Wormerine

Doesn't matter if it sounds awful. What matters is that you can recite two chants at once! Well, not really. You still have one mouth. So while you can produce limited doublestops, adding lyrics to it is a different story entirely:-) You can do some nifty counterpoint though!

It's still mine. Much as I love Pillars, and Divinity: Original Sin, nothing has surpassed BG2 for me. What did it for you? Because I want to play it! Witcher3 is my new BG2. Quite different in style, but to me it shares many important similarities - limited role playing in favour of tight story and characters, huge world which just keeps on giving, insanely ambitious project that somehow succeeded. It gave me the sense of wonder and discovery I haven't felt in years. I am a witcher fan both books, and previous games so I might be bias. I also played through it only once - we will see if it will survive multiple playthoughs (limited gameplay options might make replaying it boring) Though more importantly, my taste has changed. While I still adore lengthy RPG and anything Infinity-Engine-like will get my attention, I do prefer shorter and more focused games these days. Looking forward to anything done by Klei or Supergiant. I do need to go back to BG one of these days. Didn't play it for years.

That's what I was thinking myself since the third one would be the opposite of Troubador and thus focus more on the invocations. Though my thought on the name was soprano (or something) as I was thinking of opera, but then again, 'soprano' is more likely to make people think of the movie The Sopranos. Soprano would be a poor choice anyway, as it is a description of a voice range, not a profession (bass, tenor, mezzosoprano, soprano.)

Wasn't it mention that we will learn more about where gods reside? Perhaps the Beyond is Gods domain. You do seem to enter through a large pillar of adra, possible in a temple of one of the gods.

Oh I totally agree. I never even considered the problem of Baldur's Gate 2's motivation until I read about it online years after finishing the game several times. I simply accepted that I was expected to want to rescue Imoen/unlock my powers and rolled with it. I also thoroughly enjoyed the White March despite the feeling that the Leaden Key hook was pretty weak. That said, the writers should endeavour to make such hooks as strong as they can. This isn't meant as a criticism of the writers for the White March, I thought it was full of excellently written content, I'm just saying that if it were possible to tie the expansion content in better that would be good. BG2 used to be my holy grail of gaming for many years but I happily admit I completely forgot Imoen existed on my first playthrough. The side content was just soo good:-).

Obviously, those cometic DLCs are there to generate money with little workforce. Isn't there a time in late development, where no new art is created and the game is just rebalanced and polished? If they use this spare time (inbetween expansions, or release, or whatever) to create additional cosmetic items to sell I really don't have an issue with that. I don't care, if the publisher tempts me with extra (often skippable) content as long as the base product stands on its own. And for me Tyranny felt like a tight, complete experience. My biggest concert is that I might not feel like replaying it is enough times to experience all the new content, so I will wait a while and see if anything else comes out on a later date. Price change is dodgy, though somehow it doesn't offend me as maybe it should... You buy the game for whatever it is worth for you. Yeah psychological trick of giving you a discount while it costs the same as it did before (from what I understand it is what they did? I learned about the problem from these forums) is dirty but doesn't really do anything for you if you purchased it already or if you are planning to purchase it, unlike annoying always online DRM, badly balancing games with microtransactions in mind, chopping games into bits and selling them in pieces etc. If Obsidian doesn't want to, or can't afford, to spend time on marketing&distribution they need someone to pubish and I can't think of a better choice than Paradox. I would love to see CDProject Red take charge of all RPGs in the world, but I doubt they would be interested in publishing 3rd party games.

No one says that WM shouldn't exist because it has continuity issues:-). Discussing how it could be better implimented doesn't decrease its current value.

There actually is a reason to go there tied to the main plot: the Steward mentions having heard disturbing reports of the Leaden Key's movements in the area, suggesting that they have an interest in the ruins as they have in others throughout the game. In that sense, the Watcher's trip to Stalwart isn't much different from their trip to Dyrford, with both being little more than transit points en route to the far more interesting ruins that are nearby, even if the lead you get to head over to Clîaban Rilag is significantly more compelling given its source and Lady Webb's interest. The main problem that I see is that the Leaden Key angle potentially ceases to work as a motivator once you learn that their known agents in the area are already dead, though you could argue that the Watcher might remain interested in investigating the ruins that drew them there. Sure, that is all true. I guess, I didn't really express my mind well as it is not the lack of explanation that bothers me. I think it is just how separate the expansion feels from the base game. New map, kinda different design (more packed and focused). I feel like it should be more closely tied to the game, if it is going to be a parallel expension. Heart of Stone for Witcher 3 works well, as it starts as a regular quests, happens on the same world map as main game, and many of the quests will take you back to Novigrad. You can do expansion and base game at the same time. And story wise there is no conflict there. Blood&Wine on the other hand, I will always do after the main game is completed. It is a much more separate adventure and abandonig the main quest would be odd, even if the invitation Geralt gets doesn't leave much space for turning down. To conclude: I won't mind a pararell expansion for Deadfire, if it is I more intertwined with the base game. However, if it is a more standalone adventure, I would prefer for it to be its own thing.

