Hulk'O'Saurus

I am pretty sure that at a point in time they had some awesome ideas about various different plots and subplots for the game. I can quite literally see how they were cutting and cutting from the story and exposition in order to make it as brief as possible. I suspect that the team was doing so in order to make it safer for more people to play, so to speak. I am not against those ideas. In fact, I like them a lot. But I think they were just doing thing with a lot of brevity in mind.

Don't know why you want to paint yourself in a corner from the getgo The A.I. function is turned off/on when you select your entire party. PoE gives you a good deal of control over the members, but I find that in some cases it's best to be really specific on where you want somebody to go. I find the controls of PoE to be better than Icewind Dale, for instance. I like both games. In any case, if that is trouble for you, maybe Pillars is not a game for you? Take it easy, man.

If you take that as sarcasm...well, who am I to judge. People who read my reviews on steam are familiar with the style. That said, I understand it may come across in a different way. It's just a misunderstanding. I know I have a very weird way of writing. Learned that when I was doing fiction.

Its a legit issue. I think they were meant to a bit more expositional, or perhaps they didn't have enough resources to craft more complicated companion quests. Who knows. Still, not bad stuff. On my first playthrough, btw, I was bumrushing the game, because after what Thaos did in the city I was like 'Gotta stop this dude!' I wasn't doing any optional content after that at all.

THIS MUST BE THE MOST DIFFICULT TITLE TO GET INTO THAT I RECOMMEND TO PEOPLE. Pillars of Eternity offers its own system of character construction that is paradoxically easy and intuitive to get into but obscures the best stuff behind what is a hair width away from 'lack of information. It's all for the sake of brevity. But the thing is--you CANNOT NOT devote time to this game. PILLARS IS THE MOST BORING RPG I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. HOW CAN ANYONE GET INTO IT?! I can understand that sentiment. I've talked with a lot of people and have heard a lot of opinions about games. Never have I heard of more folks not being able to get into or downright disliking a game that I adore more and more with each new play through. Generally, Pillars is one of the tastiest onions I've eaten, and still continue to eat to this day. Each time I unravel another layer, my eyebrows migrate a bit more towards the ever backwards-moving upper edge of my forehead.(must be getting smarter) So far I spoke of brevity and lack of information. I will also toss in a small dose of innovation, as well. These three things are important foundational qualities of Pillars of Eternity. The game comes across as easy to get into and there is more than enough encyclopaedic writing to familiarize even the complete newbie to this genre of video games with the basics. All goes well, until you start to wonder how to tweak your classes a bit more to prepare yourself for the highest difficulties. It is then that you discover that some talents have got almost a second life of their own, and influence things in the game that their short texts do not obviously suggest they do. The same goes true for skills. Much has been said about the Might attribute in Pillars. I, for one, like the idea and like how characters are build. It is said clearly that Might represents physical, as well as spiritual strength. Some people do not take kindly to the way that attribute works, and I hear that Obsidian, to their credit, have taken the criticism seriously. I think the system is interesting and fresh. It also breaks the monotony that most RPGs like to settle for and deviates from the d&d rules, but that was done to better accommodate for a video game for the PC. Quite frankly, the most popular companion, by statistical measure gathered across years, is also the one that has got the shortest quest line and the shortest dialogue options. That's brevity at work, again. He can also be called simple--not in the bad sense of the word. But he is indeed quite clear about his intentions and reasons to travel with the main character. In contrast, the most disliked companion, again by the same measure, is the one that has got the longest quest line and the scenes between him and PC are the most expositional. Personally, I really, really like that particular character, contrary to the popular opinion. He is tied deeply with the lore of the game. If you want to understand more about the world of Pillars, you cannot forego what he has to say. Most, apparently, do. But the thing about the lore in this game is that you cannot just stroll around and understand how things are. Chances are you will get confused about things. You will need to do a lot of reading of optional books/entries in cyclopaedia and conversations to get a better picture. It is totally worth it, though. You will also need to think on what most of the characters are saying, because the way they say it is not in an easy to assimilate, impersonal and expositional way--it's rather the personal point of view of the particular character about something. I know for a fact that this has lead to misunderstandings about the world of Pillars as people tend to take something at face value. But you shouldn't. Remember the onion. You could just be a grinder that does factions and side quests just to get particular stuff for a particular build. But the optional content still holds a surprising amount of grey morality that is compressed in a few sentences, and sometimes--few words. But if you pay close attention, you will discover that quite often the situations you are presented with are not so easy to conclude if you put yourself in the picture as yourself. Again, all of these are details presented with almost the bare minimum. But it does hold a good value for those willing to look at the small things. Quite literally--the longer you look, the better it gets. The gist of everything I've said so far applies to story and gameplay with equal measure. If you look at it once, you will probably say to yourself that there is nothing interesting going on here. Things look too common; combat looks too simple; story's too short; too few character levels. And Pillars, as I've established, makes for a challenging game to get into. But the small things I talked about come together in a very well done game at the end. It is safe to say that Pillars is obscuring that fact, hell, even wrestling with you at times to do so. Plus, you actually need to put in a decent amount of hours to get to a stage where you can better evaluate what you've gone through. And with the risk of repeating myself--it's worth it.

