LuccA

Brazil would be much better off with Douglas Costa or Renato Augusto in his place. William and Neymar are crap in this WC. They are delaying every attack instead of progressing them. Whenever they get the ball, they have to stand still for at least 2 seconds before doing anything. That annoys me so much.

If the knock-out stage lives up to the group stage, this is gonna be a hell of a world cup.

I'm brazilian and I almost had a heart attack today. Douglas Costa should definetly replace William in the next matches.

My thoughts as someone who hasn't played the game yet is that I pay as much attention to RPS' opinions as to do to the colour of my morning turds Yeah, yeah, i read your clever remarks about how you don't give ****s about professional reviews somewhere else in the forums. No need to go searching every opportunity to repeat yourself. I'm not taking the above mentioned review as undeniable truth. That's exaclty why I'm asking the forum users about their opinions. Thanks to those who answered.

I'll not play PoE2 for a few months, but I'm reading a few reviews. The opinion on the story that got me most worried was Rock Paper Shotgun's on-going review. It said that the main story was too disconnect from every other quest (kinda similar to PoE1 actually). In PoE1 however, it was more forgivable because the main story was you seeking a way to get rid of your soul-awakening. It did not feel very imediate - which was a complaint from a lot of people - but at least it made sense when your character was dealing with a slow-progressing illness and chose to adventure here an there in sidequests. Now, however, there's a giant god that took your soul stamping cities (apparently) and it just feels weird (according to the review) to be doing anything else besides following that god. This is a very poor story design decision and it god me less excited to play the game . Can anyone who have played the beggining of the game give their thoughts about that?

I'm also waiting, same as I did for PoE 1 (waited until 3.0 for first playthrough). At that point I couldn't avoid some spoilers because I was hyped as a little kid for the true spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, so I looked up some stuff . But now I'm willing to keep myself blind storywise until at least the last patch before the first DLC. It's about how much you are hyped and how much you think the patch improvements can make a real difference in your first experience of the game. I learned to never get as hyped as I did for PoE 1 (too much expectation) and as far as I remember the community mostly agreed that the game improved A LOT after the main patches (even making it playable for some).

My memory might be mistaken, but there was a trigger for getting to know Lady Webb, right? Maybe getting a high reputation with one of the factions. I agree she was a convenient NPC, but considering that she is the leader of the faction that surveils Defiance Bay, in a way, it is not unrealistic to consider that she would become aware of the Watcher's quest, or the Leaden Key's, and try to intervene. She might have been convenient, but we earned her attention with our previous deeds in the city I guess. Also, her dialogue might have been a little too lore-dumpy (although that's a problem with most of the NPC's in the game), but the writers managed to craft some cool poetic moments, like when she deliberately extracted information from Thaos in her last moments for the Watcher to see through his powers. That's was kind of the pattern in PoE's narrative: uninspired lore-dumps with seldom good moments of elegant beauty.

So, in the last update (https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/93848-update-40-multiclassing-part-ii/page-1) a list of early concepts for the subclasses has been shared. I would like to open this topic to discuss what you guys think of them for now, in terms of differences, balance and creativity. My quick opinion: Honestly, I kind of understand now why they used Corpse Eater and Ghost Heart as examples in previous updates. They are the most exciting for me, simply because they are the most different. It's like Josh said in the update:"Subclasses all have trade-offs, though some subclasses change the core playstyle of the class more than others" The obvious problem that can come from this is that the subclasses that change more the playstyle (I believe Corpse Eater will even have different animation for when he's eating corpses I guess?) will end up more interesting than others that are a mere tweak in the main classe's skills/resources.

Just losing my **** with the new QOTSA album:

I don't have a big problem with either of these portraits, except of course... Pallegina's. If they want to make her a more likeable character, since she was the least favourite companion in Pillars 1, they've already started wrong. It just seems like it has a lower level of detail than the others. She's also uglier now. I am not a big fan of how her forehead (and Tekehu's) reflect so much light, almost like they're polished. My favourite portraits are Maia Rua's and Serafen's. Great level of detail and expressions!

I don't wanna start any unnessary discussions, but I think Tekëhu's idle stance is a bit... sassy, if you know what I mean.

Hummm, isn't that how PoE1 works already? The knock-out injuries were toggable, but I believe they're set 'on' by default.

These big boss fights you mentioned could still be challenging in late-game PoE1, like the dragons and the ending fight. The thing that spoiled a little of the second half of the game for me was the easy and brainless thrash mob encounters, which was almost every encounter except for the boss fights (and maaaybe the Ethik Nöl cavern and a few ogres), and that's after choosing to level scale... Better encounter design would help, indeed. But I think it would be a better solution (and less demanding for the developers) to make the player-characters less over-powered when leveling up than to make every encounter in the game a "small and challenging boss fight". We don't have to go to the extreme route and cut the defenses and accuracy progression altogether, but maybe tuning them down or using a curve-progression... A great example of that is how the HP increase happened in Baldur's Gate 2 AD&D rules. If I remember correctly, after a certain level your character won just 3 HP instead of a D8 or D10, preventing him to become a huge HP pool. If we do the same thing with PoE's accuracy and defenses, we could also prevent characters to become over-powered. *Mind that low-level monsters would still be easy to kill, but mid-level, mid-to-high-level... not that much xD.

