MedicineDan

lol My wife was listening to Deadfire and she says, "this is my favorite of the games you play. I usually hate hearing them, but the music is really good." I found myself whistling, humming, and singing Like a Child Rests. My wife says she realizes why I've been doing it. The game has a song in it that sounds just like it.

hehehe I couldn't remember her name, but I do like wasting my money on San Pellegrino. I'm drinking some with some lemon and gin right now! In other news, I finished everything I could find in Deadlight and now I'm scouring the seas. I've collected three bounties so far. I also knocked off a Principi who attacked me. My ship isn't all that great, but one salvo and then we board. My people are brutes! Good Lord, this is the best game I've played in... years? I really enjoyed Pillars 1. I backed it with what was, for me, a lot of money. For my own reasons, I'll always love it and, for one specific reason I will always have it installed with one save that will never be erased. However, Deadfire is simply glorious.

I played the hell out of Crusader Kings, but I don't have much interest in CK2 or EU3 or beyond. Good games, but I'm played out on them. I recently started a game of Deadfire. Wow! It's a wonderful game! I plundered as much as I could for the moment in Neketaka and then made my way to Deadlight. I think I did most everything there and now I'm going to explore and collect bounties for just a bit. I'm ~10th level, so I don't know how much I have left to go, but it's simply brilliant!

I personally got a huge kick out of the bathhouse. Romanesque except that there would have been hot and cold baths. Still, it was damned impressive! I took Maia into my party, but I haven't used her yet. She does come in handy in ship to ship combat. I think that bird is hers and it pecks the hell out of the enemy. I also took Pellegrino with me. She puts the hammer down! As for you, Manifested, we might not agree about the beauty of New Vegas, but I'm even father into the game at this point and my enthusiasm has not waned at all. I just killed off Benny. I tried talking to him, but the little bastard was determined to go after me. I guess I could have let the rest of the party watch as my main went mano a mano with the runt, but instead we bum rushed him and dumped his body off the wall. Then I went down, found his room full of henchmen, and put paid to them also just for the hell of it. Great times! I did everything I could in Neketaka, took care of things in Deadlight, and now I'll go back to exploring. At least, when I get home again, I will.

Ah, I see. So don't worry about being on the outs with the Principi. I'm in Deadlight right now getting along with everyone. My personal inclination is that if a bunch of pirates keep attacking me, I'll just end up with the loot I refuse to pilfer from other innocent folk. In fact, while I won't outright steal based on the arbitrary "stealing" or not stealing based on the cursor, I'm pretty much filching everything in sight in Deadfire because it's probably ill-gotten anyway and I give to charity a lot. Hell, I dropped 5 grand to help some old bastard I barely knew. So, talk to the folks in the city but kill off any pirate who won't let me get away? I appreciate the tips, mon frère.

I did a search, but it's a tangled mess. I found a thread about intentionally losing rep with the Principi sen patrena, but I want to gain reputation. ...Or, let me turn that around, does it matter from a story perspective? I have decent reps with everyone, but I got lost in Neketaka and ended up having to fight some people in the undercroft. I got to the exit with minimal fighting, but it put me at -3 rep with the Principi. Now, I get attacked at sea. No big deal so far, I just take the hit, board, and knock off people, but I don't know if I want to be at odds with them. Luckily, I can still get into their city without hostility, but I'm at a loss. If there's no avoiding being at odds with one faction or another and I just need to live with it, I will. I was determined from the outset not to reload. Fair enough, but I'm curious how to address this looking forward.

I'd say that anything that exists in the backer milestones would be considered a foundational 'tenet,' but that's a very specific list. That's why, vis a vis RtWP, going completely TB would cause headaches at this point. On the other hand, Obsidian owns the IP. They had to follow their promises to backers for the games they produced. Now, the devs can do whatever they want to do. It's just a matter of how much pain they want to incur from the community in order to do it. Surveys might sway them, but the ultimate decision should be theirs. Personally, I like it better that way. Sure, listen to the players in order to get new ideas, come up with features that will appeal to a broader group, identify the features that are vital to keeping the core players happy, etc. In the end, however, I trust the devs' vision of the game much more than a mob of unruly random internet folks. Otherwise, why wouldn't they simply go off of existing sales of other games and try to replicate what's already been done? People want to think of video games as an art form like movies or literature. How can we call it art if we don't allow some freedom to the artist?

