Jump to content

NCR75

Members
  • Posts

    8
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by NCR75

  1. This is just my opinion, and I'm not saying the ending is flawless, but I guess said flaws bother me very little. And the more I think about it, the more I like it, and I'm thinking its actually one of the best endings to any RPG I've ever played in a long time (for me personally). Keep in mind that I'm looking at the ending in broad strokes, and I can't help but love it. I love the feelings of powerlessness and inevitability that I felt when finally confronting Eothas (both the first time in the Ashen Maw and again at the end). I love that you can't stop him. You can't dissuade him. He is set in motion and all you can do is adjust to his ending and build around it (ie, the rest of the ending slides). I've played so many RPGs where I'm this entitled, all-powerful, world-determining, Special One that I've frankly gotten sick of it. Deadfire was refreshing to make me feel inconsequential in regards to this massive cosmic force. Like I was just along for the ride. This was more immersive for me than any other RPG I've played in a long time, as for once I wasn't literally the strongest being in the world. This made Eora feel bigger, not smaller. I also love not having every single minute question answered. Why should I know the answers to every mystery and physical/metaphysical law of Eora, souls, etc? After all, I'm just a mortal, and not even the Gods know all the answers. I knew more at the end of Deadfire (significantly more) than I did when I started, and this was enough. Not having all the answers allows me to speculate, as I did in PoE 1. Again, this makes Eora feel bigger, not smaller. I know at least Wael would agree with me. And finally, I love that I could not foresee the consequences of my in-game decisions at the end-of-game slides. I love some of the things I did actually had unintended negative consequences... like I'm not this all-powerful seer who can literally shape the future with my mind. This altogether makes Deadfire feel like a real world, and I'm just someone one in it. I love it. Besides... I still ended up having enough influence to literally determine the political landscape of the Deadfire Archipalego in deciding which faction runs the show (and in my case, even the leadership of said faction). This is kind of power is plenty (maybe even too much). This is just my opinion. Different strokes for different folks and all that.
  2. I completely agree. Mod friendly games are the best games. For difficulty balancing and so, so much more.
  3. Well, the problem with only scaling up encounter difficulty is that it does nothing to address balance between classes. The way I see it, the game currently exists in a state where some classes are are clearly better than others, but it doesn't ultimately matter what you pick because the game is so overwhelmingly easy. This is bad because difficulty never feels earned. However, if difficulty is scaled up to be challenging even for the stronger classes, but the power disparity between classes is left unaddressed, then you simply make the weaker classes unplayable. I think this is even worse. So, the classes should be balanced. Either buff the weaker classes or nerf the stronger classes, but I can't personally tell a difference between the two options, as either approach makes (hopefully) all classes feel more equally viable in terms of combat mechanics. If weaker classes are buffed, than the encounters need to be severely upscaled in difficulty. If the stronger classes are nerfed, then the encounters need to be more modestly upscaled in difficulty. At this point, one approach may be technically easier than the other (leave the experts to figure that out), but ultimately both approaches (if done successfully) should give us the same game. The only caveat is, as you say, if classes are nerfed to the point where auto-attacking (with more passives behind it) is more viable than using active powers (with less passives behind it). I think this is a legitimate concern, but nothing from the 1.1 BETA discussions seem to indicate anything so drastic. Well, mostly anything - nerfing backstab to 100 % has me scratching my head too.
  4. Just finished the game prior to patch 1.1 and I really enjoyed having been able to experience a nearly 100 % RAW presentation post release. I didn't get to do this for the first pillars (despite having bought that game on day one release as well because honestly, the first pillars just didn't suck me in at all like deadfire did.) I enjoyed this game so darn much, I found it easy to finish an early playthrough. Many months from now, when all of the DLC has been released and all of the balancing has been done, I'll replay the game one more time (different port decisions, different PC and dispositions, different factions, POTD instead of hard, etc + DLC). Being able to compare the game before/after with all of the patches/balancing/etc will be fun, I imagine. I played PoE I and II both on hard using companions. I'm actually considering going all the way back to PoE I and playing on POTD using all min/maxed henchmen (whom I will also 'port over' into deadfire. The idea of using a 100 % ported party is appealing to me, even if its just henchmen).
