Abel

Did not play Pillars 2 yet. Read a lot about it though. But, i'm worried about this sequel the same way i was with Tyranny, although, for different reasons. Tyranny (which i never bought, even with the -50% coupon i had), it was because of the absence of friendly fire and some other things like that, which spoke very clearly about the kind of game the developers wanted to make (which wasn't the kind i was interested in, especially as a RPG fan)... Pillars 2... Well, i can't just grab the intention behind things like 'auto-heal' after combat. It is even worse than Pillars 1's system. It reminds me of these old action games 20 years ago which were meant to allow the player to take a action, brainless approach of video games after a tiring day (which is not a bad thing in itself, admitedly). But, nowadays, there are plenty of craps like that, including in RPGs, which were meant to allow a whole different kind of experience, and which you played for whole different reasons. I don't need any more of this, seriously. Especially in my RPGs. I can't Roleplay a poor sod who would heal of fatal injuries after a nap. Even more so if he heals just like that after having a arm cut away. I need to take proper measures to solve the problem, like i would on a pen and paper RPG. Josh stated that there was interesting aspects in nowadays Bethesda works (god...). I don't know which aspects he was talking about. But I guess it was about the disappearance of fixed numbers, like Skyrim tried. He said RPGs could go way further, but veteran RPG players were too used to old systems. Well, maybe. But by looking at the poos Bethesda and Bioware are selling these days, and all these ''quality of life improvements'' Obsidian tends to make lately, i can't tell i'm reassured about this. Actually, when i read ''quality of life improvements'' from Obsidian, i take it as a bad omen. Infinite Stash, .... For no reason whatsoever. Just because... you know, it's convenient. There was a problem with people who would abuse of rest spam in BG and Pillars 1. In the end, they handled this problem by making resting almost useless. For someone like me, who won't spam rest (sleeping once a day, like it should be), the limited resources management was a very important aspect of adventuring. Potions, ammunitions, healing spells, combat spells, food, torches, encumbrance.... whatever... I had some huge problems with Pillars 1 (the game had good redeeming qualities, but too many ''quality of life'' downgrades, inappropriate for a RPG, imho). I still backed Pillars 2. But, nowadays, i tend to be more interested in Wasteland 2, and wait eagerly Wasteland 3, way more than a finalized version of Pillars 2. InXile may be the last studio to craft RPGs the way i feel RPGs are meant to be, more or less.

If i remember correctly, it's a per rest ability allowing you reinforce the power of an ability when you use it, or to reuse some already used ones. I would be pretty much ok with this system. But i feel the disavatanges are too much. I liked the idea of BG, where specialized casters had 1 more spell/level in their book. Though seems the new magic system does not allow this, which is a shame. One more slot per level in the grimoire in PoE1 would have been valuable. But anyway, 2 opposite schools when there are five total, isn't that too much? Unless the designers think of this as a "really" very specialized subclass, in which case the conjurer would have really powerfull conjurer spells and useful familiar, but would hardly find any interest in casting spells from any other school anyway. I don't dislike this kind of gameplay. But i guess it needs to be tested to determine how interesting/fun it actually is.

Arcanum?

Absolutely true. Having your main character being useless at some point is not a good feeling. But now, Pillars allows for wizards to wield anything and have a decent accuracy, which should limit their uselesness, depending on how the character is built. It would be even more so with the possibility of multiclassing. But still, i definitely miss the healing spells and low level self buffs of my priestess. This is the first thing that makes me want to play BG rather than PoE these days.

Well, a few more "feminine" characters wouldn't hurt (feminine in the cute sense. I don't like to use this word here, because it's completely arbitrary... And would deem not "feminine" most of female characters for no objective reason), but this did not strike me at first, while playing. What struck me more was the dwarves. To me, they were like mini humans ^^. Both voices, characters, and traits. Call me a cliché fan, but i would have liked them to be a bit more grumpy. I barely have any idea of who Ydwin is, so as long as the art for her portrait is nice, i don't see a problem (and the art happens to be nicely done, so...). Write a cute character if you would (annah-like). But first, work out the dwarves please .

