I was wondering about a couple of points regarding Hylea's challenge:

    - How is Vela's presence explained for players who did not take her with them in Pillars 1 (or worse, sacrificed her)?

    - Why would a ruthless Watcher, untroubled by the deaths of party members or playing solo, experience a "Game Over" upon the death of some child?

    - Why would a benevolent Watcher keep a vulnerable child with them at all times, no matter the danger?

 

I have an idea that hopefully address these points:

 

Hylea takes a small fragment of the Watcher's soul and:

    - places it within Vela if she is present

 

   

    or

    - shapes it into a celestial bird (using Orbit the "cosmic bird" model) if Vela is not present

 

   


From a role-playing perspective:

    - the celestial bird ("Orbit") would make sense for those who do not have Vela in their playthrough

    - even the most ruthless Watcher would have a justification for keeping a small child/bird containing a fragment of their soul close to them at all times; their survival would be connected!

From a game-play perspective:

 

I was also wondering if this challenge is achievable without access to the "Withdraw" spell. (e.g. What if the player is using "Solo" mode as a non-priest)?

 

Some ideas to make the challenge less strict:

 

    - it is not necessarily an immediate "Game Over" if Vela/Orbit is knocked out

    - when Vela/Orbit is knocked out, the Watcher receives a severe penalty that lasts until Vela/Orbit is resurrected

    - like party members, Vela/Orbit receives an injury when knocked out, for a maximum of 3 before permanent death

    - if Vela/Orbit is permanently killed (i.e. they receive more than 3 injuries), then it is "Game Over"

I hope you'll consider these suggestions, and thanks again for the great work on Deadfire.

 

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Suggestions for the other god challenges:

MAGRAN: An open letter to the devs about Magran's challenge

SKAEN: Fog-of-war on the world map, storms are invisible

WAEL (upcoming): Random *text* (not combat) encounters on the world map
 

Personally, I'd say you've covered all the bases now with your expansion of how the Hylea Challenge may take form, depending on choices in PoE 1. And using the Cosmic Bird is spot on!

Good suggestions. I also imagined that the Watcher would only bring Vela along if there was some sort of connection.

 

I'll only play with the Challenges if they make the game more interesting/fun for me. So I'm in favor of some changes because otherwise it will be rather annoying and I won't select this challenge.