Duskshift

[...] Footnotes at best. As i feel the same about that i do think it does does bring up an interesting topic. I do think continuity (of your decisions) is much more important than the gear you wear. I'd be totally fine if only talents are transfered, as long as the impact of the tangential decisions are properly reflected and continued. Few games (btw f*k bioware =P) have handled that continuity really well, and i doubt we can expect a scope (bc. budgetary concerns) that addresses every wish - clean slates are often easier, that is just the reality. That aside i don't need to keep Abylons hammer or the phylactery - but i do want to know what keeps happening with that, meaning i would expect a thorough explaination. That misc. items are destroyed in the wake of the statue does make sense. For legendary or borderline godlike artifacts .. hm naw i don't think so. Then there is also considering that some of those items have considerable rp influence (tied to transfered talents)..., which is why i think it is much more likely that things like Abylons hammer/phylactery/... gets transfered - just not in a state that is useable (as in needs to be reforged/repaired => queue sidequest later and so).

(After a quick google) I can see what you are saying. Looking at the recepie does keep me a bit sceptical, as the versions of meringue/marcrons-esque cookies i tried always had at least a bit of grounded almonds. It is always a good idea anyway to make little test batch. After that you can still screw with the recepie or try stuff like cooling the dough. Depending on the consistence of the chips / powder and the size of the eggs, i feel you'll mayb have to start adding about half a cup if it turns into a cookie hellscape. Will try it at the weekend myself tho, so dont take my word for it yet...

[stuff]Success can often be spontaneous and it spontaneously happens more than you think... all it takes is a good product with the right decisions. The Witcher and The Witcher 2 didn't have good decisions, neither did the series appeal to the wide-scale audience. Furthermore, I could give hundreds of examples of new succesful indie IP's that got lucky, as well as series that were not popular that became popular with one entry and vice-versa. I don't think Witcher 2 did as well as people think, especially looking at the longevity of sales. Like I said, The Witcher as a franchise wasn't widely received until the E3 demo was shown of Witcher 3 and wow'd everybody's socks off. Probably because it was so beautiful and open that it was seen as one of the first games to take full advantage of new console hardware - that's also a good valid point to remember. Before The Witcher 3 released, the fan base was very very small. I know there will always be that handful of loyal people who want to say otherwise but sales and the longevity of sales speak for what it is. I can however remember a lot of recent-ish failed ventures, with good products and decisions (Dredd 3D ring a bell with its failed marketing?). And i would like to see these many indie games with an AA / AAA budget or sales (with the exception of minecraft, duh). Edit: I mean we are talking about the level of success of TW series here right - thread title and all.... I am also going to kindly refer you to page 4, where you should ppl (re-)read some stuff. TW1 had its flaws, but TW3 heavily built on it with the knowledge and understanding of TW2 (their own engine for example, ffs) as well tailoring their game to fit a very specific style inspired by a certain game. I also pointed out, that there are some other factors to consider, which make it so that TW3 can't really be considered [yes hyperbole, i know] 'dumb luck'. Not that i could also refer to the fact that sales of TW2 where apparently (8+ Million) very good for such a small studio and that there was quite some media coverage about a big number of pirated copies and a few other .. incidents. After all selfpublishing a game with a budget of ~70-80 Million USD is not something i would consider to be able if the game wasn't as widely recieved. Now i see you propably don't follow news coverage as much and are not as involved in modding as i am, and that is fine. Be that as it may, i *do* want to apologize for the condeceding tone.

on the to do list afaik

Sigh - Yes I suppose they were really 'lucky' enough to 'barely' get the money together to selfpublish. Also - what a coincidence, that they modeled TW3 after a game that released around the same time as TW2 and was vastly more successful. Or that the Engine used could draw on a lot of lessons learned. Yes, i mean there is no progression at all. Success is rarely spontaneous.

(Source) Or: a mugger apple tree by day an apple tree mugger by night (windfall can be extra menacing at night ...)

YES - spectral sea monsters. Also vampire-mermaids.. oh and, just because: Were-trees! Also: Drinking contest-esque quest with the usual consequences (blackout + lost gear and you have to talk yourself through a series of embarassing situations; with a +1 that reacts accordingly obviously). Overall less serious quests that give companions a lot more color - like a quest where you or someone else annoys the s*** out of a party member. Like driving off an over eager admirer for Pallegina (hello Nicola Tes* Noober 2.0)... or helping Edér scare off a taxidermist with the help of a smuggled wild animal. Get creative, and so on.. Extra also: Tame a drake or dragon - thanks. Extra Edit: obviously a Nicola Tesla reference with Pallegina going full tsundere*** would be nice too (even if it has a tendency to go into unsavoury bioware territory) ***Super Extra Edit for Lord_Mord: having a range of unusual reactions does make it more fun; as such beeing initially violently opposed with a contraire outcome would be as much a joke about stereotypes as about player expectations; for me the term does satisfy the discription of the desired situation tho, but oh well...

