Sarakash

There are Pen & Paper systems which use tick-based systems. If you use some sort of tracker - improvised or a payed supplement - it doesn´t really slow the game down. White Wolfs Exalted and Scion are two examples. Just as an example, this is the tracker Spittermond uses: https://splittermond.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Splittermond_Tickleiste.jpg PoE 2 RtwP basically is a tick system, just in realtime. It don´t hate Obsidians aproach - in fact I am enyoing it quite a bit, but I wish they would have gone for a tick - based system. In my opinion PoEs system would translate better. From my experience with conventional round systems like D&D 5 for instance vs tick-based systems is that the later allows for a more nuanced weapon balance (amongst other things). Weapons feel more like their counterpart in reality.

As much as I am enyoing the new turn - based mode, I´d love to see a tick based system. HoMM 5 is a good example. I know some Pen & Paper RPGs which use a tick based system as well and it´s alot of fun. Scion and Exalted for instance. There is a german RPG as well called Splittermond which uses a tick system as well, but afaik it hasn´t been translated yet.

For what it´s worth, I never have been a big fan of a level cap in general. It always strikes me as a lazy design choice, especially with the option to scale encounters. Obsidian could have just limit the rewards past lvl. 20, including the rise in power level for multiclasses. Or work with something like diminishing returns to better simulate the plateau effect.

There is a mod for class specific trinkets on Nexus. I haven´t tried it myself, but maybe it is something for you.

Yeah, I noticed that as well.

Thats what I figured as well. To eloborate on your first point, the gods in PoE 2 even admit outright that they can´t act against their nature. It´s during the scence where they argue amongst themselves and you confront them about it. They are not all knowing beeings, they are designed as an incarnation of concepts. I d even argue that giving the gods knowledge about how the cycle worked before their inception would be a detriment to function how the Engwithans envisioned them. From how the gods were presented during both games, I am not inclined to take everthing they told me at face value. @Blutwurstritter: While I am agreeing on your point that the player isn´t fully in control, your personal quest for getting your life back is resolved. Eothas restores you in the end and frees you from Berath influence. I understand why people might have a problem with the overall resolution of Eotha´s plot, but I wasn´t concerned by it to much. All in all, I had wished for a more informed decession regarding the consequences of the wheel´s destruction. If its true that dialog was cut, I just hope they add it back in at some point.

I really like how the factions are presented in Deadfire. They all have clear distinct motivations and their leaders reflect a sort of justification to reach their set goals. Gaining a position of power in a tug of war like it´s presented in the game through benevolence seems unplausible to me. The more I got to know the factions, the more it got me thinking about them or how my choice might influence the region. It reminded me at my own puny attempts as a GM to get my players thinking about their decissions in a given scenario. If they start to discuss not about the how but the why, I felt like I have achieved the goal I was going for.

I have to admit, I am not a big fan of hard level caps in games in general, especially if there is an opt-in level scaling option. They could have gone for diminishing returns for levels past 20 for instance, like giving only half acc/hp increase and half skill and/or ability points.

That seems unlikely, at least if we are talking about the Engwithans. Thaos told us during the final confrontation that they invented the gods to bring order to a world where a multitude of believes created war and strive, so people were actually dying. It was there solution to impose a certain order and therefore bring stability. As the events of the game unfolded I often wondered about this pre-Wheel state; about the pre-Engwithan paradigm with regard to souls. If there is a natural order independent of the Wheel that works well, it hardly matters which decision or which faction the Watcher chooses in game. Eothas only ends up hurting the gods. But if destroying the Wheel has catastrophic consequences for kith that only dedicated activity by kith can fix or mitigate, the choice of which faction to give privileged access to Ukaizo becomes much more urgent, keeping in mind that the player/Watcher has very incomplete information going into the endgame sequence. Yes, we (as players) cannot make an informed decision, neither can the Watcher. One theory I can think of why Eothas actions might disrupt the cycle is that the creation of the wheel introduced a change to the system which cannot be undone, thus it cannot return to its original state. If the cycle allready functioned like the wheel did I d argue that the wheel had to be build on top of it. Then again, the creation of the machine had to be so invasive that the cycle became dependend on it for it´s destruction to matter on the long run.

What still eludes me how was the flow of souls was handled before the creation of the wheel ? How I understand it, the Engwithans created the gods and most likely the wheel. This process took centuries to achieve. In turn that means there had to be some form of natural order which the Engwithans manipulated in their creation act, thus creating the cycle as we (and the gods) know it today. Apparently they had to be incapsulated in it. Eothas even refers to the wheel as a machine, a machine that now controls the supossedly natural flow and distribution of souls which also nurtures the gods themselves and therefore sustaines their existence. That much Berath has admited and I am inclined to take her at face value on this. The question is, do the gods even know what happens after the dismanteling of the Enghithan´s wheel other then that they might perish? The cycle could just snap back into it´s natural order as in how it was before they were created. The gods aren´t all knowing, they are constructs build on a concept. For instance, Wael does not keep secrets out of self interest, but to induce a sense of wonder in kith and thus inspire curiosity. It´s his nature. I wonder if it has any benefit to imprint the information how the cycle worked before in a beeing like Wael. I figured it would be more of a detriment as it might influence the concept in which Wael - or any of the other gods for that matter - was created in a negative way. In other words: In order for the original plan to work, the gods must not doubt their purpose. So, what is the consequence of Eothas act really? Was there a natural order of distribution before the Engwithans and how did it work ? Was it like the wheel and the Engwithans just build the machine on top if it in order to sustain the gods ? If so, is it irreversible? When I reached the point of commiting to one of the factions, I rather asked myself which one will do the least damage if there was such a thing as a natural order before the gods inception. This is why I ruled out VTC and to an extend RDC. The Huana were to religious for my taste in context of the questions I had, which left the pirates or doing it myself.

I totally agree. The establishment of power always comes with a cost attached to it. This is what makes the factions of Deadfire much more plausible and believable.On the surface, they all talked alot about high concepts, but underneath they were willing to do what needs to be done at least in their eyes. They all had a clear motivation and a justification for themselves, they didn´t appear to me as evil just for the sake of beeing evil.

Well, the Mass Effect franchise being a good continuation from a story perspective was´t the can of worms I wanted to open, I just brought it up as something which did quite well financially speaking. Frankly, I still wake up from recurring nightmares, screaming. I always see the hologram kid in front of me endlessly repeating "You wouldn´t understand and there is no time to explain"

While your last statement might be true, I wouldn´t say they shot themselves in the foot. It´s not necessarly bad from a financial standpoint. Mass Effect was very succesful until Andromeda for instance. It´s a formula which can succed.

Yeah, using something like social justice warrior as an insult always irritates me. Where I live, we have a similar insult "Gutmensch" (roughly translates to good person). The funny part is, those terms got invented by people who are basically in power to rally those who are in fear of loosing something, exploiting the fact the alot of people rather kick down then beat up.

Another way to resolve the quest peacefully. I ve done it on two different playthrought, so it should work out.