injurai

So basically new game+. Not bad to be honest. ​ ​Comparing Deadfire stretch-goals to PoE1. I think I prefer what we are seeing this time around. Really the best goals of PoE2 where the second city and endless dungeons. But these incremental goals every 200,000 are pretty great to be honest. Maybe some don't appreciate things like watercolored portraits, but I think that really adds a lot to the polish of the game. VO will certainly be a big boon too. ​ ​ ​But seriously. Whips.

I have never felt so chill around a character as Eder. He just calms the entire party. He's a dude you want by your side. ​ ​Eric F really found a special character in Eder.

​ ​ ​ ​Stretch goal? We got one for George Ziets didn't we? ​ ​But to be honest. PoE1 had a much shorter pre-production that was done basically in desperation to get a new project going internally. PoE2 has had a more elaborate pre-prod so I'm sure a lot of elements have already be ironed out. They don't want to risk narrative creep. ​

​Just going to reiterate the desire for: ​ ​Puzzles and secrets

I think it would be neat to have an "heirloom" mechanic. Where you can create a certain set that can continue to get better the longer you hold onto it. Perhaps the more you use it the more you earn further slots for enchantments. ​ ​That way getting new loot is still a thing, but you can also have a side set that your are progressively working on.

In the early game when you only have 5 party members, things feel a-okay to me. PoE1 is clearly build around 6 party members so things feel marginally better when you get up to 6. But it doesn't feel necessary. Never mind all the times when you're fighting with party members downed. ​ ​So if Deadfire is tailored for 5, I think 5 will be just fine. Part of me thinks that they are dropping the cap because they have fewer companions, and by reducing it to 5 the keep the combinatoric quotient of potential parties high. Where you aren't just choosing who to sit out. One of their goals this time is to write more involved companions, which means having fewer to pool from.

Yes please to a mega dungeon. I'm down for something smaller than Endless Paths if it means a more dense more bespoke dungeon in nature. ​ ​Endless Paths was almost like having Diablo 1 built into the game. But yeah, something nautical themed certainly comes to my imagination when thinking what the analogue to Endless Paths could be. ​ ​I think a "string" of dungeons that break up a single mega dungeon, maintains a thematic through line would be a neat way to go. Puzzles anyone?

Big cats. I want a cat bigger than me.

I thought he said recently that for Priests and Paladins, your order was the subclasses and that it was required. So I'm not sure if no order is possible. I think it might have been on SA that he said that.

Well, I'm wondering more in relation to skills and talents that are unique only to a particular kit. I do expect that each subclass invokes trades offs relative to the "pure" variant. The pure serving as sort of the "control" for the class as a whole. More the stuff that your giving-up/gaining down the road as you level. ​ ​Will the subclasses basically get entirely new abilities, without giving up abilities that pure has? Or maybe abilities aren't exactly tied to subclasses in the first place? Are subclasses just one-time trade offs on character creation? I think I just need a more in-depth explanation as to how exactly they work. I feel I get multi-classes, just not sub-classes. ​ ​It's the "how" are the trade-offs being implemented rather than that they are happening. How we will see those through out the leveling process. But maybe it's too early and Obsidian still is working this out.

I'm kind of curious. We know each class will have 2 subclasses. But we also know "pure" is one of those options. Could it be viewed as each class having sort of 3 equal but different variants? What I mean by that is something more analogous to OG WoW's talent trees? Or will Pure vs Kits really feel quite different? Do the subclass kits open up something that pure doesn't get? Say, pure gets to scale the core components more heavily, but doesn't actually have abilities that the subclasses are entirely barred from. Or is pure just a third kit that stylistically stays closer to the traditional role of said class, but indeed as abilities unique from the subclasses? Do the subclasses make your give up actual abilities from the pure class? ​ I guess one way of looking at it is the following. Is the "core" of the class the set of all things "pure, kit1, and kit2" have in common. Or does "pure" represent the core of the class abilities.

You have to define what intuitive is in relation to this type of game, then setup goals of what needs to be achieved. In many ways there are things you simply have to learn in a traditional sense. Math might be intuitive, but the learning of it isn't always. I'd rather the game be intuitive once I've tackled the learning curve. That way things are smooth sailing, and I can indulge in the mechanics and lore. But as for the underlying stats and math? How would you make that intuitive? Show not and tell is a good step. But you can't just show with these games, you'll always have the tell. The tell is probably what people complain about being unintuitive, but the tell is partly what makes this game great. Show just reminds you you might have some "studying" to do.