One point also to note is that in terms of tone and complexity the witcher series has had a few changes of streamlining (from TW1 to TW2 and also from TW2 to TW3) that made the overall success possible. The series built a cult following with TW1 and transitioned to a more 'radical' and 'edgy' style (as in 'fashionable' art style choice at that time) that drew in mass market appeal and further following. TW2 also was more grounded in a "realistic" (well the enviroment was harsher and there was more depth to the simple "monster hunt" which was the defacto standard up to that point). TW3 streamlined that formula to fit the Skyrim-esque open world style games, which has a lot of mainstream appeal. I would also want to add that TW3 was released at a point where consumers were still 'hungry' for open world games coming from Skyrim namely. That TW3 has elements of a power fantasy certainly helps, but i'd not put much weight into that. I cannot see that happening from PoE. The cult following is certainly there but i don't think the 'pirate' theme is enough to draw mass market appeal - especially with the market beeing quie niche and i'd say rather well saturated. Maybe for a old-school Kotor like RPG that borrows elements from TW and ME. There i can see potential for wide mass market / mainstream appeal if you'd move through a series. PoE is just too niche imo to find that mass market appeal. Edit: I neglected to mention that also every game up to TW3 has had its share of controversy (bad publicity is better than no publicity) - like the often forgotten 'overtuned' difficulty on release of TW2...

Very true - i stand corrected. Replacing tedious with tedious doesn't really make sense. But then again would the system - if transfered it in the current state to Deadfire - even make any sense at all? From what i can tell the amount of per encouter abilities will only increase in Deadfire (due to level limit, multiclassing, ...). And all that is disregarding that some casters (hello cipher / chanter) don't have the need to replenish their spells too.

This is how the BGs work, though: the natural recovery rate of a character without superhuman constitution is minimal. It just happens that the setting has lots of readily available magical healing, so 1-2 rests worth of spells will fix whatever ails you (up to and including death once you unlock those spells). The IE games had their own sleep restriction though in the form of frequent random encounters when you tried to rest in hazardous areas. Your choice was to backtrack to a safe location, or keep reloading until you had a successful sleep cycle. Either way it penalized players who slept after each battle. I'd argue that camping supplies are a less cumbersome substitute that create more interesting choices for the players. Which begs the question of why the supplied camping system is not thought through. I mean i am fine with needing supplies to rest, but why make those available only to vendors and also why not offer different supply tiers that you can also craft yourself? Change the flat fatigue reduction and healing to be a chance that is getting progressively better with supply quality and you have a solid system right there... It would be a lot more sensible also, if this would have been integrated with the food system. I'd rather go through great lenghts (in terms of ingredients / gold used) to make a 'dragon slaying resting supply' for example, than just buying camping supplys and dragon meat(plus crafting the food and eating it after resting) at a vendor. I understand that there needs to be some penality. But that the penalizing itself is done via the 'supply management' of camping supplys (how many do i have and where can i buy them..) is kind of .. well .. not the best solution.

More writing love in dialogue for characters with unusual personalities like insane, evil, greedy, naive and religious. I mean not just for roleplaying experience and immersion, but also not getting shoehorned into certain dispositions (not everything needs to make sense). Like bursting into spontainious laughter, doing a sudden "let us pray" speech or just simply going for a "gimmeallyourmoney" when meeting a quest giver would be a bit more fun on occasion.

An increased dramatisation of the narrative and combat via more varied sound and music would certaily be appreaciated. But, then again, this aspect is often underdeveloped in games and can be quite subjective. But then again in Deadfire with the pirate and seafaring themes - there are a lot of opportunities to draw from other media and art to not have (e.g.) the same battle music all the time. I'd be very surprised if there aren't more different themes for let's say fights between ships/seamonsters/...

I do miss throwing axes, the dwarven thrower and the occasional +2 ammunition. But then again i think the different types of ammo also served as a tactical minigame (resistances, immunities), which i dont think cannot be directly translated to PoE. I would still like to see that more tho than the throwable alchemy stuff. On a sidenote: why are there no weapons in PoE restricted by attributes, race or disposition?

