Silent Winter

Beast of Winter puts me in mind of Heart of Winter, but with more beast. Seeker, Slayer, Survivor is clearly a fan-fic mashup of Quidditch, Buffy, and 'Reality™ TV'. And the Forgotten Sanctum is about an amnesiac Dr.Strange.

These look like good ideas for expansions - glad I added the expansion pass to my pledge. The combat-focused one is the least interesting of the 3 to me, but I'll still enjoy it so that's only a relative statement. I'm remembering TOTSC and imagining it split into smaller DLCs. Werewolf Island was standalone (apart from a brief part in Ulgoth's beard that could've been anywhere). I loved that quest - it was quite short (especially on replays), but interesting and fun. Durlag's Tower could've been its own DLC easily - a bit meatier than Werewolf Island, especially with above and below ground parts. Add a small Icewind Dale-esque dungeon for part 3 and I'd've been happy with all that for $30 (or rather $20 that I paid for the season pass). Underground?: check Overground?: check Wombling free?: er... (^no idea, just popped into my head) Even if the total is smaller than WI + DT + ?? , it'll depend more on the fun/interest factor than the size for me.

Josh already talked about that some time ago. It's drawn images of monsters just like Pillars1 and won't include 3D models in bestiary. alright. thanks. wondering what's the reason for that. if those creatures are beautifully designed, it would go to waste without able to see them on first person. I think it's to do with the bestiary being part of the journal, and wanting a journal 'feel' - guess the Watcher is an artist too The sketches were really good in PoE. I too would like to be able to view the models when I'm not attacking them with a fireball. Perhaps a model viewer could be modded.

There are still the Watcher's lines - you read them and choose them without indication of tone - which is why I appreciated the [Clever] / [Cruel] / [Passionate] tags - not to monitor reputation so much as to let me know how to interpret a line. Often it was obvious, but not always. Ran into the same problem in BG without tags and was occasionally surprised at the reaction to what I thought was a different line. Good VO can indeed help a character's tone/meaning (which is part of why 'no VO' is less preferable than 'full VO' for me) (but I still prefer partial VO - any ambiguity can be voiced and the initial lines can be voiced to establish tone).

Because: Based on Bioware's data, only 31% of people play as female Shepard. (Is 31% considered infinitesimal where you're from? That's over a quarter of players.) But yeah, for the VO argument, we don't know the hows and whys of the budget - so people saying "Full VO = no fishing" isn't a concrete argument. (Saying "Full VO is not my preference" is fine as it's not my preference )

Full VO and No VO aren't the only options - Partial VO is favoured by those who want to get the flavour of the characters speaking but still want to read most dialogue faster than the speakers speak. Again - it's not Full vs. No VO for most of those who didn't love the news - it's Full vs. Partial So as an example of a game that would've been better with partial VO for me: DA:O, FF-X, pretty much any game that did Full VO for me. The games mentioned did have an 'up-close' camera though, and I admit it looks weird to have the full-face NPC not moving their lips and just giving a blank stare with the dialogue. So choosing a better camera angle for unvoiced lines (like a higher, isometric angle or a wide-shot) would be needed. But camera angles in those games were chosen anyway during conversation (no?). My reason for preferring partial VO is given above (getting the character voice but not being slowed down by it). To clarify, I'm not speed reading. I'm doing full dramatic voice in my head with the character's voice, including facial expressions, just like when I'm reading a book - it's just faster. That's why I like the suggestion given earlier for a hotkey toggle to mute dialogue (but not ambient sound/music) so we can satisfy all players (full/partial/no VO)

Have we checked out the source code for all pages related to Deadfire? (he says with no intention of undertaking such a massive task - especially as it's unlikely to bear fruit codes) Edit: Or check satellite imagery of all piratical looking islands in the world to see if Josh spent some of the budget to go write something in the sand...

This is one of those subjective things, but for me the partial way is the best. It gives me enough of a feel for each character, and establishes their voice, but doesn't slow me down too much. Conversely, no VO is boring and full VO is too slow. I read way faster than they speak - full VO may add hours to my playthrough (LOL). Trying to read ahead while the VO is still going gets annoying at best and tricky at worst. But I still want to hear each character's voice, tone, etc at the beginning of a conversation. There was a good suggestion in the other thread for a hotkey toggle - turn off the VO once you've had enough and just want to read - turn it back on when you want too. That'd satisfy both camps.

I'm pretty sure Josh didn't develop the P&P version just as a bonus item - I think he intends it to be usable (and therefore saleable) for P&P campaigns. It's a little different from the in-(PC)-game mechanics (last I heard it used a classless system). Whether the 'Starter' book will be available I don't know, but I can't imagine it not being at some point.

