Mungrul

I honestly don't get why people are so desparate to compare it to Skyrim. It plays completely differently and I don't think it's even trying to be the same type of game. Much like how I didn't understand people comparing The Outer Worlds to Fallout New Vegas. In fact, I think the more valid comparison, and the way to view how Obsidian are evolving as a developer, is to compare The Outer Worlds and Avowed, as they're obviously based on the same overall game design philosophy (let alone engine). And Avowed has clearly learned a LOT of lessons from TOW and improved upon it.

First off, while this is a complaint post, I am otherwise absolutely loving the game! Having reached Galawain's Tusks, I feel confident in criticising how companions work in Avowed. All of them are interesting characters, and the narrative encourages you to frequently swap them out. But in practice, two of the companions play suboptimally, especially in late game, for a couple of reasons. Kai and Marius effectively have to take a back-seat once you have Giatta and Yatzli if you don't want to be playing suboptimally. Of the two ladies, Yatzli is less essential, but still has a feature that requires you take her with you if you don't have prior knowledge of the maps. Her "Special" ability to reveal illusions is the only special ability that the player character has no equivalent of. But Giatta, being the only healer, quickly becomes essential, especially if playing on the higher difficulties. If you're not playing with Giatta, you will be spending more on consumables to keep you alive, which will in turn eat into your ability to upgrade your equipment. The other characters do have various control-like side effects, but none of these can compete with Giatta's healing abilities. If you're playing to enjoy the story while also experiencing challenging combat, this adversely affects enjoyment; for example, narratively, it makes sense that Marius should be in your team almost constantly when you get to Galawain's Tusks. But mechanically, both Yatzli and Giatta trump him, as he simply can't offer the same tools that they do. Avowed shares a lot in common with Veilguard's companion system, but there they handily avoided the Giatta problem by ensuring that everyone was capable of healing if required. I'm not saying it should be the same in Avowed, but the control options offered by the other companions should at least be equivalent to the benefits offered by Giatta's heals. Either that, or Giatta's healing is nerfed to bring her more in line with the other characters. I know balancing healers is a perrenial issue in RPGs, but it's not impossible. The other thing that annoys me and rips me out of the game is companions commenting on the mission or dungeon you've just completed as though they were in the party when they weren't. It may seem a minor quibble to a lot of people, but from a narrative continuity perpective, it's really jarring. And on the minor side of things (but a broader perspective), the lack of companion gear and the relative simplicity of companion builds compared to player ones is also annoying. Not as bad as the issues outlined above, but still enough to make companions feel more like extra skills on a hotbar rather than fully fledged individuals. Please note that none of these issues are enough to ruin the game for me! I'm having a blast, and think that it's a more than worthwhile addition to Obsidian's Eora universe. Some things even work better in this action-RPG format than in the CRPG one, such as consumables and grenades. But they do tarnish the experience and seem like things that are relatively easy to fix.

Same here. Pretty golden glow coming from a chest I can't open

Okay, this bug is still in the game as of 4.1.2. I've got a bunch of stuff I need pyrite for, and incredibly limited availability. Having one of the few vendors that sells it simply not be there is annoying.

This has only been an issue since the new patch (GOG 4.1.1.0034). When choosing the stealth option for scripted interactions, it ignores the stealth stat on the Watcher and seems to use the lowest Stealth skill score in the party to resolve the check (mine fails every time and says that Eder was the character the check was made against, even though my level 19 Watcher has 21 Stealth). It doesn't even let you choose which character to make the check with. I have experienced this in two different Stealth checks now, and have tested it by saving and reloading, then choosing different party compositions. Notably, in one scenario where every character but one had a score in Stealth, the check defaulted to the character with 0 Stealth.

Yeah, I have this too. Although maybe this needs to be moved to the turn-based beta sub-forum?

Huh, as this is my first time playing through, I thought it was just default behaviour. Is she supposed to offer anything interesting, such as quests, etc.?

Me too, but I haven't played the game in RTwP mode. I bought it specifically because they added turn-based, and am loving every fight. I'm at level 17 now and still not tired of the combat. I have criticisms, but speed isn't one of them.

Mind if I chime in? General feedback improvements: Engagement indicators need to be clearer. Animations are needed for disengagement attacks and each cleave. Bug: If you sneak-attack and kill a target outside of combat in one move, you can immediately hit pause then sneak again and combat won't start. This may actually be a feature. However, what definitely is a bug is the fact that your character now has perfect stealth, and is to all intents and purposes invisible. You can now repeat this process on every enemy in the area, and as long as you take them out in one hit, combat will not initiate, even though enemies are exploding before their buddies' eyes. Edit: Oh yeah, another couple of bugs I get quite frequently: Mind Blades cast by the player can occasionally make all enemies invisible and untargetable; and this invisibility is not just limited to those hit by Mind Blades. It's all enemies. They become visible again only after the attack your characters. Interestingly, if you have a character that's still in stealth when this happens, you can see the invisible enemy's vision cone, but still can't damage them with AoE. Grimoire pages often show just the last two spell entries and nothing else. Restarting the entire game can fix this.

The odd thing is, some summons and friendly characters do have AI. In ship-to-ship combat, companions and crew who aren't members of your party act of their own accord. Substantial Phantom and similar abilities also do their own thing. Odd design choice. Maybe have some options in the game settings? Such as: 1: All summons / non-party friendlies have AI. 2: Some do, some don't (the way it is now). 3: All summons / non-party friendlies are controlled by the player.

Just a heads up, I'm playing the game in turn-based, and even if I don't attack in the first round, the guards go hostile.

I'd just like to chime in and say that this game is spectacular. I picked it up because of turn-based mode being added, and I'm having a fantastic time. It has a lot of that old-school Infinity Engine feel to it, as well as having a really rather grand turn-based mode now, which has always been my preferred mode for RPGs. I couldn't stand the RtwP mode in the first game, and this has completely fixed that issue. The systems, while derivative of D&D, are just different enough to be refreshing, but similar enough to scratch a lot of the same itches that ToEE scratched. I feel they need a bit more time to mature (skill points for rogues is a personal sticking point), but are otherwise great. Could we get a more verbose combat log though, with dice-rolls and variables? Oh, and animations for disengagement attacks too! I hope this gets a lot of attention and sells well, as it's shaping up to be one of my favourite games for years (I'll reserve final judgement until I've finished it, but can't see it going too wrong). And personally, this is a LOT better than the mess Larian made of Divinity Original Sin 2. You can really tell this is designed by RPG veterans, where Larian's systems feel like they've been created by people who've never read a P&P rulebook. Can't wait to get home and venture forth some more!

I'm curious about this too, although I'd like to know the GOG time rather than Steam. I bought the game two days ago when I became aware that turn-based was being patched in!

Just a quick note to say that these bugs were both fixed by the recent patch, and I can now continue playing. Thanks!

Also in that save, Raedric can't be killed during the quest "Champion of Berath". Upon reaching 0HP, he becomes untargetable. Initially, he'll just be standing there and combat will end. If I exit the map and re-enter, he becomes hostile again with full HP. If I kill him again at this point, upon reaching 0HP he will be able to attack my characters, but I won't be able to attack him, and AoE seemingly has no effect.