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rheingold

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Everything posted by rheingold

  1. The writing is pretty good for a game - and in parts is superb. BTW some people would think that Tolkien is a pretty poor writer. His work is unbelievably simplistic, childish even. I have a soft spot for LOR - mainly because nostalgia... But great writing.... Not a chance. My main problems with the game are open world and combat related. But writing - the devs are pretty good at that . There are a couple of stupid parts, mainly trying to shoehorn the watcher from game one into game 2 which doesn't work well. But other than that it's good even great in parts.
  2. It was clearly a bad investment from the start, regardless of how the game sells/sold. I mentioned right in the beginning that the console market was not part of the deal. Big from an investment side. Then you have to take into account the fact that many people essentially brought/paid for the game via a kickstarter and how many more of a target audience after that was there left. The figures weren't really there. Only way to justify it would have been that I'm gonna buy the game anyway, I like the company involved and I'd buy in at a high tier and so I may as well spend a bit more and potentially get something back... No serious investor would have touched it - pc only was a serious warning light... Don't blame the devs though -the info was all there - one of the reasons people actually perform a due diligence before shelving out. Re: comparing the games - I loved the first game, Deadfire, on the other hand I haven't even been able to finish once. Was not a fan of the direction they were taking from the start.... the game has improved since then, but still, not my thing.
  3. The beckoner nerf was actually pretty sound. I bitched a bit, mainly because they are my favorite chanter subclass. But summons were too good. Where Obs got it wrong( I've never stated they are perfect, just really good) is they didn't nerf troubadour. Essentially both subclasses needed toning down. But beckoner is still very good. I haven't followed the game a massive amount, but it seems to me that most classes/subclass builds are viable. That's pretty good going in an rpg.
  4. Josh has an odd system when it comes to balancing. He does indeed intentionally over nerf, because it then gives him a top and bottom to work with. He now a range to work with. I'm not a fan of it personally, I'd prefer really small adjustments till you get it right. But it's kinda hard to argue with his results and frankly his experience. My complaint about Deadfire really is about the main plot narrative, but when it comes to game mechanics I can't think of a better person than Sawyer. He really understands the nitty gritty and there ain't many devs around who have his understanding,or who can build a system like POE or Deadfire. I think both games are criminally underrated from the class mechanics and balance point of view. Balance even in single player is really important and he gets that. It's also really difficult if not impossible to get absolutely right, and at any point, you are going to nerf someone's favorite class/ability, and boy, this being the Internet.... the tears are going to flow. But realistically, I'm not sure you'll get anyone better than obs in terms of balance.
  5. Not entirely sure how power level works. Is it worth taking the bonus to beast and plant levels or the option with rejuvenation and healing with the staff? For nature godlike ancient.
  6. Wizards are also better single. I reckon they have done a good job overall with balance. Sure multi class makes a toon a better jack of all trades, but in many cases single is just better. Before someone jumps on me.... obviously not all cases. And some classes need help. But I’ve been playing Pathfinder Kingmaker which I really enjoy and really hits the nostalgia nerve big time. But I’m constantly reminded on how bad d&d was and how much better POE and Deadfire are from a mechanical point of view.
  7. OS2 did well for other reasons than turn based. Not a fan of turn based personally. If it’s done well it’s great, but so far haven’t seen any evidence of companies being able to deal with the initiative system which is the biggest issue. Older games seemed to manage, like temple of elemental evil, but Vikings exhibition and both recent larian games were dogs breakfasts largely due to a terrible initiative system in spite of all the potential they had. For POE 3, I reckon it’s a distinct possibility. Deadfire may or may not have done well, but these games tend to be slow and steady. Over time I’d be surprised if it dosnt turn a decent profit. The biggest issue though in its favor is 5 million dollars is petty cash for Microsoft. And it’s a pretty good risk for them to take... a cheap game with a support base, which if marketed properly could sell. Sure if Obs tried to convince the 60 million was necessary it wouldn’t happen. But a couple of million dollars when Microsoft specially brought the company in the first place.... the odds are good.
  8. Well, not an expert on pirates, but human nature tends to make me think that maybe there were some rather unpleasant pirates around, who maybe didn’t really care about efficiency but kinda enjoyed the more violent aspect of it... Regardless, Brutal Bens final encore is one of the funniest scenes I’ve seen in gaming, so there’s that.
  9. There were plenty of people on the forum and I’m sure many experienced gamers elsewhere who had concerns. I most certainly had major problems with the game from the beginning and I don’t claim any fortune telling abilities. It was abundantly clear that they were intent on throwing the baby out with the bath water and pretty much deleting all the hard work they did on POE. You just had to follow the blogs to be more than slightly concerned about the direction they were going. So much so, that I had no real enthusiasm for the game from the beginning. I think I backed it by less than a quarter of what I put in for the original. Not because I didn’t want a sequel but because I DID want one, and it was obvious that this was not going to be it. It’s also the first Obs game I haven’t finished and have very little desire to. Sad for me, because when they focus on their strengths not many companies can touch them. But the only part of the game so far that works for me is BOW and in particular the “burning bridge”. The rest I have no interest in, it’s just another open world sandbox type of game, and there are plenty of other devs who can do that, and in some cases better than Obs. PS not blaming this entirely for the sales, just that my enthusiasm was considerably diminished with each update and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
  10. Well, it’s a good thing a mod did it! I was seriously thinking... “must I? Is it really up to me? And all that” So I’m glad someone did it, cause it had to be done.