I'm continuing my druid from my first PoE completion, and I'll be sticking with single-class. Just deciding between Shifter subclass or not. 2nd playthrough will continue my rogue, but not sure yet if I'll try multiclassing that.

No it's not, it's like learning about Thaos and that you spend the game chasing him and that he turned you into a Watcher No it's really not - that happens during the game. (again - I'm wrong if we get to run around Caed Nua at level 16 before Eothas shows up - but I'm betting that's in the opening video/narration montage). The 'hunt a god, save your soul' thing is in the slogan. For PoE 1 the equivalent was 'no sleep for the watcher' which was way more mysterious. I can't remember what exactly they gave away in the early PoE vids but I think it was more 'feels' of isometric 3D "Did you like BG/IWD/PST? Then this is for you! [fireball-wheee!])

All of which takes place before the game starts - it's not the main plot, it's the setup. It's like learning that in PoE you're part of a caravan arriving in a new place and you feel sick. Edit: unless the tutorial has us running round Caed Nua at level 16 before Eothas shows up.

^Same here - I've since checked out one of their streams and I'm confident we're getting a good cast

Why can't they just set up a site where we log in with our Obsidian account - log our codes found - then unlock a gog-code for DLC items? (I appreciate that if there are many items that might be a lot of work). (Given that codes are just getting shared on a forum thread anyway, is there a chance of anyone not getting all the same codes as everyone else? - just give us the items ) Having a fun game before launch is a good idea ...just a bit disappointing that backers who prefer gog can't join in (I know Obs didn't deliberately decide to exclude gog backers and that this is a steam 'feature' that they're taking advantage of)

Someone in another thread ( https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/96804-deadfire-scavenger-hunt/ ) said that gog was being worked on. Where did you read that gog users won't get them?

Looks like they softened the jaws a bit on Xoti and Ydwin (one of the main complaints I heard is that every character had the same big jaw). Xoti's hood and eyes seem to have been redone too. Aloth also has a bit more ...definition? Overall I prefer the newer ones

The only reason to wait would be if you can't decide between gog or steam. If you're going "ummm....ahhh...hmmmm" then sleep on it. Otherwise it's nice to see the game on your digital shelf (I assume steam has the same sort of thing as gog there), even if you can't DL it yet.

What's 'Critical Role' and are they all as good as Matt Mercer?

^I'm fairly sure the name-change poll is just for fun

Look like pirates to me...or dinosaurs...or flamingos I for one had no money left after backing PoE2 at the deluxe edition - but since everyone is enjoying the voting fun still, I may as well join in Edit: There - I voted for a cloak made entirely of obsidian (...don't judge me) - I fully expect Obsidian to monitor this poll and constantly change the item via patches as the poll fluctuates LOL

Oh hey! Congrats Justin

I couldn't remember 100% for some of them - but I picked what I think my Watcher (1st playthrough) probably would have done. (Must go and redo the survey for my 2nd Watcher). There was only one question I had a 'huh?' moment on (ie I didn't even remember the quest/choice at all) - related to one of the gods' quests - 2 people living beyond their time? Where was that? (It's possible I missed it in game, or it was short non-memorable event).

Tell that to Surgery Simulator 2000* We were asking for gibs during PoE1 development** *Disclaimer: may not be a real game **Disclaimer: the good fight was easily won, not sure it can be classified as a movement. In before someone makes a point of gibbing all the naked people in the game. (not me though. I think the orlans should be able to enjoy their bathtime without worrying about a group of trigger-happy adventurers). I'm talking about humans. You kill a lot of humans in games. Such murdering is prohibited in every society on earth. Don't forget the Orlans and Aumaua*** ***Disclaimer: Am unaware of any real-world laws protecting the aforementioned.

Even the mods that fix bugs create bugs according to the feedback. I have 50 hours in Skyrim and 30 in the Special Edition. Skyrim is reasonably stable and bug-free if you know how to set it up correctly. Mods do complicate matters. My last setup was reasonably stable. The occasional crash, but nothing too serious. No bugs that I remember. My last mod list (note: do not attempt to replicate this mod list, it is outdated): +417-Improved Bards - All-in-One ^Skimming through, I read this as "improved beards" and thought that'd be a good mod for Dwarves

I usually play a game on 'normal' difficulty (whatever that's called - 'classic' I guess in this case). If a game is good but normal is too easy as to make combat boring, I'll give 'hard' a try. If a game is just too hard on 'normal' then I'm not above trying 'easy' either (though BG/IWD/PoE et al haven't needed that). I started a PotD game in PoE just for lulz, but didn't get very far in it before I got bored with the combat giving me a hard time. I like combat to be challenging, but still fun, and I don't want to min-max / cheese / etc to win fights. I'm not the most strategic player though. 'Normal' usually suits me just fine.