Valorian

Deadfire.

Patch for the post above. Point 2: Classy > Classless still applies, but Tyranny is an atypical classless game. It seems that in Tyranny each companion is his/her own class (sort of) with unique abilities. What I primarily dislike about fantasy classlessness is that everyone has the innate potential to cast spells. Magic is no longer cool when everyone and their pet can use it. Not that class systems are completely immune to it; in PoE everyone can cast spells from scrolls with enough lore... and warriors are better than mages at scroll spelling because physical and magical accuracy aren't separate stats. Off topic: It's a product of slightly too much uniformity, e.g. certain all-encompassing attribute constructs and the previously mentioned accuracy stat (practically equalized between classes; span of 10 acc).

Since there are many things I like about Eternity, I'll narrow down the list by comparing some of PoE's systems / mechanics with Tyranny's. - No level scaling. Level scaling is a sordid cheat code available to encounter designers, thus not using it or keeping it entirely optional is respectable. - Classes > Classless, especially in RPGs with adventuring companions. Everyone brings something unique to the table that others can't emulate. - Bestiary XP > Learn by doing. Something in the middle would be preferable (the scaaary kill XP), but if I had to choose between the atomization of experience (hit or get hit = XP) and an extensive bestiary, I'd choose the latter. - Per rest + per encounter > Cooldown timer gameplay. Button mashing is not good gameplay. Cooldown heals + learn by getting clubbed is a recipe for silliness. - Less percentages > More percentages. In Tyranny even healing potions are %-based. However, I do like that in Tyranny you get to choose a combat style during character creation. I'd love selecting one signature combat style for my character at creation (among dual wielding, weapon and shield, two handed w., one handed w. and ranged w.) in Eternity 2, that can further be improved by a talent or two. I find this as important for setting my character's identity as choosing his class.

Speaking of damage reduction bugs, I'm going to tell you a sad short story about greater black oozes, disease puddings and swamp slimes. What makes a monster memorable? It needs to have visual interestingness (the above mentioned trio has it in spades IMO) and passive properties that set it apart, such as unique on-hit effects and affliction resistances. The idea was to make this trio unique by modifying the minimum damage that goes through, which is 20% for all creatures. I really like this idea because it would've made these monstrous slimes appropriately challenging and also because it's a perfectly fitting property for them to have. Unfortunately, it was misunderstood what "DamageMinBonus" means and their damage reduction was annihilated. Perhaps it wouldn't be too expensive to at least change this value from 10 to 0 (if -10 is not a possibility). It's also regrettable that the buggy interaction between pulsing AoE spells and various abilities/items hasn't been given higher priority; so many bug combos in this one that can drastically change combat encounters.

Nice presentation. I'm going to mention two examples that he made: "The clumsy, determined rogue (low Dex, high Res). The idiot muscle wizard (low Int, very high Might)." In the first example you can notice a discrepancy. A high resolve person is in no way clumsy in PoE's setting. Resolve improves the likelihood to deflect attacks and being good at deflecting attacks is not a clumsy person's virtue. Words, despite souls, still have meaning. Voice of opposition: "But D&D also has game-isms in its ability scores." Sure, but to a lesser degree. On a scale of 1 (absolute gameism) to 10 (no gameism), I'd say PoE's attributes would be a 3 and D&D's a 7. This is clearly not exact mathematics, but subjective observation as 4 out of 6 attributes in PoE are quite gamey. 2nd example; the famous muscle wizard. Here you see a missed opportunity to sell a new idea. Instead of fomenting the "muscle wizard" expression, they could've told a story about magical energy affecting your ability to move heavy objects and cause more damage with weapons, because Might is also magical/spiritual power. Physical strength enables spiritual strength to flow more easily through your body, but if your spiritual/magical strength is very high, your body can be weak and still accomplish extraordinary feats (no practical difference in PoE's setting, sadly). Basically leaving to the player to imagine for their character which strength prevails. In short, a high might wizard doesn't have to be a muscle wizard.

I'd use the saunter button if they make it as effective as sneaking for the purpose of discovering hidden stuff.

How? Coz magic, coz soul and so on. It's too easy and too cheap to explain everything away like that. Often sucks mystery out of supernatural mystery (wow how? bah, probably because soul/magic or conglomerate of souls/god). PoE's setting and the concept of souls is fine, but it's important to keep the dosage at acceptable levels. Humans of Eora physically resemble humans of Earth, but imagine Eoran humans walking on their hands by default. Some human players would ask for an explanation and that explanation could or could not be "Accept it, it's becoz souls!". Therefore it's even more important, when introducing peculiar concepts like PoE's Might, to explain how it works and why it works like that in detail. Is physical strength always the same as spiritual strength etc. I have my theory, but a plausible "official" description is always welcome.

