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brindle88

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Posts posted by brindle88

  1.  

    I haven't played bg2 in a while now but I Definatley don't remember thinking it was incredibly easy after playing it. There was more tactics involved in bg2 and I think there game mechanics synergysed better. The ADAD 2nd edition rules worked really will with the infinity engine.

     

     

    Without mods like Ascension and Tactics BG2 was very easy. Most fights could be beaten by simply auto-attacking, with a few requiring spell defence removal. The first act of PoE is, in my opinion, definitely harder than BG2, though I agree it becomes pretty easy after that. The first few levels of BG1 are probably harder, but only because low level AD&D is super wonky.

    Yeah maybe you are right. I was probably consumed by the startling originality, the rich story line, the great items to collect and the awesome spells to use and failed to notice it was easy.

     

    Hint, hint obsidian for pillars 2

  2.  

    It was a 6.5-7/10 for me, to put it this way. Maybe because the game was about what I expected it to be. I know many didn't like it but most complains I read was about not being an accurate tranfer (rules-wise) from the pnp to the pc Which I don't mind (I don't believe dnd rules translate good to a videogame). Anyway, yes, not so strong story but fun game overall; again I didn't expect it to be nothing more from the start.

     

    Yup.  From what I read the reason it scored a ton of bad reviews was simply buyers who don't do their homework and went in with inflated or unrealistic expectations.  They thought they were buying Baldur's Gate 3, what they were buying was more like Neverwinter Nights 1.  A par to weak single player story where the majority of the games focus was actually on multiplayer and custom made adventures.

    If you are a little kid, a computer game nerd and are entertained by roller skating monkeys you will like sword coast legends

     

    ( that is not directed at you btw)

  3. Some people like rangers I'm not arguing that.

     

    My points are that you don t need a ranger to be effective with ranged weapons and even if you do have a ranger there is not a noticeable enough difference with there ranged capabilities compared to other classes that use a ranged weapon. Eg there abilities selection upon level up are way to underpowered.

     

    My other point is that rangers are weaker then all spell casters. This is an easy conclusion to come to for this reason:

     

    If you want a ranger you get:

     

    - to use any ranged weapon including stormcaller

    - better accuracy ( not a huge amount more)

    - 4-5 abilities to choose from upon level up that are even worth selecting and about 3 of them don't come untill the end of the game

     

    If you want a caster you get:

     

    - any ranged weapon including stormcaller (cipher)

    - if you pump perception you Will basically have the same starting accuracy as a ranger.

    - an entire repertoire of spells

    - I'll say that again, an entire repertoire of spells

    - sorry I'll say that again, an entire repertoire of spells.

     

    Now you can be a ranger if you want and fire your ranged weapon with slightly better accuracy for slightly more damage and other people can be a caster and use there ranged weapon for slightly less damage and slightly less accuracy and have an entire repertoire of spells as well.

     

    Pillars casters are basically the baldurs gate equivalent of multi class fighter/ Mages without the spell penalty

  4. Sword Coast Legends is a decent and fun game. First half is better than the 2nd imo. Not anything spectacular but a fun experience.

    Well you are part of the 1%.

     

    No seriously it released as a complete flop, even the games producer came out apologised for the poor quality of it.

     

    And I was being serious about you being part of the 1%. Legends rated on metacritic as one of the worst releases of the year.

     

    Legends was target audience was little kids. It reminded me off games I used to play on my Nintendo when I was six.

  5. Yes, they did.AD&D2 rules are a really mixed bag though. On the one hand, they don't make any kind of mechanical sense, they're full of entirely arbitrary "hard" restrictions, and a lot of the mechanics are unnecessarily complicated and confusing (THAC0 for example -- you can get exactly the same result with much simpler and easier to understand arithmetic).On the other hand, by the time BG2 rolled around, they were immensely rich. All the spells, items, classes, kits, and what have you gave them a depth and breadth that nothing else since has quite managed to achieve.

    I honestly think that obsidian will have to reinvent the wheel when they do pillars 2. Think about it, if they want to hit higher levels (above 16 after wm pt2) say they will aim for up to level 30, it will be a hell of a mess. All the abilities to choose from at those high levels I don't think will work well at all with the current game mechanics. It will be a patch nerf/ nuke fest for about 10 years after it is released.

     

    Actually the more I think about they may not even do a sequal.

    • Like 1
  6. I've done that, and I agree that the game is too easy.Still don't agree that casters shouldn't be allowed to use ranged weapons. It's enough if non-casters are significantly more effective with them. They are.Try an all-ranger party. You'll faceroll the game with select-all and auto-attack, except for one or two encounters with ogre druids and such.

