Wormerine

I must say I am pleasantly surprised by how much praise Deadfire has been gathering recently. I wonder if a strong reveal of Outer Worlds drew eyeballs toward Obsidian's earlier title. My impression on Deadfire's release was that it came out undetected. Reviewers like it alright, but not much attention afterwards.

Game has been in works for a while now. 2019 doesn't seem like impossible release, though I wouldn't complain if it stipped to 2020. That said, if possible, Obsidian might want to cash in on the gap in the market. However, better to release a presantable game rather than rush it.

I don't think I understand. DLCs add plenty of gameplay, including new items, new type of item, they expanded ranger's tree and now added new subclasses for each class. In addition DLC include new enemies, new encounter design and include the hardest content in the game apart of the megabosses which were added for every one for three. Adding unending (or expanded) leveling up system only damages gameplay, as one of the main issues of the game is (or at least was, didn't play the base game in a while, maybe it's much better one) that there is too much mid level content and you tend to outlevel most of the stuff there, providing poor gameplay experience. Adding unending power creep would only hurt gameplay, not improve it. Unless you are one of those people who like Diablo and such, were you do boring stuff to get better stuff, to be able repeat boring stuff but on higher level. This is not Diablo, and it never aimed to be Diablo. I hope it will never aim to be Diablo. If there is something the game could use, please suggest it. I can't think of anything, really. There seem to be a desire for endless leveling up, without an idea what current levels actually lack.

If you have SSS installed and the expansion started (finding chest on board when reaching high enough level (18?) And finishing ashen maw) there should be an anchor on the south side: https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Kazuwari

I am not sure if "urgency" is what I would call it, but forward momentum. BG2 suffered from this as well, with the opening act having so many fun aide activities that I would completely forget why I was gathering money in the first place. I do genuily believe that Deadfire issues could have been completely fixed with a longer and more impactful ending. Everything up to this point is pretty good and main story is impressively interwoven with non Eorhas content. But then it just end leaving us confused, unsatisfied and with more questions and answers.

Did they though? I remember specifically BG2 having disappointingly easy crit path in the 2nd half and really pathetic final boss. The first half of BG2 is gold though. I also never found BG2 frustrating even if it was to easy, as the game used little imput from the players - put two figurines by each other and see who stands at the end. Some spells were needed here and there for more major fights. Gameplay (read: “combat”) in PT was crap anyway so it didn’t really matter - the easier the better. PoE rely more on skill use, so when you win fights without using those, the impression is less “boy, I am so good by putting all strength into my fighter!” And more: “I am clearly overpowered for that encounter”.

I really dislike comparing a modern title to an 18 years old one. Baldur’s Gate was an inspired and influential title and it’s influence can be traced to this day. It has its shortcomings - some are by choice, some are straight up issues - but overall quality and originality outweighs them. It is still a game which holds up and one I wouldn’t shy from recommending. However, for impovements we don’t even need to dive into Deadfire. I did a straight playthrough PoE1, BG1, BG2 and PoE2, and I only gained respect for design of PoEs. There is a sophistication to PoE on mechanical and artistic level, which simply isn’t in Baldur’s Gate. A big part of it is that people, like Josh, worked on RPGs all the way since BG2 days and they refined and expanded on ideas, techniques introduced there. Technology is also better. But it’s not the competition. Games don’t need to be “better” or “worse” and I do think that both IPs aim to be quite different things, in spite of the surface similarities. And while BioWare used to be my thing in my teen years, nowadays I am more of a fallout (and therefore PoE) person. A straight, black&white colourful adventure just doesn’t do it anymore. The same way as my preference shifted from Kotor1 to Kotor2, even though Kotor1 is a better (at least finished) title.

Sometime 2019

What OS exactly? PoE2 works just as any other game and it installs were you tell it to or where your default steam/gog folder is.

