Wormerine

Where, do you think. those "crew mutinies" are coming from?

I doesn't seem bad, but I don't see a benefit of suggested change either. The only abuse I could think of is "preparing" spells far away from the fight and than running in and casting it with no recovery and no danger of being interupted. I think that you can't retarget spells beyond your range for a reason. Maybe a massive walking slowdown when "carrying" a ready spell (like in Magica) would prohibit possible casting-outside-battlefield: abuse.

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/168050660961/1-will-there-be-a-room-below-deck-on-your-ship I guess, that means "yes"

That’s what backgrounds do, no? Giving you a head starts on certain skills based on your past. As the system itself (taing certain skills with better results per invested point) I don’t think it’s necessarly. Fallouts were single character RPGs which meant even if you focused on 3 skills, at some point you might want to upgrade less defining skills. PoE is Barry based, which means you will probably pick 3 skills per character and focus on them, rather than spread around points with one character.

There is a point to be made that solution can be satisfying without being challenging. A good example of that is Portal. A very enjoyable game, which makes you smart, but most of the puzzles are really easy. However, because game engages the player (while easy, puzzles are creative and fresh and game doesn't hand hold the player) the game stays fun. The bigger problem comes, when game is designed around certain rules but those rules aren't reinforced strong enough, so even if you play the game in a "wrong" way it still doesn't matter - the game doesn't really engage player with its mechanics. And of course there is a satisfaction of "progress", clearing up map, increasing procentages, gaining lvls etc. Never got into those games.

So ready to hunt:

I don’t think party assist to be a thing in scripted interactions. In those you tend to pick people who do certain actions, therefore only their skills come into play. Party assist is implimented to give your party’s social skills a role in regular dialogue choices, as otherwise they would be pointless.

We still talking about writing AI which analysis situation and reacts accordingly. AI can’t think for itself, and will follow scripted reactions. Strangely enough, the more “intelligent” AI is, the more stupid it becomes ones you understand how it works. I played original XCOM for many, many years and never got bored with encountered, because AI is basic to the point it will often do illogical things and surprise you. New XCOMs have much more robust AI with enemies reacting to your move, focusing vonourable enemies, refusing to run throug overwatch, if it’s probably going to kill you. That also makes AI very predictable, and after couple of hours of game any resemblance of intelligence disappears, with AI reactions you can easily predict and abuse. I think this “simulation” is possible but in a much less wordy, procedural RPG. To me it seems like developing entirely different game, which doesn’t support the game you are actually creating.

First of all there is no keep in Deadfire but you will have your own ship, which will act as one. Early in development some kind of room for pets on your ship was teased. Whenever it is still a thing, we don’t know.

HULK SMASH

...maybe dealing with publishers wasn't all that bad.

I am pretty sure Josh said they designed PoE around normal & hard. Why wouldn't you add easier difficulty settings? You wider the target audience without compromising game.

I am really not sure how experimenting with attribute spread has anything to do with appealing to the mass market. It seems pretty in line with what they wanted from PoE system and in line with ideals Josh presented in the GDC talk. From his presentaton: Pillars' Goals: * six atributes - check * class abilities are not explicitly associated with attributes - check. * Influence statistics of importance to all classes linearly - check * Primary goal: "no bad builds" - need to see the beta build but seems like a check. Some multiclassing might get awkward with bad attribute spread. * secondary goal: ensure that dumping stings - check - it seems that in support of this problem the change was made. I certainly wouldn't say their games didn't have clear direction, but they tend to feel like they lack polish.

