Mikeymoonshine

I get that more or less this fits the "chosen one" trope in that you are the only one that can truly stop Thaos because only a watcher has the abilities needed and only you have the history with him the lead you to uncovering him. Thing is it's either something like that or it's a "nobody caught up in circumstances" kinda thing or you just go for a plot that isn't as grand and is more personal and small I guess. POE was trying to recreate a specific thing, the developers have said stuff like that the typical western fantasy setting was deliberate. I just think a past life is better than a video game specifically giving you a history you can't change. After all it's a past life, it wasn't really you.

That's what I thought about Lady Webb, too. That, along with Thaos' reaction to the Watcher in the Sanitarium, did make him appear more human and showed that sometimes even he can leave loose ends. Also, it's not just Hiravias, I definitely saw Kana argue with Iovara once as well. Tbf I don't think I have ever taken either of them to the end. I just felt for the most part it's a thing you get told and then you accept it and then that's it. Like I already suspected that anyway there are enough hints in the game but I felt the way it was done was not the greatest of story telling. I disagree, I like the way that was handled. It sounds like you object to the plot itself, to the entire reason for your character being a watcher and motivations for the main quest. Like it's certainly not perfect but it allowed for a lot of roleplaying and only forced you into choices that were needed for the plot. Even then it's a past life it doesn't determine who your character is or what kind of person they are it only causes their drive to want to know about their past life either because they want to know or because they want to save themselves from madness. It's a lot like the first Baldur's Gate actually, which I imagine was intentional.

The Lady Webb info dump was a little convenient but i'm also not sure she was actually needed to move the plot along she just provides context to everything. All the leads you already had anyway and you can get the invitation to the hearing yourself it's only if u ally with nobody else that you get it through her. I like the character but I did have issues with this master spy just telling you everything she knows including private details of her own past. I would rather something like your investigations actually lead you to her ( rather than just being summoned) and she can be allied with or not. If she is allied with you get her info and help if not you have to manage without it. Webb doesn't have any reason to trust you, she just does because you are a Watcher who is somehow involved in Thaos's activity and she hopes you will lead her to more info on that, she is a spy though so she could easily have just kept an eye on your party. The issue with Iovara for me is more an issue with the entire ending sequence to the game, which I felt was rushed and lacking in many ways. "The gods aren't real" you are told you can't really argue with this and neither do any of your companions regardless of how those characters feel about those gods. There is also as many people have said a lack of context about what the gods actually mean to this world. Maybe the game would have benefited from more info on the gods and their history (as in the history the engwithans made up) and status. Maybe an opening sequence like the one Tyranny has for example which explains the set up of the world, it's major players and how things have gotten to this point.

Now if there is any game with OP mages it's Tyranny. I do like the spell creation system though and it was a good game overall. I was fine with the original system but then I didn't rest spam, I went as far as I could before resting and saved my spells for when I needed them, if I had to backtrack I did but I didn't backtrack often. Every area had at least two camping supplies in a container anyway most of the time I had more than I needed. I didn't play on POTD tho just on hard. At first I did not like the new system at all but with some changes in build and strategy it can work. The long cast times are annoying though and they do seem to make some spells that were great in the last game almost useless in deadfire. Mostly it's small stuff like I don't think you should be in a situation where u use up an empower on a spell time it so it hits the enemies you want despite the long cast time only to have it miss entirely.

As people have already said though some of those characters did not have all that much depth. Many are one note characters, a pretty great one note but it doesn't change that. I can see why you prefer them though, Pillars has an issue where it isn't very accessible and can seem kinda boring. All the characters have their own unique and for the most part pretty complex personal conflicts though. They exist in a darker setting than BG, I think Deadfire will be a bit more lighthearted and hopefully that means the characters will be easier to like.

Pretty sure the only way to get access was to back at a tier that gave you access or added the beta access add-on to your pledge. Backing is done now so no I don't think there is a way. It's only a couple of months till release tho.

I've only tried it a couple of times but I enjoyed it, it's very different to what I expected. I do think it goes on a bit long though I suppose if you get in a good position your cannons are more likely to hit and do more damage but the wind didn't have a pattern I could see. I also agree that there should be more options besides combat as well as after combat as others have said but there may well be. It does seem a bit costly but then so was the stronghold in the first game and that ended up being easily managed anyway. At least this is a lot better than getting a notification about being attacked and having to go back to the keep for the fight and or pay for the damage and lost hirelings.

Oooh I can't wait for mine to arrive.

Isn't it supposed to be that some godlike look more different to other Kith than others? Like for some it might just be a small representation of being touched by a god and others it's more over the top? I just assume the pc is in the more noticeable difference category. Tho it would be nice to have more heads that look like the portraits, for example the female fire godlike heads mostly looked more demonish in the first pillars than the portraits did same with both the original moon godlike portraits. It would be nice to see other kinds of godlike in the game too, that feature where backers could design a character meant there were fire, moon, death and nature godlikes all over the place but Pellegina was the only one of her kind and there were non of any other kind.

I agree that having four minor injuries kill you is a little odd maybe the first two injuries should always be minor and the third should always be a severe one.

This doesn't seem good as I mainly play a melee-ish Druid and a cipher. Maybe I'll just have to forget about spells for my druid and focus entirely on spiritshift, or sacrifice something else. We'll see.

