dixon_sider

Fulvano's voyage was supposed to be the multiple part adventure - but unless I missed a trigger, it ended up being just a few different islands to be done in any order and having no connection (not even the Fulvano's letters / letters about Fulvano type thing from PoE1) As to the endless paths - I enjoyed it mostly - could do with being a bit shorter / more focussed - but as mentioned above, the PoE2 rest+resource system would make it less of a challenge/adventure - it'd be down to (player v. enemy) levels only. I dont see how the PoE1 rest system changed the endless paths difficulty in any way. You could rest infinite number of times even on PotD. It was one loading screen away. It just added travel time and loading screens. I rest as soon as someone reaches yellow health every time. No point not to

I still fail to understand that. If you had to rest every other fight and backtrack to town, it's probably you used the wrong difficulty mode... I played hard difficulty, and i can't remember using camping supplies more than once or twice in Act 1 + Act 2 + WM1 (and no, i don't min max at all). I never ended up with spells i could not use because endurance was too low. I never had to buy any camping supply the whole time, and the vast majority i found as loot was of no use to me. What you are talking about is no resource management. It sounds like you actually did not manage resources at all, and then, found resource management was bad. Does not make sense. Sorry, the whole "Forcing you to travel back to town is not a good method for resource management" is as nonsensical as always to me. I meant that your health will fall below the maximum endurance threshold before you could use all your spells. There were simply so many spells that your health was the reason for resting almost every time Potions of infuse with vital essence when i used to use vital essence it took away the health increase after it wore off. did that change? I dont think it heals health. I think it just adds a sort of stoneskin spell to the user

Its purpose was to be something you cant complete in a single run. Or if you wait until you are high level then you can but it will take a couple days (for first time attempting it). I agree that it sucks having to leave the dungeon to level up elsewhere though. I did not feel like the first pillars had very good resource management however. There were so many spells you can cast per rest its almost impossible to use them all before people get below their max endurance threshold. I ended up just resting after every other fight anyways, but I would have to go back to town every 3rd rest to get the buffs and more camping supplies. Forcing you to travel back to town is not a good method for resource management imo, and camping supplies are dirt cheap even in the very beginning of the game. The rest system in pillars 1 is the only thing i would mod out if i had to choose. make everything per encounter and remove health completely. Which thankfully pillars 2 did I strongly disagree with you, dixon. I think that PoE1's resting mechanic was vastly better than PoE2's. I think that it was great that you should have to conserve your supply of per-rest spells, rather than just spam your entire supply of spells and rest after every fricking battle! I always ... ALWAYS ... conserved my per-rest spell casting as much as possible and relied on my physical combatants to do the heavy lifting as much as possible. I didn't want to rest after every frickin' battle or every other battle, just because I was spamming all my spells as fast as I could. I considered it a challenge to get as far as possible on a single rest, before I'd used up Aloth's and Durance's supplies of spells. IMO, PoE2 completely ruined one of the best aspects of PoE1 when it went to per-encounter spells. I think that it's completely ridiculous that you don't have to rest in this game at all, barring the need to heal back some injuries or curses. Even aside from the per-encounter crap, you should need to rest about once per day or suffer from fatigue. I could deal with the per-encounter madness if there was still an absolute requirement to rest once per day to avoid serious fatigue penalties. Note that I would assume that when you were traveling on your ship, you were getting the proper rest and that when you landed somewhere, you would be considered fully rested. If I had my druthers, I'd love to see a rest/fatigue system that also accounts for engaging in battles, with each battle you fight reducing the time you have left before you need to rest again by a fixed number of hours. The only thing is that unless there's some sort of underlying system that measures the time in battle each day or something, it wouldn't be able to differentiate between some minor encounter and a fairly difficult battle. But it would be nice, from my perspective, if fighting took more out of you than just walking around, and that that was reflected in the time required between rests. im not saying it was bad, but I dont think it was good either. I spammed spells as often as i could and still had a difficult time using them all before I needed to rest my tanks/mele dps HP. I go about 2 large encounters then rest (maybe 1-2 large encounters per map). all the resource management was, was a way to spend extra time travelling and loading. I think pillars 2 is much better because I dont have to come back to the town for camping supplies and tavern bonuses. I still agree that the current method is not that great either however. The only exception to this is fighting some bosses, I would refresh my spells if i was missing just a few. But I REALLY wanted a mod that got rid of the resting and made everything per encounter because it just felt like a timesink and nothing more to me maybe the new challenge blessings (forget the name) will add back in fatigue. I assume its not in the game because I rest often so I may have just never went 24 in game hours without resting

