daver

This was very well stated and it sums up pretty much how I feel. Romantic options in an rpg can add to that suspension of belief of being a part of a real world, it seems part of the natural flow of emotions when a bunch of random individuals are thrown or forced into working towards a common goal. But it's not a necessary option for a successful rpg. It also takes time & resources from the development of a complex rpg, and you will always have those who are disappointed because they couldn't romance a certain companion. And it shouldn't be added as an after-thought and have a tacked on feel, much like it did in Deadfire and even ME:Andromeda. ME1-3 got it right, because you could pursue those branching romantic options or not. But rpgs don't have to have it, and I'm glad Obsidian stated from the start that they won't be included. They can just concentrate on making an intricate quest & choice driven rpg in 1st person perspective that so many of us have been longing for. I'm so excited for Outer Worlds. Please note that I'm not specifically knocking Deadfire, or even Andromeda. I've played over 500 hrs of Deadfire (and plan a new playthrough with the recent Inner Sanctum dlc), but the romantic options basically consisted of a couple of conversations and a few lines of dialog, while in Andromeda the whole thing just felt forced.

I had this exact bug today as well. I sided with the Principi and also had the dragon helping me. Made for a pretty anticlimactic ending Also the same for me, as I just finished yesterday. When reaching Ukaizo, I just walked through the first map without any combat or conversation or interaction. Just waltzed right through it, up to the tower, turned off the machine, and waltzed down to the 3rd map and had my conversation with Eothas. Game over. Very disappointing after such a long journey through the Deadfire.

Thanks! I'll take a look at the beta 2.1.0 patch on Steam, or maybe wait until official release since it's so close. As a side note, I did get the shield to advance, but only if its' equipped with a different armor.

Elex. It was on sale for 60% off awhile back on Steam. It looks like a cross between Gothic 3 & Fallout and I loved those games. I expect bugs, and weirdness in conversations & combat controls, but it still looks fun to me.

So I played a few hours last night, un-equipped both the Guardian Plate & the Wintertide Bulwark from Eder. Equipped him with a different armor & the Wintertide shield, and now the shield is working as intended by getting credit for afflictions received. I haven't tried re-equipping both yet to see if they will work together.

It seems like equiping both these items is a bit bugged. Both items are soulbounds from BoW: Wintertide Bulwark/large shield/needs 100 afflictions to advance; & Guardian Plate/heavy plate armor/needs 100 afflictions to advance. It seems odd that 2 soulbounds would have the same requirements. But even if that were so, equiping both the shield and the plate while gaining afflictions, only progresses the plate. The shield doesn't advance. I don't see how that can be right. If I'm equiping both items, gain an affliction, then it should refect as a gain in both the shield & the plate. But it doesn't. Is this as intended?

Same. It was refreshing to feel like a loser for a change instead of another power fantasy. While I really liked the story & most of the companions in DA2, the one thing that I absolutely hated and can't forgive is the way they re-used environments, especially the sewers. I ended up hating going down there because it was always the same, expect they would block off the left hallway instead of the right. The right door was locked instead of the left. Enemies were always in the same areas even if the enemy type changed. Never anything new to explore.

I've had to work this week, but now I'm off for 3 days, so I'll have some time to see if the un-equiping & re-equiping process triggers the shield to start gaining credit for afflictions on the shield. If I get desperate, I may head down the the under city again and tromp throught some corpse piles, although I usually avoid that type of manuver. I have been having Aloth cast a few AOE spells on Eder's position if he's somewhat isolated which seems to help. Will also mention this in the bugs section to see if it catches a developers eye as a bug.

It's the first time, in recent memory at least, that I out-right killed my self and all my companions with conversation. I've made some questionable conversation choices that resulted in combat, but never in complete self destruction. I was doing the first step of the animancers quest and decided to taunt Rymrgand at the end of that area because I'd defeated him in BoW, and was being a bit testy in my responses. Bad idea. Poof, insta-death. It was actually pretty cool since it was entirely unexpected. Lesson learned: don't taunt the gods.

Both the Guardian Plate & Wintertide Bulwark (lg shield), were soul bound items I aquired in BoW. Both have the same requirement to advance the soul bound attributes, that is both the plate & the shield require the wearer to get 100 afflictions. One soul bound with that requirement is challenge enough, but both items? So I have Eder equiping both the plate and the shield, but as he aquires afflictions, it only shows up on the plate, not the shield. If he has both equipped, and receives an affliction, shouldn't that register with both the plate and the shield? I'm wondering if this is as intended, of if it may be a minor (but annoying) bug.

Overall, I really like it, I think it's a big improvement and a step forward from the limited companion banter of POE1. There's no absolute method to this that will please every single player, there are 10s of 1000s of us and we all have slightly (or sometimes greatly) different perceptions on what we'd like to hear from companions, and the frequency. I think the increased banter between companions, whether "cheesy" or not, is often times funny, sometimes insightful, and helps flesh out the personality of a given character. It's one of the main reasons I play party based rpgs.

