Wormerine

I don’t know whom you are talking about, maybe cut content?

Now, creating a wheel wasn’t necessarily tied to creating of Gods - it’s more of a feeding system. For example we know that at least Woedica was created in Sun in Shadow. Engwithian convinced Huana to build the Wheel in Ukaizo, as a way to communicate to the gods. It is not unlikely that already at this point some, if not all gods existed. Considering that the storms of Ukaizo are a baiwac, it is possible that this machine also acted as one of the god’s Birthplace, and Huana as a soul “fuel”, but it’s function might have been purely the defence of the wheel. However, Ngati must have already existed before the destruction of Ukaizo: if you take Takehu with you, he will be able to reclaim the original covenant with Ngati, and you will be able to hear the past exchange between Ngati, and first three watershapers. We can also see Gods abandoned bodies in the Ukaizo - were they put there after the destruction? Was the Wheel created so the gods can abandon their bodies? - if so they might have existed for quite a while, before the wheel was created. Maybe they feed in a way more similar to Eothas, or by independed sources such an arena in SSS.

I haven't wrapped up the playthrough just yet (might be a bit stuck on the final mega boss who was kind enough to wipe all but one in a single unavoidable attack. EDIT: Blah, decided to leave the constuct be. Here is the slide:

Ideally none of those, because they are very binary, and therefore such path is picked once, and mentaining it is dull, with clear cut choices (see all Bioware games). My fav. RPG roleplaywise are once when choosing a path isn't as simple - you create base goals and ideals by which your character lives, and try to go through the game and examine decisions by those ideals - sometimes you will do good, sometime you will do bad. I am yet to see a straight up "bad" path done well. Being cruel, for cruelty sake never made much sense, especially if being good is just as beneficial. Not many games a brave enough to "punish" player for being nice. Pyschopath was never appealing to me, as combat generally isn't the most appealing thing about RPGs - therefore willingly engaging with combat, and locking myself out of the good part of the game isn't my idea of fun. So I hope that marketing is just easy to consume representation of something more nuanced and interesting.

How are your dispositions? I am pretty sure that aside from companion reputation, certain high dispositions are also required. On my recent playthrough eventually all romances triggered for me. I don’t have insight into how it works so don’t know for sure.

At some point in the future GoG might allow us to pretend that it is the case: https://www.gog.com/news/bgog_galaxy_20b_all_your_games_and_friends_in_one_place_copy3

Money, money, money, money. Steam is certain, the year after release. I don't remember ever hearing anything about GOG release, so I wouldnt' hold my breath. It's not impossible though. I am not sure what Private Division's store policy is, but if I remember well, their titles will be released as a time limited Epic exclusives. As to Microsoft, they seem to want to get some goodwill with all the Epic controversy, and recently announced that they will be making their game available through more stores: https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-games-on-steam-announced/ So steam is confirmed, though it doesn't seem to satisfy you. There is a mention that they want to bring their games to more stores, which makes GoG a possibility.

Due to how destructive Gods action were for Eora (see the little dispute between Ondra and Abydon or Eothas in Deadfire), Gods agree to not use pbysical bodies and not directly interfere with kith. To promote their agendas they used willing kith sevants, like Thanos, or yourself.

Awwww... That's a real bummer. Whatever, Obsidian still can make a spy RPG if they want to.

😮 Dare I say: "A New Hope". If anything, I hope that they figure out the technicalities so the game can be back on sale. It's a must try for RPG enthusiasts.

Yup 5.0,and still present. Had it happen to Heaven’s Cacophony.

Those beautiful, beautiful eyes? Gave the body to our friendly neighbourhood lich Wizard on my latest playthrogh. Kinda sad I didn’t have enough constitution to eat a mushroom and give the body to the spores, as my PC was a nature lover.

Who knew that PoE was a secret prequel to Jade Empire all along.

All look solid. Just avoid builds and abilities which traditionally rely on better recovery, as all that means is that they will act first, but don't get much in terms of meaningful advantage. I generally find Spellcasters very effective in turn based as one spell, Vs one attack is a no grainer. Dex is helpful but not super necessary. High dex allows spells to be cast faster, therefore lower chance to get interrupted and loose a spell. Overall, it seems like you know what you are doing, so don't sweat it. It ain't an RPG where misstep in character creation might lead to a campaign restart.

