Telas

The Shadowrun series, Wasteland 2 which was heavily marketed as a Fallout 2 spiritual successor, Underrail, Tyranny, the Original Sin series, and in the meantime people were waiting for Pathfinder, Wasteland 3, Encased and Solasta to come out. Busy decade for cRPG's especially if you count DLC's and Director's Cut versions in there. I certainly had plenty of options to pick other than POE2. Wasteland 2&3 and the Pathfinder series are excellent choices.

When POE first came out you could count cRPG's in one hand. Of course people will buy and enjoy it for what it is. When POE2 came out, the market was already fully satiated with a big list of meaty cRPG's and having options allows you to be more peaky and pedantic with a purchase. If 5%(random number) of POE players didn't like the walls of text, some others the combat system or the graphics or the story or whatever else, they could afford to look elsewhere. POE2 wasn't the only option in the market. Reviewers can't even influence their own grandmothers anymore so let's stop pretending that positive/negative reviews do anything sales wise. Give a 5% special offer to Cyberpunk and watch it stay as a Steam top sale for days

I mentioned other potential problems too, like graphics, combat system, performance and marketing etc. Comparing sales of Pathfinder and POE is a little bit unfair imo. One is ''D&D 3.5'', POE is homebrew. One is fully 3D the other 2D with 3D models. The fact that PF is using D&D ruleset is a massive advantage by itself as it was one of the most popular systems for generations. Still is. Then you have Setting and Themes. The Pathfinder series for the most part is all about kill bad Lord, kill bad Demons while POE relies on philosophy and religion. I personally love it, but maybe some people just want to hunt the bad lord or kill some Demons? Anyways yeah, as Boeroer said, trying to find the whys or hows is a never ending story. I said my piece, now i'm out. Heavily edited

Luckily for you, my wall of text is just a forum post that you can read while chilling at your desk. Durance introduction is 3 times longer and the guy is just a worse version of my own custom made Priest.

Last time i clicked a golden plate npc was back in 2015 so that's not the issue. Grey text and memory reading sequences are atrocious in POE. And then you have the crazy long introductions for Durance and Grieving Mother. Lady Webb and Duc Aevar combined have less character building than the above edgelord companions who aren't even mechanically special. '''The walls of text, amazing descriptions and writing that makes me feel like I am playing a character in a good book are what has been missing. I am so thankful to you all over at Obsidian for making this game, I feel a sense of wonder and fascination with PoE that I haven't experienced with a game for so long I feared it would never return. I can't wait for the next CRPG to come out of Obsidian, you have a loyal fan for life.'' Not gonna lie, i chuckled while reading that because it proves my point and it's exactly what i don't want in my RPG's. Between 2500 loading screens that slowly rot my enjoyment throughout the game, the unnecessarily long walls of text, and the combat system that demands plenty of my attention, the last thing i want is clicking a npc and reading 12 dialogue screens of gray description text. I enjoy reading but Pillars 1 is like a hidden visual novel inside a complex RPG. Players who are interesting for such experience are not many and probably won't be playing the game more than once. Again, Deadfire is a massive improvement on that even if i didn't knew it when the game first released. There is a reason why i still play Dragon Age Origins, Icewind Dale 1&2, BG1&2, POE2, Tyranny, etc instead of Planescape Torment or Tides of Numenera. They look the same but it's a different market for different players. I have a person as a Steam Friend who bought POE, by mid game got overwhelmed by the walls of text and just left it unfinished. And of course he never bought Deadfire. Example of well written and minimalistic gray description text(pic 1). Example of well written and minimalistic memory reading text(pic 2). Example of a balanced 'Choose your own adventure' event. Text heavy but still smaller than some NPC descriptions of POE(pic3).