  11. Resolve was good in POE. Could have been better though, I for one, would love alternate options to quests based on resolve. Would be great not to have to fight all the time. It was also really useful for the deflection bonus. Rogues were squishy on POtd, so having 16-18 resolve helped quite a bit. And with a high deflection class like chanter kitted out with all the abilities it was possible to get to an absurd deflection score. If I recall it was somewhere around 175 with scrolls. I think resolve is actually a better stat now in Deadfire from a gaming point of view, it has some nice bonuses for defense, but they could have had more skill checks with it.
  12. If she hangs around Dad/mom then it looks like you may have to go with a ranged toon. I think the idea behind it is great but in practice not sure. I reckon to do it properly would take loads of work. For one, I’d like to see some interactions with her. Otherwise I don’t really feel it’s worthwhile. (But that would be waaay to much work for the devs) Secondly, yeah, withdraw is obvious but it’s going to get old really quickly unless it can be set up via the ai. If not it’s probably not going to fall under my definition of fun...
  13. Not sure they have tested this challenge properly.... put another way I’m not sure if it’s actually possible. Some off the later enemies are going to one shot her as she casually walks past them. At any rate while I do like her character and wish there were more interactions between her and the watcher, this sounds like a particularly masochistic challenge...
  14. Seems pretty irresponsible as a parent to let her tag along:) Otherwise a priest with withdrawal would have their job cut out for them. TBH if those are her stats, it seems pretty tedious having her around. Better to leave her on the boat....
  15. The weapon summon is really really good for a beckoned. The dragons are underwhelming though cool. But yeah, I’d imagine beckoner would be one of the easiest classes to solo.
  16. Yeah, though it’s not just barbaric blow, most of the actives seem overpriced. You use frenzy, savage defiance, dragon leap for mobility and one shout for daze and HOF and there’s not much rage left. Of course a wizard has cast one spell and nuked everything... It’s not to suggest that barbarians are underpowered, just that adding more rage would not make them op, it would just make them more fun to play and ensure they didn’t end up auto attacking towards the end of fights.
  17. Single class barbarians are pretty good. Not wizard good but still pretty potent. I ran with a sc two handed berserker. Not min/maxed. And he was awesome at high level. Only issue was he ran out of resources quickly. Not sure if the ability that is supposed to give back rage upon killing is actually triggering? Didn’t feel like it. At any rate as mentioned in Elrics thread on sc martial classes, it is a problem not unique to barbs. Other than that there is very little wrong with the high level abilities they have. And great passives. Overall fun and effective. They just need more rage.
  18. If this is the definition of an open-world game (which I'm not arguing), the plot they have selected for Deadfire is the worst one possible for such a game. I'm not an expert in this field by any means, but basic logic tells that if you want the player to get the sense of freedom when exploring the world, you don't come up with a plot that by its nature entails a sense of urgency. I don't know, it's not my intention to sound harsh, but it almost looks like a rookie mistake. Nope it’s the perfect plot for an open world game, etc. There is no urgency at all. Eothas will wait for as long as you want, hell, he even gives you a perfect excuse - he tells you he needs to rest in Ashen Maw for as long as you need. That’s about as open world as the dragon of doom TM hovering over Kyneath for an eternity while your PC picks flowers and chops firewood.
  19. Storm of Zehir, Deadfire predecessor. Was an expansion pack for NWN 2. But it was fairly experimental, certainly for the time. A good and interesting game, but very much like Deadfire, not much story. Open world I think is less about load areas and more about the idea that the game is fairly flexible and the players should have the freedom and time to do whatever they want. And, intentionally the main plot is pretty bare bones, so the players don’t feel railroaded into following it.
  20. To be fair the problem is not the writing team, they did their best. The issue is open world, obs being far too ambitious with too many major changes, so not enough resources, the focus being on everything but the writing, something had to give. I think they did as best they could with the time available, but clearly Sawyer had many other priorities from the start and didn’t really place any importance on the narrative. They are still good writers, and given support would show it. Deadfire isn’t a bad game per se, and many people would like it. I’m just disappointed because I was promised a sequel to POE whereas we got a direct sequel to SOZ. Again some people might like that, but plenty of gaming companies make good open world games. Very few if any can pull off the writing and atmosphere in the burning bridge (BOW) or Ondras temple in White March. So I have higher expectations for Obs and it’s disappointing to see an open world which frankly many companies can produce.
  21. The first Pillars had a much tighter story/ narrative, Deadfire is open world with all the inherent compromises it comes with. The writing is pretty poor overall, BOW which is simply stunning in parts just accentuates how bad the writing in the main game is overall. Bad game or not depends on what you want from a game, some people like open world mindless meandering with no consequences and loads of combat. I don’t mind it, just not coming from Obs. They are the one decent developer who, when they put their mind to it can produce real quality as in parts of POE, white March and BOW. So I suspect the people who prefer Deadfire are the ones who aren’t that concerned about story. That’s absolutely fine, but don’t tell me the game is better than the first. It depends on your priorities.
  22. Depends, it really isn’t a sequel as such, mainly because they really changed the focus to more of an open world mmo. If you like open world with loads of combat and not much story then you should enjoy Deadfire.
  23. ^^^ yeah it does, but I'm finding the weapon summoning invocation on a beckoner absolutely insane. Really all that is needed for a chanter. And sadly more effective than the dragons which are just unimpressive all around.
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