I haven't finished yet, but I'm currently leaning towards supporting the RDC, they seem somewhat less exploitive than the VTC (also I really like Maia). Neither the RDC or VTC are perfect solutions to stabilize the Deadfire, but the VTC seem more intent on reaping all the luminous adra from an area, then leaving it. Haven't done as many quests for the VTC as others, so that opinion could fluctuate. When I started the game, I was set on supporting the Huana, and I liked the Queen when I first met her. But then I went to the Gullet and saw how they treat the Ruparo (sp), seeing how they had no medical care, lived in hovels, and scavanged out of a garbage pile. Some of that was semi-correctable through quests, but it was that basic hirearchy that I didn't like. Plus I released the dragon under the city that they held captive and were leaching the life out of, that my ranger couldn't tolerate. Took a major rep hit with that. Also when I started, I was set on just destroying pirates, the Principi. But the longer I played, and after meeting Aedalys and destroying the Slavers, I find this faction much more intricate than I initially assumed. In fact my current rep with them is 5, whereas RDC & VTC are both 3, and the Huana is 2 (mainly due to releasing the dragon. It had been my hope to get some of those factions to work together, but I know that's not possible. It just seemed like a union of Huana/RDC, or Huana/Principi would be a better solution.

-Graphics: real time lighting, awesome reflections and shadows (watching your characters shadows from Xoti's lantern bounce along a wall in a dungeon) weather effects (wind/rain) water that characters can wade through, leaving ripples and slowing them down parts of the environment are destructible, like exploding barrels (Aloth once killed everyone on screen (enemies, my party, and a merchant) by launching a fire ball at some barrels. -Factions: Loved having to deal with the various factions, even though they all had major negatives in how they dealt with the Deadfire. Would love it even more if this area of the game were expanded to give various options & choices to possibly get some of them to work together. Loved destroying all slavers. -Reputation System: Loved how this reflected not only reps with companions, but with factions & cities. One of the best visual rep systems I've seen in any rpg. -Companions: Much more involved companions this time around, a lot of good and lol moments with the banter, great interjections of opinions during certain quests & events, some really nice scripted scenes. Companion quests gave some insight into their past, and fleshed them out a little more, although those quests could have been expanded upon a bit more to make the end seem more complete, as well as the "romance" options that felt somewhat lacking. But overall, great improvement over POE1. -Combat: I love it. Far more detailed and with great spell effects, and I love that they have included options to be able to tweak the combat behavior of companions, much like DA:O. There's a far wider range of difficulty levels than most games would even consider (I know there are those that want a harder PoTD, but the options here are still commendable). -The Map & Exploring I love the whole open map dotted with islands & storms, not knowing what you're going to find. Love the shanties while on my ship. -Skills, Conversations, Abilities & Miscellaneous: Skills play such a big role in conversations now, sometimes a check for the Watcher only, but mostly a party check. So many hostile situations can be avoided and turn out better good conversation options & skill checks. A good balance of active & passive abilities. Some of those passives are hugely important. Spell casters don't know every spell ever created, whether wizard, priest, druid, cypher, or chanter. You have to build a unique character/companion as you go along. Some fun unique equipment, not just weapons & armor, but accessories, and your companions comment when you give them one. I like the reduced crafting options. I never upgraded a non-unique in POE1 anyway, so having it restricted to uniques is a good move I think. Pets give certain benefits when equipped. I like the food/resting options while camping. Benefits from certain foods can provide huge boosts, and the affects last. I like managing a ship & the crew, keeping morale, and I even like the sort of mini game that ship combat is.

In all my time in POE1, I never used the Helwax Mold, not because I didn't like it, but because I kept saving it and saving it to duplicate that one weapon or armor that I really needed 2 versions of. Then I'd be at the end game in the Pit, and I found I didn't really need it. It might be more useful in POE2, where there seems to be a disparity of Unique weapons/armor. Lots of sabers & swords and medium to heavy armor, but it falls off after that. I wouldn't mind seeing it added as quest loot, or available on the Deck of Many Things (a lot of the items there just felt a bit under-whelming).

For party-based rpgs & crpgs, my main wishes & concerns around the companions, their personal quests, how they interact with each other, how they respond to me & my choices, and how deeply they are involved in the main story line. There are a lot of improvements already from POE1 to POE2, some of those improvements didn't seem to be developed quite as far as they could have been. Alot of my wishes probably won't happen, and if not, consider them wishes for what I'd like in POE3. 1-More depth and consequences to companions personal quests. A lot of them start out really good, take you to different areas, you learn more about the background and feelings of a companion (I'm thinking right now of Eder's quest), but when you get to the end, it seemed so abrupt and I found myself saying, "What? That's it?". 2-More depth & consequences to companion romances, harder to achieve, and something tangible that shows you are actually in a relationship. As they are, they feel just a bit "tacked on" so the developer could say: "Yes, you can romance your companions in POE2". I mean this as constructive criticism, not bashing Obsidian, as I appreciate the work they've done, and at least they've made the attempt to do personal relationships. 3-More development of the factions and their interactions. I personally find the factions more interesting than the main questline, and I would love to be able to get at least some of them working together, rather than just choosing one, and then having that choice have little effect on the main quest. They all have strong negative points, but there should be a way to get them, maybe not all of them, to work together.