Noctoi

Mmmm the level of bugs in this game from the second I installed it however, it kinda feels like NO QA was done at all. SOOOOO many of the bugs I encountered before I was forced to stop playing due to glitches, crashes, and rep/companion bugs should have been EASILY picked up if even the devs themselves had played their own game!! These aren't hidden bugs! My partner and I are still unable to install the "dlc" that came with release, because every time we try to install the game crashes on the startup screen. The POE:1 saves never carry over properly in very obvious ways from the start. The fact that Eder and Aloth seem to just flip a coin to decide whether they are going to be in the game or not, and how they will behave ala Jekyl and Hyde. I haven't even bothered mentioning these on the bug threads, because every single one of them have been mentioned a hundred times before I even downloaded the game. It's impossible for most players NOT to notice at least a couple of these within the first few hours. It doesn't take money to identify a lot of these issues. They are so blatantly "there" that any one of the devs taking a beta copy home to the neighbors "non obsidian" computer and played it for an hour to two could have tripped over a dozen of them in the first act. They would have been statistical unicorns to not have seen at least a few of the major bugs that have come up over and over again since launch.

Ugh I’m really hoping they are set after the main game... I find it SO freakin annoying when I finish my second or third play through and then get informed that the dlc I’ve paid for is actually meant to be played *mid* game. I’m fairly picky about replaying rpgs, and there are very few that I’ll replay more than 2-3 times. DOS2, DAO, and ME 1&2 are pretty much it in fact. Maybe the earlier fallout games, though not to the same extent. I digress, point is, as much as I love this franchise, I’ll be hard pressed to avoid wishing for a dlc refund if we’re expected to play the game an extra 3-4 times just to experience the dlc in context. Guess I’ll be holding off playing for a few more months *sigh*. At least the bugs should be fixed by then?!

I think there are literally only two conversations. It felt rather abrupt...you kind of just admit your feelings and kiss and that's that. There's very little focus on your relationship at all. I found it kind of...flat. Guess I didn't miss anthing after all. Meh. I have to admit that's a little disappointing after all the talk about 'deep and meaningful' relationship system, which by extension should include the romances. I'd think that someone as complex as Aloth and his history with the Watcher would have had a more complex and meaningful relationship/romance buildups at the very least. Such a missed opportunity! I could imagine plenty of scope for tiptoeing around, then discovering 'feelings', then admitting them, then acting on them ala Alistair in DA:O. More than most of the others he pretty much had a pre-made framework for a *truly* meaningful relationship and romance arc

I wouldn't mind dropping the soap for Serafen. Wink wink. It's not D:OS2 level of terrible so I am happy. *gasp* you take that back!! The Ifan romance was one of my favorite romances in any game! <3 Though I have to admit, the Sebille one was... uh... terrifying... Better than the Red Prince's "romance" Lohse was the only good one of the lot Ifan's and Fane's worked just fine for me. But I'm trash. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkgcgHp2Bh4 Screwit, that's it. I"m off to boff Ifan again... or maybe boff Beast playing as Ifan... Or maybe I"ll boff Lohse playing as beast? Nah that's just weird bahaha. Either way, I need my terribly trashy romance fix, and I'm tired of waiting for the triggers to be fixed in POE:D. Back in a bit

I wouldn't mind dropping the soap for Serafen. Wink wink. It's not D:OS2 level of terrible so I am happy. *gasp* you take that back!! The Ifan romance was one of my favorite romances in any game! <3 Though I have to admit, the Sebille one was... uh... terrifying...

Yeah Cas was the other option I had in mind... Pallegina's almost like a melding of Cas and Viv in demeanor, but her personality doesn't really match either perfectly.

