Tick

I started my game when the Beta 1.1 was released. I don't know if they fixed it for the final 1.1, but I got the problem. Oh, and I have the night market amulet... Oh man.

I was hoping to maybe take a crack at actually creating new character portraits, even though I might not have that super realism style down. I was also hoping to make a thread where I could hear what various people's main characters or imagined NPCs are and look like so I could try to make portraits for those characters /people. Would it be okay to have a thread for that anywhere on the forums, or is that a no-no?

Sure there is - click on your user profile in the upper left corner -> Manage Ignore prefs. Isn't talking about Pillars going to end up talking about politics? Can I talk about philosophy? (I'm being silly, please don't block me)

So we need to learn how to insult each other like British parliament?

I'm not sure. There is that bit of dialogue with the factions representatives after the Ashen Maw when somebody (Aeldys I think?) asks what will happen when there is no Wheel anymore. You then get three or four reply options ranging from "We are all dooooomed" to "To be honest, I have no idea, it's not like this ever happened before". It left me with impression that the Watcher is supposed to be somewhat ignorant about how things really work. Good point! There are responses where you can partially explain it, but you're right, I forgot about that.

I don't think Xoti can hook up with Eder, because he's not interested. But you can help them become buddies.

She can't leave the party if you never put her *in* the party. ;D (I know that's not what you mean)

I have no idea, at this point. I kind of want to ask Sawyer. I've said this a lot, but I was able to keep her going Huana, but she didn't react at all one way or the other. She just showed her typical dialogue. And to get that lack of result, I backed out of the Rauatai deal and then sided with the Huana.

He also used to be part of the people in charge /in charge until he was overthrown.

Lol I don't think they're tying to scare or confuse the Watcher. I think their writing just assumes you understand what's going on.

yeah, it recycles souls into the world of the living. that was the MAIN point of it actually. In the world of PoE, nobody who dies will come back into existence with the wheel broken. it's like living in a world with a real heaven and hell, but now nobody who dies can go to either; everyone just stays in limbo. clearly, the "gods" looked at the creation of the wheel as a good trade. they get to siphon of a tiny bit of essence, and in return, you get reborn into the world (even if you don't recall normally who you were before). the question of where all those souls went before there was the wheel is perhaps the ONLY question worth asking in this circumstance.... and you never get to ask it. There was a wheel before and I thought that reincarnated peeps. I'm gonna have to read the Sawyer post again.

It's not just him disagreeing with people though. Disagreeing is perfectly fine, but I'm mostly talking about stuff like "Serafen, you only ever talk about unimportant things!" or "Tekehu, stop tugging on your hair!" (srsly Aloth?). In the first game, it was Pallegina who would start conversations like that with other companions, and she came off as a rather harsh, standoffish person sometimes. Aloth mostly minded his own business and only snapped back if someone (*cough* Durance *cough*) was rude to him.Yeah I do agree with that. I assumed he was complaining /arguing with them because he already had issue with them, which I assumed was related to the companion rep because (with serafen) it was much worse later. But I don't know. I think it's supposed to be more that he has issue with someone and so the tension sparks off, but the conversations can happen semi randomly and without context. And without context, it comes off bad /weird.

Who is Khal Drogo then? Is Magran like the awful older brother?

I think conversations between companions is influenced by their reps with each other, though. Which sucks even more, because it makes it hard to have a good npc to npc character arc when one of the NPCs triggers the others negatives all the time. I mean some people just don't get along, but I think that some of the characters could get past issues otherwise. Aloth *is* supposed to be more outspoken, so the fact that he more openly disagrees is normal. I don't think it was intended that he'd be harsh with everyone though. Him and Pallegina had nice, friendly conversations and disagreements that I really enjoyed listening to.

Serafen and Aloth, I think you actually have to engage them. Also Xoti, you may or may not have to engage. She's pretty flirty no matter what so it's hard to be sure.

Is that the only point to the new wheel? It felt like it did something else too. (totally fine if there's not, still makes sense)

Depends on your perspective, which probably shows one of the biggest strengths of this game. Yes, destroying the adra ****s up the adra, which seems very anti Huana to me, and it also ruins Tikawara's chances if you don't go Rauatai (which I would think would be a horrifying choice to someone who is hauana), but it also discourages foreign powers from getting in and potentially ruining native lives. Which can actually happen if you side with the VTC in a certain way. I originally destroyed the adra in my playthrough because the potential ramifications of encouraging the VTC or Rauatai to invade that space and mess up the natives lives was nightmarish. I later regretted it and reloaded, but even now I can see why someone would do it.

Thank you so much for posting that. That's 100% spot on and shows some needed empathy. It's so frustrating seeing people belittle someone's quirks or emotional/personal issues like that. I also know that sometimes stating personal information or experience like that to explain a perspective can backfire with the wrong people, so I appreciate you taking the risk. And yes! I completely agree about the approval system. I don't think having a dynamic system where people react to what you think or do is inherently bad, but the way it is implemented now is very black and white, yes-man-y. Not sure how you'd fix it either. Even in PoE II's actual conversations, Aloth tends to be more like how you'd expect him to be. He doesn't mind or even likes your silly or obnoxious jokes. But if it was outside of the conversation, the dynamic companion system would probably make his rep with you take a hit.

It definitely should have been explained more in depth or had a quest or a side branch of dialogue that explained it. Hopefully that'll be fixed in future. The way I took it, breaking the wheel sort of frees kith from the gods' control of their souls /reincarnation? And also maybe reveals how the whole process was done through a machine, not the gods. It definitely shows that the gods aren't as omnipotent or in control as you'd think.

Events like Eder becoming a mayor and then leaving to go visit his parents in Aedyr. I heard that was a bug, and he isn't supposed to do that if he had the mayor ending.

Actually, as hinted by wRAR, there's literally cut content that was supposed to explain this. Sawyer cut it out because he didn't realize how much an impact the cut would have and he thought the conversation would be smoother. He thinks the Eothas conversations were too long. D: Please give more Eothas.

After your rejection of the RDC. Aw man, I'm sorry. Good to know though.

I mean, the real point of those conversations was to point where you stand on the Gods and whether the kith should stand on their own or not, but I agree that that was a little weird. There are conversations somewhere in the game that kind of talk about it, but not a lot. The more I think about it, the more I feel like the main story has cut content or was way rewritten. Because another weird thing is how much they emphasize what you say /think matters, but there's not actually a lot you can do, say, or even talk about in the last encounter. I really *liked * the main story, but it needs a bit of a revamp

I mean, the whole point is that they *represent * ideals and gods but don't really 100% match or meet expectations. You could say that they could have written them being flawed better, but I think to some extent they are *supposed* to come off as petty and petulant, like "spoiled children." I don't think there would have ever been a rendition of them where they're wholly sensible, responsible, or reasonable. Berath stands out for a reason.

Oh dude! That would make sense.