Wormerine

I would have more of an issue if they wouldn’t patch it couple times. Better is good. .

Yeah! Give me Western RPG. Playing through Hard West... disappointed. Could have been so much more.

That said Falout NV had a wonderful element of choosing your “nemesis” during your playthrough, rather than having one given to you. I hope the statue of Caed Nua will be enough of a story hook, and Onsidian will once again find out place in the story and world they created by our own, rather than force it on us. “Reactivity” is an odd thing, as my satisfaction with it, doesn’t come from actual reactivity of the game. Witcher2 and Tyranny had plenty of reactivity, with first one having two second chapters for you depending on your choices, and 2nd one, adjusting your playthrough to four major story variations, depending on act1. And yet, both felt underwhelming as, beside those big moments, the experience felt much more driven and less “roleplayee” than more structured but consistently flexible RPG does. There are multiple mechanics which suggest a fair deal of freedom and reactivity (factions, relationship system, freedom to explore) but how flexible the world will be can be judged once game is released.

I am getting less and less confident how mechanics could be improved by “patching” existing system. Fixing issues PoE1 had opened space for new issues, which didn’t exist in a first place. Even if they manage to address current complaints I am sure new ones will pop out as a result. Maybe the good thing would be to take couple things from PoE, which people liked and identified the game with, and create a new system for PoE3? While I liked it while playing PoE, after reading all the discussions I am liking less and less percentage based design. It muddies things up, and forces players to rely a lot on info from UI, making decisionmaking and planning convoluted.

Yeah, I don’t see the new system as an “expansion” but more as a redesign. Similar purpose but better communicated - you wanna cast spells? You are a mage. You wanna hit people with weapon? You are a fighter. You wanna cast spells and hit people with weapons? You are a battle mage. It’s not a terrible idea, though it does have serious setbacks, like not being able to “soft multiclass” as you could in PoE1, while staying single class + not being able to create quite the same character anymore.

It could work, but that would mean changing subclasses into specialisations. Not a terrible idea, but would take whole lot of redesign work. I do like the idea of subclasses, and I am all for negative effects of a subclass - they just need some more love.

@Jojobobo Just to make myself completely clear I didn’t intend to criticise your decision in any way. While the issue you are talking about aren’t game breakers for me (I would describe them as minor bug, though you do seem to dig deeper and rely more on mechanics, so the difference in perception is understandable), they are for you. Just wanted to share my two cents on how I treat crowdfunding, in case anyone cared. No one? Oh, well, it’s there anyway .

Well, I see it more as a donation, a bit like for a non-profit organization, but that might be because it's close to my profesional background. Dev who are interested in certain kinds of games ask for support as they would't be able to create them otherwise (that of course debatable in some cases). Same as Philharmonics or Operas, at least in USA, rely mostly on donors. Sure those people will get special treatment but asking for a "refund" would be odd. If they are not happy they stop supporting said organization. At the same time, I am thinking... what would happen is a donor requested a refund... Some research is needed. Whenever it is a valid comparison, to be honest - I have no idea. That's how I look at it. I want Obsidian to make this RPG, partially because I want to play it, and in part because I want them to be able to do it, on their terms, because making those kind of game I see as somewhat important. I don't think crowdfunding entites you to refund if the product doesn't pan out as advertised, but hey! fig and Obsidian is willing to do that, thats good for you AND for them. Keeping a potential customer/donor like you happy, even if right now its giving you your money back is probably more valuable in a long run than holding to your cash.

His money, his decision. Pledging is a sign of trust and confidence and if such exists one is smart to wait till release and make his decision then.

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.