[Beast of Winter DLC Announcement]

 

Am I getting the concept of entropy wrong or is it Obsidian?

 

So, there is a "God of entropy". Entropy is a measure of disorganisation, of possibility, in simple terms - measure of chaos inside a system. So, a god of entropy who wants to "end all things", to make everything still in absolute zero, is pretty much the opposite of entropy. He seems as strange as a god of war who dreams of ending all wars and getting eternal absolute peace.

 

Shouldn't the god of entropy be the opposite, more like Joker, who wishes things to happen in the most chaotic and destructive way?

 

If I get the concept of entropy right, then Hylea with her "experience everything, invent new, change things" motto is way more entropic in nature then Rymrgand.

 

I mean, the state of the world desired by Rymrgand seems to be the state of ZERO entropy.

 

If we have a cup of coffee and a cup of milk sitting on a desk, the god of entropy should wish to mix them, to get the chaos of them mixing, not to freeze them both and sit and enjoy nothing happening. A god who wishes to stop every process in the universe is a god who is AGAINST entropy, isn't he?

 

I'm not willing to criticize, more to get the idea before DLC releases. Of course, there is always the ultimate answer "a god is beyond your comprehension"

There's only one definition of Entropy that may fit Rymrgand:

 

In cosmology the hypothetical tendency for the universe to attain a state of maximum homogeneity in which all matter is a uniform temperature (heat death).

 

 

Yeah its an extension of the mixing a cup of coffee and cup of milk. Essentially, if you mixed all the cups of coffee, milk and everything in the universe together you'd wind up with everything at near absolute zero (I think 3 or 4 Kelvin or something) and not enough energy concentrated anywhere for anything to happen (given entropy ensures energy always flows 'downhill' so to speak overall). So... It'd be cold and nothing would happen (I've always found it odd how people said entropy was a measure of 'disorder', it seems pretty ordered/about equilibrium to me).

 

So Rymrgand seems to be taking this cold/frozen/nothing happens idea and running with it, which is a slightly... limited perspective perhaps, but not really incorrect, and does seem to be the concept associated with 'entropy' that is most used in literature. I assume because the heat death of the universe is both a relatively intuitive concept and one that makes for easy and interesting metaphors .

[What did you name your ship?]

I got inspired by the sea shanties and named mine Ondra's Grace. Surprised that it hasn't shown up as a name in this thread already!

[For those who've beat it, what are your thoughts?]

Finished the game last night, been gathering my thoughts:

 

Story: I liked the main story, though, as others have said, it felt a bit brief. I feel like the ideal 'pacing' involves leaving Ashen Maw until you've done all the other available quests, and then having a very short Act 3, as it seems odd to explore the islands once you know Eothas plans to break the wheel. It feels odd that Ukaizo wasn't drawn out a bit longer with more combat, and the lack of combat made it feel surprisingly abrupt compared to Sun In Shadow from the first game. I was slightly disappointed at how brief the final chat with Eothas was. I was expecting something comparable to the final chat from The White March with the Eyeless, and a bit more back and forth about the wheel even if ultimately it was impossible to convince Eothas. Overall, though, feels like a cool set up for a third game, though one that could've done with a bit more padding, which is an unusual criticism to be making! Feels like it suffers from 'second-game-in-a-planned-trilogy-itis' a bit.

 

Setting: Loved the Deadfire, and the factions. I was initially (during the funding campaign) quite put off by the whole 'pirates' theme they were marketing, but the game turned out more broadly about colonialism, the age of sail and island exploration, with *some* pirates, and I wound up really liking it. Felt like a breath of fresh air, and drew me in a lot more than Pillars of Eternity 1 (though I do feel that game has a stronger main plot). The faction questlines were cool, and a lot of the side characters interesting and sympathetic enough to make the world feel engaging. Though I think it would be nice if there were 'break points' for factions earlier, so its not possible to work with all 4 up to right before the endgame.

 

​Companions: I found the companions surprisingly engaging, though I see reaction to them has been quite mixed. I feel that there was a huge amount of work put into having them react to quests, and to each-other, which was fantastic and made them feel alive, but was maybe less effort/reward efficient for the devs than having them chat with the player a lot. Though there were a number of conversations between the player and them, due to the open world nature of the game, these often all happened in a lump and made feeling like the player naturally got to know them harder. Maybe a bit more gating/artificial pacing would help? And, as I mentioned elsewhere, I'd love to see non-voice acted 'picture-book-cutscene' style interactions added for companions and sidekicks to chat with the player on the ship, allowing them to react to DLC events and develop a bit more, and generally feel like they were spending time travelling with the player.

 

Gameplay: Showing my biases, placing this one last! I enjoyed Deadfires gameplay, progression, and gearing quite a bit. I found Pillars 1 could be a slog, but a fair bit of that was enemy density and the lack of programmable party AI (I think? I played it right after it came out). I did feel Deadfire was overall too easy though, even for a relatively poor CRPG player like myself, which took some of the edge off of exploration as I wasn't particularly worried about what I might run into or my supplies (something the first game did better). Gameplay is fundamentally fun though, and hopefully the balancing patches continue to tune this up! 

 

Overall, I feel Deadfire has its flaws and its bugs, but its probably the RPG that's drawn me in the most in the past few years, quite unexpectedly! Really looking forward to the DLC, and (fingers crossed) potential third game.

 

EDIT: Oh! And forgot to mention that I really enjoyed both the soundtrack and the sea shanties!

[Hopes (And Dreams) for the Expansions?]

I feel like a lot of Deadfire seems to be setting up a potential final game in a trilogy, resolving the stuff about the wheel and the broader relationship between kith and gods. While I'm sure all the DLC will be set before the end of the game, I'd love to see some pointers/hints as to:

 

a) How reincarnation worked prior to the Engwithans creating the wheel. It seems like reincarnation now depends on the wheel, but occurred independently beforehand? This could also provide some interesting hints as to how the wheel could be fixed or replaced in the future.

 

b) Where the (fingers crossed) next game may take us/what sort of conflicts might form the core of it? Most endings result in the storms dissipating revealing new, previously unexplored areas (where Rekke is from), which could make sense as a setting for a new game? But the ending slides suggest you sail 'home' to, I assume, Caed Nua?

 

I'd also love to see some ship-crew-interaction style (that is, non-voiced picture book style) interactions added for companions and sidekicks, where they could come and chat with you on your ship, hopefully allowing for companions to react after the fact to DLC quests as well as flesh out the sidekicks a bit without requiring additional VA expenses. Should work, as companion comments in these picture book sequences aren't currently voiced, so it wouldn't be too jarring, and it'd be nice to feel like they'd drop by to chat while sailing around! It'd be fun to, like, sit up and drink with Eder while reminiscing about events from Pillars of Eternity 1 or something.

[Children]

Hmm are there legislation issues involved? I imagine the game would be insta-banned in Germany at least, but I thought a lot of the EU countries had some restrictions on what was/wasn't allowed with regards to harming children in video games?

 

Might be completely wrong though.

[Narrated sequences instead of cutscenes (let's use our imagination again).]

OK I've never played an IE game, but have been a big fan of Obsidians more recent games (and bought PST in the GOG sale which I plan to play through shortly).

 

But anyway, as a more recent example I REALLY liked the narrated cutscenes with painted backgrounds in the Witcher 1 (not so much the semi-animated comic booky ones in The Witcher 2, though those weren't bad). So if you guys are able to do a couple of painted backgrounds with narration over them instead of full blown cutscenes, in my opinion that would be amazing!