No, they are not dismissing all the other people in the game. What they find difficult to believe is that you could randomly end up in a group where 5 out of 7 people would be bisexual. That just seems extremely unlikely is all (though I guess it's still better than 5 playersexual characters, which they are not). Uhhh, I work in a VERY mainstream clinic... none of the employees know each other outside the clinic. Of the 10 employees there, 2 are male and gay, one is female and gay, one is in a happily open marriage and considers herself "ethically non-monogamous", and two of us are bi. Additionally, one of the receptionists considers herself bi-curious, but she is married to a man, and another receptionist has a gay son and two lesbian nieces. Which is not to say that I think the romances are stellar examples of brilliant writing... We're just not as rare as people think... and coincidences can happen

I see this tired old argument is very popular with you guys . I'll humor you once more - sexual relationships are relateable to the real world and people can't help by draw parallels and conclude that a dense congregation of LGBTs in a small group is not normal (and don't go with "LGBT circles attract" theory again, it's still not normal for a lot of people). Nobody can relate truly magical and fantastical stuff you mention to anything in the real world, so it doesn't break anybody's suspense of disbelief when we play or read fantasy, because we just accept it as imagined fiction. But you can't simply make people erase the real world parallels from their minds, so they won't treat "everyone is LGBT in this world" as acceptable imaginary fantasy. Honey, sweetheart, I didn't say LGBT circles attract (although they do). I said a lot of my friends and acquaintances were not straight cuz Queer people are not as rare as you seem to believe. Maybe if you weren't so obviously uncomfortable by bisexuals, more people would be willing to come out to you. But really, this is the same tired argument you always hear from racists, sexists, and homophobes. "This FANTASY world is based on medieval Europe so why is there so many black people? Its ~unrealistic~", or "I can accept dragons but its ~unrealistic~ for there to be female warriors", and so on and so on (even though POC's and women were a lot more abundant throughout history then those ppl believe). The issue isn't that it has a real world parallel, but that some people are in denial about their own bias. God. How many times have dudes excused Red Sanja's outfit on the basis on "its fantasy", but when it comes to the gays suddenly we gotta be "realistic". Everyone has a different line for how far they can suspend their disbelieves when it comes to fantasy settings. You should look deep within yourself and ask why you chose to end yours at bisexual people. I wish I could hug/high five you (which ever you prefer!) and gift you an entire internet worth of virtual TimTams. Thank you. <3

Speaking of which, if anyone has links to good Aloth fanart, do share them. You only have to go on tumblr and search for Aloth, there is plenty of stuff there. But beware, because you know... Tumblr is a cesspool of corruption A quick Deviant Art search produces some really nice results too

I kinda got a sword wielding version of Vivienne from Pallegina... minus the dead lover of course...

OMG he is! DA2 Anders at least... that warm fun embracing compassion really tries to come out, but it either succeeds explosively with an attention seeking skinrider, or gets buried under a mountain of terminal “stick up the metaphorical ass” syndrome! Btw I saw your new sig and felt the urge to offer you a packet of virtual Tim tams and a huge hug lol. We’ll get to play his relatively unbroken quest chain soon I hope

Heh, yeah. When I got to the ending slides in my Tekehu run and saw "He has work to do in the Deadfire, but his heart - and, he insists, the rest of him - is yours," I couldn't help a sneaking feeling of disbelief. Are committed relationships even a thing with the Huana? The game seems to imply they're not. Committed? I can believe it... MONOGAMOUS? I’m very dubious lol. They just seem to love everybody... particularly if they are looking at them at the time.

Nope! I'm with you :D Weirdly, I used to like Eder, but since learning more about him with Deadfire, then playing through Pillars I again, I've changed my mind dramatically. He's a kinda sexist and very racist (Speciest?) and a bit of a **** to some of the party members! And him and Iselmyr are a TOXIC combination that is really damaging to poor Aloth

I completely agree with pretty much everything you said! :D Which is why there is so much angst on many of the threads at the moment. He's a really popular character, with a rich and heartbreaking background that many of our Watchers bonded with him over in the first game. It's also why a few of us are not game enough to keep playing Deadfire atm. His quest and his reputation mechanics are so broken for a lot of players, so we can't play the full story with the one character we were so looking forward to seeing again Hopefully the companion systems and the reputation mechanics/triggers will be fixed properly soon and we can all start squeeing on the forums instead of despairing! :D

