Verde

agreed. two most common complaints of every obsidian game, at least previous to poe: the game is too hard. the game is too easy. every game. all games has 'bove two as most common complaints. both complaints. same games. is folks complaining 'bout how game is less fun than they wish or hope. so how do you make game fun for most players? am thinking is pretty well established some amount o' balance in crpgs is necessary. refer to josh post if are still unclear why balance is essential even in sp games. so, how you gonna balance? balance the game so is fun for folks who is using a small number op builds and weapons? if balanced for op play, then for folks who do not use such op stuff, the game will be difficult and frustrating... less fun. balancing while keeping op op will also functional reduce customization options as actual useful builds is limited. an alternative balance scheme is to make op stuff less op... which is what the past few pages o' thread has addressed. the choice for developers wanting to maximize fun for most players is not gonna involve difficult calculus. HA! Good Fun! Blame the game is too easy on power gamers who turn everything into a chest beating competition.

Fair pt about the bugs. Otherwise it's just opinions. My opinion, Josh's opinion as stated, etc. I mean look at how they addressed the main story - people complained about the verbose and often times superfluous nature of PoE1...so they did a complete 180 with PoE2 and made the main story super short, which players seem to hate even more. And "maybe people would read" if the post wasn't the size of a short story. No one's got time for dat.

Balance is more important in online competitive games. I don't really see the pt in aggressively balancing classes in a single player game unless we have a Wizard Slayer situation like BG2 where it's utter crap compared to every other class. Passed a certain pt it just begins tipping the scales too much. I'd rather see companies work on resolving bugs.

Toxic Strike would greatly benefit but I think you're better off maxing Per and then Dex.

You will become rich if you slaughter the slavers. Their gear should net you around 80 - 100k iirc.

Then it's a good thing reality isn't subjective. I mean, if you live in a cave by yourself, sure. The rest of us social animals have to deal with different opinions and perspectives and versions of the truth. Case and point - does everyone who's played Deadfire think it's a great game? Nope, as evidenced by various user and critic reviews. So yes, reality is subjective. The point ya missed it. If it was sarcasm, then yes, I did haha.

Deadfire looked smooth at launch, but it had couple bugs which really impacted the game in a bad way - saves didn’t import properly, dispositions and reputations were gained way to fast resulting in all partymembers hitting on PC pretty much as soon as they joined, the balance was ridiculously out of place. Oddly enough all those issues were addressed really quickly. I found the disposition issue to be especially damaging as it messed with companion system, giving a very poor first impression. While some issues are unavoidable, what confuses me the most is that those big issues didn’t seem hard to fix, and I have no idea how those issues flew under Obsidian’s radar, unless they got unintentionally broke right before release. Like a final boss that wasn't showing up, or when it did, it was invisible and no fight commenced. I lost trust in Obs after that.

By your own admission TC, BG2 does thing just as good or better than Deadfire and it's an 18 yr old game. I'd say that's impressive. I've replayed BG2 a few times in the last 5 years and I can say with confidence I think everything is better than Deadfire minus the non-magic aspects of combat, the graphics, and quality of life issues. Story, dialogue, characters,quests, conflicts...it all blows Deadfire out of the water (pun intended).

Then it's a good thing reality isn't subjective. I mean, if you live in a cave by yourself, sure. The rest of us social animals have to deal with different opinions and perspectives and versions of the truth. Case and point - does everyone who's played Deadfire think it's a great game? Nope, as evidenced by various user and critic reviews. So yes, reality is subjective.

What's logical to one person may not be to another.

... Uh.... But I've done exactly that. Bug? Cuz I Multiclassed and was still using Meteor Shower. It was an old character, maybe bugged by the DLC being added? By design you can't from a grimoire, maybe a scroll?

Now let's not get too ahead of ourselves

Love the PL8/9 Barb skills!

Can you expand on the Pathfinder issues? I'd love to pick it up but it sounds like it needs more time to cook.

I think PoE's combat and mechanics are vastly better than DnD minus a few areas - 1) Might dictating damage. Mighty Wizards. Stop it Obs. 2) Spellcasting...first we had per rest now we have per encounter and fixed Grimoires and it never reaches the epicness or feel of made duels in BG2. But I do think the PL system is a big step in the right direction. 3) Active and Passive skills aren't balanced. There are far too many useful Passives and not as many Actives. However I don't mind not going back thr THAC0 ever again (unless it's BG2 ofcourse ) and the lack of stat checks. I wonder how Kingmaker compares to DnD?

A game should be made to be experienced as much as the player wants to. Sarcasm? A game, a piece of entertainment, or even a piece of art is best left to the vision of the creator, flaws and all. It's when a creator listens to the unwashed masses that we get a Deadfire-type main story

I don't think Obsidian has made an argument for buying their RPGs prior to a year after release. Even at this point we have an absurd amount of bugs, some that have come and gone, and come again.

Yeah just beat DS1 for the first time, and I did find the lack of momentum a great thing. It just gave enough info to have a goal in mind and let you explore at will. I have no idea what was all that about though.It's confusing but the more you play and dig and even discuss on forums the more that you'll discover. Did u find all the covenants? There's one in particular that's pretty hard to find blind, and adds a lot of lore (and interesting gameplay).

Ah, well the lack of urgency works in its favor imho as opposed to the common conflict we see in Deadfire.

It's a shame how Priests have fallen from being top tier in PoE1 to mediocre in PoE2.

never felt this was a weakness tbh. gave me more incentive to swap around party members and make up little stories in my head about them. i dont mean to dimiss all the work thats been done since re: narrative design in rpgs, but i feel minimalism has its place. who hasnt got attached to their mute little gun turrets in x-com. Do you play/like Dark Souls? Those games do minimal story telling very well.

I'm wondering how FF13 and 15 sold compared to the rest, considering their sub-standard quality.

And to take a step further, taking criticism of a game personally. But I'm sure we're all guilty of that when it's a game/feature we love.

My last playthrough in BG2 was Me (Halfling Swashbuckler), Korgan, Edwin, Minsc, Jaheira, and Viconia. It was glorious. Lots of in fighting but no one left. Also I love how you can eventually change Vic's alignment.

we get it already They added it?