FecklessFool

How much say does Obsidian have over exclusivity deals when they own the IP rights to the game? Wouldn't owning the rights give you more control in the matter?

They had the chance to do something great with Kickstarter. Instead we got mediocre POE. Tyranny should have had POE's budget. Though I guess they don't own that IP. But Tyranny really should have been the IP they created over generic POE.

Nah. Publishers just like money. So when Epic offered cash, well screw the consumer.

No. I'm not going to support exclusivity on the PC as I don't want to be party to whatever the normalization of exclusivity on PC brings. This is why the 4 hour DLC has superseded the 30 hour expansion pack. People let publishers normalize DLC more than a decade ago.

Sales due to damaged reputation maybe, but Epic has probably paid them enough to be in the black even with 0 sales. The only way to stop the cancer of exclusivity growing on PC is to not support exclusive games. Fortnite must be making them a ton of cash if they're able to pay for these many exclusives.

Just logging in to say that this will be the first Obsidian game that I won't be buying. Well apart from that tank one or whatever. Also I'll just leave this here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/04/microsoft-monopolise-pc-games-development-epic-games-gears-of-war

on JE Sawyer's blog, he makes it sounds like they have all sorts of docs written down about Eora and how everything works; likely this is the sort of stuff that Chris would have been a part of. We only get a fraction of it, and JE Sawyer recently apologized on his blog about one specific confusion because the original cut of Deadfire had an explanation, but they had cut it because at the time they didn't think it was necessary, and all of them had been so immersed in the lore that they thought it was self-evident. So I wouldn't blame a lack of Chris Avellone here because I would gather a lot has already been written down and just not revealed to us in game or in novellas. I would blame some hasty editorial choices at most. So why not patch said content in? To me this sounds like 'the dog ate my homework'. Why would you cut something from a main quest line that already has very sparse dialog? How do you know it "already" had sparse dialogue? For all we know it could've been a 30 minute monologue before they cut it. I know that the main quest line in Deadfire has very sparse dialog because I have played through it twice, and can confirm that it has indeed very sparse dialog. Almost as if the main quest line is only 5% of the game. {Why would you cut something} {from a main quest line that already has very sparse dialog}? The first section there is where I talk about the cut content. The 2nd part is where I talk about the main quest line having sparse dialog. So sparse that it left main quest line talking bits so underwhelming and lacking. "{Why would you cut something} {from a main quest line that already has very sparse dialog}?" Yes. What your saying is that, *when they cut the line*, it had spare dialogue. And we don't know *what* the dialogue was like *when they cut the line*. Because we've never seen what the dialogue was like *when they cut the line*. We've only seen it *after* the cut, when it was sparse. We know the cut *MADE* it sparser; we don't know if it "already had very sparse dialogue". It's possible it only has sparse dialogue *because the line was cut*. You need to up your reading comprehension friend. I'm talking about how short and lacking in dialog the main quest is. So why cut something from a main quest that already is so short, contradicts previously established lore, and as Sawyer admits, ends up confusing people? No one is saying that what was cut is sparse.

The only reason that comes to mind to keep chasing Eothas is because Berath (+ the other gods) asks you to try and reason with him: you might have recovered your soul, but the chime that she can use to control/destroy you is still there and not complying to that last request means death/suffering at her hand. IIRC it's Eothas that frees the Watcher from Berath's influence after the last talk with him, so before then you're stll in her grasp. Basically, it's just a matter of self preservation. Yeah, but she clearly had other options. Not just the Watcher. As evidenced if you say no at the start. So why is Berath so dumb that they don't send any backup plans? What if the Watcher drowned during the storm? What is their contingency then? Oh right, nothing would change and the game's main story would play out essentially the same just without the watcher being a feckless fool. Dumb ? really? I personally , always felt like Berath well..wasn't ok...but...compared to the others Gods who were going bipolére about stopping him or killing him...and accusing each others...she seemed so zen about it . That's like Hades being zen knowing the underworld is about to get new design interior and be all Barbie pink..it's so very very weird . So maybe the ending doesn't touch them ..or the effect will take so long...she know there is no point in spazzing in front of the inevitable.. Or she always had a plan.... Or she is welcoming this..'ending' ... But more likely is that she's dumb because all the gods who show up in this game can be called dumb.

