Wormerine

While I think it works fine, I think that it would be cool if there was another autopause toggle - pause before casting. So you set up a cast and right before the cast is go one the game autopauses and lets you confirm/redirect the spell without manually keeping an eye on your fireball.

You must have a very interesting workplace.

To be honest I just want a well designed game. You can't have everything. I am all for per-rest and I am all for per-encounter. I like singleplayer and I like multiplayer. But those require dedicted design. You can't do both well at the same time. There is no "best of both worlds" because those two mechanics work differently and pace game differently. I know some people prefer a wider range of playstyles, over tight experience but I am just not one of those. I prefer good, over a lot. To have a good per-rest system you have to design around that - with economy, level design, story structure. I would say you need a procedural generation to make planning and choice make sense.

I do think he has a point, and by PoE3 I did mean Obsidians 3rd game set in Pillars’ world. A franchise brings expectations, doing same over again can be just as dangerous as doing something too different. For me, personally, BGs, Mass effects or PoE have never been about protagonists. They and avatar through which I explore those worlds and whenever it is the same avatar or a different one I really don’t care. But I feel that making different protagonists does solve a lot of issue - different character motivations, no restrictions as to who you are or what your role is, lvl up from the start withou odd explanations like dying, getting your soul sick out out (again) or whatever Deadfire will come up with. Setting reactivity based on prior games should be easier etc.

The reason I like per-encounter more is that I use tools at my disposal. Per rest system encourages using as little spells per combat as possible - well I do just that. In most cases that means not using any spells at all. I just find toning down spellcaster potency and making them use spell more often to be a much more entertaining proposition. This whole "spreading out resources" doesn't really speak to me because: 1) resources are too easily regained 2) resources are rarely needed to win a fight, therefore I don't use them unless its a big fight. In addition, as Deadfire casters are limited as to what spells they can learn I will probably make more use of scrolls.

Her subclass is based on her PoE1 ending, and you can't edit an impoted save.

I think it could work both ways. I don't mind grazes and I am not sure how more attacks in shorter amount of time would make things more readable - whenever it is a hit/graze/miss/or crit results still need to be analyzed. beta1 was awful. I think we either have grazes or we don't have them at all. The reason is: grazes are powerful. The problem the 1st beta had was that dire blessing was just too good to pass. Half damage is still good (especially on AoE attack) and is super good if its a debuff. Any ability which grants you a graze was a must have. Didn't fighters get grazes as well? A multiclass fighter/wizard would be simply better than pure wizard in hitting spells. It seems there were (are?) more people who share your opinion and that's why Obsidian removed grazes. In the way it was implimented it didn't feel good and I much prefer the current system. Is it the best as it could have been? eh, I dunno, probably not. But I can't think of an easy fix.

Frankly to me its less about desire of continuing the same character or creating a new one, and more that traditionally 3rd installments really suck (a notable exception is Witcher series, where is some regards the low point was 2nd game and in some it was getting better with every game). Since original StarWars everyone feels a need to make a trilogy ignoring the fact that even Return of the Jedi fell flat on its face for the most part.

in regards to BG2, players who haven‘t made a playthrough of BG2 with a sorcerer do not understand that per-rest system can be extremely fun for players who like to play casters. BG2 plays entirely different with a sorcerer in your party. I would be very surprised if anyone at Obsidian has actually made a playthrough with a sorcerer in BG2 (including Josh Sawyer). This class was basically introduced in BG2 because the role/importance of magic increased by leaps and bounds compared to the prequel. I am pretty sure they did as PoE1 casters system has more similarities to sorcerer than a D&D wizard. IMO sorcerer was the most enjoyable spellcaster in BG2, though balance wise it traded overall flexibility for being less a pain in the butt to manage.

Overall yes, some spells could use a shorter cast time I think (see MaxQuest mod: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/96158-beta-speed-mod/) I am not sure that not getting interrupted to be a good reason for that. Move you caster away before casting a big spell or boost concentration. Use other characters to protect the mage. This is a key mechanic for you and your enemies to use to get an advantage.

We get new masterpieces from time to time: https://youtu.be/p5j6QOmgMF8

You are still taking away fruit which the farmer was saving to prevent starvation in the future. In PoE obvious answers aren’t always the right ones. This one won’t change her mind as it was Lagufaeth’s that sparkled her hatred toward them, so this line of argumentation won’t convince her. There are couple other ways to change her mind, and if that won’t work there is always stealth + lockoicking or pickpocketing.

Sure, that’s why I said I hope they will wrap up Watcher’s storyline in Deadfire and go forward from there. Whenever it’s called Pillars of Eternity 3, or Pillars of Eternity: Origins, or whatever else I don’t really care. Changing creative director might go well with changing a direction for the franchise.

There is no way for a "good" ending of that quest. Actually, what bothers me is that you have to give the fruit back and the only choice is to accuse someone falsy "for the greater good" or to catch the real thief. What bothers me is why there is not option to leave the fruit with the guy who stole it and just leave things be.

I think it all comes down to what role health/endurance was supposed to fill. Its biggest advantage over current system was that health was a resource that was drained during each fight - you can heal all you want, but if you tank too much with one character he will run out of health. I thought it was a cool mechanic but the question is: what was it supposed to achieve? What I like about new injury system that it does force resting but only if you fail - let your people get knocked out. If health/endurace's role was to provide some kind of token perma death system and encourage resting if you get some serious not intended beating than injuries are a better way of doing it. However, I did like extra nuance that health added to each combat encounter. The question is: was it intended, and would bigger structure of Deadfire still support it. In PoE there were a lot of save zones - backtracking was save, traveling was save. Not so much in PoE. I don't know if random encounters were scrapped, of if they are still a thing in full release. If they are it makes sense for you team to always be on full or almost full health.