It's a possibility, indeed. Or, maybe i'll find 5 is not enough, advocate for 587 and launch a "Cossacks" instead

Entire games are produced with these elements... I pretty muh agree with you. I was never really bothered by clicks or time consuming spell casting, or anything like that, because while it was indeed repetitive, i really liked these mechanics, and never found them bothersome. Here, i was merely trying to find a middle ground for this thread. My point is that from my understanding, people are not opposed to the mechanics themselves, but find that the hassle they implied was not worth it. Which would mean that it these mechanics were added to the game in a way that don't create any such hassle, not many people would be opposed to see them in a more modern game. In the end, maybe the true debate here would be to imagine ways to implement them in the game without them implying these hassles (waiting times, repetitive clicks or tasks, or ways to abuse). As an imperfect example, how many people would be opposed to the concept of healing after combat with spells if you had an option to check like "automatically use healing spells after combat" which would, in just one second, automatically use healing spells or potions on the party to fill them up, without any click needed? Or anything in the same trend.

In, the end, Wormerine sumed it up pretty well i guess. While pre combat tactics, managing ammos, healing after combat, getting rid of status effects and many other mechanics like these added something interesting to a RPG experience, the way you had to handle these elements, requiring many repetitive clicks, was far from optimal. In the end, if there was a way to handle all these without this repetitive/time consuming aspect, things would be for the best. Am i wrong?

BG never had pre buffing required. It's just that many people abused prebuffing because they could do it, and try now to make others believe it was required, and thus, boring. Funny enough

I expected someone to say this. And your point is fair. If i remember correctly, there weren't many multi level dungeons in BG. But still, there is a HUGE difference between doing it once for the sake of helping the injured suffering in the party and spaming rest. And i fail to see your point when you say that since there is no cooldown or whatever for the rest button, this RPG was meant to allow spaming rest as a core gameplay mechanic. I would merely say that the game did not punish the abuses.

How does it change tactics? In both Pillars and Baldurs Gate after the battle you end up with full health. However in BG you have to spam rest button couple time before that happens. There is no limit to resting, there is no danger in resting (unless you are really low on health and some people could die in an ambush). Unless, like me, you don't spam the rest button. I never rest in a dungeon in BG, and i never backtrack to rest unless the dungeon is completed. It was ok to start next fight in a dungeon with 1 of my character having 1/120 hp (they would just stagger behind), if i hadn't anymore healing or spells. It just needed to manage correctly your spell pools. I liked the way you could pay at temple to get healed too. I often used this feature, since it was stupid in my opinion to rest more than 2 times in a row in an inn (you can't possibly sleep more than 16 hours, even if exhausted). Playing like this (meaning, not abusing the game rules) felt extremely satisfying for me. I guess you should not assume everyone abuse of the game systems. But even, aside from that, just being healed like this after a combat, or after a nap under a tree just feels wrong to me. To the point that it really hinders my fun with the game. I like the feature in BG that displayed the time passed since the start of the adventure. Since i did not spam the rest button, it felt pretty immersive, too. Actually, where is the fun in spaming the rest button at all? i don't understand. I barely ever use camping supplies in Pillars 1. Would i really take a nap in a dungeon, where i can't be sure of what crawls next door? Does not make sense. Or will i really battle this dragon? Have i some death wish? My characters would need some deep reasons, deeply etched motivations. I don't play BG or Pillars like a hack n slash. So no, BG was not the same.

Always nice to have insight from the team. Thanks. By the way, would be nice to have the possibility to have some characters redeem themselves throughout the game. Call me nostalgic, but i liked how you could influence Anomen or Viconia in BG (well i never really succeeded with Viconia actually ^^). Or how you could change Dakkon in PS:T. Companions could develop along the road. And i'm definitely a supporter of this. Concerning Ydwin and such, maybe the team look for a more "natural" feeling to their characters. And maybe they feel characters like Annah or Aerie do not feel really natural, or feel out of place. Which is a shame in my opinion

This. I like to manage whole dungeons without resting at all too. With your limited pool of potions and healing spells. But with this resting system, where a nap heals everything, i'm just frustrated. And the new thing about injuries doesn't look any better to me. I still don't know why they feel the need to revamp the good old health system. Just because it's old does not mean it's bad. Wasteland 2 allows this kind of gameplay, and i like it a lot. Looks like i pretty much play the same way as you. And i loved priests in IE games, with their self buffs and healing spells pools. Aside from this, looks like they're working on the encounter designs. Though it's pretty hard to do throughout a whole game. I was ok with Pillars 1 in this regard.