I would really like a more .. realized system, that has actual consequences like vendors closing shop to you and all (and not just of the corresponding faction; like when you go ham on the citadel knights to retrieve a certain armor*) based on your background and reputation, currently it seems far to lax. I mean i can kill half the people i come accross for no reason, and people still sell me more weapons and gear (lol). But then again we have things like the bleak walker disposition hypocrisy and similar stuff... Edit: *(you cannot tell me that wiping out a whole garrison doesn't influence [realistically] the common plebs / merchants in any way.. )

'end him rightly'.. and so on

Well .. that escalated quickly... the thing is [imo, ..duh]: PoE has had its share of problems (e.g. engagement; mentioned by JS himself - mind you), which they are obviously trying to fix (partially at least) with the 5 party change. Then there is also Tyranny with its lessons learned, which are (potenially) much easier to integrate or merge into Deadfire if the divide in party size isn't too great. The level design and enviromental style in PoE did also clearly favour smaller setpieces, which are also more ideal if there are 5 instead of 6. Going 5 therefore does seem logical to me. Now you could also say that streamlining it does have further "benefits" balancing wise, but i am not that cynical*. (keep in mind tho, that JS advocates for a classless system**. Also that there is a deliberate design choice to give you the opportunity to play the game how you see fit. That a 5 party system has more emphasis on its members and does promote beeing jacks of all trades (or at least more than one, which most companions are) .. well .. ). And well regarding the 'multiclassing will fix everything' and 'you can switch out .. '.. : The most people I know (which are casually playing PoE/BG/IWD) aren't that into multiclassing and prefer picking a "pure" party and sticking with it. Keep in mind that as far as encounter design is concerned i'd be very surprised if a min/maxed party (regarding multiclassing obviously) is considered as the default. Flexibility and diversity of abilities doesn't really matter if you have to give everyone that same tools. Which means in turn that so called flexibility is just the same button in another color. To me it seems deliberate steamlining these changes are meant to improve managing / developing the system behind the game better and not to make it necessarily more engaging for the player. Now im not saying this will make Deadfire bad, but this is usually how it starts .. good intentions and all. [Edit: Which is why i said before: i would really like beeing sold the 5 party idea and be pleasantly surprised. Looking through rose colored glasses does tend to have a certain effect after all, not that the stuff i wrote above is any better. Countering everything (yes, exaggerated) with fanboyism and the arguement of nostalgia is certainly not the best way to make people put on said glasses.] *(ok mayb i am) **(which would mean lots of Jacks basically)

how do you know that it is so much better and people (or i you if will) will like it then ? I'm sure you havn't played it either ... same logic....

Which doesn't mean that i can't lobby for 6 party members per addon/mod - which does make the reasons of why people prefer certain party sizes valid/relevant. (Altho yes, it is starting to get old...) I will give the 5 party member setup the benefit of a doubt. But I also know that i am biased enough towards 6 character party, so that i will probably not enjoy it as much. That is just the way it is for me and many other people => more good experiences with a 6 character setup rather than 5 or 4. Sure - a wait and see attitude much be better, but so far i have *not* been sold the idea.

1. Will we see a wider range (diversity) in the style / depiction of godlikes? 2. When deciding on the different enviroments that you want to cover (artistically) do you prefer this under the mantle of a theme or do you aim to do a bit of everything? 3. Will there be weapons and armor more closely related (in terms of art & style) to the region (Deadfire) and how does this relate to visual diversity of npcs? Edit: Seems like reading is too hard for me today, seeing as it has already aired.

I dont think it is useful to just give out "free" dodge defense via character attributes. An implementation i would much rather see is a further specialization per talent based on my characters attributes. E.g.: if i have Dex 17+ i can get a finesse / defense talent or sth. Just handing out a powerful stat like dodge per attributes does feel like it could breed abuse.

While i would like to see casting OOC (out of combat), I am fine either way. Having attribute or ability checks instead of OOC casting never made sense thematically (altho i can understand why they did it). I like prebuffing because i can routinize the start of combat, so i can focus on the 'fun' part. If you'd really want to you could potentially balance around it. But from how i understand it this would require a lot more work than simply "not restricting" casting OOC (as you can't have or shouldn't have the ability to cast stuff everywhere you go -> less immersion). Then again if i had to choose: having more interactions with spells OOC is certainly more important to me. Providing choices in conversations / OOC with only attribute or ability checks feels way to artificial for me (more immersion).

A spell effect / combat residue fog lingering after using spells (like the overuse of fireworks on new years eve). Might be nice to have some "lingering mayhem". Also some redundant chat options would be nice. Like how come i can ask a lot of people who they are but not how they are.. always felt a bit strange to me. Also stuff like some "innocent" flirting at a the local brothel without any consequences is something .. you know .. conversations to discover.

I do feel tho that spells could be look at again. While i can understand that the goal for PoE1 was to make sure spells were more "cool" / less restricted in their purpose (or at least i thing so xD), i find myself wishing some of the 'old', simple and specialized BG/IE type spells like invis, chaincast or just some of the more 'redundant' damage spell iterations. I feel that there are still a few spells "missing" that every spellcaster type could get.

This, basically. Trash mobs are those that pose no interesting challenge, not those that don't have a dialogue. Which is exactly the problem that i have regarding this topic. The issue is that ambient / common mobs are not interesting enough imo (regarding abilities / tactical minigames). Looking at trolls or basilisks in the BG series provides an interesting example in how trash *can* be made more interesting.