Just got this when I left Neketaka. Good Lord!

Aw, I think leet Exodus was just tweaking folks. If we use sales as a yardstick, we'd probably end up with Mario brothers or tetris or something as our only game. I get the idea that there're are several very successful games out there that use turn based, but that's actually an argument to use a turn based system. I'm not much invested in the TB vs RTwP argument, but I do believe the strongest case is to include both. Now that they've provided a game that caters to both crowds, the benefits of sticking to one because it tightens the effort is probably not worth pissing off fans on the other side who want what they want. I certainly wouldn't transform it completely to TB. Backers of the first two games would be mightily and rightfully pissed off. As to you, KP, I like the idea of a steampunk game. Kind of like... Arcanum? I think that was it. People were angry about its flaws, but it was great fun. It's not the game I'm pushing, but I imagine it'd still be the game I'd happily buy. I'd really like a Chthulu game, but that's not feasible for the franchise whereas steampunk is doable.

I want to start out that I won't hold a grudge for anyone advocating for his or her desired feature. If the group that feels strongly about RTwP gets its way, I won't gripe endlessly about it. So, I'm not hashing out this post with furious fingers and rage filled hands. You might find RTwP more exciting, 3x0du5, but I don't. I think it quickly gets messy in a way that overshadows tactical decisions. In Pillars 1, even being extremely careful, a lot of combat would come down to competing mobs. Yes, positioning still played a role. It wasn't always about two mobs clashing in the middle of the screen, but it often came down to that in my game. I haven't spent a lot of time watching gaming videos, but the ones I've seen fairly mimic my own experiences playing the game. So, I prefer turn based because I personally feel I get more out of the various build decisions than I do out of RTwP. In fact, RTwP encourages me to select passive abilities more often than I normally would just so I don't have keep track of them. If people believe that's a deficiency on my part, fair enough. I don't agree, but I won't take it personally either. However, with that said, I do have sympathy for people who've followed the franchise the whole time. I remember RTwP was pretty much central to the original crowd funding scheme. I didn't like it, but I figured that a lot of my favorite games have been RTwP and I would enjoy it. I did. I was happily playing Deadfire before the happy surprise that I had a turn-based option newly available. That's why I'm not going to engage in the battle over the decision in a prospective third installment. I guess I'm just generally kibitzing about the option rather than hard-core arguing over it.

On one hand, I'll generally push for turn based combat. When I was younger, I think it allowed me to consider my options and make decisions and feel like I was clever. Now, I'm too lazy to pretend that it's anything other than easier for me to keep track of things. RTwP, which has provided hours upon hours of fun for me over the years spread across many games, is wonderful, but it's never been my first choice. If it comes down to which squeakier wheel is aiming for the grease, put me in the quietly humming crowd who will be happy for the devs to figure out which one is better and create *that* game.

If they use the same engine, they already have turn based and RTwP . Are they using a new engine that we know? I mean, I was enjoying Deadfire before they included turn-base mode. I just enjoy it more now.

I'm playing Deadfire turn based right now. Why wouldn't they give the same option as they do now?

Turn based: Check! I tried Divinity Original Sin 2, but it just didn't do it for me. Maybe I'm too old school and feel the need for classes. In pretty much every respect, I prefer Deadfire, which is ironic since I had it in my library when I bought and played through Divinity for several hours. So, the best part of Divinity from my perspective is that I ended revisiting Deadfire because of it. Note, I'm not attacking DOS2. I just prefer Deadfire. Also, if I missed sarcastic subtext, I humbly beg pardon.

