neotemplar
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Posts posted by neotemplar
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Perhaps mine would have been a 10 without the performance issues?
No matter how you rate it, you'll be right in your own personal way.
I know how bad Unity engine can be and I think what they managed to squeeze out of it is a technical wonder.
Long loading is inevitable in Unity. It's very hard to make maps really beautiful in Unity.
Obsidian has been nominated at the upcoming annual Unity awards like in 3 most important nominations, I agree with it.
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Giving a 10 to Deadfire is not a realistic score. Assuming everything is perfect in regards to roleplaying games, you're left with the performance issues. That alone must bring the score down.
There is no such thing as "realistic" score. There are personal experiences rated via comparison to previous experiences.
It all depends on your system of measurement. For me 10 is not "perfect in every aspect", for me 10 is about "best overall experience in a certain genre". I'm sure Deadfire is the best representative of CRPG genre to this date.
Because if you reserve 10 for hypothetical perfection, you basically operate in 1-9 grade instead of 1-10 and de-value the whole grade system.
I remember my math teacher, she ignored the "5" grade (my country uses 1-5 grade system @ schools), reserving it for a perfect solution. In the end everyone just assumed that 4 is 5, and her reservation just had zero sense, no one tried to be better no more.
I give the highest grade to the best existing game in comparison to others, not to my imaginary flawless messiah of videogames, you are free to rate through any method you see fit.
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My cipher used hand cannons and "Kitchen Stove" blunderbuss - they generated focus very well and did a lot of damage.
Standard average blunderbusses seemed very weak. But unique ones were like a wet dream of a shotgun surgeon.
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I believe she should cast, not fight. I used her with crossbows, she was good enough. But I believe if my support is not busy casting all the time and has time to shoot - it is some bad action management from me
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Well, I play RPGs since 1997 and Deadfire is the only game I rated "10" on metacritic. I also bought it twice. I've never regret any of these actions.
Compared to PoE 1... it's like Terminator 2 compared to T1 - it is better, bigger, more polished and extremely close to perfection, but the original has a bit different vibe and atmosphere. Or think about Fallout 2 compared to Fallout 1.
Party size was a big holywar drama, but I personally had no problem with it. At high levels managing your party with numerous abilities feels like flying a plane, with 6 members it would be a nightmare for me. Maybe I'm not hardcore enough
DLCs - I'm waiting for full release of all three. I started Beast of Winter, after a huge pause, looked at my max level party (remember - airplane ****pit), realised I forgot everything and will need to start a new game, so decided to get them all first.
Editing - don't get why it bothers you so much
Anyway, Deadfire is insane, best experience of the year.
Edit: airplane cabin. c*o*c*k*pit is censored lol
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It may be bigger. I don't know, because I had to restart 4 times, doing all quests again and again, and still in Act 4 I got a critical bug again.
That's enough for me.
After this nightmare I see how polished Deadfire was from the very release.
PF has some strong potential, I enjoyed it, but it will never match PoE.
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Hello guys. I am frustrated that I am waiting 20 years for RPG game simmilar to Baldur's Gate 2 and no one can make it.
Pillars of eternity 1/2 are great games but there is easy to see different of quality comparing to Baldur's Gate 2
I dont know what od the reson.
Why Baldur's Gate after so many years os still the best RPG?
Its deepht od the forgotten realms world?
Its many and great characters?
Its great story, rewarding quests, dungeons and fights?
Maybe its becouse world is changing and so comptuter games are changing and even obsidian enterteiment need to make their games to sell it for more people so they making PoE easy and flat.
Can samoene explains me what's going on?
20 years after BG 2 and no one can make gamę simmilar or EVEN GREATER! than BG 2?
And dont tell me about nostalgia becouse its not the case.
My personal hypothesis:
You got older
Games don't deliver such strong impressions anymore.
It is not about BG itself, it is about you and your level of joy.
I have the same thing with Arcanum/Fallout
I used to think games are getting worse, but at some point I saw - it's just me losing that childish "wow" reaction.
This is a very common psycho thing as I've learned - losing "the vibe" when reaching 30+ and instead of embracing that games don't kick me anymore people go oldfag, hate modern games and block any possibility to enjoy even more.
