Icesong

As I see it, entropy is probably the answer. The Engwithans saw that the natural reincarnation process would degenerate souls, and the entire reincarnation cycle, into collapse. The Wheel was created to regulate the process and thereby increase the sustainability of the cycle; to slow down entropy. As others have speculated here, creating the Wheel severed the natural process that took souls from the In-Between to the Beyond. Perhaps the natural process can be restored, but it's not going to return on its own even with the Wheel's absence. And with no process, natural or artificial, to facilitate the transfer of souls then, as the gods said, Eora would become devoid of life as the Beyond empties.

Nice work. "died whilst out upon" is the part you weren't sure about. And I'm pretty sure it's "lives begin anew".

I like the RDC ending, but they asked too much of me to get it. You want a boat ride? Sure. Just assassinate the reigning monarch and help me establish colonial dominance. They all asked too much of me for what I needed, really. Except Aeldys, which is who I went with. But I may just go it alone next time.

Needing to gather strength, either your own or that of allies, is a good way for a main questline to encourage side questing. That's not really an option in Deadfire, though, because they made Eothas utterly unstoppable. Gather the entire might of Eora and it would avail you nothing. The only thing the story allows you to do is follow him and talk with him, neither of which are helped by resolving tribal rights or pirate rivalries. Until Ondra's Mortar. What do you mean about Magran's Teeth? No it isn't. The fact that he has a piece of your soul and that your continued existence is contingent on you finding Eothas for Berath is not what I would describe as allowing you to just do whatever. I haven't encountered a single conversation where someone told my character he was going to die (again) if I didn't find Eothas right away after Berath resurrected him. I got no timetable from Berath either. You are asked to find Eothas, you are given "he has a piece of your soul" as a motivation to do so among others (revenge, divine mission, stop Eothas destruction, etc) along a reason as to why finding Eothas should be easier at least until he cut the cord and you lose the connection. Once you get a ship you can go "I'm gonna be a pirate" instead of "Lets hunt Eothas"...and if you could break vows to gods in POE1, I don't see why you should feel like what Berath is demanding is imperative and urgent in POE2. Also, Berath doesn't even need you to find and talk to Eothas, if you pick the "take the Wheel" choice at the beginning you learn that they will simply find another Watcher for the task. If you don't do what Berath asked you die. That Berath will just find another Watcher is only more proof of that. You think Berath will have you die for refusing the job, but will let it pass if you're not doing it? If you're under the impression Berath can't kill you once you left the Beyond, remember the deathknell within you: Your goal is to catch up with Eothas and ascertain his plans, and the longer you dawdle about the further along Eothas gets. The timetable and urgency is inherent in the premise. Yes, the game lets you say "It's a pirate's life for me!" and spend months plundering ships and islands only to find that Eothas hasn't budged from where you were told he was, but that doesn't mean it makes any narrative sense.

He was a damned slaver...

That the side quests don't relate much to the main questline doesn't inherently bother me. What does bother me is that the main questline allowed for hardly any room for side quests to breath, which perhaps gets at part of what bothered you. After arriving in Neketaka it's a straight arrow to Eothas: you always know where to go next to track him, and there's little to no justification to get involved in anything else. One of the ways they could have fixed this would be what you're hoping for. If they had made Eothas's whereabouts more of a mystery, then searching the islands and seas for him could have been a bigger deal. You could have had to do favors for these factions to either use their resources to help you search, or divulge information they already know. But Eothas was a gargantuan marching impervious statue with a singular and simplistic goal in mind. Subtlety wasn't in the cards. This is a narrative mistake most non-linear RPGs have been making for quite awhile. They give you giant worlds to play in but forget the issue of pacing; the main questline constantly urges you forward with all due haste, while the game simultaneously throws mountains of side quests at you without batting an eye. RPGs, especially ones like this, need the main quest written in such a way as to allow for exploration.

No, I didn't. The scene felt weird in that it only asked me one question. Was expecting to have to recap a bunch of stuff.

Half my conversations with Xoti felt buggy. I suppose I pushed her to the dark; I certainly didn't say anything encouraging positive thinking. I had her release the souls into the adra, but I suppose it backfired and she couldn't? That's what the scene said, but the journal said she successfully released them. Conversation with her after also indicated that. But she got progressively darker, and I got the dark ending for her.

