anameforobsidian

Eh. There's a lot of blaming Josh for everything around certain corners of the internet. "Josh Sawyer looked at my cow funny, and now it only gives chocolate yogurt." If he wanted the stronghold to fail then Tim ****ing Cain probably wouldn't have been working on it. The stronghold just needs more content (written npcs & npcs wandering around). It's one of the many places where the budget of the game shows. If the game had two more small villages, six to eight more wilderness areas, and three to five extensively written characters in the stronghold it would be right next to BGI in terms of quality.

Everything is squishy on PotD except 100% full on fighter tank builds. If perception increases accuracy the enemy are going to punch through your party like a wet paper bag. It's a cool change, im not sure if its a good one though. Couldn't a lot of that problem be solved by boosting con (and maybe slightly boosting res? Really that would solve the problem of resolve being kinda redundant and con being a drop stat. Seems like a pretty elegant fix.

4E is beautifully suited to CRPGs because it requires a lot of math, positioning, and visual set up. It does play like a cross between DnD and a minifig game, but it is nothing like MMOs. People call it an MMO because they noticed the paradigm that already existed and gave it a name, but really they're mad because of they finally started taking steps to limit the poisonous "casters do everything" problem D&D had. Also the books are long, so half the players didn't read the rituals section. That said, I'm enjoying d6 space right now more than I ever enjoyed d&d 3 or 4.

I replayed the BG trilogy and finished about two weeks before PE was released. It did not diminish my desire to play PE at all, and I have 160 hours in it now. PE made several real gameplay improvements over the Infinity Engine that I appreciate. My biggest issue right now is that I want more content.

Not only do mods drastically extend the life of the game. They alert the people making the game to new possibilities in the engine. But I think the bigger issue is that Obsidian said they would be as mod friendly as possible. Opening and ignoring a subforum would be a token step to bolster their credibility.

It's also worth pointing out that you can rest without going into the Brackenbury. White March and hopefully the next PE need a clearer design direction for the narrative and world, and I think the experience gained from this game will help that. Codex bitching aside, they built a solid system that only needs a few tweaks here and there. The only difficult technical change they need to make is AI, and playing on torment convinced me that they don't have as far to go as it looks like on lower difficulties. That said, has there been any recent news on White March, you know, like the thread is titled?

I'll repeat others. Triple crown solo is meant to be hard. It requires careful planning and thorough knowledge of the game. Here's what I've found from my forays into soloing: Items (figurines & scrolls), positioning, skills, and race matter far, far, more than class. In that order. That said, while tankier classes make it easier to solo (really just getting past Od Nua), the other tankier classes have more to offer than fighters and monks. For a long time moonlike barbarian was the class to do solo runs in, because one stands alone was an automatic choice and would give you great damage boosts. Also, the moonlike barbians get huge self heals and the quick running talent also helps you pull. Chanters provide a great mid to late game bonus, because the increased speed chant means they're better at pulling / kiting, and you can kite and ogre until everything is dead.

With their high damage, a set of guns makes a great opening volley. Hell, there's a reportedly game-breaking build that specializes in getting off three or four quick shots in the opening seconds of combat. Besides being a decent weapon for openings, there's many successful builds that can be made around them. Leadspitter alone is one of the most unique and memorable weapons in the game, and a complete game-changer for ciphers.

If you play with conversation tags on, food is really good for getting past some checks. I did use it for hard battles frequently on my triple crown solo.

I disliked Durance as a character, but loved his writing as I went on. However, the pacing of his story was a little off since I wasn't terribly concerned with the plot. I liked Eder as a character, and also liked his writing. Pallegina was pretty interesting, but her quest needed elaboration. Hirviras really grew on me, and he gave a neat perspective on the Gods. Sagani too, although her quest was pretty stupid (but she was aware of this). Grieving Mother had an interesting plot, but didn't really come together. Kana just wasn't that interesting as a character. He certainly matched the setting, but neither his plot nor personality really grabbed me. He needed a lot more "so what happens next" moments after his big discovery. Aloth just didn't work as a character. He had two different plots, neither of which progressed nearly as far as they should. It was kind of a jumbled mess. It would have been more interesting if he wasn't sure if he was a leaden key agent in this life or an awakened one. That said, all the banter between all the characters was good (except grieving mother, but that's kinda her point).