    Try a party with six ciphers with firearms spamming amplified wave then you will see the meaning off stupidly easy.

     

    I haven't played bg2 in a while now but I Definatley don't remember thinking it was incredibly easy after playing it. There was more tactics involved in bg2 and I think there game mechanics synergysed better. The ADAD 2nd edition rules worked really will with the infinity engine.

  7.  

     

     

    Did you take into account Valve's 30% cut, steam sales (I believe it's been on sale a time or 2), etc.? I am unsure how Paradox has been compensated as a publisher since it was kickstarter and all that.

     

    He also counted way too many expansion sales and forgot out of those 750 000, 80 000 are backers.

    Baldurs gate and bg2 are still selling copies 14 years after they where released. Pillars won't be that succesful but will continue to sell well over a long period of time. I think my estimates where conservative for the main copy and the expansion. I'm not an expert on such things though but they have sold nearly 600k in only six months.

     

     

    RPGs usually have a long shelf life.  It's a niche market for sure and  since there isn't a over saturated amount of games out there dedicated RPG fans are willing to pick up an older titles just to get their next RPG fix.

    Yeah I no. The baldurs gate enhanced additions are probably selling more titles then the new forgotten realms game sword coast legends. Has anyone played legends? It is a complete joke. I deleted it after playing it for less then 1 hour.

  8. Ciphers are murderous with ranged weapons. Very High accuracy + Biting Whip + the rest of the stuff equals a lot of owie.Durance is pretty handy with an arquebus if you take the WF and the Summer Flame special plus supporting talents, but he's too busy casting usually to have time to do all that much damage.Wizards are pretty good with implements if you build them that way.Rangers, though... I've played a bit with them lately, and have warmed up to them a lot. Having that handy no-strategic-cost meat shield can be really useful, and coupled with the consistent high range damage they do, they're not half bad. Built up and played properly I've found them both effective and fun, at least as much as the casters. (Of them, I think the cipher needs most work -- at least I end up just spamming one, two, or three abilities.)Bottom line is, I don't agree. I think the ranger is pretty good as it is now. The rogue and the barbarian OTOH need work. I'd rather take any other class than the rogue, as things currently stand, and I'd rather take on a monk, paladin, or fighter than a barb.

    You mentioned that durance was to busy casting then to use the arquebus. If you have 2 tanks and four casters with arquebus's you don't even need to cast for 90% of encounters you can win with just firing arquebus's, yes even on POTD. Try it seriously try it, it is frickin stupid how effective casters are at using firearms.

     

    If you play a game like this and roll spell casters and don't even need to use there spells then something is seriously wrong.

  9.  

    Did you take into account Valve's 30% cut, steam sales (I believe it's been on sale a time or 2), etc.? I am unsure how Paradox has been compensated as a publisher since it was kickstarter and all that.

     

    He also counted way too many expansion sales and forgot out of those 750 000, 80 000 are backers.

    Baldurs gate and bg2 are still selling copies 14 years after they where released. Pillars won't be that succesful but will continue to sell well over a long period of time. I think my estimates where conservative for the main copy and the expansion. I'm not an expert on such things though but they have sold nearly 600k in only six months.

  10.  

    It is a crowd funded game remember. They did it with a budget of 4 million.

    They have created something pretty good here but there is ALOT of room for improvement. I would say obsidian now this.

    With the profits they have made from this and if they crowd fund again pillars 2 may get a budget of 10 million plus. Then you will see possible an epic game in proportion with bg2.

    I agree with this. People seem to forget baldurs gate 2 was a sequel. It had an engine the devs were familiar with to be built on. Also, Shadowrun Returns was a pretty mediocre affair, but I think Dragonfall and Hong Kong are great games. I think obsidian can really do something great with a sequel while using the Unity engine and tools they have built.

    I just crunched some numbers. If they sell 750,000 copies of pillars (they have already sold nearly 600,000) thats around $27,000,000 they would have grossed, plus say sell 400,000 of the expansions that's another $14,000,000. That's a gross of over 40 mil.

     

    And it only cost them 4 mil to make. Sorry it cost us 4 mil haha

  11. As I am absolutely certain this viewpoint of mine will be hotly contested, I have studied this thoroughly and have tested all the different variables involving both sides of this argument:

     

    My argument is:

     

    You don't really notice a significant difference with the ranged specialist classes In this game using ranged weapons (eg ranger) vs a spellcaster using a ranged weapon (eg cipher, preist, wizard, druid) and as an overall analysis when you look at the entire capabilities of the spellcaster with a ranged weapon vs a ranger with a ranged weapon the ranger is vastly inferior in comparison because the spellcasters can cast spells. To conclude there is a huge power difference between a ranger and a spellcaster.

