Boeroer

What I took away from Josh's post mortem talk: Ship Combat and Full VO did hurt the most.

I agree on that. Josh does, too. But we all three don't have a say in that unfortunately.

And Twitter. And Discord.

Take away the outbursts of angry Kevin Highperbowl and I can agree on some of the statements made.

It is true: it feels a bit awkward that so few of them are participating here. But as I explained earlier this used to be a very toxic place for devs to be. Another reason why I think that objecting nonsense and bad behavior is important. At the same time I think it's impossible to really factually determine why Deadfire failed. Reading this forum or not. We all have our theories and maybe every one of those does apply and it was a combination - who knows. Difficult to react to that as a company.

You seem to have problems with reading comprehension or you are making stuff up in your mind. Never did I say or even think that Deadfire is the greatest game ever created (that's obviously FTL). I also don't think that I (nor @thelee) am derailing any topic which sincerely wishes to discuss things in a decent manner. What @thelee and I (and others) are constantly trying to do is to separate strong subjective opinions from actual facts and reasonable arguments. You can see me agreeing on certain things that critical voices post here. I'm not a blind fanatic that defends every design decision that was made with Deadfire or PoE. What I don't agree on is ranting like a 5-year-old and presenting ones tastes and opinions as facts or the will of the majority (unless you have proof of that - then it's fine). If I see a totally exaggerated statement in this forums or some opinions presented as facts I feel the need to object. Because I think about new players coming in, reading all that hysterical whining, teeth gnashing and loathing crap and then getting the wrong impression. Why would people want to ruin the experience of others with their toxic views and child-rages-in-candy-shop-because-there's-no-popcorn communication? I even was one of the most harsh critics of Deadfire when its beta came out (I can necro some threads for you if you wish). I voted ship combat down so hard at release it sank all your sloops immediately. I said the pirate theme will not be for everybody and I state until today that the in-game explanations are bad. But at the same time I always try to deliver sound arguments and constructive criticism - not only mimimi and ranting. I'm trying to seperate the valid criticism from the nonsense. Not only for me, but for other readers as well. Does that always turn out perfectly well and resonable? Maybe not, I'm only orlan after all... For example the post from Zelse above contains some valid (yet exaggerated) points (like Neketaka quest running, armor system) and some nonsense (like fights not giving XP is a problem) - but since it's brought forth in such an immature manner it's hard to take it seriously - except by guys who also feel that hot burning rage inside them because Deadfire wasn't likeable for them (and we can't let Obsidian get away with this it seems). Like your post basically. You seem to get angry because we argue and discuss but I won't be convinced by your self-perceived "truth"- even if you use foul language? I mean how dare I? Boeroer's objecting me despite me saying f*ck and sh*t all the time, that evil devil! Or what's the point exactly? Present your arguments in a reasonable manner and seperate your taste and opinions from facts. It's not that hard. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't voice your taste and opinon, it only means you shouldn't present them as truth or fact. All of what you said above is silly and untrue. Everybody else's taste is obviously always sh!tty (rule of nature), I def. played Deadfie more than 55 times (you noob), I don't derail topics because I answer to posts in the most fitting manner (like - without exception, every time), I only get butthurt when I eat no fibres for a looong period of time... and I guess Obsidian doesn't even know that I exist. @thelee I'm not so sure about - since he send in his ultimate run for revision... he's on their radar now.

They really don't. Especially with Frenzy. You can still make it work but you'd need the help of a fellow party member through deflection buffs and accuracy debuffs or go the forced disengagement route (it's easy to stack a ton of deflection bonus against disengagement attacks). Offensive Parry aside: afaik Barbaric Retaliation triggers an AoE attack with WotEP every time you get crit (I know Karabörü does). It's nice if you stand in a corner and most enemies attack you from one side. Also Spirit Frenzy and Blood Frenzy both work with the cone's AoE hits.

If Avellone would be such a legend that he draws in hundreds of thousands of customers by using his name alone then Kingmaker would have sold way better than it did, wouldn't it? Maybe it's indeed best to steer away from isometric RTwP for a while and instead try to establish the Pillars IP more with more popular game formats that don't need to feed on nostalgia - like a Skyrim on Eora or something like that. I would even be very happy with a more Battle Brothers of the Eastrn Reach, a Slay the Spire of Old Vailia or even a Faster than the Child of Light (all with more roleplaying tweaks). Just keep telling the story of the world with differnt games. Once your IP has drawn in more players that love and cherish the stories, the lore, the whole world you can shrug off nostalgic IE ballast and try again with an isometric party based RPG I guess. Or you simply use a smaller team with a smaller budget, use the actual Deadfire engine and focus on new story, quests, awesome vilains etc. and keep the mechanics as is. Lower sales numbers don't hurt if you don't put too much money into development, right?

