Ymarsakar

I would have just made the wands float then, like shooting swords. Attack from shoulder float 1.

Barbarian and monk and even fighter seems pretty focused on melee. But for monk, these days I just eat engagement attacks and it's instant wounds when I need em. Harmful aoe spells like the druid is also good. This time, it's a good thing if it doesn't avoid hitting friendlies. It's amazing how much the early game has gotten easier. I did the Medreth fight outside Dyrford, and with a level 5 party, they were easily killed. Of course, my knowledge of the game has increased by several orders since then. They really need to add more priests to their parties and have them do the buff tactic, copied from players.

Pandora's CEo was deliberately not using internet ads however at the start. One of the problems noted before with longer games is how when people get back to them, they get lost and don't know where all the things fit in. That's not necessarily a problem with the content as with how it is presented, however. In Pillars' case, the content like the Stronghold and the second city had to be in there. But if so, they might as well have used it to reinforce the strength of the critical path and/or companions. Having a big city and a companion, that is interlinked, where everyone knows everyone, and is influenced by your companion, would add a little bit of something which doesn't require cutting the second big city nor dramatic changes. What it would do is make things more unique and thus unbalanced. So the same reason they cut down GM and Durance's dialogue because "VO was uneven" plus some other reasons, would apply. But that's not necessarily the right way to cut things. It doesn't, for example, make VO more expressive or emotionally powerful. The idea that everything has to meet "standards" and must be "even" and it must all correlate to the same general content across the board, tends to end up with some weird circumstances. Just in this game alone. Because in the end, it's not even and that doesn't even matter. The Stronghold content and Endless Path was not equal or even with backer npcs, critical path, or other dungeons in game. It didn't really matter, what mattered was what they were going to do with this content now that they have created it. If all they were thinking of was wanting to cut it, because it was too uneven to be used in their narrative dialogue and critical path, then that's the wrong way to look at content in an rpg. Make use of what there is to use. Otherwise people start creating systems that don't link up, in their own little world. Iceland and Scandinavia tends to have interesting small team dynamics that better address this issue, I believe, of game design. It's not something that only applies to Pillars, nor would it only improve pillars. It would just improve their game design in general. There was no way Obsidian could rebalance/fix the narrative, crit path, second city, and stronghold problems 6 months before game release. This is a strategic layered decision that was time sensitive. It can't be fixed at that time because the opportunity to do so has passed: long term planning and strategic vision. Cutting content does save time, yes. But what would save time even more is to ensure that the content created could still be reused or repurposed, with the least cuts. That saves production time.

Some of those problems can be addressed by melding combat mechanics closer with companion development. Instead of having the companion's class only level up through the mechanics, have the companion's story upgrade the companion's class/abilities through a branching narrative. Similar to Dakkon's blade. So instead of soulbound weapons, you have upgradeable companions, which are unique. So instead of having to balance so many classes together, unique companions can multiclass or get class breaking powers, which helps the player, but doesn't unbalance the game so much. Given White March, it'll be hard to argue that making companions more powerful than normal classes, would upset the game balance. Look at the stats on those items and soulbound weapons and upgrades. It would give the companions more content, at the expense of absolute number of them. And the problem with personality conflict always revolves around choice. Players might sacrifice Sagani for some bonuses, but if Sagani has a lot of content equivalent in game to 4 soul bound weapons with different upgrade paths due to narrative, would they sacrifice that for some gameplay bonuses? It becomes a more difficult choice. A more limited choice too, but a more difficult one. And it would resolve Josh's design philosophy of making companions useful in combat. Lore wise, if you don't like a companion's personality, just replace it with something you do like, except done through something in character and for the narrative.

