Wormerine

You could still define your characters within the world - speaking of Divinity2 tag system was a neat idea - could be used to define ones religion or background etc. I do agree, this kind of role or identity does get lost quite often in classless RPGs or have classes anyway via use of talent trees (tyranny still feels kinda like a class system to me). It is not a must, but something to consider when designing more open system. I would be all for isometric Pillars of Eternity “spinoffs” like Icewind Dale or Planescape for IE games. Those experimented more with structure and gameplayfocus rather than core system, but a “spinoff” classless RPG could be fun.

Does "focus on deduction, deception and conversation" mean "noir"? I ask in all seriousness because I am still learning the definitions of various video game genres. If this is so, then I guess I too am a "noir" fan (and I never knew it). Combat is easily my least liked part of an RPG. “Noir” doesn’t really have a proper representation in gaming world beyond L.A Noire. It’s a Hollywood film genre, which lasted between 1940s and 1950s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir It was revived as neo-Noir by Roman Polanski with “Chinatown” in 1970s and we get some of those ever since. One of my favourite modern examples are Coen Brothers films - Fargo, Blood Simple, Man Who Wasn’t There. Some thngs like “Sin City” deeply draw aesthetic from Noir but are thematically quite different. noirs are usually detective or crime stories, therefore my mental jump into deception - whenever it would be detective digging into mystery or murderer planning and trying to get away with murder. Direct confrontetion doesn’t gel with atmosphere and themes of noir. As reference I would recommend “Maltese Falcon” the first film noir from all later films draw inspiration or “Chinatown” which takes a twist on MF formula and is simply so bloody good.

I wonder if the mention of a bathhouse was just a joke. Luminous Bathhouse is a location in Neketaka. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5HAqsnDeOIc 3:07

I would love to see Noir RPG - more focused on deduction, deception and conversations then combat. RPG can work beyond fantasy. As weird as it is, we even lack SF RPGs.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pQDydStWkgg

I am with Josh on that one - balance is quite important. I dunno, I am very much “roleplaying” kind of guy - I like to create different characters, focus on different strategies and make different choices through the game, but minmaxing dice rolls doesn’t excite me. Still, if I know something is really really good, and I am using something which is simply worse, I do feel guilty - like i am playing game badly. I still feel guilty for never making Kensai/Mage in BG2. Not something that kills game for me, but seeing a rebalance is always welcome. I agree, poorly balanced (with some reason fo course) single player game isn’t hurting as much as a multiplayer game would. But: well balanced SP game > poorly balanced SP game. So if dev is willing to go back and fix stuff that is a bit too good, in my eyes he/she only makes game better. There is a bit of disappointment, when strategies you used aren’t as valid or ridiculusly broken anymore, and that’s why Josh said he prefers to buff than nerf if he can help it.

At the same time, I wonder how different dev build is from backer beta. It lacks so much content that we know willl be in the game, that I would be surprised if what we played was barely representative of what Obsidian works on - early cut of a game, design to test stuff, rather than showcase what is to come. Still, you folks, who were part of the beta for PoE1 can judge better how much 1.0 can vary from the BB.

I appreciate GOGs commitment to make things work. Since steam introduced refunds, it is much less of a worry, but warm feeling toward GOG didn’t evaporate just yet. After all, it is thanks to GOG’s Icewind Dale2 copy that I was finally able to play it - other copies had some unsolved problem with direct draw, which made it unplayable for me for many years. I don’t have much against steam, but I tend to favour GOG when given a choice.

I think I get what you mean, though - as expected - I disagree. WM isn’t an instantly marketable pitch. It’s not tied to any major subplots of main game (or at least it doesn’t reveal itself quickly as it’s really closely tied to themes of base games) the game doesn’t promise you something super wacky like, let’s say, wonderful Witcher3 expansions. But WM1 is not a filler and there is no red herring. It’s a build up to a second part. I found Stalwart to be engaging and best realised location in the game. Yeah it was a sad place, but characters were engaging enough to care about their conflict. The quest didn’t surprise in WM2 but laid foundation for WM2. Perhaps it was a mistake in releasing them in two seperate purchases - but cutting or shortening WM1 would make the story much weaker. RPGs is as much about plot and action as it is about sense of place. Stalwart was a place with history, people and future. More so than any other community in PoE so far. But yeah, “help dying town reclaim long lost forge” doesn’t sell it well.

