Bleak

Well, yes. It's an absurdly long game, and the game has no reservations about ending your playthrough. Pathfinder took me about 130 hours to reach the end, and that was with 2 restarts within the first 40 hours. Most people's first playthrough will probably fail, and the game does not hold your hand, period. It's hard for me to explain why I ended up liking Pathfinder so much. Something about it just feels so pure in ways most other recent cRPGs failed to evoke. Thinking about it as much as I can, I think it's because the writing actually gives an incredible amount of agency to the player character and their decisions, and there are actual consequences that crop up from said choices later in the game. I imagine the reason why there's so little information of what happens in a Chaotic Evil playthrough is because everyone knows the game won't try to stop you or sanitize it at all. The amount of skill checks, choices and their consequences are a LOT and they are real. They have done a stellar job overall. And yes, it doesn't hold your hand at all and it's a huge game. Only gripe was loading screens. Hopefully it will fare well so that other crpgs follow its example.

Bestiary? I barely killed any monsters and those pigs didn't give much xp. I modified trap xp to be 1/5 and lowered the other values as well, but it would be nice if someone suggested how much I should reduce them so that I keep leveling through most of the game and not reach the cap too soon.

Haven't played the game with the expansions so I started a new playthrough. Playing of potd with solo and woedica challenges. Went into the cave, disarmed the traps around Beodul with 1 mechanics and spoke to him. Got to level 3 almost immediately. Is this normal? I might as well have started on lvl 3. Does anyone have a rough idea of how much should I decrease xp if I want to complete everything in the game, expansions included, and get to the cap only near the end of it? Also what is going on with summons? I have to disable my pc's AI but summons get disabled AI as well Oo?

Can you expand on the Pathfinder issues? I'd love to pick it up but it sounds like it needs more time to cook. It's been significantly patched and fixed already, and is in a perfectly playable state right now. And they're continuing to work on it including releasing DLCs. Owlcat is a very small company, maybe only like ten or fewer people in it. Yet they've done amazing things with the patching even while also adding in new things (features, classes, companions, areas, etc.). They're probably working 12-15 hours a day! Really hope they get rewarded for it! Had an awesome RP experience playing it.

Did they though? I remember specifically BG2 having disappointingly easy crit path in the 2nd half and really pathetic final boss. The first half of BG2 is gold though. I also never found BG2 frustrating even if it was to easy, as the game used little imput from the players - put two figurines by each other and see who stands at the end. Some spells were needed here and there for more major fights. Gameplay (read: “combat”) in PT was crap anyway so it didn’t really matter - the easier the better. PoE rely more on skill use, so when you win fights without using those, the impression is less “boy, I am so good by putting all strength into my fighter!” And more: “I am clearly overpowered for that encounter”. They didn't nail the difficulty perfectly, no. And they are far too old - comparing them is not really a good idea. Their xp req scaling and progression pacing was good though. But it's better to look at how PoE does things individually. I already made a separate topic for it.

A game should be made to be experienced as much as the player wants to. Sarcasm? A game, a piece of entertainment, or even a piece of art is best left to the vision of the creator, flaws and all. It's when a creator listens to the unwashed masses that we get a Deadfire-type main story Exactly, any piece of art.

I probably agree with most of your post, but this is just an internet platitude. You can google ANYTHING and be kept busy for a long time. The internet is strange. Very strange. *Goes to search 'purple eggs dinosaurs'* In other words you can confirm any bias, especially for something that has been around for so long. @Gromnir 1) Yes, I am talking about the bonus that every 2 points give, not the points themselves. There is merit in having every attribute count for every class but I don't prefer it thematically, or practically. Thematically, the reasons are self-explanatory, practically because essentially every attribute affects every class in the same flat way. 2) Triple understood my gripe and prefers the PoE system. The factor of randomness and consistency of the resolution obviously differ. As Triple said, most of the time it is more predictable and forgiving in PoE. 3) You can argue in favor of both systems and your arguments can be legit. They differ - beyond that it's a matter of preference. The options/combos that can be utilized in DnD are still vast, but as you said it has been around for years so it definitely is not fair to compare them on that. I agree that a *sense* of balance creates diversity by making all classes a viable option. That's where I draw the line for balancing a non-mmo game though. Variety is even more important even if it means e.g. that a class will be much superior than another class during the "end game". Trying to balance every class in order for it to be *equally viable* throughout the game (and not just viable) will eventually lead to a degree of homogenization. I enjoy this part of the lack of balance in DnD, because not every vocation is created equally - I find it more refreshingly realistic. Same for e.g. instant kill spells, "they are all of nothing" spells, they are not "balanced", but that is also part of what makes them unique. I would certainly not put them in an mmo but I think that in a crpg like this, we shouldn't be so enamoured with the lack of balance. I am not saying that Josh didn't do a good job creating a system - he did and the system is still new after all, but again, it's a matter of preference for someone who has experienced both systems. Btw regarding the previous topic, why even post any feedback if the only guy who sees it is this one https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/107555-level-cap-increase/?

