Which did you enjoy more, Poe or Poe2?

[xzar_monty]

Enurale: If you don't mind me asking, what is your first language? I find your English fascinating. If you do mind, simply ignore me.

[asnjas]

story for poe2 sucked. Nothing ever happened to keep me glued in. No high, lows, twists or turns. Saying you follow eothas is a fairly significant spoiler sinces its over half the story. This guy trying to flirt with the seemingly girl poster at least brought out a reaction from me. I didnt even roll my eyes this hard when xoti hit on me.

[Boeroer]

Not even when that nasty potsmoke hit your eyes?

[Boeroer]

I would also argue that the dragon's hoard is a major disappointment in another way, too: by the time you get there, it's pretty certain that none of the items found will interest you. They're totally unexceptional. I did take one of them as a secondary weapon for Durance, but that's it, all the others were instant trash.

Only that you get the best shield of the game there.

 

I think it's good that nice loot is not always hidden behind bosses you can only kill at high levels.

[xzar_monty]

 

I would also argue that the dragon's hoard is a major disappointment in another way, too: by the time you get there, it's pretty certain that none of the items found will interest you. They're totally unexceptional. I did take one of them as a secondary weapon for Durance, but that's it, all the others were instant trash.

I think it's good that nice loot is not always hidden behind bosses you can only kill at high levels.

 

Fully agree with this. But getting no real rewards for high-level-requiring bosses is an annoyance.

[Mikeymoonshine]

 

 

4 – PLAYER'S HOME: Winner POE1

_____________________________________________

 

If we compare the places that can be called player home, Caed Nua offers much more content than our ship, Defiant. Lets start to comparission: Endless paths is a completely extra and very successful content. We can say that ship wars are more successful than castle defense fights. If we compare Crew with Hirelings, crew members are much more efficient than hirelings. Capturing and developing the castle is more extensive than repairing and developing the ship. Although we have many rest areas in the castle, I don't understand why we can't rest on board, at least Captain's Cabin could have his own bonus. In the castle, we could send our companions to the missions, there is no such option for the ship. The library in the main keep, was a great archive for the books we collected. Visitors and merchants of the castle, was adding color to the content. And it wasn't bad to have a steward. As a matter of fact, it is not very accurate to compare a ship and a fortress, but I still cannot keep myself from thinking that the content of the ship could be much more attractive.

 

SO POE2?

 

What we can do on ship is very limited and I don't know what the solution could be; maybe we could get a house on land for companion missions or we could try to get magical powers for our ship with missions, or maybe we could fight with sea monsters. As a final word, ship wars begin to repeat itself after a while and additional content for ship can be very enjoyable.

 

 

It's interesting that we have the opposite opinion on this. I do think the ship was lacklustre and a lot of the features were not very good. As for the endless paths that was a crowd funding bonus thing. Deadfire had Fulvano's voyage as it's bonus  (Dunnage, The Drowned Barrows, Ori O Koiki, Crookspur and splintered reef) A lot of good content there though then again without that content the game would feel a tad empty and the same can't be said for the endless paths. 

 

As I and others have said I found the micromanaging of the keep to be incredibly annoying where as the ship it's only slightly annoying. I do think you have a good point about resting bonuses and there could have been more ship upgrades available that did stuff like that. The ship does have things like merchants, visitors, other ship encounters ect they just are dotted around the map because it's a ship. I do think that a lot of them are not that interesting but they are nowhere near as awful as the repetitive and pointless stuff that happened at the keep.

It's a shame the sea monsters goal was never reached though, it really feels like there should be more sea monsters in deadfire. 

Edited March 20, 2019 by Mikeymoonshine

[Boeroer]

 

 

I would also argue that the dragon's hoard is a major disappointment in another way, too: by the time you get there, it's pretty certain that none of the items found will interest you. They're totally unexceptional. I did take one of them as a secondary weapon for Durance, but that's it, all the others were instant trash.

 

[cut]Only that you get the best shield of the game there.  [/cut]

I think it's good that nice loot is not always hidden behind bosses you can only kill at high levels.