Let's resume our beloved attribute talk now that Josh has delivered his at GDC. Attributes: More impactful and less formulaic (less blanket attributes that have +/- X without exceptions), pls. The main goal was to prevent bad attribute builds, buuuut.... you put stars near attributes to further halp people. With stars near good attributes for each class already in place, you could maybe experiment with injecting a little bit more RP verisimilitude into them, no? I'll try. Might: 5% damage (doesn't affect crossbows and guns). Woo-hoo, an attribute with an exception; ignores some weapons! Xbows and guns now great choice for people who decided to dump might. Constitution: 8% HP Dexterity: 3% action speed and +/- 2 deflection (wowzers, looks many powerful) Perception: +/- 2 accuracy (and some interrupt). But seems worse than Dex!? One is better at defense, the other at offense. Intellect: +/- lots of aoe and duration. Powerful RP attribute. Important in games where you talk to people and solve complex (heh) problems. Resolve: +/- lots of aoe and duration (and some concentration). Powerful RP attribute. Important in games where you talk to people. But the last two both affect aoe and duration!? They work on a case by case scenario (much work, but good work). A fighter's constant recovery, for example, would be affected by resolve and his knock down by intellect. If, after assigning intellect and resolve to each ability (good work), one of them ends up underused; it'll bestow +/- 3 to Will instead of 2. It would be very important to read ability/talent descriptions before picking them.

This doesn't bother me too much, but I understand the desire for soulbound weapons to not ignore weapon focus rules just because they're bound to specific classes. It's just one of many details. Other details, such as shooters (bows, xbows, guns) not suffering any deflection and accuracy penalty when attacking in melee, do bother me. Being able to damage enemies from far away is a big advantage and this would be a reasonable downside. An inherent penalty for dual wielding unless you have the DW talent would be also lovely, but unlike the previous detail this one is more about my personal RP/verisimilitude visions.

What bothers me about these attacks is that they're practically endless (tied to the passage of time instead of quest completion). This means there's infinite loot, which naturally I don't pick up because a) I don't like infinite anything and b) PoE's economy doesn't need more breakage. However, the result is a stronghold floor littered with sparkly stuff. I could pick up these things, but you can't remove ingredients or gold from your stash and throw it away into a container. Please, tie stronghold attacks to quest completion or allow us to remove ingredients and gold from the stash.

It'd be great if we could select 5 companions to hang out at inns we visit and chitchat with each other when you approach them. Despite them not being in your active party, you'd still experience their small talk (nice if you solo).

Six attributes is fine. Dexterity could be +2% action speed per level and +1 defl. every two levels (no defl. bonus on odd numbers, so what?). I'd like Resolve and Intellect to apply on a case by case scenario, e.g. resolve increases the duration of some abilities (fighter's constant recovery) and intelligence increases the duration of some other abilities (knock down). Same with AoE. Less gamey more role-playey.

While traveling on the caravan and pondering about Might, the MC saw a little (1cm x 1cm x 1cm) box below his seat and picked it up. Four strange symbols were inscribed on it, one on each side. He shrugged, put it in his pocket and continued pondering. After a few hours he had an AHA moment and figured out what scientists have been debating and trying to discover for ages; the ethereal Might is in the MIDDLE, physical and spiritual strength drag each other up or down! Meaning, in numerical form to not be too abstract, 10 Might is the product of 7 physical and 13 spiritual or 5 spiritual and 15 physical etc. Happy with this revelation, he rummaged in his pocket and extracted the cube. He started pressing the different symbols and suddenly the little cube became a large 1m x 1m x 1m box! He was shocked and one of his daggers dropped inside the box. He was even more shocked to discover the dagger was now 50 times smaller and lighter. Once picked up outside the box the dagger returned to its normal size. Thankfully, his excellent memory allowed him to reproduce the order in which he needed to push the symbols. He bought tweezers the next day. The end.

Both are extremely strong, but I find battle-forged more versatile. A fire godlike can destroy things while being stunned or paralyzed, for example. Bonus DR helps too. If you're the only one left standing, healing with silver tides while being perma-stunned won't help you much.

a) That's the point if you rest like a maniac on a difficulty that punishes you for overusing the rest button. b) If only there was such a thing as creating a meaningul economy in an RPG! Maybe it's possible, what do you think? (The cost would increase as you level up and get more health to heal and abilities to polish.)