If you consider being asked for help to not be a reason, or just lack any desire for adventure, then I suppose that is true. Sure, but taking a trip to White March, while you are going mad doesn't feel very sensible.

His words might not have been elegant but he is not offending anyone. And he has a point. I don't believe that the game should balanced around/designed around weird ways of playing it. POE is a team RPG and different classes are designed to work within that framework. You CAN run with a party of the same class, you CAN do solo run but how individual class behaves in each scenario is not really a good argument in a discussion of a game mechanics. It's a bit like complaining on XCOM balance when you do 4 soldier run or oh bad all Mercy comp is in overwatch.

I don't believe that at all. There is no way a mod can match DLC quality (unless it is a complete ripoff). Even phenomenal and extensive mods like long war for XCOMs are obviously not in house developed. I suppose mods for Bethesda games feel more professional than base products, but thats Bethesda for you. I wonder if they make shoddy games in purpose, so mods fit better in. Maybe i should elaborate more on what i meant. I normally download aesthetic/cosmetic mods, UI improvements, camera, and all sorts of interesting mods. One thing i found myself doing was.. i often buy story content DLCs from devs and i didn't really go for content related mods. That's me of course. But what i meant was, many devs/publishers discourage modding simply because of price DLCs as they too would like to do cosmetic/aesthetic DLCs (horse armor anyone?). At least that is what i believe. If Tyranny didn't teach you anything, did you see the portraits DLCs? I think I, more or less, understand what you mean. But after way PoE handled (two solid expansions and free base game improvements with each) I just assume Obsidian won't make people pay for silly stuff like proper UI, colour scheme change or a reskin. Sure, Tyranny is doing some really dodgy stuff right now, but until I am proven wrong I will blame Paradox for that - it fits their portfolio just too well. Of course, you are right devs do block modding to sell you overpriced new units or recolours (total wars, Dawn of War2) but I doubt it would be a deciding factor for Obsidian&PoE2.

Some additional work on quest journal would be welcome. Few remarks first: overall I kind of like, how fiddly the journal is. Quests tend to update once you enter the area, so I didn't miss quests too much. As journal wasn't very clear, I tent to rely on my memory and I followed quest threads, rather than cleaning up areas. Thanks to that It didn't feel like I am just cleaning up objectives, like I do in many other RPGs. That was the benefit of not following a checklist. However, I did miss couple things I wanted to do and had to backtrack. My solution would be - keep the current system but add a "highlight" and search for location functionality. When you go for certain area/areas you could find active quests, by searching said location and highlight them (create new category "highlighted" which would appear on the top of the journal). You might even go a step further and quick tag quests related to the current location through area map.

I don't believe that at all. There is no way a mod can match DLC quality (unless it is a complete ripoff). Even phenomenal and extensive mods like long war for XCOMs are obviously not in house developed. I suppose mods for Bethesda games feel more professional than base products, but thats Bethesda for you. I wonder if they make shoddy games in purpose, so mods fit better in.

Haha. Well, I wouldnt be surprised if Ubi spent more money on a ship, than obsidian on entirety of PoE2. It might be much nicer by the time it comes out, as if I remember well, it is 3D rendered space, not the usual 2d prerendered backgrounds. As it is your base it should look nice, but you won't be staring at it too much, so not a high priority for me. In black flag or skull&Bones staring at the ship is your main view of the game.

Same, but I do like the rest and food mechanic. I found food buffs a bit of a chore in PoE and I rarely used it. Longer passive buffs might work really well (does that mean survival won't give you passive rest bonuses now?)

I honestly can't believe how janky the whole Steam system has become. Not that it at some point wasn't. But reviews should be based on games, and should not be susceptible to publisher policy changes. I've never put huge stock into steam reviews, but I know that some people do... User reviews should always be ignored for the most part. Especially when they involve any IP or company that is known. If you have to read some you need to dig for the reviews that sound like they were written by someone objective, that focuses on the product, not a business policy, or how they feel about the companies involved, or one specific small part of a game.Let's not forget all the lovely examples out there proving user reviews are no more (probably less) useful or valid than professional reviews. Like Mass Effect 3, it still sits at a 5.9 user score on metacritic, which in video game terms means it is a steaming pile of cow poop supposedly. Despite the fact that it is actually a good game, just the ending upset some people. Well, Mass Effect 3 was a stinker. The ending was just a cherry on top of this mess. I mean it wasn't horribly broken, but that's only because it was building on top of pretty solid foundations. And scores are stupid.

The only problems with WM I had were 1) need for scaling later content 2) making base game's lack of content and design more visible by comparison. I don't think an expension is enough to make full "sequel" (I will take Tales of the Sword Coast over Throne of Bhaal) and an open world map, might make new content fit better. I believe you could load pre-sun in shadows save and do the expansions without playing the game again. I played PoE when it was all complete so I can't relate.

