Teioh_White

Yeah...I know? It was in response to how people in Earth do things based on religion, and possible reactions to man-made proof. So, like you said, a straight up comp doesn't work. Which was the point of the post.

I guess the one difference here is, there actually are beings that do everything they say they say gods do.They just don't have the correct creation myth. Like if we had proof that heaven and hell and all that jazz was mostly true, just that Atlantis made God or something,he's not a natural occurring thing. Dunno how people react to knowing there god is basically real as advertised except for its creation. Might get more converts.

Err....the writer stated she wanted to push an agenda. And the game does so throughout the entire thing. Which could still be fine if the writing wasn't god awful. I mean, I like Bioshock even with its contant whinging on Objectivism. But its got many more issues than just Beamdogs political leanings, those just make it hard to overlook the flaws and try and just enjoy some below average IE gameplay.

That's a good point; off the top my head, I don't know if we're told exactly what she preaches beyond 'those gods over there aren't like, real creator gods. They're just man-made things that have power like we think real gods would.' Dunno if we have insight on what she stood for beyond that, or where she wanted the world to go. I mean, I'm not sure we even know she didn't want people following the gods, so long as they knew the weren't 'god' gods.

It was a really on point review based on my own experience running through the game. There were a lot of issues in the game other than just the shore-horn'd in politics. And the worst part of that wasn't so much in game, but how Beamdog reacted to it out of game. But, plenty of media I enjoy even though the people who made it are tossers, it's a silly thing to let get in the way if the product is good. Luckily, in this game, they're tossers -and- the product is horrible, so don't have to worry about that, Though, it does seem as people who support SoD keep trying to push that the issue lies squarely with some pointless npc who I ignore just as I do the terrible backers in PoE, and ignore the systematic fail that is the rest of the game.

Well, I guess in a 'meta' sense that's an argument. Pretty much any RPG protag, and by extension, their companions, are mass murderers. Its unclear how much of that gameplay is meant to actually carry over into the story. In a more 'acceptable reality breaks', often PC's have murderous companions, who if we want to justify their spot in the party tends either be A.) I'm evil too! Lets go kill kittens B.) More Belkar in OotS; PC is essentially a walking Warden, pointing them at bad guys or more often, C.) I think it falls under the 'meta' above, and the story isn't really considering it. But, as for Devil in a 'realistic' view, I touched on her situation in my first post in the topic. It's not just 'he is a murderer' (which has been gone over many times), but leaving his town with a mob of people, with the intent upon leaving and joining the mob, to go march and murder an entire other town. It's textbook. As I mentioned for Devil, it depends on who she killed. Based on the fact she says she burned people in their homes, and didn't check to see if it they were alone, its likely she burned some innocents, making her just as bad. Which I said. It's weird the game doesn't confirm that for us, as it's not like it'd be some hidden information only she'd know, but it's safe to think that's the case. The next is I guess how we consider the whole, getting turned into a copper bot thing on the punishment scale. If we think it is a harsh punishment, then a B arrangement in the above can be applicable. If we think there's no real punishment to thing other than her short sighted whining, go for it. For the record, I always sacrifice Durance to the pool, as he's no better than Harmke. I mean, maybe we could argue insanity in his case, but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. I did attempt to get some use out of Devil in the Eyeless, but she was more waterproof than I anticipated.

Yeah, as we get enough points to max two stats and leave the other 4 at 10, I just choose two to focus on, and leave the rest at base 10. I just think of it as choosing two 'favored' stats. I tend to play under self imposed limitations, as otherwise the games too easy. Also just want to re-iterate the endurance penalty isn't really a big deal. DR early game is so massive compared to incoming damage, endurance rarely comes up. And past Act 3 we get so many cool tools, it's very rare to ever drop below 50% endurance, short of tanking a Dragon Breath or something. The lack of health is annoying if you're limiting your rests though, which is why I tend to favor con on my house rules of 3 rests per Act.

Hire a random at bar when quest comes up, send them on it, murder them when they get back, and have Party menu remain empty? In general though, the game doesn't seemed designed with solo on mind, so doubt they go outta the way to accommodate the quirks of solo play.

Yes....for all the reasons I just stated. There is more, of course, but that felt like enough to show the point. And as you don't have any reasoning of your own, I think we can close the case on this.

