Boeroer

Some mechanics are rather easy to grasp (Inspiration vs. Affliction for example), others are very complicated and only thorough experimentation or code inspection can reveal what's happening (e.g. double inversion with dmg mali). Some just seem redundant (action time/action speed/recovery time). Then some just don't work as expected (modals not stacking with active abilities). I wouldn't say arbitrary though. The explanation of mechanics is better than in PoE - but still rather bad. If you want to see a great way to explain mechanics via tooltips then have a look a Slay the Spire. They did an amazing job with communicating nearly every bit of mechanic on the fly.

Tyranny had cooldown mechanics (which I find horrible for several reasons) and also did disappoint - at least the publisher. I agree about the setting, but I wouldn't change the mechanics at all. They are in a good spot. Maybe improve consumables (make them more unique and not copy existing abilites etc.) and untangle the stacking rules. But then focus on story, quests, nice companions and a charismatic antagonist. Put in more exiting items (not necessarily gamebreakingly good, but exiting - I would also like items like trinkets that alter basic class mechanics - like those special passives on Path of Exile do). So basically give all different kinds of players (role-player, interactive novel reader, powergamer etc.) their pet without reinventing the whole wheel again. Don't put any more ressources into the core mechanics. And no minigames...

They were bought by Microsoft - so there's that with the independency and the fiscal score.

Don't forget that a lot of the base game's trash fights were removed with a patch some time after release.

I still blame it on the setting (mostly) - although I personally like it. But a lot of RPGamers are a bit conservative when it comes to settings. No idea if that's really the reason though. To me it also felt like Deadfire's marketing was nearly non-existent.

Afaik Deadfire was a disappointment (also because PoE was a pleasant surprise and Obsidian thought that a sequel would be a sure-fire success), but not a commercial failure. At least that's what Josh was hinting in his talks ("was doing okay"). So even in this case there is no true fact™ - unless you know the actual numbers. As long as I'm concerned very few discussions are actually useless. The most useless thing I encounter in forums is the overuse of the word "useless".

I read that as "big help" - and then realized that this is most likely what you wanted to write in the first place.

There is no injustice. Deadfire didn't meet the expectations of its target audience and thus it didn't sell as well as expected. But you made the assumption that sales numbers indicate quality. My examples merely show that this is not the case. Even only one negative example would be enough to falsify that theory. Sales numbers are influenced by a lot of variables - quality of the product is just one of them. Thus, drawing conclusions about the quality of a procuct while looking at sales numbers is a logical fallacy. Even if there are lots of examples where high sales numbers correlate with high quality this does not mean that there is causality. Because: there are examples that show otherwise. I'm not prejudiced. I played both games and my taste just happens to coincide with the observations of most critics who say that Deadfire is the better game. It even coincides with the taste of Steam users (who give it an overall "very positive" review while Kingmaker is "mostly positive"). I played other games that are of lower quality than their competitors but still liked them better. But me liking such a game wouldn't lead me to the assertion that it's a game of (overall) greater quality. You simply can't know why Kingmaker sold better (did it sell more copies though? I don't have numbers). Since sales numbers don't indicate quality per se - and you can't even know how those numbers come about in the first place - you can't use them to determine the quality of a game. And you cannot use them to compare games when it comes to quality. I mean you can, but then it's faulty reasoning.

If you look at metacritics you can see that Deadfire is 10 points above Pathfinder:Kingmaker. Sales don't tell you a lot about the quality of a product. Too much variables at play: price, trends, placement, marketing, zeitgeist, timing, reputation, fandom, nostalgia and so on and so forth. Reviews are better suited - even if they are influenced by the zeitgeist as well. Deadfire is of better quality than Kingmaker in most aspects. It should be - it had a much bigger budget and the developers were more experienced (on average). That doesn't necessarily mean it also meets the taste of most potential customers. Lots of people like that movie Fast & Furious - more than Drive. Does that mean that Fast & Furious is a better movie than Drive in terms of quality? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a superb movie. Did is sell well? Erm...