 

Fully agree with this. But getting no real rewards for high-level-requiring bosses is an annoyance.

 

Erm... not sure why you cut "Only that you get the best shield of the game there" from my quote - which totally contradicts your statement...? That doesn't look nice.

Edited March 20, 2019 by Boeroer

[Crucis]

 

 

 

4 – PLAYER'S HOME: Winner POE1

_____________________________________________

 

If we compare the places that can be called player home, Caed Nua offers much more content than our ship, Defiant. Lets start to comparission: Endless paths is a completely extra and very successful content. We can say that ship wars are more successful than castle defense fights. If we compare Crew with Hirelings, crew members are much more efficient than hirelings. Capturing and developing the castle is more extensive than repairing and developing the ship. Although we have many rest areas in the castle, I don't understand why we can't rest on board, at least Captain's Cabin could have his own bonus. In the castle, we could send our companions to the missions, there is no such option for the ship. The library in the main keep, was a great archive for the books we collected. Visitors and merchants of the castle, was adding color to the content. And it wasn't bad to have a steward. As a matter of fact, it is not very accurate to compare a ship and a fortress, but I still cannot keep myself from thinking that the content of the ship could be much more attractive.

 

SO POE2?

 

What we can do on ship is very limited and I don't know what the solution could be; maybe we could get a house on land for companion missions or we could try to get magical powers for our ship with missions, or maybe we could fight with sea monsters. As a final word, ship wars begin to repeat itself after a while and additional content for ship can be very enjoyable.

 

 

It's interesting that we have the opposite opinion on this. I do think the ship was lacklustre and a lot of the features were not very good. As for the endless paths that was a crowd funding bonus thing. Deadfire had Fulvano's voyage as it's bonus  (Dunnage, The Drowned Barrows, Ori O Koiki, Crookspur and splintered reef) A lot of good content there though then again without that content the game would feel a tad empty and the same can't be said for the endless paths. 

 

As I and others have said I found the micromanaging of the keep to be incredibly annoying where as the ship it's only slightly annoying. I do think you have a good point about resting bonuses and there could have been more ship upgrades available that did stuff like that. The ship does have things like merchants, visitors, other ship encounters ect they just are dotted around the map because it's a ship. I do think that a lot of them are not that interesting but they are nowhere near as awful as the repetitive and pointless stuff that happened at the keep.

It's a shame the sea monsters goal was never reached though, it really feels like there should be more sea monsters in deadfire. 

 

 

I'm with you that the PoE1 stronghold was rather annoying to micromanage.  I didn't find the ship particularly annoying as a stronghold.  Of course, it had its other annoyances.  IMO, it would have been nice if behind the scenes, your party got a rest every 24 hours spent on the ship while on a long voyage.  OTOH, maybe some people would dislike losing that costly bonus you might have "purchased" when staying at an inn, if an auto-rest on the ship negated it.

 

I agree that the generic ship encounters can seem repetitive.  In my last party, I was constantly beating up on slaver ships, since they were an  easy way to make a little cash from their swag, as well as a good way to work on some soulbound requirements.  And I got a bit annoyed at myself when I went to Crookspur and defeated the slavers, because it put a stop to the respawning slaver ships and their nice little stream of goodies.  I didn't beat up on the generic ships of other factions, because I hadn't picked a faction and didn't want to annoy any of them and risk losing one of my companions.  (Having a deep reserve certainly makes your ship/party incredibly difficult to defeat in boarding actions.  Your active party may only be 5 people, but having another 9 or so reserves makes for quite a powerful force during those boarding actions.)

 

Honestly, I really missed having a deep dungeon like the Endless paths, or at least a greater number of more involved locations, like the "city" under Nekataka or the 3 level Engwithan ruin on the east side of the map.  There were too many overly "shallow" locations that were little more than one, maybe 2, small levels.  And in this way, I found PoE2 rather disappointing.  