The only reason that comes to mind to keep chasing Eothas is because Berath (+ the other gods) asks you to try and reason with him: you might have recovered your soul, but the chime that she can use to control/destroy you is still there and not complying to that last request means death/suffering at her hand. IIRC it's Eothas that frees the Watcher from Berath's influence after the last talk with him, so before then you're stll in her grasp. Basically, it's just a matter of self preservation. Yeah, but she clearly had other options. Not just the Watcher. As evidenced if you say no at the start. So why is Berath so dumb that they don't send any backup plans? What if the Watcher drowned during the storm? What is their contingency then? Oh right, nothing would change and the game's main story would play out essentially the same just without the watcher being a feckless fool.

on JE Sawyer's blog, he makes it sounds like they have all sorts of docs written down about Eora and how everything works; likely this is the sort of stuff that Chris would have been a part of. We only get a fraction of it, and JE Sawyer recently apologized on his blog about one specific confusion because the original cut of Deadfire had an explanation, but they had cut it because at the time they didn't think it was necessary, and all of them had been so immersed in the lore that they thought it was self-evident. So I wouldn't blame a lack of Chris Avellone here because I would gather a lot has already been written down and just not revealed to us in game or in novellas. I would blame some hasty editorial choices at most. So why not patch said content in? To me this sounds like 'the dog ate my homework'. Why would you cut something from a main quest line that already has very sparse dialog? How do you know it "already" had sparse dialogue? For all we know it could've been a 30 minute monologue before they cut it. I know that the main quest line in Deadfire has very sparse dialog because I have played through it twice, and can confirm that it has indeed very sparse dialog. Almost as if the main quest line is only 5% of the game. {Why would you cut something} {from a main quest line that already has very sparse dialog}? The first section there is where I talk about the cut content. The 2nd part is where I talk about the main quest line having sparse dialog. So sparse that it left main quest line talking bits so underwhelming and lacking.

on JE Sawyer's blog, he makes it sounds like they have all sorts of docs written down about Eora and how everything works; likely this is the sort of stuff that Chris would have been a part of. We only get a fraction of it, and JE Sawyer recently apologized on his blog about one specific confusion because the original cut of Deadfire had an explanation, but they had cut it because at the time they didn't think it was necessary, and all of them had been so immersed in the lore that they thought it was self-evident. So I wouldn't blame a lack of Chris Avellone here because I would gather a lot has already been written down and just not revealed to us in game or in novellas. I would blame some hasty editorial choices at most. So why not patch said content in? To me this sounds like 'the dog ate my homework'. Why would you cut something from a main quest line that already has very sparse dialog?

I like it, but as a Sid Meier's Pirates! RPG. They should have just dropped the main story and polished the factions and naval stuff. Like have other ships actually attack each other and not just the Caed Nua. Pirates ignoring merchant vessels to seek out certain death is weird. The main story is poop, and they managed to make an even worse main story than POE. Though I'm more against the execution of the main story as with POE. The plot can work, but the execution is just horrible.

Fake as in manufactured, but for all sakes and purposes, they are gods and it's not like you're going to go out there and right a wrong considering that the games never let you do anything about this info. And it's not much of a wrong you have to right considering that the Engwithans offed themselves to do it and not some other group of people. Which makes them pretty lame if you think about it. "Oh no there are no gods now we must commit mass suicide because, well just because." It also makes Iovara a super lamer. Big whoop Iovara, just bow down to the new world order. You've already lost this fight and there is no way to win. At all.

Nah, I'm pretty sure you got all of your soul back if you told it you wanted it back.

I don't think the Watcher should be able to become a god. Kill gods by taking down their servers sure, but becoming one would be tough because how many souls would they need to do that. Though if they made it so they could somehow absorb the Engwithan souls that make up whatever god and channel that into a god making device, that would work for me.

Or why not make Xoti's personal quest be about coming to grips with the realities of her god after she witnesses the devastation Gaun has caused? That would make the whole revealing things to her work in a way that would not devote huge time to implementing something that clearly makes sense to implement coming off from the first game. It would also make Xoti's quest line more interesting, and make the Watcher be more involved now that Xoti isn't robbing them of their soul collection duties. The Watcher is a very crappy Herald of Berath. They just ignore those little soul orbs for some reason. They just read the soul and don't bother guiding them to Wheel. What a lamer.

Yeah. This was a huge let down. I was expecting this would what the main quest would tackle, and while it sort of did, it was very very very unsatisfying. This was why I dragged Xoti along with me everywhere. After that event in the dig site where she tries to harvest souls but there are none because her god sucked them all up, I was like, "Oh yeah this is getting good, just you wait Xoti I am going to break your world!" But no, that never happened. I guess the Watcher just doesn't really care and in is the camp of, 'well they are effectively gods, so what's the big deal if they were manufactured?', as evidenced by them just chilling in their keep for 5 years after the big reveal. So basically the direction of this game kinda made POE's big reveal (which it failed at executing) pointless. Iovara died for nothing.

Am I really the only person who doesn't have a problem with the story, at all? It's primarily a story of the factions fighting over Deadfire with the equivalent of the industrial revolution raging in the background and a hugeass naked god destabilizing the fragile balance of power that existed in the region. It's not that different from Fallout: New Vegas, hailed as the greatest RPG since sliced bread was invented. No, you aren't. The purpose of part two is to set us up for part three. It's easy to feel as though too much has been left out, but that's because the story isn't finished yet. The entire story of Deadfire could have been easily done in the intro cinematic. Eothas breaks the Wheel while the Watcher is dozing off, or sailing to the Deadfire, and the actual story is how to get started on resolving what Eothas did. Deadfire's story is literally filler.

