algroth

Ah, I had no problem with Pillars at all in this regard, in fact for me it was a strength to see the lore introduced gradually instead of through a huge expositionary dump right at the beginning. To the best of my memory, the only mention of Glanfathans in the first dialogue was to state why the ruins were out of bounds, which seemed reasonable to me.

Glanfathan is Pillars, though, not Tyranny? Either way I agree that the game is a little too wordy and expositional in place. Maybe it is just my compulsive tendencies of needing to read out and exhaust every thread of dialogue possible, but I didn't really need to hear about how much the Scarlet Chorus and Disfavoured hated one another from fifty different people from each band.

https://e.snmc.io/lk/o/w/fda7e4b6621351e7ec5edb9fd3abb85a/6448508.gif Linky due to language.

I don't entirely agree here. I believe that a good set of purchasable items at a very high price can act as an aditional incentive to questing and adventuring, and justifier to rewards and "lesser" loot. For one, one of the usual rewards you get upon completing quests or tasks is, quite simply, gold, and if that gold isn't useful for something then it is ultimately a pointless value. If stuff in shops is devalued, then gold is devalued and so is every item that isn't up to par or better than your current equipment. A good arquebus may be useless to a team with a preference for other types of ranged weapons, but it might be useful as cash to then purchase a really great sabre: so long as it's necessary to invest gold somewhere, it and anything that is sellable will be more worthwhile. On the other hand, good loot is always worthwhile for the sheer sake of being good loot. Of course, gold will eventually become redundant either because you'll get enough of it to not worry about it running out, or because you'll have exhausted every significant means of spending it, either by purchasing all you want to acquire, by running out of ways to improve your stronghold, or else. And of course, if good items can also be acquired at too low a price, it'll detract from the value of loot if only because it's too easy to equip yourself with superior gear early on... But all of this is where price balancing comes into play, to delay or diminish that situation as much as possible, and provided prices for unique and powerful items are kept reasonably high, there should be no reason why one aspect should negatively affect the other. I do agree with this largely, inasmuch as a player will handle his gold more efficiently the more experienced they become with the game... But even so, in my playthroughs of Baldur's Gate II I still find myself buying certain items and using them to the very end, the likes of the AC 3 Bracers of Defense, the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength and the Robe of Vecna (this is a ridiculous item if there ever was one). I don't think the Adventurer's Mart or even the occasional other merchant wares (the likes of the post-slaver Copper Coronet or the Underdark for example) grow any less impressive the more I play the game, though I would argue nowadays that along with the very easy-to-abuse reputation discount system, these items could all use a raise in price. But again, the issue for me was that *even in my first playthrough* the Pillars merchants seemed pretty underwhelming, which is why I would argue for closer attention to be given to them in Deadfire. In terms of the overwhelming majority of items in the merchants' shops, I don't mind it being fairly ordinary or "underwhelming". I think they if nothing else help further elevate the three or four expensive items that *are* actually good. I'll reply to the rest of the post later, ran out of time unfortunately.

The horror.

Shahzia Sikander

Bridget Riley

Chul Hyun Ahn

Antonio Berni I'm placing some of the art under spoilers for the inclusion of some material that could fall out of the forum guidelines. To this regard, I'd like to know from any moderator how nudity and violence in the realm of art are judged according to image guidelines since these aspects tend to be perceived differently in the context of painting and the likes. Of course I would reckon explicit depictions of sexual acts (e.g. the naughtier Hokusai illustrations) are a no-no regardless of context.

A few illustrations from Max Ernst's Une semaine de bonté:

Agreed, merchants lacking worthwhile items is a huge part of the reason why gold is so worthless in the game. Coupled with the enchanting system that incentivizes not spending gold at merchants and waiting until you find that super powerful item you're better off enchanting in order to save resources. I think there needs to be more special items at merchants at the same time as the whole enchanting system requires a total overhaul. Luckily the enchanting system is being completely overhauled already, but I would agree about what you say regarding the first Pillars.

I like this too... Maybe your ship's vendor could act this way somewhat, essentially be a merchant whose stock largely varies according to the factions and communities you've allied yourself with and so on.

Exactly. A serious gold sink, or a serious gold collection objective. I think it would give gold purpose again in a way that it was sort of lacking in Pillars once you had enough for Caed Nua's improvements.

Can't say I recall it, and can't seem to find it on Google. What are the stats? Sorry, ****ty memory. AzurEITH's stilletto. Only 305 copper, but at a time when you probably have around 100 (or at least I generally do). You'll probably have enough to get it just before Raedric's castle, but doing so will make you poor again so it's a traide off. Yeah, I can see how it can be a pretty cool unique item, and how it could be upgraded to be damn good. I was rather thinking about more epic and expensive items myself, that might make the prospect of buying them more a mid-game or late-game goal introduced early on, so to speak. The Girdle of Hill Giant Strength, for example, was about 14k gold if I'm not mistaken, which at the end of act 1 was a pretty inconceivable amount of money, for an item that still likely impressed at the later stages of the game. I'd love to see some items which, in this sense, would be pretty unmissable and enticing at any stage in the game.

Can't say I recall it, and can't seem to find it on Google. What are the stats?