 

If there is a PoE3, I hope that they spend more of their effort on developing larger, more involved areas than were in PoE2.  They don't have to be as truly immense as the Endless Paths.  For what it's worth, perhaps my favorite dungeon in all of the BG/IWD/POE games was the one in the Tales of the Luremaster.  I absolutely LOVED that dungeon, and was both happy to complete it and sad that it was all done.  I know that I replayed IWD1 a number of times, just to get to play TOTLM once again.

[xzar_monty]

 

 

 

I would also argue that the dragon's hoard is a major disappointment in another way, too: by the time you get there, it's pretty certain that none of the items found will interest you. They're totally unexceptional. I did take one of them as a secondary weapon for Durance, but that's it, all the others were instant trash.

 

[cut]Only that you get the best shield of the game there.  [/cut]

I think it's good that nice loot is not always hidden behind bosses you can only kill at high levels.

 

Fully agree with this. But getting no real rewards for high-level-requiring bosses is an annoyance.

 

Erm... not sure why you cut "Only that you get the best shield of the game there" from my quote - which totally contradicts your statement...? That doesn't look nice.

 

 

Because Eder has a fully-upgraded soulbound shield already and I am perfectly happy with it. He's the only one in my group using a shield; never even considered even trying the one in the dragon's hoard. It may be good, no argument with that. It's just that it's totally not needed. Contrast this with Tidefall, for instance, found on a drake, which really is a major treasure.

 

I understand why you may see a contradiction there, and that's fine. From my point of view, there isn't any, given the way my group is formed and armed. Eder has a shield, but he only uses it some of the time; he may very well use just Tidefall. So, pretty much of the time, nobody in my group carries a shield.

Edited March 21, 2019 by xzar_monty

[Boeroer]

But your personal party composition (where items you find might not fit your builds) is not an indicator for bad or good loot. It just means that the loot in the dragon's hoard didn't fit your party in this case.

 

I mean sure - most of the items there aren't breathtaking - but which are in the Pillars games (for intensively discussed reasons). But that shield is indeed one of the best in the game - no matter your party composition and what Edér carries.

 

If there would have been a watcher-only helmet that gave you +20 to CON and you were a godlike... would you also choose that argument to say it's a crappy helmet (because you can't use it right now)? Or is Carsomyr which you get by killing Firkraag is bad loot because it's only for Paladins and you are a Rogue?

 

Sure it can be disappointing to find something which you have no use for (ask me about all Infinity Engine games where I restarted once I found a really awesome item which I couldn't use) - but this doesn't mean it's bad, does it? You made it sound that it's generally bad - not only in your case.

Edited March 22, 2019 by Boeroer

[xzar_monty]

Yes, fair enough, you do have a point, I did generalize too much.

 

For my game and money, the best item found in Od Nua (if memory serves!) was Persistence, the bow, which is just lying around. I don't remember what I got from the alpine dragon (without a fight), but I think it was a +3 resolve item or something, which is good but not remarkable. Tidefall is an astonishingly good piece of loot from an indifferent or even easy opponent.

 

You touch upon a more general issue there: the Pillars games don't really have items that make you go wow. I'm not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing, but I probably thnk the balancing act has gone a bit too far in the sense that (to overemphasize just a little) essentially everything in the game can be replaced by plenty of other things without anything really changing. And that can sometimes make things a bit... bland. I do agree that over-the-top killer items are not that interesting, either. But it feels a bit strange to carry around this huge amount of unique items, most of which I have never used and will never even try. The concept of "unique" doesn't really have that ring anymore after that.

[Boeroer]

Yeah - if you want to keep things in balance you have to come up with things that are somehow cool without being too powerful. That's difficult.

 

Stuff like Stormcaller is cool - but not too powerful (in the sense that it doesn't break the game/weapon balance).

[M4xw0lf]

PoE 1 for me, too. Deadfire always leaves me with a feeling of shallowness.