Which is relevant for this discussion because...?

Big Macs also sell better than Canard à l'orange, so...

@Blades of Vanatar: I guess you mean Godansthunyr and not Strike Hard? Strike Hard is def. good for cloning but since it has no stat bonus...?

Yes. But that only works with weapons (and shields). Other items' buffs (e.g. Ring with +4 INT) don't stack. Weapons' effects always do stack. For example two Little Saviors + Outworn Buckler in the party would grant all party members in aura range +15 to all defenses. Two Whispers of Yenwood would indeed give you +4 CON.

And now I trample in and say: "I didn't play both! Ahahahaha!"

You can check your reputation/dispositions on the char sheet. There are several tabs, one of them shows all that stuff.

That would have been neat indeed.

Not if it's about attack speed. And single target dps. You can enchant the March Steel Dagger with a lash (25% multiplicative dmg), it has speed and you can enchant it with Durgan Steel which allows you to use Vulnerable Attack without Gauntlets of Swift Action and with decent armor and still stay at 0 recovery. Besides that it's a real chore to level the Unlabored Blade up. The best alternative (in terms of dps) would be Drawn in Spring. It would be slower but the wounding enchantment is so potentially strong that it can deal the better dps. However, this build was about speed and very fast CC with Force of Anguish. And there's no faster weapon setup (on average throughout a playthrough) than Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger. It's no problem to use Unlabored Blade or Drawn in Spring though. Totally viable and equally nice options (once Up. Blade is upgraded completely).

Yes, coming back later will be the easiest solution.

I can't really see the pictures well since I'm travelling and only have mobile access. But I guess the problem is universal Power Level compared to class-specific Power Level. For example Alacrity does also scale with certain Power Levels from wizard "schools" (like Enchanting, Transmutation etc.) and the Priest won't have that. That makes comparing the two abilities difficult. Your copied ability for the Priest would need to scale with Priest-specific Power Levels (like Protection, Inspiration etc.) and not the wizard ones. I don't know how entropic haste was realised and if the keywords for non-universal PL scaling were set properly. You should ask around in the modding subforum I guess.

I don't want to sound pessimistic but in my opinion Fighter is the worst class for soloing in PoE. But on hard it's of course doable. Still... trying to kill Readric in a solo game with a (non-overleveled) Fighter is... bold. Iirc with a solo Barb I killed Kolsc first (after Raedric suggested it) in order to get the easier XP and after that killed Raedric. I used a chokepoint with a pike: let some weaker melees through the door and stand around the corner so that the mages and stuff can't target you. Only attack the strong ones in the second row and keep the weaker ones (that hit you) alive.

Well that worked like a charm, didn't it? 😊

The self damage scales with MIG (3% additive per point) and Power Level (5% multiplicative per PL). Duration scales with INT (5% additive per point) and Power Level (5% multiplicative per PL).

That's because every case is the best case with a mortar monk.

Since you have a Twitter account: tag Josh on Twitter and ask him. He immediately answered last time I did this with a question about a pending ultimate run.

About finishing/replaying a game: there might be different factors at play: - time available: you want to finish but time is scarce so you push through the crit path. - hook: you can like a game but it doesn't hook you like other games do or did. My best examples: Into the Breach and Druidstone. I like both games but didn't really finish - while I played the heck out of FTL and stuff like PoE or even Blackguards (which might be a better comparison to Druidstone - it's a worse game but it still kept me playing). - personal taste: sometimes even the graphics style pits me off - although I try to overlook that. This works well in some games (Slay the Spire, Avernum) while I can't get over it with others (Fell Seal or D:OS). - "vibe": I mean some games are just so weirdly mesmerizing that you can't stop (Hotline Miami) even if you don't like the genre in the first place. Probably also has something to do with the music. - age: don't know why, just have a feeling that it might be a thing, right?