JerekKruger

It's not about whether there are aristocrats capable of surviving in the Living Lands, it's about whether there is an aristocracy in the Living Lands. Presumably the developers decided that this was not a part of the world which has an aristocracy and thus didn't allow the combination of the aristocrat background and the Living Lands culture. It's strange that this is the combination that you've picked out. I find it far stranger that there are no clergymen outside of the Aedyr Empire and no artists outside of Old Vailia. The lack of aristocrats in the Living Lands makes sense at least.

I'd take offence at that if it weren't so true

Until they allow me to wear at least four ringers (preferably five) per hand I will never be fully immersed

I'd like to see more enchanting recipes that you have to find, rather than having the full collection from the start. I think it's likely that Obsidian originally intended it to be like this in Pillars (see the cooking recipe you can learn in Gilded Vale) but probably cut it due to time restraints. I also like the idea of being able to steal a powerful wizard's grimoire. I wouldn't have this be something you can do against every wizard, since it would become stale, but I'd love to see a scripted interaction that requires high stealth (and other things) for at least one wizard fight. I think it would also help if item properties were more varied and interesting. Before the White March expansions itemisation in Pillars was pretty bland: I certainly didn't get a feeling of excitement when finding a new item very often. White March improved this by having more items with genuinely unique properties (as opposed to the list of enchantments unavailable to the player but shared between multiple items that Pillars had) so I am hopeful that itemisation will be even better in Deadfire. On top of that, Josh has stated that their current enchantment system will be more limited in Deadfire insofar as you won't be able to enchant a low tier item all the way to the highest tier like you could in Pillars. Personally I don't like this, as I feel giving the player freedom is (almost) always a good thing, but for those who did have the problem you state with enchanting in Pillars this should go a fair way to solving it.

Okay yeah, that's comparable to PoE pikes.

I don't know. On the one hand, a harpoon is probably heavy enough that you'd want to use it with two hands. On the other, it's probably shorter than a typical spear (about 6-8ft) and far shorter than a pike (although pikes in Pillars are really not long enough to be considered pikes). I could see it go either way, but if they did make it a pike I'd encourage them to remove the reach property.

The only think that affects which background you can take is your culture. It doesn't matter what race, subrace or class you take. As Boeroer says, the only culture that can't be an aristocrat is the Living Lands.

I'd love to, but I think I've derailed the thread enough already.

Well harpoons are supposed to get stuck, you don't really want a spear to get stuck. Honestly though, the same could be said for most for a lot of the suggestions in this thread. What's the difference between an oar and a quarterstaff/club, or what's the difference between a cloak and a cloak made from an old sail etc. It's not so much coming up with completely new item types as coming up with weird versions of existing items (the larder door was, after all, just a large shield). So a harpoon would probably be a spear in game, but perhaps it would have a bonus versus sea monsters or something, and of course look like a harpoon rather than a spear.

Indeed. I wonder if anyone tried turning a big heavy wheel in an attempt to get Arnold's physique

That's even better, since it allows screenshots whilst paused to show the effect fully.

I'm not sure of his origins in the books, but in the Arnold movie he started off as a slave.

And I'm saying that I don't believe this is true. But you're right, it's off topic, so I'll leave it at that. Actually, I'll leave it at that after pointing out quickly that your exact words were '"pot lid" helmet', not "pot lid" buckler/shield. On topic: has anyone suggested a harpoon?

I really like that feature!

Indeed, but copper isn't a cheap metal. From what I read, copper cooking pots were things wealthier people owned and wealthier people would either avoid fighting, or be able to afford an actual helm. Also look at the design of the helmet you linked: it has a thick ridge along the brow which would have strengthened it against downwards blows. I can't say for certain, but I also suspect it's significantly thicker than a typical copper cooking pot from the middle ages. The fact remains that, whilst there are superficial similarities, cooking pots and helms are fundamentally different things and not very interchangeable. Indeed, but I didn't say improvised equipment wasn't a thing: I even mentioned the archaeological finds from the Battle of Visby which showed armour that had been modified from other objects. The important thing is that it was modified. Go into battle with an unmodified scythe and you'll be less effective that if you remove the blade altogether and use it as a sort of quarterstaff. Wear an actual pot (assuming for whatever reason you have an iron pot in the first place) on your head and it's going to prove ineffective against many weapons and is also likely to be surprisingly tiring.

I should note I'm not fundamentally against level scaling. As said above, if there's good in game justification for it that's great, and if that justification just so happens to coincide with the player's progression even better. Also it makes sense for some enemies e.g. bosses. Finally, even when it doesn't make sense from a lore perspective, so long as it isn't jarring (hello daedric armoured bandits in Oblivion) I can accept it from a game play perspective, although I'd always prefer alternative methods for dealing with the problem of outleveling content..