After I'd pledged to Deadfire, I figured I was being loyal to a brand that had done right by me in the past. I would not have pledged anything more than base to Pillars 3. Now, to my chagrin, I've discovered a time sink in Deadfire, a most excellent game. Just amazing. I will buy Outer Worlds sight unseen for various reasons, one of which is the fact that it looks interesting. I would sink in even more money into Pillars 3 simply because of how much I've enjoyed Pillars of Eternity 2.

I finally got home and tried this, Waski. Awesome! Thanks! EDIT: ...And I just found Tekehu. I rolled my eyes for the first few minutes he was in my party and I even found myself agreeing with my poor old friend Aloth, the newfound misanthropist. However, after I had a certain experience and a long discussion with Tekehu, I find I sympathize with him quite a bit. Great character. Voice acting is quite well done. No cringeworthy performances so far.

*Sorry, mates this will be a long-winded rant* Deadfire is truly incredible. I can’t recommend it until I finish because… well on principle, I never recommend a game I haven’t finished. However, this is truly shaping up to be Obsidian’s chef d'oeuvre. At this point, having visited four areas of Neketaka, I’m convinced that this effort will be on par with Fallout: New Vegas, which makes two Obsidian games in my top five. That’s simple astounding. Moreover, I’ve had the game for over a year and a half but only recently started playing. I’d started a game on release but for some reason I wasn’t interested so I stopped playing after I ended up on the ship in the first five minutes or so. Now, I can’t let it go. Anyhow, that’s my testimonial. Here are specifics. The empire building in ship form is a nice break from kingdom building. I haven’t done much of it, but I’ve like it. I just hope it doesn’t become sheer tedium. I’m looking at you, Pathfinder: Kingmaker! So far so good and I have my fingers crossed. Edér is one of the best companions of any CRPG. His voice acting is spot on. The writing is clever, witty, and succeeds at making Edér a truly sympathetic and likeable character. So much better than the over the top and often grammatically incorrect Kreia from KotOR 2. Don’t get me wrong. I make grammatical errors all the time. That’s why I’d be an extremely poor NPC. Well, maybe as a pathetic comedy figure, but probably not even that. The NPCs overall are simply wonderful. I like the interparty banter. I like the fact that the dialogue isn’t mind-numbingly long and wandering. Hell, I have four NPCs and an… NPCesque kind of dwarf I sent back to the ship. The party is a gratifying combination of new and old faces. Arkemyr’s mansion is just brilliant! I had a few options for how to get into the place. I ended up finding a way in by accident, snuck around until I found a way to finish everything without fighting anyone, got what I wanted and left. These days, I don’t pilfer everything in sight, so I had to leave all that great loot behind, including at least one epic weapon, but it was fun times. I did pick all the locks and take a look to see what I was missing. All I took out of the place was a robe, for obvious reasons, and the tablet I needed for the greater good of the Huana. The Old City is very well done. I stayed down too long so the lift left. I found a way out, but it did entail having to engage in unwanted combat. There’s still a big bad beasty down there I’m going to come back to see when I’m a couple levels higher. Maybe nine or ten. I don’t know if I could have beat it, but it looked like too much work. I guess I’ll truncate this rambling rant about the game and just jot down a list. Pros: Playable NPCs are great A lot of info and lore packed into short and easy to read bites Interactable NPCs names’ show when I TAB Floating flavor text is fun, sometimes witty, and economically conveys information Island exploration (only a couple so far, but fun) Pacing is good Brought back good ol’ Eothas A bunch of other stuff, but I’m tired now Cons: In terms of things that irk me, probably only two I wish that dialogue scrolled so I could read it during the conversation. I need to keep experimenting and see if there’s some way to do that because, while it’s great to have it in the log, I often want to reference preceding lines of conversation while I’m in the middle of it. I was irked at having to fight my way out of the Old City because I’m afraid it impacted my rep with one of the factions significantly. On the other hand, Dudenheim up top warned me that lift wouldn’t be there for long. …And I could have loaded a save, but I firmly believe in living with the consequences of my actions. In that case, maybe this belongs in the pro section also.