Because reading a cool book in front of a fireplace is different from reading a book while video gaming. I'm in the middle of clearing a map while trying to understand what happened to the guy. I'm fully focused on finishing the quest. Reading two pages of unnecessary fluff is not what i want as a player especially when there is no real reason to stretch that story so much. I'm not so sure about that. cRPG's are mostly about well designed quest that you can complete in a variety of ways, interesting character/team building and progression, fun combat system, choice & consequence, etc. I personally don't know any cRPG player who's into book reading while video gaming in front of their computers. I played Kingmaker and the storytelling felt balanced to me. Lot's of stuff to read if you want but not as many walls of text like in Pillars 1. Chunky dialogue trees if i remember correctly. For WotR i can't comment yet. Baldur's Gate 1&2, Icewind Dale 1&2, Wasteland 2&3, POE:Deadfire, Fallout 1&2, Tyranny, Underrail. All of them are well made cRPG's and most importantly, with direct stories. Zero 30 pages long character descriptions like you have in POE or Planescape Torment.

''Josh Sawyer - Breaking the Mold RPG Evolution'' Amazing talk but Josh opened the doors to all Armchair Entrepreneurs like me.

My own armchair opinion. 1) Unacceptable performance in both games -20 points 2) Strange combat system in both games especially for newcomers -20points 3) Strange graphics for many people especially newcomers -20 points 4) Too much unnecessary reading in POE1. Introduction for Durance and Grieving Mother as an example is straight up cringe(quality writing but still cringe). Like, brother you're edgy and cool, but i just want a cleric for my team, can we skip the 46 paragraphs pls? I don't care about your wrinkles or the number of your eyelashes. Minimalism > Maximalism The picture below is another example. A full book page just to tell me that an Elven hunter died while fighting a lion. Information that you can easily compress to a small paragraph and still get an interesting story -25 points 5) Strange marketing. The game came out and i had no idea, even if 7/10 of my Steam games are cRPG's.. -50 points 6) Pirate Setting maybe? I personally love it but it's not for everyone. -15 points Long story short, i bought it years later because i thought that Deadfire will contain all the shortcomings of POE1. And i was mostly right. The book fetishism was gone but the performance is crippling even today(Loading times mainly).

I'm near the end of chapter 2 and a level 9 party. Never had a problem with pathfinding so far but i micro the crap out of the system and when i want to reposition a character i always shift click waypoints. Maybe things get trickier further into the game but from a couple of meaty battles down the Endless Paths i believe i'll be fine. Light hearted outdoor exploration especially in maps with main roads or adjusted to Gilded Vale and Dyrford is supposed to be chill. It make sense too. Bandits, wolves, xautrips and the occasional Lurker is what i expect to find a couple kilometers away from a village. ''Trash encounters(i dislike that term)'' is the perfect moment to activate the party AI and take a sip from your coffee. We can discuss the content overleveling problem if you want but that's a different issue. I know Sawyer is with you on that one but i disagree. Its a neat simple way to make players stop spamming their spells but i play on hard, so 2 plus the ones you can find while exploring the map are more than enough even with my restricted stash. As for Wrath of the Righteous, i'll check it in a year from now but yeah, their camping system is a little heavier. I can agree that POE II combat system is improved to an extend but then again, i never felt that it was in need for improvement if you know what i mean. I have to put more time to POE 1 before i'm able to see negatives but for now everything works fine. Buffing/debuffing is intuitive, and comboing spells abilities and attacks together feels tactical and fulfilling. Exactly. The amount of thought and care in making a compelling and believable setting is simple jaw dropping in Pillars. Duc that gets elected by the surrounding seven semi independent earldoms, the geopolitical relations with nearby regions, the animancy issue, the tense political situation in Defiance Bay, the badass House Hadret full of Cypher agents... So good.

Playing through Pillars 1 right now(to make a proper save import for Pillars 2) and the game is just better in almost every aspect other than graphics. Especially with some of the extra difficulty options enable. Darker tone, Pantheon representation, longer dungeons, late medieval setting, resource management, companions, no reused assets, etc. Ugly 3D models for sure, but way better overall. Best iteration of Baldur's Gate gameplay loop i've seen in a modern cRPG. The fact that i don't see the same 3 portraits to every minor character, or the same forest map in every other islet makes it even better. Pretty graphics is not why i play cRPG's so personally i can do without that ''improvement''. Give me simpler graphics with stable FPS any day. Full voice acting, again i find it distracting especially when it is low quality. Some instances are so bad that it brings me a visual image of the actor rehearsing lines with notepad on hand and all. Rathun Brenthis, Sugaan, etc. Yeap, we can at least agree on that one.

