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This is disappointing. Good luck to the devs, and I hope the game makes money. But, I mean, is this meant for fans of Obsidian? Or is it a shift in priority after acquisition by Microsoft? I was hopeful when Obs got picked up, because I read somewhere Microsoft wanted to widen their RPG catalogue. Not sure cartoony, co-op survival game will attract RPG fans. But, I guess time will tell.

baldurs gate handles characters better- the returning cast (minsc, Imoen, Jaheria) all have a personal stake in the finding Irenicus. By killing off Dynahier and Khalid, and giving Imoen a prominent role in the story, these characters become a key part of the story, if you so choose. viconia and Edwin less so, but they also fit well in how they are introduced. In PoE II, Eder, Pallegina, and Aloth are just kind of added. They could just as easily been subbed out for any of the other characters in the first game, because they are added to the story and not part of that tapestry. their companion quests-- with the exception of Aloth (furthering his side quest with the leaden key)-- are not a continuation of established ideas. there isn't any real feeling of adequate resolution to their narrative arcs. the only reason I felt compelled to take them to the game's ending is since they were there in the first game. Minsc, Imoen, Jaheria felt like the deserved to be there-- they had a stake in the critical path. also- dropping characters back to level one really hurt the game. One of the best parts of BG trilogy runs, to me, is watching imoen grow from a useful thief with limited combat ability, to a powerful mage/thief. that sense of progression is lacking between PoE and PoE II. I understand the reasoning this was done, but it definitely hurts the duology. It also shows the absolute importance of slowing down the leveling process, and holding back the uber-powerful spells and abilities from certain classes, or at least limiting casting and usage. But that is also contingent on playstyle-- in BG, I don't rest more than once on a map, if once at all. the story of BG is much stronger. it's far more personal and urgent. Yes, you have to raise money in BGII first act, so you're off doing random stuff that highlights the bestiary of AD&D, but for the rest of that game, you're moving towards a tense goal, and it feels like things are happening around you. The villains are also more active and interesting. Bohdi comes to mind. In deadfire, all sense of urgency is lost the minute you reach Neketaka. There's no necessity to do anything story-wise in terms of side-content, except the player knows they need levels and equipment. It reduces the critical path narrative, and promotes exploration at the cost of plot. I like both games very much. After a lot of years of playing these games and reading fantasy, the pillars setting is far more interesting to me than plate-mail fantasy settings like the forgotten realms. I think OBS listened to the desire you hear on forums for keywords: 'open-world,' 'choice' and 'freedom,' which makes it hard to retain urgency and focus in the primary goal/quest/narrative. As evidence to that-- see the plots of Skyrim, fallout 4, dragon age inquisition and ME; Andromeda-- all of which have some random BIG BAD at the end who really doesn't do much to affect the plot. In all honestly, i'd prefer PoE III be a more linear, narrative-focused game that stayed at lower levels and dealt less with gods and world-shaking events, and more with politics and intrigue. that way, when we did get to the ultimate high-level plot and gameplay, (a giant statue going to destroy the wheel, for example), there was more urgency in the moment. And far less sailing around to collect bounties and loot. but I think all these games are dots on a timeline, one you can look at as the development of a specific genre and style: 3rd person isometric RPG. Viewed in that sense, not as a competition, PoE and PoE II are good steps in a number of ways towards stronger games in the future. Only those steps in UI, combat, visuals, setting came at the expense of story this time.

So i really like this one hat-- the broad-brimmed hat. This is a hat with no practical use besides looking cool, and I'd love to be able to put the bonuses from one item onto the other. in fact, I'd like to be able to do that for all items, to be honest. Would there be any way for devs or modders to create this? Long shot, I know, but I think it is something people would enjoy.

respectfully disagree here-- a frame narrative is Chaucer's storytellers gathered at the tavern. Eothas is a god who has walked from the Dyrwood to Deadfire to literally destroy the underlying metaphysical foundations of Eora. In a situation like that, all factions squabbles and exploitation and side quests are rendered meaningless because, again, a god is going to forever alter kith existence. however-- I do agree that the faction content is where the bulk of narrative focus is placed ( and consequently where the story is strongest).

so I've looked on nexus and seen some stuff, and while I know we're not looking at quantities like the Bethesda games generate, do we think there will be any custom weapon/armor model stuff? thanks.

the problems with the factions and narrative structure is this: there aren't enough points where the main narrative intersects with the faction gameplay. In a game where the risen avatar of a dead god is going to alter forever the world space by meddling with the metaphysics it adheres to, everything (either directly or indirectly) must push towards resolving that conflict. If you don't keep that focus, you end up with Skyrim--an unfocused sandbox. It is a great game, but not a particularly compelling story. Deadfire falls into that all to familiar rut of a static feeling world. Eothas is going to wait on you, the factions are going to wait on you. in fact the the world will literally not end or change as long as you don't bother pushing Eothas from one scene to the next. you really want to save the world, watcher? just ignore Eothas. the factions suffer from the same paralyzation. As such, there is very little meaningful reactivity in narrative/dialogue, or in game play. However I finish Poko Kohara, or Crookspur, really any faction quest, the faction's behavior doesn't change towards me or towards each other. Notably, this paradigm only changes when the main narrative compels it to. When the world starts to feel static, as a player, you start to feel okay about pausing to do this side-quest or these bounties. Eventually, you're just sailing around to get levels and loot instead of immersing in the story. So all the great setup that Obsidian does-- fleshing out strong factions with well-articulated beliefs and lore, even giving them different apparel/armor and character voice-- comes to nothing because the game turns into a combat simulator (which it isn't very good at being, at the moment) for a game like this to work (and they know this, because they did it well in New Vegas), there has to be a dynamic feel to faction interaction-- both narrative and gameplay. And it has to not just tie in at certain points to the main plot, but be interwoven through it. there just isn't a way around that.

borrowed instinct and body attunement are pretty strong self-buffs...