I think that's only your interpretation. Although there is a scene where he puts on a machine to suck the souls out of a lot of people, I don't think he single-handedly created all the gods at once.

Not going to pretend I can answer everything, but here are my two cents: Thaos did not create the gods single-handedly. He was part of the initiative or didn't take part at all. I think the way it is explained, it leaves a bit of empty space for the individual to fill at their own leisure. The way I interpret it is, not everybody were in the same boat when the 'gods' were getting created. Thaos thoroughly believes that people cannot be left to their own devices, and apparently, people not belonging to his civilization at the time were doing blood sacrifices, which appeared appalling to him. He and few others(or perhaps Thaos was not involved at all in the initial creation), through the power of animancy--the science his civilization developed, created the 'gods', but since those are artificial entities, they are bound within certain ideals, albeit being very powerful. To keep humanity in check, Thaos and his like-minded individuals created the churches and cults, for a lack of better words, following the various 'gods.' In doing so, they believed, humanity will be better guided. It looks like they gained the support of a lot of the Engwithan people, as they willingly sacrificed themselves in order to provide souls to become amassed into these being called 'gods', while the last of the Engwithan people remained as the priests to the 'gods.' That was their 'gift' to humanity. Iovara learned, by eavesdropping, of the artificial nature of the 'gods' and started preaching that one can live without fearing them. Thaos is not unsympathetic to her--he clearly says that in the end, but the belief that humanity cannot guide itself is stronger with him, so he organized the Inquisition to ultimately stop her. His public brutalities against her only serve to strengthen the fear of the 'gods' in normal people. He really does not hate her. Apart from that, he works with Woedeca as an ally, rather than as a servant, albeit he states that he is indeed a servant. He appeals to her in that manner only to keep on her good side, using her pride, but I think that to him it's more like partnership. He, after all, needs powerful allies to keep doing his work, which as we learn, spanned and continues to span over many generations and affects great many people as he is trying to maintain the fear of the 'gods.' His work to strengthen Woedeca is probably part of the plan to do so. Sort of, keeping even the gods themselves in check. The thing is, one does not needs the 'gods' to oversee anything. They are just ideals, certain aspects of existence given a sublimed entity. Ultimately, they are not needed. The wheel keeps turning with or without Berath and so on. The question about the player character becoming a 'god' is a good one. I wish I could.

The Mother can reduce the dragon's DR and increase her own accuracy for disintegrate. You can beat the fight without charming the dragon. I basically did that...although this here is a personal preference.

I remember seeing him as in physical him. But more often it was just that item sitting in the window there. Anyways.

Is that the guy that sells premium items? I've seen him quite a few times.

Yes, you're right.. but some builds have some...twists that make them more interesting to play... something like...dunno..particular weapons or... particular cross-class talents or peculiar abilities.. You sound like a woman you know. xD Let 'your girl' play alone.