There was interesting bit on stream when Josh was explaining on how they decided who should return as companions. If I remember well, from the very beginning they were set on 3 returning characters. So he gathered all writers in the room and they decided that:

Yeah, but than you wouldn't have all the WM sidequests which gave life to the town! Hunting werewolf, exploring mines, helping drunk get his drink, helping/dooming orlan. You could do just main story, but it wouldn't make for a better content IMO. That's.... not how I remember NV DLC, though I didn't play it with watch in hand. Old World Blues felt fairly big. That's the one I remember liking the most. There was "survival horror" one, which was a neat idea, but didn't really work out that well.

Valian Republics will be one of the factions fighting for control over Deadfire, and she will be there on Valian business.

Cough, cough. You payed money to help devs develop the game. Crowdfunding is not preordering. If treated as such, it’s a horrible proposition paying money for a product, which hasn’t been made and no one know if it’s going to be any good. You got your answer about the DLC already - for additional $20 pledge you get access to three expansions combined worth $30. It’s all we know. I imagine at this point Obs knows what they are planning and maybe some early work started, if some of the folks are done with base game but I wouldn’t expect to hear anything more until after the game releases. As its at concept stage at best, it wouldn’t be smart to release too much information. White March is the basis of speculation on what expansion could look like - it also fits their previous M.O. with New Vegas. Using that as a jumping point is a way of discussing what we can expect & would like/wouldn’t like to see with DLC for Deadfire.

If you played White March your choices in it will be transferred into Deadfire - that much is confirmed. How much those will be reference remains to be seen. As usual, previous save or experience with PoE is not required for Deadfire. If you didn’t play WM i recommend grabbing it, loading pre-sun in Shadow auto save and giving it a go. It is by far the best content PoE has to offer.

GOG, obviously. Since Galaxy became a thing, and games autoupdate I see not reason to purchase new games via steam anymore. April is too far away to get excited about it beyond a “thumbs up”. In the same manner, I really don’t need a key for another two months, so no, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

...how do you make RPG work in one or two sittings? I just don’t see it work with that type of game. All things which make topdown cRPG bloom require time, whenever it’s story or mechanics. I can see DLC being used to provide different game experience (add roguelike dungeon or challenge modes etc.) but I am not sure they would sell to those who bought the game in a first place. But I am bias as I know I just don’t enjoy smaller DLC. Xcom2 had great smaller DLC and yet they didn’t work for me until big expansion came out and rebalanced everything and properly integrated those smaller DLC into the game. Before they felt too taped on. One evening extra story like Deus Ex:HD or DA:O just feels like a waste of time, not telling interesting story nor providing interesting gameplay. To me big expansion is always a better sell, whenever I liked the game or am willing to give it another go.

Ha! You mean, it’s own story arch, reactions, relationship system and story quest. I doubt it. Don’t get me wrong, it could be cool, but not an exciting addition for a $250,000 stretch goal. Would gladly swap sea monsters with that.

Hi! Game Download means - game download. You get the game, which you can download on April the 3rd. Plus expansions once they are done after release and all the other goodies. Backer beta was part of fig campaign and ability to back the game ended earlier this week, before announcing release days, and opening preorders. Someone might clarify it, but I don’t think there is a way to get access to backer beta anymore.

Ah, yeah. The “unification” path did require to make some dodgy choices. However, chaos and other paths work out pretty well.

Isnt the definition of the word fantasy to attempt and/or create something that is impossible and/or unbelievable? (im sure its something along those lines). I mean its no longer a fantasy if it becomes believable, right? Fantasy, as if: supernatural, not set in real world, or containing elements to belonging to real world. It doesn't mean that it shouldn't be relatable or follow inner logic.

I might be missing a point you are making, but I found Tyranny to be very enjoyable, though I admit, Deadfire crowdfunding made me play it. I am yet to play Banner Saga2 even though I enjoyed the first game a lot, and I am hearing that the sequel is just straight up better. Those games probably lack advertising push. I am not sure how o advertise them without spending bunch of cash on fake trailers, and they are not YouTube material for streamers to promote them. I think Divinity2 did a good job making game feel exciting via YouTube, though playing through it now - I am sure it is lots of fun in coop, but as a singleplayer experience it doesn’t hold up too well. But back to the thread: “yeah, I recommend asking devs directly what’s going on with promised Korean translation.”

0_0 WTF? What a soulless piece of **** would so such a thing.

At a same time, there were attempts to go without crowdfudning after the sequel, which, for unknown reason, didn’t pan out. Tyranny is one such example. Banner Saga 2 is the other. I think it was Banner Saga folks who mentioned how much advertising crowdfunding gives to the game.

What are they teasing now? We have release day... Release day delay?

Power level seems like a sensible mechanic, though UI needs to communicate it better. I think I would find it very confusing if I wouldn't be following Deadfire so closely.