I still fail to understand that. If you had to rest every other fight and backtrack to town, it's probably you used the wrong difficulty mode... I played hard difficulty, and i can't remember using camping supplies more than once or twice in Act 1 + Act 2 + WM1 (and no, i don't min max at all). I never ended up with spells i could not use because endurance was too low. I never had to buy any camping supply the whole time, and the vast majority i found as loot was of no use to me. What you are talking about is no resource management. It sounds like you actually did not manage resources at all, and then, found resource management was bad. Does not make sense. Sorry, the whole "Forcing you to travel back to town is not a good method for resource management" is as nonsensical as always to me. I meant that your health will fall below the maximum endurance threshold before you could use all your spells. There were simply so many spells that your health was the reason for resting almost every time

Agreed with most everything, except I think you're selling endless paths a tad short. It actually works as multiple expeditions if you try and push your party to the next master staircase area. I want to also co-sign the fact that long dungeons just aren't quite the same in Deadfire, even if they had them, due to the scrapping the old systems. The paths were certainly fun as multiple expeditions, and pushing your party's half that fun. However, it also broke up the few tidbits of story in each level of the paths even more and made it a lot less cohesive as a dungeon (insofar as it was cohesive). As i said, it's a good combat dungeon, but it missed the feeling of a single, cohesive expedition as it's simply not designed that way. I understand that many players dislike arbitrary attrition and nobody likes "thrash mobs", but I love seeing my party slowly get ground down by a dungeon as I progress deeper, while planning how to use my limited rests, especially when doing a dungeon for the first time. It's something I really enjoyed in Durgan's battery, and it's missing completely in Deadfire. Its purpose was to be something you cant complete in a single run. Or if you wait until you are high level then you can but it will take a couple days (for first time attempting it). I agree that it sucks having to leave the dungeon to level up elsewhere though. I did not feel like the first pillars had very good resource management however. There were so many spells you can cast per rest its almost impossible to use them all before people get below their max endurance threshold. I ended up just resting after every other fight anyways, but I would have to go back to town every 3rd rest to get the buffs and more camping supplies. Forcing you to travel back to town is not a good method for resource management imo, and camping supplies are dirt cheap even in the very beginning of the game. The rest system in pillars 1 is the only thing i would mod out if i had to choose. make everything per encounter and remove health completely. Which thankfully pillars 2 did

To anyone that says they disliked the endless paths, thats great, everyone has their own opinion. But I felt like the endless paths was a carrying mechanic to the game. That is what set it so far above BG1, BG2, dragon age, and all the others. The resource management wasnt really there because you could just rest for free an infinite number of times but the feeling of going through that dungeon for the first time was one of the greatest video game experiences I have ever had. I feel very heartbroken that it may possibly not have a follow-up. Also one of the great things about it was that it was not essential in any way shape or form. You could jut ignore the endless paths all game long and nothing bad will happen. I understand people dislike it, but thats ok, you dont need to do it or enjoy it. I despise base building and find it tedious, and something I will NEVER be good at. I ignore it in every game. When i play terraria every house I make is all minimum requirements and as out of the way as possible. But I would never say they shouldnt have base building in pillars. It would literally mean nothing to me if I never got to upgrade my ship, or upgrade my castle in the first one. But its there and I just dont do it. For some people, without it, the game is nowhere near as fun. Just like without a mega dungeon, the game loses a LOT of potential for me.