[anameforobsidian]

 

 

 

 

4 – PLAYER'S HOME: Winner POE1

_____________________________________________

 

If we compare the places that can be called player home, Caed Nua offers much more content than our ship, Defiant. Lets start to comparission: Endless paths is a completely extra and very successful content. We can say that ship wars are more successful than castle defense fights. If we compare Crew with Hirelings, crew members are much more efficient than hirelings. Capturing and developing the castle is more extensive than repairing and developing the ship. Although we have many rest areas in the castle, I don't understand why we can't rest on board, at least Captain's Cabin could have his own bonus. In the castle, we could send our companions to the missions, there is no such option for the ship. The library in the main keep, was a great archive for the books we collected. Visitors and merchants of the castle, was adding color to the content. And it wasn't bad to have a steward. As a matter of fact, it is not very accurate to compare a ship and a fortress, but I still cannot keep myself from thinking that the content of the ship could be much more attractive.

 

SO POE2?

 

What we can do on ship is very limited and I don't know what the solution could be; maybe we could get a house on land for companion missions or we could try to get magical powers for our ship with missions, or maybe we could fight with sea monsters. As a final word, ship wars begin to repeat itself after a while and additional content for ship can be very enjoyable.

 

 

It's interesting that we have the opposite opinion on this. I do think the ship was lacklustre and a lot of the features were not very good. As for the endless paths that was a crowd funding bonus thing. Deadfire had Fulvano's voyage as it's bonus  (Dunnage, The Drowned Barrows, Ori O Koiki, Crookspur and splintered reef) A lot of good content there though then again without that content the game would feel a tad empty and the same can't be said for the endless paths. 

 

As I and others have said I found the micromanaging of the keep to be incredibly annoying where as the ship it's only slightly annoying. I do think you have a good point about resting bonuses and there could have been more ship upgrades available that did stuff like that. The ship does have things like merchants, visitors, other ship encounters ect they just are dotted around the map because it's a ship. I do think that a lot of them are not that interesting but they are nowhere near as awful as the repetitive and pointless stuff that happened at the keep.

It's a shame the sea monsters goal was never reached though, it really feels like there should be more sea monsters in deadfire. 

 

 

I'm with you that the PoE1 stronghold was rather annoying to micromanage.  I didn't find the ship particularly annoying as a stronghold.  Of course, it had its other annoyances.  IMO, it would have been nice if behind the scenes, your party got a rest every 24 hours spent on the ship while on a long voyage.  OTOH, maybe some people would dislike losing that costly bonus you might have "purchased" when staying at an inn, if an auto-rest on the ship negated it.

 

I agree that the generic ship encounters can seem repetitive.  In my last party, I was constantly beating up on slaver ships, since they were an  easy way to make a little cash from their swag, as well as a good way to work on some soulbound requirements.  And I got a bit annoyed at myself when I went to Crookspur and defeated the slavers, because it put a stop to the respawning slaver ships and their nice little stream of goodies.  I didn't beat up on the generic ships of other factions, because I hadn't picked a faction and didn't want to annoy any of them and risk losing one of my companions.  (Having a deep reserve certainly makes your ship/party incredibly difficult to defeat in boarding actions.  Your active party may only be 5 people, but having another 9 or so reserves makes for quite a powerful force during those boarding actions.)

 

Honestly, I really missed having a deep dungeon like the Endless paths, or at least a greater number of more involved locations, like the "city" under Nekataka or the 3 level Engwithan ruin on the east side of the map.  There were too many overly "shallow" locations that were little more than one, maybe 2, small levels.  And in this way, I found PoE2 rather disappointing.  

 

If there is a PoE3, I hope that they spend more of their effort on developing larger, more involved areas than were in PoE2.  They don't have to be as truly immense as the Endless Paths.  For what it's worth, perhaps my favorite dungeon in all of the BG/IWD/POE games was the one in the Tales of the Luremaster.  I absolutely LOVED that dungeon, and was both happy to complete it and sad that it was all done.  I know that I replayed IWD1 a number of times, just to get to play TOTLM once again.

 

 

I had a similar complaint, but the final DLC fixed that in my mind.  I just wish they gave me a reason to fight the megabosses.