A game should be made to be experienced as much as the player wants to. It shouldn't be *made* for that, it should only anticipate it. The player can always choose how much he will play and naturally the game must do its best job to draw him in. What you say though isn't even happening in PoE, else there would be an option to skip content, level fully and reach the end for players who want a very brief experience. It still is a story-driven crpg not a mobile game. What I am saying is simply that players who don't want to experience any sides and rush, shouldn't mind being underleveled missing a few abilities and that character progression should be balanced around all of its content.

Nope, that's the second easiest thing.

is fair and fine, but hard part for developers is absence of "why." Time available requires me to be painfully brief, unfortunately. Developers definitely do not expect to be enlightened by me, nor do I expect developers to read my posts. I just posted my preference. When I offer feedback, I usually devote time which is mostly wasted as you yourself imply in your last paragraph. Anyway here are some reasons: 1) Attributes - what they affect, how they scale. You already know how e.g. a +1 strength bonus affects dice rolls in DnD. Less linear, more impactful. Theme is secondary, but I find DnD attributes much more thematically solid when it comes to what they affect. 2) Attack resolution in general. Miss/graze/hit/crit margins and percentages when it comes to the game calculating the resolution and how they change depending on the accuracy/defense gap. 3) The fact that spells go through the same attack resolution and do not feel like a unique kind of attack like in DnD. I agree that balance concerns are definitely not meaningless, but too much attention to balance always leads to homogenization. Recognizable is not enough. Unique is better. As for unintuitive, let's not open that can of worms.

Would be a shame indeed. That game was released in an immensely buggy state. Most bugs are fixed now and it's a bloody brilliant game (tons of skill checks, stats that actually matter everywhere, interesting game/kingdom mechanics/choices, amazing RP etc), but unfortunately first impressions are vital to a game's sales.

Hey dude what’s your address so I can mail you a bag of my crap? I don't see why you would bother.

Same generic title, because you can't beat a dead horse enough, if someone refuses to understand some basic principles which were done correctly by 20 yo games. Not happy with xp requirement scaling, level to content progression, much of itemization and xp reward amount analogy to sources. "Completionists", "Rushers", new generation utter nonsense I say. A game should be made to be experienced in its whole. Side != sub-par and I really hope the devs themselves have enough confidence in the content they made to realize that. If someone doesn't want to experience most of the game's content and just rush through the main quest line, one shouldn't mind not experiencing a few spell levels/feats either before finishing the game. And if the end content turns out to be difficult, good thing there are plenty of difficulty options. As for the cap, if you can't get it right, it would be the easiest thing to add simple but interesting and clever "epic feats" or passives to chase after level 20 with a soft cap, that won't require new animations, effects etc, just a bloody line of code. And these should be *needed* during the "end-content" on POTD. Itemization could follow the same principles. Meh.

Why is it that games like BG or PT got difficulty and xp req scaling right and we now need this despicable anti-RP mechanic called "level scaling" to keep the game interesting?

My 2 cents - I prefer the DnD system by far.

Finished the game - these extra empowers never helped me even once. Since you get them at the late game and they are supposed to be worth something, maybe they should be changed in a later patch.

The talent "Great Soul" and a specific pet you get from one of the most difficult fights of the game (no spoil) give max empower uses. What is the point of these though? Aren't they useless? Shouldn't they be max empowers that can be used in a fight for these end-game bonuses to be useful?

At the start I told him "I will do this myself" - did he take it so harshly he left Deadfire completely? PS: Also an option for them to join the party but wait on the ship would be convenient!

Even if they were grossly overpowered they worked. BG, NWN, PST, ToEE etc... all these games did fine. Per encounter is mostly a convenience thing - do nothing instead of pushing a button. Actually with random sleep encounters, I would prefer that you had to rest and risk getting attacked.

Not to mention the talents... had a hard time finding talents worth getting. For example, I like the empower mechanic, but what purpose does the "Great Soul" talent serve? - use empower an additional time before resting? Why would we care about that? Shouldn't it be "empower can be used an additional time per fight"? Doesn't seem like they gave them much thought.

Use cheats. ` for console, "Iroll20s" to activate and then "AddAbility Player_Name Sympathy_for_the_Lost" (example) You lose steam achievements though.