Two thoughts based on two of Josh's SA posts. ​ ​1. I really like the idea of auto-pause before cast. It should probably be done as setting, and it'd be really nice setting to have. Especially with the combat changes that they want to make. Interrupts and all that. ​ ​2. Death occuring on KO with 3+ injuries. For some reason I thought injuries would be adding more numerously than just a couple. In some ways I really liked the endurance/health model for vitality last game. It's a more continuous spectrum than having 3 injury blips replace health. When I first heart of the injury system I thought of them more as abrasions, bruises, sprains, fractured ribs, punctures, cuts, minor burns. I do like the idea of building up "afflictions" that need to be cleared with a rest. But dieing with 3 injuries seems too few. I suppose the team could be seeing all injuries as "major" ones. Which would explain their choice of 3+. But I'm coming at this more from the perspective of having an in-game narrative that justifies why the party needs to rest for a night before venturing forth. Having injuries conveyed as "major injuries" sounds like you need to go to a hospital. Where I could totally see you dieing from 3. But if simply resting is enough to recover ones injuries, I'd think of those as injuries relatively as minor. I'd was anticipating 6+ injuries to be the critical point of exhaustion that really demands the party take a rest. Because you'll likely rest as soon as 1 character badly needs it. Otherwise it was probably an encounter that took a lot out of everyone. But how often is that happening? If that is happening after every encounter, then resting after every encounter will be annoying. It seems much better to granulate injuries more and have more accumulate before you finally need to rest. At which point you can get back all your empowers. Because if your resting both for just a few injures and empowers, then I don't see how we are solving "stock pile daily and avoid run back vs enjoy your spells and never fight fatigued" dilemma. ​ ​I'm sure there is an age old adage that there are no hospitals in role-playing games. ​

​ ​ You can literally say that about anything that did not exist in a game beforehand. Yes, but I'm using that platitude as my personal sentiment on the matter, the gist of my post is everything said after that. Plenty of people like romance regardless how it's written. Sure they claim they want it well done. But really they just like the dating sim aspect of roleplaying, and simply want to see a lot of that content. I don't think that has much place in a crpg. Not without detracting more than it adds. Particularly when it's something the PC is pursuing. ​ ​But, I do think watching a relationship unfold between npcs works fine, because it adds the the realistic dressing of the world. Just that relationship is between two people that aren't you so there shouldn't be a significant amount of game play surrounding it.

If romances must be done, hopefully they will done well. A notion I have reservations believing in. I don't really want to see two part members or the pc and a party member with ongoing sexual tension. Bickering because they don't want to show their true feelings, which would be especially annoying if that romance line doesn't take off at all and you had to suffer through their tension. That sort of fickle on-off trope will be tiresome. Nor do I want a milquetoast relationship that is basically written in the stars, and everyone knows two people will be with each other. Really all that needs to be done, is establishing interest between to characters through light and infrequent flirting that is taken well by both people. Stay away from one liners. Real people are bashful and adults (who the party is comprised of) are more forward but coy out of respect if nothing else. ​ ​If anything, I think romance should occur only between two npcs, not the pc. The two should be wanting find themselves wanting to settle down in a similar fashion, there should be no room for 007-like "hot flings". I want it to be a way of "killing off" party members without killing them off. If they fall and love and settle down, then they won't return in the next game because they are starting a family. You as the pc could interfere if you really want them to stick around for PoE3. Because completing the main narrative, you've basically afforded everyone in the party to go off on their own way, which means you've helped the two love birds survive and they can now retire together. To keep them in the vocation of adventuring you'll have to sabotage that relationship. ​

I've seen the musings around various communities, and I have to agree that having a pirate ship as a "keep" would be awesome. Actually better yet, an entire "private cove." Sort of a hidden bay that can serve as a base of operations. Maybe your ship serves as a forward base, that appears docked when your at various cities. While your Cove, a sort of Swiss Family Robinson paradise, is what you invest in and build up. Maybe the ship represents a subset of the cove's upgrades, or maybe the ship is just aesthetic and is you're "gateway" to travel back to the cove. ​ ​On the other hand, I'd really like to see an analogue to The Endless Paths Od Nua. It was really fun to see that stretch goal get tackled. So we're in Deadfire this time. Maybe some sunken city that has basically been untouched by the outside world. Entirely ready to be pillaged by the adventuring party. One of those temples that is so obscure that not a single person is their to protect or defend it, instead it's protect by it's obscurity. Somehow the main quest reveals so lost knowledge on the side, and this party can go looking for this place. Perhaps the crew has to invest in diving equipment for the ship to get to the underground cavern. I don't know... I'm not being paid for these ideas. But another mega-dungeon would be awesome. ​ ​Also, Someone mentioned above a mutli-part treasure hunt. I'd be down for that. You (Obsidian) must have known we'd start salivating over anything swashbuckler theme. People will be expecting a couple west country accents vo'd. ​

