omgFIREBALLS

I'm a bit rusty about this but I believe I can explain the last two. Disabling crew: Some (I guess most) ships have what are called "deck defenders" - you can see that number somewhere in the UI. They are entirely exempt from the broadside battles and cannot man the ship, nor be harmed by your cannons. If you board though, they are what you have to contend with (not sure if that's on top of other crew). Speed, from the wiki: (As I recall, it was just bonus 20 speed, but I haven't bothered with ship to ship combat since the last big patch) https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Ship_combat may be enlightening, but it doesn't seem entirely correct.

The thing with RPG combat in general is, if you don't bend the rules of realism a bit you risk reducing physical combat to shield wall formations and polearms. We had a similar discussion in another thread (started about here). Anyway, let's look closer at the dagger. Yes, it's not going to deal as much damage as twenty other weapons you could name. But it has advantages for this particular scenario. Firstly, the dagger is a deceptive weapon. You can hide a dagger. Even if just sheathed-but-visible it's still less intimidating than carrying a loaded gun or a spear or what have you. So if you're looking to assassinate someone who isn't automatically hostile towards or particularly wary of you (think in public or at a banquet), it's a great weapon. Furthermore, let's consider the actual sneaking. Again, the dagger is a very handy weapon for this, because it's, small. You can sheathe it or carry it 'tween your teeth, or just have it in your hand and it's not much of an impediment, as opposed to bulkier, heavier-hitting weapons. We could actually represent this by giving daggers and stilettos +stealth. Anyway, let's go for the kill. If what you're sneaking up on has a throat that can be slit, do you really need to paint the walls with its brains? Covering your victim's mouth while you give them a red smile is a subtle kill, one that might go unnoticed (not in game mechanics, of course). Unloading a firearm at point blank range? Not only extremely noisy, but also making that weapon useless until you reload. Why would you want to? For more "honest" combat, daggers are indeed difficult to justify as being a competitive weapon though.

RTwP (and without it) is way more immersive. It's an actual battle. It's the legendary showdown in which the dragon thrashed, wailed and fell. TB is transmogrified Chess. By no means do I refute your arguments for why people might prefer TB. I agree with them, but this is what heavily tips the scales for me. It's also why I wished for (with little hope of it coming true) battle replays back in Pillars 1. Note that this video is not me hiding the UI and letting the AI play, by the way. I had autopause for completed actions, at which point I turned the UI on, gave an order and turned it off. It wasn't fun to edit that video, and you can see I got a bit lazy in the end

It's freaking Dungeons and Diablo. Paraphrased excerpt of a piece of powergaming advice from those forums back when I played it: Teach your wizard to wear all types of armor. Then stack all the randomly affixed cooldown reduction items you find on them. Now you can largely perma-CC enemies. We can all hope for BG3 to be the next big thing. By the way, cheers to RTwP from here too. It saddens me how RPG's seem to gravitate towards turn based.

You should note that SF3's UI is a bit different from SH's and there was pretty much a stated sales pitch that if you buy both, you will eventually be able to play the SF3 campaign in the SH engine (same engine probably, but yeah the UI). That said, the devs have gone... quiet about this and everything else. I believe SH is generally considered an improvement. I don't like the SF3 action bars for instance, they're even worse. Uh, anyway, what I said about SH does not necessarily apply to SF3. And, do check my edits to my previous post. But, above all else, enjoy

Again, I can't speak for other titles than Soul Harvest, and that includes base SF3. To me, Soul Harvest is more cRPG. For starters, for a majority of the content you do not play RTS, although that's not an easy thing to measure; if you struggle with RTS, those missions will take a long time, and thus comprise a larger portion. Even when you play RTS, you also play to some degree cRPG: There's always more stuff to do on a map than just destroy the enemy base, although it can be nice to do that first so you can do the other stuff in peace and quiet. I've also devised lazy ways to win every RTS mission, even at the highest difficulty (frankly, the difficulty tuning ain't all that for RTS). Also, your heroes can eventually become powerful enough that you don't need to RTS. You just control your four man army destroying, base razing machine. That said, I have read stories about people who just wanted to RPG and couldn't get past the RTS missions even at the lowest setting, I think perhaps because the AI doesn't play differently no matter the difficulty, just the damage numbers get skewed in your favor. Also, I don't find it a satisfying RTS experience. Been a while since I played but I do recall taking issue with the UI in several ways. But, it has some refreshing twists like you don't manually control your workers and they have a separate population count. Edit: I should make clear how action bars are handled, because it bothers me. There's a shared action bar with a total of 24 slots that your heroes have to, uh, share. The benefit is you don't have to select your tank to taunt; you bind taunt, you press it, aim it, tank taunts. It was a new idea, and I don't like it, though one benefit I appreciate is that you can always see everyone's cooldowns. One downside is this limits you to an average of six keybound actions per hero. If you want to bind healing and focus (mana) potions, that's two. Trinket with use effect, that's three. Now you can bind... three abilities! You can get a lot more than that, and I long ago gave up on binding anyone's potions. They can be clicked, but it's not ideal. Another is you have to think of 24 smooth binds. I was able to do that fine, but it's not how you want to start your game, because the default binds are F1-F12 which is just awful (the other 12 binds are shift + the first 12 binds). So I had to change those binds, then I had to assign some obscure stuff to handle the command card, because I was overwriting those in the process. (for the record, WC3/SC2 are examples of how I think this should be handled - everything on the command card, select hero, press key to use ability/item) A (smaller) third problem is that when your party composition changes you have to address any conflicts with the shared action bar (Alice left, Bob joined, Bob started using Alice's vacated slots, but later you have both Bob and Alice in the party). While easily done, it does mess with your muscle memory. For all my complaints, the game did offer quite interesting character build options for a non-AAA game (and surpassing some AAA games for that matter) and an okayish fix for my real time RPG combat addiction.