Same, can anyone help with AddAbility command? AddAbility Player_Seremoth Sympathy_for_the_Lost worked for me.

Because atm they are underwhelming and un-fun. Complained in 1 about that as well. Saying this after a complete playthrough. DnD spells (in any DnD game up to now) were impactful - they felt powerful. PoE spells (except the best spell in the game- chill fog), even with a large amount of perception and accuracy, are unreliable and not worth casting except for crowd control in some situations. See much better results with non-wizards in my party. And the new grimoire/spell system is not intuitive at all. Every grimoire has assortments of spells that I don't like tbh and re-training seems a must for every wizard. With these spell/element resistances in the game, if wizards can not versatile, they end up being useless in half of the fights. Why not let us write our own grimoire and use that as a gold sink as well?

The fact that it worked in BG and all the other crpgs is a much more persuading argument than you proclaiming that "I am wrong and that they don't exist". As I said before I should have recorded a video from my last solo PotD playthrough - I didn't want to go that far though - so that you can see a character of ~300 endurance being perma-stunned by an 1 hit monster which survived, after a long, large battle, becaused it dodged CCs etc and killing that character without the character being able to move for more than a fraction of a second in 3 whole bloody minutes. I wonder what you would say then. My bad for not showing these broken mechanics on youtube to avert potential new players as well. So as you don't seem to get why I am complaining and eloquently trying to say that "I don't understand the game's mechanics", I actually found the PotD solo easy enough, beyond the fact that it was the most frustrating experience I ever experienced in a crpg, second only to when I was playing fallout 1 on my old pc and it was crashing every 10 minutes. I had to look at my loading screen for the most part of it, because of the fact that the limited available spells in my arsenal missed way too much with 18 perception (15 base with the shawl and 19 later with the cloak that gives you +4 perception) and in many cases a perma-stun enemy survived and besides the fact that I had almost completed the fight flawlessly, if it managed to touch me (usually because 3 or more consecutive spells had missed) , it would just mean a reload even at full health. Legit kind of "difficulty", as legit as the "difficulty" of my F1 crashing every 10 minutes all these years back. But yes, I am imagining all these, they probably "don't exist" or it's because I am trying to poison the undead or deal fire damage to fire elementals. Are you playing on story time or something? Give me a break.

So... you're complaining that some things you do are high risk in a battle? Or that casting spells should never miss because when you miss you lose it? Or simply, spells should miss less than attacks because when you miss one they are a 'waste' - except they are a 'waste' because they are so powerful, meaning spells should be completely OP? There is no perma-stun. Since you played the game multiple times, I assume you understand how the combat rules work. Meaning you probably understand how graze/hit/crit works, and how stun durations are calculated, and how even solo POTD characters can often find ways to protect themselves against getting hit reliably by long stuns. Except, you know, you were complaining spells shouldn't miss so much, so if we got rid of that, enemies would be able to 'perma' stun you all the time. And even in the current situation, you will stun enemies for 20, 30 seconds easily while enemies will struggle to do the same against properly built party members. So if you want spells to miss less... or do you just mean your spells should miss less, and not the enemies? In that case I could easily keep every mob stunned forever all game. There's a big gulf between "I want this I can't have it this sucks" and spelling out what's the problem and how it could reasonably be solved. Is this the only crpg you've played? Did spell miss in PT? Did they miss in BG? In NWN? (besides the occasional immunity or resist ofc). Were they "OP" compared to attacks? No, they were just fine, which you could see for yourself if you go through these games using magic or not using it at all. So spare me the "they would be OP" declaration. They can be fine-tuned to be balanced without missing just as well as those games. Also were did you get the idea that I wanted the enemies' spells to miss and my spells to not miss? Seriously... The problem with perma-stun is a lot of monsters' attacks. And yes some enemies can definitely perma-stun (at least on PotD I'm playing at) whether it is hits or grazes. The stun/paralyze duration refreshes. Skirmishers and spectres in the early game, crystal eaters later, vinthraks and a few more. It is just insane for them to paralyze on attack *forever*. You know what, I should make a video of how ridiculous it can become, but that's for another day. Never, ever, was I perma-stunned by being hit (not missed) by spells in this game. And obviously I don't complain about taking "high risks" in battle. I am complaining about a character wasting all his time in the battle having done nothing, chanting 10 spells without any result, just because all his *damaging spells missed* (and that's with decent perception). I am complaining about having to save/load an annoying amount of times because a critical spell in the battle has missed. In BG for example a refrex save, if I remember correctly would make you take half of the damage a fireball would do to you, but it wouldn't leave you unharmed because unlike an attack, a spell is something that usually needs chanting, can be more easily interrupted and is of finite uses.