gkathellar

And thinking back, PoE1 got the same crap when it released. "Worst release ever herp derp its unplayable meep morp its a flop." It wasn't true then, it's not really true now. Some people are experiencing pretty severe bugs, and that's bad. It's not the end of CRPGs.

Damn, I missed a lot just because I didn't find that sword. That's a pretty big detail. Now I'm sad again that she didn't get to be a full companion. Join the club.

I accept that I'm probably the minority, but I'd rather have the penetration than the breastplate, if it came down to it. And even if they wrote DOC into a future expansion, she's not someone who I'd want to see again. DoC was my #1 favorite character from PoE, hands down, and I'm *REALLY* sad that they decided to kill her off in the sequel. Such crap. At least in her 'Good" ending she dies relatively at peace after getting to see the ocean, which is something she'd never seen before. ... Wait. The ocean. ... Well, I guess we'd need a submarine/diving bell to go get her, but whatever. IVE BEEN SAYING It's even the same ocean! She specifically walked East! HOW DID THEY MISS THIS

Hey, just because Maneha was only like a third of a character doesn't mean she deserves to suffer. >_>

I accept that I'm probably the minority, but I'd rather have the penetration than the breastplate, if it came down to it. And even if they wrote DOC into a future expansion, she's not someone who I'd want to see again. She dies in her good ending, too #breastplateinallgames2018

I dunno man, you'd be surprised at how complex games like this are to test. BG2's modding community is still discovering bugfixes. But in general I doubt anyone's arguing that PoE2's bugs aren't bad just because some games have horrible problems with their physics and graphics engines (and also everything else BETHESDA). That would be reductive. But there's nothing wrong with generally commiserating about bugs in games and remembering that Obsidian isn't the worst offender in this area, despite its reputation, in the meantime. Fact is - and it's a bad fact, but a fact nonetheless - good QA is hard to come by these days, for reasons that are complex and very nearly paradoxical. Industry standards are low. /shrug I don't think it's a matter of industry standards. I don't think I've ever played any RPG that was free of major bugs at release. Certainly every major modern RPG has had extensive bugs at release. That's why the first D:OS game got an Enhanced Edition a year later, and the 2nd one is also getting one a year from now. The root issue is that these games are hyper-complicated -- especially if they're open world -- and it's not possible for them to be bug free at release. A lot of the bugs simply aren't found / documented / reported until you throw a hundred thousand players at them. This is true. I'm inclined to think the problem has gotten worse, but that might just be nostalgia talking.

Whatever you decide, it needs to be somewhat more than Soft Winds of Death, because Soft Winds is Raw damage. Maybe math it out so that Dragon Thrashed specifically rewards Might specialization better than Soft Winds does, for build variety? Edit: My brain did a stupid.

maybe the +1 Dex makes the ending slides move faster

clearly we just need to add cute anime girl mascots for the ships problem solved

Obviously you're not the only person who'd like it, but implementing co-op is enormously difficult. Multiplayer in general is very difficult to manage and causes all sort of problems on its own.

Both combat and out-of-combat Stealth are dramatically better than they were in PoE1. There are actually, like, discernible rules, and a relatively low Stealth rank will actually take you a relatively long way.

The only reason this game's RTwP system works is its sheer complexity - there's so much to coordinate, even playing solo, that you're constantly engaged. I'm not sure you could do that with a ship-combat system. Even if you did have it, how much time would actually be spent on it? Sure, ship combat is a thing in this game, but it's not like it's the focus of the game. Much like the obnoxious minigame in Jade Empire, I suspect it would become an obnoxious scrappy feature that everyone would hate. Alas, it would hardly be so simple, because then you have to design all of the actions, balance mechanics, figure out speeds, etc.

Eh. Unless you're actually tanking, and in some cases even if you are, you can dump Resolve into the bottom of the ocean. Also Maia gets Ranger/Wizard, not Ranger/Chanter.

I heard that Galawain buffs some of the bosses to make their fights tougher for you. I believe everyone else is covered in the opening post? Not sure if promises to Wael and Skaen/Woedica even count since Wael, at least, doesn't give you any stat bonus. Does that even count as a punishment? Given Galawain's whole worldview, that almost sounds like something he'd do for someone he liked. I heard that Galawain buffs some of the bosses to make their fights tougher for you. I believe everyone else is covered in the opening post? Not sure if promises to Wael and Skaen/Woedica even count since Wael, at least, doesn't give you any stat bonus.Wael's boon gives you a +1 Intellect bonus in PoE1, it's just that you don't get it til the very VERY end of the game. And I think it was added in a later patch. Haven't carried that playthrough over to Deadfire yet though so not sure if there are any effects carried over, but I doubt it Edit: did I dream this? Lol I'm not able to find anything about it on the wiki Wael's boon was planned, IIRC, and I think it's in the code, but you don't actually get it. I could swear Skaen actually grants a boon, though, which is just the world's dumbest thing since you are actually done with the game when you get it.

