Wormerine

Whoot?! How did I missed that? They put it in high reward but never talked about it at Q&A/updates? There was a $20 early bird DLC addon added later on in the campain due to popular demand. They don't know what it is, but you will get all the post launch expansions.

Also what groundwork? So far we have seen one artwork, and a vague background:-). Poor Ydwin, never hated a character so much before knowing anything about them.

From Josh' Frog Helms Fan Club (https://twitter.com/jesawyer): "Olá. If we don’t hit the stretch goal by 5pm PDT today, she will be a sidekick in Deadfire. It would be possible for her (or Rekke, etc.) to become a companion in an expansion, but not in the core game. The new features we’re adding for companions increase the amount of work we need to do per companion by about 50%. We’re fully scheduled for companion writing through the rest of the project just with the core 7."

If you look in the Fig updates, the ship will be really customizeable. I don't know if this is the unofficial suggestions thread, but here goes: You know the gesturing portraits that you have during conversations (with companions and most NPCs) in Tyranny? That might be something cool to add in. Most, if not all, interactible NPCs are planned to have unique water colour portraits displayed in conversations.

You want a mod to run around with all 11 buddies?

Mark 25:00

I thought that the use of 3D models in Tyranny was creative, but it did seem like a good use of limited recourses. I am happy to have simpler but unique portraits for NPCs. Makes me very curious how the UI will look. I imagine it will be a departure from dark-wood design of PoE.

Pointy hats for wizards are impractical and not historically accurate.

I liked the most how could you define your memories. You could define your past choices and relationship with Iovara. I thought it was really neat. What I could use are less obvious tropes. While I liked how clever the game was, giving a twist to traditional D&D quests and ideas I did roll my eyes a couple times. While some quests had nice subversion of expectations I, for example, didn't like the Heritage Hill area. Maybe because it reminded me of Neverwinter Nights (not a fan of this one.)

Considering multiclassing I have no idea what I will do. I will play as my first character, orlan range cypher. I will probably continue tradition of Eder for tanking, and Aloth for spellcasting. Fellow orlan might be welcome to balance Eder's rasism. Pallegina was part time in my first playthrough so we will see. It all probably depends on whom I will find first, with whom I will get along with (hopefully the companion system will actively support roleplaying rather than a fluff mechanic.)

Interesting that you say that. I enjoyed TWM story more than the original too, but I'm having trouble working out why. Better pacing? A lighter touch? It certainly wasn't because I like dungeon crawling. I don't rate Durlag's Tower very highly, and the Endless Paths was tedium incarnate. The pacing was better and the questing more consistent. There was no text wall screens to advance the plot - everything was done with scripted interactions. Scripted interactions were more advanced (you could cast spells/use abilities!) which made dungeon crawling far more interesting also. It had more interesting loot and a great story (as good as the base game imo) that was advancing with better pacing (pacing again). Combat encounters were designed better too. All of that. For me the biggest change was the complexity of the quests. Even a simple quest (like stealing a bottle for the drunk guy), had more to it, with some unexpected twists. The monk monastry is easily my favourite part of the entire game. Excellent visual storytelling, quest with multiple ways of approaching it (getting in, solving, decision making.) A great balance between combat, talking and exploring.

Devs already mentioned that the default combat speed is going to be as Slow Mode is in PoE1. Plus some spells will take longer to cast, but will deal more damage. That's...unfortunate. Slow mode is unbearably slow indeed. I imagine you will be able to tweak it in options. I personally rarely switched to normal speed anyway. I am a control freak though.

Well, her wiki page says she is from Naasitaq, which is part of the Deadfire Archipelago. Although a very southern part of the archipelago. She even says that she is from the Deadfire Archipelago when you ask her about her homeland. So, she could still return, just not as a companion. I think in one of the streams when asked about interesting locations for DLC Josh mentioned that Naasitaq would be cool. To me that would indicate that as for now we will not visit Naasitaq in Deadfire. She might still be an NPC but it wouldn't make much sense for her to leave her tribe again (at least with the ending I got). I expect to see characters closer tied to the story.

Oh, it is such a tough topic. Since I became fluent with english I have trouble dealing even with good translations. I am sorry to hear that the translations of PoE aren't great. My mother tongue is polish and I tried playing through recent Tides of Numenera in polish but switched back to english quite quickly. It wasn't bad, but it felt wrong somehow. Translation is a tricky thing, especially for such text heavy games. Literal translation is simply a wrong approach, but I feel with PoE it is especially hard. It is very language focused game (flavour of the names) and it is tough to translate it to different language. It is possible. Lord of the Rings has two translatins in Polish. I feel the first one is somewhat more accurate but sounds really stupid. The second one took much more liberty with the source material. Some of the names where completely changed to convey their original meaning better. The same word might draw different connections in different languages. I do hope the translators weren't lazy, but with such amount of text, I imagine the time constrains were an issue.

I just tried working an example. In D&D v3.5, a +2 Con adds a +1 to hp total. For a fighter, a 1d10 hp/level gives an average of 5.5 hp/level. So the +1 hp increases the total for the fighter by about 18% for a +2 Con. In PoE, a +2 Con gives a +10% health and endurance. It's similar for Str and damage: +2 Str increases long sword 1d8 (~4.5) by +1, for a 22% damage bonus. In PoE a +2 Mig gives a +6% damage bonus. To me it looks like PoE has scaled attribute impacts back by roughly half or more. But that may be to balance out lack of level scaling for spell damage, as well as other factors. I think we would need to look at the entire picture. Now that's a discussion well beyond my knowledge of D&D and game design overall, but now I wonder how much impact attributes should have. Sure, in a classless RPG (like fallout1&2) the attributed define your characters and decide on how you will interact with the world. In a class based RPG how much should they really impact your character? The class already more or less defines your role. The PoE system allows to shift towards certain play styles of said class (focus on DPS, AOE, buffs/debuffs, status effects) but not completely redefine the class.

