Wormerine

Not really. Certainly not in that way. Moving dungeons around does nothing for discovery or replay ability. Those are still same locations, just need to scramble a bit more to find what I know I will find. Changing potion properties are just... silly. They still do the same thing, just need to read descriptions again for each one of them.

Terry Pratchett has a fitting quote about this: Wizards don't believe in gods in the same way that most people don't find it necessary to believe in, say, tables. They know they're there, they know they're there for a purpose, they'd probably agree that they have a place in a well-organised universe, but they wouldn't see the point of believing, of going around saying "O great table, without whom we are as naught" Yeah, I am not saying it’s bad. It’s possible that heighten religiousness in Dyrwood came from Hollowborn - a plague that no one understood or could deal with. They coped with it by turning to gods, to somewhat obsessive levels. Deadfire is doing fine, so while faiths and gods exist, few give them much thought in everyday life. I was surprised how few shrines there were - in PoE1 every major building or city had its shrine and historical reason for promoting that good. That said, a Neketaka has entire temple district, so it’s seems they simply “outsourced” faith there.

Ending of PoE1 must have impacted your companions a lot. Because there is less conversation to be head with companions, they tend to be painted with less delicate strokes. If some of the reactions (PAL vs. Xoti) come at more appropriate time, they might feel much better. I thought Pal was fine - she always had a grudge against superstitions and her heritage, and finding out that gods are a Kith creation must have only strengthen her dislike toward them. Eder changed his background with 1.0.2 patch so he has been all over the place for me. Upset at Eothas Eder fit with what I imagine he would be after PoE1 events. Xoti was fine actually. I don’t see her in anyway worse than Durance. She is obsessively devoted to Gaun, but that makes sense. Gods, clearly exist and she has proof of his existence via destruction and vision. If anything I find it odd, how not religious a lot of Deadfire seems to be.

Once you get correct ship upgrades, journal updates saying that you can pass through Ondras mortar. You have to ally with RDC in order to get access to submarine. You can get ghost ship without siding with pirates (simply don’t return the quest, after getting the ship).

Haha, OP. And I was hoping for a sensible defence. Of course, factions are the main content of the game. Have been argued that with everyone who complaints that main story is 4 missions long. Faction content is good but the finale is unsatisfying. Faction stuff is not on New Vegas level. I have written al length about my thoughts of factions and why the climax doesn’t feel right: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/100592-critique-of-the-faction-system-and-its-negative-impact-on-the-ending-spoilers/?do=findComment&comment=2033339 Yeah, Eothas is a McGuffin we chase, and an excuse to do other stuff. And that’s the problem. New Vegas’ “fight the guy who shot me” wasn’t a great hook (so I want to find the guy who shot me?) but: 1) unlike Eothas it was tied to the core of the game (factions). Even if “sidecontent” would be just that for you for a while, after progressing the game the factions would become your sidecontent, with Benny disappearing after you dealt with him. In New Vegas you don’t rush through battle for Hoover Dam, in order to confront Benny, whom you by that point don’t really care about. Benny leads into factions, Eothas and factions fight for your attention - factions easily win, however, Eothas should be a much bigger concern to everyone there. 2) we are newcomers to Deadfire and Watcher from the first game. There is no reason for us to be interested in Deadfire, but there is reason to be interested in Eothas and Gods. I role played around it - my orlan was mainly focused on regaining wealth, with gods being an annoyance. He followed Eothas purely because he had to. 3) game doesn’t continue themes of the original - the dilemma set up by revelation at the end of the first game, is not addressed, certainly not by the player. Urgency that your character should have, is taken over by Eothas who takes appropriate actions. I found Watcher to be tacked on, with little payoff coming from his return - familiar companions feel distant, better suited to interact with new blood, rather than an old friend which whom they discovered cosmic secret. 4) the “framing device” challenges basic laws of the set up universe, without expanding on them, which introduces a lot of doubt on how eora works, and if it makes any sense.

That’s huge. Super awesome.

Whenever he talks, he felt like good old Eder. He just... lacks context in Deadfire. Could have been a random hired crew member. Very little catching up, even less continuation/evolution of his arc. I suppose there is some reflection of who, he become in a way he interact with the boy, but I found it all unconvincing. I feel like Obsidian overdid it with the editing this time.

Oh yeah. I completely forgot about “guiding souls to adra” thing. You know, Deadfire is really convoluted and confusing. So what, souls can’t find their way because Eothas is dead? So they couldn’t find their way for how many years now? That would support the idea that reincarnation was Enguithian creation, and gods actualy do serve the purpose. Why... you had clever set up in the first game. Now things get really weird and with no payoff in sight.

