rheingold

So the general power level of a spell/character

Single player balance is important. The choice to play a gimped character should be an intentional one, not because your favorite class is weak. Heck, I'm not a power gamer but I'd like the option for my Chosen OneTM to at least feel like he/she has a contribution to make to the party. That has not always been the case in the past. I remember playing Druids in the old ie games, and that was a labor of love.

I have some concerns about the game, but dumbing down is not one of them. Yes, it is going to consoles, no that does not mean dumbing down, just that it's a good business decision. From what I can see of the beta, it's still far from dumbed down. But people should remember that gaming companies don't ever make games for you - the individual, unless you want to donate 4 million dollars... there always has to be a compromise between the small minority of hardcore gamers and the more casual players who in essence keep the company in business. Just to reiterate from what I can make out the changes have not been made to dumb down. Still a bit concerned about some issues, but I'll give Obs the benefit of the doubt. There are very few devs with Sawyers experience and incredibly considered approach to game development.

Obs were in so much trouble that they had to approach EA for help. EA said, sure thing brothers, but our guys at bioware will have to take charge... and we are looking for an isometric game along the lines of DA Inquisition. Dumbed down and designed purely for consoles. Might have to spend years and many patches to convert to a workable pc version. And considering how successful Star Wars has been, largely due to one character, you guys need to add Jar Jar binks as a compulsory companion.

Nope. Story is already set. I'm sure there's a lot of bugs, but that won't affect the story. The story is what it is at this point. Um, I think you are missing the point - obviously at this stage the story should be locked. The issue is that in large, open world/sandbox type of games the story tends to suffer as a result of the compromises made. But I'm not going to derail this thread further. I'm just happy that they delayed the game.

From the devs themselves: "The god Eothas, once thought to be destroyed, returns to life in the form of a titanic statue – nearly killing you as he destroys everything in his path. It’s up to you, the Watcher of Caed Nua, to discover Eothas’ purpose and decide to help or hinder his efforts. With an enormous open world, a massive cast of characters, beautiful hand-painted backgrounds, and a story you can play your way, Obsidian Entertainment is proud to bring you Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire." But as I said open world is essentially semantics - a meaningless term to distinguish between a game with a tightly woven story and one where there is much more freedom to explore. And there is no hard line, so something like Deadfire could fit in the middle comfortably. I have no problems with open world games, and I am not interested in starting a debate. I am just mentioning that due to the amount of work required with the new mechanics, the ships and the massive map there is a chance the story is going to suffer. Which just happens to be a characteristic of open world games

True, but its not openworld. Just world map view is quite a bit more indepth than traditional IE style game. Interactive world maps have been done before, albeit to in that exact form, and game still focuses on tight, prerendered, handcrafted locations. I would hope storytelling adn design will be tighter than in PoE1, as now when calm, repetitive exploring has been moved to overworld map, the locations themselves should be more impactful. Well, I think the term open world is a bit of a misnomer anyway. Basically, semantics aside, it just refers to a huge game world with a ton of side quests, and the impression that the player has freedom to do what they want - farm, pick flowers. So what I hear of Deadfire it does essentially fall into that category, maybe not officially but close enough. Problem with open world games is invariably the plot suffers - its absolutely impossible to have a tight, focused story in an open world environment. I'm not strictly against open worlds - I still fire Skyrim up occasionally but I expect different things from different gaming companies - and with Obs I expect a better than average writing.

Agreed. Despite being one of the "fanboys" defending this decision I actually defend it because I think Deadfire, in its current state, will not be as good as Pillars from a mechanics point of view. I have little concern about story, and the art looks beautiful, but character building and combat just doesn't seem as good as Pillars (in most respects, there are definitely some improvements). I am somewhat worried about the story, open world games tend to have to compromise on the writing the bigger they are - the more the compromise. Re the mechanics I really liked Pillars so I might be biased, hopefully the changes will be for the better. I do have more faith in Obs than in other companies - if this was another company I'd be worried, but they have plenty of experience. Just a slight concern that they have been a bit ambitious. Time will tell! At least the delay is a good sign.

A tad to much entitlement here... seriously how are you entitled to a product you didn't pay for but others did, because a related product release date has been delayed, not cancelled, delayed. The mind boggles.