I am surprised people talk about immersion on abstract isometric game. But anyway. There is more to turn based than “players ability to process informations”. I am curious how TB mode might work in PoE2 as originally (D&D) the system was turn based. The number based combat does seem to be a better fit for real time - after all when player is supposed to analyse multiple stats and analyse rolls, and that isn’t very intuitive in Real-time. In addition TB could do something funky with initiation and turn order giving the game extra depth.

Yeah just beat DS1 for the first time, and I did find the lack of momentum a great thing. It just gave enough info to have a goal in mind and let you explore at will. I have no idea what was all that about though.

I can't remember exact location for each weapon but its more likely you didn't explore enough:

Cool stuff. That's probably why I am so conflicted about the way Deadfire did companions. I do miss coherent, directed character arcs a simpler system and structure provides, but some of those interjections are pretty great.The "companion" problem might be more of a overall narrative structure issue then per say how companions were handled. I also like Deadfire more and more... Regarding to the "resolution" at the end of the post one bit from Deadfire really stuck with me as awesome:

I can certainly see the appeal. Out of curiosity what would you do with recovery? Would recovery be attatched to the look of armor, along with its base stats and only magical effects would be moved around? Or for the sake of balance would all stats be moved to the new armor and the look of it be treated as sleeve only. I can see a possible major imbalance by allowing to to put any enchantments on any type of armor. Wound enchantments be individual? Or applied as a full set?

As far as I know, it doesn’t mess with the economy. Drops are semi randomised, so they might differ between playthroughs. With so many patches item drops might have been nerfed.

*shrug* They would either do something new and creative or we would have another Deadfire romances - it doesn't drag the game down, possibly damages companions a bit, but in the end is pretty forgettable and forgivable.

I absolutely LOVE good old BG but frankly if you leave aside the ruleset (definitely an acquired taste) you have to recognize that originally the BG1 NPCs were a bit paper thin. There is a reason why the NPC mod for BG1 is probably one of the best mods for the game. The strength of Baldur's Gate was to take the fundamental fight between Good and Evil (a common trope in fantasy) and turn it into an internal conflict within the main character's soul. The struggle between Good and Evil becomes the inner struggle to embrace or reject the legacy of the Bhaalspawn. There are some nice things there, but I think that even black&white good vs evil isn't done too well, as I find it far too difficult to play as evil character - quests simply don't support it much. Sure, you can kill random NPC to balance it out, but that's not much fun. What Baldur's Gates did so well is to use gameplay loops as narrative fuel. You murder thousands of creatures and instead of it clashing with your character, BG uses it as part of the story and addresses it multiple times head on. Lack of choice works because no matter who you want to be in the end you are the Bhaalspawn. A bit of "would you kindly" there. Struggle is less with what you choose to do, but that what you do in the game is at odds which whom you probably want to be as the character.

The equivalent of the pet cleaver for companions.

Huh, that bug again? Might want to attach your save (attatch via dropbox, googledisk or send to: support@obsidian.net

:-D. Yes, because base game suffers from the problem of you being overleveled for the content no matter what difficulty you play on. Difficulties differ by enemy composition and stats. While I could see high level buffs getting dropped (game doesn't support it currently so it might take some programing time) it sounds troublesome to have enemies spawn in/out when changing difficulty. Therefore difficulty changes take place between maps.

I would say yes? I found the content of all expansions quite excellent, and Seeker Slayer Survivor, Forgotten Sanctum scale fairly well for 20 level character (so far I played all of them on that level due to loading my pre-endgame save). If you felt that Beast of Winter was worth your time, then the other two should be as well. If you didn't - both other expansions are pretty much similar - large sidequests which tells mostly its own story with some ties to the main game, and much needed developmet for sidekicks.

Giving the body to Concelhaut is ultimate example of Tayin's "Let's see what happens" philosophy, so I'm interested to see if even he thinks that is going too far :D He is somewhat impressed.

When starting up Baldur’s Gate make sure to use the PDF which comes with the game. BG UI doesn’t explain what everything does but the system itself is fairly basic, though the enhanced edition UI at least show how items affect your stats which makes things easier.

“Watcher’s Balanced and Completely Unremarkable Missile”

The more alcohol the better, I say!