I always like the later playthroughs . When, like you say, I know how to order the quests so they make sense from a narrative perspective, and I don't have the nagging suspicion I'm going to miss something, since I already know what is out there.

Black jacket, hands down. 1: you can get to ascended quickly while letting tank grab aggro 2: you can use all those awesome unique firearms and affects 3: once ascended, you can adapt to the fight: if you need to tank, use borrowed instinct and body attunment, if you just need damage, mind blades the entire field 4: and once you’ve done all that, you wade in with dual wield, penetrating attack, which will generally get you back to full focus in two rounds

Blade jacket/ ascendant is awesome. 3 ranged sets to build full focus while tank grabs engagement- then build yourself into a tank and charge in w/ dual melee

I’ve been liking black jacket/ ascendant. It has a little more range than you seem to be wanting, but once you get penetrating stike, you can wade in beside the tank. Open with arquebus then pistols to hit ascendant Use cipher stuff- I usually mind blades the world Draw swords when you lose focus One full attack is usually enough to get you back into usable focus Caveat is that I’ve only hit 9

I ran this build last night with a black jacket/ascendant. arquebus/dual blunderbusses/dual pistols/dual sabers-- in 4 weapons slots. I almost never had any trouble building to ascendant state by the time I reached the pistols, even after I started opening with mental binding, then running through the guns-- only fight I had trouble getting to max focus was the titan. what I did have problems with early on was finding a good spell to utilize ascendant state. early on, you don't have enough damage spells to really use ascendant. At least I didn't.

I had planned on streetfighter rogue/ wizard, but I went through beta today with black jacket/ ascendant; that was fun and I’ll think I’ll go that way first.

multi with black jacket, spam blunderbuss shots with the disciplined strikes to convert to hits, you have a bump to switch time, so you should be able to hit your focus within the first few seconds of a fight. watch the scott Lufkin black jacket preview on YouTube, just imagine going to cipher skills after first volley. caveat being that early on you may have trouble getting pistols or blunderbusses to dual wield.

I know this is a little different from what you're asking, but: black jacket/ ascendant seems to have good synergy. look at the testing video scott Lufkin does. you cycle through blunderbuss/pistol shots to get to ascendant state, then spam your cipher abilities. that'll be my second playthrough MC.

my predictions-- jon snow is the primary antagonist, after having 'awakened' at the end of dances with dragons (or season 6, I guess?), after Bran gives him the infinity gem that was the three-eyed ravens third eye (this is our link to the marvel cinematic universe) we discover that Durance burned himself alive at the end of POE I, but lived. He now has purple skin and goes by Thanos. After coming to earth, he sends that creepy guy who pulls our hearts in Temple of Doom to find another infinity stone buried beneath a castle in India. Luckily, Indiana jones and short round are there to stop him. That stone, eventually, is hidden on planet called tattooine, in the belly of sarlaac. Until, that is, bobba fett blasts his armored ass out the big cthullu mother fukers stomach. But wait-- star was happens in a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away? So how could the stone have been on earth first? Enter Marty Mcfly with the dolorian....

someone did a watercolor for my portrait about a week ago. Forgot to say thank you to that person; so thanks. It's a very awesome thing that people on the forum would take time to do a favor for no other reason than to help another person out.

could somebody water color this guy for me? I think he works good for any class, since there is a feel of the sea about the portrait.

that game, Age of Conan, is really pretty good. I'm not really an MMO person, so I can't judge it by quality of gameplay, but the look of zones, the classes, and the general tone of it was far more unique than most other titles I've played.

I feel like character building in po2 is less about creating interesting characters rp or themewise, and more about creating efficient ones. That, coupled with ‘all builds are viable,’ philosophy kind of necessitates some simplification, right? Devs can’t trust us to build our characters to viable unless they limit what we can do to control that... I’d rather have the option to fail in a more complex system. Still really excited though; play games more now for Narrative and immersion than the other stuff

Crossover sequel??

Maybe you are Thaos’s last castoff...

Never winter nights 2 did a good job of using quests to introduce characters- the one where bishop the ranger helps you track down shondra Jerro is good. Also, the one with the paladin and the orcs— did a good job on introducing quest villains— Pillars didn’t really do this- there was thaos as antagonist, but no real side villains, henchman boss type guys. Both kotor and kotor 2 did a good job creating active villains, who interacted with the character and party. Irenicus stands alone in this regard-

The urn of sacred Ashes - da:o (should i defile the ashes of the chantry’s messianic figure?) - excellent conflict for that world’s tone. Fallout 1- quest to save Tandy from the raiders— either kill them all, break her out using skills, speech check leader, fight to death vs leader — again, perfect introduction to that world

this kind of worries me. In pillars, I relied heavily on durance, my priest. yet here, there is no option for a dedicated priest. only xoti as a monk/priest. Does that bother anyone else? it feels like the companions are not particularly useful for healing, buff.