I've found out that in MMOs I make friends more easily by being socially obscene. Or at least what is perceived to be socially obscene. In FF14 I had a Miqo'Te white mage. There was a particular emotion with which I could give female characters, bar the short ones, a good rub on the boobs...from behind. And I made female friends that way, I kid you not. In Lineage II I was doing something similar but with a female dwarf. Those are fun because they can massage or fist the buttocks and crotches of all other races. It was an instant hit when I started doing it in Giran one day. And I can tell you that people were enjoying the attention. Does that fit in the discussion? I think yes. I believe people want to escape the familiar with games. Socially enforced role-playing does seem familiar in a few regards to society. I think that when you have a truly well made MMO, people just RP anyways. I also think that every MMO is too soft these days to be a good example. The closest one I can give is Lineage II Chronicle I. It was just brutal in a way. And you needed real friends to make it.

Of course it is dualistic. It is based on Persian dualism. I always liked how D&D also brought in the Sumerian dualism of order vs. chaos. I don't get the epistemological proof here.You are playing an ego-centric character who does not really view others as having value so will stomp on whomever, or not, to get what they want. They are calculating and selfish. Is that freedom? Is caring about other people some kind of slavery? I don't get it. Or wait...you are saying that what the game says is evil might not actually reflect the sort of evil you are trying to do? Ok I guess I get that. But fortunately this is not a game where you have to worry about your good vs. evil score. But it doesn't really matter, I guess. I completely agree with your assertion about fourth wall breaking. While my own voice is nothing but a single voice in the crowd, I do think that dualism should not be emphasized on precisely because it is doctrinal and based on opinion, situation and philosophy. To be more precise, one needs a lot more dualistic opposites than emphasis on good/evil to craft a good(pun) world. Still, taking into consideration the classic d&d paradigm, there can be many flavours of evil--calculating and selfish hardly encompassing the possibilities. For example, when I was playing Planescape, my Nameless One became Chaotic Evil when he stomped through a locked gate, the guards of which were refusing him passage because they wanted a bribe. Their boss (Pharod) had sent the Nameless One on a task in a dangerous dungeon, and they were refusing to cooperate with him(TNO) when he came back to rest. His intent was never to hurt them, he literally wanted to pass through to rest, but they attacked him and got what was coming. 'Not concerned with social norms' stood out in my mind concerning the newly acquired badge of honour--Chaotic Evil, which made perfect sense to me, because after so many reincarnations one may become quite unsympathetic to society in general. There are things that need to be achieved and little patience to boot. It can look damn evil to a bystander but hardly the whole story. Thus becoming free in a way. It is only unfortunate that the game's description of Chaotic Evil is nothing like that... It follows logically to say that only freedom fulfilling somebody should matter to them. In the eye of the beholder that may be good/evil. Sygg's words come to mind: 'It comes down to the power to hold versus the power to take.' As well as Jesus' 'Whosoever raises a sword, by the sword they will be ended.'(not word for word) I suppose that ultimately good/evil is just too simplistic to me.

Ok, but what is to say that after you've completed your Deadfire imported game playthrough you won't do another one just to see what Deadfire has to offer? In which case, are you going to do another PoE playthrough just so you can have a second one at Deadfire to specifically do something? The more I look at it, the more going bananas is the right option. xD

3 times...you know way more than I ever did. Maybe try stuff you haven't tried yet? Something that is totally contrary to what you usually do.

PoE is quite ok when not Min/Maxing, to be honest. Unless you have maximalist tendencies. Good/bad shouldn't be a priority because it is dualistic and polarizing. Rather they should focus on fleshing out characters and bringing complex and morally challenging situations forward. You decide who to hurt and how to profit when the opportunity presents itself. I can explain a chaotic evil character as the epistemological height of freedom--somebody who is not interested in other people's opinions because they've come to realize that what they're doing for themselves matters the most to them. They can be quite relaxed in the mean time doing their own thing without stomping on every little kitten or looking for a way to put their hands in every pocket and triumph to show it off. If you're looking to squeeze every point out of the game, you're not good or evil. You're actually breaking the 4th wall.