I dunno man, you'd be surprised at how complex games like this are to test. BG2's modding community is still discovering bugfixes. But in general I doubt anyone's arguing that PoE2's bugs aren't bad just because some games have horrible problems with their physics and graphics engines (and also everything else BETHESDA). That would be reductive. But there's nothing wrong with generally commiserating about bugs in games and remembering that Obsidian isn't the worst offender in this area, despite its reputation, in the meantime. Fact is - and it's a bad fact, but a fact nonetheless - good QA is hard to come by these days, for reasons that are complex and very nearly paradoxical. Industry standards are low. /shrug

It's also worth noting that, having just finished a replay of PoE1, Eder's animal-lover bit isn't exaggerated at all. If an animal appears in PoE1, Eder is 90% likely to say something about petting it. During the conversation with Galawain, Eder wonders aloud whether he could pet one of Galawain's pack of animals. Remember Simoc, the evil anamfath? He's got a Stelgaer that Eder wants to pet. Twin Elms is basically just, "Eder wants to pet things: the game." It's easy to forget this because he has so many other compelling things going on! But yeah. He's always been like that.

Out of curiosity, is there any particular reason you run with Insight, rather than pumping History and going for the Giftbearer's Cloth?

Wait, there are Grimoires other than the one that gives you Ninagauth's Shadowflame? Are you sure it's not just the one?

Well ... it's flanderization, innit? Coming back to a character, especially a convincing and well-written character, is a really difficult thing to do. Whoever the writer was when you first wrote that character, whatever was going through their head, it's gone. They're a different person thinking different things, and if the character was a piece of them, warped and reimagined but still basically of the writer's being, that magic can't usually be recaptured. And if it's a different story altogether, with different themes and pivotal forces, it's even harder. So to keep writing the character, a writer makes pithy little notes, lists traits, remembers Things and Particulars and Attributes, and writes to fit those. And as a result, the character becomes those things. And that's not always bad - it means they're not a fully realized person, as they once were, but in sufficiently skilled hands and with enough time and care, the difference can be indiscernible. Either way, it's often preferable to writing a new, different fully realized person and feeling really truly off. Just to clarify, are you defending/justifying this, or merely pointing out that my observation is actually a well-documented trope? If the latter, cool. If the former, I might actually spend some modicum of effort breaking it down. Mostly the latter, a bit of the former. I'm sympathetic to writers who fall victim to flanderizing their characters, because it's really difficult to return to a character and write them a second time, especially if you traced a complete narrative arc with them the first time. But I'm certainly not defending the trope itself, and certainly not in this case. It's just ... I get why it happens.

Well ... it's flanderization, innit? Coming back to a character, especially a convincing and well-written character, is a really difficult thing to do. Whoever the writer was when you first wrote that character, whatever was going through their head, it's gone. They're a different person thinking different things, and if the character was a piece of them, warped and reimagined but still basically of the writer's being, that magic can't usually be recaptured. And if it's a different story altogether, with different themes and pivotal forces, it's even harder. So to keep writing the character, a writer makes pithy little notes, lists traits, remembers Things and Particulars and Attributes, and writes to fit those. And as a result, the character becomes those things. And that's not always bad - it means they're not a fully realized person, as they once were, but in sufficiently skilled hands and with enough time and care, the difference can be indiscernible. Either way, it's often preferable to writing a new, different fully realized person and feeling really truly off.

You show me where those people are because I need to fight them. Fight fight fight. With my fists.

I want big, extremely difficult fights that force me to adopt new tactics and learn the game better. I could do without using the exact same routine of "drop three buffs, pummel everything into a fine paste" every 25 seconds. So ... less PoE1, more White March.

AFAIK she's from the Vailian Republics and in 1 she questions the motives of her superiors if she thinks their decisions will be bad in the long run. In Deadfire all she seems to care about is bitching about godlikes/gods and has lost all ability to question the Republics. Maybe this is supposed to reflect her becoming embittered or maybe it's just because she could have different endings in 1 and it was too complicated to create one character with different personalities depending upon the POE ending. Aloth also seems to be designed to fit one POE outcome. Her dispositions of anti pro godlike and anti racist also seems a tad conflicting to me. she is the weirdest Paladin I ever met . It's like being a paladin doesn't even matter , she is a soldier above everything else . And the way they treat her..like a Pawn... *Shake head*....her loyalty...piss me off to be honest . PoE's paladins are supernaturally devoted knightly orders, not conventional Lawful Good D&D paladins. That said, the orders do map pretty well to the various ideas and spinoffs of paladins: if you want the LG Paladin-classic, you're looking mostly at the Shieldbearers and Kind Wayfarers. Bleak Walkers are the old school antipaladin with an actual attempt to justify being the worst. Goldpact Knights are for that one player who cares a lot more about the Lawful thing than the Good thing. Darcozzi are paladins in the old-school chivalric sense, all sweeping passions and courtly romance and tearing trees out of the ground in a rage. The Brotherhood of the Five Suns is the "paladins of a nation" version.

Hey, Skyrim doesn't have bugs! It has features.

Single-class chanters are functional, but there's very little reason to play one, for several reasons: A chanter gets to use basic attacks and wait for its invocations to come online. A chanter/whatever, on the other hand, gets to use its other class while waiting for its invocations to come online. Even if you're actually specializing in Chanter Stuff (i.e. you're playing a skald) and looking to pop off invocations as quickly as possible, you generally want another class to help you do the crit-fisher thing. They still have the problem from PoE1 with their lower-level options being at least as good as their higher-level options, if not better. It doesn't really matter that you lose a few PL, because chanters get all of their best stuff early. Because chanters have so many good passives and so few active abilities, they make a decent addition to virtually every class (Troubadour in particular is an amazing addition to everything in the universe). This isn't a problem with the class itself, per se, but it kind of plays into the whole, "chanters are for multiclassing" thing.