I found myself thinking this as well. "Project Eternity" is really ingrained in my mind so I'm glad they kept with that theme. But the X of Y format takes something out of it on first pass. The more I hear it though the more I like it. It's in the same vein as Pillars of Islam, or Pillars of Narrative which describe key tenets or elements to a concept, practice or skill. I think the name just has a lot of syllables and that is the primary reason that name seems a bit cumbersome to voice or read. Though Metal Gear Solid, or Shin Megami Tensai don't exactly win on fronts of meaning or concision either. I have to say I'm very happy with where the name stands. I wouldn't expect them to change it again at this point. There is something to be said about building the proper mind share for the title. I'm sure they have settled and will begin associating this name with their project during the remaining months of development.

Pillars of Eternity. Thats pretty awesome and has the same ring as Project Eternity. Thing is I think Project Eternity is ingrained into my mind now.

The thing I don't want to have happen. Is some sort of FFXII gambit system, or pseudo-programming of companions through what would be unnecessary (and surely would end up near necessary) setup of your party behavior. Companions should have traits, and characteristics that make them desirable/undesirably for your play style. If you keep someone in your party of a long duration of the game, It would be neat if you could influence their AI mechanics in traits in a way that bonding or growing with someone in real life you change both party members. So over time there could be a sort of hidden dynamic that allows you to suggest to a party member ways in which they could do things. I feel many people want the power to customize and manipulate all aspects of there character, party, items and stats in these sorts of games. It's true that developers can neuter games through abstraction of stats and mechanics. But in terms of AI, that is a mechanic to emulate human characteristic, and I would find it unnatural to program the people around you. When influencing party members over a duration of time, that should be a mechanic to allow you to 1. fine tune your party, 2. A change to change dynamics after you have heavily invested your story and development of those characters. It shouldn't be a feature that has to be used, just something to give a different flavor to your party instead of having to reestablish your party members, their gear items, and leveling (perhaps potential companions don't fall behind in experience if they aren't used... hopefully)

I think legendary weapons would be neat. In the way that we have historical relics, or how bilbo found the elven swords in the troll cave. I do however feel that they shouldn't be uber stat-saturated item that takes away from other aspects of the game such as skill planning and strategy. It would be neat to have these relics as being degraded, and you can somehow reforge them or extract some essences out of them to bolster another weapon. These essences, or alloys could be pivotal aspects of some neat character builds. This way it augments the player freedom instead of being merely a vehicle to overcome stat barriers.

The wizards that the Beginning of BG1, and the awesome scenes of Gandalf and Saruman in the lotr trilogy using in black speech tells me incantations would be incredible to hear. The votes seem to say yes!

I feel that perhaps partnering or outsourcing to CDPR could bring about some amazing localisation for Poland. They started as a porting-house, and their bread and butter are role-playing games of similar cut as Project Eternity will be. Italian would probably also be worth while based on the sales numbers it could find their.

It really depends what the game is going for. But here is the way I see it. Unless you are specifically going for a Diablo 2 like game setup there is not a considerably strong reason to include highly randomized loot. A master artist can make the most out of the most basic tools, and I would think that would apply to items as well overall. Overly depended item games can strip away or supercede that power that skill points and stat allocations should have. If you are talking about fixed items, but just random in the sense of what drops it, or when stuff drops it. I think this should have a hybridized system where deer drop pelts, pirates drop cutlasses, etc. But furthermore these items should only be occasionally dropped (say you ruined that poor dears pelt while cleaving it) and certain specific enemies will always supply story or lore important items. Items should represent a base template. Steel bastard swords always perform in a certain way. Then make upkeep, oil, whetstones, enchanting, reforging the means to influence some minor additional traits. But overall i'd rather see items stats fixed, and hybridized item drop table based on plausible expectations.