People leave companies all the time, sometimes even without any bad feelings. I'm not disparaging Katrina at all, but being the "face" of the game dosn't actually make her critical to the workflow. Believe it or not there are other people involved in making Deadfire. If Sawyer had resigned for instance, that would be a warning light. At any rate, lacking any other proof at this time, that there were major production issues, I think it is safe to ignore the panic about her leaving. The deadline itself seemed unrealistic as it was, particularly with all the changes. I for one, am glad about the delay, though I can't help but think that it should have been shifted more - towards the end of the year. Open world type of game, basically building a gaming system from scratch - I'm concerned about the game to be honest, I think it needs much more time. I'd be much happier if they had tweaked the current Pillars mechanics which would have given them more time to work on a kick ass story. Hope I'm wrong. None of this is at all relevant to an employee leaving a company, which happens.

Hell, I'm already seriously worried that Obs have bitten of more than they can chew - with all the changes from POE. The last thing they need to do is to give more resources to ship mechanics...

Must say I am battling to find much enthusiasm for Deadfire, mainly because of all the time and hard work that went into the Pillars system which has been thrown out. I was really hoping they would use it as a base and make changes, not chuck the baby, bathtub, water, towel and nappies out..

What are the impressions of some of the old hands overall? I seem to recall a post where Boeroer for example was not happy in the direction they were going? Do you guys think they moving in the right direction or not? I haven't played the BB much, mainly because of internet access problems - I'd rather download games than beta's at this stage...

Well - they have had time - I'm presuming that they started some time back - possibly during White March development (way before Fig backing started) - after all they must have had loads of people sitting doing nothing in the office I am a bit worried that's it too early even so - they have been very ambitious and made loads of changes to the game. I would just want Deadfire to release in the same state as Pillars. (Pillars was not perfect and they made many changes to it over the patching schedule, but it was very playable.)

I don't mind if it ends up like White March which was a great expansion - and yes it was an expansion, not a dlc. I will be a bit bummed if the dlc is now horse armour for example.... but I have way more faith in Obs than that. I expect an expansion, probably a bit smaller than White March either in 3 parts or 2 with the 3rd being a small dlc package - a shopkeeper for example. I'd just relax until we get confirmation from the devs, no reason to panic until someone yells "fire"

A tad confused here. I ordered the DLC during the crowd funding. Is that the three new dlc packages or is it separate - so there are 3 small dlc + one larger one? Or just one large one split up 3 times?

Happy about a release date, but isn't it a bit early? I haven't played the beta much, but from what I can see, it looks a bit rough around the edges... Edit: In fact I am downright worried about it being released so early. They have made so many changes to their system - multi classing, stats that I reckon it should probably only be released late 2018.

I've always though resolve should be tied to the size of the aoe effect instead of intelligence. It make more sense, its determination essentially. And it never made sense for it to have a deflection bonus. So for example a barbarians carnage ability would be tied to resolve instead of intelligence. Obviously there are major changes in Deadfire but I still think it would be the simplest and most elegant solution to making resolve important.

Well I'd have a look at the builds post - and then you can tweak the stats to your liking. But in general, might and dexterity are the most important. Intelligence can be useful particularly for stormbringer. The biggest decision before twinned arrows is vicious aim or swift aim. But they both can work. I am the wrong person to ask for stat advice - but I find 16/17 Might and dexterity work well, and give me some stat points to go elsewhere.

Ok cool, thanks - looking forward to it.

Oh dear, I was hoping to use the new arbalest. Hope that if that is the case, the devs will do one final, final patch to fix it...

^^^ Check that you have actually downloaded the dlc. It doesn't seem to do it automatically - at least for me. (I'm on steam.)

@jojobobo - what are the beginning stats on your rogue? Looks interesting. I love rogues but find them under powered on Potd. Any other difficulty they rock.

The great thing about pillars is you really don't need to min/max. They have done a great job catering to the power gamers and role players - I frequently end up with 14/15 in stats and my characters never feel gimped. In fact, there is an argument that serious min/maxing is counter productive - you often need specific equipment to cater to your weaknesses which can mean not having room for some awesome equipment. Not sure where the actual sweet spot is but I hardly ever drop a stat below 10. So build your character the way you want to - the game is really flexible that way...

Of course every company has office politics, egos etc.... Dealing with that is part of good management, particularly when the conflict is allegedly between your top talent. Of course it's possible that the breakdown was irrevocable but sometimes that can be avoided with compromise. With no information at hand, I'm not saying that Fergus did anything wrong, just that this does raise some questions about management.