The Sharmat

But if you're leading a flotilla of otherwise unaligned vessels and not part of a formal navy, commander could still fit.

I'm gonna go against the grain and say defining a roleplaying game by the act of roleplaying is doomed from the start since no digital RPG can truly accommodate roleplaying. When all you have is a handful of preset responses to a player character because the game isn't a sentient AI or can at least pass the Turing test, you're not really roleplaying. Roleplaying of that type happens with tabletop RPGs and nowhere else. All video roleplaying is just writing a bunch of fanfiction in your head and occasionally getting a buzz the one out of 500 times the developer guessed your intention right.

Commander can apply to anyone that is leading troops, in colloquial English, though it is also a specific rank. You may be thinking of the more specifically naval "Commodore". A fleet action would be very fun to command though and it would suit Deadfire.

"Skills as a Commander" huh? I hope that means we actually get another battle of Yenwood Field type scenario.

I've heard healing is actually more important in Deadfire so I guess a priest is still mandatory, just not for their prayer against X spells. Unless you just meant Durance in particular rather than priests in general, in which case I hope Xoti is less objectionable to you.

Aufra is assuredly screwed in all but the Hylea ending since you just saw Thaos recharge the relay at Cilant Lis. Do it for Calisca.

Pallegina and the Devil both feel like they're missing half a companion quest. It's not that there story doesn't end, it's that it's basically just an outline. The quests are low on content and take all of ten minutes each.

I have faith that of Ninagauth, Arkemyr, Minoletta(?), Citzal, Ryngrim, and maybe Caedebald and Maura, at least one of them will be more interesting than Concelhaut and Llengrath were.

I kind of hope the streamer for this one is a bit more up on the game mechanics but I suppose the people most interested in hearing those kinds of pointed mechanical questions are already going to be buying the game. These previews are mostly for the broader market.

Just a historical point. Christianity wasn't anti-natural philosophy. They were in fact large funders (the biggest at several points) of it and much the the technology and science of Europe saved during the Middle Ages was by priests and monks. The church vs science thing came after the time period poe is roughly set in. Of course the Pillars gods want knowledge hidden Not all of them. The only ones that make a huge deal about it as a general thing are Wael and Ondra. The others mostly just don't want it known they're animantic constructs and some are willing to risk that knowledge spreading simply because it's in their nature to do so (Abydon, Galawain, Magran). I don't know Magran seemed pretty on board with Woedica's plan. You may be right about the other two though. Abydon is progress right and wanted to save the Engwithans? (though that may have just been because he liked old traditions) I don't know enough about Galawain. My personal impression of the Magran/Woedica alliance was that it was a very brief alliance of convenience where Magran was used as a patsy by Woedica, fooled into thinking Eothas' entire agenda was an invasion of the Dyrwood, which Magran saw as her personal playground. When she found out what was actually going on it was too late and she had to cover up the Godhammer'd mess. I could be totally wrong and I fully expect more light (heh) to be shed on the entire Saint's War debacle in Deadfire. (In fact personally I suspect Eothas WANTED to be killed, like Durance speculates at one point, but that's another topic...) Abydon is the god of industry and was also the god of preservation (and may yet be again depending on your choices). Improvement through craft and labor is in his nature, and as independent as the Gods are they can't seem to totally override their initial purpose. The whole "preservation" aspect of his portfolio also means he can't stand for any discovered knowledge to ever be wiped out, even at the possible cost of his own life. Magran is the Goddess of Fire, War, and significant for our purposes here: Revolution. Kith discovering and altering their very natures through animancy is, again, something she has to support, as it's the most fundamental revolution imaginable. Galawain supports animancy as has been said, because the search for knowledge is another hunt.

Just a historical point. Christianity wasn't anti-natural philosophy. They were in fact large funders (the biggest at several points) of it and much the the technology and science of Europe saved during the Middle Ages was by priests and monks. The church vs science thing came after the time period poe is roughly set in. Of course the Pillars gods want knowledge hidden Not all of them. The only ones that make a huge deal about it as a general thing are Wael and Ondra. The others mostly just don't want it known they're animantic constructs and some are willing to risk that knowledge spreading simply because it's in their nature to do so (Abydon, Galawain, Magran).

The market is the ultimate poll.

He's just tired. No sleep for the Sawyer.

Sounds New Vegas DLC-ish. Glad to hear from additional archmages. Concelhaut and Llengrath were cool. Shame it's the most distant expansion, but maybe it'll be the best, too. If Ninagauth isn't in the vanilla game that's gotta be the longest tease in an RPG series in ages. One vision in the first expansion for Pillars 1, then he appears in 2018.

Except for the Anarcho-Capitalist orders, presumably.

How fast is satellite out of interest? Yes I grew up on dial-up too. Comparing satellite to cable or DSL or god forbid fiber is still disingenuous. Satellite is faster than DSL to be sure, until you use up your data then it's about 40 kB/s on a good day. You will use up your data limits quite rapidly. It's expensive to get stuff to geosync and the few satellites up there have to provide service to an entire hemisphere. So people spend the vast majority of their time on the service throttled to a tiny fraction of the speeds the satellite is advertised as providing. In principle the same is true of any ISP but satellite takes it to an extreme.

Concur. I strongly doubt there will be a preload. This isn't an mmo, or even an online game at all. Since there is no "competition" involved, there is no real benefit to preloading. Just enjoy a good nights sleep and download it in the morning. Thinking about it, I also wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't release until noon or something similar on the day of. You are wildly optimistic about the download speeds available to many Americans. For some of us, that download is going to take 24 hours or more. 82% of US citizens who have the Internet have high-speed broadband internet. The people for whom that download will take literally 24 hours is pretty damn small. Only if you count satellite as broadband. The satellite companies do, but no one else should.

Despite proportionally higher popularity in Europe, there are still far more people buying the game from the New World.

Concur. I strongly doubt there will be a preload. This isn't an mmo, or even an online game at all. Since there is no "competition" involved, there is no real benefit to preloading. Just enjoy a good nights sleep and download it in the morning. Thinking about it, I also wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't release until noon or something similar on the day of. You are wildly optimistic about the download speeds available to many Americans. For some of us, that download is going to take 24 hours or more.

Absolute low point of AAA video game writing is probably something from Blizzard, although their voice actors do a decent enough job with the bad material. High point in terms of dialogue and voice work is the studio used for the English localization of Witcher 2/ Witcher 3.

Have you heard the good news about the Theorems of Pandgram?

None of the in-game Paladin orders are dedicated to a God even tangentially. How about Bleak Walkers and Berath? Seems Berath attracts a fair few psychopaths who like to think they are performing a holy duty by killing people, and Bleak Walkers do enjoy killing people. Someone in the Bleak Walkers might coindicentally worship Berath but those traits aren't inherent to either worship of Berath or membership with the Bleak Walkers. Bleak Walkers are basically the William Tecumseh Sherman paladin order by mission statement. You don't have to be a sadist to be into that. Berath itself, judging by its priesthood's favored dispositions, actually discourages taking joy in cruelty. Though people are free to do what they want regardless of who they worship. Wouldn't be surprised if the Crucible Knights have paladins that worship Abydon, and some of Ondra's Giftbearers must be paladins too. But not sure if that counts.

You N'wah. Oblivion's voice work and writing is probably on the bottom of modern AAA RPGs, and that's really saying something on the latter.

None of the in-game Paladin orders are dedicated to a God even tangentially.

This is actually the first time I've ever seen someone complain about the Dark Elf male voice in Morrowind, much less while praising Oblivion's voice work. Guess there's always someone.