     

    I personally think the rangers need a huge buff (still after all there recent buffs with patches) they simply have no abilities to choose from upon level up that differentiate them significantly from other classes using ranged weapons.

     

    I also think that spell casters should not be able to use ranged weapons like firearms or bows (like in baldurs gate).

     

    When you have a look at the 2 comparisons

     

    - any class can use any ranged weapon

    - a rangers accuracy is higher but you still will consistently hit often enough with ranged casters especially if you pump perception

     

    The argument I'm am going to be presented with to counter my point is I'm sure: a ranger gets stunning shots, twinned arrows and can use storm caller...............and I counter this by saying................but a caster has a whole repertoire of spells and can still use the ranged weapon effectively.

     

    This is why I don't use rangers. I wish they where better as I enjoy ranged classes but in pillars they really do suck.

    • Like 1
  12.  

    Cipher, before I tossed Wave into the too cheesy to use pile, would make every fight go the exact same way. Auto-pause on combat, Wave a team mate, Mica Roar an enemy, Lead split an enemy, Wave, reload, wave. At this point, the fights almost always either, or down to few enough mobs that the stun lock weapons of the frontline will keep them underwraps. And if not? Well, the Cipher just moves from 100% CC up time to like 75%.

     

     

    Wait, you would use a cipher without charm or dominate?

    I never needed to use them. Combat even on POTD is unbelievably easy. If you have 2 tanks and four casters armed with arquebus's you generally won't even need to cast any spells.

     

    My typical party consisted of

     

    Fighter

    Fighter

    Cipher - arquebus

    Mage - arquebus

    Priest - arquebus

    Druid - arquebus

     

    Combat was insanely easy. Casters shouldn't be able to use fire arms or bows like fighters and rangers do (like you can't in baldurs gate). 90% of fights you just position your tanks maybe cast 1 spell (wave) then peg everything off with you firearms, pathetic I reckon. Makes ranged classes like rangers completely pointless when a caster can do the same almost as good.

  13. The guy is right. Following the game's development sort of prepared me for what to expect at release, but if it wasn't for that, and for the sympathy I have for Obsidian, I would have laughed PoE off in the state it was in at release.IMO Patch 2.0 and TWM1 demonstrated that the PoE team can produce a great quality RPG experience if given a reasonable timeframe - 6 months if they start with an already functional technology base that they have experience working with. I expect TWM2 to be even better, but the original PoE will not be BGII-good, regardless of how much patching it receives.Regardless, no one can argue with the numbers, and the numbers say PoE was a huge commercial success.I'll follow PoE2's development very carefully and I'll form my opinion on whether it's worth buying pretty early, based on a number of specific design choices.

    I will bet my left testicle that you buy POE2 gairnulf. You trawl these forums like a Japanese whaling vessel, you clearly have a strong interest in pillars and enjoy the game. You wouldn't be here if you weren't interested in it.

    • Like 2
  14. I very recently bought this game and what an utter disappointment it turned out to be. The fact that it was rushed and released well before it was ready is an unfortunate trend in the gaming industry. The thing that annoys me to no end is that you've released one expansion already and are currently working on the second, while the original game is still and unfinished, unbalanced, buggy mess. You fooled me once so, shame on me. It won't happen again. I'll never spend another penny on anything that comes out of your studio.

    Yeah shame on you obsidian for taking away the 500+ hours of my life that I have spent playing pillars. You all deserve to be hanged in the gallows of raedrics keep.

    • Like 3
  15. I would say that targeting fortitude over deflection is a downside. Just about every mob will have higher fortitude than deflection, and abilities which lower fortitude are a lot rarer than ones that lower deflection.

     

    But it's still an overpowered spell I suppose. I'm just not a huge fan of ciphers. Seems like their spellbook is very feast or famine, so yah it does get very repetitive.

    Yeah I suppose that's one way of looking at it and that kind of makes up for why wave is so good. Wizards have a whole range of good spells where as ciphers have about 5 haha, so it makes sense for them to have the wave as they don't have much else to choose from.

  16. Amplified wave is pretty broken, and one of the cheese powers that makes the class OP. (Seriously, take/alter a few powers, and the class would be downright balanced and interesting).