I'll be honest. It looks like you're looking to spoil your run. Just bite the bullet and get into it. The less you know, the more exciting it will end up being.

Don't mean no disrespect to what you're saying, but the more simplistic description we provide for role-playing game, the more all-encompassing it becomes. Decision making from the perspective of an assumed person in a given fictional setting with outcomes determined through an established system of rules. You can go really wide with this. Could be I'm wrong about it all, too. One could argue about difficulty and hand holding, instead...maybe? Freedom and creating your own story, yes, of course. Through I am not trying to impress a better way one should think about RPGs, the genre itself can be incredibly varied, thus making description through formulaic means difficult. Hell, one could even argue they are all RPG with subsequent additions of genres--fps, 4x, rts, ect. Thanks for pointing me out to another game; it looks interesting. I am going to fish for it on sale and check it out.

Skydragon is not as destructive as the Adra dragon, the way I see it. Skydragon is quite easy if you just back up to the stairs. Adra wants more micromanagement and can still punish even a well build party. Well-done on Aloth, btw. You've added a lot of flavour to your game. I am serious.

There I was, drinking my coffee in the morning at 3 o'clock(in the afternoon) and having my breakfast. The book I was reading gave me this and I quote: Of what use is the universe? What is the practical application of a million galaxies? Yet just because it has no use, it has a use—which may sound like a paradox, but is not. What, for instance, is the use of playing music? If you play to make money, to outdo some other artist, to be a person of culture, or to improve your mind, you are not really playing—for your mind is not on the music. You don't swing. When you come to think of it, playing or listening to music is a pure luxury, an addiction, a waste of valuable time and money for nothing more than making elaborate patterns of sound. Yet what would we think of a society which had no place for music, which did not allow for dancing, or for any activity not directly involved with the practical problems of survival? Obviously, such a society would be surviving to no purpose—unless it could somehow make a delight out of the "essential tasks" of farming, building, soldiering, manufacturing, or cooking. But in that moment the goal of survival is forgotten. The tasks are being done for their own sake, whereupon farms begin to look like gardens, sensible living-boxes sprout interesting roofs and mysterious ornaments, arms are engraved with curious patterns, carpenters take time to "finish" their work, and cooks become gourmets. A Chinese philosophical work called The Secret of the Golden Flower says that "when purpose has been used to achieve purposelessness, the thing has been grasped." For a society surviving to no purpose is one that makes no provision for purposeless behaviour—that is, for actions not directly aimed at survival, which fulfil themselves in being done in the present and do not necessarily imply some future reward. But indirectly and unintentionally, such behaviour is useful for survival because it gives a point to surviving—not, however, when pursued for that reason. To play so as to be relaxed and refreshed for work is not to play, and no work is well and finely done unless it, too, is a form of play. ​​Imagine the incident. Found it curious, regardless, and thought of adding it here.

Yes, when I was 12-20ish, including hospitalization. I think these days they'd put the major down periods under the variant of "atypical" (which doesn't mean it's really uncommon, heh) or maybe I bounce back and forth between atypical and melancholic with weeks/months of almost "normalcy" but I dunno, for a while there they seemed to redefine and relabel such terms and categories every 6 months, haha. I stopped paying attention. Haven't done a doctor routine in 20 years. It's just ... part of who I am at this point, like an old sweater that lies in the corner that I occasionally wear. And age mellows even this, sometimes. That was my suspicion. Medical practice can be rather careless giving names without truly studying individual and environment from a symbiotic perspective. Maybe these 'conditions' are not bad? Anyways, it's a good realization to have. Glad things worked out in the end.