PoE2 not coming anytime soon - may be unrelated to Tyranny. J. Sawyer said he's not involved with Tyranny and maybe most pillars team isn't either but in the interview quote above he also said PoE 2 is way off so its possible he and maybe pillars team are working on another project which is neither PoE2 nor Tyranny. Interesting that Sawyer isn't working on Tyranny. That would open up a World of Darkness rpg pitched by Paradox to Obsidian.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/tyranny-is-announced.913905/ http://www.pcworld.com/article/3044713/software/obsidian-announces-tyranny-a-dark-new-isometric-crpg-where-youre-the-bad-guy.html From the screenshots, it definitely looks like Unity. That means POE2 will gain an additional half year to year + of additional pre production, which will make its story and lore stronger. They must have shifted the primary Unity POE team over to this one, as soon as POE 1.0 was released. With a smaller team working on patches, rebalances, and White March 1/2. Obsidian mentioned that they had several different games for pitching to Kickstarter years ago, but decided on Eternity in the end. This might be one of their other alternative worlds they had built. Although some things tell me that there may be a connection to Paradox's World of Darkness in the future.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/tyranny-is-announced.913905/ In case anyone was wondering what was keeping Obsidian from announcing Pillars of Eternity 2, which some of us gave our speculation and analysis about from the previous Sawyer tidbits and interviews: I made the prediction that Paradox was talking to Obsidian about a Worlds of Darkness rpg, that that was why they weren't ready to announce what their future project was. They say the world is original, but it might have a tie in with the Worlds of Darkness brand Paradox gained from CCP. Hard to say at this time. It would be weird for Paradox to have two rpg world sets ready to go, though. They aren't really known for that kind of stuff. Also Stellaris was announced for May 9th on the same day, by Paradox. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/84958-march-4-2016-josh-sawyer-interview-last-part-kind-of-interesting/?p=1784146 Old thread concerning Josh Sawyer and Obsidian's future unknown project(s). Intel analysis can be accurately acquired merely through open source data on the internet, metadata as some agencies call it, and correlating the patterns to project future results. I also surmise that they are going to use Unity once again, with that "Linux" OS promise. They aren't porting it, if that is the case, else Paradox wouldn't make an unprofessional promise that they might have problems keeping later. If they are announcing Linux and Mac now, it's because the engine supports it, and it would make sense for Obsidian to push for Unity, as they have gained lots of experience with that in Pillars of Eternity, and working on another Unity game will synch well with POE2. Of course, that's probably not a difficult prediction, given the new Unity trailers. For Tyranny, the player's background is set and his role/job is also set. That is good, it limits the initial conditions and creates a tighter narrative arc at the start. How people react to his decisions and how the player decides to tackle quests (cruel vs benevolent, greedy vs altruistic, etc) would change the world in a more direct fashion backed by the lore and mechanics. If Eric is also working on this project as a narrative/writer/creative lead, then the Fallen of Malazan Empire would be a good source. Since that was also a story that began with people working for a Tyrant, in a Fallen World under threat, magical and imperial. As for too many companions and party members, I also share Quillon's views. Planescape Torment's 7 companions for 5 party slots, felt good. Although I basically stuck with the core. The interaction of the party with each other, not just me, really helped bring to life personality traits that would not have, if all you did was "dialogue" people. There's even a youtube video with all/most of the party interactions in audio. That would help reinforce Eric Fenster's vision of companions that acted more like people. First of all, people interact with each other while npc companions are scripted to "ego stroke" the player. But you still have to do that, but hide it. Not make it obvious, and one of the ways is to have the companions pay as much attention to each other as they do the player. Even humans can find the pattern out after awhile, that the game is coded to cater to them and only them. Which means nobody else really matters. For a first person rpg like ME or Witcher, that's how it has to be designed, since it's just Geralt and Shephard +2. For a six party group, small team interactions (Special Forces teams) applies more. And writers might want to look at how small teams work and interact together for clues.

Not blocked, more like going to a website that doesn't allow it because https and http are two versions. Changing the html text would direct to the right page. Everything works for me atm.

It reminds me of the whirlwind on top of a cleave ability. The ability to hit aoe + instant extra attacks. It would apply most of its use before durgan steel is applied.

The Witcher sounds less like they did reactivity and more like they created separate plot arc and endings, sort of like visual novel "alternative endings". As for long games, Eric's problem is probably how to create a tight narrative and gameplay ish plot arc that lasts so long players tend to forget about it as they try to finish within 6 months. The solution to that, in my view, is to have separate climaxes. 2 or 3, instead of one big plot arc end at the end. Gurren Lagann is a good example. Plot 1 starts and ends. Everybody thinks it is over, since it feels like it is over. Nope, Plot 2 begins after some split time. Eric did mention that they were debating whether to pass time or not (such as Dragon Age 2). Passing time between Acts would allow greater narrative... power over the player. It would limit the player's freedom and change the world, however. So mechanically, it wouldn't fit within Josh's freedom to explore and side quest vision. Of course, there are other ways to make each narrative act separate and unique, without passing plot time.