Did you play recently a PvE version of multiplayer game? I like Starcraft. Blizzard is a big, talented company with lots of cash to spend. Playing unscripted game of starcraft against AI isn't an engaging experience (though its much better than it was years ago.) The AI isn't up to snuff to analyze your behaviour in sensible way and react. You write as if AI was capable of thinking by itself. It's not. And its a game we are talking about. Simulating natural human behaviour and reactions will be much tougher to achieve. So lets say the game would allow prebuffing, and would make certain creatures recognize danger - beatles would attack you no matter how prebuffed you were, merceneries might decide to run instead, if they "sense" you are too prepared for them. So... how does it work as a game system. What does this system add to the experience? It is supposed to make you prebuff before "more inteligent" enemies to avoid combat if you wish so? If that's the case how do you limit resting to make sure players won't prebuff before every fight. What useful tool does this system give designers when creating quests. Is it a clear and engaging system for players to interact with? Will enemies running away will be satisfying for players. Won't they miss key loot? Do devs write dialogue to support those behavours? How variations does it need to become predictible and boring. Are those behaviours hand scripted or generated (it was supposed to be a tough fight but you have 5 mages in your party and they all prebuffed and you have no more spells but the game thinks it can't kill you so they just leave.) What does identifying items have to do with anything? So yeah, you had to identify an item before using it, or pay for identifying them. Its a cool system. But neither BG or PoE have an economy to balance that. Money is a non issue. So what is the gameplay purpose of identifying things? "you need inteligence to indentify an item!" "What if I don't have enough inteligence?" "Well, nothing really." "So what's the point?" "Well, it was in Pen&Paper. Doesn't really do anything in this game, as you can leave whenever you want but we still implimented the system. Seemed like a good idea at the time but we really don't know what to do with it" I am still trying to figure out what game you want to play and I can't figure it out.

Only Obsidian folks can speak for themselves, but I would imagine they would be toughest critics of their own game. As a studio, which never did a sequel just yet, copy pasting same systems into sequels might not be in their bloodstream. I am to surprised by how much the system is being altered, but I for one am more excited for sequel than disappointed. I am planning to play through with the same single class orlan cipher, and all those changes mean that the experience will be quite different. For better or for worse - we will see. Why do a sequel if you are afraid to change things?

Would you mind elaborating a bit? I have never done much of multiclassing but from what I saw and tried it works the best if ones combines abilities of both classes to enhance each other, rather than doing everything at once. Let’s take fighter/wizard. With new system it will be difficult to build a character who focuses on dealing damage with weapons and spells. But you wouldn’t do that right? Casting fireball from first raw of combat is risky as you can get interrupted. It is more likely you will buff yourself with magic to get better protection or better damage or debuf enemies. You won’t need resolve for that. You can also create tanks damage dealer - you engage enemies and lock them with you, and use spells like fan of flames to damage enemies.

https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/935691812353667072 see Lol

But... I like this change. I think. Let’s give it a shot in an actual beta built. There are a lot of changes coming, and it’s kinda difficult to guess how it will really influence the game.

There were people walking, but from what I saw there was a set of static NPC who never moved, and set of “static” more reacting to weather walk-ing NPC.

I find it less bad than mage of PoE who would cast the crowd control spells, followed by powerful damage spells, followed by talking out weapons and wrecking enemies with his high might. As we will be rather picky regarding what spells we pick we could go for high intelligence, high strengths mage using debuff/crowd control spells and weapons, especially with multiclassing. I think example of cipher given earlier shows why it might end up being a good change. For cipher every stat has its function. Depending on what of his abilities you want to focus on you favour different stats. It probably need some tuning but it could be alright. And as some people already mentioned, PoE stats aren’t that big of a deal. Minmax or not, changes to how character plays and performs are minimal.

My thoughts exactly.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ln_plWALAoI 4:37 When Deadfire was pitched one of the features mentioned was a more “living” world. NPCs would have daily routines they would follow. Beyond obvious visual boon, that would play into quest design with areas getting depopulated, various opportunities opening at different times of day. There is a trace of such behaviour in the sidequet available in the beta, where one of the NPCs changes his location throughout the day (home to work to crime scene). However, he doesn’t walk anywhere but rather teleports when not in view. Also he mentions that he goes to the beach at night because no one will se him then, but the beach is just as full as it is during the day. I don’t think I have seen NPCs react to weather either. Do you think NPC behaviour has been seriously downgraded during the development or do you think those are just placeholders and said mechanics are coming back in full game/later beta updates?

I liked THAC0. It took me two playthroughs before I read manual and figured out how hit is calculated and why better armours have negative bonus. It made me feel smart.

I don’t really see a benefit of restricting weapons with min stat requirements.

Here is why: they don’t want to make specific attributes key to certain classes. And yes, if you want your mage to focus on powerful damage dealing spells you will want resolve. But it is not the only good build possible. Intelligence is also quite important for pure spellcasters as it influences AOF and duration. Resolve might also influence other classes non weapon based abilities.