Tyranny is worth a go. It’s a much shorter game, pretty much entirely revolving around critical path. Not a fan of combat system. But it’s a good story, with interesting characters and world. I would say it is a rather different game that PoEs, which is fine.

Aloth: A character I really liked in PoE1, and therefore has a head start. His ties to Leaden Key should make him a fun companion, but he just... doesn’t do or say anything. As he is silent by nature, his silence didn’t bother me as much. His quest is interesting but it is so incredibly short, with so little development. Eder: i can never make a PoE1 run without Eder. I completely don’t care about Eder in Deadfire. He appears on the ship without much explanation... and that’s it. He is still Eder, he just doesn’t have much to do and reason to be there. I found his sidequest to be rather unengaging. Maia Rua: companion with the most surface appeal. Disciplined, yet laid back, with some clever quips. She is also very very boring. I see nothing in her, beside mandatory faction representative. Pallegina: another faction representative. Bringing her back from exile is shaky, I am looking forward to replaying with her still working for Valians - I imagine it will work better. I like Pal. Her quest was meh. Didn’t really bring anything new, except and opportunity to learn a lot about godlike, but never giving me opportunity to do so (can’t I question to animancer guy? So many questions). Serafen: I... really liked him. Funny how the least appealing characters on surface end up being my favourite. He is well introduced, and I found his quest to have the most meat to it. His “visions” allow for some decent insight into his character, making me care for him the most. Tekehu: his interest in sexual relationship with my orlan PC 3 minutes into adventuring-resulted in him spending most of the adventure on boat. What I did see of him though, I liked. His personal conflict seems the most “Pillars” to me. But of philosophy and cultural insight. Xoti: I found her to be the most memorable of the characters. She acted too erratically, but once the relationship system is fixed she might end up fine. I didn’t use sidekicks after recruiting them.

Who know. Deadfire lore works in mysterious way. Probably something to with adra though.

Peak is almost always always on release for something like this, short of exceptional circumstances. An exceptional circumstance could be that it is an Obsidian game. From all the Obsidian fans I know, I was the only one who jumped unto it. Most of them are waiting for patch or two. I waited for a bit with PoE1 as well.

There is this problem with developing romance, before developing a character. As most romancable characters are new, and romance is the new companion content it all ends up being rather weak. It’s as if Eder would try to romance you after leaving Gilded Vale, instead of learning about his history, past and brother.

If anyone should turned into full romancable companion it should be Nemnok.

No, nothing what was said by Obsidian suggested that there is anything else planned other than 3x$10 expansions. But.... Gog release announcement said: First three? Surely that means there is more to come. On a more reasonable note: I doubt gog would know anything at that point, anyway. I would really really like if those 3 expansions would be a build up to a large, after main campaign content, but I would be really really surprised if that was the case.

I don’t know what Eothas did, what effect it had, how life worked before the wheel. Also there are only few new books in Deadfire. Why? Whyyyyyyy?

I am actually with you, but HoM&M5 was the first one I played. Tried to go back to 3, but never grabbed me. Ubi should get their **** together, and release proper HoM&M game without messing it up. From what I have heard 6&7 aren’t worth trying.

From what people reported disposition tags are all over the place. Sometimes you gain disposition simply by picking “farewell” option. One of the things that requires devs attention.

Finished game without Cutthroat Cosmo ;-(

Not right now. It is technical limitation, not design decision per say. I am pretty sure, it was said somewhere that they are looking into making it changeable so it might get patched in at some point. Right now PotD and scaling are unchangable.

Wasn’t Eric contracted to write Eder for Deadfire? I remember that being the thing.

So... attractivenes stat? Defines physical, social and sexual attractiveness of your character, increasing positive reaction from NPCs, granting discount at shops and taverns, and increasing chance to get harassed/catcalled by a random NPCs. With high attractiveness all romances trigger as soon as you recruit a companion.

From all the characters Pallegina is the only one I could imagine my Watcher falling for. But I imagine it is precisely because she is not a romance type person. I might get conspiracy theory’sh here, but isn’t it curious that two companions who aren’t romancable are Pallegina (written by game director) and Eder (written by PoE1 narrative director). Just as if romances shouldn’t be part of the game? [if it wasn’t clear enough: I really dislike romances in Deadfire, and I am desperately looking for a justification to my feelings]

Sure, if you don’t want to manage your characer, more spells are not appealing. Still, for those who were fine with 4spells per level in PoE1 it’s no problem - pick spells on level up and a random grimoire and you have more spells than in PoE1. I for one prefer how they are done now - I have “core” spells which do what I want my wizard to do, and Grimoires to add extra stuff.