''Biggest step back? 1) Reused maps(especially bog and rocky mountain). It feels very cheap and Pillars as series doesn't deserve such treatment.'' '' POE 1, Tyranny, Deadfire. 3 Unity games made by Obsidian in a small timeframe, all sharing the same look, all sharing the same problems, all sharing a low production value. Loss of prestige as a gaming studio. People will simple stop auto buying whatever you throw at them after a while. If Pillars 3 comes out tomorrow, watch a review and see that it looks the same as Deadfire just with different story i know exactly what type of game is going to be. No matter the praise from IGN or whatever youtube reviewer, i as a player know if that game is for me or not because they sold me the same thing 3 times in a row already. POE, Tyranny, POE II Deadfire, POE III Ixamitl '' As you can see from my original comment above, i never said it was the main reason but i just gave it as an example of cheapness. You cut corners on everything for 2 games in a row and you do the same for your third one. Selling nostalgia and good writing can only get you so far. Simple and elegant explanation but time for me to move on from that discussion. Daven's thread isn't about sales, market shares and pie charts.

Oh? Ripping off Sayuka's map and distributing around the Deadfire's islands is kind of a big deal for me, yeah. If you don't care that's cool. But i think you'll be surprised by how many people do care about the details when they buy artful games like POE. Let's move on because i'm slowly tickling the fanboy instincts of some and the aggression is getting hotter by the minute. Next time i'll be a less critical consumer even when i'm paying full price for a product(not). I rate his complaint with 7/10 but i can improve it if you let me. You ready to hear my own version? Here goes: Seeing the same 4 portraits used on 30 different rando npc's is cheap. Very cheap. Solution: No need to give them portraits. Make some cool ones and use them only to the main/important characters(big brain thought).

Same for me. Payed full price and i never finished it but i wouldn't go as far as to call it rubbish. It Is a well made game just not for my taste. It does kind of. POE 1, Tyranny, Deadfire. 3 Unity games made by Obsidian in a small timeframe, all sharing the same look, all sharing the same problems, all sharing a low production value. Loss of prestige as a gaming studio. People will simple stop auto buying whatever you throw at them after a while. If Pillars 3 comes out tomorrow, watch a review and see that it looks the same as Deadfire just with different story i know exactly what type of game is going to be. No matter the praise from IGN or whatever youtube reviewer, i as a player know if that game is for me or not because they sold me the same thing 3 times in a row already. POE, Tyranny, POE II Deadfire, POE III Ixamitl Thelee, no one said about sudden change of plans. You make games for 20 years in a row you know how many maps you'll need. If you don't have the money or the time to make maps you simple make your product smaller instead of reusing assets. Non of us will miss those 4 Bog encounters in the game. Nor the other 8 with the same rocky mountainous map. Again we speak about Obsidian not Jeff Vogel and his small family business.

Not my favorite games either but the quality of their graphics engine(for a crpg) and the overall level design is top notch. And again, situations with both companies were very similar money wise. They had it rough as much as Obsidian but for some reason they came out on top. All and all, Pillars may be MY favorite Crpg's but i understand why Deadfire didn't sell. Cut corners here with reused Maps and other art assets, cut corners there by using a cheap engine, cut some more to put full VO... and final product is a withered game. Not many people are willing to pay 40-60$ for a loading screen simulator, especially when it looks 2D with 3D elements. Damn it! I'm roasting my two most beloved games relentlessly, i need to chill.

How much more do you think it will cost them to prepare 3-4 small maps like the one in the last part of my image? I did 3D work in the past and believe me, with todays tools you can easily ''3D paint'' over the river some land, and shuffle the props around to make it look different. All you have to do after that is take some isometric pictures for the 2D preparation, draw the NavMesh and boom. A new bog type map ready for use. I am playing a full priced Obsidian game, not Avernum by Jeff Vogel(cool games tho) Let's not speak about various item icons that they took from POE to use them in Tyranny.