[xzar_monty]

What could that reason be, conceivably?

 

I think they are just what they are, and intentionally so: walls that you can bang your head against, and if you're persistent enough, you just might get through, and that's all there is to it. This is perfectly fine. (I have no interest in them.)

[Verde]

I think the reasons are challenge or the adra stone for upgrading Legendary -> Mythic. I casually tried the Ooze, and got walloped.

Edited March 22, 2019 by Verde

[Enurale]

PoE 1 for me, too. Deadfire always leaves me with a feeling of shallowness.

 

For its story, i cant be aggreed more.

[Verde]

It's weird but the atmosphere finally clicked on my last playthrough, when I realized it's more fun for me to run 2 or more custom adventures in my party. After about 1/3 way thru, your companions rarely have anything to say unless it's story or DLC. I feel a lot more attached to my customs then I do the one dimensional companions. Eder, ofc, is an exception, and same with Tekehu. There isn't a playthrough I don't create a custom Paladin tho ha.

Edited March 22, 2019 by Verde

[bringingyouthefuture]

I think the reasons are challenge or the adra stone for upgrading Legendary -> Mythic. I casually tried the Ooze, and got walloped.

 

What's the recommended level for the megabosses?  I stumbled on the Ooze at level 16, and the giant Egwithan guy, both seemed rather out of my league.

 

Edit:  Upscaling on only upwards, no downscaling.

Edited March 22, 2019 by bringingyouthefuture

[Verde]

Def 20.

[heldred]

Both games were a lot of fun and consumed hours of time.  With that said, any game can always be better...

 

POE1 Pros

• Great story (superior to POE2, but certainly not winning a Pulitzer any time soon)
• More immersive setting
• Decent selection of loot, that progresses with your character's experience
• Epic dungeon run
• Good companion development, not great, but compelling at times
• Casters are gods

POE1 Cons

• Clumsy interface at times (pathfinding)
• Less polished graphically
• Casters are gods

 

POE2 Pros

• Polished graphically (spell effects, combat moves, etc.) and technically (pathfinding, interface, etc.)
• Greater class choices and decent balancing considering all the combinations
• Better replay value on story lines and longer DLCs

POE2 Cons

• Soulless story (no pun intended)
• Uninspiring ending... then again, I'm never emotionally invested in any battle or decision (odd, I feel like a mercenary hired to finish some other hero's epic adventure)
• Pirate theme wears on you after 100+ hours (for some reason, I don't have this problem with horses, woods, or more land-based campaigns)
• Lame loot that never seems to improve after level 14... not looking for OP items, just useful improvements for the 40-50 hours of content at level 18+  (also, some really ugly, tribal-themed equipment, but again personal opinion)
• Grimoires you can't edit... grrr
• Drugs, food, potions, miscellaneous buffs, are the true causes of balance issues...  basically could do without eating, resting, stacking buffs, etc., which I end up doing any way.  Seriously what's a bigger issue, PL stacking or ability nerfs?
• Depth of companions seems a mile wide (options) and an inch deep (what we really do or know about them in POE2)

 

The winner is... POE1.   Then again, my favorite beer is Coors Light... no accounting for taste.

Edited March 26, 2019 by heldred

[thelee]

"casters are gods" as both a poe1 plus and minus: so funny and yet so true.

 

edit: also, coors light? what the heck is wrong you.

Edited March 26, 2019 by thelee

[Messier-31]

• Pirate theme wears on you after 100+ hours (for some reason, I don't have this problem with horses, woods, or more land-based campaigns)

 

[heldred]

"casters are gods" as both a poe1 plus and minus: so funny and yet so true.

 

edit: also, coors light? what the heck is wrong you.

 

I know, I was raised by savages...

[draego]

"casters are gods" as both a poe1 plus and minus: so funny and yet so true.

 

edit: also, coors light? what the heck is wrong you.

 

what is funny is players complain that casters weren't god like enough like D&D but ye they are tops in POE1. BG made me hate wizards and POE brought them back some for me.