Wormerine

But... are we pirates in this game? Nope. Is singing restricted to pirates?

I did enjoy shanties in Black Flag a lot. I don't think we will be spending that much time on the world map though, so investing in multiple background songs for an interactive map on which we will spent little time at any given time. I am all for all piratey things. Sid Meier please. Where is my Pirates!! ?

Why not? If it’s any good it’s free advertisement. It’s not like they don’t want people to see the game nor give feedback. They will probably showcase it themselves like they did with PoE1.

There is a virtue in figuring out what doesn’t work though. Overall, I do like changes Obsidian made to traditional D&D system. Intent is brilliant, execution is fairly good. However, it is not flawless. Was prebuffing a good thing? I don’t believe it was. Is rest mechanic a good thing? In a context of a game where you can reload or leave a dungeon whenever you want, no, it doesn’t really make much sense. Prebuffing came from consistency of mechanics, where you could use any skills you wanted, whenever you wanted. Knowing your enemy and preparing before battle has its appeal. Rest provides soft resource management. Should prebuffing be a thing? I would say no. But I would like to see more consistency in the game, spells&skills having wider application beyond “kill stuff”. Resting could be much more interesting. The tricky thing is to identify what we really miss about certain aspects of the game. Do we really miss EXACTLY those mechanics or some aspect of them that is missing when you remove them.

At moments like this I think back to Thief&Thief 2 and appreciate the way Looking Glass Studio used map as a world building and storytelling tool rather than UI. Ahhh... those times of wild creativity.

"The new Deadfire Pack DLC will also be made available for free to all existing (and future) owners of Pillars of Eternity on Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs to thank them for their ongoing support of what has become one of the world’s most beloved RPGs."

Its a small thing, but I really do appreciate that they will patch new portraits into PoE1. That way you can create a character and continue it through both games with the same look without extra modding.

That wouldn’t be too much to ask as they are implementing annotation system from Tyranny. Seeing a very short character summary by hovering over the name, is a desirable addition with so many overarching quests and foreign names to remember.

But... but... but... Fish makes you smarter! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/8846225/Eating-fish-can-make-you-smarter.html

Not true. At the end of the most recent update Katrina said the next update will be about upcoming “backer beta” https://youtu.be/64U0n2SaNmI 2:48 I imagine it will announce when the beta is happening and what will it contain. When will the next update take place is anyone’s guess.

What i am wondering is... can you murder them?

Backer beta access came with $99 tier and you can purchase it separately as an add on if you want access to beta but got a lower tier pledge.

That’s my stance as well. Not that you should win a tough fight on your first go, but if encounter design requires you to die in order to succeed than it sucks (you didn’t cast that spell before going in, YOU DIE). That’s why I hate roguelights with progression (rogue legacy). It is fun to make a one life run and loose because you are not good enough, but going in knowing that you will loose because you didn’t grind hard enough feels bad to me. Going into combat and loosing, not because I made poor imformed decisions during combat but because I entered combat without necessary protection spells and died within seconds feels bad to me. Now you could include that type of gameplay into the game. In PS:T death was part of the story and gameplay. Dark Souls series famously use death, checkpoint and soul drop as a mechanic. In PoE or BG it is no the case though. Death is pernament failure state from which you can not recover. Reloading allows you to try again but it is not part of the game.

If the class defines what stats your character should have than why allow player to distribute their stats at all and not tie stats to classes? If you give player control over stat distribution but classes benefit from one or two stats we get possible conflict between role playing and gameplay (a charactertype player has in mind and character they are creating because of game mechanics). While it’s fine for certain stats to be more useful for certain classes Obsidian wanted to unlock more role playing potential by making sure classes are viable with various builds. Ideally you want classes which are flexible with stats they favour while different builds feel distinct. I feel Obsidian’s systems weakness is differentiating in combat same classes with differently distributed stats.

That is correct. Even if grimoire you are holding contains a spell from a restricted school you sill won’t be able to cast it.

Yes, thank you. That is so me and probably one of the reasons I am looking forward to the change. I am a guy who finishes Tomb Raider games with 100+ healthpacks in an inventory. I think I can count on fingers on my hands times I used highest lvl spells in my Baldurs Gate playthrough. In Pillars I would mostly stick to low levels spells and “per encounter” spells in later stages.

Just a reflection: isn’t an idea of classes in RPGs fundamentally broken? It seems like the most defining part of character creation which either influences other choices you make or renders them inconsequential. You are a wizard and therefore you are what you are. In D&D system you have to adjust your stats to your class, or it will be unplayable. In PoE adjustments made to your character via stats will be small. Ideally, the attribute system would be designed in such a way to meaningfully influence all classes while still allowing flexibility in viable builds. Is that really realistic though? All classes would have to be capable of working in attribute combinations and as a result potentially fulfill various functions.

Well, the term barbarian implies the human being in question is uncivilized or primitive, and was how the Greeks designated people of non-Greek culture (who they largely saw as inferior, culturally at least). It doesn't necessarily mean barbarians are stupid but it sort of came to existence as a derogatory term that implied them being all of this. Yes, but Conan is the archetype fantasy barbarian--sword&sorcery, all that. What I'm curious about is why the fantasy barbarians that came after Conan are all a bunch of thick-headed idiots when Conan demonstrably was not. Because of Schwarzenegger films. For most people it’s what they think when you mention the character.

That is true there was something about those mechanics even though I wouldn't classify them as "good" or "engaging". I think that while mechanicly they weren't very good, they added to a fantasy of adventuring. I did like that vampires would suck out your "lvls" and the rest mechanic, even though technically pointless, did reinforce the theme of adventuring and danger. I would categorize them in the same shelf and the need of buying and manufacturing ammo in original XCOM. It wasn't an engaging part of the game. Ammo was cheap and easy to buy/manufacture, you just had to do it. While it was a chore gameplay wise, and didn't add any strategic/economic depth it did play into a fantasy of running a military organization. You had make sure those were available or soldiers would be deployed with empty magazines. All of the moders remakes (Firaxis, Xenonauts) streamlined this element, and I while I believe they did the right thing, there is a part of the "simulation" that is missing. Modern cRPGs tend to flat those "not good" mechanics out. I felt PoE had a fine balance, while games like Dragon Age went a bit too far. It is all a matter of taste & preferance. While I would like to see those really unique and dangerous enemies to return, and inventory management and pre-combat preperation to return I think it is possible to do it better than IE games did.

That’s very similar to how I played those games after my initial “getting to know the rules” playthrough. But isn’t that a big design flaw? In BG spellcasters (especially mages) ranged from useless to ridiculously overpowered depending if you cast spells or not. In my case, they would hang back and do nothing unless it was a major fight, while melee fighter and archer would deal with most mobs. PoE has similar issue though with wands and sceptres they at least contribute. They rarely used high spells even on PotD. This encouraging of not using characters in your party is a big flaw. Considering that limited resting (at least in BG) is an optional challenge not supported by implemented mechanics I really can’t agree with describing it as resource management. It’s like saying a shooter requires you to co serve ammo, while at the same time having a button which immediately replenishes all ammo whenever you want. There are two ways I can think of that would solve a problem - add to the game genuine resource management. Spells and other items&skills are limited and when you go adventuring you have to be smart on when you use it. Or encourage players to freely use skills at their disposal when entering combat. PoE2 is going for the second option. I like that though there are few warning light in my head: does that mean all spells will be less impactful, as being able to cast high lvl spell in every encounter in previous games would make them really easy. I was also worried about encounters changing into spellspamfests but with limited spell per encounter it should be an issue.

??????? I don’t watch GoT either. I saw first half of pilot episode and decided that if I feel like watching bunch of boobs there are better places to find those than HBO. Not my cup of tea what I am trying to say.

How does it change tactics? In both Pillars and Baldurs Gate after the battle you end up with full health. However in BG you have to spam rest button couple time before that happens. There is no limit to resting, there is no danger in resting (unless you are really low on health and some people could die in an ambush).

Planescape: Torment

I am not mistaking this at all. What exactly does role playing do? Why do people want to play any role other than their own in the first place? To fulfil a fantasie. As simple as that. Or to be more precise to fulfil some psychological need that is lacking from their daily life. So to berate someone for having fantasies when you're no different is hypocritical at best. I don’t think I can agree with you though you did raise an interesting point. Is consuming any kind of media fulfilling a fantasy? That would assume you only watch, read, play only works related to things you desired first. And that you know in advance what you want. An extreme example: I have no fantasy of living through world war 2 and especially ghetto. And yet I watched The Pianist, Schindler’s list and many more. Calling those films fantasies is absurd. They are compelling but for different reasons than fantasy fulfilment. I see games in similar way. Yes, there are games which do cater to fantasies -I play Elite, city builders, Batman for that very reason. I didn’t see PoE as a fullfiler of my fantasies. It was way to uncomfortable for it. Companions weren’t people I would like to have around (Durance) but they were engaging for different reasons. For the similar reason I didn’t like KOTOR2 on my first playthrough. Because instead of giving me what I want like KOTOR1 did it attepted to shake up my viewpoint of good&bad in SW universe. These st at least my thoughts on the subject.

Right, so you're saying in your daily life you regularly save the world? Help every random stranger (or kill them), fight terrible monsters, boldy go where no man has gone before etc? Are you saying that you are exactly as daring, witty and handsome as Commander Shepard and every other PC in existence? If so, then accept my apologies. You are clearly an enlightened being that plays games for their philosophical and speritual value rather than anything else. But something tells me you're none of those things. So, i hate to break it to you, but you play games for the very same reason us filthy "fappers" do. And i'm not making a fuss at all. I simply said that i would've preferred a different character. No more, no less. It is you who seems to triggered here. The point Sedrefilos was making was to not mistake fantasy as a genre: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy With fantasy as a psychological phenomenon: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_(psychology) Fantasy RPG is not a game which fulfills your fantasies (though it can if that’s what devs are going for) but allows you to role play in a fictional world, often (but not necessary) drawing inspirations from folklore.