I would love to see a redesign of the system for PoE2 but I do like underlying ideals. I do like that every class benefits from every stat. I feel like there is more choice now, and when creating new character I think about what I want to be, not what this class needs. Sadly, due to the lower impact of the stats it might be a bit smoke and mirrors. I like how the skills work, but I would like to see more tangible impact from each skill.

Twin Elsm certainly felt empty, but gods' quests were a high point of the vanilla game to me. Story wise certainly. The finale did change how I perceived the game as well.

and what exactly do you think that means? It means that they deliberatly marketed the game based on nostalgia for Baldur's Gate. They knew *damn* well what they were doing. It was Bernaysian marketing--make the people *feel* like they'll get their old sense of fun back even if they logically know it's not the same game.It's like a beer commercial where they show a guy drinking this brand of beer and then suddenly surround by sexy women taking off their clothes. They don't *say* that drinking their beer will make you get laid, but you, me, and they all know what they're saying. This isn't secret ****. This is Marketing 101. all of which makes the "spiritual successor" bit meaningless. is not a promise o'... anything. obsidian were guilty o' attempting to use nostalgia for bg to sell poe? *feigned shock* review: obsidian never said "spiritual successor" and 'ccording to you, the bg magic bit is akin to using hot chicks to sell beer? ... in parlance you might be familiar with, you is doing a terrible job o' selling us on the notion o' "spiritual successor" being more than shibboleth. HA! Good Fun! Ehh.... not the most distunguished and trustworthy source but it will do. Googling a term is more than you can be bothered to do apparently. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_successor

I am sure you are not late (afterall, pledging has not ended yet.) I am sure they will contact you with a survey to fill once they need that. It will probably take a while. There is still a game to be made:-).

Exactly. I think there was a disconnect in the development process; clearly the people who did the scripted interactions didn't have a clear understanding of how might is not strength. But might is strength. It's not only physical strength, it also includes spiritual strength and the game does not explain if or why the two are linked, but they come together in the might stat. Yeah, this is the problem many people have I think. A mage has high might, and therefore his spells do more damage&healing. But he also hits like a truck, when you give him a weapon. And he lifts boulders. I think the problem is role-playing. I know that might isn't supposed to mean "strength" but it does that and more.

It is something I am not very interested in (always turn those off) so I don't remember the finer details but one of the stretchgoals was player AI scripting for companions. I don't know how deep it will be, but I would expect something on the level of DA:O.

Which would mean no (flying) dragons or giant insects or various other fantastical creatures with impossible anatomies, the major cause of death being disease and infection, a hugely complicated sleep/water/food system, and equipment damage. That sounds like a game that would be so tedious that playing it becomes a chore. Only because you see the limitations. It would impose a reduction in your agency. I'm currently working on a different approach to this.Instead of these things become chores to deal with, you could build gameplay around it. These limitations only work if they're related to the gameplay. if it's any-time management of your gear by clicking on a button that consumes an item which then repairs your gear, that's lame. If you need to complete an in-game challenge in order to influence your success, that might be engaging. I'm not yet ready to share too much of what I've been preparing, but I am very eager to see what Obsidian would think of it sometime. I'm going to make chores engaging. I'm also opting out of this thread, I'm sure there is enough in this thread to consider your own ideas and share them in a different one. If you can make chores entertaining, then please, come and fix my life:-P

Yeah, I do like the unique statuses enemies can inflict, but the way Pillars Implimented them is not perfect. Essentially, you don't have protection - yuo die. You have protection, so they don't do anything to you. It's not a fun system. You just have to know what protection spell to cast at the start of the combat. Some redesign would be welcome.

Wait, what? From kickstarter page: "Project Eternity will take the central hero, memorable companions and the epic exploration of Baldur’s Gate, add in the fun, intense combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale, and tie it all together with the emotional writing and mature thematic exploration of Planescape: Torment" This game was sold as a spiritual successor of IE games. It was made to look like them, play like them. UI looks like IE game. It is modern IE engine with Obsidian D&Dlike system. It is D&D game but without D&D ip. there is homage, and there is "we are just like ... but new."

Why can't we have both focused/ engaging and massive. Who said you can only have one or the other? I'm expecting bg2 level of greatness or better in deadfire. I'm semi - confident they will pull it off. Time and money. Oh, I mean there's a lot that goes into it--team size, amount of development assets, etc. But what it comes down to is time, and money. Obsidian is a small-to-moderate developer, and BG2 was a freaking miracle when it comes to size, complexity, etc--it was the kind of thing where people look back at their time spent working on it and think "I don't know how we ever pulled that off". Using BG2 as your mile marker is a path to endless disappointment. It's a one-in-a-million-fluke. Yeah, witcher 3 is my new Baldurs Gate. BG was a massive game. And it benefited from other infinity engine games. I doubt you can reach the scope of BG on a modest budget. The word traveling should add a lot to the game and open it up quite a bit. I am looking forward to see what Obsidian will come up with. I wonder if the new engine will allow for bigger maps/renders.