Pathfinder Kingmaker is bigger then Deadfire

[IndiraLightfoot]

That's not giving up. Chalk that up to learning - which is a very rewarding aspect of getting good at PnP-based CRPGs.

[Manveru123]

It's not a lie, just poorly worded. Technically a swarm is not a single monster, but a group of small spiders. And Torches deal damage to them. So when you hit a swarm and deal damage to it, it's like you did AoE damage.

[Chilloutman]

I have a bunch of firebombs. But the firebombs only do 1 damage to each swarm. The swarms move too fast and then I'm stuck throwing into melee at -8 penalty. I'd need to roll an 18 to hit.

 

let them swarm someone who is not throwing them

[Chilloutman]

That's not giving up. Chalk that up to learning - which is a very rewarding aspect of getting good at PnP-based CRPGs.

 

learning means I dont need to reload

[IndiraLightfoot]

 

@Chilloutman: Just you wait! There are negative energy levels. Soon, you'll be drained of levels too in that very same way. IMHO, you should never allow that to happen. If you see your stats or levels dissipate like that, load an earlier save, since you're either doing something you shouldn't or pushing the envelope a bit too far for now. 

 

Yeah I get it, but I just dont want to rest after each battle with 3 spiders or centipides

 

I loade erlier save and just got to that location game forced me to to get rid of that effing dream. Stupid desing

 

It's a bit like BG1 those first levels. Resting and a bit of save-scumming goes a long way.

[Tale]

 

I have a bunch of firebombs. But the firebombs only do 1 damage to each swarm. The swarms move too fast and then I'm stuck throwing into melee at -8 penalty. I'd need to roll an 18 to hit.

 

let them swarm someone who is not throwing them

 

I did. Maybe the penalty is listed as throwing into combat? Anyway, my guy throwing is in the back quite a bit away. I assume it's a penalty to make sure I'm not hitting my own team member. Like penalties in older D&D games for trying to shoot bows at guys your tanks were engaged with.

[Agiel]

A shame you can't be a cleric of Lamashtu. Though I suppose a crab claw hand or extra sets of breasts are beyond the breadth of the character creator.

[jww]

I haven't read through this whole thread to see if others are having problems, but so far Kingmaker is unplayable for me.

 

I really, really want a game using Pathfinder (or 3.5) rules, especially now that I can't find a mod to make the NWN2 interface usable on a 4k/5k screen. And I can only play Deadfire and the BG enhanced editions so many times.

 

But so far, Kingmaker freezes on start-up about two-thirds of the time. The rest of the time, after about 3 minutes, it will finally reach the start menu, and its incredibly slow user interface.

 

Character creation is usable, but slow (and randomly unresponsive). Even as early as character creation, I was encountering blocks of text (e.g., tooltips) that were linked to the wrong UI element.

 

The English-language editing is not good. There are a number of inappropriate commas inserted that need to be removed (poor grammar in a professional-grade product is a pet peeve of mine).

 

I made it into the first room so far, and I think the game's performance is better than the UI's performance (so my video card probably isn't the problem), but my character was walking so slowly, I just saved the game and turned it off. I need to search around and see if there's a way to walk faster.

 

In my whole two minutes of experience with the companions (or at least I assume they will become companions), they are written as if they are cartoon characters as opposed to Deadfire's companions that talk more like a real person would talk. I don't actually mind that, since I tend to fast-forward through companion conversations if I don't like them, but they speak more like Minsc or Jan than like Cassandra or Leiliana, and in 2018, the expectations might be higher than that. (Sure, Minsc is fun, but he's a caricature.)

 

Anyway, I'm still very much looking forward to a game with the Pathfinder ruleset, but I may need to wait for a few more patches.

[xzar_monty]

 

 

The detailed digital walk-through is behind schedule so they will release what they have now, which only goes through chapter 3, and release the whole thing later when it gets done.

 

 

Why is the game developer spending any time on a walkthrough? Assuming you are right here, I find this quite baffling. I thought they just made the game, and others played it. If someone out there wanted to do a walkthrough, they could, but I don't see why. (Isn't using a walkthrough the best possible way to ruin your game? Like, voluntarily giving the joy of discovery to other people, not having any yourself?)

It was a KS add-on you could buy. I agree it's not the best use of their time, especially given they're a very small team, but it also means doing crowdfunding was also something they were learning on the fly. I think it is honorable that they are sticking with all their KS promises, even the ones that are not quite ideal.

 

 

Ok, that explains it. Thank you very much for this!

 

Given that it's a promise, I understand and respect the fact that they're doing it.

[Raithe]

Oh, and word of advice. There's a tooltip that tells you that torches do AOE damage and swarms hate them. The tooltip is a bloody liar.