Interesting - I have issue some with the story (but we can talk about it once you finish the game) but think that gameplay I pretty excellent. Difficulty tuning is the biggest issue, but I used mod to reduce XP gain on my recent playthrough and it made it much more enjoyable to me. I tend to be more flexible with what spells and abilities I use now, which makes combat more enjoyable and I don’t get stuck too long on each encounter, but you can power through most fights using the same strategy over and over again, even if it is not an optimal way for this particular encounter. I think the issue is that the game doesn’t really have a way of punishing you for making wrong calls - everything just takes longer. I strongly disagree on items - I love how they did them. I am not the biggest fan of linear numerical progression - I don’t find finding weapons, which are simply more powerful, an exciting thing - Divinity2 is an example of game were I hated items - boring stuff, but forces you to constantly review weapons you get in case on weapon does slightly more damage then what you have. I like weapons to have unique properties, which can offer unique advantages, and contribute to my team build in an interesting way, adding new synergies. The fun of this design shines on consequent playthroughs, when you know what you can find and where, and you can really pair weapons with your characters. Maybe a street sweeper on a high perception character plus “aware” buff would make the N fight more manageable? https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Street_Sweeper

Yes, DLCs are much more challenging - should I say, they have properly designed and balanced fights. Even now on Veteran you can push yourself through most fights without really being properly prepared to counter - it is much better then it was on launch. Its not cheese - being ready to interrupt enemy, suppress/remove buffs, raise your PEN, lower enemy PEN and core basics of Deadfire combat - it’s just too easy to over level most of the content in the base game without changing XP gain. DLCs bring it up to a good level. From what I have seen Megabosses are more annoying - you have to get to know them, and prepare for them - but it is why thy are there, and are skippable if someone doesn’t find this kind of challenge fun. You can and should swap Grimoires - having couple in your item slots for different needs is wizard ABC.

First of all: What difficulty? If PotD - then asking to know how the fights go, and what to watch out for isn't asking too much: after all PotD shouldn't be for the first playthrough. I beated her twice on Veteran and... it wasn't too bad? (My BoW PotD was cancelled due to a bug). If I remember well she casts a generic spell (Llengrath's Safeguard?), so by that point in the game I would expect you know what that means (you are also ahead of time informed that Neriscyrlas wields magic). Even so, there are ways of making the spell end quicker. Fights added late in the game tend to be HP focused, which I don't like, but at the same time I have no idea how to create a challenging enemy, while having per-encounter system, and being beatable by various builds.

It is clearly a bug, one I haven’t seen before. Any mods?

That is, indeed, something I didn’t know about.

I must agree here with @algroth. I found Neketaka to be one of the best cities in an RPG (better then Athkatla.) Grouping all "legit" factions in one cities makes story and gameplay sense, is convienient for quest purposes, and is a good representation of what Deadfire situation is at this moment in history. All factions have additional small settlements. Would it be nice for them to be bigger? Sure, but it is already a sprawling game working with limited budget. Granted, if individual faction settlements were seperate, allying with faction might have been a bit more extreme (like in New Vegas, where player will soon find himself welcome with one faction, while attacked on sight by the other). However, it is not the story Obsidian wanted to tell, as faction aren't at war with each other until endgame. They coexist, scheming behind each other backs, and that's where you come in - freelancing and working with each other, as long as you prove useful. Deadfire is not a very developed area of the world, and it makes perfect sense to have one major city, and multiple small outposts. It seems that really the issues OP has aren't with the city itself but that the game rushes endgame. We interact with the factions a lot, but don't really see the fallout of the conflict - rushed finale and ending slides is all that we have to work with. Seeing the city change is a great idea - and a very expensive one. I think a more realistic proposition would be - longer Ukaizo act, which changes depending what faction you ally with, or post game expansion were we return to Deadfire and see changes to Neketaka and surrounding areas for ourselves. I still thing that expanded Ukaizo would improve the game the most, alas the game is concluded. For the future: it depends what Obsidian has in mind. I think that sticking to one location served them well, allowing them to focus and fully explore limited culture in the world. WIth the potential introduction of fast traveling (valian experiments with adra) I wouldn't be surprised if we were to hop between major areas around the globe (Rauatai, Yekuza, maybe Aedyr etc.), especially if the game would move over to 3d engine, alla D:OS (practicality of 2d backgrounds might be questionable). That of course, creates a challenge of defining multiple places and cultures at once, which might be great if done well, and it might hurt if done poorly, due to how much needs to be defined/written. Coming back the the topic - I do think Neketaka to be a better version of Athkatla, however, sprawling adventures of BG2 were probably more satisfying. Replaying the game recently, it is important to remember how great the opening chapter of BG2 is, and how empty the city feels once the players returns there after Underdark (at least it is, if, like me, you complete all quests there before progressing the story with the factions).

Yes, I did have the sound bug the last time I fought her which persisted throughout the fight. It fixed itself when I left the area.

If the tone will be anything like D:OS, it should be Stoned Walker.

Nope. Eder in Deadfire feels weird to me. Oh, he gets a lot of lines, because now he responds to every pet in the vicinity, instead of being a cute quirk (I guess now I know how people around me must feel). It doesn't help that without a character arc, and no tie to any of the faction, he is just there. Even Xoti took over as the Eothas representative. And it is a shame, two of them might have a more fleshed out, conflicting viewpoint on Eothas. Eder has some conflicted feelings regarding Eothas, but they are mentioned but not explored.

There is new full VO standard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzvulqbyssc