Wormerine

I kinda start regretting that I encouraged Aloth to suppress Iselmyr.

Sure, but content in Dragon Age is much more expensive than PoE. I don't expect big things but Josh already confirmed that fate of your companions will transfer (if Aloth/Pallegina/Eder dies they are not in the sequel.) I imagine that your relationship with Gods will come into play. We know that Pallegina will be found in different "state" depending on her ending. I believe it is important to acknowledge previous choices and not trivialize big choices but huge branching paths are not necessary. As impressive and Witcher2 commitment was to giving you 2 different 2nd Acts, it wasn't as impactful as a singular complete and nuanced act might have been. Benefit of the game, which isn't fully voiced/animated is that they should be able to honor many of your choices with relatively little money spent.

I find the system you are proposing more limited that what is suggested. No I will not grind for 20 hours to retrain my character. It makes more sense that paying for it in a tavern but it's just a waste of my time. As it is a party based game I don't find new cool weapons to be ever wasted. Sure, my main character won't use this cool mace but someone else might. I found myself less willing to switch weapons in Tyranny as I knew my character won't be as effective with it, than a weapon he/she used from the very start. That said, weapon of choice is something I consider when I start developing character so it is not a dilemma I find myself playing in very often.

If I were to make a guess it would be that you will be facing Godly enemies in Beyond. Whatever Eothas' deal is he can clearly reincarnate. Possibly one of the new Watcher skill will be entering Beyond. If there will be a confrontation with Statue I would expect it to be either a scripted interaction or a big setpiece battle on Eothas, or with him in the background, which aim will be to get into Beyond through adra statue (as we saw in the demo).

I would buy that for a dollar!

I wouldn't call it a privilege but one of these days I will get a nice desktop. For now its laptop for me too.

Game is NOT balanced with solo runs in mind. Though I do agree that Ciphers felt awefully powerful. As my character was Cipher I rather liked that....

Scouting will be automatic and no longer tied to sneaking.

Well, a feeling of continuity for one. I know someone said that any quest based abilities, etc (such as the blood pool) that you gain will be re-added (or an equivalent of it) as you re-accquire your soul bits. Also greater control over choices that you make that might affect things in PoE2, though there probably won't be many of those. I don't think we know all of the benefits of importing a save yet, but the primary draw is likely that feeling of continuity. From the Q&As i got the impression that, no, the is no "benefit" to importing the save, unless you really want to continue THE choices and THE character. When starting new game you will be able to define the game state and there is no info about additional benefits. It doesn't seem like you are encouraged to prepare a save for a sequel, rather that you can continue or start a new character and it should be both equally good.

You can still back the game and get beta access from the backer portal, IIRC. I thought backer signups were closed now? The fig campaign is over but you can back the game via obsidian's backer site: https://eternity.obsidian.net/ I believe access to rewards is still there.

What he said about making PoE2 music more "reactive" might help a lot. Quite a few good gaming soundtracks tend to be better fit to what is happening on screen. PoE1 was quite static, the track was playing and that was about that. I think that is why it got old quicker than it should have.

I wouldn't interpret it that way. Chanter were jacked up because you couldn't cast their invocation at all for a predetermined amount of time. With the wizard when a fight starts you can still cast the spell it just takes a little longer to cast. I know its a slight distinction but its there. If it will be implimented right there could be a big distinction. Will there be spell interruption? WIll you be able to loose the spell? If your wizard is casting a highlevel empored spell, you might have to also make sure he won't be interupted. It might be annoying, it might be brilliant, it might not be possible to stop the cast at all. We will see.

ok, I wasn't happy with the change of per-rest casting, as I was worried it will turn into a constant spam of weak spells. As it turns out it is not the case. I am really looking forward to this system now.

My main worry about the damage animations (or lack thereof) was because that's how it was in PoE1. It's true that it's a very early buile, but I can't just assume that it is something they're going to work on. So if that's how it's really going to be, the health will be exactly like in Dragon Age? What I didn't understand was about the personal inventories. In PoE1, you could everyone's inventory on one screen. Now it appears that it's not the case anymore. Will there be a way to quickly look for a specific item if you don't know who has it? I don't think there is a plan to add damage animations. While giving combat more clarity for the sequel is needed, a more impactful visual representation of damage being done is not something I felt I needed when playing PoE1. Something like "stagger animations" would be problematic as they would have to completely rethink how a combat works. Shake screen would work, but it was something which I would disable in BG anyway. Right now the plan of health is to work in a similar fashion to Dragon Age, though the closest example is Obsidians Tyranny. There will be one health pool and once it runs out you get knocked out and gain an injury. Get knocked out with enough injuries and you die permanently. You remove injuries by resting. I really liked endurcance/health mechanic in PoE so I am against the change but we will see how it plays once beta is released. The inventory works the same way it did in PoE but the UI prioritised bigass character model over showing all party members' inventory. Above the character model there are character portraits where you can switch between party members. It was something I noticed as well, but I am not sure how much of an inconvenience will it be. I would prefer though if there was a 6th tab, which would replace stash with all party members personal inventory for easier swapping.

That is true. With unlimited stash, personal inventory doesn't have a function, maybe except easy to find items for later use for said character.

I really don't see why taking away one characters would make the game easier to play with a controler, especially as you will be able to have multiple animan companions and (possibly?) summons. Whatever thinking process behind it was, I am convinced it wasn't better controller support. So far UI looks as PC focused as it was before.

I am not interested in increasing AI reactivity for stealing to make game more "realistic." I believe that would make game better. Looting unprotected containers isn't fun. Finding and looting hidden compartments is fun (that's why exploring in something like Thief, Deus Ex or Dishonored is so entertaining) and, If game finds a good balance with its economy and difficulty then a possibility of stealing becomes interesting as well. Sure, if I play a goodish character I probably don't want to steal from peasants but if I could really use extra items I might be tempted. If you play evil character and you steal and murder you get real rewards for that. More money and items in a game where you can pretty much pick up anything you like is not much of an incentive. I remember in White March trying to figure out how could I steal Durban steel ignot from Abydon's temple, when I realised I can just pick it up and not one will really mind. I found that disappointing.

And the first thing they say is "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE? GET OUT!" as some in Baldur's Gate do. Seems legit I really like how characters in Gothic1&2 are protective of their homes and stuff. Stealing actually feels like stealing. Thats good that they implimented the stealing mechanic in PoE but I wish they would expend the range of possible repercussions in PoE2. Loosing a bit of reputation isn't really enough, and people immediately trying to kill you is a bit overboard. I remember in Baldur's Gate people would call guards if they saw you stealing. It would be cool if fines, giving up stole items and prison were a thing in Deadfire.

Well, I for one didn't enjoy Endless Paths that much. The idea was cool, the story of the place was cool but gameplay wise it felt like a filler. I expected it to pose unique challenges, maybe pushing specific game mechanics to their limit (scripted interactions, combat, stealth/traps, dialogue etc.) what we got was a lengthy dungeon which seemed to do completely run out of steam (the final levels are so small I imagine they just run out of ideas or time) filled with trash mob from the surface. It is something which to me was a fulfilment of kickstarter promise, but otherwise should have been scrapped (with entire caed nua) and resources relocated elsewhere. I am looking forward to Fulvano's Voyage though and I hope for a more involving experience.

Well, thank you guys for asking those question because it is something I am terrible at. I am sure there is plenty of stuff I would love to hear about but when it comes to figuring out what those things are I just can't think of a single one.

Finally found it. Its not specifically about the map, but I believe it didn't overinterpret their answer too much. 51:15

Sure, but Pillars and Arcanum are two radically different types of RPG (at least in my mind.) Baldur's Gate-Dragon Age-Witcher3-New Vegas-Pillars are story driven RPGs, which are all about well crafted characters and worlds, an engaging plot and overall good oldfashioned story. Games like Fallout1&2-Arcanum-Divinity where more about how you interact with the world, rather than individual storylines. I found them to be more of a "sandbox" where you have tools, and you have a problem and it is more about how your character will aproach any given problem than presenting themes or ideas. While those two "types" of RPGs share similaritues and can overlap I look for different things in each experience. In a storydriven RPG for example I don't want to get stuck or lost if it goes against the story - pacing is much more important. I will also accept well implimented limitation, if they work in support of the story. In what I define as "mechanic driven" RPG I usually look for a way to solve each problem in creative and free way and for the game to react to it. It is all of course, my personal non-academic division of different RPG experiences and is not scientifically proven in any way:-).

Lovely, but I want a map Josh... I think I'm going to pose that question in the stream thread... off I gooooooo Go ahead but they already answered that question. Josh said that they won't do the map, as they want to leave blank space for future creators, if the series will continue. They will vaguely reference places but not define them more than it is needed. I doubt you will force them to commint to creating world out of the gate. One of the biggest advantages of them owning their own IP is that they can do whatever they will feel is right. You do StarWars game and you need to fit into whatever lore and events are happening around. It is limiting as nothing major can happen - everything needs to return to status quo. If they will create map now, that means everyone in coming years will have to much less room to create. I personally find the whole "lore" overrated. Sure, it worked for Tolkien, but that's because creating the world was his goal. Silmarillion is great. Hobbit & LotR is a side product of that. Every other property I can think of gets stuck up its own bum with its boring lore and stories which get more and more tangled in existing details. So while I understand a desire of seeing a bigger picture, I think it would hurt it in a longrun.

That is a good point, though for me this kind of replayinility is a good thing. I do see though, how other people might prefer to experience more companions fully on each of their runs.

... I am sure Deadfire will work as any other modern RPG and give you all the story, even if you barely use someone. I don't remember ever hearing Obsidian saying that combat was to hard and that is why they reduce the party size. If I remember well, they said that they found that your party forced them to put bigger pacts of enemies which made combat more busy than it needed to be. I find it to be a good reason. It doesn't make combat easier, or more shallow, just cleaner. Of course, we will be only able to judge it fully once we get our hands on it.