Wormerine

Yeah, I must say it does look good. 2020 is getting packed with promising titles. It might be the year to get myslef a new PC.

I feel spending a turn to switch weapons is a fair trade. the point is fair - Grimoires can be swapped once per turn. Black Jacket should have the same system (?) - one free swap per turn. I see how completely free swapping might be a more direct translation in RtWP system, but I think the pacing makes the difference.

Waffle Vs pancake. Which always puzzled me. Waffle is clearly superior.

Finally got around to playing Pathfinder Kingmaker. Didn't get very far just yet, but I worry it might be a bumpy ride. The system is frustrating mess, complex in all the wrong ways, with character creation being a test, rather then multiple choice. It was frustrating as the game doesn't come with any kind of manual (unlike BGates) so enjoy guessing how things are calculated. Luckily it looks very much like D&D imitator so one can figure it out. UI is quite clunky. Combat has been a slog so far, with little input choice, and a lot of dicerolls. Same fights can go in dramatically different ways, without any change of tactics. Writing is very dry, very artificial, and so far not very engaging. Seems like Dev team bit a bit more then they can chew. It does have some promising elements though, so I will persevere for a little bit longer (should have skipped season pass)

At the same time we don't know nearly enough to make any judgement - all we can go by is comparing Divinity to Baldur's Gate, which might or might not be relevant, depending of Larian want to stick to what they know, or if they have a more creative mindset and want to do so something different. Game has just been announced, so all we know is that Larian works on BG3. Cool. Thumbs up. How it looks/plays etc. that is something we can wait for a bit. We don't even know at what stage of development they are.

Abilities are translated into TB mode, but it doesn't mean they do exactly the same. Knockback is a very useful distrupt and got buffed with deflection penalty as people raised the same concerns you do. Making enemy skip a turn, would mean giving the knockback the same effect as stun has. Again, not all things translated smoothly into TB mode.

About to delve into FS myself as well.

Because it's Keanu? He is awesome and every one loves him.

Well, Oct 25, 2020:-)

Than maybe you can mod it out (or someone can mod it out). I found ability to move the spell around after commiting to it in TB mode, a bit too acomodating.

There is a clear point of no return. SSS unlocks after completing the Ashen Maw. FS should be available to you already: I only beat the first megaboss that was released (the Crystal Spider), so can't offer insight on how to beat most of them. I remember reading somewhere that they don't scale down well, if at all (on lower difficulties they are still difficult). At the same time, they exist there only for challenge with little rewards and no story content, so if figuring them out isn't your cup of tea, there is no reason to force yourself to fight them.

Yeah, there have been multiple requests to go with action points (like older RPGs or Divinity) or flexible initiative (characters with less recovery act sonner) as that would better translate action economy of RTwP (at least in theory). Be it a technical reason, or design reason (probably time and money reason), it is as it is. It's not ideal, but playable. It does hurt badly some classes that benefit from action speed buffs, like barbarian or monk.

Taking look at the combat log should explain stuff. In short you are not rolling very well - your perception must not be high compared to enemy deflection. Make sure you target their weakest defences, and if possible, try to lower their defences, if you have access to appropriate abilities. For example a knockdown lowers enemy deflection by -10 in Turn Based, so hit him as he is lying down. TB mode doesn't properly translate action speed, I am afraid. Actions are divided into three categories: 1) Free actions - can be made any number of times within one turn 2) Full actions - will consume your action for that turn - that includes all kind of attacks 3) Casts - generally a more powerful spells and attacks which conclude casting after your turn (when shows up on the action que) and can be interupted As such, heavy hitting weapons are much more favoured and there is little benefit to what used to be action speed. Dexterity dictates your initiative and stride. I found middle of the rode initiative to be the most desirable, as it allows to interupt characters who act early in the turn and you have freedom to postpone your turn, to interupt enemy which may act after you. Dex is also very useful for characters who use a lot of "cast" abilities and those will be concluded faster. As you can't overlevel the content and powerful synergies haven't kicked in yet (nor powerful equipment) the opening isle is some of the hardest content you will encounter in the entire game. Fight in the digsite, skeletons in the ruins and Gorecci Street are notorious. Try to cheese it, if you can, split enemies, let them get stuck on the stairs, use all the items and abilities you have. It does take understanding of the machanics for those fights. If you find it too much, then drop the difficulty down and come back to Veteran after you leave the opening isle - the game gets much easier after that. I am pretty sure it sais something about withdraw effects. Erase them, as you erase injuries - rest. Either in the inn, or using the rest button and consuming food.

Pathfinding and aggro issues are not confined to TB. Gorecci Street fight is notorious for its early game difficulty. Eders knockdowns are amazing. Their purpose is to interrupt. It is a cheap, and early ability. There are stuns in the game but knockdown was never that. I am not a rogue player but considering how powerful backstab can be, making players invest an extra round doesn’t feel too bad to me. Might not be worth it in early game, but later when healthpools are larger a singular big attack might be desirable.

