IndiraLightfoot

The backer keys just went live!

Alright, Owlcat is actually attempting to release the game earlier than expected. Here's a fresh tweet: "We asked Valve to release at midnight PST / 9am CET. For some reason, Steam is showing a later time right now. To be frank, we're not really sure why. Still chatting back and forth with them." If they manage to strong arm Valve, that's 12h earlier than normal!

Some news and tidbits: -Top 5 selling game on Steam in Europe and No. 17 globally atm. -The release build was wrapped up on Saturday, and they will patch it Day 1!

Some additional reflections, and a tentative systemic comparison between Pathfinder (mostly based on my deep knowledge of 3.5. Cheeky, I know) and Deadfire: I have read up on Pathfinder quite a bit now, and in many ways the system is like some sort of D&D 3.75, where you have even more options. Bloodlines, for instance, seem like a dream. It seems that fighter classes have gotten the short end of the stick at later levels, though (in general, and only slightly), whereas spellcasters have even more ways to turn out mean and lean. While I really, really liked Deadfire in many ways, and I was happy that you could slow down the combat speed the way you wanted, I didn't have as much fun building characters and parties as I had hoped. There are a few reasons for this, but one of the more important ones was the lack of options of making unique character builds. Deadfire had a few passive talent options tacked on at higher levels, but they were the same, more or less, for most classes, and in many ways, I felt that my building was done at around mid-levels, a bit later if multi-classed. Deadfire also had plenty of weak choices of passive abilities for the very first levels of some classes. Moreover, given all the overlapping of abilities in Deadfire, if you go for a full party, it pretty soon ceases to feel unique combat-wise. And if you like I did during the beta and also in the full game, programmed the AI, you could use one trick ponies on all of your characters and then let the game play itself almost entirely. And I didn't need to change my AI programming, not even the priority orders, as I progressed in levels. So, something isn't right in the character building system and its successive progression and variety offered. Theoretically, this means that P:KM should be able to offer a much more complex character/party building system, with a better distribution and pacing of the fun you invest in your character builds and their synergies. *Fingers crossed* If it does, then that would mean true replayability as far as combat goes. Well, for those of you who just want to get a feel for the game, seeing the basics and the lovely resting system, take a gander here. It's based on a several months old beta build, though: [Youtube]

First of all, I'm actually considering playing a half-orc as my first main when I get my hands on P:KM tomorrow! Can't wait! And as a teaser, I'll direct you to this recent vid, where Owlcat Games underline some stuff that's important to me, like how they emphasized replayability of the right kind, and they have allowed for all sorts of party building. If you want, for instance, you can make a party of six sorcerers: [Youtube] Holding NWN2 and its system D&D 3.5 in very high regard, I'm looking forward to character creation and endless new attempts at characters and parties, this regardless of story, the quests, the area design, music and the rest (If all that's great as well, then this game will be a true classic for me!).

Yeah, I painted D&D miniatures for years. These look like my first attempt at a little kobold I made, which turned out to be Miss Piggy. Who knew? I did lots of small miniatures, since I loved to collect minis of gnomes, dwarves, goblins and kobolds. And as others have said, it takes time and patience and some skill, but with some good equipment, you can do it, but it takes hours, rather than minutes, and those look like somebody went for the minute burger rather than the hour roast, as it were.

Yeah, there is a limit to all of this. Having played BG1 heaps of times, I can hit that level cap a bit too early, me reckons, so I get too much max level time, and that's not the sweet spot either.

And this in itself can't be emphasized enough: I read time and time again how people view their games plus included items at their pledge levels as something they've clear-cut ordered, or bought, when in fact, it is just backing money for a product not yet in existence. Thus, it's a vote of confidence and a shot in the dark rolled into one. As a backer, this means that you'll get what you get when that time comes. Everything is just ideas, concepts, sketches, estimates and lofty goals until your backed game and those pledge level items come into existence. In short: As backers we show our support via money, and then hope that we will get some game in the end that is reasonably within our expectations (Otherwise, it would be a scam, no? Well, there's no shortage of those over at KS, at least). This "reasonably similar" applies to any trinkets and backer items and add-ons that we pledge money towards as well.

Yeah, so much this! ^ It was the same in the NWN2 OC, you hit level 20 right at the end, so that exciting power you finally attained meant almost nothing, and you didn't get to enjoy it much: a few undead dungeon encounters and the end boss. I really wish that CRPGs were designed more like BG1, where you reach the level cap much earlier, and then you have hours upon hours of fun exploring those max levels (for the game in question).

