Aramintai

So I still don't get it. Have those guys done their VO work for POE2 already and we just got this announcement now or is this going to be some kind of super rushed job in a few weeks before release? If it's the latter I have a sudden fear of yet another imminent postponement coming.Katrina tweeted yesterday that this was a difficult secret to keep. This almost assuredly confirms that the work was completed some time ago but is just now being announced. Ok, that's a relief if true.

So I still don't get it. Have those guys done their VO work for POE2 already and we just got this announcement now or is this going to be some kind of super rushed job in a few weeks before release? If it's the latter I have a sudden fear of yet another imminent postponement coming.

"Where have you gone, my son, my son? Gone to rot in the sun, the sun? Please come back, my son, my son... KILL THEM ALL, ONE BY ONE BY ONE!!" Oh no, please stop! Now I can't get it out of my head, ugh.

It's more likely that for some people it's Irenicus's dungeon for prologue or bust.

I dunno, I didn't see anything particulary goofy in the beta. I think you've seen colorful and bright DOS series that were indeed goofy and because POE2 has similar colorful palette decided to associate it with same goofiness. It's more colorful not because it's less serious but because it's tropical islands now, not continental climate zone with muffled tones.There is plenty dark in the beta too, I've seen an island there where stranded sailors were living in some gruesome ruins and cannibalizing on each other because of lack of food.

I'd have to say it's purely a physical thing at this point. She looks so big and bad ass. Like she can slap anyone around. Her personality might be something completely different of course. A love triangle with Aloth and Iselmyr could be very interesting though, I'd give you that. The fish thing seems to trigger a few souls, yes. Don't ask me what the deal about that is though. I dunno, judging by Maia's portrait and her occupation I think she may be an even bigger hardass than Pallegina. But who knows, she could be a great buddy material. Aloth is one of my favourites from POE1, too bad Iselmyr isn't. But I'm sure he'll manage without her just fine. As for the fish - I'm not a big fish fan, maybe that's why I don't get it.

I wish I could second that, but I'm all aboard the Maia train. I'm not aboard any train yet, but I'm leaning more towards the old buddies, cuz I know them better. I've yet to figure out what's so appealing about a scaly fish man that turns into a...fish. Is it some sort of fetish?

I don't remember much about Gann's or any other romances in NWN2 but I still remember the super annoying and super creepy screams of his hag mother that were on the constant loop while I was exploring the dungeon she was in.

It sure was in PoE1 and in the Deadfire beta (not sure about the latest beta version, but the version prior to that atleast). I'm certain of it. Well, if you find it, please post it here cuz I must be blind or something.

It's weird but I recall seeing this (unmodified) portrait back in the early days of POE1 (maybe in the beta?) but I can't find it now neither in POE1 nor in POE2 beta.

You could if you were female.

Those options were probably all drow elves - they sure are a bitter, sullen bunch.

Hmm, so they've just announced those Critical Role guys but they have done their VO work for POE2 already, right? Or I don't see how they can manage to record and edit this stuff properly in less than a month.

Seen it most frequently during ship battles - pet was bottle necking jumping points and messing up pathfinding so that characters couldn't decide which way to go to get around the pet. Quite annoying.

Some more minor bugs that weren't mentioned yet (I think): 1. Hiding character's head gear or cloak in the inventory doesn't hide it on a paper doll in the inventory tab, only on the model on the map: 2. Save files' (specifically autosave) thumbnail pictures have weird graphical glitches and missing assets, like as if the area is not fully loaded when the picture is taken: 3. Custom formation returning to default straight line after quitting the game and loading a save. 4. Alt-Tabbing out of the game is a pain and trying to force close the game after Alt-Tab or using Alt-F4 sometimes makes PC freeze with a black screen cured only by reset. 5. When buying supplies for the ship the grid below sometimes disappears: 5. Also, am I missing something but where are my equipped cannons below deck? I only see cannon balls there:

Not a bad idea, that's something they actually can do. Or at least remove portraits of other gender from the pool.

Well, you don't have to limit yourself to those few official portraits. It's very easy to put custom portraits into the game and there are **** ton of them on the internet, less for orlans and aumaua but there are some of those too. And if devs won't lock companions portraits in release version you'll be able to change them too.

Companies should also watch their budget. I salute Obsidian for saving money on such luxuries as character face editor (especially useless for an isometric top down rpg) and pouring it into more important things like, more content. Sure, AAA companies with lots of resources nowadays should be expected to have them where applicable, but not borderline indy devs like Obsidian. Still, even AAA companies can hugely disappoint on that front - just take a look at BioWare's latest games, like Mass Effect: Andromeda for example (still can't look at those ugly mugs without laughing). Currently the best character face editor I've seen was in Monster Hunter: World - with effort it could produce decent looking faces with enough variety. Some people even managed to make decent Geralt mugs there: But that's a game with a whole other budget.

Really? Did you take a look at the previous page and that dead eyed, plastic-y 3D mug and a hand painted portrait comparison? I don't know about you but for extended periods of game time I'd rather look at a normal looking face of a painted portrait instead of the low-poly mug of a 3D model, clearly meant only for small sized paper doll usage. Also, I'm not sure where you've seen expressions on those. They can't have a hearty smile like in Eder's portrait, or have a snarky expression of Pallegina's portrait, or even "long face" of Aloth's portrait - these expressions let you get a better feel of character and that's something that is lacking in most static 3D mugs for portraits. Sure 3D faces of hand sculpted characters such as Geralt in the Witcher series, or Nathan Drake from Uncharted, or Aloy in Horizon: Zero Dawn can be quite expressive, high-poly and good looking - but those are from games with a single playable character whose face is set in stone by the devs. To make faces of such quality editable is gonna be very very expensive and I've yet to see a character face creator that is even remotely close.

SC2 is not a bad example, but those characters weren't just some randoms that you can make in an editor. Most editors I've seen can only make ugly mugs with varying limitations of choice and in party games like POE and DOS you can make a full party of these monsters...the horror . Hand sculpted 3D faces made by developers are still better. And hand painted portraits are better and cheaper. Personally, I don't have high hopes for the future of character face editors for party based games yet, but I'm hoping that at least someday in the bright future when cool graphics are beautiful and cheap that there will be a party based rpg with a set of companions having beautiful 3D animated portraits working sorta like in Planescape: Torment - they had various animations and showed when they were hurt or dead.

I mean, come on, can you even compare these: Not for this game yet, not yet.

No, hand painted portraits still convey what the character is about much better than a regular 3D model. I haven't seen any rpgs with 3D mugs for portraits that do their characters justice, I think we're not quite there yet graphics wise. When there comes a time when it will be cheap to make 3D portraits for a bunch of characters (preferably animated) of at least the same quality as Geralt's or Aloy's face then sure, I'll be glad to use them. But for now hand painted portraits ftw!

Swashbuckler=fighter/rogue multiclass. Multiclass rogues are very good, no doubt. Single class rogue - sucks.

I wish I could agree with that, op, but after seeing what other classes and rogue multiclass are able to do I simply can't. Everything is relative. And right now, relative to others single class rogue sucks. Sure, you can play with it and complete the game even, but you won't feel as powerful as you could be. Personally, if nothing changes for single class rogue (my main in POE1, btw) that beefs it up I'm gonna play as fighter/rogue multiclass.