IndiraLightfoot

I have to say the first map after the prison in Dishonored1, in Dunwall. It was like an epiphany, I had no idea you could build a map so fun and diverse, while still being interesting from the rooftops to the water by the beaches. I have traversed it so many times in so varied ways. Interiors and exteriors are excellent.

Here's an image, and the warning UI tooltip still lingered after I had opened it. It was basic mercenary rogue, and no lockpicks, boosting spells or items were used or in effect.

Here you see it on two ordinary swords. Here you see it on two pieces of armour. When I take a look on the very same items in my stash or on my characters, they appear as clear images, as normal. Even when I hover over these items in the pick-up UI, they suddenly look normal:

Today, I played through the entire beta again, and I really tried to watch out for inconsistencies in shadow directions, lighting and such. I'm very happy to report that it's quite a rare occurrence to find any such fault whatsoever! The only thing that stuck out to me was in the desert. The wind was howling, sand swirling about, but those dry grasses/parched plants were hard as crystal. Given that the rest of the game presents us with moving vegetation during strong winds and rain, this particular bit doesn't make any sense at all. Just some feedback.

What I'm talking about is this: Obviously, we should still get the xp for all of this, but I'd like to see a toggle, which I can use if I don't want to get constant updates on "Cage Map Discovered" (What the...? Many map instances aren't areas anymore - they are objects, like an obelisk or a cage), Traps and Locks: Party Gained bla bla. If this could be turned off, it would also mean less clutter in the log.

Aye, the art team has outdone themselves. All the textures, all items, the areas in general, with weather effects and lightning, and all the details, down to driftwood and grains of sand, glistening wet palms in the rain, the interiors, the portraits, the models, the works. I'm extremely impressed! Here's a small selection from my beta playthrough today: Carry on the superb work, and don't over-do your iterations! Step back, and try to see whether it's already perfect.

All I can say is that What Remains of Edit Finch had a pretty unique and compelling story with heaps of interesting, quirky and often somber twists and turns. The entire game was very beautiful woven around the storlylines, in plural, I feel the need to emphasize, which made one equally impressively story braid.

Yup! This bug has already been reported, at least twice, myself included. Obsidian's already on the case!

A very nice find, Madscientist. Yeah, this kind of bug is a sure-fire way to make quests go bonkers.

The game has a warning for beginners when selecting a multi-class character, maybe it should have a similar warning for sub-classes? Or why not simply a game-wide warning for all new players!

I hope it's not too late - especially if Obsidian invest some extra time into this. The lack of this info in PoE1 was poignant. With Deadfire, they certainly have the chance to rectify this opaque and esoteric state of in-game combat mechanics info (where the combat log almost deepens the problem sometimes, instead of the other way round). And by adding percentage and other sleek integer choices for combat numbers, this would also improve the clarity of the combat system. Right now, given how experimental they are with nearly all the combat systems, attributes, skills, talents, you name it - they're certainly running the risk of not even wanting this kind of transparency, since such murkiness would conceal any consistencies, flaws and last-minute makeshift fixes. Still, transparency and player access to this vital info should trump most of the other concerns, no? I mean, it would help noobs, RPG veterans and PoE1 experts alike. EDIT: In my mind, I'd love to picture Obsidian's Deadfire team being dead-set on fixing the combat mechanics system and its in-game transparency at the same time: They assign a group devoted to this task, with meetings, iterations, etc., until it gets done, but in order for them to do so, they must obviously decide on which system they want for Deadfire, and right now, like half of it is hanging in the air. That's why Boeroer, a 3,000 hour-player and build connoisseur, has called for an effort of perfecting the PoE1 combat mechanics system, and then merely add the very best Deadfire improvements to it, like multi-classing and a number of neat Deadfire features.

Also, LoG was realtime, which made a few puzzles a pain in the ***. I more or less hated it after awhile.

These recent posts below and countless others by inquisitive or confused beta players has warranted me to make this thread: This is true. 75% of the game mechanics were obscure and the descriptions either inaccurate, not clear enough or non-existent. But basically it's not like the mechanics are supercomplex.. It's just that PoE does a very poor job of explaining its mechanics. If they just could have done this better then there wouldn't have been so many complaints a la "I don't get how XY works". I mean look at the PoE forum (char builds subforum especially). Even today there will be a new thread that discovers how some hidden mechanic works and everbody (even the hardcore players, including me) will go "whooot? Didn't know that!". That's a pretty good example of bad documentation. But so easily solved... so easily... I've mentioned this in the above post) PoE1 (checked in v2.03 and 3.0+): offhand attack -> mainhand attack -> mainhand recovery Deadfire (checked in Beta1): mainhand attack -> offhand attack -> offhand recovery Afaik it's always the mainhand. Afaik in PoE1 it would be as following: - if you issue a special attack before your current normal swing deal the damage: current animation is discarded/interrupted and your start your special attack - if you issue a special attack after your current normal swing dealt damage: you go into recovery, and only after that your special attack will start And no, it doesn't matter what you did before. The hand-sequence will be as described in the answer on question 1. This kind of stuff really needs to be described in a clear-cut way within the game, like Boeroer has been campaigning for. I reckon I speak for quite a number of people when I wish to see the following in Deadfire: -A nice tutorial starter area -A complete and clear-cut in-game combat mechanics wiki -The latter should be supported with an in-combat tooltip system that can be toggled in numerous ways, for those so inclined Personally, I'd be willing to wait for this. Take the extra time, Obsidz, no problem. The game will be a better one for it, I'm sure.