This is pretty darn accurate! I played WL2 like 100+ hours, a game I got for free via my backing PoE1, and apart from a few game-breaking bugs in that final city present at release, I had so much fun playing it. Bard's Tale 4 borders on mockery, from what I'm gathering.

Some of us need to keep the economy going, you know, whatever moronic means necessary!

In 99% of the cases you are right. But because of how some genres are very niche in Slovakia, and If you do not buy that kind of game on release date, it can take up to three weeks to get new copy in the shops here. Sometimes they are not able to get PEGI versions anymore after the first week. So for these reasons, I prefer to preorder these games. Digital games, I never preorder. I’ll buy them only for PC and only DRM free, when I feel, that I’d like to play them soon. I'm the typical sucker they count on for preorders. I jump aboard far too many hype trains, I just can't help myself in some cases, it seems. Sometimes I even preorder just 'cause I like some trinket, and at other times, I'm lazy, so I just wanna secure the season pass (otherwise I forget - but, yeah, in a way I buy the truly complete game in advance, as it were - a bit idiotic) or secure some early access to some part of the game they're deliberately withholding from their customers. Still, if I lump together all the crazy Kickstarter games I've backed and pit those against all the games I've preordered, and then look at the amount of unadulterated fun playing aforementioned games, the preordered library of games wins, hands down, so I'll keep preordering, but I rarely ever back anything KS-related.

I just bought, no, preordered, two games that I certainly take a chance on, but I have so high expectations: -Pathfinder: Kingmaker -And Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (I've never played any AssCreed game, but I love the Ancient Greek setting, and I'm cautiously optimistic about the new RPG'y direction of the series) This will be a neat month in gaming, to be sure!

I decided to skip this game when it was a KS thingie, but now, after having watched playthroughs and read previews, I decided to preorder it, even. I know I'll get my money's worth back, and prolly then some!

I refrained from installing it at 53150 MB download on Steam. I backed at the lowest possible get-the-game level, and so far the nicest bit has been the remastered Bard's Tale trilogy.

Thanks for the heads up. This makes me wanna continue this Canadian desolation bonanza some day. I just recall that I almost died to a wolf straight away, I had to bolt back into that car.

Wow! Now, I'm chuffed to bits for my next playthrough with all these music/music reactivity tweakings. Tyvm, Justin!

This might seem contradictory, but I really want a Deadfire challenge approach that encompass these two perspectives and provide as many options as possible.

I'd love to see this implemented, along with the addition of a few class-unique passive talents at mid-high levels for all classes.

Personally, I reckon the music in Deadfire was better than the one in PoE1, even disregarding the fab shanties. I'm wondering, though: Is any music ever affected/changed during convos? Perhaps you pick a detrimental choice, and then an ominous tone starts when you are pondering your next choice after the new mess you're in... Compare Pathfinder Adventures, when the bad guys spill the beans, for instance. I really like that.

It's the secret romanceable items DLC you all asked for. You'll be shocked with what can be done with that helmet! If it fits, acquit!

Nice ones, folks. I forgot about these.

- Neketaka- Character models and animations - Music, shanties and audio effects (really a solid improvement vs PoE1 where some tracks started to become unpleasant over time) - The way the game engages you in the beginning and makes it personal (it's Obsidian's strong point really) - Enchantment mutually-exclusive paths for unique weapons And would also answer the same question, but without the "really" word, i.e: Same as above, plus:- Multiclassing - Subclasses - Factions (aside from final quests) - Exploration I agree with all of this except for factions, but that's just me. I loved roaming around in F:NV and doing my thing, but hours and hours into the game, it became obvious that those factions were a bit too heavy handed to my liking. That says it all. If that gave me ire, I mean. And I obviously detested Skyrim's factions as well - controlling entire storylines, and still you could do them all - they weren't even exclusive. Ideally, I'd love to have seen Deadfire without factions, or at least make them less obvious and numbers-game-y.

Like I said earlier, VK has its flaws, but it's a huge game and pretty fun overall. And VK4 is coming soon. Preorders accepted already on Steam.

Yeah, if we can fault the story and the way it built its climax up, it's this^! That is clearly anti-climactic. I really, really wanted a huge island of yore, ripe with ancients secrets, wonders and various spirits and weird puzzles, interactions, and lore. Ukaizo was very much a dud.