Eotha steal our soul..that's really not a choice lol You still can say "screw it" to Berath and leave it at that. There seems to be enough of your soul left for a new life, so you can just run away. There just won't be a game :D. Berath's chime prevents running away from being an option. You hound Eothas or you die. You might want to hound him for reasons beyond Berath's will, but there's no choice in the matter. Unless you consider death a choice, in which case going insane from being Awakened in Pillars 1 must sound alluring too.

I actually didn't like the shanties since I have too much prior association with them to imagine them as belonging to Eora. I guess that's why they included the option to disable them. I hadn't heard the tune for Faithful Sailor before, though, and I loved it.

No one said that destroying the Wheel would result in immediate chaos. In fact, they said it would take awhile. The Wheel moved souls from the In-Between to the Beyond, and from the Beyond the souls flow to Eora independent of the Wheel. Even without receiving further souls from the In-Between the Beyond still has a reserve to supply Eora with.

I imported a save with empowered Woedica, and this was the only recognition I saw of it. It was pretty disappointing. I've always given the souls to Berath, but going with Woedica sounded like it had the potential to be a lot of fun. Definitely going back to Berath for my next playthrough. I was particularly annoyed not to get any reactivity in the Steel Garrote questline. I was expecting Woedica to spirit-in at any moment. Save for Abydon, Woedica is the only god we haven't had a one-on-one talk with(and the Eyeless were pretty close to talking with Abydon). Though, like BalkothTheFeared, I also stayed mostly silent. It's possible I missed some reactivity there. And I did every side quest I ran across, but I didn't run across them all so it's possible there's something there as well. I also haven't seen what Woedica acts like in conversation with the other gods without being empowered. Is she less brash, less belligerent? I wouldn't think so.

I found x3 Sugar in the Maukotu's Canopy SI, on the southwest portion of Neketaka island. East of Pahowane. No-Nut Ned in Fort Deadlight also sells some.

Not really feeling the Cipher names. Inquisitor is good but not from the perspective of an emphasized Cipher to me(the Paladin names seem mostly thematically good). I was leaning Hunter or Rogue to multiclass, but Seer sounds too primitive and "stalker" isn't the kind of rogue I had in mind. Psyblade is the only one I feel Cipher flavor in, though it's bit on the nose. If we can talk about subclass names here too, I was disappointed to see Wild Mind is apparently just for Serafen. The name is cool and the flavor of being self-taught would have worked perfectly for my character. Ascendant and Soul Blade sound good, but Beguiler is pretty unimpressive, though apt for what it does.

Assuming I'm understanding correctly, the middle aspect was improved at almost the complete expense of the last aspect. No one needs to tell me gameplay comes first, but I liked the old system much more in this respect. Probably won't use this one at all.

Open world RPGs lately tend to have the conflicting dichotomy of having a vast expanse of content, but the pacing of the main questlines providing no immersively sensible opportunities to detour into it; each step of the quest being more urgent than the last, never any downtime. Is this something you're putting much consideration into addressing in your writing?

Been dealing with nothing but pedantry these past few days... Yes, you're right. I was wrong that in all of creation there exists exceptions.

You say that as if one of Divinity: Original Sin's big features wasn't multiplayer co-op. I think I say it more like one game doesn't change the prevailing trend.

I'm not particularly interested in PvP, but I would like an RPG these days to actually try focusing on co-op/roleplaying for MP instead of some horde mode. It seems no one, even fans, considers that as a possibility anymore when thinking of MP.

Isn't it going to be tomorrow?

I can't find a source, but I am sure this is how it was described in one of the Q&A streams or elsewhere. It was part of the multiclass Fig update: Plus this SA post.

They said companions have to be at least one of their two assigned classes, so you just have to pick priest.

Every time Obsidian talks about ships and/or pirates they seem to assume everyone loves those things. I hope that doesn't extend to dialogue options relating to them. I want my Watcher to be able to complain loudly and often about being forced to be out at sea.

I see, and it is interesting, but I still don't see why their preferences on walk toggle is of any importance to this particular discussion. That modders were able to add walking is a point "my" side is arguing, and IE Mod is the one to do it, but it wasn't one of the principle designers who did it and ultimately the point is that it was possible. How easily is the question. Did the principle designers of IE Mod not include walking on their own because it was too hard to do or because they just didn't think to do it, being outside their "intent"?

I had understood IE Mod is an amalgamation of mods that anyone can contribute to. So, I don't think it's remarkable that the other modders who worked on it didn't use it; there's probably lots of stuff in IE Mod they also don't use. I don't think it's relevant whether they used it or not, either. If he has any insight into the coding behind getting walking to work, I'd be interested in that.