Wormerine

None of the Pillars were balanced with solo play in mind. It was stated that what games are balanced around are classic and veteran full party comps. To me the fact that game is beatable with one character is indication of flaw in its design - there is too little synergy between characters. Compare it to something like recent Into the Breach which is based on simple core rules which gain complexity when interacting with each other. Games like Pillars have a lot of number, rolls, buffs, debuffs, but in the end the depth of gameplay just isn’t there. I feel like the concentration and interrupt mechanic is a step in right direction - simple system but one which has consequences. But than again, what I would like to see is a game which takes core concepts of games like PoE (party based, customisable characters, real-time combat etc) but goes back to real basics and rethinks them so they make sense in computer setting- how an attack works: does it need to be a roll for a hit? What effect an attack has? How does races’ size influence combat regarding positioning, attack range, control over combat area? The PnP system is an over complicated mess, with few interesting decisions to make and lots of number crunching to do. PoE did a fine job in reviving it, Deadfire does a fine job in improving upon it, but I am not sure how sustainable it is in a long run.

I agree. Push was working fine in previous beta build, but here some really silly things are happening. Maybe push should have a range limit? My tank can get completely surrounded by enemies attacking from the front: the first enemy whom he engaged gets pushed all the way to another side and is free to rampage in the back line without a way to really stop it. Push is a neat feature but needs a bit more restriction.

Maybe not exactly related but when creating a full party of custom mercenaries, two of them spawned and got stuck in terrain near tikiwara marketplace. I fixed it by removing them from me party, moving a bit to a side and adding them again.

I would say that narrative wise (mostly pacing and charm), BGs do have some advantage over PoE, but mechanically I gained new respect to Pillars after replaying BGs. Mechanics wise the biggest advantage BGs has its obfuscation. Attributes are exciting as game doesn’t explain what each attributed does. Open the manual though and the charm looses its power. Tying enemies’ resistance to enchantment level of weapons is bad bad bad. Too many spells, useful only to dispel certain others spells, which protect you from those few selected spells. Enchanting when I had no idea what’s going on, tedious once I grasped on how things work. Not to say that PoE is beyond improvement.

I have a question: when we discuss usefulness of a class why do we always talk about DPS? Like only DPS? How about utility? Mobility? Flexibility?

Ok, I wouldn’t mind if game wasn’t beatable with a solo character. Not to ruin fun for people who do soloruns but I can’t see how one could design a good team based game, which is also beatable with one character. If a difficulty requires a careful coordination of 5 characters, surely it shouldn’t be beatable with just one.

Yes. Most of the encounters were poorly designed, and XP overfloat is way too big, especially with White March. Content scaling doesn’t really fix the problem. It has little correlation to current discussion.

Why you say so? Yen certainly wasn’t in love with Geralt before the third wish. Whenever it was Djinn’s magic, or Geralt caring that started it - well, that’s the part unexplained in the short story, and one PR cleverly took an advantage of.

He didn’t. It was changed before the post was mad . This fight isn’t problematic design wise in PotD only, though it fleshes out its problems. Harder doesn’t necessarily mean better. Complaints here aren’t about it being per say too hard, but rather about it being a bit bull****. I didn’t find it fun in its current iteration, I didn’t find satisfaction in beating it.

Why would anyone go to spend holiday in California? :I why does going for holiday has anything to do with Deadfire? It’s not a vacation resort simulator. Call of Duty locations aren’t places anyone would want to spend their holidays at, and yet for many years it has been a top seller. But even so, that’s beside the point. Why do you think a brighter, more colourful scheme would fit Deadfire’s world better? It’s hardly an otimistic world. Deadfire is full of conflict, fight for colonies, with a resurrected god rampaging around. Do you think a brighter colour palette would express this kind of world better? I am pretty sure Obsidian artists can make decisions without making polls on what random people’s favourite vacation resorts are.

I am all for it, as long as they do not add their own content.

I am doing a run with an Ascended in the party. Loving it. I think I know what I will make my imported cipher into once the games comes out.

Ok, yeah, I was thinking there was parity in total ability slots currently, I hadn't done out the math and realized there was a slight discrepancy. In my head at least, ideally, it'd be "both get same number of abilities; multiclass get a wider pool of abilities to choose from; single class get a deeper pool of abilities to choose from." I think it would be absolutely fine to give both the same amounts of talents to spend, though the question is how to distribute them. The discrepancy comes from the amount of powerlevels reached between single and multi. Giving 3 ability points per power level to multi would scew balance much in favour of multiclass. I things those 3 ability points shouldn't make that much of a difference, if it does, they can be added somehow.

If it doesn't add anything than its not good.

Evolution is a bigger scam than gods.

Hmm... with current system single class characters will gain more abilities total. Number isn’t big (3 extra ability points?), and multiclass benefits from synergies, and more available abilities per encounter. I think it is fine. It feels fine. Let’s see how it will perform in full game first.

Well... wasn’t that what people wanted when they rioted for passives? “But in PoE1” was the most common argument. My biggest disappointment is that gunner perk is still not available to my singleclass cipher. Ideally every class would have an individual progression with wide range of uniqu active abilities and passives allowing for variety of builds in singleclass and some interesting balanced combinations when multiclassing. But that’s ain’t gonna happen. I am trying to think of one unique passive I would like to see that wouldn’t completely break the game, and I am coming up empty.

I fell in love with Thrust of Tattered Veils. Such a quick, long range, reliable interrupt.

The question is: who has rights to NWN2? I doubt it’s obsidian.

Apparently so, yet in my personal experience casters tend to seriously out-DPS everyone else. Not to mention some super handy debuff/interupt spells. It might be me not really building properly melee DPSers, I dunno.

11) The biggest crime of all! A cat-tease! The stray cat doesn't appear in the inventory: 12) Smart camera has an issue in combat. When a single combatant is selected it tends to center between him and rest of the team, making me stare at the middle of the desert.

All yes. Yet this argumentation found deaf ears, when people complained that they cant pick dual wielding perk for their characters who weren’t fighters. The fact that such perk wasn’t needed to be effective didn’t have much impact. Of course, all unique passives for each class would be preferable, but let’s be realistic here - it was never gonna happen.

Every time I dump constitution I regret it when my characters gets one shot. Whenever I drop below 10 (not to mention 3) I really really feel it. Back line isn’t as safe as it was in PoE1.

I expect multiclassing to be both underpowered and overpowered depending on what you do. Luckily, singleclasses feel much better now. Balance wise, we can only guess as we haven’t seen 50% of skill trees which is pretty crucial in single vs. Multiclass debate.

Why hire an actor if you will just have him/her read text that is meant to be read? They are voiceators, not lectors. If you go for a voice actor, than write with that in mind. If you write for it to be read, there is not need for someone to read it aloud. It just doesn’t add anything while costing a lot.