Cheat to alter characteristics, and then use dice rolls to determine a character's stats.

I think you've raised some good points, but I'm not as against random encounters and overland maps as you. Overland map - Yes the amount of work would be considerable, but with each game made in the engine, Obsidian is building their toolset. While it might make sense to limit work on the current game, future games could be built with this technology. This is especially true since it doesn't seem like this engine will face graphical obsolescence for a long time. There are some kinds of stories that are told particularly well with overland maps. Games of exploration & discovery, like Fallout and Exile/Avernum. They could work very well with the PE aesthetic and rules. Random battles - Random battles can add depth and even reactivity when skillfully created. In Fallout 2, the Morton brothers would appear after you killed one of them seeking revenge. In Baldur's Gate 2, I believe slavers would come after you after you took down the slave den. And your place in the story would create special encounters between thieves and vampires. However this means that you need an equal mix random and intentional encounters, or encounters can be a trudge. (Or they can be boring bull****). Random encounters can also provide flavor to ecology. In Fallout 2, the overland map had the impression of such distance that you could plausibly run into whole dens of Deathclaws. You would find more salamanders around the salamander den, etc. But you are absolutely right that eventually a pile of corpses should change the spawn rate. That means that if you wipe out a den it needs to take seasons to repopulate. Bandits should take even longer to repopulate, and none of them should have high level gear. On the other hand, you would expect patrols from armies to intensify with conflicts or the plot until you kill the army leader.

It's pretty much copied from Final Fantasy 7. Overland maps existed well before Final Fantasy 7.

That's a shame because it's a damn good review. The best I've read of Pillars, and just a good review in general. I would have liked more FP parts, but cest la vie.

Just kill everyone if you get stuck.

Also, Pillars is liable to be in a humble bundle sooner or later. I believe Shadowrun and Transistor were in humble bundles. But yes, D:OS did sell quite well.

I absolutely agree that a rate of attack speed would help immensely. The difference between crossbow and bow calculations is enough to give a headache.

I seem to remember them saying that not only were the artists overworked, they also had an ad out for a new 2D artist in the middle of the churn before the end. I really think that more than anything, this game just needs tons and tons of content added. (And I like it quite a bit already).

I absolutely agree with PJ's original post. Although, I'd like to point out that all of them pretty much require the creation of more content, and it seemed like Obsidian was struggling to get in all the content the game already has. I feel like the game would rival BG1 if it had double the exploration areas and a slower leveling curve.

It's pretty damn necessary for a triple crown solo run. Also, it's fun playing with the AI.

The halfling is a ranger.

I'll save the petty moralizing for other posters. What classes do you have? Do any have abilities that let them break engagement? If so, use the break engagement ones and then run away. Do you have summon tokens? If so, use the summon token and then run away.

The soul is very clearly divisible in this game: [spoilers ahoy!] Hirviras meets a person who has the other half of his soul on the island. The animancer in the asylum cobbles a soul together. The game mentions picking up parts of souls and losing parts of your own. You can destroy souls like Thaos or the druids in Twin Elms. It's Rymrgand's job to destroy souls. I'm pretty sure they mentioned that animals have less complex souls, and Persitaaq came back as one.

It's truly a roundless system. Actions begin as soon as cooldown ends, and stats modify action speeds. If you run a party with two characters with the same class and different dex, you can notice the difference.

My answer in general to the question of RtwP vs. Turn-based is that neither are better systems, because they encourage different fairly types of gameplay. Simultaneous resolution is a complete and total gamechanger, and the only game to offer turn-based play with simultaneous resolution that I've played is Frozen Synapse (and sequels). Note, my response was not on the merits of one system vs. the other because they each have arguable merits. However, the argument that PE would have been better with turn-Based combat is really too subjective to be effectively argued.