Longbow <.<

This reminds me of a friendly argument I had with someone about Kingmaker Fighter guide because he claimed fighters are boring and always the same. Of course, that's true neither for the video game nor the tabletop game. Tons of options about what to do will change how you play a fighter. In terms of Deadfire, I'm on my first real run and slowly making my way through the game. I'm wondering, and I'm ready for honest answers on this, is the question whether or not choices truly differentiate characters within a class or is it a matter of the hardest settings making only one pathway a viable build? On classic settings, the combat is super easy. I used to try to finish all games on the hardest setting, but I simply don't have time to do that anymore. I used to finish every single game, and I'm lucky to finish two a year at this point. I believe making the harder settings for the game unplayable for all but a single build in each class is a design flaw. It is, nonetheless, a design flaw that very few players will actually notice. I know I wouldn't at this point. On the normal setting, I could maybe make a better build, but I think it's better to have fun with the build you want and be able to finish the game. As far as I can see, between multiclassing and 'feat' selection, there's a lot of differentiation. However, there is also a huge difference between turn based and RTwP. Turn based really does help take advantage of build decisions in a way that, for me, RTwP doesn't as much. The turn-based/RTwP discussion is probably better in a different thread, but I believe it fits into the question of choice and builds also.

People get too bent out of shape about these things. My first thought is, "Why shouldn't shareholders reap the benefit of their investments?" Of course, they need to provide something that at someone values enough to purchase. Subscription services are useful if the people who use them find value in them. I'm not defending companies and executives based on morality. I'm merely saying that the model has worked fabulously well. To wit, we're hear arguing about whether or not we're going to spend money on subscription services. That's a model that's working as it should. Some people won't want to pay for a subscription and will instead purchase the game outright. Others will see sufficient reason to pay for a subscription. Some people will pre-order, even though that will entail at least some level of blind trust while others will wait for release and reviews. ...And, if you hate how companies operation, I would suggest your ire isn't with the companies but instead should be directed at the consumer base that allows the companies to exist. Now, if there's fraud or theft or some other such involved, go after the bastards. By all means. Anyhow, the real reason I'm posting is because I really get a kick out the Weird Al video someone posted up top. Don't get me wrong. I make grammatical mistakes all of the time, but I literally get such a kick out of the video I still enjoy it.

I've enjoyed both quite a bit. I haven't had much chance to play Deadfire or visit the forums since I started the game about a week ago, so I'm still only into the second area of the first real city, but I'm liking it a lot. More than the first one, to be honest. I enjoyed Kingmaker also, and I'm part of a rather large Pathfinder tabletop group. I like the background and... ethos? of the Pillars setting more, but I appreciate the familiarity of the Pathfinder setting. I really got a lot of fun out of the kingdom building of Kingmaker at first, but it got to be a hassle in the end. So much was tied into it, though, that it's hard to toggle it off, so I muddled through until I got irritated and stopped playing. I think I'd just finished taking over some bards kingdom a while before I stopped. I'm really digging the ship element of Deadfire much more than I expected. I haven't had hardly play time with it, but the little I have is intriguing.

I'd thought that turn-based was something introduced within the past week, which isn't realistic if you've plugged in 129 hours. Unless you're a *real* 'iron man!' lol I appreciate RTwP, but I have always preferred turn based. Let's see if I can at least attempt to post this. I was thanking someone for a pale elf portrait earlier and found out too late that I'd reached some sort of daily limit. EDIT: Well, ain't I the resident Jackass?! I just saw that my post which, I *swear* told me I couldn't post because of limits, is there! lol I'm such an idiot-stick! ...But, for the record, I really do appreciate turn based combat. ...And I love Deadfire. I regret not starting it sooner.

I want to thank Cyrus_Blackfeather for his post. I decided that a couple of the ones he posted would be better than what I have in there now.

I love turn based. I'd barely started playing when I started the game and the switch to turn based was available. I can attest that, for me, combat didn't boil down to a big glob in the middle of the screen. I wish Pillars 1 had included it, but I understand that most folks seem to like RTwP.