I thought PoE1 did really well. Deadfire not so much. I imagine it must be a way the game was conceptualised and written. There is a lot of care put into explaining lore and political situations, but not much character growth. I think it might also be an issue with the relationship system. A lot of writing went into companions, and they react to things which will reinforce their traits - Xoti will react to religion, Eder to pets, Takehu of criticism of Huana. The way they react is also odd. Pallegina in PoE1 would argue about value of the Republics, but in Deadfire she will snap at any criticism, because that’s what reinforces the system. Eder liked pets in PoE1, but he didn’t restate it at every occasion. I think this Vatnir remark is a nice example of a character organically reacting to his environment making it personal. There is no reason for him to be at Forgotten Sanctum - he wasn’t created for this DLC so lines he has are purely personal - he is not a vehicle for this places lore. But he is there and sees what is around him, and comments on it. Also DLCs were freed from shackles of companion system, and freeform exploring, which made for more engaging experiences. After DLCs I find myself spend more and more time with some of the sidekicks.

If I remember well, it's about level 6-7 content. Titan and one fight in the ruins a spikes in difficulty. Does Titan still summon greater blights on PotD? Siccorio can be devastating on early levels. Again, skulls for individual enemies don't mean much. All that means is that this particular enemy is more than three levels higher then you. It is common to see multiple enemies of higher level within enemy composition. If you want to cheese the fight, then lure him away from enterance as to avoid fighting summons at the same time. You can use barrels in the Xaurip's camp for some easy damange (just don't blow yourself up). Get rid of his concentration and interupt him, whenever he tries to grab someone. Make sure you have some decent crash damage to go through AR. If that won't help, then just come back later:-).

Keep in mind that some enemies will be of higher level then you, to provide a decent challenge. Fighting few enemies who are of higher level then you doesn’t mean the fight is not balanced (there is five of you after all).

I would say the exploration of Deadfire is pretty freeform, and works well as long as you allow quests to guide you. Don't stop on random isles with locations as you will jump in the middle of quest lines. Go were people tell you to go, but in what order is fairly irrelevant. That way you will cover vast majority of the content. When all is done finish the rest. I like to do Ashen maw sooner now, to access SSS content. It does rush several quests though.

I don’t. CGI trailer looks like a pretty expensive “joke”. Also apparently it is an inlore thing (albeit accelerated).

Well, we will have to wait for more details to be revealed. I am a bit worried how much Baldur's Gate will be in Baldur's Gate III. I am interested to see what Larian can do with DnD, but will it be Baldur's Gate III? I don't mind if it is turn based, but it would be a change. I like that it is not a direct continuation. I wish coop wouldn't be a big focus, but I doubt that will be the case. So unless they really double down on narrative and characters this time around... does it have anything to do with Baldur's Gates aside from the setting? If it is not story continuation, nor gameplay continuation, or even type of RPG continuation, why is it using the IP? Time will tell I suppse.

https://www.gog.com/game/baldurs_gate_iii Yup

That said the quite you use acts as counter argument to what you say. It's not that full VO means bad writing - but in an sprawling RPG, with many different dialogue paths an amount of writing in it it will take resources to write, revise and improve. While a one game might have a modest amount of writing and full VO, another might invest more in writing and less in VO.

Yeah, I was wondering about that. For me the option to do a second fight also appeared after completing SSS crit path. The whole thing feels odd, as the contenders are clearly dead at this point (their memory might have been summoned by crucible) and when you do your first combat the item is given to you by the crucible keeper, not at the end of combat - someone must have done some programming, for the fight which appears after Crit path drops loot after the encounter. It does seem like a bug though, as you can't do all three of them.

@Gromnir some really good point regarding Josh not acknowledging some major issues with the narrative. I would agree that Deadfire moved from being a story to being a plot. While a lot of Eora lore has been in the background in PoE1 (books etc.), Deadfire focuses mostly on lore, with shallow representation of how individuals react to events around them. Deadfire is really interested in metaphisical and sociopolitical landscape of Deadfire, and while interesting, it's not very engaging.

I love Josh's postmortem. I think it is very interesting to hear developer's thoughts about their project, and their reflection on what went right and what went wrong. I pretty much agree with everything there, plus some interesting insights. 5 companions - it was a fine decision. Game didn't suffer for it. I can do with 5 or 6. I never felt the need for the 6th character. Relationship mechanic - I don't think this works in a handcrafter world like PoE. It might be a good system in a more abstract, procedural game. In a handcrafted adventure it all leads into predetermined outcomes, while the path of getting there didn't feel as organic as it was hoped for. There might be a way to impliment it the right way, but I need to be proved wrong first. Ship2ship combat - yeah, it is the feature which should have been cut. It did have a promise, and I can imagine it working well (presentation isn't the problem for me). But as Josh said it is a game within a game. You would need to design a good system to make it work. How, bringing it back as a crowdfunding goal after the feature was already cut in alpha was very... shortsighted, or just plain naive. I would take tentacles attacking the ship over ship2ship combat. Full VO - full VO is nice, but it doesn't make a game. It is not kind of a game, which relies on movie-like spectacle. I feel bad for devs who had to endure because of that decision. Did it need to be on launch? DLCs - are fantastic. I would prefer a on big expansion though. Owners need to trust their devs more. It might be Josh throwing them under the bus for making bad decisions, while not crediting them for good ones. Still, bringing back Ship combat was a bad, bad choice. I am sad Josh won't be helming PoE3, hopefully his insight and experience will be of help to the new lead. Full VO expectaion worry me. It feels like a problem Bioware run into in the past - were increasing production cost were constraining what the game can be more and more. Full VO is nice, but not when it comes at the cost of game itself, or the team. The last thing I want to see is reactivity, companions or writing revision getting cut.