 

Who gives a swarm something like 30 HP, anyway? It's madness!

 

Stock up on the Alchemist's Fire.

Give every pc 3 of them and you might make it through....

 

 But I do have to say, that its interesting that the quests and errands don't exactly hold your hands on where you have to go or what you have to do to achieve results.

And don't always update the journal when you've met a task in the process...

Edited September 27, 2018 by Raithe

[misterjimmy]

 

 

The game is getting Mixed on Steam. Why?

 

Because its higher difficulty levels are effing HARD AS HELL and most players aren't even familiar with the setting.

That sort of indicates that the game isn't very well designed, though. There is difference between high skill sealing, or high difficulty, and game not explaining its mechanics or having balance issues. If it is a fairly faithful table-top adaptation than it is an uphill battle (don't know the system, and didn't try the game myself - just guessing). Just like with D&D those don't translate elegantly into a digital setting. From the comments it seems much more like a "game problem", rather than "player problem". 

 

It's like all of the above! To the joy of a few and to the detriment of others.

 

Josh circumscribed so many D&D PnP-like issues and problems, especially when he designed Deadfire. Gratz to that! But in so doing, he made a game where you can have five super-balanced party members with super-balanced skills and everything, and if you use your AI settings, well there isn't much variety or urgency left. Well, sometimes - I exaggerate - but with 5 guys in your party, you'll mow down the opposition without even clicking, and you don't have to know the system very well in order to do so.

 

Josh seem very care how to make all class more equality. But he doesn't know it will just make them not very unique.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Hotfix 1.01 has just been patched:

 

The following major issues were fixed:

Issue with saves loading on Linux and Mac builds. Resolution: fixed.
Occasional exits to Main Menu while loading locations ("Error Message, Return to Title Screen"). Resolution: fixed.

Other improvements\fixes:

Quests
 

• Romances with two companions simultaneously may cause an issue (never-ending loading). Resolution: fixed.

Areas
 

• Oleg's Trading Post: oil trap is not visible. Resolution: fixed.

User Interfaces
 

• Party companions can't be selected by ALt+N. Resolution: fixed.
• The first game launch may take several minutes. Resolution: As a quick improvement added a warning about this issue on the initial loading screen. We will try to improve the first loading time in the upcoming hotfixes. 
• It's difficult to distinguish newly revealed areas on Global Map. Resolution: add FX and question symbol for recently revealed locations.
• Issues with custom companion: the character model may be not visible in the Character UI. Resolution: fixed.
• "Crow" (kingdom "messenger") may break Global Map UI. Resolution: fixed.
• Specific combination of graphic options may break UI decals on several areas. Resolution: fixed.

 

 

Classes
 

• Some tooltips with class descriptions have unclear wording. Resolution: improved.

System
 

• Random crash on computers with specific time zone settings. Resolution: fixed.
• Issue with switching game window between several displays. Resolution: fixed.
• General game client stability improvements.

Localization
 

• Several strings are missed in German localization. Resolution: fixed.
• Special Characters were not visible (French and Turkish system localization settings). Resolution: fixed.
• Several non-localized German strings. Resolution: fixed.

We are watching the situation with the balancing issues and listening to your comments and suggestions. We will address these issues in the upcoming hotfixes (some fixes for specific encounters will be available in the next hotfix which we are going to release in a day)

Edited September 27, 2018 by IndiraLightfoot

[injurai]

It's been a long time since I checked in on this game's development. It looks leagues better than I last saw. Pillars may now finally have some competition in this crpg revival market.

[LittleRose]

 

That's not giving up. Chalk that up to learning - which is a very rewarding aspect of getting good at PnP-based CRPGs.

 

learning means I dont need to reload

 

No, that would be finally understanding. A learning process includes failure.

[InsaneCommander]

I checked the game for a few minutes. Created a character really fast but I could see a lot of information there. A few hours to spend in character creation. Again.

 

I didn't realize how much I missed D&D!

[Vitalis]

Oh, and word of advice. There's a tooltip that tells you that torches do AOE damage and swarms hate them. The tooltip is a bloody liar.

 

Who gives a swarm something like 30 HP, anyway? It's madness!

It's a swarm, 1 HP equals how many of the critters are in the swarm. Regular attacks against the swarm will do half damage, magic attacks will do full damage.

[Chilloutman]

LVL 4, finally managed to clear last skeleton champion in second level of first dungeon. Lets get try bear treant again...

[ShadySands]

Just hit level 5 (again) in my new playthrough but I wasn't able to get a couple companions this time around

 

 

 

I'm about to be named baron but I never got the Technic camp to show up to pick up Octavia and Regongar who I had at this point in my first game. Dunno if it's a bug or I just missed something but I've walked to every node I can reach and explored every map that I could before moving on.