Ya that would be cool too. I just feel some type of way about no huge dungeon. The exploration is cool, and the naval stuff is a fun new way to base build. Both are upgrades from the first title imo, but at the expense of a gigantic dungeon? They struck gold in the original pillars with the endless paths. I still feel excited to start a new game to go throught the endless paths again to this day, and I have completed the endless paths over 5 times now. I know anyone can say "then go play pillars 1 again", or "play tower of time then". But I was looking forward to a new endless paths. It just feels somewhat heartbreaking that its not included. My main concern is, who knows when someone will do a dungeon on that level again if Obsidian wont? Add in the fact that it was entirely optional, and the game built around that dungeon was very epic. I fear the endless paths becoming a one hit wonder

If anyone is upset they did not add a 15 layer dungeon like me then please post here. I love the game to death but I always thought the 15 layer dungeon would be a staple of pillars of eternity, and omitting it from the game leaves a very sour taste in my mouth. I understand that the devs are human, and it takes a lot of work to do something like a 15 level dungeon, but I would pay money for a 15 layer dungeon in a heartbeat. I know if there was a 15 layer dungeon in the game then there would be less content somewhere else. But I want to beg obsidain PLEASE make a huge dungeon like in pillars 1. That would be a very nice staple to have and something for the fans to expect in every game, giving people a greater sense of security when deciding if they want to buy the game. For example, if I was to consider buying call of duty 95 and it had zombies, then I would feel more safe about making the purchase because I know zombies will be in the game, and even if the game continues its insanely fast declining quality multiplayer then I would still be able to enjoy the purchase. Anyone else that would like to see a 15 level dungeon as an expansion?

Maybe we all generate a new main character? although it would suck to have your main in 2 of the 3 of a trilogy. By the way rjshae I love your signature. I couldnt help myself, I had to prove it!!!

i hope this is the correct place to post this, but i was wondering if there is an attempt to make door blocking a less dominant battle strategy in pillars 2, or at least less powerful. I understand our the strategy SHOULD be to use choke points, but I think the lack of enemy movement based skills combined with the large amount of doors and narrow paths made door blocking too powerful in the first pillars. Thank you

"I would have thought I would be the exact kind of fan you wouldn’t want to lose from the community" the irony of that statement in this post made me cry laughing there is a certain point where a company catering to an individual becomes a net loss. judging from your post, it seems like you hit that line a long time ago. constantly fixing the infinite amount of bugs in any game is going to give you exponential decay in value over time. none of the bugs you listed are game breaking. They would lose money fixing them. what i would suggest is trying to fix the bug yourself. try to recreate the bug, find out why it is happening, and see if there is a way to fix it. I do it in almost every game i play. understanding how to troubleshoot is a very important part of life. use this as a learning experience. the answer may be simple and right in front of you. The fact that you think you are so entitled that Obsidian should manage their priorities around you is absurd and borderline insulting.

tanking is tough in this game. you need at least 2 tanks imo. I send the fighter in when everyone else is invisible, then have your second tank pop out and pick up the mele stragglers. Then when the other 4 members go un invisible the archers ALWAYS demolish my squishies. so if you target the archers, it will tell you what character of yours they are aggroed to (the character they are aggroed to's hit box will blink when your mouse is pointed on the enemies hit box). 99% of the time all archers will pounce on one character. If this happens, while your tanks are taking all the mele fighters, run away with the archers target and line of sight the archers until they run close to your tank. Then proceed to demolish them all with AoE damage/debuffs. I usually start with blind and daze for the archers, but check their defenses, and act accordingly. That is the strat i start with in pretty much every fight. The only thing that makes me change it up is plague of insects, or enemies with a debilitation applied to their mele. also popping potions for the first 2 tanks is very important because they will take A LOT of damage while your healer is invisible. every DR and deflection point will matter

Resolve is better than strength for healing done. But i think healing done should be under int. or instead of having healing done boost, con could give a healing received boost. that way people would have more incentive to use constitution, which is almost always my dump stat in PoE. the stats are pretty well balanced in PoE except might and con imo.

The only thing that bugged me about pillars of eternity 1 was that the engagement mechanic was not at all punishing for the enemies. The only difficulty i have ever played was path of the damned, so i understand that I bring it upon myself, but in wide open areas i had to resort to cheesy tactics like kite zoning many times. I wish there was a way to make my "tanks" feel more valuable. Enemies would just ignore Eder and chase after whoever had the least deflection or armor on my team. The non MMO game that i thought did threat generation/control the best was dragon age 2 (despite being released a year too early). Tanking was still very difficult unless you controlled the tank exclusively.

Does anyone miss the taunting skills in tyranny while playing this beta? I really liked the aggro skills, and i considered the threat generation from tyranny a huge improvement from the original pillars. I hope some get added before the game gets released.