Wormerine

Or a generic “femal mage” concept art. I dunno, certainly doesn’t look like Iselmyr type.

I always disliked “taunt” mechanics. It seems like one of those skills which do what players should do, replacing placement and zoning with an ability. Fighters “pull” mechanic seems to have similar purpose, while more satisfying, precise and limited.

For people familiar with this paricular style of cRPGs, sure. But those type of game went away for many years, and RPG or isometric RPG will not be the same for everyone anymore. It was interesting to see people play those type of game for the first time when Pillars released. “What do you mean you want to scroll with WASDa?” I would yell at my screen. “Set auto pause and use space a lot and you won’t die. Noob”. And I won’t lie, it took me a while to get back into “partially voiceacted, fully written” rhythm of the game. The mixing of mute narration and VOed lines didn’t help though.

Please, let’s go back to discussing shield in game, their role in game and implimentation. It has been very interesting thread so far. As a long time gamer and not much of real life melee fighter I am used to think of shields as nothing more than defencive boost. Do you think the defensiveness of shields should be increased (better defence or chance to increase enemy recovery on miss by putting him “off balance”) or are you more inclined into making it a soft weapon? I like idea of shield being a “defensive” equipment, but the other approach does seem intriguing. however, with pen system I am not sure how effective would it be as “weak defensive weapon”.

I felt the battle for Ozimar was still pretty good, with people reacting to you based on your race. After that if they ever mentioned your background is to tell you why it doesn't matter. Shame I hoped for reactivity closer to Tyranny.

I never got the "casual/formal" mix. Just pick one. Also hats indoors. What's up with that? And baseball hat of all things. What exactly is the sun you are protecting yourself coming from? From all the headwear in the world you pick the most dull one.

My fav was: „And i am here with Katrina from.... ehm... <looks at the Booth?> Obsidian!” Smooth.

ONLY if we get “silly walk” toggle.

If only Obsidian would have an open world, highly open yet story driven cRPG under their belt we could look at... oh, fallout: New Vegas. How did they structure that game? A hook, big chase leading to central city leaving clues all over the place so you have to explore, while being distracted by quests on the way which contribute to worldbuildng and explain slowely introduce central conflict, multiple ways of getting to said city, multiplefactions you have to ally with. Seems like a lot of those elements are already in Deadfire: - a hook - Eothas trashing Caed Nua and doing something to your soul - nakataka acting as central hub of the game - multiple factions and side content tied to said factions - factions fighting to control over Deadfire. It’s difficult to say how much it will follow formula of NV but I expect something closer to that than “story quests” of sandbox open world games like Saints Row, which is, I think, what OP meant by more “direct approach” (did touch fallout4).

Yeah, no, there was nothing that extreme in PoE. I did miss those for a half of my first play through, as that is what I expected to get. I did accept pillars as it’s own thing by know and appreciate how it’s different from Games that inspired it. There is certainly space for lighter quests, and more playful characters, and so far it’s difficult to say how much the tone will shift in Deadfire (judging from beta it still seems to be spot on). I don’t think those extreme slapstick’s like Edwin’s quests would fit the grounded world of PoE. I would prefer to see more of Coen Brothers humor, rather than Monty Python’s.

Shields are no good? Why did no one tell me that before!

I really don’t see the change to be as big. Yeah, they have more detail but still very human in form, just icy or fiery or woody. I don’t see it as change from PoE design to Deadfire, just more detail. Who knows how feathery Pallegina is.

Humor? Nah, but more tonal variance yes. White Match introduced more adventure and some more playful quests (investigation of Ondra Church, stealing booze and dealing with consequences.)

