Wormerine

I feel it might be the case of time constraint. Adding the generic: "This is the result of your choice from PoE1" is easier, than writing an individual note for each one. Still, it is something to consider - adding both reactivity info and lore info in later patches. I think it would benefit the game a lot if they find time to do it.

After beating Deadfire I started another playthrough of Tyranny I realised how underused the “hyperlink” feature was. That, and reading through Guidebook, and feeling like I am learning some things I should have known when playing the game. From what I remember Deadfire uses hyperlinks mostly for two functions: 1) translating handful of reappearing foreign works (Gellarde! Ekera etc.) 2) recapping stuff from PoE1 (who was Eothas, Caed Nua etc.) Tyranny used them in, I believe, a more beneficial ways - giving background lore to characters/concepts your character is familiar with but you as the player isn’t (DF example: who are Children of Dawnstar? Got a rough idea from context by playing Deadfire, thanks to the Guidebook now I know), and giving content to game reactivity - why does Deadfire tell me: “that is the result of your previous choice!” But won’t tell me what choice it was? Tyranny had some other neat uses for it, like Voices speaking to your telepathically.

Nah, I expect something smaller. This looks to be like some Beast of Winter teaser - intentional or not. After all, it’s the first expansion to come out in about a month time.

I would say Ydwin - her hook is actually legit, and I would really like to learn more about the wheel. While it would be nice to get some minor content for others, I don’t see much appeal in making them companions.

It is sort of intended feature as difficulty skulls werent build to recognize if an area got scaled or not. However, being able to see areas which are above your level when playing with “scaling up only” would be very welcome.

Slider below “round pause thing in the middle of the UI” allows for slowing down/acccelerating combat. I found the thing a bit too fiddly so I recommend setting shortcuts for it in options.

There are couple, but I don’t miss those. Worldmap pretty much offers the same appeal to me. I don’t need to explore an empty field. Wilderness of PoE vanilla - mehWilderness of White March - good.

If adding half-assed coop would boost PoE sales by 700.000, than sure why not. If it would work like in IE games I wouldn’t touch it, but money is money. I wouldn’t like for Deadfire to be designed with coop - I enjoyed Deadfire quite a bit, Divinity not so much - the latter is clearly designed to be played with people and doesn’t work that well as singleplayer experience (just as IE didn’t quite work as coop,games). I somehow doubt, that masses are looking at Deadfire and think: “if only it has multiplayer I would buy it”.

How do we judge “bigness”? Amount of maps? I am pretty sure Deadfire wins. Combined map size? I am pretty sure Deadfire would still win. Amount of quests? Amount of fights (yeah, PoE would win here)? Deadfire feels smaller because it has better pacing. You don’t slog through combat encounter after combat encounter. Dungeons like Eothasian temple, or Heritage Hill weren’t big, bit it took a while to cut through mobs. An hour of PoE left me tired, and hour of Deadfire made want to see more. Neketaka feels bigger than Defiance Bay and Eir Glanfath. But while exploring the latter two was a slog, Neketaka gives you reasons to go in and out throughout the whole game, making the experience much more enjoyable. Compare Gilded Vale to Port Maje, Roderick’s Hold to Fort Deadlight, Dyrford to Dunnage.

I feel it’s fair to say that NV faction system is superior to Deadfire - there is a feel of climbing the ladder and getting friendly/hostile with every faction, while in Deadfire it is a case of strings of quest, until game asks what ending slide would you prefer. Deadfire feels a bit to artificial. But that’s beside the point. The issue Deadfire runs into is that crit path/hook (Eothas) and main content of the game (factions) are at best disconnected and at worst at odds with each other. NV Billy hook, leads to faction content, meaning that the two complement each other, rather than distracting from each other. Deadfire’s issue can be seen at the end - what should be a climactic finale - your fight with the faction leader who became an antagonist of your choice, sort of fizzles away. Partially because aggression feels really sudden, as you probably were good buddies about and hour earlier, and partiall because it is squeezed without fanfare between beats of Eothas’ story. Considering events of cosmic importance that are happening, conflict for Deadfire seems rather insignificant. Imagine New Vegas, where battle for Hoover Dam wasn’t this big event that was build up for entire game, but was nearly means to save the world. Softens the impact, doesn’t it? Even so, Deadfire story is fairly shallow. It’s like getting sequel to Planescape, which focuses on conflict between factions’ conflict in Sigil. Very entertaining, but quite lacking the depth audience came expecting. Does that mean that Deadfire story content is complete trash? Hell no, but it has issues which detract from the good stuff it has, lessening their impact.