I like the rogue's ability to alpha certain enemy types, for party play. But monks 2.0 were always pretty good defensive wise plus their single target dps and controls was great with anguish. His health pool was his power pool as well. For monks, like barbarians, the dps sustainable is excellent, since they don't really run out of powers until they get KO. Rogues and other classes that have most of their utility in the beginning of a fight, tend to lack sustainable abilities later on. A rogue rebalance might make more sense if it could renew shadowstep for every x kill it makes. That gives it more sustainable damage and powers. Or perhaps with every kill, it teleports to a near enemy and backstabs, and if that guy dies, the chain continues. That can get pretty op. The thing about the monk is that the more defense and regen you give it, the more its overall dps, spike and sustainable, turns on. A rogue can get better defenses, but its dps and abilities suffer as a result. The monk synergizes well with itself, it doesn't need party members to debuff or flank people.

The mourning gloves are doing something weird in my game. When killing the enemy on the monk, it adds 18 some endurance, and then immediately subtracts it from the monk. It's as if it is draining endurance, but the enemy is already dead, so it drains the killer's endurance instead.

You will. After all, what are you going to do when Torment Tides come out? You'll have to get Pillars done by then, it's a deadline almost. Torment Tides is probably this year or Q1 2017 if setbacks occur. As for Andrea, time in Pillars would definitely be in the triple digits by now.

I made custom AI scripts for my wizards to do just that in BG2 with tactics mods on. After some weeks of programming, my wizard was pretty much doing exactly what I would do in fights against other wizards. Instead of mastering elemental powers while role playing fantasy, I was mastering how to trigger spells using meta code. The best part was when I figured out how to make sure the AI script allowed me to intervene with one manual command, before it resumed its auto protocols. That way, I didn't need to interrupt it by making it stop, I would just input one command, it would have priority, and then the script would continue after a pause. Useful when drinking potions or kiting around. Don't want it to "cast spells" or whatever, that stops the kite. Generally, what they should do is externalize the AI code into a script language, which is then externalized to a file that then works like C++ logic. If, then statements that trigger, nested within NOR/OR/AND/ etc. I did some tests with a 14 level wizard, and the blackbow is interesting. Not as powerful aoe dps as the citzal's lance, however. It's more for when the wizard absolutely does not want to move from his spot of control. And can debuff enemies from far out, and shoot them as well without moving. More efficient for when under alacrity. As for chain casting with merciless, the accuracy and hit to crit conversions are great for when you need some burst dps. And with near 0 recovery with alacrity for spells, it can put that in there for when the wizard goes nova. They did that before with per level encounter spells. Self buffs are more certain than debuffs that might miss or be defended against. I can plan out the exact chain combo that way. You could pull that off if going for a pure melee Wizard, though. You'd only need a few spells to set yourself up as a melee character; just start the fight with DAOM to counter the recovery penalty from your heavy armor, summon a weapon, use one of the fancy spells that increase your stats and disable spell-casting, and go into the fray. True, I tried some of that in later 1.4 and 2.01, but I wasn't using Alacrity or the potion (never knew what it was, never used it once, until I heard people talk about it on the forums). So for me, the cast speed was rather slow. I was balancing debuffing with a little bit of range dps and melee dps with the wizard, and the recovery was just too long for plate. That was before they buffed the duration and effect of the wizard's self buffing defense spells. Now it's a lot easier to limit the number of spells used just for defense. Which helps the wizard also cast some debuffs or attack spells. High DR wizards are better when they use the phantom and clones, however, since last time I checked the DR applies to the clones. The trick I use now is to get the engwithan scepter on aloth, for the +20% attack speed. All of that stuff now stacks from weapon mods. This allows me to save alacrity casts for when I really need it, but still casting pretty quickly the rest of the time. With leather or padded armor, and they're pretty versatile since I can go aoe dps, aoe debuff, melee or range dps at a moment's notice. Blackbow for when it is needed, due to universal accuracy gain from focus talent. I like having choices for wizard's opening combos, since the cipher I played usually had the same exact combo each fight. Not all that happy with the Grimoire switches, however. Would prefer to be able to just deselect individual spells, and base the cooldown on how many spells I switched. Using the inventory tends to add an unnecessary quick slot layer in between the user and gameplay. The chanter is a little bit better, due to the limited number of chants.

Don't underestimate the wizard's aoe raw 2/encounter. Made a huge difference when they added it/balanced it in. Of course back in 1.0, people should have heard the complaints about people's wizard not doing any damage. Probably because they were using those very weak minoletta missile stuff, because they think "oh,it's magic missiles right, that's always op". So I find it rather ironic that even after the per encounter spell changes, people are saying such about the wizard. Very different from what people complained about back then. Later on, as people did more research, they found out how "OP" Slicken was. And all other kinds of stuff, which got rebalanced or nerfed. I think other than ranger and ciphers, wizard got the most rebalance passes.