People seem to be drawing the lumber jack crowd into this, as if the sentence is being passed on them as well. First, their 'existence' isn't very concrete, just being nameless NPCs. They whole, 'lets murder Hamke' thing never brings them up, and their random death charge on the team isn't even commented on by...anybody. Could very well just RPG convention (like the PC passing various judgments, or random strangers asking them to very personal crap all the dang time). You think if that was supposed to weigh in on it somehow, the writer would've given some weight to that. Or they just messed it up, as Devil's quest was easily the most rushed of them all. Secondly, if we want to consider them as actually there, from what little refers to them in game, they were part of the murder death squad as well. You know, who willingly joined a murder death squad. And had murder deathed who knows how many people till we hit Devil's house memory. Who then murder deathe'd there some more. Seriously, even in our waaay more progressive justice system, that's a hilarious inept defense. That wouldn't fly as Duress, and Duress won't save you from killing an innocent who isn't even threatening you. Combined with some mitigating personal factors and a sympathetic jury, it might save you the needle, but that's it. But this is fantasy land with no real long term prison system that we see, so sword to the head would likely be a sentence. And getting away with crimes because you're...useful? I'm not sure that's a working system of justice. Or at least, it'd be a really warped version of it. Man who owns the factory and keeps a town afloat basically gets free reign to do whatever the hell he wants because otherwise the town would fade away without him? It's that the sort of justice that's supposed to be talking place in Eora? Nevermind that the town becomes so flush with people after the Forge, they've got too many people. No one's going to miss some mass murderers, even for hilarious utility reasons.

By mostly doing the things you were doing anyways, really. It's just 35% Endurance and Health penalty, 7 deflection, and 21 Concentration penalty, it's not like it makes a character explode because someone looked at them wrong. You seem to have some idea it turns you into a glass cannon. It's really not that big a deal, not all of those penalties even matter. The deflection is basically pointless, as deflection in small amounts barely moves the needle. The Endurance doesn't matter, as the game gives you plentiful ways to reduce incoming damage to levels healing effects can keep up with it. The concentration can be a real pain though. A priest or the Celebrant gloves fixes that issue though. And health only matters on self imposed challenges. But those things you'd be doing, a Caster by mid game will keep most the enemy on CC lock without even using cheap tactics like stealth opens or dragging mobs from spawn or kiting or whatever. (If you don't mind doing those, even better!). Or a Priest can just buff the team to make those stats not matter. A chanter with Ancestor's Memory, team taking Fighter class feat, and Consicrated Ground will largely make bleeding out to health loss a more likely case than ever actually hitting 0 endurance. Roll over the mobs with weapons that Stun/Prone on crit, use interrupt builds; defenses don't matter when the enemy isn't hitting back. It's only ever an issue in Act 1, when you don't have many tricks, and have to fight all fair and other nonsense. Luckily, none of these stats affect DR, so you can still have sky high DR even if dumping the two defensive stats. Even better, DR scales for crap in the game, so your DR in Act 1 is way closer to max power than say, your CC skills. Or the mobs damage. Just take the three fanfic dorks Plate Mail in Gilded vale, enchant it to Fine, slap on some Blunting Belts, and wee, everything's doing min damage. And that's just early game. After Act 1, you get to power up with random minimal combat sidequests in Defiance Bay, letting you jump right to level 8 with exceptional gear and shiny accessories. And pretty soon, the unfair powers start rolling in, and the enemy ceases to ever actually be a threat. This is all assuming you're trying to make a good party and play style, of course. If you've some self-imposed limitations, it could def introduce some issues, but no one really knows about that by ones self, as it's not the norm.

Yeah, I'm hoping PoE is to PoE 2 what SRR was to DF, NWN OC was to HotU, or NWN 2 OC was to MotB. Maybe BG to BG2, but I'm the weird guy who prefers BG1. The game did a lot of stuff in the right direction, just seems some hiccups in the development cycle messed it up a bit.

Great review, sums up my feelings as well. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a game I've played that has more atrocious writing than what Beamdog put on display here. Every aspect is dreadful; characters, plot, dialogue, lore, it's all awful. Having to wade through all of that is not offset by IWD2 style corridor killing with worse combat. On more subjective critiques, the new UI drives me batty. But it likely is actually fine, and just me loving the UI I've played a dozen times already, so I won't hold that against the game.

Yeah, none of those moments are anything I'd ever reflect on with my friends 5+ years down the line. They weren't bad or anything in-game, just not amazing due to the writing style, which seemed very workman-like. Not pretentious or fanfic at all, with no cringe, facepalm, or eye-rolls, which in this new age of Indie and Kickstarter RPGS, is an accomplishment in itself.

I mean, the initial post was pretty much just a 'Hey, just letting you all know, put me on Ignore, kay?' Waaay too obvious in the troll attempt.