An opinion: Neriscyrlas is pure BG2-type cheese. What do you think?

[Wormerine]

7 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

As I'm probably nearing the end of my playthrough, I'm beginning to feel that the storytelling in the game is good, it's very enjoyable, but the mechanics side is a little bland. There's no loot that gets you excited, because everything is as good as everything else -- my inventory is full of unique items I have never used that make me go ho-hum at best. It's not that anything is poor, it's just that everything is roughly the same.

Interesting - I have issue some with the story (but we can talk about it once you finish the game) but think that gameplay I pretty excellent. Difficulty tuning is the biggest issue, but I used mod to reduce XP gain on my recent playthrough and it made it much more enjoyable to me. 

I tend to be more flexible with what spells and abilities I use now, which makes combat more enjoyable and I don’t get stuck too long on each encounter, but you can power through most fights using the same strategy over and over again, even if it is not an optimal way for this particular encounter. I think the issue is that the game doesn’t really have a way of punishing you for making wrong calls - everything just takes longer.

I strongly disagree on items - I love how they did them. I am not the biggest fan of linear numerical progression - I don’t find finding weapons, which are simply more powerful, an exciting thing - Divinity2 is an example of game were I hated items - boring stuff, but forces you to constantly review weapons you get in case on weapon does slightly more damage then what you have. I like weapons to have unique properties, which can offer unique advantages, and contribute to my team build in an interesting way, adding new synergies. The fun of this design shines on consequent playthroughs, when you know what you can find and where, and you can really pair weapons with your characters. Maybe a street sweeper on a high perception character plus “aware” buff would make the N fight more manageable? https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Street_Sweeper

[LotharVI]

Regarding Bekarna's Observatory:

 

At first, I had found the observatory at Bekarna's to be a real challenge, Concelhaut is a powerful wizard and can easily incapacitate a party if given the slightest chance.  So I stealth-rushed as a group and the fight initiated (due to pure inertia) within them...  Maia was deliberately held back a ways in overview, using her marksmanship skills with her Legendary Dragon's Drowry (utilizing Twinned Shot) to interrupt and stun as needed, while the Watcher with Mythic Sanguine, Eder with Legendary Chromprismatic Staff, a pure specialist Pale Elf Rogue utilizing a twin single-handed combo of Scordero's edge and Magran's Favor (both Legendary) using Eliminating Blow - finally Rekke using Legendary Burden, devastating the party.  I could have gone in with Two wizards, a monk, druid and others, but chose to get this over with very quickly. 

Besides, having Concelhaut as a pet is wonderful, don't you think? His comments made during later interactions are hilarious.

There are a 100 ways to skin this cat...all are good -  I like them all, however the approach above is my preferred for this encounter.

 

Edited June 18, 2019 by LotharVI

[xzar_monty]

18 hours ago, Wormerine said:

I strongly disagree on items - I love how they did them. I am not the biggest fan of linear numerical progression - I don’t find finding weapons, which are simply more powerful, an exciting thing - Divinity2 is an example of game were I hated items - boring stuff, but forces you to constantly review weapons you get in case on weapon does slightly more damage then what you have. I like weapons to have unique properties, which can offer unique advantages, and contribute to my team build in an interesting way, adding new synergies.

 

I understand what you're getting at, and to a certain extent I absolutely agree with you (I have essentially no experience with D2, so my only comment on that game is that it didn't interest me; I can't say anything about the items).

 

My main point is that in balancing the game system to such an extent, Obsidian have also removed some of the edge from the game. All items work, all builds are feasible, and so much of everything is interchangeable. There is no question that a mythic item is significantly better than a fine one, but as you progress in the game, you will find plenty of first fine and eventually superb items which will easily allow you to compete with just about anything. I haven't found anything that made me go wow and think that this is something I'm going to hold on to.

 

I realized the other day that it had been a while since I'd gone through my loot and checked whether anything was interesting. I had just picked everything up and then forgotten about it. There are so frigging many items, even unique items, that after a while they cease to matter -- I suppose I have never even tried 80 per cent of the unique items I've found. They're just something you carry around. Now, I absolutely agree that you can check everything out and optimize your party. But you don't have to. It doesn't really matter whether you do that or not. You'll do just fine in any case. (Again, I am happy to accept that things are different on PotD with all the challenges on, but I'm not interested in that, although I do agree that it's a viable way to go. I would also accept that you probably need optimization to deal with the mega bosses, but again, I am not interested. I think it's great that they're there, it's a nice idea, but I'm also happy that they're entirely optional.)

 

Now, I understand that this is a perfectly logical result of the way the game is designed, and as such, it's somewhat unavoidable. But it still takes something out of the game, at least in my view. The problem was already there in PoE: the only two items that I really liked were Tidefall and Persistence, everything else was something you could use but could just as easily do without. There is a big difference when you compare the game to something like BG2 where some items keep you excited for quite some time (and yes, I agree that some items are overpowered, which is a different problem).

[bringingyouthefuture]

I am beginning to think the weapons in Deadfire have two amazing features:

1) if you like a certain weapon for your character, you can usually find a unique that gives you a slight advantage and also looks pretty cool - you aren't locked out of using a x type because they suck compared to y weapon type

2) the other cool feature of the weapons is that if you are really into their unique properties, or a specific unique look, you can build a character that takes advantage of the unique properties and kick some arse (I guess you can build one that takes advantage of the look to but that is more subjective)

These two features I think are very good reasons not to go for a super powerful weapon that rules them all (yes that was a Lord of the Rings reference).  Of course if you aren't interested in building characters that take advantage of uniques, or you have no preference for roleplaying a certain type of weapon, you somewhat get left out ...

That being said, I do enjoy the weapons in POE2, and there isn't actually that many unique weapons - I consistently sell everything but the uniques in my inventory so not to overcrowd the UI, and there really isn't that many - which is a good thing!!!