 

 

[Tale]

I'm probably going to restart. I've heard about several quests I never got. And my guy is kind of poorly optimized. The game seems to assume a higher level of optimization for normal than I went in with (like the only reliable method I've heard for killing those swarms is burning hands, which I don't have, the flasks are a joke and people are going broke affording enough). Which is kind of a problem since the companions aren't that greatly optimized either.

[Gromnir]

 

I've heard lots of complaints about balance and, frankly, I have to agree. I'm running an area that I think is supposed to be where I'm supposed to be and half the enemies die in one hit and the other half hold person or fear spam me until my tanks die. There's no consistency.

 

It's not even off the main quest. I'm on the main quest and running into traps that my Bard failed and triggered three times in a row. Then swarmed by giant centipedes that fall down dead, who then get backed up by rogues and priests who hold spam my tanks so the rogues can gank them.

 

There was one part on this main quest where I got a new party member who was standing right next to a sword and board bad guy the moment they joined me. He crushed her in two swings. My guys killed two other guys, went to face that one, and he crushed two of them as well before going down. He wasn't a boss. Dude didn't have a name. He was just some mook who got enlarge person cast on him in round one.

 

Took me three reloads before I daze spammed that guy enough to save the new party member, and then had her light cure spam one of the tanks. He still took the tank out and then her. So I took the win of only 2 of my party going down instead of 4.

 

This is my experience. I don't mind the difficulty spikes so much as the lack of communicating to the player what's going on. I'm also getting a greater appreciation for the Pillars series quality of life changes to the formula (fast walking, no equipment weight, no fatigue mechanic, etc.)

 

next to bugs, d&d legacy is the issue which most diminishes our enjoyment. yes, this is pathfinder and not d&d, but pathfinder were initial 3.5 d&d and kingmaker is clear attempting to be loyal to pathfinder rules. kingmaker embraces a significant number o' pnp mechanics, stuff already mentioned earlier, which has never translated well crpg. no-win situation for owlcat as less than faithful implementation o' the minutiae would disappoint the grognards and purists, but same faithfulness frustrates folks such as Gromnir and others.  

 

'course the second biggest issue for Gromnir is familiarity.  am knowing the adventure path which is the basis for kingmaker.  we know the villians and we know the locations and we know all the secret stuff.  we know the rushlight tournament events and how we should build characters to deal with encounters.  sure, some stuff in the crpg is changed from the pnp and is causing surprise... not always good surprise.  the spider swarm nonsense were not in the pnp version and the kingmaker spider swarms is not behaving as they do in pnp regardless.   

 

dunno.  will need to get a bit further into the game before we decide how we feel 'bout kingmaker as am ambivalent.

 

kinda a tough break for owlcat as there were three sandbox adventure paths from pathfinder and only kingmaker were a practical option for development.  

 

http://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/adventures/adventurePath/skullAndShackles

 

kinda obvious why skull and shackles weren't a good choice.  another pirate crpg?  too bad too as skull and shackles were arguable one o' the better pathfinder aps.

 

... 

 

if kingmaker does well enough to result in a sequel, maybe shady gets lucky and owlcat does carrion crown next. lots and lots o' vampires.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited September 27, 2018 by Gromnir

[SonicMage117]

By the way, thank you everyone for the answers on the review drops.

 

Looks like the game is everything it promised to be. That's awesome!

[PatrioticChief]

I ran around the map grinding random encounters, then went back to the area I was having trouble at. Fought a few things I thought would be too strong, found they weren't, and eventually hit level 3. And then ended up in a place that rounded out my party to 6.

 

Let's do this!

 

Only downside is I don't have enough rations to rest inside a dungeon.

The rations bit is whats killing the game for me. 

[Chilloutman]

got LVL 5 and became Baron, Already replaced first companion with custom character, others going to follow as soon as I get 10K for next one. Those provided ones are really terrible if you play on higher difficulty

[Tale]

Okay, so started up a new game and am doing quite a bit better. Helps that my build is better, I actually bothered to put points in Dex this time around so my crossbow isn't garbage. I swapped out Abyssal for Infernal Bloodline because I didn't even notice Infernal was a thing before, and now I've stopped pretending I'm playing an enchanting summoner, so I just blast fools when fools need blasting.

 

Still haven't gone after that swarm. I'm only halfway through level 2, after all. But I am on course to round out my party.

[ShadySands]

Stopping for now as I'm still missing the 2 companions and also having a few other issues

 

Hopefully some patches and maybe even some mods will get me going again though it'll probably be another new game since I doubt they can fix the stuff retroactively