Even if he's dead sadly no more dialogue. That said I let him die by accident. I didn't realize I actually had to rush lol. That said Bearn can also reject Eder in which case he goes crawling back to the Watcher which is sad/hilarious. Purely for the sake of masochistic curiosity... can you tell him to sod off when he comes crawling back? I have plans for my second run (if I ever get that far... slow bug fixes are slow)... I so rarely play an utter bastard, but I'd kinda like to give it a try since we're in a 'rough' piratical atmosphere here. Watching him "friendzone" an Orlan watcher, then run off to fulfill a fairly selfish flight of fancy, then come crawling back just to be made to slink off again sounds... well.. horrible actually, but also evil, sadistic, and fun mwahaha!! :devil:

Great. So it is impossible to know what someone means when using that word without asking for definitions first. Nah, if the word is used in a gaming or MMO context, this is always the meaning *Edit, Ignore the names, I snipped to far and can't figure out how to delete and repost lol.

Really?! Oooh that is very welcome news! I'll have to read up on this, I've been considering playing Divinity through again since Deadfire seems to be kinda well... not broken exactly, but not really playable as far as my reasons for playing goes. I've been rehashing DA:I ~again~ while I wait for Deadfire to get itself right, but I really just want to get into Deadfire! It's a little disappointing that the companion interactions/rep/quests are broken for so many of us... and that the updates make it pointless playing through until they are all live. There are very few games I can stomach playing more than once or twice, and as much as I like Eora, I am not likely to play Deadfire over and over like some other games, especially if it's still not working right and has more mid game content coming.

I wish there was! I keep losing my own battle of wills, dipping my toes back in and then realizing "nope... still broken" Edit: Maybe Aloth's right... after all repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is apparently a sign of something

So this dude who lied to you and infiltrated your party in POE1, and who you might well have totally forgiven and told he's your equal when he fessed up, who stole the animancer who checked him out's research and you let him, who you caught in a lie again in Deadfire and covered up for him, is so superficial he judges people negatively on account of whether they crack jokes, don't take everything super seriously and say the odd self confident thing, or give 2 hoots about their culture (as opposed to caring whether they have their hearts in the right place), or positively depending upon whether their actions are purely driven by some sense of duty he may even suggest is misguided himself, and above all judges you on account of your interactions with said people instead of basing his opinion on something like that you have history and you stuck up for him through thick and thin? Plus if you left Iselmyr, she keeps popping out and making him look even more hypocritical. Amusingly I cracked every joke in the book in my last pt and encouraged Tekehu whenever possible, and still got +1 with Aloth eventually (although I did reload and redo the tavern scene with Tek w/o Aloth in my party to avoid the -1). My current char, who was supposed to romance Aloth, is iredeemably stuck at 0 even after finishing his personal quest (which also bugged out for me as the middle part never triggered) and in spite of reloading every time he visibly eyerolled at something, and trying mostly to avoid convo options that set him off. If it weren't for his voice actor, my stubborn nature and old time's sake, I'd either not recruit him at all or on purpose piss him off. He seems to have been wriiten with a main character in mind who'd never met him before, or one who told him he was only tolerated for being marginally useful on POE1. Even then, he'd be an idiot, but at least it wouldn't matter as much. Ugh, I know what you mean. I can't wait to try out that mod that was posted earlier! I get the feeling that Aloth's writer saw the Eder lines about the Watcher and Eder essentially hazing Aloth to the point where Iselmyr presented, then laughing at him when he got angry, and assumed that was canon. My Watcher NEVER did that! I suppressed Iselmyr, and if I had any semblance of opportunity, verbally slapped Eder down for being an ass! I certainly never encouraged Eder's twattery towards Aloth OR Hiravias (whom he also treated like ****, now that I"m listening for it). My poor Watcher stuck up for Aloth, supported him, forgave him, and generally went out of her way to help him, and he never once said he didn't like her ****ty sense of humor before... now it's all ~Sigh~ ~Pft~ ~UUUUGH~ ~Eyeroll~