I build the companions around their weapon slots. That's kind of the reverse of how other people do it, when they start with class/stats and talents. On the other hand, it means the companion stats don't really impact that playstyle. Sure you can squeeze some more min max effect out with might/int maximization, but usually it is at the expense of something else. For Eder, I normally use weapon with high accuracy + small shield, and either a warbow/crossbow for pulling or a melee dps option for when Eder needs to output more dps, say against high DR enemies. Disciplined barrage, shield, rapid recovery, weapon focus, fray is pretty balanced early on. Take the hit at level 11 and overbearing guard at 7. 9 is either critical defense or unbending. For Sagani, a swift attack modal combined with crossbow/arbalest/firearm can be pretty interesting, with a vicious 15% 3 dr bypass boost for the pet. If going with her first shortbow, taking -5 dr bypass for ranged attack is needed to bring out her damage. I usually keep her in 0 recovery clothing. Her slightly average might and above average int, plus high per, makes her useful for lore attack scrolls or as a summoner with figurines. I usually max her survival to get the higher acc. The wizard and priest I keep safe and in -15% recovery armor. or 20-25%. They usually use a primary range weapon that has +20% attack speed on it, plus a weapon + small shield. Large shield might make more sense for the priest. The shield's accuracy malus affects spells, but doesn't matter for self buffs. So it's good to keep from being interrupted if aggroed, and other preventing big hitters like ogres from hitting your squishies as easily, while they cast protective buffs/spells. Aloth has a perception issue, only +2 per, so he's much more effective using buffed weapons like blight or citzal's spirit lance. He tends to need to debuff enemy's fort or reflex or deflection before his spells do as much damage as they could. Wizards tend to have pretty low base ACC, so debuffing an enemy, such as flanking or hobbling them, can be pretty good for tactical synergy. Aloth has the blast talent, for a little bit more aoe dps. Durance I mostly use as a fast self buffer with bless/armor, aoe regen heals and iconic projection. I took the interdiction traits as well, for weakened later on. Very useful for my monk and barbarian synergy. The monk, barbarian, rogue, and fighters are very good when they attack flanked targets and targets debuffed by prones and blinds. It multiples their force, so to speak, so any class that can constantly debuff the enemy, such as monk/barbarian, really brings out the power of the martial classes. The rogue I use with weapon/sshield and a crossbow. I like the escape +backstab pulling option. Run up to within 2m, fire with crossbow, then hit escape. Hilarious damage. I like being able to choose alpha targets at range, to get rid of the higher priority enemies like casters and archers (especially rogue archers). Monk is dual fist and fist/sshield, acting as melee tank and single target perma CC. Barbarian is on the pike build, very good for when I create chokepoints in caves and dungeons. Barbarian can hit right in the center of the enemy horde, while my melee wall blocks the rest. Needs some equipment before it can do crowd control + aoe damage. But has some good passive buffs later on that sicken and increase attack speed. More attack speed, the better for the barbarian. The chanter I build with all defensive talents, plus some ancient healer, using healing and summong invocations with death chant and dragon's lash third level. Death x4 + Dragon 1x = 5x for ogre/drake summon later on. Neat screen effect for notification. Let's see here, what's left. Cipher is good for parties that don't like resting. Some medium armor, with sabre/shield and some range alpha, makes it pretty flexible. The psycho drain makes the cipher's will attacks easier to hit and crit, while giving you 25 deflection now. So might not need the shield any more. The cipher's talent build is probably the least flexible, which I didn't like. You pretty much need the 2 whip powers and then a weapon focus. And needs some kind of healer, like a druid/priest/chanter/paladin to support em. The druid I use as a light aoe tank, sort of like the chanter who is the heavy aoe tank. Druid's cone spells are hilarious when you use it at the front. And the blind works very well for parties that need to reduce their damage or make the enemy easier to hit (such as ciphers). Not a lot of enemies immune to blind from sunbeam. Combos well with prone and or wizard's aoe raw daze attack. I also experimented with outlander's frenzy + shapeshift, and it works out quite well for the druid's burst dps. The barbarian, I also take savage defiance with, plus healing multipliers. Makes the barbarian, not a tank, but something that can absorb some damage in case your main tank's endurance is too low. I didn't like savage blows, wasn't as game changing as frenzy or the self heal. As for paladin, I go with arquebus/arbalest, and then weapon/ sshield. With zealous focus, put Pallegina in the middle, and have her support. Go to melee if melee is needed. Otherwise keep using range dps.