It is not nostalgia. It is overgrowing, way different mechanic.
Just my guessing, may be wrong.
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Do you think it could be as successful as D:OS2?
Strong No.
DOS level of success = extreme sales and wide recognition (media and mass gamer praise)
On P:K level success is "well, it was good enough" game with small, but stable fanbase - very possible
Do you think it may outsell Deadfire?
We don't know Deadfire sales, and won't know P:K sales (thanks, Steam) and speculation without numbers is pointless, but I'll say - no
Obsidian repute adds too much, Owlcat games are debutants, they were involved in some meh russian games, and rumors are that they have a giant corp mail.ru after them (the one that rules PUBG and Warface in Russia, has very dirty reputation, but tonns of money, Russian EA to be simple). Still, they don't seem to get any media support from this giant, only money, as some say
Still they are a dark horse and I try to be careful with them.
Do you think it will compete with Bard's Tale IV which is coming on September the 14th
Sure yes. Will compete because genre is very different, will compete because InXile has seriously damaged reputation after Wasteland and especially Torment, will compete because P:K is a "serious" grounded narrative game, and Bard's Tale will be lighter, more parody and comic element. They don't deliver the same type of experience, and some ppl will consider choosing.
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Yeah, huge thanks to all the repliers, I did some additional reading and now get the idea.
Basically, R.'s goal is a case of thermodynamic entropy, where temperature is replaced by "soul power level", while informational kind of entropy is secondary and not so important for the plot.
Get it now!
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Am I getting the concept of entropy wrong or is it Obsidian?
So, there is a "God of entropy". Entropy is a measure of disorganisation, of possibility, in simple terms - measure of chaos inside a system. So, a god of entropy who wants to "end all things", to make everything still in absolute zero, is pretty much the opposite of entropy. He seems as strange as a god of war who dreams of ending all wars and getting eternal absolute peace.
Shouldn't the god of entropy be the opposite, more like Joker, who wishes things to happen in the most chaotic and destructive way?
If I get the concept of entropy right, then Hylea with her "experience everything, invent new, change things" motto is way more entropic in nature then Rymrgand.
I mean, the state of the world desired by Rymrgand seems to be the state of ZERO entropy.
If we have a cup of coffee and a cup of milk sitting on a desk, the god of entropy should wish to mix them, to get the chaos of them mixing, not to freeze them both and sit and enjoy nothing happening. A god who wishes to stop every process in the universe is a god who is AGAINST entropy, isn't he?
I'm not willing to criticize, more to get the idea before DLC releases. Of course, there is always the ultimate answer "a god is beyond your comprehension"
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In Russian localisation:
a) In the AI settings panel there is a conditional "Always True" translated literally - as "Eternal Loyalty" (Вечная верность).
It looks like some proud "Semper fidelis". I see and answer a lot of questions on this in Russian community. Everyone is asking who is eternally loyal to whom 0_o
b) Ascendant cipher is also translated literally - as "Ancestor" (Предок). While this is a possible translation, it is used in the wrong meaning. Not about someone who grows in power and ascends, as it should be, but about ascending line of relatives.
Ascendant is not critical, and is used as it is, but Always True is absolutely beyond understanding, unless you change language to English.
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I used the "Kitchen Stove" blunderbuss (wild shot ability) for most of the game.
Wild shot is the AoE "flamethrower" ability, when you catch 3+ enemies in the cone it converts into a sea of Focus
Also Serafen has a hand mortar and if his quest is completed he gets another mortar.
At the end I bought the most expensive arquebus from trader in the Brass citadel, it is good, but I can't say it is worth it's enormous price (a price of a good ship).
Serafen's mortar is avaliable as soon as you leave Mage island, for Kitchen Stove you have to complete the quest for criminal overlord in the Gullet.
I personally think the Stove is critical for the cipher.
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I used the "Kitchen Stove" blunderbuss (wild shot ability) for most of the game.
Wild shot is the AoE "flamethrower" ability, when you catch 3+ enemies in the cone it converts into a sea of Focus (100-200)
Also Serafen has a hand mortar and if his quest is completed he gets another mortar.