Why is that guy going on about the "casual crowd"? The casual crowd wouldn't be playing POE. The main story is tacked on and had very little effort put into it, which you can see with what we got. Don't blame the "casual crowd", especially since Obsidian was aiming to appeal to the "casual crowd" with voicing everything. But how many of us actually wait for voiced lines to finish before clicking next because we've already read the text before the speaker has finished speaking? I would be fine if they dropped the fully voiced thing and instead had just focus on making a proper story. The Watcher was pointless in this, they should have just gone with a new main character and really just made the story about rising to the top as a privateer captain. You can be your version of Rekke, that midway toward the story is driven to stop something bad that got out after Eothas did his thing. That could work.

It's because Obsidian has sadly dipped in the writing department. JS saying they cut out stuff explaining the Wheel from a convo with Eothas just sounds like a hasty excuse to cover for how they forgot what they established in the first game. I mean, why would you cut dialog from a main quest story where you only get to say a couple of things when talking to the gods. It's like, 5 dialog exchanges or so for most interactions with gods in Deadfire. Very sparse content there, no need for cutting. Especially if what's being cut is super vital to the lore. Berath pulling you into the bell world to meet the gods should have been cut instead of the Wheel explanation IMO. Talking with Berath and friends was pretty pointless, so just explain the Wheel please.

Yep. The Watcher of Caed Nua was a poor fit for this adventure. They should have just died during the opening sequence and we start the game as your version of Rekke after slavers have captured them and they've been a slave for months when Eothas breaking the Wheel allows for them and a trusted group to commandeer a slaver ship and rise to the top of the Deadfire captain rankings. The Watcher on the other hand just felt tacked on. It was clear Obsidian didn't want to put them in, but I guess they had to because it's Pillar, but they really don't because it's Pillar and they can do whatever they want with their IP.

Totally with you there. It's why, to me, what JS said about them taking stuff out felt more like a hastily cobbled excuse for all the contradictions (also known as retcons). Take out main quest dialog content when the main quest dialog is already very sparse and unsatisfying? Why? I would prefer Xoti didn't exist and they just focused on polishing the main quest content. And I'm singling out Xoti because I got tricked into dragging her along for the entirety of my first playthrough because I was waiting for a chance to go, "WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW XOTI?!" sometime during the main quest. But nope.

How do they know it won't affect them until much later? Did Eothas let them know while he was on his way to Hasongo? Dang, what a nice guy that Eothas if you ignore all the thousands he's killed for his soul guzzling suv, and all the brutal deaths and tortures sanctioned to his enemies in the Saint's War.

I would just make it so that you had some real influence with the faction you sided with and be able to steer them to some extent to the path that your character would take. Being able to pick who to install as chief isn't all it's made out to be considering how things were implemented in the game. Not only are you a lapdog to the gods, but if you choose to side with a faction and have that come up in the ending, you also end up as a lapdog to a faction. What a useless guy this Watcher character is. That's kind of the point though. In PoE 1, you really are too powerful and it all stems from you having your own keeps. You reputation skyrocket, you have your army, you have a land, etc. PoE 2 is different. You're on someone else turf. You have no land of your own. You have no army. All you have is a bunch of crews on your ships. Outside your skills, you have no influence. You really are just as the queen say, a freelancer, an extra pawn no one can control to break the current stalemate.The Ruantai fleet can easily sink your ship multiple times if they wish to do so. They just choose not to. There's really not a single full-scale fight the watcher can win. It just so happen that none can lift a hand to do so without weakening their side and get bounced out of the fight. The battle between 4 factions is a battle of ideology, what each of them view as the rightful state of the Deadfire. Considering how long and intense they have been fighting each other, persuasion should stay off the table because there's really no reason for them to cooperate as none of them are in any real immediate danger with a common enemy. Even Eothas doesn't really care about them so unless he stomp all over Neketaka, there's no reason for them to view him as an immediate threat. That's just tired writing at this point. The whole 'obvious huge threat killing thousands and causing destruction and we don't care we must bicker' is just tired writing at this point. Plus if you have no influence why is everyone trying to curry favor with the 'famous' Watcher? And why do you even need to do them favors? You're there for Eothas. Such a weird disjoint from the main quest.

I would just make it so that you had some real influence with the faction you sided with and be able to steer them to some extent to the path that your character would take. Being able to pick who to install as chief isn't all it's made out to be considering how things were implemented in the game. Not only are you a lapdog to the gods, but if you choose to side with a faction and have that come up in the ending, you also end up as a lapdog to a faction. What a useless guy this Watcher character is.