3D7mzF

I was hoping for a new protagonist/story this time too. Always good to start freash and rpgs )and Obsidian rpg especially) are long games, enough to tell and conclude a complex story in a single game. You know what could be cool? If obs took Pillars the way Bioware takes Dragon Age: Each game is different and it moves the timeline forward and picks a different place. Yeah, same here. I was surprised that they a continuing story. While it's crearly an easier sell, I think it's also confining in a way. Still, looking forward to see what Obsidian will do with do with a direct sequel. Considering how many people dislike the spellcasting change, it would be cool if for the next game they would went other direction - design their game around limited resting and spell management and all that stuff.

I would say the easiest comparison would be first Pillars, except instead of containing all spells you can cast, they expand what spells you can cast. Just like in PoE1 you can have multiple Girmoires equipped in "quick access" slot. "memorized" spells can be only changed by retraining your character. They are in fact skills you pick when leveling up. I was also about to edit my previous post because I also might have misunderstood your question. All of that before is about repertoire - how many spells you can choose from. However, yes, to balance the change that spells aren't per-rest resource anymore, you are limited to casting two spells per spell level every combat - so you have to decide which ones from the ones you can cast will be the most useful in current engagement. There is per-rest empower mechanics - its a consumable resource which get restored when resting which you can use once per engagement to: 1) empower a spell - make this spell more powerful, increasing its damage, duration etc. 2) restore half of your per encounter resource - in case of a spellcaster, that means getting an extra spell per spell level to cast, if you feel you could use another one from the same spell level.

I think he just doesn't know what you are talking about, just as I don't. Every quest in the beta is completable. I have over 30 hours in beta, completed it multipletimes with various characters, including Cipher, and I can't figure out whenever you talk about beta's critical path quest (calming the storm) or a stolen fruit one.

Half-truths all: For wizards, it is true, right now you can pick two spells per spell level to "memorize" when you level up (always in your repertoire). This number will increase to 3, as singleclass characters will be able to pick 2 abilities when reaching new power level, just like multiclass characters can right now. So: wizards get 3 "memorized" spells + extra 2 per spell level depending on Grimoire equipped (up to 5 per spell level). This time around Grimoires can't be edited, so how many extra spells such Grimoire provides depends on if its spells overlap with your memorized ones or if they contain ones a wizard can't cast when a subclass is chosen). There is nothing as of yet indicating that it will be possible to craft customized grimoires. Druids and Priests get one "free" spell per spell level based on their subclass + currently up to 2 (with future change 3) per spell level.

New special even in ship2ship combat - a cat is clawing your sails and you can't turn until you take it back down.

I must say I am not a fan of Empower. I am not convinced to its usefulness or role. It seems like a weak system left over as a tribute to old per-rest resource management but I don't think its very interesting mechanically. When I say "usefulness" I am not saying that it doesn't impact the game - empowered spells are noticably more powerful and gaining another healing spell might save from injury, but tactically it is not interesting. Its problems are very similar to old per-rest system - they help winning the fight, but you don't need them to win a fight. In the end its something I don't think about at all when considering my choices. It certainly doesn't force the rest out of me if I run out of empowers (did I even run out of empowers?) Maybe if old health/endurance system was in, it would have a value as ending fights with as little damage received would have been beneficial. In Deadfire as long as no one falls to the ground you are fine.

@injurai I think that a lot of your obeservations arent wrong, but I also feel that it is difficult to judge how it really plays until full game comes out, when we have more enemies to fight against, and more levels to experiment with. Really, the only danger I see with the new casting system is restriction on available spells - especially subclasses seem to force you into rather narrow range of spells. However, I have been observing my gameplay style through recent playrheoughs of BGs and PoE. And I know it is just me, and someone else might play differently, but I would be surprised if Obsidian would make those changes before consulting data first. It’s true, in Deadfire you will have to specialise your casters. But don’t players to it already? Yeah, your wizards can have multiple Grimoires giving them access to every spell in the game, but did anyone really used them on regular basis? I am actively trying to juggle 2 Grimoires and it’s just not happening. I have built my current mage with using magic weapons in mind, and I stick to it. I have 2nd grimoire prepared for a long range fight, but so far I didn’t use it. I feel the same about druids and priests - once I set my mind on using them for certain purpose I rarely go beyond that. I think that the restriction of choice might be felt more by “single character” people. It certainly will make those classes less flexible. At the same time, I don’t think that self imposed challenge runs should inform overall design of party based game. And as far as few spells cast per encounter. There are about, what 9 or 10 power levels? For mages that means over 40 spells to choose from, with an ability to cast what...? 16-20 per encounter? Early levels will be slower, but so they are in PoE1. Casting time means you probably won’t empty your access to spells, but who knows. Combat in Deadfire certainly feels more active with more things to do per encounter and more things to keep an eye on. Solo classes will get a big buff by being granted and extra ability to pick per power level. The multiclass vs singleclass is difficult to judge without full skill trees, but multi seems to sit on top.

I told you, they made the puppet for a reason. Katrina may be gone from Obsidian, but her likeness will be sold for years to come.

Considering that Josh won’t helm PoE3 I would much prefer if they wrap up Watcher’s arc in Deadfire and introduce new protagonist and new take on the system/genre in the third installement. Last parts of trilogies tend to not be very good. I am sure designers are full of cool ideas and it would be shame to force them to remake same game over and over.