At the end I bought the most expensive arquebus from trader in the Brass citadel, it is good, but I can't say it is worth it's enormous price (a price of a good ship).
Serafen's mortar is avaliable as soon as you leave Mage island, for Kitchen Stove you have to complete the quest for criminal overlord in the Gullet.
I also used assassin subclass.
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I found soul blade and ascendant way more powerful and fun.
Soul blade + assassin had extreme single-target damage
Ascendant had a sea of focus and was a very good brainwash caster. Even when used not at maximum focus.
I also didn't understand beguiler's flavour.
I double the question.
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I did my first full run with the 5-members party, but after trying 4 I think that for me managing 4 is optimal.
There is a huge growth in buttons, controls and overall micro, especially for multiclasses, and on high levels my control panels start to look like some airplane cabin.
I was against party size restriction, but now I see that it makes sense.
All my future parties will be 4.
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I know you can upgrade hull, sails, gun, but... how do I get bigger ship?
Also does boarding gives better loot or is it RNG based?
You buy it (her) from a trader. There is no option to capture a better ship (sadly)
No option to sell previous ship, it is "stored" (where???)
There are so many things to fix...
Logically, boarding must lead to much more loot, but I'm not sure, better leave this to the ones who tested it.
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I liked ship combat, but I think they should completely exclude the option to board immediately from the menu.
Boarding is too much the easiest way to deal with anything, and allowing it ASAP is too OP.
You should be put in risk and engage manually, and engaging a huge ship should be a challenge.
There must be an option to evade boarding, keeping distance and shooting the opponent.
Because now speed and maneuverability pretty much don't matter at all.
You can use a sloop to board a galleon without any real risk of being just torn to pieces with gunfire.
Without any risk to lose the fight due to much larger galleon crew.
The game fails at simulating "size and firepower vs speed and maneuver", which was the case of almost all sea encounters IRL.
There was no reason for me to have anything but galleon. While real galleons often suffered from "mosquito" ships, outmaneuvering them (see Great Armada vs Brits+Dutchmen)
Ship combat needs a lot of changes.
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I've been replaying Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines lately, and I am also eager to try smth resembling one of the clans or at least one of the common stereotypes.
My ideas so far
Gangrel (animal shifters) are my favs and they are well enough represented by Life Giver druids, where animal form is animal form, fortitude is rejuvenation and animalism is recreated via picking up animalistic spells (insect swarms, charm beast, firebug, beetle shell). The easiest way around.
The more classical "social vampire", avoiding massacres via active brainwashing can be represented with Rogue+Cipher.
Draining spells of wizard and necromantic summons of chanter also add some flavour to any build.
And surprisingly priests of Berath or Skaen may fit. There may be certain cults among vampires, so "a priest" may be seen very widely.
But I agree that supernatural growth in stats aka bloodbuff is better presented by berserker or helwalker monk. And the corpse eater is the only one who actually represents physical consuming of vitae. The description of the eater presumes you may also get certain public reaction.
Pale elves may be pale, but they get additional resist to fire. And vamps are usually afraid of it.
Anyway, the number of options is huge.
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Can you please post your Ascendant's stats?
Interested.
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I think to judge this Rym-guy is to take a certain view on entropy itself.
Entropy can be seen both negatively, as universal energy degrading, ware-off of universe potential and dumb loss of energy, but also in a positive way as a sacrifice one makes to make things react with each other, change and produce something new.
So the god of entropy can be seen not as a cruel deity, who wants everything to degrade and all reactions to stop, but more as a tax collector, who makes sure that any deed comes with certain price and sacrifice.
The god who won't allow to get anything for free, is he cruel or is he fair, that's the question.
I mean, sometimes I feel bad for getting older, and feel it is not fair, but I may also see this process as a fair price for living a life, for allowing my experiences to happen. Is it a cruel or a fair price is one of the everlasting questions of philosophy.
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The attached one has smth in common, it seems.
Also there are artists at net galleries who do in-game portraits for a small fee.
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No, but I always envy people who are talented enough to do so. I see a lot of amazing work using #deadfire in twitter.
Pale elves are more like albino, there are some albino girls on youtube to get inspiration from. It is unlikely a pale elf would have dark or grey shade of haircolour. Some of them have full albinism = red eyes.