Or disappointment with PoE or not liking the pirate theme... all the stuff you can see before buying. Deadfire had good reviews, so that can't be the reason.

Several others.

Twitter. They are tweeting about their flights to London etc.

Yeah, but that was Feargus speaking half a year before. The interview with Aaron Greenberg is from August or September and issued for November 2019: "At Obsidian, there's the team working on The Outer Worlds, a team that's working on Pillars, and a team working on another secret thing." It doesn't sound like a small team doing cleanup but like active development. Especially because he talked about "exiting new projects" before that. I also don't think Greenberg would have mentioned it as an example if it wasn't something that's connected to XBox/Microsoft (Deadfire wasn't). So while it may be that this was some rehashed statement or just confusion on Greenberg's part I doubt it. Maybe we'll hear something new during X019 in London. It will start on Thursday and several members of Obsidian will attend, including Josh.

Interesting. But afaik you can stack Time Parasite's duration just fine when casting it onto different enemies.

The initial hit triggers Carnage but the AoE hits do not. So, nothing special basically. However: "Offensive Parry" triggers Carnage every time if I'm not mistaken... WotEP + Clear Out (Fighter) does what you suspected: every Clear Out hit triggers the cone attack.

For example the commands to add the cosmic pets isn't barred behind iroll20s. And there are several other (useful) commands that can be used without iroll20s. Let's just say that using console cheats disables achievements.

Linger time is influenced by INT. The more INT the longer the linger time. Linger time means that the effect of the phrase still works although you can already start to sing the next phrase. Like an echo - the effect lingers. Then there's also Brisk Recitation: it shortens the chant time (not the linger time). So let's say a phrase has 6 secs chant time and 6 secs linger time (like Dragon Thrashed). With 20 INT you'd have 9 secs linger time now. And with 50% Brisk Recitation (level 16) the chant time would be only 3 sec long. So 3 sec chanting + 9 secs linger for you Dragon Thrashed phrase (or Mith Fyr).

Good to know. So no White Worms when the cipher's attending the party!

Aw man - that Bob again!

No idea. That's why I asked for a source.

Well, I think for somebody who didn't really grasp the mechanics (esp. AR/PEN and its resulting double inverted dmg malus) and doesn't know how to use synergies between buffs, debuffs and such even on normal the high level content can be challenging. Not for us of course, but for the more casual players (and I don't mean that as an insult or something). Remember how people ranted about the Adra Drgon as being impossible to beat (and wizards and priets being useless, too)? But then on the other hand: how on Eora did they manage Gorecci Street or the Digsite?

Fair enough. But there is a difference between reasonable speculation and absolute statements and guarantees. And it's an important one. I also guess that BG3 will be turn based - but I don't claim to know nor do I guarantee it for any reason.

Our hopes and expectahahations: black holes and revelaaaaations...

Ze Germans...

I am a hardcore forum dweller (maybe the most hardcore one given my post count... especially when it comes to POE) but I partially agree. Not the b.a.n.a.n.a.s. part (the mechanics of PoE are superior to that of the old IE games - it basically tries to be more coherent and that means making some compromises when it comes to "realism" vs. being clean and avoiding exceptions or special rules - which are a nightmare in any software). But indeed the mechanics of PoE are often obscure and difficult to comprehend. You need a LOT of time (in forums, wikis and/or in the game) to master them*. Part of that is due to the awful, just awful job the game does in explaining the mechanics to you. This is my biggest complaint about PoE (which I mostly love dearly): tooltips, explanations, good and helpful UI features and the like: nope. So I think it is solid reasoning to say that this might have driven players away. I said it already but who wants to see a superb tooltip system that explains every effect in a solid yet unobstrusive way should play "Slay the Spire". I wish more game developers would adapt that approach. It's not even revolutionary, just thorough and neatly done. * I like those deep, systemic-driven mechanics you can tinker with, but I am aware I'm the minority.