I thought that the very point of health vs stamina is that you can't regenerate it:-). I just would like to hear more imput on why the change is happening. So far the reason we heard was: "we liked it but some people got confused at first" which is an odd reason to move to a different system, which I see it as inferior. I might be wrong, but a good argumentation can go a long way. I didn't like the fact that they changed party size to 5 characters. But the reason for that sounds solid. As they didn't seem to be as confident about the change to health system I yell anytime I have a chance to let them know I like the old system.

There is an underlying theme in Deadfire and, if I am reading it right, it might be something to be really excited about: When I think of isometric RPGs I see two different categories. There are quite confined and heavily directed stories, told with a limited but polished gameplay mechanics. Very Bioware style. A good modern example of that would be Witcher3 - while a big game, it was also a game with a limited interaction with the world and its characters, but with good writing and well designed quests. Then there are more systemic driven RPGs. Games like Fallout and Fallout2 had interesting world and characters, but it was a very open experience and ways of solving quests, wouldn't come from heavily scripted missions, but from vast mechanics game had. While those games didn't have those immediately appealing setpieces and maybe pacing was a bit off, I found them so very much engaging and memorable. Mechanical depth Obsidian seems to be adding to the game (better stealth, world map, pickpocketing, backward pickpocketing, companion relationship system, freedom of exploration, better faction system?), gives me hope that Deadfire will move a bit towards being "a systemic" RPG. If that is true, to me it is very exciting.

I am yet to see a single change which would indicate that. I don't own a console (, but I have to wonder how playable PoE will be with a gamepad. With so many skills and spells It could be a nightmare.

It would be a nice touch. I hope that at least it will be referenced if you are from Deadfire.

The problem with those custom items, spells etc. Is that i am yet to see a system which works well. I found Tyranny's spell crafting system, while intriguing at first, quite fiddly and unengaging. Yes, when playing on PotD I did recraft my spells to better fit major encounters. But it wasn't a fun or creative process. He is weak to ice - use ice spells. Choose expression, which your enemy will be most likely to be hit by. No matter what combinations you do, the spells are generic. You can't create interesting or unique combinations. I found PoE system to be much more flexible. I don't remember Tyranny having spells with functionality which PoE didn't have and it was much easier to set up couple Grimoires with different spells, tailored for various enemy weaknesses. In Tyranny you just had to go through spell crafting routine before each harder engagement - Until, of course, game gets easy and you just roll with the same spells in every fight. The D:OS had really fun spells, but I feel the game has to be turn based for it to work. POE is already messy and things will get only mor unreadable the more things will be happening at the same time.

It is an interesting idea, but whenever it should be implimented depends on a design philosophy Obsidian has on those skill checks. From what Josh said they didn't want skill checks to be necessary better choices. Rather they were game's way to ackowledge who you are as a character. From what I remember it was true. I don't remember "winning" a conversation, rather you would have an ability to say things based on your stats, abiltities, class etc. It might work better in scripted interaction, depends how they handle them. As far as traps and other stuff goes... maybe, as long as you can bypass them. Balancing it might be weird though. I would rather have both soft, and extreme checks in default difficulty (or all difficulties) rather than average checks in default (which you can pass for the most part) and all extremely difficult checks in hard/PotD. What I am trying to say is no, I don't think those checks are difficulty related.

I hope they will figure out how to make spells like mindcontrol or paralyzis interesting. In PoE they are either a complete killer or you cast immunity spell and they simply don't work. A very hard encounter becomes trivial. I would like to see some middle ground. I do like an idea of those powerful spells but they are either too powerful, or completely useless.

Just out of curiosity, did you enjoy Tyranny but are frustrated by dodgy DLC, or didn't you enjoy Tyranny at all? No i didn't like the game.It is half-assed and the writing was terrible and the combat was meh.As for paradox well they are not much of publisher all they do is have a few twitch/youtube videos and then splash the game on GoG and Steam.PoE sell good mainly because of the kickstarter and the hype around.I haven't seen paradox do anything connected to marketing.Most third party games that they publish sale badly.Also i think that their dlc policy is the worst amongst the publishers.They put very little work in their dlcs while their games have a lot of bugs introduced by their patches.Even "Horse armor "have more work put in it.That is coming from a guy that have like 2000 hours in EU4 alone.Also i didn't get on the bandwagon,i didn't like them for a long time but they are the only people that make such games. I think that Paradox's DLC policies are an interesting subject. I am a very casual player of paradox games (played double digits of CK2, EU4 and Stellaris). I have quite mixed feelings about the DLC. The reason I don't play like them mostly comes down to the fact that they stop me from playing paradox games. With strategies I usually tend to wait for the complete edition before I jump in. Well, that is the reason I haven't play much of them. They never end. But, I do like an idea of expanding strategy games. While there are a lot of skippable DLC from what I hear the main ones are must have. I might be wrong, but I heard that this constant expansion is what makes those games so special. I am not sure if this approach works well for story driven RPG. Even if I love an RPG I might give it couple play through max. One on release, on when expansions come out, maybe one extra if I really really like it with some self imposed challenge, or role play experiment. Little improvements (like encounters!) sure would be nice, but I am not going back to the game just to see extra feature in an otherwise static game.