I don't think there is a middle road. There will always be people complaining about something - damned if you do, damned if you don't. I for one am happy that this game is different to its predecessor, yet it still pulls at my heart strings. Its a lot of fun, and while the main quest doesn't have as much urgency, the game doesn't feel any worse for it, at least to me. I think if it was too much like the previous one, it would get very old very fast. And there will be EVEN MORE complaining on the forums dunno.. I like to think there is a middle road somewhere . Only , nobody tried finding it . Because if you go with 'Game is either X or Y' ..then by that saying , Deadfire is a failur . Since the 1st game that set the setting wasn't about exploring much but story driven . This game has exploring island and combat at sea . A middle road would be a bit more story heavy when it come to chasing the main quest , more urgency and drama . And keep the exploring and fight at sea . That would be a middle road no? I personally , games that tell me to go explore...like skyrim , and such...are a bore . I'm a shameless starving person that love a good story . And heck even when I try to get into the exploring..I just get bored fast . A call from some soon to be companion asking for the assistance of the well known hero/protagonist to come help in the Deadfire area would have worked nicely I think... Request for aid, followed by an investigation filled “act 1” to figure out what’s causing the local phenomena, then “oh shrimpsticks!! It’s the main plot reveal” after finding a couple of companions and being organically nudged towards a few more side quests... that would have worked as an incentive/middle ground. Escalating too early (like before the game was even released!) puts huge emphasis on stopping the crisis event rather than *discovering the plot and exploring ways to solve it *.

Eh, giant “god” rampaging across the continent? Not really much room to relax there and wander off to deal with relative trivialities... I kinda felt the same way with the ridiculous ‘ball’ in DA:I. Even though it was a part of the main quest chain I had this incredible struggle with my ability suspend disbelief... I mean the world was LITERALLY ending, and we’re going to curry favour by dressing up like masked dolts and dance for several days? While demons are falling from the sky and the PC is the only one alive who can stand a chance of stopping the bloody great tear in reality? We’re gonna DANCE?!? Uuuhuhh... The problem with escalating to this extent is that from a RP standpoint, if your toon is in any way vested in helping save the world tm, there’s really no valid or logical reason to do anything other than run to the end of the main storyline.

Cool guys don’t look at explosions! https://youtu.be/Sqz5dbs5zmo Lonely Island aside :D . I’m really hoping they fix some of these issues soon... I’ve been putting off starting my game again until it’s less likely to break, but that’s taking far far longer than I hoped ☹

or make her baby sit all them pet we find along the way Edér would be jealous... Haha! Until he’s able to differentiate between an Orlan and my Cosmic Cat, he’s forbidden from going NEAR my menagerie!

Garus. He’s my Shepard’s soulmate. Never did the romance thing to any great degree, but he’s her rock. I cried actual tears when I saw “archangel” lol. Don’t care what the fight is like or if things would be easier with a different party comp. he’s always there <3

It's true, if you believe so. You can now open a new thread with an all-cap click baity title like "BUGFEST! THE REVIEWS SAY SO!". Or something similar, you know PS. I played Skyrim day 1 and didn't stumble upon any bug either. Haha I couldn’t play Skyrim for almost two weeks because it kept choking on my brand new video card and I had to wait for the fix to get past the first loading screen... same happened with DA:I oddly enough. I think that card might have been cursed lol. Deadfire was okay until about an hour in, and the save dumping and quest breaks started so I decided to finish my POE1 game and bide my time. That being said, I’ve got a weird mishmash of old and new in my machine because I’m in the process of building a new one, so the problem is likely 40% my PC and 50% the game... and min 10% PEBCAK!