There, I've edited my post and made it a bit more coherent. You might wanna give it another read. OS2 suffers from bringing in too many story lines, being non-canon to the first OS, not to mention the rest of the Divinity series, and altogether stretching itself too thin on too wide a toast. Some of the characters: like Braccus, like Malady and Lucian, like Dallis, serve as nothing more than a snotty handkerchiefs used in a moment of an apparent plot hole. It speaks nothing of their motivations, beliefs, progression arcs, not to mention that they were somebody else entirely in a previous game of the same series. Best left without. Or...what? Super duper inter-dimensional spell? Naah. Furthermore, the Void was something different in the first game. There was Astarte, too, whose absence in OS2 is a bummer, imho. She is the established and de facto mother of all Source. Who, if anybody else, should be involved in a crisis of Source? Fane is pathetically wimpy. He is established from the beginning as an ancient undead who has untold arcane knowledge. He acts like the perfect lone wolf up until the moment he asks you to join your party. He sucked the Source dry out of the adventurer who woke him up, but we don't see any of that in the game. Yet he is an integral part to the plot and lore, and so I think he needs to be a sort of a Gandalf figure, somebody who is very wise, very powerful and having an urgent agenda to fulfil. Dallis, out of all, is one of the weakest antagonistic forces I've seen in a while. Quite bland. What I've done is just reduce the characters that need elaboration on, compress the plot, and allow for more endings. There isn't the need for large acts, as well. Four times the size of Fort Joy is more than enough.

Hey, that's a lot healthier than sitting and doing a big 24 hour marathon. I don't do it that often, but if it hits me, I will play for that long, breaks for meals/showers/ect. included.

It's a good self realization to have. Out if sheer curiosity, if I may. Was there ever a medical person involved with the words 'chronic depression?' Or is it something you came by yourself?