Planescape Torment. The best CRPG ever. Black Isle masterpiece. Annah was a half fielon (what is it called in english?). She was cute, had a tail, a bad, childish temper, and was pretty hard to handle. And i grew attached to her more than i would have ever thought at first. She really is etched in me, along with Deionarra (tragic character). The sort of desperate romance you could have with her was really well written. And i have fond memories of it. This kind of character somewhat lacks in pillars where i could never really grow attached to any character even half as much. And yes, her cuteness was one of her good points.

I never thought about this while playing Pillars, but now that you mention it, there is no character like PST's Annah. I loved her so much... even though it was merely a character, and was soooo desperate at the end of the game :s Oh, i pretty much liked Aerie, too. She was annoying, but cute . One character like these in the Pillars cast would not hurt me, to be honest.

I guess it wouldn't take much more than the puke animation or the specific way to solve another little side quest. Don't see where the limitation of the engine is a problem.

I quite liked prebuffing in BG 1 et 2 but i used it in some particular ways. Since i never spam rests, i usually only cast a bless spell before a fight, because i needed my pool of spells to last until the end of the dungeon, before getting some rest in an actual inn. The only fights i prefubbed fully were against Firkraag or Kangaax. The problem of prebuff only comes when people rest too often and abuse the mechanic. I did not, and so, prebuff was actually pretty fun, and not a chore. But my point is more about casting outside of combat than prebuff. If i play en elf that has some phobia related to ****roaches, it would make sense that he would fireball it if he sees one in an inn. (i would actually do it in game). But i can't, because fireball (i guess) is combat only. Not all spells are, but most of them. And you could have some magic tricks to play with cards that could allow you to cheat at poker in the inn, or put a show in the street for some cheap money. Or have the good old "oeil du magicien" (eye of the magi?) explore an area for you, that you just entered. Possibilities for magic outside combat are limitless, and it's not all about prebuff. I would like to see more possiblities of use for magic in the world. Not just some ways of killing things in combat.

Really? Weird. I've seen it with a friend. The cinema was almost full of people (seems to do well in France at least). Probably the only AAA US film i've seen in years that is actually worth it. Better than the original in some ways. While Hollywod only sell crap usually. Good surprise. Regarding the survey. Wanted meaty ones too. I had a problem with the question where you had to list your genres by order, since i only play RPGs and strategy (1 & 2)... i just made sure to put shooters last place, rest was random.

I agree with the people who have a problem with the might attribute as it is. I already stated this before in these forums. My character is a female pale elf priestess. Tiny, feeble. I would like to measure her physical strength (low) separately from her magical power (potent). But can't. Her character sheet does not make sense to me, which is a problem since i roleplay her as much as possible. This is a big flaw of the game to me. One of the worst (with the rest system). I don't have much hope of it being ever fixed though. Lephys pretty much spoke for me. I agree with everything he said, down to the "i'm sick..." part.

The limitation to 5 party members was bound to create debate. I have no definite argument to give to explain why 6 would be better. It's just a personal preference. I'm a loving person, you know. I have much love to give :D. So, having only 5 characters to love frustrates me. I could easily love 6 of them, or even 7. If i had an argument, it would only be a very personal one. In the playthrough i plan to export in Pillars 2, i have Eder, Pallegina AND Aloth in my party. So, it makes sense that i will use them in Deadfire. Which means i will have only 1 free slot for a new companion. I know already, that it will give me headaches... (but i'm happy that i can finally properly multiclass my priestess as a cleric . I will just have to suffer the end of Pillars 1 with her lame flail) I would love the idea, too, for the party as a whole to have more importance in dialogue. Having the party members react/participate, and the NPC reacting to them. 6 party members would probably allow more complex/interesting things, and i guess that one more party member would allow way more combinations of banters in one playthrough. I don't care as much when it comes to combat, though i'm used to build balanced parties of 6 because of my tens of hours playing BG. So, i guess 5 would imply some difficulties for me to build the kind of parties i like to play. It was hard enough already to select only 6 in Pillars 1.