     

    It's really just the massive AoE size of it, that both lets the player CC mobs out of the range of the mobs CC, as well as CC the entire field at the same time. At least in WM, some of the fights have the mobs in spread out enough groups a single Vancian can't lock down the entire room with no shots fired the enemy.

     

    Cipher, before I tossed Wave into the too cheesy to use pile, would make every fight go the exact same way. Auto-pause on combat, Wave a team mate, Mica Roar an enemy, Lead split an enemy, Wave, reload, wave. At this point, the fights almost always either, or down to few enough mobs that the stun lock weapons of the frontline will keep them underwraps. And if not? Well, the Cipher just moves from 100% CC up time to like 75%.

     

    Just another crazy OP thing I'm surprised made it this far. A severe reduction in AoE size is needed, at the least.

    Yeah I agree 100% with your post. There is amplified wave and that chain confusion spell that ciphers have wreak havok. Echo and mind lance are ok and fun to use. These spells and there low level mind blades ( the chain blade spell) where pretty much the only spells I ever used for a cipher.

     

    I used the pretty much the same tactics as you. I fired off a shot straight away with an arquebus with the cipher, positioned my tanks and waited for all the enemies to congregate around them then spammed wave close to those tanks. You will be able to do this on about 90% of the fights it's is only on boss type fights or when you encounter rare enemies where you have to change your tactics.

     

    Imagine giving this kind of power to your character in baldurs gate 2. No seriously think about that, imagine if your fighter/ mage in bg2 could simply fire off a massive wave that knocked everything down and damaged them at the same time. You are like a god where you click your fingers and everything dies.

     

    AWESOME! Lol

  17. This spell is actually rather weak:

    - the damage is low for a 6 level spell

    - It target fortitude (aka won't land on anything worth damaging on potd)

    - you need to fire 2-4 shots in between each spell to recover the focus (and need to spend talent so that those shots hit). In the meantime all other casters would have casted 3-4 spells (and thus would have had a way bigger impact on the battle)

    - it is centered on one of your ally so can't maximize is AOE 

    - It is a cipher spell and ciphers are terrible in difficult battle (i.e. terrible when they are needed). It is OK to clear trash, except for the fact that you don't need any spell to clear trash...

    What? What? What? What? And what?

     

    You have just dribbled 5 different bullet points that are all complete lies.

     

    The damage is huge for 6th level spell, you can hit the nearly the entire screen with its radius so if you hit 20 people for 30 damage that's 600 damage dealt

     

    Targets fortitude rather then deflection and that's bad? Umm ok......

     

    Needs four shots to recover focus? Dude are you playing the same game as us? Read above posts from me and other members, will need one shot with arquebus.

  18. Thank you everyone, you guys have definitely helped in my making a decision. Have a great day everyone.

    Dude put points in perception. I thought I was going blind when I read posts on this thread from people telling you to not worry about perception. You will need resolve as well as you will be frontline. I personally think fighters are underrated and are right up there with the best.

     

    Stats for my fighters typically have something like this (I'm guessing here)

     

    Might 15

    Con 7-9 (never drop con below 7 on any character especially on POTD)

    Dex 15

    Perc 15

    Int 3

    Resolve 18

    • Like 1
  19. On higher levels focus generation against mobs is not a problem. With an exceptional warbow and The Unconquerable amulet you also get enough focus to cast Amp. Wave after two shots. AS brindle88 said: you just have to pick the weakest targets. Or take quickswitching blunderbusses + cipher drug.

    I'm not a big fan of blunders. I found them useful at the start of the game but as the game progressed (on POTD) just about every enemy I encountered had a minimum dr of 12.

     

    Blunders become obsolete half way through the game, and to make them half viable you need to waste talent points on abilities like penetrating shot and even after taking penetrating shot and using lead splitter still no where as good as an enchanted arquebus.

     

    Put a suit of plate armour on one of your characters and fire leadsplitter at it, will do nothing.

  20. It's a high level spell and once you've cast it once it'll take a while before you get to do so again. People have tended to focus on lower-level abilities that are overpowered.

    I made serious use of it on POTD, I let it rip in just about every fight.

     

    Even though ciphers gain need to gain focus they can make better use of spells then wizards as they don't need to rest.

     

    You should be able to gain enough focus from one shot of an highly enchanted arquebus to set it off. Trick is to aim for low dr targets eg fodder.

     

    Fire arquebus, amplified wave, arquebus, wave = you win

     

    Oh and then you get to do it again the next fight

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