I've mentioned this in the above post)PoE1 (checked in v2.03 and 3.0+): offhand attack -> mainhand attack -> mainhand recovery Deadfire (checked in Beta1): mainhand attack -> offhand attack -> offhand recovery Afaik it's always the mainhand. Afaik in PoE1 it would be as following:- if you issue a special attack before your current normal swing deal the damage: current animation is discarded/interrupted and your start your special attack - if you issue a special attack after your current normal swing dealt damage: you go into recovery, and only after that your special attack will start And no, it doesn't matter what you did before. The hand-sequence will be as described in the answer on question 1. This kind of stuff really needs to be described in a clear-cut way within the game, like Boeroer has been campaigning for.

Additionally: what should the interaction be if you charm-back a charmed team member? In PoE1: he would change alliance back (i.e. become friendly), but would not be able to use any abilities. Personally I would expect second charm to cancel the charm effect, even if other maluses (like minus defenses in PoE1 or minus 5 INT in Deadfire) are still in effect. In Deadfire Full Attack is even more powerful, provided that your recovery duration is above zero. In PoE1 (FoD with dual sabres, naked, no other effects): 1s (offhand attack) -> 1s (mainhand attack) -> 0.833s (mainhand recovery). You hit twice in 2.833s compared to 3.666s - time that would take you to make two consecutive normal attacks. In Deadfire (FoD with dual sabres, naked, no other effects): 0.7s (mainhand attack) -> 0.7s (offhand attack) -> 1.5s (offhand recovery). You hit twice in 2.9s compared to 4.4s. Despite hundreds of hours in PoE1+beta, I must admit, I'm still not knowledgeable enough in all the combat system subtleties. I just found this info about Full Attack vs Primary Attack on the Steam forums: "Primary attack means only the weapon in the right hand, full attack means both weapons at the same time if you're dualwielding. Depending on the class it can be something to take into account. Like it's a bit useless to make a dualwielding fighter because his knockdown (who is kind of his only main attack skill) is primary only. On the other hand all the rogue's skills are full attacks." The latter info means I should be able to do some beastly things with a dualwielding rogue.

Nice list you got there! And yeah, I know the feeling. I'm playing Dungeon Siege 2 right now, it's great as a ARPG/CRPG lite, with some party member dialogue, their personal quests/back stories, and a pretty neat story on top.

You and me both. It will definitely be on my list. After having watched Robin Williams play it on E3 2006, it was a huge let-down: [Youtube]

AndreaColombo is absolutely correct, there's no reason to this yell being a cone effect. Well, also, try shouting at the top of your lungs immediately after you've just yelled your lungs out. Some recovery is needed 0.5-1s.

Yeah, I think "most disappointing games of all time" would be better, because it really gets at the heart of the matter - games that you thought were gonna be good that ended up being really bad or otherwise emotionally crushing you for not meeting expectations. You don't even necessarily have to have to played the game in question to know that it greatly disappoints, whereas something like "worst game of all time", that's a pretty lofty title. I don't think I've played 25 games where I could objectively think that they're the worst games of all time - but I could definitely list 25 games that were extremely disappointing for various reasons. This suggestion is great, since it requires us to have played the games in question pretty extensively, it would be a pretty interesting and fun list. I certainly come to think of plenty of candidates off the top of my head, especially since I'm the kind of gamer that easily buys into the hype - I tend to preorder when nobody else here does, that's for sure.

Great point, Boeroer! In essence: Instead of remaking half a system, they could put all that effort into fine-tuning the latest PoE1 system, make a cool tutorial area (like NWN2 OC, for instance), and then have great info, tooltips and in-game wiki with mechanics etc, explained in a clear-cut way.

Perhaps the highest praise PoE1 has received is something that's been repeatedly posted in these very beta subforums: -You could finish PoTD solo with a character with like 10 on each attribute, if you went the sneaky route -Almost any kind of builds could make a PotD party and finish the game, no problems It would be a shame if Deadfire turned out to be yet another of those games where you have to have meta knowledge of those three munchkin super builds in order to take on the most difficult modes. And even if PoE1 was slightly unintuitive and complex for newbies, the game did adapt beautifully, letting most builds on normal mode pass the game with flying colours. When I returned to the game, with the release of WM pt 2, I accidentally had that huge battle for my keep when my party was lvl 5, and the gear I had sucked, still, after a few tries, I managed to defeat an entire army! I loved that!! No real need then to remove health/endurance, grazes, and half the system, no? And is Deadfire as it stands now really much less esoteric and intricate to beginners? CRPGs always have some sort of adaption time/threshold to get over (mileage may vary).

Butt out, asstronomer!

This will be a tough thread to post in without spoilers.

You may very well be right, FreeKaner. And yeah, when I backed Deadfire, then seeing multi-class was in, I assumed it would be like PoE1, but with fantastic multi-classing, hence, even more nuanced and varied building of characters. I never asked for Health/Endurance to get removed, the resting and the attributes to get changed, or having a Pen vs Armor as a new pivot, and so forth. I was in general very happy with what PoE1 had as its signature system. This may be the right time to at least consider a toggle under settings called "PoE1 mode", where all the rules and systems from that game can be used for those of us who want to play the game in its classic classy glory. At least, I'd love to try the Deadfire beta with late PoE1 in full effect.

Teddy Roosevelt certainly counts as a soldier, and he managed at least one brave feat on the battlefield (with his Rough Riders - I love that name), if this source is to be trusted: http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsoldier.html