That is precisely what i like. I would have hated if BG2 would have allowed me to craft every 2 handers +1 into a divine sword. Carsomyr is Carsomyr, because there is only one. And i like the idea to be able to expand the specificities of the gear. I'm pretty sure we will have several ways to go, depending on how we plan to use this flaming sword. Unic enchantments are more than unic now. I don't need every item to be OP all the game long or against every opponent. If they write a bit of lore for the stash, i would even be glad to use it in Deadfire to prepare thoughtfully in the room of the inn my next exploration. I love good skins. If my flaming sword becomes useless at some point, i may just use it in town to scare the hell out of some menacing hooligans . What would be great would be if some very special effects on very special items could make some NPCs react to them. "Wow! *That* looks pretty dangerous dude! This flaming sword! Shall we turn back?" Something like this.

I stated this once in a lenghty post several months ago, but while enchanting has many problems to me, the biggest of them all is the fact that enchantment is completely separated from the lore. This. I feel enchanting, while not varied and thus, pretty boring, is still overpowered and would need to be tuned down. The main character should not be able to craft legendary items with one plant, 1 gem, one whatnot and.... money (?? Obvious money sink. Way too obvious. And does not make sense.) by just making one click while strolling in the forest. You should not be able to enchant anything, anywhere, with no particular skill needed. If it were this easy to craft fine items, nobody would have base items. You should need some tools, time, and knowledge to do so. And characters should not be able to craft better than exceptionnal on their own, unless they have some background story detailing how they learned the art of enchantment through trial and error over the YEARS. I would like to see enchanters, crafters, like Cromwell in BG2 (though Cromwell was still a bit limited in its use) you can hire to do a better job (still.... not legendary, unless the enchanter is of legendary skill). I would want to see books about enchanting, enchanter shops, talks about enchanting, recipes being discovered or learned through questing or exploration, lore about how it works, places with hints on where to get ingredients, and so on. I would like plenty of flavoured or very specific enchantments i could put on anything (even boots). The absolute opposite of overpowered. Even something dumb like an enchantment allowing your boots to clean themselves once you go in a house, even if the sole effect is some appreciation from the shop owner. Or a cape "of good rest" that would allow some good sleep even on some rocky ground. Or whatever. With some sort of noticeable gameplay effect (dialogue or anything), just for flavour or not. I would like the option to add such barely useful enchantments on anything that makes sense at the cost of an appropriate slot cost. Magic should not be only about ways to kill things. Crafting should not be limited to some bare UI allowing you to kill things better.

Little Padawan, if you want to have spiritual strenght, if you want to reach wisdom and resilience for your mind... Go lift some weight... Gné? Obviously, i don't understand this description you quote in the same way. I can't read anything explaining any link between physical and spiritual strenght. To me magical power (MIGHT) is more the ability to gather and use the power of the soul, since powers are granted by using the power of one's soul. Rather than the level, i feel like the strenght of the power (MIGHT) depends, for paladins, on the strenght of their convictions, for priests, it depends on the strenght of their faith, for others it depends on skill and training, and so on. I just can't fathom how spiritual strenght could be linked to the size of the muscles... The quality and strenght of the soul has nothing to do with muscles either. I understood the same things as Katarack. It only looks, to me, like they conveniently created one attribute governing all damages for the sake of efficient and easily balanceable combat mechanics, without any further thought about "how the hell...?"

I guess i will have to dig once more in the lore to understand all this. I was pretty sure i had grabbed the whole magic thing already. I don't care if magic rely only on intelligence or whatever, as long as it makes sense. Hope i will find my anwers on the wiki or in game.

Read the rest of Abel's post please, it's fairly clear that he's talking about resolve moreso than anything else. Considering 'Soul' is ultimately described by the entire set of attributes in Pillars of Eternity, it wouldn't make much sense to me to tie it to a single attribute anyway - that's a big part of what I'm talking about, actually. You think priest's faith is about resolve? This would be of some help if it's true. But then, i would have a hard time figuring out why my priestess powers are so lame (9 might). Might definitely make spells more powerful if not more durable. If she has high resolve, she will have lame magic, despite her deep faith. That would imply that to have a powerful magic you need big muscles? gnu? I'm lost.