IndiraLightfoot

I really hope it means something. Finally, they're all letters, so it's perfect for substitution. The best adjective I can come up with is "direct", as in "Naga prefer direct violence over cooperation" so try to some substitute code with that info, backwards, forwards, whatever....

I'm splashing this straight up, just for easier reference. EDIT: Hmm, my first party: Aloth (Battlemage), Maia Rua (Geomancer), Pallegina (Herald), and perhaps the sidekick Konstanten (Howler). I wanna try a sidekick out, and also save the lovely companions for later playthrus. I notice, lots of you guys having Konstanten on the list. Dwarves FTW! My main will multi-class as well. I'm gonna double whammy the **** outta this game!

From a recent MCUK-interview: Josh: “We always have to think about the future even if we are not necessarily working on it,” Sawyer says. “If Deadfire is successful, we are probably going to make a third game, but I also think that there are other possibilities for this IP. I’m working on a tabletop RPG set in the Pillars world. We are also looking at options for things like an exploration first-person style of game set in the Pillars universe. We’re also interested in a turn-based tactics game that is less focussed on exploration and more on tactical combat. A lot of fans have offered opinions on that and I think a game like that could have a broader reach. So really we view the Pillars IP not as something that is just strictly for this style of game, there’s lot more potential for it.” More PoE-games on the way, it seems. And from a recent Kotaku-interview: "So that has already been that way since Pillars I, but we still find that the majority of players make white, human, I think typically men, which is fine, but it's also interesting to see what they don't make. Almost no one makes dwarves. We hear people say that they like dwarves, they like the dwarves in the world, everyone seems to be like, "Yeah, fantasy dwarves." But they don't make them. They want a companion who's a dwarf, but they don't want to make a dwarf. So it's an interesting sort of dichotomy where you see like, well they like priests, but they don't necessarily like making priests. They want to have a healer, they want to have a support character – but they want to make the two-handed sword-swinging psychotic. We find this overwhelming tendency towards making devoted fighters who are the single weapon crazy people, and assassins. It's like the concept is very appealing, they do a tonne of damage, and people are just like, "Yeah, assassin. White dude assassin." I make dwarves, truly I do!

I haven't got the sources, but I'm pretty sure Josh has underlined a few times that this is a special little slice, just tied together for us beta backers, but with a few questlines more or less similar to the real deal.

First of all, this is a truncated questline, just to give us something to do/follow in this special beta slice. So, we don't know what the real quest will look like. As for them knowing when the Adra pillar has been destroyed, I always envisioned it as something reverberating through all the Adra strands, so it was picked up by a few peeps in the know, almost Adra-seismographically. And yeah, those darn pages and "showing" them, that is a bit of a mess. It's not very logical and water-tight - far from it.

Thrall?

To the point, I like it!

For the gazillionth time, most of us learn something new about PoE1. It's the lack of in-game info and feedback again. Let's hope this doesn't repeat itself in Deadfire. We can't all be Boeroer and MaxQuest rolled into one (sadly).

Well, now casuals do get to try out all the modals.

@morhilane: Not at all. I feel exactly the same way, and I made a post about it in the Josh tweets thread as soon as I heard about this change: Yeah, this is exactly how I feel too. And as DexGames so aptly demonstrated, our party of five will be "proficient" with every single weapon, shield, etc and then some with this new every third level. Personally, I find this even worse. I'd rather have two picks, one per every tenth level or something, if you'd twist my arm. I reckon, it's pretty clear that Josh is adapting the game for the casuals (statistics showing that a normal person play like 30-70% of the game once), so he's opted for the inclusive approach, whereas I love the opposite: the exclusive approach, where it soon becomes clear to me that my party with one single class druid, one single class rogue, one fighter/wizard, one pally/monk and one single class cipher, all having made specific class choices at that, with a few select weapon proficiency picks, is something clearly different than my second party with a single class priest, a single class spell wizard, a chanter/rogue, a ghost wolf ranger and a single class fighter, for instance.

EDIT: Help! How do I post a gif on these forums?

Alright, folks. Josh has some info on Empower at his Frog Helms Fan Club site: Josh: "I did look into what you had suggested re: people not wanting to Empower wizard spells because it didn’t seem worth it. Our telemetry data doesn’t support that assertion. In the Backer Beta, people Empower priest and wizard spells more than other class abilities. Empower is underutilized overall (a small percentage of use in encounters), but when it used, it is used to Empower those class abilities. The Backer Beta content is a bit unusual for Deadfire content in that it heavily features lagufaeth that aggressively paralyze casters with few remedies to deal with it. Paralyze is currently acting as an Interrupt (it is not supposed to) and Concentration can’t block it. We just had an internal play week and traditional casters, especially wizards, were used heavily and consistently. The main issue with wizards is lack of access to spells (which we are addressing via a general increase in powers per new power level). The main issue with long cast times (outside of paralyze) isn’t enemy Interrupts, but resource consumption on the first frame of the cast. We’ve received so much negative feedback about it that we’re changing it to consume resources on the cast frame or when Interrupted. This does open the possibility for micro-ing early cancels to avoid the resource consumption penalty, but that seems preferable (and for some players, desirable) to people being generally frustrated. The casting class with the biggest issues at the moment is cipher. They have a limited range of powers, limited access to Concentration, their Focus gain is slow, and their cast times are relatively long. They’re going to get more attention than any other class in the next few weeks. As for the general idea of moving back to per-rest primacy, that would require more than making an individual use of Empower better, as Empower is limited to 1/encounter/character. The players who are using Empower have recognized how dramatic an Empowered long cast wizard or priest spell can be and are using it primarily for that purpose." This has me a bit worried - a small percentage used, and mostly by wizard and priests (in desperation?) to enhance a spell during certain encounters. Why even have this as a general feature if this is the case? I'd much rather have modals for select spells then and ditch empower, if it's just a crutch for spell-casters (and that's not what it says on the tin, is it?)