My caster's spells felt useful after the party levelled up. So i'm not as bothered by it as I originally was I am glad we are getting more spells on level up though. I still think spells miss too often though.

Yeah exactly, resting meant something in the last game even if the system was not that great. There were good times to rest and there were good times not to rest. In this version game it really is best to just rest after every injury, there's no incentive not to other than the loss of resting bonuses but then food also gives bonuses. Maybe if they made removing injuries harder as in it requires specific recipes to heal specific injuries? Also make it so only specific recipes give decent bonuses or just no food bonuses.

Yeah, I asked for a pladin/ciphere-esque look both with the armour/aura and the yes/mental intensity for a cipher. Which class are you most likely to play as? There's always the custom portrait option! I play as several classes lol but my main chars are a druid and a cipher. I'll be fine for portraits anyway, will probably just use the ones I did before. I just mean it's really cool to be part of the official game in this way. Maybe if I can afford it i'll get one in the campaign for the third pillars, assuming there will be one.

That's a good argument though I would say food bonuses would have to go if this was to be any decent incentive.

In the dungeon, you find papers on the body of the Vailian expedition captain talking about how the Vailians could use the Tikiwara villagers to cleanse the luminous adra the way the Engwithans did. When you give these papers to either Nairi or Ruanu at Tikiwara it triggers some interesting dialogue. ah ok I hadn't done that yet tho I had read the papers.

I'm not saying the game is too easy, I'm saying that this aspect of it is easier than it was in the last game as you can just rest after every fight with seemingly no consequences. I just don't really see the point in changing it this way. Sure you want a more complex injury system and that's cool but you have said many times that system includes making the penalties less and it taking more injuries to reach death which would definitely make it easier. My suggestion included both -5% injuries *and* -25% injuries, which are what we have now, so that you could have more variable combinations. In that scenario, you wouldn't rest *every* time you get two injuries, because *every* time you get two injuries wouldn't be -50% health and a hard press to rest, just *sometimes*. and i'm not even really against this I don't have a strong opinion on it but in the current system how does it even make a difference, you can rest whenever what incentive is there to put up with any injury at all other than the player choosing to make it harder for themself?

I'm not saying the game is too easy, I'm saying that this aspect of it is easier than it was in the last game as you can just rest after every fight with seemingly no consequences. I just don't really see the point in changing it this way. Sure you want a more complex injury system and that's cool but you have said many times that system includes making the penalties less and it taking more injuries to reach death which would definitely make it easier.

Is he? I thought he was trying to save them by making them as nonthreatening to outside forces as possible, not that I necessarily agree that it would work but it might.

I don't think it does bind you to the developers idea of how long you should be able to go any more than having difficulty settings at all binds you to the developers idea of what level of challenge players should be able to handle. Also what save points? This system is way to complex to be comparable to such a basic system. The number of resting points should scale with difficulty like the number of camping supplies did, the biggest issue with that was that there were like two or three more of them in each dungeon which made scaling how many you can carry somewhat pointless. I managed to get by with two in most areas but then I would find one and because I like to pick up everything I felt compelled to rest or go back and get it later, though to be fair that's specific to me I guess. Why is making the game easier the solution to my suggestion that this aspect of the game is a little too easy?

Because people were trekking back every chance they got to rest at an inn. Yes, it's tedious, but people did it anyway. The solution is one-time use camping sites in dungeons and the dungeon to slam the door behind you so you can't go back. With an an autosave just before you enter the dungeon as a sort of compromise, so you don't end up trapped in the dungeon with no save file and no way out. It amazes me that people would do that and not just turn down the difficulty or respec their party and I am in no way some video game veteran who plays on POTD. I do actually like that idea though because camping supplies were a little annoying. I enjoyed the challenge of making the ones I had last and as I got better at the game I found I almost never needed the ones that were always conveniently placed in every dungeon.

Probably because it's not a very good game mechanic. It's just an entirely segregated resource that exists for a single purpose. Even without considering the injury system, the changes to the food system, incorporating existing and underused resources to have multiple uses, is a substantial improvement. I don't see how them having one purpose makes it a bad mechanic but ok. Food is so abundant in the beta you can rest after every fight and carry on with some pretty decent bonuses. I think the idea of making food rare, overly expensive or limited on how much you can carry is also a little unlikely so I assume this will be how it is at launch. I'm not really all that fussed about this issue anyway, I just don't see how this system is more challenging than the one in the last game.

It's really nice looks like a paladin or a priest of some sort to me or maybe a fighter/mage. I wish I could have afforded to get one of these myself, ah well maybe next time.

Why didn't they just keep it as the camping supplies thing and just not litter them everywhere? Like cool abilities are still per encounter and it is wounds and empower you have to worry about now. Maybe make resting free on story mode or whatever.

Of course but not many of them are at all similar to the art style of the in game portraits and you have to create a watercolour version of the portrait as well if you want it to match the others in the game. Doesn't mean i'm not ever going to use custom ones, I did a couple of times for POE but if there are a lot more varied options maybe I won't feel the need. Oh and of course all this is even harder for the non humanoid races as they are unique. If they don't create many more it's not the end of the world but I hope they will, i'm also considering making some myself but it would take me a lot of time and effort to do it.