No offence, but here you look more like a coastal aumaua to me. That's not an insult, aumaua are cool.
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Try out Minor Blights or Citzal's Spirit Lance + cipher and evaluate again.3. Wizard won't do. Ciphers need to MC with classes, that add to damage output, or at least don't distract from "damage-cast-damage-cast" cycle.
Except Mith Fyr can add a 25% lash to your weapon which will grant additional focus, Killers Froze Stiff will paralyze in an AoE so you don't need to waste focus and casting time for Mental Binding or similar or you can use Come Sweet Winds or Ancient Memory (later Courage Thick as Steel) to become a very sturdy cipher. Sure Handed Ila reduces the reload time of your gun, Hel-Hyraf and Hammering Thoughts stack for +3 PEN... stuff like that.4. I am thinking of trying Cipher-Chanter, but I am afraid it will be very weak. I like these 2 classes very much, but they don't add anything to each other.
I had a lot of fun withg a Beguiler/Trickster (tons of CC options with rel. fast casting times) - he's not top notch in damage, but he causes hefty CC effects in an AoE nearly 100% of combat with Confounding Blind/Arterial Strike with a rod+Blast and Eyestrike, if targeted properly, gives you back more focus than you spent.
Close-combat wizards are tough, no argue with that. But if we drop guns-only limitations, cipher can be combined almost with every class.
About cipher-chanter, thanks, that's some very reassuring info. But I lack such deep knowledge of all the mechanics, and I fear it will be very difficult to build him properly. Better leave for the 2-3 run.
Trickster-Beguiler is the crowd-control machine and is the closet to my view of original glanfanthan ciphers.
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Will be happy to go Hylean.
Doubt that modding will allow to add confessions, but maybe it will be possible to rewrite one of the existing subclasses.
Hylea priest may suffer penalty indoors and get buffs under the open sky.
Dispositions should be centered around the ideas of mercy and breaking quo-statuses for innovation.
Unique spells may involve smth with birds (bird swarms, charming songs).
Hylea is the only one my atheistic ass is ready to support
Respec in CRPGs - Am I alone?
in Computer and Console
Posted
I "have been playing a new CRPG called Pathfinder: Kingmaker extensively recently" too and very often I remembered, how good it is to have a respec tool.
I left the game due to critical bugs, my party was not perfect, but able enough, but I left with bold belief that respec is a MUST.
Look. I'm not a minmaxer or powerplayer, I see system mechanics only as a tool to somehow represent fighting, communicating etc. Yes, I have some good RPG background so I am able to stay my ground on Hard, but I am not interested in reading tomes of rules and searching for guides, then restarting over and over, repeating the same parts of the game.
Any episode that forces me to restart or even brings a serious thought about restarting I see as developers failure. And I have every right to do it.
There is no more boring and frustrating thing than dejavu syndrome, caused by restarting, it simply destroys any immersion and stops the suspension of disbelief. And disbelief means that you don't see art form before you anymore and remain with mathematical simulation matrix only.
I don't play RPGs to tune and tweak mathematical matrixes. It is nice to get well with the system, of course. But for me the system is just "inside gears" providing the storytelling and roleplay.
So, a good game tries to prevent the player from getting into dead ends, no matter how we whine about "handholding", it must be done somehow.
Respec option is one of the greatest ways to do it, why not use it? Especially if you use something like DnD 3.75, it's not the easiest system in the world.
Old games didn't have respec options because it was technically impossible at that time, not because they were "true" and "old school hardcore". If they could do it at that time, they would. Lack of respec is a flaw of old games, not a benefit.
My personal "perfect" way of handling this is smth like
1) devs explain everything at character creation, provide pre-build chars, you can use them or just see their recommended build for most archetypes
2) your companions may have a pre-defined class or classes and stats, but their progression in their classes can be respec-ed
3) i don't see any reason to add any census for respec - moneycost, losing something, limiting it in any way
4) from artistic point of view, respec is a pit-stop, doing it you automatically stop your belief, i don't see any need to explain it from narrative or lore point of view. Respec is like a menu - no one cries that "game menus are breaking the immersion".
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TL;DR - Respec is #1 anti-frustration feature