Boeroer

In the past even stuff like FreeRecipesToggle and UnlockPetSlots was not gated behind iroll20s iirc. It is now.

It sold very well given that is was done by an independent developer and had lowish budget. Which made it a nice financial success I guess. But the sales weren't astronomical. The point is: if Avellone's name has any noticable impact on sales numbers (I don't know but it may be) it's still not a sufficient reason to explain Deadfire's very low sales numbers (compared to PoE). PoE wasn't advertised with "two characters written by Chris Avellone" either by the way. The reason why there aren't any "directed by your buddy Josh Sawyer" tags on games may be because Josh hates that (I presume - based on his tweets that evolve around such advertisement techniques. Recent: Death Stranding).

You mean Hearth Orlan I guess. Ciphers need to deal dmg in order to generate focus. Using a shield does indeed increase your survivability, but it also reduces your damage output. Two Ciphers are actually pretty neat since they can cast certain "Ally only" powers onto each other. A single Cipher can't profit from Cipher buffs, two can. Especially Reaping Knives, cast on each other, is very good (basically doubles your two Ciphers' focus generation). You can achieve a compromise with two hatchets: you'll get +10 deflection but still be able to dual wield weapons (which raises your dps significantly compared to weapon & shield). This is nice when you want to skill your characters for Reaping Knives (with Two Weapon Style). However, if you like the idea of weapon & shield then that's totally fine as well. Armor is important in the early game. There I'd recommend wearing the thickest one you can get (plate, brigandine). Later it doesn't matter much because DR doesn't scale as steeply as enemies' damage and your health/endurance pools do. Pick the one with the best enchantments. You can usually tell where the sweet spot is (too low: you lose too much health too quickly and have to rest too often - too high: your focus generation feels really slow). Also you will have access to Borrowed Instinct and Pain Block. Generally speed weapons are the best pick for a Cipher's focus generation (I mean weapons with the speed enchantment).

New stuff on tumblr: https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/189033149681/why-did-you-and-the-team-decide-on-deadfire-for https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/189033278221/why-blame-the-relative-failure-of-poe2-on-already https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/189033409996/its-a-shame-deadfire-did-worse-the-poe-1-it-had https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/189033619441/in-an-imaginary-world-where-an-eccentric

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?