I'm stupid enough not to realize that I could've initiated combat with a Wall of Fire, that thing is for sure. I think you've found a bug, good sir!

Doesn't it work the same way in PoE1? So, it's by design, no?

The name Black Jacket is too cool to let it dwindle away as a lost opportunity. Alright - keywords: Bad ass longcoat flaring open, stuffed with throw-away weapons, explosive devices, contraptions and other cool contraband! EDIT: Suggestions: Setting and removing traps very quickly, and in combat! Fast use of bombs and contraptions as quick items (and I'd love to see potions too - perhaps a black jacket transfers them into special Black Jacket syringes instead!!!) Put a healing potion as a quick item in one of the Black Jacket's quick slots, and it temporarily transforms into a healing syringe, for instance, or any other potion. I'd play this class over and over, if this was the case.

Wouldn't it be cool if black jackets could use consumables, potions and other quick items (within reason) without any recovery, like super-fast, on top of their weapon switching? It would be really fitting.

Yes, it's me again, complaining about an unbearable sound. Last time it was the ghost spawning, and this is just as bad! If there was a toggle for it, I'd just have it on mute. And it's automatic, so right when I'm in some exciting scripted interaction, or when I'm trying to steer clear of some pesky pirate ship, I get a ka-ching jump scare. Please tune this down, or even better, let us mute it completely!

Heh, I did have Merciless Gaze on them, but otherwise you didn't change any of my enchanting spells (even slowing them minimally, 0.4->0.5s in some cases). But like I said, your very mod encouraged me to roll wizards and then, in my second playthru, to make a multi-class wizard I'd never even try before, so I'm happy nevertheless. This is what it's all about - encouraging us to build whatever!! Thank you for your hard work, MaxQuest! EDIT: Part of my exhilaration was also my carefully programmed AI system, I reckon. It pushed the right buttons for each and every character with a timing and speed, I'd never could do, so that actually enhanced my party as well, I'm, sure.

Well, MaxQuest's BalancedMod encouraged me to try out all sorts of wizards in my first playthrough with it, and, most surprisingly, I fell a bit in love with... *drumroll* The enchanter! Given his slight adjustments to spells, I've just run through the entire beta a second time with his balanced mod, but this time with an army of two kinds of dual-wielding mountain dwarves (all of them equipped with exceptional plates and exceptional weapons and nothing else): Then I rolled three battlemages: devoted/enchanter as well as two warcallers: devoted/skald. Even greater: I took the time and made my custom AI scripts for them, and it turned out great, like a well-tuned pianola! This party played itself. I just pressed attack once as soon as an enemy was detected and watched the super-fast mayhem begin. I used stuff like Swift Feet and a few other enchantment buff spells (and I had them self-buffing). I actually sacrificed Dex, and maxed out STR, CON, INT, with decent RES and PER. The result was smashing. It felt like having five Agent Smiths a la Matrix in a Renaissance CRPG setting. Here are some screenies from my "Grab the Popcorn, folks, and Watch the Movie Deadfire Matrix: Girl Power"-playthrough. Such a treat after a busy day!:

MaxQuest's last suggestion concerning Fireball I'm all for after having tested plenty of them today. I'd like to add that this add flavour and some "reason" to this spell, with a new fab effect to beat, since missing with a fireball, when enemies get caught in it, this should be a rare thing, and grazing and hitting should be the rule.

Check out the combat log above. By fireballing my own wyrm summons I get XP and bestiary updates. And why is one single wyrm worth 60 xp and not 50 xp like the rest of the wyrms? Is the granted XP and bestiary updating intended?

I simply had to try the MaxQuest's BalancedMod, and I had a blast. It's the first time I felt that Wizards may have a chance. I made a bizarre party of single class wizards, all nature Godlike and from old Vallia. I call them Dryads, and I had like Dryad Evo, Dryad Enc, Dryad Con, and my main was a Dryad Illusionist, and I had a single class summoning chanter as a support character. The entire party only had sceptres, rods and pistols for weapons. And finally, they did reasonably well, even if targeting still is a pain in the ***, and enemies move around like the ghost twins in Matrix 2. Pro tip: Turn off the AI (unless you have it dialled in really well). Here are some images of my little green men and women from some gods-forsaken forest in Old Vallia: Notice how Dryad Evo knocked out my main Unknown Dryad with that second fireball, which certainly hit home much better than my Illusionist one just before it.

Proficiency points perhaps, but not talents.

Yeah, this is exactly how I feel too. And as DexGames so aptly demonstrated, our party of five will be "proficient" with every single weapon, shield, etc and then some with this new every third level. Personally, I find this even worse. I'd rather have two picks, one per every tenth level or something, if you'd twist my arm. I reckon, it's pretty clear that Josh is adapting the game for the casuals (statistics showing that a normal person play like 30-70% of the game once), so he's opted for the inclusive approach, whereas I love the opposite: the exclusive approach, where it soon becomes clear to me that my party with one single class druid, one single class rogue, one fighter/wizard, one pally/monk and one single class cipher, all having made specific class choices at that, with a few select weapon proficiency picks, is something clearly different than my second party with a single class priest, a single class spell wizard, a chanter/rogue, a ghost wolf ranger and a single class fighter, for instance.