Nice topic here. I need to reread some of the stuff as it is quite interesting. I'll go with Original Sin 2. Where to begin, though... Fane is a non playable character that makes an appearance throughout the story to make it more cohesive, albeit a little info-dumpy here and there. He is a powerful, ancient, undead Sourceror and a lone wolf. Him being an old expert of Source--the de facto discoverer, he is troubled by the disruptions in the Source and the Veil of late. Furthermore, he has sightings of Voidwoken, which also appear conscious. To him that is an utter mystery, since the Void should erase all consciousness. Thus he travels, under the guise of a mortal, to a gathering of Sourcerors organized by the Divine Order in search of some few who have understanding as arcane as his. This is where Act I begins. What he fails to foresee is that the Order is kidnapping Sourcerors to have their Source extracted and stored away. He also does not know that Dallis--his own daughter, is in charge, and that she has come to despise Source. It was her own father, after all, that opened up the door to the Veil and made so many power hungry but ordinary people go mad from abusing it. She believes that Source needs to be done with once and for all. So she is using an ancient artefact that is sucking and storing Source away, while weaponizing the Sourcerors with curses developed by Braccus to further her agenda. What she doesn't know is that the artefact is also thinning out the Veil between the realms as a side effect. What no body knows is that such a large concentration of Source as the one from the gathering of so many Sourcerors can serve as a map and a door for the Voidwoken. And so they manage to break the Veil for a moment, making a brief appearance in larger numbers. Dallis, in seeing the opportunity, is quick to spread the false rumour that the Voidwoken are demons drawn to Sourcerors and now begins to wage campaign against them, pursuing them in the open. The origin characters are on the run. Fane has come to understand that the Voidwoken act on behest of the King, an old friend of his from his past. Not only is his consciousness alive and well, he is actively seeking to return to the realm as a King from the Void and take his place back, which Fane once helped depose him of. Furthermore Fane learns of the dreaded Source Collars the Order is using to imprison Sourcerors. He wants no attention on his back, and so, again under the guise of a mortal, manipulates a feeble-minded, but gifted Sourceror healer--Wendigo, who has suffered greatly from the recent persecutions, to seek the King's influence. The King himself needs as many agents as he can get, but his grasp is still weak as the Veil is still not quite thinned out, thus he can't be very selective. Wendigo's supressed anger causes her to gain power quickly, and under Fane's shadowy machinations she lashes out, causing a lot of destruction in a way the King never intended and the Order cannot ignore. Dallis' attention becomes fixed on the now powerful Wendigo, seeing her as a strong future asset to the Order. Despite her volatility, the King never quite breaks the bond with Wendigo, because he knows that Dallis is in possession of all that stored Source, and that she will come for Wendigo. He must wait. Fane, now left in peace more or less, decides that he must repair the Veil. For that he will need all the Source he can get. His studies and experiments lead him to believe that there must be a large concentration of free Source and that the Order is connected with it somehow. He plots to have the origin characters captured by the Order together with Wendigo and disguise himself as a guard of the Order in order to infiltrate it. He is never quite sure he can trust anyone, because he has seen how Source makes people go hungry with power or mad. Although he himself is quite the wielder of it, he does not place the same confidence in pretty much anyone else. He comes to the conclusion he needs to do this on his own. Being the master of manipulation he has become through the long ages of his existence he sets a plan in motion and indeed manages to lead the origin characters and Wendigo into a trap set by the Order, thus, again taking all attention away from him, while he poses as a lowly guard on the ship bound to Fort Joy. What he doesn't know is that Dallis is on the same ship, together with her artefact. She is quick to go to Wendigo to have her Source sucked out. The King, upon seeing the opportunity, takes the risk and together with Wendigo causes a primal reaction to occur from within Wendigo, breaking her Source Collar and injuring almost everybody else on the ship in the process. He indeed manages to shatter the artefact and absorb a part from the source, but so do the origin characters, Dallis' puppet Sourcerors, Fane, Wendigo and the rest of the captured Sourcerors on board. Chaos ensues as everything breaks loose and Voidwoken come in. The ship constitutes the short Act II. Act III will be in Fort Joy, taking place after everything I've written up so far and pretty much everybody fighting for survival against everybody and the Voidwoken, but with the added gimmick of powerful Sourcerors. And Act IV will be the Nameless Isle, where the last repository of Source is located--the one intended by the Gods for the Divine. At this point, the Gods are starved for Source and have got a lot of skin in the game. They are trying to manipulate the origin characters to act on their behalf and this constitutes one of the endings which will represent return to the Status Quo before the Source incident. The now powerful origin characters may choose to fight the Gods, which, they may come to see as nothing more than a bunch of Source-hungry individuals. Astarte, mother of Source, reaches out to the origin characters, who, when defeating other Sourcerors gone powerful all of a sudden, become quite powerful themselves. Astarte begs the origin characters to purge all Source from the realm as she sees that it is put to an obnoxious use and that it is leading people to insanity, and in total contradiction to what she initially intended. That is another ending, representing balance and resonance with the Universe. Having understood what is going on, Fane needs all the Source he can get to repair the Veil and that is his path, so yet another ending here, representing scientific progress and mathematical thought. Although the origin characters may choose to fight and kill him, and have his Source for themselves. Wendigo is abandoned by the King, but has become very strong through all of this and just sort of unilaterally lashes out at pretty much everything. She can become an ally, and this is sort of kill all ending, representing anarchism and totalitarian individualistic freedom of the ego, avenged against those who seek to manipulate it. The King has also become stronger and the Voidwoken are ever more present. His goal is to return to the realm of his old existence, but as a King from the Void, which is yet another ending, representing return to tradition, albeit stubbornly enforced at times. He reaches out to the origin characters with promises of power, glory, structure, belonging, ect., but they may well choose to fight him. There is also Dallis, who is now in control of a powerful puppet Sourceror brigade, who believes in Lucian's world, but also thinks that there can only be peace through conflict first. She wants all the Source under lock and key but has progressively become more and more totalitarian and hyper militaristic. So yet another ending, representing the belief that there is a thing like too much knowledge and that people are sometimes best left in the dark. And finally--the screw all, origin characters become new Divines, stronger than the Gods and everybody else. They come to realize that all they've been taught about the Divines is nothing but a way to manipulate and turn them into instruments. They can well have all the Source for themselves and ascent to Godhood. Yet another ending, representing lack of trust in others and enforced control on fate by the individual. No Braccus/Vredeman, no Malady, no Seekers, no Kraken, no Arhu, no Meistr, no Black Ring, no Lord Kemm, no Paladins, no Tomb of Lucian, no Tarquin, no Arx, no Lucian.