I thought PoE did well, with “tutorial” zone being a legit dungeon. Brief, to the point, fun to explore. If the game has actual tutorial “now we will teach you how to play the game” I much prefer if it’s seperate from main game, or completely skippable implimented in legit opening zone (Deus Ex mankind divided)

How tastes vary. I find this to be one of the best additions to Deadfire, though right now my optimism is based more around what was promised rather than what is in. The most clear advantage this kind of worldmap is the ability to explore and discover. While prerendered actual maps look better at this moment, they consume a lot of artists time, while not providing much in return. PoE and BG1 is filled with maps which are nothing more than empty fields filled with trash mob. It’s not great. Worldmap provides an exploration aspect of those maps (clearing up a map, meeting encounters, finding loot & unique encounters) at a much lower production cost, reserving time and money for actual areas to me rendered. Moreover, you can hide special encounters or areas which is always fun. Right now overworld map is lacking most of its mechanics and is not finished graphically - no random encounters, no ship management, no ship to ship combat&boarding. Once it is in, hopefully it will feel like part of your journey rather than getting from Point A to B. Overworks maps worked great in cRPGs in a past (Fallouts, Arcanum, Storm of Zehir) it should be a fine addition here as well.

Absolutely not. Even if the balance will be way off, adding those weird constrains just goes against the multiclassing. They should work and it and make is as best as they can. While not great, even if it’s a bit broken it won’t hurt the game all that much - it ain’t multiplayer. If it won’t be good enough for release, they will still be able to do some work on it with expansions.

But seriously PoE is a first game in ages for which I had to dust off my English dictionary. Once again I could use learning English as an excuse to play games.

Yeah, my friend likes to say that you need a degree in math to figure out how Pillars works. While i feel you get enough info to make some basic decisions the system is really difficult to figure out in-depth. % based modifications a probably the reason for those confusing ways of calculating results.

Wait. Summoned weapons don't scale with power level? Why? That makes no sense at all. Probably to help in creating better melee/wizard combo when multiclassing. Same with ranger pet.

In game there is no link between soul strength and might. I don’t know where this idea came from but it never made into the game. Might is clearly described as a measure of both physical and spiritual strength and in dialogues it was treated as strength. Deadfire already solved the problem of using might as strength check in dialogues by moving most of the checks to skills, with athletics replacing might in that instance. Not ideal, as it further separates different mechanics, but it does address this particular problem.

Well but they are! Long sword, saber, rapier, estoc, katana, morningstar are all weapon which were used historically, however due to being more used in popular culture people are more familiar with them. I know that I had to expend my knowledge of white weaponary when I started to play RPGs. I have little interest in firearms but I imagine that firearms used in 17th century existed before “guns” were created. I imagine that if we would continue to use swords to this day new terms and types of swords would be created. As it is now new guns were developed, while white weaponary remained mostly the same (beside combat knives etc. Used as a tool or support weapon, rather than main one).

That’s really odd, it doesn’t happen to me. Try contacting: support@obsidian.net

What a wonderful occasion to self-educate! It is simpler and clearer, but in a fantasy setting, which one of the main purposes is crafting a world with certain atmosphere and technology it would be damaging. Weapon not being used in a medium is hardly a reason to avoid using it.

That’s odd. Just to be sure, we are talking about backer portal, right? https://eternity.obsidian.net/backer

Wizards, Priests and Druids can cast 2 spells per spell level every combat. They pick one talent (spell) on lvl up. With recent update priests gain additionally one free spell when reaching new power level (every few levels) based on their subclass. Wizards carry Grimoires which can hold up to two additional spells per level. Grimoires can’t be edited, so they can contain spells you already know or ones you can’t use due to subclass restrictions. Overall less spells to choose from. Personal note: with various Grimoires wizards are quite flexible, though remembering what Grimoires have which spells is tricky and I usually tend to stick to one or two I actually use. Priests feel much better with extra spell per powerlevel. Druids probably suffer the most right now, especially with the split of resolve and strength hurting their melee or spells. I might be completely wrong as those above are my impressions after playthrough with each in my party, no actual data or numbers to back those up. They kinda tend to do the same thing over and over again, but I won’t lie, I was doing the same thing in PoE so it might be just me applying the same solution to every problem. Being able to cast Returning Storm every fight is a bit too good.