..but they focused on making a bigger, better game. Deadfire is a bigger, better game. Muti-classing is making character building a better, bigger system, sailing is bigger better stronghold. I agree that narrative is a step back in couple areas - and reading/watching review that tends to be the main complaint. Unfortunately. Storytelling isn’t like game mechanics, and it is difficult to simply improve on it, especially when it was really good in the first place.

There were enough encounters, but they were simply way too easy. Ramp up difficulty so engagements will last longer and require my full attention and we are good.

Yes, for some reasons you can’t access those option when setting up the game.

Deadfire felt bigger than vanilla PoE. Playtime was about the same but I felt Deadfire had more quality time per minute if that makes sense.

Deadfire ain’t bad. It’s pretty good. However, coming from PoE1 I had my expectations and in some aspects I am disappointed. I found quests engaging and Deadfire really fun to explore but the conclusion of the main “plot” of the game left me likewarm. I enjoyed while it lasted, probably more than PoE1 - I found nothing nearly as dull as mid point of PoE1. But When credit rolled PoE1 left me happy and satisfied, and Deadfire left me conflicted. I enjoyed it a lot, and it has tons of good content, but it feels like a lot of set up, with little payoff. That s sort of the problem. The chase after Eothas is good enough, but then doesn’t lead to anything I would call worthwhile. Factions are really good, with tons of great content, but the way the conflict gets resolved feels fairly inconsequential, sudden and forced. Companions feel less “personal” then they did in PoE. And the biggest crime of al - too few new books to read.

It very much seems so. I got positive/negative reactions from companions by initiating conversation with NPCs or entering location. Whenever tags got messed up, or something else is going on - no one knows. Considering that Caleb asked for an attatched save, that means that this might be a more complex issue than simply conversation trees being tagged.

Do people never pay attention to tutorials?

As far as Woden... what is there more to ask? PoE1 Eder dilemma was what happened to Woden - we learn he joined armies of Readceras. This for Eder meant: did I fight on the wrong side? Was Waidwen really Eothas’ incarnation? We know he was. If Waidwen was Eothas, it is not a surprise he could recruit Woden. Woden died in battle. While the quest itself ended up uncomplete it reaches resolution with the final revelation of the game. In Deadfire Eder choice is how to react to Eothas’ 2nd crusade? Join with him like Woden did? Or not?

Oh... I didn’t read any of the short stories. Maybe after I am done with Guidebooks, I might read those,

Those are all over the place. I have recorded the ones I found really odd in this thread: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/99004-collective-summary-of-all-the-glaring-bugs-in-the-relationship-system/ Caleb’s request at the end of the thread:

Can’t wait for his solo Saint’s War prequel.

In the future, maybe. Time travel is complicated, though.

You want to romance them because they are cool people. They don’t want to romance you because they are cool people.

I didn’t see anything uncivil. I imagine many, like myself, were disappointed that OP didn’t actually have anything to defend Deadfire story with. Deadfire is a good game. It’s story is lacking when compared to PoE1. Considering its direct sequel and uses the same protagonist disappointment is understandable. Yes, New Vegas, to some extend did similar thing, however, what worked in New Vegas, just doesn’t work here (see my post above for details). Breath of the Wild maybe is a good game (never played it) but I never heard it praised for its story. There are games with a bad bad story, which are really really good games. Unfortunately, being a sequel to PoE and an Obsidian game bring expectations - for some the story is no. 1 priority. And in that aspect the game is a disappointment. It’s also an improvement in some aspecs (pacing, variety). Gameplay: PoE<Deadfire (some major balancing needed) Story: PoE>Deadfire

Randomise conversation trees!