Starwars

Combat feeling too much like Tyranny.

I'd agree that the combat isn't too good. I think there are many good ideas and I like the idea of "puzzle encounters" and that you can use many different elements of the battlefield and so forth. But the execution is not good. And I keep having problems where I will send my characters to interact with something but the game appears to... I dunno, hang for a bit? Which in turn cancels my action (and I don't mean when I've moved too far, I mean when I should have legit actions to take). It feels rather janky.

I'm still running around Sagus Cliffs but I've been enjoying the game quite a bit. My main complaint is still that the game feels sluggish to play due to how stuff like movement works and that it always takes a while for the game to respond before you talk to people and stuff (character has to shuffle in place, and then there's a short animation for the dialogue window to come up). I just hate that stuff. And while I do like the idea of the Crisis stuff, it makes some of them really tedious when you have lots of combatants. The classic turnbased scenario when you are stuck waiting for a while to everyone to take their turn and then you have to struggle with the UI and how slow and clumsy everything feels. It's not a pleasant game to play in that regard I think, luckily most of the gameplay is talking to people and stuff so it's not really a requirement that everything feels smooth. But yeah... it annoys me quite a bit. But other than that, I really enjoy the game. It's found a similar pace to Planescape: Torment, and I really enjoy that. There is lots of reading and while some of it feels a bit lore dump-ish (the endless "who are you? why are you here? etc" questions) it's generally interesting and certainly much better than most games. I don't think the initial mystery is as strong as Planescape: Torment which is a shame. It doesn't quite have that foreign feeling of just waking up in a crazy city and trying to make your way, you get a fair amount of info regarding what your place in the world is right from the start and I think that kinda hurts it. Would've preferred it if that info was only revealed a bit later on perhaps. But yeah, I'm enjoying it quite a bit, making my way through it slowly.

I think the whole intro bit in this game is pretty bad and uninvolving. In the first version of the beta, it was... both better and worse. It had a big CYOA section (which is somewhere else in the game according to the devs) that did wonders for injecting something interesting into it, but the whole intro went on for much longer also. Now it's just kinda bad but, well, short at least. I'm enjoying going around Sagus Cliffs now. It's pretty good stuff. One thing I *really* dislike about this game though... I hate how it feels to play. Everything feels sluggish, the way the characters move around, the way they stop before talking to someone, the way the dialogue interface has little animations, the entire UI, etc. It really bothers me... I like the slower pace of the game, with lots of reading, but yeah... hate how sluggish it feels to play.

You do get a Decker (if you choose to take him) after the first few story-missions if you don't want to be a Decker yourself.

I think the best parts of the PoE soundtrack was stuff attached to the various city-districts. My favorite is the one that plays in the first district of Twin Elms, I love that so much. How it starts with the harp with the soft, soft strings (synth?) in the background and then the piano enters... aah, wonderful. Very soothing. I hope for more variety also. I would especially love more "source music", music that exists within the game itself. More tavern songs, maybe some sea shanties, stuff like that.

I thought Jane Doe was amazing for the first half then turned to complete crap for the second. Was extremely disappointing because the first half was really scary and had great mystery.

An intricate travelling system, complete with stuff like rationing, random encounters (well, think we're getting these), fatigue, maybe even diseases for the Realm of Arkania feel. All in all, I would love for a more simulationist take on it all. Adding heavily on to the "strategic layer" instead of stripping it down. Making the game more wild and crazy, allowing things to go really haywire, instead of more tightly controlled. That'd be pretty cool.

Meh, this sounds like another pretty lame stretch goal... glad we got the portraits though.

For me, having a fair amount of per-rest stuff kinda adds a feeling of... well, the game feeling a bit more open. Some may argue that it's easier to tune combat encounters when you always know what the player's arsenal will be, and that is certainly true, but to me it just feels so... ugh, I don't know. It just feels too controlled. I love the feeling of being able to A) walk into a tough encounter and getting owned because I was sloppy with controlling my per-rest stuff or alternatively B) being able to just unleash all of my arsenal because I happened to have a lot of that stuff saved. Also, having that "strategic layer" (and I'm not saying it's rocket-science to manage or that it can't be improved or whatever) just adds a feeling of the world being "alive" and breathing and sort of independent of the player. I guess many people disagree but I was kinda disappointed when they removed the fatigue thing from PoE. Not because it's a problem or an obstacle in any way but... because it adds to the feeling of being out on an adventure somewhat, and that was always a strong suit in the BG games especially. In Tyranny, I literally feel like I'm just moving from combat encounter to combat encounter, pushing buttons that light up. It's all about the "feel" for me, it just feels too dry and too controlled.

Thanks guys!

If I buy the Physical box tier and add the Early access add-on... how does that work? Does the Early access turn into a full game upon release or does that just "stay beta version" forever?

Made a mistake in my pledge, I thought the physical version of the guidebook was included in the Collector's Edition box tier as it was in Pillars 1 (unless I'm misremembering and the guidebook was bought as an add-on there also?) That's probably the main physical thing I want as the first guidebook was excellent so now I'm considering dropping my pledge by a fair amount and just getting the book as an add-on instead. Really wish it was included in the Collector's Edition tier, don't really want to spend even more money than that. I also wish the mousepad was an add-on, I did like the one for the first game.

I would've liked 6 party members, always liked that number in previous games and always felt it provided for some good experimentation in party composition. But... 5 might work well as well. Wasn't thrilled when I heard that they were decreasing the party limit but it's not a deal breaker. If it had been 4, I would've been very disappointed.

Personally I like it more when companions are a "spread out" a bit. I think PoE had a really nice balance, especially after The White March was released. Not a huge fan off when games load up all the companions at the "front" so to speak.

I must admit that I find the attention given to the models is somewhat strange as is it is an isometric game. I mean, there are the paper dolls but still... But yeah, the game looks immense judging from the video.

I'm pretty disappointed with this change. I guess it will make things more "manageable" but I think it would've been fine since they are already doing slower combat speed and the improved graphics will probably mean a much greater clarity. Managing the 6 player party in PoE was really fun in my opinion and while it could certainly become chaotic in some places, yeah... I think there are other improvements that could've helped with that. Still, not a deal breaker for me. And like someone mentioned, I hope it's not a sign that they'll take pointers from Tyranny's combat which was quite awful I think.

Goddamnit Obsidian... can't really afford dropping as much money as I did into this at the moment. But... ...take my money!

Saw a Korean movie called The Wailing which is pretty much one of the best new films I've seen in a really long time. Extremely impressed with it. In other news, Alien: Covenant trailer:

I don't know if I'm overly sensitive but the windy effect almost made me quit the game because I found it to be extremely... overdone. I live in a very windy environment and it's like... I guess it's fine in a fantasy environment maybe but it just broke my immershun!11! that people would talk calmly to each other, hair not being affected at all etc when it was blowing hard enough that trees would start to break after a prolonged exposure to that kind of wind. A lot of people would find that nitpicking but it really bothered me.

The Green Room. One of the best thrillers in recent memory that I can think of. I was on the edge of my seat, very good and and pretty harrowing.

Just perfect.

I've only played through Tyranny once so far so I'm not too "familiar" with the music yet but I feel like there were a few more stand out tracks in Pillars. The Twin Elms music, Defiance Bay, some of the Endless Paths music. Stalwart.

Replaying Pillars, have done two parts of the Act II main quests and am about to enter the Battery in White March 1. Yeah... this game is way better for me than Tyranny is, even though I really enjoy the smaller but "deeper" scope of Tyranny. I just enjoy everything about PoE's gameplay much, much more.

Dishonored 2 looks quite good but... 60GB download... ffs.