Wormerine

I don't agree with the last part myself. I don't think any piece is so sacred and perfect that it could never be touched by another artist who might want to adapt it according to his vision. A good artist may certainly take these games and remake them into something good or better, but that really falls to how capable the artist is (to give an example I think it's arguable that Great Expectations is far more "untouchable" a piece than any videogame could strive for - Baldur's Gate and Torment included - yet David Lean's cinematic adaptation of it is hardly one to scoff at - likewise it's hard to ignore the success of the Aeneid even as it is partly an adaptation of the Illiad, or for that matter a piece like Adam Buenos Aires as a more modern adaptation and repurposing of the Divine Comedy). The question as to whether it becomes a success or not ultimately falls into the particulars of that vision and its execution and that's where Beamdog failed for me (I would go as far as saying that their blind veneration for the original source and the self-imposed kid gloves resultant from it was a detriment to their vision and to their work on these sequels). Personally I still think it's entirely possible to take a game like Torment and properly remake it into a piece that can quite feasibly be even better than the original - there is certainly room for improvement, all successes about it considered. I should elaborate. I am not against remakes and adaptations. what I meant by BG “remake” is exactly the same game being release today. It wouldn’t work. Technology, sensibilities and telling of the same story will change after 20 years. It’s especially tricky with influential works as they are copied so much over the years and improved upon, that they loose the originality which made them a hit in the first place. Using your example: yes, Torment could be remade and be a much better game, but it would need to change. The same Torment released today wouldn’t be too impressive, even if the game has a recommendation from me as a classic.

Well, that is explained in PoE1, no? I would recommend giving it a go if you didn’t already. In case you do want a massive spoiler:

Whatever the nature of Gods they exist and can influence faithful. I doubt they “guide” a cycle, they are rather a subject of it. What is their range of influence is something we might learn more in Deadfire. Gods are capable of interacting with the world (Thaos constantant reincarnation, Ondra’s attempt to wipe Engwith, stopped by Abydon) but they have a pact not to. But they don’t run the world. I doubt Berath oversees death and rebirth in a way a Hades in Greek mythology would. He represent and strive towards an ideal or rebirth and cycles. I wonder what Eora’s people believe. I don’t remember Berath being represented as guy who makes those things happen in PoE. It doesn’t seem like Gods in Eora have a clear heaven/hell dogma enforcing certain values.

You mean that lines can get altered during recording? Nay, that's good, especially if they worked with actors to develop characters. Its normal in movies for actors to alter their lines and argue about what their character is saying/way it is saying, though what Josh mentiones is mostly differents between how lines look on paper and how they sound. It aint Shakespeare, and writers are right in front of you. If they won't like it, they will correct you. EDIT: I completely misunderstood the Question, the Josh's Answer and the posters comment. I am not sure if its exhaustion or beer.

*gasp*

As someone who loves both Baldur’s Gates and Planescape I have plenty to complain about. I am much less nostalgic about Planescape as I played it fairy late. Lack of character depth or choice on Baldur’s Gate side would be its downfall if it was what it is aiming for. Very poor combat of Planescape would be it’s downfall of it was what was praised. Both games hold up extremely well. They have big issues - both are product of wild times, of very creative but inexperienced creators. Fallout 1&2 are a complete mess in so many ways, yet there is brilliance there. No, you couldn’t just “remake” them today and have them be good products. That’s why I am so against Beamdog adding stuff them - after 20 years you can’t so that. If someone can’t connect with them today, that’s a shame, and that’s fine. Gaming went a long way since then. But there is sincerety and creativity in those games, which make them a worthy playthrough even today.

In finished game’s tutorial section, hopefully.

That assumption is untrue. Going back to early 80s (I’m old...) some video game trilogies required completion of game 1 in order to continue in game 2. Other trilogies did not. It all depends on the developer.First of all Lord of the Rings is not a trilogy: it consists of 8 parts, which were distributed via 3 books. None of those are sequels, as none of them are stand alone books. A better comparison would be an episodic TellTale release. PoE1 is a stand-alone game with a complete story arc. Deadfire hopefully will be the same. While they share protagonist, they don’t share the same story arc. Even if there will be a bigger storyline it’s clear that devs think one game at the time. Making each game stand on its own is a better business model. Games age quickly and if you tell someone they need to play couple games before they try the new release they are unlikely to dive in. Release multiple standalone connected instalments and they might go back though. You expand your audience instead of shrinking it as time goes by. I don’t know 80s game, but I certainly feel that in 90s sequels were aimed more at people who played 1st nstalments rather than trying to gain new crowds - stories would jump right into the action, characters weren’t reintroduced, games lacked tutorials assuming you know what to do, difficulty would be steep as devs assumed you are familiar with basics.

You can’t take any work out of the context it was made. Even though BGs might not hold up in all aspect they were creative and innovative at its time. Yes, BG shares the same issues that later Boware games have but it was the first one. Poor morality system is usually a Bioware issue, but it took couple games before I really starting to get annoyed with it. Just like Ubisoft Open World game is something I despise, even though I enjoyed Far Cry3 ad original AssCreed. Continue doing the same thing over and over again and it becomes stale, and its issue become more apparent. And as far as writing - the thing is while BGs are corny they are better written than Dragon Age, in big part because they are corny. Dragon Age tries to be more serious but it didn’t click for me. Characters behaved like idiots, lore was unimaginative and dull, conflict was very forced, darkspawn was an incredibly boring antagonist.