  5. I could go on and on, but my personal top 2 that particularly stand out are: 1) Encounter design. Not only are the maps no longer overstuffed with trash mobs (like in PoE I), but the new noise system naturally (and organically) draws nearby enemies into the fight. This turns what used to perhaps be 3-4 individual encounters separated by start-stop-start-stop-etc combat in PoE I, into a more natural, singular and epic conflict...followed by a longer and more meaningful period of downtime. This also makes it harder to spam spells/resources since the fights are bit more drawn out. 2) I know its been said before, but I'll emphasize --- the lack of any comically good/evil factions and characters. The writing just feels so grounded and believable. Moral decisions have been difficult, but only in natural ways that don't feel forced or contrived. Writing is just superb. Icing on cake: -Graphics and Performance both improved -multiclassing and improved combat system overall -so much reactivity from NPCs to race/background/reputation/etc -regular back and forth banter between party companions and npcs (a first for me, I can't recall another game that did this) -blessings to encourage more playthroughs -overmap exploration (somewhat reminds me of storm of zehir) -ship battles and everything ship related -Mirke
  6. I also just wanted to add that when it comes to exactly what should/shouldn't be nerfed, what should/shouldn't be buffed, etc (ie, all of the balancing details), I give a friendly shout out to both the devs and the players who criticizes. Mechanics wizards far smarter than me know how to create/fine tune such a system that is both complex and balanced. My only two cents is to reiterate that dual wielding (especially given full attack powers) seems to be a clear winner when it comes to DPS. Personally I would think it would be neat for dual wielding to do more raw DPS but with lower penetration - so that it is more effective only against softer targets.
  7. I would love for patch 1.1 (or another future patch) to include a more robust respeccing system. This would address the problem of having a 40+ hour playthrough "ruined" midway by a balancing patch (I say "ruined" because I understand some people are more/less bothered by this than others. For me personally, it is extremely irksome. However, I may very well be in the minority). Not to single Pillars out, as this problem concerns seemingly most semi-modern single player RPGs that come with robust mechanics and combat systems. Keeping in mind that, in order for said problem to even occur, literally all of the following has to be true about the game in question: 1) The game isn't balanced on release (understandable, given the complexity) 2) The devs decide that the game needs to be balanced, desite it being a single player RPG (I'm actually ok with this, as it can vastly improve the game. PoE 1 came so, so far! It was like day and night.) 3) Said rebalancing is not optional. You are not allowed to 'select the patch' at which to play the base game + all DLC (could be a coding nightmare. I have no idea) 4) Respeccing is not robust enough to 100 % adjust to the rebalance in question Given all of this, I personally think allowing 100 % respeccing is the best way to avoid this problem. (Side Note --- Specific concern raised for my particular playthrough: I already saw it mentioned that the chanter should perhaps have its brilliance inspired invocation pushed from PL 7 to PL 8 or 9. This is all well and good, but why can't I respec my chanter/fighter to pure chanter so that I can still obtain my favorite support buff? This doesn't break the game, it just lets me play the character concept that I want to play. Its still balanced, because I have to abide by the same new restrictions/changes that would be imposed on any newly created character. The only difference is that I do not need (somewhat arbitrarily?) to start all over, in a 100 % single player RPG.) TL:DR: I would love for respecc'ing the main PC to take us back to the character creation screen and allow us to reselect attribute points, race, core classes, subclasses, etc. Also allow respecc'ing NPC/henchmen to allow us to change their core classes/multiclass within the original three options. This is all so that we can 100 % redo any character building decision in order to adjust to any balance changes mid playthrough. Players who find this amount of respecc'ing too liberal can simply opt to not use it. If achievements are a concern, just warn the player that they'll be disabled for the more severe respecc'ing options or something similar.
  8. I actually enjoy the ship-to-ship combat for what it is, though it would be nice if it were deeper and more complex (I also prefer turn based battles for this). But I find the system to be good enough to be functional, as I actually never board enemy ships (even if its faster/more efficient). I figure that I still end up spending about 95 % (estimate?) of the game's combat in traditional RTwP. I like changing up the pace when I can. Also, by forcing the restriction on myself that I can't board a ship, I also forced myself to learn some new mechanics (even if they were simple). I also had to take more care in how I spent my coppers in the early game, since upgrading my ship was kind of important. I really enjoyed having more options to ponder on how to spend my loot.
×
×
  • Create New...