not necessarily true. Entropy exists in our universe, but the PoE universe appears to be a different universe, governed by different physical laws. So maybe in the PoE universe entropy is just a myth.

The Engwithan gods are representations of their cultural values turned up to 11. Iovara has a line at the end of the first game that explains this (paraphrasing her: “anything taken to an extreme becomes grotesque”). Every mythology has a creation myth and an “end of the world” myth. Rymrgand is the latter. "Myth" being the key word here. Just because people believe it doesn't make it true. Rymrgand may well believe that his eventual victory is inevitable, but that doesn't make it true.

Some thoughts on Rymrgand: If Rymrgand is just as fake as the other gods, then the inevitablity of universal heat death may also be a lie. however... There are more gods than there are alcoves in the Engwithan god-making machine...

I don't like either of those options. Ships and piracy are fine in Deadfire, but they have been done now. If Obsidian do a non-pillars RPG, I would want it to be science fiction. So It could have space ships and space pirates as elements. Otherwise, NO. Pirates of the Sword Coast has just been re-released for NWNEE, to the sound of one hand clapping...

Given that the game will involve lots of looking at in-game screens, I don't see how 1st person could have been avoided. You can't read a screen when your character's big fat head is in the way.

Ideals don't bicker like spoiled children. Oh yes they do! There are no people more blind to any other viewpoint than idealists.

Funny, I always thought socialism was about giving everyone what he deserves for his hard work and making shure that nobody gets 1000 times more than what he deserves. But probably I'm just a communist traitor, who hates The Vailian Republics democracy freedom people in general. That's the way it's supposed to work but it doesn't. It's like welfare in America. If you keep giving people something for free, a lot of them eventually stop working and just take the free stuff instead. Why keep working when you can get about as much from the government, meanwhile those who do work are punished with supporting themselves and those other people. There's a balance to the world. You can't have light without darkness (and vice versa), and unfortunately you can't have rich without poor. Anyway, I hope nobody is really taking this too seriously. I was basically just making a joke. Except that 70% of people who receive public assistance have jobs. I know you didn't mean to start a serious debate, but WIC gave me a future so these talk radio myths kind of stick in my craw: if you've ever been unfortunate enough to have to accept food stamps or housing assistance (there is no such thing as a welfare check), you'll know that almost no one chooses it as their only means of subsistence in the way that you're describing. "Welfare" doesn't deter work, it saves underpaid working people from falling through the cracks into homelessness and crime (which cost the taxpayer far more than some free groceries does). This is the last I'll say on the subject because it's way off-topic. Also, socialism is only the public ownership of the means of production - it's communism that attempts to eliminate inequality through the redistribution of wealth Public assistance is a lot more than just welfare though. Growing up, I've seen whole families getting welfare without having a job and they didn't even look for a job because of it. I don't have a problem with people who actually need assistance getting it like disability or food stamps for poor people. However, too many people get it that don't need it. I know someone who makes about $50K - $60K per year and still gets food stamps. I just think some (if not all) governments hand out money like crazy and don't care. Also, I see tons of so called poor people walking around using $800 smart phones with $200 a month phone bill lol. Anyway, I agree with you. This is getting off-topic so I'll stop talking about this now. A lot of people don't work because they have inherited wealth. Following your logic, all inherited wealth should be confiscated, so that those people have to work, and therefore become productive members of society.

I thought Berath only sends you back to the Wheel if you ask her to? Rymrgand just goes "Lol silly Watcher why shouldn't I disintegrate you?" and does exactly that unless you beg him not to. Yea they got me both on my first PT. That's the thing. To me the Gods in PoE II are just a bunch of spoiled children. And they are way to active in this game. And they're all idiots. Don't seem like Gods at all. Welcome to the point of the story... I disagree, they could have kept the story, but made the Gods less dumb. unless of course dumb was the intention. Somehow I don't think that was the case. Not dumb exactly, but self serving and unlikeable was definitely the intention. In conversation with the Guardian at the end you learn that the Engwithan's (who went on to make themselves into gods) used and then betrayed the Huana in order to achieve their goal of godhood, then keep it covered up. The writers wouldn't have included that in the game if they didn't INTEND the player to dislike the gods.

I thought Berath only sends you back to the Wheel if you ask her to? Rymrgand just goes "Lol silly Watcher why shouldn't I disintegrate you?" and does exactly that unless you beg him not to. Yea they got me both on my first PT. That's the thing. To me the Gods in PoE II are just a bunch of spoiled children. And they are way to active in this game. And they're all idiots. Don't seem like Gods at all. Welcome to the point of the story...

Why would you need "help"? Cut content is by definition not in the game, ergo it cannot have any problems associated with it. The devs are busy trying to fix actual bugs, they haven't got time to waste explaining the reason behind every single design decision, even if they could remember them all.

The game is already a bit on the easy side (and this is from someone who normally doesn't play beyond core difficulty). If they have the capacity to make more powerful enemies, they need to put them in the main game before adding any additional difficulty tiers. And adding powerful items as rewards would further serve to reduce the difficulty of the core game.

Mirke >> Ydwin

Everyone who takes an interest in game development knows content gets cut. People might be curious about cut content, but your original post doesn't really reveal enough to be all that interesting. If you ever watch cut scenes from movies, sometimes it's a shame something was lost, and sometimes it's a case of thank Ondra that didn't make it in. And sometimes there are things that should have been cut, that make it in to the finished product...