Right, so it's as I suspected, thanks. What I meant with FoD was a question if it could somehow not add stacks, not if it wouldn't benefit. But on that note, I do love the Ring of Focused Flame for precisely that reason Edit: BTW, does the deflection debuff (which for some reason shows up as a buff) from Tarn's Respite work the same way? With multiple instances and all that stuff.

I have a herald dual wielding this (with Tarn's Respite). She's also sporting a Contender's Armor with stacked Athletics. She's boasting impressive accuracy, say 120-125 in a fight without counting Adaptive. The sabre modal is off. She strikes with speed and precision; this is observed, not just the expected result of the listed factors. It feels to me that over the course of a long fight (which she spends pretty much only attacking), she should get to 10 stacks and just stay there, but usually when I check her buffs it's not at 10. My primary guess is that the buff in my character sheet is merely a summary of 1-10 individual buffs, each with their own duration. But, while I'm asking anyway, I would like a confirmation that Flames of Devotion cannot in any way be blamed (it does seem to stack the buff) unless striking fire immunes, and that on-hit also means on-crit - for the purposes of Adaptive and for the purposes of every other proc in this game.

Apologies for the necro, everyone. To me, the case has usually been that I complete the quest in here, fiddle around with switches for a few minutes and then compose a whole new chant with nothing but expletives in it. As chance would have it, I found a very simple way to get the sword. I certainly didn't find it first, it has probably been explained but I couldn't find a pretty enough picture, logic logic yada yada, here's my new family recipe for getting the sword ASAP so you can happily tinker around with the switches to get the quest done without a care in the world. It's possible the first switch I tell you not to press does the same as the one I do tell you to press, but my autosave got overwritten so I'll never know.

(Note - only talking Soul Harvest now, haven't tried/didn't like other SF titles) There isn't strictly RTwP, but there is an action wheel function in the UI (just press alt IIRC). I don't use it, but there's an option to slow the game down or pause it entirely while the wheel is up. From there you can perform an action from the wheel and then the game will unpause again. Yeah, more like a typical RTS. It certainly has its own twists, but it's always real time.

Alright, how about this then. Spellforce 3: Soul Harvest. It probably hasn't received much attention because there's hardly been any marketing. The game is a mix of RPG and RTS. Sometimes you control only your squad of four heroes, sometimes them plus a base and an army and all that stuff. I don't like the RTS part, but I considered it a necessary evil I had to endure because I found the RPG systems (skills/attributes) and the combat quite satisfying. I've long wanted to play an RPG with real-time combat*, seeing the action unfold while I direct my band of heroes to victory. While this game isn't my dream come true, it came close enough that I poured hundreds of hours into it. You can, if you prefer, play it as RTwP, after a fashion at least. The plot is "fine". Being my first Spellforce game I don't have the problems that many veterans have, which is that the current devs seemingly didn't do their homework and as a result the lore is dissonant with the canon. But it has a story, characters, yada yada. Not the most memorable but enough for me. Certainly not varied though, nearly all your decisions are fluff without long-term impact or story branching potential. I replayed it to try new builds. * In case anyone wants to tell me I can just play PoE/BG/IWD without pause: They don't have the UI to allow me to make quick and informed decisions (frankly, I have issues with the Soul Harvest UI too)

Pathfinder: Kingmaker? Might go against your mainstream attention criteria, but if you want an isometric fantasy RPG with yourself at the mercy of a d20 just like in Baldur's Gate, it might be your game.

I've recently discovered how much respeccing pain I can save myself through console commands. Right now though, I find myself stuck. I have adjusted the Mechanics and Athletics scores of one character just fine, and then I went to work on a second one, reducing her Arcana and Alchemy with the intent of putting those points in Sleight of Hand. The final part is what I can't seem to pull off. FindGameData for "sleight" returns (among other things), what seems to be the relevant string: Sleight Of Hand (SkillGameData) But, if I use Skill Companion_P_Echo Sleight Of Hand 6 it complains it doesn't accept 5 parameters. Now, the FindGameData search did not have underscores in that particular result, but I tried Skill Companion_P_Echo Sleight_Of_Hand 6 too, and then it complained it couldn't find a GameData object of type SkillGameData with that name. I also tried just Sleight with the same result. To be super clear here, I was able to adjust Echo's Arcane and Alchemy scores just fine. She is not my Watcher, so that part should not be the problem. Is there perhaps a nerdier version of a space I need to use, one that makes it consider Sleight Of Hand a single parameter? Or what can I do, other than give myself extra points elsewhere and just respec at an inn to put them in SoH?