I don't remember having seen this topic discussed in this forum yet, so apologies beforehand if it has been brought before. Having said this, I would like to discuss merchants in the original Pillars and what I would like to see addressed in Deadfire. Without a doubt, merchants and unique (or uniquely-named) items abound in the game, but to the best of my memory I don't think I've bought any item at all aside from the occasional accessory or ingredient through both of the playthroughs I've done so far, and have found the wares sold even by the "special" merchants in the game (i.e. those that were either unlockable or reachable under special circumstances) to be pretty lacklustre overall. Now, I appreciate that the best gear was left as part of the reward for deeper exploration and questing, but at the same time I can't help miss a Ribald Barterman/Adventurer's Mart-type store that would have three or four really powerful items to spend on, or a selection which might make the acquisition of this or that merchant something worth investing on. Going into Deadfire I hope we get to see a store or merchant like this. True, the soulbound weapons and more epic loot should probably (at least largely) remain within dungeons and in the hands of big bosses, but I would nevertheless love to see some great unique items in the hands of such vendors. My reasoning, partly, is as follows: in the case of items sold by Ribald the likes of Aeger's Hide, Bracers of Defense AC 3 or the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength, these were seen very early on in the game and helped set secondary goals in my mind as to gathering the money to purchase them; in turn, I was more eager to quest, and more importantly, I felt that money, at least at an early stage, had actual use for me (and not just for getting to Spellhold). In contrast, with Pillars I felt my money was only useful as far as funnelling it to Caed Nua and my hirelings, and I never once felt it as a particularly relevant motivator - I could do with or without it, it was for the most part just a numeric value to me. I believe money could be made relevant in the game again by adding some more motivators to collect and spend it, and what better motivator than great, expensive items for sale? Again, this could just be that I didn't pay close enough attention to the merchants' stock in the original Pillars, but as far as Deadfire is concerned, I think it's a matter to keep in mind.

There were fetch quests in Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate, ChronoTrigger, and the original Final Fantasy. It's one of the *oldest* quest designs. It's simple, easy to implement, doesn't take much design skill. It was an early "innovation". Interesting, exciting, multi-step quests with complexity and thought came later...like decent journals and notes telling you where the hell to go. I think a lot of a fetch quest's success falls down to how well you're able to conceal the fact that it is just that, and how the obstacles mix up the design just enough that it stops feeling like "just a fetch quest". An argument could be made that the Cult of the Unseeing Eye questline in Baldur's Gate II for example is a fetch quest, inasmuch as at the centre of it all the main conceit is that of finding, using and delivering the Rift Device. The arc surrounding the Bronze Sphere in Planescape: Torment is also compelling because of the sheer complexity involved in reaching it, too. These tend to be more questionable the more obvious and straightforward they are, however.

Of course, I was just proposing it as an option to have it made with your parents. Otherwise, any friend who cooks and might be interested?

What's your first tongue? If it's Spanish I could help translate some.

I just hope we'll be able to send naughty companions or crewmates to the crow's nest (or to the top since it'd otherwise be an anachronism, but, all the same).

You're not boring, you are right. This is an RPG after all, we don't need no stinkin' action minigames. So please no Monkey Island style ship dogfights. The obvious (and IMO solid and sufficiently RPGy) way would be to do ship vs. ship combat as scripted interactions, blazing cannons included. Boarding could work as standard combat on the ships' decks. That's how they're approaching the encounters, according to the Sawyer/Null Q&A.

Seems that way. A shame too because it's otherwise a very interesting topic, and even if I don't agree I'd rather read through this than yet another thread about party size/vancian casting/"dumbing down"/general whining.

Let's see if I can convince the rest of my team to make some of these recipes in our YouTube channel (which is this, for those curious). Something interesting could come out of it!

For a new game?

The game was set in a Renaissance-inspired period, and is precisely all about the shift towards humanism. That's pretty much the point of the game. Also there are two things with that post that I have to argue against: firstly, why does fantasy *have* to be medieval-inspired? That seems like a pretty close-minded idea of a genre that could potentially represent all manners of worlds not even necessarily based on a historical time period. The inclusion of guns was a surprising aspect when I first played through Pillars but which also worked surprisingly well, I felt - I had no problem with the choice of focusing on a more Renaissant period instead. Had I been asked before the game about how I felt of including pistols, arquebuses and the likes, I would have probably been scared about feeling them jarring within a sword and sorcery fantasy context, but I was gladly proven wrong about it. Secondly, never assume that "nobody" would want this or that. Not everyone approaches fantasy as an escapist genre, either to write or read as such, and not everyone values escapism to such a degree. When you say "nobody gets into epic fantasy just to enter a nightmare that makes us wonder why the protagonist doesn't just hang himself", well, isn't that pretty close to the point to Planescape: Torment? For my money, that's the best videogame, RPG or otherwise, fantasy or otherwise, that I've played, and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that in this site. I personally think escapism has its value for certain, but am also much more interested in themes and ideas that extend beyond its own microcosm, and looking at the genre of fantasy as another way of reflecting upon aspects and questions we may find in reality and in our everyday lives. It may not be what interests you, but don't assume it's what everyone agrees on either. For the rest, I would say the Grieving Mother is interesting precisely because she tells the experiences of the game from a different side, and the mysteries to what she speaks of are eventually revealed too, but in terms of the original roster of companions I also feel she's the weakest, or most unlikable at least. She's interesting but I do feel her mysticism becomes overbearing a bit too often. Personally I also found there was plenty of warmth and a couple of chuckles courtesy from the rest of the companions, which helped alleviate some of the bleakness that is prevalent through most of the game otherwise. This aside I guess it all falls down to personal preference, but I can't say I shared your disappointment for the game or your lack of interest in the story, and I'm sorry you felt that way about it.