I totally agree with you. Don't find it controversial. Actually, that was my main suggestion for fixing the leveling system in my OP: This is actually my number 1 solution for PoE2, on top of level scaling (which people have already pointed out some fair arguments against, and I agree)...

I made a review of PoE recently after I finished it for the first time (http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/92610-my-late-review-of-poe/). In it, I mentioned that PoE1 v3.05 had, personally, two major issues to be fixed: 1 - Encounter design and the limiting nature of combat mode, 2 - The leveling up system. As for n.1, I have reasons to believe it will be quite improved in PoE2. We already have sneak peeks showing us exploding kegs and difficult terrains, we know that Maia's bird will be able to scout and adding to the bigger number of ability options with the new subclasses and multiclassing, I am very optimistic about the combat experience in PoE2. The leveling up still worries me though, and here's why: It was clearly unbalanced in PoE1. You didn't have to be a completionist to become overpowered in the second half of the game and go through every encounter like pie. The level scalling option in the expansion and Twin Elms helped a little bit, but it was more like plugging holes with cement. The increased level cap to 20 in PoE2 only makes me more worried, since it will make the characters level up faster in a game that will be about the same size as PoE1. The leveling up system needs a more permanent solution in my opinion, and I would like to open the discussion in this thread for suggestions and thoughts. My suggestion: In addition to the fast paced leveling (I got to level 4 in the blink of an eye in the game), the main reasons that make the game too easy after a while is the big difference between high-level and mid-level accuracy and defenses and the lack of challenging combat design. For me, the linear increase in accuracy and defenses could be replaced by a curve-like increase (ex: +5 per level until 10, than +3 until 15, +1 from there on), or the increases could be tuned down... or maybe both. Realistically, it makes sense that a high-level character would hit or crit a regular xaurip easier, just because now he/she gathered enough combat experience for that, but that doesn't mean that a well organized tribe of xaurips shouldn't prove a challenge for a high-level party (too bad that doesn't happen in PoE1). The game tries to improve difficulty introducing new harder enemies and that's also a good strategy. The problem is that without dynamic level scalling, it is hard to balance encounter difficulty in a non-linear game. Say, if the game's beggining and end are fairly linear and the middle portion has branching story, with monsters with similar levels in each branch, if the player can choose which monsters to kill first, than the later will become easier by consequence (in that middle non-linear portion of the game). This is where a curve progression of accuracy and defenses becomes a good strategy, as it generates a plateau of stats in higher levels, preventing the player to become over-powered after a number of levels. The difference in high-levels, specially for the late portion of the game, could then be expressed by the widening of the ability options (ex: the per-encounter abilities for vancian casters is a nice touch). I was never a big fan of high-level, or "legendary" adventures, so my opinion might be a little biased. But I really think the game could benefit from an anti-overpowering approach on leveling up. It also fits with PoE's more realistic setting, where having a demi-god warrior killing thousands of enemies with single punches just feels out-of-place (unless you're Waidwen). Other obvious suggestions would be: - Dynamic level scalling, where the number of monsters in every encounter throughout the game always scale with your level, - Just forget about the 20 level cap stretch goal and slow down the level gaining.

Maybe that's Tekëhu's spiritshift form, since he will be a druid. It also fits with his supposed godlike connection with Ondra. If that's the case, he won't be my least favourite new companion anymore.

The yellow/purple skin pattern comes from the Rua family it seems. I like how Kana's and Maia's skin pattern resemble one another. Nice touch.

What does sequel momentum mean exactly?