But as a more direct reply: the order they talk about are pledges. To be able to buy an addon you would have to back the game while they were still open. While it is possible for backers to buy additional addons, it is not possible to back the game anymore. Pre-ordering does open access to beta. And as EG said. Better wait these couple weeks.

Mispost

While casters rely on their spells, the melee classes rely on their autoattack. In addition keep in mind that high level big spells take time to cast, which make them more tricky to use and take time (action economy as Josh described it - only so many things you can do during one fight). It is true that for melee higher level powers consume more of the class resource. In beta there is a soulbound weapon which allows to restore some of the class resource with a kill once per rest, so its possible there will be more items like that. One thing to consider is that "upgrated abilities" don't replace their base version. Let's take figher's knockdown and mulekick as an example: While primary use of knockdown is an interupt while mulekick gains +25% damage, knockup and a chance to disorient an enemy. However, both stay in your repertoire: You can use either of them, depending on what you feel is needed. In addition every class gains additional resource to spend when reaching new power level. Edit: factual mistakes.

Multiclass reach the same character level, but they gain power level slower resulting in loosing access to, i think, two or three powerlevels.

After living couple years in US I can recognise some of the accents but not all and not always, and I am fairly uneducated when it comes to the south. But from my experience Americans can guess each other’s origins fairly well.

There are so many odd options that I wonder if it’s intentional. Maybe during promised analysis there will be point: 25% of players picked the option which wasn’t even in the game!

Do you really think the White March VO added a lot? I'm just curious. I just played through the first part (can't remember the VO in the second part right now be honest) and I'd say the only voices in it that I think actually *adds* something is 1) Zahua. Nice voice, pleasant to listen to, nice delivery and seems to have an understanding of the character and 2) Galvino which seems to bring some character to the... character.The Devil and Maneha are both... not good to terrible. The rest of it (for NPCs and sidecharacters) is extremely average if you ask me. And characters like the three dwarf ghosts in Durgan's Battery are not only average but also instantly recognizeable as other characters in the game. I enjoyed all of the three new companions. And it’s true a lot of voice actors are reused, which is especially recognisable in a tight expansion. In WM2 every orlan seems to be voice by the same person.But my point wasn’t that VO somehow evelated game to another level, but that it didn’t hurt it. And I did like the more consistent VO - it didn’t switch on and off as much as in the base game. As a full disclosure, I don’t think that VO does much for me, personally. And it seems that many in here share my reservation, that in the past chasing after presentation quality made RPGs less and less interesting. Still, open world exploration, faction and relationship system is in, so what I want from an RPG is being expanded on as well. And I would lie if I said I am not looking forward to more Aloth, Eder and Pallegina VO. Whatever issues I have with D:OS2 aren’t down to full VO and I doubt that not making full VO would directly translate to a better game in case of Deadfire. If anything, it makes me believe that Obs feels so strong about the game that they want to make it as attractive product as possible... which makes me long for May the 8th even more.

I would preferably have a deeper ship and world simulation, but voice actors won’t do those. Expanding core team by Extra writers/designers might not work too smoothly.

Yeah, like Pallegina yelling at me for hitting her, when she uses Sacred Immolation.

White March is much more consistently voiced an it works in its favour. For Deadfire the commitment is simply good news. The only negative effects I can foresee are long them - what if the next game won’t have the budget or have other ambitions and won’t be able to afford full VO? Will the public accept the degrade in polish, or will they have to adjust the design to fulfil those expectations? But that’s not for me to decide or worry about. For now Deadfire is looking good and Obs seems confident enough to dump cash into it.

*shrug* To be honest full VO is probably a better selling point than more icons.

Every level you gain one skill point which you can invest wherever you like. However, every few levels you reach new power level, which unlocks new tier of skills and improves your already aquired skills. In this case you gain two skill points and if you multiclass you have to spend one in each class.

I have scanned all of the concept art available at their site but didn't find anything.

Recent survey Return to Caed Nua included some curious quest resolutions. In my coming-to-an-end pre-Deadifre playthrough I attempted to test some of those curious paths. My findings aren't mindblowing but as some people expressed interest in my experiments here they are: 1) Question: To which god did you pledge your allegiance during your quest to end Waedwen's Legacy? This one is curious because as questionare's answers suggest it is impossible to progress to Sun in Shadow without pledging allegiance to at least on of the gods. Couple people confirmed it before but here it is: You don't have to ally with any of the gods to descend to Sun in Shadow. Souls are given to you after doing initial god's quest (before being allowed to speak to them) and you don't have to do anything further. 2) Question: What happened to Vela, the baby orlan? The possiblt surprising answer was: "I gave the baby to a family that would take care of it, and killed Simoc." I feel like I talked to every NPC in the game, and none ackowledged presence of Vela. I also tried killing Simoc first, and then stealing Vela, however conversation with Simoc son was the same, even though his Papa was dead at that time. If it exists its either very very obscure or very situational. 3) Question: What became of the Sky Dragon terrorizing Hylea's temple? Answer: "I mortally wounded the dragon, but at the last minute, I allowed it to flee wth its offspring" Didn't make it happened and tried many many things. You either allow her to stay, or you fight to death.

Yeah for me it’s mostly some of the effects.

Cool.