Obsidian already confirmed that there will be sea monsters. The goal was for more sea monsters. Given that we don't know how many sea monsters there would have been and what "more" means, it's quite possible they will indeed do exactly what you're asking.

If there's a good in game justification for it (for example increased bandit activity leads to traders hiring guards so bandits have to up their game) then that's fine, but there's really no reason they should scale in line with the player. It's not like every bandit started there career at the same time the player starts their adventure: some will already be veteran bandits who have reached the pinnacle of their trade whilst others will be new blood. As the game progresses some of those veterans are likely to die or retire and be replaced by rookies, whilst other rookies will become more skilled. Overall unless there's some obvious outside pressure, one would expect the average quality of a bandit to remain fairly static.

This certainly applies in some cases (particularly a recurring antagonist) I don't see any reason that your typical bandit say, who spends his time stealing from unprotected travellers, would have any in game reason to become more powerful over time. There is presumably a level of power necessary to work as a bandit and little reason for bandits to try to become more powerful than that. Of course a bandit leader might reasonably be more powerful, and they might have tough lieutenants to help them maintain control, but there's really no sensible explanation for your typical bandit encounter becoming harder as you level up. The player character is fundamentally different to the vast majority of people living in their world. This is someone who, for whatever reason, seeks out danger and who therefore always needs to improve themselves. As such they really should be outgrowing the vast majority of enemies they face.

Ah okay. I guess it would provide some protection against thrown stones, thought basically none against bullets. It's hard to tell whether it'd do much against a riot stick: a blunt metal weapon like a mace would stove it in with no problem but riot sticks don't work on quite the same principle. Of course if he's singled out by riot police his protection isn't going to count for much, since they'll just bypass it. I'll stand by a modified version of my claim, namely during the ancient and medieval period essentially no one would have worn an unmodified pot as an improvised helm. To add to what I said earlier, it turns out the majority of cooking pots used by poorer people were clay, and many metal pots would have been copper: neither would provide much protection.

I need to know the context of that picture

Oh sure, I was simply pointing out that there is a solution. As I said, (many) people thoroughly dislike it. Yeah it's odd. You'd think that one would simply keep a spreadsheet (or more sophisticated tool) of all xp sources in the game (far easier in a game without monster xp) and set the amount of xp needed for each level appropriately, yet even before the release of the White March DLCs it was relatively easy to reach the level cap a fair way before the end of the game. I suspect that doing the above is a rather boring job though, particularly if you don't do so meticulously from the start, and so perhaps the devs tried to estimate this sort of thing instead, hence the reason they got it wrong.

So no, Obsidian, please don't take all the time in the world. Taking all the time in the world and it being ready when it's ready aren't the same thing at all, and I think at this stage in development "it'll be ready when it's ready" is a perfectly reasonable response to firkraag888's post which doesn't imply that smjjames is happy for Obsidian to take as long as they want.

That would be funny - but I hope you don't imply that Black Flag is Heavy Metal. I used to know a guy who insisted Metallica wasn't metal...

Assuming by "pot lid" helmet you mean a kettle hat then no. Those were so called because they resembled kettles, not because they literally used to be kettles. This isn't to say that common items weren't used as improvised military equipment when needed. For example archaeological finds from mass graves at the Battle of Visby turn up all sorts of crude pieces of armour that appear to have be hurriedly modified pieces of metal rather than bespoke armour. We are given a false impression of armour from what remains, but of course only the best pieces were actually kept rather than being recycled. That said, it's important to note that even the crude armour of Visby was modified from its original source. I dare say someone, somewhere in history has tried wearing an actual pot as a helmet, but I doubt it was at all common since pots would make poor helmets due to being fundamentally different. The vast majority of men who couldn't afford to buy an actual metal helmet (or have something modified into one) would have settled for some sort of padded hood (think a mail coif made from multiple layers of linen), and by the age of bascinets those men were rare: almost all English longbowmen in the hundred years war would have had at least a metal skullcap, and those that didn't would have tried to loot one after a battle (many longbowmen who had served for a while wear surprisingly well armoured infact). As for using a door as a shield, even ignoring the weight problem (even cut down to the size of a shield it would be far too heavy) it would make a poor shield since shields consist of more than just wooden planks. They also have coverings of raw hide, linen etc. which were actually vital to their function. A door would have been effective against arrows but would have come apart very quickly against blows from melee weapons.