I was one of the folks who waited until patch 3.05 to start playing this game. That being said, I would like to share my thoughts about it now that I finished my first complete playthrough (I skipped White March... will save that for another time). NARRATIVE DESIGN - VERY POSITIVE: I loved the variety of it. There was a wide range of themes (some of them rarely addressed in cRPG's), people with different points of view about the same issues and A LOT of roleplaying options. This variety is very important to keep the player interested, mainly in the second half. Can you imagine if Twin Elms was another urban-type city or village? I would definetly get bored. The developers talked about how they aimed for a "realistic fantasy" style (kinda like Game of Thrones) and for me they simply nailed it. Every quest, even the smaller ones, felt somehow morally ambiguous. ISSUES: Maybe the cities could have felt more organic and alive, with NPC schedules (that's planned for PoE2 already). Also, after reaching Twin Elms, Actually, I felt there was lost potential regarding the impact of background, skill, reputation and disposition on reactivity overall. It was competently done in some places, like I understand why there is less impactful reactivity in the main questline, as branching stories are costly, but regarding sidequests and small tasks I think the developers should go completely nuts with reactivity! Make more class-exclusive tasks, disposition-exclusive quests, background-exclusive rewards, maybe just for some class or disposition the sidequest could give a hint for the main story line, go nuts!... By the end of the game, where the player is usually less patient for solving mere tasks, this is also where he has most dispositions and reputations, so making the quests more reactive to those would be perfect! Again, they did a decent job at this, but for me, they should just go crazy in tasks and small quests' reactivity design... ART AND GAMEPLAY (NON-COMBAT) - VERY POSITIVE: I won't repeat what has being praised to death since the game's launch: how it improved upon the IE style in almost every aspect. I remember being blown away in the first hours of gameplay about how near perfect it was, from the environment and UI art to the freedom I had while building my characters. The one thing though, that I would like to highlight as a big positive for me is the policy of avoiding classic IE games exploits on gameplay, mainly supported by Josh Sawyer. Some of this implementations were very criticized here, but I got nothing but love for them since the beggining. The disencouragement of dumping stats, rest-spam and grinding exp. by killing monster mobs, the lack of an overpowered-weapon-to-rule-them-all... this all favors immersion and roleplaying instead of powergaming, which should be left for hack-'n'-slash and MMO's realm. ISSUES: Definetly leveling up. Again this has been addressed to death, and high-level content scalling seem to have fixed some of it. But all of Act 3 was frustratingly easy for me, playing on hard (and I didn't do any of White March). I think high level content scalling is not the right solution for this, but maybe changing the way leveling up works. The main reason for the game becoming too easy in high levels is the rising of defenses and accuracy, some high level abilities, and the lack of challenging encounter design (addressed in the next session). To solve this, I would propose a non-linear rise of defenses and accuracy (maybe a rising curve with a plateau). This makes more sense realistically, as experience in countless combats won't make you stronger and stronger until you reach god-like levels of killing a xaurip with a single punch. Maybe leveling up could be represented more by the widening of the abilitiy options available. Another obvious solution is simply limit the exp. rewards and slowing down the leveling up (I might think more about this for a new topic). COMBAT - DECENT/MILDLY POSITIVE: Again, I didn't disapprove of Josh's policy against IE's gameplay exploits and his implementation of the engagement system. I think it was a cool addition, and it actually presented a new challenge, as you had to find a way to break engagement if trying to get away from a fight. Also, the amount of abilities available is huge! This made every combat at least entertaining for the beggining of the game. There were some hard counters here-and-there, immunities and monster abilities that I had to think how to avoid and some challenging fights that felt somewhat rewarding when I was able to beat them, however... ISSUES: I feel like the implementation of a combat mode limited the options for encounter design a lot. With this current system, we are not able to do stuff like scout a group of enemies while invisible, throw a potion or explosive at a clueless mob of monsters, charm an enemy and send him in the front line of an encounter etc. Overall, the whole encounter design for PoE1 was very lackluster, and I don't understand why the developers allowed this, since Sawyer worked on IwD2 which has great encounter design. Using the different abilities available was cool at the beggining, some of them were a little different, like swapping the mage with another character, the fire wall and rolling flame, but man, I would love to see encounters where the party started with a disadvantage, with variations on terrain, boulders, obstacles, exploding kegs (or shooting at some oil kegs so they would cast slicken nearby), maybe some interactable objects (hell, why not even scripted interactions mid-combat, the possibilities would be numerous!). This went longer than I expected. Any thoughts on the issues/positives I mentioned are welcomed!

I will get very philosophical then: I think total freedom is reaching the point where you can act without fear, be it of some external force or of something in yourself, your future or your past.

C'mon, they gotta do a last upgrade for PoE1 along with the release of PoE2. Including the more detailed descriptions, and maybe addressing some of the stuff in the OP and some minor bugs...

The good: - The countdown teasers were cool and the lauch trailer already has gameplay in it! - The first stretchgoals seemed to be more thought out this time The bad: - I said that a number of times in the forums, but I was not a big fan of the sidekicks stretch goal. First, Feargus and Josh were talking about having lesser but deeper companions. Then, comes the sidekick stretch goal, which goes in the opposite direction of that, and now, we'll have 11 possible NPC's to join our party, 4 of them will feel incomplete and just leave us wanting more out of them (that's not good) - Some lackluster stretchgoals by the end of the campaign

Was there any word from the devs on this thread? What are the odds of those transparency/inconsistency issues being addressed in PoE2 now? Or even in a last patch for PoE1?? xDD (one can dream)

God, just leave them out of the main game and introduce them completely in the expansion... This is a mess. Maybe for you. I personally glad they're doing the sidekick thing since I like having a variety of characters to choose from. My only worry is that they do it seamlessly. I don't wanna be playing the game remembering that I can't relate deeply with some character because there was not enough budget, but rather because he or she speaks another language, is deeply traumatized etc. But you guys are right, Obsidian is probably thinking about this and I hope they come up with four different excuses for the sidekicks being less deep than the companions which I won't roll my eyes to. And more importantly, how one of them will become a full deep companion in an expansion if that happens. This is all headache for the writers, which they gave themselves...

For my female Chanter character which I haven't finished PoE 1 with yet: Edér and Aloth (to give more sense of continuity, keep the friendship/explore the relationships system with known characters) The other 2 places, I'll switch between Maia, Xoti and Serafen (maybe a little bit of Tekëhu) Pallegina will have no place in my party, ever...