You wanna say that to Theldurin? (Admittedly this might not entertain you/anyone else here, but when I read that, I just had to :P)

We might have a doubly demented warlord on our hands. One who conquered the entire continent of the incontinent. I was thinking about aniport. Sounds like any port, as in, any port in a storm. But I cannot turn it into a good pun

On your first animancy teleport (portmanteau wanted!) experiment, where you're sent somewhere into Rymrgand's realm, a voice says something like: I conquered every city in the Grey Lands! They will remember my name. And every time I hear it, I can't help but smile about how wrong she is, because I've never even heard of the Grey Lands to begin with, much less anyone conquering them. Of course not every lore/history tidbit is relayed to the player, so I'm curious here. Are the Grey Lands referenced anywhere else? Is our deceased conqueror correct, for the time being, that she lives on in memory?

I can't speak for the full theorycraft of single vs. dual wield (I believe DW is considered better), but know that you also get +12 accuracy for single wielding (no talent needed); nothing in the off-hand and not a two-hander. And yeah, you might find the game in general doesn't necessarily encourage stereotypical approaches.

I browsed all 16 pages on Nexus without finding anything that addresses this. Especially as I play no rest (but I had this problem before too), combined with a fetish for auras and chants, the list of beneficial effects can easily grow all the way down to the action bars and portraits and beyond. This makes it difficult/impossible to see my afflictions without opening the character sheets and browsing through an even longer list. I would really like it if the following were not displayed on the combat tooltip: - Wardstones - Active modals - Fighter stances - Food/shrine buffs And, since I've been a really* good boy this year, I'm going to make a few more wishes to have the following also hidden: - Luminous Adra Potion - Adratic Glow - Weird kit-specific "buffs" like Troubadour and Unbroken (so my class has not changed since the last fight? thanks for letting me know, game!) - Watcher only: Courtesan buff, Alchemic Brawn/Guile/Wits, Dawnstar's Blessing, Nature's Resolve As a much simpler solution, it'd also work quite well if afflictions were simply displayed first, or if there were a separate column for them. I suppose this ended up sounding like a mod request, and I'd be much obliged if anyone wanted to make one, but I'm mostly hoping one already exists that will help with some of these problems. Just to give you an idea of how bad it is... and this isn't even my Watcher:

I play almost exclusively with mercs, and I usually get bored of playthroughs before Ukaizo, so I can't speak for what permanently upsets this or that party member. Note however, that you didn't merely choose to ride to Ukaizo on a ghost ship. You ceded the island to Aeldys. You practically said, Huana aren't getting it, VTC aren't getting it, RDC aren't getting it, Aeldys is. Choosing your means of getting to Ukaizo is a big decision.

Another forced rest: The crew event where you're asked to make an offering to Ondra. If you solve it with prayer, you will rest. Tossing money overboard is fine.

Okay, with the aid of the very detailed wiki page on console commands I was able to solve this! In case anyone else has this exact or a similar problem, the commands are (after enabling the console): RemoveStatusEffect Companion_P_PARTYMEMBERSNAMEHERE Disoriented_SE_PerceptionDebuff RemoveStatusEffect Companion_P_PARTYMEMBERSNAMEHERE Disoriented_SE_RecoveryDebuff

Nope, didn't work.

The debuff shows up among her active effects, giving the standard penalties. I don't know when or where I got it. Removing all her equipment does not remove it. Applying a perception inspiration does not remove it. Resting does fix it, but I'm playing no rest. Is there a console command for this? Or any other tricks?

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried gellarde and ekera at the same time.

This isn't quite what you asked for, but if you're looking to play a "time is on my side" setup... I used to be playing mass tank parties that outlasted opponents forever if need be, while permanent DoT's killed them off. The damage dealer was paladin (Brand Enemy) / rogue (Gouging Strike). Brand Enemy cannot miss, and Gouging Strike is easy to land with arquebus modal. Once the DoT's are up, switch to a defensive weapon set and put on your best "u mad?" trollface while your opponents futilely try to kill your tanky-healy setup before they bleed out. Specifically, the party would be something like, five paladins (shieldbearers), two multid to chanter (troubadour), one to fighter (unbroken), one to rogue (can't remember kit anymore) and one to cipher (vanilla cipher before psion existed, then psion). Three passive healing auras (Exalted Endurance, Ancient Memory, Pale Light), and tons of Lay on Hands with built-in cheat death.