My level 5 party killed one patrolling marksman at Craghold. With scroll buffs and some other op priest stuff, may have killed the barbarian and fighter, but last time I tried I got wiped and the fighter was at 80% endurance and barbarian was at 25%. One of them is worth about 5 level 5 characters. A level 7 party should be able to take on 2-3 of them, in a pull. Problem is when the AI calls in reinforcements.

If you have the 3d unity asset file for the missile, copy over it with an older version and it should work. It's like what happened to the "draining" attribute. Twice. Should be in assetbundles/prefabs Also fixing some companion animation glitches could use that method as well, I found out.

Cheap food buffs will usually raise any stat to +2, apart from resolve. The self buff Watcher ability gives +2 to all stats. I usually go with Per, because the text descriptions are fun for it. Int is also pretty good. Resolve doesn't seem like it's an actual role being played out. It's seems more like some kind of skill check to persuade or charm people. In Planescape, Charisma was its own "character" almost. The dialogue choices were "in character". You just didn't know which character it was, because it had nothing to do with your combat stats. As the game went on, you realized how the "smooth talker" personality is when linked to story events. Dexterity was tied to the thief sub character and sub arcs. INT/Wisdom was tied to the pragmatic/good roles. It was definitely a distinct personality I saw in those lines of dialogue. People say the best one was the longest, but that was only true in the sense that it made the most sense to Chris Avellone's philosophy. He tended to write more when he was engaged more. The other options were in character for other types of roles, not just other types of reactions. Per's range is 12-16 for most of them. INT's range tends to be higher.

Planescape Torment had a good and fun option of talking to companions, unlocking their peculiar issues, and then buffing their stats permanently as a result, on top of Dakkon's primary weapon morphing to suit his style. Dakkon already had a "soulbound", he didn't need 12 via an expansion. Temporary buffs or dialogue/lore based class changes, could improve the personality of certain characters (souls) without making it a "1 companion per class" thing or diluting it down to combat > companion story. The expansion characters were probably iterated on more, so they could allow for certain bonus awards. It doesn't change the limitations of the system, of course. To change the system, they needed to do it in preproduction, which presumably they are doing so for POE2's preproduction phase. As for companion stats, they don't really cripple build abilities. Min maxing wasn't a big deal in Pillars, and was designed to avoid min max builds most of the time. The classes, themselves, and their powers affect gameplay and balance more. The fact that POE has a lot more stat bonuses and food pre fight buffs, also offers more flexibility than BG2. BG2 had what, 2-4 giant girdles that affected strength, plus 1 potion from clerical domain, and a few cleric spells that only cleric and multiclassed clerics could cast... of course in BG2 18 charisma did zero for a fighter. Whereas here, 18 resolve and 18 int does provide a fighter benefit. It's just not a might benefit.

Hylea's Blessing? ... You could avoid fighting the sky dragon with RES 3 and INT 3? There's a certain dialogue option that uses logic rather than stats to pass, I think. Or maybe it was based on per.

Congrats. Reminds me of when Matron Z kept chasing me after downing 4/6 of my party, I had to kite her around a campsite doing 2-4 graze damage from Sagani until the ogre matron died. Horse archer tactics, still potent in the 21st century even after the Mongols and steppe tribes have gone into history.

Shadowflame sounds like a martial arts technique in ninja backstories.

32. Stronghold Related ActivateStronghold - if you don't have a stronghold yet, you can activate it like this StrongholdBuildAll StrongholdBuild type - all types are listed here: link StrongholdDestroy type StrongholdForceAdventure type - adventure types are listed here: link StrongholdForceBadVisitor StrongholdForceKidnapping StrongholdForcePayHirelings StrongholdForcePrisonBreak StrongholdForceSpawnIngredients StrongholdForceVisitor index - a number ranging from 0 to I don't know StrongholdForceAttack index - same AdjustSecurity int - can be a positive or a negative number AdjustPrestige int - can be a positive or a negative number AdvanceTimeByHour int Are the console commands, in the old version. It's probably listed under visitor, but I don't have the list of numbers for it.

I sometimes wonder why they didn't use backer npcs for the stronghold hirings and what not, to fill up the space. Or why the backer npc soul read feature wasn't extended, it felt like it was a small piece of a larger whole.